MTG Salvation

The numbers are in! And Red dominated. Now this meta is not nearly as bleak as in the recent past, but the king must be dethroned! As an against the meta brewer (and a "why is no one playing this?" brewer, RE: Master Biomancer), I and others must rise up and harken back to the 1950's, because the Red Menace is at large once again!

Here is a soft, post-rotation shell that I pretty much stole from an article discussing counters to Ramunap Red.

• Gifted Aetherborn
  
• Aethersphere Harvester
  
• Authoriry of the Consuls
  
• Sunscourge Champion
  
• Cartouche of Ambition
  
• Essence Extraction

For funsies: Cataclysmic Gearhulk, Refurbish, God-Pharaoh's Gift

At work currently so limited time for in depth posting. Just wanted to get the ball rolling and gain interest (if any lol)

I'm very interested in brainstorming what a BW midrange deck might look like. I feel like this could be a good meta choice. Access to lifegain, sweepers, early removal, discard... Sounds very interesting!

My deck for game day will be WB Eldrazi, looking something like this:



I know there will be at least 2 God-Pharoah's Gift decks around as well as mono-red, so have to be prepared for that, and Control is generally popular at my store. Not 100% sure on the SB yet, would like input on what needs to go there

Quote from nawillih »

My deck for game day will be WB Eldrazi, looking something like this:

Fred Bear's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Lands: 24 4x Aether Hub 4x Shefet Sands 4x Ifnir Deadlands 4x Concealed Courtyard 4x Shambling Vent 2x Swamp 2x Plains	Creatures: 20 4x Gifted Aetherborn 4x Matter Reshaper 4x Ammit Eternal 2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 2x Thought-Knot Seer 4x Reality Smasher	Planeswalkers: 6 2x Liliana, the Last Hope 4x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar Artifacts: 2 2x Heart of Kiran Spells: 8 3x Fatal Push 3x Transgress the Mind 2x Grasp of Darkness

I know there will be at least 2 God-Pharoah's Gift decks around as well as mono-red, so have to be prepared for that, and Control is generally popular at my store. Not 100% sure on the SB yet, would like input on what needs to go there

I think the sideboard depends a lot on how tough each match-up is. BW Eldrazi seems a little more aggro than where I might go with the build, but it could be good in this meta.

I think good sideboard cards are: Authority of Counsels, Collective Brutality, Scarab Feast, Crook of Condemnation, and some kind of sweeper.

Have you tested yet?

I've been brewing up a BW list as well, I think Crested Sunmare is a wincon to look at especially against Red. With so many ways to gain life on each turn, Crested Sunmare can easily take control of games if it resolves. Gifted Aetherborn is a really good card too.

I've toyed with Oketra's Monument as well and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it in the BW since it doesn't help Gifted Aetherborn get out quicker.

T2 Lone Rider ---> T3 Essence Extraction is a pretty neat play, even though Lone Rider isn't rotation proof you can still pick him up for super cheap if money is why you're trying to keep it rotation proof.

Other great finishers and threats are going to be Angel of Invention and Gisela the Broken Blade (not rotation proof)

Sadly I have had no opportunity to test my list as I've been abroad, the first run will be FNM this week. I'm planning to load the sideboard with lots of removal and some Flaying Tendrils and Fumigates, plus Dispossess for the GPG and Gearhulk decks.
Something a little like this:

Quote from Thoras »

I've been brewing up a BW list as well, I think Crested Sunmare is a wincon to look at especially against Red. With so many ways to gain life on each turn, Crested Sunmare can easily take control of games if it resolves. Gifted Aetherborn is a really good card too.

I've toyed with Oketra's Monument as well and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it in the BW since it doesn't help Gifted Aetherborn get out quicker.

T2 Lone Rider ---> T3 Essence Extraction is a pretty neat play, even though Lone Rider isn't rotation proof you can still pick him up for super cheap if money is why you're trying to keep it rotation proof.

Other great finishers and threats are going to be Angel of Invention and Gisela the Broken Blade (not rotation proof)

While I agree that Crested Sunmare can close if it resolves, I think the early interaction needs to be there to get the turn 5 to cast it. Oketra's Monument doesn't do enough in my opinion and after playing a few games Gisela the Broken Blade, it's disappointing that she doesn't survive any of the black sweepers.

Quote from nawillih »

Sadly I have had no opportunity to test my list as I've been abroad, the first run will be FNM this week. I'm planning to load the sideboard with lots of removal and some Flaying Tendrils and Fumigates, plus Dispossess for the GPG and Gearhulk decks.
Something a little like this:

Fred Bear's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
2x Flaying Tendrils 2x Fumigate 2x Grasp of Darkness 1x Fatal Push 1x Transgress the Mind 2x Thought-Knot Seer 4x Dispossess 1x Aethersphere Harvester

If you expect decent builds of Ramunap Red, You'll want 4x Grasp of Darkness (it's the only answer to Hazoret) in the main and Authority of Counsels slows them down a lot.

Okay, I have moved to 4, Grasp in the main, with the rest of the spell package being 2x Push and 2x Transgress. I feel I need the spell package to lean towards dealing with Ramunap R because the rest of the deck has quite a few things that are soft to it - Matter Reshaper hates Magma Spray, Gideon AoZ just looks bad there and Heart of Kiran doesn't really help enough in terms of early blocking.

I've tested for my meta at FNM yesterday - many changes are in order! Only one Red deck is present, necessitating a dramatic reduction in preparations to beat it. Gone are the maindeck Fatal Pushes and the full set of Grasp of Darkness, allowing me to effectively target many more decks. The Heart of Kirans have also gone as they haven't been performing up to scratch at all. Having to use two cards to get a beater is just not where the WB deck wants to be, and there are very few cards in the list that I'm happy to crew with for more than 1 turn (the summoning sickness turn). With all this in mind, here is my list for tomorrow's Game Day:



Any last minute thoughts appreciated

I was thinking of a similar concept, but why just BW? Adding red gives access to Sweltering Suns and other great sweepers, which I think is essential to beating RDW.

Also it's important to remember that while RDW is certainly the king of the meta, it's not the only deck. You don't want to build this incredible anti-RDW deck and get buttblasted by UR control or BG Constrictor every time you play them.