MTG Salvation

So basically an instant speed Pacifism for one mana since Crew 5 might as well be a million in many situations. I like it though it has a lot of competition with Portable Hole and Prismatic Ending.

This is insane, how the heck did white get so much efficient removal in less than a year? Agree that Crew 5 in many games can basically be near impossible for a lot of decks.

I guess I swap out Unexpectedly Absent for this.

Wow. This looks pretty good.

I turn your demon into a demon-mobile.

Another piece of sweet white removal. It has the same problems with non-combat abilities as pacifism, and it can actually be overcome. It's like a good version of Brainwash or Singing Bell Strike with hilarious flavor.

Flash is nice, but you usually do want to target before they declare the attack.

As far as Pacifism effects go, this is a really good one. This is no Swords effect, since it doesn't stop mana dorks, Mother of Runes, Welders, Lavamancers or other good activated abilities, but it does a good job of removing an attacker/blocker for the majority of the game, lol.

However, it can be used to protect your utility creatures from spot removal too.

And it goes infinite with Devoted Druid, lol.

This is probably a very good cube card.

This seems really solid. I'm considering adding this instead of March of Otherworldly Light, since I don't really want to go up two targeted removal spells right now, and in unpowered, I think this will be the more efficient/better play more often.

Big fan. Auto-include for me.
It's efficient enough to keep pace with cheap creatures, shuts down fast reanimated creatures, will generate cube stories of cool interactions you didn't expect...

I like that it has a bunch of UNIQUE weaknesses too so it isn't a strictly better creature kill spell.

Welp I had no idea it went infinite with Devoted Druid. Crazy card.

I thought about designing this card in the custom card design part of this site as kind of a showerthought. I didn't have flash though, and I had Crew 3. This card is way better!

I really wish this turned off mana abilities, but it’s still quite neat. Definitely testing, and yet another squeeze on removal that costs more than 1

Quote from steve_man »

Apparently this generates infinite mana with Devoted Druid. More Walking Ballista infinites!

It's also important to note its interaction with creatures that turn into planeswalkers, like various Gideon / Sarkhan variants. This actually really doesn't do anything against them besides making them vulnerable to Shatter effects, per Sarkhan the Masterless' ruling:

Once Sarkhan’s first loyalty ability has resolved, each planeswalker you control (including Sarkhan) is no longer a planeswalker for the rest of the turn. They don’t lose any loyalty counters or abilities, and you can still activate their loyalty abilities if you haven’t done so yet this turn. They don’t lose loyalty if they’re dealt damage while they’re not planeswalkers.

It will de-animate them for that turn, so it’s still useful as an emergency fog or if you want to blank an stp on your Gideon etc

Removal has gotten really good these days ...

Seems like a natural upgrade to any meh creature removal like Journey to Nowhere or the like. It's arguably better than Winds of Abandon and the like, your cube or preferences to the downsides.

This is great and all, but do people really consider Journey to Nowhere to be meh removal? I think it's decidedly better than this, and all the other new white removal spells, awesome as they are. In terms of creature removal, I place it right after Swords to Plowshares, before even Path to Exile (which has a rather hefty downside). Maybe that's just me and I over-value it. But it's unconditional and has almost no downside compared to cards like this.

This doesn't actually remove a lot of problem creatures. It just stops their attacks/blocks unless they can meet a crazy requirement. Personally, I'm still playing Pacifism, and this is mountains better than that. But Pacifism doesn't stop their Birds of Paradise or their Platinum Emperion, and with this the Emperion might still attack you.

That's not to say this is bad. More to say that Journey to Nowhere rocks.

Quote from Mergatroid_Jones »

do people really consider Journey to Nowhere to be meh removal?

I do, ya. It costs 2 mana, only hits one type of card, it's sorcery speed, and it can be undone by a Disenchant effect. I've grown to expect a lot more from cubeworthy removal in recent years. I pretty much don't play any removal that costs more than one mana unless it deals with multiple permanent types or generates card advantage.

This card costs 1 mana, has flash, and it can be used to protect your utility creatures in addition to pacifying an opponent's creature. Not to mention the combo applications it has too. I think it's a far better removal spell than Journey is.

I don't think this is good. At least in our cube, most of the creatures have static or activated/triggers abilities, so this really doesn't eliminate all that much from the board except stats. The other disadvantageous part of this card is that in control decks or situations where you're trying to protect a plansewalker, that crew five really isn't that far out of reach for a creature or two animate. Especially as a control deck, using this on a creature seems like a really risky bet, seeing as now they're left with threat on board that dodges all your wraths and sorcery speed removal for the rest of the game. Mutavaults are good vs control and PWs, and this opens you up to the same weaknesses.

We played Suspend a few sets back, and we tried that for the same reason: cheap removal that can double as creature protection, and even has few cool combos with through the breach and eldrazi and the like. The card was just too weak, and the fact of the matter is you'll inevitably have to deal with the body later, and alternatively spending it to protect your creature from removal still isn't much better in the value department.

I think this looks worse than suspend, which was far too weak to get played for us. I don't think we'll be testing this.

While all of those considerations are valid, I think that Crew 5 is a far steeper (and thus more impactful/permanent) cost than the 2 suspend counters added by Suspend. You'll effectively be eating 5 power worth of attacking bodies if they choose to crew later on, and the vehicle permanent transformation allows you to aim Disenchant/Shatter effects at the threat later on if it becomes relevant at some point. For 1 mana, this is a pretty effective removal spell against both attacking and defending monsters, especially considering the Flash. While I think this is a significantly worse spell than Swords/Path, I think it's leagues better than an effect like Suspend.