MTG Salvation

Oh cute, it's a mono-green deck that's not playing Azusa. How adorable. Well I guess I'll ignore him until he ramps up to avenger of zendikar or something and I have to care. Haha, a hermit druid? There's no way he....wait, I'm dead? Really? crap.

Ok, there had to be a way to break this little guy. So here's my attempt.



This deck is among the most linear combo decks imaginable.

Step 1: Mull to a hand that can T2 Yisan. There's a ton of cards that do this. If you're down to 3 cards, who cares.

Step 2: Cast Yisan on T2.

Step 3: Get Sylvan Safekeeper. You probably win if you make it this far. Do it in response to removal if you have to, otherwise EOT or when everyone is tapped out.

Step 4: Get Hermit Druid. Hope no one notices how you're playing a bunch of awful nonbasics and freaks out.

Step 5: EOT, Get Viridian Joiner. Activate Hermit Druid. Cast Krosan Reclamation targeting Umbral Mantle.

Step 6: Cast Umbral Mantle. Equip it to Viridian Joiner. Go infinite mana.

Step 7: Cast Creeping Renaissance for Goblin Cannon. Cast Goblin Cannon.

Step 8: Using your infinite mana, kill the table with goblin cannon.

Barring disruption, awful hands, or acts of god, this combo should win on your turn 6, every game. Of course, once people figure out what you're doing, they'll hate you off the face of the earth. But that's when you go get a new deck. Or maybe a new identity.

This was the fastest way I could find in my (fairly brief) search. Assuming you ramp yisan on turn 2, it's still all-but-impossible to win before turn 5 since that's the earliest hermit druid will lose summoning sickness. Theoretically you could activate him turn 4 with greaves, but then you've expended almost all your mana, plus you'd have to have sol ring or something to find the time to cast lightning greaves so I don't think it's viable. Being mono-green SEVERELY limits your options. But if someone can find something faster, I'm all ears. Also worth noting, turn 5 is totally possible with the right pieces of ramp. But yeah, it's very fragile to counterspells. I mean, it's a gimmick deck. I'm playing this a few times and scrapping it (which is what I do with almost all my decks).

mox opal is pretty questionable (and I forgot darksteel citadel! d'oh!), but the alternative is land #59 so...meh? hopefully it works once in a blue moon, that's all I'm hoping for. And don't forget, I'm planning to mulligan pretty aggressively. But you might be right, a lot of those artifacts power out Yisan just fine on their own (especially mana crypt, which T1's him all on its own because it's broken as balls).

jeweled amulet is great, it's an easy T2 Yisan, and you can charge it up again on turn 3 so you'll have 6 on turn 5 when you need it. It's perfect for the curve this deck needs.

Good catch on reclamation, I forgot to fix that.

Wondering if I should cut LED. I need to make land drops after playing Yisan (and Yisan with 1 land is kind of useless, despite being able to T1 him). So it may not be worth it.

Also wondering if I should run 1 basic, with all the available fetches, panoramas, evolving wilds, land grant, etc. There aren't a lot of untapped green lands available, and having 5 more would be a real boon. But it does potentially stall the combo by a turn if I can't pull it out of my deck somehow by turn 5.

So far in goldfishing 15 times, I have never, not even once, failed to combo off by turn 6. Turn 5 is surprisingly frequent too, 7 of those times I went off turn 5. Turn 4, while possible, never happened, I suspect the frequency is less than 2 percent (you need a ton of mana, including a T1 Yisan, and you have to draw the joiner). T3 is theoretically possible but doesn't use Yisan at all, and is frankly totally ridiculous.

Anyway I was wondering if I'd need fetches + 1 forest, and I'd have to say I don't think I do. Every once in a blue moon I'd have issues with early green mana, but I always mulled into something that worked or managed to scrounge up the last crucial mana at the last second. So I don't think it's worth the additional risk.

I do see where you are going with the idea but i feel its not going to do well vs any deck with cheap removal like swords, or fast counterspell. I do understand the power behind the cards you are using and you have intrigued me to see what i can do with my card pool. I have just put some cards i need on pucatrade so once i get them i will put it together till then i will play test it with some proxies and go from there. you have a great start here i am sure it can be made better, and maybe alittle less expensive too.

I dig the idea of Yisan combo, but this seems really fragile. I'd rather see a Momir list do the same thing anyway. Do you have a plan b?

i have been play testing my version of the build and once I am done I will post my list, so far I find as a back up plan Staff of Dominance is working very well. I use Yisan to get out Joiner and then add in the Mantel, or put it on priest of Titania and then draw up my deck and do the same win con. I find as soon as i draw my deck 9 out of ten time everyone just scoops. but I have both goblin cannon and a blasting station combo with myr retriver and junk diver.

Also depending on my hand and who I am playing, will depend on how fast I go to combo off. mening if i see there is a mono-blue deck i will tend to slow role to a turn 5 to 7 win. if I see that there are no decks with blue or hard counters i will go faster with a few mulls and win turn 3 to 5. If i see we are all playing casualy the deck can then just play with the elf sub theme and play for fun.

Again once my play testng is done and the deck is tuned I will post the deck list.