MTG Salvation

Hello and welcome to my new mono-blue EDH list.

I wanted to challenge myself and create a style of deck I'm not very familiar with (blue is probably the color I play the least normally) that would be both effective(ish) in single- and multiplayer. Going through possible general candidates I landed on Thada Adel, Acquisitor.

The reasons for why I like her are:
- Uncommon/unusual general
- Can be built around
- Low mana cost
- Flexible and relevant ability both early- and lategame

The gameplan:
I am looking to steal mana acceleration early game and bombs (and play my own) late game. There are plenty of effects that allow me to connect with Thada, and plenty of effects to slow the game down while I develop my board position with my opponents stuff. In my playgroup we have banned infinite combos, so thats why a few key cards like Palinchron might be missing.

I'm a little bit on the fence with what direction to go with the deck, it is currently centered around a denial/lockdown (grief) and stealing stuff (thief). I figure the two strategies complement each other, and I don't think I'm running overly much of either one (it's important for me to not suck too much fun out of the game either in my casual setting - so I hope I haven't gone too far as is).





Some card descriptions:
As I said, I designed the deck to have a lockdown and steal sub-theme. I feel that both play off the powers of being mono-colored and being blue, though I might be wrong and perhaps the lockdown package is better to be replaced with something entirely else. Counterspells I'm keeping to a low count as I often want to tap out on my turn anyways, and I don't have any graveyard hate since it's not really prevalent in my meta, it would be easy to include with my artifact tutors though!

The lockdown:
I haven't included all the most hardcore lockdown cards, every single one of these benefits me on its own. I used to have a Static Orb in here for instance, but it often seemed to limit me as much as my opponents.
- Meekstone: this card is the undisputed MVP in the deck
- Quicksilver Fountain: enables islandwalk, denies colored mana and has a very nifty combo together with Oboro, Palace in the Clouds / Ghost Town
- Tsabo's Web: maybe not always as useful, but it can be back-breaking and it cantrips
- Back to Basics: wrecks a lot decks
- Propaganda: leave me and my plans alone
- Crawlspace: ditto
- Stormtide Leviathan: well it does limit the board
- Frost Titan: I've gotten Rite of Replication with kicker on him, its bananas

Honorary mentions:
- Crystal Shard: this thing is crazy good, lets me bounce my own ETB creatures and saves important targets
- Diluvian Primordial and Knowledge Exploitation have been massive everytime I've landed them
- Extraplanar Lens (especially) and Caged Sun: when blue gets a lot of mana, beware!
- Tezzeret the Seeker: the questions is rather, what doesn't this guy do for me when he sticks
- Capsize: with enough mana, Capsize gives me versatility against so many threats

Here is the decklist again divided by function and mana cost:



Strong candidates I don't own (yet):
- Thassa, God of the Sea - overall great synergy I'd say
- Treachery
- High Tide - would this even be worth it here?
- Mind over Matter: seems really good with untapping mana stones and e.g Static Orb, but I hear this is also the most broken card ever..
- Eternal Dominion: huge price, huge effect, but notable drawback..
- Ensnaring Bridge: good, but do I want to limit my opponents from attacking each other?
- Trading Post: utility is always nice
- Master of Waves: at times my blue deviotion count gets pretty high
- Karn Liberated: Karn is always a beast

I'm also considering adding in some sort of recursion for my instants/sorceries, every game my graveyard fills up with moneycards.. Snapcaster is the only card I've found that would be really good.. but the card itself is fairly pricey to buy.

Thank you for stopping by! I would love to hear oppinions/suggestions/criticism and possible cuts for the above listed cards (or others I am not yet aware of)!


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Made a few changes based on some 1v1 playtesting. The decks I faced were Kaalia of the Vast, Maelstrom Wanderer and Prime Speaker Zegana. The deck performed really well actually, I won most of the games. One problem I encountered was at times I was lacking big impact spells, especially if my opponent was mainly only running mana rocks - so all I was getting was more mana but nothing to spend it on.

- Keiga, the Tide Star: just wasn't that good, low impact one the board, and it usually died to boardwipes anyways
+ Arcanis the Omnipotent: seems like a much better fit

- Grand Architect: seeing how much I tutored for Meekstone this always seemed to sit dead in my hand
+ Karn, Silver Golem: win condition and he seems cool

- Static Orb: I had so much mana I was always looking to tap out
+ Lighthouse Chronologist: another win condition, this deck doesnt have problem pumping out lots of blue colored mana

- Dismiss: didn't need multiple counterspells, but I might add it/something similar back in later
+ Stroke of Genius: more raw card draw

- Dream Leash: this card was bad, I lost to a Karn one game where if this didnt have the tap drawback I would have won
+ Volition Reins: fixes the above mentioned's problem

- Quietus Spike: most of time there is a sword or something I can steal. The times I drew it, I never really wanted it
+ Cloak and Dagger: Thada is so key to the deck, I think this is a better addition. Also shroud can be good on my high impact creatures

We will see how it turns out!

This is a good deck, I really like Quicksilver Fountain and Back To Basics, I've always wanted to play with them.

I think you have too many nonbasics by the way. I'd consider cutting a couple. I'd also jack up the permission suite, only 3 counters, really?

Consider Drift of Phantasms, it tutors for Propaganda, Hinder Quicksilver Fountain, and Back To Basics and many other great cards.

Hello and thanks for replying!

This is a good deck, I really like Quicksilver Fountain and Back To Basics, I've always wanted to play with them.

Thank you, both of those were partly why I chose Thada actually. I was playing a game yesterday where I bounced Vedalken Plotter with Crystal Shard a few times to get rid of my own nonbasics in return for opponents basics with Back to Basics in play. It was evil.

I think you have too many nonbasics by the way. I'd consider cutting a couple. I'd also jack up the permission suite, only 3 counters, really?

Yeah I know 3 is pretty low, I might add in more if it seems like I need them.. but I kinda enjoy not playing with a lot of counterspells.

I've thought about my nonbasics count before, but it hasn't been bothering me that often. Usually they have more in play than me, and often my islands are tapping for double mana, so it seems okay. I am going to swap out Soaring Seacliff for Academy Ruins though, I've noticed the lack of artifact recursion hurting me.

Consider Drift of Phantasms, it tutors for Propaganda, Hinder Quicksilver Fountain, and Back To Basics and many other great cards.

Thats a really great suggestion, I was looking for a way to tutor up Back to Basics especially. I'm going to switch out Merfolk Sovereign for it I think, its slow, and I don't need the +1/+1 (even has held me back before when combined with Thada and Meekstone).

Another quick change:
- Acquire: seems kinda redundant with Thada - grabbing a colossus or something would be crazy, but eventually I will have the mana to just cast it with Thada. The card is fun, but I haven't needed it when I've drawn it so far
+ Gather Specimens: can be bonanza against mass token production and lets me steal generals at instant speed. Actually has a nifty combo with Curse of the Swine with enough mana!

Another update on deck progress:

Well I have a lot of time off this month, so I've been trying to play as much magic as possible. I played another round of games last night, lots of 1v1, then one multiplayer at the end of the evening. Played against Kaalia and Maelstrom Wanderer again, and Merieke Ri Berit.

Its hard to tell, Thada is so good 1v1, the games were pretty easy to be honest. In the multiplayer it was tougher, a glaring problem I have is that I keep drawing these tutors when in a tight spot, with nothing super clutch I can grab aside from maybe Meekstone. Maybe the solution is adding in Nevinyrral's Disk. Its tough to find something to drop for it though, and my most underperforming cards so far are Rhystic Study and Crawlspace. But then again I've been able to test 1v1 mainly, and those are designed for multiplayer.. so I don't want to touch them yet. Gonna try dropping Trailblazer's Boots for it instead, which has been great and has been very redundant at times.

Also probably a lower costed artifact creature to grab a blocker if needed would be good, maybe something with ETB for value. I've thought about Solemn before, but grabbing him with Tezzeret often autokills him.. maybe something like Pilgrim's Eye or Myr Retriever? What do you guys think?