MTG Salvation

Thanks for the permission..?

All of you guys saying “i wonder how many these they will do?!”


well cmon isnt it obvious??

any good idea wotc has they ride it until it crashes and burns. They go too d*mn hard too d*mn often and i as wel as many of you are getting super tired of it.

Lets run over things shall we


masters sets
Amazing firdt masters set, great second one. Great idea of doing it once every two days. Oh nope cant just do it right lets have more! More! More!

lottery cards
Awesome expeditions! Awesome inventions! Only in select sets! Wow cool! Ohh psych IN EVERY SET!! BUY IT!!


return to sets
Sweet return to ravnica was amazing i wonder what we’ll return to in another few years! Ohh return innistrad.. ohh and to zendikar..to dominaria.. Umm okay return to ravnica again... okayy and return to zendikar...again..

Full art
Awesome full art cards in select sets! Ohh okay in every set.. welp now in special edition boosters.. in every set..


secret lair!
I hat an awesome idea!.. oh okay second secret lair.. oh wait heres another.. but my..m..my wallet..



for gods sakes.. wotc has got to be so imaginarily bankrupt. They lack any discipline, they have no sense on how to manage ideas, or schedule things properly. Just looking at modern masters it becomes so apparent how little foresight, discipline, and imagination they have. They go TOO D*MN HARD on any good idea. Youd think they learned by now but no. Its not gonna change instead of being meticulous, patient and thoughtful they run with any money maker idea into a wall then lean on the next return to until the next golden egg can be hard boiled cracked, eaten, and s*** out.

They have just overly saturated their market with so much special stuff that now nothing is and i as well as many here have seemed to lost any excitement or enthusiasm. Its a sad day when wotc brings a new special product and the collective response is “..meh” and thats whats its been for a while now. I think thats terrible and they should reevaluate. However, its too late. Theyre too deep in it now to turn back and make normal product again with a dabble of special stuff here and there. We’ll never again see a time when we have to be patient. When enthusiasm was high and special products were absolutely killer. We are fatigued and dare I say it.. its our fault too.

Who here is insecure? Pointing out an observable bias be it based on race, sex, gender, political etc etc has nothing to do with insecurity dude so I dont know why that would even be an idea or a point of debate at all.

For real though..
Lets have a "look how woke we are secret lair" next.
Thatd be nice.

The reason I think horizons was a mistake is that it did more harm than good. And generally speaking the good a set brings to format is easily over taken by the bad if they dont act quickly with bans and in some cases it cant be fixed via bans which is the case here. Mardu Pyromancer for example is a deck that died because of horizons and its not the only one, theres 8ball, OG bridgevine, izzet phoenix and now affinity, hardened scales, and many other mox opal decks will never see the light of day even if they were already tier 3-4, now theyre tier nothing bc they cease existing and this is due to things like hogaak, urza, oko, faithless looting ban bc of hogaak, bridgevine ban bc of hogaak, mox opal ban because of urza, oko ban because of oko. This set was like an atomic bomb struck modern. These decks may never see their former glory again. Couple this with the fact that the creation of various cards keeps other cards from ever entering the format namely force of negation will see to it that counter spell never enters modern due to things like teferi and little teferi existing. These cards just make it impossible for there to ever be an opening for counter spell to enter. I believe this was the case when they tested counterspell in standard. The existence of teferi hero of dominaria ensured that counterspell was NOT introduced in standard. And here in lies the pattern. Normal sets introduce ridiculous planes walkers while these modern specific sets introduce these ridiculous spells and round and round it will go until they ride this ship as far as it can go. But thats enough of my ranting. I just really disliked so much what happened in 2019 and I blame planeswalkers and modern horizons.

im low key hoping that another body takes control of modern and starts making its own ban list etc like that one for commander. I feel that wotc spreads itself so thin that they cant give anything the attention it deserves and end up screwing up in the end and returning to what works. Couple that with their full throttle approach to things and I feel we are certainly in for another tough year. We have seen the full throttle approach too many times. Master sets, master pieces, full arts, and now digital offerings, special edition packs, and the list goes on and on. Wotc finds or makes a treasure and then they go too da** hard and ram into the ground. Then they return to what they know and return to a popular plane to stop the bleeding.
I really really hope modern picks up, I really really hope that wotc does NOT make another modern horizons set, and i really hope they stop it with the planes walkers. I actually feel modern horizons hurt the format significantly. It would have been far better off with another classic modern masters set. Quite frankly they could have released OG modern masters again and it would have killed. WoTC is taking serious risks for an unknown reason and it seems to really be hurting.

Theres so many cards they can introduce into the format. They keep pu**y footing around the fact that counter spell needs to be in modern but instead they keep giving up dinky cancels, and ridiculous Ux planes walkers that no one asked for and the format doesnt need. In fact planewalkers are perhaps one of the reasons we may never see counter spell. I am not even gonna lie theres maybe 1 planes walker in the past year that i actually like, because i am so so tired of seeing planes walkers. Lets not even mention the ban list bc there are at least 5 cards that have no reason being on there.

I agree that modern has become a digital format and that to me seems like a problem bc its on a platform that is largely neglected by wotc as they have started to spread themselves thin in the digital realm as well. IE Arena, now a rpg and that moba which was rumored, to a new show that is also rumored. They have admitted themselves that the story sucks. I believe an article waas put out a couple days ago and the excuse was something along the lines of being spread to thin..? (i didnt read it i heard about it i should probably read it before saying anything but still..)

They need to cease all this stuff and focus back on the game and the players. But maybe we will be left in dust if the show and rpg start taking off bc history shows they put all their eggs in a basket until that basket breaks and is thrown away in the warehouse bailer.

2019 was probably the worst year for modern in my opinion. The format has taken some huge huge blows and I dont see wotc's competence level being able to salvage it while also pushing pioneer.

I have to say that modern seems like its lost so much attention. It seems like its dying to me around my area. The printing of those powerful cards along with the bannings has just decimated my local meta to where its literally just jund and burn. But its very very few players now that are actually playing. A few of the E tron players simply sold out of the game as well as the affinity and whirza players basically just packed away their cards and only draft now.
It really seems modern got blasted by an atomic bomb at my lgs.

What are you guys observing in your area?

Against dredge i always side in both celestial purge and you deff should put in timely reinforcements


the cards that i personally side in are celestial purge, steel of the god head and another cryptic command.


I have a pretty good match up vs dredge. I have not played very much againt the hedron crab vengevine list however just normal.


as for colonnade i am glad it did well for you and thanks for letting me know how it performed.

I had a question for you guys too actually. How good is brazen borrower against eldrazi tron? Do you guys who main deck it keep it in or side it out?

Awesome list man and welcome! Just for the future this doesnt have to be delver oriented as long as your in jeskai colors ppl here would love to dicuss it. We have ppl here posting strict delver lists, some oare on saheeli combo, others like myself are on geist mid range, and i believe ive seen some other really control heavy decks so as long as youre in jeskai i think you are in the right place.


right off the bat I have to agree whole heartedly on the double sided cards. The more i think about it the more i feel that they will slowly become main deck musts just because of the shear value they provide. Once you cast the adventure it turns into a card that basically permanently stays in your hand so you ALWAYS have an option. They are very versatile and for jeskai they are perfect for the create an opening, close out the game tactic that jeskai decks tend to follow.


congrats on your 4-0! Do you mind posting what your opponents were on?


i see no problem with your sideboard. You have ashiok for graveyard and titan decks, purge for jund and RBx decks, abrade for the vial decks What deck do you side in wear//tear for though?

as for the mainboard I would suggest adding in force of negation. I would maybe even go on a limb and say cut all but 1 cryptic and add in 2-3 force of negation simply because your deck seems very aggressive. At the very least put two FoN into your side board. I feel its a must somewhere in the 75.


lastly, have you considered trimming down a celestial colonnade? How useful was it for your 4-0? I am always curious to know how colonnade does in a more aggro style deck. There are man my reasons I think colonnade may not be optimal in an aggro style deck but im on a midrange deck so i am severely uneducated on the play style of the aggro one when it comes to colonnade and lack of counters. Especially in a list with no force of negations at all.

I havent posted in this thread in a long time but I have been playing an ensoul build for probably about 3 years. I have always felt ensoul in affinity lead to some very explosive wins.

Im really not happy about the mox opal ban but thats just how it is. I believe that now that its gone if people are going to be on ensoul they have to run at least 1 or 2 thoughtcasts. The potential to be 2 for oned is higher now bc ravager isnt in many lists to provide a back up plan so the deck will need ways to refuel. I have always been on at least 2 copies of thoughtcast when running ensoul just to keep pace in many matches. Another option which has seen play in the past is glint nest crane, ive used it and it can be played with some success.

lastly i think if people are going to be on ensoul then running inkmoth and ravager is viable again. ensoul on an inkmoth is not an unrealistic plan i know that field of ruin is common right now but this combo can be used when an opening presents itself (just like in the past) and now that mox opal is gone people wont be expecting to be blown out but I know for a fact that ravager+inkmoth+ensoul is still a possible plan in the early turns.

lastly, it may do some good to take a look at karn scion of urza, ghost fire blade and possibly sai, master thopterist again. The token generation is a good tactic to use when on an ensoul gameplan and sai could be very good if you are on tempered steel.

I really hope mox opal is unabnned or we get a functional substitute because I really loved this deck.

I was going to post last week on my thoughts and observations of pioneer and modern but decided against it. Now that we have others commenting and saying exactly how I see things i think its safe. I also feel WOTC wants a hard reset. By that I mean modern and legacy to cease existing on any competitive level. I think it will only get worse. I have a feeling legacy will be completely neglected from now on and they will start to do the same with modern in the coming years. I havent played much lately bc its just not the same anymore. I think all of these new decks present a whole new level of degenerate play that I feel what was the point of banning faithless looting? So that everyone will play oko? Ive been playing alot of commander with my friends lately I havent touched modern but ive been paying attention to it. I think this year wotc will push pioneer even harder I hear that it will be added to arena too. Perhaps modern is dying? or they want it to die.

however I have tested a few cards against the current field and this is what i have found.

I think that the adventure cards are very very good. Primarily bonecrusher giant and brazen borrower. They are fantastic sideboard or main deck cards. I have opted to only play two bonecrusher giants in my sideboard and will side them in vs decks that cant handle burn all that well or we need to be faster agsint. Jund is one of them of course.

Mystical dispute is really good right now too.
Ceremonious rejection is also another must have in the side and I consider it a permanent sideboard staple.
FoN is a must as others have said.
archmages charm.. this card gives me mixed results so i cant recommend it or bash it. I guess it just really depends on your style.

How has bonecrusher been working for you?