MTG Salvation

Okay, so one day I was reading some articles and stumbled across this long-forgotten gem from Alliances: Varchild's War-Riders. Now, while back in the day this card wasn't broken, the creation of certain cards has made it possible for maximum breakage. I present to you all my attempts at breaking Varchild's War-Riders:



Sometimes the deck runs a bit clunky. That's probably because most of the lands cipt. I want to try and heal that by including 3 Amulet of Vigors. When the deck runs it's pretty brutal. With enough turns and Varchild's War-Riders out combined with Suture Priest and/or Blood Seeker, your opponent dies fairly quickly. This isn't your average clock.

Now, in order to deal with the army of Survivors you're gifting your opponent, you're gonna need things like Scouring Sands and Electrickery. Here, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is beast. As soon as the survivors enter play they die. That's also what Massacre Wurm is for. Not only does it serve as a way of eliminating any survivors already in play, but any further survivors that die will take 2 life away from their protector.

Besides adding too many expensive lands (shock lands, fetch lands, etc.), how can I make this run faster? I've considered switching out the signets for the 3 Amulet of Vigor, but I fear it running too slow to get Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite out as quickly as possible.

Any comments and suggestions are welcome and encuraged!

EDIT:
At one time I even considered adding Akroan Horse and Homeward Path. Taking back Akroan Horse with Homeward Path gave your opponent yet another creature each upkeep that would trigger Suture Priest and/or Blood Seeker.

circle of flame scares survivors.

Rather than splashing other colors run reprecussion and pyroclasm type effects.

It will make the deck better and more consistant.

There's a whole archetype that used to exist around this sort of thing..I ran it before the 10th Edition owner/controller rules change made it a lot less fun to me.



Powder Keg set to 'zero' is a cheap way to blow up all tokens. Brand (used to) take them back. Aether enchantments make 'free tokens' into a non-benefit or an actual downside for an opponent in different ways and generally help keep the battlefield uncluttered anyway. Fling & Rites give you additional reach w/your fatties.

Rest of the deck was basic colorfixing and maybe some decent RB removal cards.

Whatever, maybe give you some ideas..fun deck for sure.

Mogg Infestation is a card you will want to have along side your blood seekers and suture priests. Cut back on Elesh norn. She's great, but 7 mana is hard. 2 Massacre Wurm should be enough, when you play one the game is over.

Edit:
Also I'm not a fan of your mana base. I don't like the comes into play tapped stuff, and personally I run Fellwar Stones over the signets, but I just don't like having to tap one to pay to tap a signet. My mana base for a very similar deck looks like this:

• 4 City of Brass
  
• 4 Forbidden Orchard
  
• 5 Mountain
  
• 4 Plains
  
• 5 Swamp

+3 Fellwar Stone. Mana color is rarely an issue.

If I were to re-make this, I'd probably add reflecting pools as the price for reflecting pool went down with the release of Conspiricy.

Quote from theonecalledrune »

circle of flame scares survivors.

Rather than splashing other colors run reprecussion and pyroclasm type effects.

It will make the deck better and more consistant.

That actually makes a lot of sense, lol. Though I was trying to aim for the opponent losing life the moment the tokens enter play. It will happen free of charge and during my upkeep. Repercussion becomes broken in multiples and with Electrickery and Scouring Sands I don't take damage from the Repercussion. Thanks!

I was playing Mardu colors because Suture Priest and Blood Seeker were forcing me to play W and B. So I decided to at least include other W and B cards to make up for the splash. The backside were those color suffering from ramping. The deck is brutal when up and running, and I got some things to help with defense, but your suggestions should help me tinker with it some more. I'd probably just leave it as BR, just to be able to use B's drawing. MonoR would be more efficient, until my hand becomes one card per turn... I'll post my tinkering soon enough. Thanks!

EDIT:
I think an Æther Flash / Repercussion combo here would be most brutal, lol.
Goblin Sharpshooter would also be much beast here, as well.

Quote from Morphling »

There's a whole archetype that used to exist around this sort of thing..I ran it before the 10th Edition owner/controller rules change made it a lot less fun to me.

DementedKirby's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Blood Seeker 4 Varchild's War-Riders 4 Hunted Horror 4 Hunted Dragon	4 Powder Keg 4 Brand 4 Fling 4 Rite of Consumption 4 Tainted Aether 4 Aether Flash	4 Forbidden Orchard

Powder Keg set to 'zero' is a cheap way to blow up all tokens. Brand (used to) take them back. Aether enchantments make 'free tokens' into a non-benefit or an actual downside for an opponent in different ways and generally help keep the battlefield uncluttered anyway. Fling & Rites give you additional reach w/your fatties.

Rest of the deck was basic colorfixing and maybe some decent RB removal cards.

Whatever, maybe give you some ideas..fun deck for sure.

Yeah, the ownership rule change was a real bummer. Otherwise Homeward Path would be ridiculously broken here, lol! I considered adding Hunted Dragon but the opponent would get some 2/2's and that would be harder to get rid of. However, Powder Keg will make it incredibly easy to get rid of all the tokens, lol. I will be sure to find a way to include it!

Quote from GumgodMTG »

Mogg Infestation is a card you will want to have along side your blood seekers and suture priests. Cut back on Elesh norn. She's great, but 7 mana is hard. 2 Massacre Wurm should be enough, when you play one the game is over.

Edit:
Also I'm not a fan of your mana base. I don't like the comes into play tapped stuff, and personally I run Fellwar Stones over the signets, but I just don't like having to tap one to pay to tap a signet. My mana base for a very similar deck looks like this:

• 4 City of Brass
  
• 4 Forbidden Orchard
  
• 5 Mountain
  
• 4 Plains
  
• 5 Swamp

+3 Fellwar Stone. Mana color is rarely an issue.

If I were to re-make this, I'd probably add reflecting pools as the price for reflecting pool went down with the release of Conspiricy.

That's actually a pretty decent mana base. And, if you're lucky enough, the Fellwar Stones will provide you with a color you may use. Mogg Infestation is so killer! I can't believe I overlooked it! Much tinkering will now ensue! Thanks!

Quote from DementedKirby »

I considered adding Hunted Dragon but the opponent would get some 2/2's and that would be harder to get rid of.

Don't focus too much on killing the knights. Make it hard for them to hurt you and just fly over them or combo out with suture priest/mogg infestation.

edit: Also I changed my link to "a similar deck" in the previous post. It's still the same list, but it's posted on MTG salvation in another thread about this idea (called illness orchard).

Quote from DementedKirby »

That's actually a pretty decent mana base. And, if you're lucky enough, the Fellwar Stones will provide you with a color you may use. Mogg Infestation is so killer! I can't believe I overlooked it! Much tinkering will now ensue! Thanks!

You're welcome.

Ok, I saw the updated list. It seems pretty brutal! Yeah, I like the pillowfort idea. You basically stall the board while Varchild's War-Riders becomes the mother of all clocks.

I'm still undecided as to what path to choose, being as I really liked to have a tri-colored deck (much more options to choose from). However, this is what I got in my Rakdos-colored build so far:


I still wanna keep it RWB because white's removal is too good to pass up (and I can also use Suture Priest). But that's the BR version so far. It's pretty brutal also, but I wanna keep the original feel of RWB. Will post some other findings soon.

Illness in the Ranks and Caltrops would both be invaluable to you. Mogg Infestation has been mentioned, but man is it perfect here.

If I were to play a deck like this, it might look similar to the list below.



I cut white to make the mana base easier to manage. Shred Memory finds the riders, terminate, Blood Seeker, and Altac Bloodseeker. This increases consistency. Sadistic Glee makes any creature a huge threat very quickly, while Mogg Infestation and Terminate kills anything your token killers can't.

Just want to mention that the Tainted Æther/Æther Flash combo is pretty mean once it's running. You can stack the effects as you like, so any token your opponent gets will first die to damage, then he/she will have to sac something. Would work also with Illness in the Ranks if the tokens are only 1/1.

I have to say that I tried Caltrops, and that's why I ended up with Thunderstaff in the deck. Caltrops does nothing to bigger creatures, but Thunderstaff weakens them AND gives you the option to battlecry.

Quote from GibbonMonk »

Just want to mention that the Tainted Æther/Æther Flash combo is pretty mean once it's running. You can stack the effects as you like, so any token your opponent gets will first die to damage, then he/she will have to sac something. Would work also with Illness in the Ranks if the tokens are only 1/1.

Yep. If I had to pick one or the other, I'd probably settle on Tainted, just for the psychological warfare aspect. It is a very real thing. A lot of opponents will just turtle up and do absolutely nothing with something like that on the board. That's rarely the right thing to do, so you can take advantage of their hesitation and maybe turn around a poor match.

Very nice card to abuse !

Here's my list if I remember :

Angel's Trumpet could be another "motivator" for clearing the tokens.

Genesis Chamber could be fun in the event they try to get out some creatures of their own... and fuels the Blasphemous Acts at the same time..

Okay, so here's what I've got going that's been looking extremely promising:

All these decks look really good, I guess I'll post my War-Riders deck too.

@ Aafyre:

You seem to have a lot of creature burn, how do you protect yourself from killing yourself along with your opponent?

Pro-red creatures + occasional lifegain from Auriok Champ is my guess. Reckoner becomes a headshot w/Blasphemous Act...nice!!

@Aafyre: Toward this same end, you might wanna test test out Wind-Scarred Crag in your build. Maybe the Scry is better though..I generally wouldn't run more than 4 slow lands, whatever the mix.

Morphling is pretty much right. The pro-red creatures along with Swans of Bryn Argoll can't be damaged by my burn spells. Kor Firewalker is also a great way to gain life in this deck since most of my spells are red. I can also redirect the damage to Ajani Vengeant so I don't kill myself. Wind-Scarred Crag is a great idea, I might test that over the temple.

Damn, that's pretty tight knit.

Personally, I've found that simply letting the tokens die and taking advantage of their instant death as well helps with the opponent having too large an army before you can clean the table. With that build the opponent loses a lot of life per upkeep and I gain a lot of life, too (Blood Artist). Using Mercy Killing helps against fatties even if they're indestructible.

Yesterday I tested again a Marit Lage deck. I had only gotten Blood Artist in play and by the 3rd turn Thespian's Stage copied Dark Depths and Marit Lage was out. Fortunately for me, the token didn't gain haste and when it was my turn, I dropped my 3rd land and had that trusty Mercy Killing in hand. Let's just say that the killing wasn't merciful in the slightest! What appeared to be an instant GG on my opponent's side turned into an instant GG on my side! In the rematch, my opponent was careful to drop Lightning Greaves before unleashing Marit Lage, but even so I was still able to gain enough life to endure a heinous slap from Marit Lage and was able to pull in the win.

I'm actually impressed with my current build and am thankful to all of you who gave me the recommendations needed for me to take it to where it is now. Not everyday can I beat a deck that has more $$$'s worth in 4 cards and a token than my entire deck, lol.

Quote from DementedKirby »

Damn, that's pretty tight knit.

Personally, I've found that simply letting the tokens die and taking advantage of their instant death as well helps with the opponent having too large an army before you can clean the table. With that build the opponent loses a lot of life per upkeep and I gain a lot of life, too (Blood Artist). Using Mercy Killing helps against fatties even if they're indestructible.

Yesterday I tested again a Marit Lage deck. I had only gotten Blood Artist in play and by the 3rd turn Thespian's Stage copied Dark Depths and Marit Lage was out. Fortunately for me, the token didn't gain haste and when it was my turn, I dropped my 3rd land and had that trusty Mercy Killing in hand. Let's just say that the killing wasn't merciful in the slightest! What appeared to be an instant GG on my opponent's side turned into an instant GG on my side! In the rematch, my opponent was careful to drop Lightning Greaves before unleashing Marit Lage, but even so I was still able to gain enough life to endure a heinous slap from Marit Lage and was able to pull in the win.

I'm actually impressed with my current build and am thankful to all of you who gave me the recommendations needed for me to take it to where it is now. Not everyday can I beat a deck that has more $$$'s worth in 4 cards and a token than my entire deck, lol.

That sounds like a lot of fun! One question though - how did you win if you only had Blood Artist in play? I am assuming you must have had Illness in the Ranks or something in play as well?

Yeah, Blood Artist takes advantage of the tokens' instant death due to Illness in the Ranks. Remember that if I don't have Illness in the Ranks in play, I take care of the tokens with Electrickery and/or Mogg Infestation.

Quote from DementedKirby »

Yeah, Blood Artist takes advantage of the tokens' instant death due to Illness in the Ranks. Remember that if I don't have Illness in the Ranks in play, I take care of the tokens with Electrickery and/or Mogg Infestation.

That sounds like a lot of fun. I have a multiplayer norin/purphoros deck that uses Blood Artist and Goblin Bombardment in some similar ways, but now you have me wanting to toy around with this idea more.... want to build too many decks!!

Have you considered Vicious Shadows? It could result in a blowout win when it is out with even a handful of tokens dying... even if it does cost 7 mana - perhaps as a 1-of?

has Proliferation via Volt Charge et al., been pontificated? More Age counters on the War-Riders = more Survivors? if I'm not mistaken, getting more tokens out asap is the way to kill the opponent.

Yeah, this deck is super fun to play with! Vicious Shadows costs too much mana and it doesn't do as much when it gets in play. It'll just take up space in the deck.

Volt Charge is too costly just to put another time counter on Varchild's War-Riders. Trust me, with just a few creatures with Blood Seeker's effect in play and even one War-Rider that isn't dealt with and you win in no time. Multiple War-Riders is even more astonishing.