MTG Salvation

Hey folks, thanks for your continued support and interest in the deck! I'm very very pleased to see these modern masters spoilers. Holy mother of god! Should make this deck a bit more affordable.

Sky God, thanks for answering questions in my absence. I agree with what you've said I will consider making a video for the deck.

Hey there! Glad you liked my build. I think you are headed in the right direction with yours, but I have a few suggestions.

I feel you are too heavy on the stax cards. In my experience stax actually isn't a very viable strategy in multiplayer for the simple reason that you'll get hated out in subsequent games. People don't like not being able to play their decks. Aurelia can't handle the heat that a blue deck might be able to. I would downsize the stax theme considerably keeping things like Cataclysm, Winter Orb, Armageddon, and Stranglehold that are efficiently costed and/or tutorable. You'll also discover over time that having too many stax cards is less than ideal because they are very situational. You'll often find yourself in a spot where they aren't the best thing to put down, being dead weight in your hand.

The second issue I'm seeing is your lack of a draw engine. Mind's Eye and Wheel of Fortune aren't enough. Lack of card advantage is the biggest weakness of Boros IMO. The only real answer here is Skullclamp and maybe Mask of Memory. In more competitive circles you'll quickly notice your lack of card draw. Once your board is wiped you're pretty much done, forced to top deck for the rest of the game. You'll be looking for answers. I largely built Warclamp around Skullclamp for this reason, hence the token subtheme. Token armies are also a pretty good way to re-establish your board position after a wrath. With things like Purphoros, God of the Forge, and Sublime Archangel, things can get pretty crazy.

Additionally, Breath of Fury has become a reliable win condition with this strategy. It's tutorable, and able to kill people without even going infinite. Along this same vein, Splinter Twin does similar things.

The best token makers in Boros are: Hero of Bladehold, Monastery Mentor, Krenko, Mob Boss, Goblin Rabblemaster, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, and Emeria Angel. What do these all have in common? They are aggressively costed creatures that produce creature tokens for free. Preference is given to creatures that combo with Breath of Fury for infinite damage/tokens/combat phases.

A card that I'm giving a a good run is Shivan Harvest. Works well with tokens. It's less hated than some of the more iconic stax cards but still gives you the ability to keep your opponents under control.

You are relying pretty heavily on Aurelia. After she get's knocked out a few times, 10 or 12 mana is a lot to recast her. Boros has a pretty hard time getting those kind of numbers. Since a lot of your mana makers are creatures, they are likely be nuked by a wrath along with Aurelia which is why I've avoided them. I don't think this glass cannon approach is the most ideal strategy with her. I find she is best cast when you already have a solid board, putting things like Sword of the Animist and Krenko, Mob Boss into overdrive.


It's pretty much impossible to do Boros without an equipment theme. You are well on your way but you are missing Stoneforge Mystic, Puresteel Paladin, Sword of the Animist, and Umezawa's Jitte all of which I think are well worth the slots. I also like Blade of Selves and the new Open the Armory (also tutors Grasp of Fate, Breath of Fury, and Splinter Twin). Maybe the best thing about equipment is that they are harder to get rid of than creatures. Almost every deck packs creature wipes, but there are fewer artifact wipes out there. You can put down a new creature, suit up and still be a potent threat at the table.

I'm not hot on Mana Vault and friends because we have no cheaty way to untap them. They only produce colorless so their usefulness is a bit limited. They are basically a Dark Ritual in artifact form. Multiplayer is more about sustainability rather than those burst wins for the simple reason that those kind of wins are easy to shut down with cheap spot removal and counterspells. With 3 opponents your chances aren't so great of pulling that kind of thing off.

For ramp, I'm finding that things like Ashnod's Altar (there's nothing like saccing 10 tokens and killing someone with Aurelia's Fury >:P), Explorer's Scope, Paradise Mantle, Sword of the Animist, and Oath of Lieges can be really synergistic.


This is the current iteration of Warclamp as of Shadows Over Innistrad, I'm pretty happy with it.

Wow, Nahiri, the Harbinger and Odric, Lunarch Marshal look fantastic.

I apologize for my long absence. Busy busy busy.

My aversion to planeswalkers in this deck remains. Flamecaller doesn't appeal to me because of the mana investment. I'm more inclined to swap in an additional counterspell or cheap draw spell.

I don't have an answer yet for the combo/control conundrum. I hope to attend some tournaments soon and have something a little more substantial to say based on experience. But what I'm gathering is "why run Firemind if you aren't running the associated combos?" Great question!

It sounds like running Firemind as our commander makes a non-combo build difficult due to excess hate which I totally understand, and there are definitely other less assuming izzet commanders out there now more suited to a late game control approachJori En, Ruin Diver being foremost in my mind for efficiency. Arjun, the Shifting Flame is also intriguing to me because he's spot on theme. I'll probably pick up a few of these cards and give em a run. Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is also pretty solid IMO if you want to stick with ole Nivvy.

There are a lot of options here, and I think the right one depends on your personal preferences. I have a lot of loyalty to Firemind for sentimental reasons and I just love the elegance of his ability. With a lot new cards out there now, I'm curious to see what happens next.

Thanks for the review of Ivory Tower. I tend to agree with you but I will need to test it more. What do you guys think of Basilisk Collar instead? Besides being a source of a potentially ridiculous amount of lifegain it can be a nasty removal engine. Don't forget we can equip it to Trinket Mage!!

I guess you mean Mizzix of the Izmagnus. While I like the concept, it doesn't speak to me. As competitive as I am, flavor is a driving factor.

I find that with the mid range control build I'm casting Niv a bit more often and whittling away at people. And he's actually a pretty nice removal engine if you can get him to stick. If you want to commit to that route you could add Lightning Greaves and Basilisk Collar or even Clout of the Dominus. But my real answer is that I would still never use another commander for this deck. I love the way that Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind flawlessly represents what this deck does. And Mindmoil is honestly a pretty solid win con with Niv. If I can't get Niv to stick, there's always Inner Fire/Comet Storm.

Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is worth some consideration though because he's better in a vacuum, i.e. if you have an empty hand. I would likely keep Dracogenius in my "sideboard" to use if I felt like it. He "draws" less hate because he's harder to combo with.

I'm very very happy to see Monastery Mentor printed. This deck really needed another high caliber token producer.

Another card I'm overjoyed with is Sword of the Animist.

Blade of Selves is... interesting.

I've been playing the deck a lot lately and I'll be overhauling this list soon. Stay tuned.

Swan Song is quite good. I think it deserves a spot over Flusterstorm for versatility and reliability.

Mindmoil will probably stay in because it gives me some resiliency to my opponents' combo-control strategies.

I'm on the fence with Jar and Eye. Eye is vastly inferior to Rhystic Study or Consecrated Sphinx but it still works. I don't think it's really much better than Reforge the Soul, and certainly not better than the Future Sight/Top combo.

benjameenbear, thanks for your suggestions. I don't think the Azami package is the path I want to take. It may very well work in a more creature-centric build like your Memnarch but I want this deck to be primarily non-creature based because I'm trying to optimize synergy with my instant/sorcery tutors and recursion cards. I like that Evacuation and All is Dust rarely hurt me. As far as non instant/sorcery based card draw is concerned, things like Mind's Eye, Rhystic Study, Memory Jar and the Future Sight/Sensei's Divining Top combo are more attractive to me because they are less susceptible to removal and generally more tutorable.

I don't feel that Vedalken Shackles is optimal for the deck. As is, I've only got 6 islands. In mono blue, I'd absolutely use it but here I'm skeptical.


WumpaWolfy My paper deck is currently lacking Show and Tell, Snapcaster Mage, Intuition, Personal Tutor, Omniscience, Force of Will, Diamond Mox, Grim Monolith, all the fetchlands... basically everything over $20 a pop. I don't really believe in proxies. I typically buy maybe one high dollar card a month. I've got 2 other decks, so the upgrade process is slow due to budget concerns (a guy can't eat magic cards). I recently bought a Temporal Mastery and a Cryptic Command for Niv.

Glokks One of things I really don't like about Omniscience and Enter the Infinite is how terrible they are to have in my opening hand due to their cost and exclusively late game value. I'd rather have an answer.




Jester's Cap effects is something that the mid range control version of the deck could probably benefit from. Extract doesn't hit has hard as Jester's Cap but is much more efficient. Consider that Cap takes 6 to use. by the time I have that much mana available the game might already be over.

Not sure if I like Wash Out or Devastation Tide more. What do you think? I'm a huge fan of selective board wipes at efficient costs. Tide is more of a hard reset and therefore a bit more reliable in dire situations.

I'm still on the fence with Mindmoil. I like how it's just an old fashioned win condition with the possibility of going infinite. If Inner Fire/Comet Storm is not available, it's nice to know I have a solid backup. However, my previous arguments against it remain.

Helm of Awakening is most likely coming out. I honestly don't really need it for the Top/Future Sight combo. "1: Draw a card." is already really good. The benefit the helm gives to my opponents isn't worth it IMO. It's laughable alongside Rhystic Study. I think Gilded Lotus is going to come back in this spot.


I'm a bit undecided on whether to swap out Tolarian Winds or Reforge the Soul. I think I need to keep at least one so that I can reliably fill my graveyard with recursion options. (Imagine dumping 10+ cards into your yard only to overload Mizzix's Mastery a turn later!)


This next batch of swaps is going to require a complete overhaul of the primer. I'm a lazy dragon and that's a daunting task, but here's updated swaps list for starters. What do you think?

-1 Thought Reflection +1 Alhammerret's Archive - I've already made this swap in the primer if you've noticed. Cut and dry.

-1 Helm of Awakening +1 Gilded Lotus - mana superiority is going to be more important than this combo. Going more mid-range control, my average cmc can stand to be increased a bit.


-1 Omniscience +1 Rebuild - I needed a solid answer for artifacts. Most competitive blue decks rely heavily upon them. The fact that this has cycling is superb.


-1 Reforge the Soul +1 Tezzeret the Seeker - I decided to keep Fabricate as I'm so heavy on artifacts and many of them tend to be crucial combo pieces. I'm leaning away from handcycling as I'd more often rather have a fat hand.

-1 Chaos Warp +1 Mystic Confluence - This one is a no brainer I think. Mystic Confluence is really good.

-1 Recoup +1 Mizzix's Mastery - Mizzix's Mastery is definitely going in, I'm just not 100% on what to swap it for. Recoup's limit on sorceries is a bit annoying and I'm reluctant to swap out either Call to Mind or Mystic Retrieval because they work so well. They are more mana friendly because I don't have to cast the recurred card immediately.

-1 Mox Opal +1 Ivory Tower - Shifting to more of a mid range combo/control build requires some lifegain IMO

-1 Show and Tell +1 Forbid - with the hand fattening approach Forbid becomes a lot more viable, especially with Dream Halls in play. Show and Tell is cheaty situational early win material.

-1 Curiosity +1 Extract - I'm going to need more answers for my opponent's combos. Outright exiling them from their libraries seems the most direct approach. Extract is the most efficient option and can be recurred.

-1 Enter the Infinite +1 Counterflux - I needed an uncounterable counterspell for those occasional counter spell wars. I like Counterflux because it's got better utility than most run of the mill 3 cmc counterspells.

What I still want to find room for: Leyline of Anticipation, Day's Undoing, Memory Jar, Devastation Tide.

I'm considering taking this deck in a new direction.

The more I play, the more I find myself favoring late game control than the early game win. I find casting the removal and control spells more enjoyable than the cheaty game winners like Show and Tell and Curiosity. This is largely due to the multiplayer environment where diplomacy often wins more games than your turn 2 or 3 infinite combo.

This is because 1. As much as I enjoy winning ultra early from time to time, other people do not enjoy losing to these kind of wins.

2. when people are aware that my library contains infinite combos and other very degenerate synergies they are much more likely to try to hate me out of the game early. The game becomes for me, "win super early or die horribly"

3. I get a kick out of stopping someone else's "unstoppable" deck A LOT. There's nothing like casting a turn 1 Mindbreak Trap or Force of Will to stop someone from comboing out. Some hyper competitive builds just don't recover from that.

4. The longer control oriented game seems to be the safer and more competitive route to take anyway because I often find myself scarce a counter or a removal spell when I need it most. As long as I control the board, I control the game - it doesn't matter how late I win. I actually enjoy watching other decks play out and do their thing a bit before destroying them

With that said the following cards are inching their way to the chopping block:

Curiosity - It's a dead card without Niv in play. I hate that. And let's face it, nobody likes to see this card. It feels like a hollow win when I can pull it off. Often, i find myself cycling it away. I would almost always rather have a counter in my hand.

Show and Tell - It's obvious that Omniscience is the best thing to put down with this, and I can tutor for it pretty early with Long-Term Plans but it's an ugly play. While Show and Tell can be fun for other players and occasionally backfires in interesting ways - it's ultimately very much a win-early kind of card that draws hate.

Enter the Infinite - This is a stupid card. I wish this had never been printed. It's bad to have in my opening hand but well worth it if I can cast it for free later on. I despise cards that say "I win" so blatantly without intelligence, planning, or synergy behind it. Bad card design.

Dream Halls or Omniscience - out of these two, Omniscience would likely come out first because 1. Its cost is horrendous and 2. It's just as stupid as Enter the Infinite, and by that I mean it takes no intelligence to play effectively. Dream Halls at least makes the game more interesting for everyone at the table.

Temporal Manipulation, Time Warp, Temporal Mastery - I'm actually considering swapping these for control. The extra turn cards fit in more with the win early strategy and they cost more than I'd like. I get tired of seeing people roll their eyes at these cards.



What would I slot in? Well, I've been thinking I need to maindeck some artifact hate. Once again blue offers us superior options in Hurkyl's Recall and Rebuild. Non-targeted and they ignore indestructibility. I can also tutor for them with Merchant Scroll. Each of these has significant perks. Hurkyl's Recall is much more flexible mainly in that I don't have to bounce my own stuff if I don't want to (sometimes I'd want to with stuff like Mana Vault and Sol Ring or even Alhammaret's Archive.) The cycling ability on Rebuild is just fantastic and sometimes the global effect is preferable.

I want to bring in at least 2 or 3 new counterspells. Flusterstorm is definitely on my radar. As is Swan Song, Forbid, Foil, Arcane Denial, Negate Misdirection, Counterflux, and Venser, Shaper Savant.

Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast are hilarious and awesome and I'd like to see them maindecked.


Leyline of Anticipation of course is perpetually on my maybe list. Day's Undoing gave me a little more motivation to run it. I know it's not a 3 mana Time Stop but it's still an instant speed Timetwister. It fits in well with my new late game control strategy.


What do you think?

I don't include Niv-Mizzet in the decklist so there should only be 99. I'm not sure what happened to Sapphire Medallion but I think I'm going to leave it out for now. We really want to be getting Helm of Awakening into play since it's a piece of our infinite draw combo.

I'm reconsidering Archaeomancer and Venser, Shaper Savant. I still really like the interaction they have with Evacuation and Riptide Laboratory. Need to do more testing. I will be entering into some commander tourneys soon so I will get the opportunities I need to hone this deck.

Thanks again for all your support and suggestions!

I feel that 3 is enough. They all cost 5 mana or more and therefore not perfect cards for my opening hand. I prefer my spells to be good early, mid, AND late game. I've been running Temporal Trespass in my paper deck and I like it a lot but I've got Temporal Manipulation slotted in the primer now because it's a bit more consistent and can be recurred. The recursion cards mean I can chain Time Warps pretty reliably if I need to later in the game.

Thanks guys for the suggestions! I'm always open to improvements. And thanks for taking a look at my custom cards! They are a lot of fun.

I dig your logic with Alhammarret's Archive. I think that one's a done deal.

Vedalken Shackles - I really tend to lean toward instant and sorcery based removal since they work so well with my recursion cards. I also prefer sweepers since they are more efficient and non-targeted. Cyclonic Rift is the epitome of what I'm looking for in a removal spell, at least for this deck. It's so good I'm surprised it hasn't been banned yet. *knocks on wood* For those reasons Propaganda is probably not worth considering either.

I want to like Mizzium Mortars, but again, next to Cyclonic Rift it's lackluster at that mana cost. Blasphemous Act or Devastation Tide will almost always be better because of the efficiency - even though the reduced costs are not guaranteed.


Dack Fayden is worth a try. The artifact theft is actually worth 1UR. I have a prejudice against planeswalkers as you may have noticed, sometimes unfounded, other times absolutely justified. I don't like them for a lot of reasons. They don't work well with my tutor and recursion cards.

Ok, here's some tentative swaps:

-1 Thought Reflection +1 Alhammerret's Archive - No brainer. Archive has a lot going for it.

-1 Mindmoil +1 Memory Jar - With the artifact tutors, I think I can make Memory Jar work well for me. I will miss the flashiness of Mindmoil and I might slot it back in at some point, but for now Memory Jar I think is the better choice.

-1 Tolarian Winds +1 Tezzeret the Seeker - I decided to keep Fabricate as I'm so heavy on artifacts and many of them tend to be crucial combo pieces. I'm leaning away from handcycling as I'd more often rather have a fat hand.

-1 Chaos Warp +1 Mystic Confluence - This one is a no brainer I think. Mystic Confluence is really good.

-1 Reforge the Soul +1 Mind's Eye - Fat hand = game control. More and more I'm finding that giving my opponents new hands doesn't work out for me.

-1 Recoup +1 Mizzix's Mastery - Mizzix's Mastery is definitely going in, I'm just not 100% on what to swap it for. Recoup's limit on sorceries is a bit annoying and I'm reluctant to swap out either Call to Mind or Mystic Retrieval because they work so well. They are more mana-friendly meaning I don't have to cast the recurred card immediately.

-1 Mox Opal +1 IIvory Tower - This idea kind of game out of left field but let me explain: My playstyle has changed somewhat I think since when I first started playing commander. More and more I tend to walk the line of being a periphery threat rather than ramping hard and going for that explosive turn 3 or 4 win. I take more pleasure in stopping those wins. So you might say I've leaned away from combo and more into a control mindset. I enjoy the interaction of the game. That isn't to say that I'm less competitive. On the contrary, I find that in multiplayer it's better to go for the timely diplomatic wins, rather than the early ones to set the stage for later games. When people know you can win early they are more likely to hate you out because they want to play their own game. So with this in mind, some lifegain would be really nice. Mox Opal tends to be a big money famous card that draws hate and sometimes it doesn't actually do anything for me at all. Ivory Tower is a little threat that offers me some cushion for the long haul while comboing nicely with the new Alhammarret's Archive.

Hi Drake0525! Thanks for your thoughts

Thought Vessel might be fine for a budget build but there are much better options available to us. Remember that for the Primer I've used the very best possible cards regardless of budget. When you compare Thought Vessel to something like Grim Monolith in terms of ramp value, there is no contest.

Mystic Confluence - I am a huge fan of flexible counterspells. This one might indeed find a spot. I was thinking of swapping out Chaos Warp finally now that commander tucking is no longer possible so that frees up a spot for some additional removal or counterspell.

My primary argument against Laboratory Maniac is that it cannot be easily tutored for since it's not an instant or a sorcery, nor does it work well with stuff like Snapcaster Mage or Call to Mind. High synergy is my goal. Also, the maniac dies to instant spot removal cast in response to the draw, which I don't really like.

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One card I'm on the fence about these days is Mindmoil. It's almost always a backup win con, rather than something that feels integral. For streamlining purposes I've considered swapping it for redundancy in other areas, most likely removal/control. Even though it doesn't trigger damage from Niv, Scroll Rack is just soooo much better and it's tutorable.


A card I'm really liking is Mind's Eye. This deck tends to do better with a hand fattening approach. A fat hand just means more options and more protection. I will likely swap this for Reforge the Soul.

Tezzeret the Seeker will likely be going back in as a tutor for some of the key artifacts. It's one of the few planeswalkers I can justify running because the tutor effect is worth the cost. (I'm assuming I'm only going to get one activation out any given planeswalker). I will likely be swapping Fabricate but one of the lesser handcycling cards such as Tolarian Winds is also a possibily as I'm leaning away from a heavy handcycling theme.

I'm considering the possibility of adding Ivory Tower or even Basilisk Collar for some life gain. So often, I get hated out early because of a little damage here and there. Before I know it, I'm down to 2 life and don't have much of a chance. Even +5 or +10 life might be enough to turn the tides in my favor. The nice thing about both of these artifacts is that they are easily tutorable. I'm definitely leaning toward Ivory Tower, however Collar works so nicely with Niv it's tempting - however it of course relies on him being in play.

Alhammarret's Archive seems to be a really solid inclusion. I'm wondering if I'll just run it in addition to Thought Reflection or do a clean swap. Archive works nicely with Ivory Tower.

Although it isn't tutorable, Propoganda is something I've considered to alleviate some hate. Blasphemous Act or Devastation Tide are also on my mind.

Mizzix's Mastery

This is... omg... everything I wanted Past in Flames to be and more. Mystic Retrieval will be retired from the primer!! Can you imagine using this to cast Enter the Infinite? Just discard it early to Faithless Looting and you have yourself a disgustingly easy win. Of course hand cycling, tutors, and removal spells will be the most typical. "without paying its mana cost...." WHHAAAT??

Overloaded.... <3<3<3

This card alone is enough to get me excited about Magic again.


I've been gone so long I think I missed a few sets. Anything else worthy of note?