MTG Salvation

Until I started crafting the deck I didn't realize how good Kefnet the Mindful could be. Plop him down turn 2 or 3, keep your hand full (not hard in blue), and do anything from swing with Diviner's Wand attached or (gasp) Worldslayer.

Then I picked up a Nezahal, Primal Tide for my Kefnet deck and realized, hey, this one's pretty good too. 3 hit general, built in protection, card draw, no evasion but that's fixable...

And these are just a couple of the new guys on the field. Any experience with/thoughts on blue voltron?

Sun Quan, Lord of Wu might as well read "creatures you control are unblockable"

Quote from Lithl »

Sun Quan, Lord of Wu might as well read "creatures you control are unblockable"

Right, I even have one! I think I prefer the CMC of Kefnet, but Sun Quan goes in Kefnet and I can always swap it out for funsies.

If you prefer the CMC of Kefnet, then I imagine you'd looked at Thassa, God of the Sea? Very flexible build options as far as how you'd want to go about your control scheme early on - fill the deck with a bunch of instant speed control stuff until you can land enough permenents to get devotion (5 is not really that difficult) and start swinging in with an unblockable 5/5, preferrably buffed with an equipment or two (Fireshrieker, Inquisitor's Flail, and Strata Scythe are my favorites with her). Or you can go with low CMC enchantment control stuff like Claustrophobia, Waterknot, Imprisoned in the Moon, Lost in Thought, Deep Freeze, Fog Bank, Guard Gomazoa, etc. for the quickest way to devottion (notice the ones with two UU in the CMC), playing defense long enough to drop a Cyclonic Rift, River's Rebuke, Scourge of Fleets or other big bounce spell to start swinging in. Plus she can make your late-game 7-plus power beaters unblockable too, like Nezahal, Primal Tide, even if she's not "online".

I'll vouch for Nezahal, Primal Tide too - I put that in my Thassa deck, and it's amazing every time I can play it, like a true full-package creature. Replaces itself almost immediately, it can swing in for good damage, and has protection as long as you have enough cards in hand (not hard in blue) which almost guarantees it's two UU to stick around for Thassa's devotion.

I played around with Kefnet the Mindful a little bit when he was released. Definitely came out early and swinging. I think Kefnet and Thassa are similar in the general strategy (early control to get "online" right away, then some potent voltron hits), but differed in two main ways, for me: 1) Kefnet wanted to be more traditional "draw-go" to keep the hand full at all times, with low CMC stuff that cantriped at the least and provided multiple CA at the most. Flying for evasion is pretty good as most decks (At least in my meta) could only chump block for so long if they even had fliers to spare, but still he would meet some resistance against dedicated commanders with fliers, usually other voltron commanders and any Angel commander. I just felt getting the damage in wasn't as consistent with flying as it is with straight up unblockable, naturally, even though I'd have to pay two mana with Thassa each time. And 2) Kefnet seemed like a more dedicated voltron deck since he didn't really interact with other creatures. Thassa, on the other hand, can make herself and other creatures you control unblockable. This definitely helps when it's late-game and there's still multiple opponents to shift offensively on, or makes for a quicker win once it's 1v1, or just provides another win condition as long as I'm packing a handful of nice beaters like Trench Gorger (20+ power with trample in blue?! Sure, sign me up!), the aforementioned Nezahal, Pearl Lake Ancient, Scourge of Fleets, Stormsurge Kraken, Aetherling, and others.

I may be biased for the OG God though, it does happen to be my favorite deck in all the world.

Nezahal, Primal Tide is mine, though, I would consider it a voltron/control hybrid. It is an absolute terror for control decks, and ends up drawing piles of cards when it hits. With runechanter's pike it definitely one shots people. It plays like a hardcore control deck... except it's hitting people for 7 commander damage left and right while bouncing everything and countering problems.

Quote from Lumovanis »

Nezahal, Primal Tide is mine, though, I would consider it a voltron/control hybrid. It is an absolute terror for control decks, and ends up drawing piles of cards when it hits. With runechanter's pike it definitely one shots people. It plays like a hardcore control deck... except it's hitting people for 7 commander damage left and right while bouncing everything and countering problems.

NessieMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Commander 1 Nezahal, Primal Tide Creature 1 Archaeomancer 1 Wonder 1 Laboratory Maniac Enchantment 1 Invoke Prejudice 1 Mystic Remora 1 Propaganda 1 Overburden 1 Rhystic Study Land 1 Thawing Glaciers 1 Academy Ruins 1 Reliquary Tower 32 Island 1 Temple of the False God 1 Ancient Tomb Artifact 1 Sol Ring 1 Sapphire Medallion 1 Empyrial Plate 1 Gilded Lotus 1 Sword of Feast and Famine 1 Worldslayer 1 Runechanter's Pike 1 Primal Amulet	Instant 1 Reset 1 Force of Will 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Capsize 1 Counterspell 1 Evacuation 1 Forbid 1 Turnabout 1 Foil 1 Spelljack 1 Time Stop 1 Rewind 1 Commandeer 1 Trickbind 1 Wipe Away 1 Delay 1 Pact of Negation 1 Blue Sun's Zenith 1 Dissipate 1 Cyclonic Rift 1 Desertion 1 Aetherize 1 Swan Song 1 Arcane Denial 1 Misdirection 1 Cryptic Command 1 Aethersnatch 1 Mystic Confluence 1 Engulf the Shore 1 Summary Dismissal 1 Insidious Will 1 Disallow 1 Mana Drain 1 Negate	Sorcery 1 Merchant Scroll 1 Relearn 1 Time Warp 1 Reminisce 1 Time Stretch 1 Call to Mind 1 Devastation Tide 1 Whelming Wave 1 Wash Out 1 Crush of Tentacles 1 River's Rebuke 1 Aether Gale

I'm just wary of its casting cost. Do you play Nezahal more as a finisher, or as soon as you can and just protect it?

@Turtlerock, I wouldn't mind seeing your Thassa list if you got a link somewhere.

Right now I have Kefnet at the helm with both Thassa and Nezahal in the 99 (I replaced Jin-Gitaxias with Nezahal as he seems much less oppressive) so I suppose I can switch them out as I test the deck.

Quote from kraus911 »

@Turtlerock, I wouldn't mind seeing your Thassa list if you got a link somewhere.

Sure, here's the current iteration:



Basically plays like I mentioned above. Newest change was cutting Waterknot for Deep Freeze since, although losing one pip of devotion on the latter, the Freeze takes care of the creature's abilities, which is a huge plus, being a base 0/4 wall is negligible when I'm making creatures unblockable, so then they can't even block with it to remove the enchant and, in the way of the commander, re-cast it.

I like how Thassa provides some benefit in the scry ability early on and over the course of a game can provide a big advantage.

PM me if you have some specific questions, I'm in Portland too!

Thada Adel is very, very good in this kind of role.

Quote from kraus911 »

I'm just wary of its casting cost. Do you play Nezahal more as a finisher, or as soon as you can and just protect it?

The nice thing about Nezahal is that you don't have to do much to protect it. It can't be countered and if anyone plays any spells after it resolves, you get to draw cards and at worst you can pitch some extra stuff to blink it. I have found the deck is really good at slowing the game down with things like Invoke Prejudice and Overburden as well as the mass bounce effects and counter spells. As soon as Nezahal resolves in a multiplayer game, the card draw gets pretty serious, especially if there are players trying to play eggs, enchantments or control. I have never had anyone successfully deal with Nezahal, especially with all the free counters. I see stuff like top deck Pact of Negation off the draw trigger to counter the triggering spell. Unlike most big beatsticks, Nezahal is actually extremely difficult to deal with and it gets worse for their opponents the longer it's out. I definitely can get it out early off things like Mana Drain, Ancient Tomb, etc (tapping out to play it is fine here).

Like I said, the deck is basically voltron control, I play Nezahal as early as I can, while hindering opponents trying to make explosive plays (which is pretty easy with mass bounce and counters). I especially love bouncing all the enchantments, walkers and mana rocks and forcing them to recast all of them while Nezahal is out (can pitch 3 cards to dodge your own stuff like Devastation Tide)

I know he's not mono bluez but U/B Sygg can put the beats down something fierce. I built him low mana curve topping out at 4 and mostly centered on 2 drops, mostly creatures with some spot removal and the best counters. Nobody expects Dimir to come out swinging and never let up, and Sygg keeps your hand full. Hes got a hybrid mana cost, so you can run him mono blue, and there are a some nice cheap beats in blue (wake Thrasher gets crazy quick).

I'm going to put a good word in for my boy Sean Connery better known as Hakim, Loreweaver. Dumping auras into your graveyard to utilize with your general is fun and the low amount of good pumping auras in Blue can cause you to get creative with some of your card choices. Stuff like Flight of Fancy and Ordeal of Thassa get a lot better when you can recur and have them be destroyed by Hakim. If you want a faster clock you got Corrupted Conscience that functions both as theft before you put it on Hakim and also puts Grafted Exoskeleton style pressure on them coming out of the yard. Eldrazi Conscription and Auramancer's Guise can let you beef up and all of this is before fun stuff like Arcanum Wings and Illusory Gains shenanigans. You want evasion you can grab Vanishing if you need to untap some lands for something you can pay UU get Treachery and go up 3 lands there's just so many options and fun choices you can make in his aura suite.

Activating his own ability during your upkeep in response to itself lets you load him up with the best auras in your grave but at the same time if you're using looting or things of that type you can use the auras to make respectable attackers/blockers.

I've been pondering if Stitcher Geralf counts since he can make beefy beater token creatures.

If I were going mono-u voltron, I would choose Thassa, God of the Sea as well. His CMC is on point - potentially turn 2 without AAA tier, god-hand (pun intended) shenanigans. Thassa is indestructible and unblockable. Most voltron decks have to devote two separate cards to get such power. Who but Thassa merits your devotion? On theme with Thassa, and practically an autoinclude for thematic purposes, is Bident of Thassa, and who doesn't like on theme draw power? Theros gods are notoriously hard to remove, and I'm sure there are many ways to keep your devotion such that he becomes creature or enchantment at your command, with blue's affinity for bouncing permanents to hand.

As I’ve died from Commander damage from a pumped, untargetable Lu Xun, Scholar General, I’d say he’s just as strong as Sun Quan but only because he has a built-in Curiosity stapled on. But I would use Lu Xun in a true voltron build.

I do also like Thassa.

Why not Vendilion Clique? I have an active list here that smashes with vClique while controlling the opponent, or polymorphs out something nasty.

Runechanter's pike, empyrial plate, and sword of feast and famine are really all they need to go over the top.

Typically vClique is best for 1v1, but depending on the opponents the decks, can sometimes hold down two+ while grinding away. Typically just need to know what to counter and when.