MTG Salvation

0 cmc = 37 (lands)
1 cmc = 8
2 cmc = 16
3 cmc = 13
4 cmc = 14
5 cmc = 5
6 cmc = 4
7 cmc = 2
8 cmc = 1

The primary win-condition in the deck is an eventual flashback of Ribbons using Cabal Coffers mana. Devil's Play and Flaming Gambit can be used similarly against one opponent. Past this our goal is to beat down with a handful of larger creatures, being ours or our opponents from Reanimate/Sepulchral Primordial.

Dragon Breath and Dragon Shadow are some of the most ghetto/classic Malfegor cards I've enjoyed running in the past. Unlike the Sluggishness/Rancor return clause, these two enchantments will continue popping back to play every time Malfegor or another large body hits. Dragon Shadow notably makes our commander a 3-turn clock with a little more evasion, and Dragon Breath can make for an even faster clock. We want to cast these earlier in the game on our own dorks so they may end up in the graveyard by the time Malfegor comes to play. Also do note that we can play political games as these can also be returned on to an opponents large creature.

Some unearth cards were tested, but none were found to be good enough.

Years ago, my attempts at Malfegor ran cards like Past in Flames or even Mizzix's Mastery, but as new cards become available, these are just no longer needed. Recoup was one of the last cuts, and newer alternative threats like Backdraft Hellkite are included as it can simply be an early attacker.

Cards like Outpost Siege and Prophetic Flamespeaker are very good, but not nearly as good as direct to-hand draw from what black offers in Phyrexian Arena/Bloodgift Demon/Underworld Connections. It's tempting to load up on the top-exile effect, but typically one needs to consider the %chance the exiled card is actually playable. In our deck we have a large compliment of fairly useful utility cards, but oddly do have a slightly lower %chance to see playable cards. The deck wins by amassing a large toolbox available to use, not by shooting off every available card. Only Stromkirk Occultist and Ignite the Future have remained in this deck.

While some card advantage like Phyrexian Arena is obvious, a card like Dead Man's Chest is a source for potentially large card advantage. With this card in-hand we often want to sandbag our Malfegor for as long as possible until a nice juicy target becomes available.

Self-mill was tested, but seemed like running it was just making this a weaker spell-slinger/Mizzix's Mastery deck. Many dredge cards have also been tested, but without a focused reanimation strategy, only the best utility ones have remained (Stinkweed Imp, Dakmor Salvage and the new Shenanigans).

Instead of all optimal mana-rocks like Gilded Lotus and whatnot, we are running Mind Stone/Commander's Sphere/Rakdos Locket/Rakdos Cluestone/Hedron Archive to act as cash-in-later effects.

It's also important to stress why to-hand card advantage is very important, as we are compiling cards like Phyrexian Arena along with Thaumatic Compass, Journeyer's Kite, and even all 3 karoo lands in Rakdos Carnarium/Everglades/Dormant Volcano. This is for the inevitability of casting Malfegor multiple times.

This deck does struggle against three things;
1 - sustained graveyard hate (rest in peace/leyline) - the deck has been tuned to function without the 'yard as most cards are still normally playable, but graveyard-centric cards tend to be overcosted, and there are a number of cards that do nothing without a graveyard.
2 - opponents with zero creatures or too many creatures - the deck is designed to use malfegor as a looming board wipe and play off opponents plays of commitment. If an opponents win-con doesn't include creatures, or if they go wide with 10+ tokens, the core parts of this decks strategy fail.
3 - generic rakdos concerns - primarily enchantments.

April 2020
~ Removed flaming gambit for azra oddsmaker, 3rd x-burn spell which was the worst of them all, required the opponent to not have a creature, replaced with semi-card advantage and a situational discard outlet.
~ Removed Strands of Night for Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - highly costed reanimation ability is great from my childhood, but often times the deck runs in to too many raise dead or reanimate effects when there isn't anything to target yet. Kroxa seems like a reasonable tool.
~ Removed Insult / Injury[/c[ for Chainer's Edict - a bad shock from the graveyard replaced by a overcosted edict. Chainer's Edict has been in & out of so many of my madness decks - it's typically one of the go-to-swap cards for testing.
~ Removed Revive the Fallen for Morgue Theft - Similar to chainer's edict, morgue theft has been in & out multiple times, often cut due to the excessively high flashback mana cost. When seeing the deck actually play out, Revive the Fallen is better in late game when holding cards for multiple malfegor casts, but clash is such a whimsical mechanic. I may put this back after the quarantine issue is over as this is just difficult to play out over zoom.

May 20 2020
~ Removed Lantern-Lit Graveyard, Stromkirk Occultist, Backdraft Hellkite, Magus of the Will, and Sensei's Divining Top, added Order of Midnight, Merchant of the Vale, Ox of Agonas, Phoenix of Ash, and Phyrexian Tower for testing

~ Awaken the Erstwhile & Fraying Omnipotence are similar to the mutual-hand-hate like ill-gotten gains and chandra ablaze. I may explore these. I have also been considering taking this more towards a death cloud win-con approach.

~ Yawtmmoth's Will - an extremely expensive card. While it may not seem necessary to run it in a deck already full of aftermath & flashback, Yawgmoth's Will does reduce the cost of casting most flashback cards since it takes their original mana requirement, and would also allow for late-game large replays of bulk permanents. If you can afford it, plug it in.

~ Memory Jar is a source of possible cards for a turn, even offering the chance to enable madness at the end of that turn, but is financially expensive and may end up just being a card played-out only to be destroyed before it can be used to it's best potential.

I do run over 30 EDH decks, and simply can't afford to crush all available fetch lands in every deck. This deck does run Crucible of Worlds, although there are only 5 budget fetch lands.

Retrace sounds like the dream mechanic here, but unfortunately there are not many on-color playable ones for what our deck is trying to do. Throes of Chaos is really the only one that stands out, but is more of a fun casual storm card.

Some adventure cards seem interesting, since I can cast from-hand and have access to them after I dump from Malfegor. I'll soon give Order of Midnight, Merchant of the Vale, Murderous Rider, and Bonecrusher Giant some play.

Some jump-start cards like Risk Factor may be tested, but as above there do not seem to be EDH-quality playable ones to play here.

Escape is a newer mechanic, and cards like Cling to Dust and Ox of Agonas may be tested for more late-game effects.

Still need another Thawing Glaciers for this deck, may replace the bad karoo's with more basics if I pick it up.