MTG Salvation

Yet another PDH deck, and now I have all the colors covered. Is this the last one? Only the voices in my head know.



Pretty simple plot. Kill some stuff and exile it to flip your commander, then start reanimating stuff like no one's business. One thing I like about this deck is that it has a pretty decent chance among non-pauper EDH decks since the quality of your reanimation targets goes up scales with the enemy decks. In the PDH realm, it's got weaknesses against hexproof and swarm strategies, although there are a few outs available, and a few tutors for those outs.

I love mono-black, I think this deck is going to be a blast to play, just like my regular Geth EDH decks.

Holy crap that's a lot of spot removal. PDH games tend to be all about grinding out value. How are you going to keep up on cards with 39 one-for-one removal spells? What's the point of Cruel Revival without a bunch of zombies? What's the point of Scent of Nightshade at all?

P.S.: Millikin is uncommon.

Quote from Hunding Gjornersen »

Holy crap that's a lot of spot removal. PDH games tend to be all about grinding out value. How are you going to keep up on cards with 39 one-for-one removal spells? What's the point of Cruel Revival without a bunch of zombies? What's the point of Scent of Nightshade at all?

P.S.: Milikin is uncommon.

There's a lot of ways to get value here. For one thing, my commander is value incarnate. If he can keep going, it turns all my spot removal into control magics - value central. Second, I've got some other cards that can mass-wipe weenies (pestilence, evincar's justice, crypt rats, dimir house guard as a tutor for pestilence or justice), which means I just need spot removal to take out the fatties. Third, I've got some decent draw spells to recover CA. But fourth, and most importantly, because I'm running almost entirely instants for removal, I can use them as always-on retaliation to deter attacks (and other hate, such as removal against my own commander). Since most PDH decks I find to be pretty reliant on their commander to function, being able to price a commander off the table is the kind of threat that can't be ignored. And honestly, in mono-black pauper, there's not a lot of cards I want to play that AREN'T removal.

Even without a zombie target, cruel revival is almost always equivalent to flesh to dust. And there are a few zombies that make pretty excellent targets for it. Unless I had zero zombies I think I'd always run it over flesh to dust. But if I need removal and there's no zombie, I don't have any problem using it without one.

What's wrong with scent of nightshade? It's pretty easily a 2 mana -4/-4 or more. This is a control deck, it isn't a deck that's planning to vomit its hand.

Good catch on millikin, I saw manakin and got overexcited.

I just don't see how you're going to get ahead by Terroring Mulldrifters and Disfigureing Farhaven Elfs. Granted, both those plays are awesome if your general is on the battlefield, but it's going to be really hard to keep a 4/2 unmolested without any protection or even other creatures to draw out opposing removal. If nothing else consider adding a few more value creatures and card draw like Bitter Revelation and Casting of Bones.

Aside: The fact that Nameless Inversion is one of the zombies you can return to your hand with Cruel Revival is pretty sweet.

Ha, I didn't even think of that. That is sweet.

I'm not terroring mulldrifters or farhaven elves unless my commander is on the board and I can get value out of them. If he isn't, then when my opponent attacks me with a mulldrifter, I don't terror the mulldrifter, I terror whatever he holds most dear in this world (and suck up the 2 damage from the mulldrifter). Same thing if they use removal on my commander. Mutually assured destruction ftw.

Bitter rev is a maybe. Casting of bones is okay I guess, but it's a bit more of a hoop to jump though. It basically turns a sweet piece of instant-speed removal into a lame piece of sorcery speed removal. So, meh.