MTG Salvation

Here it is:
// black

// 60 Maindeck
// 2 Artifact
2 Lashwrithe

// 16 Creature
4 Asylum Visitor
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Gifted Aetherborn
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
1 Hazoret the Fervent

// 5 Instant
4 Fatal Push
1 Kolaghan's Command

// 23 Land
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Graven Cairns
2 Polluted Delta
13 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs

// 4 Planeswalker
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope

// 10 Sorcery
2 Dreadbore
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality


// 15 Sideboard
// 2 Artifact
SB: 2 Ratchet Bomb

// 2 Creature
SB: 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

// 5 Enchantment
SB: 2 Bitterblossom
SB: 3 Blood Moon

// 3 Instant
SB: 2 Rakdos Charm
SB: 1 Kolaghan's Command

// 3 Sorcery
SB: 2 Damnation
SB: 1 Slaughter Games


Gifted aetherborn and gatekeeper have felt like the best 2 cards in the deck. They are so very good at grinding the midgame.

Not to mention we would rather dodge the double black cost of downfall.

Consider dreadbore if you don't like to the slaughter, cheaper and still in our colours.

Okay so after about a month of testing I think this is the list I will be settling on for the Face to Face 3k tournament on March 18th.



Card Choice Reasoning:

-2 Bedlam reveler, +2 stormbreath dragon. I find I am waiting for Bedlam to cost RR way too often and am forced to fire off removal spells or k commands at the wrong time to not lose the cards to the wheel effect. I do like this card and it was a hard toss up, however with the inclusion of spirit guides I find stormbreath just wins more often than bedlam does.

-4 Demigod of Revenge, +4 Pack Rats. They play oddly similarly often able to produce the same amount of damage (or close to) by turn 5. I like the added consistency of Rats and the ability to dump an uncastable kalitas/Lili to make a serious threat. T1 Inq take removal, t2 rat can be very powerful and going all in on rat can sometimes win you games against unprepared players. Also for consistency reasons, sometimes you never see the 5 mana needed for a demigod and its a dead card in your hand whereas stormbreath + rat can at least get you another rat.

-1 Pia, -2 anger of the gods, +3 Simian Spirit Guides. I like T3 bloodmoons and all, but being able to t1 bloodmoon someone, even game 2 when they know to fetch basics can literally just win you the game. I was testing with oona's blackguard one game and I literally beat down with a 1/1 for 20 turns vs a guy locked out of blue/black mana in grixis who never drew a bolt. Simian can also ramp out your dragons and even hit face as a 2/2. It works as a multiplier effect on blood moon. When moon is good simian makes it even better, when its bad, well simian is almost a dead draw. (but at least it can still be a rat/dragon!) In bad moon matchups (RDW) I'd side out the moons and apes for walkers and more interaction probably.

-1 land, +1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Simian allows me to be a bit greedier. A kalitas hitting the board can stonewall so many creature decks and the lifegain is relevant. All around great card that I wanted to see a bit more often.

Sideboard cards are more tuned to the local meta here, people like affinity and elves for some reason. While others are hardcore control players. I may consider putting the extra Kalitas in the board and bringing up another anger if it seems needed.

Further considerations: Terminate vs fatal push. Since my meta is mainly aggro or control (with manlands) I like the 2nd push over the 3rd terminate for situations where I need a clutch flashback looting into push t4. or something like that.

Cockatrice testing: Mainly been playing t2ish decks and a few brews. I have not lost to any brews. Notable loses are to esper control (1 hour long match, probably would have went to time in official tournement.), Tron where I unluckly ran into mana problems both games (also punted by scrying moon to the top after a mull to 6 with 2 guides in hand and fetched turn 1 like an idiot. -____-) Also lost a pair of matches to scapeshift and eldrazi tron.


Notable standout performances:

Flame girl, rats, monkey's, moons and dragons.

Seriously, Chandra is SOO good in some matchup's. If you're durdling around vs her, she can easily generate a ton of value and her ult is pretty much game over if you have any time. Right now I have 2 listed, I may want a second loTV or LtLH but $$$.

Pack Rat wins games. Oh, your running no interaction... lemme just bolt that bird, drop a pack rat, drop a rat, drop a rat, terminate your threat. Oh your dead? oh that was fun!

Blood Moon. Well.. duh I guess. Card is why we are playing this deck.

As stated, T1 blood moon from monkey sacrifice is fun.

Dragon dodges: bolt, push, path, sphere. Dies to: Terminate, dismember. With people cutting terminates for push, this plays RIGHT into dragons... claws? Blocks: junds deck, affinity fliers, abzan's deck, tks, kalitas. notably doesn't block: prime time, reality smasher, gurmag angler. Which really, if these are getting dropped vs me, I have 3 mainboard outs to them soooo odds are your ****ed anyways. Thanks for reading all, suggestions appreciated!

You are correct, I ****ed up thanks for pointing it out. Kalitas is also really good for the deck and I am running 2. survives bolt, lifelink is good, exile clause is relevant. The one thing with the current creature package is I wish we had a way to go a little lower to the ground, something like a 2/3 drop that doesn't die to anger but still synergies.

I have been playing and tuning this deck too for a while now. I don't think you want to run both kalitas and bedlam reveler. Also Kalitas would require a splash into a 3rd colour, something a blood moon deck probably doesn't want to do. Honestly, bedlam is much better in my opinion in this deck then gurmag or khalitas. The tempo gain from the card is really good. A top deck late game bedlam can represent a 2 for 1 which is pretty huge late game. (block a 4/4, cast removal from the 3 cards drawn, ez 2 for 1). Bedlam also helps mitigate dead draws against decks by being able to dump the useless half of our deck. Finally it dodges 3/4 most common removal spells in the format, even while usually costing 2-4 mana. (bolt, abrupt, push, dies to path of course.) Honestly I can't praise this card enough, it plays very well in many matchup's. The only time I would probably bring it out is vs a deck like scapeshift or tron. Our interaction isn't too good vs these types of decks and our clock is far too slow. I would probably go -all revelers, -bolts, -pushs, +land destruction, +thoughtseize, +LotV. Not to mention there is still some residual graveyard hate in the format which while yes, hits both delve and bedlam, at least bedlam's other 2 abilities are still relevant.

TLDR: Bedlam Reveler > delve creatures.

@Montez I'm running 3 moons, 2 chandra. Might want to consider new lili or another fatal push. If you can't/don't want to run 3/4 moons run cards to make the other parts of your deck more consistent.