MTG Salvation

Hello friends!

Welcome to my new and improved budget thread for Sharuum, the Hegemon. For reference, here is a link to the original thread and all of its former glory. Since I first created this list, inflation has crept into the Shards block, and I've acquired a number of awesome pricier foils. I've also made another very successful deck at $50, so that original concept still lives on.

This new thread is basically the same as the old thread, except that the cap number is now $100, instead of the usual $50. All other rules and regulations still apply.

One interesting thing to note about this "new and improved" version of the deck is that a lot of the pricier cards I would have liked to add are also a lot more threatening than their cheaper variants. For example, the cheaper version of this deck would probably want a card like Courier's Capsule, but the extra budget will likely allow me to add in something like Mind's Eye instead. However, adding a change like this also greatly increases the threat level of this deck, and increases the likelihood of someone else's Return to Dust or Bojuka Bog being pointed in my direction. The more I think on this, the more I believe that a lot of this deck's success was due to the subtlety of some of the card choices. In other words, it's easy to overlook the guy playing a bunch of little trinkets and Esper commons from Shards block, but the guy with all the broken Mirrodin artifacts probably gets shot down pretty quickly.

Another thing I've noticed is that the curve of this deck seems to want to go a lot higher after adding more pricey artifacts. In the same example as above, Courier's Capsule is at most 2 to cast and 2 to activate, but Mind's Eye is 5 to cast and probably more than two to activate. Granted, Mind's Eye obviously draws more cards more efficiently than Courier's Capsule, but it's also something that other will sit up and take notice of (and probably try to remove). So again, while this list doesn't have quite as many financial limitations as the previous one, I'd still like to try and maintain a certain sense of subtlety with this list.

The current total for this deck is $91.65 on ChannelFireball, $113.75 on StarCity, and $100.55 on Troll & Toad.

As always, stay tuned for updates, and questions and comments are greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

How on earth is this deck less than 100 dollars? Are you only considering the non-foil values?

Quote from ApocryphaEffect

How on earth is this deck less than 100 dollars? Are you only considering the non-foil values?

Yes, if you look at the original thread, you'll see a section on how I arrive at my price figures.

I hope you don't mind if I base a deck off this, its quite the list and I can easily afford it

Quote from Geariodo

I hope you don't mind if I base a deck off this, its quite the list and I can easily afford it

Certainly! Let me know how it works for you!

Eh, not so well... It turns out that it being after the holidays in all, I had less money set aside for a deck... Or I just suck at counting...

UPDATE: Added a couple more cards to push the cap number closer to the $100 limit.

Well, I was going to write up this big, fancy review of Gatecrash as it pertains to this deck, but the only card I could really see myself trying out is Immortal Servitude. I don't need Gates, can't afford shocks due to budget, the few artifacts in the set are dumb, I don't need self-milling Dimir cards, and none of the other non-artifact cards are anywhere close to on-theme. Oh well, at least M13 gave me some new stuff.

Cool, great thread. It's been helpful for me in building my own Sharuum deck. Any thoughts on updates from Dragon's Maze or M14?

Quote from TheEternalVortex

Cool, great thread. It's been helpful for me in building my own Sharuum deck. Any thoughts on updates from Dragon's Maze or M14?

Well, I haven't spent as much time on EDH since I started building a cube, and the last few sets haven't really had much of an artifact theme to them, but I suppose I should at least keep this up to date.

Let's start with Dragon's Maze:
- Azorius Cluestone: I like each of these, but they are up against some very tough competition. If they were 2-drops, it would be much easier, but three-drop artifacts have to compete with the likes of Chromatic Lantern, Coalition Relic, and Darksteel Ingot, and I'd rather have any of those three than a Cluestone every time. Heck, even Obelisk of Esper can at least produce all three colors. Unfortunately, these don't look like they'll have a home anytime soon.
- Azorius Guildgate: Being a Gate doesn't really do anything for me, otherwise I'd likely be running things like Coastal Tower. Hopefully when Innistrad rotates, Isolated Chapel will become cheap enough for this list.
- Debt to the Deathless: Neat card, but this isn't a ramp deck and I don't really need something like this.
- Hidden Strings: I like the idea of a repeatable effect like this every turn, but none of my creatures are expected to stay on the table that long.
- Lavinia of the Tenth: Thankfully there aren't many other Azorius players in my area, because this card would pretty much hose me. It also has absolutely no synergy with my deck.
- Obzedat's Aid: It sorta fits with a minor sub-theme of what this deck wants to do, but it's a multi-colored non-permanent.
- Pontiff of Blight: Perhaps the closest thing to a playable new addition so far. Pontiff isn't an artifact and doesn't mention anything about artifacts anywhere, but its ability does intrigue me because I do cast a lot of cheap spells and I do tend to put a number of bodies on the table. I could make the case for trying it out.
- Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts: Too expensive, not on theme.

In summary...a big, fat whiff. To be fair, RTR block is all about colored spells, not artifacts, so this isn't exactly a shock. Still, it would have been nice to pick up something along the way.

As for M14...
- Dark Prophecy: It's triple black and not the easiest thing to remove if necessary. Probably better off in my Chainer deck.
- Dismiss into Dream: Another neat card that should be in a lot of EDH decks, just not this one.
- Door of Destinies: Even if it got charged off ETB triggers instead of spells cast, I wouldn't be nearly tribal enough for this to work.
- Elixir of Immortality: I like my graveyard right where it is.
- Glimpse the Future: This actually seems like a halfway decent idea...filter the artifacts into the yard and take the best non-artifact spell into my hand. Unfortuantely, there's that pesky S-word (sorcery) that prevents me from playing it over instants.
- Ring of Three Wishes: I want so very much for this to be playable, but 5 mana per activation plus five more mana just to put it in play is about twice as expensive as it should be.
- Shadowborn Demon: Another cool card that belongs in some other deck (probably Chainer).
- Staff of the Death Magus: I'm a three-color artifact deck, so these have no place here.
- Strionic Resonator: FINALLY, a playable card! This thing doubles up Sharuum and who knows what else, and more importantly it does so at a very reasonable price. Not sure how or when or where it will find a home, but it should at least find one.

In summary...this is about what I've come to expect from a core set: one or two random new artifact rares that have a subtle but unique effect.

Here's hoping the next block is a little more robot-friendly.

Here's to trying to necro an old thread: any updates or changes you would make since you last posted a long time ago?

Quote from DMRxITxUP »

Here's to trying to necro an old thread: any updates or changes you would make since you last posted a long time ago?

TBH, I took this deck apart awhile back. Too many of the core cards in the list kept getting inflated prices to the point that it was nearly impossible to keep it under a reasonable budget anymore.