MTG Salvation

I know I have some decent experience messing around with this card but I want others opinions as currently this card has become almost an auto-include for me in any black deck that uses creatures or reanimation. What are other's experiences with it? I'm trying to figure out if my assessment of it being nearly always an include with decks with 14+ creatures is correct or now.

BRx with Squee seems like a thing for this card.

It's hard for this card to compete with Phyrexian Reclamation, but I think it's possible with madness goodies or reanimator shenanigans. Special mention for Grave Scrabbler, who can make this card shine.

Ooh, Masked Admirers also works nicely with this, just like it does with Survival of the Fittest.

My big ones have been Dredgers such as Stinkweed Imp, golgari brownscale or Golgari Thug as they allows for a conistent source of dredge but I like the idea of combining Survival of the Fittest and Masked Admirers to make a giant gravebased toolbox deck.

Does a lot of good work in my Nyx Weaver Pauper EDH deck, but it seems harder to justify outside of dredge strategies.

its not all so bad, like mentioned previously, if you can build the deck around madness/dredge/squee-esque things, then it can definitely do some work. in BR, you can also do things like discard anger and er... filth.

you can also do weird things with volrath's shapeshifter for 1 mana less!

I think this card looks great. Not to mention turning late game Farhaven Elfs into eternal witness basically.

It is one of my favourite cards in Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. I can toss a power<3 creature to reanimate and bring someone I want to actually cast back to my hand. Or if I have Makeshift Mannequin in my hand I can toss an Ashen Rider and instantly reanimate it in response to an opponent's action. In this particular deck, and on occasion in others, I run it and don't run Phyrexian Reclamation or Strands of Night.

I think in any deck that has a large array of CMC in the creature base, Tortured Existence should almost be an auto-include. It can turn Elves, Birds, Soldiers and other weenies into a Rune-Scarred Demon or Avenger of Zendikar after a board wipe or whatever non-exiling removal your opponents used.

The Gitrog Monster and Dryad Arbor like this. Then again everything combos with the frog...

Hm. You guys are making me rethink trying it out in a few decks. I had filed this card away in my "good art, but not good card" a while ago.

Quote from Ulka »

My big ones have been Dredgers such as Stinkweed Imp, golgari brownscale or Golgari Thug as they allows for a conistent source of dredge but I like the idea of combining Survival of the Fittest and Masked Admirers to make a giant gravebased toolbox deck.

I think it needs synergies like these to be better than Phyrexian Reclamation, but it's generally a good card.
I have had great experiences with it in Athreos, as it basically forces players to pay three life for everything, and even then, I'm just a topdeck away from getting back what I need.

If anyone ever gets an Olivia, Mobilized for War small creature madness aggro deck together I imagine this will be a part of it.

There’s also black squee.

I like it with squee for a grindy value-town deck. A sac outlet with some ETB creatures provides a solid value engine.