MTG Salvation

Alright guys, I took a bit of a hiatus, but now with Born of the Gods out, it's time to take a look at some new ideas and options! Not only have pro decks started running Archangel, but I was extremely excited when I watched the recent SCG Deck Tech with BBD and he essentially took bits and pieces of my deck iterations and combined them -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtJ4bpkmNkQ

Aside from the BotG cards, I've run every single card in the maindeck and sideboard except for Memory Adept (though I have a copy). This was a very timely video because I was trying to decide whether to go more mono-white or go midrange with more blue. I really like the direction of BBD's deck because it plays all of my favorite cards and has the card draw/late game that's needed against control and mono-black, which were my 2 problem matchups. Obviously, the problem is getting 3 Brimaz, but I ended up getting very lucky last night. I played a Fat Pack sealed event, pulled a Brimaz, traded for a 2nd one, then finished 2nd in the event and pulled a 3rd Brimaz in one of the 12 boosters I got from the prize-out. I was also able to trade for an Eiphara and a Temple of Enlightenment, so it was a great night for my Standard deck build.

Anyways, I have made a few small tweaks to the deck. I'm only running 2 Elspeth and 2 Sphinx's Revelations and 26 lands instead of 27. The cards I've replaced them with are 2x Boros Reckoner (devotion...thinking about maybe 2 Banisher Priest in this slot as well), 1x Aetherling, 1x Angel of Serenity (because....I like them! haha). My sideboard is similar to his, but a few experimental pieces like Elixir of Immortality (I know a few local people are going to try to run mill decks) and Fiendslayer Paladin. So currently my deck looks like this:



It' will take a while before I really get the sideboard narrowed down; I haven't gotten to test anything yet, so I'll keep you guys updated. I also might try Banisher Priest instead of Boros Reckoner; haven't decided yet. Feel free to share your thoughts!

EDIT: Decided on Banisher Priest instead of Reckoner mainboard and Celestial Flare instead of Fiendslayer in the sideboard. Need to play into the inevitability of the deck.

Spear could certainly be good, it just comes down to what I'd be willing to take out to make room for it. Just out of curiosity, how feasible and worthwhile would it be to simply throw in 4 Godless Shrines (and maybe a Temple or two) so I can run Blood Baron or maybe also Sin Collector (just 1-2 of each) without taking out the blue splash?

I like the proposed changes (though taking out one of my beloved Archangels always hurts hahaha) because it barely touches the late game ability of the deck while bolstering the early game quite a bit. The only cards I don't have on me are Skyjek and Militant. I think I would also prefer Militant because the 2 damage puts pressure on much quicker than Familiar's 1. These changes would also allow me to make my deck super aggro for going up against Control. Thanks for the tips, I'll see if I can try them out on Friday.

It is worthy to note that I have managed to get my hands on a couple of Sin Collectors (including a promo version). If I come across a Blood Baron or two, I may attempt to do a black splash version.

Mono Black with its plethora of removal seems to be the bane of my deck's existence. However, with Banisher Priest and Fiendslayer Paladin in place of Verdict and Frontline Medic (and taking out 1 Blind Obedience for the 4th Priest), the couple of games I've gotten to play against Mono Black felt a lot better, though it's certainly not a big enough sample size to get a good feel of. The hand disruption hurts a lot, which is why I've thought about Divination to get a little bit back; I even saw a few pro decks using it at SCG over the weekend.

Control is a tough matchup as well, but I feel like I have the tools to take it down. I just haven't quite figured out the right recipe yet.

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=547195

I've been running white devotion for a while, splashing blue for Detention Sphere and Supreme Verdict where needed. It has weaknesses against the most common tier 1 decks, however, like Mono Black and Esper. Still working on a setup for those matchups. Any other matchup seems favorable from what I've seen; mono red seems to be a very close matchup, as every game I've had against it has come down to the wire. The lifegain vs burn race is intense and a lot of fun. Check page 4 for my latest decklist. Path of Bravery was in my deck for a while, but deemed too slow. Same for Spear, but I think that's to a lesser extent as it doesn't rely on anything else to be fully effective (since Path is really meant to be played with Archangel).

Went 6-1 Monday night with the Supreme Verdict version of the deck (seems to just be perfect for the decks I face there). Only difference is that I took out 1 Reckoner for 1 Brave the Elements. I really like having the extra Brave since it is so versatile in so many situations. I think I have my sideboard figured out for when I play at FNM where the meta seems quite different.


Note: Banisher Priest may be mainboarded depending on where I play and what I expect to face off against

Still unsure about the last 2-of spot in my sideboard. It's looking like either Divination for card draw after mono black rips my hand apart, or Hundred Handed One for more threat density in that matchup. I also pulled a 3rd Heliod the other night and thought about finding a spot for him, but I think I'm going to stick with 2. Any thoughts?

I ended up going 3-1 at FNM last night. Sadly, I wasn't able to play against any top tier decks, but it seems that the Banisher Priest setup is better against non-aggro decks while Verdict needs to be sideboarded in against aggro decks. The 1-for-1 removal simply can't hold off the onslaught while I also try to build board presence. But that's fine since my deck has always been great against aggro, so I do feel like I've taken a step in the right direction against non-aggro decks.

That is a really neat idea and could be fun when Frontline Medic is activated haha. However, I don't think I have any space in my deck for a Legendary 3 drop. Might try a 1-of just for fun sometime though. Even something that gives him extra evasion like Cavalry Pegasus or Aqueous Form would make for some lulz.

Ok so, before the sealed deck event started this evening, I was able to get in a couple of practice games against someone running mono black. The changes felt really really good. The first game was a bit odd because he had a horrible hand and made some really uncharacteristic mistakes (let my Ajani go untouched and went ultimate), so I really don't count that very much. In the 2nd game, I put in my Fiendslayer Paladins and everything felt great. I had a good hand and a turn 2 Thoughtseize was far from devastating. Banisher Priest managed to answer his early threats (it's really good at slowing down Pack Rat) while I snuck out a Fiendslayer Paladin and starting gaining life. I got a Detention Sphere out just in time for his Desecration Demon as Fiendslayer kept hitting away. Unfortunately we didn't get to finish the game, but I was in a great position and my deck was definitely able to keep him on the back foot, which opened the door for my curve-out threats like Heliod and Archangel.

Oh and for the record, I ended up winning the sealed deck. Went 6-1 in games and 3-0 in rounds with a white/blue fliers deck (RTR block).

I'm having some good initial results with play testing my deck using 4 Banisher Priest and 4 Detention Sphere as my removal suite. Both of them get around indestructibility (Gods), both add devotion, they keep aggro at bay while I curve up, and neither of them are dead preboard cards in any matchup. Looking forward to testing it out on Friday.

As for the color splash, Sphinx's Rev is a bit out of range mana cost-wise for my deck, but I still really like having Detention Sphere as a jack-of-all-trades removal.

I see, thanks for the input. BBV would certainly have good synergy with Archangel, so that's definitely something I may explore at some point. For now I'm going to see how the list above works; I definitely like having D Sphere as an answer for a plethora of threats (and I can get 2-for-1s with it) so I'll just keep the blue for that. I'll let you guys know how it pans out.

You bring up some good points, though I must now ask what exactly the black splash would be for in the maindeck if not for Thoughtseize; just Doom Blade/Dark Betrayal and Hero's Downfall? Hero's Downfall might be a bit difficult to work in due to the double black though, same for Underworld Connections. BBV/Obzedat would be fun, but I'm attempting to stick with Archangel for now. I could maybe use Erebos as a draw engine but that doesn't seem intuitive. I'm most likely looking at this completely wrong and you'll point out my logical flaws shortly haha.

Also, I do certainly appreciate you taking the time to help, so thank you so much!

Yeah I have thought about doing Black/White for a while now (and I do have a playset of Thoughtseize just begging to be used, along with Doom Blades and Dark Betrayals), but that would also require an even land split to be most effective I would think (so I can get off a turn 1 sieze). As it sits now, my average Thoughtseize timing would be turn 2 or 3, and it would possibly require me to shock myself in order to do so, resulting in 4 health lost.

Anyways, I've been doing some playtesting with some maindeck changes and it seems to be doing well so far:



Devotion for Nykthos is ramping extremely hard with this setup too, which is nice.

Yeah, that's my main concern with it as well, but are there any other good removals I can run, or would Priest and D Sphere be enough? Also, if I'm only splashing blue for Sphere, would I maybe get more out of running red for Boros Charm and Chained to the Rocks instead? Seems like I'm kind of at a crossroads, but I'd hate to have to invest in another set of shocklands haha.

That's a fair assessment, now that you put it that way, and I see where you're going with the Banisher Priest idea. He also helps devotion, which helps Nykthos and Heliod, helps board presence, requires a removal spell, so on and so forth. I would definitely like to keep running Detention Sphere since it's good against many different threats, and maybe one other form of spot removal - Azorius Charm maybe? Since it can be useful in multiple scenarios.