Helix of Aeons - Extended

[Jenius]

I'm just typing this up from memory so I may change the decklist when I get home.

Helix of Aeons - 60

Lands (22)
4 Seat of Synod
4 Darksteel Citadel
13 Islands
1 Forest

Accel (4)
4x Wayfayer's Bauble

Draw/Tutors (11)
4x Gifts
4x Thirst for Knowledge
1x Fabricate
1x Dizzy Spell
1x Drift of Phantasm

Counter/Stall (14)
4x Remand
4x Leak (considering switching to Delay)
3x Hinder (considering switching to the 1UU counter where both you and opponent draw a card, dream fracture or something)
3x Repeal (considering switching to 4 repeal, 2x hinder)

Lolcombo (8)
2x Walk the Aeons
4x Mystic Speculation
2x Spellweaver Helix

Win condition (1)
1x Pinnacle Helix


Thoughts: I've only really played casual magic with it (that is to say the casual room on modo, which is pretty terrible) but I've ran into a few decent decks of various types.

Aggro: By far my wost matchup, I'd say most of my board would have to deal with this, I don't really play competitive magic anymore so I dunno if there's a prominent aggro deck in the environment, but it could be a problem. Depending on how many repeals, remands, and leaks I draw that matchup can be pretty bearable, but starting hands are significantly less forgiving here. The general gameplan is to stall what I can and go off as soon as possible, which will usually happen turn 6 +/- 1, so if I have a couple remands and repeals I can do it, but if I have a stall-light hand I'm pretty much boned.

Control: It's iffy, I can play through counters because I have low cc ones that are pretty hard (remand vs 3cc+ counter for example is pretty annoying for them to deal with) and one of my reasons for thinking of running delay over leak. Otherwise this matchup goes pretty smoothly, most people won't really expect helix to hit play game 1, and game 2 I'll have gigadrowse or something from board to go off undisrupted.

Combo: Depending on the combo type I think I have the advantage here, counters and bounce are nightmare disruption for most combo I've seen, and my win condition is usually less piece intensive so I'm harder for them to disrupt.

General thoughts, pinnacle is a weird win condition, I run it because it's untargetable and dizzy spell can grab it for me, but there are probably better options out there, for now it was just a budget solution because it doesn't matter much. Gifts may or may not be necessary, I've gone off without it, though it's nice because people normally dump walk into the graveyard so I don't have to worry about playing it first and having it countered or something (which would waste a turn as it's 6 mana).

Board is going to prolly be 4x gigadrowse and misc stuff, I'd say aggro is what I lack the most defense against, but I'm not sure what to put in there for mono blue.

This deck isn't really that srs, but I kinda like pretending it is.

[Fonzy]

I had an elf deck with Helix Pinnacle as one of the two ways to win.

Here's what I think the list was:

4x Wellwisher
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Priest of Titania
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Wirewood Channeler
4x the Elf Version of Goblin Recruiter
3x Collective Unconscious
4x Sterling Grove
1x Test of Endurance
1x Helix Pinnacle
3x Something else
24x Forest

Don't remember exactly what the list was, but it was good for multiplayer games where people would leave you alone because you just had a bunch of stupid 1/1 elves and no real threats, then you slap down a win condition and take home the prize.

EDIT- oh and a couple of those lands that untap elves.

[Jenius]

The problem with pinnacle in a combo that doesn't involve infinite turns (like mine) is that it triggers on upkeep meaning even after everything, your opponent still has a chance to respond/kill you.

For me it doesn't matter that pinnacle is a terrible card, because if I go off the game is over, most people prolly wouldn't even wait to see the win con when I have infinite turns.

[Fonzy]

I also missed the "Extended" part.

[Dullahan]

Your deck may/may not suck because you can draw out. Consider adding 1x Words of Wind/Wilding.

[Jenius]

Due to the nature of the combo and the win condition, unless I'm up against mill, that's not a problem. Mystic speculation would stack my deck to put pinnacle far enough up that it's fine.

[MBHC: Return of the Maple Syrup.]

-Spell Snare is the best counter in the format. Have 4 of them in the hinder slot.

-If you have the fetch lands, Engineered Explosives with Academy Ruins is a great way to deal with aggro. Hells, you should probably have Ruins anyway; means of protecting your helix/fetching it with gifts.

[Regret]

-If you have the fetch lands, Engineered Explosives with Academy Ruins is a great way to deal with aggro. Hells, you should probably have Ruins anyway; means of protecting your helix/fetching it with gifts.
If he does run ruins he could run etched oracle as a win con which is much more useful than helix, you can do something with it besides win. Recurring oracle with ruins you can make your opponent draw out their deck while essentially skipping your own draw step.


You'd need to run two more colors but you could just run a couple of basics like you do with the forest or replace some of the citadels with colored arti-lands.

[mrs_bun]

I don't have any comments yet for this, Jenius, but I really like the deck and it looks neato. :)

[Jenius]

God fucking damn noobs on modo who make me play this shit out. I swear I can feel the onset of carpel tunnel when it finally gets 100 counters on it.

Edit: Ruins isn't that helpful for protecting helix, though I guess it's a clever way to get it back after gifts, I'll think about it but I get the impression it's expensive. Keep in mind that if I have to recurr a helix that has hit play I'm probably relatively boned because I only run 2 walks, so I'd only have one chance after that to go off properly (remember helix rfg's them) and I'd have to find another walk.

[Regret]

oh, lawl, I'm dumb, too many helices


edit: you should splash a mountain and a plains for etched oracle and lightning helix.

[mrs_bun]

Conceding is jsut cheating both players out of the experience. Wouldn't you play it out if it was for money? Or your life? You can learn a lot about the game in the last desperate turns of a game (including how to better play your deck!) :)

[mrs_bun]

He meant spellweaver, Gret. :stare:

[Jenius]

Conceding is jsut cheating both players out of the experience. Wouldn't you play it out if it was for money? Or your life? You can learn a lot about the game in the last desperate turns of a game (including how to better play your deck!) :)

I mean when I'm actively going off with helix in play and looping mystic speculation. I could see waiting for my win condition to hit play (as it might vary your sideboard) but beyond that, if someone tried to say "play it out" irl in a tournament you can bet your ass I'd call a judge over and slam them for stalling. If they don't have an answer they don't have an answer and it's over.

[mrs_bun]

That's true. Only if you mean the turn of, though (i.e., the turn you start getting turns.) As long as they are still getting turns, they shouldn't concede unless they're locked out of doing anything.

[Jenius]

Well no shit I never said that, I said clicking 500 times to actually win with helix was annoying as hell and it was in poor taste for them not to concede. Clearly if I'm putting counters on helix I'm already looping.

[mrs_bun]

Well no shit I never said that, I said clicking 500 times to actually win with helix was annoying as hell and it was in poor taste for them not to concede. Clearly if I'm putting counters on helix I'm already looping.

Sorry, I wasn't arguing or being nitpicky, just making clear what I meant and the source of my original disagreement with ya.

[Jenius]

Sorry, I wasn't arguing or being nitpicky, just making clear what I meant and the source of my original disagreement with ya.

What I'm saying is your original disagreement was pretty wrong, as it's clear I had a problem with activities that I had to play out during the loop, not before. If I expected people to concede the second they knew I was combo/close to going off, it'd be pretty unreasonable.

[Jenius]

Man I love remand and repeal so hard. It's like yeah that card you just tried to play? You didn't play it, and it only costed me a few mana. Oh, and I'll draw a card, fuck you.

[mrs_bun]

Remand is one of those cards that I understood the value of mechanically but I hated it because I felt like it was retarded and not good until I actually played it and found out it was neat. Memory lapse is still the bee's knees, though, even if it is slower.

[Regret]

Man I love remand and repeal so hard. It's like yeah that card you just tried to play? You didn't play it, and it only costed me a few mana. Oh, and I'll draw a card, fuck you.
Yeah playing remand is a great feeling. Repeal is nice as well however "it only costed me a few mana" doesn't really apply there since it's going to cost you more mana than your opponent unless you're repealing tokens.