MTG Salvation

Quote from Cody_X »

You might consider ashiok, nightmare weaver if you want more walkers/threats, your list seems like it could do well with him.
Also, blood moon doesnt turn off urborg, and lands are swamps and all nonbasics (including urborg) are mountains, which is weird, but true)
Im surpised to see people running negate over countersquall, or dispel in the sideboard. Both are good against twin. Additionally, slaughter pact can also be good against them, especially if you have snapcasters.

Blood Moon does turn off Urborg ToY. It says so on the Gatherer page for it and my local Lvl 2 confirmed this. So there's that.
I dislike Ashiok. A lot. He doesn't do enough in my opinion.
Slaughter Pact is a fine card, I considered it for the SB, but it's not enough to fix the UR Twin MU by itself.
As for Negate, it's easier to cast Negate than Countersquall when you have basic Plains and Tec Edge in the deck. It's also better than Dispel because I want to bring it in against Mono Blue Tron for instance. I don't want to fight counter wars, because I have no other permission. I want something to counter Blood Moon and Oblivion Stone, not counter other counters.
Thank you for your input, I'll see if Slaughter Pact does enough in testing to warrant it's inclusion.

Piloted this list 2 weeks ago to a 5-0-1 finish, securing first place in the swiss of a GPT and then dropping out because screw 2 byes at a GP I won't go to.



I decided that holding mana open is not part of my agenda when instead I could play powerful cards and disrupt my opponent. And so I did.
UR Twin is a comically bad MU, while RUG Twin is a cakewalk. Them tapping down to play a threat that dies to a myriad of removal all while enabling me to resolve a Liliana makes the MU very easy.
Sidisi looks strange, but she's a beast. Played her as an answer to Abzan, but the Abzan players didn't reach the top tables, so I busily boarded out 1-2 copies every game while demolishing everything.
As for the MUs, I faced Affinity twice, Mono Blue Tron, BUG Control, RUG Twin and UR Twin (which felt like the only hard MU and is incredibly bad. We also drew because we ran out of time Game 3.)
I'll probably run it back tomorrow, cutting 1 Sidisi for Mentor #3 and Urborg for Swamp #2. I really need to be able to cast Liliana under Blood Moon.

I think most people here seem to be missing the most important thing about this card when talking about UW(x) Control: This is not a card for your 60, but a good idea for your 15. This shines in MUs where you want some sort of clock without having to tap out for it. I could see bringing it in against anything that is not Aggro. Maybe like 2 copies or something. After game 2, I'd definitely pull out my SB again and try to make my opponent believe that I'm taking them out again. Or that I'm keeping them in, depending on what I think he will do. Or maybe I will keep them in even if he brings back Decay. Who knows, this thing could potentially sit in play the whole time and just play defense. Who said that I absolutely have to attack with it when he will just Decay it? It could keep sitting there until the time is right, maybe I can make him choke on Mana or something, he will probably attempt to activate manlands in this MU. And then this creates the tension that he can't play a spell, activate his manland, swing with it and keep Decay up.
The more I think about it, how about this for Twin? Decay is already excellent against you, you play a bunch of cantrips and other noncreature spells already. Your deck already has an aggressive slant. What's keeping you from tapping down their Decay mana with a Mite EoT? Now you are threatening Twin and huge beats. Do they just Decay the Mite to not die to a combo, or will they Decay the Myth to avoid taking a huge hit and risk dying to Twin?

This card looks good, but it will be challenging to find a deck where it really fits in, as the card is very specific.

Quote from CMOR »

this isn't 2008 or whenever it was that Meloku was last playable

I am sure you have tested him to reach that conclusion. Because I did and he's my go-to finisher when I am willing to tap out for a 5 drop.

I think you guys should look at Meloku the Clouded Mirror. He's out of Bolt range and Decay range, shuts down attacks and leaves something behind when he dies.

I have no idea why nobody runs Terminus in the shells with 4 Think Twice. Yes, it's bad in your opening 7. Yes, it's a bad draw turn 1. Afterwards, it's much better.

Quote from tilzinger »

That's pretty early a gifts ungiven deck, which is very different than Esper control. I believe there is another thread devoted to gifts. You're more likely to get better feedback there.

Eh, I figured this early in the format I don't want to be too reactive and the best proactive plan for a blue deck is Gifts. If there's indeed a thread dedicated to Esper Gifts and it's not too much midrange, I'll post there.

Gonna play this beauty of a beast tomorrow:


I still have to decide on a SB, but it's taking shape. I'll be preparing for Affinity and Junk mainly, then some random cards to shore up potential other matchups.

Move Fulminator to the SB. That's my advice. You don't need it against the current flavor, which seem to be burn based decks.

Quote from Signifier »

@Nidd.Scythe: I remember you posting a list of yours with 4 Brindle Boars main. How have they been working out for you? I'm considering playing a list similar to yours in an event on Sunday, so a bit of insight would be nice.

They are quite good at what they do. Blocking and saccing gains about 7 life on average and they put the game out of reach for burn based decks when you resolve a Living End.
I wouldn't leave my house without them currently, too many Mountains...

Panoptic Mirror is the very definition of "the danger of cool things", I'm afraid.
I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot wooden stick.

4 Brindle Boar in the main and 3 Gnaw to the Bone in the side is what I'm looking at right now. Have fun burning throught that life cushion.

Whenever you want to include a card with CMC < 3 in your Living End list, you are probably ruining the deck. Beast Within is a card that you already have in your 60 and it answers RiP just fine. If that's not enough for you, there's always Krosan Grip, which is also proof against counterspells.

We have Shriekmaw, Dismember, Beast Within, Anger of the Gods and possibly Mardu Charm as straight up removal - not to mention Living End itself is a Plague Wind. I don't think we need Murderous Cut.

Quote from gruulsmash »

Question: Having been out of modern for a wile, how much are you guys seeing treasure cruise get played? I think it really could power up burn and make our day much harder against them, and it generally strengthens our bad matchups.

with that said, how do you feel about maybe murderous cut? It would be a reason to play more fetchlands, but it gives us an instant speed and cheap way to itneract with creatures that still doesn't get hit by living end.

Play Brindle Boar and put a few Gnaw to the Bone in your SB and burn based decks will have a hard time.

Murderous Cut is strictly worse than Dismember.