MTG Salvation

This is a deck I've been (hehe) "forging" for a couple days now. The idea is to tutor for Purphoros, God of the Forge while ramping mana. Play the general and combo out. It's incredibly consistent at getting the mana and tutors it needs. Looking for critique and ideas.

LordGrimpow's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
General 1 Hazezon Tamar Creatures (23) 1 Essence Warden 1 Rhys the Redeemed 1 Soul Warden 1 Soul's Attendant 2 Gaea's Herald 2 Grand Abolisher 2 Sakura-Tribe Elder 2 Suture Priest 2 Vexing Shusher 3 Eternal Witness 3 Farhaven Elf 3 Mentor of the Meek 3 Mirror Entity 3 Wood Elves 4 Academy Rector 4 Oracle of Mul Daya 4 Purphoros, God of the Forge 4 Sigil Captain 4 Solemn Simulacrum 5 Acidic Slime 5 Seedborn Muse 6 Brutalizer Exarch 6 Deadwood Treefolk Instant (6) 1 Enlightened Tutor 1 Path to Exile 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Worldly Tutor 2 Eladamri's Call 2 Aura Mutation	Sorcery (19) 1 Alliance of Arms 1 Caravan Vigil 1 Sylvan Tutor 2 Altar of Bone 2 Farseek 2 Nature's Lore 2 Rampant Growth 2 Time of Need 3 Cultivate 3 Far Wanderings 3 Growth Spasm 3 Idyllic Tutor 3 Kodama's Reach 3 Primal Growth 4 Explosive Vegetation 4 Wheel of Fortune 6 Akroma's Vengeance Artifacts (4) 1 Skullclamp 2 Strionic Resonator 3 Ashnod's Altar 3 Phyrexian Altar Enchantments (10 and God) 2 Sterling Grove 2 Sylvan Library 3 Aura Shards 3 Fecundity 3 Food Chain 4 Parallel Lives 5 Cathars' Crusade 5 Doubling Season 5 Perilous Forays 7 Vicious Shadows	Lands (37) 1 Ancient Tomb 1 Boseiju, who Shelters All 1 Cavern of Souls 1 Command Tower 11 Forest 1 Gaea's Cradle 1 Jungle Shrine 5 Mountain 5 Plains 1 Plateau 1 Reflecting Pool 1 Rootbound Crag 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Savannah 1 Stomping Ground 1 Sunpetal Grove 1 Taiga 1 Temple Garden 1 Winding Canyons

The Ramp
Why so many you might ask. The answer is simple, our general needs a lot of lands and deck thinning will add consistency.

Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farhaven Elf, Wood Elves, Oracle of Mul Daya, Solemn Simulacrum, Caravan Vigil, Nature's Lore, Farseek, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Far Wanderings, Growth Spasm, Kodama's Reach, Primal Growth, Explosive Vegetation, Perilous Forays

The Tutors
In this deck, getting Purphuros consistently every game is important. Therefore, I've added a lot of tutors for creatures and enchantments. Then when we have Purphuros, we can tutor for things like Rhys the Redeemed and Doubling Season.

Academy Rector, Brutalizer Exarch, Enlightened Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Sylvan Tutor, Altar of Bone, Eladamri's Call, Time of Need, Idyllic Tutor, Chord of Calling, Sterling Grove

The Inevitability
We want to be able to pull off our combo without interruption.So it's good to have a fair amount of inevitability in the deck.

Gaea's Herald, Grand Abolisher, Vexing Shusher, City of Solitude, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Cavern of Souls

The Backup/Recovery
Then when we are interrupted, it's good to be able to recover or have a backup plan.

Eternal Witness, Deadwood Treefolk, Vicious Shadows, Cathars' Crusade

The Sac Outlets
With the right sac outlets (a.k.a. the ones that produce mana), we get extra free uses of our general for hardly any additional investment,

Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Food Chain

Change Log

9/16/2013

While I definitely enjoy using Ogre Battledriver to beat someone's face in with Sand Warriors, I can don't need him to do that and the slots are better used on playing through my opponent's Oblivion Rings.
-1 Ogre Battledriver
+1 Aura Mutation

Being an enchantment City of Solitude has more affinity with the deck's tutors.
-1 Defense Grid
+1 City of Solitude

One thing I've noticed about Sylvan Primordial is that while it is good, that by the time I can cast it I want to start comboing with my general. And wow Food Chain does the ramping and the comboing in one card.
-1 Sylvan Primordial
+1 Food Chain

9/17/2013
The deck needs more draw.
-1 City of Solitude
+1 Wheel of Fortune

I like the ability to cast things on my opponent's turns.
-1 Ondu Giant
+1 Seedborn Muse

-1 Plains
+1 Winding Canyon

Considerations

• Archangel of Thune - I feel like this could be devastating in my deck or just flop.
• Path of Bravery - Anthem... because tokens. And life gain is always nice.
• Craterhoof Behemoth - It's a one shot, but seems like a good finisher. May be a little narrow in terms of multiplayer though. We'll see after some testing.
• Martyr's Bond - With the right number of sac outlets, this could do some damage

Reserved

What're your thoughts on Warstorm Surge? It's worked well in my Hazezon list.

Yeah, I don't know. I've thought about it, but targeting only 1 creature/player at a time seems kind of weak to me. I'm building this deck for multiplayer and want cards that make big impacts on the game or enable my other cards to do so.

A couple of cards I'm considering (and I will put this list on the OP):

- Strionic Resonator - to copy my general's ability or various other triggered abilities like Sylvan Primordial.
- Archangel of Thune - I feel like this could be devastating in my deck or just flop.
- Path of Bravery - Anthem... because tokens. And life gain is always nice.

can you humor me a little bit and explain how this is considered a combo out? What I'm seeing is a deck that does probably 20 damage to each opponent when it goes off. Certainly not bad but I would call it more of a synergy than a combo.

I'm a huge fan of Hazezon as a general and I see a few cards here that will definitely fit into my own deck.

With Purphoros existing, Hazezon basically goes from "Empty board state" to "You have one turn to live". Its a really fun way to play the deck too.

Might I also recommend this little combo: Lotus Cobra + Rampaging Baloths (Or that angel that makes 1/1 birds) and Perilous Forays.

Once you have all 3 on the field, drop a land. Use the 1 from Lotus Cobra to fetch one of your lands with a -basic type-. Yes, it can fetch anything with Mountain, Plains or Forest in the subtype line. Amazing. Once that hits the battlefield you get another token and another 1 mana from lotus and you just keep going until all your typed lands are on the field.

I definitely like Perilous Forays. Not sure about the combo though. Without any of those cards being my general it seems difficult to construct.

Defense of the Heart is another essential God tutor. Helps you even more by getting Rhys or a similar card as well. Less essentially, Captain Sisay (less powerful here than normal) and Congregation at Dawn can also grab both with only one card.

I would add more of a creature toolbox to go with all the tutors, though what that would look like probably depends on the types of threats you expect to face.

EDIT: I just realized Aura Mutation can be a fun card here. Use it as removal, or target your own Purphuros and get four 1/1s and 8 damage to everyone else for just GW.

- Defense of the Heart is good I'm not going to argue that. But most of my friends aren't running creature-heavy builds so it seems like it could just sit there most of the time.
- Captain Sisay seems a bit narrow to me. He does grab Purphoros or a tucked general which I like, but not much other than that.
- I personally don't like Congregation at Dawn. I feel like this isn't the type of deck that wants to be clogging its draws with creatures for 3 turns.

I'm still working out a creature/enchantment toolbox. The Soul Sisters and Essence cousin are holding the fort until then.

I think maybe it would be good to have more sac outlets. Thoughts?

I also edited to mention Aura Mutation which seems real good if you can target your own Purphuros and not bad otherwise.

I think City of Solitude is better for you than Defense Grid as well.

What are you looking to sacrifice: Just Hazezon pre-upkeep, or tokens en masse?

One interaction I like is Hazezon + Ashnod's Altar. I play Hazezon and then sac it. Tokens come next upkeep, then sac a few of those + tap lands to replay Hazezon. And I can keep playing Hazezon every single turn for mass damage with Purphoros.

EDIT: I can also sac Academy Rector with it to fetch Purphuros or Doubling Season.

And yeah I added Aura Mutation and will add City of Solitude.

Quote from EighNullSects

can you humor me a little bit and explain how this is considered a combo out? What I'm seeing is a deck that does probably 20 damage to each opponent when it goes off. Certainly not bad but I would call it more of a synergy than a combo.

Sorry, didn't see your post until now. As for the answer, well, there are basically three types of decks - aggro, combo, and control. Seeing as this deck does not win by attacking or controlling the opponent until you pull off a major bomb, it is instead a combo deck. Using a specific combination of cards, I set up massive amounts of damage that (while it may not always be lethal) puts the opponent on a major clock.

Well if you want to go the sac-for-mana route your three options are Phyrexian Altar, Food Chain, and Thermopod. Food Chain is probably your best bet for sheer power because if you have enough mana, you can just play Hazezon for 7, exile him to Food Chain for 8, play him for 9, and so on until you run out of mana. (Being three colors makes this a bit tricky since Food Chain only lets you get one color at a time, but you can also pitch other creatures you have lying around.)

This is the perfect deck to run earth craft and squirrels nest combo as both cards are decent earthcraft seems awesome here

Quote from PochetteRecharge

Well if you want to go the sac-for-mana route your three options are Phyrexian Altar, Food Chain, and Thermopod. Food Chain is probably your best bet for sheer power because if you have enough mana, you can just play Hazezon for 7, exile him to Food Chain for 8, play him for 9, and so on until you run out of mana. (Being three colors makes this a bit tricky since Food Chain only lets you get one color at a time, but you can also pitch other creatures you have lying around.)

Quote from moxnix

This is the perfect deck to run earth craft and squirrels nest combo as both cards are decent earthcraft seems awesome here

OMG these ideas are amazing. Although I'm a little unsure of the consistency of the Squirrel's Nest combo I'll definitely give it a shot.

Food Chain is going in no question about it though.

I like the Food Chain into Purphoros into Hazezon into I win.

I've been wracking my brains for two days on working on this deck. I finally broke down and bought a copy of this general two days ago, and then a bunch of support. I've even been working on a write-up for my decklist, but now you've posted this, so I guess it's not really needed any more. Granted, my list is running stuff like Vicious Shadows, and has a bit more focus on the multiplayer interaction, but still, my list:



38 Lands
25 Creatures
16 Enchantments
8 Sorceries
7 Instants
6 Artifacts

With any free sac outlet you can survival lark Hazezon to put any number of delayed triggers on the stack and as long as he's gone before the next upkeep you get X*# of delayed triggers. If your sac outlet it goblin bombardment, or you can put one one the field before the delayed triggers resolve you gain another board-wide 'I win' combo.

Also it's funny you use Gaara as the banner for this thread. Hazezon has always reminded me of another red-headed intense anime character with more friends than he knows what to do with.

A few things in your list stuck out at me that I definitely want to test. Seems like pure gold, we'll see if its not fools gold.

- Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
- Martyr's Bond
- Craterhoof Behemoth
- Oracle of Mul Daya

And I've been going back and forth on whether to use Vicious Shadows or Warstorm Surge. I feel like I want more sac outlets in my OP list to make full use of the shadows. For now I think it's surge until I find the right balance of sac outlets.

Also I thought about Imperial Recruiter. Then I saw the price tag and was like hahaha! Funny!

I would 100% recommend Oracle and Craterhoof. I run them in my Hazezon deck and if you fail to get Purph or he gets tucked or something like that, Craterhoof lets you put him down and swing with your army for LOADS.

I'd run Fires of Yavimaya OR Hammer of Purphoros over Doubling Season and since you already have Vexing Shusher in the deck, replacing City of Solitude with Winding Canyons gives you more land but also with Seedborn Muse you can flash your general in on everyone elses turns a bunch of times for one HUGE trigger bomb at the start of your turn. This also helps if you dont have Purph down, you can leave it until the EOT before you turn then flash him in, go to upkeep and just win outright.

As someone else mentioned swapping Warstorm Surge for Vicious Shadows is much better. If your guys come in as 1/1's and say, you get 20damage from Purph but there is still people alive, Vicious Shadows is much faster than Warstorm. This is especially true when running lots of small tokens over a few big tokens.

Edit: I noticed you dont have that much draw. Maybe something like Collective Unconscious can give you a lot of draw after a play of Hazezon? Also effects like Replenish to get your enchants back or Open the vaults for enchants and artifacts can be helpful for getting your sac outlets back onto the field after a wipe. I'd also like to point out stuff like Parallel Evolution and similar effects. Combine that card with Rhys and you could go from 5-10 tokens to 20-40 which could just wipe everyone out with Purph down.

Yes. I added Oracle. I'm still pondering Craterhoof. I do like having win buttons against 1-2 opponents. But that might not always happen and a simple Fog is enough to make Craterhoof nothing more than a 5/5 vanilla creature for 7 mana.

I handily disagree about replacing Doubling Season, a card that pretty much wins games with the 2 other primary spells in the deck: Purphoros and Hazezon. Also, as I've stated in my reason for replacing Ogre Battledriver, combat is just not how this deck was designed to win. It CAN win that way, but that's not its primary objective.

I do like the idea of being able to sac Hazezon, then flash him in on opponents turns as well though. Although that leaves me open to their counters without cards like Grand Abolisher doing anything relevant to protect my plays.

I will probably swap the Surge for Shadows again.

I might also try Wheel of Fortune for draw.

I mentioned replacing doubling season because you already had parallel lives in the deck. While Quadrupling your tokens is great in a 4player FFA if they actually let them both stay on the board for 2 turns WITH purphoros on the field.. well I would be surprised.

For the countering hazezon on their turns. If they spend their mana on that during their turns, preventing them from doing anything else you have helped your board position by not letting them alter what you have on the field before your upkeep hits again. If they -dont- counter, well you get more token triggers.

I would agree with you about the quadrupling tokens if I consistently drew both of them together, but odds are I will only draw one during a game anyway and having the consistency of drawing either is what I want. Because if I untap with either, odds are the game is probably over.

And yeah I added Seedborn Muse and Winding Canyons to the OP. While it may not happen often, I think having the ability to do it is good. I also think that Seedborn Muse may be able to open up other combos with artifacts/creatures that tap for an effect. EDIT: such as Rhys the Redeemed

I finally had a chance to give this a run this past weekend. I nearly won the first game, but it sucked. I spent the first seven or eight turns locked down under a Torpor Orb, getting my Eladamri's Call exiled before I could cast it to find Nullmage Shepherd, being forced to sac all of my creatures every turn under penalty of losing a lot of life, and having a couple draw engines countered. I’ve got a Birthing Pod on the table, but no creatures to pod chain into the Shepherd so I can deal with that obnoxious Orb. Planeswalkers.dec across the table is building up to something spectacular, and everyone is expecting me, the only creature focused deck at the table to do something about him.

I eventually stuck an Awakening Zone with Mentor of the Meek just played it slow drawing cards off the mentor until I finally drew into Austere Command and wiped away all the BS. Then it got kind of fun. In order, I cast Earthcraft, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Kozilek’s Predator, Siege-Gang Commander, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (countered), Parallel Lives (countered), and Goblin Bombardment. The token swarm fuelled Goblin Bombardment which let me keep the board clear of creatures long enough for a couple turns. I tutored out Gaea’s Cradle on the turn before I was about to cast Hazezon. At this point Zur decided he’d had enough and bent me over kitchen table with Zur and a previously tutored Thassa. That was that.

Game two was less exciting. Instead of Mentor of the Meek I got down early Fecundity, and Sylvan Library. I played Emrakul’s Hatcher, Kiki-Jiki (countered). Craterhoof Behemoth and Purphoros both got binned by a Windfall, which sucked as those are two of four major win cons for me; I also lost Goblin Bombardment here. Parallel Lives got countered (again) and then someone blew up Sylvan Library. I’ve drawn Sensei's Divining Top, thanks to Windfall, and played it, topping into Karmic Guide next turn. Guide reanimated Kiki-Jiki. Kiki-Jiki copied Guide, who then returned Purphoros. The board gets wiped by Disk, I sac’d all my stuff to Goblin Bombardment for some value, but Purphoros stayed because he’s indestructible. I dropped Survival of the Fittest, binned E. Norn for Avenger of Zendikar, and played it to deal twenty-six damage to everyone on ETB.

Hardly a case for banning Purphoros; the game took twelve turns. Still that guy is every bit as nasty and resilient as everyone said he would be. Big surprise. Now I want to see how the other intended win cons perform in this kind of deck. Also, it seems like resolving a Replenish in the late game should just win on the spot. I might drop Auramancer for that card, not yet sure. Have you or anyone else had occasion to bring this deck to the table?

Yeah absolutely. I've been playing a straight Purphoros deck and I think my play group is beginning to run more answers to him as well. So yeah definitely have a token combat theme as backup or even the main strategy.

I've also ordered all 5 Commander 2013 decks. I think Prossh will be somewhat more effective than Hazezon. Essentially they do the same thing, but Prossh gives you tokens "on-cast" and can be used as a voltron general as well.