MTG Salvation

1R
Creature - Human Wizard
As long as there are four or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard, Magmatic Channeler gets +3/+1.

T, Discard a card: Exile the top two cards of your library, then choose one of them. You may play that card this turn.



Good support for reanimator and spells-matter decks. Can't fit too many non-aggro two drops in red, but I think this makes the cut.

Yeah this card is good. It is not really a tough choice for me as I am big into spells matter and graveyard red cards. It's a shame the exiled cards don't go to the graveyard if you don't play them but that is a nit pick.

The buff is super was in most red decks especially izzet and rakdos. It lets you grab lands as well if you need that.

I may actually start playing fiery temper. I am so excited.

I wish the pump requirement were slightly more reasonable, like 3 spells.

This card is hitting me weird.

Like, okay: that creature grows. Great. Going 2 deep on a rummage sounds amazing. But, it's not exactly a rummage because exile, and I probably don't wanna do that on my end-step unless I've got a deck filled with flash and instants. So, I'm probably gonna main phase it ... and that still seems good?

If the ability was "play until your next turn" I'd be all for it. But I feel like I'm going to be losing access to too many instants with the double-exile clause. I could be wrong though, but that's my initial impression.

I could see my entire red aggro section switched over to a spells matters, prowess deck, allowing me to cut down on red 1 drops.

I will have to wait to see how the community reacts.

I don't know how how to feel about this card. On one hand its a looter strapped onto a potential 4/4 hat essentially digs 2 cards deep, on the other hand its a 1/3 that you can play in aggro decks. The ceiling is exciting, and it seems good enough (although isn't perfect) for reanimator, but in control decks you are forced to decide if you want to dig for counterspells or for anything else, as it wont let you do both doe to the until eot clause. The 4/4 statline also seems pretty hard to reach, so I think I'll have to pass on this one.

Such a cool card... don't really know if cube is the home for it though.

Reanimator enabler and spells matters card is an interesting archetype overlap in red.

Not sure if Ill test, but I'm at least a fan of the design.

I think the ability is slightly worse than a loot on average... seeing two cards is gas, but being forced to play them is not. Makes it deck dependent, as it gets better the cheaper the spells are. But that's a big ass body for a 2 mana looter.

Quote from LucidVision »

Such a cool card... don't really know if cube is the home for it though.

Reanimator enabler and spells matters card is an interesting archetype overlap in red.

Not sure if Ill test, but I'm at least a fan of the design.

I think the ability is slightly worse than a loot on average... seeing two cards is gas, but being forced to play them is not. Makes it deck dependent, as it gets better the cheaper the spells are. But that's a big ass body for a 2 mana looter.

You also have to discard before the loot - being able to discard the card you drew definitely adds value to looting.

This is a really hard card to evaluate. I think it's borderline.

I think this guy needed evasion strapped to the buff. Like this, he'll simply be a 4/4 on the ground getting blocked for days. Spells matter would've wanted a flyer to tempo over the opponent I think, so this guy does not do much.

Not a huge fan of this one for cube.

First of, 4 instants/sorceries seems like a lot. This means you will need to play it in quite a spell-heavy deck to reliably get the buff. It won't fit very well in more creature-based agressive mono-R or Rx decks. Even in a burn deck with tons of spells, if you are dropping this on turn 2, the chance of getting the buff on turn 3 is close to zero percent. Combined with having no evasion, I think it is clear an aggro deck doesn't want this.

Due to the lack of evasion, it doesn't seem great in a UR tempo list either I think. Also, even if you have enough spells in your deck to reliably get the buff around turn 4-5, playing it along cards that use the GY as a resource might mean you loose the buff again. I wouldn't want to play this alongside a Grim Lavamancer, Cruise, Dig or similar.

If I wanted more looting or pillaging effects in red, I still think there are better options, as the effect seems a little clunky to me, having to play the effect that turn. I also think there are way better discard outlets for reanimator decks.

Put simply, I can't see which deck I want to play this creature in.

any more data on this card guys?

Quote from g_kourk »

any more data on this card guys?

I've done some testing - this is what I refer as an okay in any red based deck, but never great. He could be used as a discard outlet for Reanimator, could be used in combo decks to help filter + dig, isn't that bad in tap out midrange decks that might need to filter out bad cards to dig for specific answers etc.

He is decent in the spells matter aggro deck. What is nice right now is red has a lot very good options for spells matter aggro:
- Monastery SwiftSpear
- Grim Lavamancer
- Dreadhorde Arcanist
- Young Pyromancer
- Abbot of Keral Keep
- Chandra, Acolyte of Flame.

Cards you can play:
- Kilnd Fiend
- HeartFire Immolator
- Bedlam Reveler

You can easily make adjustments in your aggro section to move them over to using this package.

But the reason why I have his is I felt I needed +1 Discard outlet.

Quote from Breathe1234 »

Quote from g_kourk »

any more data on this card guys?

I've done some testing - this is what I refer as an okay in any red based deck, but never great. He could be used as a discard outlet for Reanimator, could be used in combo decks to help filter + dig, isn't that bad in tap out midrange decks that might need to filter out bad cards to dig for specific answers etc.

He is decent in the spells matter aggro deck. What is nice right now is red has a lot very good options for spells matter aggro:
- Monastery SwiftSpear
- Grim Lavamancer
- Dreadhorde Arcanist
- Young Pyromancer
- Abbot of Keral Keep
- Chandra, Acolyte of Flame.

Cards you can play:
- Kilnd Fiend
- HeartFire Immolator
- Bedlam Reveler

You can easily make adjustments in your aggro section to move them over to using this package.

But the reason why I have his is I felt I needed +1 Discard outlet.

Thank you very much for your input!
Due to covid couldn't make it to play yet and see the card in action..

Would this be better than Dismissive Pyromancer ? Thoughts?

Channeler is better for a dedicated proactive spells deck. But Pyromancer puts the drawn card into your hand, so it's better for combo decks and reactive decks. Plus, it's also creature removal.

I actually want to point out another card that interacts favorably with Channeler is flamewake phoenix - red has some good creatures to trigger this:

- Channeler
- FTK
- BloodRager Bralwer
- Hazoret
- 5 drop Hellkites
- Combat Celebrant
- BoneCrusher Giant.

Got a rulings question about magmatic channeler... If you have no cards in hand can you still use her ability? Or do you have to have a card to discard? Thanks.

Quote from Dorkthrone »

Got a rulings question about magmatic channeler... If you have no cards in hand can you still use her ability? Or do you have to have a card to discard? Thanks.

Discarding one card is part of the cost, so you can only use the ability if you have a card to discard. If discarding were instead part of the resolution of the spell then it would work without discarding if you had no cards in hand.