It has definitely been a while since I have written one of these articles, but to be fair, it has been a long time since I've been inspired in advance of a release of new cards where it wasn't painstakingly obvious how the card could and should be used. Nobody gets "inspired" to write about where to put Lodestone Golem - you slap it in Stax and other Workshop decks and go. Same for Blightsteel Colossus. Yes it's a great Tinker target but I don't think there is an entire article worth in discussing decklists for Colossus to appear in - just take out your old Tinker Bot and insert Blightsteel.

This article was inspired by not one but TWO upcoming cards:

To be fair, originally I was not wholly impressed by the Snapcaster Mage. Mostly this was a reaction to a number of people thinking they'd be able to replay their Force of Will (for a blue card and life - you can, of course, pay 3UU for it), and there is the fact that we've got Regrowth and Noxious Revival and Eternal Witness, all of which do a fantastic job of reusing cards in our graveyards but none of which are really worth running in a lot of circumstances. In fact the only thing Snapcaster has going for it is it's blue, when you compare to those cards.

The best invitational card so far

It's no surprise that Snapcaster mage - the alleged invitational card get comparisons to arguably the best invitational card ever - Bob Maher's Dark Confidant. Putting a card advantage effect on a 2/1 body is a big deal - Dark Confidant's card advantage abilities are legendary now, and in fact they are certainly even better than Snapcaster - that's why there are four of them in this deck, but there are three things Snapcaster has going for it in Classic. The first is it's blue. This is better than black simply because of Force of Will. Secondly, Snapcaster has flash, which means you can use it as a surprise factor. The third is that unlike Confidant, Snapcaster gets you a second chance, which in a format that is rife with restricted cards is a very valuable property.

Destroys libraries faster than local politicians

Just shortly after Snapcaster Mage was spoiled, the next piece of our deck fell into our laps - Dr. Frankenstein himself (Aside- I thought of bunch of names on the theme of Dr Frankenstein, but I liked Hermaniac best). So - instead of losing the game you win the game and all you have to do is lose your whole library. Hell - there are lots of ways to do that. In fact, there were so many ways I'll mention some of the ones I won't be including in this deck but I did originally consider. If you'll kindly pay attention to the last line of Jace, the Money Scalper, you'll notice it says "target player". You can go ahead and hit yourself with that with a 0-card hand and you are done. But then, If you are going to be fatesealing and get to use Jace's ultimate, you've pretty much won if you hit the opponent instead - and it's far safer. Sure there are some instances where it might be handy (like your opponent has Leyline of Sanctity out) but generally, running a win condition that relies on Jace's ultimate is probably the definition of win-more. You could also Oath of Druids out a single Maniac and then purposely Oath again for the win. That one is a little less risky, as you could simply not Oath again (and maybe have the tools to play with your graveyard for the win) but then, if you are activating Oath, most decks are ill-equipped to deal with your creatures anyway - they are geared to stopping the Oath. So they both appeared as win-more situations to me. I'm sure there are other ways to deck yourself (Hi, Leveler) but nothing that is likely to be viable in Classic.

However, there are two very quick ways to get your library into your yard. The first and foremost is the unshaven solitary man of the woods, Hermit Druid. You may remember Hermit Druid from that deck that POTY leader and CQ Open winner Xkorpio was slinging around before he fell in love with Merfolk 2: Revenge of Illusions. There, Hermit Druid's job was to get a graveyard full of goodies to quickly launch a huge hastey Lord of Extinction to end the game one way or another. Well here his job is to do pretty much the same thing - one way or another, your library will be empty, but instead of having to put 7 or so cards that are basically dead cards if you draw them, we are looking at essentially no dead cards. Using Hermit Druid is the preferred choice of death/win for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as a 2cc creature, he avoids the most removal and control elements of the format. Secondly, the graveyard is a fantastic place for a bunch of cards - like cards with Flashback. And since Snapcaster Mage gives any instant or sorcery Flashback - that would be basically any instant or sorcery in your deck!

Hermaniac - a proposed deck by Dangerlinto for Classic

Maindeck - 60 Cards 1 Bayou 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Polluted Delta 3 Tropical Island 4 Underground Sea 15 Lands 4 Dark Confidant 3 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Hermit Druid 3 Laboratory Maniac 4 Snapcaster Mage 18 Creatures 4 Æther Vial 4 Brainstorm 4 Cabal Therapy 1 Deep Analysis 1 Demonic Consultation 1 Demonic Tutor 2 Flusterstorm 4 Force of Will 1 Mana Crypt 3 Mental Misstep 1 Sol Ring 1 Vampiric Tutor 27 Other Spells Sideboard - 15 Cards # Card Name   3 Nature's Claim 1 Hurkyl's Recall 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Steel Sabotage 2 Gaddock Teeg 3 Trygon Predator

Metrics (includes sideboard) Avg. Mana Cost: 1.67 (1.81) Avg. Spell Cost: 2.22 (2.27) Toggle Sideboard With Sideboard Rarity Color (spells only) Types Without Sideboard Rarity Color (spells only) Types

The great part about Maniac over trying to beat with a huge trampling monster risen from our graveyard is that, should your opponent deny you the chance to use your graveyard - say with Leyline of the Void or Tormod's Crypt - is you can still win. This is advantageous when most decks are still carrying a load of sideboard cards to remove graveyards. This is particularly evident in our alternate means of winning - Demonic Consultation.

Not so much of a drawback

Now when you have 16 creatures in your deck, and you are using creatures as a way to combo for the win, I think it's only prudent to cut off your opponent's avenue to stopping your victory - and making your creatures uncounterable goes a long way towards doing so. Æther Vial provides so much in this list. It's a short cut for mana. You can win with one mana and turn 1 Vial by turn 4. It saves you from having to use your protection suite to protect casting your creatures to merely keeping them in play and active, or to prevent your opponent's game plan from taking shape. Too boot, it's a perfect way to beat Sphere effects. In the end I ended up feeling comfortable that with 14 creatures (17 if you count Elvish Sprit guide, though I tend to think of that as mana) Vial would be extremely useful, and it would allow the deck to run a low land count. Consider that by being able to vial in Snapcaster Mage you can play 2 free spells in a turn - this is a very strong play.

The protection suite here is varied. Four Force of Will is a given, but in the end I ended up deciding on a 3/2 split between Mental Misstep and Flusterstorm. Both these cards have ridiculous synergy with Snapcaster Mage. Part of me wants very badly to believe the only cards I need to counter are 1cc and then go with four Missteps, but I don't believe that's very likely. The other card with great Snapcaster synergy is Therapy - since a good deal of the time I expect to play Snapcaster as merely a means to flashback a spell, sacking it to Therapy is a fine deal to me.

I think the rest of the deck speaks for itself. A singleton Deep Analysis is there to provide a means to draw extra cards from the graveyard if you've exhausted or don't have brainstorm in hand and hence don't have to pass the turn to draw with an empty library for the win. The sideboard cards mostly speak for themselves. There are a number of cards in the sideboard I think that would shore up the matchup in several cases. Shops might still be a pain - even though we are creature based - we aren't slowing them down any and they are making our tutors cost more and more - hence a Hurkyl's Recall two Steel Sabotage three Nature's Claim and three Trygon Predators all big pieces of winning that puzzle, as your Flusterstorms and Mental Missteps are basically useless, and your Therapies aren't much better.

Really? Yes, really.

There is one question I'm sure has come to your mind - even after all the explanation above: Why the slower, Vial-based build?

Initially I thought I would go for a more comboish build with a load of tutors. I mean, here is an all creature-based combo, and yet I'm not using four Worldly Tutor... what gives, right? In the end, that might be the better route. I think it bears mentioning though, that tutoring up a win to when Shops are still fairly prevalent, or indeed tutoring a win to your top deck hasn't helped Storm become very dominant - and this despite the access to Mystical Tutor. To boot, Green Sun's Zenith would be like an Tinker in this deck for Druid - it would both tutor and put into play druid for 3 mana. EDIT: In fact, I'd completely forgotten at first that GSZ can only get green creatures and thought it would be very viable, but thankfully someone eventually pointed out that mistake (thanks, Chantry Gilbert) and though the card never made my list, I had considered it very valuable choice. In the end I decided that going the route of a tutor-based build would potentially fall into the same trap as storm fell into vs shops and went for uncounterablity of Vial and the consistency of Dark Confidant. However, I didn't name this article "the Starting Line" for nothing.

As always, this deck proposal is untested in any real environment and I expect - rather I know -  that changes will be made to the best version of the deck.

I eagerly await your comments in the forums.