MTG Salvation

I've been playing a Crystal Shard/Eternal Witness deck for a while and I've always done pretty well for myself at local tournaments. I decided that it's time to share it with the world!

-The deck works thusly:
Control the board- By countering everything; Play the Witness to fetch ur CounterMagic; Bounce the Witness to do it all over again!!

-Birds- Mana Acceleration
-Caryatid- Card Drawing (Bounceable)
-Duplicant- Removal (Bounceable)
-Oracle- Mana Retrieval + Card Drawing (Bounceable)
-Zealot- Artifact and Enchantment removal

Comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

So would deck tags. Please be sure to tag your decks. Read the stickied threads if you're not sure how to do this.

deck tags!!!!!!


nice deck by the way.... i think ill give it a try

I remember Crystal Witness from Mirrodin Block...

First, I think 24 lands, with BOP and Coiling Oracle is too many by at least 1, probably 2.

Second, you're not using nearly enough CIP creatures with the Shard. Why bother with Viridian Zealot when you can bounce Viridian Shaman and nuke an artifact right away? Or maybe Indrik Stomphowler, which gets both artifacts and enchantments, plus leaves a 4/4 body behind?

Third, the Witness/Shard interaction could be exploited better in your countermagic. Play Memory Lapse. Once you're able to bounce and recur Witness every turn, you can essentially deny your opponent their draw for the remainder of the game.

mystic snake wouldnt be bad either

and here I was going to design a deck last night and you have to bring up the blink. Sssshhh! In all fairness the blink is cool not only because it is like a storm spell with witness out but it really makes cards powerfully fun and the snake is col with it too.

I think Duplicant if fine, just not as a 4 of, maybe 2. Also, Triskelion may not be a bad choice. Reusable burn/removal with the shard.

Ever thought of making a small tool box of artifacts (SDT, pithing needle, spellbomb) and running trinket mage. He's reusable and not a bad body. If you kept in fabricate, you could also find these artifacts with it and even run 1 ofs sword of fire and ice/light and shadow to throw on a witness or trinket mage and beat.

yeah, i played this deck in type 2, block and tested it in old extended. i used echoing truth instead of shard. et + 2 witness = yay. add rude awakening and you can generate infinite mana. et + 2 witness + new time walk + lots of mana = infinite turns. the problem is decks like rock and madness owned it. i love it as a casual deck though. it was a lot better when aether vial was legal for it to use (set to 3 was happiness).

The memory lapse might be useful, but all the other stuff is going against what this deck is supposed to do. It's a control deck that features either duplicant or eternal witness as a kill.

I played it last week at a local tournament. In the 1st round it easily beat a G/U Kraken deck. In the second round it barely lost to a G/U OrbPosition Deck(Static Orb/Opposition), and in the last round it massacred a sliver deck.

However, i've been thinking of moving evacuation from the sideboard into the deck. What do u think?

I just played vs. this deck, and all I have to say is that if your deck is not souped-up to the fullest, you will have loads of trouble.
Memory Lapse is way good in the deck, and is effectively a cheaper Plow Under.
Homee1212's decklist is dominant, exept the Zelots and Fabricates. Instead, -1x Duplicant, -3x Zelot, and -2x Fabricate,
and +4x Memory Lapse and +2x Remand.

Since Witness is key to the deck, why not run Gifts Ungiven? Add in a Recollect or 2 to make sure that you always get what you want with Gifts, no matter how the piles are split.

I still like the Memory Lapse plan to deny the opponent their draw. Keep in mind that the deck you're advocating is a control deck. You don't need to overload it with creatures; you just need to pick the right ones to maximize the Crystal Shard plan.

So I have been playing around with a new version of the deck that has been doing alot better.



Any additional suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

i feel like this deck can abuse cunning and living wish somehow