MTG Salvation

Hi everybody,

a few month ago, I got a idea. I want to update my mono-white equipment deck but I have difficulty to found card in mono-white that give me enough card advantage for being competitive in a multiplayer meta where Wrath are like land drop, you know everybody have one but you didn't know if it's will have a impact right now or a few turn later. With that in mind I was thinking card that create creature tokens can be interesting. The first card that come into my mind was Bitterblossom. Amazing card that didn't die when someone wrath the field.
After that I was thinking I need good creature too for long time game. My old friend Spiritmonger come to my mind. It's a old stapple and I really want to do a place in this deck for this creature.
Every multiplayer deck need backup plan for reuse what the lost. Glissa, the Traitor was a idea I got. If someone destroy my equipment I can get it back with it.
In final, my favorite card: Instant Removal. With removal you can destroy anything that you didn't like. And in BWG i have the option to play all the better removal ever print. Vindicate, Maelstrom Pulse, Mortify, Putrefy and my favorite one Swords to Plowshares.

So I here is a little idea of cards I will include into the deck:

Creatures

• Stoneforge Mystic
  
• Bloodgift Demon
  
• Vampire Nighthawk
  
• Spiritmonger
  
• Knight of the Reliquary
  
• Sun Titan
  
• Bloodghast
  
• Glissa, the Traitor
  
• Gatekeeper of Malakir
  

[...]

Enchantments

• Bitterblossom
  
• Land Tax

[...]

Artifacts

• Sensei's Divining Top
  
• Sol Ring
  
• Umezawa's Jitte
  
• Sword of Fire and Ice
  
• Sword of Light and Shadow
  
• Sword of Body and Mind
  
• Skullclamp

[...]

Instants

• Swords to Plowshares
  
• Mortify
  
• Putrefy

[...]

Sorceries

• Demonic Tutor
  
• Maelstrom Pulse
  
• Vindicate

[...]

Planeswalkers
Elspeth, Knight-Errant


It's pretty hard to do a deck that was consistent in 3 colors with a lot of heavy colored card like that. So I will have to do a lot of test before I come to the right balance.


Just for information this is my current deck I playtest



It's pretty hard to try to build a deck with this because it's a lot color heavy. So I would like to know what you are thinking about this. Do you have suggestion of other creatures to include into this deck or any other cards. All ideas are welcome because right now i'm a little confuse if this deck is playable. If I run enough card advantage, finisher and control for a multiplayer game.

Whenever I see a Junk deck I just can't help but to think of Knight of the Reliquary + Dark Depths + Vampire Hexmage. People can Wrath all they want, because it isn't doing **** to a 20/20 indestructible flier lol. Crop Rotation isn't bad here either, especially since your deck already has so many spells lands. It's nice to nab that Sejiri Steppe to really get the guy who plays removal on you. Something to consider anyways. Life from the Loam also becomes a sick card since you can recur your DD + Hexmage using it and Volrath's Stronghold. It's like having an infinite supply of Marit Lages. Yeah, I've seen some pretty sick Junk decks do some mean things with cards like these lol. Crucible of Worlds is obviously fine too, you don't need LftL, but people can destroy the Crucible fairly easily. Loam is nigh impossible to stop.

Bitterblossom seems terrible in multiplayer, especially in a boardwipe-heavy environment. It's just plain going to kill you before you can use it to kill anyone else. Yes, I know that you have Jitte and SoLaS for lifegain, but I still don't like it. It's just not the kind of win condition that you want to be using in a multiplayer setting.

Quote from Indalecio

The best removal ever printed, for any format (be it competitive or casual), has been factually proven to be Pernicious Deed.

Fixed.

Anyways, while I agree that Deed is the nuts and that you should be looking for any excuse to buy them, they're kind of awkward in Blade decks. His deck has a lot of very cheap and powerful permanents, and so he's not really looking to blow up the field. The thing about cards like SFM and KoTR is that they're basically going to be best cards on the table when they hit, and so there isn't much out there that should really scare him. People can try to fight a Jitte in combat all they want lol, it's never going to work. Fun card! He also has cards like Land Tax and Skullclamp that are, again, the stone nutter butters, and I really can't see myself wanting to part ways with them very often.

I would like Deed if he changed the focus of his deck to build around it somewhat. Going back to my suggestion of Loam, DD, Hexmage and Stronghold, you can see that nothing there really relies on having cards survive. Taking a look at SFM, one of the best equipment cards that she can cheat out that also dodges Deed is Batterskull. You can either bounce it if you're setting Deed off for a lot, or simply leave it out there as a 5 CMC perm that probably won't get touched. Even though the card is probably worse than Jitte in a vacuum (obviously debatable), if your plan is to incorporate Deed into the deck then I think it comes out slightly ahead. I'm not saying that you'd cut Jitte or anything, simply that it might not be your "go-to" equipment from your first SFM.

So, as much as I like Deed, I don't like slapping them straight into his deck. I just don't think that he figures to ever be "behind" enough to want to blow up the world at the cost of his own amazing cards. It might be slightly more tolerable if he had more cards that could dodge Deed.

Quote from Indalecio »

The best removal ever printed for multiplayer in my opinion is Pernicious Deed. Maelstrom Pulse is very nice versus tokens but just too situational. I've played Vindicate and I can confirm spot removal can be a waste of slots. Not that every deck must absolutely go for global removal, but at the end of the day you are helping the other players if you consistantly take responsability for removing every semi dangerous card on the board. If you're into a 2vs2 game and you aim at designing a support deck then fine, otherwise my recommendation is to focus on you winning the game and just include the minimal amount of defense/removal for the big hoser cards against your deck.

Spot removal was excellent in multiplayer if you play them with a good timing. I didn't remove a permanent if it didn't affect me and like Tich says Deep will blow all my board if I use it. I have more to lose than gain with Deep.

I know Tich Loam, DD, Hexmage and Stronghold... can be really good but it's not the type of deck I want to build. I want to play a deck that is great to play and didn't break my playgroup and I try to use the card I own for lower the cost of the investment into the deck.

To be fair you just need 1 DD and 1 Loam, and given that this deck is probably worth close to $1000.00 (More? I don't follow Legacy prices any more.), I don't think that it's unreasonable for me to have suggested $25.00 worth of cards lol. The goal isn't to add a ton of the cards that I linked or anything, just a few. Even 1 Hexmage, 1 DD and 1 Loam is fine. It doesn't have to be a big part of his strategy, but it's nice to have the option there. It's just a really powerful interaction that Junk decks easily have access to. I like it a lot.

Quote from Indalecio

I don't [feel] ashamed fielding things like Sylvok Replica or Elvish Hexhunter when I can make use of these cards in another way.

There's nothing to be ashamed of lol. I'm a huge fan of doing the exact same thing. My issue with removal is that I want to keep that creature around 99.99% of the time. When I see a 5/5 flying dragon, I do not want it to die. Why? Simple, that badboy can go to town killing people for me. All I care about is that it's not attacking me. That's why I'd almost always choose a card like Web of Inertia or No Mercy if possible. Killing creatures is like "virtually" depriving yourself of win conditions.

Planeswalkers? I never touch them. I've never attacked a Planeswalker in my life. These cards are like the biggest aggro magnets of all time. Like, I cannot remember the last time I have seen a 'Walker be beneficial to its owner. It has the Urborg Syphon-Mage syndrome. When a card is too good to survive, it inevitably gets removed. That actually makes them terrible in practice, since they don't do anything to put you ahead. So, every time I see a "must answer" card (like a Walker), I just ignore it. Someone else always kills it, so it doesn't make sense for me to allocate resources into doing so myself. If you're wondering why I never suggest them, now you know lol.

As far as cards like Sylvok Replica and Seal of Doom go, they're often mini-Moats. That guy with Sword of Light and Shadow is not going to mess with the guy who can blow up his sword out of spite. It just doesn't make sense for him to trade such a powerful card for a(n arguably) much weaker one.

I also agree that Sorcery speed spot removal is virtually the nut-low. The problem is that you can basically never use it "at the last possible second." You're committing to killing something, on your turn, that you probably weren't obligated to handle, but may have been at a time when you couldn't play a Sorcery. Let's pretend that someone has a 50/50 trampling Chimney Imp. If it hits you, you die, but there's still 8 players left in the game. Do you Vindicate it on your turn? There's no right or wrong answer. Still, you'd always rathe have like a Swords to Plowshares in that spot (IF ANYTHING) since then you can at least hang on to it until the card is bearing down your throat. I mean, you want it to kill other players. You don't want to remove it if possible. Still, I'd probably take a Soul Snare in that spot 9 times out of 10. It would give him a very strong incentive not to mess with me, but to still mess with others. I'm usually a big fan of Rattlesnake cards, but they're obviously meta dependent.

Enchantments and artifacts are typically much more troublesome than creatures, but I still feel like people answer cards that they're not required to. I remember a game that I played where a Red/Green player snap killed my Sword of Fire and Ice even though I couldn't use it against him (even if I wanted to). He had an army of Green fatties and I had no way to touch them. On the other hand, it would have allowed me to destroy the various Blue mages, but for no reason he insta-killed it. To this day I still see people make those players in multiplayer, and for the life of me I'll never understand why. I feel like people are under the impression that they "must" answer many more cards than they actually do.

tich:

Yeah! I see now for DD, Hexmage and Loam. It's can be a backup plan and it's was good in this deck without DD. It's can be a really interested backup plan. I will definitly try to had it into my build. For the price I actually have all this card outside of Duals lands. I will slowly buy duals so I try to keep my investment the lower outside of duals because I didn't want to put 25$ on Vindicate when Maelstrom Pulse do the same thing outside of land and who destroy 1 land in a multiplayer game...

I'm totaly with both of you for Vindicate. Sorcery speed wasn't great for removal at 3CMC in multiplayer. I prefer Maelstrom Pulse because I can remove some stupid play like Rite of Replicate Kicked, Tokens deck or any card that was on the field more than 1 time that I don't like.


Yeah!!! I play exaclty like you. I love having a answer for everything in instant and I use it if I need it otherwise it's rest into my hand. Swords of Plowshares in my group was amazing because when the guys gain a lot of life everybody will start to bash it so it's can distract attention of removing a creature. It's buying peace for a round in my group.

Quote from tich »

That's why I'd almost always choose a card like Web of Inertia or No Mercy if possible.

In my group this type of card just put me a big trigger on my back and it's says: Attention don't attack me because I will win in a few turns. So I will definitly not play this card of card because i prefer being low profile and generate card advantage. After a few turn I will keep 7 cards into my hand when my opponents was topdecking. That's my timing for finish the game.

Planeswalker are pretty rare because my meta was a lot aggro so it's hard to keep Planeswalker alive.

Quote from tich »

Enchantments and artifacts are typically much more troublesome than creatures, but I still feel like people answer cards that they're not required to. I remember a game that I played where a Red/Green player snap killed my Sword of Fire and Ice even though I couldn't use it against him (even if I wanted to). He had an army of Green fatties and I had no way to touch them. On the other hand, it would have allowed me to destroy the various Blue mages, but for no reason he insta-killed it. To this day I still see people make those players in multiplayer, and for the life of me I'll never understand why. I feel like people are under the impression that they "must" answer many more cards than they actually do.

Quote from Indalecio »

I think some players panic when they see the amount of cards on the board, like something "needs to be done quickly" otherwise everybody will be swarmed or locked out - they think -, even if such direct threat does not exist (yet). Holding your cards till the last moment is really part of the multiplayer strategy, I´ve found.

Me too I have notice this. People think: "If I can destroy a artifact, why I didn't destroy it. It's will be one less." So they waste a Shatter or any other artifact removal on a little Artifact that do nothing on their board and it's didn't generate a huge advantage. Why some people play a removal just because they can...

Quote from Indalecio »

I think Vindicate shines when you want to get rid of a single big enchantment or Planeswalker. I even got to destroy things like Valakut, Door to Nothingness, Ensnaring Bridge, Platinum Angel, I mean it's a versatile card. But in multiplayer, I´m not sure it makes as much sense as in 1 vs 1. I tend to pack creatures that have the utility to do this job for me without having to "waste" slots to cards. I mean, I don't feel ashamed fielding things like Sylvok Replica or Elvish Hexhunter when I can make use of these cards in another way.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking right now. Sylvok Replica type of creature can be really interested. Qasali Pridemage can be a really good card to include. I will try to found one a better one but I think Qasali Pridemage was the best for this deck.

I have do some playtest and Qasali Pridemage was hard to cast but it's a monster and give a huge advantage to this deck. I have do some other changes. Run pretty smooth now.

I didn't found problem to keep my life high. Vampire Nighthawk equip with a sword give me back a lot of life, SoL&S was a none negligeable source of life and it's get me back my creature. It's not the first sword I tutor but it's not a negligeable one. I found my deck run pretty well and it's fun to play. Sometime I got manascrew if I didn't draw enough good land that's why I will invest in duals. I try to build deck that will be fun and competitive in multi for a long time and I think it's did pretty well what I want.

I was thinking if Batterskull can be interested but it's so painfull to equip it into something. It's only good if I drop it and keep it on the germ. Personnaly I didn't play with Batterskull before. What's your experience with it. Deadly card if you didn't have Stoneforge out?

I got a few time Dark Depth with Hexmage. loll 20/20 flying indestructible equip by a sword with SoL&S become a GG xD. Sadly no Sword give Pro White and Blue for being full immune to Unsummon and Swords to Plowshares.

The only truly great thing about Batterskull is that it's a standalone threat. You don't need to equip it, it creates a body for you. People try and remove it? Just bounce it to your hand. People kill the token? Either equip it to a creature or bounce and replay it. It never goes away, it's an eternal threat. Not the best card, it's slower and clunkier than Swords, but it has its uses.

Also, as far as Marit Lage goes, the point is that we don't care about removal. If you want to STP her to give us 20 life, go for it. We're just going to Loam it right back into play and do it again. It doesn't matter how much spot removal they have, eventually one will stick. Again, like you said, this isn't our Plan A or anything. This is just a Plan B that we can use if we really need to end the game.