MTG Salvation

I managed to nab a copy of Gauntlet of Might from an Ebay auction so I plan on assembling this deck soon. Let me know if there are any good cuts/additions you all would make! The only blatant cut in that I wish I could cram in is Blightsteel Colossus but after the dragons I had a hard time finding a good place for him. My only concerns with the deck right now is lack of late game steam (in gold fishing the deck hitting a land feels REAL bad) and I'm considering dropping the haste enabling lands barring Hall of the Bandit Lord. Let me hear what you guys think of this guy!

Guys pls ;-;

This Commander plays a lot like Narset, Enlightened Master, where if you actually get to attack, you'll be odds on favorite, but if you don't then your deck does almost nothing.

Treasure Map is another Scry card which has a really nice land later on.

Generator Servant is another haster, which has the benefit over Otepec Huntmaster that it works with any of your creatures.

I'd look for some card quality filtering. Faithless Looting, Tormenting Voice, Cathartic Reunion, Wild Guess are all cards that allow you to pitch your un-castable big cards in hand, which happens a lot with this archetype. You can even loot Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth to get graveyard cards back into the top deck equation. I just thought about this now but Library of Leng could be used to setup your top cards.

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Dream Pillager seems very on theme, both a top deck master and a Dragon!

Orcish Librarian helps with your top deck.

Widespread Panic if used with fetch lands can really be used to setup top of library

Holy ***** I forgot about Library of Leng's synergy with looting effects. I considered wheels in the preliminary stages of deck building but they didn't do too much of what I liked. This seems VERY promising and dammit now I'm gonna have to figure out how to get a looting package into this deck. Thank you for your words!!

Once you've got Etali, Primal Storm in play, you don't really need to be casting spells from your hand, as the general will get you 2-3 each turn for free on average. So why let anyone cast spells? Static Orb, Winter Orb Wildfire, Boom // Bust etc. go great with him.

As far as late game gas goes, the new Arch of Orazca seems like a good include. I've also grown really fond of Conqueror's Galleon because it offers so much relevant abilities at so little opportunity cost for the late game.

One card that kind of stuck out to me is Dragonstorm. I count a total of four dragons in your list, and I'm not sure any of them are worth the heavy setup cost of this card.

I'm also not a fan of one-time ritual effects (Geosurge, Seething Song, etc) when you have numerous more permanent options available. Mana Geyser could be an exception if it consistently nets you 10+ mana, but even then I don't think it's worth a card in your hand. If Etali's trigger was an ETB instead of an attack trigger, it might make more sense to use these to recast him over and over again, but that just isn't the case.

Finally, you have a ton of Mountains, so why not get some free value with Valakut? Maybe throw in a Vesuva as well?

While I've not seen an Etali deck in action, one of the guys in my playgroup has a Neheb, the Eternal deck, which has a similar overall idea - a mono R deck that generates tons of value from getting the general out and swinging - and the rituals are hugely powerful in said deck. Getting a general like this out a couple of turns early can make a massive impact on how the game plays out (assuming he doesn't die, that's an average of about 5 free spells for two turns of extra attacks). There are few permanent ramp spells that can match this level of acceleration (Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith are the only guaranteed ones off the top of my head, and three of those are effectively rituals), and you don't need the mana to stick around as much as most other decks, as you're casting stuff for free off of Etali. And if you draw them after you've cast Etali, so what? You have a major source of card advantage in play, you can live with having a couple of dead draws.

In fact, I would say that Mana Geyser is the one big ritual I might not run in a deck like this. Going from 4-6 mana nets you your general 2 turns early. Going from 5 to 12 or however many you're getting does...not much...

Quote from OCPunisher »

One card that kind of stuck out to me is Dragonstorm. I count a total of four dragons in your list, and I'm not sure any of them are worth the heavy setup cost of this card.

I quite like Dragonstorm in this deck, the idea is that if you hit it off Etali, and get another bunch of spells off opponents then you can stack so that you are going for the full value. If a board wipe doesn't follow it will probably take over the game. However on its own, sure probably uncastable.