MTG Salvation

I've never really liked Teferi, probably because I've always seen him used for annoying combo decks, but I spent some time with him last weekend and he's actually a great guy.

I was telling him how I hate playing against combo decks because I'm always really paranoid about tapping out, and I hate leaving my guys open to removal so I've always got a bunch of mana sitting unused at the ends of lots of turns. I've never really made a truly "EDH"y deck because I hate tapping out for big fatties, only to have my opponent combo off or kill them immediately.

He told me he'd not only allow me to play big fatties without tapping out until it's irrelevant, but also protect them from instant-speed removal until they're online. Is that a great guy or what?

So I packed the deck full of amazing, game-changing blue creatures. Almost every single one is an absolute bomb that will warp the entire table, and you can keep dropping them every freaking turn, with plenty of countermana available at all times, because I'm a control freak.

Behold!



Still working on it, I've got the list of creatures looking pretty good, and lands aren't too bad, but I haven't incorporated any major sorceries or instants besides the counterspell suite. So any input is appreciated!

Quote from SuperSonik

Spellskite + Lighthouse Chronologist = Wrath me or lose

Speaking of which, where's your Lightning Greaves? Some decks don't need it but yours would really like it for times when Teferi isn't on the board and you want to drop your bombs.

I'd try to find room for Trinket Mage just so you can tutor up Sol Ring or Mana Crypt so you can actually cast your bombs. Either one of those Platinum dudes are weak links you could cut.

I thought you were playing bombs? No Stormtide Leviathan? No Inkwell Leviathan? I would further consider cutting Empress Galina and Riptide director. The former is too narrow and the latter doesn't have the critical mass of Wizards you need to break it I think.

If you want to just drop bombs without tapping out like you are talking about in the OP, you could consider blue braids as an alternate general that's quite fun to build around and really, really abuses control magic effects.

yeah, spellskite might be worthwhile protection for my creatures. I do have a lot of counters already, though. On the other hand, it's a creature. I'll think about it, if I'm really running into trouble with targeted removal I'll give it a shot.

Greaves is conspicuously absent, but I have a good reason. the haste is almost totally useless with teferi around, since I'll always be casting my creatures eot and can't equip them until my turn, when ss will already wear off naturally. The shroud is ok, but I'll probably have a lot of bombs on the table, protecting just one isn't going to cut it. That's why I prefer defenses like kira. I'd also consider neurok stealthsuit.

I'm kinda leaning towards treasure mage over trinket mage, so I can tutor for caged sun, which long-term is a lot more mana. I mostly just ran out of room. trinket mage fetches sol ring, but....that's about the only thing it fetches. If I had any other 1cc artifacts I'd really think about it, but if I want to pay 4 mana for a sol ring I'll play sisay's ring.

Inkwell leviathan sucks, so I'm not playing that one. Just because I'm playing bombs doesn't mean I'm playing big, dumb beaters with no other function. For way less mana, who's going to have a bigger impact on a multiplayer game - inkwell leviathan or guile? stormtide I'd really like to put back on the list, I could see cutting one of the platinums, but I'd like to give them a shot first.

empress galina I can't imagine cutting. Her obvious downside in most games is that she'll get killed before she's active, but with teferi shielding her from instants until she's online she'll be ready to roll at any time. Sure, not everyone is dependant on their general, but she doesn't have to ruin people to be worth it. She still makes most generals worse than worthless and gives me chumpers or even additional off-color bombs. The fact that it's instant speed is just icing - "if you kill teferi I'll steal your general" etc.

riptide director isn't my very favorite draw engine, but I was starting to run out of good creature-based draw engines by the end of the list (I separated my 200-long list of powerful creatures into function and then chose the top 10). Next up would be myojin of seeing winds, which is cool but seems like overkill for a single turn, and then a lot of discarding with a useless 3/3 left to show for it. Riptide director is a lot cheaper and he's almost guaranteed to draw for 2 a turn...I've got 16 wizards in the deck, so more likely in the 4 range. Broken, no, but I'd rather draw 4 every turn than draw 20 in one turn, then pitch most of them. Besides, wizards being some of my cheaper creatures I should hit more of them, and cast more of them, quickly, so he'll keep getting more and more CA.

Absolutely will not play blue braids. I've played against her and absolutely hated every second of it. Not because she was too good, but because she enabled all the other decks like crazy (and she almost always did poorly herself). Other people can drop their big permanents without hitting countermagic, and they can drop them early, and then, if they're smart, they'll kill blue braids so braids herself gets nothing. Plus she still doesn't solve the summoning sickness problem like teferi, or protect my creatures like teferi. I want a bomby deck, but I still want it to be a control deck. I do want to drop bombs without tapping out...but the reason I don't want to tap out is so I can still counter things. Letting my opponents put their bombs directly into play kind of defeats the purpose.

Quote from boxtrotalpha

No Venser? he seems way to good to pass up in this build, especially since your all ready running riptide lab. Any thoughts on guys like man-o'-war and other bounce guys combined with cloudstone curio? it seems like it could do pretty well but it may be devoting too many slots for rickety reusable unsummons. Draining Whelk might also have a spot in here particularly if you run cloudstone curio since your never tapped out. overall it looks like a blast to play though

I wasn't playing when venser was released so I guess I kinda missed the venser craze, but I've never liked the guy. If I want a spell dealt with, I'll counter it, not bounce it. Nobody is running remand. It seems ok if you have a way to recur him reliably, but otherwise he seems really...meh. Riptide lab is nearly untutorable in mono blue, and even if i luck into both lab and venser, I've got capsize/remand for 7 mana...which is less efficient than capsize anyway, and I don't like the idea of devoting 7 mana to keep a spell at bay indefinitely. a 2/2 body is pretty meaningless, and the versatility is ok but there are so many things I'd rather have available. Capsize, on the other hand, needs to be in the deck. Curio is interesting for protecting my own creatures, but I'd rather use neurok stealthsuit or something.

Also I'm not a fan of draining whelk, I can see the use if I had more recursion, but there aren't enough useful tutors in mono-blue to gaurantee getting cards that make it worth it, like curio or whatever, so it'd almost always be a really overpriced one-use counterspell. Either way, it's garbage compared to Ertai or the Stronghold twins.

Quote from Zikur

blue has a couple ways to fetch up lands atleast
tolaria west
expedition map+ dizzy spell/Trinket Mage

Yeah, I guess that's true. If you're still referring to venser, though, I'm not really interested. Ertai only costs 4 a turn to counter every turn, and temporal adept only costs 3 to bounce every turn, where venser costs 7 to do one of those things (and obviously he's worse at countering than ertai 99% of the time). Yes, venser can do either thing and flexibility is nice, but as long as I need venser + another card so I can bounce or pseudo-counter every turn...how about instead I use ertai and adept as my "combo" and then I can counter AND bounce every turn, instead of having to pick one?

No to venser. NO I SAY!

Quote from Tzeenc

In the title of this thread you use the term "no stupid combos..." Could you please define this term for me??

Mostly I'm referring to the knowledge pool combo. It's not in there, and I have no intention to include it.

Teferi gets used a lot for combo decks because he makes them hard to disrupt, so I wanted to set this deck apart from those decks. Instead I focus on using teferi for his flash ability to let blue play big fatties without worrying about tapping out.

By not including combos, it means that people SHOULD be less motivated to kill him. They don't have to worry that I'm going to go infinite and they won't be able to respond. So, although he's still an annoyance, he doesn't spell certain doom.

If you're taking issue with me calling combos stupid, then yes, I called combos stupid. They're certainly a part of the game and I will play against them, but I rarely enjoy it and I don't like playing with them. If you play a combo deck, I will do everything in my power to turn the table against you and ensure you never get your combo off. I haven't lost to an infinite combo in many, many games.