MTG Salvation

It costs 5. Uncastable in time.

@Dennis : I'm not sure to see what heavy green brings to the game plan. BTE doesn't help casting your white drops, which is a huge nonbo. BTE is good in GR humans / aggros, not in GW.
The heavy white version with a minimal splash stands as the way to go.

You should check out the Zombie topic in Deck Creation.

A card out of the zombie theme like Mogis's Marauder could give the board evasion. I faced and played a few zombie decks so far, and evasion was an issue. Dredgevine has the same problem.

A way better card that would fit the theme and give reach is Gray Merchant of Asphodel. To me it's your best chance to win against Ensnaring Bridge / Ghostly Prison (that monoblack versions have no answer to) and get through a board full of creatures on both sides. It's a way to swing close games that tend to resolve on the right top deck (Burn, Affi, Zoo). Very comparable to Shaman of the Pack in Elves.

I encountered a Blasting Station deck yesterday, I found the synergy to be cute, a little less impressive than Ghirapur Aether Grid but not too bad. It's a nice mana sink with Gravecrawler ( = 1 damage). With Relentless Dead and open mana, it makes your opponents' spot removals very bad, because you can let them kill a zombie, then sac RD with Station, rebuy it for and pay the mana to reanimate the destroyed zombie. Prized Amalgam will come back end of turn for an extra damage if the previous synergies occured.

All in all, a fair aggro zombie deck is certainly a bad deck. With the things written above, and Geralf's Messenger, there's a potential for the deck ot do its own thing, and that involves a sac outlet, possibly in 4 copies. You want to proactively sac the guys quoted above. Taking that direction, only one lord would be auto-in : Diregraf Captain.

BTE requires 2 green mana. Unplayable in a heavy-white shell. Elsewhere, why not, personnally I don't see a list in mind but feel free to build it !

Skulk is worse than other white white drops but fits a heavy-green Counters shell.

Yea Honor is good, but now we have access to two good 2-mana lords, I feel like Honor isn't worth it anymore.
A 3-mana anthem is bad, and the other doesn't pump the team, it's bad.

And as far as evasion goes this version is not worse than the previous ones as it relies on Cavalry Pegasus as well.

This is the main flaw to the deck, which lets me think it's not competitive enough to be played over Merfolk, Elves or Affinity.
By looking for variants, if you don't manage to give a huge evasive plan (because Humans have no evasion or a combo kill available), it's not worth testing further.
That's why I told you the Falconer variant is the only one that could be better than a straight Human deck like the one I posted (not that it's the best variant right now, since the red splash may be stronger), but I doubt we have enough playable creatures with counters.

I tried the Knight Loam engine in a Junk shell a couple months back and it was way too slow to do anything. It's the ultimate non-blue inevitability deck but it just lacked a way to close out the game. That's the main problem with the deck. Without some sort of real pressure or combo kill like Dark Depths, it's just too slow.

It's indeed a slow deck, as Abzan Midrange and Jund are. These decks can quickly close out a game with Tarmogoyfs though, which is a card you didn't play at the time.
The way you and I built it is very different, there's a high package of competitive options to fill the curve up to 5 mana. The sideboard can play super hosy cards like Ghostly Prison, Stony Silence, Leyline of Sanctity, to make the toughest MUs better.

The real question is, does Abzan Loam can be better than straight Abzan Midrange thanks to The Gitrog Monster ? Because if the deck isn't played, it's basically because Abzan Midrange and its closest variants overshadow it.

Both decks play similar cards to handle combo and aggro, but some win cons and the manabase are different. I tend to think Abzan Loam has a stronger mid/late game, but its vulnerability to the graveyard hate is more problematic than for Abzan Midrange (even if they still lose Kitchen Finks + Souls value, Tasigur, the Golden Fang's value and mana cost, and Tarmo stats).

The 2 archetypes are not that different, and if one is a Tier 1-2 deck, the other shouldn't be far behind. Also, Abzan Loam is very close to some Gifts Loam lists (which might enjoy Gitrog). On top of that, graveyard-based decks like Living End, Storm and Goryo's Vengeance variants see competitive REL play. Yes they're combo decks that ask the opponent for playing a hate card before turn 4, while Loam gives the opponent the whole game. That's where the biggest weakness is to me, not that it's too slow for the format, since you can get Gitrog in play on turn 3.

All in all, we're just sharing thoughts, I hear you and respect your experience with the archetype.

1. it's weak, conditional and slow. No way this card makes the cut.

2. The problem with these 2 cards is they don't fix the issue of the deck (evasion), once again. Mirran Crusader is a nice self-protected double-striker, however I understand Foremost is tempting, she offers even bigger attacks. But the possibility to chump block for the opponent needs to be solved.
Amongst the cards you propose, I've been tempted by Warden of the First Tree, but never tried it. in a straight Human shell, Student is better because you can pump it 1 mana at a time, and slowly turn it itno a double-striker, while 4 (then 6) mana at one time for a transformation is unlikely.

You need to ask yourself the right questions about the archetype, like how do you get through a Tarmogoyf, how to race Affinity and Burn, how to handle Inkmoth Nexus, how to race the variants of Zoo, how you beat Eldrazi (even though the deck's future is questionable), and so on.
It's more about positioning the deck in the format than looking for the sweetest synergies in a vacuum.

There's one interesting direction though, which is a Human deck with the counters theme and 4 Abzan Falconers. This guy is strong !

Well it's what Life from the Loam is made for...

What does Gitrog really contribute to this deck? Seems to me I'd rather put in Siege Rhinos and Scavenging Oozes. Gitrog may be a good SB piece for Abzan, to up the grind potential in the mirror, but I don't think it warrants playing multiple copies of if you're not breaking it with graveyard hax.

Gitrog has natural synergies with the deck Knight Loam (dredge, self discard, land toolbox). It doesn't nearly have as many in Abzan Midrange.
In a Loam shell, the 5-drop looks more powerful than the 4-mana Siege Rhino. Now, numbers may be tweaked, Scoozes and Rhinos can fit in the archetype anyway. I don't see why one would replace the other.

Now, I'm curious to see Gitrog abuse a graveyard strategy in a combo manner, which I believe is what you refer to. Sounds sweet and I definitely want to try it out as well.

Even though Tarmo can get big in the deck, I feel like a strategy of trying to lock down the opponent and force them into topdeck mode with mutual discard (Raven's Crime and Liliana), land recursion and Gitrog is the right way to go.

I don't see the reason not to play Tarmogoyf. If you played Damnations, I could see a reason there. If you played Ensnaring Bridge too.
The lockdown you're talking about doesn't interfer with Tarmo in the deck, plus that's a plan B for the midgame. Only 8-Rack has it as their plan A.

There are games where we don't draw Gitrog, so the deck must function without it,... well actually win without it. Tarmo + Knight + Souls is a great package. If you cut one (here you actually cut 2 pieces entirely !), you need to fill your deck with prison elements, and/or sweepers in order to stop the opponent from killing you.

Here's my draft :

I edited then, to 1 Salvage. I have no clue how many we must play so I'll follow your line. We can also recur it so I guess it's just a matter of finding when we already have Gitrog, and a tapped land in multiple is always a pain.
One may also like a creature land like Stirring Wildwood or Shambling Vents but one should trust Loam players to complete the manabase, they know best which lands are needed and which are meta calls.

I would even go as far as add Knight of the Reliquary to the deck, remove Zombie Infestation at least partially and add some mana dorks. That way, you can fetch utility lands like Horizon Canopy and Bojuka Bog. There is surely much more to explore but I do not think a combo deck is where the Toad wants to be.

I like this idea.

I would consider the core as :



A Loam deck, after all. The rest should probably focus a little bit on the Gitrog synergy, but it has to be good playable cards, not fringe and weird cards (unless it allows instant winning positions). Dredge cards intrigue me (Darkblast, Golgari Thug), but unsure they're strong enough.

We can't load the list of 3-drops too much, so is Courser of Kruphix or Liliana of the Veil better ? I don't know.
There's nothing in the 4-drop slot either, not sure it's worth consideration.

Thanks for the feedback about those cards guys.

Maybe an obvious-to-answer question, but why isn't Blasting Station preferred to Mortarpod ?
The station looks easier to use (:1mana: more to cast but no mana investment to use afterwards). In a variant where nearly every creature is resilient, we might have some interesting turns, untapping Station several times.

It makes me wonder if Bone Splinters wouldn't be an actual good card in a super resilient shell. The card jumped in my mind while I was thinking of how to abuse Relentless Dead.
If I want to recur, say, Geralf's Messenger, I need 3 mana open when RD dies (even 4 if I want RD to come back). Problem is decent cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Tymaret, the Murder King, cost 3 and 2 mana to activate. Unless we're in mid/late game, I'll never have the mana.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx should help.

A draft :



Numbers are rather random, the draft is here to propose a direction for the deck (be all-in might not be viable though). Some cards may just be worse than alternate options (Tym, Kali, Imp, Splinters). I simply have in mind the deck must be able to deal with Affi, Infect and Coco decks, and have an evasive way to reach the opponent, also because of Ensnaring Bridge, Ghostly Prison and such hate cards that wreck tribal decks.

Edit: Tym deals to players only, seems bad actually.

It still has the problem called Lightning Bolt otherwise it's a fine creature (not relevant against Affinity and Infect) but against Delver this is not where you want to be.

Yep, actually most humans die to Bolt and even weaker effects. A 2-drop that blocks fliers is something Humans don't have in the modern pool (or maybe completely unplaybale stuff). The archer is - like you say - fine, which is exactly what the tribe would like to see among its options. Right now, it's an easy void Wizards can fill.

Silver Knight How this one hasn't been reprinted yet amazes me.

Tell me if I'm wrong but the ability "Protection from..." gets rarer as years pass. I believe that R&D try to decrease cards with straight protections, and instead create similar yet less strong effects, like the cycle of 3-drops in M14 (Fiendslayer Paladin, Witchstalker, Lifebane Zombie, etc...).
From gamepedia :

With Magic Origins the keyword was demoted from "evergreen" to "deciduous". It's now a tool the toolbox of R&D that they can use, but not in every set.

http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Protection