MTG Salvation

Hi everybody!

I'd really like to build a new, unique deck in real life, constructed with Peasant rules. I was saving Warped Devotion for a GMAD, but I'm having my doubts whether I'll ever get a turn... So here we are.

Obviously, I want to go for a UB deck. I'd like to include a few aggressive discard spells going to empty the opponents' hand early, then follow up by bouncing (eventually removing) creatures/bothersome permanents they may play.

So this deck needs to generate as much value as possible out of each spell, so something like Unsummon, that trades 1-for-1, is probably too weak. I'm thinking spells like Rushing River, Withdraw, Waterfront Bouncer, Recoil, Echoing Truth and creatures with bounce effects like Man-o'-War would be good.

How I would go about killing the opponent, I know not.

For my 5th uncommon, I was thinking Wash Out, but I'm not sure. Would Liliana's Caress be better? Or is there a better bounce spell I could consider?

Help!

Interesting idea. The bounce spells you mentioned are good options and Æther Burst might be a good option as well if you're expecting creature heavy decks.

As far as a finisher maybe something that's hard to deal with is your answer. Benthic Giant might do the trick or the new Whirlwind Adept may find a place here since you'll be triggering Prowess a lot.

For your 5th Uncommon, I'd use The Rack since it may be better later in the game than Liliana's Caress. Caress requires permanent's to be in play to be bounced, but The Rack works on empty hands and doesn't care about things being on the board.

But then again if you go with The Rack then you're dependent on Warped Devotion. Caress will still get the job done if you use discard in the deck along with bounce... I guess it depends on how you build the deck. More bounce without dedicated discard should have The Rack and a deck split between bounce and discard wants Caress.

Thanks for your suggestions! I had forgotten about AEther Burst. I also forgot about Repeal. That's probably going in.

I think I might just try Whirlwind Adept here. Seems pretty decent.

The Rack is also very interesting! I would not have thought of using it, but it would probably work pretty well!

I'm probably going to play bounce against creatures, but I think having a few non-land or permanent bounce spells would be really good.

Completely untested.


I'm going to need: Draw spells, filtering, countermagic (wasn't there a counter that also bounced a creature?), possibly tutors (Perplex/ Drift of Phantasms).

Thanks for your feedback!

I agree with Liliana's Caress being better than the rack in this deck.

I think I'll stay away from Cruise for now.

I'll try out Angler, thanks for the suggestion!

Lost in the Mist! Thank you! I thought it was 4 mana... I might still try it.

Muddle should be decent, although it doesn't fetch my enchantment. Perplex seems like anti-synergy, but would it be playable?

I did an initial test with the deck I posted before against what was essentially Grizzly Bear.dec, and it was pathetic. I'm going to try another approach, but if I can't beat a slow creature deck, I think it says something about the premise of the strategy. The only cards that were ever good so far were Capsize, Hymn to Tourach and Liliana's Caress. :/

Okay, well after quite a bit of testing against aggro decks, I've found something that seems to work fairly well.



Liliana's Caress wasn't pulling its weight without Warped Devotion, so I cut it for Wash out, which has been a life-saver.

I'm still playing around with Perplex and Lost in the Mist. Lost has been surprisingly good, and I'm thinking of keeping it for now.

Raven's Crime has been mediocre in many scenarios, as I often wanted to keep my lands and play them. In matches that went long though, it was superb. I don't know what I think about that slot.

I'm going back and forth on Whirlwind adept and Gurmag Angler. Neither feel particularly strong. Angler has eaten a lot more removal, therefore hasn't been as reliable. I might try Benthic Giant, as it has the toughness I'm looking for.

I cut the draw spells, as Repulse and Repeal coupled with lategame Capsize has been sufficient.

I think I want more/better discard. Getting someone to 0 hand size is really hard once they know what's going on. They sandbag lands and useless spells just to not have their stuff killed.

MVPS? Capsize (I think I want a third copy). Wash Out.

I'm also a fan of Into the Roil, because it can bounce nonland permanents, wheras Withdraw is dead against creatureless decks. I wouldn't cut it for Withdraw though; perhaps for some number of Repeal as it's a Repeal for U more but against every permanent type. I'm a fan of Gurmag Angler since outside of Edicts and Journey to Nowhere, nothing deals with it outside of a 2-for-1 (double burn, creature + combat trick, etc) and he will end up costing way less than Giant, thus leaving you open mana to hold a counterspell to protect him or force him through a counter. I would also run 2-3 more counters in order to protect Angler or Benthic Giant if you go for him since they can still eat Edicts or Counterspells.

Repeal with X=3 is exactly the same as a kicked Into the Roil (same target type too, only difference is ItR requires two blue sources). So if the CMC of the target is mostly 3 or less, Repeal is better. If it's 3 or more, ItR is better.

I like Repeal a lot more than Into the Roil, for the reasons Urdjur mentioned.

In general, the deck falls apart against non-creature decks. They are few and far between. You need to know where your decks' strengths and weaknesses are. Some weaknesses you just have to accept.

Zephyr Scarlet,

So you're saying Gurmag Angler is dealt with removal, edicts, counters and 2-for-1s. Benthic Giant cuts out the targeted removal situation. The nature of the deck makes profitably blocking these creatures very unlikely. That leaves counters and Edicts versus Giant, while Angler stills fights targeted removal. The only thing Angler has going for it that Giant doesn't is the mana cost. Also considering that the deck doesn't need to play its creatures until very late anyways, mana cost is rarely an issue. Benthic Giant seems to have the upper hand.

this being said, this deck is, for some reason, really boring to play for me. I'm not really liking the feel of it. Strange, this rarely happens to me.

Whoops, mistook Repeal with Repulse. Repulse is the card I was referring to in my previous post.

About the Angler vs Giant I still prefer the Angler for the reason I said: Blue and Black are the most played colors in pauper, so you will face edicts and counterspells the most, which means Giant can be countered or land and eat an edict inmediately because you won't have mana to protect it, while you can easily cast Angler for 1-2 and leave a ton of mana up to protect him and force him through counters. The removal Angler has to face comes from White, which is the least played color with only Journey to Nowhere and sometimes Oblivion Ring seeing the most play in the White removal suite, which are the only targeted removal useful against Angler (dodges Lightning Bolt, Flame Slash, Doom Blade, Victim of Night, Disfigure...). Keep in mind you can return both to the opponents hand with your nonland permanent bounce and the Angler is clearly the winner, even dealing 1 point more of damage in each swing and being capable to eat X/5.

There are very few decks that run non-creature permanents as their win conditions. I'm not worried about those overall. Repulse is quite efficient. I'd be hard pressed to cast Into the Roil for two mana, and paying 4 is quite a lot. I think I'll stick with Repulse for now.

With very few creatures being cast on my end, the opponent will easily accumulate enough burn to 2-for-1 my creature, which is a completely reasonable trade in these circumstances. The extra point of attack, while nice, is not overly relevant. There are so few creatures with 5 toughness to be worried about that it's not really an issue. I'd rather have the Hexproof.

That being said, the deck really isn't that fun to play. I think I'll be dropping it for now and work on another fun Peasant Deck.