MTG Salvation

Just wanted people's input on the best deck to abuse this gem. It pulls in a couple directions - buffing smaller dudes and mana accel. I currently run it with Gauntlet of Power for two-fisted goodness in my Eron the Relentless but am not sure that deck is taking full advantage of it's potential. Any other suggested generals, mono-Red or otherwise appreciated!

It's absolutely brutal in a Purphoros, God of the Forge. It gives you the mana to make huge a Firecat Blitz, Tempt With Vengeance, Goblin Offensive ect. as well as copying them or Mogg Infestation or dropping theats plus mass land destruction. It pumps all your dudes and gives you more mana to use to pump with Purphoros.

I agree Purphoros sounds like a clear winner. I use Gauntlet effects very heavily in my mono-red deck too, but the pump effect is largely wasted.

EDIT: Thought this was about Gauntlet of Power.

Gauntlet of Might is superb in Krenko, Mob Boss and Purphoros, God of the Forge, but its also great in some of the other less-played mono-Red generals like Lovisa Coldeyes or Márton Stromgald.

It's not awful in something more standard like Godo or Kiki-Jiki, but you definitely get less value than you would in monored tokens/weenies.

Quote from bobthefunny »

Any mono-R deck will be able to use it well, though the big-mana players will obviously like it more. I'm personally a fan of Ashling, the Pilgrim, and Kumano, Master Yamabushi.

A fun thing (which I've been wanting to do for a while) would be to build two Brothers Yamazaki decks to run side by side.

A buddy of mine and I built Brothers decks for two-headed giant. Mine was tricky red, with lots of "gotcha" cards as the "sinister" brother, and his was more straightforward aggro. They were a blast to play together.

As for the OP, I can attest for its usefulness in Krenko, Purphoros, Ashling, Lovisa, and some of the others mentioned. Akroma, Angel of Fury likes it a lot, as it helps get her out faster and really enables her fire-breathing.

I really like it the best in Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer along with Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun. The problem with all these cards is that they're very threatening, so people usually don't hesitate to blow them up. Slobad solves this, because people usually aren't willing to trade their naturalize effect for your ichor wellspring or myr retriever.

I run it to great effect in Proshh, Skyraider of Kher. Pumping all my Kobolds of Kher Keep is fantastic, though the mana base has to go through some controtions to make it work right (i.e. I have to max out on fetchlands to make sure I can hit my colors and still have plenty of Mountains in play).

Thanks, I think I will go with Purphoros. I am a little leery of going all-in with the token strategy so I may look at ways to use him as a Voltron general as well.

I would consider taking a different alternative win condition if you're determined to do so. Making him a creature opens him up to a lot more tuck. The Purphoros decks that are the most successful where I play are usually pretty careful to keep him an enchantment. Just some food for thought.

It's also great in Bosh, Iron Golem. You never really want to cast him with less than 12 mana anyway, and dropping him into play with a bunch of mana open gives you lots of "retaliate potential" if someone is looking at your permanents with a Naturalize in hand.

I vote Ashling but for secondary wincons in red I'd use Molten Psyche. As long as you reliably hit metal craft and run Recoup, Past in Flames, Reforge the Soul, Wheel of Fortune, Memory Jar, and Mindmoil - which you should be - and can find a spot for Reiterate and Increasing Vengeance, it's going to easily kill people. Remember, at seven cards in hand, it does seven damage and cast twice it's 21 damage.