MTG Salvation

Quote from HardCasting »

In regards to Otherworldly Outburst, Make Mischief, and Spawning Breath, I have found that the deck can be sped up immensely by the inclusion of cheap draw spells to allow you to hit your more powerful cards, rather then the listed powerful but situational cards. I have been much better served running Magmatic Insight and Faithless Looting rather than have cards that rely on other cards (namely toughness boosters and bad goblin lords in a deck with a medium to little amount of goblins). If this becomes a primer, then people are going to expect the optimal version of Zada, not the most fun. It is my fervent belief that eschewing the above cards will increase the power level of the deck. While they are fun, and can be very good, the overall power level and consistency of the deck goes up without them.

The spells that specifically boost toughness are just cards that already warrant play for power-boosting and other effects, that incidentally boost toughness as well. I actually agree on the goblin lords, their inclusion in my deck was a relic from a more goblin-focused era and I've now cut them (and Eldrazi Monument) to make room for Otherworldly Outburst, Make Mischief, Hanweir Garrison, and Shreds of Sanity. Outburst is also great as wrath insurance, since it's pretty difficult to win if you spend three or four turns building your board and then a savvy opponent casts a boardwipe, forcing you to rebuild from a hand that likely has much less to work with now.

The thing is that for the deck to function at all, whether you're playing Zap/Flare/etc. or not, you have cards that rely on other cards. Crimson Wisps is probably the best individual card in the deck, and it's still useless if you don't have Zada and a decent board. It's just the nature of the beast.

Also, I don't think anyone expects the optimal build for any commander from MTGS Primers. Hunding Gjornersen's Zedruu Primer is probably not the optimal Zedruu build, but it's fun and unique and the thread serves its purpose as a Primer for people trying to build and play similar decks. The optimal version of Zada likely does not run any Splice nonsense, but I can't imagine it won't be in this thread anywhere for similar reasons.

I've also come around to Otherworldly Outburst after glossing over it during spoiler season. It's great wrath insurance and synergizes really well with the pinging spells and Skirk Prospector. My token base has become more diversified as well with Hanweir Garrison adding a 5th creature type, Make Mischief a 6th, and Otherworldly Outburst a 7th, so I don't think Goblin Chieftain and Goblin King are much longer for my deck.

You were all right about Mirrorwing Dragon being crap, incidentally. It's very much a lose-less card that really does nothing for us.

My current toughness package is Goblin Chieftain, Goblin King, Eldrazi Monument, Fury Charm (which I've been meaning to cut for Rush of Adrenaline for a while now), Brute Force, Brute Strength, Titan's Strength, and (sort of) Strange Inversion. Eldrazi Monument is the worst of these, and whenever I make updates to the deck I contemplate cutting it. Zap has pulled its weight for months now, I haven't drawn Flare much because it's a recent addition to my deck.

Biggest disappointment of EMN is definitely that Stensia Banquet says "target opponent."

This'll probably find a slot in my deck, since I already have a toughness-boost package for Zap, Flare, and Spawning Breath. Likely skippable for most other builds though.

I'll be testing Hanweir Garrison for sure, and probably Mirrorwing Dragon as well even though I know you guys aren't all sold. Overall I'd say this set is a big improvement over SOI for us.

Well, I can't say I expected a second Zada to get printed.

Seems useful as a second copy for when people are gunning for the original, plus its slightly-different ability means that by killing it they also lose their own board. Thoughts?

Don't forget new Twinflame/Heat Shimmer effects!

...Yeah, I'm not expecting much from EMN. The most exciting post-OGW card for this deck so far is the first foil printing of Beetleback Chief.

Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper seems like a massive waste of a slot and a waste of a land drop. The only legendary creatures in most lists are Zada, Krenko, Mob Boss, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Ancient Tomb is probably enough. I like Sandstone Needle better than Dwarven Ruins, but both seem pretty good.

I agree that we don't need mana rocks for the most part. They're more important if you play cards like Charmbreaker Devils and Chancellor of the Forge, but if your deck's curve-topper is Siege-Gang Commander you shouldn't need anything other than Sol Ring and maybe Ruby Medallion.

Chaotic Strike can also be cast during an opponent's combat to draw a bunch of cards, whereas Balduvian Rage can't because it requires you to target an attacking creature.

If you're gonna go the Tazri route you might as well run Ink-Treader Nephilim in the 99 as a backup Zada in case she gets exiled. Note that you can stick with the Arcane theme and do things like splice Evermind, Spiritual Visit, and Into the Fray onto a Kodama's Reach.

Anyway I'm swapping out Fists of the Anvil for Brute Strength, Unearthly Blizzard for Expedite, and Ogre Battledriver (which has severely under-performed) for Goblin Dark-Dwellers.

My main problems with Ib are that you probably need to have some way of killing him so that your goblins don't just die on the attack if an opponent is playing a token deck and that sacrificing your lands is really anti-synergistic with Fiery Gambit.

Speaking on land, how do all of you feel about Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx? It's been a house for me, especially after a Twinflame.

I think I'll probably swap Fury Charm for Brute Strength, though maybe I'll cut Fists of the Anvil instead. I like that Strength boosts toughness for Zap/Spawning Breath and provides a reasonable power bonus, but Fury Charm's additional utility can be nice. We'll see.

Hell yes.

The real question is do we cut Aleatory (by far the worst cantrip in the deck, IMO) for this or cut a non-cantrip?

The Arcane package serves a few functions, none of which are really related to card advantage, which is possibly the area the deck needs the least amount of help with. Almost all of our creatures make other creatures and a lot of our spells make creatures too, so we have a lot of CA even before we start drawing 10+ cards off of Crimson Wisps. The Arcane cards have three major payoff spells, those being Desperate Ritual, Overblaze, and Path of Anger's Flame. The rest of the arcane spells serve no real purpose beyond enabling those three (except Blazing Shoal). Splicing Desperate Ritual onto a targeted Arcane spell is one of the easiest ways to repeatedly generate mana (an incredible RRR per creature, a much better rate than any of our other rituals). Path of Anger's Flame is a very efficient buff (each of our creatures gets +X/+0 where X is twice the number of creatures we have). Overblaze can work like a buff, but it can also be an alternative kill with Mogg Fanatic (6 instances of Overblaze on the Fanatic is enough to kill an opponent) or Spikeshot Elder (will easily wipe out a table after just a couple Overblazes). This lets us win through fog effects and at instant speed (meaning we can kill like this with an empty library and cantrips on the stack). It's also cool as hell.

Arcane stuff by no means a crucial component of a Zada deck, but it's fun and Desperate Ritual is a great source of mana. If you don't want to run it, it'll free up space to play more ramp, buffs, creatures, or wheel effects. I recommend you play Blazing Shoal and Overblaze, though. Both are great on their own.

You're definitely right that after a couple Overblaze (or Gratuitous Violence, which for whatever reason I thought only doubled damage to opponents and their creatures), Arcbond is usually a suicide move because you'll be dealing enough damage to kill yourself at the same time as everyone else. In theory it's a way to win without combat, but Fiery Gambit serves that role just as well without killing me in the process. I've only actually cast Arcbond once and it was as a wrath when I wasn't ready to go off and had to block a lethal alpha strike from a Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury player. It'll get dropped for Treasonous Ogre after OGW comes out and i pick up a Goblin Dark-Dwellers.

I do play Arcbond, but it hasn't yet accomplished anything and I'm leaning toward cutting it for Treasonous Ogre, a card that I love but don't play because winning with Arcbond requires having the highest life total at the table (or Gratuitous Violence, I guess).

I think I would only run Thermopod if I felt like I needed more creature-rituals after Skirk Prospector and Treasonous Ogre, but if you're running Desperate Ritual + arcane spells and Battle Hymn/Brightstone Ritual, it's probably unnecessary. I don't particularly like Priest of Urabrask either.