MTG Salvation

So after building tons of "flavor" decks and losing HARD to my playgroup over and over, I decided to finally muscle up and build a competitive deck. This deck is optimized to do one thing and one thing only - smite fools with Skittles. To date, my win-loss record with this deck is around 70%, and only one of those wins has NOT come from an infect beatdown by the Blight Dragon. I play in a very competitive group with people that play very powerful decks (Arcanis combo, Kozilek ramp/aggro, Isamaru voltron, etc.), so I consider this deck to be a competitive deck and one that is absolutely worthy of playing in a tournament. It can be played in multiplayer settings, but the place where this deck shines is in a 1v1 game, especially if your opponent is unprepared to deal with Skithiryx hitting the board on turn 2 to hit them (or even better, hitting the board on turn 3 and hitting them for lethal).

So here's the decklist in all of its infected goodness Here's the old decklist under the spoiler tag, followed by the new decklist that contains some of the changes that were suggested here:




The play style of the deck is fairly simple, and can be described in three easy steps:
1. Accelerate out an early Skithiryx and win before your opponent can properly react.
2. If your opponent has a response, then get some protection for Skithiryx and/or remove the response from the board, bring Skithiryx back, and swing for the win.
3. If that still doesn't work, then lock the game down until you are able to draw/tutor what you need from the deck to win.

Feedback and opinions are welcome. Obviously, I've already made some changes based on the feedback received here, and I'm sure there's more I could do to optimize this. Please feel free to offer any/all ideas you may have.

Hiyah! This list looks brutal, I so want to play this (darn you Nether Void....)! I feel you have far too much ramp. You're trying to play a combo deck when I think really this wants to be a heavy control deck. I think you could benefit from more creatures but I'm OK with one being played although I don't know if you want it to be Crypt Ghast. What about Plague Myr and Phyrexian Crusader and that other black infector (can't remember the name...)? Overall this list looks really awesome as is and only stands to gain from the removal of some of those ramp (Coalition Relic, Charcoal Diamond, Mox Opal,Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo and controlly cards (Spine of Ish Sha, Perilous Vault). Oh and the Puzzle Box...what's going on there? Probably something idk about :p.

Those are just my initial thoughts. I think you have just a bit too many multiplayer-esque cards and can benefit big time from a few minor tweaks!

I have played against this deck a lot, since I'm the guy that is mentioned in the first post as playing Arcanis combo and Kozilek ramp/aggro. It's probably a bad idea that I'm telling you how to make this deck BETTER, since it already bends me over sideways 75% of the time we play, but I'll chip in anyway.

If it were ME building this deck, I would make the following suggestions:
1- Too many lands. 37 is a lot, you can safely go down to 34 and still be fine, considering you have mana rock support. This also allows you to include more of the cards you were thinking about adding in general, without having to cut cards you like to play. Congratulations, you just found space for that Ugin.
2- Personal playstyle would make me cut Boseiju. In our regular playgroup there aren't enough counterspells to merit it, but against a select few people, it would shine.
3- Personal preference to cut Charcoal Diamond, Jet Medallion, and Coalition Relic. In those spaces I would run Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, and Sculpting Steel. Fellwar Stone and Mind Stone can be tapped as soon as they ETB. Diamond makes you wait, Medallion is dead half the time, and Sculpting Steel lets you copy any of your artifacts, or your opponents ramp artifacts (which you know we all play heavily in our decks.) This might also allow you to run Vault of Whispers, as a secondary copy target, but it would be risky against red decks.
4- No Gauntlet of Power? No Nirkana Revenant? I know you want to keep the creatures as low as possible, but Revenant can help you ramp as well, if your Crypt Ghast is gone.
5- Death Cloud can literally kill you, since you will be taking heavy damage from an aggressive deck. I do not think it can be considered a secondary win condition, since you have a lot of life loss in your deck (Necro, Sign in Blood effects, etc.) Possibly other control spells in place of this, such as Pox, or the lesser, but effective, Smallpox. IF you decide to run multiple of these, you could consider a more aggressive land destruction package as well, so slow down opponents.
6- Champion's Helm as a second hexproof effect.
7- Blightsteel Colossus possibility? Not 100% sure on this, it might bite you in the ass, since I DO play Bribery and Treachery, but a second win condition in the event that Skittles starts to cost too much?

Quote from s g »

Hiyah! This list looks brutal, I so want to play this (darn you Nether Void....)! I feel you have far too much ramp. You're trying to play a combo deck when I think really this wants to be a heavy control deck. I think you could benefit from more creatures but I'm OK with one being played although I don't know if you want it to be Crypt Ghast. What about Plague Myr and Phyrexian Crusader and that other black infector (can't remember the name...)? Overall this list looks really awesome as is and only stands to gain from the removal of some of those ramp (Coalition Relic, Charcoal Diamond, Mox Opal,Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo and controlly cards (Spine of Ish Sha, Perilous Vault). Oh and the Puzzle Box...what's going on there? Probably something idk about :p.

Those are just my initial thoughts. I think you have just a bit too many multiplayer-esque cards and can benefit big time from a few minor tweaks!

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not necessarily sure I agree about having too much ramp in the deck, though. I used to run the deck with less ramp, and it didn't function nearly as well as it does now. Also, the control cards you mentioned are necessary if I don't pull off a fast win. I get where you're coming from, but I feel like putting more infect creatures in the deck purely for the sake of having more infect threats takes up deck space that could be better used elsewhere.

As far as the Puzzle Box goes, it's a phenomenal card for both filtering through your deck quickly and forcing your opponent off their game. With Puzzle Box, your opponent HAS to play that combo piece they're trying to protect or risk not seeing it again for the rest of the game. With Puzzle Box, your opponent often HAS to tap out in order to get the most use out of the cards in hand before they all get replaced, potentially with dead cards. It throws your opponent off balance and prevents them from setting up big turns by stockpiling cards in their hand, and it prevents control decks from stockpiling removal and/or counters to keep my deck locked out. Best of all, the combination of Puzzle Box with cards like Infernal Darkness, Winter Orb, and Nether Void can leave your opponent stuck on repetitive dead turns of draw-go or draw-land-go while they see their combo pieces and win conditions get sent to the bottom of the deck, while the redundant effects in my deck allow me to continue functioning fairly normally regardless of what game state-locking effects are in play.

Hope this clarified some things for you. If you try the list out with more creatures and you find it works better for you, let me know!

Quote from AceOfJacks »

I have played against this deck a lot, since I'm the guy that is mentioned in the first post as playing Arcanis combo and Kozilek ramp/aggro. It's probably a bad idea that I'm telling you how to make this deck BETTER, since it already bends me over sideways 75% of the time we play, but I'll chip in anyway.

I appreciate your willingness to give me feedback on the deck. Seriously, thanks.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

If it were ME building this deck, I would make the following suggestions:
1- Too many lands. 37 is a lot, you can safely go down to 34 and still be fine, considering you have mana rock support. This also allows you to include more of the cards you were thinking about adding in general, without having to cut cards you like to play. Congratulations, you just found space for that Ugin.

Very good point. I do find myself getting land flooded sometimes. I'll cut back and see if that has a negative or positive impact.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

2- Personal playstyle would make me cut Boseiju. In our regular playgroup there aren't enough counterspells to merit it, but against a select few people, it would shine.

Despite what you have said on many occasions, I did NOT build this deck specifically to counter our playgroup. The Boseiju is in there because I know I will definitely need it in a wider setting. I know I could cut it out for a Swamp in games among just our group, but I prefer having it in just so I can measure the impact it has on my life total over time, depending on when it shows up in the game.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

3- Personal preference to cut Charcoal Diamond, Jet Medallion, and Coalition Relic. In those spaces I would run Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, and Sculpting Steel. Fellwar Stone and Mind Stone can be tapped as soon as they ETB. Diamond makes you wait, Medallion is dead half the time, and Sculpting Steel lets you copy any of your artifacts, or your opponents ramp artifacts (which you know we all play heavily in our decks.) This might also allow you to run Vault of Whispers, as a secondary copy target, but it would be risky against red decks.

The Charcoal Diamond is DEFINITELY getting cut in favor of Mind Stone. Sculpting Steel is also definitely going in over Jet Medallion, simply because of the possibility of netting more mana than I would with the Medallion. Not entirely sure about removing Coalition Relic, though. I know it's a 3-for-1 mana rock and Fellwar Stone is more efficient at 2-for-1, but I like the flexibility I get with Relic of possibly getting two mana from it instead of one on a key turn. I'll have to test both and see if it makes a big enough difference.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

4- No Gauntlet of Power? No Nirkana Revenant? I know you want to keep the creatures as low as possible, but Revenant can help you ramp as well, if your Crypt Ghast is gone.

Not having Nirkana Revenant in the deck is something I'm re-evaluating, and may revise in time. I'm less keen on Gauntlet of Power, though, because it's a risky proposition to use that with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth also in play. It has the potential of giving my opponents more mana advantage than it gives me. That's why I initially opted for Caged Sun instead. Again, it's something I'd need to test.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

5- Death Cloud can literally kill you, since you will be taking heavy damage from an aggressive deck. I do not think it can be considered a secondary win condition, since you have a lot of life loss in your deck (Necro, Sign in Blood effects, etc.) Possibly other control spells in place of this, such as Pox, or the lesser, but effective, Smallpox. IF you decide to run multiple of these, you could consider a more aggressive land destruction package as well, so slow down opponents.

Death Cloud is used more for the creature sacrifice aspect of the card. If my opponent has a few really strong beaters on their board that can't be removed by a Damnation or other similar effect, Death Cloud is usually the best way to take care of that. It's also a nice way to empty the hand of a control player on the turn I'm trying to win, although that is a rare occurrence. I see your point about the life loss being problematic, though. If I start encountering situations where it leads to my demise, then I might replace it with another mass-removal spell, since that's mostly what I use it for. Life's Finale would be the first choice, followed closely by Crux of Fate and Decree of Pain.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

6- Champion's Helm as a second hexproof effect.

I've been trying to find a way to work that into the deck. Maybe that can be something I add in place of one of the land cuts.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

7- Blightsteel Colossus possibility? Not 100% sure on this, it might bite you in the ass, since I DO play Bribery and Treachery, but a second win condition in the event that Skittles starts to cost too much?

Another thing I've considered, but like you, I am not 100% sure due to its potential to bite me in the ass. I do have Homeward Path and High Market to potentially counteract those, so it's a possibility.

High Market is another thing. Wouldn't you rather have Phyrexian Tower in it's place? The point of that peticular card is to sac a creature instead of it going away (which is significantly less important now that the tuck rule is gone) but if you DID have to sacrifice the creature, the mana might be more useful to cast a spell instead of the 1 life? Just a thought.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

High Market is another thing. Wouldn't you rather have Phyrexian Tower in it's place? The point of that peticular card is to sac a creature instead of it going away (which is significantly less important now that the tuck rule is gone) but if you DID have to sacrifice the creature, the mana might be more useful to cast a spell instead of the 1 life? Just a thought.

I find that High Market is better because I need the life with all of the cards I play that sacrifice life for card advantage. Also, the mana I get from Phyrexian Tower would often end up being a waste, because the point when the sacrifice happens is often also a point in the turn when I can't use those two mana. I can certainly try both and see which one works better, of course.

Quote from Magicmarvin91 »

add lake of the dead

I've considered it. I'm just not sure I like continuously having to sacrifice lands to it. I can give it a shot, though.

I've updated the decklist in the OP, for those that would like to review the immediate changes that I made. I will be considering further changes and updating again as further playtesting takes place.

Take out everything except the swamps, then add more swamps! This way you're guaranteed to always have mana to play Skittles!

On a serious note, I'd like to see how it performs over the next week or two. I can make educated suggestions after we jam some games.

Quote from AceOfJacks »

Take out everything except the swamps, then add more swamps! This way you're guaranteed to always have mana to play Skittles!

On a serious note, I'd like to see how it performs over the next week or two. I can make educated suggestions after we jam some games.

We will definitely jam it out. I will be taking any challenges presented.

Updated the decklist to add Arcane Lighthouse in place of one Swamp. Gonna need a way to get around hexproof/shroud somehow.

I'm going to be bringing this deck to tournaments in the future, but I've been proxying Nether Void for awhile since I can't afford one yet. I need to decide what to put in to replace Nether Void for tournaments until I can afford one. I've considered two routes - another board-control permanent like Ward of Bones or Crawlspace, or something to help keep my life total up like Polluted Bonds or Exsanguinate. Suggestions on what would be the better option are greatly appreciated.

Why not reanimate, animate dead, and necromancy as cheap ways to get skittles back?