Pauper League - Rakdos CatCow Tortured Existence - The New Best Way to Tortex

Kirb gets help from the mad minds over at the Tortured Existence Discord to figure out what the best way to play Tortex is these days. Special shoutout to Sythiox who gave the list and some tips and tricks.
Tortex Discord: torturedexistence.com
Decklist: www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6273752
00:00:00 Deck Tech
00:11:41 Round 1 vs Dimir Exhume
00:53:55 Round 2 vs Boros Synth
01:36:47 Round 3 vs Orzhov Blade
02:11:40 Round 4 vs Azorius Glitters
02:27:59 Round 5 vs Black Gardens
03:14:17 Wrap-Up

[@Sythiox666]

Yo, Deck creator here, lovely work, and amazing games! Thank you so much for giving deck a shot and glad it put up a nice result!

[@Kirblinxy]

Tried to shout you out as much as I could. Cheers for the deck and I hope more people try the deck so it can finally get the 5-0 it deserves.

[@joeypage7184]

Really brilliant discovery!

[@86unfo]

Why the 4 artifact lands? Only to have 4 more artifact to sac or there are other reasons?

[@Sythiox666]

@@86unfo Yes, just for desperate demand answers, or KCS, and even munitions finish. It's 8 artifact lands in total with BR one too.

[@86unfo]

The deck looks solid enough to be a tier 2 at least! Do you think that familiars is the worst matchup?

[@ettorepasquariello8389]

Man I was the Boros Synth player and I was freaking out all the time, g1 thought you were playing a weird kind of madness burn but g2 was devastating I am still here laughing

[@Kirblinxy]

Ggs! It was pretty close game 2 there but the catcow engine did what it needed to. 'Freaking out all the time' sounds like something I'd say, haha.

[@Karonar]

@@Kirblinxy I wondered why you didnt bring back the Gorilla Shaman and used it to blow up the Synths to deny possible card advantage?

[@Kirblinxy]

My sideboarding style is pretty all over the place. Gorilla's are good in the matchup yes, but am new to the deck and didn't know if anything in the deck was worse to actually take out.

[@Karonar]

@@Kirblinxy I didnt mean while sideboarding, I meant while you head the option to reanimate one. Around 1:20:00

[@colinsickels8013]

I built a Abzan list forever ago called “Meow Mix” lol, love the list

[@ETRHeydrich]

Prozd is a prophet as he foresaw a cow deck years ago.

[@Sythiox666]

He was huge inspiration for me and why I started playing the Cowcat 5 years ago :)

[@gersoncoelho]

Lovely list! Will try this for sure!! Appreciate how much you give to this archetype. Keep it going man 💪💪

[@Kirblinxy]

This is my first ever Tortex video, so I don't know how much I have given to this archetype before, unless you just mean Cauldron Familiar decks. Deck is really cool though and hope other people give it a shot.

[@gersoncoelho]

Sorry! There are so many channels that I got confused to a guy who basically only plays TortEx! Tho I liked your build :) And Cauldron Familiar is great !!!@@Kirblinxy

[@Enragedguy24]

Always love to see TE content. Even though I doubt any build without Commune with the Gods can be the best thing to do with the archetype.

[@Sythiox666]

Commune is very weak card, and can lose you games without realising. Commune replaces itself with tortex, and tortex on it's own is card disadvantage. In this day and age with amount of card draw, that is terrible rate. Paying 2 mana to play a card and do nothing to affect the board and game is very weak. Being less dependant on tortex is waaay better. This list has way better card advantage, and plays way better without tortex. I played my fair share of green and commune tortex, then I incorporated looting and over time just abandoned commune and green in general, and as can be seen in video, it performs much better as traditional lists don't put up results. Dredge cards are best for dredge deck, tortex needs to move to more card draw and looting effects in my opinion and experience.

[@Enragedguy24]

@@Sythiox666 That makes sense actually. I haven't played the deck since the pandemic around which time maximizing your odds of getting the enchantment was far superior to trying to make the deck function in its absence. It used to be my favorite deck across all formats, maybe I'll give these new variants a whirl.

[@Sythiox666]

@@Enragedguy24 Yeah, at that time you could be either green or red, where red was on looting and cyclers, with burn spells, and green was on commune, dredgers and steve ramp with spore frog lock. At that time I did favor green more, but that time is long gone. IMO Dawnbringer cleric killed lists that are wholly dependant on tortex, as did synth and new blue ninja era.

[@Investimagic]

I will try Another version, with more draws, and a infinite combo inside. Nice list man.

[@Deerd]

This deck seems so fun, tortex is coming back baby

[@gsgeologo]

Hi ! I played against you today, your deck is really cool. I subscribed to your channel and I will watch your videos. Thanks

[@sovsen92]

Really interesting deck and video

[@Kirblinxy]

I don't know if 3.5 hours of anything could be interesting for that long 😅 Thanks for the kind words!

[@v01dv01d]

Nice deck, and very nice games ! Almost no game was easily won or lost, and that's cool ! 😅

[@Kirblinxy]

The grind on this deck is quite ridiculous. I don't think it really has a chance of beating anything under 10 minutes so it makes every match look close.

[@Tommino-ez8ww]

really sick build. I miss so much the Spore Frog lock, expecially in the glitter matchup, but I guess this archetype can't afford 3 colors, and the red cards look more useful than the green ones, providing the ability to play the tortex deck even without having the tortex card in play in the early game

[@Sythiox666]

I was successfully on jund for years, until it got way too slow and clunky. Then I tried just rakdos and it works great as can be seen in video. I find frog lock to be too vulerable these days.

[@Tommino-ez8ww]

@@Sythiox666 glitters is a really bad matchup, as can be seen in the video. And the disgusting metashare of that stupid deck can't be ignored

[@Sythiox666]

@@Tommino-ez8ww yeah, that's true, but it does have fighting chance with familiar blocking ATGed inspectors and enforcers, or kitchen imp blocking gingerbrute and thopters.

[@Tommino-ez8ww]

​@@Sythiox666 oh I just realized you're the builder. Congratulations, lots of nice ideas! I will try this in paper. Do you think we could run a 2nd copy of the skeleton? It's the best card advantage engine with Tortex. Don't know if there's a similar effect. Some builds run stinkweed imp but I really don't think this is the right place

[@Sythiox666]

@@Tommino-ez8ww It's very good. There is Scrabbler as well, but I prefer skeleton. 1 to 2 copies are great, more than that is not needed.

[@Martian_Manhunter]

TORTEX! Let's fu**ing GOOOOOOOOOO!

[@derekglenn4560]

love the video. I think id add a 3rd shaman in the board and literally bring in all 3 every time. Everyone bring relic against you makes game 2-3 much more awkward.

[@Kirblinxy]

Problem with shaman is that it costs 3 to remove the relic, so you need to realistically get to 4 mana to cast the shaman and pop the relic the same turn because the monkey will probably die. That's why I like the mix of Ingot Chewer and Shaman. Chewer is for the relics, Monkey is for the lands, blood and food tokens.

[@michaelharman9002]

It was so awsome playing you. Made my day for what ended up being a bad league for me. Lol. You called it way too many lands on game one. I thoght i had you game two when i got you to 7. That toxix analysis was awesome!

[@Kirblinxy]

Ggs! Yeah, Toxin Analysis pretty much won that game by itself. It's nice when players say they like my videos. It means more to me than you realise. Sorry about your league.

[@viniciusline]

Man, I'm in love with this decklist. It's the 3rd time i am watching this league. Thanks for the content e bring it back to the channel when it's possible. Also, ty to @Sythiox666 for the list and feedback in coments.

[@Kirblinxy]

I'll see what I can do. I try not to play the same deck too close to the last time, so might be a little bit when I get back to this one. Might even try some other tortex they have over on the server. The UB one is pretty out there.

[@viniciusline]

​​@@Kirblinxy that would be amazing. I'm a bit old, I tried the discord and couldn't adapt to it lol.

[@devangoad]

Toxin analysis is such a cool card, I hope it can find a proper niche

[@Kirblinxy]

Alvatar's Jund Toxin deck was pretty cool. I tried it for a league but it just didn't click with me. That's probably the best home it's found so far. I'm thinking of upping the Toxin's to 3 maindeck in this deck and seeing how it goes, as it was always a good draw.

[@polarrobin7]

cow !

[@Kirblinxy]

Moo! 🐮

[@kusherozo]

was thinking about deadly dispute in this kind of deck, isn't it better than demand answers? loved the vid and the deck, will try for sure! 💥

[@Kirblinxy]

Yeah, there are some people in the discord who swear by Deadly Dispute over Demand Answers. I just picked this list because it had new cards in it and Sythiox has been very helpful in explaining their version of the build.

[@kusherozo]

@@Kirblinxy awesome! thank you so much for the answer, and i'll be sure looking forward for the next vids :D

[@demiurge2501]

i always called this deck burger factory

[@Kirblinxy]

I like that. Reminds me of Cheerios.

[@benlittle5543]

I love tortex

[@Kirblinxy]

I think everyone in their heart loves Tortex, even if it is only just a little bit.

[@clamegomtg1964]

The thumb pull my click!

[@Kirblinxy]

Thanks! I some of my thumbnails I think could be better, but I think this one turned out well.

[@Fabregas200788]

hm, when I saw a cat I wondered why Lembas wasn't added it's a great pitch for demand answers, it clears topdeck and can be eaten by kittie when we need that emergency 1hp and block what do you think about that, Kirb?

[@Kirblinxy]

I don't know if we have the room. The TE toolbox takes up a lot of room and you want to keep your creature count high-ish so you are never too far from restarting TE loops if you have to cast the final creature from your hand.

[@Mmoll1990]

Is Toxin Analysis better than Unexpected Fangs?

[@Kirblinxy]

Yeah, mainly because of the deathtouch. Let's you wipe a board for 5 mana and gain some life back. Plus getting a clue means you aren't down a card.

[@Mmoll1990]

I forgot that Fangs didn't give deathtouch, lol ​@@Kirblinxy

[@Gaghiel]

Hi 5 & GG's

[@Kirblinxy]

GGs indeed.

[@gregkachmarik7838]

This is close enough to dredge I’ll accept it lol

[@R4vn00s]

Why not Gorgon Recluse instead Mukotai or Scrapwork Mutt ;)

[@Kirblinxy]

I tried a league without the Mukotai and it felt like it could never race against any deck until it got the engine online. Gorgon Recluse, while it does same that same niche of a having another 'free' creature to get back with Tortex, it just doesn't help in that racing aspect. I feel like we have enough discard outlets and the body on Scrapwork Mutt just isn't very useful.

[@TheG1bbles]

Esper Breakfast is a more fun version.

[@gersoncoelho]

of TortEx? Decklist?

[@TheG1bbles]

@@gersoncoelho yes

[@gersoncoelho]

@@TheG1bbles Decklist ??

[@Enualios]

you should probably move on to moxfield. its better in every way

[@Kirblinxy]

If I am copying a list from someone else I'd rather link to the list with their name attached. That's generally why I use goldfish. I just post my own decks there just so it all looks the same. I can switch to moxfield for my own decks, I have had a couple of other people mention it.

[@Karonar]

Why not call it Barn Tortex?

[@Kirblinxy]

Because alliteration is fun!