MTG Salvation

I tested up a couple of versions of the hive mind / gifts deck and it just didn't feel as strong as other options. In a dedicated combo shell, it felt like 4 mana to set up to win a turn or 2 later wasn't all that strong and in a control shell, the deck just got too diluted and felt like it should just be either 4c gifts or American Control. Just my personal experiences. If people want me to post the versions I tried so that they can tweak them and try to find a better build, I can post them.

All in all. I was really excited by this concept, but it didn't feel as strong in practice as I had hoped.

grim lavamancer is a bit of a pain too at 1 toughness. and it can kill a pestermite while tapped out. Not that i feel it's strong enough. Just thought i'd play devil's advocate. Also hits dark confidant, a ton of stuff in the mirror, and snapcaster mage as an added bonus.

I played several games yesterday pre-sideboard (bobbth's list) against an RG zoo deck. It didn't feel like a very fun matchup for the deck. What would you sideboard in for that matchup? I got trounced pretty heavily. I had to throw away so many cards just to try and deal with all the three toughness creatures. obviously anger comes in, what else? and what comes out.

Bobbth. Can I inquire as to the lack of lightning bolts in your list? Did you test them and decide they just weren't doing enough? Your list seems really light on burn spells entirely. Have you had any trouble with more aggressive creature matchups like affinity merfolk twin, etc?

Hey folks. I have been running the creatureless pox list and have been running into some pretty heavy trouble with burn. Does anyone have any tips for that matchup? Any good sideboard tech or cards that have been all stars in the burn matchup?

I would really really recommend shrapnel blast. the extra reach 3 shrapnel blast gives you is huge, and it plays well at filling in for ravager in the case of letting you dodge removal for some added benefit. I'd take out probe probably

Hey, I wanted to brew up a little not very competitive deck for some multiplayer kitchen table games, and this seems to be the place for it. Vedalkan anatomist is one of my pet favorite cards. I am not entirely certain why, but I really love the card, the artwork, the effect. it just seems all sorts of fun. It's not a very powerful card but it's effects are fun. So I though i would come to you with advice as to how to use it to proper effect.
Here is the first draft of the deck.




This version focuses on -1/-1 counters and making use of them.
it lets you play a fun game of politics by leaving counters on things or tapping or untapping your opponent's blockers to make them targets or to help them kill a troublesome creature.

Deck Idea number 2:




this deck seeks to abuse training grounds and has a bunch of fun ways to do so.

I'd love to hear if you guys have any suggestions as to how to improve either of these lists, or have ideas of your own as to how to break vedalkan anatomists.

May I ask why lightning axe over lightning bolt? the card disadvantage seems like it would be rough even though we have the best card advantage engine in the format and the ability to dome someone for 3 with lightning bolt really is good. Also, How has conflagrate been for you. Theoretically it seems like it would be a weak card. If it ends up weak in testing, I would recommend trying out smallpox, jund charm, pyroclasm, or more cheap removal like abrupt decay or terminate. In my testing, The mana in this deck has always been tight. Playing right, you always use all of your mana and are looking for ways to be more mana efficient. As such, I have leaned towards a 3-2 split of burning vengeance and seismic assault. I have also worried about burning vengeance becoming too much of a do nothing card if you don't have anything to flashback or retrace. Have you ever run into the problem of drawing too many burning vengeances?

lastly. I have been considering picking up squee and running him (my version is currently creatureless) would you recommend it? Is the full playset really worth it?

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. But I believe that mana abilities are different from other activated abilities in that they can't be reponded to. You don't actually pass priority after activating a mana ability. As such, there is no time in which your opponent can kill the burning tree emissary without you getting the mana for it. if they try and kill first, you activate nykthos, and if they try to kill after you activate nykthos you should already have the mana.

you should check out briarpack alpha. perhaps in place of skylasher. it's a little bigger and combat tricks allow you to make it a 2 for one in not that unusual situations.

Quote from Lectrys

Those two enchantments are options, and I have seen them in some builds. They're not very good third cards in the Form + Dovescape partial lock because they can't deal with X/2+'s that are already in play, but they're good fourth cards.

Alternately, there's always Oblivion Ringing/Detention Sphereing Lavamancer and Nevermoreing Ulamog.

I was thinking as a follow up to solidify the lock after form, dove scape, illusion, and finish up with curse stopping anything else. But that may be overkill.

Lectrys. Some of the decks are running black these days right? As such, wouldn't night of soul's betrayal, or curse of death's hold stop even redcap and lavamancer? This gives a good lock on just about any deck without having to worry too much about running subpar cards. It does stick us in four colors though, which I am wary of. I'm definitely going to try running one archetype in my (admittedly outdated) ruw build.

Hey Guys, Its me again with another episode of "Is this too crazy or might it just work" I know that the package most people use to lock their opponents out of the game is Form + Dovescape + phyrexian unlife these days. which is pretty good but still gives your opponent a chance to hit you. What if we now replace the phyrexian unlife with archetype of imagination the new enchantment creature. i know it's harder to cast than unlife, and isn't as good against decks like burn, or fast aggro decks. It also is easier to remove without dovescape on the field, but it serves the purpose of completely blocking our opponents out of attacking us and can attack back for some extra damage if we want to try and take a turn off our clock? a shock land plus a swing from the archetype means one less dragon that needs to hit our opponent. What do you guys think?

For those of you who havent sseen archetype of illusion
4UU
Enchantment Creature — Human Wizard Uncommon
Creatures you control have flying.
Creatures your opponents control lose flying and can't have or gain flying.
"Is it not the embodiment of our aspirations?"
—Prokopios, astronomer of Meletis
Illus. Robie Trevino #32/165 3/2

So, I have really enjoyed watching this thread for a while now, and as it appears to have died down in popularity, I thought it would be my turn to give back with some of the more amusing budget decklists I know of.



Key Interactions:
trading post + precursor golem/thopter foundry = recur a lot of artifacts with one artifact

trading post + wellspring = draw a lot of cards
trading post + spine of ish sah = repeated permanent removal.

This deck abuses trading post as a card engine, as well as allowing you to recur artifact creatures to use enter the battlefield effects. It was designed for use in multiplayer modern games as that is what I play mostly. hence, the large quantities of mass removal and lack of spot removal. the Main non-budget upgrades would be Solemn Simulacrum, batterskull, and mox opal and/or a splash of black/white for hand disruption/noncreature removal respectively.

I have considered trying out a kuldotha forgemaster, lightning greaves, platinum angel package too but haven't done it yet.
Other budget options are myr battlesphere, lightning bolt,

Quote from Honor Basquiat

I'm a little confused how this deck works, what happens if you draw your Meishin, the Mind Cage or Dovescape before you resolve Enduring Ideal, or even worse you draw your Form of the Dragon in your opening hand? It seems like See Beyond[/CARD] would be a must run, or is there something I'm missing?

Do you always want to play Enduring Ideal as soon as possible, or do you want to hard cast some of the enchantments first?

If you draw into important enchantments, you have several options. What you do is largely determined by your opponent's deck and the present state of the board. If you look at barley's list, He has doubled up on every important enchantment to minimize needing to hardcast something before enduring ideals. He also has molten psyche to shuffle enchantments back into his deck if he needs to wait until after enduring ideals to grab them.

I personally run mistveil plains, so that it doesn't matter if the enchantments get stuck in hand as I can eventually discard them and put them back into my library. As long as I can still lock my opponents out of the game, I can cast enduring ideals safely knowing that I will eventually hit a mistveil plains. I have noticed that I should really put in a second form of the dragon to avoid random exile effects like bitter ordeal, but I haven't yet gotten around to doing it. I also run possibility storm which will often tuck unwanted enchantments back on the bottom of my library for later use.