MTG Salvation

Quote from DarkUtopia1 »

i would suggest not to Play Genesis and hooded in one deck. You just cant get the Hydra with Genesis out. same as see the unwritten with too many hydras.

i like Blue a littel more cause you have Counter backup and a 6/6 Heyproof Guy. Not sure if a Kiora is good enough. On the other Side Xenagos, Stormbreath, Sarkhan, Burn is a Thing to go red.

FOr blue you have the painlands, for red not but you have fetchlands. i am also not sure if you have to go on a heavy Green/r/u way but the manafixing is a pain

I would have to agree here. Running See the Unritten and Genesis hydra in the same deck might be OK, but not Hooded hydra as well. Too many blank draws and whiff'd searches. I would keep 2 Hooded Hydra in the board, to side out See the Unritten against control strategies (if you have a fatty you shouldn't need two more against them, if you don't Hooded for 4 is better than almost anything you could hit).

But Surely we can all see that those conditions are easily met by having a 4/4 or larger? Especially since anyone building a Temur deck is likely to be trying to hit Ferocious for other cards anyway?

So, I'm on a desperate quest to find cool Insect tokens for Hornet Queen and Hornet Nest. Normally I'd hate to bother you guys when I have nothing to contribute myself but.....Please?

Quote from gibbousm »

Will Defender.dec be a thing....we need Vent Sentinal, right now Doorkeeper is the closest they have to a win condition.

Probably not. It is a fun looking card though.

How about: Axebane Gaurdian + Memnonic Wall + Twinflame? There's a win con for you (add and card draw or burn spell to win)!

If you can beat two of the Big three and Sideboard into an even sort of ok match with the third, you have a better deck than the big three.

This does not mean your deck will become a pillar of the format unless you can also pilot it to victory against the best teams out there.

I've since dropped the Fanatics for the 4th Courser and a pair of Gyre Sages. I personally hate Gyre Sage because it keeps promising to be a mana dork but never accelerates you into turn 3 4cmc plays. However since trying it in this spot I've learned to like the card a lot more. It manages to be a fairly aggressive play, often becoming a 3/4 for 2, and helps me see my 6+ mana spells in the later game. I like that she's two cmc so she allows certain play paths that Fanatic never did. (I.E. Turn 2 Gyre into Turn 3 Courser into Turn 4 Kalonian into Turn 5 Xenagod - Swing for 22)

After all my playtesting this is the version I took to the SCG Elite IQ:



I came in 14th place out of 100 or so Competitors. Overall I'm happy with the result (final score 5-2). It has been almost a year since I left competitive magic and I'm looking forward to re-entering the tournament scene, I'm hoping this deck can take me there. I'd love some help making it everything it can be so all input is welcome.

As you all can see I did go with the Fanatic but I have to say that many games he sat in my hand because I was able to play a 4-drop on turn 3 and then never look back. I think he got played more often on turn 6 off of a Xenagos +1 then he did on turn 2 or 3! I'm going to drop one of him so Courser can be a full four-of in the mainboard, that will free me one SB slot to react to some new decks I saw. I took GDP's advice and dropped Progenitor Mimic for Aetherling, I couldn't be happier with this decision.

My worst loss on Saturday was at the hands of a R/G monsters deck so I'm trying to shore up that MU a bit, since it's a really popular list. I'm thinking I'll drop a Gruul Ragebeast from the SB (bringing me to two slots), maybe something else if need be. This should give me two or three SB cards + small MB changes if needed to try and improve the G/R match. What would you guys suggest I change to beat them?

maybe too late here but what about

Two-edged Counterspell UU
Instant
Counter target spell
Whenever you cast a spell, if CARDNAME is your graveyard, cast it targeting that spell w/o paying it's mana cost.
If CARDNAME is cast this way, exile it.

Counters their spell for just two, but I hope you've got some fodder to throw away if you ever want to play a spell again.

This could be an interesting mechanic but i think it should keep the color specificity on what spells it reduces, the goal here is to make Red spells cost less if they are green or black, maybe only if they are green and black (get more specific) How about:

t: Add R to your mana pool

t: The next Red spell you cast this turn costs GB less to cast.

This way it only makes at most one "extra" mana. It cant let you cast a 1BRG spell on turn 2 all by itself like before.

EDIT: added "this turn" so it can't be tapped EoT then tapped again for 2cmc Jarard!

I like asking it to be a certain counter threshhold, i.e. "+2: Discard a card, if CARDNAME has less than 4 Counters Draw 2 cards instead." (CARDNAME probably starts at 3 Counters, so it's first ability draws and is good, but getting more is hard to do/bad. Point of order: it's minus would have to SUCK!

If the controller got to choose this guy would be SUICIDE against any aggro deck. I would say he should probably care more about what kind of spell (instant/ Sorcery being the obvious choice here). Maybe he could say "Whenever a player uses the scry action, Keranos deals 2 damage to target creature or player". This lets him hit players, which is important so he's not dead to control. It encourages players to play lots of scry in their deck to use it, he is the God of Epiphany after all! It also punishes other players for reaching for knowledge without Keranos permission, very flavorful.

I feel like this thread should be re-awoken now that we no the Devotion format for minor gods. Let me try one:

Kruphix, God of the Horizon 1UG

Indestructible
As long as your devotion to green and blue is less than seven Kruphix is not a creature.
Whenever you play a land for the first time in a turn you may reveal the top card of your library, if it is a land you may put it onto the battlefield.
3/5

I'll review and develop in order as follows:

Hydria of Ephara: I really like the activated ability on this but I think the triggered is going to far. So far, every other weapon (including the other four you've made) grants an ability to all creatures. I think you need to hold that pattern. In addition, this is WAY too good when Ehpara is on the board and becomes easily broken by critters with EtB effects. I would probably try something that played into ehpara's card draw by enhancing it w/o adding to it, something like; "creatures you control gain "whenever you draw on or more cards, untap this creature". Now it likes it when she draws you a card on the opponents upkeep (grants pseudo vigilance), but doesn't actually help you draw MOAR CARDS! (This also keeps the activated from getting too difficult to overcome). The activated should cost 5cmc, maybe 4 for spike.

Cloak of Phenax: This card as Serious Problems. First off, I see what you're doing here, the hexproof keeps your walls safe while they mill prople down and the copy lest you turn sylvan or omenspeaker into a dead hover barrier for more mill. It uses copying, graveyards, creature protection...it's very U/B so good job there. Ufortuneately it's also very broken. This card would make MUD basically immune to control decks like Black. It dosen't get used with pheanax, it gets used instead of him. The scond ability here is particuarly bad, This is a totally superior version of the whip's ability and not even coming from the god of the dead! I would likely try to interact more with phenax himself. Maybe you could move hexproof to the activated (i.e. 1UB[Sym=Tap]: Target creature gains Hexproof (this lets you block auras). Not sure, you're the designer, but I'd go back to the drawing board on this one.

Axe of Mogis: This is great. I love the way it interacts with Mogis the god. If they pay the life, it kills a creature, if they sac a dude, it still kills a creature! TBH I think the only thing that could be improved is if the ability it gave the creatures was better when the opponent has no blocker (since they often wont with this a mogis on the board!). Maybe it could give +1/+0 (and staff can get something else)?

Staff of Xenagos: I think I like this, TBH it seems like overkill when paired with the god and not very good when not. I would have it give dudes trample, thats what Xenagos really needs! the activated could be almost anything creatury (not an actual word), maybe it could make mana to help you get out the big satyr, and for synergies with Walkergos? Im honestly not sure what this should be, but what it is feels both too weak (or miserly is maybe the word, too sparing with it's effects) and too much like Fires of Yavimaya. I also wanted to point out that while he has his staff in both pictures (Walkergos and Xenagod) he has a bowl in God form that might be better cast as his God Weapon, creatures can drink his brew to go berserk etc etc....

Scythe of Karametra: Had to look up her artwork to see she had a Scythe, good catch. Once again this costs the same as the god, which it competes with her more than it compliments her, it also ramps better than her (way better) and that's a problem. Outside of Commander I can't see both this and Karametra being in the same deck. This card is really good but not entirely broken. I feel it's main fail is in it's inability to make playing the god alongside it appealing (see: Spear of Heliod for another example of this, if my dudes have vigilance, can't I just block attackers?). The activated is maybe broken here, but probably fine, I might make it 5cmc and just gives to all your creatures, or abandon it for something that uses lands more (with this out the 5 lands that cast it can pump 8 creatures so it's unlikely I'll need to ramp with karametra to make use of this). A for making internal sense with itself, and F for failing to make sense with it's owner. Sidenote: Has great use with Nylea but that's not the goal (might even be a bad thing).

Overall I think you're on the right track with these and I'd love to see you try again. I think it's worth noting in general that a weapon should have a different converted mana cost than it's god as this allows them to go in the same deck more often. The only one in the core 5 that dosn't follow this rule is the Whip, and it would be fair at 5 cmc anyway.

I see FAR too few Eidolon of Countless Battles. This card is a walking Ethereal Armor, one of the best cards in the deck already. He comes right on curve at three mana after a Hero of Iroas. I think any of the Aura heavy versions should be running him at 3-4 copies. Try him, you'll like him.

I kinda like the idea of fog, or one of it's standard cousins. I'll try to find some room for that SB. To be honest, Ral and Domri keep rotating in and out of the MB/SB. Right now the verdion I'm testing is this:



I'm trying a version that plays Fanatic of Xenagos MB. It's a bit more aggressive this way and Kalonian Hydra has out performed Arbor Colossus heavily in my playstests (except against MUD where reach matters). Overall it seems better than the other deck but I still don't have a MBC deck or a G/W weenie opponent to playtest against. Fanatic has been great no denying that. What do you guys think of Prgenitor Mimic? Where would you put Fog?

I second TwinSais, but I add that I think Naya Midrange with a bit too much removal can be a good deck if it plays to your style better than traditional Naya. Try it out, as you make changes you may find you need more card draw in order to really be the control half of the Control/Beatdown equation. If that's the case, Chandra is an OK option but you may want to look into Blue or Black to get good card draw options. Within Naya the only card I can think of to help you draw heavier would be Courser.....or Domri, the both of them work well to help you eat through lands and critters. By doing so they'll also help you get to the spells you need.