MTG Salvation

Remember winning with Valakut when the whole things cost about...50 bucks? Here is the new 50 dollar deck. We've all seen it and played against it


Honestly, this deck is amazing. Here is my current version.



I have tried so many different finishers, but Inferno Titan is by far the best. He affects board immediately, and if you've been blowing stuff up, he usually finishes the job with his 3 damage. Not to mention minimum of 9 damage.

The other start is Mimic Vat (best rare in SoM Imo). Copy a tuk-tuk? A vandal? an INFERNO Titan? Hell copy something you kill, whatever. Did I mention we can dig for it with ancient stirrings : 0

I was designing the same thing, albeit with much more focus on Viridian Revel.

My original list was like:


However, I really like the addition of the Replica, it being findable on Stirrings, so...


I may have to replace a few Crags with Kazandu Refuge, but otherwise this looks like it. As you can see, it's bloody-single minded. Your build has much more flexibility, mind you. In either deck, performance is decidedly poor without the Coating.

The Coating is necessary for the deck to function remotely well against anything not teeming with artifacts. The Revel turns it into a game winner, allowing you card advantage galore, drawing into more artifact dis, because of course most of what you have is artifact dis.

This deck has very little by way of an early game. You'll start nuking all their stuff after about turn 3 or 4 at the earliest. The plant tokens help against a rush, but not by much.

The Smelting Dragon is my budget friendly finisher of choice, the main reason being I have two of 'em. For something even more budget friendly, I was considering the 5/3 common that trampler that gets +2/+0 whenever an artifact bites the dust. The 3 toughness is the clincher there. The Dragon is easy to obtain and can be very large as eats almost all blockers.

Well, this is the first I've seen of this deck... ..but I like it.

These look like a lot of fun for such an inexpensive deck. Not to be rude, since I know this argument probably comes up a lot, but what happens if you don't draw into the Coating? With Ancient Stirrings being the only "draw" spell for it, and the entire deck being built around it, it sounds like this could be incredibly inconsistent. Also relying on an artifact as the main route of disruption would also be worrisome games 2 and 3 due to Sideboarding issues. Would you possibly switch game plans and side out the coating and some of the artifact destruction in favor of just a straight up r/g deck?

Again, not trying to knock it, as I love the idea here. It just looks incredibly fragile.

Lately I've been playing R/G Beastmaster Ascension, and I already have Naturalizes and Acidic Slimes in my sideboard... but looking at this list, even if I don't play this exact deck, adding Liquidmetal to my SB would make for one sick transformative sideboard.

The ability to blow up any permanent with a Slime, Shatter or Naturalize seems almost too good to be true, though the fact remains even packing four is no guarantee of drawing one.

I'm just spitballing here, but what if you put it more with an artifact theme? You could use Voltaic Key to untap the Coating and do multiple killings in one turn. You could also pair the Key with Tumble Magnet to keep creatures at bay until you have the opportunity to Coat them. Couple that with Lux Cannon as an additional destruction source with Throne of Geth to proliferate on the Magnet or Cannon or Ravine or something. I'm probably getting too carried away, but it sounds like it could be fun.

Then you could use something like Kulthoda Phoenix as a win con or if you go a proliferate angle you could have Chimeric Mass shenanigans.

Again, this is totally off the top of my head and probably deviates too much from the core of the deck (seriously, all this just came off the thought of Voltaic Key), but maybe there's something in there that could be fun to add.

@Rops: Without Liquimetal it's likely game over. The budget answer: Aggressive mulliganing. Otherwise: Spend more money.

Now it also depends on what your opponent runs. If they happen to be knee deep in artifacts or enchantments, you've got your game on. You also should hold back the Coating until you can instantly pair it with some removal.

As for pairing it with an artifact theme, you could do that if you're careful or if you're willing to drop your main artifact smashies. If you are the only one with artifacts on the board and you don't have Liquimetal Manic Vandal and the mandatory destroy cards become blank. This can be adjusted for in deck building, but of course.

In the sideboard, I'd recommend running a few Nature's Spiral. This can return a lost Coating in the likely event your opponent starts to destroy artifacts. By and large, however, you only have the one artifact (okay, two including the replica) so a lot of artifact removal is not likely to be seen.

My cousin is piloting a similar deck, but he's using Hoard-Smelter Dragon as his finisher and it's pretty brutal.

cotagion clasp would be a much more efficent way to proliferate, as u can use it offensivly aswell

To be completely honest, I can win without the coating. The fact is, the longer the game drags on the higher the chance you will drop one. After all, the only fear is against fast aggro, and we're packing plenty of burn to deal with that.

While I agree that many cards become dead without it, there is no better way to get it than ancient stirrings. None. I usually find Inferno Titan enough to win me the game, with or without coating : )

What about valakut in here with 4 turboland cards?

doesn't fit. Tried it.

Hey Goblin, is it okay to PM you with decklists/ideas about the Liquimetal Coating deck? It seems like you have a lot of experience in playtesting, and I wouldn't mind some of your feedback.

What do you guys think?:

Quote from DimeCollectoR

Hey Goblin, is it okay to PM you with decklists/ideas about the Liquimetal Coating deck? It seems like you have a lot of experience in playtesting, and I wouldn't mind some of your feedback.

Be my guest.

@PrideoftheClouds I don't get the Overgrown Battlement. Sylvan Ranger or something else with Mimic synergy would be good. Nest Invader, Pilgrim's Eye, Obstinate Baloth (leaving Budget territory...)

My main worry about this deck is not drawing Liquimetal Coating, which is so insanely key. Ancient Stirrings is a good aid, and clever, but... I'm not convinced it's enough.

I won't give any illusions here, without Liquimetal it's hard to get off the ground. That is why I think the following distribution of cards is close to the correct one for this deck.



The following uses my build, Ignore the Koth, I opened one : )

Burn: 8 (Bolt, Galvanic Blast)
Artifact / Enchant: Removal: 13 (Vandal, Claim, Replica, Scrapmelter)
Finishers: 3 (Inferno Titan, Koth)
Utility: 12 (Liquimetal, Stirrings, Mimic Vat, Viridian Revel)

I've been considering running Crystal Ball over Revel.
A) It's an artifact, so diggable with stirrings and adds to blasts metalcraft
B) It's not situational.

Also thinking of replacing the replica with BoP. Unfortunately, Bop is USELESS outsude turn 1.

Quote from Goblin With A Gun

I won't give any illusions here, without Liquimetal it's hard to get off the ground. That is why I think the following distribution of cards is close to the correct one for this deck.

ISBPathfinder's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands (24) 2 Tectonic Edge 4 Raging Ravine 4 Rootbound Crag 6 Forest 8 Mountain Creatures (11) 4 Manic Vandal 3 Sylvok Replica 2 Oxidda Scrapmelter 2 Inferno Titan	Spells (24) 4 Liquimetal Coating 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Ancient Stirrings 4 Galvanic Blast 4 Nature's Claim 2 Viridian Revel 2 Mimic Vat 1 Koth Of The Hammer	SB (15) 4 Ricochet Trap 3 Pyroclasm 3 Arc Trail 2 Nature's Spiral 2 Chandra Nalaar 1 Kozilek, Butcher Of Truth

The following uses my build, Ignore the Koth, I opened one : )

Burn: 8 (Bolt, Galvanic Blast)
Artifact / Enchant: Removal: 13 (Vandal, Claim, Replica, Scrapmelter)
Finishers: 3 (Inferno Titan, Koth)
Utility: 12 (Liquimetal, Stirrings, Mimic Vat, Viridian Revel)

I've been considering running Crystal Ball over Revel.
A) It's an artifact, so diggable with stirrings and adds to blasts metalcraft
B) It's not situational.

Also thinking of replacing the replica with BoP. Unfortunately, Bop is USELESS outsude turn 1.

I have always liked your build of the Liquimetal Coating deck. In a pinch I would say that you could save even more money by downgrading the Inferno Titans to either Kuldotha Phoenix or Steel Hellkite as we are putting up decklists on the budget forms. Not that Inferno Titan is really spendy but I just thought I would throw out some alt cards for Inferno Titan as there are a few other options that work well depending upon your meta and lineup.

Also behind the idea of swapping the Revel out for Crystal Ball, This is a good plan if you find yourself without a Liquimetal Coating on the board often. If someone is blowing them up often and or you just arent drawing them the ball is a good idea. It might be a decent idea to SB them against such decks as the Revel really sux if you cant blow up your opponents stuff. Straight up thought if you find it working then I would say that the card advantage off the Revel far better than crystal ball in a straight up both working situation.

After some testing...Crystal Ball is HOUSE!!!!! WAAAAAAAYYYYY better than Revel. In situation where I don't have the coating, Ball is better. In situations when I do, Ball is STILL better filtering useless lands and getting me destruction spells. With only 13 in the MB, you're never guaranteed to get one even with Revels card draw. Not only that, but Revel is mana intensive. Even if I have coating and a nature's claim in my hand, I wanna keep a green open to cast it. So, for those of you following my list

-2 Viridian Revel
+2 Crystal Ball

Also, for budget concerns, Kuldotha Phoenix is a huge tank in this deck.

Might as well repost my build here:





The Bombs, to be budget friendly, could simply be replaced with Pyroclasms and the nonbasics replaced with basics (Although none of thoselands are currently over $3 each; Crags are even just $1-$1.50 each).

Is there any reason why Birds of Paradise aren't showing up in these lists? Seems like if you're having problems with Aggro, getting things online a turn sooner might help keep you in the game. And for the pure LD route, seems like destroying their second land instead of their third is a better way to keep them out of the game.

I think this is a killer deck idea. I drafted with a deck that was built around liquidmetal/rust tick/red removal and I not only won, I had ideas for a standard deck running thru my head the whole time.
Something to think about...
Would you rather have blue or green? it comes down to speed vs control. would you rather play birds and get that turn 2 land destruction or have ways to counter a a threat to the coating? I think green for sure but just want to hear some better opinions on it.
Also, what about using the liquidmetal on their creatures and defending with pro-artifact creatures?

I've been thinking the same thing. This deck might be better with Blue and one of Green or Red. Mostly due to the problem of drawing the Liquimetal. Ancient Stirrings is the best thing for that now... but Preordain might be a big help. Mana Leak is that much better if you have reusable land kill. On the other hand, the red artifact kill is all 2-for-1. I'll try the Blue-Red if someone else will try the Blue-Green.



Ugh! That looks terrible.

I wonder why none of these decklists run Birds. Is it because it dies to removal?

Quote from Goblin With A Gun

I won't give any illusions here, without Liquimetal it's hard to get off the ground. That is why I think the following distribution of cards is close to the correct one for this deck.
...

Gotta say I like this deck idea and think I'm going to try and create a list similar to yours but had a few questions.

Just getting back into the game and trying to learn as much as I can, first question is, why Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in the sideboard? Just looking at it, it seems like you'd be sideboarding out to turn the deck into a bit more straight burn so when would you use him? (genuine question, I really am just curious).

Second question, do you think Chandra Nalaar would make a good substitute for Koth of the Hammer? I haven't been lucky enough to pull one and $3 is a lot easier on the wallet :). If you hadn't pulled him, what would you have put in?

Again, really like the philosophy behind this, looking forward to giving this a try soon.