MTG Salvation

This is just a starting point for me. I'm guessing a lot of things will change once I actually get to start playing with the deck. Any feedback is welcome. may change Chemister's Insight for Notion Rain

There's another list here, although it seems odd to me. I personally find Thief of Sanity very appealing.

Per Karsten, you need more B for Vraska's Contempt on T4 or Doom Whisperer on T5. I could see an Island becoming a Swamp or an Evolving Wilds.

I don't really get Legion Warboss in either of these lists. It seems like a good card in a more aggressive deck, but here I feel confused.

Ya that build is super weird. The dragons hoard has me super confused.

Quote from 9ta!lz »

Ya that build is super weird. The dragons hoard has me super confused.

He does need the fixing, Doom Whisperer on t4 seems a'ight and Bolas leads to draw a card, but I don't really see the consistency.

This is the best deck I've put together so far. It's got game against everything and is reminiscent of the Jund-style midrange decks that always seem to do well in non-broken Standard formats.



Sideboarding is a bit of a mess. These are the three commandments of the format for day 1:

1. Have a plan for W/x go-wide decks. Selesnya is great at getting 2+ pieces per card (whether by cheating on lands and playing District Guide to make land drops or literally making 2+ bodies per card with Emmara, Soul of the Accord), and Boros is great at making every last piece on the board relevant. The top of the curve of this Grixis deck is great at invalidating random leftover bodies, but you don't always get to them in a timely manner. Fiery Cannonade is quite good.

2. Have a plan for turn-2 Steel Leaf Champion. This deck isn't great at dealing with it, honestly. The four drops trade at an advantage, but that's two whole attacks from the Champ if you're on the draw. The maindeck copies of Shock are a concession to this possible start. I haven't figured out the best mix of interaction and threats yet. I may end up maindecking some copies of Lava Coil and shipping some of the miscellaneous spells to the sideboard or out of the list altogether. I just don't want to get rid of too many Ionize types of cards because...

3. Have a plan for creatureless Teferi, Hero of Dominaria control. This deck should actually be very good at beating Teferi control decks, I think. Thought Erasure is fantastic for setting up Thief of Sanity or creating windows to resolve a 4-drop, and playsets of Erasure and Vraska's Contempt plus a couple of Ionize give me a lot of ways to interact with Teferi. Arguel's Blood Fast and Notion Rain are great here too.

I don't think this list is "there" yet but if you're going to SCG Cincinnati to start the season and like this style of deck, I wholeheartedly endorse this as a good starting point and believe I've got the maindeck 80% right. Sideboarding and the final slots will come down to your testing.

update on above:



I still hate having to play Cinder Barrens, and it might be right to quit playing Rekindling Phoenix, max out on Bolas and play a couple more interactive spells, but if cutting Phoenix is wrong, I don't really wanna be right.... I keep running into decks that just don't have outs to it, and it has such a great stabilizing interaction with Temple of Aclazotz. Tough life.

Shock or Dead Weight is essential. I like that Shock isn't 100% dead against Teferi control, but in fairness, the number of times where it's worth a card are really low (it's basically just if they let Phoenix resolve on t4 to cast a draw spell and then untap and tuck a threat with Teferi). Shock being able to tag Tajic, Legion's Edge or Legion Warboss before combat is big game, but Dead Weight actually killing Adanto Vanguard is pretty big too. And although fringe, it's slightly easier to use Dead Weight in tandem with e.g. Lava Coil to bring down a Lyra Dawnbringer or Aurelia, Champion of Justice than it is to use Shock, since you can do it over separate turns. Whichever ends up being right, I'm not sure if I should play two or three copies maindeck. I've been leaning on two because I don't want too many dead cards vs attrition or control pseudo-mirrors. I'm still leaning toward Shock for the instant-speed applications, but both are good. You need one of them.

I'm struggling a bit with the rest of the interaction moving up from that to Vraska's Contempt. I really wish we had a card like Never // Return so Contempt wasn't the only out to planeswalkers (although it's worthy to note that planeswalkers are getting a lot weaker with the departure of KLD + AKH blocks; Teferi is the only real standout left), but since we don't, your intermediate removal between your 1cc interaction and Contempt really needs to cover the bases well. I'm thinking about going up on Essence Scatters accordingly.

Im going to post my build soon, but something I have come across that I believe is big-

Enigma Drake

Vine Mare is a HUGE thorn in the side for grixis, and between Opt, Discovery/Dispersal, Shock, and Thought Erasure- Its really no huge issue to make him large enough to trade with Vine Mare the turn he comes down, even on the draw against an Elf draw. Sure, often you will have to wait until you untap to get him to 3 power, but taking 5 isnt a huge deal, and thats with them on the play, with an elf that you didnt kill, and the Mare not getting hit with a Thought Erasure or Essence Scatter- so kinda magical christmas land for the Stompy player. Just if you see forests on the other side of the table with a Drake in hand, be willing to potentially bin instants/sorceries that you wouldnt have otherwise with your surveil effects to get Drake's power up.

The point here isn't to go all out on the Drake plan and get cute, but he well often come down as a 3/4 flier for 3 (which last I checked was a more than playable rate on a vanilla flier without getting bigger), and still get out of hand late.
He's the only creature you would run that doesnt otherwise provide any sort of card advantage- but that 4 toughness for 3 mana makes him a wonderful blocker against aggro. He can just brickwall lots of creatures, and having outs to Vine Mare is so important- while still being a plenty great clock against control decks.
He seriously kicks Stompy and Boros in the teeth. Turn 3 Drake says "Nice Tajic"

You do then have to run Opt, but it is infinitely better now that we have shocks instead of lands that always ETB tapped, especially helping you find your colors turn 1 when it is hard to run more than 11 red sources and still have Field of Ruin (which is needed because Azcanta WILL mess you up)

Discovery/Dispersal I think is amazing. 2 mana might be a LITTLE much for Preordain, but being hybrid, you will ALWAYS have the mana to cast it which seems good, and Dispersal is better than it gets credit for. Sure you would never play it on its own, but being an option out of your cantrip is amazing, when for 5 mana you can get planewalkers and hexproof threats off the board (more outs to Vine Mare). Just having cantrip dig that can double is a perfectly acceptable removal spell later on really lets you load on up on dig cantrips to be super consistent and fuel Drake.


I would say all of these lists need more Cast Down. its going to be so important for dealing with the 4 mana 6/6 guy, which youre already weak to (not as much as people think, cuz they are likely casting him before you ever go to cast Bolas and give them the discard trigger)


I think Doom Whisperer is being overrated. Hes still great, I just want more immediate impact out of a 5 drop creature in a deck without a super large amount of creatures. Hes just a big dumb beater, and the 2 to life for scrying is a very real cost against aggro decks. I prefer Dream Eater. I know, I know- He eats it to Lightning Strike, but so do your Thief of Sanity, and that guy will just WIN if not dealth with, so I think its ok- youre taxing that effect between both of them, its next to worthless vs the rest of your deck, and I think Dream Eater is just WAY better than hes getting credit for, he is also yet another way to deal with Vine Mare. If you are running Enigma Drake, the Surveil 4 can be big game. Dream Eater seems way better than Doom Whisperer against Teferi

MY creature base RN is looking like this
[card]
3 Thief of Sanity
3 Enigma Drake
3 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
2 Dream Eater[/card]

May move up to 4 Thief, have the 4th in the side right now. 4/2 split with the Drakes if aggro becomes not so prominent maybe.

I would run 4 Bolas, except I have 4 Opt and 4 Discovery, so I dont think 4 of the legend is necessary.


I don't think Arguel's Blood Fast is needed anymore. We dont have Scarab God to combo out with it for life against aggro, and we have much better draw for Grixis midrange than last format. How much mana and life does it take to make it on par with a Notion Rain? 6 life and 8 mana, maybe? And then its just terrible against Stompy and Boros without Scarab.

It is also of note, that I think running Drake makes MB Shock better against Teferi decks, since with more must kill creatures lower on the curve, it greatly increases the chance of Teferi having come down and minus so Shock can take him out. Untapping 2 for Seal Away mana isnt ideal for them either when we have Thought Erasure and potentially counterspells.

I think Grixis has amazing game against Teferi decks now, unlike last season, because of Thought Erasure and Thief of Sanity - especially when we can add Duress and Negate after board- it is pretty easy for us to start attacking with a Thief, and he will run away with the game quick... like he is just absurd against them... getting to pick out of 3 cards- once he starts going, youre going to start taking counterspells and the game is just locked right there

I like your second list better. Rekindling Phoenix is an extremely good card. Have you tried Storm the Vault?

After some researching and looking at what other people are filling their deck lists with, this is where I think I'm going to start my testing once my cards come in. The Mana base isn't 100% as I'm not the greatest at that sort of thing any help there would be fantastic. The things I'm considering on changing is possibly -1 The Eldest Reborn for maybe another Cast Down or maybe 1 main deck Ionize as a 1 of Supreme Will came in clutch before. I'm also wondering if Search for Azcanta is needed, or if I should change it to Arguel's Blood Fast.

I dunno about Phoenix in this meta. it’s still really good but lava coil and vraska’s contempt are going to be everywhere. Maybe it’s not a 4 of anymore.

So I have been working on this version for a while now. I think I've found a solid 75. Let me know what you think! I would love to run 1-2 more Nicol Bolas, The Ravager but only have 2 at the moment.