MTG Salvation

Hello friends,

If you had to dedicate one slot in your deck to a creature with an ETB "wrath" effect, which one would you choose?
- Massacre Wurm: doesn't touch your own guys, gives extra reach when creatures die.
- Demon of Dark Schemes: hits your own things, but brings them back after they go away.
- Massacre Girl: has the potential to kill bigger things, but requires more setup.
- Other (please specify)

I’m a huge fan a Massacre Wurm. It can completely wipe out an opposing army... or player. I consider the Demon to be a budget replacement. Massacre Girl, well I’ll need to play with her, but she could be a creature version of Damnation in a lot of situations. I’ll have to test her out.

I like kagemaro, first to suffer, since it is easier to make into a wrath (incl. bigger creatures) the others are mainly small creature killers.

Massacre Wurm because it doesn't just kill creatures, it's a win con. Wurm with Girl seems pretty good too.

Also, Dread Cacodemon isn't cheap, but it is Plague Wind stapled to a creature.

Massacre girl costs less and...y'know...kills things with more than just 2 measly toughness? Gets my vote for sure.

Kinda depends, though. If your meta is super slow and grindy then the demon can have a big impact over the course of the game. If your meta is very token-heavy then wurm can just kill people, and if keeping your creatures alive is important to you then wurm has that advantage too. But in terms of being the most universally-powerful and having the biggest immediate impact plus being most efficient, I'd give it to massacre girl.

Massacre Wurm is great against weenie tokens because if goes after only opponent's stuff.

I'd also like to second the honorable mention of Kagemaro, First to Suffer as an alternative even though it's not ETB. Havoc Demon also has some nice numbers if you have sac outlets and reanimation, though it's not ETB, either.

Oh yeah, definitely agree on kagemaro. Being able to activate at will (and at instant-speed) can be a lot stronger than an etb.

Massacre Wurm is the cutest, so it gets my vote.

...what?

Desolation Giant? Literally a wrath.

Other: Ixidron (if you want to count that)

Of the ones you listed, I probably prefer Massacre Wurm. I've seen that card finish off a lot of tables.

From what's listed here, Massacre Wurm is the strongest. Damn card needs a reprint, because I need a reasonably priced copy.

I do really like Massacre Girl though, it's a cool design, just not sure where it fits.

From playtesting, Demon of Dark Schemes definitely doesn't pull it's weight well enough. It's a cool design, it just needs other cards to kill things before it has enough energy to do any sort of reanimation. In the right place it could be great, but it doesn't finish off a table with Wurm does.

I'm partial to Massacre Wurm and Kagemaro, First to Suffer, although I see Massacre Girl making an appearance in a few of those decks.

I like all of these, but DoDS is my least favourite of them. My personal favourite is Rakdos, the Showstopper, though. It has a much better of chance of wiping out important creatures no matter what part of the game you're in, even if the effect is unreliable.
I'm biased, though, since I've been really digging the deck I built around Rakdos in the past few weeks.

I like all of these, but DoDS is my least favourite of them. My personal favourite is Rakdos, the Showstopper, though. It has a much better of chance of wiping out important creatures no matter what part of the game you're in, even if the effect is unreliable.
I'm biased, though, since I've been really digging the deck I built around Rakdos in the past few weeks.

Can confirm this. I haven't built myself, but I've faced Rakdos down a fair bit and he wrecks things up really well. Slightly unreliable, but he seems a blast to play.

There are so many. Ashling the Pilgrim, Pestilence Demon, Balefire Dragon, Sunblast Angel...

I can't pick one. I think the various ones are better in specific decks. Of the 3 you listed, Massacre Wurm is probably the top one because it can win the game, but I think Massacre Girl is probably better at actually being a wrath.

I am intending to switch from Massacre wurm to massacre girl mostly because the wurm is really hard to cast in my deck. But I have pulled out some wins I shouldn't of with the wurm with the help of forbidden orchard

The wurm is a great card. But it is really not a wrath.
Drown in Sorrow, Cry of the Carnarium, a cycled Decree of Pain etc. I wouldn't count any of those as a wrath. They are more of a focused spotremoval for tokens imo.

Cataclysmic Gearhulk is oen card worth mentioning. The problem with the cataclysm-effect is that it doesn't gain that much by being on a creature and the ones without legs jsut oes a better job. Cataclysm is just evil and Tragic Arrogance is lovely with all the control in your hands.

Myojin of Cleansing Fire is eally effective aswell. And great at holding the table hostage.

Quote from Reaper9889 »

I like kagemaro, first to suffer, since it is easier to make into a wrath (incl. bigger creatures) the others are mainly small creature killers.

I'll second this, at least from the perspective of my Chainer, Dementia Master deck. Massacre Wurm and co are certainly good cards, but they aren't going to clear a board outside of some additional shenanigans. Meanwhile stuff like Dread Cacodemon need to be cast to get the effect, so won't do anything when reanimated. Leaving Kagemaro as my preferred option as it can both kill decent sized critters and works with my general's recursion.

Quote from Forgotten One »

I'm partial to Massacre Wurm and Kagemaro, First to Suffer, although I see Massacre Girl making an appearance in a few of those decks.

These three are all great. I voted Massacre Girl because she will likely kill most of the board, however I currently run Massacre Wurm and love it. We have a few token decks running around and Massacre Wurm does work. Kagemaro is most flexible, but can also backfire if your hand is low and you need to kill something larger. Massacre Wurm has the same problem, but you know what your getting up front.

For non-black, False Prophet is great in a deck with enough sac outlets. Instant Speed exile and you can sacrifice your things before trigger.

Of the above listed, Massacre Wurm is the best. I don't think Massacre Girl will be very good; requiring creatures to be of increasing toughness in regular increments is a taller order than I would like, even if she's aggressively costed.

However, I think there are much better wrath creatures to run than these. If you're only looking at black, Kagemaro, First to Suffer is very strong, and Pestilence Demon can close out games very well while keeping the board fairly clean. Reiver Demon can be one-sided, as well.

Outside of black, Sunblast Angel is a personal favourite.

Quote from Sinis »

I don't think Massacre Girl will be very good; requiring creatures to be of increasing toughness in regular increments is a taller order than I would like, even if she's aggressively costed.

What about multiple 1/1s, then?

I think Massacre Girl will do work, in the right place. I think if you're running her you need to make sure you have something on field that sets off the cascade of violence. Like, say an eldrazi spawn, Reassembling Skeleton, Bloodghast, so on and so forth. Just one or two things to get the ball rolling. Once it's rolling, she's likely to have very little company left.

I like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite the best.

Quote from lyonhaert »

Massacre Wurm is great against weenie tokens because if goes after only opponent's stuff.

I'd also like to second the honorable mention of Kagemaro, First to Suffer as an alternative even though it's not ETB. Havoc Demon also has some nice numbers if you have sac outlets and reanimation, though it's not ETB, either.

Pestilence Demon is nice.

Outside of black, Squallmonger is cute just because Snake Umbra means you now pay 2 to draw three cards, making it the cheapest repeatable Ancestral Recall that hasn't been banned in some format or another.

Demon of Dark Schemes all the way. It gives you more to do beyond the ETB effect which gives you more lines of play later in the game and sometimes there's no token deck to punish on so having an otherwise dead draw have a relevant ability in those games feels much better. It's also more budget and has better replayability due to the variance of the creatures you could theoretically get back from opponents' decks.

Massacre Wurm has more obvious potential as a finisher, but I have a hard time seeing that coming to fruition against any deck that isn't a token deck. It just seems like an irrelevant 6-drop too much of the time to me.

If your deck has a significant amount of card flow, niche cards with higher ceilings are more reasonable to play, because they get diluted by other things you can do when they aren't good. I think I tend to run fewer and less explosive card draw engines than other players so I value the added ability to do things on the Demon (both when it punishes a token deck and when it doesn't) for that reason as well.



Archfiend of Depravity was my preference for go-wide punisher before Demon of Dark Schemes was printed. It can theoretically grab more things than just tokens but is locked into a very specific role.

False Prophet is a fantastic board wipe in any deck with sac outlets that happens to be able to recur creatures easily.