MTG Salvation

Unless we get something new at rotation, I don't hate Arcane Encyclopedia for repeated card draw. Abrade rotates, too, so mainboard artifact hate should go away.

I don't like it. Ten mana is a lot, and the trigger will only let us cast 2-3 spells on average, I think.

Oracle looks like a perfect. Easy to tutor and turns extra tokens into cards.

Mind's Eye has been very lackluster in my experience. It's great if it survives a few turns, but I never want to tap out to cast it or keep mana open to use it. I almost never have it out unless I Goblin Welder it into play.

Maybe I'm just jaded by my group's Azusa player who gets it out turn 2 with mana to activate it.

Battlebond contained mostly reprints, but I think these cards have some promise.

Khorvath's Fury - resetting your hand can be useful, but Molten Psyche is similar and we don't run that

Stolen Strategy - repeatable "draw" that scales with pod size sounds great, but spending five mana to do nothing to the board doesn't. I think this still has potential and I plan to try it.

Seal Away was better than any 2-mana removal deserves to be.

Teferi either drew me a bunch of cards, or ate a Vraska's Contempt. I did get to ultimate him once, but the emblem wasn't that great since I didn't have much card draw in hand.

Never saw Lyra, but also didn't bring her in much. I think I only brought her in against Vehicles as her CMC felt a bit too high versus the Wizards deck and I sure as hell wasn't going to risk her getting Scarab God-ed.

By the time I played History, I usually had the game on lock and just wanted a way to close before they could recover. My opponents would realize that and scoop before I hit level 3, so I'm not totally sure on the true impact of the card.

Went undefeated at FNM tonight with this



I beat the mirror (2-0), UB Control (2-0), UR Wizards (2-0), and Mardu Vehicles (2-0). I was just on a roll all night, always having removal for everything my opponents played. It's basically the same deck that got third at the Atlanta Classic, but with a few changes.
-1 Disallow
+1 Teferi
Mainly because I only had 3 Disallow, but also because of all the times that I've drawn a counter a turn too late. Teferi at least bounces a permanent to the library that can be milled away with Rivulet.
-1 Invoke the Divine
-1 Teferi (moved to main)
+1 Forsake the Worldly
+1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
I really liked the idea of curving Shalai into Lyra, but Shalai also stops burn, hand disruption, and protects everything from removal. All she really did tonight, though, was protect me from burn in the Wizards match.
I chose Forsake the Worldly over Invoke the Divine because Gate to the Afterlife can grab Gift from the graveyard.

Quote from Phrzn_ »

Quote from Meecht »

However, chump blocking is pseudo-lifegain that scales with the creatures attacking you and can't be prevented by Rampaging Ferocidon.

Which is irrelevant as Rampaging Ferocidon is banned in standard. But I do agree that History of Benalia is more powerful as the means to stabilize, in a control deck vigilance is really important as they provide a clock while also blocking.

I completely forgot that it got banned. That happened right before I took a short break and I didn't see mono-red at my shop for a long time.

Sunscourge Champion VS History of Benalia

Champion costs 7 mana (3+4) and 2 cards (itself + embalm) to gain 6 life. Both "modes" give you one body (2/3 and a 4/4) with no extra abilities after the ETB. If -X/-X removal becomes common (Fungal Infection and/or Vicious Offering) your opponent can respond to the ETB to reduce the amount of life you gain.

History is 3 mana for two 2/2s with vigilance that probably eat removal or chump block a couple of dudes. However, chump blocking is pseudo-lifegain that scales with the creatures attacking you and can't be prevented by Rampaging Ferocidon.

In general, having 2 creatures on the field is better than having 1, especially with a decent amount of Menace running around.

This is how it was described to me:

It's a 3-mana 4/4 that swings for 8.

It gives you 2 bodies that can play offense and defense, and some colors have a hard time dealing with enchantments so you're likely getting both bodies unless it gets countered. The knights won't gain you life directly, but they do help protect your life total by being chump blockers.

Just an FYI in case people don't realize it: you can pay the kicker cost on a spell if you cast it off T. Gearhulk.

May not be relevant, but it's something to keep in mind.

I'm going to test running Syncopate over Censor. Losing the cycling kind of sucks, but it gets much better in the late game.

Seal Away is an obvious inclusion.

Also planning to test Teferi and Karn. I might throw in Gideon and Dovin Baan to create a Superfriends-y style of control.

Anyone considered Icy Manipulator? Probably too expensive for most match ups, but it could be useful.

Do we not like Baffling End? One of our biggest problems has been lack of early removal and this solves that problem.

Ferocidon stops Axis. If your life total would be set to a specific amount, you lose/gain life to equal that amount.

Has anyone tested Perilous Voyage, possible over Meltdown? More universal removal is always good, and tempo seems better against RR to make it harder for them to swing with Hazoret.