MTG Salvation

4 Pridemage may be a bit much, but I run 2 in my list and love them. They're really good against Twin, and having the extra exalted in the deck typically provides a nice damage boost around turn 3.

How do you guys beat Grishoalbrand? I had to play against it twice in the PPTQ over the weekend and I only won one game of five. Hallowed Moonlight, Leyline of Sanctity and Thoughtseize seems like the correct way to board against it but we seem quite weak against it by nature.

I find it's great as long as you drop it turn 2. I often side out a couple of Abrupt Decay to pull it in, and it's worth it. Finks and VoR are still good creatures with it on the field, especially with a Liege out. Their creatures are straight up bad. Snapcaster, Tas and Angler are just no good without a graveyard, all their deck can do at that point is try not to lose instead of try to win.

Quote from Arkaedrian »

Quote from Emracool »

Interesting hybrid between dork and dorkless. How has it done?I dont like the hybrid personally I feel dorkless is amazing against combo dork is worse but not as bad.

The deck runs very smooth. The only gripe i have with it is that sometimes ill draw into more birds/nobles when i want beaters. I've debated going even more hybrid by running only birds and removing the Noble's in favor of lingering souls or more hand hate. Thoughts?

I would wonder if it might be better to cut BoP in favour of the Souls. Although they don't produce black mana, exalted just seems strictly better than flying. Maybe alter the mana base a bit to make black more available (perhaps cut to 2 Razorverge Thicket in favour of a second Overgrown Tomb or Godless Shrine)?

Regarding manlands: Running 1 still sometimes feels like too much because of how often the ETBT clause puts my curve back a turn, I can't imagine having 3 in the deck. Do you really find your mana flows that smoothly with several in there?
Regarding Ghost Quarter: I get a decent amount of use out of it. I included it for Tron but I never seem to draw it on that matchup, so I use it as more of a speed bump if I see it early in the game against other decks. I'll bet two more Gavony Township in their place would give me the extra punch I need though.
Regarding siding in Thrag and Resto: Resto probably gives me the last little bit of damage I need, that's a very good point. I don't know why I didn't take it in for those grindy games, it definitely would've helped. I should probably pull in Grafdigger's Cage against anything blue and controlly to shut down Snapcaster Mage too.
Regarding the America opponent: I was at 27 and he was at 2, so it looked like I could just stall out until I hit a Rhino but it was not the case unfortunately, couldn't find one in time.
Regarding splitting the matches vs the two deck types: For Burn, I won round 2 2-0 and lost round 4 2-1. The game I won in round 4 was the game he only saw 1 Atarka's Command, which obviously cuts around everything we play to counter burn, he played 2 or 3 of them in games 2 and 3. I lost my Delver match in round 5 because I didn't see more than two land in either game.

So I just got back from a PPTQ where I went 3-2-1 running Wilted Junk. Here's the list I took with me:


I had the bye on round 1. I got matched up against Burn rounds 2 and 4, Grixis Delve rounds 3 and 5 and America Control round 6. I won rounds 2 and 3, lost 4 and 5 and drew 6.
Against burn I sided out 3 Lingering Souls and 1 Wilt-Leaf Liege and sided in 2 Leylines and 2 Thragtusks, as I found the LS too slow and if I'm dropping a big creature vs Burn I'd rather it give me 5 life, even if it doesn't pump my dudes. Against Grixis I took out 2 Decay in favour of 2 RIP (because the only thing I could ever use AD on was Snapcaster Mage or saving my Finks from a PtE in a pinch). I won game 1 against the America control deck too fast to see what I would need to side in, but then he dragged game 2 out to upwards of 40 minutes, leaving us 60 seconds for game 3 (resulting in the draw).

I found in a number of the games I lost, I took my opponent to 3 or less life very quickly but then I couldn't close the deal (the only times this didn't happen was when I was completely manascrewed). Any idea what might be causing this? I lost at least 3 games which I should have won because I couldn't deal the final 1-3 damage. Just the nature of the game?

I'm thinking about cutting to 5 dorks, dropping the Pilgrim (which would be a Hierarch if I had more than 1) for a 4th Smiter. Does that seem wise to you guys?

I have the last modern PPTQ that I can make it to for the season on this coming Saturday, but I'm too booked up this week to get any playtesting in, so any input is much appreciated.

What does everyone think of using Kataki, War's Wage in the sideboard versus affinity? It seems like it would be stronger than Stony Silence.

I'd say so. RIP hits everything that's already in the yard and doesn't give them the opportunity to draw back into it.

I went 2-1 at the local tournament tonight, won back my entry fee. List played a lot better, I was glad to have added everything I did because the cards helped my speed quite a bit. The synergy between Voice of Resurgence and Lingering Souls is really nice.
Round 1 vs Affinity:
Game 1: I drew what looked like a fast hand that would spit itself out onto the board fairly quickly (VoR, Finks, mana dorks etc) but I had no flyers and no removal so I lost pretty quickly.
Game 2: Etched Champion hit the board and he had a backup Cranial Plating after I destroyed the first one. Swung for 8 on turn 3, 12 on turn 4. Nothing you can do about that.
0-1
Round 2 vs U Tron:
I answered every threat both games with a Path to Exile while beating face with Voice of Resurgence and his tokens.
1-1
Round 3 vs Affinity:
Game 1: SIEGE RHINO! I steadied out at 6 mana, spending 4 per turn on 2 Rhinos and a Wilt-Leaf Liege, then sinking it into Gavony Township every turn while leaving mana up for removal. He couldn't handle it, I trampled him over.
Game 2: I drew into 2 Lingering Souls and a Liege, he couldn't keep up.
2-1

Overall I'd say I'm glad I didn't go with 23 land, 22 land and 6 mana dorks did the trick for me.

Thanks for the input, guys. I'm gonna head out tonight with the following mainboard changes:
-2 Thoughtseize
-3 Inquisition of Kozilek
-1 Plains
-1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
-2 Scavenging Ooze

+2 Avacyn's Pilgrim (can't afford Hierarchs right now, although I do eventually want to be running some in the deck)
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Gavony Township
+3 Voice of Resurgence

So I'll be running this list:


I'm keeping as many basics as I am only because Blood Moon and its associated decks are so prominent in my local meta. I've tried going down to 5 or 6 before and it's ended all too often with me staring wistfully at an Abrupt Decay with a board full of nonbasics. I'll see how 7 flows though, because SSJRanulf may have been right in saying that 8 is too many.

I'll report back with how it went after the tournament's over.

I've been trying to get the hang of this deck but I feel like my build hasn't been flowing quite as smoothly as it should be. Here's the list I'm running:


Thoughts? I kind of feel like I should be running Voice of Resurgence in place of Scavenging Ooze but beyond that I'm not quite sure how to make it faster and more consistent.