MTG Salvation

Hello to the thread.

I play a version of this deck on occasion when the mood strikes me, I've always had fun with it.

Wanted to get your thoughts on maybe running a single copy in the MB of Oketra the True? Just a win-more card? Needs to be run with 4 Lingering Souls? Save her for the SB against a board wipe heavy Meta? Slide in a copy of Rogue's Passage for some shenanigans? Or just leave it in the binder.

It doesn't seem to fit the deck imho, it can work in B/W Tokens but I'm not sure that even that deck wants this creature as PW's are much more resilient.

Rogue's Passage seems like a rather odd choice as it is so expensive to activate (and in my version I don't run any utility lands at all).

It would probably help if you'd posted your list.

They were just musings. Imagining a 12 damage attack with Oketra Turn 4 or 5. Something indestructible to sweep up Goyfs or Death's Shadows could be decent. Probably giving her Trample would be a better tactic than unblockable. Again, just theorycrafting here. I'll post up my list soon. Its pretty standard fare with a couple of small changes thrown in.

So this is the list that I run and so far I have been very happy with this list.

So is God-Pharaoh's Faithful our new 1-drop (it is better than Lagonna-Band Trailblazer) ?
I'm not sure if it is better than Disowned Ancestor though.

You beat me to it. And yes, better than LBT. Ancestor could be a life gain trigger for Faithful though.

Better than Lagonna-Band Trailblazer for sure. Better than Ancestor, not so sure. Ancestor can get bigger and is a mana sink late game during board stalls. With the versions that run early hand disruption and Abrupt Decay, Faithful will provide some life gain but that's about it.

Quote from Quantuman69 »

Has anyone else tried using Behind The Scenes? I have this card as a two of in my deck and honestly, this card is broken. It allows me to find ways around decks that go wide and chump you.I am in love with this card and when mixed with tower defense, it just wins games.

This seems like interesting tech for sure. This deck tends to kill quick when it connects and I've had many games that would be over if I could just swing without getting chump blocked. Worth some testing I think

I have done some testing and honestly, I really like this card. Having one on the battlefield is never bad and has won me more games than just sitting dead in my hand. Especially decks like Elves where they swarm, being able to just swing through the line is amazing.

The deck resurfaced for a league - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShRgokx8eI
Still looks decent though I'd prefer more interaction over Chord and Noble.

Lingering Souls + Tower Defense is the strongest trick in this deck so I'd want the full playset of souls.

Might also be a good time for Loxodon Smiter with countermagic being more prevalent and discard being everywhere as well.
Anafenza is probably the card to cut.

Hey, thanks for sharing I'll check out that link.

This may be a reason to try splashing blue. Low cmc, decent size butt, makes all our creatures unblockable which can just come down and we win. 4 colors are a pain but with Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch it should be doable. Maybe a 1-2 of.

Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive

It is a similar effect to Behind the Scenes which doesn't require a blue splash.

I am not sure that adding anoher "combo piece" (besides Tower Defense, Assault Formation and Doran) is really necessary over more interaction in the maindeck.

Agreed. Behind the Scenes is better if you want this angle. I just forgot about that card when I posted. Going to be taking this deck to FNM tonight. Will report back with the list and results.

Hello, first time in Doran since a very, very long time. With some recent reprintings and me picking up random cards here and there I've decided to try something new. I could not decide the direction I wanted to go but with the advent of Dominaria I thought I'd give a bride approach a shot My FNM has a bigger event for last friday of the month and what better way to test.

The main goal is testing and maximizing tetsuko umezawa, fugitive. For that I stripped most things power 2 or more. Obviously I can't take out everything, as well the card is a 2 of and with a noble I want to still be able to swing unblockable. Having no real attackers is a problem I understand especially with no removal. I had just picked upEnsnaring bridge unrelatedly and figure I'll put them to use. The deck has protection, redundancy, lifegain and just oops I win scenarios but speed is not it's thing I guess that's a tree's life for ya.

I fully expect this to not be the best Doran build and I'm sure even this is far from optimal. It was hard packing the numbers for Coco and still supporting other noncreature things. I could see cutting things like coursers/caryatid for more 1 drop 0/4s and just go aggressive, dump your hand and hope for bridge and formation. Bridges could also just be +1 tetsuko, +1 chord of calling, +1 tracker? scooze? removal?



so far I have very little real world testing but quite a bit in gold fishing testing combo speed, mana base and overall feel. Mana feels pretty solid, and with 8 ways to find doran plus the 3 formations that feels like enough. It's always hard to find the happy medium here as you NEED the effect or this style deck just stands there. SB could use some work I'm sure. I'm hoping these pieces will be enough for a wide open field, tron seems mega hard as is blood moon or through the breach decks but bridge may help vs those. I don't own horizon canopy so in the meantime, FoR is just a hedge but I could see them being something else. Gavony is an alt wincon as bad as that sounds. I'm not sure this deck can win ever though if Doran/formation are removed. I have thought long and hard going a more value Doran build but this version is far more fun to play. We shall see. It's possible this will either do real well or just be all the wrong kinds of clunky.

FNM report: I wasn't able to pickup the bridges beforehand and was left with only 1 and 2 random cards.

r1: UW control.
Absolute and total domination. I have no idea how this version of the deck can ever realistically beat UW control. I wished I had lingering souls.
0-1

r2: Bogles
Absolute and total domination in my favor this time. Turns out they can't beat bridge and also have a hard time vs 4x spellskites. lol
1-1

r3: hollow one
These were close games but came down to fliers. I couldn't do anything to stop the phoenix and lingering souls. Wish I had either souls or more bridges. This match feels very beatable, even pretty favorable depending.
1-2

r4: elves
games 1 and 2 were slaughters. g2 he slaughtered me after I took a sketchy mana hand and got punished. g1 I curved out and it was glorious. g3 I just kept ahead of curve and out paced him. Facing down multiple 4/4s is hard for elves turns out.
2-2

r5: bant company
this was a value based coco list with quellers, knights and reflector mages, finks, etc. Pretty standard but just beat down and rely on coco. This was a match I wish I had more bridges.
3-2

r6: jund
we played a total of 5 games (2 pre, 3 post) I lost 4 of the 5 pretty handily too might I add. This match I wish I had souls and more bridges. Bridges are a reliability but he can't have removal for everything. This deck illustrates the problem playing a synergy based combo deck. Jund just has too much disruption and removal.

Thoughts: I made plenty of mistakes and missed a LOT of triggers having never played these cards before. I'm certainnly going to give this another run. I'm not sure where to go exactly from here. I want to try maxing bridges and taking this combo synergy deck to the max. I want lingering souls in the board. I need things like either pithing needle and or revoker. I also probably just need paths somewhere in the 75. Bridge takes care of most things but I got buried by cards like tracker and bob I just had no way of dealing with. Maybe I just need something dumb like fairgrounds warden. I'm debating cutting coco but the card was good for me. Feels hard/bad to do so but maybe it's worth it for something like souls. There's debate for vial too for control but I dunno about that.

I think there's certainly something here although it will never be t1 most likely. bridge + doran + tetsuko was very strong when it did happen.

Played side events with Doran.

Note: I made some changes after the matches. There were two Stony Silences but went down to 1 and changed it up to add Pithing Needles.



First event:

2-0 5c Death Shadow

G1
T1: Birds. Bird dies on his turn to Push.
T2: Kitesail take his LoTV. See he has Goyf, Temur Battlerage, LoTV, lands. He plays Goyf
T3: Kitesail take his Temur Battlerage. Take a hit from his Goyf.
T4: Drop Assault Formation. He's at 14. Swing two freebooters he goes to write down 4 damage and I cast Tower Defense. 14 damage.

G2
T1: Birds. Bird lives.
T2: Freebooter. Take Abrupt Decay since it's his only removal. He gets himself to 12 and plays Death Shadow
T3: Doran. He takes his turn and drops 2 more Death Shadows.
T4: Top deck my third land. Play Ensnaring Bridge. Opponent sinks back in his chair and shakes his head.
T5-8: Freebooter just hits for 2 until he's dead

Note for this match: Freebooter was nuts. Almost won this match by itself.

2-1 Elves

G1
T1: Harbinger go get land. Opp plays mana dork
T2: Harbinder go get Doran. Opponent makes Commander comment about Doran and plays visionary.
T3: Doran. Swing 6.
T4: Opponent scoops to the fast start.

G2
Don't remember but it ended in me taking just enough damage from swings and a Shaman post combat.

G3
Let him build up his board while getting in damage. Slaughter the Strong his board away just enough to slow him down. He puts himself to 1 life digging with Horizon Canapy. I swing in with Freebooter for win.

1-2 Tron

Note: Don't forget your 2 sideboard Stony Silences in your hotel room. It may cost you the match.

G1
Fast start. T2 Goyf into Doran T3 with T4 Tower Defense.

G2 - Don't see my Stony Silences in the side. WTF
I get him dead on board turn 4. He top decks O'stone into Ulamog next turn.

G3
Turn 1: Birds.
Turn 2: I give him a Goyf to exile if he has tron T3 instead of playing Doran. No Karn from him T3: Durdles and passes.
Turn 3: Doran. Swing in with Goyf. He plays Karn this time and exiles Doran.
Turn 4: Cast Freebooter. See Ulamog and enough mana to cast it next turn. FML. Kill Karn with Goyf. Plays Ulamog and exiles Freebooter and Goyf. EOT Path Ulamog.
Turn 5: Deploy Harbinger grab third Doran and play second Doran. He top decks his second Ulamog. GG as I have no paths in hand and no more gas.


Some key takeaways. 4 Freebooters are a must in this deck. Stripping win conditions and removal is absolutely devastating in this deck with its fast starts. Also Slaughter the Strong is nuts in our deck

Why Freebooter over some traditional discard ?
Being 1 vs 2-mana and not giving back the card seems better tempo-wise.

I think it dilutes the deck having a bunch of discard spells. You want bodies swinging with this deck. These are in the air which makes them even more dangerous. I tried the discard plan a while back and I didn't like T1 having to choose between Inquisition/Thoughtseize and Birds of Paradise/Treefolk Harbinger. Topdecking those mid-late game when you are trying to find more gas was also terrible. If you can land a Spellskite, you are not always giving the card back.

Well, we have another Doran effect. This gives us a reason to try blue. Not thrilled about going 4 colors. Worth testing at least.



Wall of Denial anyone? 8/8 flying shround sounds pretty tasty.

It is probably a different deck altogether as it requires creatures with Defender which this deck has actively avoided playing so far.
Probably something like this deck - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/774978-coco-walls

I agree, it does feel like a different deck. Slower but access to card draw which could make up for it.

Here's an attempt on the arcades build. honestly it needs works as it's durdly and do nothing but I think there may be something here. Without doran tho it feels weird. Probably needs either more interaction or another kill engine. Having a secondary beatdown plan is pretty sweet and legitimate.

As stated it seems it needs a different build.

Losing Murmuring Bosk feels bad and is something I don't have interest in.

@thopterspine

Do you think Militia Bugler is worth testing? It grabs pretty much everything in the deck and might be good in 1-2 copies. I'm not sure what I'd cut for it and whether or not it fits with the overall game plan though