MTG Salvation

Here's the list:



All right, so the object is to fill up your opponents' hands and keep them full. Filling up their hands is easy, with a ton of Howling Mine and Wheel effects. Keeping them full is harder. If you wanted to be more cut throat, you could add a bunch of land destruction effects, like Wildfire and Destructive Force. However, I tried to keep it to just a few effects, with Keldon Firebombers being the all star. Too much land destruction just led to people getting annoyed and quitting. There is also the ability to tax people with cards like Sphere of Resistance, Winter Orb and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. I really wanted to fit Lodestone Golem in but just couldn't find the room.

Adamaro is better when he comes out fast, so there are several haste enablers. He's also better with a little bit of evasion, which is why Diviner's Wand and other equipment is added. Sword of War and Peace was an all star in the deck, and complimented Ebony Owl Netsuke, Viseling and Iron Maiden.

How did the deck do? Check it out here: http://puremtgo.com/articles/conqueror-commander-vol-cxvii-adamaro-first-desire

Comments, concerns, questions, let me know!

You know what, I'm sure of it now: The deck needs Lodestone Golem. I would take out Venser's Journal for it. The Journal was in there to help out with Storm Cauldron and add life gain, but it never really came up. The Golem will up the creature count and help out with the taxing theme. I think the deck will be improved with this change.

Since you run Crucible of Worlds, have you considered running lands like Wasteland, Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge, or Strip Mine?

Thanks for taking my suggestion!

I've recently colorshifted my love for Maros and am very excited to build a Zegana hand-size maro deck.

Quote from LordGrimpow »

Since you run Crucible of Worlds, have you considered running lands like Wasteland, Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge, or Strip Mine?

I'll be honest, I thought Strip Mine was in there. That's an oversight. You should take out at least 1 Mountain for the Mine. If you want to get greedy, take out another for Wasteland. My only issue with adding 2 of these is just that it increases the colorless land count in the deck, but hopefully that wouldn't be as much of an issue due to the high artifact count.

Quote from nathones »

Thanks for taking my suggestion!

I've recently colorshifted my love for Maros and am very excited to build a Zegana hand-size maro deck.

Sure man, thanks for the suggestion. That deck sounds fun!

haha, I really like the idea of this deck, and I've always wanted to make a decklist for Adamaro, but I already have 2 monored generals.

Here are some thoughts, questions, and suggestions:
Ashling: she might be a mana sink, but I feel like she doesn't quite belong in this deck

Godo: he's one of my generals, but at 6 mana, he might be a bit high for the curve in this particular deck and it seems you have enough trample equipment redundancy to do without him

Other >=6 CMC: I feel that your deck should top out 5 CMC to help you deal with your own tax effects, even if they do have great ETB effects. A good substitute for Dragon Mage would be Reforge the soul

Shah of Naar Isle: how does he play for you? I imagine the opponents would simply not draw 3 cards if they knew what you were up to, or the 3 cards they do draw would be gamebreaking. I haven't played with him, so I really don't know his effectiveness

Taurean Mauler: he's a vanilla beater and doesn't fit too well with the deck? I hope your opponents aren't casting that many spells with your tax effects

Tax effects: I love the pseuo-stax setup you have going on, especially Storm Cauldron which I usually only see in Azusa. I think it works very well with a relatively low costing general that beats hard. I think you should add Lodestone Golem as well. Tangle Wire might be good here as well if you can get the Goblin Welder cycle on it or other recursion

Trading Post: a Swiss army knife that can probably get good value from this deck, especially artifact recursion

Voltaic Key: can double up on a lot of things: surprise blocker, mana rocks, the aforementioned Trading Post, Temple Bell, etc.

Kher Keep: chump blockers, equipment holders, not necessary but you can get good value over a while

So one of the issues that I had with the deck was getting the creature count high enough. I found that I was stuffing people's hands, they were putting down tons of creatures, and I wasn't. So that's why I have some "questionable" creatures in the deck. Let's talk about your creature questions first.

I have a love affair with Ashling. She goes into all my mono-red decks. I like that she's good at any point in the game, and can clear the board of creatures in a short amount of time, as well as hit people directly. So that's why she's in there.

Godo: A big threat who can tutor up Diviner's Wand or a Sword. Good in general.

Shah of Naar Isle: Everyone always took the 3 cards, even when they knew what I was doing. Plus, he's a 6/6 trampler for 4 mana. I loved that I found a deck for this guy.

Taurean Mauler: There aren't really that many taxing effects, and you can go an entire game without drawing one. This guy was constantly getting huge since people were just trying to dump their hands. Lack of evasion was annoying, but still, huge is huge.

Lodestone Golem: Like I said before, needs to be in there. Take out Venser's Journal to make room.

Dragon Mage: Never drew it, but I liked that it was a creature that could fill people's hands repeatedly.

Reforge the Soul: Tried it initially, but I never miracle'd into it, so I always had to pay 5. I'd rather pay 2 extra and get a dragon as well.

I like the idea of not having any cards with CMC over 6, but there are a couple that I couldn't do without. Steel Hellkite and All is Dust are you enchantment removal, while Blasphemous Act usually only costs 3. I dunno, I guess you could cut Staff of Nin, but cutting Caged Sun seems short sighted. It pumps Adamaro and gives extra mana, which makes a big difference.

Tangle Wire seems interesting, and probably worth a shot in this deck. For some reason I just didn't consider. Same goes for Trading Post.

Voltaic Key and Kher Keep: Meh. There are already plenty of lands in the deck that tap for colorless, but I can see the Keep's utility being good. The Key could be ok as well.

Thanks for the comments! Some interesting stuff there.

Mox Opal is another good mana rock that should activate fairly easily. I think you could take out the artifact land doublers if you push a harder mass LD suite into your deck. Your deck has a fair amount of mana rocks, and I think putting a couple more in would help the mass LD strategy as well as your overall deck strategy of opponents having full hands by not being able to play cards.

Yeah, if you watch the vids I basically talk about how the deck would be more competitive if you went all out on the land destruction theme. But if I did that online, basically I would get a ton of concessions, instead of actual games. If you're play group can handle it I would say go for it. But this is about as far as I could go with the land destruction online, and I would still get some concessions.