MTG Salvation

Keranos Spellsinger Control

I do well with this list, and I've been asked to post it a few times.

A lot of people suggest that Melek is a better spellsinger commander, which certainly is true if you're trying to take a bunch of extra turns, combo out or kill people with storm. I like Keranos better for a controll-y list though, because I can drop him early, then use board wipes to my heart's content while he generates card advantage for me. I'm intentionally not playing All is Dust, Perilous Vault, etc. for that reason.

The basic game plan is:

1. Ramp
2. Land Keranos
3. Stay alive, control things, and accumulate as much mana as possible
4. Kill everyone with damage over time (Guttersnipe, Drake Tokens, Keranos Bolts, and Sphinx-Bone Wand)
5. If the game goes late, combine Mana Geyser + Past in Flames or Mana Geyser + Comet Storm


I'm intentionally not playing Time Warp effects other than Temporal Mastery because this deck can get pretty out of control with recasting stuff multiple times, and I really don't want to be "that guy" taking 5 turns in a row. They would certainly be amazing and added immediately if I wanted this to be as competitive as possible.

Special Note: Price of Progress has turned out to be my primary wincon. Sometimes it just wins the game out of nowhere. It's very atypical that I don't cast this 2-3 times per game, which often is enough to kill some players by itself. I've had to cut quite a few otherwise great nonbasics to make it reasonable for me to do so. It's totally worth it - so if there are some obvious nonbasic lands I'm missing, feel free to suggest them, but that's probably the main reason they aren't here.

It can be pretty difficult sometimes to make changes without disrupting the balance instants/sorceries vs "things that do things with instants and sorceries", but I'd love to hear any and all suggestions!

I have a chaos Keranos build in which I threw a copy of Mirror Gallery since I was running six or seven clone effects I thought it would be fun to clone Keranos if I drew into the gallery. All I can say is that you haven't lived until you have played with 4 copies of keranos on the field so he activates his own devotion and either draws four cards or allows you to bolt four different things. It might require you to change up your decklist by too much and probably isn't worh it for your gameplan, but I really reccomend you expeiriment with it sometime, if only for the laughs.

I heard a rumor about you blinging this deck out. Any chance you have any pictures of the deck thus far? (:

Updated the list for BFZ - some minor changes, the most notable of which was swapping Venser, Shaper Savant out for Brutal Expulsion. Brutal Expulsion is a worse card overall, but it has a lot more synergy with the rest of my deck. I also like that it accidentally makes Keranos a creature less often.

I also added Day's Undoing over Frantic Search because I felt like it could do double duty as a card drawer and something other than the lone Tormod's Crypt to keep the graveyard decks in check.

@ JPoJohnson - Pictures Coming soon! I'm juuuuust starting to get it the way I want it to look, and there's always stuff in the mail from pucatrade!

I'd love more thoughts and suggestions! Thinking about cutting Runechanter's Pike - having a ~20/2 first strike ground creature with no evasion is neat, but has only killed a player once over the course of many games. Now that Day's Undoing is in the list, I feel like it'll be good much less often, because getting my graveyard that stacked takes an entire game.

I'm also thinking about adding Smash, because I hate having Vandalblast and the global destruction artifacts as my only artifact removal - and I wouldn't mind casting this and/or flashing it back, especially if I've got a cost reducer in play.

This looks like a good deck! I'm going to try out Keranos, God of Storms also!

Some cards I would consider though....

More control...
Telling Time(top deck manipulation for Keranos trigger)
Capsize
Aftershock
Ætherspouts
Ætherize
Volcanic Vision
Basilisk Collar(Keranos as creature)
Gelectrode (+Basilisk Collar)
Reins of Power
Spelltwine

More win cons...
Spellheart Chimera
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
Insurrection
Blatant Thievery

How happy are you with Day's Undoing, Dig Through Time, Sphinx-Bone Wand?
Do you feel like your opponents benefit too much once you Day's Undoing because they play their new hands before you?
Do you find yourself not delving enough when you Dig Through Time because you might want to Past in Flames everything? Would Concentrate be better? idk
How do you like Sphinx-Bone Wand? Are you able to build it up and protect it fairly easy?

Quote from CounterPlay »

How happy are you with Day's Undoing, Dig Through Time, Sphinx-Bone Wand?
Do you feel like your opponents benefit too much once you Day's Undoing because they play their new hands before you?
Do you find yourself not delving enough when you Dig Through Time because you might want to Past in Flames everything?

A lot of this deck functions at instant speed - so usually I can Day's Undoing, then cast things during my opponents turns. A lot of the reason I like it actually is because it hoses graveyard based decks, otherwise I'd run Reforge the Soul and make the miracles happen with top + mystical tutor + personal tutor.

I can usually cast Dig Through Time without exiling anything relevant. Games get messy and things die. I'll usually exile creatures, then lands, then mana rocks that have made it into my graveyard, then instants & sorceries that I don't anticipate flashing back. It's pretty rare that I'll exile a bunch of good spells to cast this. I'd probably cut Treasure Cruise before Dig Through Time because finding things at instant speed is really great.

I love sphinx-bone wand, and I'll never cut it. I win games off of it pretty often, only behind Price of Progress and Guttersnipe. It builds itself up. Once you untap with it you're suddenly the biggest threat at the table. Casting Evacuation and dealing 8 to someone for it is a great feeling. I usually don't even care about protecting it unless it's going win me the game. It's very nice to have a wincon I can get back with Academy Ruins.

Really loved this deck! I'am a begginer in EDH, and started whit Keranos looking for a list for multiplayer just like that! But this list it's too expansive for me hahahaha did you have a budget/updated list?

Thanks!!!