MTG Salvation

Having just received my Asmira, Holy Avenger, I decided to design an EDH deck just for her. The two EDH decks I play are Scion and Savra, both of which are quite demanding and draw a lot of attention in-game. While fun, sometimes I'd like something a little different. This is my build for a deck I can play when I want a more relaxed game.

I've recently begun building a Modern Multiplayer Cube. As such, certain cards that I would like to include here are going in the Cube, such as Garruk Wildspeaker. I don't think this deck would be drastically different with my ideal picks; a few budget choices would be replaced with higher cost alternatives and I would probably have an extra Wrath effect.

Asmira's Wrath

Asmira, Holy Avenger likes it when her buddies die. As well, she doesn't even need to be around when it happens, as long as she shows up by end of turn. This means we can drop a wrath, then send in Asmira to clean up an empty board.

This creates two necessities: creatures that don't mind hitting the grave (Mausoleum Guard) and mana acceleration (Selesnya Signet). If we can get a couple cards that fill both roles, great! I'm looking at you, Diligent Farmhand!

I don't want to rely solely on Asmira Voltron. As such, there's a back-up token-swarm theme, with the possibility of going Voltron with beefier tokens, such as Wurmcalling.

Preference has been giving to cards that generate multiple creatures to trigger Asmira (Wurmcalling's buyback) or cards that leave a body behind after they die (Mausoleum Guard). In the second scenario, that at least leaves a chump blocker or an equipment target if Asmira is countered or otherwise unable to join the fun.

Without further stalling, here's the deck:



* Two lands included in Two-for-Ones and Token Win instead of Mana Base

Looking for feedback. As mentioned, this is made with leftovers from Cube, plus my Scion deck is holding a couple cards that could be included here, such as Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves.

A few choices I feel could use some explanation:

Final Judgment: This doesn't trigger Asmira, but I figure there could be times I need to wipe the board without an Angel waiting to back me up.

Kessig Cagebreakers: Since non-creature token generators don't count, I don't have an exceptional number of creatures to trigger this. However, even getting two or three creatures a turn by swinging at the one guy with no blockers can quickly add up.

Benalish Commander: Tap out for X, wipe the board next turn, get 1/1's.

Cataclysm: I'm generally not a fan of these land reset effects, but I feel if I can resolve it with Asmira and any equipment on her, I've got a pretty good headstart towards the kill, so it won't be a drastically drawn out tactic.

Emmessi Tome: My collection is distincly lacking in green draw-based-on-creatures effects. The Tome shouldn't draw much attention, unless I'm discarding notable flashback cards to it. On that note, I have flashback to toss for a "free" discard, plus I can always lose some of the less desirable token-makers.

Far Wanderings: I don't see this card very often, but it seems pretty solid in EDH when one is running enough basics.

Yavimaya Dryad: Free landgrab and/or equipment-target.

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Any thoughts? Any odd choices that I didn't explain?

It's too bad Loyal Retainers is such an expensive card in paper magic. You can pair it with Saffi Eriksdotter to make Asmira infinitely huge. Saffi would probably be a good include anyways. Sakura-Tribe Elder and Yavimaya Granger are both decent ramp to consider with build in sacrifice to buff Asmira. Shield of the Oversoul's flying is redundant on Asmira; but +2/+2 is nice and indestructible leaves her standing after a wipe. It also makes me wonder if you couldn't fit Darksteel Plate in here.

Quote from slumgum

It's too bad Loyal Retainers is such an expensive card in paper magic. You can pair it with Saffi Eriksdotter to make Asmira infinitely huge

That would be quite the loop. Too bad the handful of P3K I got years ago didn't include it.

Added Austere Command (which I forgot about) and Living Hive, which could work as a back-up equipment receiver that hopefully leaves some babies after it dies. Removed Sundering Vitae and Civic Wayfinder.

EDIT: After adding the final cards to the real-life copy of the deck, I seem to have misplaced my Hunting Wilds and Roc Egg. As such, they have been replaced with Sprouting Vines and Silverglade Elemental. Also added a Flagstones of Trokair and Urza's Factory I found in my collection.

A couple of card draw suggestions are Skullmulcher and Fecundity. They go great with tokens. Other suggestions include Awakening Zone, Ant Queen and Helm of Possession.

Unfortunately, I didn't buy much Magic between Lorwyn and Scars, so most of the mentioned cards I'll have to look into as singles.

@Tarasco: I thought I had a Skullmuncher and I looked for it while building the deck, but I couldn't find it. It must be in one of my several casual multiplayer legacy decks. I'll take another look, I suppose.

@Wildfire: A friend of mine has a Pentavus, but he loves it. I'll have to find him something quite tempting if I have any hope of getting my greedy little mitts on it. While Woodfall Primus is all kinds of wonderful (and I don't have one, and if I did it would probably replace the proxy in my Cube), I'm not a big fan of Kitchen Finks in EDH. I don't think the life gain matters much and it doesn't do anything special beyond other "returns after death" creatures like Penumbra Spider. If I feel I need more two-for-one creatures, I'll look into it.

Regarding recursion, I don't really have many creatures I care about returning from the grave. A lot of my creatures are consistent and resist Wrath effects (Penumbra Spider), perform an effect and then I don't need them anymore (Wood Elves), or come in the form of non-creature status (Wurmcalling). There are a handful that I wouldn't mind getting back (Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Sunblast Angel), but I'm not sure it's worth cutting cards to make space for it. I'm already running my main Asmira-Voltron theme with the token-support back-up theme. I do have Regrowth and Creeping Renaissance in already, the former to grab a Wrath effect back and the latter mostly to get destroyed equipment back.

I considered Juniper Order Ranger for a long time and eventually cut it for Leonin Sun Standard. I want to play for tokens as a secondary resource in case Asmira isn't viable (either based on cards on the field or by a tuck effect). During construction, I did forget that the Ranger grows with each creature, though, so I could replace something to find room for it. I'll play the deck a bit and see how much acceleration the deck needs.

I'll keep an eye out for Avenger of Zendikar in trade binders at my next FNM.

I don't really want to go infinite with this deck. Arguably, I have the largest budget in my EDH group, so I'd like something that lets the other players see what's coming (by dropping equipments) with a gradual incline of power. After my Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck spooked some people, I'm looking to build a strong and consistent deck that doesn't explode out of nowhere. Since Asmira, Holy Avenger doesn't grow until the end step, she at least requires a full spin around the table before she can do anything.

EDIT: On second thought, I'll try running Juniper Order Rangers over Wood Elves for now. I live on Juniper Street. If that's not reason enough to give them a try first, I don't know what is.

The landfall guys really like Perilous Forays.

...Pentavus' .31 cent flying cousin, Thopter Assembly. I play a Gaddock Teeg deck w/ Lark and token combos, and the cards Wildfire mention all work really well in my deck. But you don't necessarily have to go the recursion route.

I do think 35 lands is a bit light for a deck that could be this mana hungry.

A few cards that I think shine when you have "disposable heroes"; looking at your list, I'm not convinced you'd be better cutting the token cards for some persist and more wrath-like effects. But, if you do keep the tokens (and even if you don't) these could be helpful:

Martyr's Cause - with virtually any decent token producer on the board, this reads "attack somebody else."

Fanatical Devotion - I realize you want things to go to the graveyard. But this let's you wrath the board and decide which of your things you'd like to keep.

Mentor of the Meek - somebody else just introduced me to this card; I've played with it twice and it has been beastly for me.

Myojin of Cleansing Fire - This seems like it would work well; though it is a high casting cost, if it survives a turn around the board you pop her counter and then bring out your commander.

@Wildfire: Recursion is a huge magnet for counterspells in this meta. Plus, graveyard hate is quite common. I'd also like to avoid going the same rout as my Scion's recursion theme. My Scion's graveyard has attracted a great deal of attention while I was the only one looking at my opponent's Sensei's Divining Top and Rings of Brighthearth. As for Symbiotic Wurm, I never unded up getting one in all the Onslaught I collected. I've been looking for quite some time, but I haven't seen any in local trade binders.

@insignificantwrangler: I'll try to get my hands on a Thopter Assembly. I think I have a Fanatical Devotion somewhere, but I don't know what I'd cut for it. The Myojin also looks like a welcome addition. As for 35 lands, I do have two more listed in other sections (Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree and Gavony Township). I'm going to play the deck more to get a feel for the number of lands to get started vs. the number I'll put into play from my acceleration.

Asmira had her first game on Friday. I won, but I don't feel like I learned anything about cuts and additions. An early Collective Voyage from the Intet, the Dreamer deck left me with over twenty lands, so I could cast anything I drew. Centaur Glade became a superstar. However, the deck did accomplish my goals: it started out more relaxed than my Scion or Savra decks, but I had a lot of neutralizing cards (wraths and artifact/enchantment removal) so I could police the board a little. After a Chaos Warp removed my Centaur Glade and turned it into a Bonehoard, monster tokens reigned supreme.

One card I'm considering is Pull From Eternity. As mentioned, graveyard hate is quite common in this meta. It might be worthwhile to run this to get an extra use out of a flashback card (Divine Reckoning, Crush of Wurms, Ray of Distortion) or grab Glory back from exile. However, I think I'd be better off with something else.

I could use another big, scary equipment that buffs power and hopefully gives trample or evasion. I don't own any of the swords. I was thinking Loxodon Warhammer.