MTG Salvation

Hey guys, so today was the pre-release for OGW and it was a blast! MY LGS held a normal tournament, not Two-Headed Giant. I did pretty well, with 32 players at the beginning, I ranked 2nd, going 4/0/1. Still, I have some doubts about the way I constructed my deck, and would like to hear your thoughts based on the sealed pool I got:



So looking at this pool I immediately wanted to make Wx Allies work, Gideon, Munda's Vanguard and Eldrazi Displacer were all bombs I wanted to play. The issues started when I had to pick a second color. So the main issue with the W pool was that there few early drops and removal, so I wanted a color to compensate for that. I didn't consider green, even if there are some good cards there and Saddleback Lagac was an all-star all day, I felt the WG was subpar. Blue offered some interesting choices, but didn't exactly fix either my problems, and there was a low Ally density as well. Then Red, R was very powerful, with plenty quality removal and creatures, but I simply felt that the Devoid archetype would not go too well with my main Ally-based strategy. So Black was my secondary color, despite the appalling lack of decent removal there.

I played WBu in the first 2 rounds, having decided to splash for blue based on the thinking that with both 2 in-color duals that generate blue, I could get away with it and play powerhouses there. Even though I won, and I didn't feel the deck was underperforming, I thought that I could cut the blue for more consistency, and changed it simply to WB allies. I performed well until the last round, losing 2-1 to a mirror match.

Some decisions I might have regretted were not mainbording the 2 Reaver Drone, which might have made up for my lack of decent 2 drops. And given the good Red and Blue, I'm still not sure I made the best choice in the end. The only deck that me was basically the same (including Gideon and Eldrazi), just more consistent in the first few turns, so maybe the splash for blue creatures or entirely cutting out black for red's removal might have been better in the end.

This was the final decklist



So, what'd you have made differently?

Congrats on the 4-0-1! You have an insane amount of white bombs.

1) Just an observation, but you have a deck where Oath of Gideon is not only just playable but kind of awesome:
-the 2 tokens help enable Cohort
-you have 2 bombs with Anthem effects
-makes Gideon even better, which I didn't realize was possible (you can make the Emblem immediately and then in future turns start attacking with a bigger Gideon without having to lose an attack to make an emblem :|||)
-Support fodder

2) Warping Wail is a very weak card, especially with a small C splash. I'd cut it. You're not short on playables.

3) White is low on both removal and early bodies, so I'd want to shore up both those weaknesses with the secondary color.

4) I don't know if Wxc (i.e. colorless splash) is necessary. You have multiple A-grade cards with double white mana in the cost. You really don't want to miss hitting 2 white sources. The colorless cards don't add enough value compared to the raw power of your white bombs. I'd just go for the more consistent manabase.


Here's what the deck would look like with red:



Here's how I would play the black version:


I think I would lean towards the WR deck instead.

If you do prefer WB, I would:
-reduce the number of 5-drops (curve is high)
-play Kalastria Nightwatch (very good synergy with Vampire Envoy, gaining flying when attackers are declared)
-avoid the colorless stuff... there's not much payoff for it
-cut Zulaport Chainmage. I might be wrong, but I think this card is generally a weak maindeck card, even with so many allies. Cohort is awkward on a 4/2. If you want a card that can either block or drain opponent for 2 a turn, Silent Skimmer does that already.

Thanks for the input man!

Replying to your points:

1) Just an observation, but you have a deck where Oath of Gideon is not only just playable but kind of awesome:
-the 2 tokens help enable Cohort
-you have 2 bombs with Anthem effects
-makes Gideon even better, which I didn't realize was possible (you can make the Emblem immediately and then in future turns start attacking with a bigger Gideon without having to lose an attack to make an emblem :|||)
-Support fodder

Well yes, in theory it is a pretty good card, I didn't draw it often enough to test everything out. Most of the time it was a worse Raise the Alarm to be honest. I could never cast this before Gideon, and only once did I get to play this on curve, but in that game honestly it didn't matter what 3 drop it was because it was the only game where I curved out perfectly and won very easily.

2) Warping Wail is a very weak card, especially with a small C splash. I'd cut it. You're not short on playables.

My reasoning for playing Warping Wail was that I would play the 3 decent colorless lands anyway, since it was very significant to be able to enable deathtouch on Slaughter Drone and be able to activate Eldrazi Displacer, which singlehandedly won me several games with multiple blinks per turn. So with that in mind, and knowing I'm low on 2 drops, and Wail can double up as ramp and often I also used it to remove the opponent's mana dorks early, it was a decent card throughout the day. Only in 1 game did I get it stuck in my hand without a way to play it, so maybe I could have indeed cut it out, but it was not as terrible as it seems.

3) White is low on both removal and early bodies, so I'd want to shore up both those weaknesses with the secondary color.

Exactly, like I said before those were the two things I mainly wanted to address with a second color.

4) I don't know if Wxc (i.e. colorless splash) is necessary. You have multiple A-grade cards with double white mana in the cost. You really don't want to miss hitting 2 white sources. The colorless cards don't add enough value compared to the raw power of your white bombs. I'd just go for the more consistent manabase.

Like I said, I needed to activate colorless abilities which proved to be very relevant, so the slight splash for c was passable. I never got a white card stuck in my hand for not having enough white mana generators, just once did I have to use Crumbling Vestige to provide the 2nd white to play Gideon on curve. The double B on Bloodbond Vampire was more troublesome and I do believe I could have sided it out.


Regarding your Wr deck suggestion, I thought of something along those lines when first building the deck, but I felt that with only 2 Cohort generators the synergy is not so much. I do like the more consistent early game and that is why I think a brew like this might have worked just as fine as well.

As for Wb, yeah it works, Cohort synergy was real in every game, Munda's Vanguard is outright unfair and Malakir Soothsayer is great value as well. Zulaport Chainmage is indeed the worse of the Cohort enablers, but it did allow me to get some 4-8 damage in in board stalls, which made it an ok card most of the time, from my experience. For some reason people were also very scared of him and used removal to kill it quickly, which worked nicely since then they'd be short on means to deal with the real bombs.

Colorless was actually truly great overall, I must say. Slaughter Drone threatening to simply kill their bombs with deathtouch meant most people had to make awkward plays to get around it. Eldrazi Displacer is obviously broken, killing tokens, Awakened lands lose their counters, removing attackers from combat, helping other creatures dodge removal, and even tapping the opponent's board for an alpha strike (I actually lost the last round because my opponent had 2 of these bad boys, 1 of them promo). Sea Gate Wreckage was also awesome, being able to trigger it several times in two different games, which I ended up winning. Then Kozilek's Channeler was simply a very solid card and I would not cut it for Kalastria Nightwatch. Yes there is some synergy there, but the Channeler was a big body, easy on the manabase, fixed colorless, ramped bigger things/more things.

But I do agree with some changes you proposed and I think I would change my deck like this:

-1 Warping Wail
-2 Expedition Raptor (I liked this a lot, but I do agree that the curve was a bit high because of the 5 drops
-1 Zulaport Chainmage
-1 Unknown Shores

+1 Bone Saw (I thought this was trash, then someone put it on a low attack/high resistance flyer and started doing damage!)
+1 Warden of Geometries (Theoretically good, but I never tested it, I'd give it a try)
+1 Silent Skimmer
+1 Kalastria Nightwatch
+1 Swamp
I think this would make things more consistent and overall more powerful. So thanks man! I will also definitely try to make the Wr work and see how it goes.


P.s.(for anyone wondering what is the purpose of this discussion after the tournament, well, I'm just a Limited enthusiast and I think learning and improving on what I've done might yield better results next time!)

White is tempting due to 3 cards

Gideon, munda's vanguard and eldrazi displacer.

However, displacer is situational. We have 4 lands and two creatures that can activate his ability. One of the creatures being blue.
Second, we have to look at what synergy it can create. White doesn't have a single enter the battlefiled ally effect (Gideon's 2nd ability is less powerful for that as well). So within his own color. it's only good target is expedition raptor. Which isn't that great.

If you look at the rest of white. You end up with a color that's definitely weak if you don't draw Gideon or Munda's vanguard.

This is what I would have played.

(Edit: I had confused warping wail for spatial contortion, fixed that)



You can have ally Synergy without having to play bad allies. There's evasion, early drops and repeatable effects. And it's the most consistent build I can see in the pool.

You do have some mana fixing to help play 4 colors (colorless and white would BOTH be splash colors in that BUwc deck). Windrider Patrol and Cyclone Sire are both great finishers, and double Mindmelter is great. I do love those evasion cards in this format. You've removed filler allies, but now there are 5 vanilla bears (or worse).

When I played Slaughter Drone and Blinding Drone, I had 5-7 colorless sources in my UBc deck, and I still didn't always have access to colorless on turns 3-5 when you want it to be able to take advantage of the abilities on curve. Without easy access to the abilities, these cards become significantly worse. You're also not going to relevantly trigger Prowess with Negate, so you have at most 3 cards to set off Prowess, only 1 an instant. That leaves you 3 vanilla 2/1s and 2 vanilla 2/2s (that gain deathtouch in lategame only) and a 1/3 that will tap bombs but probably won't be making any great early tempo plays to help your bears get through.

I do think 2-drops are strong in this format, but the strong 2-drops are not Grizzly Bears and Goblin Piker. They're cards with some way to get around the usual blockers. Otherwise they get blanked by plentiful 2/3s and X/4s.

Does removing the filler allies for dorks actually add consistency?? Especially when those dorks are conditional (can't be used optimally with consistency) and you're now stretched into a 4-color manabase...

Also, since Limited power level is far from flat, cutting the bombs to make the middle and bottom stuff better is usually the wrong play. Even if he can't trigger Rally, not playing Gideon, Ally of Zendikar just seems utterly wrong. He's still one of the best cards in the format! Also, I suspect Felidar Sovereign is better in this format than in BFZx3 draft, probably a good sealed bomb. Eldrazi Displacer is busted even if he can't trigger ETB stuff on your end. Remember, his floor is a 3/3 for 2W, which is still good in Limited and a better floor than your Goblin Pikers and Bears when their abilities can't be used. When you do have colorless mana, his ability is far stronger than tapping or deathtouch -- he saves your creatures from removal, saves your creatures from unexpected combat tricks or double blocks, fogs opposing attacking creatures, blanks +1/+1 counters and auras on the opponent's stuff, taps down opposing blockers, and just screws up opponents lines of play by threatening to do stuff. Maybe you don't realize how good Astral Slide is when you can enable it... Displacer is already making its way into Legacy decks...

I agree the white is not great otherwise. But trying to improve the white filler at the expense of removing the white bombs (and adding cards that will often just be filler) is the wrong play in Limited.

I tend agree with FTW, giving up the white bombs doesn't seem like a valid option, they just outright win you the game. Gideon, Munda's, Displacer, Felidar, and the removal in W is only inferior to that in R, not U. Splashing U on a Wbc shell is not so consistent as it may seem, I tried it, I prefer to give up a few strong blue cards than to lose the consistency. Overall most solid deck I would propose with this pool is something like this

My opinion of colorless has changed since my first post (Saturday). Sea Gate Wreckage and Eldrazi Displacer are so good that they warrant as much support for C as possible.

I'd go with the above deck with a Wastes thrown in there too, maybe over Hedron Blade or Oath of Gideon. Maybe cutting both and adding a Raptor too.