MTG Salvation

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Good
Puresteel Paladin This is the key piece of the deck. He transforms the useless Cheeri0s into Cantrips an for only WW this is outright broken. My current version of the deck wins 70-80% of the time through the combo with Puresteel Paladin. Never forget though, that he is your enabler, not your wincon. it may happen, that you win on the back of a Paladin with 3-4 Equipments strapped on - the second ability helps here - But you often need more than that. Two Paladins in play are a godsend as it is nearly impossible to fizzle with even only 1-2 equipments in hand. Always try to get to the second Paladin during the combo, sometimes even if that costs you the last mana you have open.

Sram, Senior Ediificer This card is in some ways the Puresteel Paladin 5-8 we only dreamt of in our wildest dreams, but it comes with upsides and downsides: The upside numbe one is that Sram draws cards when an equipment is CAST, therefore you can search after a solution against Chalice of the Void with your equipments even they are getting countered. Also the opponents can’t wait until you play your first equipment spell to kill it because you already get the trigger when the equipment is on the stack unlike paladin that has an ETB trigger. the second upside is avery minor one - he only needs one W which doesn't really change much in our mana base, but lets him splash easier in other decks. The downside is of course that it is legendary, so you can’t can't have 2 out during the combo. Anyhow this doesn´t mean you can't run 4 because it’s a key peace that makes your other cards valuable. The other downside is that it doesn’t let you equip for free like Puresteel Paladin does. This means that he is neither protected against damage on the next turn nor can he help to produce additional mana with Paradise Mantle.

Monastery Mentor Monastery Mentor is one of the few cards that are breakable with this deck. Nonetheless Monastery Mentoris only able to kill on turn 4-5 in average which is rather poor compared to Puresteel Paladin. On another note he can be considered less vulnerable to spot removal as you always have the chance to play a noncreature spell and trigger him at least once by holding priority after he was cast. During the combo he can be used to either flood the board, or if you use Mass Hysteria to produce loads of mana with Paradise Mantle or as a win condition with huge Monk tokens. He is one of the best ways to get around Leyline of Sanctity and Provides enough mana to play Repeal on anything that keeps you from winning.

Goblin Gaveleer He is the king of evasive 1-drops. If he holds equipments. With Puresteel Paladin and Sigarda's Aid he can get there. Without those cards it may happen that you can equip him with one Cheeri0 a turn but this makes him quite prone to spot removal as
Path to Exile, Terminate and Abrupt Decay. But luckily he is a mere pawn in your hands. If you are loaded up with enough other creatures he and his companions might attract enough attention to tire out your opponents hand before you play a Puresteel Paladin.

Ornithopter Ornithopter is one of my favourites. He is a honorary Cheeri0 as he can be played on turn 1 and be instantly equipped with paradise mantle. This artificial Birds of Paradise can ramp you considerably while keeping your artifact count high, especially for Metalcraft and Glint hawk. During the combo you may bounce him and his friends, but as soon as you have Mass Hysteria he will be able to produce additional mana each time you Retract. Still there is no need to run more than 1-2 as he is more utility than threat.

Geist of Saint Traft This card is truly equal to Monastery Mentor but he exeeds at other tasks than his monk friend. Hexproof is what makes him stand out as spot removal is the first choice to deal with the other threats of this deck. With Sigarda's Aid or the equip reduction from Paladin he can be your tower of strength against removal heavy decks. His biggest weakness is his low toughness but the equipments can help with that. Against aggro heavy decks like Infect or Affinity he is less good as he is best at attacking and cannot produce the amount of blockers like Mentor can. With his Angel token he still has enough evasion to break through board stalls. i consider him as the perfect sideboard replacement for Mentor.
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Situational Good
Glint Hawk This card is a very good 1-drop in our deck. A 2/2 flyer can be outright nasty, especially if you drop two or more of them on turn 1 by bouncing a Mox Opal. His ability to pick up equipments before or during combo turns can be very useful as it prolongs it - for the price of one mana. This price can be paid if you have Mass Hysteria+ Paradise Mantle but it is one of his bigger downsides. the other one is his need of mana and one artifact during the early turns. Sometimes it would be better to cycle through a Repeal instead. You need at least 22 artifacts in your deck to guarantee that he can be played. It was my downfall when I went under that number. Too many equipments in your opening hand aren't fun but getting to at least 1 land, 1 Equip and 1 Glinthawk sometimes seems very hard to achieve.

Erayo, Soratami Ascendant // Erayo's Essence While this card is amazing when it works it also consumes a lot of the potential of your Cheeri0s when you flip her with them. The biggest problem is that Erayo is a defensive card in a aggressive deck. You might buy enough time with her in flipped form but she is only good enough versus certain decks. Also you need a threat besides her to get any use out of her. She is a fine card to lead on if you hold a Paladin in hand. She is best used in aggro heavy builds.

Myth Realised As a honorary creature this enchantment is one of the possible cornerstones of the trigger happy aggro centered decktypes. If they get played early enough they are fearsome as they suck up each trigger, getting stronger each turn and with each combo attempt. The biggest problem they have to face is that they cost W to activate. This can be painful if you want to use multiple of them and it gets worse if your opponent has either the removal or the chump blockers for them. They are also worthless during the combo as they aren't relevant anymore. Thanks to their activation cost they never will be able to produce more mana with Paradise Mantle. These guys are built for war. Use them in aggro/trigger centered builds with less combo focus.

Puresight Merrow With Paradise Mantle in our arsenal we have access to this little interaction between the puresight and the mantle. As soon as it is assembled and Puresight Merrow has lost its summoning sickness you can treat him like a painless Spoils of the Vault as often as you want. Clear away lands during the combo, plow your way through the deck until you find important pieces like Puresteel Paladin that you might need for the win. As a 2/2 for 2cmc he isn't half as bad as he looks and can be easily slotted into open deckbuilding spaces as long as you don't find better cards. If you are able to play him as early as turn 1-2 and can be equipped with a Paradise Mantle you are very likely to win by turn 3-4. I treat him as a conditional threat ranking under Glint Hawk and Goblin Gaveleer as he needs the mantle. With it he is better than any of the tutors this deck is allowed to use.
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Less Popular/ Good
Riddlesmith The card is generally very bad on its own in this deck. Even if you think the cantrip could be good over time you will have lost the game by then. With or more" target="blank">Ovalchaser Daredevil he could be or more. It is noteable that he triggers on any artifact which could make him better than Puresteel Paladin in the early turns and would also equalize the drawback from holding Ovalchase Daredevil in the opening hand.

Ovalchase Daredevil On its own this card is really bad. This gives a big question mark above its combo with Riddlesmith.

Monastery Swiftspear She is synergistic with this deck, but that doesn't make her good in it. To trigger Prowess often enough you have to play a lot of equipments and without Sigarda's Aid you can't pump her in reaction to something like a missed block or removal. Since she has Haste, but no evasion she could be good in the early game but the deck isn't consistent enough to support her to make her strong enough to reach 20 damage in time. During the combo I like Mass Hysteria and multiple creatures powered by it a lot more than this girl giving back the mana you spent for her without even keeping card pairity.

Storm Entity As this card is able to store the power given to it it is slightly better than Monastery Mentor. The lack of evasion and cost make it worse than Goblin Gaveleer as an aggressive vreature and Grapeshot as a win condition. As I've never played with this card I might undervalue it but it shouldn't exeed over :rate4:.

Leonin Shikari Without the ability to reduce costs the instantanous use of equipments is only an advantage if you also have Lightning Greaves in play. Outside of the Puresteel combo this interaction between those cards would be outstanding but for our deck the cost and the conditions are too restrictive to hold a place. Together with Puresteel this cat might be very good at protecting creatures from Lightning Bolt but Sigarda's Aid does a better job while being less easy to remove.

Salvage Titan As a possible 6/4 on turn 1 this Giant is quite an exeption to the general magic rules. The cost of 3 artifacts however is a bit too high if it gets removed by a Path to Exile, Terminate or simply adouble block from two Zoo creatures or two bolts. Sigarda's Aid could help against that, but it would require exactly 1 mana source 1 Aid 3 artifacts, titan and an equipment. With one Mox, three Equipments, Titan and Aid this still would need 6 cards to pull of and leave only 1 card in hand. Only one card in hand is not good if most of the decks card advantage comes from playing stuff from the hand.

Retract This card is absolutely nessecary to fuel the combo and get more cards in hand by retriggering Puresteel Paladin with the Cheeri0s. As a bonus you don't lose any mana in the process if you pay it with the mana coming from a Mox Opal. Some decks want to play 3 instead of 4 and i must say that I have mulliganed many hands with 3 Retract in them but I feel that 4 are nessecary to get that draw boost during the combo. Without 4 I believe we would fizzle a lot more.

Hurkyll's Recall This card is very similar to Retract while being a bit more versatile. With the possibility to bounce all artifacts your opponent controls it is a formidable weapon against Affinity. The reason it isn't rated as high as Retract is its cost of 2cmc which makes it hard to combo further as it provides no mana pairity with Mox Opal. Also Noxious Revival is the better replacement efect with additional uses that won't sit around in your opening hand.

Displacement Wave This card is also able to fill the role of Retract like the Recall with a few very important distinctions. It is able to bounce tokens which makes it worse in a build with Monastery Mentor, but better against enemy tokens. It is able to bounce permanents with mana cost 1 if you spend 3 mana on it. If you don't use an aggro build with Gaveleer or Sigarda's Aid (Glint Hawk is unimpressed if you have a Mox) you can hold your ground against some of the faster decks like Zoo (especially the Suicide variant), Infect, Burn and Bogles. Sorcery speed and the requirement of 3 mana could turn out to be too prohibitive though. I would also advise to never forget that this spell costs at least UU which isn't always in reach, even with a fetchable mana base. I would use this card in a strict UW focus (Goblin Gaveleer would be a bad choice anyways)

Paradoxical Outcome This card could revolutionize the deck. Albeit its high mana cost of 4 it doesn't need more than some Cheeri0s and other cheap permanents like Glint Hawk to catapult you toward a combo finish. At the same time it relieves Retract from the role of the retrigger enabler and Puresteel Paladin from his role of being the only card that draws you cards effectively. With Mox Opal it can be played as soon as turn 3, in the case of Ornithopter, Paradise Mantle, Mox Opal+ 2 lands this could even happen on turn 2! The more possibilities for a combo start that early the better! Due to its requirements 2 should be enough.

These are the main course of the deck. Understand them as consumables even when they don't hit the yard. The best thing they can do is trigger other cards when they enter the battlefield or when they are cast. Astonishingly enough they can still do a lot after that - if used correctly.

Accorder's Shield This equipment gives your creatures a lot of survivability and vigilance. Puresteel and Aid Ignores its equip cost. Take the full playset with you at all times.
Bone Saw In an aggresive build this equipment can be aviable choice. It won't protect your creature from Bolts or during blocks. Take few if nessecary.

Cathar's Shield Another flavor of Accorders Shield. Thanks to wizards for the functional reprint.

Kite Shield This card got replaced with Cathar's Shield. If you choose to be defensive, this is better than Bone Saw. Also take as few as nessecary to keep the Cheeri0 count high.

Paradise Mantle A playset is an absolute must! Whilst it doesn’t pump your creatures it enables you to generate mana. Primarily this means you can reduce the number of lands you are playing and increase the number 0 Drop Equipment you are running in your main deck, the additional access to mana also enables you to cast multiple recall spells earlier in the game. These two effects combine together to make the deck more consistent and more likely to combo off. It is one of the combo pieces with Puresight Merrow .

Sigil of Destinction This card was formerly used in this deck to stuff it out with as many Cheeri0s as possible. I talk about Spoils of the Vault times. With as many additional threats and wincons as we have now this card got worthless. With some mana open it might be good though... Nope. Don't use it. it is VERY conditional.

Spidersilk Net I think this should always be a 4- of as long as you can expect flyers on the opponent's side of the table. If you run 4 Glint Hawks you mightn not need them as much but I assure you this is one of the best equipments if you have to fight against Infect, Delver or Affinity.

Lightning Greaves These got better with Sigarda's Aid and also make some sense if you use Displacement Wave as your main bounce card. The interaction with Leonin Shikari should be clear. The equip 0 is somehow a waste in the presence of Puresteel Paldin.

Swiftfoot Boots Same thing. better with Paladin and Aid, worse with Shikari, more synergistic with the rest of the equipments.

Basilisk Collar Nice card in an aggro build. Bad card in a combo focus. As I like to use Leyline of Sanctity I don't really see the need to run it against burn.

Flayer Husk This equipment is pretty good if you need a blocker or sac fodder. Otherwise it has nearly nonexistent offensive capabilities. While it has its uses together with Puresteel Paladin you will wish that it would also cost 0 to play as it tends to use more mana than nessecary for its effect.

Golem Gauntlets Neat and definetly better than Collar in a RW aggro build with Glint Hawk and Gaveleer. It wanders off of the combo path though. Best 1-drop equipment we have right now.

Cranial Plating The big bad from affinity is bad here because it's too big. As an alternative win con the Gauntlets are simply better because they are faster.

We gotta be fast - no Cantrip over 1 cmc allowed!
Serum Visions The best cantrip of the format isn't quite the best cantrip here. The scry 2 is very relevant if you need to find Puresteel Paladin or a land. The reason why this spell is not the number one is that it is never mana neutral when we need it to. Up to two may be reasonable. In a build with more cantrips this card shines. (Buy them as long as they are cheap from Conspiracy: Take the Crown!)

Gitaxian Probe While they are mana neutral they are quite dangerous as a playset. Looking into your opponent's hand is a good thing to to when you have a build with less than 10 creatures so you might want to include them in these cases. Be again reminded that, while they are good in finding combo pieces for combo centric builds, they are quite weak when the chance to draw an equipment is drastically higher than to hit one of these pieces.

Repeal From a lot of testing this has been proven to be the winner out of the bunch. This card has a lot to it in this specific deck. It can cantrip for free without lifeloss if you control an active Mox Opal. It can trigger Monastery Mentor two times, drawing into another card which can be the third. It can save your aggro creatures from removal or your Paladin if you have the mana open. It can bounce the opponent's mana dorks, tokens or low mana beaters if you need more turns. It removes Chalice of the Void on 0 at instant speed. With enough mana it can bounce any permanent that prevents your combo or wincon. During the combo it is at least as good as Thoughtcast if you bounce an equipment. With Sigarda's Aid it becomes an instant re-equip for U. You can use it early, you can use it late. Did I miss something?

Peek Thanks to the lack of mana neutrality this card is worse than the Probe. Instant speed doesn't make a difference for our deck.

Slight of Hand Worse Serum Visions. The ability to get the second card immediately often has no impact as the mana is usually too short to make this impactful enough. During the combo it is worse than Serum Visions as it looks one cards less deep and allows less chaining.

Thoughtcast Theoretically this card is better than Serum Visions if you look at the artifact count. As it is unable to perform well during the early turns due to its artifact count requirements it gets better the longer the game goes on. Since we want to keep as many Cheeri0s in hand as possible when Puresteel Paladin isn't in play yet this card functions well when we get other opportunities to do so. Any cards that gain strenght from the triggers outside the combo have more use from Thoughtcast than Serum Visions as it can compensate for the loss of hand cards. For a tempo based deck it is sadly too slow and during the combo it costs often too much mana. under the right circumstances this is a .

Quicken This cantrip can also be seen as the "Storm Stealer". Under most circumstances the card is worse than all the other listed cantrips as it needs a sorcery to shine. Unfortunately we run only one that is very dependant on cards played during a turn. Fortunately this wins you games if you happen to have Grapeshot, itself and the mana to play it in the moment at your hands when your opponent storms off. Possible sideboard option, very gimmicky.

Twisted Image This is one of the lesser impact cantrips if you look for deck control and filtering. it can, however be very useful in two other different scenarios. Firstly it turns the defense of the shields and the net into power. Be reminded though that this will be really risky as your creatures have less ways like Bone Saw to respectively keep their toughness high. Secondly you can kill some of the mana dorks and Spellskites. Since such actions should be of less importance to your game plan Twisted Image doesn't really deserve an appeareance in this deck unless the meta calls for it.

Plains This card is really important if you play against an opponent who uses either Ghost Quarter or Path to Exile. Never leave the house without at least two of them. If you are planning to be able to stabilize through disruption on turn 1-4 you need these lands. They also are very important if you want to fetch into something that causes less life loss.

Island It is far less important to run Islands as your main character Puresteel Paladin needs WW. Hence you need every land in your deck to be able to produce W to prevent unlucky hands with two lands but no ability to cast him. As we only run the minimal amount of lands in this deck (unhealthy some might say) this situation would occur too often to neglect it.

Mox Opal This gem is one of the central pieces of our combo. Without it this deck isn't half as fast and consistent as it should be. It allows many beneficial interactions that pull the deck into the realm of competetiveness. (Some may call it cheating). There are decks that try to run 3 Mox Opals which is understandable due to its market price. It is also in some way reasonable, as multiples in the starting hand can be percieved as gas without an engine. I do advise to run the full playset as it can also occur the other way around that you NEED them to go off. Without them you lose turns to the need of untapping your blue lands, giving your opponents unnessecarily more draws and untaps to counter your plays.

Hallowed Fountain Theoretically the best card to fetch IF you fetch as it gives you all the mana to combo off without Mox Opal.

Sacred Foundry Two of them are nessecary to be able to run a RW aggro strategy. Goblin Gaveleer on turn 1 is a strong play if you can follow it up with either Puresteel Paladin or Sigarda's Aid. Only one is also possible, the other one could be replaced by a non-fetchable card like City of Brass or Battlefield Forge.

Windswept Heath Fetchlands are thinning our deck and fetching results in less dead draws during the combo. with the low number of lands this is especially effective. It also gives access to three colors through the shocklands. If you don't want to use as much red as I do you can run less fetchlands in total and more fastlands like Seachrome Coast. You can use any fetchland that can fetch white as this is our main color due to Paladin. Run whatever you have or what is the cheapest at the moment.

Flooded Strand Second cheapest fetchland for Plains. It is also a bit more flavorful to have them besides the Heath.

Seachrome Coast If you don't count as much on the fetch thinning plan and you play in an aggressive/ burn heavy metagame you can use these as they are painless for the most part. Be reminded that games sometimes go langer than you want and that it is sometimes very crucial to play an untapped fourth land. Especially if you are planning to run an UW centered build with less red elements this can be a hindrance to a control plan on turn 4.

Glacial Fortress/ Mystic Gate Never use them. It is much too important to have colored mana on turn 1.

Cavern of Souls This card is really good if you have one. Still it has resticted use in this deck as it should name "human". If you count on having it in play early it is beneficial to: Puresteel Paladin, Monastery Mentorand Riddlesmith. You might want to build around them. You might also want to exclude the following cards: Additional cantrips, other creatures besides Glint Hawk (main color) and Ornithopter.

Glimmervoid Some might want to include this card as it fits the artifact theme. It may function it it weren't for the Retract strategy and the advantage of holding equipments in hand as long as possible to use them in the most optimal way. With only Ornithopter and Mox Opal as non-combo relevant artifact permanents you give your opponents a target if you play them to sustain Glimmervoid in play. The potential 2 for 1 you give is a lot more dangerous if you think about those cards as foundation stones of your mana base. If your opponent catches you with such a play he can throw you back in your game plan for many turns.

City of Brass If you search for a budget option to the fetch base this could be your way to go. Painlands like Adrakar Wastes may be better though as most of the key spells are in UW colors.

Noxious Revival The biggest and only problem of this card is card disadvantage. For some this is a deal breaker as it is "excellent in a good hand, but dead in a dead one.". On the other hand there is an amount of good things to gain from this card if used wisely. As an instant noncreature spell that can be played for 0 it can trigger cards like Monastery Mentor in situations where your opponent doesn't expect it. It can rebuy fetchlands at the end of your opponent's turn during the early game to guarantee a turn 2 Paladin, It can regrowth a Grapeshot, a removed/ discarded Puresteel Paladin or an already used Retract during the combo (draw it with Repeal or another CHeeri0 to keep going off). If you feel tricky enough, you can also put fetchlands on the opponent's deck to prevent them from drawing answers (Better be sure that this is the case with Gitaxian Probe/Peek).

Postmortem Lunge This can be the answer to a removal heavy metagame if you want to go all-in. 1-2 copies.

Sigarda's Aid Our most controversial card at the moment. It does nothing in multiples, costs a card and a card alot and it gives only little advantages back. But at the moment they seem to be enough to make Aid relevant. 1. It supports the RW aggro build as it allows Goblin Gaveleer to get huge very fast. 2. It also is able to protect your creatures from being bolted or otherwise burned by allowing a reactionary equip. 3. It guarantees the trigger of cards like Paladin and Mentor if you hold more than one equipment in your hand. The more equipment you have the more you can fight on the stack. 4. It allows the protection of Puresteel Paladin during the vulnerable spot in the combo when Retract bounces all equipments and Paladin is a 2/2 again for a short period of time. it sometimes even allows you to combo off in reaction to a Terminate or Path to Exile as long as you have enough blue mana to cast Retract without Mox Opal (which can only be played at sorcery speed). 2-3 of them should be enough without being annoying.

Mass Hysteria This is one of my pet cards. It enables a combo kill with Monastery Mentor alone on turn 3-5 as it enables the freshly made Monk tokens to attack, which is understandably much more effectively than just producing them and then attacking with them the other turn with another boost. It also enables a more mana during the combo with Puresteel Paladin and a massive attack kill with Monastery Mentor& Monks during the Paladin combo turn. Sometimes this is nessecary as your opponents may hold mass removal or is simply waiting to untap with burn spells in his hand while he is protected by a Leyline of Sanctity. It may be a bit fancy and unnessecary but in its role as helper if you need mana it excels the utility a second Grapeshot. One is enough.

Jeskai Ascendancy After Jeskai Ascendancy originated an own combo it also was tried out in this deck. While it was able to produce tons of mana it was only able to filter through cards which resulted in card disadvantage as long as we didn't have Puresteel Paladin out. With Ovalchase Daredevil we might be able to run a combo piece that isn't affected by most of the removal which can kill Puresteel Paladin. If this new combination proves to be good enough this card will be a as it still needs 3 different mana. This card might be best supported by a fetchland manabase.

Boros Charm This card supports the RW aggro strategy as it can protect the creatures on board and makes Goblin Gaveleer much more dangerous. Some of you might want run it together with Twisted Image and the shields. This might sound good as a combo but I don't like using two cards ona creature to make into a 16/2 double striker. I know flashy plays are our jam but we usually don't invite our opponents into a 3-for 1.

Silence This card can proactively initiate a combo turn. If you have enough mana for this and Puresteel Paladin only abilities will be able to disrupt you. When played at the right time your opponent has not enough mana to counter it and the cards that follow. It is also a decent play in the opponent's upkeep against decks that want to develop their board during the main phase. This way you can reduce the pressure during the early turns. Be warned though! If you can't assemble the combo fast enough this card is card disadvantage that can be played around. It also has no function during the combo. Once it was a part of the mainboard, now it is a may in the sideboard.

Spell Pierce This spell has the advantage that it can keep you alive without being card disadvantage. It's biggest problems are the narrow time frame it is useful, the reactivity and its conditions. Spell Pierce makes most sense if you are on the go as it protects you from early discard and removal and supports your mana advantage during the early turns. It is sadly without function during the combo. While this card can be very good in the hands of a practised control player, many others will want more direct protection.

Remand As a card which is able to delay your opponent's actions while keeping card pairity this card costs a lot. You need 4 mana to play Puresteel Paladin while holding this up. During the combo it nets you a card for 2 mana. While this card isn't as good with the combo it might prove better in the presence of Glint Hawk (more open mana with Mox Opals), Myth Realized and Monastery mentor where it can make use of the triggers on cast.

Ghirapur Æther Grid The Grid is a card with aspects of control and wincondition. As it has a whopping 3cmc it is less good at the control part if you don't have enough fast mana. The main focus is board control though as it is able to ping away critters and mana dorks that try to pressure you down. It becomes a lot worse if you are facing midrange or combo decks with big, sticky creatures as you are only pinging for 1-3 damage per turn in average. During combo attempts or with the help of Retract the Grid becomes a very powerful card that is either able to clean up the board or kill your opponent. Keep this card in mind when you are tired from your opponent's creature removal spells as it is a good way around that. Grid is at its best if it is supported with red lands. I think it has its place in main-and sideboards of builds that choose to take the RW aggro route.

Molten Nursery Has a similar ability to Ghirapur Æther Grid while it is able to convert each played artifact into a damage. It should be mentioned that this damage is colorless which makes it a very effective weapon against creatures or spells that grant prtection from colors. With Sigarda's Aid it also got possible to deal damage at instant speed. The problem is that Molten Nursery uses the same process (playing Cheeri0s) as Paladin to gain an advantage. This can lead to a short supply of Cheeri0s and Retract to trigger Paladin if you draw him after a Molten Nursery. With Paradoxical Outcome this enchantment could get more attention as the player no longer has to focus as much on holding back to ensure later draw triggers. Potentially at least a .

Spoils from the Vault I'm not a fan of it. If Modern Cheeri0s ever wants to win a tourney with 15 rounds we should eliminate all sources of high variance. In this deck Spoils isn't as well supported as in Ad Nauseam which has its way around the negative effect. Losing even 5% of the games to this card is too much.

Muddle the Mixture While this is a painless tutor you still pay 5 mana until you can cast Puresteel Paladin. As you have to pay the 1UU up front you can't even curve into it for a win on turn 3 unless you have a Mox Opal. Muddle is reliable, but sometimes too slow. We have moved away from the decks with 4 of them to a 0-2 inclusion when we feel like it. It is still a counterspell if nessecary. It should however be used in a list that has other cards than Paladin to fetch with it, to unlock the whole potential.

Traverse the Ulvenwald It is nearly impossible to get to delirium with this deck. Testing has shown that we don't put enough cards with differing card types fast enough in our graveyard without warping our deck around it. (land=fetch; sorcery=Probe; Instant=Repeal; then it gets difficult to find an appropriate 4th type).

Commune with Nature While this card has a lot of reach, it is much worse than most of the cantrips as we have very few creatures that we really want to hit with it. This card could be much more powerful in a deck without shuffles from the fetchlands. During the combo it is only effective if you can hit a Glint Hawk AND you still have mana open.

Eldritch Evolution The biggest problem with this card is that 1GG is quite prohibitive and that the deck isn't really crammed with creatures. Flayer Husk as a otherwise suboptimal card is one way to do it, but unless you have Ornithopter + Mantle or Mox Opal Evolution should be seen as a suboptimal itself. All in all the amount of conditions to be fulfilled is too high to make this variant viable yet.

Grapeshot This is the best and one true wincon that we run. Most decks in modern don't have the tools to counter it, some have ways to protect themselves against it but not one of them is as cheap and unconditional as this card. Yeah, we need a high storm count, but the deck is built to get there. As it also can target creatures it is a possible clear spell to buy some more turns. This is why you either run multiple of them or you back up your single copy with Noxious Revival. Running only one feels best to me as it is a rather unwielding card that needs a lot of triggers to solve some of the more desperate board states.

Aetherflux Reservoir This card as a permanent effect on the board is bonkers. It may not be playable with Retract in the same deck but it might get enough support from Displacement Wave and Paradoxical Outcome to be relevant. The most interesting thing with this card is that you can stack the triggers with Sigarda's Aid in a way that all equipments produce the same amount of life.

The current state of testing shows that it is too slow and unsynergistic for the deck. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Leyline of Sanctity This is the best defense against targeted discard like Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize and burn spells. This alone increases your chance of winning considerably against Jund, Grixis Control and other decks like BW Tokens, Lantern Control and Eldrazi that it shouls be included´at least as a 2-3 of.

Dispatch Sometimes the last thing opponents expect is a clean removal. We run enough artifacts to support it and we can use it for tempo, damage reduction, elimination of cards like Thalia 1.0.

Wear // Tear Best card against disruptive cards like Stony Silence, Chalice of the Void, Eidolon of Rhetoric or Eidolon of the Great Revel

Swan Song

Burrenton Forge-Tender This Kithkin woman is your best friend against burn. She can block all day and also prevents all the damage when you want to combo off in the presence of an Eidolon of the Great Revel.

Leonin Elder This old cat seems very good in a trigger centered deck. He isn't reallyas good at defending and preventing burn like Burrenton Forge-Tender though

Etched Champion Etched Champion is a classic pick in Affinity which supports aggro artifact strategies. His metal craft ability is effortless to trigger with the amount of 0 Drop equipment the deck runs. With equipment like Cranial Plating or Golem Gauntlet he looks like an unblockable, unkillable wincon. His cost of 3 and the fact that he has bad synergy with Retract and therefore the combo- and trigger happy parts of the deck make him sadly a worse choice than others in the sideboard. He might be your man in a RW aggro shell.

Fiendslayer Paladin This guy is able to stabilize your game against burn and is also immune against most of the removal from Grixis or Jund decks. The lifelink First strike is very relevant as this card can block Goyfs profitably as soon as he is equipped. Watch out for Liliana. He is a bit more defensive than Geist of Saint Traft. He might be better in a strategy that is more focused on holding out until you can start the combo.

Laboratory Maniac He is a bad beater for 3cmc and we can do better than that. As he is vulnerable to removal he isn't suited to be a reliable win condition even if he promises a win without ifs and buts. He can be sideboarded against infinite life combo but I tell you it is a wasted slot. You are faster than them.

Ethereal Haze Possible sideboard card in an aggro heavy meta. It is especially good against infect and Eidolon of the Great Revel as well as wen you are able to swing back for lethal.

Batwing Brume This is the BW version of Holy Day. It was relevant against Splinter twin and can win damage races. Don't rate it too highly as 2 mana isn't always available.

Grinding Station Less drawbacks than Lab Maniac although this one has to target a player. It may may seem like a more solution to infinite life combo decks, but again, we should be faster than them. Don't waste your deck space on it.