MTG Salvation

The Idea

So I have been wanting to make a deck with Tooth and Nail in it for a bit I have been playing a lot of lower CMC decks and thought it was time for a change and I run in a meta that doesn't have a problem with that card and all the things it can lead to. That being said I have done a lot with this card in the past, your Mike/Trike, Kiki/Zealous, Avenger/Hoof or Regal/Avenger even a Lark/Guide so I was looking for a new pairing to pull out with it and something that has the potential to be more variable and not 100% guarantee a victory on resolution like most of those others do.

I hit upon the combination I wanted to focus on while looking through all the creatures I have access too, the title of this thread gives away half of it and if you know anything about the Swans the other half should be pretty easy to guess.


Tooth and Nail Seismic Swans, lets go.


The Commander

Now using those 2 cards there are not that many Commander options available one all four a bunch of partner pairs and the five color options. I ruled out the partners because I didn't see a use for taking up two slots (this might change more later). Five color might be fun Black bringing stuff like Goryo's Vengeance and other reanimation cards to the table and tutors which is possible the best Commander for it would probably be Ramos but I wanted to stick to four colors and keep the deck more focused that leaves Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis. They also provide value from having lands in hand and ramp towards the biggest spells intending to be cast.

The Deck



Cards for Consideration

So thinking about the Commander after I built the deck there is some merit to making it Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix and Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder the goal of deck being to draw powers of Kydele while Borb could really benefit from the Lifelink that Bruse hands out (the double strike being Gravy).

The inclusion of Thousand-Year Storm to play with all the land spells also gets me thinking about both Through the Breach and Show and Tell as alternatives to Tooth and Nail



I am going to play the game some before I write anything else about it since I don't tend to keep a lot of decks in one piece these days it all comes down to how they play.

Thanks for taking a look and any and all suggestions are welcome.

Defense of the Heart. Add Forbidden Orchard to up opponents creature counts.

Not sure what Greater Good is in the deck for? If your plan is to use it for Academy Rector or World Shaper, then I'd just play a sacrifice land. Sacrificing Kozilek, Butcher of Truth seems like when you're in the upper echelon of winning anyway.

With only 12 creatures, Survival of the Fittest is going to be pretty dead card most of the time. I know you want to use it for getting Swans of Bryn Argoll and Borborygmos Enraged, but I was playing Survival in a 20 creature deck, and found the creature count too low to be able to use it consistently. Because it's not like you hold onto creatures in your hand either thinking they'll be potential fuel for SoF, you'll play out Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, etc when you get the chance.

Blasphemous Act is a fun one with Swans of Bryn Argoll, and your deck is pretty creatureless so removal is welcome anyway.

At it's core it's a storm deck, but then I feel like some of the cards are a bit lost on potential power.
Frantic Search, Snap, Turnabout, all suggest mana doublers as a benefit.
Maybe Heartbeat of Spring, Mana Flare or you could go for an only you one like Mirari's Wake.
I'd think at least one in the deck would go a long way, especially as you have cards like Explore, Nature's Lore, Growth Spiral, Urban Evolution, that become like "free" spells to cast. You can even combine with Trade Routes/Storm Cauldron to make Exploration and Azusa, Lost but Seeking gain you mana.
Remember you don't play out cards like Heartbeat of Spring, Mana Flare, until you have your combo turn all setup, think of these as more like a sorcery spell you'd play.

Mana I think is your biggest bottleneck in general, I'd try Smothering Tithe and if you do play Heartbeat of Spring/Mana Flare I'd also like to see Time Spiral in the deck.

Meloku the Clouded Mirror as an alternative to returning lands to hand. Especially if you keep in Survival of the Fittest and Greater Good as it'll up your creature count.

As far as cuts, Amulet of Vigor I can see you want to use with Scapeshift, Splendid Reclamation, World Shaper, but from personal experience often it literally does nothing most games.

I think with trying to set your graveyard up with Life from the Loam, Mizzix's Mastery, Intuition, Scapeshift, Splendid Reclamation, World Shaper, that Kozilek, Butcher of Truth doesn't seem to fit. Not sure what you had in mind for the big guy? Maybe you're thinking about burning people out with Borborygmos Enraged and having enough lands, by recycling them with Survival of the Fittest and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. But as I've already pointed out they are pretty bad cards without a complete combo, and you might as well just use Laboratory Maniac as your win condition.

Electrodominance I think will be an easy cut.

I play Pyroblast in all my red decks, so know where you are coming from, but I think it's just better as Dispel when you have access to blue. Then you'll have another blue card to pitch to Force of Will as well.

Thanks for the post I guess I will take it point by.

Quote from darrenhabib »

Defense of the Heart. Add Forbidden Orchard to up opponents creature counts.

I don't like next upkeep triggers generally, they feel very fragile.

Not sure what Greater Good is in the deck for? If your plan is to use it for Academy Rector or World Shaper, then I'd just play a sacrifice land. Sacrificing Kozilek, Butcher of Truth seems like when you're in the upper echelon of winning anyway.

With only 12 creatures, Survival of the Fittest is going to be pretty dead card most of the time. I know you want to use it for getting Swans of Bryn Argoll and Borborygmos Enraged, but I was playing Survival in a 20 creature deck, and found the creature count too low to be able to use it consistently. Because it's not like you hold onto creatures in your hand either thinking they'll be potential fuel for SoF, you'll play out Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, etc when you get the chance.

These are related, I tend to like having free / close to free sacrifice cards when I need to get Eldrazi triggers if the decks other methods of victory are taken from me or out of reach, there being 34 lands in the deck currently means that even drawing every single land Borb can't kill a table on one go around, now the goal is not to increase the land count to make that more reliable instead I would play ways to recycle the lands I have used. I haven't generally have had a problem with Survival on low creature counts and even if I have drawn a bunch I can discard things without needing to find something. Greater good is also a hold over from when Titania, Protector of Argoth perhaps she should come back in.

Blasphemous Act is a fun one with Swans of Bryn Argoll, and your deck is pretty creatureless so removal is welcome anyway.

I have an idea for a future Repercussion deck in these colors so I will save that for then along probably with the Orchard from above.

At it's core it's a storm deck, but then I feel like some of the cards are a bit lost on potential power.
Frantic Search, Snap, Turnabout, all suggest mana doublers as a benefit.
Maybe Heartbeat of Spring, Mana Flare or you could go for an only you one like Mirari's Wake.
I'd think at least one in the deck would go a long way, especially as you have cards like Explore, Nature's Lore, Growth Spiral, Urban Evolution, that become like "free" spells to cast. You can even combine with Trade Routes/Storm Cauldron to make Exploration and Azusa, Lost but Seeking gain you mana.
Remember you don't play out cards like Heartbeat of Spring, Mana Flare, until you have your combo turn all setup, think of these as more like a sorcery spell you'd play.

So the card that powers all of these is the prime Rector target in Thousand-Year Storm Wake is definitely a card I will try depending on how the deck plays.

Mana I think is your biggest bottleneck in general, I'd try Smothering Tithe and if you do play Heartbeat of Spring/Mana Flare I'd also like to see Time Spiral in the deck.

Tithe is possible as is Time Spiral I like these suggestions

Meloku the Clouded Mirror as an alternative to returning lands to hand. Especially if you keep in Survival of the Fittest and Greater Good as it'll up your creature count.

So I was actually trying to find my Patron of the Moon but I forgot about Meloku this is really good I like a bunch also that probably means Burgeoning finds a home too

As far as cuts, Amulet of Vigor I can see you want to use with Scapeshift, Splendid Reclamation, World Shaper, but from personal experience often it literally does nothing most games.

I have played those games with Vigor too, but I have also played the games where it worked and good god did it work. However having it in a deck that also runs Lotus Cobra might be too greedy.

I think with trying to set your graveyard up with Life from the Loam, Mizzix's Mastery, Intuition, Scapeshift, Splendid Reclamation, World Shaper, that Kozilek, Butcher of Truth doesn't seem to fit. Not sure what you had in mind for the big guy? Maybe you're thinking about burning people out with Borborygmos Enraged and having enough lands, by recycling them with Survival of the Fittest and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. But as I've already pointed out they are pretty bad cards without a complete combo, and you might as well just use Laboratory Maniac as your win condition.

That is primarily why the big guy is there and I like having at least one main alternative win-con

Electrodominance I think will be an easy cut.

Perhaps I do love this card, especially as an EoT way to blast my own Rector.

I play Pyroblast in all my red decks, so know where you are coming from, but I think it's just better as Dispel when you have access to blue. Then you'll have another blue card to pitch to Force of Will as well.

It is true however I have gotten way more Pyroblast and REB uses these days out of the Commander who is Blue or 1/2 Blue or 1/3 Blue and on and on, or hitting things like Rhystic Study or other dumb blue cards that linger on the board, the fact that it can turn the tide if someone has a counterspell is gravy. (I also really don't like Dispel)

Thanks again a lot to think about.

Thinking it over decided to change some cards prior to even playing the deck.



One standout I overlooked was Flash a card with obvious workings with cards like Academy Rector, however the option to just Pay a different 4 mana and have an ambush Swans seems too good to pass up. Only a couple creatures are more mana or completely weird with Flash and one is completely irrelevant Snapcaster Mage.

A lot of the changes were putting in cards that worked better with TYS storm out so spells in the place of permanents some more land bounce and some more land drops, extremely curious to see how it runs.