MTG Salvation

It's always nice to have a voltron deck, and mine switches around periodically. When I first saw Roon, I was stunned by his vigilance and trample together, especially combined with the blink ability to get rid of a blocker. Roon makes it incredibly hard to block his Commander damage. When Godsend was printed shortly afterwards, I was immediately impressed for Roon aggro - It boosts up to the 7 damage needed for a 3 hit, and it blanks a second attacker! This guy is insane! ...And yet all I ever see are blink decks, despite the fact that his 5 cost and limited ability are rather slow for that.

Well, I finally got around to making my face-smashy deck. Now, tuning is in progress.

The creatures are a mix of things: Some of them I simply want to try out because they look cool, some notable ones are excluded due to personal preference (Zengana, PoK, Seedborn), others are exclude in order to not become combo/control, (Archaemoancer with Familiar's Ruse, glen elendra (flying makes her good in combat decks), vedalken guildmage, sage of fables, juniper order druid...), etc.

Likewise, extra turns are currently avoided for meta considerations. If I feel I need relentless assault/pseudo-haste shenanigans, they may come in, but I'm decidedly trying to start middle of the pack and see which way I need to tune. I'm making more of a conscious effort to sculpt my decks to the playgroup, at least in certain ways.

Finest Hour was in the initial card cut, and it fits well with Voltron, since you usually suit up one big creature, but it's always felt like a win-more to me. True Conviction was also debated for that slot, but ended up being cut. I also decided to go more for 3 drops (partially for woodland bellower), which is why Jenara's evasion made it in over Rafiq's power.

For the (brief) creature explanations:
Salvage Scout returns artifacts (my equipments) and gets returned by SoLaS, he's almost staple to my voltron decks these days. Coiling Oracle - a better Elvish Visionary that can ramp; good early game. Leonin Shikari equipment powerhouse. Puresteel Paladin ditto. Relic Seeker double ditto. Scavenging Ooze grave hate, only have 2 slots currently, and it's making me jumpy. Stoneforge Mystic 3rd ditto on the equips.
Chasm Skulker trying him out, because he looks fun. Grows big, and then drops evasive tokens for post-wrath presence. Could (should probably) be Hallowed Spiritkeeper.
Cold-Eyed Selkie insane 3 drop to suit up. Eternal Witness - yeh. Farhaven Elf Ramp, can be blinked. Jenara, Asura of War evasive beater. Managorger Hydra it's a taurean mauler that tramples; gonna give it a try. Ohran Viper scary attacker/blocker, draws me cards. Might get replaced. Reclamation Sage ayup. Thada Adel, Acquisitor Evasive 3 drop with CA ability. Wood Elves ramp; blinkable. Yavimaya Dryad ditto. Angel of Finality second GY hate slot. debating on making it stonecloaker for better sun titan synergy. Clever Impersonator this is an extra Mirari Wake slot, or extra sword, or whatever. Kor Cartographer blonkable land ramp. I also favor dryad, wood elves and this guy due to land typing and running 8 duals in the list. Masked Admirers self-recurring creature and card draw. Oracle of Mul Daya solid value creature.

Phyrexian Metamorph solid value, potential extra sword. Solemn Simulacrum most likely cut target. Always solid, always good, never exceptional. Maybe should run Forgotten Ancient? I'll add to list. Mulldrifter evoke, blink; flies. Stonehewer Giant equip package. Sunscorch Regent it's a flying taurean mauler. Giving him a shot. These guys are always popular.

Armada Wurm - less enthusiastic, but I figured if I'd try him somewhere, and he didn't make it in Trostani, this is really his last chance to make an impression. Let's see how he does. Realm Seekers - Trostani periodically drops this guy and he's in the 15-25 range. That sounds like a fun thing to put trample onto.
Sun Titan - no comment
Woodland Bellower - initially was going to ignore, but with rec sage, ooze, ramp, etc, he seems solid, and solid to blink. trying.
Angel of the Dire Hour - this is a wrath spot, that happens to be a creature.



O-naginata is also currently on side, waiting to see if come in if more trample is needed.

Most likely potential cuts:

A few games last night, most were losses but at least eliminated a few players.

One astounding win in a game where Godo had an astounding lead, and I ate all the removal (Godo got to keep his mirrorworks, whereas my sculpting steel copy of his mirrorworks was destroyed, because I had Roon+Solemn Simulacrum). {vs. Zedruu, Black Daxos, Angus, Godo}. I eliminated one player with Roon (Angus Mackenzie Pillowfort), who was getting close to making it really, really, really hard to kill him, instead of just really, really hard. (Cost 12 mana to attack him, and he had Kor Haven and Angus Mackenzie out, though no white mana untapped and Angus was sick). This made Godo the big threat, as he had multiple Sword of Feast and Famine, multiple Blade of Selves, multiple Sword of Vengeances, multiple Godos (briefly) getting even more stuff, etc. Kaldratron was assembled. Things where looking bleak in a lethal attack against me, when I blocked with my Solemn with a Skullclamp and activated Alchemist's Refuge in front of it to drop Chasm Skulker. The draws net me a Tragic Arrogance which saves the day, wiping clear all of Godo's attackers and other nonsense (midcombat, thanks to refuge), as he had a Darksteel Citadel for me to choose as his artifact. This blanks pretty much everything, since Godo also nuked an O-stone in front of the arrogance to at least clear out some problem enchantments on the board. I had already blinked a Realm Seekers though, so I get squids from skulker, and all but one squid dies from the Arrogance. The ostone also released my Sculpting Steel which copied Godo's Sword of Kaldra, arrogance kept my Kaldra sword, but clears out the opposing one. Score. Upkeep Emeria gets me back my Stonehewer Giant, a Buried Ruin drops and cracks for my Swiftfoot Boots, Roon comes back, suits up, kills godo. Big Realm seekers smacks Daxos, Zedruu takes a squid to the face. Next turn, Roon goes for Daxos, everything else goes for zedruu. Daxos gets cute and makes 2 (7/7) chump blockers instead of using Righteous Aura, so roon blinks them both thanks to Minamo, and kills Daxos. Zedruu chumps the Stonehewer and Realm Seekers, but takes the squid because he has an island. Stonehewer gives the squid a Sword of Feast and Famine, and Zedruu scoops it up with no cards in hand.



Tragic Arrogance is quickly climbing into my favorite wrath slot. It gets rid of everything bad, and leaves you your best.

Indeed. I agree completely, the part where you get to choose everything is amazing. It won't clear solitary things, but people never have just 1 of whatever their game plan is going to be. It's easily in my top white wraths, next to Austere Command, Rout, and Hallowed Burial. Surprises me that it's still under $1, and I'm seriously considering buying out a large chunk of stock on it.

There are some decks where you wouldn't want to run it as quickly, like enchantment/enchantress stuff where you're trying to get a critical mass, and can clear the creature/artifact side more easily with other stuff, but even in there it can be useful to reset and leave you with the strongest position.

But in Voltron, it's one of the strongest. All is Dust is also very nice to leave all your equipment up (while taking out enchantment pillowforts), which I ran in my voltron Daxos of meletis deck, though I haven't slotted it into this one.


Might replace Angel of the Dire Hour. I feel like the angel has its place, and there were a few times where she might have shown up had things occurred differently last night, but it didn't feel as smooth of a slot as I had hoped. Might fit better in a reactive Tariel deck?

Angel for Stonecloaker is straight up grave hate replacement, I like the cloaker's ability to save a creature in a pinch, and be more of a surprise.

Ephara was initially not in the cut since I expected to blink oppoenents' stuff more, but I do sometimes blink my stuff, and I need more draw. Armada Wurm didn't impress me much (sadness), and makes tokens too slowly. To be re-evaluated if Eldrazi Displacer makes it in the deck, though that's doubtful currently - not enough colorless.

I'll have an official update later on this weekend.

I added in True Conviction and Finest Hour, as well as a few other switches, after game 1.

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GAME 1

Roon Suited up, smashed faces, victory. I wish there were something inspirational or cool to say here, but starting from turn 3 onwards, I simply had something on the board that was attacking. Eventually I dropped Roon and went to town. Someone broke all my artifacts with a vandalblast, so I had to Roon my Sun Titan to bring them all back, and then kill him. Someone wrathed, but I got to keep a couple of squid tokens from my Chasm Skulker, (Plus roon-blink Sun Titan) so they suited up and the smack down didn't stop.

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GAME 2

Not sure what happened over the course of this long game, but someone had out a Teferi's Puzzle Box, so I happily used Life from the Loam to draw many, many cards. I ended up cycling my entire deck (in part helped my a Cyclonic rift which did filter away 20 cards of mine, but a Tragic Arrogance from me set everyone to nothing, while I suited up, dropped a Mirari's Wake and Clever Impersonator'd it, dropped True Conviction, and went for the smackdown.

End of the game saw me with 20-30 lands, all tapping triple, with 20 cards left in the deck, and the rest of the cards probably about evenly split between table and grave. It was pretty nasty.

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So... even with some key players not included in the deck (Glen Elendra Archmage, archmage combo pieces, Prime Speaker Zegana, Seedborn Muse), the deck is still so synergistic it can really blow out of the water.

This wasn't the effect I was hoping for, so I'm not sure what to make of this yet. I'm tempted to go to +1/+1 counter Roon smackdown.

3 player game vs Animar colorless splurge and Damia Relentless Rats.

Rats hold off a turn of beats on me so that I can find a wrath. I find Tragic Arrogance. That card is awesome. (I would have survived, but 12 extra damage would hurt). Animar is crippled, I leave the rats' Damia out as a gesture of kindness for not smacking me (which is a terrible play, but more fun). With 3 creatures blinked out (Minamo, School at water's + Sword of Feast and Famine), roon on the field, a sword of Feast and Famine, and a Mirari's wake, I drop Sword of Light and Shadow and copy it. Things proceed as expected from there. The following turn has roon smacking Animar for 14, and with a drawn Finest Hour (post combat, sadly), it means both players are dead the next turn. I drop to 2 life due to Animar's Avenger of Zendikar plant tokens, (+clone), kept alive by my Scavenging Ooze. Rats feels he's in a king-maker situation, but after the game I point out that I had enough blockers (+1 from Mishra's Factory, and could blink 2 of his creatures if needed, + I still had the scavenging ooze to buff up a few extra life points.

After the game, we checked what his card(s) from Edric would have been, and it turns out his top card was an Akroma's Memorial, which if he had drawn it before combat, would have won him the game. Fun times.

Roon was also active with Minamo, School at water's edge, and a Sword of Feast and Famine. Later, another copy of feast and famine came out. All the value blinks. All of them.

4 player game vs. Szadeck mill, Rafiq, Ezuri

I waste some early removal on Ezuri and Rafiq to slow them down a bit, but then eat 12 Commander damage in a shot on the re-swing by Rafiq after he also drops an Elesh Norn. Ezuri replays his Commander as well, but is a bit dead in the water with the -2/-2 vs his weenies. Szadeck makes an Evil Twin of Elesh, which makes most of my hand useless, but a Sun Titan lands on the field for long enough to equip some boots and a Godsend, and I start to cycle a fetchland return chain to build up and prepare for when I might be able to do something. Sun Titan eats a Wing Shards, which ends that, Evil Twin attacks Rafiq, and murders Elesh pre-blocks, which also gets rid of all the blockers, because that kind of stuff is hilarious. Rafiq dies to Pestilence.

Ezuri Cyclonic Rifts the Szadeck doom engine, and then Rafiq Time Spirals everything away, undoing my carefully planned and pre-counted turn. Instead I drop Roon, Ephara, Sword of Fire and Ice and Copy Artifact the sword. Draw a card with Ephara. Rafiq kills off Ezuri with a double striking double-attacking inkmoth nexus which had a really fine time. (I had a tec edge up, plus a swords to plowshares for backup to deal with aggressive presences).

I smash Rafiq for 8 Commander, drop a Void Attendant and pass, keeping mana open for removals. With Roon active, neither player can hit me (plus I have swords in hand thanks to timespiral). Rafiq drops a Knight of the Reliquary, but I roon+process it into the GY.

Final turn, I tutor up Sword of feast and famine, drop it, drop Sword of Light and Shadow, equip both, toss a skullclamp on for the +1, and take out Rafiq. Szadeck technically has another turn, but scoops to my board position.

2 Quick Games vs Roon value blink, and Rafiq voltron.

Game 1

I start off with a Thada Adel, Acquisitor, and Rafiq drops a vow of wildness on it. Other Roon, saddened, drops a metamorph copying my Thada. Since I'm vowed, I hit Other Roon, and exile her Akroma's Memorial, since I couldn't find the Cloudstone Curio I know she has. Rafiq drops a blue vow on the Metamorph Thada, so I get hit by a thada, and lose my swiftfoot boots.

I drop a Sword of Feast and Famine, which knocks off the vow, and swing at Rafiq, who scoops. Other roon hits me again, and steals my Shield of Kaldra, but can't equip.

My turn, I drop Mirari's Wake, hit with thada, drop a Reclamation Sage, kill my stolen boots, path to exile the metamorph, and drop Ephara, God of the Polis.

In the face of superior mana, card draw, and an islandwalking theft device, Other Roon scoops.


Game 2

I open with a bunch of land, a Sol Ring and some great equipment (Sword of Feast and Famine, Skullclamp, Helm of Kaldra), but have no source of green, and 4 green creatures in hand. I draw a non-green creature, but it's a Stonecloaker, so that's a dud. Then I draw a Sword of the Animist, for a bit of insult from my deck to my face.

In the meantime, Rafiq has dropped a Mirari's Wake, and then his Commander. He follows up with something else that gave him +1/+1, for a 5/5, swings at me for a 6/6 doublestriking Rafiq off of the exalted, and tosses on a Berserk for good measure. So... I uh... died.

The game goes on for a bit longer with Other Roon doing some disgusting stuff with Thragtusk, Cloudstone Curio, and Parallel Lives, but it's Rafiq that takes it in the end with Inkmoth Nexus and Finest Hour.

Only got 1 game in last night, due to arriving late, and it got called for time. Vs. Erebos, Karlov, Traitorous Glissa, and another Karlov

The most notable part was my wonderful cast of Tragic Arrogance that did nothing to two players, minimal damage to two others, and took out a fair portion of my own board. There was a plan involved, but I did everything out of sequence because I was distracted. I swear. Anyways, other than that, I got to drop a Sunscorch Regent in that game, and aside from being shut down by 3 of the 4 opponents (as in, kill at will if I attacked them), it did surprisingly good work, keeping my life buffed up (hit 52 before Erebos came down), and being a significant beater. So, kinda moderately happy with it. I was pleasantly surprised. Still an available slot for something else, if something is a shoe in or needed for the deck, but pleasantly surprised.

Best part of the game was when Glissa stole Karlov's 7 loyatly Elspeth with an Avarice Totem and claimed the +2/+2 flying emblem for himself. The look on the Karlov player's face... fantastic. He then stole Glissa's Vraska, so Glissa stole it back, and then -3 (killing Vraska) to kill his ashnod's altar...

Other good part was the Erebos player looking around at the other 3 players who were playing predominantly black, then looking at me and going "What sucks is that all of my removal is completely useless in this game, except against you." Meanwhile Karlov has 12 counters on his Karlov, Glissa has a Viridian Longbow Equipped, and an Executioner's Capsule out, and the other Karlov has only 2 counters on his Karlov, but has Teysa out, 6 white soldier tokens, and has been reanimating a Fleshbag Marauder and Reveillark all game. Things were a bit uncomfortable for me. Of course, aside from my wasted Tragic Arrogance, I also had a Rout in hand all game, so I wasn't exactly helpless either. Shocking surprise that the game didn't really get anywhere, anytime fast at all.

Also, the Erebos player at one point tried to cast a wrath that would reanimate one of the creatures killed, and between all of the kill fodder unleashed, and sac effects for everything else, he cleaned the board, but ended up with nothing back. Karlov Exiled something with Karlov, Glissa deathtouch shot 2 things with help from the elf land, Executioner's capsule killed a thing, and other Karlov sacced his board to Teysa to exile 2 things from Karlov 1, and my Kor Cartographer for good measure, since he could, and that way erebos didn't even get a consolation prize.

Then everyone pretty much just reanimated their boardstates, and ended up in the exact same position as before, with high counter Karlov, Death-shot Glissa, and Teysa + obscene numbers of tokens. All this, despite some good amount of grave control from a very enthusiastic Scrabbling Claws on behalf of Glissa.

Perhaps I could use more Grave Hate myself. Slot Angel of Finality back in, perhaps?

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Sunscorch Regent would be insane in a Karlov deck.

Dueling Grounds Joins my maybe-board. With Roon or with Godsend, this essentially eliminates blocking as an option for the opposing player, and makes attacking into us either difficult, or impossible.

At least, that's what it looks like on paper.

3 player game

Roon vs Grandmother Sengir (*****-D-H (everything with gatherer rating 3.1 or less) and Ayli evilness incarnate.

I start off strong with Sunscorch Regent getting up to 10 power and laying the pain on Ayli before it is removed. My Woodland Bellower pulls out a Managorger Hydra which also puts in serious work. This game is a see-saw on Ayli's life total, but eventually he drops an Alhamarret's Archive, which with his token producers and Ayli managers to catapult him from 13 where I put him hum over 50 to seal and lock the game.