MTG Salvation

Greetings everybody! Long-time forum-lurker, now stepping out of the shadow to hopefully get some feedback on a deck I'm going to build.

This is my take on a combo deck abusing Bolas's Citadel from the new War of the Spark set. I built this deck primarily to meme on my 75% play group that always complains about my decks being too powerful. I don't even know if this is actually viable in a dedicated CEdh pod, but from the card choices alone I'd gather that this is more in tune with the Competitive forum than the Multiplayer one. But first - the decklist ofc!


Game Plan
Your main objective should be to find your fast mana to power out Bolas's Citadel. Use tutors, cantrips, Necropotence and Tymna's draw ability to dig for your mana rocks and rituals. Once the Citadel hits the field, sift through your library by casting spells and find your win cons which are

• Bolas's Citadel + Aetherflux Reservoir + Sensei's Divining Top for infinite life and infinite death lasers
• Paradox Engine + Mana Rocks + Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal for infinite mana + infinite draws

In goldfishing, the deck was able to pull off wins on turn 5 or 6 - again, not dedicated CEdh-levels of degeneracy, but very close I'd argue.

Notable Cards/Interactions

• Silas Renn is sac fodder for Arcum Dagsson to tutor for the Citadel.
• Mana Severance exiles all lands from the library to minimize whiffing once your engine is online.
• Similarly Necropotence and Scroll Rack can be used to get rid of lands on top of your library.
• Children of Korlis, Tainted Sigil and Tendrils of Agony help you stay afloat if your life total becomes too low.

Notable Omissions

• Mox Diamond, Lion's Eye Diamond, Imperial Seal and O.G. Duals should obviously be in the deck, but cannot be included as of right now due to budgetary limitations. I plan, however, to get these one after another.
• Not really sure if Mox Amber is worth including.
• Yawgmoth Will sadly is a non-bo with Citadel.

Feel free to drop a comment if you have suggestions on how to improve this pile or tell me what a terrible person I am! <3

I think that this is a really cool idea, actually. Have you considered Kambal? I can't remember the full card name, but it gains you life every time an opponent casts a non-creature spell. It would be a great way to pad your life total over the course of a game so that you can truly abuse Bolas' Citadel.

Quote from benjameenbear »

I think that this is a really cool idea, actually. Have you considered Kambal? I can't remember the full card name, but it gains you life every time an opponent casts a non-creature spell. It would be a great way to pad your life total over the course of a game so that you can truly abuse Bolas' Citadel.

I have actually not considered Kambal, but he seems like a great addition. I will try him with a couple other adds that are to arrive in the mail in the next couple of days.

Unfortunately I hadn't had the opportunity to test this deck much. I got in one game in a threeway against Emmara, Soul of the Accord Tokens and Melek, Izzet Paragon Storm which I won on turn 7 or 8? Again, my playgroup is more on the 75-80%ish side of things but had the Emmara player drew one of his artifact hate cards, it would've been much harder to get the Citadel train rolling!

Thanks for your input. Appreciate it very much!

While he's normally a pretty useless card, I actually think that Padeem, Consul of Innovation could be a worthwhile inclusion. Giving your artifacts Hexproof seems really solid.

Also, is there any reason you chose not to use Sharuum as the Commander? Having a guaranteed way to recur the Citadel or any other cards that get discarded/destroyed/Wheeled seems too good to pass up, along with the typical Sharuum combo lines. Overall, it seems like Sharuum might be better for your overall strategy? I certainly recognize the power of Tymna in the Command zone though, so I can definitely respect that.

Some of my purchases arrived in the mail today, so there are a couple of updates!

Fabricate is a direct swap with Trinket Mage, since he's not able to find the Citadel. I also feel like the body he provides won't really be relevant.

Transmute Artifact is another tutor that can put the Citadel directly into play and Cruel Tutor was a budget choice anyway.

The inclusion of Insidious Dreams straight got lifted from a Grixis Citadel brew by Labmaniac Sigi. Resolving this EOT before your turn means that you can stack Citadel, Top and Aetherflux Reservoire on top of each other, shortcutting the process of finding your pieces.

Tainted Sigil is basically the same as the janky angel. Theoretically, it ups the artifact count for Mox Opal as well and is searchable by the blue tutors, but that's probably not going to be relevant.

Also, I'm going to try out Kambal as suggested by benjaminbeer. We'll see how much of a difference his lifegain makes when I'm playing with my group on this weekend.

Quote from benjameenbear »

While he's normally a pretty useless card, I actually think that Padeem, Consul of Innovation could be a worthwhile inclusion. Giving your artifacts Hexproof seems really solid.
Also, is there any reason you chose not to use Sharuum as the Commander? Having a guaranteed way to recur the Citadel or any other cards that get discarded/destroyed/Wheeled seems too good to pass up, along with the typical Sharuum combo lines. Overall, it seems like Sharuum might be better for your overall strategy? I certainly recognize the power of Tymna in the Command zone though, so I can definitely respect that.

Not sure if Padeem is really worth it at four mana. She does stop By Force and Shattering Spree, but an overloaded Vandal Blast will still screw me over. If I were to include a card like that I would probably go with something like Lazotep Plating? It's two mana cheaper and instant speed.

Regarding Sharuum: I haven't thought of her tbh. The main reason I went with partner commanders - and Silas in particular - was that he's an artifact creature which I can use to sac to Arcum and happens to curve perfectly into him. This synergy was actually how I got the Citadel on the battlefield, last time I played this deck.
I do agree, however, that Sharuum looks much more versatile, especially since she'll be great with Intuition which I'll include once I get my hands on a copy. Yeah, I'll think about her inclusion.

Again, thanks for your input!

You're welcome! Do let us know how the changes work out, comrade.

Minor update

I've swapped out one of each basic land for another fetch, Urborg and Academy Ruins. Especially the latter seems like a very relevant utility land which allows you to recur the Citadel without the need to sacrifice another slot for that purpose.

I have also removed all lifegain cards which seemed a bit win-more. I haven't brought this pile to a dedicated aggro-table, so this decision could prove false in the long run, but I want to go for more consistency in assembling the combo. In their place I've added Copy Artifact, i.e. another Mana Rock, Rain of Filth, i.e. another ritual and Copper Gnomes as another way to cheat in Citadel (assuming they survive one turn cycle ofc).

The suspend cards are experimental slots right now, but since this deck isn't capable of winning before turn 4 anyway, a turn 1 suspended Ancestral Vision or Lotus Bloom actually isn't the worst. Also, casting these for 0 while Citadel is active is hilarious in of itself.

Regarding playtesting, I have yet to find a Cedh group and my own playgroup hasn't met in the last couple of weeks. What I have found, however, is a community hall where lots of MTG players in my area meet every Friday evening to play FNM and EDH. Lots of pods and lots of opportunities to get in some reps theoretically... But since it was my first time there, I didn't want to heel it up too much

...yet!