MTG Salvation

I'd stay away from Darksteel Forge and Guardian of the Ages, too much mana

Hi Kha, I played a few games last night with your list and found a few changes I'd make. The Archwing Dragon seems better as another Aurelia or a Thundermaw. Maybe Archwing Dragon is sideboard against decks lacking instant removal. I swapped 1 Gideon for 1 Haunted Plate Mail and would probably swap the second as well. I added a few extra Rakdos Keyrunes as I often wanted more ramp and they helped win once I landed a Homicidal Seclusion. To make room I cut the Faithless Lootings as they didn't seem to be doing much.

For land, I dropped the Slayers' Stronghold, Hellion Crucible and a few basics to add more dual lands but I still got color screwed a few times. Going forward I would probably add even more and make the manabase almost all dual lands. The Prophetic Prisms did help sometimes but often they were too slow against aggressive decks.

Quote from AdamP

Hi Kha, I played a few games last night with your list and found a few changes I'd make. The Archwing Dragon seems better as another Aurelia or a Thundermaw. Maybe Archwing Dragon is sideboard against decks lacking instant removal. I swapped 1 Gideon for 1 Haunted Plate Mail and would probably swap the second as well. I added a few extra Rakdos Keyrunes as I often wanted more ramp and they helped win once I landed a Homicidal Seclusion. To make room I cut the Faithless Lootings as they didn't seem to be doing much.

For land, I dropped the Slayers' Stronghold, Hellion Crucible and a few basics to add more dual lands but I still got color screwed a few times. Going forward I would probably add even more and make the manabase almost all dual lands. The Prophetic Prisms did help sometimes but often they were too slow against aggressive decks.

Well, you cut Faithless Looting which does help you find what you need, so yeah, that was your own doing

Cutting Slayer's Stronghold is a huge mistake though, as that Land is extremely good in this deck even with the low amount of creatures I run. I'd never remove it. I can see removing Hellion Crucible though, as it can be kinda clunky and sometimes you just don't have the mana to put counters on it.

I intend to keep playing this deck once M14 is released and even after that, and I think I'd use Obzedat, Ghost Council in the Dragon's slot.
You see, Aurelia hits hard, but like I've said already, her staying in the battlefield during your opponent's turn means she'll be vulnerable to their sorcery speed removal (and trust me, they will have it). That's why I keep her as a 1-of, the idea is to just drop her after you have Seclusion so that even if she dies she causes a 24 life point swing.

And to be completely honest I'd probably cut her too, but its just my favorite card in all of magic and I must play her.

Thoughts on this Esper variant for the next 3 months?

Looks good, but I'd like to see some way to refill your hand. Either Think Twice or Sphinx's Revelation

Also, those Aetherlings should probably be maindeck, in fact, I'd drop all 4 of the Alms Beasts and just keep 2 Aetherling, opening up 2 slots for card draw spells.

I have been looking here for awhile and with your results and sugguestion I changed my heavy black to a slightly less heavy black and it seems to work out so far.





And phylactery lich is working out quite well added a 4th prophetic prism for him after some dead draws with no artifacts out.

Love those Phylactery Liches there. You can also try Pithing Needle or Graffdigger's Cage if you need more artifacts.

It seems like you'd have issues with Barter in Blood, as it would force you to sacrifice your Liches. Have you had this problem?

Quote from patlienemann

For the record... haunted plate mail and seclusion...
awesome.

Yeah, M14 is pretty good for us

Quote from patlienemann

With plate mail and keyrune we can essentially build a post shell with R/B removal now
Creatureless!!!

This seems like a good strategy for post. With all the agro and midrange decks in the meta everyone has to pack a lot of removal. If 1/5th of their deck is dead in their hands then that is a good place to be.

barter in blood could be a problem haven't ran into it yet, not sure what other board wipe would work in this situation.

Quote from LeoninKha

Looks good, but I'd like to see some way to refill your hand. Either Think Twice or Sphinx's Revelation

Also, those Aetherlings should probably be maindeck, in fact, I'd drop all 4 of the Alms Beasts and just keep 2 Aetherling, opening up 2 slots for card draw spells.

Made the changes. I went with Think Twice over Sphinx's Revelation because moving from 4cc creatures to 6cc creatures I wanted the smaller draw option to keep the overall average cc low.

Replaced the Aetherlings in the side with 2 Celestial Flares for the Hexproof matchups.



Also decided to make a Dega version as well. I liked the Phylactery Lich idea since Haunted Plate Mail is so good. However, 3 seems a but much with the {B}{B}{B} mana cost in a three color deck. Instead I upped the keyrune and plate mail count.

Quote from Vkec

barter in blood could be a problem haven't ran into it yet, not sure what other board wipe would work in this situation.

Rolling Temblor and Mizzium Mortars have been enough for me. Keep them in mind.

@LordGrimpow: -1 Aetherling, -1 Supreme Verdict, -2 Syncopate, +2 Think Twice, +2 Dissipate.

going turn 2 prism into turn 3 lich then turn 4 anything, then homicidal seclusion turn 5 is too good. The turn 2-3 turn play happens quite often.

This is a junk angel post version that I think could be competitive if tweaked and worked on.

I've been trying to get Trading Post to work ever since coming across the thread. I've tried just about every color combination, usually ending up in 4 color because I always want to put Ral Zarek in because it seems (is) great with Trading Post. I guess my favorite build was the RUG splash black version with Lone Revenant (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-lonely-trader/). and while I do like the black version, I feel that the printing of Angelic Accord makes the white version much better, because you no longer have to rely on stuff like Homicidal Seclusion or Demonic Rising to give Trading Post activations additional use, thus freeing the deck from the one-creature restriction/drawback and allowing it to play more powerful cards.

One of the main problems with the builds i've tried and tested is that they were particularly weak in the early game against aggressive decks. Yes, we can pack a lot of removal, but those same cards are dead in certain match ups, and the Homicidal Goat tokens aren't even that strong to begin with, if you do reach that point. It wasn't powerful enough for all the hard work you go into setting it up let alone getting there. The junk version seeks to stall the game through resilience, something the black version does kinda poorly depending on how removal light the list is. Here, we can play strong cards like Voice of Resurgence and Lingering Souls to be defensive against the aggressive decks, while at the same time applying good pressure against the slower decks. The end game is a lot more powerful too. Why get just a 5/5 demon when you can get multiple 4/4 angels? Oh, and they stack and don't stop working when certain parameters, like having just 1 creature, are not met. Granted, it does take "more" work. The enablers here are basically just Trading Post and Blood Baron, but these are cards that are hard to remove or even interact with. Scroll of Avacyn starts being an enabler once you get an Angel out, and with Trading Post getting it back every turn. You can gain 4+ life AND draw a card instead of discarding one. Vault does the same thing by giving your Angel lifelink. It's possible that it's just better to play Thragtusk and Resto. The latter seems interesting because it turns on lifegain from the scrolls, but Blood Baron just seems a lot better than Thragtusk to me.



Note : I can't imagine playing less than 3 Trading Posts like some of the lists that have been posted lately. I guess they aren't really post decks, but just use the card for some little value. This isn't really a post deck either. True post decks ceased to exist when the wellsprings left standard. This too just uses trading post for small incremental values (usually just drawing cards) until we just use it to make 4/4 angels every turn. Either way, Trading Post is the card that I want to be in play the most. One is good, the second one borders on broken mode. It almost reminds me of Birthing Pod. I know that sounds outlandish, but I stand by my opinion.

Seems like a good time to post what I've been working on. The idea here is to pump out 4/4 Angels from Angelic Accord triggers. There are a few ways to do this like Warleader's Helix and trading post. The Chandra's Pheonix might seem out of place but they actually work quite well as discard fodder and you have multiple ways to get them back into your hand. With all the life gain, you can take a few hits early and hopefully stabilize midgame while keeping the board clear with your removal.

Quote from blinkbat

This is a junk angel post version that I think could be competitive if tweaked and worked on...

One of the main problems with the builds i've tried and tested is that they were particularly weak in the early game against aggressive decks. Yes, we can pack a lot of removal, but those same cards are dead in certain match ups, and the Homicidal Goat tokens aren't even that strong to begin with, if you do reach that point. It wasn't powerful enough for all the hard work you go into setting it up let alone getting there. The junk version seeks to stall the game through resilience, something the black version does kinda poorly depending on how removal light the list is...

jaszuni's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Artifact (11) 4 Prophetic Prism 1 Ratchet Bomb 2 Scroll of Avacyn 4 Trading Post Creature (8) 4 Blood Baron of Vizkopa 4 Voice of Resurgence	Enchantment (5) 3 Angelic Accord 2 Oblivion Ring Instant (6) 1 Abrupt Decay 3 Doom Blade 2 Tragic Slip Sorcery (4) 4 Lingering Souls	Land (26) 4 Godless Shrine 4 Isolated Chapel 4 Sunpetal Grove 4 Temple Garden 4 Plains 2 Vault of the Archangel 2 Woodland Cemetery

I like where you are going but I think agro will still be tough. I get turn 2 voice into turn 3 lingering souls + 6 removal spells. I just question if it is consistent enough.

Glad this thread is still alive and kicking.

It seems people have strayed away from Seclusion and Rising. Even Trading Post in some of the lists.

I will post a list soon, for some critique, based off of what I see here.

Problem with post is the card does very little on its own, it requires another "do nothing" card to start doing something worth doing. That's why I don't like running that many now. Against the fastest decks you just won't be able to do much if you keep drawing Trading Post copies.

However, having a few extras in the sideboard is a very good idea because you can bury the rest of the decks with all the card advantage it gives you.

To sum up, it depends on what your meta looks like. If there's lots of aggro, then you're better off with less copies in the main. And the opposite if there's more midrange or control.

Probably gonna nix rising for angelic accord.

2 post
2 seclusion
1 accord

sounds like a decent package?

edit: like you said, cards that do nothing on their own are a pain to draw, and while post does a lot on its own, drawing too many sucks. but i still need to be able to draw these.

I would drop Seclusion altogether if I were to play Angelic Accord, its either one or the other.

I'd start with 3 Post and 3 Accord.

+ a ton of removal

Quote from jaszuni

I like where you are going but I think agro will still be tough. I get turn 2 voice into turn 3 lingering souls + 6 removal spells. I just question if it is consistent enough.

I kinda agree with you on the aggro matchup. 4 Prisms also seem very excessive in this build. The deck doesn't actually need to cycle or draw that many cards since we have so many value stuff already with Voice of Resurgence and Lingering Souls. The mana fixing is nice but not enough to warrant the whole 4. This is the updated list with a few minor change.


I think 3 post might still be correct because mutiples can be binned by the trading post that you do play. Replaced Abrupt Decay with Tribute because the mana isn't perfect yet, especially with fewer prisms.

Quote from blinkbat

jaszuni's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
2 Prophetic Prism 1 Ratchet Bomb 2 Scroll of Avacyn 3 Trading Post 2 Angelic Accord 2 Dead Weight 2 Oblivion Ring	4 Blood Baron of Vizkopa 4 Voice of Resurgence 2 Tribute to Hunger 4 Doom Blade 2 Tragic Slip 4 Lingering Souls 4 Godless Shrine 2 Isolated Chapel 4 Overgrown Tomb 2 Woodland Cemetery 4 Temple Garden 4 Sunpetal Grove 2 Vault of the Archangel 4 Swamp

What do you think of this in relation to your deck? Mana elves also power Voice tokens.

I can see this or a variation of this on a regular basis.
T1: mana elf
T2: Souls, Smiter or Voice
T3: Post, Accord or Bolas (targeting smiter)