MTG Salvation

So, my first ever Tiny Leaders list, and my second ever singleton list. Any feedback is very welcome.

The plan with this deck is to control you, through counterspells, a host of removal, and a smattering of enchantments that gum up the opponent's board. Once mana has been ramped and control has been established, you win with Jenara/manlands/angels/soldiers/Merfolk holding swords. Another fun combo is Academy Ruins + Oblivion Stone and ten mana. Go up to twelve, and you can start swinging with your Mishra's Factory each turn.









Sideboard is now included! I shall be updating this thread periodically now with additions and subtractions, along with results of games. Hopefully some discussion can get going, now I've played this deck I'm very happy with it. Once I have it in paper I might write a proper primer for it too.

I notice a large part of your plan is to hide behind "Ghostly Prison" and "Propaganda" hopefully to get your "Luminarch Ascension" on line. To help bolster that plan against very fast Aggro plans, you might think of sideboarding "Elephant Grass" as a back up.

Quote from The F.O.G. »

I notice a large part of your plan is to hide behind "Ghostly Prison" and "Propaganda" hopefully to get your "Luminarch Ascension" on line. To help bolster that plan against very fast Aggro plans, you might think of sideboarding "Elephant Grass" as a back up.

Thank you! It was the first card added to my sideboard in fact!

Right, now I've played a game with the deck, and made a few changes since. I've also now made a sideboard, which I've added above.

The game was against Rhys the Redeemed, a token-based aggro strategy. Game one was a grind - I got Jenara on the board early due to lack of action in my hand, which won me the game in the end. The turn before he could swing to win, I landed War Tax, which meant for the rest of the game, I could only let him attack with one creature - none of which got bigger than 5/5. My Jenara was 21/21 eventually, she could block it. Over the course of the next ten turns, I added Propaganda and Ghostly Prison, before finally drawing my Enlightened Tutor into Millstone. I countered his one removal spell with Hindering Light, before finally killing him with mill.

The second game was much less obnoxious. Turn 1 saw a Burgeoning, which put three lands into play over the course of the game. Turn 2 I stopped a Qasali Pridemage with Spell Snare, before dropping my commander turn 3. For the rest of the game, I held up or played removal while swinging with my ever-growing Jenara, Asura of War. The game ended on a turn 7 swing for 11.

Because of these games, I've decided to replace White Sun's Zenith with Entreat the Angels - flying is just so important for me to be able to attack - and Millstone with Sands of Delirium. Costs more to use, but mills faster. In the board-stall I was in game one, I had the mana to have used Sands instead. It would have given my opponent less time to try and kill Jenara. I was happily surprised by how useful Jenara was - I was using her only as the right colour combination, as she adds very little to a control game herself, but the pump ability is nuts when I can leave up mana so much.

Today's question - do I have enough card draw? Would something along the lines of Blue Sun's Zenith be a good addition to the deck?

Right, after a little more testing - have decided to replace Burgeoning with Expedition Map. The reason for this is that Burgeoning is only good at one specific time - turn 1, with a hand full of lands. At any other point, it's pretty much worthless.

The reasons to include Expedition Map over it are threefold. First, it picks up the Academy Ruins for our Oblivion Stone + Academy Ruins immediately. Secondly, even without that combo, I can use it to keep picking up lands by putting the Map on top of my deck over and over again. With a lock in place, this gives us all the time we need to draw mana for Oblivion Stone, Luminarch Ascension, War Tax, etc. And thirdly, it can be tutored by Enlightened Tutor if we need Academy Ruins. Overall it seems a hell of a lot more flexible, especially when you consider that I want to sideboard a The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale one day.

Today's game report: against Merieke Ri Berit. Their deck was focused around playing Phyrexian Dreadnought and cancelling it's ETB trigger. Game one was a very quick loss, with a turn 2 12/12 coming down, phased out by Vision Charm, with me holding no removal.

Game two went much better. A turn one Birds of Paradise resulted in a turn 2 Sands of Delirium. Soon after, I had an Oblivion Stone on the board threatening to to blow up everything, with a fate counter on my Sands to keep it around. My commander did nothing but play defence this game. His Dreadnought was stopped by a Prohibit, and his Merieke Ri Berit could never steal Jenara because I would Oblivion Stone it away before she lost summoning sickness. Eventually he was milled out.

Game three was also a win for me. Turn two saw a Luminarch Ascension for myself, which got to 3 counters before my opponent managed to start attacking me. With his general, who does not untap normally. Freed from the Real came down for him luckily, but playing that took down any countermagic he might have had, and so my Oblivion Stone was free to come down again. I couldn't stop his commander from hitting me for one for a very long while, but what I did do was put fate counters on every single permanent I played - eventually wiping the board once my Academy Ruins was in play. From that point on, it didn't take long to make five angel tokens and kill him. There was a brief struggle over his Phyrexian Dreadnought, which ended with me Prohibiting the Meddle pointing at the Filigree Fracture I had to kill it before he swung.

Right, today's update - a simple one, improvements to the lands.

I'm still wondering whether to go up to 20, but for now I'm sticking with 19. Two of my manlands are out - Faerie Conclave and Stirring Wildwood are replaced with Hinterland Harbor and Sungrass Prairie. I found the only time I was using my manlands was under the Oblivion Stone lock, and even then it's so much mana to activate a Stirring Wildwood then. Mishra's Factory will do just fine as my manland wincon, and these two new lands added help the colour requirements - as well as coming in less tapped. Sungrass Prairie was picked instead of Wooded Bastion because I only have two double white spells, both very high mana cost, and no double green spells. Sungrass Prairie can be activated with a blue mana, where Wooded Bastion cannot.

Finding that Jenara, Asura of War herself tends to be my win-con, with Sands of Delirium coming in second. This is perfectly acceptable. The next card I'm wondering about throwing under the bus is Hindering Light. There's better card draw and better counterspells out there. Now just to figure out which I go with, if I don't stick with that.

After taking the deck to Reddit, more updates have been made!

Spell Burst and Mind Stone and Porphyry Nodes are out - the former proves to just be jank, not epic secret tech that locked out opponents, and the middle was so rarely used for it's ramp, and very often used to draw a card and the latter was too slow. Going in are Engineered Explosives and Jace Beleren moves from the sideboard to the main. Engineered Explosives is another card to be repeated with Academy Ruins to lock down the board, and Jace draws cards better than Mind Stone does.

To fill the gaps in the sideboard, Crawlspace and Peacekeeper have been added. This is another way to hurt aggro decks, and I look forward to testing it.

Today I learned that Doran, the Siege Tower is really, really good in Tiny Leaders. Any thoughts on beating him would be loved.

Quote from PtaQ »

If you play Entreat the Angels imo Mystical Tutor is cool option Even if you dont serch Angels its still good card for you

I miss here one of most op control card in this format Chalice of the Void

Thank you for the reply. You're right about Mystical Tutor, I've added it now. I'm unsure about using Chalice of the Void, because it will certainly hit my deck too, and I've not made it with Chalice in mind. How would you suggest it be used?

Made a few more changes today. The prison effects were doing so little to stop me losing, and so they're gone. Also, Jace Beleren wasn't proving to be beneficial enough for me, so he is cut too. Telling Time is gone for Mystical Tutor. Awakening Zone was also a borderline card, sometimes good, often ehhhh. So it's tentatively gone for now.

Coming in along with Mystical Tutor is Courser of Kruphix, Llanowar Elves, Condemn, Syncopate and Explore. Tutor gets me what I need, Courser gets life and card advantage, Elves is another way to get Jenara out on turn 2, Condemn because I want to test tuck effects, Syncopate is a soft counter that is playable almost all-game long, and Explore ramps and replaces itself. Initial testing has been good, with wins over Sydri artifact-aggro, and Laquatis infinite combo mill - Swords to Plowshares-ing his general in response to Power Artifact caused a rage-quit in game two.

Thank you very much for the advice, PtaQ. I did try Chalice of the Void, but I couldn't make it work. It always hit something of mine, and I didn't feel it was worthwhile for hitting them too.

However, the rest of the advice you gave worked very well. I'm still fiddling a bit - for example, I don't have Snapcaster Mage in this build - but the deck's been working much better for me now I've moved it to a more active game plan.

Out is Banishing Light, Impulse, Syncopate, Sands of Delirium, Search for Tomorrow, Farseek, Graypelt Refuge, Thornwood Falls, Tranquil Cove, Llanowar Elves, and Expedition Map, with Luminarch Ascension moved to the sideboard. I took out many cards that don't affect the board, to add either ones that do, or ones that filter cards more than once. Thus why the fetchlands are now included - more shuffle effects.

In are Sensei's Divining Top, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Feast and Famine, Stoneforge Mystic, Eternal Witness, Mother of Runes, True-Name Nemesis, Sylvan Library, Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Windswept Heath and Council's Judgment. More active ways to harm you, more repeatable ways of protecting Jenara, more repeatable filtering.

The sideboard has also changed. Detention Sphere, Aura of Silence, Filigree Fracture and Cyclonic Rift are out for Luminarch Ascension, Dromoka's Command, Rest in Peace and Relic of Progenitus. I've not been facing token armies much, but I have been seeing decks that would hurt without their graves. Dromoka's Command does so much, and Luminarch Ascension is nice on the play against a control deck, but not so much against Voltron beats.

Played a lot of games in the past few days, but today I'll share the one I just had against Feldon of the Third Path. It was amazingly good fun, and it was with the most up-to-date version of this deck.

Game one was interesting. I ended up with a stupidly big Jenara wielding both Swords, but he was locking me out of combat damage entirely with Feldon re-animating Junk Diver and Myr Retriever constantly to block Jenara, along with a Sylvok Lifestaff getting him lots and many life. I made a painful decision, in order to stop him going infinite - I Oblivion Stone'd away my Jenara, Stoneforge Mystic and both Swords when I saw an Altar of Dementia go down, fearing infinite mill. The plan worked though, and after playing the Entreat the Angels I'd had stuck in my hand for three, he died in three rounds of attack, not enough time for him to set up enough of a combo to stop more than one angel a turn.

Game two I mulled to six. On his first turn, he played Burning Inquiry...which lead to me ditching my entire hand of lands. He soon followed with a Blood Moon, which locked me out of two colours of mana - I had found an Island by this point. Eventually, I played and used an Oblivion Stone, but without finding any graveyard hate, and a woefully lacking board state, he reanimated Ball Lightnings with Feldon until I died.

Game three started well, a turn one Birds of Paradise Sadly though, the turn 2 Jenara ate a Mizzium Mortars, and I ran short on land. I had a Top in play, and was digging away, but I needed one more land and a removal spell for my grand plan to work. Eventually I got a Path to Exile and a fetchland into my hand, with Enlightened Tutor on top of my deck. I fetched, popping the Top in response. Grabbing the Tutor, I then grabbed the land, shuffling my Top away, before putting Nevermore on top of my library. On my turn, I removed Feldon of the Third Path, before naming him with Nevermore. Without his general, his deck was much weaker, and eventually [very eventually, he had a lot of burn and a Stingscourger to get past], Jenara swung for 11 after I Council's Judgment'd away a Junk Diver.

Thank you for more suggestions, hehe.

Scavenging Ooze is cool, but I can't see what to cut for it. If I wanted life-gain I wouldn't use it, and I already have better graveyard hate, and I'm not finding myself short of creatures anymore. I did test Coiling Oracle instead of Explore, but I found it less powerful.

Journey to Nowhere has been removed for Bant Charm. When I first saw Bant Charm, I misread it as "exile target creature." Given it tucks [and that TL isn't changing how tucking works like EDH is], I'm more than happy to replace the enchantment. It's one less thing that dies to my own Oblivion Stone, and I still have an Oblivion Ring to grab with Enlightened Tutor.

In the sideboard, Elephant Grass, Crawlspace and Relic of Progenitus have been removed for Ground Seal, Dueling Grounds and Maze of Ith. I like Ground Seal a little more than Relic of Progenitus, because they need enchantment removal to fix it, rather than just refilling the grave. The other two were pointed out to me on Reddit - they're an insane combo. I tested them mainboard, and didn't like them so much in match one, but in some match-ups it's an amazing combo.

Today's match report is much shorter - just one game. Was against another Jenara, Asura of War deck, this one much more creature-based than mine. He went first, losing a Fleecemane Lion to my Spell Snare early, before I got a Sylvan Library down on turn two. Turn three he played a Geist of Saint Traft, to which I replied with Jenara. A Spear of Heliod made it much more risky for me to block, so I took 8. On my next turn, before I could pump Jenara to block more effectively, he Bant Charm'd to tuck my Lucius-Malfoy-angel lady. I responded by Path to Exile-ing her, getting another land, before dropping to 6 on the attack. My next turn I played an Oblivion Stone, leaving up mana to Swords to Plowshares the angel token. He dropped me to 3 before I wiped the board.

From here, I very slowly won. I was holding removal and counters still, recurring it with Eternal Witness. Eventually Jenara swung for the win, while Courser of Kruphix, Eternal Witness and Mishra's Factory played defence. I was very happy with this game, because I recovered well from being 27 life lower than my opponent. Felt like the deck worked perfectly.