MTG Salvation

Ballista is rarely if ever a dead draw. Emmy is a brick off the top deck unless you have the combo or close to pulling it together. Ballista also helps clear the board against hate bears, and can also go straight to the face as a work around to Ensnaring Bridge.

With combo picking up a larger portion of the meta, I have personally had issues assembling the combo or grinding it out with some of these combo decks. Has anyone tried or play tested with tutor effects for the combo? I know Trinket Mage was the hotness some time ago, but oftentimes I find that Food Chain or an exiled creature tends to be the issue. A few thoughts come to mind that I plan on play testing:

1. Small white splash for Enlightened Tutor: great value in that it can fetch for Ballista or FC. Shouldn't require a large mana shift. Im thinking a couple of Scrublands or Tundras may do the trick
2. Tolaria West: Granted it doesn't tutor for FC, but I see it as a potential improvement over Trinket Mage. Transmute is an ability not a spell so it can't be countered, can be used on opponents EOT, etc. My issue is the double blue.
3. Spoils from the Vault: its in the BUG color scheme, can get any portion of the combo, can exile Griffins as well.

Thanks all.

Craig Wescoe with DnT seems to be doing well @ GP Louisville. Anyone seen his deck list yet??

Quote from TheMourningstar »

So, as I was trying to fall asleep last night, my mind turned (as it so often does) to deck and sideboard construction. Specifically, I was thinking about Aluren, a deck choice which only seems to be getting more and more popular at my shop. Absent being in possession of a truly nutty hand when they drop the enchantment (had a Recruiter, 2 Revokers and a Flickerwisp last night; wasn't even close to enough), we basically just lose on the spot. Which is not a feeling a like. Trying to come up with solutions, I started thinking back to poor ol' Hushwing Gryff, a card which (understandably) never seems to have gotten much of a try. I recognize that its still all sorts of non-bo with half out deck, but the thing is: once Aluren comes down, none of that matters. And, if we land a Gryff in response to their first Recruiter trigger (and hope that they don't have a second one), then they're just done. There is nothing in the maindeck of a "standard" Aluren list (that I can see, anyhow), that answers it (save Abrupt Decay, I know, but let's hope we either have Mom or that they tapped out). I can also see the card having some utility in the Elves matchup, and lord knows we need all the help we can get, there. Any thoughts?

Mindbreak Trap also works really well.

@Curby, Pontiff is the only black card. My all-in black sources are: 2 * Caverns, 2 * Fetch Lands, 1 * Scrubland, and Aether Vials. You might notice the Magus in there as well. It hasn't back fired on me yet, but yeah I do think I am being greedy. Thinking of cutting the red along with Mangara.

Well count me in as a believer in Pontiff - and the Recruiter toolbox approach for that matter. After a recent spate of losses to Elves and TNN, I was circling around various ideas to combat the TNN scourge, including some old favorites like Holy Light, Zealous Persecution, etc. I decided to try out Pontiff about 2 weeks ago and I am blown away at how versatile this card is. In fact I was just able to pull of a 5-0 run in MTGO and had to run the gauntlet against Elves and a TNN build. My third match was against a Storm player that hit me with Empty the Warrens on T3. On my Turn 4 I hard cast Recruiter and vial in Pontiff to clear the board. Amazing feels. Another signature moment: I hard cast Pontiff against Mentor Miracles (Game 1) to kill a bunch of tokens. Vial in Flickerwisp, on 2nd main targeting Pontiff, EOT Pontiff returns and triggers again to kill Mentor. The bigger revelation for me is that the toolbox approach is actually very good. Not sure about everyone else, but I had a hard time accepting it at first and insisted on playing 2-of for the new toys. One-of actually feels right to me if augmented by at least 3 Recruiters.

A first place finish by DnT. Looks like 2-of for Recruiter / Prelate is working well for some. I personally run 3 and 2, but I may go back down to 2 recruiters. There are times where I want immediate action and recruiter does seem a bit slow. The canonist is a bit unusual but reminds me of when I used to run 2 main deck a few years ago.

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=110253

Not to change the subject too much, but I have been meaning to post some other ideas for some time and havent gotten around to it. Some of my buddies and I were chatting it up on what we consider to be axioms for this deck. One idea that was floated was inserting the Dark Depths combo into the deck as a replacement to the previous beat sticks. It would be uncounterable, and would give us a haymaker that we previously didn't have. We obviously dont interact with lands well as...Lands, and wouldnt be able to recur the combo as they do, but we can protect it better with Mom. Just a thought. Also, this may be heresy, but any thought on replacing the SFM package as well? Please dont kill me on that second question lol.

I just think RIP has become too slow as a useful tool against the Reanimator decks. With a Chancellor effect, you wouldnt be able to get it out until T3 unless you sacrifice a spell to Chancellor. @SwordsToTimeshares made a great point earlier in the thread WRT Deathrite Shaman. I may have overcorrected with 2 * Leyline and 2 * Faeries, so the answer may very well be to go to 6 GY hate pieces. With Leyline, the DRS decks can still feed off your GY, but the effects are diminished if you dont populate your GY with Wastelands and such.

@Ressorius, I dont think you can really play Karakas too early against these decks. If you play it, they will just find a way to get a non-legendary creature out, e.g. Tidespout, Chancellor. IMHO you are better off playing Karakas and forcing them to durdle into a non-legendary creature. One exception for me is Omni-Tell. I do tend to sandbag my Karakas if possible in that matchup. You can drop it into play off Show and Tell if you dont have anything better. Some opponents get greedy and play Emrakul or Griselbrand if you dont have Karakas out.

Top 3 issues for me are DnT hate (-1/-1 effects, Aether Vial shutdown tech, etc), fast combo, and graveyard decks (Dredge, BR Rean). BR Reanimator is especially brutal with Sire as it gets around Karakas and blows up your hand. On T1 it is GG. Therefore, I've dumped RIP in favor of tech that can yield effects on turn 0. Leyline is great as is Faerie (with bonus points for being an activated ability). I went back to Mindbreak Trap for storm, Alluren, Elves, Omni-Tell, etc. There is no better feeling than exiling Emrakul at the end of a long sequence of spells lol. For the anti-DnT enchantments and artifacts, I went back to a classic: Disenchant to combat Engineered Plagues, Dread of Night, Null Rods, etc:

-Ethersworn Canonist * 2
-Mindbreak Trap * 2
-Faerie Macabre * 2
-Leyline of the Void * 2
-Leyline of Sanctity * 2
-Disenchant * 3
-Pithing Needle * 2

My graveyard hate has morphed over time. BR Reanimator is a beast with T1 combo so I've moved away from RIP to Faerie Macabre (tutors well) and Leyline of the Void. Leyline yields more value but can be a dead card if you dont run scrublands. I like either one in my opening hand though. I've found Faerie is also handy against Miracles (flashback).

Hi all, just read the thread from start to finish for kicks lol. The DTT banning was definitely the big bump in the road for this deck. I went on Legacy hiatus for sometime before DTT banning, came back with a focus on DnT, Lands, and Sneak n Show. I'm rotating back to Omni-Tell and from what I have found over the last few weeks is that there really hasn't been a suitable replacement to DTT. I've seen a variety of recent lists going all-in with 4 X Impulse. That seems to work well for me. I've also tried Day's Undoing (ugh don't waste your time), Pieces of the Puzzle (OK), and Lim's Vault. IMHO, Vault seems to be the best option to this point, along with all-in Impulse.

Indeed, that was me! The mirror was interesting. I can attest to the power of Recruiter > Flicker on said Recruiter, etc. That was a very effective play to go wide on the battlefield. I am also firmly in the Recruiter camp as well. Prelate is still a work in progress. I expect opponents to start mixing their removal CMC just to work around her.

See you next go around!

Played small tourney last night. Results were mixed, but I mostly blame pilot error for my losses. New Prelate tech definitely requires some analysis in order to maximize value. Miracles (round 1) is a great example. With Top in play, I bring out Prelate with Caverns to put a threat on the board. Dilemma: do we name 1 or 6? Well, its really a tossup at that point. I name 1, and my opponent manipulates library until he lands terminus. Good part is I had a few turns to get damage in before he could remove Prelate. Game 2 in same match, I Cavern in Prelate before Top is in play naming 1. That is the killer play. Only thing to help Miracles there is to top deck a Terminus. Regardless, I eventually lose, as JTMS came down to unsummon Prelate. Where Prelate was an all-star: a number of Delver matches. Perfect case study was against UR Delver. Putting Prelate into play with CMC 1, my opponents was discarding Brainstorms and Lightning Bolts as they couldnt be casted. Simply unheard of. Prelate single handedly won those games for me. At this point, I am happy with the current list I posted and will refine over time as I get more matches in with this build.

Where do we go from here? Well, IMHO, developing a comprehensive Prelate strategy is what this deck requires at this point.

Hi folks, I've been testing for sometime now with my local group and I thought I'd share my opinion so far. The training wheels are coming off today as we have a regional event tonight and this will be the first evaluation outside of my immediate group. So first, mana acceleration was a no-go for me. I think there have been comments on this already, but my final conclusion is that it is high-risk, med/low-reward to build around. Next, the toolbox approach is nice, but sometimes (especially in my meta) you tend to be a turn behind when recruiting for an answer. One-of's are also tough if they get answered with an exile spell. If you don't have a second copy, you are pretty much screwed.

I also felt that with the toolbox approach, I didn't have enough fire power. Sometimes you just need a beat stick to win the game, and I found myself missing Crusaders and Avengers. As such, this is my final draft list for tonight. The idea is to not muck too much with what has been a very good DnT base. The Recruiter is there to smooth out the edges, not really a forklift makeover of the deck. Prelate and Thalia 2.0 provide some additional mechanics, while Crusader and Avenger bring the beats when needed. Avenger is obviously not tutorable, but helps keep the CMC curve down. Avenger sits in place of 1 Revoker and 1 Mother of Runes. This seems to play well on multiple axis, but tonight will be a good test of the list. Any insightful analysis is always appreciated! Oh yeah, IMHO, the only "untouchable" creature in our original shell is Thalia 1.0. Always want to draw her early on or opening hand. No Recruiter can help you there so we need 4:

Lands
-1 Land Tax (23rd Land)
-9 Plains
-3 Karakas
-2 Cavern of Souls
-4 Rishadan Port
-4 Wasteland

Spells
-4 Aether Vial
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Umezawa’s Jitte
-1 Sword of Fire and Ice
-1 Batterskull

Creatures
-3 Mother of Runes
-4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
-3 Stoneforge Mystic
-3 Phyrexian Revoker
-3 Flickerwisp
-2 Recruiter of the Guard
-2 Sanctum Prelate
-2 Mirran Crusader
-2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
-2 Serra Avenger