MTG Salvation

Just a little something I threw together because I think Etali is a pretty rad card and I want to attack with it, dammit. So this deck is (nearly) 100% devoted to getting Etali out and attacking ASAP, and then we'll just see what happens.



Played 3 games so far - game one I got Etali attacking T3 and went absolutely ham, stole someone's helm of the host and my own akroma's memorial and then played seize the day...it got a little out of hand. Game 2 Etali got imprisoned in the mooned and I sat on a couple of forks all game hoping someone would cast some removal that I could redirect...but it was artifact and creature synergy decks and I got jack and eventually lost to DEN combo (yawn). Game 3 was a close one, Etali came out but I drew almost entirely mana (big surprise) so never really "went off". Got out memorial but it got destroyed. Then, with 30+ mana on the field, I hit ewit + fault line...think for a bit and stack them so fault line hits the grave first and then I recur it with ewit. I'm at 41, 2 opponents in the low 30s and 1 at 46 but with 3 etali hits. Then eot cast the fault line, copied with pyro goggles for a total of 36 damage, play etali with anger in the grave and swing in for lethal.

Overall it's a pretty fun deck, unsurprisingly it'd probably be more fun with a bit more interaction, and maybe a few outs to pacification-type removal like strip mine and high market, and maybe expo map as an extra tutor than can act as bad ramp fetching ancient tomb or temple of the false god if necessary, or a haste enabler like hall of the bandit lord or flamekin village. And maybe toss in a few equipment and some other ways to "go big", since sometimes casting 1 spell per person isn't enough - especially since my library kinda sucks since it's all mana and haste enablers.

So I'd say...3/5 for the deck, 4/5 for the commander.

I get what yer doin here, and it seems like a fun glass cannon for a bit. I probably don't need to mention how O-stone and friends with red's artifact recursion (welder and Darettie) could be helpful, but seems like they could be helpful.

I don't think o-stone or disk are a good idea for this deck because it's so dependent on its artifacts. Realistically I think if my artifacts get wiped there's little chance for me to win. Hence why I have a decent number of creature wipes but no artifact wipes. Artifact synergy could be ok but I don't have a good way to defend daretti (although ofc anything is possible off etali). Not sure if swapping artifacts is strong enough since most of my artifacts are just mana rocks, but maybe if I included more win-more artifacts like helm of the host and other equipment that are worth recurring.

How have the Fork variants been working out for you? I'm super hesitant to try those out as I'm afraid I'll strike out on an Etali flip more often than succeed.

Like the previous comment above, I run Oblivion Stone, Nevinyrral's Disk, Goblin Welder, and Daretti, Scrap Savant for that consistency. Yeah, it may seem counter-intuitive to destroy your own artifacts, but that should hardly be an option. Either you have the best position with Etali out or you don't. Especially in my meta, I need a little extra insurance (considering we're mono-Red).

Hitting a fork is fine. It might work, it might not, but my deck is mostly trash in terms of etali triggers anyway, the point is to steal other peoples' stuff. Most I play them because they're fun and they give me more interaction. Although they have sometimes been dead.

Not quite sure what you mean about o-stone and co. Obviously they can save your bacon, but I think if you do that you're probably just going to lose slower. I'd rather run karn/ugin/dust/etc before I ran o-stone, and definitely before I ran disk. Daretti and welder seem better if you're going deeper on heavy-hitting artifacts like helm of the host, otherwise seems like you'd mostly just be trading mana rocks.