MTG Salvation

So I was on YouTube and saw a awesome combo leyline deck from MTGgoldfish that is played in legacy and I was wondering if there was a way to a variant of that deck in modern. I know we are missing some pieces but if tokens were added to it. So I started to think of this concept and possibly this will never work but I thought it be fun to shut down some other decks and some of the leylines do that.

This is the deck I came up with, it hasn't been tested but I'f figured I start to tinker with it on the side. If it ever works, I think it be a fun FNM deck and by fun I like to decks that make my opponents miserable, that's why I love Death & Taxes decks.

I know in the legacy version serum powder is used but I don't know if that is need, maybe some card draw to help. Also I know the land base isn't right but I was just thinking maybe gemstone cavern could help to speed things up

So I have been tinkering with this deck lately and I have had some luck with it actually. I even sent it Saffronolive and he thought it was pretty awesome. This is the current list I am playing right now and I have beaten some tier decks with just due to the leylines taking over. I still think the deck misses some card draw or possibly ramp to get the leylines out of my hand but it is pretty awesome to catch the opponent off guard and have no idea to sideboard

Here is my take on Modern leylines:

Creatures (13)
4 Hopeful Eidolon
4 Nyxborn Shieldmate
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Stern Constable

Instant (4)
4 Ajani's Presence

Artifact (4)
4 Helm of the Gods

Enchantment (25)
1 Authority of the Consuls
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Leyline of Anticipation
2 Leyline of Lifeforce
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Leyline of Vitality
2 Oppressive Rays

Land (14)
14 Plains


Sideboard:
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
4 Nahiri's Machinations
4 Sheltering Light
1 Sigarda's Aid
2 Spectral Rider
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 White Knight

Idea is to get an enchantment creature out T1, and then equip it with the helm. Your power should then be 5/5 or greater, making blocks very disadvantageous. Stern Constable gives you something to do with all the leylines that will clog your hand - clear blockers out of the way.

Deck needs a way to deal with removal.

Would probably be better as a white red deck and run cards like looting and reunion to get dead cards out of the hand.

I like that point, and if you play with Starfield of Nyx they will be returning as a creature.

Later on I will try to make a draft of this idea of deck.

Quote from Daeyel »

Here is my take on Modern leylines:

Creatures (13)
4 Hopeful Eidolon
4 Nyxborn Shieldmate
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
4 Stern Constable

Instant (4)
4 Ajani's Presence

Artifact (4)
4 Helm of the Gods

Enchantment (25)
1 Authority of the Consuls
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Leyline of Anticipation
2 Leyline of Lifeforce
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Leyline of Vitality
2 Oppressive Rays

Land (14)
14 Plains


Sideboard:
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
4 Nahiri's Machinations
4 Sheltering Light
1 Sigarda's Aid
2 Spectral Rider
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 White Knight

Idea is to get an enchantment creature out T1, and then equip it with the helm. Your power should then be 5/5 or greater, making blocks very disadvantageous. Stern Constable gives you something to do with all the leylines that will clog your hand - clear blockers out of the way.

Deck needs a way to deal with removal.

I don't think this deck takes full advantage of the leylines in this deck. The creatures aren't game winning and to easy to get rid of with spot removal. That is why I went the token route, recurring tokens that getting pumped from the leylines are more of pain, especially when all the tokens are flyers.

So I have played this deck quite a bit and I have actually had some good results, I went the pillowfort style but I am thinking I am going to test out more of a creature control variant. Let me know what you think of this list compared to the pillowfort variant.

So I am going to take this deck to my FNM this weekemd, I not expecting great results but I thought I try it out and be funny. I have cut the green out and play the deck like a BW tokens with leylines. Its a little more consistent but still isn;t great, but I like seeing people's face when I drop leylines before the game.

Here is a similar thread where we talked about this idea. https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/789589-wx-token-control-enchantment-based

Please do not take this as the thought that I think I invented the deck... But this is my take on it the idea came to me after seeing Craig Westcoe play a White Devotion decklist with 4 Weathered Wayfarer main deck and I saw real power in White Devotion. http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=14329&writer=Craig Wescoe&articledate=12-8-2017



That deck played Elesh Norn and this deck might be able to play that card too since sometimes our deck can make a lot of mana. But I saw that BW tokens was a decent modern deck and that Leyline of the Meek is a card that BW tokens might be happy to play and that Leyline of the Meek would also help toward gaining devotion.

Another card good in a Devotion deck is Springjack Shepard. It makes a lot of tokens and if you have ways to buff tokens than the 0/1 bodies aren't too bad. Even as 0/1 its a lot of bodies that can help to stall a game. You have to have enough buffs and enough Devotion to make this card make sense and I have played versions of the deck with and without Springjack Shepard. I've seen a lot of variance in the card. I wouldn't classify it as win more, since often in this deck it can be a win con and it can be a stall card. Its not usually a dead top deck, usually you are more than happy to top deck this card. Often it depends on the build. The more Intangible Virtue you run the better the card is...

I like the first intangible virtue a lot. I love vigilance with flying tokens. Being able to attack and then chump block is a wonderful tempo play. You don't have to do the guessing of how many blockers to leave back in case they have removal. I find that the clock is very important in the deck because while you are going wide and generally you make targeted removal far less important, you aren't always the deck that wins in the long game. You aren't inevitably going to win games. Of course this is matchup dependent but I think that in enough matchups we are playing a tempo game plan to win midgame, so being able to play offense and defense can be very important. The second intangible virtue isn't bad, but its not giving vigilance. Now its a two mana cheaper Leyline of the Meek, so its not bad, but the card also does nothing by itself. Its a great force multiplier but not a win con by itself. IV can be a bad top deck, so finding the right number of IV in a deck also running Leyline of Meek hasn't been easy. I've run 1 and I've run 4 and I haven't figured out what I think is best.

Secure the Wastes is wonderful. It was wonderful in Westcoe's deck. I run one Rise of the Hobgoblins as a sorcery speed Secure the Wastes. I like RotH. Again like many enchantments how many to run is a question. Like Intangible Virtue you get the static ability to grant First Strike, which is relevant, but not often relevant. It can really change defensive games, especially when you get Death Strike on line and/or vigilance. RotH also gives Devotion and with Tokens its hard to find playable cards that also provide devotion.

This is an issue for the deck, the best token producers don't produce Devotion. Lingering Souls, is just awesome. Its a big reason this deck is Wb. Its a great card in non-token decks. We'll play it, but by playing it and a couple copies of Secure the Wastes, you have to really play some sub-optimal token producers to gain devotion.

I don't think this is the same big mana devotion deck that Westcoe is playing. It might be able to go in that direction, but you need to find more of the combination of good token producers that produce mana and control the game. Westcoe was using a lot of creatures and borderposts to create that early game mana ramp. That could be a direction for the deck.

As you'll see, I'm content to play a lot of one of's: Legion's Landing, Rise of the Hobgoblins, Intangible Virtue, Planeswalkers... Either because the second one is Legend Ruled or because the second card is of less total benefit after the first is in play. Some of this is playtesting trying to find the relative value of different cards, some of it is because I'm okay with the variance, but I expect that I often play only one when the correct number is more or even not at all. But I see value in not getting cards stuck in your hand. My theory is that often people aren't placing enough emphasis on the value of not getting a card stuck in your hand and comparing that to having another random card in your hand. Modern is a huge format with number of cards and I just think that if you gave each card a number value from 1-10 for a deck. Often if we are playing a 8.5 and its a legend we can find a card that an 8.3 and you make up the difference in value simply by factoring the times you have a dead card in your hand. In a combo deck this probably isn't true, but we have general synergy not combo so we can play a lot of different cards.

We should look for lands that work well with the theme. Springjack Pasture is playable, maybe. Kher Keep would be nice if we were in Red. Moorland Haunt would be nice if we were in Blue and if we played creatures. Its why I like Legion's Landing. Its not an efficient token producer, but its a great over time grind card. If it just makes a blocker each turn it can buy you time to draw the card that helps you finish the game.

I think we need to look at all the Planeswalkers that make tokens. They aren't enchantments, but they do create devotion.

Something I have noticed, is that I am very very very happy to sideboard in creatures. In game two and three many of the single target removal is out of an opponent's deck and sweepers can be forced discards. So cards like Dark Confidant, Auriok Champion, Weathered Wayfarer, Tidehollow Sculler, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, etc get much better after the sideboard. They don't get the benefit of Leyline of the Meek or Intangible Virtue so they have to be very good, but often they are much better when they are hard to remove and serve a real purpose in your sideboard plan. So don't completely ignore them as options out of the sideboard.

I'm very high on Auriok Champion and his/her value may go down if Death's Shadow sees less play, but being hard to remove, gaining life, blocking black and red creatures are all very relevant. It provides devotion. It offsets Bitterblossom's life loss. It blocks a Bloodbraid Elf.

Flying tokens are going to be of much higher value if destroying a Jace the Mind Sculptor becomes important. So Lingering Souls and Bitter Blossom making tokens that can threaten Jace is important.

I am high on the deck. You can add enough black discard to the deck to slow control/combo decks including Sweepers. Targeted removal is fairly weak against us. We naturally slow down most aggressive decks.

Quote from Talionis »

Here is a similar thread where we talked about this idea. https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/789589-wx-token-control-enchantment-based

Please do not take this as the thought that I think I invented the deck... But this is my take on it the idea came to me after seeing Craig Westcoe play a White Devotion decklist with 4 Weathered Wayfarer main deck and I saw real power in White Devotion. http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=14329&writer=Craig Wescoe&articledate=12-8-2017

Talionis DevotionMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards

Creature 11 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 4 Knight of the White Orchid 1 Springjack Shepherd 1 Walking Ballista 4 Weathered Wayfarer Planeswalker 4 2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar 3 Fieldmist Borderpost 1 Intangible Virtue 2 Leyline of Sanctity 4 Leyline of the Meek 1 Legion's Landing 2 Nevermore 1 Oblivion Ring 4 Path to Exile 1 Quarantine Field 1 Rise of the Hobgoblins 4 Secure the Wastes 2 Wildfield Borderpost

1 Field of Ruin 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 1 Springjack Pasture 1 Westveil Abbey 1 Windbrisk Heights 11 Plains 2 Devout Lightcaster 2 Grafdigger's Cage 2 Nevermore 1 Quarantine Field 2 Rest in Peace 2 Tectonic Edge 4 Wrath of God

That deck played Elesh Norn and this deck might be able to play that card too since sometimes our deck can make a lot of mana. But I saw that BW tokens was a decent modern deck and that Leyline of the Meek is a card that BW tokens might be happy to play and that Leyline of the Meek would also help toward gaining devotion.

Another card good in a Devotion deck is Springjack Shepard. It makes a lot of tokens and if you have ways to buff tokens than the 0/1 bodies aren't too bad. Even as 0/1 its a lot of bodies that can help to stall a game. You have to have enough buffs and enough Devotion to make this card make sense and I have played versions of the deck with and without Springjack Shepard. I've seen a lot of variance in the card. I wouldn't classify it as win more, since often in this deck it can be a win con and it can be a stall card. Its not usually a dead top deck, usually you are more than happy to top deck this card. Often it depends on the build. The more Intangible Virtue you run the better the card is...

I like the first intangible virtue a lot. I love vigilance with flying tokens. Being able to attack and then chump block is a wonderful tempo play. You don't have to do the guessing of how many blockers to leave back in case they have removal. I find that the clock is very important in the deck because while you are going wide and generally you make targeted removal far less important, you aren't always the deck that wins in the long game. You aren't inevitably going to win games. Of course this is matchup dependent but I think that in enough matchups we are playing a tempo game plan to win midgame, so being able to play offense and defense can be very important. The second intangible virtue isn't bad, but its not giving vigilance. Now its a two mana cheaper Leyline of the Meek, so its not bad, but the card also does nothing by itself. Its a great force multiplier but not a win con by itself. IV can be a bad top deck, so finding the right number of IV in a deck also running Leyline of Meek hasn't been easy. I've run 1 and I've run 4 and I haven't figured out what I think is best.

Secure the Wastes is wonderful. It was wonderful in Westcoe's deck. I run one Rise of the Hobgoblins as a sorcery speed Secure the Wastes. I like RotH. Again like many enchantments how many to run is a question. Like Intangible Virtue you get the static ability to grant First Strike, which is relevant, but not often relevant. It can really change defensive games, especially when you get Death Strike on line and/or vigilance. RotH also gives Devotion and with Tokens its hard to find playable cards that also provide devotion.

This is an issue for the deck, the best token producers don't produce Devotion. Lingering Souls, is just awesome. Its a big reason this deck is Wb. Its a great card in non-token decks. We'll play it, but by playing it and a couple copies of Secure the Wastes, you have to really play some sub-optimal token producers to gain devotion.

I don't think this is the same big mana devotion deck that Westcoe is playing. It might be able to go in that direction, but you need to find more of the combination of good token producers that produce mana and control the game. Westcoe was using a lot of creatures and borderposts to create that early game mana ramp. That could be a direction for the deck.

As you'll see, I'm content to play a lot of one of's: Legion's Landing, Rise of the Hobgoblins, Intangible Virtue, Planeswalkers... Either because the second one is Legend Ruled or because the second card is of less total benefit after the first is in play. Some of this is playtesting trying to find the relative value of different cards, some of it is because I'm okay with the variance, but I expect that I often play only one when the correct number is more or even not at all. But I see value in not getting cards stuck in your hand. My theory is that often people aren't placing enough emphasis on the value of not getting a card stuck in your hand and comparing that to having another random card in your hand. Modern is a huge format with number of cards and I just think that if you gave each card a number value from 1-10 for a deck. Often if we are playing a 8.5 and its a legend we can find a card that an 8.3 and you make up the difference in value simply by factoring the times you have a dead card in your hand. In a combo deck this probably isn't true, but we have general synergy not combo so we can play a lot of different cards.

We should look for lands that work well with the theme. Springjack Pasture is playable, maybe. Kher Keep would be nice if we were in Red. Moorland Haunt would be nice if we were in Blue and if we played creatures. Its why I like Legion's Landing. Its not an efficient token producer, but its a great over time grind card. If it just makes a blocker each turn it can buy you time to draw the card that helps you finish the game.

I think we need to look at all the Planeswalkers that make tokens. They aren't enchantments, but they do create devotion.

Something I have noticed, is that I am very very very happy to sideboard in creatures. In game two and three many of the single target removal is out of an opponent's deck and sweepers can be forced discards. So cards like Dark Confidant, Auriok Champion, Weathered Wayfarer, Tidehollow Sculler, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, etc get much better after the sideboard. They don't get the benefit of Leyline of the Meek or Intangible Virtue so they have to be very good, but often they are much better when they are hard to remove and serve a real purpose in your sideboard plan. So don't completely ignore them as options out of the sideboard.

I'm very high on Auriok Champion and his/her value may go down if Death's Shadow sees less play, but being hard to remove, gaining life, blocking black and red creatures are all very relevant. It provides devotion. It offsets Bitterblossom's life loss. It blocks a Bloodbraid Elf.

Flying tokens are going to be of much higher value if destroying a Jace the Mind Sculptor becomes important. So Lingering Souls and Bitter Blossom making tokens that can threaten Jace is important.

I am high on the deck. You can add enough black discard to the deck to slow control/combo decks including Sweepers. Targeted removal is fairly weak against us. We naturally slow down most aggressive decks.

Well I took the deck to my FNM and it got wrecked, it was just too slow and dumping my hand with no card draw is rough to fill it back up. So I was thinking maybe you go Abzan colors but mainly play W/G. The card shaper's sanctuary would be interesting for spot removal plus a turn 1 that we don't really have much of. I think if I am going the Token route Bitter Blossom and Lingering souls are a must. I think the only leylines in this deck need to be Meek and Vitality. You can play Sanctity in the sideboard or Void in the sideboard.

Can you explain the value of Leyline of Vitality to me? The plus 0/1 doesn't seem that relevant and the life gain doesn't seem that relevant too often either. In theory you need to splash heavy to cast it if you draw it.

I like the idea of a tokens deck that makes really freakin big tokens, possibly with evasion.