MTG Salvation

Hello again!

I'm bringing one of my favourite archetypes to PDH this time with Tatyova. The ability to draw tons of cards while ramping means that we have a very consistent draw engine that can easily be recast when killed. She also keeps our life total high.

The end game looks like milling the opponents and keeping ourselves from milling out with cards like Feldon's Cane and Battlefield Scrounger. The Cane is one-use only, but shuffling a graveyard full of action into the deck means we're probably going to win. Scrounger is excellent in multiplayer since we can use his ability during every turn, so he's easily capable of retuning 12-16 cards per turn cycle, all the while stacking our deck in whatever order we want.

Winning with Jace's Erasure is probably going to be the most common way of winning. In the deep late-game, having a large hand size with Library of Leng or Thought Vessel can be used to combo with Tolarian Winds and Whirlpool Rider to mill an opponent equal to the cards in your hand, then doing it over and over again with Ghostly Flicker and Mnemonic Wall combos.

I'm running a lot of non-basics because they combo well with Tatyova to draw extra cards. I think I should be playing more basics for fetching, though.

I'm running a large amount of disruption and wanted to maximize the amount of exile-removal and graveyard hate I could run. I'm not going to play Relic of Progenitus for obvious reasons. If ever I play against non-Pauper decks, Eldrazi titans are an issue, so exile removal and counters help deal with that.

I wanted to "go big" with my draw spells, foregoing the usual cantrips and smaller, more efficient draw spells like Think Twice. Cards like Keep Watch and Rush of Knowledge have a much higher upside, even if there are scenarios where these cards do nothing.

I think maybe going up to 40 lands might be good.

I'm tinkering about a deck like this myself, but relaying only on Jace's Erasure seems very fragile to me. I've thought about going infinite with Ghostly Flicker package, adding some mix of Merrow Witsniper, Sage's Row Denizen and Homarid Explorer. Thoughts?

Have you considered Dreamscape artist (which seems nuts with your commander)? I would likely also add capsize, because you likely got a big advantage on mana and capsize turns that into a win, by removing their lands. Finally, I would add a few counterspells, to stop things that would deal direct damage and Peregrine Drake for the infinite combo. Btw. the deck can also kill with the draw spells such as Deep Analysis or Compulsive research (if you go infinite, have lost the erasure and have a few counterspells, doing this should be safe enough I think, ecspecially if you blew up all their lands - capsize could also remove any other problem cards if you ran that).
I might also add reap and sow (fetching Simic Growth Chamber is nice) and perhaps some of the creatures that puts lands into play from hand if I was you.

Also, since you made the deck, we got Secrets of the Golden City and Salvager of Secrets.

Quote from Reaper9889 »

Have you considered Dreamscape artist (which seems nuts with your commander)? I would likely also add capsize, because you likely got a big advantage on mana and capsize turns that into a win, by removing their lands. Finally, I would add a few counterspells, to stop things that would deal direct damage and Peregrine Drake for the infinite combo. Btw. the deck can also kill with the draw spells such as Deep Analysis or Compulsive research (if you go infinite, have lost the erasure and have a few counterspells, doing this should be safe enough I think, ecspecially if you blew up all their lands - capsize could also remove any other problem cards if you ran that).
I might also add reap and sow (fetching Simic Growth Chamber is nice) and perhaps some of the creatures that puts lands into play from hand if I was you.

Also, since you made the deck, we got Secrets of the Golden City and Salvager of Secrets.

Thanks for the comment!

I had Dreamscape Artist in the original build of the deck and it was among the first to be cut. It was just way too slow and fragile. It's a 5 mana investment plus a discard and a sacrifice JUST to use the ability once. With more activations the card gets better, but it's just too inefficient.

Capsize is already in the deck. It's hard to play Blue PDH and not include this card!

What do you mean by adding Counterspells? I'm currently playing 5 counters. What others would you recommend? What should I cut for more countermagic?

Reap and Sow was also eventually cut from the deck just to make space, but I certainly like the card. Mwonvuli Acid-Moss has been generally better.

Salvager of Secrets is definitely replacing Scrivener. Only getting back instants has been frustrating.

Quote from rogerandover »

I'm tinkering about a deck like this myself, but relaying only on Jace's Erasure seems very fragile to me. I've thought about going infinite with Ghostly Flicker package, adding some mix of Merrow Witsniper, Sage's Row Denizen and Homarid Explorer. Thoughts?

Erasure has been pretty good, particularly relying on Tolarian Winds and Whirlpool Rider to combo out on a turn. I killed someone from 60-something cards by blinking Rider a few times with my hand of almost 20 cards.

I really like the idea of Sage's Row Denizen and Homarid Explorer, though! These cards will fit very organically in the deck. Very great idea!

Quote from Upkeep »

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Capsize is already in the deck. It's hard to play Blue PDH and not include this card!

What do you mean by adding Counterspells? I'm currently playing 5 counters. What others would you recommend? What should I cut for more countermagic?

I am not sure how I overlooked the bounce and counter part of the deck list :/

Btw. are you sure that it is better to remove Scrivener than something else? It seems to me that it likely is not the weakest card in the deck.

I for one will skip building Zada and Tatyova (at least on paper for now) but here are some more suggestions:
- Opal Palace, Ash Barrens, Path of Ancestry all the way.
- Replace Scrivener with Vedalken AEthermage. You will keep having 3 creatures searching instants and sorceries.
- Spore Frog looks meh compared to other fogs because it's not reusable and can be killed in your end step and you don't have access to reanimate (only Reclaim and Pulse of Murasa helps, maybe the latter justifies the frog).
- Explore looks subpar on paper when you talk ramp (oh but it has sinergy with your commander, never mind). Maybe Search for Tomorrow is a better option than some other.
- Traumatic Visions is cool too, can be a counter on late game.
- Secrets of the Golden City > Compulsive Research.
- If you go infinite, you might add Brain Freeze as a wincon. Tutorable with Muddle the Mixture. Merchant Scroll?
- Drift of Phantasms is relevant for you to fetch a blink engine or Capsize. Did I say Merchant Scroll?
- Is Elven Cache more than an OK option?

Quote from Upkeep »

Erasure has been pretty good, particularly relying on Tolarian Winds and Whirlpool Rider to combo out on a turn. I killed someone from 60-something cards by blinking Rider a few times with my hand of almost 20 cards.

I really like the idea of Sage's Row Denizen and Homarid Explorer, though! These cards will fit very organically in the deck. Very great idea!

You think Homarid Explorer would be better the Merrow Witsniper? I mean, they kinda do the same thing. I need to assemble the combo anyways, and since the Witsniper only cost 1 I would prefer that over the Homarid.

As for Scrivener, I think I'll be packing all of the recur-creatures, though I like Alexandre's idea of Vedalken Aethermage since it can also fetch another part of my wincon, Sage's Row Denizen.

Spore Frog is nice since it acts as a rattlesnake. It will hopefully derail attacks elsewhere and thus be a Fog that lasts longer