MTG Salvation

Hey everyone,

I had a mono-white Humans deck that I made way back when the MTG Salvation blogs were still online and Cz wrote that post on how awesome Angel of Glory's Rise was. I haven't looked at it since then, and a lot of great black humans have popped up in the meantime. This is my current decklist; I was hoping to get ideas for improvements.



The main strategy is to slam a Mesmeric Orb on turn 2 and then stay alive while the graveyard fills up. Eventually you can either flash back or hard cast an Unburial Rites, getting an Angel of Glory's Rise and consequently all your humans back. The deck wins either by going wide with tons of creatures + Mirror Entity backup or draining opponents out with Zulaport Cutthroat. Sadistic Hypnotist is a deliberate addition in order to allow the AoGR + Fiend Hunter + sac outlet infinite combo, which can instantly drain out the table if the deck gets too thin or things have gone on too long. However, I'm not really interested in making the infinite combo the primary win condition of the deck, so he's kept as a 1-of. The Soul Warden and Day of Judgment are just there to keep alive until the engine gets going. Odric is just a 1-of to make my guys unblockable when I go for the big attack.

This is a fairly budget build, but I'll buy singletons that do a lot of work for the deck and are under $20. I have the Mesmeric Orbs already, so most of the budget of the deck as-is is already accounted for.

I've always liked Undercity Informer (you mill yourself obv) and you could test him in some of those flex slots. The card is free so just pick some up for 10 cents the next time that you place an order or even dig through your junk uncommon boxes.

You know the deck can go infinite with Burning-Tree Emissary?

Priest of Gix is still a card so there's no compelling reason to branch into a third color. That being said the OP clearly stated "no infinite combos" so there's that too.

I'm a big fan as well and have one thread and several posts on the topic:

AoGR - Which shell works best?

If you are sticking to WB, I like single copies of Sepulchral Primordial (works with the Orb) and Magister of Worth. Flickerwisp might work better than Fiend Hunter, but that's situational.

Quote from calderstrake »

Flickerwisp might work better than Fiend Hunter, but that's situational.

Human decks tend to have very few ETB triggers and the ability to "hide" Angels is extremely powerful even if you're not going infinite. I think that the Hunter is the better pick in the dark unless you have something very specific in mind to pair with it.

Slightly off-topic from the decklist, but a very Vorthos addition to the deck.
Remember how Angel of Glory's Rise had a promo foil printing that appeared in all those big-box store repacks (e.g. WalMart, Target)? Those things are seriously worth about 25c each now - easily found on online stores, and a fun way to bling the deck out.

This is the current build. I tried Undercity Informer as a substitute for Mesmeric Orb but with 24 lands and no way to get them out of the deck it almost always self milled for 1. Just felt underwhelming compared to aggressively mulling for the Orb. Odric didn't make the cut because this deck rarely wins by combat damage, and when it does it's usually off the back of a Wrath + AoGR Plague Wind-ing the whole table, so unblockability doesn't really matter. Likewise Vault of the Archangel was also underperforming because I always have better stuff to do with my mana. Xathrid Necromancer + AoGR is a bit of a non-bo but if you stack triggers right you still get zombie tokens when you wrath yourself with a "tucked" Angel, so they're worth keeping in. Necrologia is basically a one-mana "I win" when you have any amount of life off of Soul Warden. Draw 15, discard Unburial Rites + 8 humans, and then res the team next turn. Really this is just another deck that abuses the brokenness of Zulaport Cutthroat. Card routinely drains the table for 15-20 each in one turn once the engine gets going.

I read your updated list and I was trying to figure out how you drained the table with ZC and then I saw the 'wraths'. I like to use a combination of Cartel Aristocrat, Disciple of Bolas, and Sidisi, Undead Vizier to clear my board. This makes opponent's board states largely irrelevant unless they have a BA out or something else that monitors creatures dying/LTB. Just wanted to state those suggestions directly in case you didn't get a chance to read my thread.

Quote from calderstrake »

I read your updated list and I was trying to figure out how you drained the table with ZC and then I saw the 'wraths'. I like to use a combination of Cartel Aristocrat, Disciple of Bolas, and Sidisi, Undead Vizier to clear my board. This makes opponent's board states largely irrelevant unless they have a BA out or something else that monitors creatures dying/LTB. Just wanted to state those suggestions directly in case you didn't get a chance to read my thread.

You can also "go infinite" with Mirror Entity (X = 0) and Sadistic Hypnotist if need be. I like those cards because they don't require mana if I want to combo off and also do something I want to be doing anyway when trying to get a non-infinite-combo win. Cartel Aristocrat and other cards like Altar of Dementia only serve to make going infinite more consistent and I really only like doing that as a last resort if the board state has gotten so gummed up that the game won't end for hours and people are waiting to play.

My bad missed that card. Thank you for explaining.