MTG Salvation

I've had a great time with Beseech the Queen. I'm a good comparison stick for this one, as my meta's less balls to the wall than Artaud's. Go for that one! Diabolic Intent also seems like a good time.

While thumbing through a shop's shame box, I found this hilarious piece of jank - Ritual of the Machine. It's like a one shot, more limited Helm of Possession which you can't just crumble to powder to get your dude back. Probably not good enough to run, but it's so hilarious I figured that I'd share it just for the "look at this janky old card" factor.

I wish I had opportunity to test Ritual of the Machine - could be on par with Helm and can be reccured with Xiahou. No one in my neighborhood has that card though.

Well yeah, but you can recur a lot of things with Xiahou Dun, so I didn't bring it up. I've been having a field day recurring Imp's Mischief and other "silver bullet" sort of cards with him. There's a fantastic, toolbox'y side to the deck, and it becomes ridiculously easy to milk it to its fullest potential with all the tutoring (which is ridiculously easy to recur on top of all this as well). This "goes against the spirit of the format", according to the Phelddagrif player in my meta. Ah well, they'll live

I'll give Ritual of the Machine a go in your honour then.

After extensive testing with new Commander's cards I decided to apply some changes:
Sorin Markov -> Wretched Confluence - Sorin is great for crippling most dangerous opponent but it does nothing against that player's board position and other players still need to break through defences to finish the job. Confluence turned out to be quite useful in games I played with it.
Praetor's Grasp -> Corpse Augur - this guy is fantastic. He draws minimum of 3 cards usually and can be brought back to draw more with easy condition to meet. Grasp is useful but more often than not I like to play MY deck than others'.

Since my meta is all about speed lately (to race combo and stax locks) I'm trying to make it faster, more resilient and even more oppresive. Next cards on my chopping block are:
Underworld Connections - it's unique and foil but I use it less and less often. I may try Necropetence in its place but since Mindslavering is a thing I'm hesitant to do that.
Havoc Demon - I'm not sold on it after all. I'd prefer something more oppresive in it's place, in the same or lower CMC slot preferably.
Yawgmoth's Will - with the amount of blue Spirals in my meta I rarely have anything to play from graveyard which I couldn't reanimate with Sheoldred's ability. I need such tricks at instant speed most of the time anyway.

Any suggestions?

How about Word of Command for a downright grotesque piece of interaction? Not sure it will do anything in your meta, but it's a crazy weird card, maybe you'll see some use for it.

Wow, that's crazy card for sure. Wish I had it as I don't. It's pretty pricy too but probably worth the money. I'll proxy it and try if it works.

Quote from Rumpy5897 »

How about Word of Command for a downright grotesque piece of interaction? Not sure it will do anything in your meta, but it's a crazy weird card, maybe you'll see some use for it.

This card does nothing. If they don't counter it then they just tap all their mana. It's not worth a wasted slot.

Quote from seriph0 »

This card does nothing. If they don't counter it then they just tap all their mana. It's not worth a wasted slot.

If they tap mana it stays in mana pool and you can use it to play this spell. It says nothing about having to tap lands to pay for it but only that you CAN do it and play that spell if ABLE. I'm pretty sure it works this way otherwise it would not be worth 150$ (black border).

Quote from Artaud »

Quote from seriph0 »

This card does nothing. If they don't counter it then they just tap all their mana. It's not worth a wasted slot.

If they tap mana it stays in mana pool and you can use it to play this spell. It says nothing about having to tap lands to pay for it but only that you CAN do it and play that spell if ABLE. I'm pretty sure it works this way otherwise it would not be worth 150$ (black border).

You're right, here I thought it had to be cast with the mana you pulled yourself. Still...not very easy to utilize this thing. Aggro decks will tap out often, control decks will just counter, and there's many mana sinks. It might do stuff in undeveloped metas, but in stronger ones it doesn't seem like much more than BB: make an opponent waste a counter or use their mana.

Quote from seriph0 »

make an opponent waste a counter or use their mana.

An that's all I need if I'm going to follow it with things like Myojin, Mindslicer, Contamination or Mindslaver.

New set, new thoughts. OGW made me rethink my deck once again and I'm trying to slightly modify Plan C (mass reanimation). But new cards first:
Warping Wail - goes straight in. This card is so flexible here - it can act as another piece of removal, it can ramp or provide emergency Contamination fodder or deal with most dangerous situations like top decked T&N, extra turn or Armageddon-type spells. Replaces: Yawgmoth's Will
Thought-Knot Seer - people call it Vendilion Clique for non-blue decks but I wonder... There is already Entomber Exarch and it didn't pass a test but TKS has more multiplayer applications so I'm going to test it anyway. Replaces: Havoc Demon
Bearer of Silence - uncounterable Edict effect but it does nothing beside it. Slum Reaper of Fleshbag do much more.
Sifter of Skulls - token-makers are waste of space here.
Mirrorpool - great card but does little here. I don't need (or even want) double Living Deaths or mass removals and the only creatures I could see copied are Kokusho and Gary.
Sea Gate Wreckage - seems to pair nicely with Mindslicer and Overeager Apprentice so it's on my watch list.

As for rest of the changes they are a part of speeding deck up:
Nihil Spellbomb -> Faerie Macabre - Spellbomb usually just cycles and opponents just play around it if they see it. Fearie is suprice factor for them and can be recovered repeatedly with Phyrexian Reclamation.
Phyrexian Arena -> Reanimate - I'm sad to see Arena go but it's too slow. I never tutor for it and it works early game only. Reanimate is cheap so it can go under stax effects and fetch an answer I need.
Nirkana Revenant -> Massacre Wurm, Grave Titan or something else - like Arena I never use it as a tutor target. The lack of evasion doesn't help either and while mana-doubling is great, Crypt Ghast does it faster and Coffers are more resilient. 6-mana creature should be more threatening.

I guess Massacre Wurm in the "flex slot", that would give you something you'd potentially want to tutor every now and then.

Any particular reason as to why no Attrition? Probably too slow, my meta's derpy enough for Dark Impostor and Pestilence Demon to run away with games. Nirkana Revenant doesn't feel clunky, for example.

Have you had issues with for Warping Wail?

Quote from Rumpy5897 »

I guess Massacre Wurm in the "flex slot", that would give you something you'd potentially want to tutor every now and then.

Instead of Wurm I'm going to give Ascendant Evincar a go. My meta is full of mana dork-based decks and more often than not I find myself attacking with Sheoldred herself so one more power will allow me to deal 21 commander damage in 3 hits.

Quote from Rumpy5897 »

Any particular reason as to why no Attrition? Probably too slow, my meta's derpy enough for Dark Impostor and Pestilence Demon to run away with games. Nirkana Revenant doesn't feel clunky, for example.

I have more than enough instant-speed removal and not enough creatures to sac so Attrition would sit doing nothing most of the time.

Quote from Rumpy5897 »

Have you had issues with for Warping Wail?

Well I'm considering adding more mana-rocks and even more non-basics to be able to produce colorless as I already had some issues with it. Warping Wail is too good to pass so I have to adjust.

On a side note I'm going to ditch Living Death as most of the time opponents have more stuff to reanimate than me and I'm not going to waste slots for more graveyard hate. Thought-Knot Seer turned out to be meh (Mindslicer is better) so I need something in his slot. Entomb is next on my shopping list and it will probably replace LD.

Entomb has been working wonders for me. I've also gotten good mileage out of Buried Alive, but, once again, slower meta. Ascendant Evincar is actually a fantastic call!

Updated card list to the most recent one. It requires a lot more thinking now but rewards good plays more than ever. Evincard turned to be a blast to play as well as Faerie Macabre. Going to fetch Entomb definitely and thinking about Toshiro Umezawa. With 10+ instants he can become card-advantage machine if given a chance.

Quote from Artaud »

Updated card list to the most recent one.

You forgot to put your recently acquired Grim Monolith in place of Worn Powerstone.

Interesting to see you run Vulturous Aven now. I had him in my 99 but cut him a while back as he felt kind of slow. Maybe I used him wrong. Also congrats on the Monolith.

Quote from Vysogota »

You forgot to put your recently acquired Grim Monolith in place of Worn Powerstone.

Corrected. Derevi's Police always vigilant, eh?

Quote from Rumpy5897 »

Interesting to see you run Vulturous Aven now. I had him in my 99 but cut him a while back as he felt kind of slow. Maybe I used him wrong. Also congrats on the Monolith.

Thanks. Aven is here only temporarily as it will become Toshiro or Liliana, Heretical Healer when I'll acquire them and they'll pass meta tests. Same goes for Bubbling Muck into Entomb.

Toshiro's kind of a Xiahou Dun 2.0 - you can adapt what you're going to get back on the fly, but then it's gone forever. The "gone forever" is why I'm, probably needlessly, steering clear of the guy. There's just something stupidly satisfying about playing the same thing five times over, or amassing a grip of silver bullet interaction cards ready to go whenever needed.

After few months I'm kind of stuck. Primary plan works great and I strip opponents' hands or lock them with Contamination but I have almost nothing to follow up. Till I kill anyone with combat damage (Sheoldred mostly) they recover and kill me. I've noticed I usually lack draw engines or kill myself with them faster than my opps would. Some changes are needed so I'm going to try:

Liliana, Heretical Healer - potential follow up to mass discard to keep opponents empty of threats if they draw an answer to boardstate
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - made into Top Black Creatures list so I'm going to give him a go and see if he's not only overpriced standard mythic rare
Asylum Visitor - already in but it appeared only once so far and died shortly after
Westvale Abbey - seems good as Contamination fodder-maker
Necropotence - I know I know but I'm still worried about Mindslaver kills.

Potential cuts:
Toshiro Umezawa - good on paper but needs 20 or more instants to work reliably
Solemn Simulacrum - all competitive decks in my meta ditched him so I probably should too
Living Death - I'm unlucky with it as there is always an opponent with more creatures to reanimate than me. I'll stick with RotDR.
Wretched Confluence - it's a great spell but costs too much to keep up with fast meta.

Quote from Artaud »

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - made into Top Black Creatures list

I wouldn't pay too much attention to Kalitas being listed there. People like shiny new toys to play with and often force new cards onto the list as soon as they're eligible. After several months they realize their mistake and the card goes away. Things like Drana, Kazuul or even Thunderfoot Baloth used to be on this list as well, now we have Kalitas and Emeria Shepherd - a year from now it will be something else.

Kalitas is worth. He's like Anafenza, the Foremost except he produces value off of things that happen normally in multiplayer, gives you life if you can safely swing, creates a ton of board presence if anyone wraths a cluttered board, AND he shuts off death triggers and creature-based gy engines. Also he gives you a zombie a turn with Sheoldred out if they don't have token fodder to throw away.

Shutting off death triggers is really good. Just be careful if he gets cloned.

I take a pass on a lot of new cards that get printed, but not this one.

Time for few changes. I decided to speed up a deck even more by further lowering mana costs and adding more mana rocks and stuff. Let's get to business.

Tests:
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - tested it in place of Solemn but it didn't make a difference. Did nothing against reanimation strategies and wasn't search target in any other scenario. Aggro and midrange decks get eaten by Shelly most of the time and vampire legend is like win more against them.
Asylum Visitor - did close to nothing so didn't last long.

Changes:
Swamp -> Nihil Spellbomb - it's back for fighting reanimation and spell recursion. Lower land count goes in pair with more mana rocks and lesser overal spell cost.
Thespian's Stage -> Blinkmoth Well - Stage rarely copied anything relevant and Well goes in for testing its interation with updated Orb effects.
Bubbling Muck -> Entomb - this card is bonkers, especially when followed by reanimation spell or when Sheoldred is around. Finally acquired foil version from Graveborn so I could put it in.
Eye of Doom -> Unstable Obelisk - Eye is great but having control over what to destroy is better. Obelisk does double duty as mana rock too.
Puppeteer Clique -> Cathodion - another mobile mana rock. Works best with Adnate but it's good with other sac effects too. Clique was a hit or miss too many times.
Vulturous Aven -> Tooth Collector - got rid of him earlier but it needs to be noted. Collector pings mana dorks and beats for 3 which gave me timely win at least once. He's first on the chopping block when anything better arrives though.
Wretched Confluence -> Sign in Blood - cheaper draw is better and I had troubles casting Confluence from under stax/prison effects and Gaddok Teeg too many times.
Rise of the Dark Realms -> Void Winnower - I tend to face creature strategies less and less so Rise was an overcosted half of Living Death too many times. On the other hand Winnower is simply bonkers. It single-handed won me two games last time I played by Entombing and Reanimating it on Turn 2 and Turn 3. I was lucky but it can do many bad things even later in the game.

I'm pretty excited about Tree of Perdition. I miss Sorin's "you're at 10 life" effect and that's on a creature I can sac and reanimate to repeat. I wonder if I can pull out Tree + Evincar + Trip "combo" to set someones life to 1

It looks like my deck casts a hell of a shadow over our meta... I thought that Zet is already going deep with Blinkmoth Well and Kumano, Master Yamabushi as Derevi hate, but you seem to have followed his footsteps.

Quote from Vysogota »

It looks like my deck casts a hell of a shadow over our meta... I thought that Zet is already going deep with Blinkmoth Well and Kumano, Master Yamabushi as Derevi hate, but you seem to have followed his footsteps.

Can you blame us? I'm pretty sure Blinkmoth Well will end up in my Azusa (where it can be searched for much easier) and Geier Reach Sanitarium will go in its place after release but I'm gonna enjoy it here for now and see how it goes. I can tap any Mana Vault I'll come across at least.