MTG Salvation

Haven't played standard in forever but really want to sling dinosaurs. This is the first attempt at a list. I think Jund or Naya is the strongest shell and this is an attempt at Jund.

Creature base is pretty standard. Drover of the Mighty isn't a dinosaur but is good two drop and ramps. Deathgorge Scavenger fills out the three drop spot and is pretty solid in the meta. Eating cards out of graveyards is good because of The Scarab God, God-Pharaoh's Gift, and eternalize creatures. Ripjaw Raptor and Regisaur Alpha round out our 4 ofs and they're worth is pretty self explanatory.

Burning Sun's Avatar is there because I expect tribal and aggro decks to be prevalent. Also Burning Sun's Avatar has the same clock as Carnage Tyrant because the 3 on ETB plus three swings of 6 is 21 just like three swings from Carnage Tyrant. Only difference is Burning Sun's Avatar can be chumped. This is really a toss up. Tetzimoc, Primal Death is part of the reason to play black. He can be a one sided wrath and is a fantastic mana sink on turns where you know you're not going to use all your mana. The deck doesn't have a ton of instant speed interaction and Tetzimoc, Primal Death lets you play mind games. You can reveal it one turn then next turn leave some mana open to see if they play around the Fatal Push or Vraska's Contempt.

Commune with Dinosaurs is our only turn one play. It does a good job finding land or threats whenever you need them. Thunderherd Migration is just Rampant Growth in this deck 99.9% of the time. It and Drover of the Mighty get turn 3 Ripjaw Raptors which is solid along with dropping our other threats early.

3 Fatal Push and 2 Vraska's Contempt is our removal suite. Fatal Push isn't quite as good in standard as it is in modern but 3 is a decent number. Vraska's Contempt is one of the better reasons to run black. Answers big threats, The Scarab God, and other Planeswalkers and the lifegain is just a nice bonus.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance is just a good card. Can be a win condition if we protect her. Remove blockers for our dinosaurs or card advantage later in the game.

@Kazral I'm going to have to disagree on that one. I've been trying to make mono white work and it's just way weaker. BW occasionally loses because the mana sucks but I've been on an absolute terror with it.



Last Thrusday I went 4-1 don't remember what I played
Last Friday I went 5-0 wins vs UR Madcap Moon, Faeries, Ad Nauseam Mono Black, Jund
Saturday 2-1 wins vs Burn and Bogles, lost to Jund
This Wednesday I went 3-0 wins vs Bogles, GW Tron, Living End
Tonight I went 4-0-1 wins vs UR Madcap Moon, Junk, BR Madcap Moon, Eldrazi Tron, drew the last round.

Texas is very aggro heavy, typically at least 4-5 players playing Burn in our 20-40 people events, also a fair amount of Skred. Affinity is very popular too but I haven't seen it in awhile. Tidehollow Sculler and Dark Confidant alone have made the black splash worth it. I may honestly go to 2 Wasteland Strangler and play a second Blade Splicer or whatever 3 drop I want like Mirran Crusader. I'm playing with 4 Plains because my entire deck is foil, minus Dark Confidants, and I've been to lazy to order 2 more Shambling Vents. Also I may keep it at 4 Plains or at least 3 because there are just Blood Moons everywhere in our area and having the second W is huge for casting Flickerwisp. Speaking of Flickerwisp people are always amazed at the blow out plays you can make with him, he's won me matches vs Bogles keeping enchantments off creatures, he's removed Platinum Emperion multiple times to win, Phyrexian Unlife. I'm constantly digging and praying for Flickerwisp especially when I open with Aether Vial.

Sideboard choices:
3 Kor Firewalker - Burn is everywhere in Texas along with a splash of Skred, also pseudo sideboard material against Storm, the life gain off rituals makes their math really complicated.
2 Kambul, Consul of Allocation - I didn't actually have a Storm SB card for the longest time and he's been amazing vs Delverish/Death Shadow's decks. Turn 2 Thalia into turn 3 him has probably won me a few matches, also comes in against Burn. 4 point life swing and eats removal. Outside of the Burn matchup the 3 toughness is surprisingly relevant. A lot of things going around do 2 damage and he survives all of those.
2 Rest in Peace - Graveyard hate is always good, beats Dredge, Living End, Junk and Jund also take a licking from this too.
2 Stony Silence - I had Kataki, War's Wage but realize Stony Silence stops most of Affinity's true threats while also hurting Tron, Ad Nauseam and a few other decks.
2 Fatal Push - Just wanted more removal on occasion. Mainly for the few tribal decks, Merfolk, Elves but also pretty good vs the midrange decks too. Death's Shadow decks are pretty creature light.
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar - Hard for a lot of decks to interact with. Easy to grind things out with him.
1 Mirran Crusader - Great vs BG decks, he'd be better if I had equipment. I could probably take him out of the SB and not miss him too much.
1 Zealous Persecution - Elves, Affinity, Tokens, the mirror. It's a pretty nice 1-of in the SB. Occasionaly leads to blow outs, sometimes it just let's me trade better or save one of my guys.
1 Disenchant - Blood Moon is everywhere, Night of Souls' Betrayal beats this deck bad. Also hits artifacts (killed a Platinum Emperion today in the BR Moon matchup)

Overall the deck has been pretty great. A lot of interaction so it's very fun to play most of the time. A lot of people spend a lot of time playing around Leonin Arbiter and get blown out. I had a Jund player playing around him but I ended up vialing in Flickerwisp EOT targeting an untapped land, vialed in Wasteland Strangler on my turn using the land to kill a Scavenging Ooze and the Ghost Quarter'd their dual land. If he's the MVP Eldrazi Displacer is the runner up. Blinking guys to save them, taking extra cards with Tidehollow Sculler, tapping down blockers. Actually had a match vs a Melira combo deck where he gained infinite life, scry'd a card to the top and I blinked my Thought-Knot Seer and he didn't have a response so he drew his only Murderous Redcap and then I exiled it with the Thought-Knot Seer. I ended up blinking him a ton to deck my opponent. Also Spellstutter Sprite isn't a may ability, my opponent tried to Fatal Push my Eldrazi Displacer and I blinked his Spellstutter Sprite forcing him to counter his own Fatal Push.

I feel like people saying Stoneforge wouldn't be too strong never actually played against it. T3 Batterskull is insane if you can do it and GG vs a lot of decks. If your opponent is on a removal heavy deck you go get a sword to protect basically any creature you play, if they don't kill it immediately. Has anybody considered a Mardu reanimator list? You have your typically white cards like Arbiter, Thalia, Flickerwisp, Blade Splicer; black gives you Dark Confidant and Tidehollow Sculler; and red gives you Magus of the Moon, Harsh Mentor and the bread and butter Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. Honestly at that point you could probably play Miasmic Mummy and generate value with discarding things to reanimate with Alesha or vialing it in during their draw step.

Obviously that's a lot going on but could be a fun deck to look at.

@mightbenno Honestly I found this list from states and kind of liked it. I just changed the 2 Aven Mincensor's to Smuggler's Copter. A lot of Burn and Skred in my area, hence the 3 Kor Firewalkers, also actually pretty decent for Storm too. I played one and my opponent was trying to go off and realized he couldn't. I love Thalia, Heretic Cathar but she's not better than other 3 drops. I've been considering Hero of Bladehold as a finisher. I went with Aegis because you can just vial it in and fizzle them and it's not dead if it isn't in your opening hand.

I'm thinking mono white maybe the way to go. Thraben Inspector has been meh. Going to try Judge's Familiar to protect Thalia's better. Thalia is by far the best card so I'm hoping Vryn Wingmare can be Thalia's 5 and 6. Seems to be an abundance of Fatal Push and Abrupt Decay and hoping to capitalize on that with Mirran Crusader.

With Stony Silence in the SB, Smuggler's Copter may not be the way to go. A third Judge's Familiar and a 3rd Vryn Wingmare might be worth testing.

Something like this for a start. Probably some Vryn Wingmare's in there to tax harder.

I know it's adding a color but I've been running Serum Visions instead of Mishra's Bauble, but anybody consider Trash for Treasure in the board for something that doesn't get shut down buy Stony Silence? You could replace Serum Visions with Faithless Looting.

I'm slowly becoming a fan of Smuggler's Copter as the "something" the deck is missing. A lot of times there just feels like there isn't enough card advantage or filtering and it combos well with Thraben Inspector and Blade Splicer.

Where have you read such articles because I don't really think it's true. He doesn't do anything that really falls in line with our plan. I'd rather just play Ally of Zendikar if I'm going to play a Gideon. He "might" be a sideboard card against Lantern Control and Ad Nauseum.

Are we allowed to post list with spoiled cards in them or do we have to wait until they're released?

I was more commenting because I love RW Taxes but it fell out of flavor since Recruiter of the Guard came out. I was pumped to see it on stream, I'll definetly go check his tournament report out. Hoping Harsh Mentor really makes RW Taxes a better thing. In a vacuum he's not amazing but we have Thalia, Wasteland, Rishadan Port to force our opponents to crack fetches if they want to interact. Hopefully this makes it modern viable too so I can just play the same deck in both formats.

I mean by that logic Thalia isn't good. She doesn't stop removal or board wipes just slows them down. I think Harsh Mentor is really good considering we have stuff like Ghost Quarter and Thalia to force them to crack fetches if they want to cast something. I think he's not amazing in a vacuum but with everything in the deck he starts to get better.

How about the RW list that just got 11th at SCG and the new red hatebear that got spoiled. I don't think it's a 4 of but it's definitely going to get a slot or two for me to test.

Been thinking of a UW list.



Geist of Saint Traft is a beast. Judge's Familiar gets better with equipment and you have Ninja of the Deep Hours to actually get some card advantage in the deck which is something it really lacks. Also gets really cute with Thalia's first strike.

Anybody try a more enchantment heavy list?



Some maybe cards are Dragon Mantle since it replaces itself, Madcap Skills was a bomb in limited and might be good here especially on Lagonna-Band Trailblazer and Akroan Skyguard. Infectious Bloodlust also seems decent given it replaces itself too.

@x1uo3yd

Thanks for the input, I'm actually struggling to find some more creatures I like in RW Taxes. Serra Avenger felt very boring without equipment and Brimaz was decent but felt slow. I may give Scab-Clan Berserker a go and try to avoid cards with WW except for Flickerwisp.