MTG Salvation

As a hardcore control player in most formats, I wanted to create a deck that matched my playstyle but that would also remain competitive. With Baral, Scarab God, and Nicol Bolas being some of the top tier commanders right now, it's hard to play a straight-up control shell in UW. Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage provides that tempo angle of attack which is really helpful against the counterspell and removal-heavy decks of the format, while still having a solid foundation for a UW control shell against the non-blue decks of the format (like Ghalta).


Notable runner-ups:
1) Supreme Will: Solid counterspell that is never dead
2) Karn's Temporal Sundering: Great card to play while ahead, not so useful when behind
3) Commit // Memory: Great card, playable on most board states and can refuel in the late game
4) Lyra Dawnbringer: Good with Raff, mostly just a 5/5 for 5 with some nice keywords most of the time (which may or may not be relevant)
5) Seal Away: Very good, cheap removal, but the meta doesn't seem to favor these types of cards yet
6) Cataclysmic Gearhulk: Pseudo-wrath at instant speed with Raff, but we tend to play multiples of certain card types which may result in some awkward interactions.

The major point of this post is to get some advice on the build. I'm far from an expert on standard, so I've probably missed some cards as I've been testing the deck. If there's anything I've missed that you think may be useful, I'd be happy to hear it. Please keep suggestions in a competitive framework with Baral in mind.

I've probably missed some utility land, or have some non-optimal card choices. I'm hoping an extra set of eyes can help me differentiate between optimality and internal bias. Thanks for the read!

I'd probably run unwind. If you're flashing in everything anyway, it's basically just a free negate that you can't play T2.

This is where I'm currently at:



Azor's Gateway onwards are the maybeboard cards. Really wish I could squeeze some of the stuff there, specially Azor's Gateway, Syncopate... what do you guys think?

Quote from diegodeschain »

This is where I'm currently at:Azor's Gateway onwards are the maybeboard cards. Really wish I could squeeze some of the stuff there, specially Azor's Gateway, Syncopate... what do you guys think?

I really don't like Azor's Gateway in 60 card, it just feels slow to go off and you end up exiling too many of your one-ofs. At least in black, you could Torment of Hailfire for a win off it. I would really run Time of Ice, it's a pretty great defensive tool in Raff. It immediately taps down a creature during their turn, skipping next untap. You tap down another on your upkeep, then no one wants to turn any creatures sideways because they'll get bounced. Nezahal, the Primal Tide is a great finisher and I would definitely find a spot for it. You also might consider running Helm of the Host if only because it's pretty great on most of your creatures. I would personally cut some of your instants and sorceries and put more creatures in (preferably legends and artifacts, especially ones with helm synergy).

I second the Nezahal, Primal Tide suggestion. Card is nuts, especially when the meta is 70%+ Baral (I play mostly on MTGO, so forgive my bias towards the matchup).

I really like Azor's Gateway with Azor, the Lawbringer in the deck. It comes up every so often to make it worth it, plus it mitigates flood in the mid-late game which I've found to be really important for a deck like this.

Time of Ice is definitely interesting, although it feels worse than other cards I'm currently playing. Helm of the Host seems pretty mana-intensive, although I can see some situations where it can get pretty nutty. 9 mana is a lot of mana to get it going though.

I think the cards I'm going to prioritize into my list are Supreme Will and Seal Away. I'm not sure there are any other cards that truly warrant the space in my list.

@diegodeschain: I would try to find room for Urza's Ruinous Blast. Card is pretty insane in this format, even if it doesn't hit opposing commanders. Baird, Steward of Argive seems like an easy cut in my opinion, but it depends on what your meta is. If you play online, it doesn't seem like a particularly good card.

Yup, that was my reasoning regarding Azor's Gateway too. Partcularly the "anti-flood" thing. One extra card seen every turn is just too good to pass up, the interaction with Azor himself if happens is just positive externality for me hahah.


I was already sold on Nezahal also. Time of Ice I don't feel like playing though, insane if flashed in with the help from Raff, but tapping out for it doesn't seem like a good ideia. For this same reason I would never play Helm. Even *if* you managed to cast it at instant speed with Raff, it requires tapping out for 5 mana on your turn, something this deck wants to avoid as much as possible.


Urza's was one of the cards that has been on the list in early iterations of the deck but I ended up cutting, partly because I don't wanna see all my artifacts gone, partly because I don't like being dependant on the Legendary Sorcery rule on a type of card (boardwipe) that is usually one that when you want to cast it, it's usually because you reeeeally *have* to cast it, so I prefer the overall more safe route of Fumigate, Slaughter the Strong, Settle the Wreckage and Cataclysmic Gearhulk over Urza's.


Baird is indeed a slot I was particularly prone to use for something else, so I'll cut him. I'll revise my list and put some more maybecards in it, then I come back with it.

So, I cutted Baird, Steward of Argive for Azor's Gateway, an Island for Memorial to Genius and added some cards to the maybeboard. I feel I should run at least one more artifact/enchantment removal, artifacts are a big deal in the format for what I could see from some games on streams so I thought Forsake the Worldly would be a good choice, in the off-chance that I don't need it in a particular game I can just cycle it. Other thing that I noticed is that PWs are a big deal too (as expected), they are hard to get rid of and often run away with the game, so I wanted to find a spot for Dovin Baan. I really need a slot for Nezahal, Primal Tide too as it is a big dumb beatstick that generates card advantage and protects itself. Desert's Hold is also a card I really wanted to play as it is a good way to shut down The Scarab God. As Foretold looks like a good card to break parity against other control decks. Sorcerous Spyglass also allows to shut down walkers and Scarab God. Anyway, lots of things to choose from and very few slots