MTG Salvation

So I've gotten some people at work started on magic. I've been looking for a new deck and I've always loved G/B recursion or/and graveyard fun but I can't afford Survival/Recurring Nightmare and I doubt I would play it anyway if I could. This was just under 20 for the majority of the cards, some I already have. I noticed this deck on this post right here! I fell in love. I have been playtesting around with this for about a month and I really enjoyed what I have right now.

I wanted to explain some of the card choices that were not found in the other deck list. If they are found in other deck lists I apologize for not citing your deck.

• Nyx Weaver - I noticed in the first incarnation of this deck I kept milling important cards, a recurring nightmare, a tortured existence. This little guy counts a black creature for the crypt, it lets me find it as a creature, it's a decent creature for early defense, it mills if you want to keep it out, and of course most importantly it can regrowth at instant speed.
• Recurring Nightmare - I own one. Sue me. I got it in an exodus pack in fall '98 lol. No brainer.
• Dakmor Salvage - Fits the theme, the deck is mana hungry as all hell, and helps early on if you just want to get the engine going.
• Diabolic Servitude - Great target for Nyx or Commune. The obvious trick is if you have Tortured Existence out, to return a creature you got with it to your hand when it triggers. If it can't find the creature anymore, you don't have to exile that creature. You do get to return DS back!

I absolutely love the Archfiend control, the world shaper, and cagebreakers.

Any particular reason why you're not playing 4x Golgari Grave-Troll? It's our strongest Dredger and casting it as a 10/10 is extremely relevant. It also self-recurs and finds other copies of itself so eventually your backup plan can be to jam a 12/12 every turn and with Brawn you can even give it Trample. Brawn is basically never a dead draw either since it pitches to things like Tortured Existence. Cards like Troll and Spider Spawning are why I don't field things like Nyx Weaver; I can get what I need directly from the GY.

If you want lifegain I wouldn't bother with Golgari Brownscale. Just run copies of Gnaw to the Bone until you're satisfied. I typically dislike pure lifegain spells but this is one of the few cards that breaks the mold because it gains obscene quantities of it. The first cast is often for 12 and the second 18-20 (or more) which is nuts given that you're often recurring them "for free." The only other lifegain card that I commonly run is Roots of Life because I already own 4x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and it literally gains me hundreds of life if left unchecked. You become virtually unkillable by combat damage.

Valid points, honestly I was building off the construct of the post I linked. I had been shifted a lot of those copies up and down as I went. The Nyx Spider was included not for it's reach on a 2/3 body but the ability to return something. I also realize that tutors exist and eternal witness and many of its clones exist. I am trying to keep this under 20.00. But I think switching it up may add a couple bucks. Brawn is something I forgot all about. I will be adding them. The lifegain critter isn't important to me and neither is lifegain exactly.

Hermit Druid comes to mind......

I did give it a try when play testing it, it's slow, requires me to forgo all basic lands. Given the fact it alone pushes the price way to far out of my reach I'm not that interested in it. I do have 1 hermit druid laying around I could include, but it just doesn't seem to bulldoze through my deck like most things.

Quote from Umaro »

I did give it a try when play testing it, it's slow, requires me to forgo all basic lands. Given the fact it alone pushes the price way to far out of my reach I'm not that interested in it. I do have 1 hermit druid laying around I could include, but it just doesn't seem to bulldoze through my deck like most things.

Huh? I don't buy any of this lol. To me, the only strike against Hermit Druid is that it's oppressive. What part of it is slow? It comes down on turn 2 and worst cast scenario you pay 1 to draw a card on turn 3. Still, more often than not it's "draw a card and mill some stuff" which is ideal given what your deck is trying to do. Your current manabase is perfectly adequate since 9 basics puts you in the powerful-yet-not-broken range. Without going too deep into the math you're going to mill 4.5 cards on average and so that's effectively "pay 1, draw a card, mill 4-5 cards" and you get to that every turn for the rest of the game if you want. That's obscene and I would blindly play 4 of those.

Still, none of this is to say that you should play with Hermit Druid. I recommend leaving it in the binder. However, that's 100% purely because the card is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too good and has no place in "reasonable" Magic games.

Quote from Prid3 »

the only strike against Hermit Druid is that it's oppressive.

This is true. I was suggesting the card simply because it works just fine with our OP's list of 9 basics.
But... I did just look the card up.
It used to be a cheap budget card, I'm kinda surprised it's changed given it's still a banned card.

Quote from Prid3 »

Quote from Umaro »

I did give it a try when play testing it, it's slow, requires me to forgo all basic lands. Given the fact it alone pushes the price way to far out of my reach I'm not that interested in it. I do have 1 hermit druid laying around I could include, but it just doesn't seem to bulldoze through my deck like most things.

Huh? I don't buy any of this lol. To me, the only strike against Hermit Druid is that it's oppressive. What part of it is slow? It comes down on turn 2 and worst cast scenario you pay 1 to draw a card on turn 3. Still, more often than not it's "draw a card and mill some stuff" which is ideal given what your deck is trying to do. Your current manabase is perfectly adequate since 9 basics puts you in the powerful-yet-not-broken range. Without going too deep into the math you're going to mill 4.5 cards on average and so that's effectively "pay 1, draw a card, mill 4-5 cards" and you get to that every turn for the rest of the game if you want. That's obscene and I would blindly play 4 of those.

Still, none of this is to say that you should play with Hermit Druid. I recommend leaving it in the binder. However, that's 100% purely because the card is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too good and has no place in "reasonable" Magic games.

No offense dude, You've had this attitude since old school wizard forums days but when you have 1 and only one, it's not a when you drop i turn 2. That isn't realistic and you know it lol.

Quote from Umaro »

No offense dude, You've had this attitude since old school wizard forums days but when you have 1 and only one, it's not a when you drop i turn 2. That isn't realistic and you know it lol.

I don't understand what you're trying to argue here. That's true for every card in Magic but it doesn't change why a card is or isn't good. All of my points still stand; it's a cheap source of (repeatable) mill + card advantage even in a deck with Basics. I don't buy that someone could have tested Hermit Druid in a self-mill deck and found the card to be lackluster. I do think that there's other reasons why the card could be cut/omitted from a deck but power-level isn't one of them.

Quote from Umaro »

when you have 1 and only one, it's not a when you drop i turn 2. That isn't realistic and you know it lol.

I've heard a very similar argument from people playing with cards that are heavily frowned upon. (In my meta, Armageddon would be an example.) "I'm only running one, so it's OK." Well... sure, it's OK as long as you don't draw it.

Just like turn 2 Hermit Druid, it either happens or it doesn't. The average scenario does not actually exist. It's like saying the average person has one breast and one testicle.