MTG Salvation

Yeah, I guess I still don't see the value of running it when I already have Seasons Past, a card that will almost always bring back more cards for less, without the downside of exiling itself. The only advantage I see Wildest Dreams having over Seasons Past is that the former can grab two (or more) cards of the same CMC.

Quote from jenncertainty »

Yeah, I guess I still don't see the value of running it when I already have Seasons Past, a card that will almost always bring back more cards for less, without the downside of exiling itself. The only advantage I see Wildest Dreams having over Seasons Past is that the former can grab two (or more) cards of the same CMC.

This is basically my justification for playing Seasons Past over Wildest Dreams in my deck verbatim.

X cards tend to not scale very well when X is a low number, and when X is a high number, there is usually some other card that does the job significantly better. In this case, when X is 3 or greater, you enter Praetor's Counsel territory.

True. The versatility would be the main reasoning for me there. Regrowth is just better though.

Quote from osieorb18 »

True. The versatility would be the main reasoning for me there. Regrowth is just better though.

You're probably right about Regrowth vs. Seasons Past. That being said, I just missed adding Regrowth early on and since this deck ramps so much, I'm less worried about keeping a 6 mana card than I would be in other decks.

Hour of Devastation is here, which means we've got another set to review. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to prerelease due to life stuff but honestly, I'm not too excited about the set and I don't see it impacting my decks much. That being said, there are a few cards that are at least worth testing in Jolrael:

• Hour of Promise: It's very possible that 5 mana is too much for this effect. That being said, anything that can tutor up Gaea's Cradle AND Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx in one go is worth a test.
• Majestic Myriarch: A very big maybe because it only really does something on the winning turn and is probably just win-more. Of course, with one Jolrael activation, this can easily have 20+ power so I might try to sleeve up a copy.
• Ramunap Excavator: Since Crucible was in this deck once and has since been removed, I don't have much hope for the creature version. Still though, this will probably be at the top of the list of cards to consider for any lands-matter decks.
• Scavenger Grounds: We don't have many options for grave hate, so being able to do so with just a land slot means this is probably the most likely card to end up in my list from the set.

+1 for Scavenger Grounds and Hour of Promise. Rest of set is chaff

Yeah, that's sort of how I feel about the set, too. I'm pretty disappointed overall. Though, I'm really excited to make an EDH deck with The Locust God at the helm.

In your primer, you indicate that your commander dying is a glaring weakness of the deck. I know you already run Swiftfoot Boots, for both the protection and the haste, but is there any merit to Sylvan Safekeeper? If your deck plays like it is supposed to, you should have a TON of lands, and this would provide a measure of safety both for your commander, but also for some of the most instrumental creatures you have in closing out a game, like Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.

Safekeeper seems like a decent suggestion. I'd like to add to it Temur Sabertooth, as shroud won't help against wipes.

Quote from Outcryqq »

In your primer, you indicate that your commander dying is a glaring weakness of the deck. I know you already run Swiftfoot Boots, for both the protection and the haste, but is there any merit to Sylvan Safekeeper? If your deck plays like it is supposed to, you should have a TON of lands, and this would provide a measure of safety both for your commander, but also for some of the most instrumental creatures you have in closing out a game, like Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.

Well, I think I was turned off of Safekeeper given that I want my lands on the battlefield, not the graveyard. But you have a point that one less land is better than having my commander die, so maybe I'll have to give that a try.

Having Splendid Reclamation can offset Safekeeper's disadvantage

The Commander 2017 update is there is no update. We're not a tribal deck, so we didn't really get any new toys. Oh well. Maybe Ixalan will have something for Jolrael.

EDIT: Oops, overlooked Traverse the Outlands somehow. Definitely going to be testing that one.

Not even Traverse the Outlands?

Confession time...I totally missed that one when I was looking over the full list of spoilers, haha. I guess that's what I get for looking at Magic cards while also trying to work... Definitely going to test that card. The 5 CMC is a little high for ramp, but I think the potential to grab a lot of lands makes it worth it.

Update!

So I haven't had time to test anything from C17 yet. However, I've finally got to use The Great Aurora enough to know that it's excellent here so:

IN
+ The Great Aurora

OUT
- Soul of New Phyrexia

Growing Rites of Itlimoc, flipping to Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun.

Oh yeah, I saw that. Having a second Gaea's Cradle is nice. My only concern is I don't know if we have enough creatures to reliably flip it.