MTG Salvation

Hey Souzi,
Thanks for giving Savra a shot, I don't think you'll be disappointed. She takes some learning but she's really a great GB option and she will not make you a target at your table (until you playgroup realizes what she can do).

As for you questions...

1a. How much life do lose as a result of her ability?

--Um, tough to say. It really depends on what is happening in the match. Sometimes you'll spend a lot keeping the board under wraps, sometimes you're just gaining life. Usually though, I'm balancing my life loss with some life gain and all things tend to equal out nicely.

1b. How do you feel about life-gain sac outlets? I feel like most are cheap and can offset the life loss fairly well.

--I like all of those, but I'd put priorities on "free" sac outlets like the altars and Flesh-Eater Imp first. You have plenty to do with your mana, you probably don't want to spend it just gaining 1 or 2 life...which you can probably just gain through Savra's ability.

2a. Savra obviously hoses voltron, but how does she fare against other matchups, especially reanimator?

--You will almost always fare well against Commander-centric deck. Some decks like Rhys the Redeemed which spit out tokens like crazy can give you trouble, but can be dealt with. And again there is Sigarda, Host of Herons (We don't talk about her....):argh:

Reanimator decks like Karador, Ghost Chieftain can give you a hard time if you're not prepared for them. BUT if you have them in your meta, and you prepare for them, you should be fine. I can generally force sac more than they can reanimate, plus you can work cards like Leyline of the Void or Scavenging Ooze into your build (*I like the ooze) and keep them under control. If you find yourself up against a reanimator deck then keep your head down, get your engine in place, and then pounce. One of Savra's greatest strengths is that she allows you to keep the others at the table in check while you focus one opponent at a time. Kill Bill, then Tim, then Jenny. Assess your threats, neutralize them, get them margaritas afterward, they will have plenty of salt for their glass.

2b. Is there room for a land-animator package to ensure opponents are sac-ing creatures?

-- Sure, if you want to, but I'd be worried about someone blowing up the board. I have to say, I'm not a fan of Living-Land type effects, because there's usually a wrath waiting in a hand somewhere. I mean, think about the dread you'll feel when someone at the table plops a card like Oblivion Stone down on the field and just sits? I'd be sweating bullets. And remember, lands have no color, so you can't sac them to trigger your commander.

3. Any cards you think are unique staples?

Yes, absolutely. Savra has some staples you'll really want to get your hands on. Unfortunately, some of them have climbed in price and looking at the deck now vs. when I bought 90% of it makes me cringe (but in a super happy way, I mean, who doesn't want to see their cards increase in price):)
Let's get some of those expensive cards out of they way:
1. Phyrexian Altar (all the altars, really): It's just too good, you want it. Can you live without it? Of course, but it's my primary sac outlet, and my stupid play group keeps K-griping it! God, leave it alone, Bryan!!! GRRRRR!!
2. Phyrexian Tower and High Market these are the two best lands in the deck apart from basic swamp and forest. You want one of the two on the field at all times.
3. Volrath's Stronghold This card is amazing and serves as one of my best recursion sources. It's a must in any black deck really, but particularly in decks like Savra where you can really break them.
4. Grave Pact and/or Dictate of Erebos (or Butcher of Malakir) The fact is that Savra can get really expensive, and your deck has a plan, you need other ways to facilitate that plan.
5. 2-3 genuinely good life gain sources. If that's Grim Feast and Kokusho, the Evening Star like my list, or Exsanguinate and exquisite blood or whatever you'd like--you'll need a few sources of BIG life gain for those games where you're dumping life like crazy to keep the board clear.

That's really it as far as specific cards go. Sure, I love Necropotence and Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder and Sadistic Hypnotist and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed but are they "staples"? I don't know, I mean, yeah--you'll see them in just about every Savra list (every good one anyway), but it all depends on your play group. For some, Necropotence is a super competitive card, or Sadistic Hypnotist is a d-bag card that doesn't let them play. I mean, I can see it that way, but I'll stop playing the Hippie, when Nate stops playing Narset. You hear that Nate!? I know you're reading this!

However, I would prioritize good strong ramp, draw, and tutors for your deck like:
Skyshroud Claim
Harrow
Sol Ring
Tempt with Discovery
Necropotence
Skullclamp
Greed or Erebos, God of the Deaddoes pretty well here too..
Diabolic Intent and Demonic Tutor even Sidisi, Undead Vizier is really strong

Don't sleep on good targeted or mass removal that's a broad as possible either:
Beast Within
Maelstrom Pulse
Krosan Grip
Damnation and/or Toxic Deluge Sometimes you just need to empty the board. EVERY EDH DECK NEEDS AT LEAST 3-4 good sweepers.

And, you will want some reanimation of your own:
Phyrexian Reclamation
Eternal Witness
Sheoldred, Whispering One

I hope that's helpful, I'd build the deck in proxy or Cockatrice first, see how you like it, learn the lines and then start brainstorming ideas of your own that are specific for you play group.

Good luck out there! Keep me posted on your progress!
Ely

So I posted this up for the primer committee to take a look at, I hope it's a decent primer on a commander I think needs a bit more love. I'd love to hear what the community has to say about the primer and the deck as well. I wasn't sure where else to post this so, here we go...

Savra, Queen of the Golgari

Lady of Life and Death

Introduction

Welcome, to my official primer on Savra, Queen of the Golgari. My name is Ely, I’ve been learning—honing my skills as an EDH player on for about five years now. And in that time I’ve built many decks, wandered from camp Johnny, to team Timmy, and everywhere in between.

You’ve probably wandered here because you play commander (or are interested in learning more about it). Well, whether you’re a veteran of the King of Formats, or a new initiate. I, and many others, believe that there’s always a new deck to learn and hopefully, you’ll find what I’ve been working on here informative and engaging.

Savra has been a labor of love for me for the past four years. In that time I’ve played in local shops, in tournaments, and I’ve spent endless hours in that pit of vipers on Cockatrice; I’ve worked with Savra to turn her in to something I hope is unique, flavorful, and potent. The green/black color combination provides players with a multitude of extraordinarily powerful options that other color combinations just cannot provide as effectively. And, if you enjoy a deck that will provide you with the power to both control the board state and produce a wide array of threats, then Savra is a Golgari commander you will enjoy.

The Lady of Life and Death, is generally a control deck, although I call it growth deck. Savra won’t win games on turn one the way a Karn or Niv-Mizzit deck might, but she'll give you the chance to strangle your enemies with quiet efficiency. The focus here is on synergy and controlled dominance. Savra’s aim is to keep problem creatures and commander-centric decks under her thumb while growing her own field of varied threats. Here I have compiled a list that I believe is competitive, but does not utilize anything that players may deem—janky, or unsportsmanlike (with two possible exceptions). The deck listed here has some high value cards; however, I have also worked to post a budget version of the deck that contains no cards over $10 dollars (US) in value. Which isn’t quite as competitive, but will provide a budget player a chance to really get to know Savra without devoting big money to her.

*MTG Vocab alert
Readers here may find commonly used "magic jargon" such as color screwed, priority, or sac outlet. You can refer to this glossary of magic jargon if you're confused. A great list of terms can be found here
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/level-one/glossary-terms-2015-09-21

"Nature's most raw beauty is the circle: perfect in its continuance, with no break between death and life."


Why play Savra

Savra often flies beneath players’ radars as she is an older legend that does not see heavy play in the present commander climate. At her core, she is essentially Grave Pact on legs, which provides her pilots with a very potent method for controlling the board. Against creature dependent decks, particularly voltron decks or general-centric decks, Savra can be one of the most crippling generals your opponents can face. She is evenly costed at BG2 and as her ability triggers on any sac—including her own. If you have a sac outlet available then she generally represents a poor, or at the very least a less than ideal, target for removal spells which allows her to remain a presence on the board.

Her ability to both gain life and address threats is quite strong, her colors provide her with nearly every tool you will need to tackle threats, and in this list she has a few nasty tricks up her sleeve which may be used in a pinch, or ignored depending on your play group.

The question one should ask when determining if Savra is the right general is, Do I understand and enjoy intricacy and control, or do I want raw power?

The black/green color combination allows for quite a bit of variation in decks; however, if raw power is what you are looking for, you may be better off taking a look into other Golgari commanders such as Varolz or Jarad. Savra is about subtly and examination of the board state, depending on your politics, she may—or may not—win you many friends at the table. So knowing what play to make and when is vital. Savra's strength lies in her ability to dominate the board addressing the opponent directly by forcing the sacrifice, and there are very few things that can disrupt her as most all of the sacrifice effects are costs and not abilities.

You will enjoy this deck if you like:
• Controlling the battlefield
• Utilizing various types of threats: creatures, enchantments, artifacts, big spells, even lands.
• A deck that grows steadily, allowing all players to enjoy the game.
• A political style of gameplay
• Love tokens, sac effects, recursion, and synergistic card combinations



Savra Archetypes

There are generally two routes players tend to go when playing Savra, the first is the recursion route, which utilizes many creatures (mostly black) that when sacrificed trigger some sort of effect of their own in conjunction with Savra's forced sac or life gain. Creatures like Abyssal Gatekeeper or Kokusko, The Evening Star are common in this version of the deck. Quality decks that go this route are reliant on a higher number of powerful critter sac effects, and a great deal of reusable recursion—things such as Sheoldred, The Whispering One[/card] and Phyrexian Reclamation[/card]. The recursion version of the deck looks to use Savra’s sac triggers and the various sac triggers of the creatures as a means to winning.

The other method utilizes primarily token generation as sac fodder, and looks to repeatable token generation as a means of keeping the board clear of creature based threats. Utilizing token generation allows for the token player to commit more of his/her deck to playing and developing a strong board presence. In this version of the deck, Savra lives and dies by her sac outlets. Because very few tokens come with an inherent sac ability (colorless eldrazi tokens aside) the sac outlets used in the deck become vitally important and potent weapons against your opponents. In this version of the build, cards like Sadistic Hypnotist and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord are powerful and common additions.

Each version has its merits, I personally prefer the token route and the deck listed utilizes this path primarily. By choosing to focus on token generation I am less vulnerable to graveyard hate. One late game Bojuka Bog or Tormod’s Crypt can really ruin a GY deck’s game. So I look to critters I don’t mind losing forever. Tokens and sac outlets may be an integral part of the play, but they are not the only means of winning--while this deck can certainly flood the field with tokens, that is only one method in which this list can eliminate opponents.

In this list, I hope you'll find that threats come from all angles. I have worked to try and utilize Savra's strengths as threats, attempted to minimize her weaknesses, and looked for unique cards that synergize well with multiple cards within the deck. Savra's flavor is about seamlessness--that perfect balance between life and death, growth and decay, here I hope you'll find some of that.


Deck Building
Before diving deep into the deck, I suggest taking a look at Jason Rice's article on commander deck building, while it is a bit more reading, I believe he is on to something worthwhile. Readers may find it at
http://brainstormbrewery.com/a-unified-theory-of-commander/ although I think he undervalues synergy (although simple good stuff decks are certainly a thing), in the long run, I believe his acronym for deck building is a great place to start with EDH decks. And if you're looking to build a variation of a Golgari control deck I think this is a good place to start.

What is Golgari Control? (beyond the obvious)

Let's talk a bit about the control archetype before going forward. Most players are familiar with the three main types of decks Agro, Combo, and Control. It doesn't take much to look up what these deck are and what they're designed to do. Many players are familiar with the Magic Clock/Trifecta, whatever you want to call it, which details how the decks interact, agro beats control, control beats combo, and combo beats agro. The premise is simple enough, and albeit a bit outdated, but it important to understand if we want to understand how decks are "supposed to work."

Why is "supposed to work" in quotations? Well, in part because midrange and other deck types have sprouted up, but more so because EDH/Commander is a very different beast than your typical constructed format. Here, and it pains me to say this, Combo is king. The nature of the formats rules naturally tend to favor combo. 40 life is hard for even a very good agro deck to burn through before something janky hits the board and sticks, and the multiplayer nature of the format means that traditional means of control (counters and removal) are simply too inefficient to deal with all the threats that arise within a given game.

So why build a control deck? What does Golgari control provide that traditional control decks don't? Well as any EDH vet will tell you, everything depends on your meta, and the eternal and slower nature of the format provides you with a wide array of options, which your opponents may not have prepared for. And because, if you're like me, you believe combos can be stopped, agro can be controlled, and with a bit of patience and some good politics, you can wrap your tendrils around your opponents' throats without them even knowing it. Specifically, Golgari control gives you access to Green's ability to ramp and keep up with quick decks as well fast powerhouse cards, and black's remarkable creature removal (particularly in the form of forced sacrifices), tutors, card advantage, and all around dominating cards.

What will this deck fail to do for you? Well no deck can prepare for everything, this deck doesn't tackle everything with ease by any stretch of the imagination. Savra's strengths are in her ability to control critters on the board, and decks that dump critters on the board en mass can be a problem. Animar, Maelstrom Wander, Rhys, and Edric all play green and can ramp hard into critters that are easily sac'd. Additionally, although Savra has enough recursion to be relevant, decks that repeatedly wipe the board are also a problem as she needs to be able to play permanents in order to develop a winning board.

Oh, and if you come up against Sigarda, Host of Herons, Savra's nemesis, well, all you can really do there is try to ramp like crazy and out threat her--put a laser focus on her and kill that player as quick as possible.

The Deck

Let's examine the as a whole.


One thing is for certain, if you're going to survive, you're going to need mana, and you're going to need it rather quickly. Some decks can get by on only six or seven lands. Savra is one of them. But having access to more is always better, and if we can get the mana we need faster than the Esper deck--or even the Naya deck at the table. Well that's just gravy.
Every deck hinges on its lands, that's why land is so expensive. Here we have quite a list, twelve lands that tap for two or more colors, ten colorless producers, and fifteen single color lands. Thirty seven in total is a respectable number of lands for a two color deck, some may argue it's a bit many; particularly in green where ramp is so prevalent. But I believe it is a fitting number for this particular deck. You may find your deck can get by with less, or may need more. Let's look at our mana suite. Our ramp, and our mana fixing, in addition to the 37 lands should provide us with enough to keep pace. There are 14 spells, creatures, and artifacts that can produce or help fix mana. All totaled, that's more than half the deck, and that's in a deck that runs only two colors. Most of these should be pretty obvious, but I'll provide a bit of commentary on some of them.

Golgari Signet
Sol Ring
Phyrexian Altar
Ashnod's Altar
Cultivate
Sylvan Scrying* For me, this grabs a sac land almost exclusively. Phyrexian Tower mostly.
Skyshroud Claim* There are faster ramp spells, but because I have both a Bayou and an Overgrown tomb I run this.
Nature's Lore* Run Rampant Growth if you don't own a Shock or a dual
Harrow* I find having the instant speed ramp is nice, but you could run Kodama's Reach if you like.
Deathrite Shaman* 1 mana planeswalker? Yes, please.
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Yavimaya Elder
Viridian Emissary
Oracle of Mul Daya


Why is it important? As a control deck that looks to control creatures in particular, this deck needs to be able to keep pace with its opponent's, if not outpace them. Zur only needs to swing once in order to pick up Diplomatic immunity, so if we want to keep generals like that under wraps, we need to beat them to four mana and we need a sac outlet.

Which brings us to our next big point...Savra lives and dies by her sac outlets. Because Savra's ability triggers on her own sac, you can remove a critter from each player's board on turn four or sooner, but having to sac Savra is a less than ideal situation, you really only want to do it if she is about to be tucked or if there is a singular threat that must be addressed immediately. Let's examine our sac outlets.

Flesh-Eater Imp
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sadistic Hypnotist
Altar of Dementia
Phyrexian Altar
Ashnod's Altar
Birthing Pod
Miren, the Moaning Well
High Market
Phyrexian Tower
Grim Backwoods
Mind Slash

There's a total of 12 dedicated sac outlets, which is fair, but admittedly I could use another one. But with the available recursion--if one of them goes, there's should always be an out. Lands are particularly important options, as they are uncounterable, and will provide Savra and valuable creatures with a source of exile/tuck protection.

Next, let's look at our token generators and valued sac targets.

Sengir Autocrat* One of the few Homelands gems, 4 possible removal spells for 4 mana is value
Avenger of Zendikar* A go-to tutor target, but still great. He wins games through life gain, and token generation.
Woodfall Primus
Bitterblossom* So good early game it's scary.
Viridian Emissary* A new addition, and fairly consistent source of mana ramp.
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Garruk, Primal Hunter* the only planeswalker in the deck, more often used for card draw than tokens though.
Kokusho, the Evening Star* A great all around option, in this deck Koko can do X + 5 points of damage in a turn, kill X amount of critters, gain you X amount of life, and if you have some recursion it's bonkers.
Mitotic Slime* With an altar Mitotic slime is an all-star, netting you 14 life, 7-14 mana, or milling your opponent for 12 cards.
Mycoloth* Mycoloth is a great tool to cement dominance of the board or even a win, Devour triggers Savra, and nets you green tokens. Pair with Jarad for a Fling win, or with Sanguine Bond for some serious threat.
Creakwood Liege
Grave Titan
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder* My go-to black token creator. Endrek is the man.


One thing that many Savra decks I've examined online have is a real imbalance between black sac fodder and green sac fodder. While I believe that black creatures/tokens are inherently more valuable, on more than one occasion, I've found that without green critters to sack, my life total drops pretty quickly making it more difficult to take the game. Relentless life gain is a nice feature in the deck, and when you couple it with something like Sanguine Bond, all the sudden you're green critters are means to winning.

The relationship between sac outlets and token generators/sacrifice targets serve as the primary engines of Savra's deck. Much of what this list aims to do is to put the above cards to work in conjunction with one another. Ideally, there should be no sac fodder too valuable to sac to at anytime, and no outlet which is better off left unused. Of course, when piloting a deck such as this, it's helpful to be smart about things--not sacking Sakura Tribe Elder until the EOT of the previous player's turn, waiting to sack Kokusho until after you've gotten that extra five damage in. These things seem like common sense plays, but sometimes a chump blocker can make all the difference.

So far you may have noticed a few cards in multiple roles; this is not uncommon, and going forward we will start to see more and more cards playing pulling double duty. Value is a fundamental element to an edh deck, getting the most bang for your buck is an important idea to take into the deck building process. It's part of the reason why some cards which may seem great are not included here and others are. Let's take Fauna Shaman vs. Survival of the Fittest. I opted for an additional green creature which I could sac and was easily recurable, rather than a permanent which did not inherently benefit Savra's concept, and was more difficult to bring back if I needed it. (The price difference between the cards was also a factor).

Let's break down our remaining permanents and spells into relevant categories. Now, because many pull double duty the reader will find certain cards may show up in two or more categories. I have provided another comprehensive deck list by category as well.

I break down my deck into the following categories:



I've left lands off this list because I think it should be fairly obvious where they fall in terms of what their uses are.

I think it's important to look at how the deck plays a bit--Let's examine a few key cards, synergies and ideas. Like most control decks the idea here control your opponents while building enough of a board to either swing in and kill or utilize a combo of sorts to take them out. We'll call this section--Kill cons

Key cards:
Obviously, Savra is a key component, but both Grave Pact and Butcher of Malakir can perform in her place--the new Erebos' Edict is also an option. (I generally consider go-to tutor targets or engine parts as "key" components to the deck. Additionally, cards I look for in my initial hand are considered here.)

Key Critters
• Savra, Queen of the Golgari
• Eternal Witness
• Yavimaya Elder
• Mitotic Slime
• Creakwood Liege
• Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
• Avenger of Zendikar
• Flesh-Eater Imp
• Sadistic Hypnotist

Key Lands (Sylvan Scrying is an underrated gem) it almost always picks up one of these four lands)
• High Market
• Phyrexian Tower
• Bojuka Bog
• Volrath's Stronghold

Many of the other lands are great, including the duals, but there's enough ways to grab them.

Key Artifacts and Enchantments
Skullclamp
Phyrexian Altar (or any altar)
Sanguine Bond
Bitterblossom
Phyrexian Reclamation

All of the enchantments and artifacts are great, but these are the ones I look for when I need to get the deck rolling early game, or a kill con late game.

Key Removal spells
• Living Death
• Woodfall Primus
• Brutalizer Exarch
• Beast Within
• Krosan Grip

Key Bombs (single cards that can swing games massively)
• Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• Kokusho, the Evening Star
• Lord of Extinction
• Avenger of Zendikar
• Tooth and Nail
• Living Death
• Sheoldred, Whispering One
• Flesh-Eater Imp Great Opening Hand Cards

Obviously ramp spells and mana rocks
• Sylvan Scrying
• Sakura-Tribe Elder/Yavimaya Elder/Viridian Emissary
• Bitterblossom
• Deathrite Shaman
• High Market/Phyrexian Tower


Now, for all the Johnny's out there, let's get into a few combos.

Let's get the two Janky infinite/psuedo-inf. combos out of the way.
• Mitotic Slime/Phyrexian Altar/Savra, Queen of the Golgari/Phyrexian Reclamation/Sanguine Bond.
This is one is a bit of a snake in the grass combo. As almost no one I've played has seen it when it hit the board. It'll work with Avenger of Zendikar as well, but you'll need to ensure you have at least 9 lands to utilize the [card]Reclamation and recast Avenger.
• Woodfall Primus/Mikaus, The Unhollowed/any repeatable sac outlet
Nothing creative here, I know everyone says this--but the cards are so good separately I had to put them in--I claim incidental combo!!

Some of the other kill-combos
• Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord/Lord of Extinction
• Altar of Dementia/Lord of Extinction
Other great works of synergy
• Sanguine Bond and Grim Feast: I opted for a powerful life gain option rather than the inf. combo with Exquisite Blood, but that is of course an option for you.
• Mitotic Slime/Phryexian Reclamation/any Altar: if you go with the two mana Altars you can repeatedly cast him, making Savra gain some serious life, if you go with the Altar of Dementia (depending on your mana) you can take huge chunks out of opponents decks.
• Savra and Creakwood Liege: Creakwood is usually the go-to token generator I fall back on in casual games as it creates both green and black tokens and pumps Savra into something somewhat formidable as a 4/4.
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed/Kokusho, the Evening Star/Sanguine Bond: these three can clear a table at the end of a game)
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed/Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and any fatty: There's plenty of fat creatures that Jarad can fling at all players

Initial Hand Help
Many Primers provide a "typical match ups" section; however, since this is edh, there's almost no such thing as a typical deck, let alone game. So I thought it might be helpful to look a few mulligan options with a few random hands and partial paris mulligan rules (one free partial mulligan, followed by discard 2 draw 1)

Hand 1
Sol Ring
Phyrexian Arena
Phyrexian Reclaimation
Acidic Slime
Chord of Calling
Swamp
Reliquary Tower

This hand is pretty friggin' Ideal, I'd pitch the Chord of Calling and the Slime. I happened to draw into cards that made it nearly perfect: City of Brass and Maelstrom Pulse.

I think you keep this every time.

Hand 2
Exotic Orchard
Swamp
Skyshroud Claim
Damnation
Mind Slash
Greed
Mikaeus, The Unhollowed

This one is a little less straightforward, Exotic Orchard is a pretty solid land multicolor option. I like Mind Slash as a sac outlet, but I think I'd pitch the others and try for a third land. I happened to draw:
Golgari Signet
Maelstrom Pulse
Forest
Pretty solid, if you ask me.

Hand 3
Tranquil Thicket
Forest
Temple of the False God
Bojuka Bog
Skyshroud Claim
Kokusho, The Evening Star
Flesh-Eater Imp

IT'S A TRAP! This hand is a gamble. Every land comes into play useless except the forest. The Skyshroud is an obvious keep, but keeping Temple of the False God is a trap, as is keeping the Tranquil Thicket. This hand is what I call an "If/Then" hand. If you draw into that 5th landit can be okay. But even Koko puffs isn't enough incentive to keep it. I'd pitch everything but the Skyshroud and two lands (forest and Bog). It's a gamble either way, but I trust the deck. I drew into:
Golgari Signet
Tooth and Nail
Eternal Witness
Forest
Not terrible--not great.


Midgame Strategy

By about turn 10, the deck should be clicking pretty well, particularly if there haven't been any board wipes. If you haven't been able to find a token generator and a quality sac outlet by now then it's probably going to be a long game. Start looking to develop your board by playing draw spells and relevant small spells. Hold on to your bomb card and don't try to attract too much attention. If you're struggling for mana, just chock it up to one of those games. In the teen turns I'm generally looking to finalize my win con, If I draw into a tutor I'm examining graveyards (counting cards--thinking maybe a Lord of Extinction combo) or I'm looking to lock the game down of critters and big plays with Endrek Sahr and Sadistic Hypnotist. Keep an eye on your life total, green sac targets like Mitotic Slime and Mycoloth are valued sources of life in this period of the game.

End Game
With the board clear of critters, your tokens and beasties should be free to swing with impunity. ALWAYS kill the combo player first, as they can just win out at any point. Other control players should follow, and the poor sap playing agro will probably be your last target.


Card Choices and Ratings
With many cards, particularly some of the common critters that are seen in Savra decks it's easy to say, "Well why didn't you include X" I'll attempt to address a few of those cards here, but because of the sheer volume of great options, I believe it would be better to address these sort of things in later posts. My deck is by no means the best Savra deck ever created, and because your meta should dictate what cards you bring to the table more than just about anything else, please note that this build was designed to address a wide array of contending decks.

Alternative Deck lists (Budget/Non-token centered)
Non-token Route
http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/ViewDeck/savra-queen-of-the-golgari-edh-588939
This deck is a fair representation of a non-token style Savra deck, I would personally put more recursion in there, but I believe it should provide readers with a different take on the deck.

Budget deck list
no card in this list is more than $10 according to TCG player mid
http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/EditDeck

Thank yous
I wanted to take the opportunity to thank a few people for their help with the primer
• Hey, play group, we don't get together enough, but when we do, I'd like to thank you guys for putting up with my decks
• To Rowan, who's help and primer with my Nin deck inspired me to write a primer of my own, I'll get around to Nin soon, but I think she's still too new for the primer committee to accept
• To the primer committee, hey fellas, thanks for allowing me to do this.

Whoa, it has been a while.
Glad to see this has seen some traction since I climbed beneath my rock. Savra has certainly gotten some new tools for consideration. I've been out of the EDH game for a while, but now that I'm back I will try and do a better job of keeping this up to d

Would you guys like to see some game play videos? It'd be from cockatrice, but for EDH I think Cockatrice is a bit better. And hey, you'd get some commentary.

"No one spoke. There was no need. The threat of the Eldrazi presented a simple choice: lay down your arms and die for nothing, or hold them fast and die for something."

So I've been working on this deck for about a year, and I believe that I've gotten it to a pretty competitive place. I'm hoping to get some advice here about the list, and how I can improve it, particularly against Tron and Shadow decks which are prominent right now. I've tested fairly well against them, my ratio is around 50/50 for each match up which, given that this is more or less a brew, I'm really happy with. I'm hoping that some particularly skilled players could help me out.

So with that, I'll post the deck, the relevant information I believe is important to know, cool interactions and see what the community thinks. If you think this list has some potential, please share it with someone and see what they think. I'm planning on taking it to some pptqs this month, and my hope is to provide some detailed reporting regarding my matches.

So here we go...





Plea for Guidence
I know that all seems like a lot to read, and it was a lot to type (but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it). I didn't set out to write a primer for a deck no one knows, but I realize that what I've done is similar. I'm really just looking to get help and opinions on the deck and to see where people stand on it. I hope I've made the read somewhat pleasant.

Please take the time to vote at the top of the page. If you believe the deck has potential and have ideas regarding how to make the deck stronger, please help out and post your thoughts here. Help is always appreciated.

If you'd like to see it in action, I'm on cockatrice (user name: Ely), you may have run into me.

Thank you for reading.
Dan

Obviously, it's all on how you build them. Commanders like Zur can be great, because while they can be super competitive, they can also be very casual and theme based. And since he can tutor up loads of enchantments kids can really have fun getting their favorite cards.

Other commanders like Karador are good because the help kids learn to not freak out over losing their stuff in the graveyard. Which is an important lesson.

Then you have commanders like Rafiq, who is the consumant good guy, who can be tailored to suit a more Timmy type player.

But for me, if I'm picking a deck for a new player to begin with, I'd have to go with everyone's first EDH deck... Slivers.

Yes, they are a bit generic (although they don't have to be), and a few of them are pretty expensive. But the are fun to play with as a new player, they are easy, and they can win games even without their busted cards. what's more is that Wizards has provided us with great dual lands that are cheap and easy to pick up. You really don't need to look much beyond the guild gates, Khans wedge lands, or the litany of other CTP lands that are languishing about in stores everywhere.

Good luck!!
Ely

Finding the right balance with the mana base is important, although it's not so bad. We're sorta running a 3 and a half color base with the colorless. Unfortunately this requires us to shell out some $$ for filterlands. I'm using a bit of everything to fill the gap, but there are definitely options. I haven't put my list up in a while so here it is.


Yeah, I'm running 61 in the main, mostly because I want to run Ashiok (who is amazing btw). I've played with manlands a bit as well, both creeping tar pit and celestial colonnade, but I found that they often ate into my ability to play the draw-go game. However, I've also experienced games where things ground to a halt, and a creeping tar pit would have helped out. I think our mana base can support 1 but no more. If you're smart with your mana base, the colorless isn't really too bad, cavern of souls, pain lands, filter lands, Eldrazi temples, they make colorless mana pretty easy to come by.

Right now, this is a remarkably interactive deck, by far the most interactive I've ever played and it's among the most enjoyable. But the deck does let you down sometimes, this happens mostly when you're on the draw and can't interact with what your opponents are doing.

I think that there is a real argument to be made that without Probe Become Immense loses a lot of it's value. Both Infect's and Death's Shadow's redundancy has always proven to be one of their greatest strengths, so they aren't decks that will just shrug off this banning without feeling it. Git. Probe will undoubtedly be replaced by something very strong, but whatever it is, it will not allow either Infect or DS Zoo to plunge all in knowing that the road was clear to end the game with remarkable quickness. Peek is an option, sure, but it slows the deck down by an entire turn to get the same effect. And yes, these decks could also adopt another 1 phyrexian mana spell like surgical extraction to feed a quick Become Immense, but without the knowledge of what's in hand, it becomes more dangerous to do so. (Although printings like Blossoming Defense made things much easier in this regard.)

If we were to use the commonly used car analogy that gets tossed around then I'd argue that Wizards has looked at these decks and banned the headlights. Git. Probe did exactly what Wizards stated it did, and while the banning does seem a bit arbitrary as a glance, when you consider what Probe allowed these decks to do (freely enable an overwhelming all in method play) it starts to make sense.

At the risk of going too deep with the analogies, I'll use one last one--Git. Probe created a sort of "insider information" scenario that benefited 2 already very powerful decks. And there's a reason why we've outlawed insider trading, it's just not copicetic with what Wizards (and many players) wants from the format.

While I fully understand the perspective that Become Immense is, in many eyes, the bannable card, I think you have to consider what made it so. Git. Probe was that enabler.

That's just my reading of the situation.

So, I'm not sure if anyone at Wizards was thinking about Junk Midrange in modern, but I have some serious questions about where this leads. I mean, it certainly doesn't seem like a bad thing to +1 Lilly, pitch a card (goyf) and then stick this to return said goyf to the BF for free. Or Eldritch Evo my Voice of Resurgence, into this, get my free token, and my Voice of Resurgence back.

I mean, this is better than Eternal Witness in many cases (relevant to Modern) and while I think its good that Wizards seems to know that mid-range decks are having issues in Modern, I can't help but look at this and think of all those blue mages who just realized how bad blue based interaction is now. I mean, if Mana leak wasn't cutting it for you before, think about how you'd feel if you Mana leaked a goyf turn two, just to turn around and see it pop back on the field from this?

Pros are people with questionable judgment at best (they are trying to make a living playin MTG).

Think for yourselves guys, don't be a lemming.

Best thing I've read all day, thanks.

Regarding Rabblemaster, we're one great Goblin away from tribal goblins being a cool fun deck. I personally think that R/B is the way to go, but that's just me.

And wow! Hey! What’s this thing suddenly coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding name like … ow … ound … round … ground! That’s it! That’s a good name – ground!

I wonder if it will be friends with me?

And the rest, after a sudden wet thud, was silence.

Nullifier seems too cute to me. It has two serious conditions to meet if it's going to be better than just meh as a flash 2/3 for four. And your deck mostly isn't playing at instant speed. Having played a lot with Blight Herder in a 4x Relic of Progenitus build for many, many moths, my guess is that you're casting Nullifier vanilla instead of for a counter in most cases.

In general I'd be worried about my life total from lands in this deck, and Nullifier only aggravates the need for painful mana. Do you have data around how often you play it for value compared to how often you have to just throw it out EOT for beats?

I'd be inclined to suggest 2x Eldrazi Skyspawner there, to still give you value (but unconditional this time) with Displacer, and to make up somewhat for missing out on the unbelievably good Lingering Souls.

Seems like a super fun deck but I wonder if you might be spread a little too thin here.

Quote from DarklingScribe »

This feels like more of a case of "the blob" as I've heard MaRo put it on his podcast. In that there is more than one card here that is warping the format and they might have to ban multiple cards, or reprint a fixed Back to Basics.

No more bans. Wizards has tried the "ban the broken card" policy since 2013 and every time it leads to, guess what, more bans! Let's try something we've never tried before: unbanning good cards that might have a legitimate impact. If it doesn't work, we can always go back to even more bans. It's not like format confidence or confidence in Wizards can get much lower with regard to Modern, so why not try something new instead of the same old policy failures.

declaration.....if it were 1cc or a cantrip it would be usable- but for two mana I want more than self-taxing laters turn.
It is not quite as good as nevermore effect wise, but nevermore is 1cc too much, especially for non blue decks- declaration is also 1cc too much, sadly.

Leyline of sanctity and ghostly prison and suppression field all wreck gris. Nevermore naming breach or shoal depending, rule of law is good too to stop winning.

Gruul player like big stompers. Gruul player sometime think about running out of gas. Gruul player like pretty elf from alara that also like big stompers and never run out of gas. Gruul player now naya player. Mayael the Anima pretty elf and big stomper enabler.

Arcum Dagsson player lonely because friends no play with him. Arcum Dagsson player hide artifact combo into King Macar, the Gold-Cursed. Friends think more fair without tutor general. King Macar exile all of their creatures. King Macar best friend with Karn, Silver Golem and exile all of their artifacts too. Sometimes King Macar have party with Mycosynth Lattice and Clock of Omens with Karn as the MC. King Macar exile all permaments. King Macar lonely now, but has gold though.

To appropriate a quote from another game:
The aim of the game is to win
The point of the game is to have fun

The point of EDH is to have fun, and in that sense that you ruined the other players' fun, which is wrong. That said, if what you did ruined their fun, there was no way they were going to have fun unless they were allowed to do anything they wanted. In essence, you were placed in a position where there was no 'right' way to play except to meekly lose.
That said, this is a very small snapshot of a game so we can't really evaluate it that well. The game gap between 'Ruination turn 4' and 'Firecat Blitz for 50' seems very large. It would be interesting to know what was happening in the meantime to get a full picture.

I personally don't run MLD in any of my 16 decks, unless you count Land Equilibrium, which I don't. This is based on my personal feelings rather than right vs. wrong. Nothing is worse for me in any format of magic than being mana-screwed, so inflicting that on a player in a non-competitive setting would be abhorrent to me.
Options like Blood Moon or Hall of Gemstone can slow people down enough without full-on screwing them in my opinion.

Intruder Alarm and level 2 Kazandu Tuskcaller make a nice horde of elephants. It's a two card combo, but it costs more mana to set up.