MTG Salvation

I have been playing around with this deck, and have had some success with it. I haven't been able to take it to a FNM or any type of tournament yet, but I plan on taking it soon. I was just wondering if ramp is a viable deck, and if there are any improvements that can be made. Maybe add a third color?

A few things:
- Ruric Thar is pretty amazing, and the deck is mainly built around him. I run three because he is legendary.
- Verdant Haven with Arbor Elf is a good combo. Verdant Haven gains me a little life, and can start producing a lot of mana early on.
- You may notice a few singletons. They are there because I do not want to see them all that often. I will be drawing a decent amount with Domri, and if I have Garruk out.

The Godly plays:
T1: Land, Arbor Elf
T2: Land, Verdant Haven/Borderland Ranger/Zhur-Taa Druid
T3: Land, any 6 or 5 drop.

W/x Humans are actually pretty good as stated above. Also, B/W exalted is decent as well; the deck performs amazing with Sublime, but it can still be done without her. Green Stompy is okay, but it can be pricey the more you improve it.

What is your budget?

Here is my version of a B/W sacrifice-human deck.



The lands base is just generic. Change it to what feels right.

Anyways, you need to sacrifice your humans in order to get the High Priest's ability rolling and popping out demons. Roughly your main win condition is that little guy right there. Demonlord of Ashmouth is a secondary win-con as well as Falkenrath Torturer, kinda.

Do not be scared to sacrifice your Disciple's and your Flayer. Also, sacrificing your Torturer to a Disciple could gain you a decent amount of life if you need to. I think that everything else speaks for itself.

It is a possibility to replace the Ashmouth's with Ravenous Demon, but I feel that Ashmouth is more reliable; although popping out a 9/9 on turn 6 and attacking that same turn would be game over. (Note: you shouldn't activate its ability till turn six because if you do it turn 5 you would have to sac another creature.)

All in all, the deck is dirt cheap. The rares should cost you less than $5 total, but the deck overall may cost about $10~ish I imagine.

Well, with that kind of money then you can easily build RDW and be competitive. If I were you I would go to the R/x Aggro section under Established Competitive and you should find what you are looking for; that is if you want to play RDW. If you are dead set on black then you could try mono black control, or B/W exalted. Those two are decent and can be budget friendly if built properly.

What is your budget? You can build a very good RDW for a decently cheap price. If you really want to play black then you can also go to the more Dos Rakis style of RDW, but that will cost you a decent amount. The lands alone would cost you close to $60~ish, and the total deck could cost close to if not over $200.

Here is a really rough idea for your deck.


Now I don't know why you would want Heartless Summoning in a deck that is centered on +1/+1 counters. To me that hurts this type of deck tremendously. Yeah, you can bring out your Regent faster, but when playing a green deck there will be some kind of ramp to help out.

Also, I am not sure as to how this deck will run without any of the G/B dual lands (not including the gate).

Anyways, this is how the deck works:
You start out slow, play Arbor Elf for ramping or Slitherhead to block. Bring out a Dreg Mangler or Vampire Nighthawk for early damage and/or blocking. You need to also get Champion of Lambholt out as soon as possible since her ability pretty much makes the deck. If you have the Champion and Corpsejack out then that is when the shenanigans start.
Regent is in there for a big flier that also helps the deck out pumping up your creatures, and Desecration Demon is in there to either bring out a big bomb early, or protect yourself in a pseudo-type way from attackers.

As for spells, you need some protection from attackers since you need a few turns for your deck to get pumping, so that is why you have 6 kill spells. The Golgari Charms can be very useful if used properly; yes, destroying an enchantment or doing a small bard wipe against 1/1's are nice, but the regeneration is key here. Yes, if your opponent plays a board wipe then play the Charm, but what you can do is swing with all of your creatures; some may die some may not, but once they die you can regenerate them and have your board presence back to where it was to begin with (But they still come into play tapped, so try not to leave yourself too wide open.)

The price here shouldn't be too bad. I would say your main rares should cost you less than $20 all together. If I were you I would seriously invest in a good land base, since having at least one set of the rare-duals is better than nothing.

If you are dead set on the Heatless Summoning, then I would take out all the creatures with a CC of 3 or less. I guess you could then just put in big cards in their place, but if you do that then you are absolutely dependent on bringing out the Heartless Summoning since without it it would take you many turns just to drop one creature.

Drop the War Falcons and the single guttersnipe and add in Kessig Malcontents

Also think about Zealous Conscripts and Vigilante Justice. The Conscripts is really amazing; steal an opponents bomb and kill them with it, or take their planeswalker for a turn, etc.

I would move the Sundering Growths to the sideboard and take out the Bonds of Faith. I would then replace them with 3 O-Rings and increase the Rancor to a 4 of. That is just my suggestion; take it or leave it. Other than that, I think it looks pretty good.

Well, you could always splash green and ramp the dragons out with Arbor Elf, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Farseek, Borderland Ranger, etc. I mean, I love dragons as much as the next guy, but playing a Dragon Tribal deck is tough stuff. And like you said, Heartless Summoning would work too.

Here is a rough outline of a mono-white human deck that I believe would work very well. I mean, you have a lot of good cards, so this is just one deck you could make.

So I have been playing my BUW version of this, and it has been decent; although I have always felt that something was missing, and I just couldn't figure out what. After reading Mike Cannon's article and reviewing his list I can understand more on why it wasn't running the way I wanted it to. (Thank you machineza for linking us to the article!)

Anyways, I have looked over his list and have made a few slight adjustments, (miniscule really) that I think would benefit the deck. Here is my list:



First off, you may ask why is there an Angel of Serenity even mentioned in the Budget Forum? Well, I was lucky, and pulled one awhile back during a sealed tournament.

Anyways, the first thing I want to say is that I really like this deck. I have been playing it on Cockatrice and have had really good results, so I have decided to build it and take it to FNM this week. I have a diverse creature selection in the main and side so that I won't have to fear Slaughter Games and Nevermore. I personally like Sphinx of Uthuun better than the Archon due to the Sphinx automatically doing something when he enters the battlefield, plus he is stronger.

I added the Divine Reckonings because I felt that an extra board wipe (or two) would be helpful, and so far I haven't been disappointed. Also having Cyclonic Rifts are very helpful, but I dropped them down to two and put in a Charm. The Charm is good in that it is very diverse; if I need to gain some life then wahla, if I need to draw a card then I can, if an unexpected creature came out of nowhere then I can get rid of it for a bit. But even though the Charm is good, Rift is a tad better just because it can deal with anything at anytime and also be a temporary board wipe if overloaded.

I also have one Sphinx's Revelation and one Jace 4.0, can anyone see a place for them? Right now everything has been running extremely smoothly, and I'm not sure that adding those two cards would even benefit my deck. I'll probably just sell or trade my Jace 4.0.

EDIT: Apparently I can't count to save my life. Anyways, I got rid of the Azorius Charm. I also added in a Sphinx's Revelation in place of one Inspiration.

It honestly depends on how you want to make the deck. There are a few different ways you can make this deck. One is the Hellrider route, and one is the Dos Rakis route. This is what I would do at least:

-2 Lightning Mauler
-1 Rakdos Charm
-1 Nightbird's Clutches
-3 Guildmage
-4 Rakdos Shredfreak

+1 Knight of Infamy
+2 Stromkirk Noble
+1 Stonewright
+3 Ash Zealot (Unless you are able to get more dual lands then I advise on not running 4)
*+1 Hellhole Flailer, +3 Some type of finisher*

*If you play Hellrider then just put in 4 of them. If you use another type of finsher, say Rakdos, Lord of Riots, then I would put in 3 and the other spot go to the Flailer.

If you aren't able to get the Nobles and/or the Zealots then I would put back in the Shredfreaks.

I would also suggest switching the two Brimstones from the Side to the Main in place of the Mortars and Devils Play.

Personally, I do not like Vexing Devil that much because it gives your opponent a choice. Sure, playing a 4/3 or doing 4 to the face on turn one is pretty good, but besides that you will never get what you want out of it. Also, playing a Noble or a Cackler I feel is better on the turn one play.

If you are dead set on playing the Devil then I would suggest having them in place of the Hellhole Flailer. Now do not get me wrong, the Flailer is actually really good. I run Flailer in my list and I love him.

Here is what I have been running on Cockatrice with some decent results.



I have had some decent results with this list, but it still needs some work to it. I'm probably going to do the following changes:

+2 Divine Reckoning
+1 O-Ring

-2 Inaction Injunction
-1 Unsummon

I added Supreme Verdict to the list because this deck needs a true board wipe when you are facing an army of creatures and you have none of your own. Ultimate Price is an all-star, and Nefarox is a beast. But I would have to say that the MVP of the deck is Fettergeist; without him we couldn't do any early blocking or any early damage. I've really liked him in here.

Quote from Voyaging

Properly built RDW is top tier deck imo.

It depends on which type of RDW you are playing. If you are playing the version with Hellrider then I agree; that deck can cost less than $50. If you are playing Dos Rakis then I disagree. Dos Rakis can easily reach up to $200.

You can play a pretty good RDW for less than $20.



If you want to spend more then buy Hellkites, Stromkirk Nobles, Ash Zealots