MTG Salvation

Originally, I had wanted to build Grand Arbiter Augustine IV, but was discouraged by my meta not to run it. So, I compromised and switched to Hanna, and decided to build a deck whos exclusive wincon was to go infinity. Not wanting the deck to be boring, I didnt tune it to ONLY bring out its main combos, despite having alot of tutoring. I wanted to have fun combos too, even if they were janky. Fast forward a year, and this deck needs some upgrades.



Main Combos:

Opalescence+Parallax Wave: Core combo in the deck. Allows me to remove all creatures and enchantments from the game. Add Parallax Tide and now I can also produce infinity mana, and remove infinity lands from the game as well. Add Enchanted Evening and now I can remove infinity permanents. Adding Aura Theif to this giant combo can allow me to gain control of all permanents. If I have threshold, Cleansing Meditation does the same thing.

Tunnel Vision + Open The Vaults: This combo wins me the game 90% of the time it resolves, but is easily disrupted if Open The Vaults doesnt resolve. For some reason, this usually dumps most of my deck in my yard.

Rings of Brighthearth + Grim Monolith or Basalt Monolith: Infinity Colorless. Works great with Blue Sun's Zenith to take someone outve the game if they dont have a counter. Add Sensei's Divining Top to draw my deck and play anything colorless.


Basically, if Opalescence or Rings of Brighthearth get removed from the game, I usually cant win. But I'm also not sure what to even add. I could probably trim down on fun combos, and throw in a bunch of stax (smokestack, winter orb, price of progress), but at the point in which I'm doing that, I'd rather just switch my commander to the Grand Arbiter. My Other thought was to add more Infinity combos...but what?....I could definitely use the forums help on this one.

I would recommend running a few more creatures to abuse the infinite blink off of Opalescence + Parallax Wave. You can use Mulldrifter to draw your whole deck, then drop Parallax Tide to make infinite mana and cast everything. If you can't win at that point, I don't know what to say.

I considered adding things to support the main combo, but im kinda bored of the linear way the deck plays...keep everyone at bay till I can lock down the board with one or two combos.

Im definitely leaning towards a more Stax approach, using lots of mana rocks, to secure a more grueling yet enevitable win. Should I just switch to Grand Arbiter Augustine IV at this point? im Stuck between the benefits of the arbiter and being able to recur key stax tools using hanna.

You really want Trinket Mage for most Hanna builds, the ability to fetch so many silver bullets and utility is too good to pass up on.

Tangle Wire isn't great here.

Get a Power Artifact as soon as you can.


@above: That's pretty much the reason why I stopped playing Hanna. Build worked fantastically, but it ended the same way each time. GAAIV is perfect if you do want to go more staxy, but Hanna does have the ability to recur lock pieces which does make her a solid contender that doesn't draw quite as much hate.

Maybe its cause I play in a heavy green meta, but Tangle Wire is usually able to stall me out long enough to keep my opponents from gaining too much ground on me. This could probably be traded for something more efficient like Smokestack.

Good call on Trinket Mage..I should probably add Sensei's Divining Top at that point.

What are your thoughts on Hanna, Ship's Navigator vs Grand Arbiter Augustine IV supporting a more stax approach?

If you're in a removal heavy environment, Hanna is likely better. You can more easily recur dead pieces with her and keep pressure on your opponents. Not to mention potential beatsticks like Steel Hellkite and Wurmcoil Engine, which hanna can bring back over and over.

GAAIV functions better under a competitive setting however, simply because the effect is instantaneous, and it interrupts lower curves quite a bit (though he is prone to dying more often, here). However, GAAIV also draws more hate than others for the same reason why he's good. The arbiter cannot recover lock pieces as easily.

After much deliberation, I decided to keep Hanna, as recurring my stax peices, it will be much more back breaking for my opponents. Less fun 5 piece combos, more support around the central combo. more mana rocks. no more fun.

The new decklist!

Sorted by function:

Wake Thrasher goes infinite with Basalt Monolith, which you're already running and can easily recur.

With infinite mana, Diviner's Wand gives flying and infinite power and toughness to a creature, and lets you draw your deck.

Quote from Giodante

Wake Thrasher goes infinite with Basalt Monolith, which you're already running and can easily recur.

With infinite mana, Diviner's Wand gives flying and infinite power and toughness to a creature, and lets you draw your deck.

I think you mean Wake Thrasher just happens to hitch a ride on Basalt's already infinite self-cycle.

It's an option, but isn't tutorable or recurrable except by arcane means (or unwieldly ones)

Quote from Gaka

I think you mean Wake Thrasher just happens to hitch a ride on Basalt's already infinite self-cycle.

It's an option, but isn't tutorable or recurrable except by arcane means (or unwieldly ones)

There's always Sword of Light and Shadow, but I'll admit, the uses are limited.

Drift of Phantasms finds both Thrasher and Basalt Monolith, plus Oblivion Stone, which might just be enough to make it worth running.

Hanna is an amazing deck, I love this thread and I run something similar to you but a few differences. I completley forgot the usefullness of blue sun's zenith with the infinate combo's that this deck creates. I will have to get my hands on one now

Wake Thrasher would be a good add, but that seems like a Meta Call. Giant 100/100 creatures with no evasion are pretty useless in my meta.


I really tried to downsize on the number of cards that did nothing on their own, or needed multiple cards to be good. As much fun as Enchanted Evening is, I couldnt justify keeping it, and its 5-card combos.




Considering how important recursion is in this format, im surprised to not see more Hanna builds.