MTG Salvation

Hey guys, this is a list in preliminary testing but seems fun so far.

Like the deck name says, the plan is simple. Turn one play a faerie, turn two play a ninja, turn 3 play an eldrazi. Mistblade Shinobi doesn't often bounce a creature, is fine when it does, but is mostly in the deck to "ramp" into a turn 4 Elder Deep-Fiend. Once you land a Deep-Fiend and time walk by tapping all your opp's lands once, the goal is to continue doing it turn after turn until you win the game. There are three ways to do this. If you have another Deep-Fiend in hand, then you can emerge it for UU the next turn. Casting Deep-Fiend triggers Sanctum of Ugin to get you another Deep-Fiend to cast the next turn... And finally, the weirdest card that accomplishes this is Release to the Wind, which lets you exile a Deep-Fiend that is already on the battlefield, which then can be cast on your opponent's upkeep without paying its mana cost to tap all their lands.

If it's past turn 4 or they have more than 4 mana sources in general, it's usually best to wait until combat or end of turn to tap your opp's creatures and swing in for 5 every turn instead of trying to use it as mana denial. If your opp only has a few sources of a key color, you can tap down those, but in very long games don't prioritize lands.

The rest of the deck is designed to compliment the lock. Since we're playing a bunch of 1 mana flyers to turn on ninjutsu, we are playing a faerie subtheme with Spellstutter Sprite. The ninjas have a nice little synergy with Quickling as well, which can rebuy the value of a Ninja of the Deep Hours. Tempest Djinn is there to be another threat, but is a little awkward with 3 Sanctum of Ugin. Wretched Gryff is a 3/4 flyer that is hard to kill, draws you a card on cast, and triggers Sanctum to find your Deep-Fiends.

SB consists of some polarizing cards for my local meta. Spreading Seas for tron/greedy mana decks, Tormod's Crypt for the graveyard decks, 2 Reality Shift as removal, Boomerang to slow down combo decks and gain tempo in some MUs, and some counter magic. What do you all think?

I'd take a look at a more eldrazi-focused approach, like this - https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/733491-mono-blue-emerge-eldrazi?comment=11

The cards that really make the the Emerge deck work imho are:
Eldrazi Skyspawner, Matter Reshaper and potentially Eternal Scourge (best if played together with Relic of Progenitus to continue replaying it).
There is also Filigree Familiar but it is a worse Matter Reshaper for the most part.

I'd drop Release to the Wind as it is not a great card and ends up being a bad Unsummon (or a bad Essence Flux) most of the time if you can't target your Deep Fiend.

Some cheap removal options can be:
Reality Shift (or the slightly worse Rapid Hybridization) and tempo plays like Vapor Snag/Unsubstantiate.
For "hard removal" Dismember is probably best.

To speed up the deck I'd go with Mind Stone or Talisman of Dominance, they can also be played for free if you hit them with Reshaper's death trigger which can be very good.

Here's the updated list, not many changes:
The deck is solid and is way more complex to play than I originally thought. The real key cards here are Elder Deep-Fiend, Mistbind Clique and Spellstutter Sprite. The game plan of turn 1 flyer, turn two-three ninja or Tempest Djinn, turn 4 Elder Deep-Fiend or Mistbind Clique is very consistent, even in matchups heavy with removal due to Quickling and Spellstutter Sprite. However, the cool thing is what the deck does when it doesn't have a turn four "deep-fiend lock," where you cast the big eldrazi octopus and keep casting more each turn.

Spellstutter Sprite has impressed me to no end. When you don't draw an eldrazi with this deck, looping Spellstutter Sprite is a legitimate game plan. Spellstutter plus ninjitsu turns your 1/1 flyer into a 3 for 1, as it counters a spell on the way down, draws a card or unsummons a Baral or Goyf when you pick it up, and then counters another on the recast. Add into that potential to Quickling your Spellstutter or even turn Release to the Wind into a counterspell, and you have a huge threat on two mana.

I traded for two Mistbind Clique which raise the deck's price by $22 on their own, but also add consistency to the game plan while being a 4/4 flyer. The deck has only gotten better since their inclusion, and I hope to test them more at FNM this week.

Quick matchup spread so far:
(original list)
Match results (game results) deck
1-1 (3-3) vs UW Control
1-0 (2-0) vs Goryo's Vengeance
0-1 (0-2) vs Ponza (mull to 5 g1, Anger of the Gods g2)
1-0 (2-0) vs Grixis DS
1-0 (2-0) vs Electro End
1-0 (2-1) vs Hollow Phoenix

(new list)
1-0 (2-0) vs CoCo Elves

I think some of the problems with the original list have been solved with a better sideboard to boot. The deck seems like it could be like the standard mono blue list, something that seems weird at first but could be oddly good in some ways, even though there are better decks in modern that do this better. In the end this is just a meme deck, so while I still want to win, I really only am planning to pull it out when I want to have fun. Any suggestions for the list are welcome.

You still have alot of 1 drop do nothing fairy's, in modern you need to be fast and take advantage of this. I would look at scion of oona, and favoable winds, for a strong lord effect.
Them I would look at wingcrafter. Being another one drop that a flyer but can also give a ninja or eldrazi flying is really strong. Especially as if you sac a soul bound ninja to play and eldrazi you can soul bind the eldrazi when it enters.

I tried something similar, in the end I went esper and droped the fairy sub theme. For just good stuff, (museum wanders, hopes of ghipger, pride of the clouds, lingering souls, bone picker (the best ninja for eldrazi)


If you choose to stick with mono u then I recommend Spire Golem as a solid addion

I'm just curious (and I'm not even a modern player): with four Faerie Miscreants in a 60 card deck in a relatively competitive environment, how often do you get draw a card from miscreant?

With all the cards you are drawing from Ninja of the Deep Hours, Wretched Gryff, and Chart a Course, you hit multiple Faerie Miscreant often. I probably drew 10 cards total from the miscreants at fnm last night, some of which were from ninjutsu'ing one and recasting it, but still. Usually you will hit them later in the game when drawing through your deck where they become just a 1 mana cantrip attached to a body.