MTG Salvation

I don't know that it should change the final answer, but it's not a trigger with Sinister Concoction; both actions are part of the activation cost. Even if you do draw just one card, at least that means the opponent couldn't kill the Monster in response to prevent the draw trigger.

A thread in the Standard New Card Discussion forum that got archived started investigating The Gitrog Monster in combination with Molten Vortex and Groundskeeper. I'm not convinced either of the latter two is the way to go, but using The Toad as a 6/6 deathtouching card-advantage engine sounds like the best thing ever. I'm inclined to take it in a ramp/control direction that plays a defensive early game with Sylvan Advocate and removal spells and wins the game by card advantage. I really like Mina and Denn, Wildborn here, because they help you get your lands down faster to turn on Sylvan Advocate, and because trample from its activated ability along with deathtouch from The Gitrog Monster is gross. If you have both in play you can play three lands a turn!


I haven't tested enough or figured out the metagame nearly enough to work out a sideboard. Other cards I'm interested in include:

• The Den Protector/Deathmist Raptor package
• Ulvenwald Hydra; World Breaker; Dragonlord Atarka; Dragonlord Kolaghan
• Biting Rain out of the sideboard
• Arlinn Kord, just because she's great
• Magmatic Insight and Molten Vortex, though they would actually make me want to up my land count or figure out how to make Groundskeeper a focal point
• Sacrifice lands: the Blighted lands from BFZ; Warped Landscape/Evolving Wilds; Mirrorpool; Drownyard Temple; Ally Encampment (my list has 7 allies to regrow - while drawing a card if The Toad is in play)
• Pulse of Murasa, especially in conjunction with GDD
• More madness cards, like Asylum Visitor and Murderous Compulsion

I'm sure there are other great ideas out there I haven't thought of.

Bonus rules question: If you have The Gitrog Monster in play and activate Sinister Concoction, milling a land and also discarding a land, do you draw two cards?

I would never play Fiery Temper in a deck without discard unless it was a dedicated burn deck that had already maxed out on Exquisite Firecraft, which is strictly better if you can't use the Madness cost to cheat on mana. In fact, I would say you're better served comparing Fiery Impulse against Exquisite Firecraft, and separately comparing Fiery Temper against Exquisite Firecraft. If you want to be able to go to the dome, or the metagame demands that you be able to deal 4 damage, Firecraft is better than Impulse; otherwise Impulse is better because it's so much cheaper. If you can pay the Madness cost, Temper is better than Firecraft because it's so much cheaper; otherwise Firecraft is a strict upgrade.

The only way I would compare Impulse with Temper is if they both cost R, which is to say, only when you can Madness out Temper. If you have enough quality discard that Temper is almost always going to be available for 1 mana, then it's almost always going to be better than Impulse because it does 3 always, rather than sometimes. If you expect to pay 1RR for Temper every time, you probably shouldn't play it in that deck.

When the full spoiler for SOI came out, Skeleton Key caught my eye as something that could be "broken." A turbo self-mill deck with Graveblade Marauder could equip the Key to a 1-power creature (Marauder) that actually hits for outrageous amounts of damage if you've milled enough creatures into your graveyard. I played a similar deck for the entire run of Satyr Wayfinder in Standard, using Nemesis of Mortals and Nighthowler to attack with unreasonable monsters, and it was great. I tried putting a list together with Gather the Pack and Vessel of Nascency, but it never seemed to actually dump many creatures in the 'yard. Back in the day I always had 10-11 good enablers, in the form of some number of Satyr Wayfinder, Grisly Salvage, Commune with the Gods, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, or Gather the Pack. I didn't find enough this time around and I moved on to the next shiny bauble of a deck idea. Still, I think the Marauder-Key combo is an interesting one, and I wonder if anyone else thinks it could be viable, and how you might put the list together.

A straight UB deck took 28th in a MOCS:



This deck looks great. The biggest surprises are the absence of maindeck sweepers, particularly Crux of Fate since it's entirely creatureless, and the 1 Treasure Cruise over the third Dig Through Time. I'm also a little surprised at the lack of utility lands in a 2-color deck. I love the Shifting Loyalties tech in the sideboard to just randomly win against decks that play enchantments.

I've always had a somewhat more controlling take on the deck than the rest of the thread, but I'll offer my thoughts for anyone interested. I haven't played Temur Black for about a month -- Ive been playing Demonic Pact for the last few weeks. (I've got a thread on it if anyone's interested.) What got me thinking about this deck again though is Sylvan Advocate, which I think is going to prove to be a great card from the new set. I don't run Rattleclaws, so the 2-drop spot was always a bit unsettled. I was running Heir of the Wilds, which was pretty good, but I think the Advocate may be an upgrade. I also want to have access to Kozilek's Return, and so I'm running a World Breaker, which has caused me to put some pain lands in to get access to C, and I've also upped the number of creature lands, which goes well with the Advocates. Here is my very preliminary list:

Demonic Pact is not a deck you should take to a Grand Prix, because it is difficult and exhausting to play, it takes a long time to win a game despite the building the utmost inevitability, and you will earn a lot of draws. It is a great deck to take to FNM or other local area tournaments because it is exceedingly fun to play, and playing it will make you a better Magic player.

What does Demonic Pact Control look like? It starts, obviously, with Demonic Pact. The card is powerful enough to justify the steep deckbuilding requirements it demands. Yes, if things go exactly wrong, this card can just lose you the game. But when used to its fullest, the card represents about a 5-for-1 in your favor. Divination, Mind Rot, and destroy a creature and gain 4 life. It also can simply be the avenue to victory, because it is direct damage to the opponent that is very difficult to interact with.

So a Demonic Pact deck begins with 4 Demonic Pact. Simple enough. What else does it need? The following lists are not exhaustive but rather are the top tiers of cards I have come up with in the colors I am interested in playing in my Demonic Pact deck. Naturally some cards will appear in multiple categories.

1. Don't lose to your own Demonic Pact

You need some way to bounce or destroy Demonic Pact before you are forced to choose option 4.

• Silumgar's Command - Bounces your Pact while (usually) destroying something on the other side of the battlefield.
• Rite of Undoing - Bounces your Pact and something on the other side of the battlefield, for as little as 1 mana. Flipped Jace, tokens, and delve creatures are the best targets.
• Sultai Charm - Destroys a Pact that is about to kill you in a pinch, and has other utility as a versatile removal spell or a card draw and graveyard filler in a pinch. Not the best at any specific function, but it's a card that can save you from self-annihilation if everything else goes wrong and isn't a dead card otherwise.
• Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - His minus ability can take out any number of Pacts if necessary, and when it's not, he is one of the best cards in a control deck.
• Display of Dominance - A narrow sideboard card, but again something that can destroy your Pact in a pinch and has other uses against the right deck. Counters Abzan Charm and Murderous Cut to name just a couple, and can destroy Jace, Sphinx's Tutelage, Sorin, and many others.
• Disperse - Very narrow, but it does bounce your Pact or buy time against a troublesome permanent.

2. Redundancy for your "don't lose" cards

The cards in Group 1 do not help you win the game; they keep you from losing it to the centerpiece of your own deck. You can only play so many of them. To increase the effective number of those cards in your deck without having to play an excessive number of them, you need cards that enable you to reuse your spells.

• Jace, Vryn's Prodigy/Jace, Telepath Unbound - Jace lets you flashback the Group 1 cards, all of which are instants or sorceries, to deal a second time with your Demonic Pact.
• Den Protector - Maternal Witness lets you rebuy those spells for another use, to return them to the graveyard to potentially be flashed back by Jace.
• Tasigur, the Golden Fang - It's possible for his graveyard recursion ability to get you back a Pact resetting card, a result that becomes more likely the independently stronger the other cards in your deck.
• Greenwarden of Murasa - Den Protector's big brother offers a lot of value if you can stomach his mana cost.

3. Graveyard Fillers

Though not a dedicated Delve deck, the deck relies on enough delve cards that it is important to have enough cards in the graveyard. The graveyard is also an extension of the hand thanks to the recursion cards from Group 2.

• Jace, Vryn's Prodigy - One of the best cards in Standard, he can fill the graveyard with fuel for his future planeswalker self.
• Sultai Charm - The third mode is free enough often enough that drawing two and tossing this and another card in the 'yard to delve or recur is valuable.
• Kiora, Master of the Depths - Though the deck is not going to be very creature-dense, Kiora is extremely likely to hit at least 1 card, and because the others go into the graveyard, they are not lost forever.
• Oath of Jace - Puts two cards in the graveyard and cantrips.
• Rakshasa's Secret - A way to interact with the opponent's hand while fueling delve etc.

4. Card Selection

When the deck needs to get rid of a Pact, it needs to do so in a timely manner, and if a suitable card isn't already in hand, you need to draw it in time. The more cards you get to see, the better chances you have of finding one in time.

• Jace, Vryn's Prodigy - There's a reason he appears in every category.
• Dig Through Time - The gold standard in card selection and card advantage. Play it in Standard while you can because it's banned in every other format.
• Sultai Charm - Again, the consolation prize third mode.
• Oath of Jace - Draw 3 Discard 2 is powerful filtering/selection. So is recurring scry, especially as X becomes large.
• Catacomb Sifter - Particularly relevant in a more creature-heavy build.
• Ugin's Insight - If you are looking for an answer to a Demonic Pact already in play, scry 4 draw 3 is not that far from a Dig.
• Oath of Nissa - This Oath can't help you find an answer to a Pact, so it's a little ancillary to the main plan, but it is a potentially strong early play to dig for mana fixing or Jace, or late to look for a Den Protector or a planeswalker to end the game.

4. Card Draw

The more cards you draw, the more likely you are to have Pact answers at the right times.

• Painful Truths - Increasingly the gold standard in card drawing in Standard. The life gain from Demonic Pact helps offset the life cost.
• Ob Nixilis Reignited - He will typically be cast as a removal spell, but his +1 is a very powerful card draw ability.
• Nissa, Vastwood Seer/Nissa, Sage Animist - Like Ob Nixilis, her -2 may be her most important ability, but since that really opens you up to Crackling Doom, her +1 may be the best way to use her.
• Treasure Cruise - Any deck with delve capability should consider the Cruise, but it puts maximum pressure on your graveyard.
• Most of the cards in Group 3. Outside of Jace and Catacomb Sifter, all of them draw cards, and all but the Oaths are net card advantage.

That basically covers the tools you need to play Demonic Pact without losing to it. If you can do that consistently, you can take advantage of the power of the card, which is the whole point of building the deck. Still, there are some things that Demonic Pact itself does not do very well, and so the rest of the deck is devoted to shoring up those weaknesses.

1. Creatures with more than 4 toughness

Demonic Pact can deal 4 damage to a creature, which kills a lot of things, but you need a plan to kill the other problem creatures.

• Ob Nixilis Reignited - Eliminates(virtually) any problem creature, and if the opponent doesn't have an answer he continues accruing value afterward.
• Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - Kills all the things! His +2 can also combine with the deal-4 mode of Demonic Pact to take out an extra-large creature.
• Murderous Cut - Unconditional removal if you can afford the cost or the delve requirement.
• Ruinous Path - Unconditional, but slow. In the late game the awaken option can become relevant.
• Infinite Obliteration - Strictly a sideboard card, but sometimes a necessary evil, especially for a deck like this that tends to be slow to close out games.
• Self-Inflicted Wound - Another sideboard card. A lot of big-butt creatures are green. Siege Rhino still exists. Also good against Dragonlord Ojutai.

2. Swarms of things/fast aggro

Demonic Pact is good at taking out a single moderately-sized threat. It's no good at taking out lots of (usually small) things. It also doesn't come online until turn 5, so even if it's in your opening hand it's too slow to rely on as your first line of defense.

• Languish - Seemingly a forgotten card, it takes out a lot of relevant threats in a timely fashion. It's particularly good against (multiple) Thunderbreak Regents, which can otherwise be punishing to deal with.
• Radiant Flames - A sweeper that comes online a turn sooner than Languish and really hamstrings small aggro decks.
• Flaying Tendrils - Another turn three sweeper for small creatures, this time one that doesn't require a splash color. Potentially very punishing to the Rally decks that need their creatures to die for triggers and for recursion.
• Ultimate Price - Early interaction to buy time for Demonic Pact to get rolling is critical. Ultimate Price hits most of the cheap creatures played in the format, though of course not all.
• Sultai Charm - Sometimes you use it as a more expensive Ultimate Price.

3. Actually winning the game

The card advantage that Demonic Pact generates will put you in a commanding position if given enough time, but each instance of a Pact can only deal 4 damage. It needs some help to close out a game in a timely manner.

• Nissa, Sage Animist - The 4/4 token will end the game if not removed, and if it's removed hopefully Nissa is still around to animate another.
• Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - Three damage to the face each turn while building toward his ultimate is almost always game over.
• Tasigur, the Golden Fang - An undercosted 4/5 is a big threat.
• Dragonmaster Outcast - She is too vulnerable and hard to protect to play in the main deck, but she represents a very fast clock out of the sideboard if the opponent doesn't have efficient answers in the deck.
• Sarkhan Unbroken - A stream of 4/4 fliers is very problematic. Oath of Nissa makes him easier to cast.
• Awaken spells - Animated lands can be a win condition in the late game, and by that point the risk of a land being destroyed is minimized.
• Creature lands - Lumbering Falls is the most difficult to interact with, but Wandering Fumarole has the potential for the greatest damage output.

Demonic Pact Control has two major weaknesses that I have identified so far. The first is aggro, which is no surprise given that it is a control deck, and it plays any number of board sweepers to try to compensate.

The second weakness is disruption in the form of discard and permission. You get the most value out of a Demonic Pact when you use all three of its beneficial modes, but doing so leaves you just a turn away from losing the game to your own card. If your opponent can hit you with a well-timed targeted discard spell or counter the spell you are using to undo the Pact, you probably just lose. The discard mode on the Pact makes that more difficult for them, because if you can empty their hand the opponent will have to topdeck exactly the right card at exactly the right time.

The best answers to those disruptive cards are probably to play your own discard and/or counters. Discard probably suits the deck better because most of the deck plays at sorcery speed, so holding up counters can be difficult. And cards like Duress that allow you to look at your opponent's hand can be used proactively to see how vulnerable a future Demonic Pact will be to disruption when it comes time to reset it.

Here is the list I have been playing lately, before OGW Standard.



Going forward I would look to add Flaying Tendrils, Oath of Nissa, and Oath of Jace to the list. I'm also interested in trying out Hissing Quagmire. One copy of Kiora can easily become an Oath of Jace, and one Radiant Flames can become a Flaying Tendrils. I would like to find room for Duress in the main deck; Ultimate Price may have to give up its spot, especially with so many colorless creatures in OGW. The sideboard certainly needs work, especially after OGW enters Standard. It will get some number of sweepers, and I'm interested in Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. I'd welcome other suggestions, especially for cards in OGW I haven't considered.

I don't think Demonic Pact Control was ever the best deck in BFZ Standard, but I think it's the most fun to play. I would recommend the deck to anyone who wants to get better at Magic, because it's very difficult to play in a way that teaches you to improve. You have to remember triggers, execute busy turns with multiple planeswalkers, and plan multiple turns ahead. It's like playing a control deck in that regard, except that you also have to play against an enchantment that wants to kill you in four turns. And in a tournament setting, you have to do all of that quickly enough to actually finish a match! It's an immensely fun challenge.

I'm back to really liking my list. Stubborn Denial is much better than I had initially expected; it's not as conditional as I expected, and it only rots in hand when I'm losing so badly I don't have a big creature on the field AND it's so late that the opponent is never tapping out. Here's my current list:



I've upped my land count to 26. I cut a Tasigur for it. The games I lose are mostly the ones where I don't hit land drops. Between all the recursion from Jace, Den Protector, K-Command, and Tasigur, this deck never lacks for things to do with its mana every turn, especially now that I want to hold up U for Stubborn Denial as much as possible. I know not many people on here are maindecking Radiant Flames, but I really like it. It makes game 1 against Red that much more winnable, and it's randomly good sometimes against Warden of the First Tree or an aggressive start from Jeskai Black. Having 2 maindeck frees up sideboard space.

I admittedly haven't tried out Rattleclaw Mystic or Snapping Gnarlid, but I really don't think that's the direction I want to go. This deck plays the long game very well, and those cards are such bad topdecks. Heir of the Wilds at least maintains utility in the latter part of the game because it blocks so well, and in an aggressive start it often attacks for 3 starting on turn 3, which is perfectly respectable. I see the appeal of Thunderbreak Regent, but I place a lot of value on making sure I can cast my spells, and RR is very unreliable without help from Rattleclaws. And if I'm being honest, I don't have any Rattleclaws, and they just don't seem enough better to justify the investment this late in their Standard life.

I'm starting to get pretty firm sideboarding plans too.

Against Atarka Red:
In: 2x Duress, Radiant Flames, Murderous Cut
Out: 4x Jace

Against Abzan:
In: Dragonlord Silumgar, 2 Exert Influence (great against Siege Rhino), Murderous Cut, 2 Disdainful Stroke, Dragonmaster Outcast
Out: 4 Woodland Wanderer (incredibly soft to Abzan Charm), 2 Radiant Flames, probably 1 Heir of the Wilds

Against Bring to Light Control:
In: Dragonlord Silumgar, 2 Exert Influence, Murderous Cut, 2 Disdainful Stroke, Dragonmaster Outcast, 2 Duress
Out: 2 Radiant Flames, 2 Wild Slash, 4 Woodland Wanderer, 1 Sarkhan, Unbroken

Against Rally:
In: 2 Duress, 1 Radiant Flames, 2 Infinite Obliteration, 2 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
Out: 2 Murderous Cut, 4 Heir of the Wilds, 1 Jace, 1 Den Protector

Those are the matchups I'm relatively confident about. Sarkhan comes out against any Crackling Doom deck, but he's otherwise great against decks that are soft to flyers. Infinite Obliteration is great; it really neuters Rally and Eldrazi decks if you find it on time. I like Disdainful Stroke over Negate because it counters Rhinos. There are a few sideboard slots still up for grabs. I like the idea of the Sagu Maulers against control. They took the place of Painful Truths because I'd rather beat down with hexproof against Esper than try to fight a control battle, but I haven't tested them yet. I'm also not sure what Silumgar TDD is good against, if anything. Maybe he should just grow up into another Dragonlord, who is great against Rhinos and all of Abzan's planeswalkers.

I've tried out Crater's Claws, and it's always felt clunky. Once I have Ferocious active, using it as a sorcery-speed Shock is usually no longer relevant, and I'm rarely in a position where I need it to deal that last few points of damage. The closest I come are the games where I don't have much mana anyway, and x spells are at their worst there. I'd really like to find a way to work in Yasova Dragonclaw, but I think that's just because I think she's awesome. I think she just doesn't fit very well in the metagame right now.

I think this deck is weakest to decks that can get aggressive in the air. I lost at FNM this week to a 5-color deck that could go Mantis Rider into Siege Rhino into Butcher of the Horde, with Crackling Doom backup. Mantis Rider is always a scary card, and if Jeskai gets big again, my Fiery Impulses are standing by, probably with Duress ready to move to the main to help turn on Spell Mastery.

I wonder if the "splitting" mechanic should split one's own creatures or the opponent's, or both? Removal spells that create tokens for your opponent might be a nice way to fight back against merged creatures without making the Merge player feel like they got totally blown out for playing to the set's theme. Or the Individuality side could have a creature mechanic where the creatures deal damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and cause tokens to split off when they do. Hopefully that's not too reminiscent of Infect.

I went 3-0 at FNM again with this deck, beating a BG Sacrifice deck, Abzan, and Atarka Red.



Since then, I've been playing online more, and I've discovered that I basically can't beat Rally and Control, both Esper and Bring to Light. What those matchups seem to have in common is that I have to kill them before they get their more powerful late-game engine online, and I can't seem to do that. My sideboard actually pushes me in a more controlling direction, which made sense when the deck was built to beat Atarka Red and Jeskai Black, but without the latter in the format it doesn't work properly anymore. I think of it as an aggro-control deck, but that may just mean it's a deck confused. I like how good it is against Atarka Red, and the Abzan matchup is solid, and the card quality is high enough that it's good against brews and non-tier decks. But I'm having trouble figuring out how to improve the percentages against top tier decks. Does it have to just cut Jace and turn into an aggro deck with Rattleclaws and Thunderbreaks?

I'm going to try taking out the Gather the Pack in favor of Stubborn Denial, but I'm not sure what should accompany that. Do I need to trim my delve spells?

Some other cards I've tried out:

Infinite Obliteration: In the sideboard for Rally and Eldrazi Ramp matchups; I haven't played the latter and I haven't drawn it against the former. Probably also good against Bring to Light since they don't win without Siege Rhino very well.

Skyrider Elf: This card seems really efficient for its mana cost, although Mantis Rider, Thunderbreak Regent, and Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury would disagree. It seems like a good option when I'm trying to go more aggressive, and I like that Sarkhan Unbroken's +1 lets me make this a 5/5.

Crater's Claws: I'm not sure what matchups this is best against, but it hasn't impressed me when I've played it. In theory it should be a good finisher when the control deck is starting to take over from a low life total.

Disdainful Stroke: Hits the things I really need to hit, but it feels a little clunky. I don't think my deck is particularly excited about holding up two mana most of the time.

Yasova Dragonclaw: I haven't actually tried this one, but she seems awesome, especially with Jace's ability to shrink things into her range.

I'd like to get involved with this and keep a little momentum going. I don't have any experience designing cards/sets, but I like to think I have good ideas. At this stage I'm most interested in getting some big-picture things at least preliminarily figured out, over working on individual card designs.

I like Merge, and I think the push and pull of card disadvantage vs. tempo/power is an interesting dynamic for Limited. I think one thing that would be important to keeping Merge from feeling like a feel-bad mechanic when your Voltron is killed would be having plenty of Tokens in the environment. Using tokens for merging also brings an interesting tension when it comes to the Merge creatures that "process" merged creatures, since the Tokens (I'm pretty sure) would not be eligible for return to the graveyard like creature cards would be. So they would be good for mitigating card disadvantage, but would reduce the upside of merging in the first place, which seems like a cool place to be. I wonder if Lands that tap to create tokens, but don't tap for mana, would be interesting or if they would be a nightmare to develop around.

I really like the Trance mechanic. It could be an Individuality mechanic, as it could be designed or flavored to be somewhat self-serving or at least self-contained. And there is a lot of design space, since as DJK said, it can either promote cost reduction (by having anti-haste), or it can give you a bonus.

If we have Merge and Trance as mechanics that go on creatures, we'd need at least a couple more mechanics to go on spells. One idea somewhat inspired by various suggestions throughout the thread would be an ability word mechanic that could go on any kind of noncreature spell: "Forked Path". Each spell would be a mono-colored spell that would have a color-pie fitting effect, and then a triggered second ability associated with each of its allied colors/color pairs. For example:

Underbrush Procession 1GG
Sorcery (C)

Put two 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Forked Path - If you control four or more creatures, creatures you control gain vigilance until end of turn. If you control a creature with power 4 or greater, target creature can't block this turn.

The first trigger condition is G/W themed, and its effect is White. The second trigger condition is G/R themed, and its effect is Red. There is a ton of design space. It's a bit complicated because it has a lot going on, but this example is hopefully simple enough to be a common because each component is very basic. It should be possible to set up trigger conditions that are mutually exclusive, conditions that aren't, conditions that are more likely to be met following the first effect of the spell, conditions that are less likely or impossible, and conditions that are indifferent. The mechanic could also go on enchantments and either grant static effects when met or cause triggers on upkeep.

I like Unity vs. Individuality as the overarching flavor theme/storyline. I wonder if the resolution of the story in the second set could be the full unification of the plane, as Am Shegar and Convoy_Avenger described on the previous page. One thing that's tricky about a story that ends that way is what to do with planeswalkers. Presumably we have to have them, but what happens to them at the end of the story? Do they leave, and if so, does that undermine the idea that the entire plane is unified? If they stay, does planar unification mean they die, and if so, why would they stay? One answer I'm envisioning involves a black planeswalker and a green and/or white one in conflict, with the black walker trying to extract some sort of resources from the plane and the other trying to protect the plane from that. Maybe Liliana and Garruk can continue their conflict. Liliana travels to the plane and imperils its cycle of existence, and Garruk follows to stop her. He emerges victorious by, in an act of self-sacrifice partly owing to his guilt over the whole Chain Veil catastrophe, merging with the plane itself, adding himself to make up for whatever Liliana stole, and reforging the Great Undivided. I'm envisioning a Garruk card in "Pocus" whose ultimate causes him to transform into a bonkers game-ending creature. (I'm not an expert in the game's story to date, so if that doesn't work with where Garruk's character is now, then it could be other, probably new, walkers. I just don't want to do more Gideon. I'm sick of Gideon.)

This is a little bit different approach to getting into (competitive/tournament) Magic: Start with Limited. When I got (back) into playing Magic about 5 years ago, I started by playing Prerelease tournaments and FNM drafts. They're more expensive to enter than a Standard FNM, but you go home with new cards. I started with those sorts of events because I didn't have the cards to build a Standard deck. Limited provides a level playing field with respect to card availability, which is nice when you're just starting out. It's hard to build a Sealed or Draft deck well, and it's a somewhat different skill from building a Standard deck, but people are usually helpful, and it's fun to build brand new decks every week. Over time you build up a collection, including your fair share of valuable rares, and you can use that to build better Standard decks. Plus in Limited you don't get to pick and choose what cards you have, so you have to build whatever deck your cards are conducive to, and that forces you to learn how to build and play all sorts of different decks, which is great for learning the game. There's nothing at all wrong with starting out with Constructed the way you seem to be, I just wanted to offer another suggestion that worked well for me.

Has anyone else tried Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in this shell? I've continued to get good results with the list I posted, with just a couple metagame-related changes. It's grindier than most of the other lists in this thread, kind of like Jeskai Black but without the weakness to big creatures. I'm not running any dragons except for Silumgars in the sideboard, so I don't run Draconic Roar, which is a bummer. I also don't run Deathmist Raptor in spite of Den Protector and Gather the Pack. The upside of all that is that I have no cards maindeck and only 1 card in the side with double-color casting cost. As a result I basically never lose to my own mana as long as I have enough lands and sequence carefully in the early turns. Jace also helps with that. With Jace, Den Protector, Kolaghan's Command, and Gather the Pack there is so much card selection and card advantage that I always have a shot to win a long game. Esper Control is a difficult matchup, but Lumbering Falls and Gaea's Revenge out of the board make it winnable. I'm not going to spam with my updated decklist because it's so close to the previous one, but I can if there's interest.

I've been having a lot of success at the FNM level with a slightly different spin on Temur Black. I built it essentially to beat Jeskai Black and Atarka Red, which it does very well. Atarka Red players despair when they see a Woodland Wanderer (as long as you haven't left them an opportunity to go around it with multiple creatures and then combo you out), and I've had Jeskai Black players say "I don't know how this deck ever wins this matchup." I haven't played much against Abzan or Rally, but the matchups at least don't feel unfavorable, and the deck has a lot of versatility and play. I think it's a bit more of an aggro-control deck than many that have been posted here, because it can switch roles multiple times in a game, making it really interesting to pilot. Its only major problem is that it can't ever win against a hard Esper control deck. I've never played against the more popular Esper Dragons deck; that seems like it should be a better matchup because it has a little less removal and countermagic, and usually no Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. If anyone has tips on beating control, either via maindeck or sideboard, without giving up too much elsewhere, I'd love to hear it. Here's my list: