MTG Salvation

I feel that this deck is quite weak against a good Esper control player. My track record against Esper is something like 1-6 from pre-release weekend up to now. That being said I love the play style of this deck. It always seems to have the answers your need, although not always when you need it.

ps. Thoughts on auger spree

Quote from holynorth

I'm still going BWG and believe it to be the best version of midrange.

Im going to agree with you there.

I am having a lot of fun with the Nighthawk+silverblade combo though, and for the most part I can put my name in the deck designer spot. If I get to a "Must-Win" situation ill be rebuilding my BW into BWG.

Quote from SpookyDoom

@Fuzzy, what was your impression of Orzhov Charm in terms of removal? I'll be honest, I love it. It'll give you extra value out of your Guildmages, because that card gets greedy with your lifepoints. Everytime I've used it however, I appreciated it..

Still in testing phase with them. But i can see a lot of shenanigans with them vs. targeted removal. Bounce my Silverblade to my hand rather than it taking a Pillar to the face.... YES PLEASE.

Quote from Fuzzy24

Ill drop LS for Messengers in some fun games tonight. BO is a card that just too good to drop. This should bring the creature count up to 22.

Any idea what should take up Sorin's spot. Good Lilli or would you throw in some more creatures?

Quote from Fuzzy24

Ghost Who's your Daddy?Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures:18 3 Vizkopa Guildmage (*) 4 Silverblade Paladin 4 Vampire Nighthawk 4 Restoration Angel 3 Obzedat, Ghost Council Spells:18 2 Tragic Slip 3 Blind Obedience 2 Ultimate Price (*) 4 Lingering Souls 2 Oblivion Ring 2 Exquisite Blood (*) 1 Mutilate	Plainswalkers: 2 2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (*) Lands:24 4 Godless Shrine 4 Isolated Chapel 7 Plains 7 Swamp 2 Vault of the Archangel	SB 2 Rest in Peace 2 Terminus 2 Faith's Shield 2 Sever the Bloodline 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 2 Devour Flesh 1 Mutilate 1 Glaring Spotlight

After Some Testing I found the following:

Tested:
Geralf's Messenger does not quite fit in this deck. I like the card but it was a uncastable card in hand when i needed that blocker about 40% of the time.

Liliana of the Veil trumps Sorin, Lord of Innistrad in almost all matches. Its a 3 drop which clutters my 3 drop quite a bit but there is very few times i didn't like seeing her. Especially with lingering souls in hand.

Mutilate or Terminus needs to be run MB as a 1- or 2-of. Mutilate is less of a dead card if you draw it on T1-T3.

Lingering Souls is still great in this deck. My meta does not run significant token hate. I would consider running Knight of Infamy over LS, if my meta changes.


Considering/Testing:

Victim of Night over Ultimate Price. Its BB vs 1B Victim hits almost all the problematic creatures except for Huntmaster and Olivia. Removing Zombies generally is just an attempt in futility.

SB:
Needs some work still.


New Deck list:

Quote from goropeza

Honestly, I don't think Messenger would be that greedy. If you cut Lingering Souls, Sorin, and Blind Obedience (all of which I think are cuttable cards anyway) you can get away with running more swamps and make that play pretty realistic.

Ill drop LS for Messengers in some fun games tonight. BO is a card that just too good to drop. This should bring the creature count up to 22.

Quote from marinermichael

I cut Sorin also . . . BO is now in my main since I can never remember a time it was out on my side and it hurt me verses helped me. I play 4 Messengers and can't really remember having a color mana issue . . . I always wish I had more lands out, but not really a color issue.

Any idea what should take up Sorin's spot. Good Lilli or would you throw in some more creatures?

Quote from goropeza

Guilmages can do a lot of things, but they are mainly competitive in Limited Formats only. In Limited, they are powerhouses, but in Constructed, where power cards reign supreme, they are only good in situational circumstances.

I think you should cut Lingering Souls + Sorin for some more dudes. I'm not saying they are not powerful cards, but as soon as you run into someone whos playing Illness in the Ranks in his SB, you have a LOT of dead cards in the deck. In other words, they have great synergy, but if you're looking to go more competitive with it, it's too easily hated out.

I think you run a bit too much removal as well, and Excuisite Blood is pretty bad. I think it's interesting you run 3x Blind Obedience with only 18 creatures, but if you put Rox Faithmender in the MB, that decision might make more sense. If you did that, with ur Nighthawks paired with Silverblades + Obzedat + extort triggers, you could have yourself a MASSIVE amount of lifegain. Now that's some value...

Edit: You are not running green so my Thragtusk comment has no weight. Maybe Geralf's Messenger instead?

Thinking out loud:

Geralf's Messenger - Although I really like the card I think its a bit greedy. From my testing I can consistently get WW and/or BB by turn 4 but BBB seems to be a stretch.

Cuts: (- Cons + Pros)
Guildmage: - Utility Creature + combo piece
Exquisite Blood: - Slow "Win More" Card + combo piece + Very Good Against slower decks
Sorin: - Lackluster

Considering:
Rhox Faithmender: - Not quite sold on this card only because its a 4 drop and I have a Stacked 3 drop slot.
Sign in blood : + a draw mechanic would be useful
Liliana of the Veil: - another 3 drop
High Priest of Penance: Removal n creature form
Knight of Infamy/Glory: + pro Black/White + Exalted

Notes:
Blind obedience is the only extort trigger I have. It slows some decks down + generally it sticks around till end of the game.

Lingering Souls - very little decks have a current token strategy in my meta. Ive run into 1 Curse of death's hold but it was a singleton SB card.

Thanks for advice goropeza. It has been taken under consideration.

I've been playing a decent B/W Ghost Dad/ Combo Deck that's proving to be difficult to deal with. It does have a few limitations and i would love to improve the deck to to top tier I was wondering if you guys could give some suggestions as to what needs to change.




The deck seems to work very well but there is a few spots that needs tweaking.

Against Aggro:
-2 Sorin -2 Exquisite Blood -3 Guildmage +2 Devour Flesh +2 Terminus +1 Mutilate +1 Sever
This options seems to keep the Aggro players under control while I stall for Board position
Record in competitive play/testing is 6-2

Zombies:
-2 Sorin -2 Exquisite -2 Ultimate Price -3 Guildmage +3 Thalia +2 Devour +2 Sever +2 Rest in Peace
Devour Flesh in for Ultimate price to deal with Multi-color threats but it does weaken some of my removal options. Need to find room for terminus in the SB strategy
Record : 0-2

Against Midrange:
Play deck as is for the most part. Its been a very consistent deck against midrange. Sorin is replaced in some games by Devour Flesh just for the extra removal. I feel Sorin brings little to this match up but it requires some more testing
Record: 6-2

Control:
-2 Tragic slip -3 Guildmage -1 Mutilate +1 Glaring Spotlight +3 Thalia +2 Faith's Shield
Ive had limited testing against Control. The meta in my area is tuned towards Aggro/Midrange.
Record : 0-3


Any help on Tweaking th Deck would be very greatly appreciated as i will be playing some bigger and more competitive FNMs starting next week.

Played and tested this deck




Very strong once you get rolling. Lifegain is king in this deck. Rhox Faithmender is not needed in this deck, exquisite blood does what he would do and more.


V. Aggro.
+2 Sever, +2 Devour, + 2 Terminus -2 Sorin, -2 Exquisite Blood, -2 Viskopa guildmage
This seemed to work very well against fast aggro decks (tested against WW, Boros burn) that you want to manage until you have control over the board.

V Midrange
+2 Devour -2 Sorin
This seemed adequate against the Saito Naya Deck. I was able to disrupt his gameplan long enough to get obzedat out and flicker it with a Silverblade in hand.

V Control (Hardest matchup)
+ 3 Thalia, +2 Faith's Shield +1 Faith's reward, +2 Devour Flesh -3 Viskopa Guildmage, -2 Blind Obedience - 1 Dead Weight, -2 Ultimate Price
This seems to be the best strategy against Control. I still got slaughtered by Grixis control deck.



Notes:
Mizzium Mortars is deadly against this deck.

Ill be testing the following:




SB is still a work in progress

• 1 Blind Obedience
  
• 2 Mutilate
  
• 2 Sever the bloodline
  

The main thing is to put pressure on the opponent with silverblade+nighthawk while the guildmage+exquisite blood comes out.

For SB I'm thinking throwing in a few anti control cards like Thalia, faith's shield and even faith's reward. I may throw in an Ajani, Lilli or Sorin just for utility plainswalkers.

Edit:
@cnmoore27: Your chalice suggestion is agreat one. It will make a SB appearance

@7r1ck573r: Your deck list looks interesting but I'm not sure you will get the most out of blood artist without a sac outlet or sweepers. My favourite play ever has been casting killing wave for 3 with 5 creatures including 2 blood artists on board to do 10 damage to my opponent who stabilized a turn before.

Quote from Lord of Atlantis

it doesn't work like that. You have to resolve extort before the permanent enters the battlefield. That means Exquisite Blood won't be in play by the time extort resolves.

Thanks. I was under the impression that that casting has to resolve before the Extort trigger.

Great Deck list btw.

Dont forget extort triggers. Vizkopa Guildmage -> Exquisite Blood with extort enabler on board would be hilarious.

Or

Exquisite Blood on board T6 - Vizkopa Guildmage + extort

Edit: added 2nd play

Math is Hard
Assuming you didn't miss a land drop. Goddless Shrine + swamps on board
T4 = 4 mana - Crypt Ghast
T5 = 10 mana - Enable Guildmage ability (3 - Godless Shrine Taps for WB as it is a swamp) - Exquisite Blood (5) - Double extort = Win!