MTG Salvation

Besides Goblin Rabblemaster which is for sure a nice creature in this deck, i think the common Generator Servant is nothing to scoff at. Not everyday red gets mana ramp.... and he even gives haste to creatures!

The first rule of purphoros is, you do not play purphoros in 40 life games.
The second rule of purphoros is, YOU DO NOT PLAY PURPHOROS IN 40 LIFE GAMES.

pardon the fight club reference, but basically, if you bring this deck to a 40 life game, you are a crazy person.

The only new card that is actually good IMO is Borderland Marauder. The rest are iffy or too cute.

check my changelog section for deck updates. the decklist on page 1 is always what I currently play.

i thought the first rule of purphoros was, you do not EVER let him become a creature.

that aside, if i was facing a purphoros deck, a combo deck and a control deck, i would be warier of the other two before purphoros. or you meant that it's easily shut off before he does any real damage in multiplayer?

Humorously enough, I actually went and grabbed myself a Purphoros deck for MTGO anyway. Predictably, I lost a bunch of times (mostly to Blue) but I managed to beat a Lazav who unloaded a bunch of card draw but only managed to get a Sheoldred out before I burned him to death, and a Grenzo that ended up being a damage race (my burn vs. his goblins).

Firecat Blitz is amaaaaazing, btw.

But yeah, that extra ten health makes things so hard. So hard.

i play him in Norin, and the only times i have both on board and i manage not to win is when purphoros gets killed/exiled/tucked because he was a creature or gets oringed. so, in my experience, edh is so a scary place when it comes to creatures then i don't ever wish purphoros to become one.

Indeed, but his Commander is Norin while Purphoros is one of his 99. Tuck's a realistic possibility, though considering how nasty Norin can get with ETB effects in general, that's probably not so bad.

Edit: So just to echo what everyone thinks about Purp destroying slow starts, on MTGO I ended up taking out an artifact combo deck that doubled up on his Kuldotha Forgemaster's ability with a Rings of Brighthearth, only to find he had precious little in his deck to deal with all the goblins I had, and in fact took a moment trying to target Purphoros with a Spine of Ish Sah only to find he couldn't. There was also a Brian Stoutarm who couldn't Lifelink through my burn (and didn't have much else besides his Commander) and ended up going down to tokens.

Purp might not be Tier 1 or even 1.5, but he's fun as hell when he gets going fast, regardless.

I was referring to the life total. It is difficult enough to deal 30 damage, let alone 40.

I was also thinking about the Goblin Rabblemaster and only tested him a week and cut him. Instead of him, why don't we just play Orcish Artillery (and his functional reprint)?? Better devotion, deals 2 damage per turn, sits back and doesn't *need* to attack, sure it hurts us. He is also repeated removal. Maybe I should test it. Most games my life total doesn't matter - I either win or lose before it matters. I mean, can someone give me a good reason why something like rabblemaster is better than artillery? I don't see it... I think cards like rabblemaster are red herrings (basically means... a distraction, flashy but not the real deal) for this deck. Am I wrong?

I'm also testing Jaya Ballard since she can Incinerate stuff repeatedly. I think she may be very useful. Similar to the artillery guys.

Quote from kwiznek »

I was referring to the life total. It is difficult enough to deal 30 damage, let alone 40.

I was also thinking about the Goblin Rabblemaster and only tested him a week and cut him. Instead of him, why don't we just play Orcish Artillery (and his functional reprint)?? Better devotion, deals 2 damage per turn, sits back and doesn't *need* to attack, sure it hurts us. He is also repeated removal. Maybe I should test it. Most games my life total doesn't matter - I either win or lose before it matters. I mean, can someone give me a good reason why something like rabblemaster is better than artillery? I don't see it... I think cards like rabblemaster are red herrings (basically means... a distraction, flashy but not the real deal) for this deck. Am I wrong?

I'm also testing Jaya Ballard since she can Incinerate stuff repeatedly. I think she may be very useful. Similar to the artillery guys.

Personally, I like Goblin Rabblemaster a lot more than Jaya and the artillery guys. The goblin just "gets there" much faster, and how often do you have spare cards in hand for Jaya? And who cares about the devotion? It's not like you're playing Purphoros for the body.

Like I said, I agree, on paper it looks awesome. I still disagree about it being so good in practice though. Playtest it, and if you can honestly come back and tell me it carried games and became the best card in your deck, then I will absolutely admit that I was wrong. I just do not see that happening.

And virtus, plenty of games I want to activate purphoros. it's 6 extra damage and that is a lot. My build is focused around devotion.

Playing Purph at a tourney this coming Sunday. Will keep everyone posted with the results!

Sadly, the organizers still allowed players to use Oloro as this was initially scheduled a week before the banning. I was really excited to have -1 bad matchup hahaha

Well, you better pray that you have Ruination or Moon cards in your opening hand.

What are you getting with Imperial Recruiter? Siege-Gang? That's about the only target I would want... not sure if it's worth having a 1/1 for 3. Just my $.02

Went 3-2 over the weekend in a 32 player tourney with Purph with both losses coming to Skittles. Was good enough to finish within the upper half of the bracket and snag 2 M15 boosters

Round 1 vs Grim-Grin (2-0):
He was stuck on 3 lands with no 2nd black source for the first game and only managed to play a Gravecrawler. I managed to put early pressure with some 1 and 2 drops and those were enough. Game 2 was very similar but he managed to play more creatures this time including a Undead Warchief. I was able to turn-on Purph and he didn't have the removal to remove my devotion.

Round 2 vs Ezuri (2-1):
Game 1, I tried to deny his mana by killing his dorks but that proved to be futile as I didn't have enough pressure to put on damage. He Crop Rotationed to Gaia's Cradle and had enough dudes to kill me in 2 swings with Overrun activation. Game 2, we went a little back-and-forth but he didn't have an answer to Thundermaw Hellkite. Game 3, we both got to a slow start. I didn't have anything until turn 4 (Fanatic of Mogis lol) and he was stuck at 2 lands with some 1/1s in play. He found his 3rd land and played Ezuri but I was able to overload a Mizzium Mortars which. He didn't have any follow-ups and I was able to slowly build my board presence to secure the win.

Round 3 vs Skittles (1-2):
Game 1, he was like able to cast an early Skith via Lake of the Dead and some stones. Not really much of a game. Game 2, he made the mistake of not taking my Tangle Wire when he Inquisitoned me and that managed to be the turning point. I had 2 one drops (Stromkirk noble and Guide) and was able to ride on Tangle Wire to do enough damage to put him within burn range before he could recover. Game 3 was tight - it went down to the last turn. I was one Skittles swing away from dying and he was down to 8 life. I had a Shrine with 1 counter, Purph and a Mutavault in play (with around 6 lands I think). I was hoping for either Siege Gang, Hellrider, Hero of Oxid or Tempt with Vengeance but drew a land and died promptly the next turn.

Round 4 vs Prosh - Land D version (2-1):
Game 1 wasn't even close. He was on the play and promptly land-d'd every land I played until he could cast Prosh. Game 2, the tides were turned - I managed to get to 4 lands and was able to cast Ruination to leave him with just one swamp - he wasn't able to recover. Game 3 was close - he resolved a Prosh and had Shared Animosity in play which would spell lethal for me in 2 turns. He was at 6 life at this point. I top-decked a volcanic fallout which saved me from the horde of Kobolds then top-decked Char the following turn to win.

Round 5 vs Skith (1-2):
Game 1, we went back-and-forth. I was able to stall the poison damage a little bit and was able to deal early pressure. He was down to 3 life and didn't expect for me to deal enough damage so he went all in with Skith. I had Purph, 1 goblin token and a Blood Knight in play. I topdecked a Sulfuric Vortex, swung with my dudes, Activated the Pump from Purph to deal 12 damage. He died during his upkeep via the Vortex. Game 2, he was able to control my hand via 3 straight discard spells - Inqui, Hymn, Mind Rot. With no hand and no answers, Skittles started gobbling me up. Game 3, he didn't have any early plays except for Waste Not. I was off to a slow start as well with nothing but Reckless Waif and Stigma Lasher and was stuck on 2 lands. He was able to Persecute me on a crucial turn and gave him tons of advantage. I wasn't able to recover from that and again, was gobbled up by the black dragon.

Decklist to follow! Despite the losses, the deck was still very fun to play!

Hey Kriggy! Here's the deck I used:



Will definitely add Goblin Rabblemaster! And I'm thinking of cutting the Elemental package

There should be a Blood Moon there somewhere! I know that Jitte is reaaallly good but in most games, you tend to swarm your opponent so I thought that something like Hall of Triumph might be better. There are also times wherein Jitte might be a little too mana intensive (to play and then equip). I just tested out the hall and will see how it goes.

The Obsidian was kinda like a mascot lol What I liked about it was the fact that it turned on Purph really easily and the ability it had was really a good way to break stalled board states. I never got to play him in an actual tourney though.

Skullcrack was ok. In most games, the opponents I had didn't really have lifegain so it was really just a 3 damage spell for 2. One thing I liked about it was the fact that it helped you find a way around fog effects and against creatures that had protection from red.

I'll prolly drop the Harbinger but will definitely keep the other elementals!

Sarkhan Dragospeaker is a new playable 5 drop, best friend of hellkite and stormbreath. Downside is that he doesn't trigger purphoros when entering the battlefield..... upside is that he can also shoot creatures and draw cards if he reaches the ultimate.

I'm a big fan of this monored walker. Answers turn 4 JtMS better than most things.

Yes he's obviously awesome. Probably cut Stormbreath for now to try it.

BTW, I have been testing Martyr of Ashes and I really like it. Helps a lot with the midrange and aggro matchups and is a creature.

Yes Kriggy but in most matchups where you want it, you can plan around it and use it as a 3 mana board wipe. Then play your creatures out later. The key for me is that it's a creature so it'll still at least attack, add to devotion, etc. I'm not completely sold on it but what i'm trying to do with tweaking my build is to improve the matchups against other aggro and midrange decks which are my worst matchups. Doran, Marath, random GW and RG decks like Selvala, Radha, Xenagos, also monogreen Ezuri and Yisan. These decks are tough for Purphoros and having board wipe in creature form is very good against them.

skullcrack and a global damage spell you mean.

I would not play countryside crusher (as kriggy said we often need lands and he has no evasion) magus of the scroll (slow, not aggressive early) or especially skullcrack. Some cards and decks are just bad match ups for purphoros. Best solution is stick to our game plan.

List updated for Mardu scout.