MTG Salvation

Latest posted decklist posted here as well:



Actual first post:

Churning out huge creatures and turning them sideways ain't my shtick, blue-based counter-control doesn't really make me happy, putting down locks was never meant for me, racing for nasty combos was fun while it was new, doing themes doesn't do it for me, the quirky stuff many claim is interesting fun is in my eyes just meh and i don't adhere to much flavour anyways.
I've always had a preference for 4 - 5 color decks with a Gift Rocks style since 2005 when i piloted one in a local Type 2 tournament. I just like playing with cheap and expensive replaceable creatures, good effects and some good spot and mass removal and a few infinites to finish up the game when needed.

In the past i did make GWB, GUB and 5 color green commander decks and they failed in their actual design phase. Don't misunderstand me, they were quite potent, even too potent decks, and i played with them as well. But the decks were too combo oriented and they relied on reaching the win too fast instead of enjoying the game and interacting more. The cards were too much tutors and too much good stuff that didn't work together other than being good cards. The basic premise, outset and goal of the decks was to combo out and win, which reflected in the choice of cards and also influenced the lack of finesse in card interactions and synergies.
Other players didn't really like playing against me with my decks, often gunning for me from the start and i eventually took a break from MTG and Commander as well.

After a pause of nearly a year, i have designed a new version of a 5 color gifts rock sytle deck after sudden inspiration and refining it several times. Synergy, mana curve, the deck being budget and a flexibly adaptive yet moderately powerful play experience were sought after and found in the following deck:

As can be seen, each and every card does something significant and synergizes well with many others. 40 lands looks quite much, but with the lack of strong mana/land acceleration and more focus on utility with creatures, 40 land is about the right number.

Furthermore, the land base is budget minded and from land drop three forward, between 22 to 24 of the 40 lands can generate or get lands that generate an needed color of mana, meaning that any further color fixing is not that imminently needed, though some is added, to counteract randomness. It should be noted that while a significant amount of lands enter the battlefield tapped, thus slowing the overall speed of the deck, this land base's color fixing capabilities are only slightly lower than a land base using 10 fetchlands, 10 original duals, 10 ravduals, 8 five color producing lands and 2 colorless producing lands, which would result in about 26 lands being able to generate or fetch lands able to generate a color needed by turn 3 and onward. Thus I have proven that a budget mana base is capable of sufficiently sustaining a 5 color deck with different color requirements. Which means that no budget player, except those wanting to play ultrafast sliver, have any reason to complain about the supposed better color-fixing of an expensive land-base. The way to cheap 5 color hath been shown, now utilize it.

Next is that the deck's mana curve is ultimately Sligh-styled, in such curving out at 8 mana. One of the reasons is the often occurring problem of having spells, but not being able to cast them because of lack of land. A related reason is the mana demand of activated abilities that some permanents have and extra costs for spells in order to make them more effective. Great care is taken to use low mana cost creatures that chump block most nonflying, nontrample creatures; an idea taken from playing many 60 card multiplayer games with only 20 life. Thing is that having a creature to block early on deters early attacks and thus increases one's survival chances.

A great deal of care is also dedicated to balance the power of the deck in such a way that it can both play proactive and reactive, both aggressive and defensive roles if necessary. In such, creatures and spells with significant power are chosen that underperform compared to stars like Consecrated Sphinx, Primeval Titan, Vorinclex Tooth and Nail, Survival of the Fittest, etc., yet on their own can more than stand their ground and even win games. The inclusion of a few cumbersome game-winning combos that best win within one's own turn and the relatively small amount of tutors is part of this philosophy.

Part of this philosophy is the inclusion of creatures and spells that utilize the resources of other players against them and in such add the strengths of other players, while to some extent avoiding their weaknesses. In such even win conditions of other players can be utlized through Praetor's Grasp and the various other cards that loan from the opponents.
Furthermore the deck has some vulnerability with such a land base of 10 basic lands, only 25 % of the total land count, in such making it vulnerable to nonbasic land hate and the delay in operation stemming from lands coming into play tapped can significantly hinder the deck as well. Yet the land base is a strength as wel, as it only has a few lands valuable enough to be targeted by destruction effects and in a playing filed that harbours many lands under the control of other players that do have more special functions and effects, the is often not much incentive for opponents to target the lands that the player controls.

A good strength of this deck is the varied palette of removal employable in different ways, handy to be used as a reset button for the board of necessary and also as a great bargaining tool for those moments when certain opponents would benefit from your removal and you could offer them help in return for a favour for you or just for (the impression of) being a nice guy.

Aand advantage and simultaneous disadvantage of this deck is it's (ab)use of subtle and more straightforward synergy, as not all players will be able to grasp the full potential of this deck and use it to the fullest and even seasoned and expert players will make many,many mistakes, including yours truly. Still this is a deck for anyone willing to play it, it has a basic and straightforward power, which increases with longer and longer play, making playing this deck (very) rewarding. Furthermore, while the basic operation of this in a x-way mirror match is somewhat narrow, due to the dependence on others to fuel some creatures and spells, players with different decks will add to the complexity, variability and play experience of the deck, making this an interesting deck for players who want different game experiences while not changing their decks all to often.

It is my conclusion that this is one of the more flexible nonlinear decks, that while harboring come infinite combos, doesn't depend on them that much to finish the game and is supposed to use them to either close off a long and boring game or to try to eek out a win when ganged upon. It has something for beginning to expert players and while flexible and adaptive is relatively powerful, yet not so powerful to attract too much attention. It also harbours enough variability in itself and uses other deck to add more variability to itself. Ultimately the player decides how to play it and playing in such a way as to accommodate to other player's play styles and preferences is possible. And as a juicy added bonus the deck is budget minded with a land base that should be usable in most other 5 color Commander decks.

I hope you have enjoyed the deck list and the explanation.
Any feedback, tips and criticism is welcome.

I've changed this deck in some nice ways, having improved it where necessary and changing things up so it became a budget hidden dragon.



The deck centers more around drawing cards, ramping up, doing synergistic shenanigans while occasionally clearing the board with Child of Alara and the included mass-removal spells and gaining some life until there is good and sufficient opportunity to combo out when the game is at its end stages.

This deck is much more consistent, has more pragmatic versatility and durdles less than the first version.
Some changes will be made over time, but this deck is great as it is now.

An update with some juicy improvements.

I took the deck into a more sac-recur direction with more card draw, a bit less unconditional tutoring, more combat orientation and more consistency.



It works like charm now and can be surprisingly powerful in the late game, while it is quite resistant to graveyard removal and flexible enough to adapt to many different situations.
And because it is less focused on comboing out, it appears to be less powerful than it can be.

Falkenrath Aristocrat can be an indestructable sac outlet. Could be nice to have one that can live through child

Quote from Welgo »

Falkenrath Aristocrat can be an indestructable sac outlet. Could be nice to have one that can live through child

A tad expensive, but not as expensive as Fauna Shaman.
But otherwise a terrific choice, can deal good damage, has evasion and is reasonably costed.

Thanks for the tip, I'll be on the lookout for that.

New update.



The deck has more mana acceleration, more card draw, better tutoring, optimized control options and several ways to plunk in a win.
A bit heavy on the mana-accel, but in my meta, that is kind of essential to keep up.