MTG Salvation

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Deck Construction
• Creatures
• Planeswalkers
• Spells
• Lands
3. Decklist Template
4. Sideboard Options
5. Tips and Tricks
6. Changelog

Overview

Welcome to Gideon's Pacts, this deck is a mix between aggro and control which is not normally seen. It gives you high flexibility and many different decisions can be made when playing. The high flexibility of this deck is offered through a great Toolbox of spells for different types of encounters. Players who choose to pilot this deck will notice that its not an easy deck and some dicissions can cost you the game. So you will have to play a few games before you get confortable with it. Playing this deck will definetly make you enjoy the game a bit more, the stacks can become quite complex in some games and games can sometimes be quite challenging but at the same time very rewarding.

The deck's play style in a way is very similar to Modern's Jund or Junk but it comes with its own twist. Unlike other decks out there we have access to different types of Pacts which makes our deck very resilient againts different types of decks out there. We basically have 0 costing counters, removal and even creatures out our disposal and all of that at instant speed which many decks have a hard time to deal with. Those spells originaly all have pretty massive drawbacks but in our deck we have the opportunity to ignore them.
The main objective while playing this deck is to get a Gideon on the board and set up our Emblem. Once that is established it becomes pretty easy to control the state of the board. Gideon's third ability lets us survive through the drawbacks of our Pacts which makes some of our hands incredibly good.

Creatures

Dark Confidant

Dark Confidant, as seen in Jund decks is the best source of card advantage in the format. Having a strong source of card advantage in this particular deck is phenomenal. On top of that he is also a creature that can be used to attack or block if necessary. What makes our Dark Confidants better then all other decks that all our spells are under 3 mana and good portion of them are Pacts that cost 0. Once you have a Gideon out with an Emblem you can have a full playset on the battlefield without ever worring about the life loss.

Spellskite

Spellskite is one of the best cards for t1his deck. It really shines in niche interactions like stealing enchantments, retargeting trigger effects, absorbing damage and spells. Helps to protect Gideon and is something that the opponent will have to remove at somepoint because once we have an Emblem on the board we can use the redirect ability as much as we want until we reach 0.

Monastery Mentor

Monastery Mentor is very strong in this deck. It spits out tokens with every spell and can deal quite a bit of damage on his own. A lot of players criticize Mentor as too fragile, yes he dies to Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Path to Exile and many other removal spells but so do most of the other 3 or less drop. In this deck we actually have quite a bit of advantage over other builds because we have quite a few 0 cost spells and most of the time we can pump him or counter the spell that targets him even when tapped out. If a Mentor can survive on the battlefield for a turn or two its pretty much game over.

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Planeswalkers

Gideon of the Trials

Gideon of the Trialsis very strong in this deck. It spits out tokens with every spell and can deal quite a bit of damage on his own. A lot of players criticize Mentor as too fragile, yes he dies to Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Path to Exile and many other removal spells but so do most of the other 3 or less drop. In this deck we actually have quite a bit of advantage over other builds because we have quite a few 0 cost spells and most of the time we can pump him or counter the spell that targets him even when tapped out. If a Mentor can survive on the battlefield for a turn or two its pretty much game over.

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Spells

Pact of Negation

Pact of Negation is an amazing counter spell during the first game opponents will never see it coming since you can freely tap out and still cast it if needed. Games after the first the opponent will always be second guessing themselves before casting their spells. Once we establish a Gideon on the board if these Pacts become better than Force of Wills since they we dont need to pay life, they cost 0 and we dont need to exile extra cards to cast them.

Slaughter Pact

Slaughter Pact kills almost all problematic creatures, ambushes all-in players and it’s also great source of protection for Gideon. It also has the least drawback cost to pay out of all our Pacts.

Pact of the Titan

Pact of the Titan is a great card that lets us summon a 4/4 creature at instant speed. With this we can either apply preasure or use it on the deffensive. It has a 5 mana drawback but with Angel's Grace or a Gideon Emblem we are not worried about it.

Angel's Grace

Angel’s Grace is a great card during hard times. You use it either when you are loosing, saves you from played Pacts during early turns when you don't have a Gideon on the board. Not only does it let you live another turn but it also has split second which means it can't be countered by other spells and you opponents can't cast spells in response to kill you.

Spoils of the Vault

Spoils of the Vault is the best tutor for this deck, it can fetch anything at instant speed for only 1 mana . Even though you can't use this all the time because you will simply die, its simply great when you have a Gideon Emblem. With this tutor you can fetch simply anything you want just make sure you still have it in your library.

Thoughtseize

Thoughtseize is the best tutor for this deck, it can fetch anything at instant speed for only 1 mana . Even though you can't use this all the time because you will simply die, its simply great when you have a Gideon Emblem. With this tutor you can fetch simply anything you want just make sure you still have it in your library.

Path to Exile

Path to Exile is the best tutor for this deck, it can fetch anything at instant speed for only 1 mana . Even though you can't use this all the time because you will simply die, its simply great when you have a Gideon Emblem. With this tutor you can fetch simply anything you want just make sure you still have it in your library.

Surgical Extraction

Surgical Extraction is the best tutor for this deck, it can fetch anything at instant speed for only 1 mana . Even though you can't use this all the time because you will simply die, its simply great when you have a Gideon Emblem. With this tutor you can fetch simply anything you want just make sure you still have it in your library.

Chromatic Sphere

Chromatic Sphere is the best tutor for this deck, it can fetch anything at instant speed for only 1 mana . Even though you can't use this all the time because you will simply die, its simply great when you have a Gideon Emblem. With this tutor you can fetch simply anything you want just make sure you still have it in your library.

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Lands

Fetchlands

For starters, you will need some Marsh Flats and Bloodstained Mires as those two are both in our main colours. The fetchlands help fix your mana tremendously and also it allows you to play around Blood Moon type effects in some specific matchups. You can use off color fetches too if you are in a pinch, such as Windswept Heath, Verdant Catacombs, etc., but it will be much harder to fetch basics in some games.

Shocklands

The shocklands of course are there to compliment the fetchlands . Godless Shrine, Sacred Foundry and Blood Crypt are obviously our shocklands of choice here. The number of each depends on your build but playing 5 in total should be more then enough. Whichever color is heaviest, you will want to run more of the appropriate lands. In most builds of this deck, black and white are the most important colors because of our turn one Thoughtseizes and Gideon which requires WW. Because of this you should probably run at least two Godless Shrines and one Blood Crypt. Knowing the proper number of shock lands to use in your deck will take some time and practice to figure out for yourself.

Basics

It is very important to play Plains and Swamps. A lot of commonly played cards such as Path to Exile, Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge, Blood Moon etc.. force you to have basic lands in your deck. The more basics you can have, the better, but as a 3 color deck, we do need our fixing. That said, most people run between 3 and 5 basics. Again, you will use a higher number of the more demanding colors, which is usually black in our case.

Utility Lands

Ghost quarter are not always necessary but in some match ups they will be key for victory. They are great against manlands, scapeshift and Tron lands. You can even sometimes use them to remove basic lands in decks that run very few.

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