MTG Salvation

Hello, a friend of mine asked me to help him make his multiplayer Saskia the Unyielding deck more competitive. The problem is that I only play duel commander competitively and multiplayer casually. I would appreciate it if anyone here could help me with the list I'm working on.

The first question I would ask him is exactly how competitive does he want to be? You can make these colors really oppressive if you wanted to and build a super Stax Hate-Bear list. Or does he want to kill people faster?

The first recommendation I would make is to get Tymna the Weaver into the list somehow. The card advantage she produces with turning creatures sideways is awesome. The new Doom Whisperer also looks like a decent inclusion as a big fat thing to kill people faster with Saskia's ability. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is a really awesome creature that chunks away life totals REALLY quickly.

I would recommend cutting the planeswalkers. They're quite slow for what this deck is trying to do.

It might not be a bad idea to include a damage doubler or two. Dictate of the Twin Gods is a decent inclusion just to make sure you can kill people really quickly. My Kaalia list follows the same principles of what your friend's Saskia deck is doingalbeit with a different card pool. I recommend looking at it for some Stax suggestions that you can use for your friend's deck.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think he wants to kill people faster, but I have doubts about this type of deck keeping pace with combo in this format.

I didn’t want to include Tymna the Weaver because this deck doesn’t want to attack one of the players. About Doom Whisperer, I think the beaters should have a bit more utility than pseudo scrying. I would be a bit more optimistic if this deck used the graveyard more. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is powerful, but this list isn’t very creature heavy.

I was thinking about running Insult // Injury but decided Gisela, Blade of Goldnight would be better since I would have more mana on the turn I wanted to play a card like that.

I noticed that you have Rule of Law and Eidolon of Rhetoric for your list. How important are these effects? Does it make fighting control harder?

I made these changes.

- Warden of the First Tree
- Merciless Eviction
- Elspeth, Knight-Errant
- Sorin, Solemn Visitor
- Crucible of Worlds
- Stolen Strategy
- Utility Lands
+ Better fixing
+ Fire Covenant
+ Rest in Peace
+ Tymna the Weaver
+ Pithing Needle
+ Natural State
+ Tribute to the Wild

The Rule of Law effects actually make beating Control and Combo decks EASIER. Almost always, a Control deck needs to assemble some sort of 2 card combo and cast them in the same turn. Or needs to have an outlet that they also need to cast in case they already have their combo on board. Rule of Law disrupts infinite combos that you're playing against in the most efficient manner.

The card draw from Tymna, even if you don't want to attack one of the players, is still too good to pass up for a creature-centric deck. I think you and your friend will be pleased with her inclusion.