MTG Salvation

Hey guys,

This is the second of two decks I've been tinkering with and mulling over before I head to GenCon next week (first one is here).

It's been a while since I've played multiplayer EDH at all regularly (I normally only play 1v1 EDH), so comments and suggestions are welcome (as long as they're not dumb).

I've always loved ETB effects and Bant, so Roon is pretty perfect for me.

I'm treating this deck mainly as toolbox control leaning towards plain and simple goodstuff. I've played the deck a few times, and each time I won just by playing out solid ETB creatures, getting extra value out of them with Roon, and just letting the win come to me. The best part of the deck is that Roon is really just gravy; a deck full of efficient ETB creatures is pretty good on its own; getting to blink stuff is a helpful bonus, but not necessary to win.

Genesis hydra seems bad in this deck. Does nothing when bounced.
Cards like Ghostway and Ghostly flicker give lots of protection from wraths which screw with roon.

Saffi eriksdotter andSylvan safekeeper all offer lots of protection from removal.
Been playing roon a lot and late game it is damn near impossible to remove with the right creatures on board.
Perplexing chimera + Prophet makes roon very happy

I know the Hydra doesn't synergize with Roon, but he provides pretty insane value late game, so I'm trying him out anyway. Especially when everything else has an ETB effect, casting him for X=8 late game can find some pretty good stuff.

Ghostway is a good suggestion (normally I wouldn't play it, but with ETB creatures it's definitely worth it), but wouldn't Ghostly Flicker not serve much purpose with a wrath on the stack? It returns creatures to play immediately instead of at EOT. I guess I could see it as just redundancy for the flicker effect.

Speaking of which, do you find that having extra flicker outlets like Mistmeadow Witch and Deadeye Navigator (thinking of him not as a combo piece, but just for his flicker ability) is necessary? In the few games I've played, even when opponents have kept me off Roon, the general strength of all my ETB effects was still enough to win, so I figured I didn't need to load up on redundant options.

Saffi Eriksdotter is a good option. I usually never play her because I dislike playing combo, and she's usually only ever mentioned as the centerpiece of a Lark/Mirror Entity/Guide/etc combo. Good to be reminded that she does have value outside of abusing her in a combo.

Looking over your list, I think I might want to add Bane of Progress as a catch all solution for A&Es. I also have to say, Parallax Wave (I assume you use it on your own creatures) is totally brilliant. I'd never thought of using it on my own stuff, but it would be incredibly versatile in this kind of deck.

Perplexing Chimera looks great; I wasn't aware of it at all, so thanks for the suggestion.

I also forgot Ancient Tomb isn't banned in multi EDH; I should be playing that, and Minamo, Schol at Water's Edge as well. Archaeomancer needs to be in here too, especially since my list is more heavy on spells.

Flicker still gives two etb's and can be abused with e witness or archomancer, but ghostway is much superior.

I would never cut witch. Late game she can blink many thing. I'd actually barely used deadeye as more than a finisher but he does the job well when need be.
Cards like lightning greaves and Sylvan safekeeper make it hard for roon to die as well. The general early game is ramp and defense.
Speaking of ramp, Bloom tender and Somberwald sage are insane.

Parallax wave insane, even better with opalescence (With or without comboing). You can exile Oblivion ring and take out whatever you want with it. I love the interactions it has.

Chimera is broken with roon. It's like a slightly better gilded drake.
Revallark can be insane with roon. You don't even need to pair with with Karmic guide to get insane value.

Personal favorite is to pod Venser, shaper savant into karmic guide. Repeat next turn into body double as a karmic guide. Next turn pod him into revallark and blink him getting venser and something else.

In 1 v 1 that's brutal ways to remove lands from opponents.

Good list. All stars from my experience that you might consider putting in your list are:

• Angel of Serenity
• Mangara of Corondor
• Aura Shards
• Rhystic Study
• Spike Weaver
• Ixidron

In any event, solid looking list

Edit: Also, Venser, the Sojourner is great, both for his repeatable blink, but also his ability to make your dudes unblockable for a late-game kill.

Oh yeah, not sure why I didn't put Bloom Tender in this list (it's in the other deck I'm tinkering with). I'd normally balk at a mana dork with 3CMC, but Somberwald Sage might be something I try.

I was using Venser, Shaper Savant; I normally want to play him in every U EDH deck I build, but I always wind up feeling like his effect just isn't strong enough for his CMC. At least not in multiplayer. In 1v1 he's great as a tempo play, but here I feel like he's outclassed by most other stuff.


@Outcryqq:

Angel of Serenity certainly has a strong effect, but I'm not sure if I want to put another high CMC creature in here. I certainly realize it has the potential to be really broken since you can get multiple ETB triggers at once by blinking it, but it seems kind of mana intensive and win-more. I could be wrong. I'll definitely try it out once or twice and see how I like it.

Mangara of Korondor seems like pretty strong way to abuse Roon's ability. I'm not sure though; I don't want to have too many creatures that require Roon to be great. Mangara is okay on his own, but without Roon out he's just a one-time thing.

Aura Shards should probably go in. I felt like Harmonic Sliver and Reclamation Sage were enough A&E removal, but it makes sense to replace one of them with Shards, since it turns every creature into a Harmonic Sliver.

It could just be that the guys I play with are more ruthless than your average Spikes, but I've always felt like Rhystic Study is an overrated EDH card. Whenever I've used it, it draws the table's hate towards me, or everyone just plays around it. Spike Weaver is interesting, but I feel like his fog effect isn't really good enough here. If I've gotten to the point where I need a repeatable fog, something has probably gone very wrong. Also, Meadowboon seems like a better way to put +1/+1 counters on stuff.

Ixidron is crazy good. I was a little hesitant to put him in because he would shut off Roon, but I suppose he's worth it as a way to get a bunch of free ETB triggers when someone inevitably kills him.

I understand. Do note that Angel of Serenity also acts as a recursion engine to keep your juice going in the late game. Also, Spike Weaver has been great for me against things like voltron commanders and token armies, both of which this deck is a little soft to, and can be a political tool which will force opponents to attack each other instead of you. Finally, Ixidron is great as a pseudo removal spell, but it does not flip the creatures back once it dies. Rather, you can blink yours back.

Oh wow, I have been blatantly misreading Ixidron for a long time! That's waaaaay more interesting... And seems more useful to deal with problematic hexproof/shroud creatures.

Also, I was completely ignoring Angel of Serenity's ability to get stuff from graveyards. I really need to RTFC.

From the games I've played so far, Scourge of Fleets utterly destroys creature swarm decks, and can often hit bigger stuff too, so I'll probably stick with that instead of Spike Weaver for now.

Good call on Scourge of Fleets, I might need to take another look at him (and I think I have a bunch of promos of him?). Anyway, good luck!

Well, Scourge often feels a bit limited, just because I'm playing so few basics, so the absolute max for his trigger is toughness 6 (if I find every single Island in the deck), but if he comes out before the board is clogged with fatties, he wrecks stuff. And of course, token decks basically auto-lose to him + Roon.

Have any of the other Roon players tried out Brago, King Eternal in their deck? His effect is really strong, and in most games it shouldn't be too hard to get a 2-power flyer in against at least one person at the table every turn.

Also, can anyone vouch for the general EDH effectiveness of Restore? I've never drawn it in any of my games so far, but it seems like such a great, cheeky effect to steal an opponent's fetch for your own ramp, or waste out their powerful nonbasic then steal it. I certainly like it better than Nature's Lore or Farseek because getting back a fetch can fix your mana much better than finding a basic or a Gdual.