MTG Salvation

Not sure why, but Virtus and Gorm appeal to me the most out of the partner commanders. I think it's how they're both great voltron commanders, but in totally different ways. Virtus wants to be evasive and kill people in a few hits. Gorm wants to get jacked and wipe out their creatures while trampling in for extra. This deck is built to be flexible and make you think about which equipment you want where, and how best to angle for the kill.



Quick note on a few sweet synergy picks - topdeck control cards like top, mirri's guile, and scroll rack are significantly better here because we get a free shuffle whenever we resolve a commander. Even sweeter, tel-jilad stylus lets us tuck a soon-to-be-dead commander into our deck, then play the other to fetch it back to our hand, saving big money on commander tax. bow of nylea is extra sick, giving both the ability to recycle commanders AND granting gorm deathtouch, plus the options to gain life, buff our commanders, or shoot small flyers out of the sky. It's basically the perfect card for this deck.

I like the pair and the general game plan, but is 26 equipment really the right number? I'm imagining a lot of games will end up with you sitting with an empty board aside from a single creature and a pile of equipment you can't afford to use all at once. You're at 9 creatures, 7 of which are mana dorks. Maybe add some solid defenders to keep more board presence while Gorm and Virtus do their thing? A Axebane Guardian + Overgrown Battlement package would help with both defense and equip costs.

That tuck synergy is greasy but cool; Reito Lantern has a similar effect as the Bow if it ever dies, but it's not nearly as versatile. The Tel-Jilad Stylus can work with Whip shenanigans as well.

I'm not sure what the problem with 26 equipment is. Sure, sometimes I'll have some that I can't afford to equip, but it allows me to sandbag some in case of mass artifact removal, and guarantees I'll have enough to turn a 2/7 into a credible threat ASAP. Given that it's basically my entire game plan, 26 seems pretty reasonable. Plus a couple of them equip for free fwiw.

There are 2 commanders, 7 mana dorks, 2 other creatures, and 3 manlands. Obviously the commanders are the primary targets, the other creatures are just in case my commanders are getting priced off the field (and I don't have stylus or bow to remedy that problem). As long as I've got one creature to suit up (barring lightning greaves problems) I think I should be fine. You'll also notice that I'm not running any equipment that costs more than about 3 to equip (with a few minor exceptions).

At the end of the day, I think as long as I have a creature to equip, most equip costs are going to be worth it, even if the creature only gets one hit in. So I don't see anything particularly problematic about equipment. I might decide I need to kick the land count up, but I doubt I'd run defenders. To start with, defenders are obviously pretty counterproductive to the whole equipment plan. I'm also heavily motivated to focus on 1-drop mana dorks since they let me drop virtus on turn 2. A 0/3 or 0/4 doesn't really provide much of a boost in defense compared to a 1/1 in most games I've ever played, and the odds of getting multiple defenders (which ones would I even want to run?) at the same time seems pretty remote.

If I was going to include an off-curve "mana dork" it'd probably be brass squire since it can actually attack, and can potentially generate more than 1-2 mana. It's placed awkwardly enough in my curve that I'm kind of turned off by it, though.

Quote from Serberus_08 »

That tuck synergy is greasy but cool; Reito Lantern has a similar effect as the Bow if it ever dies, but it's not nearly as versatile. The Tel-Jilad Stylus can work with Whip shenanigans as well.

Whip doesn't work with tuck, or anything other that exile effects (like the combo with obzedat, ghost council), since otherwise it replaces the tuck/sac/bounce with exile.

Considered reito lantern, but 2 copies of the effect seems like plenty. Is it a bit limited anyway, since it's a lot harder to use if I plan to have out both commanders at once. It only REALLY shines if I'm ok with alternating them.

Shoot, yeah, I blanked on that one, oh well. Works with Dawn of the Dead though.

Quote from Serberus_08 »

Shoot, yeah, I blanked on that one, oh well. Works with Dawn of the Dead though.

True, but reanimating only until EOT is kind of inefficient with equipment. And also with stylus, it only really works well vs removal - you can't trade virtus in combat and then shuffle him in, unless you have bow (or lantern). Personally I'm always nervous of cards like dawn of the dead, though, since it has significant potential to backfire if you leave a commander in your grave and then dotd gets removed. Same is true for SoLaS though. I'm still on the fence about that one, but the protection is so good.

The stylus is a neat trick.

I have a Godo, Bandit Warlord deck, and I can say your equipment idea is not gonne work.

You can keep equipments that make them indestructable, untargateble and unblockable.

I would recomend nylea, and bow of nylea. Assault formation and Vigor. I am planing on using them in my deck.

Yesterday I mostly played brawl, but I did get in one game with V&G. Kept a one-lander with sol ring + top and then whiffed on the lands for the next couple of turns. I still recovered ok and managed to kill one person, but lost to a cyclonic rift and a couple of planeswalkers. I'd kind of like to kick the land count up, but also it was only one game so it's sort of a bad idea to rush to judgment.

Quote from VidarThor »

The stylus is a neat trick.

I have a Godo, Bandit Warlord deck, and I can say your equipment idea is not gonne work.

You can keep equipments that make them indestructable, untargateble and unblockable.

I would recomend nylea, and bow of nylea. Assault formation and Vigor. I am planing on using them in my deck.

bow is already in there, and is certainly among the most synergistic cards in the deck. Nylea herself is pretty unexciting imo, since she's basically a 4 mana primal rage. Assault formation I think is pretty reasonable and it was a late cut, but it's only good with gorm and it does nerf some of my equipment. Vigor is cute with gorm, maybe a little greedy but it seems potentially fun at least. From my game last night I don't think it would have been good, but that's not to say it couldn't be in other games and it is a fun idea.

This deck is totally different than godo - which I have also played, btw. For one thing, I don't get to tutor equips from the deck on etb, so I need a higher percentage to ensure I get a decent mix of buffs/protection/value, whereas godo only really needs a few equipment since your commander tutors for whichever one you need. Second, as I have 2 commanders, both of lowish cmc (plus the stylus/bow trick to keep them cheap), it's much easier to keep a commander in play to ensure I have good targets for my equipment. I don't think you can so easily generalize between different decks and assume that what doesn't work for one won't work for another.

Captain's Claws maybe? Can only make dudes if you already have one swinging but those Kor can carry swords with the best of them.

Im interested in how the tuck method to skip out on commander tax has worked out? im considering this deck and wonder if the cards are worth the slots.

I've played a couple games and honestly it hasn't come up, just didn't draw those cards and when I tutored there were usually more pressing concerns. I think bow is easy include for this deck regardless though, and stylus is cheap enough that it's probably right. Stylus doesn't let virtus trade first though.