MTG Salvation

Shorikai, Genesis Engine

This card has been showing up quite a bit in Legacy mainboard in various control shells and I believe this would warrant this card a discussion.

I think this is a fairly strong option in 3 CMC haven't been very strong both in terms of mana cost - UW control shells plays Signets and have been recently outclassed by mono color cards.

- UW is less about ramping into 8-9 lands into big spells, but more about leaner 4-5 and draw 2, discard 1 is often just drsw 2
- 8 Power is ALOT. Its not that hard to get there with crewing creatures. This is also very difficult for aggressive decks to answer.

Quote from steve_man »

This is too Smokestack for me in the sense that it's a 4 mana do nothing or a 5 mana planeswalker that taxes you every turn to activate it. It seems a bit slow in a Legacy / Vintage cube with the bar being as high as it is for 3-5 mana value engines / planeswalkers.

Thats what I thought at first as well, but it seems to be a mainstay in Legacy UW control these days.

I guess this does depend on how well graveyards are utilized. For Legacy specifically, you have Murktide Regent that you can both find and cast faster with this thing.
Haven't looked at decklists though, so maybe that's not what UW Legacy decks are doing right now.

Quote from Resarox »

I guess this does depend on how well graveyards are utilized. For Legacy specifically, you have Murktide Regent that you can both find and cast faster with this thing.
Haven't looked at decklists though, so maybe that's not what UW Legacy decks are doing right now.

I can attest as a Legacy player, the discard is less about graveyard synergy but more about simplify overpowering your opponent by having bigger stuff.

The Legacy metagame right now is filled with these very difficult to answer threats with Uro, Titan of nature's Wrath, Urza's Saga being the worst offenders. Other cards - Field of the Dead, Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, Monastery Mentor etc.

The traditional approach is to counter it on the way down or to lock out your opponent's mana. The former isn't feasible with Teferi, Time Raveler and Veil of Summer being so prevalent and the later isn't too feasible either as Back to Basics can be easily answered by Pyroblast (Staple, but seeing even mainboard play due to Murktide) or Boseiju, Who Endures (basically auto 2 off in any green deck).

I'm not sure if this applies to cube right now, but I think if anything sees this much legacy play, it should warrant a discussion on the cube forum.

Good thread, it's always good to hear of cards having success in eternal formats. It's true that the repeatable 3-for-1 ability here is huge value, even with the 1 investment each time. This does need to be considered a 5 mana card for most purposes but I can see the benefits in the value engine stapled to a big win-con. Might give this a try in a future update as the card's also super cheap to pick up.

Quote from Goodking »

Good thread, it's always good to hear of cards having success in eternal formats. It's true that the repeatable 3-for-1 ability here is huge value, even with the 1 investment each time. This does need to be considered a 5 mana card for most purposes but I can see the benefits in the value engine stapled to a big win-con. Might give this a try in a future update as the card's also super cheap to pick up.

Its power level is fairly absurd and being a vehicle helps it dodge removal/ sweepers and allows looting the turn it comes out.

Being azorious makes me hard pressed to test this card, but it seems real strong. First time seeing it.
The 1/1 makes decent chump fodder and the draw mode allows you churn through your deck very fast. Ez to get decent value out of it the turn it's played.

I havent personally seen it in legacy, had to do a pretty deep dive in decklist sites to find it being played, but I did find a couple of examples.

There are 27 decks on mtgtop with this in its mainboard - which in comparison there are 127 decks with the wandering emperor.

But yah, I've been looking for other azorious option recently and as I've mentioned, the other 3 CMC options aren't that great

I've been slow to cut Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, but looking back its the correct decision. I've had games where I was able to "stabilize" with a Jace/ Teferi, even in legacy constructed, but the other side was able to grind back with their Uro/Skullclamp/ Jitte etc. or resolve a backbreaking spell. The problem I've noticed is that your top deck isn't guaranteed to beat your opponent's topdeck, especially the dynamic between counterspells/ removal and threats.

I think control decks should try to turn the tables 2-3 turns earlier and attempt to resolve something like Shorkai or Dragonlord Ojutai.

This card provides a ton of card advantage and inevitability, it's been really good. The fact it's eventually a huge threat in its own right makes it a combined engine and finisher.

Quote from Goodking »

This card provides a ton of card advantage and inevitability, it's been really good. The fact it's eventually a huge threat in its own right makes it a combined engine and finisher.

I second that.