MTG Salvation

Nice. There is always a part of me that wants to cut the Pili-Pala combo but the little scarecrow always comes in clutch. I love staring at the dark colored Lorwynn foil. Chaining Muddle the Mixture and Drift of Phantasms into the combo is a great feeling as well.

Definitely one of the better combos for the deck.

I certainly agree. i've been out of the forums for a while because of some marital issues, but I'm hoping to do a set review soon for the new sets as well as some Primer updates. I've changed the Memnarch list again and I think it's been running very smoothly for me.

Thoughts on new Karn and a Ugin?
I am still kicking butt with this deck. Mine is slightly different.

War of the Spark Set Review

• Jace, Wielder of Mysteries – it is VERY convenient that they put Lab Maniac on a non-creature spell. However, this card is definitely not as useful as any other card in the deck and is more cute than anything. While cool, it’s not a good fit for Memnarch.
• Narset, Parter of Veils – this is a FANTASTIC card that I highly recommend picking up a few copies of. It turns off opponent’s Wheel effects while offering 2 Impulses for 3 mana. Very relevant card at a highly attractive CMC cost, I will be definitely finding space for this card in the list.
• God-Eternal Kefnet – while this is a totally awesome card cycle, I don’t think this card is good enough to include in the 99. It doesn’t generate immediate card advantage, doesn’t actively tutor for the combo pieces, and exposes the deck to creature removal which is a virtual card advantage strength of the deck as is. I know there’s a cEDH Infinite Turns list with Kefnet that sounds spicy, he’s not quite good enough for Memnarch.
• Finale of Revelation – the lack of instant speed on this card means that it won’t see cEDH play, but the card is a very thoughtful and powerful one if cast for its Finale cost (x = 10). It could be a good budget replacement for Time Spiral or Timetwister, so that’s something.
• Narset’s Reversal – this card is very interesting to me. It can win a Counter war if it needs to or protect a key instant or sorcery from Countermagic. I think it’s definitely worth testing and I recommend picking up a few copies of it if you can.
• Lazotep Plating – a cool card that could someday find space in the deck. Being able to protect our Artifacts from removal is very crucial and it also spawns a Chump blocker to protect Teferi if you’ve cast it for some reason. I think this is a great budget card for Memnarch, but testing will tell.
• Ugin, the Ineffable – another strong card from this set, I think this card is actually worth testing. It generates card advantage while significantly reducing the cost of our Artifacts. It also acts as removal when desperately needed, so it might be good enough to actually earn a slot in the deck. To be clear, Newgin is NOT better than the OG Ugin.
• Karn, the Great Creator – oof, this card is a beating against this deck. With the new changes to the Sideboard rules (rule #13 specifically), this card loses a lot of its attraction since it can no longer tutor for Mycosynth Lattice out of the wishboard. It’s still a decent hate-card depending on your meta, but is otherwise not quite good enough in the deck methinks. Mana Dorks are the name of the current cEDH meta-game currently, so Karn isn’t as effective as he could be.
• Blast Zone – dost mine eyes deceive me? Wizards printed a Wrath effect on a land?! They did! Rejoice! And pick up a copy of this card before it shoots up to the $15 - $20 range. Which it will.

Whew, there were some awesome cards in this set. The 2 cards I’m most excited about for this deck are Narset, Parter of Veils and Blast Zone because they’re awesome.

@Wraith
Welcome back, sir! Are you still rocking the Aboshan list you posted a while back?

I like Ugin as it reduces costs and makes blockers. Huge right now. Karn is sad as I can't wish but the one sided Stony Silence has stopped infinite combos. I have used Karn to kill lands with M. Lattice. Funny as hell and great for stalemates. Cards I am unhappy with: V. Clique (really helps me for one card) and Mindslaver (works when online with Academy ruins, not easily put together). Back to Basics and Invoke Prejudice ate often back breaking for up to 6 turns. Lets go infinite with time on the clock. Forcefield Is just a shocker for most and really stops attacks on me to target friends. Seeing more Infect with Folks running Blightsteel Colossus, thus Bribery is just awesome. Eldrazi are prominent as well adding to the benefits. Ratchet bomb land is ok, but when tested, it hurt me more often. Need it to not have counters to hit tokens. More players are going long game, thus Ertai and Arcanis have been really helpful.
Decklist currently

• 24 Island
  
• Academy Ruins
  
• Ancient Tomb
  
• Riptide Laboratory
  
• Scalding Tarn
  
• Cavern of Souls
  
• Flooded Strand
  
• Inventor's Fair
  
• Maze of Ith
  
• Reliquary Tower
  
• Polluted Delta
  
• Tezzeret the Seeker
  
• Karn, the Great Creator
  
• Ugin, the Ineffable
  
• Bribery
  
• All Is Dust
  
• Power Artifact
  
• Invoke Prejudice
  
• Back to Basics
  
• Rhystic Study
  
• Evacuation
  
• Stifle
  
• Pongify
  
• Blue Sun's Zenith
  
• Mystical Tutor
  
• Force of Will
  
• Mystic Confluence
  
• Mana Drain
  
• Counterspell
  
• Pact of Negation
  
• Capsize
  
• Trickbind
  
• Arcane Denial
  
• Long-Term Plans
  
• Reality Shift
  
• Disallow
  
• Cryptic Command
  
• Muddle the Mixture
  
• Cyclonic Rift
  
• Swan Song
  
• Azami, Lady of Scrolls
  
• Palinchron
  
• Ambassador Laquatus
  
• Vendilion Clique
  
• Consecrated Sphinx
  
• Solemn Simulacrum
  
• Snapcaster Mage
  
• Padeem, Consul of Innovation
  
• Archaeomancer
  
• Phyrexian Metamorph
  
• Torrential Gearhulk
  
• Gilded Drake
  
• Ertai, Wizard Adept
  
• Pili-Pala
  
• Grand Architect
  
• Glen Elendra Archmage
  
• Venser, Shaper Savant
  
• Archness the Omnipotent
  
• Aphetto Alchemist
  
• Cold steel Heart
  
• Gilded Lotus
  
• Mindslaver
  
• Follower Stone
  
• Vedalken Shackles
  
• Grim Monolith
  
• Than Dynamo
  
• Sol Ring
  
• Sensei's Divining Top
  
• Forcefield
  
• Gauntlet of Power
  
• Unwinding Clock
  
• Caged Sun
  
• Mycosynth Lattice
  
• Mox Opal
  
• Illusionist's Bracers
  
• Mana Crypt
  

I find myself appreciating Ugin a little bit more as I continue to play against him in Arena and as I think about his applications. He generates board presence AND card advantage while also being a hard removal effect when necessary. I think I'm going to re-evaluate him more critically, especially since he acts as a pseudo-ramp effect for our Glorious Overlord.

Otherwise, it looks like a fun list. Invoke Prejudice still doing work for you, Wraith?

Quote from benjameenbear »

I find myself appreciating Ugin a little bit more as I continue to play against him in Arena and as I think about his applications. He generates board presence AND card advantage while also being a hard removal effect when necessary. I think I'm going to re-evaluate him more critically, especially since he acts as a pseudo-ramp effect for our Glorious Overlord.

Otherwise, it looks like a fun list. Invoke Prejudice still doing work for you, Wraith?

Yep! Works really good against against aggro green decks. Opponents really work hard to stop it instead of my win conditions.
Karn is hilarious when I start nuking lands. They are in shock. “Control blue plus land distraction! $&@#% you!” Normal reaction I receive.

I'm seriously thinking about homogenizing the 3 separate mono-Blue cEDH lists I have into a cohesive mono-Blue Core list, with the separate pieces of my Teferi, Memnarch, and Fblthp lists being an interchangeable set of cards that's included in the deck-box. This would allow me to play whatever cEDH mono-Blue list I'm feeling like playing without having to drag out my binder and make the changes every single time.

Quote from benjameenbear »

I'm seriously thinking about homogenizing the 3 separate mono-Blue cEDH lists I have into a cohesive mono-Blue Core list, with the separate pieces of my Teferi, Memnarch, and Fblthp lists being an interchangeable set of cards that's included in the deck-box. This would allow me to play whatever cEDH mono-Blue list I'm feeling like playing without having to drag out my binder and make the changes every single time.

I can get behind this. Traveling a little lighter and not having to reach into the binder would be great. I only carry 3 Decks (check the sig) in Ultimate Guard Boulders and 1 Ultra Pro Clear Deck box for Dice/Tokens. All of this is inside an Ultimage Guard 400+ Arkhive and makes transport buttery smooth!

Check in when you can, bear. I hope you are doing well and work through challenges successfully.

Glory, glory, hallelujah,

They've gone and printed the Lord Urza

And he'll go and break this Engine

To win you lots of games!

Mind. Blown. This is quite possibly the first card I will ever preorder before the whole set is released. This card is, quite simply, insanely powerful in this list. I can't even begin to fathom how broken this card is, particularly since he lets any artifact tap for U. And he is an infinite mana outlet for colorless mana in the Command Zone. I'll be brewing up a list for him ASAP, providing that the Committee doesn't ban him.

Quote from benjameenbear »

Glory, glory, hallelujah,

They've gone and printed the Lord Urza

Time to homogenize those lists, am I right?

Paradox Engine is obviously insanely good with Urza, but I think the most important part is the ability to tap Orbs before your own untap phase. It makes powerful stax pieces completely asymmetrical.

Quote from MuzzleMuffin »

Quote from benjameenbear »

Glory, glory, hallelujah,

They've gone and printed the Lord Urza

Time to homogenize those lists, am I right?

Yup. I'll be working on that today, since it looks like my work queue is pretty light today. The goal is to have a core 90 cards for each mono-Blue legendary I would want to run in the Command Zone and then have 9 cards that are unique per Commander (with some overlap, of course). The 4 Commanders I want to be able to interchange between are: Teferi, Temporal Archmage; Memnarch; Urza, Lord High Artificer; and Fblthp, the Lost. I think it's totally possible, I just need to sit down and analyze each of my decklists and see where there is overlap between them. Should be a fun project!

Quote from bitterbee »

Paradox Engine is obviously insanely good with Urza, but I think the most important part is the ability to tap Orbs before your own untap phase. It makes powerful stax pieces completely asymmetrical.

I too agree that his ability to have any artifact tap for U is what makes him awesome. The secondary effect of being able to turn off Orbs is certainly cool, but he essentially produces a new mana rock (granted, it's only a mana rock when Urza is in play) every time he's cast. That second ability, combined with his ETB trigger, is his true power, since it actively builds board presence that functions as an actual creature OR a mana rock. Being able to advance both your actual creature count AND your mana advantage simultaneously is extremely powerful, so Urza is simply an incredible card whether he's in the 99 or in the Command Zone. But, to be clear, he doesn't BREAK the pillar of card advantage or mana advantage, so I'm confident that he'll stay legal as a card for Commander.

I've often thought about analyzing my mono-U cEDH lists and determining what specific cards constitute the core of the deck. The idea behind this is if I can generate a cEDH mono-U template, then I can take all of the cards for the 4 different Commanders I play and put them in one deck box for deckspace efficiency and card collection efficiency as well. So, after some time analyzing the decklists I have, the below list is the Mono-U cEDH "Core", as I see it. Do note that this list is NOT comprehensive, since it was done based on my own limited research, but I feel confident in saying that this core list will give any player a fantastic starting base whenever they decide to build a Mono-U cEDH decklist.

Mono-Blue cEDH Core:



This is the core 95 cards that are represented in 75% of the cEDH Mono-U decks that I’m currently playing and which are represented in a significant number of TappedOut lists that I can find for cEDH Mono-U lists. This leaves 4 slots to customize for each of the respective Commanders that I run, namely Urza, Lord High Artficer; Memnarch; Fblthp, the Lost; and Teferi, Temporal Archmage.

So, this means that I have 4 slots I can dedicate to each respective Commander without technically altering ANY of the other 95 cards. This will allow me to carry one deck box for any of the 4 Mono-Blue decks that I have Primers/decklists for on MTGSal, allowing me deck portability and card collection compactness. But, for completeness’ sake, I’ll list the actual changes I would make to each deck so that each list runs optimally.

Unique Cards for Urza Paradox Scepter Combo:



Unique Cards for Memnarch Paradox Scepter Combo:



Unique Cards for Fblthp Proteus Scepter Combo:



Unique Cards for Teferi Chain Veil:

I also just realized that you can combine Memnarch's first ability with Karn, the Great Creator as pseudo removal, which is not inconsequential since it allows you to "remove" more permanents with less mana than stealing the permanent wholesale via Memnarch's abilities. And given infinite mana, you can actually build your own hard lock with Memnarch's first ability and Karn's static one!

I'll be updating the Primer list to reflect the Core 95 Idea across my threads.

I kicked out Futuresight for new Ugin. Way happier with it.
Now Urza...what do I change out for you....Ertia and Ambassador Laquatis we been friends for a long time, but one of you is getting voted out.

I would probably vote for the Ambassador, sadly. Urza has a functional ability that allows you to win with infinite mana and is WAY more effective and powerful for the deck's strategy than the Ambassador.

Is it just me or is Modern Horizons just Memnarch Horizons?

A lot of new toys and ideas to discuss. Can't wait until we see it all.

There's just a ton of awesome cards being printed in this set, frankly. I'll be doing a thorough review once the full spoilers are up, but there are some totally awesome cards that will slot in for this deck. Echo of Eons is the budget Timetwister that everyone has always wanted.

In all honesty, it's now VERY possible to build this deck on a pseudo-budget. Like, you could spend only $300 to build it from scratch and it would be just as viable as the super $$$ main decklist. I'm really excited with where WOTC is going from a card design standpoint.

Banned:
Paradox Engine
Iona, Shield of Emeria

Unbanned:
Painter's Servant

Rip our sweet prince, P.Engine. As much as it takes away some of our power, I believe this is a necessary move. I won't be playing the Painter's Servant + Grindstone combo but it will be fun to see it in my meta.

Highly agreed on all counts.

Also, I will be officially retiring this Primer and this thread in favor of moving the content over to MTGNexus. I will be creating a longer, more detailed post about why I'm making the switch at a later date. So, in summary, be prepared for this thread to become obsolete!

Well, my friends and fellow MTGSal comrades...

It's been a great time being a member of this community. Truly, this site has been a lifeline for me in my lowest life moments and I've grown and developed as a player in direct response to the feedback I've received, the comments I've read, and the decklists I've perused on this site. MTGSal has been my online MTG home since 2009 and I have nothing but fond memories of this site.

However, in light of the closure announcement of MTGSal and its attendant 11th hour resurrection, I have personally decided to commit myself fully to the MTGNexus project that Feyd_Ruin has started. My reasoning, which I hope you'll respect and appreciate, is explained below.

1. First and foremost, the majority of the MTGSal staff that make this site work and function are leaving for MTGNexus. This wholesale migration of valuable and active members within the MTGSAl community that maintain its integrity and reputation leaves me uneasy as to the future direction of this site. Cryogen, Airithne, Wildfire, and many others that make this site tick are already active on MTGNexus and are, quite frankly, having a better experience with the new platform and have already established the basic infrastructure to make it successful in the same ways that MTGSal has been successful. I'm a strong supporter of these individuals and prefer to trust my online MTG experience to people that have been a part of the online MTG space for decades. I will be leaving this site to follow them in the new adventure that is Nexus, and I'm super happy to do so.
2. Next, the coding versatility and overall look and feel of MTGNexus is, quite simply, gorgeous. Check out the site here and explore if for a few minutes yourself. Then, check out these two Primers to get an idea of the coding versatility that exists on the new platform: darrenhabib's Will & Rowan Kenrith Primer and rumpy5897's Feather, the Redeemed Primer. In comparison to MTGSal, I think these Primers are far and away the visually superior product in comparing them to their respective MTGSal primers, and this kind of experience is one that I've personally always wanted from my online MTG experience. So, from a user standpoint, I find MTGNexus to offer a superior experience from a backend coding perspective that allows users to create visually complex and attractive posts that is unmatched by MTGSalvation.
3. Finally, there is a chance for myself, in my current Moderator position on MTGNexus, to be able to positively shape the way MTGNexus as a site performs. I'm an inherently creative person, and because of the personal relationship that I have with the site Admins and Owner, I feel confident that I will be able to influence the site in the ways that I think will increase MTGNexus' stature and reputation. In my current role on MTGSal, this is just not the case. It's like shouting into a void when it comes to real, concrete suggestions that the site Admins need to look over that never happens. I will have a chance to proactively introduce new content and new directions for the site that will actually be listened to and implemented by the MTGNexus staff, which will lead to a better user experience for me personally.

It's been a great adventure on MTGSal, and I'll be stepping down from all responsibilities on MTGSal by the end of 7/11/2019 at the official launch of MTGNexus and will be removing all of my content, with the exception of decklists from MTGSal as a site. I will NOT be updating the MTGSal threads and will not be actively contributing to MTGSal except on the rare occassion that my fancy is struck.

I wish you the best journey should you remain on MTGSal, but I would encourage you to give MTGNexus a try. It's already got a lot of participation and a large segment of the MTGSal community has already made the jump.

Why not you? It's your chance to start over fresh, contribute in a meaningful way to a new platform, and have a chance to positively shape what will become the premier MTG site on the internet.

Adieu, my friends!