MTG Salvation

Currently messing around a lot with the following: (This is a work in progress, nothing is definitive. Although one can say that about anything in life regardless.)

Lands: (16)
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Spirebluff Canal
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt

Enchantments: (4)
4 Pyromancer Ascension

Instants: (17)
4 Opt
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Manamorphose
1 Echoing Truth

Sorceries: (23)
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
4 Shimmer of Possibility
4 Duress
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Grapeshot
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Past in Flames

Cards that have gone in and out in testing already:
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Locket of Yesterdays
4 Cloud Key
4 Gifts Ungiven
4 Pieces of the Puzzle
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 total Grapeshot
2 total Past in Flames

I've been purposely avoiding the Baral / Goblin mana dudes since they're well established. I'm trying to push for a version that doesn't use any creatures, as well as uses the graveyard less. Graveyard hate is everywhere in this format, people are maindecking Relic of Progenitus. As well as the fact that creature removal is going to be even more of an obstacle, so I'm trying to play around the format and make the deck's core 60 as hard to interact with as possible. It fits my playstyle! Good luck out there in the mean time & I'll keep in touch on here.

(Not worried about a sideboard at the current time, still working on a main 60, this will take a lot of time & I'll keep in touch, playing like 50+ games a day right now putting and taking out different things I can think of/find/etc)

Been messing around a lot with "Pyromancer Ascension" / "Cloud Key" / "Locket of Yesterdays" -as well as- Main decking Pieces of the Puzzle, & even Splashing Black for 8 Discard Spells, +Infernal Tutor

Pyromancer Ascension is absolutely ridiculous once it gets going! And it's not vulnerable to the creature removal that's everywhere.

Ascension at 2 counters with Pieces of the Puzzle in the deck pretty much means drawing the entire deck, it's absolutely stupid!

I now own this deck in paper. I am going to be doing a lot of research on this deck, testing, etc over the coming month. I'll share anything & take any advice along the way.

Been getting heavily into stained glass alters, 12 post lands as an example:

Cloudpost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEvPeInCm4A
Glimmerpost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKwMZ58cWMk

A different kind of alter... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P2X5I3Kkog

Sol Ring Alter, the process, & the results! Have a buncha stuff on the channel but figured I'd share this one, it's cheap (card is just a couple bucks) not a harder one to do in my opinion, & commander / EDH popular!

Tutorial & Results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xgZzabdjkw

Started 0-2, then 5-2, then lost round 8 in a close one. Deck feels fine, biggest thing is I possibly need to allow myself to mulligan more. Kept a 2 lander game 2 against affinity but was both mountains, and against a mirror match round 1, game 2 I could have possibly mulliganed but as possible as it would have improved my hand, it could have just come out worse with 1 less card.

Tried Through the Breach Prime Time for a league, went 3-2, but I don't like it, I like Titanshift more as it's better and better the later the game goes, and through the breach doesn't do anything by itself when you can't get to a primeval. Through the breach might be more explosive but it feels less consistent and it kinda drove me nuts.

Replies to above posts:

crumble to dust was too slow against tron, pithing needling an e-map when they drop one on their first turn, or pithing needling a karn in anticipation of one the following turn seemed to do more work.

Fracturing Gust hits enchantments, won a game against boggles & affinity because of how dumb it is.

Krosan Grip Split second, and wanted more answers to those annoying blood moons.

With Heart Garden, it took the Farseek spot. I like Explore because worst case scenario it's a draw spell.

Maindeck Chalice & Anger of the Gods are just meta calls, enough stuff in the format that the cards work very nicely in more match up's than they do not.

Played against just about everything, the most rare match was probably against boggles, don't see that often. Played against Grixis Shadow a couple times, got lucky against 1 of them, the other was a regular back and forth and just won. Played against burn once, also got lucky there, they mana flooded one game & resolved 2 chalices in a post sideboard game. Still lost 1 game in the match against burn. Played against some tron, one of my 2 losses was against GB Tron, and I could have actually won the match but I threw a game 2 away because I'm still learning the deck, thank you chat for seeing what I did not 8-).

4-1, 4-1, 5-0 with RG titanshift Leagues on Modo.

Had 1 match that was won, but I'm dumb and don't understand the deck well enough yet, luckily people in chat pointed it out, so it could be 14-1, life is life!

both 4-1's were with this list:
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Valkut, The Molten Pinnacle
2 Cinder Glade
4 Stomping Ground
4 Forest
8 Mountain
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Primeval Titan
3 Summoner's Pact
4 Explore
4 Scapeshift
4 Anger of the Gods
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Khalni Heart Expedition
- sideboard -
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Krosan Grip
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Chameleon Colossus
3 Crumble to Dust
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Fracturing Gust

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The 5-0 I made a change, -1 Forest, +1 Khalni Heart Expedition, & sideboard, -3 Crumble to Dust, +3 Pithing Needle

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Messing around with all kinds of stuff, and some of it was definitely luck, but I am lovin this deck, it's doing well and hard to stop! YEA!

I have considered Spell Snare myself. Especially against those turn 2 Eidolons, ugh!

Made this deck for Modo & Twitch the other day and it is performing awesomely! Have a winning record with it out of 5 leagues, 2 of which going 4-1. Maindecking 4 Anger of the Gods & 4 Chalice of the Void right now, other than that, traditional G/R stuff.

Obstinate Baloth has been awesome against more decks than I expected as well!

I think Kor Firewalker might be one of the best sideboard card against burn from white, it is a combined suggested wall type card (Spellskite, Thing in the Ice, etc) AND a combined life gain slowly card (Dragon's Claw, Sun Droplet) and on top of that, it's pro red & not an artifact! After that if they don't have Skull Crack, Timely Reinforcements I think might be the next best. If they do have Skull Crack, then they have it.

I don't know if graveyard hate is needed, as there's no super fast graveyard based decks. That opens up more sideboard slots. Not 100% on this yet though, currently it's GP Cleveland and I'm not playing as much this weekend, but I have now obtained the cards in paper for this deck in addition to magic online, for mono blue & blue white. Not sure if Spreading Sea's is needed either, but I own a playset. Right now I have like 40 something sideboard card possibilities, just bought them all, so going back and forth with a few things.

Chalice of the Void seems like another very nice option, against some decks it just says "Half your deck is now irrelevant until you deal with me". But chalice's are expensive, so this is 1 card I don't have, at least not yet.

Supreme Verdict is a possibility in the sideboard, so I picked up a playset. Also have both Hurkyl's Recall & Stony Silence, could do a 3/3 split. If I care about affinity & other artifact based decks that much.

Porphyry Nodes is helpful against the Cursecatcher problem against Merfolk. But they can still sneak 1 in with a Vial at 1 if they see that coming.

The cards I hate going against most right now are Eidolon of the Great Revel, Thought-Knot Seer, Liliana of the Veil, though it's discard effect is negated by howling mine effects, the ultimate is what can get annoying if it goes that far. Cursecatcher could possibly be on this list & the possibly 5th most annoying card is Cranial Plating, instant equip change in a deck that can drop it's army in the first 2 turns.

I don't like Leyline of Sanctity, if it's not in your opener it comes down turn 4, and when it is, against burn they will likely blow it up enough of the time. I don't like the idea of aggressively mulliganing for a card either as that can eat your hand up, and card disadvantage doesn't seem worth it.

Gigadrowse / Exhaustion might be my favorite cards in the deck, they are basically time walks that are cheaper to cast. Also Gigadrowse against counterspells is SWEET!. I've noticed this a lot as well. If the opponent does a land drop on their first turn, but does nothing else, when it gets to their next turn, I'll tap the 1 land on the upkeep, and they'll play a second land in the main phase and they're on 1 land for the entire turn again. Has worked even worked against Expedition Map in play on their turn 1, since that means they can't crack it till their turn 3. This also helps against a turn 2 Eidolon of the Great revel against burn, if you're running remand, you can then next turn remand the Eidolon, preventing it from coming down for another turn as that thing's annoying. (Currently however I've cut remand for porphyry nodes as I think remand is the weakest card in the mono blue version, compared to all the other cards, too much stuff in modern is just too cheap to cast. I also feel Cryptic Command is not super great at 4 mana, but the 4 options combined make it too useful. Though it's rare, sometimes there's no creatures to tap, no permanents needed to bounce, no spell to counter, & you're basically just drawing a card, but if that is your situation, you're probably looking good anyway!)

I'll continue to keep updated, but it's a slow weekend for playing as during events like this weekend, I am on the floor trading alters 90% of the time, but come monday it's back to modo & more turns!!! I guess that's all for now, keep turning cards sideways, & taking turns, zing! 8-)

-edited- as far as the lands go, currently doing 22 lands: 6 fetchlands, 2 Glacial Fortress, 1 Hallowed Fountain, 8 Island, 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge, 1 Plains, 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium, 1 Prairie Stream.

Do I want to cut 1 island for a 1 of Oboro, Palace in the Clouds, to help against potential chokes/boils?

Do I want to cut 2 fetchlands for a 3rd Glacial Fortress & another UW Dual land? (Gives another land that helps against potential chokes/boils +1'ing the Glacial, however 3 Glacial's increases the chances of having 2 in an opener.)

Do I really need Geier Reach Sanitarium? Just some thoughts about lands I'm going over in my head.

Now that I've tried Howling Mine, I will likely not go back to Ancestral Vision, as much as I love that card, the Howling Mine's are drawing way more cards and I can't ignore that. Now officially on the Howling Mine side of the argument.

Hope I'm making sense & it helps at all, but if not, I'm at least figuring this thing out, or like to think I'm going in the right direction, can't get there by not trying! 8-)

Porphyry Nodes!!! Doing the traditional build, but splashing white for Nodes instead of Remand. This might be what I've been looking for, I'll keep updated!

So far, if they stop casting creatures to get it to go away, that slows them down! If they try to race it and dump their creatures, all the stall effects are just that much more awesome!

Just went 4-1 in friendly league online, switched Ancestral Visions for Howling Mine, and I am probably sticking with Mine, the mines were overall drawing just too many cards by comparison to Visions, still don't know what to replace remand with in the mono blue version. 1 loss was to affinity and it was close.

beat eldrazi / rg tron / scapeshift / zoo