MTG Salvation

Quote from whyjesse »

Chalice is the best card against storm, ad naus, and other random combo.

What are some other uses for natural state?

I'd totally agree. However, Chalice here would lock out quite a few cards for our own deck too. Hierarch, PTE, Stirrings, even EE for 1

Quote from IslandsAreBroken »

Fast combo is going to be tough for a deck like Bant Eldrazi - it's on the list of bad matchups together with decks like Valakut and Ad Nauseum (thankfully Ad Nauseum is out of the picture atm). Your GY hate cards will be your best strategy, along with counterspells and TKS disruption. Worship isnt bad either but they will bounce it - be prepared for that. Board in any and all 'sweepers' - such as EE or ratchet bomb if you play that to deal with goblin tokens. Also be weary of Blood Moon - there are many ways to lose to Storm - its just really rough for bant eldrazi..

Thanks for the pointers. Makes a whole lot of sense to leave the EEs in, since both Baral and Electomancer are 2cmc. And yeah, tokens are 0 so easy wipe.

Also as you've pointed out, my greatest fear running Eldrazi, be it Bant, Boros or Tron, is really Blood Moon - Boros may get away a little easier, but it really is game over if you don't have colorless...

For general anti-combo, however, I am thinking about running something unexpected - Thorn of Amethyst is what I have in mind - Thalia, Guardian of Thraben may have a booty...i mean, body to come along, but she's easily removed compared to Thorn. Aside from Storm, it delays the ramps for Titanshift as well, together with making removal in other decks more costly. I get that it doesn't impose a cost on storm copies though. Sure it adds on to our own noncreature costs as well, but I think it's more of a 'hurts them more than it hurts us' situation, given that we don't run that many noncreatures. Diggable via Stirrings too.

What do you guys think?

Hey guys, kinda new here. Kinda.

Thinking about running Bant Eldrazi for my local pptq this week - just wondering, for the most recent decklist posted, how would it do against Storm? From the list i'd suppose the best way is to get a Smasher or multiple big creatures around + worship after boarding?

So basically turning the new Sarkhan into a creature just makes it eligible for Clone's ability, but Clone still copies the base card even if the 'real' Sarkhan is not a planeswalker at the point of copying?

I know that there has been questions in the past about cloning planeswalkers, but it isn't the same thing that I want to ask.


We know that Cloning an animated Gideon Jura will result in an unanimated Gideon Jura hitting play with 6 loyalty (regardless of who's cloning it) because clone doesn't copy effects that last till EOT.

However, with the new Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, I've got the following question....

The Situation:
Say I control a Sarkhan Vol, and my opponent controls Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. It's his turn now, and he uses the first ability to turn Sarkhan into a 4/4 Dragon, then attacks me with it. Assuming that I've got the ability to play a creature spell at 'instant speed' (Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Leyline of Anticipation etc) and I choose to cast Clone, announcing that it enters play as a copy of the 'creature' Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. My question is - do I need to choose between my Sarkhan Vol and my Clone Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker creature?


What I think:

Sarkhan Vol is a PW with the subtype 'Sarkhan'. However, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker's ability specifies that it becomes a creature and it doesn't state that it's still a planeswalker (unlike both Gideons). What I think is that since my Clone copies the 'creatured' Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, it's a Legendary Dragon with the name Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker but it does not have the subtype of 'Sarkhan' (my understanding is that only Planeswalkers have such subtypes?) and hence, there isn't any need for me to choose between the two of them. Both Clone and Sarkhan Vol can be in play at the same time. I also think that the 'clone' enters without any loyalty counters, because Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker isn't a planeswalker when Clone resolves.


Am I right?

Just saw the card Rain of Gore . It's stated in the gatherer that it does not apply to 'lifelink'.

Can someone explain why? As far as I know, lifelink is an ability, and thus would fulfill the text stated on the rules text of Rain of Gore?

Thanks for the replies. However, just for clarification's sake, when can we NOT use spells/abilities then? Which phases/steps in a turn?

I came across this situation while playing EDH recently:

I had a Brion Stoutarm, Deep-Slumber Titan (Untapped) in play. I declared that I was attacking with the Titan only and my opponent uses Mistmeadow Witch's ability to 'blink' my Brion Stoutarm before the declare blockers step. He then proceeds to take 7 damage and goes down to 5 life.

As Brion Stoutarm comes back during the start of the 'End Phase' (tell me if I'm wrong), if I had In the Web of War in play, can I then immediately use Brion's ability to fling the Titan during the end step as soon as it comes in (Web of war giving it haste) and I've got priority?

If I cloned an Elesh Norn (both under my control), will my opponents' creatures get -4/-4? I know the legend rule kills both the legend and the copy, but because Clone ETBs as Elesh Norn and has the static effect, just wondering if it will happen before they both get put into the graveyard.

Simple question but just needed to check:

If I had parallel Lives and Geist of Saint Traft in play, attacking would produce 2 tokens. Question is, are both exiled at the end of combat or only one? Geist's rules text states "Exile that token at end of combat", which I would think refers to the token that it creates and the token generated by Lives/Season would not have this effect on it?

You might want to consider running Harsh Mercy. Sure, it sucks against another tribal, but against anything else, it's still a board wipe...and it will never ever affect your own creatures too.

Quote from Compactly Supported

I find myself agreeing with the majority of this post. However, I do have to wonder what happens when strategies that MLD, Stax, and whatnot are meant to counter get out of hand. I'm not saying this to prove a point, but merely out of curiosity. Unfortunately, my meta has gotten to the point where someone either combos off quickly, the green deck vomits all of its permanents onto the board/casts Tooth and Nail to end the game, or one of the blue decks take multiple extra turns.

In other words, it's become extremely non-interactive, and that is partially due to the fact that cards such as Smoke Stack, Jester's Cap, and Armageddon have been deemed "unfun" and frowned upon. On the other hand, I feel that these sorts of cards assist in creating a fun game by making sure that interactions DO occur. I find games with very little interaction to be highly unfun, and while I happen to run a fair bit of disruption, I can't police everyone without playing the above sort of cards. I guess the point of this poorly worded post is that I am having trouble finding the fun in games where non-interactive strategies get out of hand. I believe that a highly disruptive strategy is very fun and creates interesting games, but everyone just whines when their Genesis Wave gets countered or when their lands even get touched.

I would agree with some of your points there. However, disruption decks are 'unfun' to play against since you, on the receiving end, either keeps getting your stuff blown up, get locked out, or just straight out get countered every single thing you do. Yes, there is interaction....one-sided interaction. While I do agree that it's probably good to counter a genesis-wave kinda thing, playing against a mono blue deck stacked with bounce and counters and card drawers like Azami isn't my idea of fun. How could there be fun when you're not allowed to do anything that your deck is designed to do?

That said, different type of disruptions are kinda ranked to me, and thus this is what I feel (from most unfriendly to least unfriendly):

1) Land Disruption - Seriously, this makes you a douchbag IMO. There isn't a point in playing if the game is headed this way. Good strategy, but leave this for the tourneys.

2) Spell Disruption - this depends on how you make your deck. As mentioned, going up against a whole deck that sits back and counters almost every threat you throw is just a boring, one-sided game if you're on the receiving end. However, playing a select few counters is still fine - such as countering a board wipe to save your attacking horde - control players with the boards wipes would pack a few counters on their own to punch their wipe through?

3) Hand Disruption - Well, we're playing Magic, not sitting there and twiddling our thumbs and toes....

4) Board Wipes - few people that I know pick this to rant about. I don't see what's the problem as long as you keep a respectable margin for this? It's the same as counterspells - if you played against a deck full of mass removals, that would be boring as hell if you're playing with a creature based deck. However, on the other hand, we can't expect slower/control deck types to not play any, roll over and get trampled on when we're 'aggroing'. Key to this, as well as the counters, is to balance the build.

I know Academy is 'banned' in EDH, but I've always been intrigued by that deck (when it was in extended/standard) and so I thought that maybe I could make an Academy deck as a 'challenge' in a way. However, the one rule is that Tolarian Academy will be the ONLY banned card in the deck.

And so, without further ado, this is the deck that I could turn up with (Original pilot of the deck, as I understand, is Tommi Hovi in Pro Tour Rome 1998?). And no, it's not for competitive/casual play. Like I explained, it's just that I'm a fan of it and so I just wanna make a EDH version of it.

Criteria:
- Blue/Black
- Tolarian Academy being the ONLY banned card in the deck. So no, I'm not gonna run Erayo as the commander.
- Absolutely no Temple Bell + MoM combo or Palinchron Combo



If we note, we can actually run the deck without the academy - just tap and untap the monoliths for mana, then drop a few extra cards for colored mana. However, I'd think it wouldn't be the 'Academy' deck without the Academy itself.

Lastly, the reason I'm posting this here is because my knowledge of cards is very, very limited. I've only started since Ravnica, so I wouldn't be that knowledgeable of the older cards and thus I need input. Thanks in advance for any help!

yeah, but green has the city of solitude. Lol. I'm kinda torn between either one.