MTG Salvation

Hi all, thanks for the feedback. I've gotten a ton of games in with this deck, and it's a blast to play.

Changes:
+Underground River
+Sulfurous Springs
+Death Baron
+Dictate of Erebos

-Jhessian Zombies
-Pontiff of Blight
-Akoum Refuge
-Jwar Isle Refuge

Notes:
Dictate of Erebos has been fantastic so far. I'm beginning to feel a little creature-light, so moving forward I might try to cut a few non-creature cards and throw in a few more creatures. Once I get my hands on an Undead Warchief he'll go in - any other gotta-have zombies that I don't have in here?

Quote from Englishboi

4 ways to dealTorpor Orb beyond ETB 6 if you count ETB (Draining Whelk and Mystic Snake):

• Plasm Capture
  
• Cyclonic rift
  
• Voidslime
  
• Bant Charm
  

Qasali Pridemage is another good one, and he comes on a body that's tutorable, recurrable, and gives you an exalted trigger.

Yeah in theory I like Firemind's Foresight but ToG correctly pointed out that you can only grab instants, but the other issue I have is that my only problem with the deck so far is surviving to the late game - if I can survive to the late game, I have inevitability in terms of Aetherling and hand destruction. A high CMC spell that grabs other spells won't save me in games where I find myself losing.

I've been considering another option - Agoraphobia. I know my idea for Pin to the Earth earlier was not well-taken, but for Agoraphobia, I like it because it will shut down a creature t2, but you can also pull it back (at instant speed! eot!) and recast it on a fatty later on. Though it's probably the correct choice to just keep a varied amount of removal in the deck, instead of a pseduo-removal catch-all, I might give it a try. If anything, it renders useless Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Stormbreath Dragon, Master of the Feast, and turns Desecration Demon into a minimal threat - these are the creatures I have the most trouble with. Any thoughts? (ToG, I know your position - just run real removal).

Riot, I believe Sundial of the Infinite works exactly the way he wants.

See here: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/511196-roon-of-the-hidden-realm-help-me-make-this-as, about halfway down the page, 3drinks gives a pretty good explanation.

Thanks, I'll have to play with different mana bases. It will exacerbate the problem if I decide to try and run Silence the Believers, but from my experience on Friday, having access to that card somewhere in m y 75 would have been very helpful.

The list is really long, and there are some great Roon decklists (here I shamefully plug my own, located in my signature).

I digress. If you're looking for cards that emphasize owner's control, highlights include:

• Perplexing Chimera
  
• Mangara of Corondor
  

If you're talking about other cards that are just plain good with him, any creatures with a powerful ETB effect works:

• Eternal Witness
  
• Harmonic Sliver
  
• Acidic Slime
  
• Prime Speaker Zegana
  
• Angel of Serenity
  
• Luminate Primordial
  
• Duplicant
  
• Sun Titan
  
• Spike Weaver
  

There are a few really wonderful creatures that I urge you to try out in your Roon deck. (off topic - my deck is in my sig, if you're interested):

• Glen Elendra Archmage - she quickly replaced Mystic Snake. She's also a soft lock against a lot of decks once you have flicker effects, like Deadeye Navigator.
• Spike Weaver - this guy has won me a ton of games. Efficient voltron commanders were a big problem for me, but tutoring up this guy is pure gold. Sugar on top is blinking him to reset counters.
• Ixidron is something that I wanted for a long time - mass board destruction on a creature. As a bonus, this guy essentially tucks opposing commanders, until they figure out that they can agree to attack/block with their face-down commanders and send them back to the command zone.
• Angel of Serenity - one of my game finishers, she doubles as removal for opposing creatures or recursion for creatures in my yard.
• Perplexing Chimera - her, Roon, and Prophet of Kruphix is generally a lock against most tables.
• Birthing Pod - an amazing source of creature tutoring, I'm surprised this isn't already in your list.

Anyway, good luck!

Quote from Poisoned_1

Wait, what?! Aetherling dying to Supreme Verdict??

It looks like you take quite a bit of damage using Mana Confluence + 4 Thoughtseize, I can see why it would be nice to use Mana Confluence and cut down on your shock lands but eventually tapping Mana Confluence throughout the game will end up costing you more life than it would have to just play a untapped shock land. I don't think Mana Confluence should be required or needed in control decks. We have all the temples now, how much more fixing do you need? If you need all that fixing I would say then that the deck seems too greedy (which your deck doesn't appear to be so that's why I am confused on why your playing it).

Have you tried your deck without the Mana Confluences yet? If so, how did it work; was adding the Mana Confluences required?
I think you can really get rid of them because your mana base looks fine and should be able to handle casting all the spells on time.

Regarding Aetherling: Yup, I'm bad at magic. In both cases I'd Thoughtseized right before dropping Aetherling to make sure the coast was clear. Both times he top-decked a verdict or a draw spell into a verdict. My blue is a bit thin in the deck and I was getting impatient.

Regarding Mana Confluence: I have it in there because I still feel like my deck is greedy on colors. I never felt too bad about the confluence, but I might consider switching them out for shocks. The issue I'm having is I really want to have access to black on t1, anger on t3, and blue in between for draw/counter magic. I'll keep fiddling with the numbers until I get it to where I want it. Thanks for the feedback!

FNM Report

Ran the following list, which is pretty close to my former list, except I added in some mainboard Izzet Charm:

I didn't take notes, so I can only go over the results generally.

Round 1 - GR Monsters
I won in 3 games, but it didn't feel strong. I was missing answers to resolved 'walkers, so I think I'm going to find room for at least 2 Dreadbore in the side if I think GR Monsters will continue to be prevalent in the format. The Devour Flesh out of the board were big for this matchup for me to aggressively attack his Sylvan Caryatid. 1-0

Round 2 - Mono Black Devotion
I got my face smashed in 2 games. His deck featured Pack Rats, Underworld Connections, Herald of Torment, and some mid-sized beef. I think what made this matchup so terrible for me was the bestowed herald he got both games on t5. I saw a lot of this type of deck running around, and I think I will reconsider Silence the Believers as 2 spots in my SB next week. 1-1

Round 3 - UW Control
I won in 2 games. This matchup felt strong pre-board, and amazing post-board. With Brain Maggot in from the side, I have 8 hand destruction cards, backed with counter magic. Both games I was able to get an early Thoughtseize and held back answers for his bomb cards. He smoked my Aetherling both games with Supreme Verdict, but I was able to get there on damage with Keranos, God of Storms and Rakdos's Return. 2-1

Round 4 - BW Aggro
I won in 3 games. Athreos, God of Passage just didn't perform as well as I'd been afraid he might. He kept a steady stream of threats, but the deck uses mostly small creatures, and Anger of the Gods really hurt him. I was surprised that I never saw God's Willing or something else to prevent his creatures from dying - I think I would have been dead if he had. 3-1

Round 5 - BG Dredge
I offered to split, he declined. He's a player who's pretty new to the store so I didn't hold it against him that much. He ended up beating me in 3 games. His deck was really wicked, featured Nighthowler, Nemesis of Mortals, and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. Between the size of Nemesis and how quickly he came down, along with the bestowed Nighthowler, I was unable to answer him. I took game 2 because I smoked an early Elvish Mystic and he must have kept a greedy hand, and I grabbed a Nemesis with my Ashiok. This is another matchup where I think Silence the Believers would really help out. 3-2

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with my deck. I plan to find some room for Silence the Believers and Dreadbore in the sideboard. All night I was always happy with Ashiok, Font of Fortunes, and my removal suite. I'm OK with Aetherling, but I really wish I had a clock that came down earlier and doesn't require me to keep mana up. I might consider switching Aetherling out for a few Stormbreath Dragon, if I happen to pick a few up. I'm also still considering Whelming Wave and Quicken, as all night the games I won were mostly the ones where I decimated their hand as early and often as possible, and I think many of the decks I'm having trouble with will fold to Whelming Wave into Rakdos's Return.

Quote from caffiend

Perhaps the Font could be great at 4 of if you have a larger volume of lower casting cost spells because it helps you be more mana efficient every turn and it will not sit on the table for very long before it cycles but I generally do not find myself in that position casting your ashiok on 3, jaces on 4, dragon or far//away or your karanos on 5. There are a myriad of scenarios that also involve CIPT lands and 2 mana removal spells in those curve slots. At 5+ you can just divination and cast a 2+ drop accordingly. Is there something I am missing about the card that makes it better than I am giving it credit for?

Obviously you were directing the question to Lugger, who was advocating Font of Fortunes, but I will respond, as I also had been advocating them:
In my style of this deck (above), I'm playing a very "draw-go" type of game. I am keeping mana up and my options open to make decisions at my opponent's EoT. I am not always dropping my threats on curve unless, as you say, I'm already ahead. Because of this, this allows me to play Font efficiently, as I can hold up mana for either a removal spell EoT or draw, depending on what my opponent plays. The Font also has a very small added benefit of perhaps eating permanent removal (Detention Sphere or Banishing Light) which I'm fine with.

I compare this to Divination, which in my style of deck will come down earliest t3 - a turn when I'm always holding up removal or counter mana, unless I'm ahead on the board, when I play Ashiok. This will put Divination in competition with most of my deck if I play it on curve. If I cast it off-curve in later turns, I can of course do that and hold up removal mana. But I really like the option of having the font earlier and make my turn 4 a turn where I can cast removal and draw cards.

If I decide to put Quicken in my list to try it out, I would definitely be cutting Font and replacing them with Divination.

Quote from Poisoned_1

Has anyone experimented with Disciple of Deceit? Pair up with Ral and/or Springleaf Drum then throw in a Keranos.
The idea would be to use Ral and/or Drum to abuse Disciple to get rid of currently dead cards in our hand to get an answer from our deck. I just feel like I need to use new cards, no matter how bad they may seem to be, when they just get released because I love brewing.

I brewed with him for a while because he seems like so much fun, and is a standard-legal tutor. I've been unable to make him anything more than a cute trick, though. He also dies to Anger of the Gods, which is one of the more powerful tools I have against fast aggro decks, which through testing has been my worst matchup so far.

Quote from Rogon

Has anyone considered using Kiora's Dismissal in their sideboard? It seems quite strong for us, since we're weak against Gods, bestow and most artifacts we care about are also enchantments.

I've definitely considered it - I used it extensively at the prerelease and have been wanting to get back to it. However, through testing, I've found that I can basically ignore Gods and just remove everything else on the board - my finishers (Aetherling, Ashiok, Keranos) kill faster than my opponents only using the God's ability (Pharika's snakes, Athreos's 3 life, etc). If I find that gods are indeed finishing me off, I might consider it again.

Quote from DirkGently

Quote from Outcryqq

Need to be super cool and get all foils of them!

/sarcasm

No Rishadan Port?

yeah, yeah, i know. I don't think it's THAT great of a card, though, I'd probably only even consider it for mono-colored decks.

But it's expensive!

Hey Rotten, thanks. I'm a bit encouraged myself as to how the deck is working so far.

As to your deck, how have the 1-of Silence the Believers and 1-of Cyclonic Rift been working? I've thought about both, but in looking at my deck by CMC, I didn't feel strong using removal in the 2, 3, and 4 CMC range. I'm trying to stick to 2 CMC instant-speed removal right now and it feels good so far, but I also am weak to walkers and have always leaned heavily on counter magic in the past, so my version right now is taking me out of my comfort zone.

Also, your current list makes it look like only Jace, Architect of Thought as your card draw. (and maybe Keranos, God of Storms). Have you had trouble with running out of gas so far? Especially with Anger of the Gods in the SB, it looks like you'll be fighting hard to stay 1-for-1'ing until you can land a finisher. You're right - I'm very happy with Font of Fortunes and I'd recommend it to anyone that's willing to listen.

Good luck!

Need to be super cool and get all foils of them!

/sarcasm

No Rishadan Port?

I know your list has a ton of sorcery-speed answers, you might want to consider replacing a few with more instant-speed answers (Magma Jet for Mizzium Mortars, etc).