MTG Salvation

I went 3-1 with this list at my prerelease. I would've gone 4-0, but my Round 1 opponent had Glorybringer and Insult//Injury both games in addition to an otherwise powered sealed pool. I'm curious for some thoughts/insights into what I could've done differently, and explain my decision making and afterthoughts below.



First thing I did was look at my removal. I had the most in Black, counting the Banewhip Punisher and Festering Mummies as part of that. In White I only had Desert's Hold. Red offered Blur of Blades and Puncturing Blow. Green had nothing. Blue had 2 Unsummon, Censor and Illusory Wrappings. My creatures in Black felt really strong as well, so I knew I'd at least be playing Black. Green felt like it offered nothing to Black and I didn't have support for BG -1/-1 counters so I shoved it aside early on. I had some fliers in White but not enough to do BW Zombies, but did like most of the creatures available. I decided against it because of most of them were three-drops and my Black was already heavy on three-drops as it was. I liked a few of the aggressive Exert creatures in Red but the other half were balanced for a UR Spellslinging deck. Besides that, there weren't enough creatures without splashing for a third color.

I ended up in Blue for the additional removal, as well because I had some Cycling support going on. I went 3-1, but looking back at the creatures I added, I think it may have been worth it to go WB instead of UB.

Disregarding a color just because it doesn't offer removal is a bad idea. Removal is something that can be splashed for after all, as it will be relevant throughout the game. My take on this pool would have been to go B/G with a splash of white for its two removal spells, Desert's Hold and Farm // Market. Green fills up the hole in the mana curve at 4 mana nicely, and offers some early game and a big top end creature. After looking at your blue cards, I honestly don't know what would pull you into that color. Let's see, what a B/G/w version would look like:


In the end, green mostly just adds some meat to the deck, while the white splash gives you some more removal. The curve may seem crowded at 3 mana, but I see Banewhip Punisher mostly as a 4 mana destroy spell rather than a creature. So sits somewhat between 3 and 4 mana. It does have nice synergy with the Quarry Haulers, though, same as the other -1/-1 counter producers. Shefet Dunes is not meant to use its last ability, it's just another Desert that also helps with the white splash.