MTG Salvation

This deck is unchanged since I was a kid (I made this deck in 1999), I always just called it Discard Pain because one of the main themes was forcing the opponent to discard cards and get whacked by Megrim. It also had blue for control, and because I loved Lobotomy!

So, I am hoping for ideas and suggestions on how I can update this deck and improve upon it (maybe even splash another color/s?).

Here is the original decklist:



Obviously the very first changes I will make are going to be reducing the deck down to 60 cards, and changing the mana base. There are TONS more options for land now then there was 16 years ago!

Any ideas jump out at you? Thank you for your opinions.

Think I am going to pull some cards/ideas from the 8Rack variations.

What do you think about adding some Baleful Strix to the mix?

Quote from Xyx »

Baleful Strix is an excellent card. Hard to go wrong with it.

You might also be interested in Painful Quandary. It lives up to its name.

Thanks, that is a cool suggestion!

You know who I completely forgot about? Hyppy! I used to have several from Revised, but I quit and sold my collection a few times between 1994 and 2000 unfortunately.

• Liliana's Caress
  
• Recoil
  

And you are on the right track with 8 rack. Shrieking Affliction is an excellent card for when their hand continues to remain empty.

Have had a hard time figuring out how to make it work with so many blue cards, so I took a lot of them out for now. Here is the current iteration built with cards I currently own:



Have only had the chance to play it twice, so still lots of play testing needed. Will improve over time with better cards of course. At this point the strategy is to kill their hand and then beat them down with midrange creatures until they die from this, that, or the other thing.

Suggestions very welcome.

I run Bottomless Pit to try and get even less cards in hand. It makes for an annoying and consistent discard engine too.

Hey.

Since you're coming back to magic, you'd watch some modern's 8rack and legacy's pox matches to better undertand the archetype situation.

Here are some obvious statements:

You can't expect 4cmc creatures that do nothing until they deal combat damage to your opponent work.

Be more linear, play targeted discard spells, use consistent creature destruction and lower your mana curve.

If you can invest money, Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are no-brainers.

One can't describe how much important Raven's Crime is. A 5 lands 2 Raven's Crime hand is a keep. Also, if you're flooding, any land is a discard spell.
T1 > Swamp + Raven's Crime
T2 > Swamp + Raven's Crime + Discard Swamp + Retrace Raven's Crime.

Victim of Night is the best creature removal a mono black deck can play. You'd only diverge for meta calls.

But, again, watch the games for yourself and follow the 8rack thread.

Those 4CMC creatures are just bums I use for now for lack of better creatures that help discard. I do plan to upgrade to something better, just not entirely sure what that will be yet. I actually forgot about Raven's Crime! Victim of Night is good (except when playing my brother, he runs a R/G werewolf deck).

Dimir Guildmage is an early drop that can give you a steady trickle of gas in the late game, and can break stalemates against draw-go decks.

Gatekeeper of Malakir should work well to deal with creatures that sneak past your discard strategy.

Puppeteer Clique might be a worthwhile late-game play to take advantage of the best creatures you've forced your opponent to discard.