MTG Salvation

What do you guys think about leatherback baloth? It pumps x1 very well and its really undercosted beater. Is it better to just run burning tree shaman for the utility?

I have always wanted to play scythe tiger in a deck. Its insanely all in, but it could be good here. t1: x1, t2: BTE>tiger, Devil. Your x1 is now a 4/4 and you have 9 or 13 power on the board. It feels like the deck does want more green 1 drops to effectively make use of BTE.

What do you guys think of an AEther Vial build?



I really like the synergy with vial.

I thought about Vial and I suppose I could give it a try. The only downside I see is that Vial will keep you from swinging with Guide t1 and your 3/3 experiment t2. Plus Bte pushes out creatures enough that it may not be needed. Although that t1 delay might be worth while, although you still dont want to see Vial late game.

Lantern I realy like the Naya list you built up, looks solid. An the fact that just about every creature doges Pycroclasm is a big deal.

Quote from zombie_sky_diver

I thought about Vial and I suppose I could give it a try. The only downside I see is that Vial will keep you from swinging with Guide t1 and your 3/3 experiment t2. Plus Bte pushes out creatures enough that it may not be needed. Although that t1 delay might be worth while, although you still dont want to see Vial late game.

Lantern I realy like the Naya list you built up, looks solid. An the fact that just about every creature doges Pycroclasm is a big deal.

thanks. only update is I switched the helix and boros currently. Most white builds online are running helix and boros, but so far boros charms been a bit better for me. Testing testing.


And yeah. With scapeshift and Tron all trying to do that recently, its nice.

Vial is an interesting idea but I fear it slows down the deck by a turn or two while also giving you worse top decks. It's good in other decks because it can also be a major combat trick (Merfolk lords/cursecatcher, flicker + mangara, etc). Here it can maybe give you a blocker and grow experiment one, which I suppose is a reasonable impact. It does mean you aren't playing a one-drop. Also it's easy enough to empty your hand by t3/4 so vial becomes much less useful late game (unlike in Merfolk which could hold up counters).

Ive been testing this with pretty good success, but then again its just living end, tron, B/W aggro (i dont even know). Im at work so i dont have my list, but Ive been using Mogg Warmarshal along with Jund Hackblade to produce enough goblin density in the deck to use goblin grenade. What does everyone think? So far it seems pretty consistant, and goblin grenade doesnt get stranded in the hand too often.Only issue I see is that experiment one does not evolve off of the warmarshal.

Quote from BigDaddySmugCat

Ive been testing this with pretty good success, but then again its just living end, tron, B/W aggro (i dont even know). Im at work so i dont have my list, but Ive been using Mogg Warmarshal along with Jund Hackblade to produce enough goblin density in the deck to use goblin grenade. What does everyone think? So far it seems pretty consistant, and goblin grenade doesnt get stranded in the hand too often.Only issue I see is that experiment one does not evolve off of the warmarshal.

Where do they fit in? I think you're talking about a completely different build..War Marshal really has no business being in the deck, Hackblade I feel just isn't good enough considering the only multicolored creature you have is Burning Tree (other than hackblade)..so you're playing 8 cards to make 4 be still fairly lackluster. What happens when you get stuck with a grenade or 2 in hand with no goblins? There's a goblin list that's been getting popular and I've played it on MTGO and it's pretty good...that's where grenade shines.

I've been doing some reading about the zoo primer the last few months, accompanying changes (btw Lantern, awesome threads/primers), and now I'm on the Gruul Zoo, while for now not playing modern on paper for competitively (and more standard), I came to do a Gruul Zoo list with some few changes (dunno if this is the exactly thread, because many choices are based on my lack of vital cards like Tarmogoyf, and still trying to get fetches), one of them, which I felt was interesting was Magma Jet, it's usable in sinergy with BTE (while not maybe the smartest option to use with it) and is good for Domri draw creature thing, what's your opinion?

If Jund Hackblade is where you want to be might I suggest scab-clan-mauler as another way to pump it.

Quote from Wildeheiland

I've been doing some reading about the zoo primer the last few months, accompanying changes (btw Lantern, awesome threads/primers), and now I'm on the Gruul Zoo, while for now not playing modern on paper for competitively (and more standard), I came to do a Gruul Zoo list with some few changes (dunno if this is the exactly thread, because many choices are based on my lack of vital cards like Tarmogoyf, and still trying to get fetches), one of them, which I felt was interesting was Magma Jet, it's usable in sinergy with BTE (while not maybe the smartest option to use with it) and is good for Domri draw creature thing, what's your opinion?

Well theres the budget thread if you need to use it, where you can talk about the budget changes. But as far as burn goes, I think searing blaze is a better option, but jet does work nicely with domri

I didn't like searing blaze. Not being able to hit it off BTE kinda sucks and with such a low land count hitting landfall for it is not always easy.

Quote from Lantern

Well theres the budget thread if you need to use it, where you can talk about the budget changes. But as far as burn goes, I think searing blaze is a better option, but jet does work nicely with domri

Yea blaze is playing horribly with BTE for me as well. I would much rather just play jet in that spot, Im probably going to test it.

Quote from BigDaddySmugCat

Ive been testing this with pretty good success, but then again its just living end, tron, B/W aggro (i dont even know). Im at work so i dont have my list, but Ive been using Mogg Warmarshal along with Jund Hackblade to produce enough goblin density in the deck to use goblin grenade. What does everyone think? So far it seems pretty consistant, and goblin grenade doesnt get stranded in the hand too often.Only issue I see is that experiment one does not evolve off of the warmarshal.

You could try building a deck kinda like the old Extended deck Dirty Kitty using Fecundity.

Lantern's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Main Deck 60 cards 4 Copperline Gorge 1 Forest 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Mountain 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Stomping Ground 19 lands 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Experiment One 4 Flinthoof Boar 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager 4 Goblin Guide 4 Kird Ape 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Vexing Devil 32 creatures	2 Dismember 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Searing Blaze 1 Tarfire 9 other spells	Sideboard 2 Burning-Tree Shaman 2 Deglamer 2 Faerie Macabre 3 Flame Slash 3 Molten Rain 1 Thrun, the Last Troll 2 Torpor Orb

Lantern's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Main Deck 60 cards 4 Copperline Gorge 1 Forest 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Mountain 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Stomping Ground 19 lands 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Experiment One 4 Flinthoof Boar 4 Ghor-Clan Rampager 4 Goblin Guide 4 Kird Ape 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Vexing Devil 32 creatures	2 Dismember 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Searing Blaze 1 Tarfire 9 other spells	Sideboard 2 Burning-Tree Shaman 2 Deglamer 2 Faerie Macabre 3 Flame Slash 3 Molten Rain 1 Thrun, the Last Troll 2 Torpor Orb

I already did for testing. Still haven't finished yet.

Quote from Alkibiades

What do you guys think of adding 2/3 copies of Domri Rade?

Not sure about mainboard, but he was pretty awesome in my sideboard.
He did some amazing work against hatebears and soul sisters. He is good against any creature based deck where your guys are larger than theirs. He is also good against control decks relying on lots of removal, like UWR.

Lantern's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Main Deck 60 cards 4 Arid Mesa 4 Copperline Gorge 1 Forest 3 Mountain 4 Stomping Ground 4 Verdant Catacombs 20 lands 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Experiment One 4 Flinthoof Boar 3 Ghor-Clan Rampager 4 Goblin Guide 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Vexing Devil 27 creatures	3 Dismember 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Rancor 2 Seal of Fire 13 other spells	Sideboard 2 Blood Moon 1 Grim Lavamancer 4 Molten Rain 2 Pyroclasm 1 Seal of Fire 2 Sulfur Elemental 3 Vines of Vastwood

Looks like thats it for PTQ season. Guess well have to invent things ourselves...

Didnt do so hot last fmn. I ran a bad version of zoo, with a really bad sideboard against bad matches. Tron and Junk with big blockers and lots of lifegain. One of the games I could have won if I went first, but thats the way the cookie crumbles. Bad luck and also bad matches :P. Not complaining, cant be on top all the time. my new list (after this fmn) currently looks like:

Lantern's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Arid Mesa 3 Scalding Tarn 2 Verdant Catacomb 2 Mountain 1 Forest 2 Temple Garden 1 Sacrad Foundry 3 Stomping Ground 4 Kird Ape 3 Vexing Devil 4 Loam Lion 4 Experiment One 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Flinthoof Boar 3 Ghor-Clan Rampager	2 Domri Rade 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Boros Charm 2 Path to Exile 2 Rancor Side: 1 Path to Exile 2 Blood Moon 1 Vines of Vastwood 2 Aven Mindcensor 3 Volcanic Fallout 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Stony Silance 2 Burning-Tree Shaman 2 Tormod's Crypt

Winning lists:

Did some testing the other day, here's my Gruul zoo (white splash):



I didn't do much Sideboarding, just took some notes on what i wanted against certain MUs. Gruul Charm seems important against anybody with Lingering Souls. I smashed Tron pretty handily and wanted more Paths and probably Deglamer against them. I also could see using Shattering Blow instead. MonoU Tron, if they're able to tutor up Wurmcoil with Treasure Mage and play it has the capacity to just do it again.

I really liked Loxodon Smiter. He's fat. He's immune to Lightning Bolt, just like Goyf and i feel like the more spot removal that doesn't work well against this deck the better.

Domri seems really good against Lingering Souls decks, too. Using his -2 against a spirit token doesn't seem nearly as bad as wasting a bolt or helix or path on it. I need to pick up another copy and i'll likely try him out.

The 3x Goyf is because i only have 3. (Long story short when MM was announced i traded one for some Legacy Staples as a long term investment. It may or may not pan out in my favor in the long run). But, I never felt like i needed the fourth. At some points (if you'll notice my burn suite) he isn't bigger than Flinthoof Boar. Against certain decks though, he's just massive. I think if i were to do more testing i'd want the fourth but, right now i don't feel like it's a necessity.

Depending on your metagame, I'd recommend gruul charm in the sideboard to fight lingering souls decks. There are two junk midrange decks that I play against a lot, and it does a lot for helping to get damage in.