MTG Salvation

Another card you might think about is Standard Bearer. I use that and Benevolent Bodyguard both to protect my combo for my peasant GW Gond deck. Standard Bearer also helps really well if you run into any Bogle, Infect, or any deck that wants to pump their own creatures.

Also, I'm surprised to see only 3 Heliod's Pilgrim. I feel like that's a 4-of because you *have* to have Gond to win.

You are absolutely correct that they will normally target lords first. Mana slivers are probably among the least targeted creatures in the deck.

Granted, this is a pretty rare situation, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I think we are definitely more likely to play against one of those cards mentioned than to play against an opposing Sliver/Changling. I have played against all 5 of those cards I've mentioned in Modern before. I did have one game where my opposition targeted my mana sliver just because I didn't have a fetchland yet for green mana and Collected Company.

Could be a sweet combat trick against Bogles. Nice 1/1 you got there...


Another sweet 1 drop against them is Devout Harpist. Drop this turn 1 and it becomes very hard for them to win.

That is correct. Frenetic Sliver has an activated ability (cost : effect). If you pay the cost of 0, then the effect goes on the stack. When the effect resolves, you must do the entire part after the colon. You can't "interrupt" it because you lost the flip.

Also, I didn't read through 59 pages of text, but I read through a few. I see a lot of people playing 4 Manaweft Sliver and 0 Gemhide Sliver. I personally play 3 and 2 total, but if you are playing just 4, shouldn't you split 2-2?

Sure, Manaweft is better than Gemhide because it gives your opponets' slivers mana abilities, but what opposing slivers are you going to run into? Mutavault is about all I can think of. Changling creatures?

I think a bigger issue is you might play against Maelstrom Pulse, and too a lesser extent, maybe Reflector Mage, Bile Blight, Detention Sphere, or Declaration in Stone.

I don't think I'd play Aura Barbs. If they have an Umbra out on the Bogle, they can save it. Plus, it's a pretty narrow card (what other match would you use Aura Barbs against?)

I've got too many situations in my meta where i need to stop something, and remand is not buying me time/drawing me what I need (aka top decking). so i'm becoming more and more convinced its a weak link in the deck.

I feel like Remand is one of the strongest things the deck can do because Scapeshift only needs a few turns to win. I look at Remand as a tempo card, not a hard counterspell. It's just trying to delay the game by a turn and buy us time to win. We need to find Scapeshift and several lands. Remand draws a card and helps us get closer to both.

Casting cost aside, is there much of a reason people don't play Planar Cleansing over Merciless Eviction?

I do, because I run D-Sphere in the SB and 0 maindeck. I'm up to 2 Planar Cleansing MD and loving it. (Which gets sided out if I'm bringing in D Spheres, but I rarely do). One game against RG monsters last week, I destroyed 5 creatures and 2 planeswalkers with Planar Cleansing. Totally caught him off guard.

Has anyone tested with Evangel of Heliod yet? I know it's practically a much worse Master of Waves, but I also think that the fact it adds two devotion itself, plus can be quickly ramped into with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx makes it something to consider.

I played at two FNM's when Theros first came out and it actually wasn't completely terrible. I played 2 copies the first time and 3 the second time, because I didn't own Elspeths then. In general the matchups where your opponet has sweepers or lots of removal, it's really bad. But, there were some times it generated ridiculous amounts of tokens. Elspeth is better overall, but there were a few times that Evangel hilariously was better. I had several plays of 7+ tokens from Evangel, including once a 13 and a 15.

My fear of the card now would be Bile Blight + Drown in Sorrow, in addition to Detention Sphere/Supreme Verdict.

I recently encountered some problems with an Assault Loam deck.
I play the Rbw version of Burn.
My side board looks like:
Rakdos Charm 4x
Torpor Orb 2x
Volcanic Fallout 2x
Smash to Smithereens3x
War priest of Thune 3x
Rest in Peace

What would you change? Board in against such a deck?

I don't know if I'd really change your sideboard that much for just 1 deck. How many games did you play? I bet in the long run you will win more games than you lose against that deck. I would think that most assault-loam decks will be too slow for burn.

dCrusius, I should try out Prophetic Prisms sometime. That seems like that could be a good solution for the mana issue, and is also a nice low casting cost card.

the thing with running just 1 copy of some guildgates is that it reduces the chances to naturally draw and play different guildgates. Also playing non-guildgates translates basically to waiting another turn to win the game. I've tried running some 3 of the bant guildgates and they didnt work very well either; maybe a third Simic or Azorius Guildgate would've been better than 1 Breeding Pool but I don't know; I just know that playing non-guildgates hurts your game plan a lot and it is something you cannot afford in some matchups.

To me, it's not about winning in the late game, it's about surviving the early game. Due to the "off color" guildgates, I had several sketchy hands that I either would have to mulligan or hope I draw an in-color land. I'm also basically playing a UWG deck only, I have 0 red spells and 1 single black spell, so I should theoretically get manascrewed less. I just don't think there are enough good mana sources of each color if you are running 2 of all or most the guildgates. I went down to 1 copy of my 7 off-color guildgates and have been MUCH happier. A few basic lands have also let me cast Supreme Verdict on turn 4 a few times that I actually wanted to. (mainly vs. Fanatic of Mogis/Gray Merchant decks). A few basics also helps me a little vs. Burning Earth.

The random untapped basic land on turn 5-12 isn't bad either. (For example, on turn 6, I can cast Riot Control and Divination). I don't think playing only 5 non-guildgates hurts my guildgate plan that much. Sure, I draw less guildgates and have to tutor more. I'm probably a turn or two slower, but I would rather win a turn or two slower because I'm not running enough guildgates as opposed to getting manascrewed early.

Spot removal is good vs against big creatures, and sometimes there are permanents you have to get rid of. This is why you should play Detention Sphere. Spot removal is more effective post sideboard, where theres a myriad of permanents you cannot allow to stay in play, like Ruric Thar, Underworld Connections, Sire of Insanity, just to name a few.

There aren't that many big creatures I'm worried about other than Ruric Thar? Sure, Sire of Insanity is a major problem, but I haven't seen that many lately, and Detention Sphere isn't that good against it anyways. (We will have to topdeck a new Sphere, the one in your hand will get discarded). Most big creaures we don't care about that much because we can just fog/Verdict them. Underworld Connections I agree is a problem. That's why I still SB my spheres. Maindeck though, I'd rather run more card drawing/global affects like fogs/verdicts, since we need to affect everything globally. Topdecking a Sphere when you need to fog/verdict and are staring down 6-7 creatures isn't a good thing (unless they are all Pack Rats LOL).

Urban Evolution is a great card and you always want it, regardless the matchup. It accelerates your win in 1 turn and refills your hand. It is the main reason why I play 1 Forest, so I can cast it and play an untapped land to cast Fog. A 5 mana Urban Evolution is better than a 5 mana Sphinx Revelation; you draw more cards and plays an extra land. I know a big relevation is a good thing to have access to, but I wouldn't play more than 1 (max 2) revelation maindeck, because it is bad in every other scenario.

I started with Urban Evolution as well. and it's a fine card, but in my opinion after testing I just like Sphinx's Revelation better. The life gain has been relevant vs agro decks, especially those with burn in them. The fact that it's an instant is releveant too. Also, it can get *way* out of hand sometimes in mid-late game mode. I've cast it for 8-10 cards several times. I could see going down to 3, but there's no way I'd go under 3. It's *that* good. Revelation also tends to get Thoughtsiezed and counterspelled as well, which is why I'm more likely to play more copies of it.

What I'm going to try (I think)




Some things I think I like?

1) I think if you are running Elixir of Immortality or Bow of Nylea, I think you can go down to 1 of your "bad guildgates." With being able to shuffle them back, I think it's better to get a better manabase by adding either shock lands or basics. It's nice to occasionally have an untapped land. (Unless your metagame is filled with Ashen Rider ?)

2) I think I like Sphinx's Revelation > Urban Evolution. I think Sphinx's Rev is just too good not to play. It gives the deck some more life gain as well post-Supreme Verdict.

3) I'm not big on 1-for-1 removal. I'd like to maximize my fogs, sweepers, and card drawing. I think there's only a few permanments that we need Detention Sphere or Abrupt Decay for. (Underworld Connections and SB Pithing Needle come to mind). Along that line, I think Heroes' Reunion is probably a 4-of sideboard card, unless agro is super popular in your store. Saruli Gatekeepers to me seems like an overcosted Heroes' Reunion, because it turns on your opponet's creature removal.

4)This is just a personal choice I'm testing out, but I've made a lot of cards really bad against my personal build at the moment. I've made *any* creature removal spell, Detention Sphere, Hero's Downfall, Abrupt Decay, Searing Blood, Dreadbore, etc all almost 100% dead draws against me. (Assuming I don't get an Elixir caught unguarded). Because I'm not running anything else to blow up at the moment, I've been trying out a Planar Cleansing and liking it so far.

I don't like the idea of Entreat the Angels. It makes your opponet's creature removal (which is normally extremely poor against you) live. It also will want to make you tap out or tap a lot of mana, so sometimes it doesn't play well in a deck with countermagic. Yes, they can't miracle it, but they will still have a lot of mana, as this deck doesn't win fast. So they can still cast a pretty hefty Entreat later against you. I wouldn't recommend it.

I think a win condition of some sort definitely needs to be in the board. (Aetherling? Elspeth, Knight-Errant?) I'm thinking of the control games where you lose a 40 minute game 1, and need to take Shared Fates out and bring win conditions in so you can try to win in short amounts of time.

I'm still tinkering and testing my version, but I think I am going to try UW and kind of make it a "classic UW control" style deck. We have a very large amount of agro played in our local shop so I am looking at going heavy on the creature removal. One thing I don't like is I don't really see a second counterspell that I like besides Mana Leak. I'm not a big Rune Snag fan, and we can't play Remand or Cryptic Command maindeck. I might consider adding Azorious Charm somewhere for a little extra card draw/utility.

I'm tinkering with something fairly close to this (about 10ish cards off). The only thing that really stands out to me is I feel you could use a little more removal early game. There's only 2 Bile Blight and 4 Heros Downfall, so you could be a little slow coming out of the gate. I'm wondering if Underworld Cerebus is worth it? I might drop 1 Mogis as well. 3 copies Scare me a little bit because of legendary-ness.

If you want card draw, how about Pilfered Plans? It's basically Divination, but nets you +2 mill and +2/+2 to your Consuming Aberation