MTG Salvation

The awesome stuff this deck can do:
Karlov of the Ghost Council + soul warden - You drop a 4/4 on the second turn, and any creatures your opponents play make him bigger. This opening will probably result in a player dying in the first 5 turns to Karlov, and he'll easily grow to OHKO range

Karlov of the Ghost Council + Righteous Cause - Whip out those D20s, karlov's gonna need them all. I've had him up to 70 counters.

Darien, King of Kjeldor + Soul Warden - You become immune to non-lethal damage and get an army for their attempt, but they won't even try

Bitterblossom + skullclamp - More cards than you can cast

Austere Command + tokens - Usually a one sided wrath

Almost any of the token generators + any of the token pump - We're going exponential. Go from nothing to a game winning board state with almost any of them

Karlov of the Ghost Council + Wall of reverence - This will race almost any fair play if not answered, getting up to 4 digit life totals.

black market + exsanguinate - That wonderful finishing blow, or just a huge life swing

The bad stuff about this deck:
1: If the opponents shut down creatures, you will have a hard time winning. Add sanguine bond for the exquisite blood infinite if you think this will happen
2: It is pretty weak to removal, an early removal on karlov will slow it down a lot, and their isn't any haste for the tokens. Try akroma's memorial if you are in a removal heavy meta.
3: It tends to get going faster than most decks, so it will draw more hate. The early turns will be more like archenemy than normal commander, as everyone stares at the 10+ power karlov thinking it will come at them.
4: Tutor light, so it can have awkward draws. This is done on purpose. Add cards like demonic tutor and vampiric tutor if you want more consistency.

It's still a bit of a work in progress, but here's what I've got so far:

Thoughts after 6 games:
black market is broken, it won me both games I cast it
bitterblossom performs much better than I thought it would, I thought it would be too low impact for edh, but producing flying blockers that trigger all my token stuff is worth it
necromancer's covenenant seems to suck, I've never had it do anything, and I've gotten it in 4 games.

Most cards perform as expected, this deck tends to only play one spell a turn, but those single spells are very high impact. I'm considering adding rule of law so that everyone else has to play by that rule.

Cards I still have never drawn to evaluate:
grave titan
pontiff of blight
archangel of strife
lightning greaves
swiftfoot boots

Changes:
necromancer's covenant removed for secure the wastes

Thanks for posting this update. It's fun to see a deck evolve!

I've found that Grave Titan is so strong that it barely matters what the rest of your deck is doing. It threatens to kill everyone by itself.

Arcane Lighthouse may help you connect with Karlov's ability. Celestial Dawn may help you with the color constraints on Karlov's ability (or it may just be superfluous). Illusionist's Bracers could add value, too.

Obzedat, Ghost Council could be a nice threat for you, that connects more due to Karlov's ability, procs Karlov's trigger, and is safe against board wipes. Felidar Sovereign is a good win condition that's valuable even when it's not ending the game.

The deck is pretty weak to board wipes, I'll see if I can find room for obzedat, possibly over avacyn, who hasn't been that impressive, usually eating a mind control type effect or giving a juicy clone target, while being too high in the curve to reasonably protect my earlier plays from board wipes.

I think I'll add arcane lighthouse, I've had issues with shroud and I think it's worth the risk of lacking in colored mana.

celestial dawn conflicts with the urborg, tomb of yawgmoth plan doesn't it? I think deck slots are a bit too tight to include it.

I don't think this deck is focused enough around karlov to warrant illusionist's bracers, I will often go several turns with no life gain at all. If I get my tokens cards and illusionist's bracers, it will sit as a dead card. I'd need to draw my life gain and bracers and have karlov get big.

If this were a deck purely about winning, felidar sovereign would almost certainly be in it, but I don't like how it wins so I will avoid running it for normal edh games.

Oh, one more thing -- Retribution of the Meek is probably a one-sided boardwipe for you at only three mana.

Since you play so many token effects, how about Spawning Pit? It's free to activate and can devastate opponents in conjunction with Dictate of Erebos or Grave Pact.

Thoughts:
Bloodchief Ascension - this gets active very quickly, and then triggers abound
Abzan Battle Priest - a lifelinking Karlov is a happy Karlov
Path of Bravery - anthem + trigger
Polluted Bonds - this can trigger a LOT
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - both main abilities synergize well
Ghostway - a bit rough with tokens, but saves your important stuff.. bonus with a Soul Warden type effect
Faith's Reward - ditto
Rootborn Defenses - premium anti-wrath in tokens
Reconnaissance - good for tons of extra damage in any deck with a swarm + pseudo-vigilance + never lose an attacker

and my pick for 'Surprise Win-Stealing Card' (or just good against Cyclonic Rift when you have tokens) - Renounce !

Quote from TheDrB »

Thoughts:
Bloodchief Ascension - this gets active very quickly, and then triggers abound
Abzan Battle Priest - a lifelinking Karlov is a happy Karlov
Path of Bravery - anthem + trigger
Polluted Bonds - this can trigger a LOT
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - both main abilities synergize well
Ghostway - a bit rough with tokens, but saves your important stuff.. bonus with a Soul Warden type effect
Faith's Reward - ditto
Rootborn Defenses - premium anti-wrath in tokens
Reconnaissance - good for tons of extra damage in any deck with a swarm + pseudo-vigilance + never lose an attacker

and my pick for 'Surprise Win-Stealing Card' (or just good against Cyclonic Rift when you have tokens) - Renounce !

I'm not sure that renounce works like that. You choose what you sacrifice at resolution and then sacrifice them all at once and gain life all at once.

I have updated the deck because a lot of new stuff has come out for it.



Cards are gradually getting more on theme and having more utility as newer cards print similar effects with extra modes. The angels have mostly been cut as they are suboptimal at the things they were doing.

The deck is 103 cards right now, so I need to figure out 3 things to cut.

Needs more Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim sacking a token to rfg any non land seems good. Or sac to gain life to trigger Karlov.