MTG Salvation

This deck is intended to be a deck that comes in hot and applies pressure to my opponents. It isn't surprising to lose quickly with this deck, but you either go hard or go home.



As I zealously updated this list over the years the average CMC got away from me a bit, so I'm trying to trim the fat.

This deck originally had a lot more land destruction in it, but I've toned that down because my playgroup is pretty casual.
Any comments are appreciated.

This deck feels really unfocused right now, so I'd definitely try to focus in a little bit more. A few things to consider...

1) Generally speaking, you're running a lot of board wipes for such an aggressive deck, and many of them don't deal splash damage to players.

2) If you must run board wipes I strongly suggest running more instant-speed ones. Instants in general are good to get more mileage from Radha when you attack with her - Starstorm, Magmaquake, Comet Storm, and Street Spasm play better with Radha due to being instant and, in two cases, not inflicting friendly fire on your team.

3) Gruul Charm, Signal the Clans, Magnetic Theft, Destructive Revelry, Price of Progress, Psychotic Fury, Pit Fight, Punishing Fire, Krosan Grip, Chaos Warp, Beast Within, Into the Core, Act of Aggression, Boon Satyr...just a few instants/cards with flash that I think would feel right at home in your deck. I'd aim to replace as many sorceries with these kinds of cards as possible.

4) Having no nonbasic lands doesn't seem worth it to me; this deck would get tons of mileage from dual lands, Kessig Wolf Run, etc, and it would be more than worth the occasional pain of Ruination or Price of Progress. But I would suggest either doubling down on the anti-nonbasic theme (with Blood Moon, From the Ashes, and Magus of the Moon) to punish any smug, rich, or Karn players at your table, or dialing it back a little (don't add those things, add more nonbasic lands, consider dropping Ruination).

5) This deck in general doesn't seem quite fast enough to be an aggressive deck, but doesn't pack enough pain to be a beat-down deck in EDH. I'd either commit to fast aggro (with more cheap deadly creatures, mana elves, haste effects, multi-combat effects, Overruns, and Voltron gadgets for Radha) or dial it back, dropping your current equipment and cheaper aggro creatures for more ramp (probably artifact ramp like Sol Ring and Gruul Signet but also the good missing land ramp cards like Skyshroud Claim) and big game-ending fatties.

6) My wife has found a great deal of success by using tribal synergy and focused two-card redundant combos in her Mirri the Cursed deck. She can occasionally get the aggressive turn five or six kills with her draining spells, lords, and hasty angry black weenies, but her deck still has the resilience and big finishers for a long game if she doesn't get the nuts draw or her opponent is packing tons of removal and defense. I mention this because a similar strategy here (likely tribal elf focused but maybe not) might give you the early game aggression you are looking for and help you earn more Wins than Unsurprising Losses.

Hope that helps!

Quote from Hawk7915 »

*Many excellent points*

Awesome post, thanks for the feedback.

I'm definitely going to take a look at these and more instants to include, I should be taking more advantage of Radha's triggered ability for sure.
I'll probably put in a few more non-basics, especially Kessig, its a little too good to ignore. I don't think I'll go huge on non-basics though, I'm a huge Ruination fan.

Since most of my decks are fat battle cruiser style I'm going to try to make this a faster aggro deck, and because of that I'll remove the wipes like you suggested.

One point to make in regards to aggro: Ideally I would play Radha, Heir to Keld on turn 2, and then a 4 drop on turn 3.
So I'm going to try to flesh out the 1 drops and 4 drops of the deck, especially the 1 drops, although that can be tough in EDH.

I'll be looking around here for some good aggro creatures to replace some of my fatties.


Thanks for the great post!

Okay, so this is my prototype list.



And here is the changelog:

-:

• 4x Forest
  
• 3x Mountain
  
• Viridian Emissary
  
• Wood Elves
  
• Masked Admirers
  
• Goblin Ruinblaster
  
• Rampant Growth
  
• Search for Tomorrow
  
• Blasphemous Act
  
• Terastodon
  
• Mossbridge Troll
  
• Inferno
  
• Relic Crush
  
• Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
  
• Indrik Stomphowler
  
• Grab the Reins
  
• Detritivore
  
• Civic Wayfinder
  
• Hull BReach
  
• Restore
  
• Reverberate
  
• Savage Twister
  
• Sylvan Ranger
  
• Relic of PRogenitus
  
• Price of Glory

+:

• Evolving Wilds
  
• Kessig Wolf run
  
• Command Tower
  
• Rootbound Crag
  
• Mosswort Bridge
  
• Spinerock Knoll
  
• Rubblebelt Raiders
  
• Feral Animist
  
• Signal the Clans
  
• Farhaven Elf
  
• Xenagos, God of Revels
  
• Xenagos, the Reveler
  
• Inferno Titan
  
• Llanowar Elves
  
• Elvish Mystic
  
• Zealous Conscripts
  
• Destructive Revelry
  
• Boon Satyr
  
• Fires of Yavimaya
  
• Purphoros, God of the Forge
  
• Arbor Elf
  
• World at War
  
• Hellkite Charger
  
• Momentous Fall
  
• Deus of Calamity
  
• Malignus
  
• Scourge of the Throne
  
• Ogre Battledriver
  
• Creeping Renaissance
  
• Harrow

I tried to refocus the deck to be more aggressive, but it became more midrange, which is a decent compromise.

It may end up being ineffective, I'm not sure. Like I said before, most of my decks are control/late game decks, so trying to build a faster one was a bit of a challenge for me.

I finally got the chance to update this deck. The updates are similar to my previous ones with some minor alterations.

Small update, there are some more mana dorks I want to pick up, but these cards I have on hand: