MTG Salvation

Neheb is the first character in Magic who LOST black color identity by becoming a zombie.

Modern Eldrazi Tron gets mainboard graveyard hate in their mana base. Sweet.

EDIT: Ignore me, I severly misread that card.

With this artifact and Flickerwisp in play. Cast Restoration Angel. Angel lets you blink Flickerwisp twice, giving you 4 ETB triggers from Wisp. Use one Wisp trigger to blink Restoration Angel and the other three triggers on whatever you like. On your end step, get Restoration Angel back, bounce Flickerwisp and repeat this process. You can get three Flickerwisp triggers every endstep for the rest of the game as long as Flickerwisp lives.

Quote from DarklingScribe »

What is the opinion on Sin Prodder here now that this deck won't have to race the Eldrazi decks? I looked back over the last three pages, but didn't see anyone mention it. This little devil could help fill the graveyard faster if it lives to see your next upkeep, then it either gives you a card or bins something, dealing damage in the process if it's not a land or living end. Seems to me that a less combo heavy variation of Living end using Sin Prodder may be worth testing in combination with a few Goblin Dark-Dwellers to help cast living end or one of the cascade spells if it the Prodder's trigger sends either one to the graveyard.

Sin Prodder by design is a card that is extremely hit/miss. In a deck like Living End with many high mana-cost cards, it looks like it could be viable. I decided to look at the math behind Sin Prodder to verify this.

I used Wyvernslayer's deck from the primer as a sample deck, except I replaced Faerie Macabre with Sin Prodder. With these adjustments made, the mana cost break down of the deck is as follows:

22 0-drops (Living End + lands)
20 3-drops
12 5-drops
4 6-drops
2 7-drops

For our calculations, we assume that we play Sin Prodder on turn 3 after playing 3 lands. The average mana cost of the remaining 56 cards is about 2.77 with a standard deviation of 2.27. Admittedly, the 2.77 figure is slightly low because it does not account for fetchlands or land-cyclers. However this would not account for a huge change in our averages.

If our opponent never gives us any cards from Sin Prodder, they will receive a lightning bolt to the face per turn starting on our 4th turn on average. Frankly, I don't think that's a very good rate considering how fragile Prodder is and how much deck space he will absorb if included in the deck. Prodder is more vulnerable in this type of decks than others because usually, our opponent's removal is useless until we combo-off. Further, the standard deviation on our expected damage output is way too high to make Prodder a consistent threat. Finally, Prodder has the disadvantage of being an option card, which means he will very frequently deal no damage at all.

Geist of Saint Traft is a far more consistent and frightening threat on turn 3, but even if Geist was on color I would not run him here. Sin Prodder is not independently powerful enough to justify compromising our main strategy.

Iwamori of the Open Fist lets your OPPONENT put a legendary creature from their hand into play. This combo only works if you can have Iwamori enter the battlefield under your opponent's control.

@Topper: I personally think the haste/intimidate package is too cute, plus it takes away a lot of control from this deck. However I'm interested in hearing how it tests.

I think your idea with Delirium Skeins has a lot of merit. That card could completely ruin combo/control, plus against burn it's effectively life-gain. You look like you have enough creatures to make it worthwhile; I wouldn't run it alongside Beast Within.

Quote from Crax

I may try something like that as well. I currently don't sideboard slaughter games, but I know some of you do. I think the thing I struggle with most right now is decided which/when to use my sideboard cards.

Which matches would you be using slaughter games, what are you naming when casting it, and what cards do you take out when siding it in?

As a rule of thumb, Slaughter Games is pretty good against any non-aggro deck that lacks a Turn 4 (or faster) kill. Use it to disable slower combo decks like Assault Loam and Ritual Gifts, or maybe to steal wincons from Tron. I'd switch out either LD or gravehate for Slaughter Games, depending on which is less important for a given match-up (I can't think of a time when you want LD AND gravehate except UW Tron).

Quote from PopeJP

Now I'd like to take a second and revisit Bloodbraid Elf. With all of this mainboard Jund Charm going on, I actually think she might be worth another shot. If you slip her into the Faerie Macabre slots (blasphemy, I know), suddenly you've got a slightly more reliable cascade going on. It would then hit:

• Beast Within
  
• Fulminator Mage
  
• Jund Charm
  
• Violent Outburst
  
• Demonic Dread
  
• Gnaw to the Bone (sideboard)
  
• Brindle Boar (sideboard)
  
• Dismember (sideboard)
  
• Damping Matrix (sideboard)

So it's either going to remove their graveyard, Pyroclasm, destroy a troublesome permanent, destroy a land (with potential blocker option), give you a 3/3, hit a good post-board card, or set off Living End in addition to giving you a 3/2 body with haste. It also skips over Ricochet Trap post-board (that'd be awkward) and Simian Spirit Guide, if you're running him.

So consider the match ups.

- Is there any time when one of Jund Charm's modes wouldn't be useful?
- Will Beast Within ever be a card you don't really want to play? Obviously it's worse on your turn, but against decks where you're worried about your life total you're giving yourself a blocker that will trade with the Beast token or giving yourself the Beast.
- Fulminator will almost always have a target, and at worst he's a 2/2 body.
- The cascades are the most potentially awkward spells, but chances are around turn four you're ready to go off anyway. If you've already gone off, then BBE is a strong creature with haste who can buff your guys with Outburst or stop a blocker with Dread.
-Any of the sideboard cards would be amazing hits, since you obviously sided them in for a reason. Gnaw to the Bone is the only one that might be awkward.

You can also cascade into Living End which is kinda the objective of the deck

I'm not sure I like the hail-mary effect of Bloodbraid Elf. I'd bet money you're not going to be happy with everything you hit. Plus, how often is a 3/2 Haste relevant to us? I imagine that since this deck isn't very aggressive, the elf would sit on defense most of the time. Dropping Faerie Macabre also makes sideboarding more difficult because I drop her from the mainboard first unless a match-up specifically calls for grave-hate.

Anyway, if we experiment with more cascaders then we should try to calculate the odds of cascading into a given spell:

Total Possible Cascade-Targets: 20

4 Fulminator Mage: 20% chance
4 Beast Within: 20% chance
4 Violent Outburst: 20% chance
3 Dread Return: 15% chance
3 Living End: 15% chance
2 Jund Charm: 10% chance

Or otherwise:
10% chance Pyroclasm, pump or grave-hate
20% chance Stone Rain.
20% chance Vindicate with Beast.
50% chance Living End.

Funny how the math turned out so perfectly. Every Bloodbraid Elf gives us a 50% chance of cascading into Living End, given that you have not drawn any 3-drop spells. The odds become skewed as the number of targets in your deck changes (drawing cards, sideboarding, different decklists, mill, etc.). The odds are, however, skewed in a predictable way. If you draw 2 cascade targets other than your combo-pieces, than the number of cascade-targets left in your deck is reduced to 18, giving Bloodbraid Elf more than a 60% chance of hitting Living End. However, a 60% chance is still fairly unpredictable.

Bloodbraid Elf is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. I just sure hope you like chocolate.

Random, but wouldn't it be cute if Bloodbraid cascade --> Jund Charm, pyroclasm and then Living End getting back the Elf?

Quote from IxidorVersionTwo

I'm changing the 3 Shriekmaw to something along the lines of 2 Gnaw to the Bone and 1 something else.

Use the extra side board slot to complete your set of Leyline of Sanctity. You lost your second Burn match-up because you couldn't reach a Leyline; add the fourth one for consistency.

Her tail is like significantly less impressive than the rest of her body.

If only there was a powerful activated ability in standard for this to counter. Like on an artifact.

But in seriousness, solid man.

It is very important that everybody knows what the Jacetice League is up to.

God forbid we might know something about this Demon and his motivations, he exists solely for Liliana.

Quote from SleepyTimeGamers »

Decent in EDH...a disappointment everywhere else.

Very powerful in EDH, not just decent.

Comment Hidden

Quote from Josephine_Ciendeilio »

Gifts ungiven? More like given with how this set has been rolling out.

Quote from Empathogen »

Cool- this started to get expensive right before I realized how perfect it is for Bruna, Light of Alabaster.

If you're thinking of running it in your Bruna EDH deck, have I got some bad news for you...

I think I'd rather play his Planeswalker deck version lol

Quote from Downdala »

I like the art.
Rest of it is very disappointing.
Overall it's worse than unplayable Goblin Diplomats on every aspects (flavor, play value, even art).
How is that a spy? I understand the flavor of the tokens being undercover agent but they just do not act like ones to be honest.
I would have preferred a true 'spy design' like:
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player gains control of Goblin Spymaster.
Play with your hand revealed to Goblin Spymaster owner.
You can't attack goblin Spymaster owner unless each non-goblin creature you control is attacking him.

Dude, after all these years have you still not learned how goblins roll? This is as much a "spy" as the former were "diplomats". A goblin spy's mission is right on the flavor text for pete's sake.