MTG Salvation

Here's the rough idea, need to trim it down a lot and add basic lands.

Fascinating to see a Miracles deck (top Legacy deck) mixed together with a Vicious Shadows deck (about as far on the other side of the competitive spectrum as possible).

For Vicious Shadows, cards to consider might include Awakening Zone, Sprouting Thrinax, Dingus Staff, From Beyond, Mitotic Slime, Mycoloth, and Phyrexian Altar.

For Miracles, I'm pretty sure you could port over a Legacy version (except perhaps with the full Entreat playset). Though there is this copy of Scroll Rack + Land Tax Miracles floating out there.

I have no idea how to combine the two.

How are you getting the vicious shadows in the yard for replenish? With all those sacrifice outlets maybe academy rector would be better for sneaking one out.

How are you getting the vicious shadows in the yard for replenish? With all those sacrifice outlets maybe academy rector would be better for sneaking one out.

academy rector is amazing, ty!
I had been planning on just discarding it at end of turn, (using tax+rack to draw 4 cards a turn should lead to that I think)
or just using playing it with mana (Ashnod's Altar) or Spinerock Knoll early game, then using replenish after it is destroyed.
I'm really loving how perfectly the altar fits into the deck.

Revision 2
I moved away from Replenish - the deck has too many sorceries and artifacts for replenish to work IMO.

broken down by type:

2 cards I'm really unsure of:
wheel of fate: for opponents who empty their hands. Awkward, but may be needed, if vicious shadows is dealing 0 damage.
tamanoa: I have a fair number of my own cards that will kill tamanoa and no ways to bring it back except mistveil plains. but lifegain is always needed.

other thoughts: the deck will be good in a token-deck vs token-deck matchup, but may fall flat to pernicious deed, blightsteel colossus and a lot of other common multiplayer cards.

Combos within the deck:


other maybes:

• 1 luminarch ascension
  
• 1 aura of silence
  
• 1 replenish
  
• 1 Sylvan Offering
  
• 1 Awakening Zone
  
• 1 Pure Reflection
  
• 1 Saproling Cluster
  
• 1 tempt with vengeance
  
• 1 entreat the angels
  
• 1 Rise of the Hobgoblins
  
• 1 martial coup
  
• 1 sun titan
  
• 1 Sprouting Thrinax
  
• 1 Dingus Staff
  
• 1 From Beyond
  
• 1 Mitotic Slime
  
• 1 Mycoloth
  
• 1 Phyrexian Altar

I'm not sure why you are using Land Tax and no non-basic Plains. You can only use it a maximum of three times with that list. also, the double mana lands don't make sense to me.

Also, would you consider Sterling Grove as the tutor? It also gives protection against your kill card if you draw multiples.

If you're considering Wheel of Fate, why not Reforge the Soul since you can miracle it pretty easy with Scroll Rack. Then your opponents don't have time to empty their hands.

If you're considering Wheel of Fate, why not Reforge the Soul since you can miracle it pretty easy with Scroll Rack. Then your opponents don't have time to empty their hands.

that's a great idea! Adopted.

I'm not sure why you are using Land Tax and no non-basic Plains. You can only use it a maximum of three times with that list.

Land tax is meant to stuff your hand with 3 basic lands, then you put all 3 back on top of your library using scroll rack, effectively drawing 3 extra cards, for a total of 4 cards a turn. the bounce lands are there because having an extra land in my hand helps me draw more often, and because land tax wants me to have very few lands in-play compared to my opponents. as long as my deck always has 3 lands in it and I have less lands than someone, I can abuse land tax over and over again to draw 4 cards a turn. If my deck has 6 basic lands left in it, with 2 land tax + 1 scroll rack in-play, I can draw 7 cards per turn. just because I draw 3 plains once, doesn't mean I can't draw those 3 plains again next turn. this is especially beautiful since land tax happens on upkeep, lets me fetch plains, then draw, then I can main-phase use scroll rack to replace unwanted cards to top of deck, but I get to tutor again with land tax again on the next turn before I ever see the 'rejected' cards again!

also, the double mana lands don't make sense to me.

I prefer calling them bounce lands! I use them because:
1--cards like boros garrison etc help me bounce spinerock knoll so I can play it a second time, helping play a really expensive spell super early-game.
2--it helps land tax count me as having 1 land, even though I get 2 mana, so I can keep playing 1 land a turn without worrying about going ahead of people who miss land drops.
3--my meta doesn't use land destruction really, so I'm not worried about losing "2 lands" to 1 land destruction effect.
4--it puts a basic land back into my hand, so that land tax has more basic lands to tutor. that could really help lategame when I have 2 land taxes in play and I want to draw 7 cards per turn instead of 4.

no non-basic Plains

this is confusing me because of the double negative, and because I have both basic plains and some non-basic plains like mistveil plains. It isn't a basic land, but I plan on keeping it there to help me draw useful cards a second time late-game, so my deck isn't just a bunch of "rejects" that I threw back in via scroll rack. It works in my meta, but your mileage may vary.

Also, would you consider Sterling Grove as the tutor? It also gives protection against your kill card if you draw multiples.

the sterling grove is pretty nifty, I think I'll swap out 1 enlightened tutor for it. I'll keep 3 enlightened tutors because they serve another purpose: to find a scroll rack, completing the tax-rack combo. I think 2 sterling groves would increase my already terrible weakness to pernicious deed effects and tranquility effects. also, not completing the tax-rack combo would hurt.

current version:


took out the goblin bombardments, I already am using ashnod's altar exclusively for my sac outlet.
added more artifact/aura mutations to power the altar early game and act as removal.
swapped wheel of fate for reforge the soul.

It would be easy to take out the tax-rack cards and replace with some early aggro/more control/other kinds of mana ramp, while still keeping the kill-combo...but I like it as-is.

Out of curiosity, are you opposed to Goblin Charbelcher as your win con? It's basically as good today as it was 12 years ago and it's much less convoluted than what you're currently employing. I'm not saying that your combo is necessarily some 5-6 card monstrosity (all of the cards do something inherently) but at the same time this seems much more complicated than "tap 7 mana, kill you."

Do you like the full 4 Taxes, Racks and E.Tutors? I find that the cards are rather anemic in multiples nor do I think that it's incredibly important that combo is assembled on turn 2. I understand that part of the beauty of the Rack is that "mulligans" are significantly less impactful when you can "reset your hand" so to speak but it still doesn't change the fact that your deck is full of cards that don't really do anything. I don't think that inherently wrong to field the full playset of everything but I've personally experienced more success running fewer Racks and E.Tutors and making the combo more of a midgame focus to lean on once I've taken control of the board. Tax I'll frequently run a 4-of but at the same time you don't have Chrome Moxes or Mox Diamonds to make it an especially powerful turn 1 play.

Quote from Prid3 »

Out of curiosity, are you opposed to Goblin Charbelcher as your win con? It's basically as good today as it was 12 years ago and it's much less convoluted than what you're currently employing. I'm not saying that your combo is necessarily some 5-6 card monstrosity (all of the cards do something inherently) but at the same time this seems much more complicated than "tap 7 mana, kill you."

Belcher is probably better, and deserves its own deck, but it feels cheesy to me. It is much more interesting I think, to FORCE opponents into taking token creatures they don't want and then abuse the number of opponents.

Quote from Prid3 »

Do you like the full 4 Taxes, Racks and E.Tutors? I find that the cards are rather anemic in multiples nor do I think that it's incredibly important that combo is assembled on turn 2. I understand that part of the beauty of the Rack is that "mulligans" are significantly less impactful when you can "reset your hand" so to speak but it still doesn't change the fact that your deck is full of cards that don't really do anything. I don't think that inherently wrong to field the full playset of everything but I've personally experienced more success running fewer Racks and E.Tutors and making the combo more of a midgame focus to lean on once I've taken control of the board. Tax I'll frequently run a 4-of but at the same time you don't have Chrome Moxes or Mox Diamonds to make it an especially powerful turn 1 play.

heck I've been thinking of scrapping the whole combo. this is primarily a vicious shadows deck. I agree that the deck has at least 10 "do nothing" cards after you already have your 2-card combo, but the scroll rack lets me replace the dead cards so I don't mind. Going down to fewer might be good, and would help me fix other issues. do you recommend 4 land tax, 2 scroll rack, 2 tutors, and 4 mox diamond/chrome mox?

Mox Diamond is significantly more powerful than Chrome Mox in Land Tax decks and I'll always run 4 if it's an option.

2-3 Racks and 2-3 tutors is more in-line with what I'll field myself. I'm a fan of 4x Land Tax if you have the Mox Diamonds to support them but otherwise I'll usually only run 3.