MTG Salvation

Another take & re-work on a MLD (mass land destruction) mono-red brew. The main idea is to float a bunch of mana, wipe out all the lands, then land a game-ending threat (commander or walker). This is best done with other colors, for example Mogis, God of Slaughter can come out early and is resilient to most removal effects, and can be a long-term win-con. Limiting to mono-red is just for my enjoyment.

The deck is a little old but has been benched for a few months. Originally it was my old Rorix Bladewing deck retuned to be MLD, since the deck ran rituals & fast mana to rush out a 4-turn clock in the air. More recently I've been running this with Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms for horse-related laughs. But now the new Drakuseth, Maw of Flames is being tested. A common(ish) issue for this strategy is having the commander (or win-con) answered after blowing up the lands, and Drakuseth is a pseudo-answer to creature ramp and also the annoying Baleful Strix that may ruin our plan. She gives the same clock speed as rorix (7-power 3 hit instead of 6-haste 4-hit), and that artwork is sweeeeeeeeeet.

Next to the dragon we have a pile of walkers that will hopefully get us further than an opponent while possibly developing into their own win-condition post MLD effect. Again this is where other colors make this strategy much better, where something as simple as Liliana of the Dark Realms can take over a game if everyones' lands+creatures are wiped. They do although tend to be the inevitable win-con as I can often times cast them before a big land-wipe spell.




Converted Manacost;

You can playtest the deck here.

Things I've been working on / playing with / testing in this deck;

There is no ramp! Since the deck does want to destroy all permanents, relying on artifact ramp is one option, but this build we are running without. There is also the random chance of null rod showing up in a sol ring opening hand, which is always funny. Since we are limited in the speed of which we can resolve wipe+win-con, we have a pile of semi-hateful cheap cards that we want to sparingly play out early to annoy & slow the opponents while we make land-fall up to our combo, all while trying to kill off as many creatures as possible.

This deck fails in many ways. The main way it fails is when we see too many overly-focused hate cards that are irrelevant to the game (Pyroblast against non-blue opponents for example)). This although is what happens when we decide to stick to mono-red and not play fast-mana, card draw, or tutors. The second way it fails is when an opponent finds an answer to our win-con and recovers faster than we can manage. This nearly king-makes the winner of the game, and is where people tend to complain about the strategy. The third most common way this deck fails is when it runs in to too many redundant hate cards (like too many artifact destruction spells when there isn't anything to blow up), or by tax effects that are irrelevant at the time. This could be fixed if I squeeze in a faithless looting package.

There are some questionable cards I'm still running. Meekstone tends to be answered long before I'm ready to push out my commander, but if I don't have a walker available post-wipe then I may lock myself. Much like winter orb it is a card that tends to sit in-hand until the most opportune moment.

The best cards to see in the deck are mana geyser (typically accelerates our game-plan to turn-5), and decree of annihilation (exile all hands + 'yards is very relevant).

Cards I'm considering adding/testing are Flashfires, god-pharaoh's statue, Phyrexian Revoker, Omen Machine, Rampaging Ferocidon, and Trinisphere. Since I last ran Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms here, wildfire and destructive force were not in the deck, but they may return.




Disclaimer for those who dislike MLD - Please make sure you're not confusing MLD as a strategy vs MLD from someone who just likes to troll games. There is a difference from someone trying to destroy your resources while putting out a win-con vs someone that wants to drag a game on for a few hours and plays Shahrazad style crap. The goal of this deck is to win, and it can do so by removing your resources.

I see another person has fallen into the love-to-be-hated wiles of MLD. I, too, run a MLD angel stax deck (yes, it is mono red angel stax). I do run several walkers as well, but I am aiming slightly differently. Those differences are worthwhile enough to be noted here I think.

My strategy is simple: I blow up all creatures, all lands, and all artifacts I don't control. The reasoning is that I need my mana rocks to keep up, as my general is 8 mana. Hence, I don't run obliterate or jokulhaups. If I ran more walkers, I might, but I need to keep my artifacts around.

I think you need a few more threats. Cards that would help and might potentially survive your stone-age spells (as in, you blow everyone else back to the stone age):

• greater gargadon
  
• thunderblust
  
• wurmcoil engine
  
• hellkite tyrant

(well, doesn't necessarily survive your own stone age removal, but borrowing everyone else's nice mana rocks sort of fits under the "blow up artifacts I don't control" plan.
vicious shadows (expensive threat, but you are blowing up all creatures and lands and this is bound to take maximum advantage of that)
sarkhan the masterless (turns the walkers into quick game ending threats...nothing to sneeze at)

I really don't see why you're running null rod in a red deck. I see a ton of interaction for artifacts in your list already, so why bother?

Good artifact recursion seems to be king. I think goblin welder, goblin engineer (if you have other options to fetch artifacts out of the graveyard), daretti, scrap savant, trading post, and maybe hoarding dragon all should be considered. I know there is some dis-synergy, but there are many faster decks than you and the ability to recur some threats can't be ignored because they will remove yours for sure.