MTG Salvation

In a pauper cube, I'd prioritize cards that will increase complexity in the game as much as possible, especially when a lot of post-NWO cards are included. IMHO pauper's biggest setback is samey games of simple Magic that don't entice veteran players for very long.

To that end, let's evaluate these cards:

Coastline Chimera does not synergize with your plans for Azorius very well. It's expensive and doesn't attack well, which means it doesn't orient well with tempo at all. Not to mention utilizing its ability requires slowing yourself down a lot, which is inherently non-tempo. Finally, I'd contend mono-color cards with off-color activated abilities aren't great to slot as multicolor cards, because a lot can just get inserted into other decks, which means they don't act as good methods to push people into those color combos (which is generally the purpose of a multicolor card).

Deputy of Acquittals, on the other hand, is awesome, tempo-y, and leads to more interesting gameplay decisions. I'd put this one in.

Dramatic Rescue seems okay, but underwhelming compared to Boomerang. Two points of lifegain seems unlikely to matter most of the time, and not being able to bounce non-creatures cuts its utility a lot. But if you need more bounce slots, I guess it's alright?

Ethercaste Knight seems awesome. 1/3 for 2 isn't great, but he'll frequently attack as a 2/4 which is pretty solid, and tossing an extra point of damage to fliers seems excellent. Exalted is not a complex mechanic, but it adds a lot of interest into combat decisions, which makes it a pretty solid contender. I'd also recommend looking into some of the white, blue, and maybe green exalted dudes for extra spice.

Feeling of Dread seems boring. Generic tapping (rather than freezing) seems underwhelming, even if you get to tap 4 things. Especially if you're in a color combo where you'll have fliers or vigilance creatures, this seems less important. Also, has same problem as Coastline Chimera on the "not really a multicolor slot".

Momentary Blink is awesome, and I'd recommend it, but I'd probably call it a white slot. Either that, or put in a cycle of ally (or all 2-color) cards where you get a bonus for having both colors.

Offering to Asha and Overrule are effectively the same card. I'd say if you're looking for a tempo strategy, Offering to Asha is better. Overrule is better if you go for a slower, control-oriented strategy. Both seem like solid cards, but I would probably only include one.

Plumes of Peace is awesome for the reasons you described, and is actually kind of a bomb. Definitely feels like a solid multicolor inclusion card.

Silver Drake: Yay, more gating!

Steel of the Godhead is a bomb, but hybrid is similar to mono-color with off-color activation. If you put in hybrid here, I'd recommend having a cycle for your other color combos as well for balance.

I don't see how Keranos would be anything other than a win-more. If you've got the game locked up well enough that you can afford several turns of revealing non-land cards to bolt them, you probably don't need a win-con outside milling at all.

The only reason I run Tezzeret is so I can get the game over with against a deck that may be able to come back. For example, Tron sticking Eye of Ugin can give them a turn or two to escape the lock, which can completely kill our deck if they search up Ulamog or shuffle into an Oblivion Stone. Although it's unlikely that this happens, it can and has happened to me. I run Tezzeret exclusively to avoid these scenarios because I find it safer to get the game over with than to have it drag on.

So, if you're talking replacing Tezzeret either put in more proactive disruption (which Keranos is not), or replace him with another flat out win-next-turn-if-not-right-now effect. Anything in between would be a waste.

Quick note on Bitter Ideal: note that gravestorm does not count cards you mill - only permanents that were already in play.

If we're talking cheap draw spells: thoughtcast? Doesn't work turn 1, and only rarely on turn 2, but honestly most games I don't think I'd like to cast anything like that until turns 3+ anyway. Setting up the combo is much more important.

Spage: Sounds like I've just benefitted from a fairly combo and Tron heavy meta. I'll toy around with a fetchless manabase next week, and see if it still holds up.

Just a note, though: why would you be concerned about blanking on path? Why would you have creatures to begin with?

EDIT: had forgotten Spellskite, whoops.

Quick note on the charge counter package: Tendo Ice Bridge doesn't actually synergize with any of the charge counter enablers you mentioned, since it isn't an artifact.

EDIT: Just a thought, would Mirrodin's Core perhaps be better? You don't get the charge counter on the first turn it comes in, but it seems like it would be frequently the case that at least one land could be left untapped on a turn.

On the fetchless manabase: I'm finding this to be much less consistent than with fetch lands. Is the loss of life really that significant in most games? I rarely use more than one fetch land, and even if I use two that's at worst hitting me for 6, more commonly for 4 since at least one of those shocks can come in tapped without a problem. That said, I don't have too many aggressive decks floating around my meta that aren't shut down by a timely Ensnaring Bridge. Which matchups are the fetches proving to be a problem for?

Quote from zerodown

Why Drownyard over Duskmantle, House of Shadow? Costs 1 less. Duskmantle is a fixer while Nephalia is a miller, you have to consider the "unknown" factor of Nephalia. With duskmantle you know what you are milling, with nephalia you could mill the top card, but what if the other 2 cards had flashback? or dredge? or anything of the sort?

Flashback and dredge seem like minimal considerations here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the only relevant flashback spell is Ancient Grudge, and milling that is infinitely better than letting them draw it and use it twice. With Dredge I could see the argument, but they'll be milling themselves out so Nephalia still seems like the superior option.

Good luck at Richmond, Gnarlfist. Match reports after would be awesome!

I've been fiddling with this deck for a few weeks now, pretty excited about the idea. Having a bit of difficulty getting consistent results, but I expect it will get better when I have a bit more experience with the deck, and have a chance to fine tune the list.

Match notes for last night's Modern event:

Round 1: vs Faeries
I was surprised, but this match up was actually quite easy. Play around what little counter magic they have in their opening hand, and keeping them off any creatures or significant counter magic after that is not hard. Once is down, they basically just lose, save sideboard artifact hate.
Game 1 - Win
Basically this came down to my opponent not knowing what to expect. didn't get countered, nor did . By the time he realized what was going on, he already had half his creatures milled, and drew only lands for 7 turns in a row. Milled him out in short order.
Game 2 - Win
This was a brutal turn two: he dropped T2 , which I promptly responded to with and . Established the combo on turn 3, and stuck a in the late game for the win.

Round 2: BG Homebrew something?
This guy was playing his pet BG deck, which predominantly consisted of Theros block cards. He had no outs to , and didn't really do anything until turn 3 each game, so I was pretty much guaranteed the win.

Round 3: RG Beatdown something
I'm not sure what this deck was - possibly another homebrew. All I know was there were 4 , 4 , 'Goyf, and . This was a rough matchup: Moon wrecked at least my version, since I had no basics whatsoever, and I'd cut red in favor of blue, giving me no outs.
Game 1 - Loss
I managed to stick an on T3, but he stuck a on T3, leaving me with and trapped in my hand, and letting him get through for 6 damage once he put down the Hydra. There was really nothing I could do, other than luck out on drawing a , draining my hand, and killing the that could still attack. Needless to say, that didn't happen.
Game 2 - Loss
Although I managed to T1 discard his only , he managed to get an which killed my , and stuck me on 2 land for far too long. Didn't manage to stabilize before he just brought the beats with the Hydra again.

Match 4: Bu 8-Rack
Basically, this was 8-Rack with tossed in. Possibly some blue things in the side as well, not really sure. Anyway, this seemed like a good match up, but it heavily depends on never EVER letting them stick any of , because you'll just be losing 3 every turn.
Game 1 - Loss
He managed to stick a rack, and I didn't really have any main board answers. If that weren't there I would have decidedly beaten him: both and were named by , I had the lock active, and his deck was actually quite low. But I wasn't fast enough to beat the clock.
Game 2 - Win
I managed to shut off both and Liliana with again, kept him off any Racks, and popped Tezzeret's ultimate before he had time to deal with it.
Game 3 - Loss
Third verse, same as the first. Keep them off their Racks: you're golden. Otherwise, you'll be hurting.


All in all, I feel like the deck performed pretty well, excluding the RG match up. seems like a big problem, and I'm not really sure how this deck consistently handles that (other than maybe putting in some basics, which would be really unfortunate). If you're playing red, shouldn't be a problem, you just need a . However, the enchantment is still pretty harsh to deal with.

Here's the decklist I'm playing right now. I'm still fiddling with color choices, and it's a bit budget (still need to pick up a fourth and , for example), so it's a bit off for now. Seems pretty good regardless, and with some fine tuning it should be a strong deck.



Edit: screwed up a few numbers

I think an important question has been glossed over in this conversation: did any of the players in the tournament actually seem upset by this? If 50% of the participants are playing one of these decks, it suggests to me that they played the game they were interested in playing.

It's possible this isn't the case - maybe everyone showed up with Hermit Druid / ANT because they felt it was strong in the format, and they were just playing what they felt would win them the game - but I wouldn't go around making house bans without, y'know, consulting the house.

Quote from Agezeta

Has anyone thought of using Cloud Key" target="blank">Cloud Key instead of Goblin Electromancer" target="blank">Goblin Electromancer?

Pros:
-Harder to hate
-Easier to cast (3 instead of UR)
Cons:
-1 cmc higher
-If you choose instants, Past in Flames" target="blank">Past in Flames and Grapeshot" target="blank">Grapeshot are left out.

UR is way easier to cast than 3 - getting your colors in this deck shouldn't be a problem.

I'll admit it is harder to hate out, but the fact that you have to wait a turn or waste another mana on it on the turn you try to storm out is a pretty major thumbs down in my book.

Quote from Galspanic

Nobody does this. I don't know why this argument keeps coming up again and again but nobody does this. Sometimes the game stalls because they are bad players or it doesn't work out how they wanted, but what you are describing is typical anti-social bull**** behavior - Jokulhaups isn't the issue, typical anti-social bull**** behavior is.

I've had a few people play land destruction that don't really get how to use it effectively. EG: the guy who plays Zur, gets a bunch of enchantments onto him, THEN casts Cataclysm just to end up throwing most of what he's gotten away, and typically putting himself behind. That kind of play can get somewhat aggravating over time, even if it isn't intentionally anti-social.

That said, I support land destruction wholeheartedly. Especially in a format like EDH, uprooting the presumption that your lands are a given, and the only obstacle between you and your silly 9-drops is enough time to get 9 land out, is very important to the health of the metagame.

Goblin Game is awesome. Played it off the top with Melek once and took an opponent from 40 to 5.

In general, I think this card is best suited in a suicide burn deck like Kaervek or Heartless Hidetsugu, but it's amusing in just about any scenario.

IMO land destruction is as viable a strategy as any other, and I've grown sick of people whining about it in my local meta. My favorite deck to play right now is my Grand Arbiter Augustin IV prison build, because it leads to a long, control-based game. I'm constantly surprised how little control really shows up in EDH.

That said, I've grown to realize that LD doesn't work as a counter to ramp, really. I used to think that wrathing the ramper's lands would be similar to wrathing the sliver guy's creatures, but it really doesn't end up working out that way most of the time.

I don't know that you can ever claim that spot removal is "card disadvantage" just because you're playing in a multiplayer game - it may not be the best way to spend your resources in a lot of situations, but it's also not like Vindicate is just pitching one of your cards with zero effect to the board.

IMO, running a bit of spot removal is generally a good idea. It has to be really good to get my attention (Beast Within is on the low end of the curve for me), but it's still usually pretty good. Plus, if you're playing Red, then Radiate turns any spot removal spell into an instant speed wrath - seems good to me.

Quote from coredumperror

I think the templating is appropriate. Similar cards like Living Terrain and the Zendicons use "Enchanted thingy is a Subtype type" (the same as "Forest land"), which is just how Take Root is worded.

Just re-read Life and Limb, and that is how it would be templated. I guess it just sounds weird because it's such an uncommon effect.

Great card, though, by the way. Does feel like a cool, green way to do O-Ring.