MTG Salvation

Hey everyone, I've begun work on a relatively casual 5color list that focuses on playing gods and slamming wrath effects, with an underlying Legendary tribal kinda deal along with generic enchantment support. Flavor is also very important. As far as general selections goes, I had initially been using Child of Alara but decided to switch to Progenitus simply for the devotion it provides. I also plan to try to fulfill my devotion needs with my enchantments (Maelstrom Nexus and Genju of the Realm are the big ones). I'd appreciate any input, the main things I'm looking for are any exceptional support cards I may have missed along with any good wraths I've overlooked, as well as maybe a short laundry list of "goodstuff" that I can use to fill the gaps.

List is !UPDATED! a little bit


It's short a few cards, but it's a work in progress. Also don't worry about suggesting non-utility land, I'm probably gonna end up just proxying fetches+duals for the time being. Feel free to suggest any cool utility lands you can think of though! I'm also super short on solid black/blue/red devotion sources (turns out there's a lot of GW enchantments) so anything in that area would also really be appreciated.

I am so happy someone's building this. I just thought that Karona, False God would be the ironically anti-flavorful general for it. Demigod of Revenge and that cycle of Shadowmoor/Eventide sort-of-but-not-actually god-things might be a good consideration for auto-devotion to any two colors. If you go that route, Quicksilver Amulet could be quite beneficial.

There was a brief but amusing time where I wanted to use every single card that had 'god' in it's name and Karona was my general, but Progenitus' beautiful devotion is too good to pass up. As far as the demigods go, I could probably try to work Deity of Scars in since he can tank a couple wraths. Maybe Dominus of Fealty too, since he's got a solid ability. Stealing other players' permanents to animate gods seems funny. Amulet is also probably a good choice even if for just the gods since it acts as a kind of indirect mana smoothing. Also makes gods uncounterable at instant speed, which is nice.

Progenitus < Child of Alara.

As you said, "spamming wrath effects" with the Gods is a great way to control the board while keeping permanents in play

Quote from Trav_Ragnar

Progenitus < Child of Alara.

As you said, "spamming wrath effects" with the Gods is a great way to control the board while keeping permanents in play

Child of Alara has to hit the GY for its effect to trigger, how do you plan to bring it back?

Quote from Nightcinder

Quote from Trav_Ragnar

Progenitus < Child of Alara.

As you said, "spamming wrath effects" with the Gods is a great way to control the board while keeping permanents in play

Child of Alara has to hit the GY for its effect to trigger, how do you plan to bring it back?

Moorland Haunt is a good way to do it, and so is Scavenging Ooze. Scrabbling Claws, Stonecloaker, and Withered Wretch are also decent options. There are several more less optimal ways to do it, but I haven't built a Child deck in a while, so I'm a little rusty off the top of my head.

EDIT: Don't forget about "free" ways of returning the angry baby such as Oversold Cemetery, Debtors' Knell, Sheoldred, Whispering One, and Reya Dawnbringer.

@Nightcinder, Yes Captain Temper-Tantrum does have to hit the bin to use the wrath trigger. This does not have to be a disadvantage. It gives you a measure of control. If someone kills him at an inconvenient time, just send him back to the general zone instead of making everything disappear.

Quote from Glimflicker

Moorland Haunt is a good way to do it, and so is Scavenging Ooze. Scrabbling Claws, Stonecloaker, and Withered Wretch are also decent options. There are several more less optimal ways to do it, but I haven't built a Child deck in a while, so I'm a little rusty off the top of my head.

I much prefer Volrath's Stronghold for the recursion. It does unfortunately sacrifice a draw, but you also avoid the general tax. A sac outlet is also required for this. My pick is Phyrexian Tower. It has good synergy with Stronghold.
Some other options for recursion:
Corpse Dance - Requires you to do it that turn. Not usually a problem given that it's instant speed
Disturbed Burial - less good since it only puts it into hand for 4B at sorcery speed. Still workable though.
Emeria, the Sky Ruin - Pretty much impossible to get online in 5 color without significant sacrifices in mana base stability or basically allowing it to dictate your primary color. Can work in long games IF you are running 4 white duals and 4 white shocks, but that's hardly likely in a casual deck.

Some other sac outlets:
High Market - Gain 1 life while killing everything? Not bad at all.
Diamond Valley - Gain a nice chunk of life while you blow up everything? Sounds good, what's the catch? No mana ability? D'OH!!
Miren, the Moaning Well - Like above, but it can do mana... and costs 3, T to activate.

Quote from Glimflicker

EDIT: Don't forget about "free" ways of returning the angry baby such as Oversold Cemetery, Debtors' Knell, Sheoldred, Whispering One, and Reya Dawnbringer.

@Glim, you do realize that those are all effectively one-shot effects with Captain Temper-Tantrum nuking the board, right?


@Faust,
As far as Wraths that you missed go:
Oblivion Stone - Not that you need to save much, but this thing can be oddly selective. Goes VERY well with Academy Ruins.
Pernicious Deed - Hey, it's a wrath that's also an enchantment. A little mana hungry, but the control is worth the mana requirement.

And some good ones that you probably wouldn't like:
Hallowed Burial - Normally great for it's ability to hose general reliant decks on the spot. In this case, it's a liability because it hits your gods. D'oh!
Terminus - See above
AiDs - Normally great cuz it doesn't care about indestructible, but that's why it's bad here. Sigh.

here are a couple of wrath effects

catastrophe
decree of pain
desolation giant
dread cacodemon
life's finale
rout

as a side note, i would get an avacyn, angel of hope so the wraths keep your stuff around
if you really want to make it fun and actually hit devotion and cut down on some wraths, and toss in all the elder dragons like nicol bolas

also to recur stuff you NEED volrath's stronghold

Maybe I need to seriously consider Child of Alara, it's just that my concern is having no devotion sources outside of the gods themselves after he goes off. Blowing everything to bits is cool, and kinda the plan, but one odd (and preferable) tendency of most of the bigger board wipes is that they don't touch enchantments. Yes, I know Akroma's Vengeance, Nevinyrral's Disk, and Planar Cleansing do, but they're a small subset. The idea is to try to leave enchantments untouched as devo sources (and for whatever other good effects they contribute), while the gods themselves just shrug off the creature explosion bit while potentially following up the turn afterwards with Progenitus to enable any gods that need it and start doing big hurt. Also most of the slots that I would be dedicating to ways to recur Child of Alara I could probably just jam more wraths in.

At the very least, I'll probably try at least running him in the deck as a solid devo source and a big explosion if need be. I dunno. I'll just need to try it. I'm trying to avoid having a lot of non-indestructible creatures in the deck as they're just liabilities.

If you're concerned about turning your gods on, have you considered adding their weapons? Some might actually prove useful in this deck, too.
Bident of Thassa (card draw)
Whip of Erebos (more recursion)
Hammer of Purphoros (haste enabler)
Bow of Nylea (meh)
Spear of Heliod (meh)

since someone mentioned child:

high market
phyrexian tower
diamond valley (or miren, the moaning well as a budget option, although it's a lot worse imo).
worthy cause

are the best sac outlets.

corpse dance
gift of immortality
volrath's stronghold
genesis
emeria, the sky ruin

are the best recursion engines. Emeria does require lots of dual lands, though, as was mentioned (although 4x shocks is overkill, I go 2x shocks, 4x duals, 1x basic. With life from the loam + fetches you can set it up reliably, given adequate time).

Note that none of these cards is inconvenienced by child's tendency to blow up the board.

I have also been looking into this deck.

First I would say you might want more protection mostly from exile and Black Sun's Zenith. Archetype of Endurance, Melira, Sylvok Outcast , Spellskite and Flickerwisp might help.

Eldrazi Monument and Phyrexian Reclamation are really good for the deck as well, mostly to keep your other creatures alive and to bring back dead creatures. Sacred Mesa and Bitterblossom help against sac effects as well.

You might also want a Bloom Tender as she will make 5 mana most of the time.

Opalescence basically turns your gods on without needing to hit devotion. It does make them a lot weaker though.

I gave a super sloppy prototype of the deck a test run with my playgroup tonight (basically just a bant shell with some black/red mana fixing tossed in and a few other things) and I have to say that it did way better than I was expecting at this point in the game. Mana is very forgiving and being able to fire off wraths whenever the mood strikes you is very powerful.

Though, as I feared, generating the devotion for the gods is tricky. Progenitus overperformed here, as he basically always enabled my pantheon whenever he hit the board. Definitely feel like focusing on enchantments/Progenitus for devotion is the way to go (Future Sight was probably my favorite card of the night, it's ridiculous). That said, I think I might need to stray away from Planar Cleansing and the like. The deck stalls hard if your gods...uh...stall too much.

I am also trying Ghostway and Legion's Initiative to attempt to avoid things like Terminus and other non-destructive board wipes. Also running a small pocket of countermagic. Need other options there as well.

I've been playing Reaper King with this type of build. Also Animar, Soul of Elements has proven to be a powerhouse in this deck.

Updated the list a little bit, added in some of the suggested explosions and a few of the enchantments. Deck space is actually getting kinda tight now, and I definitely don't think I have enough land in there. I need to playtest a bit more and see what's working and what isn't.

I don't think that the Kamigawa legend lands are very good for this deck except maybe Minamo, School at Water's Edge and Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper They just don't have relevant abilities or they target to few creatures. Opal Palace might be a good choice as it means the Progenitus can two shot people or maybe a couple of the Legends banding lands like Cathedral of Serra or Mountain Stronghold. I'm also surprised you are not running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Cabal Coffers, Vesuva, Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths. Marit Lage counts as a god in my book and you can always filter the black mana.

For the devotion count instead of Chromanticore, Maelstrom Nexus, and Rage Reflection, what about the demigods from Lorwyn block namely Deity of Scars, Dominus of Fealty, and Overbeing of Myth. If you still want double strike True Conviction is better than Rage Reflection.

You might want to look into Pull from Eternity and Riftsweeper on the off chance a god or something important get exiled.

Why not just run things like Academy Rector, as well as Replenish + Open the vaults and focus on getting them all in the bin (via traumatize, tunnel vision, survival of the fittest etc.) to bring them all/most back at once.

Twenty-nine lands is too few even for a 1v1 aggro deck. How do you ever cast your spells with so few lands?