MTG Salvation

I get perverse pleasure out of seeing people eat damage from Ruric Thar from all of my other decks that have him, so why don't I make a deck with him at the helm?

Decks with very large creature counts tend to require more draw effects and more unconditional draw effects at that.

Tireless Tracker and Shamanic Revelation are good, as the former is a creature and the latter gains you the life back from casting it.

Your deck is already set up to use Birthing Pod

Creature draw on bodies is great for Ruric, like Garruk's Packleader, and you have Soul of the Harvest already. Helm of the Host is just plain cruel.

Quote from plushpenguin »

Decks with very large creature counts tend to require more draw effects and more unconditional draw effects at that.

Tireless Tracker and Shamanic Revelation are good, as the former is a creature and the latter gains you the life back from casting it.

Your deck is already set up to use Birthing Pod

Huh, there have been so many of my decks as of late that I've had to cut Birthing Pod that I forgot it was an option. Well, I don't need to object to an invitation to Pod in my life.

I'm not sure if I go wide and tall enough for Shamanic Revelation, it'll be something I'll keep in mind.

I'm not made out of Tireless Trackers; I am kicking myself for not picking more up when it bottomed out.

Quote from Serberus_08 »

Creature draw on bodies is great for Ruric, like Garruk's Packleader, and you have Soul of the Harvest already. Helm of the Host is just plain cruel.

I don't actually have that many 3 Power Creatures, so Garruk's Packleader doesn't do that much for me. As for Helm, yeah, can't wait.

First batch of changes: Plushpenguin invited me to include Pod in my deck, so I do. I cut Pyrostatic Pillar because most of my deck costs 3 or less, I was getting Shocked more than my opponents. This is a card I'm interested in revisiting but my deck for now can't handle that.

With Birthing Pod in the deck, I wanted just another 5 drop to flesh out my curve a bit more. Hoarding Dragon fits the bill but also tutors for an array of Artifacts that this deck has. Anything from Pod, Helm, Loxodon Warhammer or Hammer of Nazahn, I can get what I need. Ancient Runes leaves because I am the one with too many artifacts. I look at my list and don't see myself cutting most of these.

Assault Suit was just to be cute fun, I need more Ramp and Rejuvinator is it.

I love the fact that you've got Arlinn Kord in your list. I've always really wanted to run her but never find an open spot. Have you gotten any playtesting in?

Quote from Serberus_08 »

I love the fact that you've got Arlinn Kord in your list. I've always really wanted to run her but never find an open spot. Have you gotten any playtesting in?

I'm actually thinking of cutting her.

I put her in because I was pretty impressed with how she went in a buddy's Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire Superfriends deck. Jund Friends, weird, I know. Our play group tries to be original with our decks because it is so easy to just jam whatever EDHRec says. Anyway, after seeing him turn all his Lands into Tap Deal 6 because someone else's Ult made them 6/6s, I was intrigued. In this deck, I don't think she'll do. I don't have enough roadblocks up to get her going. At least with Thar, it's harder than usual to stop my from ulting Nissa, Vital Force as I just need to stop one turns worth of attacks. With Kord, I don't have that luxury though she does have the benefit of no one knowing what the hell she does.

I am thinking of putting back in some of the pain elements, but also life gain. That way I just need to outlast the pain.

Covering my weaknesses: I've identified three weaknesses of the deck: draw, crackback viability and spot removal. I've tried to address this with my picks.

Tireless Tracker is what I'm doing to address draw. Primeval Bounty and Sun Droplet are to gain me life, so that I can survive Thar's temper or when my opponents decide to opt for Player Removal. Heal the Scars and Sheltering Word are life neutral ways to saving Thar; hell, I might get lucky and have him with a bigger butt to gain even more. Savage Ventmaw is creature-based ramp, it wasn't introduced to combat any particular situation but let me use it to cast spells and keep mana open to bluff or use interaction.

I axed a lot of the pseudo-ramp because I was fine with land drops, I just didn't have the draw to support my plays. Stonehoof didn't actually protect Thar, hence Heal the Scars and Sheltering Word. Arlinn Kord felt too durdely and I wasn't willing to pay 6 life for her. Vicious Shadows was cut just because my deck was leaning too top heavy. The idea is to stick Thar and make him do most of the player killing, not let some player do that.

More ways to ramp and not die: Kodama's Reach and Cultivate are superior to the Granger and Trailblazer, these are spells I would cast to guarantee I get to Thar by making sure I've got my next land drop.

Lifegift is to make sure I don't die from Thar punching me and angry crackbacks.

I am holding each Nonbasic into consideration as if I had a Natural Order in play. Are they worth thinking of them as Phyrexian Arena? Cinder Glade answered no. Hollow says yes and is a lot opportunity cost way for me to make Thar harder to remove.

Still trying to outlast Thar's self-inflicting tantrums: Essence Warden is a classic way to keep gaining life unchecked. My ramp feels fine, I don't have enough life so the Ventmaw got the axe.

Nissa is more card draw; somewhat of a less scary Regal Behemoth. I know this guy has caused me to make mistakes because I got greedy and was punished when I tried to get Monarchy.

Iron Maiden didn't do that much damage, Multani probably will. He's also recurrable, so I have something to do with all of my mana. He's also more relevant with Verdant Sun and Miren. I really need ways to gain life. Multani's Reach should also protect my face from the odd flyer.

For something that protects Thar, Nazahn's Hammer didn't do the job so well. I put in Verdant Sun to reward me for recasting Thar or any other of his big friends.

Miren passes my "Phyrexian Arena Test" and so in it goes.

Still trying to find the right amount of life to outlast the table: Sun Droplet probably heals a comparable amount to Venser's Journal but is slow and requires tons of bookkeeping. And every now and then Venser's Journal will gain me a lot of life.

Lifegift gains me once per land, Roots of Life is every time they use Swamps or Islands. This is EDH; somebody is going to play Blue or Black. If an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth hits the table, then my decision gets easy and outrageous.

Soul draws me cards but I can't keep adding cards to increase my CMC, so it goes in favour of the Marauder who should help keep me alive.

Life gain out for draw: Fangren is great but I feel like he comes down way too late; I'm in too much of a pickle to stabilize with him. Also, in a few games he'll do nothing. I rather have more consistent decks, so I am cutting him because I've had too many games staring at him wondering if I'll live to see him resolve. Beast Whisperer draws cards and that is what the deck needs right now.

Got a copy spell: Dualcaster is a Creature and more importantly, he does't Casts but Copies the spell he targets. This means Thar won't be punching me in the face. Viseling feels a little weak, so that's what I've decided to cut.

I've removed all of the symmetrical pain except Primal Order: The pain just hurt too much in conjunction of Thar and my opponents, so here are pain options that don't really hit me as much.

Burning-Tree is a body and hurts all of those Activated decks, same with Harsh Mentor. I got rid of Zo-Zu and Ahnk as they hurt me too much.

Engling Slagwurm is a big body to help me win games but also blocks magnificently, helping me gain a lot of life. Cutting Burning Earth was painful, as it is one of the pain aspects that doesn't really hurt me. Unfortunately, when I looked at it with Thar out I didn't want to pay 6.

Overabudance tended to rocket my opponents' gamesplans forward, they didn't care that each land now hits for one when they got two mana. Managorger Hydra should punish spellslinging.

Tunneling Geopede and Invader Parasite are ways to interact with lands in a way that isn't painful to myself. I've cut Spellshock and Citadel of Pain, though Citadel didn't bother me as much as others. I needed to make room somehow. If I get my CMC up, I might revisit the Spellshock-like effect of Pyrostatic Pillar.

'Counterspell suite' added because I got tired of Thar being messed with: Since he already smashes, he shouldn't need help smashing. Cut all of that for ways to keep Thar alive.

Adding more counterspell hate: Venser's Journal is fairly weak, it's not like this deck is going to be gaining 10+ life from my grip and the infinite hand size doesn't interest this deck. Roots of Life is fantastic but too fiddly for me. If I find that I'm taking too much, which I don't think is the case as I've removed most of the self inflicted damage, it might come back fiddliness be damned.

The deck is no longer losing to Thar punching himself out or getting what I feel is outraced, so I'm willing to let another life gain piece go: Spearbreaker has a high CMC so that's why I went with the Sun's Avatar so I don't go even more top heavy than I already have. This should protect Thar and other big Creatures from effects that will try to get rid of him.

Colossal Majesty always came out awkwardly. Genesis is a five drop for Birthing Pod and when it lands in the Graveyard it can be a consistent card advantage engine.

Why blow up one thing when we can blow up all the things:

A change of pace: I'm cutting Wave because I actually want nonbasics in play for Primal Order and Burning Earth to do work. Hopefully it'll put the pressure on my opponents: the nonbasics have increased in the last few weeks.

Birthing Pod was axed because I couldn't find another 5 drop and it triggered my default problem: I get stupid and greedy. With it gone, Hoarding Dragon could leave. I have been feeling like I've been low on draw lately, which is why I added Woodland Bellower (to tutor for Nissa, Vastwood Seer or Tireless Tracker), Realm Seekers, Evolutionary Leap and Soul of the Harvest. I frequently end my turns with a bit of mana open, so Leap and Seekers should do some work.

I've cut Nissa's Renewal and Explosive Vegetation for repeatable Ramp between Silverglade Pathfinder, Frontier Guide and Sword of the Animist. I have a lot of things that like lands that come into play, so getting more of them into play will be excellent. Sword also comes down under Thar, even if Renewal made me life positive by 1 if it resolved.

Cutting Asceticism means I won't have to jump through a bunch of hoops, such as worrying about it coming down under Thar or holding mana open the turn I cast it. Frequently, I want my opponent to attempt to remove Thar because when they decide to pull the trigger, they tend to do a flurry of spellwork afterwards. This means that I'm left alone until they're ready to get Thar, which means I can pressure them more on board. With the 7 Instants I have to protect Thar, I find that taking 6 from him to protect him when someone attempts to remove him is very rewarding: suddenly their entire plan is shot and they still have a bunch of spells in hand that are going to hurt. It's something counter-intuitive that I noticed, let's test this theory.

Going to go big mana: I need to get to Big Mana before I get the sinks, talking it over with a friend and I realized that getting a ton of mana involves making more land drops. This also means I need a better draw suite, so I can keep making those land drops. In the place of Cultivate and Kodama's Reach are Creatures that give additional land drops. Regal Behemoth replaces Slagwurm just because the Slagwurm has a really high cost, the Behemoth's mana doubling will help with the big mana plan.

As for draw, Genesis no longer had a reliable way to get in the Graveyard via Birthing Pod so it involved way too many hoops to set up. With the dissolution of my Sidisi, my Sylvan Library got freed up. Burning Earth didn't ding people as hard as I wanted, they found ways to play around it with either mana rocks or being patient and waiting for someone else to take care of it. In its place, Outpost Siege comes in. I'm using the Outpost because it will let me play lands, unlike the majority of other Impulsive Draw effects that are in the game.

I need even more draw: [/spoiler]Fauna Shaman will help tutor up Creatures I need. Skullclamp got axed because it wasn't drawing me cards anymore, it was an artifact of when the deck had a lot of X/1s that probably Ramped me on ETB.

I lived the dream and got a Helm of the Hose on Ruric Thar, turns out dreams can be nightmares. The game came to screeching halt as I couldn't get in anywhere and no one could cast spells lest they take 6 Ruric Thar triggers. One Ruric Thar is enough, it makes people need to answer him with Noncreature Spells and he punishes them. This is why I'm dropping in a lot of draw with this update. I want to be drawing so many cards, making plenty of land drops that my opponents must cast spells instead of sit there to the hostage of death. With that in mind, I cut Helm and Godo who tutors for it.

Garruk's Packleader goes in as he triggers off of most of the Creatures. I've put in Stormkirk Occultist as a way to punch in with a small trampler who triggers the Packleader. I've found that this deck doesn't really care if something 'good' gets Exiled from Outpost Siege, as the idea is to keep churning out threats so my opponents cast spells which Ruric Thar punishes them for doing that. Occultist is another way to get those extra land drops and other spells.

I think I have enough lifegain in the deck, so I added even more draw with Guardian Project.

If I want to Ramp, I should have Terrain Generator. I think its potential makes it pass the Phyrexian Arena test.

Switching utility: Obsidian Fireheart would require the deck to go much more Red for me to reliably use it which is disappointing. I would love to light lands on fire but I don't have enough mana of the correct colour to cast or use the Fireheart regularly. In its stead, Yeva goes in to give my deck a bit more interactivity. I don't need to tap out on my turn when I play my fatties, which is nice. This means I can suddenly flash in another support card that my opponents weren't expecting to ruin their lives; such as Spellbreaker Behemoth for Counter backup or Spearbreaker Behemoth to quickly make Ruric Thar indestructible.

I've lost too many games where I couldn't punch in and lost Ruric Thar to his 'must attack' clause. Considering the deck has various ways to pump him, he can even be a two or three turn clock, but only if he gets in. Rogue's Passage goes in as a low opportunity cost to provide unblockability and I think it's potential utility passes the Primal Order test of taking 1 each turn for it.

Switching up the End Game: The deck makes a lot of mana but not much Red, which is why I couldn't run Obsidian Fireheart but the Captivating Crew don't require much Red, only a lot of mana. They can certainly end the game if left unmolested, also they have an immediate impact unlike the Fireheart or Occultist. I knew the Occultist was weak, more of a flex slot, and so it gets the axe.

Primal Order has put me in a pickle a few times, such as knowing it will kill me before I can kill the table. Also, some decks just don't really take a lot of damage from it. In its place, another 'win the game' card in the form of Mob Rule. Also, an immediate impact and a large enough one that I think it's worth Thar's temper, especially if I snag some life gain Creatures.

The deck has been leaning a little more Red for awhile now, so swapping one Basic.

Adding utility: Batterskull is asking for a lot of up-front mana and it isn't like Thar is getting the full benefit. I do have enough life gain now that he isn't getting bowled over, so Batterskull hasn't been impressive lately. With the amount of mana this deck generates, I can definitely use the utility of the Mirage Mirror for interesting shenanigans. Without even considering my opponent's permanents, this would let me increase my mana doublers by copying Zendikar Resurgent and Regal Behemoth. Or if someone is willing to take 12 because I have Angrath's Marauders or Gratuitous Violence, I can suddenly jackknife that up to 24 by the Mirror copying them. Once we introduce permanents by opponents might have for abuse, well, it just gets more interesting.

Mirage Mirror is one of my favorite cards.