MTG Salvation

I'm trying to build a graveyard matters deck centered around the following 4 cards:


# E = cards that work well with Ertai
# R = cards that work well with River Kelpie
# H = cards that work well with Haakon
# C = cards that work well with Cairn Wanderer

Check out the list in my sig. It's a graveyard interacting combo deck. Loads of fun to play.

Quote from Death Diamond

Check out the list in my sig. It's a graveyard interacting combo deck. Loads of fun to play.

Thank you, but that is a list for a goodstuff deck that doesn't play any of the cards I want to focus on for this brew (Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, River Kelpie and Cairn Wanderer)

I want to draw a bunch of cards by playing Crib Swap from my graveyard with Haakon and River Kelpie in play. To me, that is much more satisfying than playing another Consecrated Sphinx.

To be completely honest, your list is kind of uninspiring to me and is probably everything I don't want this list to turn into.

Yosei, the Morning Star and Kokusho, the Evening Star should be in here.. I know they don't fit with your theme but they are just about the best creatures to sac and recur in the game.

They should replace janky crap like Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Inkwell Leviathan, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. I understand you want those as your 'finishers' but you will get 100% more value out of Cocopuffs and his brother Yoyostar.

Quote from Cabz

They should replace janky crap like Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Inkwell Leviathan, and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. I understand you want those as your 'finishers' but you will get 100% more value out of Cocopuffs and his brother Yoyostar.

Those 3 were in there for Cairn Wanderer, So I don't really want to replace them. Unless you have other suggestions to buff Cairn Wanderer.

I'll see if I can make room for Yosei, the Morning Star and Kokusho, the Evening Star.

Quote from scoeri

Those 3 were in there for Cairn Wanderer, So I don't really want to replace them. Unless you have other suggestions to buff Cairn Wanderer.

I'll see if I can make room for Yosei, the Morning Star and Kokusho, the Evening Star.

Okay, but you shouldn't debase your deck just so that Cairn Wanderer can be playable. If anything you could just axe him, too. But if you want to have a janky knight reanimator deck, then that's up to you, not sure if I can be much help with that.

Quote from Beusapu

Your deck is interesting, yes, but if you ask for help, everyone assumes you want to make the deck better, and that implies playing better cards and renouncing to some cool things.

I see you want your list to be how it is now (and it's quite cool, that's true, but not very good). there's no point for asking help, if then you don't want to listen to suggestions and prefer to stay where you started.

I know what cards are good in commander. I generate lists of those every month. But copying the top 60 esper cards and adding lands is not really what I was going for here. As the great Mark Rosewater has said on many occasions: "Restrictions breed creativity". That's why, off all my decks, I love my Squee, Goblin Nabob deck the most. I had to be creative to make that deck work and it does! (although over time more and more mono-R staples got added). I don't want to "renounce to some cool things" because that would imply less restrictions and therefore less need for creativity.

I don't care if this deck is not super competitive, I don't play in a competitive meta anyway. As long as the deck is interesting to play, I'm happy. If this deck does not work out the way I want it to, so be it. I'll scrap the idea and start a new one.

What I was expecting to get help with to make the deck better:

1) Ideas for cards that work well with: Ertai, Haakon, River Kelpie and Cairn Wanderer to maximize the potential of those 4 cards

2) "Good" cards that can help improve the deck without having to cut cards that fall into the first category

I'm definitely willing to listen to suggestions. If you are saying that I should replace Wrath of God with Elesh Norn as the board sweeper of choice, by all means do so.

Quote from Beusapu

Anyway, what i'm trying to say is that asking for help will unevitably make people suggest the "better option" cards, and replace your cool things for good stuff. That's what 90% of the suggestions are gonna be (you just need to look at the two suggestions you've recieved so far).

Agreed, I should have better stated my intentions for the deck before asking for help.

Quote from Beusapu

I like the deck, and the kelpie+haakon engine is very cool. You can add Ego Erasure, Nameless Inversion, Shields of Velis Vel and Wings of Velis Vel and go all-in on the theme.

I don't want to go overboard on the theme either, the deck still has to be playable. Some of those cards are only playable when I have the kelpie+haakon engine going. Unfortunately, realistically that is only going to be the case for a small amount of games/turns.

What I am looking for most is cards that are great with at least 2 of my engines.
Cards like Knight-Captain of Eos because it is both a Knight for Haakon as well as a token producer for Ertai.
Or Bloodghast, it is both a creature for Ertai as well as triggering Kelpie
Or Trading Post being a discard outlet for Haakon and a token producer for Ertai

Somebody also probably should have suggested Yawgmoth's Will. That card has to be pretty great in this deck.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I must say this is a beautiful deck with very interesting and clever interactions along with underrated cards. I could see myself building this. Just a few suggestions:

Brainspoil acts as a tutor for River Kelpie and Cairn Wanderer. I would also say you want to run more ways to protect your combo creatures, i.e. Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, Mother of Runes, Elgaud Shieldmate, etc. Another thing I should mention is that you may want to increase the permission suite. Not saying you need 10 counters, but stuff like Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Windfall can probably go. Maybe you could also run more knights also, like Hero of Bladehold and Knight Exemplar

I like the idea of a unique deck, but there are some "good stuff" cards you can run without violating the integrity and concept of the deck (Cyclonic Rift, Phyrexian Arena, Sorin Markov, Ghostly Prison etc.

Quote from Honor Basquiat

I must say this is a beautiful deck with very interesting and clever interactions along with underrated cards. I could see myself building this.

Thanks for the suggestions, this deck has been loads of fun to play. Sorin is mostly for tokens for Ertai and Windfall is to get Haakon in the graveyard. I'll definitely find room for Brainspoil and take a look at your other suggestions when I revisit this deck.

Quote from PolarBearSoup »

Hey there, I run a Haakon package in my Vish-Kal deck, and would really recommend Knight Exemplar. It also provides first strike for the wanderer here...

It's exiling my Haakon I am worried about. When I first designed the deck I included a bunch of knights, now I only want to run those with ETB effects.

Quote from PolarBearSoup »

I notice you are running Ashes of the Fallen, but not Conspiracy or Xenograft, any reason for this? The combination of the Exemplar + Conspiracy is a nice defence against sweeps, and still supports the GY shenanigans you are after, allowing you to cast the Kelpie from the yard when Haakon is about.

Mana efficiency is key here. When I run out Ashes of the Fallen, I usually use it as a one time effect because by the time it is my turn again someone probably wiped my graveyard or destroyed my Ashes of the Fallen. Conspiracy costs to much mana for the marginal effect and Xenograft does not work for creatures in the graveyard.

Quote from PolarBearSoup »

Another card I have found invaluable is Liliana of the Veil, using her +1 for the discard is great if you end up drawing Haakon, but with her doubling as removal once you have a controlled board state.
The last suggestions I have are the lands which double as Sac outlets (High Market, Phyrexian Tower, etc) and Winding Canyons. These help you protect from exile and tuck effects, whilst the Canyon allows you to play a better draw-go with your yard.

These are great suggestions, thanks! The mana base definitely needs some work. I just haven't acquired all the lands yet. Liliana is a great suggestion. The deck used to run Smallpox, Liliana works similar but better, thanks!

Quote from PolarBearSoup »

Just on another level, I do like Enchanted Evening and Tombstone Stairwell in Ertai, but that does little to play to your theme, so it probably isn't worth the inclusion.

Thanks, currently I haven't had Ertai out without an expendable creature to sacrifice. So from experience I can tell you I'm good in that departement.

Quote from PolarBearSoup »

Hope that is the sort of advice you were looking for, it is a funky looking deck, just a shame Cairn Wanderer can't be bigger then a 4/4.

Polar

Yeah, I haven't been overly impressed by Cairn Wanderer but I just can't let go of him. He fits so well in the deck with Haakon and all...

Thanks for the comment, it was really helpful!

So I had a Brion deck that had a lot of graveyard interaction and I got bored of it, it led to me looking for places in which I could use the tech and Ertai stood out, I also had pieces left over from a couple different re-animator / stax decks and smashed them both together and came out with this.




I like your commitment to the theme and resistance to just playing good stuff.

Hey scoeri,

Im really curious if you still have this list together and if so have you had any major updates to it?

Yes, it actually changed significantly. The central theme of the deck is still the same but I removed a lot of the jank and included a lot of staples to make the deck more competitive.

I'll try to find some time to update the deck here as well, it's one of my favourite decks to play.

Sweet! I hope you update it soon. This is one deck that I've been thinking of trying to replicate the core and put my own fluff to make it stronger but Wanted to make sure if you even still played it.

Finally managed to update the decklist. This is what I'm playing now.

The decklist still needs a lot of work. E.g. Land Tax, Scroll Rack isn't doing much in this deck.

I haven't played that much magic lately so I'm not entirely up to date with the new sets so I'm probably still missing a number of cards from those.

If you see anything missing, please let me know.

Corpse Dance?

Quote from razzliox »

Corpse Dance?

I ran corpse dance for a while but it was always a bit to mana intensive. The deck runs on a low curve and runs smooth on 5-8 mana.

Dralnu, Lich Lord also interacts with the graveyard, specifically your instants and sorceries AND has a good interaction with River Kelpie.
Doubling the use of all your spells seems pretty good to me! ^^

So here is my list.

The synergy with the top four cards (and shapeshifters alike) is nuts. It's making me rethink the strategy I had in my built. My version tried to be more stax centred but, this has tons of cool interactions, nice list.

Have you given any thought to Cauldron of Souls? I think it has great synergy with River Kelpie and gets good ETB tricks. What about Mikaeus, the Unhallowed? Same deal.

Quote from OwnDemon »

Dralnu, Lich Lord also interacts with the graveyard, specifically your instants and sorceries AND has a good interaction with River Kelpie.
Doubling the use of all your spells seems pretty good to me! ^^

Great suggestion. I don't have one lying around but I will definitely try it out the next time I order cards.

Quote from Ulka »

So here is my list.

Nice list, I will definitely steal some of your ideas for my list. The only problem I have with your list is the lack of Entomb. That card has always been amazing for me. It's also a deck where Intuition can shine as a value card without leading to an "I win" combo. It's also such a great politics card. You fetch an answer to a problem permanent of "player A" + Haakon + a Knight and then ask "player B" to choose a card. They always pick the answer and let Haakon go to the graveyard.

Quote from Serberus_08 »

The synergy with the top four cards (and shapeshifters alike) is nuts. It's making me rethink the strategy I had in my built. My version tried to be more stax centred but, this has tons of cool interactions, nice list.

Have you given any thought to Cauldron of Souls? I think it has great synergy with River Kelpie and gets good ETB tricks. What about Mikaeus, the Unhallowed? Same deal.

Thank you. I had not considered Cauldron of Souls or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed because the deck runs very few creatures and is already able to recur them over and over again. I might try out Mikaeus at some point though. Thank you for the suggestions.

So I finally am getting a paper version of the deck out of leftover pucapoints so I did an update to my list. Felt you might enjoy an update on this too.


Some of the major things that I change and found were really good were:

There were several Additions to Compliment Cairn Wanderer's fun ability The main one that I feel in love with was Teysa, Envoy of Ghostsas she became the ultimate defensive piece if I got her out on the field early enough. Also she looks great from the grave as she gives Cairn Wanderer Protection from all creatures which seems pretty decent especially when paired with Mirran Crusader's double strike. With Iridescent Angel's protection from all colors with the other two targets (and the angel's new art), Cairn becomes a truly terrifying threat.

Other additions were more sacrifice outlets so I can save our pieces from getting exiled and to trigger the Grave pact effects to keep opposing board states down in size. These sac outlets were:
Dimir House Guard: He also give Fear!
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter: more lifelink and creature removal
Ashnod's Altar: Helps us ramp more things out in addition


The last things I was contimplating were:
Pull from Eternity: It could allow us to basically grab any exiled piece that is needed such as haakon. It also doubles as a combat trick if you pull a creature with an ability from exile for Cairn Wanderer
Runic Repetition: With us running Forbidden Alchemy, Unburial Rites and Dread Return as key peices of the deck I feel it could be worth an inclusion but am unsure as of now. (Also relevant for cards used by Dralnu, Lich Lord and if you can afford Snapcaster Mage on our turn)


I'd Love to hear your thoughts on all of that.

This looks like a solid list. Thanks for sharing!

With my list I always have the feeling I'm lacking some threat density to close out games when I take control of the board.

Attacking with a lowly 4/4 wanderer then just doesn't cut it. I feel your additions to the deck help in that regards and I'll probably steal some of your ideas in the future

My playgroup runs enough exile effects and graveyard hate that a lot of times, Pull from Eternity has been a key card in my deck. Also consider High Market as it is cheap protection against exile effects.

About Runic Repetition, I dont think you can use it on cards that were granted flashback by Dralnu, Lich Lord or Snapcaster Mage. They lose flashback once they are exiled.

You are right with the flashback and Runic Repetition.

But I finally got a few of the pieces I was proxying in and so I have I tihkn 4 more cards to get but they are cheap so im not too worried.

also have you considered Havengul Lich as a backup Haakon?