MTG Salvation

Sideboard(Still working on it)

What do you think?

Mardu Woe Reaper and Battle Brawler are very notable exclusions. Any particular reason why?

What I would run on a budget.

What I would consider running.

I'd at least side some duress in there. Board wipes are a thing enough for me to want it and warriors aren't blitzing so fast that I'd say I could just run them over first.

I'll take Blood-Chin Rager all day, err day, over the Crimson Chin Fanatic. Fanatic will likely sac to -1 or -2 your opponent, where as Rager helps get a lot of damage through. You'll see. YOU'LL ALL SEE!

Also, Dragon Hunter. No, I'm not blinded by flavor hype. It nerfs Stormbreath's attacks. Replacing Tormented Hero with this guy makes Battle Brawler's buff on T2 (for profitable blocks/attacks) a lot easier. It's just good, dammit!

Also, minimum of 2-3 Ultimate Price between MB and SB. Most major threats are mono-colored, bar Rhino and other stuff I can't think of right now. Or maybe the V-Stance is just stronger. Idk.

I agree with Duress as well.

Dragon hunter deserves a spot on account of being a cmc 1 2 powered white warrior. I'm not particularly a fan of valorous stance. For an aggroish deck, I can't see why you wouldn't want boon of erebos instead. Sure you pay life but its cheaper, more proactively useful, and still kills most of what you wanted to kill.

Here's what I've got in my cart, awaiting final decision:



EDIT: 2 Siege and 2 Rush seems like a bit much. Maybe cut it to 1 Siege, 1 Rush of Battle; in favor of a Spear and and one more removal? I wanted 1x Secure the Wastes, but it's preselling at $5. It's not worth that imho.

Sideboard I'm trying to figure out. I want Glare, Erase, Duress, and some Pringles for the grindy matches.

FYI

Dragon Hunter does nothing against Stormbreath Dragon.

Oh, right. Duh lol.

Well, it does at least evade stormbreath dragon, I guess. Rush of battle, citadel siege, and dragonscale general don't belong in the same deck imo. Quite simply, they're slow. Rush of battle is for absolute weenie swarm. The other two are longer term cards. Either way, I think obelisk of urd is better or to a slightly lesser degree brutal hordechief but the deck should relieve itself of any indecision of how fast it intends to be before ordering.

Well, I've been playing the FRF version online for a day or two now, and it has one major problem: stalling. We can get an opponent to 10 life or less within a couple swings. The problem comes when they start amassing creatures. We can't profitably swing, and they leave back most of their guys to do some necessary blocking. Sometimes we come ahead, sometimes they stabilize and there's not much we can do but draw removal.

I've been running with a playset of Herald of Torment to remedy this, and it definitely does help. I think the Blood-Chin Rager will definitely alleviate us of this problem, come DTK.

I also just now realized that a 2- or 3-of Glimpse the Sun God could be just the finisher we need!

I think you're right about the Rush of Battle being too slow. I've had it in hand several times and never really had the opportunity to cast it; I always had more important things (faster things) to be doing, or it just wasn't relevant to the board state. Citadel Siege is mad strong, but I think you're right there, too, much as it pains me to say.

So, in conclusion, I think I'll be trying:



I think Revoke Existence might be better in the SB against control, to deal with Perilous Vault for 1 extra mana, but I have a feeling that's wrong.

What do y'all think? This would give us our best heavy hitters and 7 cards that give that much-needed evasion.

I actually don't like mardu strike leader. Is he terrible? No, of course not. But he's a 3 drop that is only swinging for 3 on turn 4. This is not some hero of bladehold situation where you get immediate swinging from tokens too which would work nicely with chief and blood-chin. In fact, I think that it is worse than brutal hordechief which doesn't have haste but should be pinging them for 3-5 the turn it comes out which is close to haste. The added evasive effect is nice, allowing you to push past midrange decks. I like this much more than glimpse of the sun god and company.

On a more ADHD note, I think I'd actually consider the following if your meta doesn't see that much anger of the gods and other mini sweepers.



Siding full sets of duress and bile blight to begin with.

I'm slightly partial to this kind of play since it fits the all or nothing kind of budget builds that I prefer. It effectively bets on not getting swept out by anger of the gods or drown in sorrow but otherwise runs fast enough to do pretty well against the chunk of cmc 5 sweepers.

If you're running Harsh Sustenance and Foul-Tongue Shriek, we probably want 1 or 2 Secure the Wastes, right? Pushes the budget atm, but the price should come down.

I think you once again hit the nail on the head with Mardu Strike Leader. That's why you're the Budget Buddha. Upset that I just spent about $10 for playsets on paper and online. Probably will start trading or saving up toward a couple Hordechiefs.

BTW, what cards have everyone found to be the most difficult to deal with?

Secure the wastes is good. I mean, you could drop to 20 lands and just play more cheapies but I don't think it is that important. If you foul-tongue a lightning helix to the face, that's good and you should have more often. Harsh sustenance is again something to provide reach.

The list that I showed cries to anger of the gods and drown in sorrow as mentioned. Nothing else is half as bad. Except the rare sb circle of flame.

Hmmm - is Dragon Hunter a SB card?

One list on reddit had:


Obviously Sorin and Hordechief are not budget. Doesn't this deck want a global boost? Spear of Heliod, Obelisk of Urd, Dictate of Heliod, Raiders' Spoils? I'm trying to figure out where the reach (not creature ability) comes from since this deck isn't Rabblemaster fast.



Interesting how there's too much to choose from!

Quote from The Other Guy »

Mardu Woe Reaper and Battle Brawler are very notable exclusions. Any particular reason why?

Only reason is I forgot they existed. I added them.

honestly obelisk of urd is probably better reach than people are assuming and its pretty easy to play turn 3/4 with secure the wastes...and its not bad in multiples unlike spear. Think i would just try that card out first and assume its going to be miles ahead of the alternatives outside of sorin. and at the bare minium 1 urd beats drown in sorrow while 2 blank bile blight/drown/anger etc. Urd does just seem much better with secure the wastes in the format.

What would you sb dragon hunted against? This I actually kind of trick question because the aggro deck always wants another 2 power 1 drop. So everything. And yes, obelisk is good stuff.

Quote from Nev »

What would you sb dragon hunted against? This I actually kind of trick question because the aggro deck always wants another 2 power 1 drop. So everything. And yes, obelisk is good stuff.

I dunno, in case dragon decks become a thing, and as you said, it's good anyway. And Obelisk seems just a little bit too slow, since in order to cast it before turn six I'll have to sacrifice some valuable attacks.

If you had a 3/4 for 1 that had protection against rhinos, would you side it in vs abzan only? Hell no. You'd play 4 because you should anyway.

Obelisk is not slow. Only thing I can say is to test it.