This is the closing of an important chapter in the history of Magic: the Gathering.
So much has happened right here on these forums. The website has changed so much over the years, constantly adapting to the interests of its users, old and new. It helped shape and reinforce what it means to play and love Magic for thousands of people.
I've been here just two months short of seven years. Salvation has really shaped who I am as a player. I started in the Legacy forums talking about Stax, Burn and Reanimator, but thanks to the open nature of these forums and its users I slowly transformed into a Pauper and Commander player. If I look back at my first posts, I'm a completely different person.
Thank you.
Here's to the end of something great and the beginning of something new and interesting, created by the backbone of MtgSalvation.
- Upkeep
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Member for 11 years, 8 months, and 25 days
Last active Fri, Jun, 3 2022 07:55:40
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May 14, 2014Upkeep posted a message on Primer constructionAnything new over here? How's it coming?Posted in: -spooky- Blog
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Feb 4, 2014Upkeep posted a message on Launch Giveaway!Good change! Looks a lot more stylish. Although it feels kinda like Facebook and Twitter at the same time. Why do all community websites just imitate the big social media guys?Posted in: Announcements
My favorite card is Deftblade Elite. Although I'm not generally a White player, this card is just so sweet; he has won me games. Whether he's killing a provoked creature every turn with lots of pump like Honor the Pure or Catapult Squad, or he's getting a dangerous blocker out of the way so my other creatures can get through (and lives to do it again!),he gets the job done! Just an all-round good card. and a common 1-drop, too! -
Jan 15, 2014Upkeep posted a message on Primer constructionI really like your introduction! Very concise and explains where the archetype comes from.Posted in: -spooky- Blog
Is Cadaverous Knight really a core creature? It barely looks playable, to me anyways.
Maybe comment on each creature and specify in what style it belongs to (control or aggro), so that we can get a better idea of where they belong. You can also include ''shells'' of decks, in other words cards that must be run in order to make the deck function.
A notable exclusion from your otherwise rather full list is Nameless Inversion. This card is a complete beast in this deck, as it's recurable removal, with cards like Ghoulcaller's Chant and Ghoul Raiser.
Bonesplitter probably deserves a mention, as do other pump spells like Unholy Strength (there are many variants available).
I think Top 8 and Video sections are wishful thinking, as there are no sanctioned paper pauper tournaments. If you can get your hands on some MTGO videos playing Zombies, that might be a useful tool.
I suggest a section on Peasant (five uncommons max). It doesn't require a much bigger metagaming knowledge, just another card search. There are lots of uncommon candidates for Zombies.
A brief (or very detailed) matchup breakdown and analysis would be very appreciated. I like to test against many of the top decks in Pauper to see where mine stands, but I understand it's not possible for everyone, considering play-mates and time.
Overall, I think you're scraping the bottom of the barrel for playable cards, and cutting some of the more "fringe" ones is probably a good idea (you can also use the rating system to determine the value of each card to the deck). But it's a really good start! I look forward to seeing the rest! - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I basically replaced 2 copies for Stream of Thought. The initial reasoning was that sorceries are even more difficult to interact with than enchantments, which makes losing to something like Gleeful Sabotage very unlikely. Erasure was also not the best draw in the very late game, where SoT can just end the game with enough mana. In addition, Stream also prevents me from milling myself out and shuffles lost/important pieces to my game plan back into the deck, which Erasure can't do.
Thankfully, changing the deck away from Mystic Sanctuary seems simple enough.
2 Fog
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
2 Weather the Storm
Draw (20)
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
4 Ponder
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Frantic Inventory
4 Arcane Denial
2 Muddle the Mixture
Mill (4)
2 Stream of Thought
2 Jace's Erasure
Lands (18)
2 Forest
8 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Thornwood Falls
2 Counterspell
2 Dispel
1 Hydroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Return to Nature
2 Rust
2 Weather the Storm
2 Penumbra Spider
1 Aerial Volley
Weather the Storm continues to overperform in this deck for sure!
2 Fog
4 Tangle
4 Moment's Peace
2 Weather the Storm
Draw (20)
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
3 Ponder
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Frantic Inventory
1 Tragic Lesson
3 Arcane Denial
1 Deprive
2 Muddle the Mixture
Mill (4)
2 Stream of Thought
2 Jace's Erasure
Lands (18)
2 Forest
7 Island
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Mystic Sanctuary
3 Thornwood Falls
2 Counterspell
1 Deprive
2 Dispel
1 Hydroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Return to Nature
2 Weather the Storm
2 Penumbra Spider
2 Aerial Volley
I briefly tried Growth Spiral and Dreadwaters with 20 lands, but it felt really clunky (particularly Growth Spiral) so I quickly changed back to a more traditional build.
Mystic Sanctuary is so great. It can be a bit awkward to activate depending on how many Thornwood Falls you draw, but otherwise it's such a great addition to the deck. It gives the deck a lot more flexibility than before. I've even had some cool interactions with Arcane Denial where I countered my Fog on my own turn, played Sanctuary to put Fog on top, then draw it and two new cards on the opponent's turn. I'll have to see if it's worth investing further into bouncing my lands with more Deprives, Tragic Lessons and maybe Simic Growth Chamber.
Frantic Inventory is also feeling pretty good. It feels weird to have to track two different cards in my graveyard, but I have never drawn more cards in my life. I'm thinking of changing my Think Twice slot into Ponders or Impulses just to smooth out my draws and rely on these to really churn out card advantage.
Overall the deck feels much smoother to pilot. I feel much more in control of my draws and my hand with Mystic Sanctuary and Stream of Thought. I also went up to 2 Weather the Storms a while ago and haven't looked back.
I'd maybe run something along these lines:
4 Sleep
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Fumigate
4 Teferi, Time Raveler
Add some number of counterspells, card draw and spot removal for Ulamog and you're set to go. I'm not sure if it would be better than other WU shells out there, but it sure would be fun. I might also be forgetting some stuff like extra turn spells or something, but this seems like it could be a place to start.
I played Blast Zone for a couple games and took it right out again. It's just too much work to get it going and it often just sits in play as a colourless land that might as well have been a forest a lot of the time.
Field of the Dead, on the other hand, is amazing. The sheer number of bodies it makes for free once you have an engine going is really incredible. I've since cut to 2 Snow-Covered Forests and gone back to the non-snow basics to have different named basics, which can be really great with something like Evolving Wilds, making 2 zombies. Even as few as 5-7 zombies can really turn a game around with very little investment in the mana base.
Lotus Field has also been a great performer. getting the double sac without casting a spell is great, Hexproof has been relevant (to my surprise), it gives me the green sources I've desperately been craving... I even had a game where I played it and immediately untapped it with Garruk Wildspeaker to ramp myself up 6 mana in a turn.
If you look at some of my recent videos versus delver, you'll see me having great success with Penumbra Spider, with the opponent stone-walled by this unkillable monster.
I also really like playing Penumbra Spider. At 4 mana, it can be hard to cast, but it's hard for a Delver player to have 4 faeries for Spellstutter Sprite, so they absolutely need a hard counter for it. I gums up the board very effetively and needs a combination of removal and combat to really get rid of, making it almost a 4-for-1 in many cases.
What do you think of Field of the Dead? Seems very easy to get 7 different lands in play, and pooping 2/2s constantly for every land drop can add up quick in this deck.
Lotus Field seems pretty strong for our deck, getting rid of the biggest drawback of Lotus Vale of requiring untapped lands. And it has Hexproof. Seems sweet!
Cryptic Caves is probably not good enough for our deck, though I could see it being a powerful card in other Commander lists.
Here's a video of me taking down one of the more difficult builds of Tron for Turbo Fog:
You should also take a look at the primer on the first page. In the section "Matchups" look for "Tron" and you'll see my analysis for the different archetypes and sideboarding suggestions.
In essence, you'll need at least 2 pieces of hate to really deal with them effectively. Usually a counterspell and something to exile (or both with Faerie Trickery) will get rid of important pieces and get rid of their late-game engine.
Targeting and exiling Ghostly Flicker is usually a good idea, since this is the piece they run fewer of, though Mnemonic Wall also appears as a 2-3-of in their maindeck. It can be difficult to fight them with either of these cards in their hand/play as well as countermagic of their own, since they trade 1-for-1 and then get their card back and start grinding you down.
There's also the matter of juggling with the fact that they are beating you down with Mulldrifters and Dinrova Horrors, which means you can't only focus on their flicker plan post-sideboard. They also run Pyroblast/REB.
With careful playing and some lucky milling at the right time, you can get them.
That's all good for Murasa Tron (the one that is mostly UBG colours), but what about Temur Tron URG?
This matchup is much, much easier. Their main win condition is a fast Ulamog's Crusher and Fangren Marauders as well as Rolling Thunder. This sounds like it would be a horrible matchup for us, but it's actually the opposite. This deck basically has so few relevant cards in it that by the time they run out a threat, we are ready with multiple layers of countermagic and all set to beat them. They run very little counters of their own, mainly Condescend. Pyroblasts in the sideboard, but this matchup lets us sideboard out more fogs, so it's easier to fight with more deck space as a U(g) Draw-Go deck.
Hope this helps!
Ashnod's Altar should be popping up somewhere in a combo deck. It's still a bit early to tell what will stand out.
The deck looks fine for the most part, but I do have a few comments.
The first and most important thing: If you care about the Ban list, you should remove Gush, as it was banned a few weeks ago.
With Jhessian Thief being you only creature, it will most likely die to all the removal you opponent will have rotting in their hand. Turbo Fog is traditionally a 0-creature deck (though I have won on the back of a Krosan Tusker before), and it has a lot of incentive to stay that way. Part of the strategy is not only denying victory through combat, but also causing a type of card advantage through blanking cards in the opponents' deck.
Have you tested Betrayal? It may not be as effective as you think at drawing you cards. The opponent will most likely stop attacking with the creature (unless they can use it to win), making it more like semi-effective removal.
Call to Heel in the sideboard also has me scratching my head a bit. You're going to use this more often on your opponents, so why let them draw? I feel like there would be better bounce cards to run, like Snap, Snapback, Echoing Truth or Capsize.
Otherwise, you should check out the new toys we've been given in the last two sets, namely Weather the Storm and Stream of Thought. They really push the deck to new limits and lend themselves to very interesting deck-building!
Check out the Pauper EDH Deck Compendium
I'm also considering playing Forked Bolt over Arc Lightning (not that I couldn't have done this before in paper, but the new changes still give me that new-card smell).
I tried Crown-Hunter Hireling for a while. While it provides good card advantage, it's not a win condition unless the opponent is consistently taking the crown from you.