MTG Salvation

So... here's my problem.



I'm a hopeless lesbian.

~Context~
I'll try to keep this brief (note: for the real issue, skip to the next heading). I fell out of playing the game for 4~ years. This pandemic has rocked my world as I'm sure it has everyone else's, and I like many others returned to an old bad habit: deckbuilding. I used to play slow sorts of decks, typical Commander fare: Muzzio, Visionary Architect was my first and only build until and Meren of Clan Nel Toth came along. I realized that aggro fit my personality better and I stumbled into red. Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer worked well but felt too Spike-y for me. Poked around for a while and couldn't find anything that really struck a chord with me.

Then, I saw her.

My lizard brain kicked in. "Yes, cute girl, good." Then, my eyes made their way down to the first part of her effect. "Okay, Satyrs, whatever. Cute girl." Second part of her effect - there it is. Snap back to reality. "Yes, yes, yes! I can use this! Card draw in red and green, what more could I ask for? This should solve the consistency issue. Random discard? Whatever."

Unfortunately, it was not whatever, which is why I have come to you all. I've spent a lot of my free time in the past two weeks... one week? Honestly, I'm not sure anymore, and I'm writing this post at 3:30 AM so time feels even less real than usual. I've been testing it for a while and so far the results have been so-so at best.

~The Problem~
People build Gallia as Satyr tribal and that doesn't feel good to me; so many of them are aggressively mediocre. So I thought to myself, "Well, all I need to do is have at least two other creatures and I'm golden, so it shouldn't matter what kinds of creatures I play as long as they can reliably be fast and deal damage." I concocted a scheme: a deck that goes fast and doesn't care so much about what it has in its hand as to just having more cards to play, and can double back and get them later for more value (provided I don't just discard the recursion). I'll keep a few Satyrs with good abilities that will benefit from having haste. Then, enlightenment: my brain expanded to its limits when I realized that Praetor's Counsel + Myojin of Life's Web is a hilarious but potentially gamewinning combination. Everything seemed totally flawless in my gorgeous, intelligent mind.

But not as gorgeous as Gallia's. Probably more intelligent, though.

And this brings us to the kicker: I realized that I still don't actually know how to build an aggro deck. Low curve comes to mind, yes, and words like "value" flash before my eyes in blinding early 2000s Word clipart. Even with that in mind, I've been struggling to really make progress on building something that feels good while also being fast and keeping up with more tuned decks in a way that feels true to the spirit of the card. So far, while it would be nice to eventually reunite with some old pals and play in a group, my main testing has been solo, with a friend who's played everything from Will Kenrith + Rowan Kenrith to Arcades, the Strategist. Needless to say, the winrate has been less than stellar.

Here's what I've got so far:



(here's the TappedOut link for easier curve visualizing)

~Thoughts/Observations~
Normally I feel like the logical EDH player strategy for this kind of thing is to just ramp into huge creatures fast. I thought Craterhoof Behemoth was boring and I was smarter than it so I tried to do without it. Maybe that's just impossible? So far the best starts seem to be when I can land a Loyal Apprentice or something along those lines and start generating advantage early, but it feels like my endgame kinda fizzles. I realize I should probably take my gimmicky win-con out even if I accept defeat and admit that this deck can't be anything more than casual. In the end I'm thinking I just need to pick the things higher on my curve a bit better, but as I'm not too familiar with these colors, it's been sort of slow going.

I had a thought to make this deck a little more flavorful, which would be to run cards like Zealous Conscripts and Insurrection to pull more people into the party, so to speak. This could maybe help out with a the lack of removal and keeping the pace of the game up. Goblin Game even crossed my mind as a sort of party-game subtheme, including silly cards like Thieves' Auction.

This is the end of my incredibly silly late night cry for help. If you stuck through this with me, I appreciate you immensely and also apologize for my stupidity. I realize in the end I may simply the captain of a hopelessly sinking ship, but I've hopelessly fallen for this satyr jock and I can't rest until I see this through in some way or another.

TL;DR: Gallia is cute as hell and this deck can pop off hella early if it gets a good start. Even if it doesn't, it can still clutch out great early game. However, I end up petering out by the end, even with consistent draws, and I'm not sure what the trick to solve that is. More removal? Better creatures? I come to you to ask for guidance.

I've built a Gallia deck that worked quite well for me and was a lot of fun to play. Very aggressive, low-curve, with lots of durable creatures to make it really hard to keep you off the board, and hasty creatures so you're constantly dealing damage.

Hard to say exactly without playing it, but to me your build looks too slow for what Gallia is best at. My version is trying to trigger Gallia T3 most games, and then keep your opponents on the back foot for the rest of the game. I think you've included a bunch of cards that are playing for a much slower game and it's hurting your early game where it counts. Too many reactive spells, not nearly enough creatures, and too many of them costing 4+ mana. Anything that costs more than 3 mana had better be REALLY useful, and honestly even creatures that cost 3 better be really useful unless they have haste. In your build, to me it looks like by the time gallia can trigger, it'll be too late for her to be very effective. Imo she should trigger early and often.

Here's my list, you can check it out if you're curious. If I were you I'd start by cutting the slow value spells, reactive spells, and big mediocre fatties like borborygmos (both versions). Focus on low-curve stuff that provides value late-game as well. Posterchild for the deck is stuff like dragmaster outcast that triggers Gallia early but presents a real threat late. That and phoenixes to get potential value from Gallia's discard.

I see, wow, so low curve really means low low curve. I guess I was getting a little blinded by classic ramp into big stompies, haha. The Borborygmi were cards I always wanted to run but I see how that doesn't really work out. Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! Also, your list rules. So with a deck like this, you really just want your opponent(s) to be dead before they have an opportunity to have things you want to remove? Also, how vital do you feel things like manlands are? Historically I've always shyed away from them because I don't want to lose my manabase, but are they worth it just to get more creatures on the board for Gallia triggers?

Honestly, for an aggro deck I think it's got a pretty medium curve but it's definitely a lot lower than what you've got at the moment.

The deck does have some removal, and you can run more if you want, but the important thing imo is that it should be stapled onto proactive plays like sarkhan, the dragonspeaker, glorybringer, and tyrant's familiar. This is for 2 reasons: 1, because you want to have as many face-punchy things as possible, and 2, because with Gallia's ability, any removal that needs to wait for the right target - like beast within - is likely going to get discarded before you actually have the right target to use it, or you'll jump the gun and use it on a sub-par target. With sarkhan you can throw it down on 5, and then use it later if a target presents itself. But also yes, your primary means of removal is removing the player, haha.

Manlands have been decent, they're mostly as a fallback in case I run out of gas and need to trigger Gallia. They can be a bit of a stumbling block to cast Gallia in the first place, but otherwise they're usually fine. For the most part they haven't been necessary, but they can be nice to have as a last line of defense for the decks many planeswalkers, I think that's how I've mostly ended up using them. Not sure what you mean by losing your manabase, usually you wouldn't activate them if you don't have a safe attack (unless you're really desperate). If you do go for a chump attack to trigger Gallia, or a chump block to protect a PW, that's up to you but you don't have to use them that way.

War Cadence can serve as a way to enable creatures can get through by taxing anyone who tries to block. It's also a political card to enable other players to get their creatures through.

Champion of Rhonas has the Exert ability to put a creature from the hand into play.

Boartusk Liege and Stonebrow, Krosan Hero can further buff support your R/G creatures.

Quote from DirkGently »

Honestly, for an aggro deck I think it's got a pretty medium curve but it's definitely a lot lower than what you've got at the moment.

The deck does have some removal, and you can run more if you want, but the important thing imo is that it should be stapled onto proactive plays like sarkhan, the dragonspeaker, glorybringer, and tyrant's familiar. This is for 2 reasons: 1, because you want to have as many face-punchy things as possible, and 2, because with Gallia's ability, any removal that needs to wait for the right target - like beast within - is likely going to get discarded before you actually have the right target to use it, or you'll jump the gun and use it on a sub-par target. With sarkhan you can throw it down on 5, and then use it later if a target presents itself. But also yes, your primary means of removal is removing the player, haha.

This makes a lot of sense! I made some very aggressive cuts (or well, aggressive by my standards) and included these three, played a couple games with them and so far they're working really well! Here's the updated list:

Quote from Singe »

War Cadence can serve as a way to enable creatures can get through by taxing anyone who tries to block. It's also a political card to enable other players to get their creatures through.

Champion of Rhonas has the Exert ability to put a creature from the hand into play.

Boartusk Liege and Stonebrow, Krosan Hero can further buff support your R/G creatures.

Thank you for these! Stonebrow feels a little unreliable as while I've got a fair bit of ways to get Trample on my creatures, it's only maybe... three cards total? So I worry that I may not always be able to get the most out of him, especially as a 5 drop. That being said, I shared the list with some pals of mine, and one suggested that the deck was maybe torn between a sort of go-low-and-wide strategy and a go-huge one, in which case Champion of Rhonas would be very good in that list. I didn't realize green had any sort of cheat into play effects beyond the expensive tutor ones (Green Sun's, Tooth and Nail) so this is a great discovery.

Here's some more suggestions to look over.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin gets a +1/+1 counter and make 1/1 tokens equal to his power when he attacks.

Irencrag Pyromancer can bolt anything for 3 damage. Since you'll likely draw at least two cards during your turn.

Glint-Horn Buccaneer would be good since he can ping when you discard.

Bag of Holding can help recover those discarded cards.

Keen Sense and Snake Umbra combos with Borborygmos Enraged and Glint-Horn Buccaneer.

Thank you both for your help! I played my first game of multiplayer in quite a while (mostly just had been doing 1v1 testing with a friend) and made changes based on your recs.



I cut a lot of the reactive instants as Dirk suggested, leaving in Krosan Grip because split second feels worth having in specific scenarios. That kind of reasoning is also what led me to keep Noxious Revival, Reap the Past, and Blasphemous Act - sometimes I need to discard something I actually want later and sometimes I'm not the one with the scariest board. On that note, there were many many board wipes and even without the phoenixes, I was surprised at how resilient the deck managed to be. The reason I ultimately lost, however, was because I wasn't able to come back after a final board wipe, so I think in a future revision I will be looking into cutting some more things and adding more of those types of stubborn creatures.

I took out Taurean Mauler because it's gross and I'm vain (also I didn't see it that game), but it is good enough that I think I should try and make space for it too if I can. I think Kari Zev, Skyship Raider could be a great replacement for now as she's hard block, especially with a buff (Domri, Anarch of Bolas managed to survive from turn 3 all the way to the third to last turn, and his +1/+0 did great work that game), and she'll trigger Gallia with the monkey token.

Besides that swap, I cut Faithless Looting and Wheel of Fortune in hopes that Gallia alone will be enough draw if I can trigger her ability consistently, though I may be a bit too hopeful. I also ditched Brawn because while seeing Anger always makes the deck way way better, it wasn't quite pulling its weight. I found that while the tokens from Seasoned Pyromancer were nice, the discard was often too difficult a choice to make, so I cut him for Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin.

So... things I'm eyeing to cut next: Growing Rites of Itlimoc is great because of Gaea's Cradle but as I keep pushing the curve down (and also adding more things that need red mana) it's looking less and less good. I personally believe in Rubblebelt Raiders but haven't seen them yet so can't say for sure if it'll work (would I rather just have Skyfire Phoenix?) Gruul Charm has done a lot of work for me but compared to everything else in the list it's looking pretty mediocre at this point, so maybe it also has to go.

Pardon all the long posts, and thank you to anyone who reads from here on. I'm hoping to add some more the cards that have been suggested to me, but it's getting harder and harder to make cuts.

I dug around for some other card options for you.

Nature's Claim is one mana friendly and giving the opponent 4 life is no biggie.

If you plan to cut Growing Rites of Itlimoc, replacement options you can use.
Bow of Nylea since it grants deathtouch as another form of evasion while also giving you several tap ability effects. The last ability to put creatures back into the bottom of the deck works with Fauna Shaman to tutor the creature back to the hand.

Nylea, Keen-Eyed cuts your creature cost by (1) and the main reason is for this mana sink to check the top deck to add a creature to your hand or dump the non-creature card.

Path of Discovery gives explore mechanic for your creatures that ETB. You can either draw a land card or buff the creature with a +1/+1 counter.

Heroic Intervention which is costly and Wrap in Vigor will give you some instant protection against some wrath effects.

Chancellor of the Forge or Myr Battlesphere is a good Feldon target to make 1/1 tokens.

Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter can make 1/1 token or a bigger one.

I think blasphemous act is playing to lose, tbh. Sure, there will absolutely be games where it keeps you from losing...for a bit. But does it actually help you win? I think once you're the one wiping the board, you're probably too far behind to win that game most of the time. And games where you need a 2-drop but have a blasphemous act are much more likely to be losses when they could have been wins.

FYI, Kari Zev's monkey will not help trigger Gallia because it enters attacking, so it wasn't declared as an attacker. Bit of a subtle point in the rules. It's still a decent card but it'll only count as 1 attacker for Gallia purposes. Same is true for hanweir garrison. Chandra works because she makes the tokens and then you declare them as attackers.

Cards I would cut:

archetype of aggression has very mediocre stats and trample isn't very important imo. You're looking to go wide-ish, not super tall.

Balefire dragon is a sweet card but 7 is too much for a creature without haste imo.

Borby is too expensive as well.

I know he's a "classic" but I don't like champion of lambholt. He's too prone to getting blown up mid-combat and leaving you in trouble. But we're not making enough tokens to really take advantage of him imo.

Along with cutting the pricier stuff, I'd cut feldon. 3 is a lot to invest in a temporary creature and there's no compelling reason to focus on ETBs with this deck.

As much as I like 1-drops, I think legion loyalist is too low-impact tbh.

If you've got the money for a taiga (and willow satyr lol) you may as well get your fetches. Just replace your basics with them.

Harvest season I wouldn't run personally, but it does have a potentially high payoff at least. Nature's lore I like a lot less here, you've got a 2-drop in the command zone.

I don't like reap the past. It seems essentially equivalent to braingeyser which is not an exciting card. When I'm playing this deck, I usually have a hard time finding the space to cast survival of the fittest, since it doesn't impact the board and I NEED to stay on top. Let alone tapping out for a big clunky sorcery. Plus it's not a reliable way to get anything specific back, and you probably can't cast it right away either.
The more I think about it, the more this might be my least favourite card in your deck at this point.

I concur that gruul charm should be cut. Also I think noxious revival is pretty bad. Your justification sounds like mine back when I thought I needed to play life gain in my 73-card garbage pile of a deck - "What if I'm low on life and I need to gain some?" Sure, there will be times you wish you could get something back you discarded. But you aren't running a combo deck, there's no absolutely crucial cards here. Very few cards worth 2-for-1ing yourself to get back. And even when you do want a card back that badly, you likely won't have revival in hand. It's just too situational, and the situations when you don't need it, it's totally useless. I don't really even like Ewit here, but if you must have some recursion, that's the one thing I'd leave in since at least it's a body that can attack.

If I were keeping 1 removal spell it'd probably be chaos warp. Hits anything, gets around indestructibility/regen/etc, and if you're lucky won't leave them a blocker. Split second is for control decks. Your "split second" is hitting them so hard they can't afford to keep counterspell mana up. You don't want a niche card in an aggro deck, that's just a bad idea.

You can probably just assume anything Singe is suggesting, I disagree with. I don't trust anyone that just uses a reworded description of the text of the card as the sole justification for why you should include it, lol. (heroic intervention is ok though, and nylea is decent - although (old) purphoros is much better for an aggro deck imo)

Overall the deck looks much better, though!

Quote from DirkGently »

If you've got the money for a taiga (and willow satyr lol) you may as well get your fetches. Just replace your basics with them.

Oh yeah, forgot I put Taiga in the list frankly a friend of mine pressured me into using it because "we're just playing online," even though it's against my usual deckbuilding philosophy of not building things I can't afford. Hadn't realized Willow Satyr was so expensive though so that may end up getting cut. I do own a Sylvan Library though, so that stays.

Quote from DirkGently »

FYI, Kari Zev's monkey will not help trigger Gallia because it enters attacking, so it wasn't declared as an attacker. Bit of a subtle point in the rules. It's still a decent card but it'll only count as 1 attacker for Gallia purposes. Same is true for hanweir garrison. Chandra works because she makes the tokens and then you declare them as attackers.

Ahh really? Damn, I did double check that but I guess I must've just misread something. I figured that because it just said "attacks" and didn't specify "when you declare attackers" etc, but I guess it makes sense. Bummer.

As for your cuts:

Borb and Balefire are out, got to play some more multiplayer and yeah, they were just too slow and too costly. Tyrant's Familiar is the highest CMC thing in the deck now since Great Henge and Blasphemous Act should never cost more than 2.

I will say that while Reap the Past combos with Satyr's Cunning in letting me thin out my graveyard, you're right that it's probably not worth it - for a while I was considering something like Once and Futureto be able to get back more than one creature but I felt like it was hard to justify 4 mana for that. I'm going to play a few more games with Noxious Revival before I decide to cut it since the nice thing about it is that it is a free instant, so I can go hard on one turn just laying into folks and then if I eat a boardwipe or removal I can just play it and get back my most value thing. Definitely slow, but I feel like because it's free it's the one bit of recursion I'm torn on.

As for the rest of the recommended cuts, Gruul Charm is going and likely so is Krosan Grip. I think I'll keep playing around with Champion of Lambholt since it has been doing good work for me, and Eternal Witness and Feldon have been good for covering my ass if I discarded something good early. I guess it's a bit hard for me as a person to take the "don't look back" approach since historically I've been really fond of graveyard interaction, but it's probably worthwhile to be eyeing those cards next. I've been able to get surprisingly high power on my board with Thunderfoot Baloth and some other buffs, so I think I'm honestly going to keep Archetype of Aggression too. But again, I agree that of the cards that are doing the least work, he's probably on the lower end. I suppose I could cut him and leave Legion Loyalist in, since Legion Loyalist's first strike/token evasion is probably better than Archetype's only trample buff.

Thanks again for the tips, I'll post another update after I've done a bit more testing!

But thunderfoot baloth also grants trample! Lol.


idk, imo a 3/2 for 3 is a really high price for that effect.

Another suggestion for your deck, Strionic Resonator. I noticed you have a couple of cards that could play off of this including your commander's draw ability.

Life from the Loam is probably the best card not in this deck other than, like, Mana Crypt, and usually my go-to target for Gamble for just because it's so risk-free. At around 10 bucks it's probably at the cheapest it's gonna go. With Loam at the ready we can play Ayula's Influence for a steady and sturdy supply of creature bodies. We can also fill our hand with lands so that the random discard is less likely to nail something we want it to not nail. Some cycling lands also provide the deck with some grindy card advantage. May as well find room for Punishing Fire if we've got Grove of the Burnwillows in the deck already, I think.