MTG Salvation

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker is a pretty powerful commander in regular EDH. What's great about this recently downgraded legendary is that while we do lose many powerful cards at higher rarities, a lot of what makes this deck tick is in its commons.

Finally, a good home for Chimney Imp!



Additional information about the deck's breakdown:

• Total Removal: 12
• Total Discard/Library Manipulation: 7
• Total Card Draw, Scry and Recursion: 17
• Total Graveyard Hate: 3
• Total Token Production: 3
• Total Direct Damage Effects: 5
• Total Ramp: 5
• Total Lifegain: 5

Undercity scavenger is cleary the worst sac outlet. Works once and you just end up with a 5/5 and a bit of scry.
Gnawing zombie costs too much for its effect. Maybe also the Aven. 4 mana to sac something once (ok, and draw 2 cards and lose 2 life). Voracious Null cost 2 to sac, which I find expensive and instant speed is important for this deck (otherwise you lose half the triggers in duels, more in multi). I would also drop Slum Reaper since they will likely have something chump blockable to sac so it does not do too much.
I might also drop Evincar's Justice, since I imagine that you do not really need sweepers too much. You have a ton of chump blockers that comes back to life and it would kill your commander (unless protected). I do not like the cards that make your oppeont lose a few life on death. They do not do enough for my taste.

I think you should also go for:
Ashen-Skin Zubera - honestly you forgot this. It is the best discarder I think. It can make them discard 3 every second turn (sac before end step and in end step) AND has the devastating discard on death trigger that can make people locked until they draw instant speed removal (a few others has it too).
Besides Death denied, you should also make space for Reaping the Graves. I typically find it to be better (mostly in ub though where you can get it back easily)

Maybes:
Sylvok Lifestaff might be worthwhile as a 1 mana gain 3 life with buyback, in essence. I am unsure if more life is needed though.
Whispersilk Cloak is a decent protection spell. It protects from other things than the
Sparring Construct protects you commander from sweepers and burn (after a few turns atleast).
Shred Memory grabs a ton of nice cards and is also sometimes worth casting for its effect.

Thanks for the great suggestions.

I did forget about Ashen-Skin Zubera. He was on my radar but must have slipped the list while I was making it.

I already cut Undercity Scavenger and Voracious Null. Thank you!

Gnawing Zombie I will keep because he a rare case of being both a sac outlet and a 1-power creature, making him fill the role of outlet and random blocker/fodder quite nicely in this deck.

Good call on Evincar's Justice.

Sometimes you need an edict, so I figured Slum Reaper was pretty decent in this deck since we like saccing our own stuff and it affects all players. I think I would cut Innocent Blood over Reaper. What do you think?

I have plenty of lifegain, so no need for lifestaff I think. I like the construct and the Shred Memory, but I think finding space will be difficult.

I like innocent blood more really, but I might be valuing mana efficency too highly for this deck (i.e. you might be able to afford it manawise). Still, 4/2 is not great stats, since it dies to utility creatures on offense (and I think it is not too important on defense, but I guess it is a question of trying the deck).

Is the deck for multiplayer or duels btw? It may be worth running some 1 power deathtouch creatures as rattlesnakes in multiplayer.

I would likely cut a few random sac outlets, e.g. still Gnawing zombie, since you got 4 other sac outlets with 1 power (and a few more that could work that way if you saced them in response to their ability) and maybe Gutless Ghoul, just because it cost 1 to activate and you figured you did not really need more life gain with the staff. Perhaps also some of the 2/2 for 3 that gives themself +2/+2 just because you have so many - on the other hand, I imagine they are great.

Btw, you could put -1/-1 counters on your own 2 power creatures to protect them from targeted removal (also rusalka could do that). That does make the Aven better in my eyes, because you can then reuse it.

I do not really have many ideas for what else to cut.

Mortuary Mire seems worth it for a etb land. Path of Ancestry might be worth it, even though you only have a few spirits besides your commander. You have relative few etb lands so it should not cost too much tempo.

You seem really light on ramp.

One of the best free sac-outlets in the entire game of Magic was actually printed at common. (It's Ashnod's Altar).

For protection there's also Undying Evil, Supernatural Stamina and Kaya's Ghostform. All cheap and the instant speed on the first two is rather strong IMO.

Another nice exploit creature would be Qarsi Sadist. It can just exploit itself and keep coming back to do the same.

Quote from Reaper9889 »

I like innocent blood more really, but I might be valuing mana efficency too highly for this deck (i.e. you might be able to afford it manawise). Still, 4/2 is not great stats, since it dies to utility creatures on offense (and I think it is not too important on defense, but I guess it is a question of trying the deck).

Is the deck for multiplayer or duels btw? It may be worth running some 1 power deathtouch creatures as rattlesnakes in multiplayer.

I would likely cut a few random sac outlets, e.g. still Gnawing zombie, since you got 4 other sac outlets with 1 power (and a few more that could work that way if you saced them in response to their ability) and maybe Gutless Ghoul, just because it cost 1 to activate and you figured you did not really need more life gain with the staff. Perhaps also some of the 2/2 for 3 that gives themself +2/+2 just because you have so many - on the other hand, I imagine they are great.

Btw, you could put -1/-1 counters on your own 2 power creatures to protect them from targeted removal (also rusalka could do that). That does make the Aven better in my eyes, because you can then reuse it.

I do not really have many ideas for what else to cut.

Mortuary Mire seems worth it for a etb land. Path of Ancestry might be worth it, even though you only have a few spirits besides your commander. You have relative few etb lands so it should not cost too much tempo.

Thanks again for the great comments.

I ended up cutting both Innocent Blood and Slum Reaper. Hopefully Abyssal Gatekeeper will pull his weight.

This is for multiplayer. I think that with almost 50 creatures, I will have enough of a board presence to make it easy to defend. We will see. If not, there are plenty of 1-power deathtoucher out there (I already have 2).

I cut Gnawing Zombie, finally. I'm now down to 16 outlets, which seems like about the right place to be.

Mortuary Mire is in.

I still have to cut 1 card, but I also want to make room for other stuff. It's getting difficult, for sure!

Quote from rogerandover »

You seem really light on ramp.

One of the best free sac-outlets in the entire game of Magic was actually printed at common. (It's Ashnod's Altar).

For protection there's also Undying Evil, Supernatural Stamina and Kaya's Ghostform. All cheap and the instant speed on the first two is rather strong IMO.

Another nice exploit creature would be Qarsi Sadist. It can just exploit itself and keep coming back to do the same.

Yeah, I thought so as well. I'm not such a fan of Rituals, but maybe they would be okay. I would like to find room for Leaden Myr and maybe Manakin for synergistic ramp.

I forgot that Ashnod's Altar was printed at common in Chronicles! Thank you! I'll definitely find space for it.

I'm not a huge fan of 1-shot protection in this deck, but maybe a few would be a good idea.

Qarsi Sadist was on my radar, but I just don't like that it only targets one player. Maybe it's still good enough.

The problem is finding space for all these cards! What would you cut?

EDIT: After some difficult cuts, I'm now down to 100 cards and have managed to fit in Reaping the Graves, Ashnod's Altar and Leaden Myr. I now have 5 soures of ramp, which seems pretty decent.

One card I still absolutely want to include is Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I wouldn't say no to another protection spell, but I think fitting it in will be difficult.

EDIT: I've made room for Gray Merchant. I'm looking forward to shrinking him with Plagued Rusalka or Fume Spitter then sacrificing it to return him every end step and end the game.

Yeah, cutting is always hard But if I should suggest something, I think Deathgreeter is kinda mediocre. You already seem to have plenty of lifegain, that does a better job then the greeter. The lifegain don't do much on it's own, won't help your tempo to beat combo-decks (of which PDH have plenty of).
Ruin Rat might not do much either, when you already have Bojuka Bog and Nihil Spellbomb.

The reason I like the one-shot protection is, having played with a regular Shirei deck for some time, it's really all about Shirei. If he leaves play, my deck just doesn't function, so it's powermount to have him on the board. The surpriseeffect these instants gives, can mean a lot in my experience.

Thanks for the suggestion. I never thought of cutting Deathgreeter, but it would probably be better as Qarsi Masochist. It wouldn't be as much lifegain, but still some and also a better creature in general.

I thought Ruin Rat was kinda of junk, but the more I think about it the more I like it. Selective graveyard hate at (hopefully) instant speed on a 1-power creature that is also a deathtoucher is so much rolled into one. I think this might be a very important card to have for multiplayer decks.

You may be right about the protection spells. How many do you recommend running in a Shirei deck?

I'm running both Undying Evil and Supernatural Stamina in my deck (along with both boots and Darksteel Plate), and recently added Kaya's Ghostform, but havn't tried the deck since adding it... But I think 6 protection spells overall is a pretty decent number, since I can also tutor for them.
Not about how I would do in a pauper version, so I'm pretty curious to hear your experiences wiht it!

I might be wrong about Ruin Rat, so again, let me hear how it preforms.

Also, another suggestion for cuts would be Basal Thrull. Since it doesn't have haste, it looses the flexibility that Blood Pet has.

Thanks again for the input.

I compared lots of Shirei lists and was very surprised to see how little protection most decks run. In fact, I don't really like how most of the lists are built in general.

Most lists were running Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots and Darksteel Plate as their only protection spells. Even with tutors, this doesn't seem like enough.

Personally, I think maybe 5 slots for protection would be a good starting point. Am I being too ambitious with Strands of Undeath? Its high casting cost makes it almost guaranteed that I will have to cast it the turn after Shirei, which isn't always realistic.

Maybe Whispersilk Cloak could make a good inclusion and I could cut Strands for Kaya's Ghostform or another 1-mana spell.

In addition to this, cards like Cadaver Imp and Dutiful Attendant can also make getting around the commander tax pretty easy by letting Shirei go to the graveyard.