MTG Salvation

Quote from Ratwohl »

I picked two copies (I don't think, I need more currently) of Blade of Selves up after hearing Prid3's enthusiastic praise for 50 cents each. Now the card sits at 5 euros...

Like I said, easiest buyout of my life. When the absolute floor for a card is something along the lines of "draw 2 cards and threaten damage" every turn for 4 mana you don't need to twist my arm.

Got 10 grasp. Blade was sold out. First time buying singles online. I usually just use puca. But I couldn't wait on this one.

I'll let you know how Caller of the Pack does in my Xenagos deck when I actually swap out Hydra Omnivore for it. The damage ceiling is lower and it costs one more (that's the bigger deal), but omnivore requires quite a bit of help to really get there, which I don't particularly like. Too bad the tokens are base power and go away at end of combat, otherwise extra combat fun would make this insane.

Mizzix is super busted if you can keep her alive. All those big draw spells and extra turns chain into each other. I haven't even acquired any extra turn cards yet, but I already know from playing a modified precon (cut all the chaff) deck that they'd be stupid.

Quote from plushpenguin »

I'll let you know how Caller of the Pack does in my Xenagos deck when I actually swap out Hydra Omnivore for it. The damage ceiling is lower and it costs one more (that's the bigger deal), but omnivore requires quite a bit of help to really get there, which I don't particularly like. Too bad the tokens are base power and go away at end of combat, otherwise extra combat fun would make this insane.

I notice that you already have Greater Good and Momentus Fall in the deck. A couple things I can think of to make use of the tokens would be some sort of fight mechanic for the ones that don't die in combat and something like Brawl, Contested Cliffs, Electropotence, Triangle of War, Warstorm Surge or even the new Gruesome Slaughter. Mage Slayer seems too slow and expensive and Pandemonium can backfire against the wrong opponent.

Quote from calderstrake »

Quote from plushpenguin »

I'll let you know how Caller of the Pack does in my Xenagos deck when I actually swap out Hydra Omnivore for it. The damage ceiling is lower and it costs one more (that's the bigger deal), but omnivore requires quite a bit of help to really get there, which I don't particularly like. Too bad the tokens are base power and go away at end of combat, otherwise extra combat fun would make this insane.

I notice that you already have Greater Good and Momentus Fall in the deck. A couple things I can think of to make use of the tokens would be some sort of fight mechanic for the ones that don't die in combat and something like Brawl, Contested Cliffs, Electropotence, Triangle of War, Warstorm Surge or even the new Gruesome Slaughter. Mage Slayer seems too slow and expensive and Pandemonium can backfire against the wrong opponent.

Agreed on most account but remember that Gruesome Slaughter only works for colorless creatures. It might have been a cool card otherwise. Ezuri's Predation, on the other hand, that's also a good "fight" card that works well with Warstorm Surge et al.!

Some food for thought nightmares..

-2/-2 might not answer a reasonable threat, but it sure as hell does answer utility/ramp creatures such as priest of titania, death rite shaman, or stone forge mystic. I have to say that I was pretty happy casting that card in the precon.

Quote from Kumlekar »

-2/-2 might not answer a reasonable threat, but it sure as hell does answer utility/ramp creatures such as priest of titania, death rite shaman, or stone forge mystic. I have to say that I was pretty happy casting that card in the precon.

If someone casts a turn 1-2 Priest of Titania and my answer is landing ~2 turns later then I've already lost the game. Killing utility creatures is fine, I just want to do it with cards like Innocent Blood, Smallpox, Toxic Deluge, Massacre and Damnation.

I know from experience that you'll win more games by playing powerful cards. Massacre + Syphon Mind may eat up more deck slots but it doesn't matter if it wins more games. Doing multiple things poorly almost always loses to doing linear + powerful things well. That's a fundamental deckbuilding tenet of mine to the point where it defines my playstyle and approach to the game. I'm not saying that the card won't kill a relevant creature and draw 2 cards for 5 mana. It's just plain going to do that every time. That's simply not an effect that wins games in my experience and since there are cheaper, more powerful alternatives I don't consider it to be a playable.

Except for the 4~ low ball listings on TCG, the lowest Blade of Selves is now set at $15ea from Happy Viking Games.

Enjoy the spike!

Wretched Confluence got played a few times yesterday and i found it quite good. I was playing a Jund deck and all 3 modes were valuable during the game. The new commanders are all vulnerable to the -2/-2 and there were always other utility creatures that made good targets. If you were a creature light deck i could see taking a pass on this card, but otherwise in EDH at least it is a worthy addition in most black decks.
The debate between flexibility and focused power can go on and on but in Commander where the game state can change quickly and often i like to have some flexibility around. Black is also light on cards that are flexible like Wretched Confluence.

Quote from Deep_Woods »

The debate between flexibility and focused power can go on and on but in Commander where the game state can change quickly and often i like to have some flexibility around. Black is also light on cards that are flexible like Wretched Confluence.

I'll give you this: it certainly adds another copy of all those effects in a singleton deck. And, if you need to stack the -2/-2 to kill a commander or otherwise difficult to remove creature, it is mana efficient at only 5CMC.