MTG Salvation

I think W/U is correct? This really wasn't a set of cards that appealed to me. Adding in a Rally the Peasants would have greatly improved my opinion of the cards, or at least some silver-inlaid daggers. I think splash either red for brimstone (and maybe the rage thrower) or black for the lingering souls flashback. Unfortunately, no evolving wilds or even traveler's amulet to make both work.

Gross pool, in my opinion. Really light on creatures, and not that great on removal either. Some fair bombs. I think the alternate to W/U is W/G, with a splash of red again. More reliable creatures that way, and wild hunger is pretty good in limited. I like colossal might in casual, and this happens twice.

Also, thanks for posting these. They're a lot of fun.

WU is very short on playables but I think it is the best way to go because of Murder of Crows and Dungeon Geists both having the ability to win games on their own. The red splash can be fairly deep. I want to splash Volley, Geistflame, and Heretic's Punishment, even though it's greedy. Shimmering Grotto will have to suffice for the Lingering Souls flashback. The thing is, if we don't play Heretic's Punishment, we're going to be playing an unplayable like Frightful Delusion.

The WG deck has a higher card quality and doesn't need to splash as heavily (plus it has an extra fixer), but I just don't see it winning as many games. It's definitely the other option here.

Color qualities:

White - A bunch of solid creatures, topped off by a good bomb in Requiem Angel. Lacking in removal, but solid overall.

Blue - Shallow unless you're going self-mill, which this pool can't pull off. At least you paid for your event with that Snapcaster! A couple really good cards pull me in this direction, like Dungeon Geist.

Black - Noble and Tribute make me want to go this route, but it's pretty rough after that.

Red - After Brimstone Volley and Geistflame, there's nothing telling me to go here.

Green - I'd normally say this was a bad pool for green, but Dawntreader Elk and Caravan Vigil will come in very handy, since I'm pretty much stuck going 3 colors.

Other - Vampire lord is wasted here, since there's all of 3 Vampires in the whole pool. Shimmering Grotto will be useful, but otherwise, the extras are pretty terrible. Mattock is the closest thing to playable there.

So it looks like I'll be going W/B/G. Red is very poor, and Blue's best cards demand a heavy color requirement (Geist, Claustrophobia, Crows). Also, that color combo gives me full use of 2 really good flashback cards (Lingering Souls and Deadly Allure). That leads to these playables:

That gives 34 playables, so 11 cuts. Some are easy.

First cut: Ghoulraiser (not enough Zombies), Chosen of Markov (not enough Vampires), Moonmist (not enough Werewolves), Heavy Mattock (not enough Humans). Awkward how I had one of each tribal effect in, and the Angel covers Spirits.

Down to 30. 7 more. Let's see...

Hamlet Captain - not enough humans to justify a bear, I think. Out.
Black Cat - I don't think it does enough. Out.
Disciple of Griselbrand - I don't have a way to abuse this. Out.
Village Survivors - Costs too much, and I don't trust Fateful Hour effects. Out.
Niblis of the Mist - Not a big fan of this. A decent creature, but not good enough for this pool. Out.
Sightless Ghoul - I never like creatures that can't block. Out.
Falkenrath Torturer - If Niblis of the Mist isn't making it, this certainly isn't. Out.

So with that set, here's my deck.

Also worth mentioning, I'd be very glad I opened Snapcaster in this pool, because I won't be expecting to do well. Overall, this is a really bad pool.

In this pool I would likely go W/U with a splash of red for geistflame and brimstone volley. There's enough token producers in white that I would just try to peck away at my opponents life a little bit at a time while playing blue for snapcaster, the geist, and murder.

I would say definitely playing White. Solid combination of tokens and flyers, lots of tapping to keep the opponent from advancing, and a big Angel for finish and more token making.

Red has Brimstone Volley and Geistflame that would make a nice third splash colour especially with that dual land, but very little past that.

Green is underwhelming. Some ok duders and some mana fixing, but nothing too special.

Blue has a couple of very nice cards in Murder of Crows and Dungeon Geists, but I think is a bit thin, and those two cards require some decent commitment to Blue.

Black is actually the secondary colour I would probably play. It has some removal, a number of good value creatures, and a bit more beef. Plus the "sacrifice a human" cards in Black play nice with your White human tokens, and the White cards that want to sacrifice themselves.

So I would probably try to build the deck as W/B/r

What was the Village Ironsmith originally?

Quote from stickman326

Black-Red seems very very strong here. And the fact that you got the Captain just pushes it. The black has very solid creatures and you can actually push vampires. HERETICS PUNISHMENT AND BRIMSTONE VOLLEY! must be nice. Although blue has claustaphobia, murder of crows, and the dungeon geists, the other cards are too weak and there aren't enough playables in U/W to go in that direction. I strongly believe R/B is the way to go

Including the lord, there are only 4 vampires (5 if you include Screeching Bat's night side). While I can see the case for BR, Vampires is not the reason.

B/W with red for Brimstone volley, heretic's punishment and Geist flame, as well as Stromkirk Captain and Bump in the night. Rage thrower makes white very good with those token generators, so he is a must if playing red. here's my list.

Quote from Hrist

Including the lord, there are only 4 vampires (5 if you include Screeching Bat's night side). While I can see the case for BR, Vampires is not the reason.

This is true, i didn't eman to put so much emphasis on vampires as much as i meant to say that first strike is an incredible boost to vampires. In this format First strike is incredible and the Captain just gives so much value. I gave the cards too quick of a look anyway and posted a better list

I would go UW splash red capitalizes on your bombs and mana fixing. Black and Green don't have enough to justify playing.

UB, maybe splash red but probably not.

Quote from stickman326

B/W with red for Brimstone volley, heretic's punishment and Geist flame, as well as Stromkirk Captain and Bump in the night. Rage thrower makes white very good with those token generators, so he is a must if playing red. here's my list.

This is exactly the route I would take if this were my sealed pool

Base white with blue or black as a secondary, splashing the red removal.

UW, maybe red splash

I think here I'm gonna be greedy. I see UWR, I have a dual land, and a grotto to fix, two of the best removal spells in the format in geist and brimstone, solid everything in W and a snapcaster for more value. I'm even playing the Murder of Crows, and Dungeon Geists too.

Most of the power in this pool is concentrated in blue and black, so I think that would be the best base for a deck. Beyond that, your manafixing is actually decent enough to support a splash of both white and red. After all, the grotto and the clifftop retreat each give you both white and red. This is the list I'd run:

Seriously, I'm convinced people just pick blue simply because "it's blue". I mean, Murder Of Crows, Snapcaster and some counter magic is nice, but there isn't really much else IMO.

I'd go GW with a tiny splash for black.

I think the best route is UW, with a red spalsh. Should be easy with a Clifftop Retreat and a Shimmering Grotto. May or may not even need a mountain.

I was thinking UBW with one of those colors getting splashed (not exactly certain which one and maybe a quite heavy splash). Basically some kind of esper skies deck.

W/B/r is probably the best bet Blue and Black are about equal to me though so I can see either way.

I feel this deck would want to splash for red though since it has the W/R dual and 2 nice burn spells.

White is probably the strongest overall color by itself though.

White/Blue with a Red splash for Brimestone Volley and the good removal. This isn't a pool that I would like to see.