MTG Salvation

I think the hilarious reactions to these cards would be different if Wizards simply put the land side as the face up side. Then people could recognize that in certain decks, like red aggro that don't care as much about life loss, their land gets to be a removal spell some of the time. Like, that's just free value.

But I guess free value in MTG is worthless. That's why those stupid, overcosted companions saw no play.

If only we had some way to know if a card reanimating itself for 2 CMC with a hefty delve cost were playable... I forget, it's hard to fill the graveyard, right?

Sure, this isn't an 8/8 trampler, but it gives you a draw 3. Doesn't that just seem like a treasure cruise that you don't even have to have in hand?

For the sideboard, I've been quite heavy on meddling mage, believe it or not, playing either 3 or 4 copies along with 1 ego. Mage is just lights out against amulet titan, and can slow down PO urza. Ego does the same job, usually better, but can be too slow sometimes, and mage can swing and stretches removal. It also goes in against GDS to name Stubbs or Kommand before landing key pieces.

But that may be just my play style preference, and if you're more comfortable with Ego, then I would find room for 2 copies, for sure. For some reason I like having lots of SB slots for combo, and trust my maindeck to grind it out against midrange/control.

I've been playing around with several 5 color lists, so really anything is possible in the deck's numerous flex spots. (Bring to Light for Urza is pretty funny). In the list I posted, you could easily swap out the singleton engineer, or add another, or swap one of the ascendancies for a wishclaw and change the manabase to have a basic swamp.

I have a feeling that 4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch will be what ends up being correct, and that maybe some number of Jeskai Ascendancy get included in lists because of its potential being an insta-win with Emry and a mishra's bauble. At least, that's certainly what I'll be trying out as soon as I can get the cards on MTGO.

Just a refresher, with Emry and a bauble in play or the graveyard, and an ascendancy on board, you can cast bauble over and over, make emry lethal and swing. Or you can loot enough to put 2 opals in the graveyard, get infinite mana, and cast something from your deck that can close out the game. The cost of a few ascendancies in lists seems pretty low.

My decklist to try out:

I'll get... Karn, the Great Creator please.

Yeah, absolutely. I've been on about 3 serum visions over the stars. I was never on stars, even post-urza, because I always found there was too much tension between needing their draw ability and wanting to keep an artifact around. Witching Well, like astrolabe, yields enough of a payoff I believe on ETB that you're happy to have its effect along with the artifact left over. It's basically like a serum visions that swaps the random draw 1 (usually less important early game than the scry 2) for a later game draw 2, all while giving you an artifact in the meantime. And then it also has the added benefit of being a good late-game topdeck, reading scry 2 + draw 2, all for only 1 more generic mana than Glimmer of Genius.

So already a few spoilers from Throne are looking good for us. Witching Well seems like it could be a 2 of or so, as it makes a pretty decent turn one play to hit land drops, helps enable metalcraft, taps for whir or urza, and draws cards late. And the simic 3-drop walker makes artifact tokens with its +2, can turn stuff like astrolabes into 3/3's, and can likewise turn problem creatures and artifacts into 3/3's. It's also a good card against burn, as the food tokens yield 3 life and the loyalty is so high.

For the most part, I agree with his sideboadring guide (if you happen to play those cards), but I definitely would board out 3 opals against both Jund and UW control, and not board out Goblin Engineers. Against Jund, they represent card advantage by fetching astrolabes and recurring them.

I think his build is sub-optimal. I don't like Chromatic Star over Serum Visions, even playing with Sai, which is currently not a card I would maindeck given all of the Tron and Hogaak running around. If you're looking for a 1-drop artifact that can be sacced for value, why not just max out on Nihil Spellbomb, which at the minimum does that job at the cost of one B mana extra, but in other situations exiles graveyards early on. I dunno. I see lists that he linked to with Pentad Prism and just cringe at his comment that "it synergizes nicely with whir" that lack the deeper context that while prism allows you to more easily whir for bridge on turn 3, that any 0 cmc artifact does an equal job because you don't have to take your second turn off and can play a more relevant artifact (and will have a more empty hand for that bridge).

Thanks, Lectrys, that's great news!

UW control is fairly close to 50/50, with a slight favor in our direction, I believe. I've been maindecking a few Teferi, not because it does anything that great for us, but because the card is overall stupidly powerful at 3 cmc.

Systrill, I have to offer a differing opinion when you say the heavy toolbox days are gone. I think Urza helps enable main deck toolbox cards, because between him and Whir, they all become mana rocks. So I actually feel more empowered to play cages and needles and spheres. Additionally, Engineer helps turn useless toolbox cards into useful ones, and helps tutor for them. While you're right that we're more about the combo, ideally we're just dropping artifacts on turns 1-3.