MTG Salvation

Philosophy

"Magic and technology
Voodoo dolls and chants
Electricity, we're makin'
Weird science."

- Oingo Boingo

I already have a U/R deck, but Jhoira is one of those generals that's their own special kind of build, so I've been toying around with the idea of building a deck that's more in line with the rest of the U/R identity. Niv-Mizzet's done to death... Threaten.dec with Nin? Tibor/Lumia Charisma machinegun? Neither were really appealing.

Enter Melek. Melek is the kind of card that's just itching to be broken wide open. But how best to do it? Tutor for Scroll Rack every game? Go super spell-heavy and hope to ride the value to victory? Well, here's my idea. It's pretty rough, but the vital pieces are in place, so you should be able to get an idea of what the deck should look like.

Notable Cards/Combos

Proteus Staff: You may have noticed there's no creatures in this deck. What does Proteus Staff do, then? Well, when used on Melek, you put him on the bottom of your library, then reveal your library, put him back onto the battlefield, and rearrange your library however you see fit. Seems fair. Start the storm off with...

Rite of Flame, Seething Song: First, build up some mana. There's not much to choose from in terms of U rituals (High Tide is about it, I think), so the storming has to be done using mostly Red cards. That's alright. Now move on to...

Empty the Warrens, Brightstone Ritual: Just because there's no creature cards doesn't mean there can't be creatures. These two cards can push you mana production well into the hundreds. Not just yet, but throw in...

Past in Flames: How do you make Yawgmoth's Will better? Give it flashback! Past in Flames lets you replay your rituals and spit out more goblin tokens, for a truly massive Brightstone Ritual. But don't have it resolve yet, because you're going to copy it with...

Increasing Vengeance: With Brightstone Ritual on the stack, you can cast Increasing Vengeance from the top of your library and have Melek copy it, then dual-cast it from the graveyard, for 5x 20-30 goblins. That's more than enough mana to cast...

Insurrection, Haze of Rage: Remove all blockers, give all your goblins (and Melek) haste, and them make them and all your stolen creatures enormous. If you can't win with this much attack power on the table, then just...

Comet Storm: Fireball the table to death.

Iceberg: You've got the get ramp outside of Green where you can - like this oddity, for instance.

Mishra's Helix, War's Toll, et al: For this deck I'm trying a more proactive approach to protecting the combo in the form of mana denial for the combo turn. Less fiddly than keeping a counterspell in hand, but easier to break through. I'll see how it goes.

Blinkmoth Urn, Krark-Clan Ironworks: With enough density of mana rocks you can start including super-narrow cards like these. I did try Clock of Omens too, but aside from being cute with Blinkmoth Urn it didn't do that much.

Helm of Awakening: Cuts a fair bit of mana off in the combo turn - Melek is expensive, especially if you want to also cast and activate Proteus Staff and stuff have a Mountain untapped.

Skyship Weatherlight: Just find one card (Proteus Staff or a mana rock), cuts out that whole messy random aspect.

Vedalken Orrery, Leyline of Anticipation: For splitting the cost of the combo pieces across two turns, potentially allowing for going off much, much earlier.

Back to Basics, Ruination: Nice $300 manabase, bro.

Long-Term Plans: Of note here is that you don't reveal the card you tutor for.

Mystic Retrieval: If you have U left over when you start to storm, put this in between Empty the Warrens and Past in Flames for extra goblins/mana.

Lat-Nam's Legacy, See Beyond: These are vitally important for not getting too many rituals stuck in your hand, since they lose a lot of power when not cast from the top of the library.

Windfall: It's unlikely the whole table will you dropping their hand as fast as I am.

13-05-11: -Jace Beleren, +Firemind's Foresight
13-06-07: -Desolate Lighthouse, Evolving Wilds, Izzet Boilerworks, Izzet Guildgate, Reliquary Tower, Rupture Spire, Tolaria West, Winding Canyons, , Zoetic Caverns, Honor-Worn Shaku, Sisay's Ring, Ur-Golem's Eye, Brainstorm, Cerebral Vortex, Firemind's Foresight, Izzet Charm, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Reiterate, Telling Time, Think Twice, Turnabout, + Island (4), Mountain (3), Basalt Monolith, Crawlspace, Grim Monolith, Helm of Awakening, Meekstone, Torpor Orb, Back to Basics, Caverns of Despair, Dream Tides, Tectonic Instability, Long-Term Plans, Misdirection, Pact of Negation, Ruination, Windfall

Wow, Iceberg. Very nice.

I like the Proteus Staff idea. However, it seems like you might need additional ways to protect your combo. I see War's Toll in there, which is awesome, but something like Price of Glory might be worthwhile, as well as Pact of Negation or another cheap Counterspell (Counterspell maybe?).

Another way to pick up some mana is Drain Power. People forget about that card. If you play it off the top, you can hit two players. And it empties mana pools (aside from artifact and creature sources) which will help with protecting your combo.

Long-Term Plans might be worthwhile to tutor things up to get your combo.

Looks interesting.

Price of Glory doesn't do a lot to actually protect the combo turn - I'd sac a couple of lands to completely trash the combo player every time. Tectonic Instability is more what I'm after. I think I might have one of those somewhere.

Yeah, counterspells... I don't want to rely on them too much for protection, because keeping mana open - especially Blue mana for some reason - was tough. Pact obviously gets around this problem, as does a couple of other free counters (FoW, MisD, Foil). If I find I really need them, I'll make room for them.

Drain Power? Check out Piracy. Both can be responded by by simply tapping lands (since mana burn was eliminated, these kinds of cards have become less useful), but Piracy forces everyone to tap out, and Mana Short and Mishra's Helix can be cast EoT.

Oh yeah, Long Term Plans. Kinda forgot about that one. You don't have to reveal either, which is neat. There might be potential for setting up Transmute Artifact to be on top for the combo turn.

It's a work in progress, but it seems to mostly hang together.

Wow, how have I never seen Piracy before? That's a fun card.

Re: Drain Power: It also drains their mana pools upon resolution of the spell. So even if they tap all their lands in response to the Drain Power, unless they have a way to use all that mana immediately you will end up getting it anyways. In that way it's similar to Piracy. Unless I'm reading the card wrong.

And yes, Tectonic Instability is better than Price of Glory. Good call.

Oh, you do get mana in the mana pool from Drain Power. That's neat. I'll put that in if I find I need more Mana Short-style effects. That might even be better than Turnabout, which I found incredibly overrated actually playing with it, since you'd be targetting the person with Islands most of the time anyway. It's also a really bizarre old card with bizarre old wording that changes from edition to edition, so that's always a bonus.

Piracy is such a beautiful addition, I may need to grab one of those for my Melek deck.

How is Iceberg working out to you compared to Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith? Maybe I'm missing something, but monoliths just seem really decent in here, esp. with Tezzeret the Seeker.

I love your build as much as the wheel version. I will def pick up the cards for this as well ( only need a few).

For piracy, they can tap the lands in response and you won't get any mana. Drain power only hits one person, but unless they have instants or mana sinks, you get their mana.

Quote from jayr

Piracy is such a beautiful addition, I may need to grab one of those for my Melek deck.

How is Iceberg working out to you compared to Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith? Maybe I'm missing something, but monoliths just seem really decent in here, esp. with Tezzeret the Seeker.

Iceberg's pretty ridiculous. You leapfrog ahead far further than you do with the Monoliths or Mana Vault - tapping out for X=5, for example, pushes you up to 12 mana on the next turn. I don't claim this is an ideal list (yet), and naturally Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith have a place, but they replace two of the more durdly mana rocks (Sisay's Ring and Ur-Golem's Eye, probably); Iceberg's a lock for the final version.

I hear that Mana Echoes can generate obscene amounts of mana. Then maybe Gemstone Array as a filter?

I know you said that you were unimpressed by Turnabout, but have you looked at Reality Spasm? You don't have to choose with it, so you can untap your mana rocks and your lands. I guess if you can't copy it, it's not that great, but yo' general does copy things.

By the way, nice deck!

Mana Echoes does make massive amounts of mana, but at a point where I'm already making massive amounts of mana with Brightstone Ritual (100+ with just the bare minimum storm count) Gemstone Array's not a bad idea. I did realise that I should be running more colour-producing rocks (Darksteel Ingot, et al) over maybe some of the cheaper ones.

Reality Spasm seems like awesome tech. That works really good as a filter, since you can tap all your Red sources to untap all the Blue ones (or whatever). It's also obviously very good with Worn Powerstone, Thran Dynamo, etc.. I like that idea. I was also considering the Firemind's Foresight combo with Mystical Tutor/Comet Storm/Reiterate into Mystical Tutor for Turnabout - having Reiterate/Turnabout in the deck becomes more appealing if there's a single card that can find both of them.

Thought about Battle Hymn?

It's a second Brightstone Ritual.

It is, but I only need one.

Quote from Burntgerbil

For piracy, they can tap the lands in response and you won't get any mana. Drain power only hits one person, but unless they have instants or mana sinks, you get their mana.

cast it during main phase 1 to deny counters. or to also ensure mana geyser adds a boatload of mana.

drain power off the top of library with melek in play seems nice though.

You might also like Reset, as this card gets you infinite mana with Reiterate, which allows you to draw your entire deck with Brainstorm and to win on the spot.

Firemind's Foresight allows you to find all the pieces of the combo too.

I think you mean Firemind's Foresight.

Quote from kicks_422

I think you mean Firemind's Foresight.

Yeah, thanks! I'm correcting the typo now.

I know about the variant of the Firemind's Foresight combo with Reset, but I don't really like how you're required to go off on someone else's turn. If nothing else, it messes with all the land-tapping lockout stuff.

Also, coming back from FNM, I realised how dumb I've been in neglecting a way to slow opponents down. Frozen Æther, Meekstone, Dream Tides, Back to Basics, Ruination. Slowing the rest of the table down might be a better long-term strategy than trying to speed the deck up, so a lot of the prison pieces take the place of draw spells.

Quote from Samarkand

You might also like Reset, as this card gets you infinite mana with Reiterate, which allows you to draw your entire deck with Brainstorm and to win on the spot.

Firemind's Foresight allows you to find all the pieces of the combo too.

This is a pretty noobish question, but could you please explain how this combo works?

You can use Foresight to set up by tutoring for Reiterate, Reset, and a 1cc instant like Brainstorm or Lightning Bolt

During your opponents turn you float all of your mana and then cast Reset, retaining priority you cast Reiterate with buyback copying Reset, untapping all of your lands. With reset still on the stack you float all of your mana and then Reiterate with buyback again. With enough lands this will generate an infinite amount of mana that you can then use to cast Brainstorm or Lightning Bolt and then copy it an infinite amount of times with Reiterate. Brainstorm allowing you to find a wincon and Bolt just outright killing your opponents.

senshi: what ^ said is right. The amount of mana you need to start the combo with reset + reiterate is UU + 1RR + 3 = 8, untapping at least 7 mana worth of lands on each iteration to keep going, and among those lands, you will need at least 2 red sources. You will also need 1 blue in your lands somewhere if you go the brainstorm route.

Mana Geyser seems good here. Especially with cards like Piracy.

I'd also look into zero cost artifacts like moxes and lotus petal to up your storm count/ramp. Maybe consider the draw 7's too.

Quote from Kevin Nash

Mana Geyser seems good here. Especially with cards like Piracy.

I'd also look into zero cost artifacts like moxes and lotus petal to up your storm count/ramp. Maybe consider the draw 7's too.

I think I didn't include Mana Geyser because it doesn't have much of a place in the combo part of the deck. Being able to start the combo with as little mana is possible is important, hence Rite of Flame - Mana Geyser is too expensive to be cast off a dual Rite, let alone to be cast on its own once the combo begins, and using it any time later is just excess. It does seem useful for actually casting Melek/Staff earlier and having mana left over, but I think ultimately I would end up cutting it to put in Ruination.

Mox Opal and maybe Lotus Petal are worth it in terms of ramp; boosting storm count is superfluous. The draw spells are mostly for digging into land early on, and the majority of the draw-7s are too expensive. Foresee could be a Wheel of Fortune or Windfall or something, though; Deep Analysis is possibly worth cutting for both, although it works very well with those two in particular.

Quote from Sims

You can use Foresight to set up by tutoring for Reiterate, Reset, and a 1cc instant like Brainstorm or Lightning Bolt

During your opponents turn you float all of your mana and then cast Reset, retaining priority you cast Reiterate with buyback copying Reset, untapping all of your lands. With reset still on the stack you float all of your mana and then Reiterate with buyback again. With enough lands this will generate an infinite amount of mana that you can then use to cast Brainstorm or Lightning Bolt and then copy it an infinite amount of times with Reiterate. Brainstorm allowing you to find a wincon and Bolt just outright killing your opponents.

@Sims and @Blitz Reloaded, thanks for the response. I understand it now and I may have to put this in my own Melek deck

I don't see games going on long enough on a regular basis that Terrain Generator is significantly better than Zoetic Cavern. Lots of the lands in the deck have been replaced with mana rocks, too; activating Terrain Generator more than twice seems like it would be an extreme outlier. I've played Terrain Generator in slower decks and hated it there, I can't imagine it being good on a regular basis in something fast.

Zoetic Cavern also isn't a target for Proteus Staff; despite the various permanents that can become creatures, nothing is aside from Melek. The deck doesn't really work without him - although you could make a version that not as general-dependent, with Future Sight - so there's no need to include other animatable cards, just in case.

Cavern of Souls is good in every deck. I would consider getting one eventually if a) my combo protection wasn't focused around tapping down lands, drastically reducing the probability of counters, and b) I was planning to change all the lands to basics anyway to take complete advantage of Back to Basics and Ruination.