MTG Salvation

Sharuum hoser for EDH.

Quote from windstrider

Emphasis mine.

This, right here, is the most important and significant part of your post. Red and red/black decks are not outclassed in the current meta because of the answers and choices that are available. As z mentioned elsewhere, red and red/black are seemingly spoiled for good card choices. If we're losing because of better draws or better plays, which can happen to anyone, then we're in a very good spot.

This is true. If I think about the games I've lost in the past tournaments I can put most of them into the "opponent topdecked the exact card/s needed to survive my onslaught" or "I made a play that wasn't optimal when I had the game winning play available" categories. Also had trouble sideboarding early on but now that I'm more familiar with both my deck and the meta that doesn't seem to be much of a problem for me anymore.

Quote from zemanjaski

How do you find 22 land?

Why am I the sad sap going to 24 because he can never cast anything?!

Statiscally speaking there's probably a very insignificant difference for me between running 22 or 24 as my curve stops at 4 and I focus on the early game. My sweet spot is actually at 3 where I can drop a Mauler and a Cackler together after a board wipe or just to put more pressure on.

And for the guy who asked about the Crippling Blight, it's ok, I won a coulpe of games because of it but since I run only 2 copies I can't really tell how much of a difference it makes. I can tell you that tragic slip is the first thing I SB out 99% of the time, looking for something to replace it at the moment.

Quote from zemanjaski

Can you post up a decklist? I am a little more open-minded with Lightning Mauler now and I just want to see what synergies he enables.

Like I said, I'll be trying the Knights over the Maulers and I have a feeling I'll like it better with them as they are a much better top deck most of the time and a relevant card against more than half of the meta.

3 Straight FNMs doing 3-1 with a Lightning Mauler/Hellhole Flailer variant.

Satisfied with it but I'm going to switch the Maulers for KoI and see how that performs.

I actually played this in the SB against control and it worked like a charm, but ended up cutting it for other SB cards. This topic makes me want to revisit the old saber.

Been playing a Lightning Mauler list for a while. Playing the Mauler puts you in the extreme side of the aggro spectrum and that's where I want to be.

Did 3-1 and then lost in the top8/4 in the last 2 tournaments. You can find the list I used in the tournament report topic but no game notes as I normally just post the results and then I leave again because its friday night and thats partay night for me.

FNM Report.

Same list I posted before.

2-1 Against BR Zombies
2-0 Against Jund Midrange
1-2 Against Junk Tokens
2-1 Against Esper Control
0-2 Against Jund Midrange.

Two things:

1: Deck looks weak if the Shamman is dealt with.

2: With all the burn you have the tragic slip looks out of place, if you burn a couple of creatures you'll run out of gas quickly, if you ignore creatures and throw everything to the dome you'll still run out of gas faily quick, so why no play faithless looting and get rid of lands you don't need for more burn?

Quote from zemanjaski

I don't want to have to run Lightning Mauler as well. Mauler is very obviously worse than Knight of Infamy or Ash Zealot, so if I am to play Mauler, it needs to be on its own merits ~ how does he fair without the Mauler in your estimation?

I'm guessing you're talking about the flailer in your last question. I definitely need to test it out more to give you a better answer, but I'd say it depends on whether you curve into it or not. Missing your first drop and then landing 2nd and following it with a Flailer, or landing first and missing second followed by a Flailer can be lackluster. If you force your opponent to sweep the board and then you land it he's OK in that he's an immediate threat and then he's great if he manages to swing at least once with self-fling mana open. Most of the time I have no intention of blowing him up, but the possibily affects the way my opponents play me.

Another reason I like having him in my deck is because I run Crippling Blight, and he's the one that takes the most advantage of it.

I'm actually quite pleased with the Flailer, with Lightning Mauler in the deck he can be pretty crazy, and the reach it provides is great.

I don't mind that he can't block because I'm on the offensive 90% of the time, and if he's not answered quickly he can take over against a lot of decks. He also puts the opponent in a tight situation if you follow it with an aristocrat.

Also, no problems with the mana, you can safely run 4 and up to 6 swamps no prob, maybe every now and then you might have issues with an Ash Zealot on 2nd turn but it's not common enough to dismiss the Flailer.

from last game day:

2-0 Junk Tokens
2-0 Esper Tokens
2-1 Jund Midrange
0-2 Esper Tokens

3-1 then lost 1-2 to another Esper Tokens in the top8.

List:



I had 3 Slaughter Games, 3 Rakdos Charm, and 3 electrickery in my SB, the rest were random 1-ofs since I didn't know the meta and I had done little testing with the deck. The lack of a defined SB certainly hurt me against Esper Tokens, but I'll be prepared for the next time.

I first contemplated a BR control build but some pieces just weren't there and pure aggro did seem to be a deck so I went ahead and put this together:



Only reason I don't have any Ash Zealots in there is because I don't own any, but I'll certainly test them in the future.

Anyways, I'll have some results to report soon enough.

Lightning Mauler + Hellhole Flailer seems very strong, might want to consider that.

Stab wound, Splatter Thug, Lobber Crew, Augur Spree