MTG Salvation

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"Really? Sakura with only one forest?" Then I saw it is not *the* Sakura

Isn't Ancient Stirrings better than Wargate? I know Stirrings only looks to 5 cards, but can get the land/Amulet we need much faster. On the other hand, Wargate allows a Valakut SB with Omens. Viable/worth it?

Also, Sleight of hand is better than Serum Visions or not?

I don't like the 8 play land creatures a bit. I'd rather make their removal dead. On the other hand, they could eat Paths that allow Titan to attack. Any thoughts?

Vault of the archangel is not very useful since many decks in the format will either kill you by means other than life loss or go infinite on the life loss. In my build you can kill the opponent in one attack of the titan (assuming he has 20 or less life)

Root Maze and Orb of dreams are interesting but i'm not sure if worth a deck slot.

I find that ancient stirrings is much better than trinket mage in this deck since it can search for land too and is much faster to cast.

Rampaging Baloths is way too slow to be worth it and again, I prefer to just kill in one attack with the titan.

Tendo Ice Bridge and Gemstone Mine are also interesting but sometimes the extra landfall I get from the fetch makes all the difference and to bounce the bridge and the mine I would have to leave a karoo in play and sometimes I really need them in hand.

The 8 play land creatures are way too much. You already have 4 summer bloom and you can search for azusa with the pact.

I also took wargate out of my decklist because it is kind of slow and since I don't use all the any color lands sometimes I couldn't cast it. I think just drawing and searching with stirrings is better

The valakut sideboard is not very good. I think it might be possible but it would be a bad valakut and it's just not worth it.

Not sure about serum or sleight. I use serum mostly because I already had it...

I also find spoils of the vault highly risky. I used to play it in another deck and most of the time it either killed me or left me to die in my opponents turn. At least in my region affinity is very strong and I can't lose that much life against it.

I'm making some changes in my deck and when I have them tested I'll post another decklist

I've been spending all day testing this deck and settled on this list:



I've tried other lists that had Wargate, Explore, Muddle the Mixture, Time of Need, Trade Routes, ect... And found a few problems with consistency and speed. Cards like Explore and Trade Routes simply don't do enough when they hit the board. Explore can be hit or miss and Trade Routes is useless by itself. Wargate has already been decided against in favor of trinket mage so I'm not going to talk about it, but I found that Muddle the Mixture has been annoyingly slow too. Sure it can tutor up a lot of cards, but it's usually at the cost of a whole turn. The only tutor I like is Trinket Mage with Amulet of Vigor being as important as it is. Summer Bloom also isn't as important in this list since I also have 8 "mini bloom" effects with Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Sakura-Tribe Scout which was already shown in one of the lists posted above. Summer Bloom not being as necessary also makes Muddle the Mixture not needed either which is ok in my book. Playing 12 non-won condition creatures might open the deck up to removal, but the way I see it, I'd rather my opponent spend his removal on my Sakura-Tribe Scout than my titans. Not to mention they can also block in a pinch; Trinket Mage is practically blocking fodder once you get your amulet from him.

My second win con is Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger but can be replaced with Terastadon, Patron of the Moon or Rampaging Baloths. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger and Rampaging Baloths don't really do that much when they hit the board unlike Terastadon which can get rid of some problem cards but I'm not sure yet.

Btw, what number of bounce lands did you guys find to be right? I'm currently running 9 bounce lands and 10 non-tap colored lands (Forest, Island, Misty Rainforest, Breeding Pool) to start with.

Edit: Just remembered about Wurmcoil Engine and Karn Liberated. Tron plays them, why shouldn't we since we have the mana? Especially if Ancient Stirrings can dig for both.



Just had to add 4 serum/sleight for better consistency, works much better.

Here's my theoretical SB:



Grafdigger's Cage: Against any deck that uses GY.
Nature's Claim: Artifacts, affinity. Replace serum
Gaea's Revenge: Against counter decks that wait for you to ramp to counter fatty. Take out Titans.
Beast Within: Any problem card.
Dispel: Counters, Gifts.
Glimmerpost: Fetch these 2 on swing with titan, gives you +4 life. Used against aggro. Would take out Teetering Peaks and something else

I'd probably take out Serum Visions for most of these cards other than Gaea and Glimmerpost.

shadowsnipe00: Karn is defiantly worth testing but works better with Tron's more controly backup.


Wargate i feel should not so easily be thrown out, it can get Primeval Titan or Amulet of Vigor

I go all out on redundancy in my list and play it slower but try to hit harder. This isn't some glass canon reanimator, it is a fast mana agrro deck.

Wargate is indeed a very powerful card since it can fetch anything from the combo, I just think it is too slow. You can play slower with this deck but in that case you need to make sure you won't die to an affinity, soul sisters, or pod so you need control. I prefer to try and kill as fast as possible since there are many decks that deal very easily with a titan and such in the mid - long term.

Redundancy IS very important in any combo deck and should be considered. I admit my build gets very useless if the opponent casts a slaughter games or nevermore for the titan or the amulet but I still have hive mind and those cards aren't main so I can just side something else.

I made some changes to my build and wanted to test it before posting but since I think it's gonna be some time before I get the actual cards to do that I'm just gonna post and see what you guys think.



When Karn was mentioned I kind of remembered planeswalkers existed and although Karn isn't a very good addition to this deck since he doesn't have much synergy with the rest of the deck Garruk Wildspeaker is very useful since he can help ramp the mana, put a creature and even help the combo a bit if there is no amulet or something like that. I think it will be a very nice addition but I have to test and make sure.

Another big change is vesuva but that is simply obviously good. I didn't use it because it's expensive and not entirely necessary but it's very useful so i'll get it.

Put one summer bloom less because I don't really need 2 of them in hand and that was happening too much, not sure if it will work.

Took the hive minds from the side because it is hard too win with it and the 2 in the main were enough, 4 was just making me have dead cards in hand.

Put Gaea's revenge because UW and UWR are mean >=(

Thought about wurmcoil but i'm not sure. Might still put one and maybe put one more ancient stirrings too

This is what I've been trying recently, I've been happy with it:

Have other creatures been considered for the deck?
Like: Sire of Insanity, this will pretty much end the game on your second turn.
Brutalizer Exarch, eventhough it is 3/3, its ability is good as it either serach for a creature or cripple your opponents mana development.

Quote from hotgoat

Have other creatures been considered for the deck?
Like: Sire of Insanity, this will pretty much end the game on your second turn.
Brutalizer Exarch, eventhough it is 3/3, its ability is good as it either serach for a creature or cripple your opponents mana development.

I don't think either of those creatures are worth it imo.

The list I posted above I used the other day to crush both Melira Pod and UWr Midrange, I actually think its very playable as is.

Btw, seems that a deck like this made day2 in GP Kansas. Not sure if we will get the list, but it is worth mentioning.

Quote from Solesticio

Btw, seems that a deck like this made day2 in GP Kansas. Not sure if we will get the list, but it is worth mentioning.

This. I hope to see a decklist. I'm interested if it uses Wargate or not.

Have any of the Epic cards considered for the deck? I am particularly looking at Enduring Ideal. The following is a rough outline of the deck contents:



The basic idea is to get Zur's Weirding into the battlefield to stop your opponents card draw and then enchant it with Quiet Disrepair to regain two life. The win comes from Living Terrain, Mayael's Aria and Eldrazi Consription. The lock can even be established without Enduring Ideal, that is why I went with four Zur's Weirding, with Simic Growth Chamber you will be able to cast both on turn 2.

I still think the turn 2-4 Primeval Titan's into Hideaway lands is the best way to play this deck.

I changed my mana base, because the Spoils of the Vault sometimes exiles Boros Garrison or Slayers Stronghold. I'm happy with the deck overall though.

Primetime Vigor

That's why I removed my Spoils, but I thought that increasing the Boros+Slayers count would give us more mana problems. You don't have them?

How good are Cobras? Don't they just eat removal and we wasted a turn/resource?

Quote from Neon Strike

swculve's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking 1 Eternal Witness 1 Hedron Crab 1 Patron of the Moon 4 Primeval Titan 3 Trinket Mage 4 Amulet of Vigor 1 Expedition Map 1 Muddle the Mixture 1 Pithing Needle 4 Summer Bloom 4 Summoner's Pact 1 Sylvan Scrying 3 Tooth and Nail 1 Trade Routes 3 Wargate	1 Boros Garrison 1 Breeding Pool 1 Forest 1 Gruul Turf 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Island 1 Kessig Wolf Run 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Mosswort Bridge 1 Plains 4 Simic Growth Chamber 1 Slayers' Stronghold 1 Temple Garden 4 Tendo Ice Bridge 1 Tolaria West 1 Vesuva

First draft. It's pretty fun to play, and people jawdrop when I'm comboing off, but it's really vulnerable.

Your right the deck is vulnerable in general, it's why I run 4 Pact of Negation and 2Summoning Trap mainboard.

Quote from Solesticio

That's why I removed my Spoils, but I thought that increasing the Boros+Slayers count would give us more mana problems. You don't have them?

How good are Cobras? Don't they just eat removal and we wasted a turn/resource?

I'm happy with my nonlands, it's my mana base I keep changing. Spoils of the Vault is a 1 mana tutor, I prefer it over Wargate by far. Lotus Cobra is strong, it eats removal as much as Azusa, Lost but Seeking would

Quote from Neon Strike

The problem is that Summoning Trap does NOTHING against targeted discard, which is my main problem. I can always play around counters.

Run Leyline of Sanctity as a 4 of in the sideboard, other than than I'm not sure

I am curious about some cards you guys use:

1. How do the hideaway lands actually help? I find it very unlikely to meet their conditions without getting the titan cast and if you get to cast the titan why not simply kill with it?

2. Why use kessing wolf run instead of sunhome? The only reason I can see is that boros garrison doesn't add green mana and that can be a real problem

3. What do you actually search with Muddle the Mixture? It seems kind of random to me since the only combo peace CMC 2 is summer bloom and it isn't really THAT necessary (especially if you already have the mana to use the transmute)

This is my most recent decklist, it has changed very little since I last posted but now I have played with it quite a bit. It works pretty well and is fairly consistent in getting the titan out and attacking turn 4. The biggest problems I'm having are having to mulligan a lot when I don't get proper starting lands (either only bounce lands or lands that where supposed to be in the deck for the combo) and getting combo pieces discarded from my hand and destroying my whole game



Garruk Wildspeaker helps A LOT in consistency and also a bit of protection since he can ramp mana, create creatures, help combo if I don't have the amulet and buff my creatures in case I actually end up going for the cobra/token beat up kill. Remand is very useful for protection and getting pieces also

I will make some changes to this build replacing all serum visions for sleight of hand because in a deck that is supposed to be fast and that has cards that shouldn't be in hand it is better. Also will replace one Selesnya bounce for an island and the explore for another ancient stirrings.

I've been thinking of changing the third color of the deck (green and blue being the first two) since I use white simply for the sideboard. Spoils of the vault seems way too risky to me because it can kill me pretty easily or exile important combo lands but black could be a good option because I could use discard cards and grisly salvage could be useful. Red could also be good because it can draw a lot with faithless looting and izzet charm and it has good sideboard options.

I still have a question: How does Sunhome kill with a Turn 4 Primeval Titan after you use up your first land drop with exactly one Amulet of Vigor? I can't even see Sunhome activating that turn.