MTG Salvation

Hey guys. So I decided to make myself a 5 color combo deck. The deck can be considered 5 color good stuff but really its a blue control shell with 5 colors added so it has reach in many directions. Black for tutors and removal, green for ramp and recursion, red for copy effects, white for removal, and blue for the counters and control effects. The general can be either child or horde of notions. I have been leaning towards Child of Alara due to the utility it offers as a board wipe.

Here is the decklist:



As you can tell the main wincons for the deck are:

1. Tooth and Nail into Deceiver Exarch and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2. Time Stretch with Sun Titan, Eternal Witness, and High Market for infinite turns.
3. Birthind Pod with any 2 or 3 drop to win the game.
4. Exansguinate for game.
5. Also various other random ones that get there. All of these are protected by counter magic of course.



Change Log:


The deck is loads of fun but could use some fine tuning. Any and all suggestions are welcome!

I'd consider a few things.

First: Pestermite and Splinter Twin, just for redundancy's sake.

Then I'd consider a couple of different things.

Mystical Teachings finds half of your combo or countermagic to back it up. It's probably better than Conflux.

I'd also consider cutting some of your top-end spells that don't actually do anything, like Praetors' Counsel and such. At that CMC, you could just win the game instead, so why not just do that instead of buying back your graveyard?


Birthing Bod gives you a way to turn any 2 or 3 drop into winning the game, if you were to add a few more creatures. You pod away your 2 drop into Deciever or Pestermite, untap the Pod, then Pod away your 3 drop and get Gravedigger or Entomber Exarch, rebuying your Pestermite. Then you cast the 3 drop, untap pod, and Pod away your 4 drop into Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and win.

Survival of the Fittest is another easy way to set up your combo.



Cryptic COmmand and Dismiss are two counterspells that should probably make the cut if you're looking to play mostly countermagic. I'd probably cut some of the Dream Fracture or Cancel effects for these, and some cheaper countermagic. Things like Force of Will and Dispel which help force through your combo.

Last, I'd add some more sacrifice outlets, like Phyrexian Tower and Miren the Moaning Well. Diamond Valley if it's not out of budget.



Hopefully some of these suggestions are helpful!

I was strongly considering the tower. JUST realized teaching is an instant, DEFINITELY gonna add it. I was actually thinking about cutting the counsel as its just too slow. Might also cut the sphinx. I was looking to not play pestermite and twin as well but I think I might just to make it more consistent. Lots to do!

For me personally, I would want all of my removal to tuck, wrath, or exile.

So I would cut vindicate and Maelstrom pulse for Chaos Warp and Spin into Myth, although in my area there are fewer artifacts/enchantments/planeswalkers that I need to kill, and a lot of generals that end the game quickly.

Venser, Intuition, Diabloic Tutor, Conflux, Expedition Map, Crop Rotation, Praetor's Counsel, Reiterate, Reverberate all seem a bit too weak or slow to me.

You don't have a ton of real utility lands that you want to grab, so tutoring for them doesn't seem that great (and you still have the black tutors). I would use some of the real ramp spells like Skyshroud Claim or Cultivate.

Village Bell-Ringer is another Pertermite effect

I second the addition of splinter twin and the Gravedigger/Bithing Pod combo.

Green Sun's Zenith seems like an improvement over intuition.

For the last 2 slots, maybe some more removal could be added like Oblation or more wrath effects.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I will DEFINITELY be making some changes to the deck in the next day or 2. Will be posting the changes of course Thanks!

If you are going 5 color combo, I would say Hermit Druid is your strongest option (if you are trying to win). Here is a link to the 1v1 list. Cut some of the stuff from that list for everything that is on the 1v1 banned list and bam! you have a good combo deck. As is, I would say your deck is more combo/control than strict combo.

Quote from love_blanket

If you are going 5 color combo, I would say Hermit Druid is your strongest option (if you are trying to win). Here is a link to the 1v1 list. Cut some of the stuff from that list for everything that is on the 1v1 banned list and bam! you have a good combo deck. As is, I would say your deck is more combo/control than strict combo.

I've never been a fan of the hermit druid deck. In my honest opinion, it's just not good for multiplayer. It will do well probably once in my metagame. My meta isnt totally cutthroat but a turn 1 relic of progenitus, nihil spellbomb, tormods crypt, etc kill that deck. Crop rotation for bojuka bog, counter spells, etc etc all get there as well. I dunno, maybe I'm underestimating the deck haha. Any thoughts?

Changes made in the past few days. More to come! Thanks for the suggestions guys!

More changes. Added a snapcaster package and some more tutors. Crucible as well. Dropped the ooze for tormods crypt.

11/20/11: Added Tutors and Snapcaster Package

as you go more and more all-in on the combo, I sort of question the inclusion of counters that cost more than 2 or 3. You could replace the counters that cost more with things like Dispel, negate, Force of Will, and Pact of Negation to be more mana efficient.

How good is Personal Tutor? Is it better than Academy Rector? If you add more sacrifice outlets, you can easily cast the rector, then drop Pestermite/Deciever and sacrifice the Rector to win. People are more likely to let the Rector live than to let you resolve a Splinter Twin.

I'd consider adding both Diamond Valley and Phyrexian Tower, since neither of those cards cost additional mana to use, and let you use Child of Alara as a Wrath of God as will.

Quote from cag08055

as you go more and more all-in on the combo, I sort of question the inclusion of counters that cost more than 2 or 3. You could replace the counters that cost more with things like Dispel, negate, Force of Will, and Pact of Negation to be more mana efficient.

How good is Personal Tutor? Is it better than Academy Rector? If you add more sacrifice outlets, you can easily cast the rector, then drop Pestermite/Deciever and sacrifice the Rector to win. People are more likely to let the Rector live than to let you resolve a Splinter Twin.

I'd consider adding both Diamond Valley and Phyrexian Tower, since neither of those cards cost additional mana to use, and let you use Child of Alara as a Wrath of God as will.

I actually considered adding splinter twin and academy rector and will do so as soon as I acquire a splinter twin. If you look at the list, there aren't any counters that cost more than 2 or 3 (the only ones being mystic snake and last word which will soon be dropped). I do plan to add in a phyrexian tower when I get one but for the time being, I do not have one. Also definitely do not have a force of will

Made some changes today. Dropped the mystic snake and last word as both were too expensive as counters. Last word looked good on paper but since I use counters primarily to push the combo through, last word wasn't as good. Added in the exarch for redundancy and the countersquall for another cheap counter. I also realized I NEVER fetched for the R/G, W/G, or R/W shocks/ABU duals so I cut them for a wasteland and islands.

Hoping to dedicate more to the straight combo. Thinking to add cards like:



We'll see! Thanks for all the help guys!