MTG Salvation

This deck doesn't do anything particularly subtle. The game plan is pretty much drop guys and beat in. It started as an excuse to run a couple pet cards, but it's been fairly successful and never really feels marginalized.



The deck mostly plays like it looks. Tajic can take someone out with general damage without too much support, and there are a lot of high value creatures that can put a lot of damage out very quickly. It's obviously going to be more successful in "fair" metagames, due to limited stack interaction and instant speed answers. That said, it gets started a lot faster than the big battlecruiser decks, and it's not hard to catch someone off guard. If games go long, I need to be much more opportunistic to finish off weakened players, because I don't have as many big creatures and board swinging threats as many decks.

In terms of what I'd still like to do with it, I could probably afford more recursion and more haste. Sun Titan is an obvious consideration, as is Reveillark. Loyal Retainers is even a possibility. Hammer of Purphoros is a haste source with the potential to make dudes for post wrath swings or battalion. Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots make sense with the equipment tutors. Some kind of GY hate is also still necessary. I'm leaning towards Stonecloaker, but old standby Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus might be better calls here. The curve is a little high for an aggressive deck, but it seems to have a decent enough balance of early threats to bombs so that I don't get completely outclassed.

I'm not planning on running Worldslayer. It wins games, but I'd want to tutor into it every time it looked like I could connect, and the deck would get stale for me. It's definitely a powerful card with any indestructible general, but it's not one that I want here.

No Jokulhaups or Obliterate?

I'd want more another couple ways to take advantage of them. Other than Frontline Medic, it's rare that I'd have enough creatures afterwards to trigger battalion and close out the game, and I only have two enchantments that can fill that role. If I pick up Devastation, it's almost a shoe in. Keeping equipment around makes all kinds of difference.

I'd honestly drop Godo and Konda, simply because they're slow. Godo doesn't really do anything for you considering how few samurai you have, so I don't think he's all that worth it. I would replace Konda with a Sun Titan and probably replace Godo with a Lightning Mauler. That way you can always bring back one of your weenies and you can guarantee Tajic or other cards you want to have haste will have haste.

Also, Legion's Initiative feels like a must have in this deck.

Quote from Weebo

I'd want more another couple ways to take advantage of them. Other than Frontline Medic, it's rare that I'd have enough creatures afterwards to trigger battalion and close out the game, and I only have two enchantments that can fill that role. If I pick up Devastation, it's almost a shoe in. Keeping equipment around makes all kinds of difference.

I suppose, he isn't very threatening on his own. Greater Gargadon and Wurmcoil Engine have some nice synergy with both cards.

Quote from Marder

I'd honestly drop Godo and Konda, simply because they're slow. Godo doesn't really do anything for you considering how few samurai you have, so I don't think he's all that worth it. I would replace Konda with a Sun Titan and probably replace Godo with a Lightning Mauler. That way you can always bring back one of your weenies and you can guarantee Tajic or other cards you want to have haste will have haste.

Also, Legion's Initiative feels like a must have in this deck.

Godo is definitely one of the looser slots. The samurai part is probably the least important ability he has. Equipment into play is a pretty powerful effect, and a second attack phase for him and any vigilant creatures isn't bad. I'm actually halfheartedly looking for other ways to grant vigilance (that's why Angelic Skirmisher made the cut), because that's made a lot of other decks very nervous so far. All that said, 6 mana is a lot and the curve already feels too high to me.

Konda has actually been solid when he comes down. Nobody wants to block him and he's a great wall against retaliatory strikes. I was pleasantly surprised. He's by no means a sure thing (especially at 7 cmc), but he's earned a bit more of a trial. Darksteel Sentinel is in the same boat. The big issue is that there aren't a lot of cheap indestructible guys, and they've been useful.

Mass haste is better than soulbond here. It's a nice trick with the Titan, but it's a one time deal and otherwise not a good way to get things swinging because you can't swap around its partner. I'd rather be able to grant a number of tokens haste in addition to my general.

Initiative is a potential inclusion, but by no means a guaranteed one. I'm already pretty resilient to wraths with the indestructible general and equipment, and the anthem effect is minor. I'll test it at some point, but I don't actually have very high hopes for it in this deck.

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Quote from Donald

I suppose, he isn't very threatening on his own. Greater Gargadon and Wurmcoil Engine have some nice synergy with both cards.

Wurmcoil is a good call. I don't think Gargadon really does enough for me outside of the nuke plan. Sac outlets are nice, but not essential to this deck.

Quote from Weebo

I'd want more another couple ways to take advantage of them. Other than Frontline Medic, it's rare that I'd have enough creatures afterwards to trigger battalion and close out the game, and I only have two enchantments that can fill that role. If I pick up Devastation, it's almost a shoe in. Keeping equipment around makes all kinds of difference.

Honestly I'd go with an all out "Indestructible" themed deck and all the Obliterate variants you can find.

Get Darksteel Plate, a dork and a Darksteel Myr. Along with Tajic, you've got battalion forever, even though you're swinging with an equipped Worldslayer.

Thought about that. I'd get bored with it way too quickly, though. After you pull that off once or twice, every game plays out essentially the same way when you see those cards. Making it a more general beats deck is going to give me greater variation in games, which I'm a fan of.

Darksteel Plate is still a good thought in the current plan.

Quote from Weebo

Thought about that. I'd get bored with it way too quickly, though. After you pull that off once or twice, every game plays out essentially the same way when you see those cards.

Well, if nothing else, this little discussion has inspired my next new deck: Tajic Destroys All Teh Things! Except mine. Haha. Jerks. It'll also give me somewhere to use my Korean Tajic.

I think I'll put it in pink sleeves so it'll be cute and cuddly. Red and White mixed make a pink color, right? And mass land destruction is cute and cuddly, right?

Quote from Dechs Kaison

Well, if nothing else, this little discussion has inspired my next new deck: Tajic Destroys All Teh Things! Except mine. Haha. Jerks. It'll also give me somewhere to use my Korean Tajic.

I think I'll put it in pink sleeves so it'll be cute and cuddly. Red and White mixed make a pink color, right? And mass land destruction is cute and cuddly, right?

Very cuddly! I always appreciate the pink sleeves on fun decks like that.

Quote from Weebo

Godo is definitely one of the looser slots. The samurai part is probably the least important ability he has. Equipment into play is a pretty powerful effect, and a second attack phase for him and any vigilant creatures isn't bad. I'm actually halfheartedly looking for other ways to grant vigilance (that's why Angelic Skirmisher made the cut), because that's made a lot of other decks very nervous so far. All that said, 6 mana is a lot and the curve already feels too high to me.

Konda has actually been solid when he comes down. Nobody wants to block him and he's a great wall against retaliatory strikes. I was pleasantly surprised. He's by no means a sure thing (especially at 7 cmc), but he's earned a bit more of a trial. Darksteel Sentinel is in the same boat. The big issue is that there aren't a lot of cheap indestructible guys, and they've been useful.

Mass haste is better than soulbond here. It's a nice trick with the Titan, but it's a one time deal and otherwise not a good way to get things swinging because you can't swap around its partner. I'd rather be able to grant a number of tokens haste in addition to my general.

Initiative is a potential inclusion, but by no means a guaranteed one. I'm already pretty resilient to wraths with the indestructible general and equipment, and the anthem effect is minor. I'll test it at some point, but I don't actually have very high hopes for it in this

If you really want equipment that bad, you could always use Stoneforge Mystic, and Aurelia is better at the whole "get another combat phase" thing then Godo, simply because she has a form of evasion and Godo does not.

Quote from Marder

If you really want equipment that bad, you could always use Stoneforge Mystic, and Aurelia is better at the whole "get another combat phase" thing then Godo, simply because she has a form of evasion and Godo does not.

Both of those cards are already in the deck, and I agree that they're better than Godo. The reason Godo is in there is to provide duplicates of those effects, because they're both powerful ones.

Also, where's your Sunforger? With an equipment tutor package like that...

Sunforger is sitting in a pile of cards somewhere. It doesn't have a ton of targets, doesn't give evasion, and is too high profile to stick around. People don't trust having it on the table because it gives so many options, and I don't really have the options to back it up. It's another on the list of "maybe someday"

I'm actually more interested in Ranger of Eos right now.

Ok, last suggestion out of me:

Reverberate, Reiterate, Fork.

I've done some crazy things with these and they're rarely dead cards in hand because they're so versatile. Even if all you do with them is copy a Demonic Tutor, is that really so bad? It's the perfect answer to an Exsanguinate and loves to copy Diabolic Revelations. Even works on the guy dropping a Living Death. Kicked Rite of Replication? Huge Sphinx's Revelation? Genesis Wave or Tooth and Nail? This format has some extremely good Fork targets.

Quote from Jivanmukta

I'm of the belief that all Tajic decks require Worldslayer.

Worldslayer isn't very fun, but I agree that it is pretty much required to optimize a build. It's not just that Tajic, Blade of the Legion is Indestructible either. White allows him to easily tutor for and recur it, and his only equal at this strategy is Sapling of Colfenor, with black's universal tutors and green's universal recursion (Avacyn and Konda are much slower). However, their colors are different, and Boros lends itself much better to a strategy that wins through having lots of equipment around, and with red and white's mass destruction spells, is in a much better position to build around it as a theme, giving Worldslayer itself greater synergy with the deck outside of the Commander.

Anyway, it's Boros, and if someone complains about a player running Worldslayer, that player can remind them that at least he or she isn't running black, blue, or green.

@Weebo - If you want a bunch of guys with Vigilance, give Mobilization a try. At the worst, it turns Tajic into an excellent defender, but it also makes sure he always has Battalion, gives you tokens to Skullclamp or carry equipment, and is excellent with Godo, Bandit Warlord.

Also, if you're going to run Godo and a few Double Strike enablers, Sokenzan Spellblade is a hidden gem that hits like a truck.

Mutavault is another Samurai, and is also a reliable way to enable Battalion. As a Soldier Land, it also loves the Vigilance that Mobilization grants.

In my Tajic deck I run a Ranger of Eos package with Goblin Welder, Legion Loyalist, Serra Ascendant, Dragonmaster Outcast and Weathered Wayfarer.

I would like to find room for Mother of Runes and Soul Warden.

Considering indestructible dudes to keep activating battalion post board wipe: Creepy Doll and Stuffy Doll can both attack (who cares if Stuffy Doll deals no damage, it activates Battalion!) :).

Vigilance: Mobilization, Captain of the Watch both help Tajic.

Quote from Weebo

Sunforger is sitting in a pile of cards somewhere. It doesn't have a ton of targets, doesn't give evasion, and is too high profile to stick around. People don't trust having it on the table because it gives so many options, and I don't really have the options to back it up. It's another on the list of "maybe someday"

I'm actually more interested in Ranger of Eos right now.

The neat thing about Sunforger is it puts us at lethal with doublestrike such as Boros Charm. The games I win with Tajic, Blade of the Legion are the games I am using Sunforger tricks. The last few sets have added 4-5 key instants.

As you know, despite the fact that Hero of Bladehold doesn't help Tajic the first time she swings, she's plenty good. Consider Militia's Pride for the same reason. Much better than Mobilization.

In my Tajic build, I realized how many tokens/weenies I'd be dropping on the battlefield and then potentially blowing up, so in addition to the requisite Skullclamp, I put in Smokestack since this deck feeds it easily, and Vicious Shadows as another way to get there against the smug pillow fort guy.

Also, not only is Elspeth 1 good in here as always, but Elspeth Tirel works really well here too.

Updated the first post with about five months worth of changes.

I like some of the ideas in the last few posts, I just don't have cards on hand or the space in the deck. Much delayed responses, mostly for the benefit of anyone new reading the thread:
Vicious Shadows is mostly just horribly expensive.
Elspeth Tirel is fun, I'm just not sure where I'd want to make cuts for her until I see a little more of the new stuff.
Every time I run Sunforger, I have these grandiose plans for it, then I end up durdling around and someone nukes it. Not to say I'm not still considering it (it's a Boros deck), but I don't want to build around it and the equipment I have already is very solid.
Boros Charm might still be worthwhile on its own, even if I never really want to hold mana. Surprise double strike is a beating, though.
I'm still thinking Ranger of Eos, but my lone Goblin Welder is tied up in another deck and I can't find the Dragonmaster Outcast I could have sworn I owned. He's not quite worth it with just Mom and Wayfarer as targets.
Indestructible Dolls are a little too all in on Tajic for my taste, because they're pretty bad outside of post-wrath battalion swings.
Mobilization costs a lot per token. Theros also just gave us Heliod, God of the Sun at just one more mana, who's an indestructible version for all of my creatures instead of a subset of them, as well as an easy to turn on beater.
Mutavault is on the wishlist, but it's more than I want to spend while it's in standard and I don't have any of them.