Hello again, folks! I suppose it hasn’t been that long since I was writing Deep Analysis every week, but it sure feels like awhile.
I had no idea my first article back on the site would be about a Legacy combo deck that hit me in the middle of a meeting at work, but, well, here I am, and here is that deck.
Creatures (16)
Lands (20)
Spells (24)
- 4 Show and Tell
- 4 Force of Will
- 4 Form of the Dragon
- 2 Misdirection
- 2 Hypergenesis
- 4 Violent Outburst
- 4 Ardent Plea
Sideboard
Here’s what went through my mind in said meeting. “Man, Extended Hypergenesis would be so much better if it could defend its own combo, but it can’t play any of the good defensive cards because they cost less than three and would be accidentally picked up by Cascade. If only it could play something like Force of Will for defense…hey! Legacy!”
Before I knew it I was scratching my head for how to play more than eight Cascade effects without including the pukey Demonic Dread, and stumbled upon Show and Tell. One thing led to another, I tested, tweaked, tested, revamped, tested, tested, and ultimately ended up with a list I would happily run at a Legacy tournament tomorrow.
The maindeck I settled on is extremely straightforward and highly redundant. There are twelve Show and Tell effects: Ardent Plea, Violent Outburst, and Show and Tell itself. There are six cards to defend those effects: Force of Will and two Misdirections. There are twelve finishers: Progenitus, Form of the Dragon, and Akroma. There are two copies of Hypergenesis because you need them, and the rest of the deck is all mana: eight Spirit Guides, eight City of Brass equivalents, and twelve Invasion sac lands.
As an aside, I really wanted to run lands like Saprazzan Skerry, Ancient Tomb, and City of Traitors, but none of those are good at casting both Ardent Plea and Violent Outburst. If Wizards had printed Show and Tell, Snow and Tell, and Glow and Tell, and all those cards did what Show and Tell does, I would be playing no Invasion lands and this deck would be even better.
My original build had a lighter land count, but I found I was losing to Wasteland more than anything else and had to crank the mana source count up to 28 before that problem went away. My fatty suite has always included Progenitus, but the other slots have included, at various points, Inkwell Leviathan main, Empyrial Archangel, Iona, and Platinum Angel. Sadly, none of them passed muster.
Iona, Shield of Emeria was surprisingly ineffective. I thought she was going to be great, but even Mono-Red Goblins rocked her. The problem there was Stingscourger; as soon as I’d play Show and Tell or Hypergenesis, Gobs would either use the ability to put Stings into play or go get a Matron to put him into play later with AEther Vial or Lackey (if I’m attacking with Iona I can’t be blocking Lackey as well), thus dealing with her despite not being able to play any Red spells. Against Counterbalance/Threshold type decks I’d have to guess whether to name White (Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares), Black (Putrefy), or Blue (Sower of Temptation) to keep my win condition safe, and even then sometimes she just couldn’t race a Goyf or two.
Empyrial Archangel died too easily. As I don’t really have any controlling elements, it was too tough for me to keep the creature decks from just amassing eight power worth of guys and killing her in a single attack step.
Platinum Angel was originally for the Dredge and Ad Nauseam matchups, but I quickly realized that she was not necessary against Dredge and that Ad Nauseam was a hopeless cause. (By the way, if Ad Nauseam is big in your area, don’t play this deck. You have been warned.)
Inkwell Leviathan is certifiably fantastic against all the “FoWs ‘n’ Beats” decks (Counterbalance, Merfolk, Dreadtill, Threshold, etc.) and against Land.dec’s Mazes of Ith, but way too slow against Dredge and aggro. It takes at least three turns to kill the opponent, offers no defensive value while doing so, and can’t block Goblin Piledriver because it’s Blue. If not for its deficiency against beatdown, it would easily make the main over Akroma, and in fact it is boarded in against almost everything.
Akroma and Progenitus usually take only two turns to kill the opponent, and while Form takes four turns, it provides the best defense on the market (Moat) while doing so. Form is probably the strongest maindeck finisher, as it beats literally every real deck in the format except Ad Nauseam (again, lost cause) and decks that can easily amass five points of burn, which is not many. It would be a liability if there were more maindeck enchantment removal running about, but..well, there isn’t, so it’s not.
That said, Form is almost always boarded out for Inkwell Leviathan, as most decks have access to enchantment removal post-board, but the number of problems it solves in game 1 make it easily worthwhile to include in the deck. Thus, its role is essentially to crank up your maindeck win percentage and then bow out for game 2, ideally leaving the opponent with dead Krosan Grips in the process.
Now, onward to the matchups! There are two broad types of strategies you will face: those with Force of Will, and those without. You play very differently against them, so I’ve split them up accordingly. I tested against lists from the past two Legacy $5000 Opens.
Non-Force of Will Matchups
Hypergenesis is very straightforward to play against decks that do not have FoW; it is highly reminiscent of Reanimator decks of yore. You should absolutely mulligan to five (if necessary) in search of a hand that will put a finisher into play on turn 1 or 2, as you should be going off turn 2 in most games.
That said, try very, very hard to avoid hands that fold to Wasteland, even if they look good in other respects. This deck banks heavily on getting its finisher onto the table quickly, so even though Wasteland might “only slow you down a couple turns while you topdeck a replacement land,” remember that by that time your fatty might not be able to race whatever the opponent has on the table.
Versus Mono-Red Goblins
-2 Misdirection
+2 Pyrokinesis
Goblins is the deck that takes the deadliest advantage of your Show and Tell effects. Think of it as giving them a free Lackey hit. (They’ll definitely keep the Hypergenesis chain going if they are smart, unless they can somehow miraculously handle what you just put on the table without adding a free creature on their side.) That said, the odds of the freebie allowing them to handle an early Akroma, Progenitus, or Form of the Dragon are extremely low.
Misdirection is poor here, but Pyrokinesis is excellent. This is one of the few matchups where you can actually keep in Form of the Dragon post-board… be somewhat cautious of Sharpshooters; it’s a three-card combo to kill you (Warchief or Chieftain plus Sharpshooter plus a sac outlet), so if you see one of the pieces of the combo come down, it’s probably a good idea to shoot it. Also remember that if they Vial out a Siege-Gang and have six lands out, that will also kill you, so if it looks like that scenario might actually play out in a few turns, you might want to ignore the Warchiefs and just start shooting the face.
If you can, try to play around Price of Progress just in case – it’s usually not hard to operate this deck on only two lands, and doing so will mean you can drop a Form without dying to Price.
Versus R/B Goblins
+2 Misdirection
-1 Violent Outburst
-1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
Warren Weirding is a very big deal here, and you have to treat it with a lot of respect. As soon as you see Badlands, remember that your FoWs and Misdirections have a new number one priority. It’s out of respect for this card that you have to board in more Misdirections, even though they may have no other targets if the opponent does not board Thoughtseize.
Versus R/G Goblins
+4 Inkwell Leviathan
+2 Pyrokinesis
-4 Form of the Dragon
-2 Misdirection
Goodbye, Form of the Dragon, we’ll miss you. This matchup is strictly worse than Mono-R, as you basically have to take out your Ace against them for fear of Krosan Grip. Pyrokinesis can pick up some of the slack there, but it’s still much rougher going whenever you have to try and race a Piledriver or Siege-Gang with an Inkwell Leviathan.
Versus R/W, R/W/G, or R/B/G Goblins
+4 Inkwell Leviathan
+2 Misdirection
-4 Form of the Dragon
-1 Violent Outburst
-1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
Nasty, nasty stuff here. You have to take out Forms out of respect for Disenchant and Krosan Grip, and you have to add in Misdirections out of respect for Plow or Warren Weirding. Sad to say, I haven’t really found a good alternative to this plan.
Versus Hulkomancy
+4 Leyline of the Void
+4 Inkwell Leviathan
+2 Misdirection
+2 Faerie Macabre
+2 Pyrokinesis
-4 Form of the Dragon
-4 Tinder Farm
-3 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
-3 Ardent Plea
Hulkomancy is certainly the favorite in game 1, as their combo is faster (turn 3 kill as opposed to turn 4 with Akroma or Progenitus), and their disruption is both more abundant and more relevant than yours (Misdirection cannot stop a Necromancy or, realistically, a Footsteps of the Goryo by itself).
Game 2, on the other hand, illustrates the advantage of playing a combo deck that is difficult to hose. You have Leyline, Faerie Macabre, and Pyrokinesis to fight them, whereas they are likely to fight back with little more than some extra countermagic or Duress effects. Your hosers vary in potency from reasonable (Pyrokinesis strands them with “only” a 6/6 Hulk in play, but if you kill it because otherwise it will race you, and then they find a sac outlet for Reveillark, they can get back their Carrion Feeder and finish going off) to extremely potent (Leyline keeps them from going off at all), but they can all be played for zero mana.
This sideboarding plan obviously makes you more controlling, as it drops you down to 9 Show and Tell effects and 9 finishers in exchange for more disruptive cards. This is necessary because their combo is faster in the absence of disruption; any draw that involves your combo engaging in a “fair” race with theirs is probably a death sentence, so it’s important that you slash their tires first.
By the way, the Akroma swap-out for Inkwell Leviathan is purely because Inky can be pitched to FoW and Misdirection, which seems to me more important than being able to kill a turn faster. Likewise, I am boarding out Ardent Plea instead of Violent Outburst because removing Outburst would leave me with only Progenitus and Simian Spirit Guide to fuel Pyrokinesis. Show and Tell stays because it is superior to both Outburst and Plea; it is easier to cast, still works even if I am out of Hypergenesis copies, and, most importantly, cannot be countered by Stifle – which I would imagine they’d board in if they have it, since it can fight both Cascade and Faerie Macabre.
By the way, note that they cannot ever Therapy any of your finishers and then Necromancy them; Progenitus shuffles itself back in, Akroma has Protection from Black, Inkwell Leviathan has Shroud, and Form of the Dragon is an Enchantment. Assuming Necromancy could even target the finisher in question in the first place, it will fall right off, sending both cards straight to their respective graveyards.
Versus Land.dec
-4 Form of the Dragon
-4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
-2 Misdirection
+4 Leyline of the Void
+4 Inkwell Leviathan
+2 Faerie Macabre
Game 1 is incredibly difficult for them to win; let me give you an example of why this is the case. In one game, my opponent got me under a recurring Wasteland lock, had out about eight lands, and was beating me down with Treetop Village and two Factories. Two turns before he could swing for the win, I played City of Brass, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Show and Tell, Form of the Dragon. And then I won.
Land has only one way to attack your resources: mana denial. Unfortunately, it doesn’t follow that mana denial up with much of a clock, and as you have nothing better to cast your FoWs on than Intuition, Gamble, and Life from the Loam (please don’t waste counters on Exploration or Manabond), often they have to get their mana denial from the top of their deck. This is rarely a winning proposition, as you play many more mana sources than they play Wastelands, Ports, and Ghost Quarters; having Loam plus Wasteland is almost a prerequisite for them being in the game, let alone winning it. Even then, you can still get out from under it by assembling Show and Tell plus a land and two Spirit Guides.
As usual, Form is the nuts maindeck but a liability post-board; they will be bringing in Krosan Grips for your Leylines, if nothing else. Akroma is way too easy to beat with Maze of Ith, so out she goes for Inky. Faerie Macabre is primarily in my board to assassinate Glacial Chasm (you have Leylines, yes, but they have Krosan Grips and generally draw way more cards than you do), but if there is an opportunity to stop a Wasteland lock that will otherwise put you away, by all means take it.
Versus Dredge
+4 Leyline of the Void
+2 Faerie Macabre
+2 Misdirection
-4 Form of the Dragon
-4 Tinder Farm
Dredge is one of the few decks that doesn’t play Wasteland, so you don’t need to include so many lands. All of the cards you’re bringing in are nuts, and the only reason Form comes out is out of respect for Ray of Revelation. Inky is no good here, as if the opponent plays a single Stinkweed Imp he becomes useless. (Unless, I suppose, they are generous enough to be playing Islands for some reason.)
Versus Ad Nauseam
+2 Misdirection
-2 Tinder Farm
It’s not like you’re winning this matchup, but I guess this is the plan I’d recommend if it’s so early in the tournament you’re not hungry enough to concede and go get food. In all honesty, your only real chance is that they mulligan a lot or, for whatever reason, are unable to defend their Ad Nauseams against your FoWs. You certainly cannot kill them before they can kill you unless you have some seriously good fortune in the disruption department.
At least you can get a kick out of Misdirecting Orim’s Chant.
Versus Zoo
+4 Inkwell Leviathan
+2 Pyrokinesis
+2 Misdirection
-4 Form of the Dragon
-4 Tinder Farm
Inky is better at racing here than against Goblins, at least; he stops the opponent from attacking for a turn, and then goes on the offensive to put the enemy on a three-turn clock. Akroma is better, unless they have Path to Exile, in which case she is terrible – unless, of course, you have a FoW or Misdirection for said Path, in which case she is awesome again. Form of the Dragon is more of a liability here than in any other matchup. One resolved Qasali Pridemage, Price of Progress (unless you are successfully playing around it by sticking to two lands, which you should absolutely try to do in game one), or a couple of smaller burn spells and it’s lights out. Try to avoid dropping it in game 1 altogether if you can avoid it.
Sometimes in this matchup you need to make a fatty and just sit on defense. If you can’t race a pair of Tarmogoyfs right away with your Leviathan or Progenitus, it’s not the end of the world. Zoo has no real way to disrupt you unless you have a Form of the Dragon in play, so you can just sit back and wait until you can go off again; if one fatty wasn’t good enough, two usually will be.
The “FoWs ‘n’ Beats” Matchups (Counterbalance, Dreadtill, Merfolk, Threshold, etc.)
The difficulty of these matchups varies greatly by build. Here are the specific cards that are good against Hypergenesis:
1. Force of Will and Counterbalance (and sometimes Daze) are good at countering Show and Tell or Hypergenesis. Duh.
2. Wasteland is good at blowing up the lands required to hit three mana. Duh.
3. Lightning Bolt is good against Form of the Dragon (since you can draw two and just win if Hypergenesis has no FoW or Misdirection), though Fire/Ice is not usually enough on its own; a careful Hypergenesis player will not tap City of Brass when Form is out and the opponent has mana up for double Fire.
4. Dreadnought plus Stifle makes a good clock, though it expends a Stifle that could have been used on a Cascade trigger. It will race Akroma only if the Dreadnought comes down first, but it will not race Form or Progenitus at all.
5. Krosan Grip and Hydroblast are both good against specifically Form of the Dragon, but do nothing against anything else.
6. Stifle, Trickbind, and Chalice of the Void are all good against Hypergenesis, but do nothing against Show and Tell.
7. Bounce spells like Wipe Away are good against Akroma and Form, but do nothing against Progenitus.
8. Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares and Sower of Temptation are good against Akroma, but they do essentially nothing against Form and Progenitus.
Spell Snare, Vedalken Shackles, Engineered Explosives, Pithing Needle, Putrefy, and Smother all do absolutely nothing against this deck.
So, with so many things that are good against this deck, how can I possibly consider these Fowznbeats decks good matchups? (Which I certainly do.) Two reasons.
First, no single deck plays all of those cards. Granted, if someone really wanted to build an anti-Hypergenesis deck featuring Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile and Wipe Away and 4x Chalice main, they could absolutely do it. And they would kick the crap out of this deck.
However, looking through the Fowznbeats builds that do well at tournaments, in real life you don’t see lists like that. In reality, most decks play a handful of these effects because their pilots are not delusional enough to think they are going to face Hypergenesis every round. Everyone’s got FoW, Daze, and Wasteland, but after that you just see a mix; it all depends on what they’re focusing on.
If they have Lightning Bolts and lots of Stifles and Thoughtseizes, life will be on the tougher side for Hypergenesis. If they go with Shackles and Explosives and Spell Snare, on the other hand, they’re probably not armed nearly well enough to fight Hypergenesis. It just all depends on the build.
Second, look how many of those cards are only situationally useful. If they have Path to Exile but you have Progenitus, meh. Didn’t matter. If they have Stifle and you have Show and Tell, again, meh. They have Wasteland but you have enough lands to cast your stuff? Whatever. None of their other answers have the broad applications of Force of Will, and they’ve only got four of those.
The first rule of fighting these decks is to remember that your Show and Tell effects are precious. If you have Violent Outburst, FoW, and Form of the Dragon, don’t cast Outburst until (1) you have mana to pay for Daze, (2) you have drawn another Blue spell to bring your FoW online (or are going to die if you wait any longer), and (3) you have done your best to play around Stifle. Violent Outburst is an instant; if the opponent taps out on your end step to activate Divining Top, or cracks a fetchland which represents his final mana source, cast the Outburst then, when he has no mana up for Stifle.
Inevitably, situations will arise where you do not have the luxury of waiting until you satisfy all three of these goals. If Form is the only finisher you have available and the opponent drops a Trygon Predator, you may want to consider going for the Violent Outburst on his end step while you still have the chance. Likewise if you have a Cascade spell but not a Show and Tell, and the opponent taps out to play Counterbalance with Divining Top in play, you had better go for it now while the Counterbalance might miss; if you wait, there will definitely be a land on top eager to counter Hypergenesis when you finally do go for it.
It doesn’t come up a lot, but do remember that you only actually have two copies of Hypergenesis in your deck. If you draw one, don’t go running Violent Outburst into a Daze as a test spell.
Scouting helps a lot in this matchup, as you mulligan very differently here than against any other archetype. You have much more time to draw your combo pieces than against pure beatdown or other combo decks, so threat density and defensive effects are at a premium, not speed. This means a hand of FoW, FoW, Show and Tell, Show and Tell, and lands, is generally a fantastic keeper even though it doesn’t do anything. You’ll draw into a Form or Progenitus or something soon enough, and when you do, you will want to be as well-equipped to fight the counter war as possible.
In comparison, a hand (on the draw) of Ardent Plea, Progenitus, two Spirit Guides, City of Brass, and extra fatties… is horrible here. Even though it ostensibly goes off on turn 1, it is crippled by a single Daze, Thoughtseize, or FoW. I like my odds much better with that first “do nothing” hand.
A common interaction that arises in these matchups is what happens when Misdirection and Stifle cross paths. If they are casting Stifle on your Cascade trigger, you cannot just counter back with Misdirection; you need a new (non-mana) activated or triggered ability to redirect the Stifle onto. Fortunately, you play four of them: City of Brass. Unlike most painlands, City of Brass does not deal its damage as part of the mana ability, it has a separate triggered effect that goes on the stack and deals you the point of damage when the City becomes tapped.
I re-read the section of the Comp Rules on casting spells (601), and as far as I could tell, you can’t use the City to both pay for the Cascade spell and provide a Misdirection target for Stifle, but it obviously works just fine if you don’t need both the City’s mana and its triggered ability. It’s also worth noting that you can Misdirect a Stifle targeting Phyrexian Dreadnought’s ability onto a City trigger, thus killing the Dreadnought.
Unfortunately, when you don’t have a City of Brass handy, Stifle is much harder to Misdirect. The second-best option I’ve found is to be opportunistic when you have a Violent Outburst and a Misdirection; just wait for the opponent to activate Top, crack a Fetch, or put a triggered ability on the stack (from Dark Confidant, Merrow Reejerey, Wake Thrasher, or Trinket Mage). If you randomly happen to have drawn one of your copies of Hypergenesis, you can use that, too – just Suspend it and cast Violent Outburst on your next upkeep, with the Suspend trigger on the stack.
There’s also an important tension to note between Daze and Wasteland. If you have exactly enough mana out to go off, you risk walking into Daze. However, if you don’t have another land drop to make, hanging around and hoping you’ll draw another land to negate the Daze can lead to being set even further back by Wasteland. There’s no hard and fast rule as to which approach you should take, but it’s important to recognize that there are downsides to both waiting and to being aggressive.
Obviously, Show and Tell effects are more important to have in multiples than fatties, and you should weigh opening hands accordingly. One game my opponent played: Thoughtseize, Wasteland, Wasteland, Thoughtseize, Counterbalance, Stifle, Stifle, Force of Will, Force of Will, Thoughtseize, and had another FoW. I lost an Ardent Plea to Thoughtseize, cast two Forces of my own trying (unsuccessfully) to defend the Cascade trigger of an Ardent Plea against Stifle, had two more Show and Tells go down to FoWs, lost a Form of the Dragon to Thoughtseize (I was going to hardcast it next turn off two sac lands, two Cities, and a SSG), and finally resolved Violent Outburst for the one Akroma I’d been holding all game. It killed him in two hits thanks to his Dark Confidant. Highly unusual draws on both our parts, but hopefully it will drive home the point that an opener of four Show and Tell, one Akroma is miles away from an opener of four Akroma, one Show and Tell.
Because of this, it’s important to remember that the opponent has to try and counter every Show and Tell-type effect you play. If you have three Ardent Pleas and nothing to put into play with them, you can run one out there as a test spell; if the opponent lets it resolve, no harm done – just choose not to play the Hypergenesis (as Cascade lets you opt to do that) and put it back on the bottom. As a word of warning, this play has rarely been correct in my experience, but it’s worth knowing about for the rare times that it is.
One last thing: these matchups typically go on for awhile, so it is completely reasonable to actually Suspend a Hypergenesis if you draw it. It will almost always end up de-Suspending in time to be productive.
Sideboarding recommendations against the three most popular flavors of Fowznbeats are as follows.
Versus Counterbalance
+4 Inkwell Leviathan
+2 Misdirection
-3 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
-3 Form of the Dragon
You don’t necessarily have to board out 3 and 3 on Akroma and Form here; you need to cut six cards between them, but it’s really about trying to blank your opponent’s removal. If you killed him with Form in game 1, and suspect Krosan Grip in game 2, maybe you cut all the Forms and leave two Akromas. If you got him with Akroma, maybe you keep Form to avoid Sower. Point being, these games are generally drawn out long enough that you don’t need the full 12 creatures, but you sure do need as many Misdirections as you can fit to fight their FoWs and Stifles.
Remember that Counterbalance has the slowest clock of the Fowznbeats decks, with a creature base of maybe a two-power beater or two and Tarmogoyfs. Goyfs are usually only 3/4 or 4/5 in this matchup because artifacts, creatures, and enchantments rarely hit the bin. Counterbalance is not going to clock you with a swarm of Merfolk or put you into a surprise near-death scenario with Phyrexian Dreadnought, but they will typically have even more cards to disrupt you than those decks. Play accordingly.
Versus Merfolk
-4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
-4 Form of the Dragon
+4 Inkwell Leviathan
+2 Misdirection
+2 Pyrokinesis
I’ve only played the maindeck matchup here, so I’m not sure this is the optimal plan, but Form is its usual liability self when they likely have access to Krosan Grip, and Akroma is raceable if they have Reejerey to tap her down (and a liability if they have Sower), so I’m not sure which is worse: cutting all the Akromas and having only eight fatties in the deck, or leaving in Akroma and forcing her onto the table, only to lose to Reejerey or Sower. Testing will tell, I suspect.
Versus Dreadtill
+4 Inkwell Leviathan
+2 Misdirection
+1 Ingot Chewer
-4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
-3 Form of the Dragon
Similar boarding plan as against Counterbalance, but slightly different strategy. Here, instead of not really having to worry about the opponent’s clock, you have to be constantly aware of the fact that he might have twelve power on the table next turn. If the opponent plays his Dreadnought and you resolve Inky on the very next turn, you still lose the race. Yes, this is the only matchup in which the lone Ingot Chewer comes in, and you can guess why he’s in.
It’s worth noting that you can actually hardcast Ingot Chewer (or, sigh, Show and Tell him in) to kill a Dreadnought and start beating down, as his 3/3 body will outclass the opponent’s Trinket Mages and/or Bobs in combat.
Conclusions
So why play this deck? In a nutshell, because it’s a consistent combo that no one is gunning for right now. You can consistently summon game-winning finishers on turn 2, and you can do it with Force of Will and Misdirection watching your back. The best sideboard hate anyone has against you is Krosan Grip, and you board out the only card it could have targeted. Your only Achilles Heel is Ad Nauseam, and the Force of Will decks keep them in check.
I’m very pleased with the way this list turned out, and I hope you will take it for a spin.
Until next time!
Richard Feldman
Team :S
[email protected]