MTG Salvation

1. You don't have to worry about counterspells as much
2. Madness/Delirium/Animator Enabler
3. Top-Deck vs. opponent becomes threat after threat after threat no matter what you draw.

It's basically Coco mixed with Azcanta in artifact form.
Not exactly a build around card for me at the moment but its definitely a strong tool to have in a variety of creature based decks.

Glare + Emmara = "Glamorous"

ok that's cheesy lol

Any interest in Emmara, Soul of the Accord?

Cause March of the Multitudes is a really really good finisher here

So I just won on turn 3 against vengevine with this:
Stitcher'd a Stinkweed with Agadeem, Indignation, and Secrets in hand and it got ugly quick. He did get me down to 9 life in game 2 before he took 40 life loss to the face on a double agadeem. Took a while to loam up two agadeems and chump block.



Sure it folds to gyard hate, but hey, turn 3 is turn 3. Unlike other decks, this doesn't care whether you kill its beaters.

I saw that new black tutor, so I decided to try and build a deck around it in anticipation. But its' not a control deck with slaughter pact, surgical, etc.
Instead its built around crypt of agadeem.
It's not a dredge deck, though it runs similarly. Dredge makes you lose a draw, this actually builds value while filling the yard. More on that later.

Here's the deck:


The aim of the deck is to plant creatures in your graveyard, and lots of them so that agadeem can make indignation worthwhile.

We'll start with the bad:
It pretty much folds to graveyard hate. There is a mediocre beatdown plan. But it's only going to take you so far.

The good:
-You don't care if they kill your creatures. You can block and attack AT WILL without a care in the world. Every creature they kill just ramps agadeem. Maybe you're attacking, maybe you're blocking, doesn't matter. That's good value.
-There are some recursive creatures like Gravecrawler, Relentless, and Ewit. Ewit was chosen because while you're dumping cards into your yard, you want to grab a land(agadeem) OR a sorcery(indignation). Also, Ewit is a CREATURE. It's basically just extra copies of either.
-There are 16 creatures that dump cards into the yard, NOT including Stinkweed or even Indignation. Only 2 cause you need combo pieces, so you don't necessarily wanna dredge from turn 1. It's just an oh, an Imp got dumped into my yard, lets ramp up agadeem some instead of whatever draw. Imp also fills in decently as a flyer.
-If you do have 2 Indignations in hand, one builds the next.

It's just an average deck, it could never be competitive, but its a lot of fun to play and can be surprisingly both powerful, consistent, and even resilient.

Quote from AUTUMNTWILIGHT »

Those are monowhite cards not Boros Cards to be Boros it needs RW in the casting cost. My point was RW gets the shaft compared to BG even though RW could based on the color pie get removal just as good. Meanwhile great removal is only one of BG numerous strengths.

So you don't use Path in your Boros deck because its not RW?

Considering Black is the best at creature removal, and green is the best at non-creature permanent removal, how does this card not make sense? Why should RW get this as well? Because creature removal is supposed to be a strength to red and/or white? Nope. It's there, but SHOULD not mitigate other color's strengths. You're arguing to make Magic flavorless.

GY hate is available to every color, with arguably the highest power level being Rest in Peace, White, as well it should be. And it should be available to every color. Graveyard decks are also the easiest to completely blow out. In other words BG's best strength is arguably better than card draw... but this degenerate strategy is counter-able by every color... because its degenerate. That makes it much less of a strength.

Burn is still the best aggro deck. Good luck arguing against that.

What do you want to talk about next, Green's best walker STILL being Garruk Wildspeaker?

This set has been a long time coming for green, and well deserved to balance the color pie. Hush.

Quote from boombox_smk »

Calling it now, I'm going to use 'Astro' as the verb. Astro your Teferi.

ASTRO

Teferi, you flew to close to the sun.

What I like most about this card is Sorin giving you the bird.

This deck is a midrange/control deck that relies on discards, efficient removal, and card advantage.

discard package:
Thoughtseize/Inquisition/LotV
This trio needs no paragraph. These are the core 12 of an 8-rack deck that aims to minimalize hands/threats.

efficient removal:
Path to Exile/Anguished Unmaking/Utter End/Wraths
Cheap removal, Versatile removal, and mass removal

card advantage:
night's whisper/phyrexian arena
simple: life for card draw

protect life cards:
GideonotTrials/Gideon Jura/Pulse of the Fields
Both Gideons can prevent damage as well as turn around and attack. Both of these functions are extremely important. The can't lose emblem is added incentive to play more Gideon's.
You might laugh at Pulse. Don't. This deck is very good at minimalizing threats. Between the discards, removals, and planeswalkers, its pretty hard to get combat damage through in big chunks. The vast majority of the time, Pulse simply stalls the game out. This allows NW/Arena to accumulate card advantage. It is not uncommon for a single Pulse to be re-casted several times over.

So how does the deck win?
It wins by trading life for draw/removal
-Caves of Koilos
-Shocklands/Fetches
-Thoughtseize
-Night's Whisper
-Anguished Unmaking
-Phyrexian Arena

And then:
Repay in Kind
+
Gideon of the Trials or Gideon Jura

Method A:
GoT Emblem, zero life, Repay in Kind

Method B:
4-6 life(depending on the Gideon), Repay in Kind, attack with Gideon



The deck is surprisingly resilient and Repay in Kind is a high power card that just about guarantees a victory sans countermagic.

Hope you will try it out and play along with me.

Burn can be problematic in G1. Same as Tron. Sideboard makes matchups favorable in G2/3
Moon can be brutal if they draw it. There are A LOT of double BB or WW cards in here.
UW control is tough because we're more proactive than reactive. We just can't interact with everyone playing on our turn too well.
Scapeshift is trouble.

Anything creature based is generally a pretty easy matchup.

Edit: I'm currently experimenting with 2 less LotV and 2 more Pushes

Quote from zcowan »

As for Jace, the overall opinion is to run 1-2.. In the current format he doesn't really stick around unless you can cast him in the late game in a turn while also casting an extra turn spell.. Most of the time he is used to just set up a miracle. It's more important to run dictate and howling mine as well as interruption. Honestly you could run the second one in the sideboard as an option to grindy matchups since he is a win condition in his own right lol

I run 3 Jace's, but I'm in a UG build with Emrakul and Oracle's Vault. Terrible card but its just fun to cast Emrakul for free.

So there's this card:


and the payoff:


That's the primary win-con. Casting Emrakul for free.

Getting there is tough, but I've found this little duo fun:

Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Nissa, Steward of Elements

You can win with their ults sure, but their primary uses are scrying. Sometimes Nissa's 0 can come in handy. Scrying for Oracle plays, or Temporal Mastery.

Toss in some Serum and you'll have no problem controlling the top of your deck.

Still working on the deck, its just an idea. But its pretty tough to beat if the game goes long. Exhaustion has proven itself most of the time.

I once strung together 4 turns in a row. They were not pleased.

I know there are literally a hundred commons yet to be spoiled, but I'm calling it right now — this is going to be the best common in the set.

Mono-G Elves... Replaces Bestiary easily

Are there any other creatures who have a name identical to their creature type?

Instead of bans, I want answers. Give us some unbans, counterspell, and better SB hate against Eldrazi.

Quote from ElvesotShelves »

"This card has the potential to both grab Ezuri and give you the mana you need to overrun the following turn" -EmberFlux

This times ten.

Unlike the Archdruid, it doesn't die to wraths. Unlike Gargantuan, it also ramps an extra land. Elves will have little trouble transforming it provided strong draw/dig power.

I've been reading a lot about Elves lately and am probably going to switch from Reliquary

Plan A is and will always be Ezuri, any less than 4 is a mistake. Legendary rule be damned, let them remove one.

The other aspect of the deck is its weakness to mass removal. I'm not sure here. Stampede seems best for this. Blue offers both Beck and plenty of draw X cards.

There's people who like vanilla and there's people that like chocolate.
Personally, I like chocolate and I look forward to testing this core, eventually:

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Collected Company 3 Lead the Stampede 2 Growing Rites of Itlimoc 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Elvish Mystic 4 Heritage Druid 4 Dwynen's Elite 4 Elvish Visionary 2 Viridian Zealot 4 Elvish Archdruid 4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader 4 Shaman of the Pack

In a deck with so much explosiveness, I'd prefer to ram plan A and Plan B.

I'd like to iclude Eternal Witness, Scavenging Ooze. Worth cutting something, or Sideboard them?

The reason for Scooze is its really really really good against both burn(chump elfs, grow scooze, bye skred) and grave-hate

Throne of the God-Pharaoh seems really really good with Heritage Druid. Or even simply attacking. Is it overkill? Tapping Elves to play Elves to tap more elves can add up damage pretty quick.

Anyone toyed with Oak Street Innkeeper? Seems kinda fun to Coco for. But seriously Chord/Pharaoh/Heritage synergy. It could easily be a one-of in Chord Elves.

In a perfect world:
turn 1: mystic
turn 2: heritage, dwynen, itlimoc
turn 2.5: CoCo
Scoop.

Slow down. I get that you're eager, but you can't just throw away conventions that other people have been using for a while now.

You don't need 4 Ezuri in the GB lists - Shaman is a consistent game finisher to the point where Ezuri is a sideplan.

Throne of the God-Pharoah has been Throne of the God-Inconsistent and is awful outside of very limited situations.

I also have some growing pains about Growing Rites, which I addressed in a previous post on the page back. I don't think its the second coming of Gaea as people suggest it to be. It's simply another tool to use, which likely won't push us over the line.

I recommend starting with a stock list - especially in Modern. I would tend not to change my maindeck and only change one or two cards in my sideboard for maybe...3-6 months before I start to tinker with the main. Its a good habit to have and it teaches you why each card was picked for its role.