There are some odd cards in Magics past.

The tl;dr on Thoughtlash is you gain ~40 life, but in a very convoluted fashion.

It also gives you the choice to exile all or parts of your library at will. Enter Lab Man.

Hey, that’s a combo!

The ability to exile card by card from the top of your library also gives you great digging power with Sensei’s Divining Top to find what you need, be it the other half of the combo or a Terminus. Top then acts as an enabler for the combo after helping dig by being an on board card draw once you’ve exiled your library.

Utterly Stock Miracles

I will admit, for such a sweet combo the shell they’re in isn’t the most exciting, we all know Miracles very well by now. But the synergy between Top and the combo is too much to pass up, and being base blue it’s foolish not to play Counterbalance and Terminus with it.

So fundamentally it’s a Miracles shell with an alternate win condition, but it certainly takes people by surprise, and you get to do some funky things with the manabase! Shelldock Isle and Thought Lash is adorable, and Ancient Tomb can power out the combo, while Thought Lash can prevent the damage taken from it if needed.

The maindeck is very weak to Pyroblast so I needed to find a SB plan to deal with this. Blue Elemental Blast and Monastery Mentor were my first thoughts, but I felt like the deck was too clunky to be fighting a stack battle with opposing Pyroblast decks. Mentor is OK, but there isn’t that many proactive cards in the deck, and let’s face it, it’s an easy and boring choice. Because of the Ancient Tombs in the maindeck I knew I wanted a couple of Blood Moons, and I’d just got a set of Nahiris. Since she’s a powerful threat that’s immune to Pyroblast this seemed like the perfect time to give her a spin.

I ran the above list through our four round Tuesday night Legacy at Darkpshere. With very low expectations for the deck, I was just looking for a bit of fun. Here’s a quick run through of the matches

Match 1 – Tom Brown on Dark Bant

G1 – I lead with Shelldock Isle and Tom gave me a confused look. He wasted it, but I had the follow up Shelldock, gotcha! This game was more determined by Counterbalance and Terminus though, I took control of the game and won with Thought Lash and Laboratory Maniac at my leisure.

G2 – I mulliganed to four cards, he got some pressure going with a Deathrite Shaman and True-Name Nemesis, Dazed a Predict that might have got me into the game a bit and died with a needed Terminus one card too low in my library.

G3 – I sneak a Blood Moon onto the table while he’s tapped out, Terminus away a couple of Deathrites and Nahiri locks it up.

Match 2 – Alex Rea – 4C Control

G1 – Alex Thoughtseizes me and luckily sees a pretty stock Miracles hand, the shenanigans are hidden! I get a Top going and we play draw go for about 10 turns until I pick a fight with Predict at the end of his turn. This taps him low and I’m able to play Thought Lash and Lab Man with two tops on the table, which he missed their ability to draw a card on the spot. Apparently he had double Force of Will so was, I assume, planing to Force of Will any cantrips to stop me winning then untap and be able to Abrupt Decay the Maniac.

G2 – I have a Blood Moon and fetches in my hand, so Force of Will a leading Deathrite from Alex. We then play draw go for a few turns until at the end of his turn I fetch, he Kolaghan’s Commands me to destroy Top and make me discard. I spin the the Top away, discard Emrakul and untap to slam a Blood Moon. What follows is Alex not being able to play much magic until he’s been attacked by an Emrakul twice.

Match 3 – Charlie – Goblins

G1 – Charlie has a pretty slow hand, with no turn one play and an Warren Instigator on turn two. I have a Swords for it, and land a Counterbalance then Brainstorm a Thought Lash to the top in response to a Mantroned Goblin Ringleader. I then assemble the combo soon after.

G2 – Charlie has an unanswered Goblin Lackey on turn one, but no bombs to throw on the table. I don’t find a Terminus from some cantrips, but am able to assemble the combo on turn five. The icing on the cake was an Emrakul hidden under a Shelldock Isle, which I cast and won off the extra turns draw!

So, the deck was far exceeding my expectations! It actually felt quite powerful, and was a blast to play.

Match 4 – Tommasso – Moon Stompy…the end boss!

Tommasso has been destroying the London crowd with his Moon Stompy recently, and I knew exactly what he was on.

G1 – I’m on the play which is huge in the matchup. My hand has both combo pieces, I just need to be able to play them. He opens with a Chalice for one, OK. Followed by a Trinisphere, still fine. I slam a Lab Maniac on my turn three, just needing it to live to play the Thought Lash in my hand. But unfortunately he has the Chandra, Torch of Defiance. Lab Man dies and I soon succumb to a rabble of goblins.

G2 – I have an OK hand and am able to Swords a turn one Goblin Rabblemaster, Force of Will a Chalice of the Void[/c] and start taking control of the game with Nahiri. She exiles a few Magus of the Moon until finding an Emrakul, and alongside a Snapcaster, seals it up.

G3 – This was a really dicey one, and I don’t remember all the details. But Nahiri again did a huge amount of work removing some Blood Moons until I was finally able to unlock blue mana, and with an Ancient Tomb get the combo online.

So, 4-0! Definitely unexpected. The deck is a blast. I wouldn’t change anything yet since I’ve not played with it enough to know quite what the real weaknesses are (I expect there are a lot…), but the combo will take people by surprise, that’s for sure!

Hope you enjoyed this The Brewery article, if you have any questions please ask in the comments, I’ll be happy to answer.

See you next time!

Callum Smith

Like and Follow The Library at Pendrell Vale: