MTG Salvation

Me and a friend were trying to find a deck in Modern that can utilize Lord of Extinction and I've come up with a build that shows some promise from early testing.

The idea of the deck is to fill the graveyard quickly and build up Lord of Extinction to 20/20 (or close to it) and "Fling" it at the opponent's face for the win using Rite of Consumption (I didn't want to splash Red and the lifegain can be important if I cant win in 1 turn).

For filling the GY I went with: Grisly Salvage, Grapple with the Past and Vessel of Nascency
(at first I wanted to use Satyr Wayfinder but I needed something to enable delirium so it was replaced).

Traverse the Ulvenwald helps me find Lord of Extinction and Eternal Witness reuses spells to fill the GY or get back Lord or Rite for the combo while also working very well with Grapple for multiple uses.

The deck isn't very fast so I have Sakura-Tribe Elder for some mana acceleration while blocking and basic disruption of IoK + Abrupt Decay.

Here is the deck:


What do you think of the deck's concept, can it work ?

Any ideas on how to improve it ?

Seems pretty close to perfect. Only additional help I'd suggest is putting in 2 bauble in place of A land and a grapple. Could add in street wraith somewhere then add in DS for a really good aggro clock. You then have rites to go over the opponents guys. Goyf would be good in this deck also. But that's all a different deck. Lol

What about footsteps of the goryo? Can pull lord of extinction from the yard and cast rite of consumption for the same cost as hard casting lord of extinction.

I've actually considered it but it would only improve the deck's speed in very specific situations (Lord in the GY and Footsteps + Rite in hand and enough mana) so I decided to go with the Eternal Witness + Traverse package instead for consistency.

Also I can't always combo off quicker if Lord isn't big enough for a one shot kill.

Wall of Blood? Can be pumped up to lethal range for Rite of Consumption. I don't see anything else that stands out as missing or needed. I would consider Fatal Push just for its casting cost and it looks like you should be able to trigger revolt when it's needed.

Wall of Blood is interesting though to kill in 1-shot it requires me to be ahead on life which isn't often the case.
But it is a potentially faster combo.

Any thought for Commune with the God's? Digs for the Lord of Extinction and fills up the grave yard quickly. Sort of like a 2nd Grisley Savage (though without the land hunt of course).

I like Grapple better here as it digs back up Lord, Witness and Sakura while still filling the GY and helping me hit land drops.
Also being an instant can be useful as it allowes me to leave up Abrupt Decay (or an uncracked Vessel) when I have it.

Some other options I ruled out were:
Gather the Pack (not enough creatures and doesn't hit lands) and Satyr Wayfinder/Mulch (only get lands).

Yeah. I agree grapple salvage looks like the best options. Leaving up decay Mana can save you from some blow outs

Would Killing Wave be a decent SB option against go wide aggro decks (over Ratchet Bomb) ?
It might also get opponents closer to 1-shot kill range with Rite.
Another option can be Crime // Punishment (Punishment) which is like a more expensive but faster Ratchet Bomb.

I don't really like Drown in Sorrow/Flaying Tendrils as they miss too many creatures but still want something cheaper than Damnation.
Maybe Golgari Charm can be what I'm looking for ? Though Ratchet Bomb still seems preferable.

I'm pretty happy with the consistency of the deck at the moment but it is still a turn too slow in many matchups.

Another idea I though about recently is to include Brain Maggot in the SB as tutorable hand disrauption.
It might actually be a really good alternative for Thoughtseize in the SB as it is so easy to get back from the GY or tutor it when hand-disruption is really needed.
It is also an enchantment-creature that helps with Delirium.

Also since this is a Delirium deck I consider trying out some Whispers of Emrakul in the SB that can easily become Hymn to Tourach here.

To improve the aggro matchup even more while keeping the SB reasonably equipped to deal with Burn I consider replacing Pulse of Murasa with Kitchen Finks.

What do you think ?

I wonder what other good Traverse targets can be useful in the SB of the deck to make it a better toolbox.
Shriekmaw seems like a good option and also Fulminator Mage.

I want to revive this thread as after all the interestig card printed in Guilds of Ravnica this deck could probably be improved.
The most obviuos upgrade is Assassin's Trophy over Abrupt Decay/Maelstrom Pulse as the catch-all removal of choice.

Another card which has potential here is Mausoleum Secrets which could be a better tutor for this deck than Traverse the Ulvenwald as it can potentially find both pieces of the combo rather than just Lord of Extinction (and not Rite of Consumption).
The challenge of building around Mausoleum Secrets is needing to play much more creatures to reliably hit at least 5x to find Lord of Extinction.

I'm still not sure how to go about it but using some cyling creatures might one way:
# Street Wraith and maybe also Horror of the Broken Lands/Archfiend of Ifnir.
# Another option could be using self-mill creatures like: Stitcher's Supplier, Satyr Wayfinder, Glowspore Shaman and maybe even Doom Whisperer.
# A third option could be to use the dredge cards like Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Thug but it presents another problem as they need a discard outlet to get them in the GY after drawing them which could be Fauna Shaman or Lotleth Troll/Noose Constrictor.

What do you think ?

I've been pondering something similar to this with Varolz, the Scar-Striped using mausoleum secrets to tutor up death's shadow and lord of extinction

cycling creatures wouldn't be a bad way of getting to lord of extinction, just these 5 along give you 16-20 creatures to cycle and land cycle.

4 street wraith
4 horror of the broken lands
4 monstrous carabid
4 deadshot minotaur
4 twisted abomination

when you use about 6-8 land cyclers in Living end decks, its rare that you don't consistently hit 5 lands on schedule.

I know you didn't want to run

but lord of extinction is an elemental, that means you can tutor it up with flamekin harbinger and additionally could use Incandescent Soulstoke to short cut it onto the battlefield.

Now that I think about it maybe the cyclers aren't the most efficient idea besides Street Wraith.

I consider this creature composition now:
4x Stitcher's Supplier
4x Satyr Wayfinder
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
4x Street Wraith
3x Eternal Witness
3x Lord of Extinction

I'm not sure about the exact number of combo pieces I need to run, it used to be 4x Rite + 3x Lord with Traverse but now that I have a tutor that can get both maybe it could be reversed or maybe I could drop the number of Rite even lower to 2x.

I'm also not sure about the number of Eternal Witness to run, I know that I want the card in the deck but 3x might be a bit much.

There's that bg enchantment that flips to a land. Forgot what it's called but Steve, ewit, stitch all like it. liliana's indignation is a funny card if u can dope up a creature deck or have excessive Mana.

You mean Journey to Eternity, but it doesn't exactly fit the combo plan of the deck.


BtW, here is the new decklist I have in mind:

Not sure if it is better than the Traverse version so it"ll require some testing.
Mausoleum Secrets can help finding SB bullets so there are some 1x-of tutor targets in the SB.

The creatures are in the SB to keep the creature count high enough for Secrets so that is why they aren't discard/removal spells instead.
I wonder if I should have Plaguecrafter there over Chupacabra and maybe Fulminator Mage over Plague Mare.