MTG Salvation

Originally brewed as a value-based control deck with a reanimation finisher, I've since retooled the deck to be a control deck with a dedicated combo finish involving Paradox Engine, Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal, and Future Sight + Helm of Awakening + Sensei's Divining Top.

The general gameplan is to slowly advance with mana rocks and protect your board position with counterspells until you reach a critical mass and "go off" with one of the aforementioned combos. What I like most about the deck is that the combo pieces are more or less playable on their own. This means there are less dead draws which allow you to focus on successfully disrupting opponents until you're ready to win.



Not much analysis right now, as the deck is in alpha beta at the moment. From my limited testing, the deck is pretty nutty. Rather than a pure combo deck, it plays out as a giant synergy pile that happens to have a big turn in which it wins. Unlike, say, Mizzix of the Izmagnus combo-oriented decks which have a tendency to fizzle out if she's killed, in this deck Dralnu complements the overall strategy without being a linchpin. Untapping and recurring several spells with Dralnu with Paradox Engine or Scepter Reversal active is devastatingly powerful, sure, but it's easy enough to go off without relying on him.

Overall, I'm enjoying the deck more than I thought I would. I still have an aversion to infinite "I win now" combos, but for the most part when this deck goes off it's more of a puzzle. I've yet to fizzle out when going off, but I think I would like to practice the storm lines of play before taking it to the shop to speed up play.

Things I'm looking for with regards to feedback:

More Muddle the Mixture targets. I've been thinking of adding Winter Orb and Torpor Orb to slow down and/or hose decks that are susceptible to them. Muddle is incredibly powerful here, grabbing combo pieces, card draw, removal, and unconditional counters. Don't leave home without it.

Things to cut. I haven't had much use for Memory Plunder yet, but I've mostly been playtesting against my brother (who isn't really a Magic player), by goldfishing, or against AI. Plunder is a sort of pet card of mine, and being able to nab a wrath at instant speed can be very powerful, not to mention something stupid like Time Stretch. Maybe cut it for Dark Petition? What else am I missing?

Techy lands. 22 basics strikes me as too many, so I think I could cut 2-6 for lands that do more than tap for mana. Riptide Laboratory is certainly on the acquire list, and I think I could use High Market as an emergency sac outlet if a Blasphemous Act is about to resolve. Cephalid Coliseum? Geier Reach Sanitarium? Tolaria West? Maze of Ith? Glacial Chasm? Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to make the previous two tap for mana? Strip Mine is an odd omission on my part. Any suggestions here?

Okay, so I've completely retooled this deck and I'm on the hunt for feedback and suggestions. I'm pretty satisfied with the core of the deck, but considering the deck is mostly pulled out of my nether regions there's lots of room for improvement.

Hello friend! I too have rebuilt my Dralnu deck to take advantage of the broken Paradox Engine, and my list looks VERY similar to yours. My own beta decklist is in my signature, but I've recently decided to cut the Doomsday package and the Candelabra of Tawnos package.

Some suggestions for you:

• I'm assuming that you're on a budget, hence the lack of the super expensive mana rocks and counterspells. That's totally fine, since Dralnu is such an efficient card advantage machine, but there have been some recent reprints of cards and cheaper ones that I think would be helpful to your strategy. Pact of Negation is one of the reprints that I was most pleased to see since it's a great way to force your combo through without a mana commitment on your turn. It's been crucial for me in a few of the games that I've played recently. Since it's around $10, I think you can afford to pick one up.
• Dark Petition is the absolute real deal in this deck. It seems tailor made for Dralnu, enabling you to generate BBB almost every time it's cast. It can then find whatever card you need in order to either set up your combo turn or keep the Storm turn going.
• Lightning Greaves and Whir of Invention are cards that I'm super fond of in my own deck because the Greaves enables me to securely win on my combo turn by casting Dralnu and guaranteeing that I can use his ability consistently with the Engine. Similarly, Whir of Invention is super useful: it finds Paradox Engine, mana rocks to generate mana advantage, and finds Lightning Greaves when I need access to Dralnu on my combo turn. Greaves is also useful in preventing targeted removal or damage effects from making Dralnu a liability or weakness for your deck strategy.
• Necropotence and Shimmer Myr are also really good cards as well. Since most of your decklist is composed of instants, why not make your mana sources operate on the same axis? It allows you to create a less threatening board state so that your opponents don't specifically target you, and then flash in a bunch of mana rocks before your turn begins, maximizing your chances of combo-ing off. Shimmer Myr also has great synergy with Necropotence, potentially allowing you to cast a bunch of mana rocks during your end step and minimize the number of cards you need to discard and hence exile to Necropotence's exile trigger. I won't explain Necropotence to you, but consider the flavor of the card in a Dralnu, Lich Lord deck in addition to its own high power level.
• Finally, and the card I most strongly suggest, is Ad Nauseam. It's not a very fun card for your opponents, but it can draw you an absurd amount of cards at someone's endstep, setting you up with maximum chances of combo-ing off on your next turn. It would require you to change your deck around a bit, so that you can lower your curve and maximize the number of cards you can draw, but I think it's absolutely worth it. The number of games I've won after resolving an Ad Nauseam is staggeringly high.

Anyways, those are some suggestions that came to mind for me when I was looking over your list. I really like UB Spellslinger as an archetype, so I'll help out competitive threads as often as I can.

EDIT: Some cards that I think you can cut are Memory Plunder, Recoil, and either All is Dust or Evacuation. I can see why the Dust is included in your deck, because you're really only committing mana rocks to the board, but I think that favoring speed might be better for the game plan. In addition, I think you have plenty of removal effects in your deck.

Great suggestions.

Pact of Negation was definitely a budget exclusion before but I forgot it got reprinted. Double free counter protection with Dralnu out is too good. Double Pact with Paradox Engine out is even better.

Lightning Greaves was a card I initially considered but I figured that I could always combo off the turn after I resolve Dralnu. That plan mostly works, but I think Greaves would be a fine addition. Protecting Dralnu is just free, delicious gravy.

More tutors are good and Dark Petition -> Necropotence was always a very strong play in my MBC list so it should do work here, as should Whir of Invention at someone's end step.

I don't know why I'm not playing Ad Nauseam or Necropotence. Checking my lists it looks like Ad Nauseam made its way in at some point and apparently I was too lazy to update it here. Still!

I'm skeptical of Shimmer Myr. I've kept the list creatureless and Vedalken Orrery is a little out of what I'm willing to spend for this deck. Further, I'm not sure the effect is powerful enough. As you said, the main thing I'm going to be putting out would be rocks at instant speed, which is nice, but not necessary. Unlike cEDH combo decks which try to go off as soon as possible with only basic protection, this deck is oriented around winning at the last possible second to have as much resilience as possible, so I'm free to spend the first 4-5 turns of the game ramping/drawing cards/not losing.

On the other hand, winning when someone is about to win is the last possible second, and Shimmer Myr enables that. I think I'll leave it out for now.

- Memory Plunder
- Metallurgic Summonings
- All is Dust
- Recoil
- Forbidden Alchemy

+ Ad Nauseam
+ Necropotence
+ Dark Petition
+ Pact of Negation
+ Lightning Greaves

I am still testing out Shimmer Myr myself in relation to Necropotence, so I'll be reporting my feedback on my own thread, but it seems strong in theory.

I think those cuts are all good ones in relation to what you're adding. Tutor for Ad Nauseam freely! It's one of the best cards in this format since our starting life total is so high.