MTG Salvation

Read the primer for the explanation of Think Twice please.

That's fine and dandy, but how does this deck beat a Tasigur or Olivia Voldaren, barring Path or Cut. Even Siege Rhino looks like a nightmare, and Meddling Mage and Sculler, in my testing ju st get bolted immediately, then your opponent curves out and you have no way of regaining that lost tempo. Cards like Smother and Negate seems like the opposite of what this deck wants, conditional answers that don't actually stop the things that get in your way.

Two maindeck negate with no Remand or Mana Leak? Seems loose.

Damn. Well I guess I have to go win stuff now so we get bumped back up.

Zealous Persecution is a fantastic card in almost every matchup, it kills Pyro and friends, slaughters Agent and Glistener, massacres opposing souls, kills pester mites and makes deceiver exarch sad, kills mana dorks, Affinity creatures, etc. It can even let your Mentor cleanly kill a Siege Rhino, Tasigur or Goyf!

On second thought, Shadow of Doubt seems great against Tron, and would have other utilities against greedy manabases, Gifts, Chord of Calling, etc... I'm gonna consider this.

Okay, so ever since this deck first appeared, I've been jamming it like crazy and testing, and I've come to what I think is close to the optimal build.
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
2 Island
1 Watery Grave
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Thought Scour
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
1 Spell Snare
2 Murderous Cut
2 Mana Leak
1 Remand
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Thoughtseize
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Geist of Saint Traft


SB: 1 Flashfreeze
SB: 2 Stony Silence
SB: 2 Celestial Purge
SB: 2 Timely Reinforcements
SB: 1 Kor Firewalker
SB: 1 Countersquall
SB: 2 Rain of Tears
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Wrath of God
SB: 1 Dispel
SB: 1 Disenchant

Let me explain some of my choices. Darkslick shores painless enables our turn 1 plays of Inquisition/Thoughtseize or Thought Scour, which not only makes your hands smoother but helps with our poor burn matchup preboard. It's been fantastic I don't know why more people aren't using it. 23 lands over 22 makes a lot of sense when you consider our strange mana curve and the fact that we have no serum visions to set up our draws, 22 is way too greedy. Geist is currently in there over 1 Tasigur just as a test, feel free to ignore him if you so choose, but he's been a monster so far. The sideboard focuses mostly on dealing with fast aggro (especially burn) and having grindier cards for longer matchups. Rain of Tears is for the otherwise unwinnable Tron matchup, not sure yet if it does enough.

Depends on the hand, but I'd usually err on the side of turn 1 tar pit and see what they do on their turn and play accordingly.

With 8 fetches and a full set of Thought Scours, it's never a problem having enough stuff to delve. In addition 22 lands never felt like enough, particularly in a deck with no copies of Serum Visions. I think that the ability to make our turn 1 plays painlessly, especially given our subpar burn matchup, is very worth 1 less fetchland.

Shouldn't we be running 4 Darkslick Shores? Maybe I'm missing something, but it enables both of our major turn 1 plays, discard or cantrip, and helps our burn matchup by making us shock and bolt ourselves less.

2 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Watery Grave
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Thought Scour
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
1 Spell Snare
2 Murderous Cut
2 Mana Leak
1 Remand
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Thoughtseize
1 Zealous Persecution
SB: 1 Flashfreeze
SB: 2 Stony Silence
SB: 2 Celestial Purge
SB: 3 Timely Reinforcements
SB: 1 Kor Firewalker
SB: 1 Countersquall
SB: 2 Rain of Tears
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Wrath of God
This is the deck I'm using right now, and yes of course getting a Darkslick Shores late isn't the best, but for the most part this deck doesn't feel like it needs a ton of mana at once, even in the lategame. Our most expensive spell is Tasigur, and he isn't really very expensive in reality. I think a good comparison is Jund, they always play 4 Blackcleave Cliffs because it enables their turn 1 plays, and I'm starting to lean that way as well.

I tend to disagree with the choices of those who replace the reactive spells in the deck with more proactive ones. I think the beauty of this deck is that many of it's threats (Mentor, Snapcaster, Tasigur) reward you for being reactive by giving those reactive spells a proactive element.

I've been playing with this deck ever since the first results from Japan as my sole modern deck. I definitely agree with the promotion. The deck feels very well positioned right now, the beauty of your threats making your disruption into more threats is that the deck is extremely versatile. You can really adjust your deck to have game against whatever you want it to.

Woops haha, fixed. In any case, Esper Charm doesn't have to be a Mind Rot, if I suspect the opponent is on Abzan Liege I'll just draw cards. I see it as an instant speed divination with some powerful options.

I've been playing this deck for a little while and it's felt good, I like the Esper Charm and the Sphinx's Revelation. If anything I want more Esper Charms. Any suggestions?

How do you guys feel about 1 Cavern of Souls? I was going over the deck and realized that Snap, Mentor and The Banana King are all humans.