MTG Salvation

So Crazy It Just Might Work.dec (Modern)

3 Hazoret's Undying Fury
4 Geosurge
4 Gilded Lotus
3 Pentad Prism
3 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Coalition Relic
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Molten Vortex
2 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cavern of Souls
3 Geier Reach Sanitarium
2 Phyrexia's Core
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Steam Vents
3 Mountain

Quite a few weird interactions, and ultimately could be all right. Adequate ability to defend yourself, and some recycling, pretty amusing. Nobody's going to think, oh, yeah, of course (unless you showed it to them first. This makes ten mana, and not even urzatron does that, whereupon you are getting a cast trigger rather than karn, which could be all right if not for surge's clause. All told, though, if you asked, one turn later even on pure ramp possibility, the ones that attack beat him out.) And if it doesn't, you put a bunch of stuff into play. You'd need hard-hitting hate to beat some of the pieces, and even then, it'd have an enchantment, and could just throw down a big flyer. Oh, those ritual effects and their lion's eye diamond attributes! 7 plus 3 is 10, hilarious, bet they didn't think it was good.

YUP.
Making it busted seems too tall an order. But maybe not. Problem is, you can't ramp up to four mana all that easily, to call TRULY busted, compared to the effect, and it can get countered, or ripped out of your hand, and then it can get disenchanted. And there are all kinds of fast things that can kill you. Making it GOOD seems possible though, by adopting some of those very same roles that could attack the card's viability.
Yes, it seems quite nice. Key point: sol ring duder, why not? Suspend interactions, why not? Remake this type of thing. Use the thing, cast either goyf or scrounger. May die, but more like... all right then. Deck just wants to generate a steamroller. If known, attackable. If unexpected, would very good. So heads up. With some kind of hedging as to... maybe could play even IF known (pertaining to land hate on its mini color tron, being more basics to fetch out if ghost quarter, and less damage to self if tectonic edge.) Triggering it uncounterably on a few slots, and not playing too many, but still able to go nuts with 5 into 4 playable and not a facepalm as to its slowness in card slots (+2 for 1 card rather than +1 for 1 card). Probably fun. If that card is real, of course.

2 Joraga Treespeaker
4 Elves of Deep Shadow
2 Llanowar Elves
2 Search for Tomorrow
2 Rift Bolt
4 Blightning
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Beacon of Destruction
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Sunbird's Invocation

2 Gruuf Turf
2 Rakdos Carnarium
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Stomping Ground
4 Forest
3 Swamp
3 Mountain

Are we upset? May be upset. AW, come on. Don't do that. Cards will come in due course! What for, with that?

A problem with this deck is that if it is good, it can become bad and it truly, truly has the attribute "see illustration of Sirroco". Look back on your Magic history. 4x Powder Keg decks. How do you fare against 4x Ratchet Bomb? In a disruptive shell, essentially, like Jund, leaving outs-to-the VERY flexible mass outer at "draw it", considering the turn sequence and the rendundancies, again, card-quality-wise, of thoughtseize and inquisition. But that's getting into theory of other deck. Worth mentioning in the context of this one, though. It is a thing you should consider. Basically, with full information, what total chopping block might other people have in store for you? Could well render it unplayable if it showed up.

To hear Twist discussed for unbanning is truly incredible. Mind Twist is impossible. There are no restrictions. And it is 100% lights out magnitude of card, even with the possibility of Force of Will. Dark Ritual is allowed, and how, even remotely so, would it be fair to allow, Ritual, Ritual, Thoughtseize/Duress, Twist for 3. Although this is a big dumping of things for other things, one of them is proactive and is the deck plan, and the other is just... anything other than a low to the ground aggro deck. That just packs it in, pretty much. With top banned this would be the best deck, and hardly even close. This would easily be 4 Inquisition, as well. Probably Chris Pikula deck. And this would be beatable how, exactly? So unlikely. Burn maybe.

Looks very nice, looks like product, product that would very largely benefit from some unique printings. Could benefit from EXHAUSTIVE gatherer search of full stringency type of increase of power level from medium-good to high-medium-good, shaving some of the more robust numbers to something a bit more powerful and variant, but not stupidly so. Like something other than Flametongue Kavu level of card, you could look at typical vintage/legacy cubes on cubetutor for that. Could easily spend a full year on obsessive compulsive perfecting a project like this. Seen, known, duel decks, but way more, yeah... would be tough. Awful lot of things to find out, if that possibility were put in. Therefore, no "do this, and it'd be easy ENOUGH" suggestion is entailed.

It would appear that it does do THIS. In Legacy. You need double-blue from your mana rocks, but it does do it if you have it. Goes infinite with Mind Games. Capsize also good; maybe not infinite but just... degenerate Capsize. Might not be actual good, but looks maybe good at least. (See the Mox Diamond business? That seems... good. Perhaps elsewhere.)

4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Sky Diamond
2 Mox Diamond
3 Karn, Silver Golem
4 Grim Monolith
3 Arcum Dagsson
2 Capsize
4 Mind Games
2 March of the Machines
3 Remand
2 Stroke of Genius
4 Force of Will
2 Paradox Engine

4 Mishra's Factory
17 Island

Cool. Very cool.

Complexity reduction cannot coexist with continuingly sufficiently flat and relevant commons. Magic could keep going with New World Order exactly as it is, and have not very many commons that aren't reprints or very linear (as pointed out) impact constructed, or New World Order (remember, it's only a complexity limit on commons that was well explained and justified with a falling off the cliff graph) could be clawed back by about 30%. Keyword proliferation does that. When you have more keywords and can use one sentence, as long as board complexity factors aren't breached, you have a compliant common, still.

The stongest reasons have just recently been released, heavy commitment commanders. And an analogue to the general best reason has always existed. It warps what you should do. It's one card out of the 99? This holds up? You could easily say... it's one card out of the 99 as a POSITIVE statement in favor banning. Everything is interdependent in making a deck. It's non-trivial to say the LEAST. You draw seven. You completely could have it. You HAVE to have it. It's pretty much GOT to be good for your deck or it's likely it's not at-best. That could be something else. That could be beat down and prey upon. 40 life is already "bad" for most non-pushed low to the ground strategies and that card massively exacerbates it. Some semblance of game flow that touches upon more normal Magic would be nice. It's massively excluded because of Sol Ring. LOVE Sol Ring, print it in the first place, sure, but scratch one more off of the Sol Ring players' club for the greater good.

Kaladesh is not terrible. If you think THIS set is terrible, I'm sorry, but... this is just wrong. Not THIS one. This format is very well balanced. At first blush, blue seems poor, but it CAN indeed be played. That freighter, I don't think, if you give due consideration to the speed of the format, is even all that great. I think you're just counting it wrong. Not 5/4, but 3/4. You can't race a 3/4, or deal with it? I would not be HAPPY to play this card. I would not be super-unhappy, it's a nice middle-power level card. I have played the format, and I think it's only all right. If someone gets the 5 out of 5 power level interactions of the Freighter of R/W, that's perhaps a small misstep. However, there are a huge amount of things that slaughter that dead, massive amount of removal for 2 toughness creatures, and leave the Freighter as a dead card sitting on the board. I think both Inventor's Goggles and Eager Construct are legitimately better cards as early picks. This format can punish you for stumbling, but, pretty much any set since Mirage or Ice Age will punish you for stumbling in limited. It's even a little bit better in this set because of the presence of Eager Construct as a common. Very well designed set. Hovering around spot of ten in all time sets. What truly is good is defending yourself against losing quickly, playing through a bunch of Eager Constructs and Prophetic Prisms, and having a correct pick order, where, indeed, the mana sinks... you want them. Whirlermaker is barely passable on this account, and Fabrication Module and Decoction Module blank removal effects, are things that you want. Awful lot of Torch Gauntlets going around; equipments win you the game in limited and this hasn't changed. As part of the overall correct "artifacts" pick order, barring truly stupid rares of maximally premium removal that doesn't leave you open to sending a wrong signal. The final thing to note is not even remotely get run over by stuff like that with NO chance whatsoever, but the ACTUAL slight developmental "mistake" (that I like going for), if you take this and get the support for it you have a won draft; a clear 4-0, and that is, Dukhara Scavenger as a 2 of. Which is EMINENTLY obtainable. This is truly, truly good. Restoration Gearsmith is centered in Black/White, and is plainly "the better thing". If you play and access the appropriate number of lands, it is very hard to lose whilst having a pseudo-Genesis effect in limited. Revoke Privileges and Malfunction are good against it (but poor overall), and Morbid Plunder is always going to be available in the sideboard.

You could probably make Stasis work like this (and seriously frustrate your opponent maybe even to the the tune of its original 90’s power level).
You need to use Forsaken City in a more proactive way, but it’s still the go-to card. Along with Howling Mine; old Howling Stasis. The deck will still do something before you draw Stasis; the odds are, you will draw Cloudstone Curio instead if you do not. And you can do some business with all of those things, plus it. You totally have to play mono blue Stasis. Stasis asks for an upkeep of U. And Wasteland says, well, on THAT card, it will do it and HAVE to, and otherwise, you can’t tolerate it.

4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
3 Arcane Denial
4 Ancestral Vision
1 Gush
1 Capsize
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Howling Mine
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Kami of the Crescent Moon
4 Stasis
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vedalken Mastermind
4 Cloudstone Curio
3 Frozen Aether
3 Pestermite

4 Forsaken City
19 Island

I think partner is entirely good. There are several points that make it that way. Castability of the commander in question for a four color deck. Or, for a five-color deck. When you do, eventually, three color partner commanders, they have a lot of overlap, and you can choose what order you want certain mana to come. They have to be somewhat worse because of doubling-up, but, not that much worse. Probably for the best; it would be ENTIRELY unreasonable for it to ever go to MORE than two, and why not, right now, then. I think the creative factors on these ones are a bit weak, though, in terms of art style, if not card mechanics. They don't need (and suffer from, badly, I would say) art style of reductive faraway recognition, they are commanders and typically that'll be in a different color sleeve so you don't muck it up; next ones would be better as Legends-style. Artists such as Quinton Hoover, Harold MacNeill, Richard Kane Ferguson, and others more in that vein, if not exactly them.

This change is 100% correct for a duel. The way spot removal having some windows of non-kill works, where only some, like Swords, Terminate, and so on, kill anything at all, advantages playing a Control commander anyway. Your commander can't even get gotten rid of permanently, it simply advantages the bigger wall-off and then eventually strike plan. The two mana tax on an answered 'tiny leader' may well ask, why even play it, it's way behind curve, and you've probably got a better creature. So that is less of a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush in that case. Whereas, my general is Keiga the Tide Star, I'm ahead. I'm already ahead. So, thumbs up definitely. I took a look at that and it was indeed forbidding to think of closing out the game by being the first asker of a series of questions that had to be asked in the right order. Aggro is not mindless at all. You have to think of permutations of the top of your library quite a bit. You have to have good instincts, combined with good logic. Only some forms of aggro have this distinction. It can be a moot point, really. Total interaction quality management at the design level could be better and then few people would have their camp in somesuch debate of players' feathers in their caps. Relevant interaction and skill points are asked for by both.

Bribery and Rift are clear bans. How have they slept on the Bribery? There's no good argument in favor of it being legal. Blue just bends things by that much? While you can play Sol Ring? Acquire, I also would think, just, come on. That's too much to take at the deck construction level. Mystical Tutor is allowed, and so is Muddle the Mixture. Those things are too good. There'll always be power gaming things that cut off space if you allow them. The Bribery especially. Play honestly and line those things up at the opponent mana-in-play and board position readiness level with the stupidly good Treachery.

I'd say this design would be the best. It may have three abilities, but the others are spell-mimicking in character, and red does spells a lot, already. And the blue one just "hits target spell, again". Red might have wanted that, and to just flip those around, is perhaps a bit boring. We get it. Scrivener/Anarchist. Should it get an FTK variant? If so, how expensive and how little damage for how good and abusable FTK-type triggers are? It's an utterly knowable card, if that, it's not going to duplicate Inferno Titan, and you'd know its range. So, what "in the box" of creature design makes sense for a red Gearhulk? Well... ability the third. Putrefax/Skizzik functionality where artifacts matter, and is the opposite side of the coin. Not plain ol' creatures, but artifact creature fodder remains in flavor. A careful balance; it doesn't have ability one, some cough cough artifact is just a bit better. And so on. All needed, if you want to avoid "this gearhulk creates this spell". It'll never be able to just die and then hit for the extra. The ability is not optional, either. It's not a value play for edges of lethality, you play with it whether you want it or not. You better want it. Look at the green one. This one asks, how about me, then? What do I get to do? I'm aggro! I want some of that pie! His defense ability... hey, this, if you put both, says, appropriate bonuses without overwhelming power level. Everything BUT this one, or this one. That would be the appropriate Red-hamstringing; get both bonuses. (Without the draw-nulling would be a mistake. This guy hits you for seven, and may not even die. He HAS to do that, and yet three lands is a "Countryside Crusher with entropy" effect.)

Magmatic Gearhulk
3RR
Artifact Creature - Construct
Trample, haste
When Magmatic Gearhulk attacks alone and it entered the battlefield this turn, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
When Magmatic Gearhulk blocks alone, it gets +0/+2 until end of turn.
When Magmatic Gearhulk dies, return it to the battlefield tapped and sacrifice two total lands and/or other artifacts and skip the draw step of your next turn.
5/4