MTG Salvation

I know, I know. Just look it over and let me have it.



I know it could use an effect like Grisly Salvage, Mulch, Satyr Wayfinder, Commune with the Gods, Tracker's Instincts, Drown in Filth, or many others. These cards are all fine, but I feel like I just want to be slowing the game down as I'm not dropping bombs here. Just play a couple first strikers and play the hold them off game. Just a lot of hard to get rid of threats made possible with Haakon. I've loved this card since I saw it spoiled, and every time I try a deck, I hate it. At least if I make this, I still have Vengevine and Gravecrawlers. I really like the synergy between Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and Mercenary Knight. Should I use Smallpox? If I had Liliana of the Veil I'd drop in a playset for sure. She's hand disruption, removal, and a sexy beast. However, she came out when I was on a hiatus from magic and when I returned she was already 40 doll hairs. Any thoughts here are appreciated. I just want to have a Haakon deck that wins.

I would cut the BSZ's and an Imp for the full 4x Smallpox. It's a very powerful card in these kinds of shells in my experience.

You may as well play the full 4 Vengevines if you're going to play with Gravecrawlers. It's not like a 2/1 that can't block does anything meaningful otherwise after all. I'd probably just cut the Darkblast for it since you always have Nameless Inversion if needed.

Do you own the 4th Cavalier? It's better than your other 3 drops. I'd shave one of those for it if you owned it.

You may as well play the 4th Loam too. Cut another 3 drop for it if needed.

I would play Stromgald Crusader as your 2 CMC blocker over Black Knight. Loam decks will hit land drops and it doesn't matter what you play on turn 2 as long as you play something that can threaten to trade. No one is going to want to go 1-for-1 in multiplayer after all. The fact of the matter is that jump knights are really good at closing games out later on whereas Black Knight is just a bad topdeck at every turn beyond the second.

Your mana base is boring. No Svogthos, the Restless Tomb, no Bojuka Bog, no anything really. Seems to me like you could afford to run a few spell lands.

I only had Darkblast in because I only have 3 Life from the Loam and wanted another dredge card. However, I was considering dropping the Darkblast and Raven's Crime for 2 Buried Alive. Just hit me how powerful that card is in this strategy. It essentially says tutor 3 creatures to your hand. Also, I only have 3 Stillmoon Cavalier and Vengevine. It's sad...

I really like the Stromgald Crusader as a closer like you said. Sometimes flying just gets there.

Black Sun's Zenith seems like it could be lackluster. I feel like it will never really do what I want it to. Thinking a 4th Nameless Inversion with 2 Smallpox just to be sure I can get them on time, or if needed before I get Haakon in the yard.

How's this for an update?

I'm wondering how much you are really getting out of Stinkweed Imp, since he's not a knight you aren't getting repeated effects from him, yeah there is the dredge but I think you might be able to run another threat like Dauthi Mercenary. He has shadow and you can pump him to close out games.

There are some other really bad options that have high p/t for their cmc:
Arrogant Bloodlord and Skulking Knight both seem destined for the graveyard, but could put some beats on and then come back for more.

You could also try a flashback suite to get some extra synergy out of your graveyard:
Chainer's Edict
Crippling Fatigue
Gnaw to the Bone
Moan of the Unhallowed
Sever the Bloodline


You could also take advantage of this by running "symmetrical" discard effects in addition to Smallpox:
Delerium Skeins
Bottomless Pit
Necrogen Mists
Death Cloud
Last Rites
Sickening Dreams
Rotting Rats


Really liking the look of the deck, and I would totally build it myself but I'm nowhere near affording the Vengevines QQ


Definitely update if you tried any of my suggestions and they worked for you.

If you're going to run BA is it possible to get a Golgari Grave-Troll in there over one of the Imps? Drawing a bigass "Mortivore"-esque card and milling 6 cards is a nice option to have. Playing smallish knights is cool and all but sometimes you need something big to deal with opposing fatties. I do really like Buried Alive though.

Anyways, deck seems sweet. The old deck fine too obviously but I like the new version more. I am a bit sad to see 0 mill effects though, namely Grisly Salvage. That card always feels so powerful to me. If I were you I'd buy 4 and test versions of the deck that field 4 of them over Smallpoxes, 1 Haakon and then a Stinkweed Imp or something. I dunno, I just can't think of a good reason to omit fielding some number of enablers.

I currently have all my Golgari Grave-Trolls in my mono green self mill or trust me, they would be in here. I have tons of Stinkweed Imp as I love the dredge mechanic.

I was actually considering Golgari Thug as a "better" version of Stinkweed Imp. It doesn't dredge as much which is the problem.

I considered Grisly Salvage since I already have playsets of it plus a million Commune with the Gods and Satyr Wayfinder but I just like dredging for "free". I recently updated the mana base dropping 1 Swamp and 1 Forest for 1 Barren Moor and 1 Tranquil Thicket respectively.

I also dropped back to 3 Nameless Inversion and added a single Raven's Crime back in. It really makes those very few games that I draw Haakon, Stromgald Scourge a lot better. Plus, it gives me something to do with lands in my hand later in the game against my control friends.

I'm not big on Necrogen Mists style effects. I don't even know why, and I could easily be wrong, but I just think I have a lot of 3 drops already.

What do you guys think about a single Worm Harvest? I know it doesn't really fit the theme of the deck very well, but neither does Vengevine. BTW, Vengevine has been amazing. 3 seems like the right number as he's not in my primary plan.

I'm glad a few people are showing a bit of interest in this deck because Haakon isn't exactly OP. Keep the ideas rolling guys!

It's hard for a single Worm Harvest to be actively bad in a Loam deck when you're talking about grindy MP games. For the record I also like the Raven's Crime which is why I never suggested cutting it. Even though you can only screw 1-2 players over (realistically) sometimes it's the best way to lock a game up.

I personally feel as though Imp > Thug if only because Black decks tend to be light on flying defense otherwise. Trading is also way better than chumping.

Necrogen Mists is better in Shrieking Affliction + Ensnaring Bridge versions of the deck.

So, after a lot of testing, I've come to a new list. I want to take advantage of a newer card, Necromancer's Stockpile. The old list ran just fine, but I recently came into some Bloodghast and I think this could be a fun deck.



After looking it over, it doesn't seem nearly as good as when I was coming up with it last night at work (midnight shifts can do that to a man). I may end up using the previous version, but do you guys have any input on either?