As soon as the Eventide spoilers rolled round to show us the card that was Sanity Grinding , my mind leapt at the prospect of it’s new best friend Twincast . A match made in ‘rogue-deck builder’s’ heaven. As soon as the full spoiler came out, I threw together the deck, and tested in on MWS. After a few tweaks, I ended up surprising myself with the ability that the deck had to actually win games. Before long, I had built up a lot of good results via testing, then it was time for FNM. At FNM, the deck was amazing, and made me everybody’s hero for a day, and since then, the deck has grown in stature and popularity, claiming FNM’s across the globe, waiting for it’s chance at the big time!
twInSanity is one of the most powerful milling decks that T2 has seen for some time. Utilising the powerful Sanity Grinding and copying it with Twincast , the result is milling your opponent for upto forty cards in one go, enabling you to play cheap spells from your Shelldock Isle , and finish the match.
This deck is the most fun deck I‘ve played in T2 ever. Due to only needing two cards to win, you can successfully control your opponent then pull a win out of nowhere, regardless of life totals. Imense entertainment.
Most of you probably look at this deck, and think it’s a fun idea, but can’t possibly win too much. However, you would be wrong. The thing is, you only have to dedicate two cards to winning the game, leaving you a WHOLE deck full of ways to answer your opponents etc. Being able to win just out of nowhere is amazingly strong, as there’s not much any deck can do when played right, also control always has a good match up against combo decks. You’ve probably seen a lot of decks around here using Sanity Grinding and throwing it together with a bunch of blue intensive hybrid creatures and calling it a deck. Sure, use some of these cards, but don’t play cards that are no good, just for the sake of the mana costs, there’s enough strong cards to make this deck work, and my god does it work. At it's first FNM, it managed to wow the other players to the extent of one person filming my opponents as they lost, to the judge and MTG.com’s Tim Willoughby testing the deck out in between rounds and working out all the averages, which promted Tim’s little honorary mention in his ‘going rogue’ article a few days later: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/470. Because this deck has only eight out of sixty slots needed to win, it has favourable match ups against so many decks, it’s amazing, depending on your meta, you can alter the number of three drop creatures instead of spells etc. Really, this is a versatile, and surprisingly powerful deck. Oh, and did I mention it’s possibly the most fun deck you’ll ever play? (Excluding a casual deck that copies Erratic explosion or Undying Flames several times in one turn)
Plumeveil Effectively a kill spell, flashing it in as a blocker big enough to kill most early game creatures, then sits back as a brilliant defender. Overbeing of Myth Essential card drawing, alternative win condition and blocker. Godhead of Awe Great stall card, as well as giving you a damage based win condition. Ghastlord of Fugue Can help steal answers from your opponent whilst also giving you some damage on the board if you need it. Dominus of Fealty Stops your opponent from causing you too much damage, letting you utilise their own threats whilst being a 4/4 flyer at the same time. Vendilion Clique A good way to disrupt your opponent’s hand, as well as being a good attacker if needed, can block large fliers, and is . Oona, Queen of the fae Solid alterative win condition, and can mill the last few cards also.
Sanity Grinding Your best win condition. Twincast Makes your win condition very potent. Howling Mine This card enables you to draw land and control spells early on, and control and combo cards later on. Cryptic Command Best control card in the format, also is triple blue. Dream Fracture Control that helps your opponent draw more cards, bringing you closer to milling them. Cancel Solid counter spell, not as good as the fracture though. Evacutation Amazing, instant speed mass removal, sure they are only bounced, but ruins alpha strikes and slows them down no end. Boomerang Bounces things to slow your opponent down, as well as removing a Runed Halo or Imperial mask at EOT that is stopping you from targeting them. Ponder A good start to a game, sets up your draws nicely. Jace Beleren A very important card, it helps you draw two cards a turn, and distracts your opponent, as the game goes on, he gets easier to protect, and can win the game with his ultimate, or stop them from winning in their upkeep with a burn spell, by making them draw in your turn. Broken Ambitions Good counter spell, that also mills your opponent. Agony Warp Possibly worth splashing for, as the removal can save you. Time stop This spell stops lots of decks in their tracks.
Memory Plunder This card is truly exceptional in this deck, a must play four of in the board, most of the time you put it in, you play EOT card draw, flame javelin, Ultimatum’s, wrath, or even more potent, is having an effective EIGHT cryptic commands in your deck, WOW! Faerie Macabre Stops Reveillark or Demigod decks. Flashfreeze If R/G is popular in your meta, this card tends to be pretty potent indeed. Counterbore Great against combo as it ruins their game plan in one, also can be used against Demigod, and Reveillark, not bad against control decks with only a few win conditions. Declaration of naught Great card against Swans decks and just combo decks in general. Relic of Progenitus Stops GY based decks, and draws a card and is very cheap! Pithing needle A good answer to Mutavaults and other hard to deal with threats. Gather Specimens Can be a great control card later on in the game, swinging the match in your favour, very good against decks that don’t drop threats till late on. Platinum Angel Since you can often find decks taking out their removal for game two and three, slipping one of these on the board can outright win you the game, since we have the card advantage to protect it.
Playing this deck can be a little more tricky than first thought, the main thing is to keep yourself alive and disrupt your opponents plans through counter and bounce etc. Laying sufficient speed bumps along the way. The most important thing to remember is that you only need to make sure is that you can play your Sanity grinding WITH a Twincast without any fear of interruption. Obviously against most decks, this is not a problem, however against blue control decks you have to pilot more carefully. You have to force them to tap out at their EOT, whether that’s using a cryptic command to bounce their key board pieces, or even land, you need to make them use up their counter spell, out of the board, this is easier, as Memory plunder gives you that EOT boost, which usually utilised their Draw spells etc, or just gives you a MUST COUNTER spell. However, as soon as you are open, the game is set. If you can play three sanity grindings, whether that’s two sanity grindings and one twin cast, or one sanity grinding and two twin casts etc, you will normally win the game. Things like Runed Halo aren’t that much of a problem, as you pack enough bounce, Cryptic Command and Boomerang , which you can Twincast if you need to bounce several permanents. The problem with a lot of Sanity grinding decks, is they try to up their ratio far too much in terms of blue mana symbols, without making enough control, and then play other milling cards, which is not necessary, Twincast can give any spell a two mana edge of being copied, whether it’s a double cryptic at EOT, or your game winning Sanity grinding. There is no need to pack your deck with ways of milling, when you have a five mana way of doing it pretty much in one go!
This match up relies on the draw quite a bit. If you can set up with your control early enough, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but a good hand and they can really trouble you. Filling their GY can be a bad idea if they pull out several Demigod of revenge . Post SB the match doesn’t get much easier, creature are good in this match up, as they stop the damage for a turn, or distract burn from your face.
This match up is in your favour slightly, as first of all they draw into more cards, making your job easier. Secondly, you have some must counter spells that can cause them to tap out, leaving you open to combo off. Post SB, the match up is about 65-35 in your favour, as Memory Plunder helps you make use of their own cards. Just watch out for thought seize and you’ll be fine, Boomerang can make them keep playing Bitterblossom without getting any threats on the board. Playing an Agony warp or two can wreck their plans.
As long as you can get the control element riding along, you will be fine, set up for the combo with an EOT Evacuation in their turn, and then go for it at your leisure. However be careful, as they can come out the gates quick and their aggro may be too much with the right draw. Watch for Thoughtseize . Post SB the match up stays about the same, a good mix of bounce and counter should see you through.
This deck can be quite fast, but with a counter spell applied at the right time, you should be able to ride it out until you can Evacuation then combo for the win. However, Thoughtseize can be an annoyance, and be warned they can come out quickly, bouncing a land can slow them down no end if you hit a CIPT one etc.
This match up is pretty good, all of their control against creatures is virtually useless, as long as you can play to get the opening you need, then you will be fine. Post SB Memory Plunder is a star player, that will win you games with ease. Boomerang destroys their tempo beautifully!
This is a very easy match up, they will control your creatures, which is fine, you can combo off in your leisure as they can’t really touch your combo whatsoever. Memory plunder from the SB is nice, letting you use their Primal command or whatever else comes to hand. Because their threats are high up the curve, you have Cryptic command by the time they play them, so a very easy match up.
Zoo is fast, very fast. This can be a problem, however, playing carefully with what you counter and bounce can keep them off guard, any board sweepers they play don’t effect you, Evacuation is a star player in this match up. If you survive past turn 5, you should be fine.
If you’re playing the deck with a black splash, this match is 50-50, otherwise it's worse, as you have a permanent answer to their threats, which they can otherwise relay very easily. Agony warp is often the difference between success and failure!
To top the points at my FNM, I had to beat a U/W reviellark deck that qualified two of our group members to the GB nationals.
This deck is not just fun, it's very competitive, and when TS rotates out, it just gets stronger, because the only cards that can really stop it well are gone.
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BTW, I also spent some time on Sanity Grinding, which Atma can tell you. For some reason, I never thought of using twincast. I pretty much just threw up a rough list and just left it really.
