MTG Salvation

[trying to work off of the French banlist]

Decklist:


I've had some success with this so far. SB is cards I'd like to include, but either couldn't fit or they'd alter the strategy of the deck.

I'm a little torn because I typically like to go creatureless in EDH, but in this case there are a lot of effective creatures that are a pain in the butt to opponents. And I'd love it if my opponent wastes their low mana cost removal spells on a Serra Ascendant so that they don't have it for Horoki.

I also love the ability to untap all lands with Sword of FoF, and the ability to bounce Horoki at their EOT with some of my flash critters.

An alternative version of the deck would only use higher-end creatures that have bigger effects, but that kind of seems like "win more", and I'm not sure I want to increase the land and mana stone count to support them. And I like the ability to put some pressure on early, to ensure my opponent is playing spells and potentially tapping out. If I had Horoki and a bunch of bombs, I'd worry I would never get a good opportunity to drop Horoki with all of their lands tapped.

Specific card choices:
Thoughts on the decklist? Ideas? Suggestions?

Well, you're certainly missing quite a few staples.

Lands:
Mishra's Workshop
Ancient Tomb
Karoo
Marsh Flats
Tectonic Edge
Dust Bowl
Flagstones of Trokair

Creatures:
Ranger of Eos
World Queller
Baneslayer Angel
Student of warefare

Instant:
Condemn
Tithe

Sorcery:
Steelshaper's Gift

Artifacts
Grim Monolith
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Mind Stone
Ring of Gix
Tangle Wire
Thorn of Amethyst
Voltaic Key
Sol Ring
Expedition Map
Orb of Dreams
Meekstone
Mana Web

Planeswalker
Gideon Jura

Well, you're certainly missing quite a few staples.

Lands:
Mishra's Workshop
Ancient Tomb
Karoo
Marsh Flats
Tectonic Edge
Dust Bowl
Flagstones of Trokair

Creatures:
Ranger of Eos
World Queller
Baneslayer Angel
Student of warefare

Instant:
Condemn
Tithe

Sorcery:
Steelshaper's Gift

Artifacts
Grim Monolith
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Mind Stone
Ring of Gix
Tangle Wire
Thorn of Amethyst
Voltaic Key
Sol Ring
Expedition Map
Orb of Dreams
Meekstone
Mana Web

Planeswalker
Gideon Jura

I'm hesitant about some of those nonbasics, because I find Emeria, the Sky Ruin Ruin often wins me the game. Ancient Tomb and Karoo I do like though. Dust Bowl seems a risky proposition as I don't have much card advantage here, it's costly to activate, etc.

I'm trying to work off of the French banlist, sorry I didn't put that in the title.

World Queller - I'm back and forth on this. Given the high number of permanents I have, I feel like I'd often be trading 1-for-1 with this. I'll test it out more though.

Ranger of Eos - I only have one 1cc creature and don't see the purpose of this, beyond some card advantage

Baneslayer Angel - pretty expensive and doesn't really lock anything down

Student of Warfare - again, mana-intensive and doesn't lock anything down

Condemn - I'm focused on cards that can remove multiples of my opponents creatures or lands, so I'm not in favor of this

Tithe - seems like a reasonable add

Steelshaper's Gift - does seem useful, though I don't always know how often I'll have a creature safe on the table when I get this. If I add this, I think I'd add Lightning Greaves too

Orb of Dreams - hate the two-sided nature of this

Meekstone - not sure how effective this would be. I have
Crackdown as it's harder to remove and won't impact any of my creatures with Sword of Feast and Famine on them. But I don't see too many decks out there with big critters swinging every turn.

Expedition Map - yikes, how did I miss this? Definitely needs to be added

Mana Web - how helpful is this? against control, I can see it... but when I'm locking down lands with Hokori, people just untap one at a time until they can tap out for one spell.

I don't doubt that these are staples, but just want to figure out *why* they are, as I don't necessarily see the rationale.

The more I think of it, if I were to make any change at this point I think I'd consider removing most of the creatures and adding Orb of Dreams and Ring of Gix cards, to up my chances of hitting a lock with Kismet.

AFAIK, Serra Ascendant is french banned 1-vs-1.

If you ditch your creatures all together, how do you intend to actually win? Relying on Luminarch Ascension or beating face with Hokori seems pretty weak. You also lose a few ways to bounce Hokori. And any hope for SoFaF and white's equipment tutoring capabilities.

I would certainly suggest Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond - the sooner Hokori hits, the better, plus colored artifact mana = good times. I'd drop 3cc stuff like Tooth of Ramos though since it doesn't accerate Hokori. At a similar casting cost, Thran Dynamo would be far more powerful under Hokori. Also, Ancient Tomb and Temple of the False God are musts in this deck IMO.

Have you considered Flickerform to make Hokori more one-sided? It costs 4 mana, but that could surely be a net benefit later in the game. Also, white has many ways to tutor for auras (and enchantments in general).

Yes, will update the list momentarily to remove Serra Ascentant.

Temple of the False God is intriguing, but I shy away from cards that I don't want to see in my opening hand.

Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond are interesting, but two thoughts there: one is that cards are at a premium with this deck due to it's lack of drawing power. And two is that I don't necessarily rely on dropping Horoki immediately. In fact I almost never do - doing so would put me in nearly the same spot as my opponent. I tend to save it for when they use their lands a little too aggressively, and I have a couple mana artifacts on the board. That way it's much more one-sided. Powering it out on turn 3 regardless of the board state doesn't seem like a good plan (but admittedly, I've never really tried doing that).

I guess I agree on the creatures... I just feel like with 10-12 creatures, many of my opponents are going to have 10-12 removal spells, and will always seem to have what they need when they need it. If I could put 30 useful creatures in here, to try to ensure a couple were always on the board, I would. Barring that, I much prefer to go creatureless in creature-centric formats, because I know my opponent has a bunch of dead cards. In this case though, this deck seems to want to have that handful of super-powerful creature effects, so I'm kind of stuck with them.

I think there are 2 ways to play Hokori. Either you use him like Captain Sisay does - find something to make him one-sided (Rofellos/Gaea's Cradle) and then drop him a.s.a.p. Or you use him like a 'geddon effect to cover a significant threat. The more I think about it, the more I realize that alternative 1 isn't really realistic in mono-white, so you should probably focus on #2.

That doesn't mean that you have to wait very long to play Hokori though. Imagine a simple play of t4 Linvala, t5 hokori. Actually, this makes me think that it would probably be better if Linvala was your general and Hokori was one of many LD effects:

• Hokori
  
• Winter Orb
  
• Armageddon
  
• Ravages of War
  
• Cataclysm
  
• Catastrophe

Alternately, keep Hokori and focus on a respectable number of 3-6 CMC flyers with good abilities instead to preceed Hokori. Either way, some more equipment would not go amiss.

one is that cards are at a premium with this deck due to it's lack of drawing power

I play mono-white myself and I've never had problems with drawing power. Some of my tech is deck specific, but here are a few tips if you want inspiration in this department.

Weathered Wayfarer, Auratouched Mage (with Flickerform), Stonehewer Giant: My reusable creature tutors form the basis of card (and even mana) advantage and utility in my deck. You play Wayfarer already so you know how good he is.
Skullclamp + Sword of Fire and Ice = good with white's equipment tutors.
Memory Jar: Cracked on turn 6ish, I can play a land and about 3 spells from the jar, so that's a draw-4 for 5 mana in mono-white.
Pursuit of Knowledge: A net draw-4 for 4, can take a while to cash in though.
Mentor of the Meek/Mesa Enchantress: if you play many weenies and/or enchantments.
Endless Horizons: The Phyrexian Arena of white.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: By its wording, this is uncounterable card draw at a decent rate of 2.5 mana per card (plus you get an annihilator dork if it resolves + immunity to mill combos = very multipurpose inclusion in mono-white IMO).
You run Land Tax/Scroll Rack already. That's pretty much all the good card draw in white. Oh, and Wall of Omens (but it's mostly for Reveillark/Karmic Guide shenanigans).

That might be a good plan with Winter Orb, but I feel like dropping a fatty and then hoping my opponent taps out (but not to kill the fatty) so I can drop Hokori next turn is a low percentage play.

I'm actually be tempted to go in the other direction - play some early threats, get a nice board advantage, and drop Hokori on turn 4 or 5 as a Winter Orb. Still tough in EDH with 40 life to contend with, but it's a thought.

In any case, I want to stick to the prison build because I want to do something different and fun (my other EDH deck is Norin the Wary). It might only be tier 1.5 though (and certainly tier 2 in non-French EDH, as Mana Crypt and Sol Ring absolutely hose me).