MTG Salvation

With the new rule going into effect, I'm wondering is Unravel the Æther as good, or do we want a different card?

Quote from DTrain »

I've also thought about cutting ... Stinkweed Imp since I often find myself questioning how good Dredging actually is.

I've just gotta speak up for Stinkweed Imp.

I'm not sure about your list, but I find myself a little soft to fliers, which is a problem with all the new dragon decks running around, and Stinkweed Imp is just a 3 mana creature that wards off so many dangerous fliers.

I agree that the value of dredging is minimal, which is why I can't recommend running Golgari Grave-Troll anymore, because the Dredge 6 over Dredge 5 is negligible, what isn't negligible is a 3 mana deathtouching flier, which you can guarantee to draw every single turn. So much utility, and is so strong with a Survival of the Fittest in play, which essentially guarantees you draw the most useful creature in your deck literally every single turn.

Quote from DTrain »

I played some games with Necrotic Ooze, Triskelion, and Phyrexian Devourer in my deck today, and while it was very powerful and won me a bunch of games, it wasn't very fun. Just having nothing in play and tapping 4 lands to cast Buried Alive into Reanimate and just ending the game right there doesn't really appeal to me I guess.

Yeah, I understand how you feel. My meta is so skewed towards control decks, largely because of players like myself with quick-win potential. In a normal meta I can understand how someone who doesn't much like combos wouldn't have fun piloting Jarad. Do other players in your meta play combos?

Quote from bartalk »

With the new rule going into effect, I'm wondering is Unravel the Æther as good, or do we want a different card?

Honestly I cut that card a long time ago, when I was beefing down removal. If you want to replace it with a removal spell, I'd try Abrupt Decay or something. If commanders are giving you a problem, try Song of the Dryads if you're not already.

Sorry I've not been posting much. I don't really get any playtesting in anymore - haven't played magic in over a month. In the summer I'll become far more active, I think.

Quote from razzliox »

Yeah, I understand how you feel. My meta is so skewed towards control decks, largely because of players like myself with quick-win potential. In a normal meta I can understand how someone who doesn't much like combos wouldn't have fun piloting Jarad. Do other players in your meta play combos?

There are not many other combo decks in my meta. There's a pretty good Sharuum deck which contains many of the combo cards but it lacks many of the best tutors and ways to protect the combo, so it's not quite at the same level. I still enjoy playing things like the Living Death + Phyrexian Altar loop or going crazy with Greater Good, but I guess the Ooze combos are just a little bit too abrupt. It feels almost too easy, and I like to at least have to put in a little bit of work for my wins. As I mentioned in my last post, the idea of just reanimating fatties like Sheoldred, Whispering One and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger for the heck of it isn't super appealing either, so I'm cutting those, which leaves me with a few flex slots to play with. One card that I'm trying out is Scavenging Ooze, which can be a good silver bullet to search up against another graveyard deck or to make my Living Death better by removing creatures that could pose a problem, especially if they are getting looped along with my stuff. I also think I may want to fit another mass removal effect in to handle some of the more aggressive decks around. I think Toxic Deluge is the obvious choice and it's a card that I've always had a hard time finding a spot for. My biggest concern is that further reducing my creature count weakens cards like Survival, Birthing Pod, and Skullclamp. I'm also not sure if Tooth and Nail should still be in the deck if I'm not playing the Mike and Trike combo.

DTrain, how has Sidisi been for you? I've not been playing enough to test it myself.

Quote from razzliox »

DTrain, how has Sidisi been for you? I've not been playing enough to test it myself.

Pretty good so far. She's been a back up for Rune-Scarred Demon and she's also been nice to sacrifice a different creature and then tutor for a reanimate to put it back into play if I need its ETB ability, or if we just want to block with her (the 4/6 deathtouch body is quite good for 5 mana). More tutors are almost always good and having another one on a body is really good for a deck that can abuse creatures as much as we can.

How do we feel about Skirge Familiar? I feel like it has potential. Sometimes I get massively large hands with Greater Good, Baleful Force, or Necro, so this might be a cool way to abuse that.

Other suggestions? I'm mostly trying to get this thread active again, because my EDH season (summer) is coming up.

Summer. That glorious and magical time... Where Magic can be played to heart's content and lazy days are marked by Magic theorycrafting... Anyways.

It seems like Skirge Familiar is very narrow card in context of what it does. It turns card into mana, which doesn't seem to be a desired outcome in this deck. I haven't played against your deck or played your deck myself, but I think that every card performs a valuable part in executing your game plan without the Skirge. So, except in those niche situations where you have a glut of cards in hand, Skirge doesn't seem to be proactively doing anything. It would prolly be a dead card, at least from my perspective. I can't imagine you ever reanimating it without the desirable situation you described and NEVER wanting to cast it. Does that make sense?

In short, I'm not a fan of the Skirge without Ad Nauseam.

I think that you are most likely correct, but I'm going to test it anyway on the off-chance we're both wrong.

On a related note, I may test Ad Nauseam. Probably no good because of bad flips like Woodfall Primus, Baleful Force, Tooth, etc., but it's worth a shot.

Ad Nauseam is a ridiculous card given the right circumstances, but, you're right, it does tend to require a more streamlined style of deckbuilding so as to not kill yourself while searching out your combo. However, the fact that it's instant speed is really nice, and there's always things you can do to lessen your curve if the card ends up being super useful (you could try Reclamation Sage and Dark Confidant in place of the two you mentioned, although the former replacement sacrifices a lot of power and another potential combo in the deck). All depends on how fast and how suddenly you want to be winning, from my perspective.

I love Ad Nauseam. The sheer amount of cards that you can power through is awesome. And I have seriously considered running it in my Tasigur deck even with those high CMC's in the deck. The ability to just rip through the low CMC's in your deck and then stop AFTER chunking a huge portion of your life with Woodfall Primus or another high CMC Reanimator fattie is still powerful enough that I would strongly consider it. It's a calculated risk of losing life to trade for the ability to "End of turn, Ad Nauseam into the win ALMOST EVERY TIME. Think about it; even if you only do the top 10 cards of your library and lose, let's say, 18 life (and that's assuming a low land density, which you have), I think you still just drew into either the exact combo piece you need or a tutor to go and find it to win on your turn. I think it's better than Dig Through Time in Tasigur, but that's another topic for Avvina's thread. Which I will soon meander over to...

Good luck sir! Let us know how the playtesting goes! I wish I could join in your Magic revels, but I'm getting married this summer, so that's kinda not an option for a while as my fiance and I plan out her dream day.

No, I wouldn't play Ad Naus if it meant I had to cut all-stars like Woodfall Primus and Baleful Force. They make the deck more than Ad Naus. The question is, can I play them in the same deck? I'll test it and see how it feels.

Great deck and primer! This is highly tuned and competitive, I love it.

Have you tried Imperial Seal, Diabolic Intent, Beseech the Queen, or Grim Tutor? Expensive cards but good. How are you on mana? Could test Three Visits. I'm just spitballin' because obviously you know the deck the best and if it even needs more tutors or ramp (it probably doesn't).

Got some games in last night! Nothing special, but still. The drug is in the system and I can already feel my mind going into EDH overdrive.

Quote from DigitalFire »

Great deck and primer! This is highly tuned and competitive, I love it.

Have you tried Imperial Seal, Diabolic Intent, Beseech the Queen, or Grim Tutor? Expensive cards but good. How are you on mana? Could test Three Visits. I'm just spitballin' because obviously you know the deck the best and if it even needs more tutors or ramp (it probably doesn't).

Three Visits could fit into the deck. As far as basic ramp spells go, it's all a matter of preference. You could cut Steve or something for it.

As for the tutors, I would play Imperial Tutor if I had one, and I have long-term plans to get one. The others are simply too slow. I will retest Diabolic Intent now that I'm playing more creatures.

I think I get the point of Faerie Macabre - being instant speed graveyard hate that's a surprise and free - but do you think Scavenging Ooze might be better overall? While he's a little more proactive he can get large and sac for a beating, be reanimated to hate graves, and provide a little life cushion if needed. I've had amazing success with him in every deck I've tried him in EDH.

Quote from razzliox »

No, I wouldn't play Ad Naus if it meant I had to cut all-stars like Woodfall Primus and Baleful Force. They make the deck more than Ad Naus. The question is, can I play them in the same deck? I'll test it and see how it feels.

I don't mean to say to cut those bad boys out from your list, I'm merely saying that it would suck to flip one of those guys over. I think your more recent post is more what I was trying to say: run Ad Naus even with the high CMC cards because you'll still draw a metric ton of cards for instant speed regardless of the life loss. Ah. If only Yawgmoth's Bargain wasn't banned...

No like Griselbrand would be so much better than Bargain it wouldn't be close. T1 Entomb, T2 Exhume G-Brand, draw 7, discard like five? Next turn win? Like at least as good as Sylvan Primordial.

#DestroyTheBanlist #SetHerFree

Edit in response to Pokken:

Quote from The Jarad Primer »

Faerie Macabre - Makes Survival of the Fittest gravehate at instant speed, which seems super strong.

Missed that, good call

I'm playing games tomorrow, and Saturday I have a tournament! Any last-minute thoughts?



BTW, the list in the primer is not the list I'm running. I can't edit that thread due to technical issues that hopefully will soon be resolved. It's very close though.

Not really, except good luck and play smart! Oh, and get a good night's sleep. That helps.

I think it will be useful to keep notes in the tourney on cards that you're thinking about. Not sure what your list is at the moment and what cards you are or are not running, but I think it would be useful to have some game reports on how you did.

Only difference in my list and the OP's list is I'm playing a Prateor's Grasp over Altar of Dementia. Grasp is insane because it can grab mono-black staples (Reanimate, Entomb, tutors), cheap rocks (Mana Crypt, Sol Ring), and Pact of Negation.

So! Went to a thirteen-man tournament tonight with Jarad. $5 entree fee. My buddy showed up with Momir Vig, but other than that, I walked into an entirely blind meta. Considering a lot of tournaments have more than a few sub-par players, I was fairly confident that I could at least make my money back, but when I got there, I took a look at the decks and were surprised at how they were both powerful and creative.

The first thing that I noticed was that there were lots of graveyard decks - A Child of Alara classical reanimator, a Sen Triplets reanimator-control, a Hanna, Ship’s Navigator that used Hanna a lot, and a Teysa deatheffects deck. And me. This is actually a good thing, for three reasons. One, a lot of graveyard decks is indicative of players taking advantage of a small amount of graveyard hate, which is good for me. Two, if they’re used to not playing against graveyard hate, than between me and Vig, we can keep the opposing graveyard decks down, since we both play a fair amount of GY hate. And three, if other players are dumping fatties in their yard, then maybe I can use them.

Move to round one. Two pods of four, one pod of five. I’m in a four-pod against the Child Reanimator, UW Control, and Teysa combo. Out of these, I was only really that worried about the Child deck, who goes first. I go last, but keep a hand with Survival of the Fittest. On turn two he misses a land drop to discard Sheoldred, and I Bojuka Bog him. He follows this up with Oath of Druids, which is kind of scary because I know he plays a lot of fast aggro fatties. Teysa has three creatures out, so everyone’s Oathing. I hit Sidisi, Undead Vizier, and figure I want both a boardwipe and a reanimate spell, so I tutor Living Death. On his turn, he hits Blightsteel Colossus. Scary. I’m informed that infect is houseruled to fifteen. Less scary. I drop Survival and pass, remind myself that Survival is a very good card, and proceed to Ooze combo out in two turns, holding up removal the whole time. Just the nuts.

MVP - Survival steals me an early win.

Round two - BYE! But that means a scouting round!

I actually got some scouting in during round one since I finished super early, so I’ll talk about that here. I was mostly only looking at the decks that I thought I would see in the final round, to save time. In short, between the two rounds / before round three, I saw a Melek Storm with a player I saw cheating twice in casual games, a Derevi Superfriends deck that was surprisingly effective, a better look at Teysa combo that made it look like it was more like Teysa stax, and saw how the wincons in the Triplets deck worked - mostly things involving Rite of Replication or just stealing our combos. He also looked like he depended on his mana rocks a lot, so if I could take one or two out early he’d be pretty behind.

Momir Vig also won round one, which means he also gets a bye. Apparently, the tournament is structured so that everyone who wins round one gets a bye because they already have a guaranteed slot at the final table - it’s only a three-round tourney anyway. Winners of round two’s two five-player games also get a spot in the final table.

I played a game inbetween rounds that was a rematch of my first-round pod. I won very quickly with Buried Alive that I Praetor’s Grasp'd from Child.

MVP - My buddy Huddy. This one’s for you.

Round three - This is it. The final table. Players are, in turn order, Momir Vig, myself, Triplets, Derevi Superfriends, and Melek. Vig starts off by drawing six or seven cards over two turns with Mystic Remora. I’ve got a hand with Ancient Tomb, Phyrexian Arena, Graveborn Muse, and Voyaging Satyr, so I get right on the card advantage / tempo train. Triplets plays slow control and Derevi has just enough mana to repeatedly counter Momir’s scariest spells. Momir looks like he’s about to stabalize with Prophet and take over the game, but Prophet of Kruphix gets hit by a Path to Exile, though he’s still in control of where the game is. We all kind of continue to just play our gameplans, and I happen to pull mine off - Momir gets hit by lots of counterspells, which conveniently clears the path for my entwined Tooth and Nail into Mike&Trike. Turn eight.

MVP - Tooth and Nail. Honorable mention to Phyrexian Arena and Graveborn Muse.

Went home happy for getting first and $35 in store credit.

Nice. I guess that your build is pretty much focused on overall resilience. Build up your card engines while letting someone else draw attention before you find an opening where you can win.

You play packing answers but also expecting the faster but more fragile to eat answers and get slowed down.

I wish I could play in a decent powered meta but the only other people who owned souped up decks have glass cannon builds. Trying to 1v1 glass cannon builds turns into "I hit you or your lands with my removal suite and you lose". I can't learn too much from the wins.

I would say the deck's focus is being able to win at any point in the game, which forces your opponents to hinder their own development and focus on holding up disruption, or possibly lose on the spot.

Refer your friends to threads on MTGS / reddit and help them out! Or, at least, sit down and look at their decks and try to improve them. That's all the suggestions I got.

Well, the only two things I can really say are "Your monogreen deck has too many dead draws because your ramp package is too dense" and "Your Narset deck needs more disruption and library manipulation or else you just lose to anything that can compete with its speed. Who cares that they're not amazing flips off of Narset?"

There's also a guy who built your Jarad deck. The only time I saw it in action, he probably kept a hand that simply controlled me and didn't do too much else.

And the only thing I can say to myself is "get used to my deck more so that I avoid minor misplays"