MTG Salvation

Hi all, first time I post here. I've been a big fan of the deck since I found out about it after the GP top 16. I played the deck a bit on paper since then, and just built it online with Kaladesh release.

I played it through 2 different competitive leagues, and finished 9-1. Currently 10-1 after starting a new league. I'm playing the exact 75 posted by Zac a couple pages ago, here is a copy of the list as played in the 5-0 league: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/488911#online

I'm really impressed by the new Inventor's Fair land, and the blooming marsh does good work as well. The deck really seems well tuned. I'm wondering why the list is not playing a one-off infernal tutor, it seems like a good card for the deck, could act as a fifth bridge or tutor a missing lock piece, or the one-off pyxis. Is the issue that paying two mana is too slow sometimes? I had many very close games in which I basically had just 3 mana and needed to topdeck a bridge, and a tutor into bridge would have been too slow indeed.

I'm not sure about the mana base, especially the 1 darkslick shores. It's good to have an additional blue source, but it seems like if you are looking for your blue source, it's likely to be on turn 4+ (for academy) and in that case you would rather have an untapped source. Maybe swapping the sulfurous spring for a blackcleave cliffs and the shores for a underground river would be better if we are looking for a 9th blue source?

Quote from regblanc »

I'm not sure about the mana base, especially the 1 darkslick shores. It's good to have an additional blue source, but it seems like if you are looking for your blue source, it's likely to be on turn 4+ (for academy) and in that case you would rather have an untapped source. Maybe swapping the sulfurous spring for a blackcleave cliffs and the shores for a underground river would be better if we are looking for a 9th blue source?

Maybe we can try river of tears?

Oh man, River of Tears sounds perfect.

I have tested running a Darkslick Shores as a one of, in addition to 2 Blooming Marsh and 1 Blackcleave, but it didn't feel right. There were too many times I'd draw the Darkslick and have an AD, Pyroclasm or AS in hand, and it just felt bad. I prefer my fast land split to be, 3 Blooming and 1 Blackcleave(if running Pyrite/Pyroclasm). River of Tears doesn't sound like it'd a good choice, as we really don't want dedicated(mostly) blue mana.

Personally, I think that Glimmervoids and Mox Opals are plenty blue sources. We typically don't need blue until we get Academy Ruins. It's the only "blue card" in the deck. Thus, we have eight blue sources for our two blue cards.

I personally like Infernal Tutor. It's saved me a good number of times now. It's fetched me discard after I've achieved the lock, to make sure that the opp isn't saving building up an army to take out Bridge and alpha-strike, fetched up Bridge, Needle, Lantern...it's been great. I don't like the price tag, but I ended up doing it.

I like Zac's list for the most part, although I do disagree about Ghirapur AEther Grid and Infernal Tutor. I think I may take out Pyrite Spellbomb, as I don't *really* need it any more, so something else might be better. I kind of want it to be an artifact or a land, as I don't want to reduce our chances of hitting our land drops or getting Opal online. I think I may test out a third Ghost Quarter or a Sea Gate Wreckage. I really want to test it out before just picking, so if anyone is ever up for helping with that, I'd greatly appreciate it.

@regblanc, congratulations on your results I love checking out MTGGoldfish's meta and seeing another Lantern finish on there

loving the glint nest hawks so far.

by the way do you guys cut mox opals in any matchup?

Glint hawks? Can you provide a card link? And no, nobody ever cuts Mox Opals, just like you wouldn't sideboard out lands to bring in more spells.

my bad, I meant the glint crane not hawk

I also think it is fine to cut a mox in some slower match-ups.

About Ghirapur AEther Grid, I am on the camp that it is not needed to close up the game. I never have any trouble to win by milling, so I don't think the deck needs an additional win condition. However, when I used to play it, I won some games thanks to this card, not as a win-condition, but really as a way to control the board (in particular against affinity). It is also good against stony silence, where it could be enough to win on its own without the full lock. So I'm split on the card, on the one hand I don't think it is necessary as a win condition, but on the other hand it has done some good work as a support piece to help getting to the lock. It's a bit expensive though and so far I'm happy with the list that cuts it.

River of Tears does sound interesting. It can always be used to activate academy on the opponent turn, which is great. On turn 1 and 2 it's likely to tap for black for discard, very good as well. The downside is that if you don't have a land drop, it will only tap for blue, which is the least needed of our colors. I had a few games where I stayed at 2-3 lands for a few turns, and could use a black producing land, so I think that downside is real. Might be good to test it for sure. Also, maybe 8 blue sources is enough, and it's better to get another color.

Pyrite spellbomb is a card I like, so I was reluctant to cut it. It seems to fit quite well in the deck. You can use it to store a card draw (nice with academy when you don't want to draw a bad card), it can cycle for the top card if you see it's good before casting a stirring or using a bell, and of course it's a removal and can act as a win condition. I like that kind of flexibility, but it might be just more cute than really needed, so I understand cutting it.

^Pyrite also helps turn on opal and is fetchable by strings

Edit: I agree with Thinkr about Infernal Tutor, it's quite good. Many people run it main deck.

been testing quite a bit. one deck that might start seeing a push to tier one is rg ponza. its probably the best home for the new chandra, which can quickly take over the game in a vacuum. got a deck list in my signature for anyone who is interested. might be important to discuss this match up.

Quote from 4554551n »

@regblack, I'm loving both infernal tutor, and grid. I'm also running a tez. I've been saying for a while now, that while you don't "need" it, it sure helps. Especially when avoiding draws. Had another 4-0 last night, and if it wasn't for those two, it would have been 2-2-0, or maybe even 2-1-1. Killed a dredge deck game one with tez the turn before he was going to conflagrate me for lethal. Used a surgical earlier on his trolls, and didn't see a second, tez saved the day. Should have actually been 3-1-0, but I was versing a friend who conceded when I had the lock in the final. I've actually caught myself out a couple times siding out a grid or a tez game 2/3 because I have a lot to bring in and need the space. I almost always regret it. Win in hand, just need to tutor up my... oh darn. Well, that's a draw/loss.
The ponza thing is popping up in my meta. It doesn't seem terrible because it's only got a couple ways to deal with bridge/needle main, and not too many more post side. They can certainly get you, but unless they're adding a LOT of hate for lantern/affinity in the main/board, it's pretty good. Land a bridge and a needle, call it a day.
What is concerning is the rise of lantern in my area (don't know about you guys). I was the only one playing it for ages, now there's 2, and 2 more building it. Out of like 30 people that play in the events. I think it's new tier 1 status may have put it on peoples radar.

don't think it will be tier 1 until it top 8 something big like a gp or something. definitely think the deck has improved from kaladesh, but i wouldn't be too hasty in labeling it. have to wait to see complete effect kaladesh will have on the format.

Think I'll be replacing that Darksteel Citadel with a 3rd Ghost Quarter. With them being good against Affinity, Infect, Titanshift, RG Titan, and Tron, it seems like it would be much more reliable as disruption. I haven't tried it yet, but I think they might also be good against Zooicide. I noticed that it's pretty common for them to run zero basic lands. If we Needle Bloodstained Mire and Windswept Heath, and use our Ghost Quarters, we can totally manascrew them. Needling their fetches also helps reduce their ability to lose life and feed Become Immense, using Ghost Quarters to shut them off of whatever color we can as the situation allows.

Looking for some advice on what kind of artifact/enchantment hate you guys run. Im playing a BUG version, so i'm limited to green for my hate. IN my 75, i've got 3 Abrupt Decay, but curious about SB cards. Particularly Quiet Disrepair. I've seen a few lists running this card, does anyone have and experience with it? is it better than a Nature's Claim or Seal of Primordium. My biggest concern with Quiet Disrepair is that you can't kill whatever you enchant the turn you play it, only on your next upkeep. Does this seem to be as big of a draw back as it appears? or has the repetitive lifegain been worth it?

In addition to 1 abrupt decay in my SB, I also have 2 Quiet Disrepair and 1 Natures Claim (Haven't tested the Quiet Disrepair yet) for artifact and enchantment hate.

I currently run one Quiet Disrepair in my side. It's been very good for me every time. I run it over Nature's Claim because it gets around Chalice, and if I drop it for Claim then I only have three cards in my 75 that answer Chalice, which isn't particularly reliable. I run Seal of Primordium over Nature's Claim for the same reason, I want my artifact/enchantment disruption to be able to get around one of the most dangerous artifacts to us. Quiet Disrepair was especially useful playing against decks that run Noble Hierarchs and Stony Silence in the side. If the opp draws Stony, I can take it out, but if they never draw Stony but do draw Hierarch, then Disrepair answers it as well. Disrepair is also useful against Burn, although I don't know that I've really used it as such. It can take out Eidolons, or if we're low on life, we can use it to gain life back to get out of burn range. Overall, it gains more life than Nature's Claim would, and doesn't require us to destroy one of our own artifacts for it.

Has the inability to destroy what you enchanted immediately felt pretty minor compaired to the benefits? I want to run at least 1, but I think 2 might be too slow, though i can see it if the meta is more aggressive.

Not sure if this has been covered before, but is there a "base" list of cards everyone agrees Lantern needs to have?

I know there're debates about what goes into the flexible slots, but I don't have a clear understanding of what those slots are exactly. So I'm wondering, are there 50 or 55 cards in the mainboard that everyone agrees on?

I run a 2/2 Bell/Pyxis split. There are lists that run 0 Bell, so i'd write that as: 7+ Mill Rocks (Shredder/Bell/Pyxis)

Collective Brutality is a 2-of in any deck that has tried it at all. The only reason to not run it is because you haven't tried it out yet.

I also personally think anyone who runs less than 2 Inventors' Fair is insane. I might go up to 3, despite the legendary drawback.

Quote from crexalbo »

I run a 2/2 Bell/Pyxis split. There are lists that run 0 Bell, so i'd write that as: 7+ Mill Rocks (Shredder/Bell/Pyxis)

Collective Brutality is a 2-of in any deck that has tried it at all. The only reason to not run it is because you haven't tried it out yet.

I also personally think anyone who runs less than 2 Inventors' Fair is insane. I might go up to 3, despite the legendary drawback.

Against which decks Collective Brutality is a bad card and you have to side out?
Tron, bant eldrazi and dredge?

would you guys keep or mull this hand.

would it change where you were on the play or the draw?

this was g2 and I knew my opponent was playing a uwr control deck with lots of spirits, ie rattle chains, geist and spirit queller and a few cryptics/weear tears and ees.. so I mulled it.

but vs an unknown opp what would you do? I think it's a mull but interested to hear any reasons to keep it

also would it change if your opp mulld to 6