MTG Salvation

I'm sorry, I don't have your lists memorised I just remember reading your Horobi at some point and seeing you were still TBD on a green and white, and then saw you have a green. I don't remember your Norin at all. I don't think I looked at your Ixidor either. I was just referencing the philosophy you stated in the OP, not meaning to offend or anything

I guess you can upgrade the elf into the dryad. I seemed to recall there being effects that can steal the forest from you (as in shift the target of the ability), but I can't seem to find them for whatever reason.

From my experience with playing green, you usually want your removal to be as cheap as possible and as hit-all as possible. For that reason, Beast Within stays - it's essentially a green Vindicate, and having two of those in your deck is never a bad idea. If anything, I'd suggest cutting Acidic Slime. True, it hits many types of permanents, and leaves behind a rattlesnake body, but it costs 5 mana and doesn't seem to offer much in the way of a functionality increase over Reclamation Sage. That is, unless lands repeatedly harsh your mellow, but somehow the list doesn't seem like something that would have its mellow repeatedly harshed by lands. Krosan Grip may not be hit-all, but it's so hard to interact with that I'd leave it on that alone. Lightning Greaves are nice, Regrowth is nice. Try swapping in the song for the slime and see how it plays out for you?

I didn't want to offend by calling this goodstuffy, your design philosophy states that the deck needs to function without the commander and goodstuff's the way to accomplish it. Heck, my Patron of the Orochi is grade A jank, but it still runs Tooth and Nail and Craterhoof Behemoth

Point taken about the top-of-library manipulation, you do put the sheets to good use. As for removal, you should find a spot for Song of the Dryads. It's so beautifully disgusting.

Oh, I didn't notice you chose a green guy. Cool, goodstuff'y deck with a few awesome cards that work with your commander - you don't think Verdant Succession when you think EDH. Is Into the North worth the tap for the ability to hit Ronom/Sheets? I'd just run Nature's Lore if I were you.

Word. I remember this one time at the LGS when some kid was watching us get our EDH on, decided to hop in, bought the red deck, cracked it open, and won the next two pods with an out-of-the-box precon.

Or, in my favourite playgroup, there's this guy who was running the black precon for a while, and then decided to soup it up a bit. He bargain-hunted some neat things like Phyrexian Dreadnought online, not spending too much on the whole endeavour, and now steals games pretty regularly.

Don't forget the most beautiful word of all - synergy. Pick an interesting commander and build around him. Settle for compromises, if needed - Mind Control doesn't untap your lands like Treachery would, but it costs 50x less. Ruthlessly bargain-hunt online. Don't forget that you can pump further funding into the deck over time if so desired. Also, keep in mind that the the efficiency of turning money to power tapers off - the only cards that my Patron of the Orochi wants but doesn't have are Mana Crypt and Three Visits, but the pair of them would double the cost of the list whilst marginally bumping its ramp abilities.

Also, if you're talking casual, you're not going for ultimate cutthroat dominance. You can easily build a functional list reasonably cheaply by using your noggin, or even pick up one of last year's precons (which seem to fare better than the older waves, from what I've seen). Toss in an adequate meta and Magic's natural variance and you should have a good time.

Blaze it, deck change incoming! A mini one, Patron-style, so the list is hopefully approaching equilibrium.



Captain of the Mists was in a class all of his own - 3 drop tapper with a 2 activation cost that's summoning sick. True, his perks in the human trick and any-permanent (un)tapping are neat, but are they worth the 1 increase in cost over Stonybrook Angler? Probably not. Mini-tweak!

Also, this isn't going in the OP, but I had trouble locating some cards and made some temporary changes to compensate.



(Edit as I went for Hart instead of Depression Automaton. The gap-filled list fared really nicely at the LGS, the Hart in particular was an MVP in one game. The simplicity of Persuasion etc is beautiful as well. Decisions, decisions... for now I have this, I'll worry if the perspective of acquiring the missing links arises)

*sighs, points at OP* "What's this susceptible to? Soul sisters lifegain. Mass artifact removal. Torpor Orb *shudder*." As a person who supposedly has a few Purph games under your own belt, you should know this stuff.

As I mention, my list is somewhere between what his is and what you propose. I don't run things like Duplicant etc, Pentavus is about as dedicatedly durdly as I get. I seem to recall OP saying he'd cut everything with CMC>5 except for Blasphemous Act, so the comment was directed more at him, that some high-end stuff is required. I'm sorry if I phrased it wrong, I'm a bit underslept.

I repeatedly get Mana Echoes explosions. It's fantastic if you can start the chain off something like a Kiki activation so that you waste the least possible amount of proper mana. Even if you lack the godly X spell to end everything, it usually ends in the hand getting barfed out super fast. I am quite heavy on the colourless though. Heck, my thread name is "Purphoros, God of Mana Echoes". I ran Precursor Golem for ages. That's saying something

Well yeah, the threesome is there for the combo potential, but they do have their uses outside of it as demonstrated. I don't run ultra situational combo fodder like Umbral Mantle (there's a guy on here called Ebline who has a list with that sort of stuff, and it seems to be functional as well). Maybe it's just the luck of however many games I played with the deck, but Kiki actually greatly bumps the performance of the list even in a non-combo setting. I tend to always have something to copy with him that does more than 2 all around. The success indirectly inspired me to add Mimic Vat, and that's been performing really well too. I know I cut Warrens as the 3 mana allotment was awkward and goblins, whilst common, weren't 100% guaranteed.

Any chance of you tossing your list up? I'd be quite interested to see it, I'm giving my list a much needed facelift and few months overdue adaptation to my paper meta.

Kiki, Crafter and Prospector actually offer even more utility outside the combo than Pentavus does outside his. Kiki's just a huge value engine, combine with just about anything for damage/chumps. Do it when someone is swinging at you to hurl the disposable vanishing chump at the fender of whatever is coming at you. Crafter can champion any goblin, so you can temporarily nix a Siege-Gang Commander or something to have him re-enter once the Crafter dies... or just throw away a 1/1 goblin chump. You get a bolt on a stick. Very nice. Prospector lets you burn your goblin chumps into mana to fuel stupid plays. I'd suggest slotting them in, along with the three goblin tutors. Good stuff.

Cheaper, but sorcery speed. Also getting to 7 mana isn't all that difficult for me, but I do run almost twice the number of mana rocks you do.

The way to go about things like Ensnaring Bridge is to bargain hunt. Scour multiple sites, wait for a while, repeat. Eventually you'll snag the card in question at a price that you'll be happy with. I picked up my bridge for a pittance as it was supposed to be absolutely mangled, I asked the guy for a scan and it turned out to be marginally scuffed. Since then he's been my main card vendor

It's been performing really nicely in my blue tap/theft/bounce deck, access to that and Strip Mine (and Reliquary Tower in fringe cases too, heh heh) prompted me to add Tolaria West as a land toolbox option. It helped the deck quite a bit, to the point where I'm considering slotting in Expedition Map.

If you run a lot of targeted spells/abilities, this thing will do you just fine, but it's not a must-have in every single deck ever.

I posted in your thread, in fact reading that thread got me thinking that it's about time I actually cut the moons 8) you'd better have Ensnaring Bridge when I next see your list 8)

I'm unsure how you're looking at Pentavus, it goes infinite with Mana Echoes with no problem. In fact, Pentavus is far superior than Thopter Squadron in every way imaginable aside from mana cost. The instant speed activation makes it more difficult to respond to you going infinite... and also makes it possible for you to crap out a chump and then promptly "reabsorb" the chump onto the Pentavus, negating something non-tramply coming your way. Left some mana up for whatever stuff you may have wanted to do during someone else's turn but it didn't happen? Bounce some chumps. Yee.

I acknowledge that Crystal Ball is inferior to Sensei's Divining Top, but you hit the nail on the head - there's barely any shuffle effects around. I'm probably not going to start running fetches - their thinning effect is not statistically significant, and the shuffle appeal is lost without the top (whilst at the same time I can't ensure top will be around). Ancient Tomb does look pretty cool, but I don't tend to have problems with colourless here between all the sac-for-mana and mana rocks. I may slide it in one day.

I play a blue list with a 10-card theft package, and Blatant Thievery is as good as it gets. Previous posters have it covered. The fact that it's not an enchantment makes it somewhat difficult to answer, which is wonderful. Huge value engine, if someone lacks anything of note just take a land (as also mentioned).

Well, it's been a while. It took me a while to talk myself into the changes that I ended up making, but I believe that in the context of my meta they will be for the best.



Now, hear me out here. There are multicolor decks in the meta, but for some reason Blood Moon et al just aren't all that effective. It seems that those decks just run a very high percentage of basic lands, and when something of the moon family comes out, it shuts off like three, four lands across the table tops. Just a meta specific thing. I really didn't want to cut the moon, as it's the crowning achievement of my ruthless capitalistic tale of piecing the deck together, but it just doesn't do anything most of the time. So, all nonbasic hate out.

Since we're making drastic changes, I took the opportunity to re-evaluate some of the cards in the deck. Sensei's Divining Top is cute as hell, and does help me filter topdecks. Kind of. The cards are still there, so sometimes I'd be shoving two cards that were crap in that particular scenario away each turn, repeatedly, hoping for the best. Crystal Ball may be more mana intensive to come down, but at least it scries. As such, useless crap gets kicked out of the way altogether.

Solemn Simulacrum is a value engine, but not a crazy insane one. 4-drop, so if you can play him, you can (and probably should) play Purph. I never had Gilded Lotus in here as it felt that by the time I hit 5 mana, I should be doing something more significant somehow. As such, Depression Automaton can go be sad in my tech box, waiting to be placed in some other deck. Iron Myr is inferior in every way imaginable apart from cost. Helps power out T2/3 Purph? Sign me up.

Shattering Spree is fantastic, but I'd always miss the perfect moment to play it as I'd wait for more artifacts to come down. Viashino Heretic is a slower engine of a similar sort, but he also deals damage. Damage! Sweet, sweet, people-killing, game-ending damage! Yes, this is a bit of an experimental change, we'll see how it goes. I'm not going to EDH Worlds with this or anything, just slinging cards with my meta.

While thumbing through the tech box, I also found a Buried Ruin. Not bad. Slice out a mountain. I'm considering slotting in the cycler lands after their massive success in my Tromo build, especially now that there's no Ruination to occasionally blow them up.

Speaking of Ruination, now there's 4 slots to fill up.

Chandra's Spitfire is an ungodly stupid beatstick, a simple Krenko's Command in a 4-man pod makes this slam for 19. Plus hey, it's an elemental! Flamekin Harbinger's toolbox use broadens - if your hand is light on threats, grab Grinning Ignus and convert all your red to Purph pings. If you have some token making on hand, get the Spitfire and obliterate everyone. Gloriously stupid.

Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs was good times back when he was in the deck, I was missing some cards and he was a stand-in along with Mind's Eye. Both performed well, but the Eye now lives in my Patron. Still, I have a slot to work with, so Kazuul can come back and be useful again.

Impact Tremors is a DTK invention, and hey, if I can have half-a-Purph (literally, in every way possible), why not have half-a-Purph. +50% efficiency, yo!

So, final slot. The Eye was a good time, but I don't have another Eye and can't be bothered to get one. However, I do have a Slate of Ancestry. I also usually have some tokens sitting around, so this will be a good way to repeatedly refuel and avoid completely fizzling. Given this, and upgrading the top into the ball, the deck should bump up its consistency a little.

I have a list (link in sig) which seems to be middle ground between what yours is and what Darcykun proposes you do. There's only so much draw that you can access in red, so the fact that you get more value out of a Myr Battlesphere than a Krenko's Command lets you run out of fuel later in the game. Running out of fuel is a real threat, as you seem to know as well - stalling out when everybody's down to 10 or so gives them time to smash your face in. You need some splashiness.

I have one huge, HUGE recommendation for you, and one that has shown up in here already - Ensnaring Bridge. That thing is INSANE. I am yet to lose a game where it didn't get removed. This card needs to be part of every single Purph deck ever, possibly with Hoarding Dragon to help get it online.

Another card that has been serving me well is Mana Echoes. Seeing how you have an affinity for Pentavus, that and the Echoes is instawin. If no Pentavus, just barf out your hand. A particularly juicy sequence (a Hive Mind was also involved) resulted in a few hundred firecats ending the game with Purph damage. It helps with being explosive just about always.

There's little in the way of red tutoring to increase consistency of the game plan, you have Godo with his equipment summoning (as someone pointed out too), but that won't do all that much for you. You already run Gamble. You could get some mileage out of goblin tutoring - Goblin Matron, Goblin Recruiter, Moggcatcher. Why not slot in a Purph-less, fully tutorable instawin of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Lightning Crafter + Skirk Prospector? Heck, I even run Flamekin Harbinger as it lets me reach the Ignus if so desired, or Ingot Chewer to make artifacts go boom.