MTG Salvation

Hello, this is the second commander of mine that I share, as you can check my tribal warrior deck here

As you might know, GU is one of the most popular combinations in commander (at least prior banning prophet of kruphix), as this color combination grants access to virtually almost every effect in magic, such as mana-ramp (both creatures and land), spot removal of all sorts, mass removal, draw, tutoring stuff, stall, counter, lock, extra turns, attack finisher, tribal synergies, evasion, life gain, recurring cards, some of the most strong combos (infinite or not), the sky is the limit.

Many Edric variants can be found online without much effort on researching, as one can build this with a little investment and is quite fun and easy to play. I don't plan on making the definitive version of Edric or something, just one adapted to my meta plus a couple new cards from BFZ/OGW; you might adapt to you own reality if you wish to build one.

As the standard Edric, this deck focus on early, evasive smaller drops that ping other players lifes while rewarding you extra draws for causing combat damage. This effect is great not only because you are netting cards, but also hinders you as an attack option, as your opponents bashing each other grants them extra draws too (which leaves you standing unscattered).

The ins

The twist in this approach is to take advantage of the size and constant flow of smaller guys to slow down everyone else's game (just don't abuse, or otherwise you will become the table target, and this deck only handles group hate to a point).

First, Meekstone stalls bigger creatures and tappers that may torment you, shutting down krenko, eldrazis, heavy hitters and even elves sometimes (though the last one not for too long). To take advantage of the cheap cost, Equilibrium sends any creature back to hand, and can even save one of your own, by flashing somebody into battlefield and retrieving some creature to the safety of your hand.

In a similar fashion to Equilibrium, Altar of the Brood mills everybody one card for each permanent that enters your battlefield, not much of a flashy at first, but after a while it shows more value, as combo pieces, wraths or bigger spells hit the graveyard (of course, avoid this when facing dredge decks and similars). The fun part of both Meekstone and Altar is they can be tutored by trincket mage (also tutoring sol ring if needed), which in turn can be tutored by fauna shaman, plus all the card drawing, grabbing them shouldn't be hard.

From BFZ/OGW previews, I really enjoyed the ingest skill, even though very situational, in commander this can shine the most as nearly 80%/+ of the cards in every deck are unique, meaning that exiling the blasphemous act your opponent would top deck hurts even more. I added both Benthic Infiltrator and Mist Intruder and they have made a few interesting messes so far.

Adding to the mixture, Deepfathom Skulker gets in as an extra coastal piracy (a bit slow, but the evasion delivery might compensate), also, Dimensional Infiltrator is just made for this deck; mana efficient, evasive, flashable and possibly an "eternal blocker" (when his hability does work and return it to hand).

Warping Wail comes as a modular spell for minor stuff. Being colorless may pull some surprizes, as leaving sol ring untapped and your blue mana tapped does the bait really well. Not sure if it will make the cut though, will test all 3 cards from OGW more.

A card often overlooked that gets itself a good niche here is Bower Passage. Leaving your own flying creatures virtually unblockable (except by the rares reachers), as one of the problems that you can face that potentially shuts your stuff are indeed bigger flyers. Another odd inclusion is Thornwind Faeries, which sound bad at first but saved me a couple of times from a board whipe from a Goblin sharpshooter, keeps average creatures at bay, as your power 2 creats can be easily traded for a 3/3 plus can snipe opposing mirrors. Also recently updated in was Thought Vessel (second Reliquary Tower sort of)


The outs

Most cards that make this list are commonly seen in other lists around. Testing made me cut a handfull of them, but you might try if you wish so. The first was Stratus Dancer, which sounded powerfull and perfectly fit at first but doesn't work out that much. 100% of the time you want it to be punching somebody for two, but casting morphed, with no evasion, makes you wait precious turns, mana open, for somebody to fall for it. Icefeather Aven morph, on the other hand, is more likely to be used right away.

Turning this deck into an elfball (or fairyball of some sort) was tempting, but the thing is: there are more efficient stuff out of tribal, specially for this deck, and running them too would probably make the tribal synergy forced and mediocre most times, so i've cut things like priest of titania, eladamri and friends, saving the tribes for later.

I know this decks misses a few popular cards for Edric, but, as the title stated, this should be budget-ish (plus, I always forget to buy that Jace's Phantasm), and, except for lotus cobra and breeding pool, i managed to keep it that way. Enjoy: