MTG Salvation

Eternal Witness and Reflector Mage were two of my best cards at SCG Baltimore, so I'm surprised you didn't run either.

Witness gets back Path to Exile which is huge against Eldrazi Tron, Death Shadow, and any midrange matchup. Reflector Mage also won me games against Death Shadow and normal Jund by just blinking it over and over again.

R1: 2-1 vs Jund

Voice and Reflector Mage were all-stars. Blinking Mage won me games by itself

R2: 2-1 vs Burn

G1 I combo out on T3 with Lotus Cobra. Game 2 he had a few Paths. Game 3 I kept blinking E-Witness buying back Negate to win.

R3: 0-2 vs Dredge

Drew bad in G1, Game 2 I landed Blood Moon but he Conflagrated by Mana Dorks and I kinda got locked worse than him

R4: 2-0 vs Faeries

Mainboard Mana Leaks were great, Gaddock Teeg was MVP shutting down Damnation and Cryptic Command

R5: 2-0 vs Death Shadow Jund

Reflector Mage again was amazing, and Restoration Angel led to some blowouts blinking Mage

R6: 0-2 vs 4c Death Shadow

Mull to 5 and lost G1. Game 2 he has 3 discard spells in the first 2 turns and lands a big threat and I don't draw anything

R7: 1-1-1 Draw vs Eldrazi Tron

Pithing Needle and Walking Ballista are annoying to deal with, I might want a 2nd Rec Sage in the side instead of Kataki just for this reason. Reflector Mage again was amazing here, as well as E-Witness buying back Path. Gaddock Teeg was amazing to shut down All is Dust

R8: 1-2 vs Eldrazi Tron

Game's 1 and 3 he natural trons me turn 3 so I kinda just lose. Again, Ballista and Pithing Needle are hard to beat.



I didn't love Blood Moon with Path to Exile, a little awkward. I might put a Magus of the Moon in the SB instead. The mana leaks were nice, but I don't think necessary in Game 1, but then again I didn't really play any combo decks where they are good against. Chameleon Colossus was good in neither vs DSJ, but Goyf was still a problem there.

The Gaddock Teeg in the mainboard was great, stopped some important cards like Conflagrate and helped open up a SB slot. Lotus Cobra was a removal magnet so not sure how good it is, but the fact that it died a guess saved my other creatures.

I'd probably cut the Tireless Tracker for a third Mage, get rid of the Blood Moons, then change my manabase a little(less fetches since no moons) and add 1-2 Ghost Quarter. A 4th Path or another answer in the SB for Walking Ballista would also help. Would love to play Rallier but I can't see cutting Witness as getting back Path is huge.

Was thinking of a Fire-lit Thicket in the main so I could side a Kiki-Jiki. Gives me an alternate win con against Walking Ballista and Pithing Needle. Already have Resto in the mainboard so gives me more options to play around hate.

Quote from Taeolas »

I just thought of something. The B&R Announcement went out (probably automatically) around 8AM Pacific time. Which is before the start of business at Wizards. So the announcement was made basically before they could really process the results of the two tourneys over the weekend. I wonder if they would have changed their tune had they had time to fully realize those results? Of course, the only answer now would be an emergency ban; but with the "All is Fine" announcement they just made, an emergency ban would be even worse.

did you read the article? I think the first 1 or 2 sentences says "we meet earlier this month to discuss".

So the article states "we meet earlier this month".

Does that mean they didn't take into consideration the results of both GP's this week where Saheeli Combo dominated?

If not, that seems terrible and very shortsighted.

Seems like they already made up there mind, had this article a week ago, and just printed it today with no revisions.

Agree with others that Traverse and Ancient Stirrings are better than anything that blue has. Destroys the color pie

Quote from lajube »

I've been at it since Theros, never agreed with the people saying the format is unfun. Until now. Cat combo is not fun to play against.

Why? Because playing magic is fun. Winning is fun. Losing is okay as long as you got to play magic. When your opponent goes Cat, GG, you didn't get to play magic. You had a choice:

• Play nothing and losing a long game of playing nothing;
• or play your spell and lose on the spot;
• Or they don't have it, and yay you survive a turn to go through the same mental anguish next turn.

You can go through a long game of building up advantages, carefully crafting a position, and then oops, bolt your ballista, untap, combo gg. If it was a rare event, cool. If it's every game, I want a different game.

That's the main thing. If they have 1 piece of the combo out, you literally have to hold up mana and not progress your board. If you don't progress your board they don't go for the combo and play more value creatures and you lose the long game.

Quote from Zephyr Scarlet »

Also I wouldn't put it past them to ban something arbitrarily from Modern (possibly something from Death Shadow Jund) just in order to not make it look better than their sacred cash cow.

People are saying things about JTMS getting unbanned but I feel WoTC put this new ban period in just for Standard. I agree I could see them banning or atleast unbanning something in Modern so it doesn't look like the new period was just for Standard.

Came in 2nd Place at New Jersey TCG States with the following list, 32 players so 5 rounds.

• 4 Seachrome Coast
  
• 4 Darkslick Shores
  
• 4 Temple of Deceit
  
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
  
• 4 Gemstone Mine
  
• 2 Plains
  
• 1 Dreadship Reef
  
• -----------------------------------------
  
• 4 Serum Visions
  
• 4 Sleight of Hand
  
• 4 Phyrexian Unlife
  
• 4 Angel's Grace
  
• 4 Ad Nauseam
  
• 4 Simian Spirit Guide
  
• 4 Lotus Bloom
  
• 4 Pentad Prism
  
• 3 Spoils of the Vault
  
• 3 Pact of Negation
  
• 2 Lightning Storm
  
• ------------------------------
  
• 4 Leyline of Sanctity
  
• 3 Ethereal Haze
  
• 1 Thoughtseize
  
• 1 Duress
  
• 1 Dreadship Reef
  
• 1 Bosieuju, Who Shelters All
  
• 1 Laboratory Maniac
  
• 1 Echoing Truth
  
• 1 Painful Truths
  
• 1 Slaughter Pact

Played Cheerios, Tron, Affinity, 5c Tribal Flames, and Burn in the Swiss. Affinity, Jund, then lost to Cheerios in the finals.

Some General Thoughts
- Cheerios is an unwinnable matchup, they combo faster and we don't have creature removal. Swan Song is a beating plus they bring in Leyline vs us.

- Really like the Dreadship Reef in the SB. Against Jund/Junk we take out Pentad Prism so having another mana source/ramp card is really nice.

- Ethereal Haze needs to be Darkness as there is a lot more black. Haze saved me a against Affinity as I chained 3 in a row to survive then topdecked Ad Nauseam to win.

- Painful Truths as great vs attrition matchups. I cast it T2 vs Jund off SSG to play around a discard spell.

- Cut Patricians Scorn at last second and didn't miss it. Truth/Maniac handle anything that Scorn did.

- Spoils was fine for me as it let me win some games, but other times it was just a dead card in my hand. Also a lot of games were grindy and a Teaching would have been nice. Still not sure which version is better but I'm going to try 3 Spoils/1 Teachings going forward and maybe move towards Peer.

this draft format is going to be sweet, Teachings for Teachings!

Quote from Billiondegree »

Yeah im still not about to add in shuffle effects to this deck for that exact reason of reshuffling everything you scryed

I also agree that Lab Man is necessary in the Spoils version but not in this version, because spoils can exile a win con and you want a backup in case that happens

Only 3 unlife also makes sense without spoils

I just don't understand how you play 1 Lightning Storm with no Maniac or Bauble. With all the Death Shadow running around, 1 discard effect on your Storm and you lose.

I like the Spoils version better as you still have outs if they surgical/slaughter games out your Ad Nauseam.

Comment Hidden

Quote from pops »

I liked the review.

I think you might overrate Renegade map slightly. In general it seems like improvise creatures are your top end and/or last play. Grabbing a land after is a bit of a nombo, what do you need it for now?

It's idle speculation either way, but I think blue will return to controlling nonsense rather than skies aggro, relying on another color or kaladesh cards.

Renegade Map is severely underrated IMO. It gives you an artifact which matters, allows you to splash or just fix your mana, plus it turns on revolt.

Revolt is a very strong mechanic and having a 1-mana card that enables it, fixes mana, and is an artifact is very important IMO.

I wasn't saying that the delve(r) build is more similar to Junk/Jund, I was talking about the builds with 0 Delvers and snapcasters in their place.