MTG Salvation

General: Dralnu, Lich Lord
Ramp: Kodama's Reach/Cultivate
Card Draw: Fact or Fiction
Tutor: Demonic Tutor cause I'm boring
Beatstick: Steel Hellkite
Defensive/Pillowfort card: Solitary Confinement
Creature removal: Rapid Hybridization/Pongify with an honorable mention to Diabolic Edict
Sweeper: Toxic Deluge
Counterspell: Memory Lapse (specifically the Mirage version)
Griefing card: Contamination/Infernal Darkness
Utility card: Eternal Witness/Regrowth
Win-Con: Mindslaver
Land: Boseiju, Who Shelters All

Proteus Staff is pretty funny if Melek is your only creature

Quote from StrichnineGaming »

Whats up with adding Vraska? never thought of playing her before. Is it for her ulimate? if so, how often do you pull it off?

For the -3 then the ability to tick up and threaten an ultimate or more -3's

Quote from burdgod »

To everyone that plays whip of erebos in the sideboard; what do you side it in against?

Burn, control, and the mirror. Against control/the mirror the games get really grindy so being able to refill on life and flashback all my dead creatures is really nice. Plus it can bait out a counter/dsphere to force through a Connections or Erebos. And ofc its the nuts against burn, Demon connecting with Whip out is gg 90% of the time.

The lifegain is ok against aggro, but it usually feels too slow. It's not a blocker or a removal spell, so theres a decent chance I just die before it does anything :S

Has anyone else tried out Brain Maggot? I'm running 2 in the main and I've been liking them so far. Against decks that can't remove them, it's just a Thoughtseize. Even if they do remove it, you still 1-for-1 and it disrupts them.


Link to deck @ TappedOut.net
This is the list I'm taking to States tomorrow, Game 1 is still pretty bad against hyper-aggro/burn/Revelation decks but post board it feels like every matchup is favorable. Also, Whip is realllll good against burn, the mirror, and Revelation, but I don't bother with it for aggro cause its too slow.

I would think Psychic Strike, despite being 1 more to cast, would just be straight up better and actually has seen MB play in winning 4-0 daily lists.

I hadn't even considered Psychic Strike, but it's definitely a better surprise counter than Negate. I'm probably gonna cut the splash though, since I'd rather not run a counterspell than play Watery Graves (they would know not to walk a Revelation into a counter/Notion Thief)

JOU cards that have caught my eye so far: (not what I plan to play, but what I could see playing post-JOU)

Brain Maggot could be discard effect 9-12.
Silence the Believers iff bestow.dek beccomes a thing
Extinguish All Hope 6 mana's a lot but I could see running 1-2 in my 75
Dictate of Erebos really slow and doesn't do anything by itself, but the effect is really powerful against creature decks.
Worst Fears Probably not, but I'm tempted to run 1 in the SB just so I can Sphinx's for 0/Use their counterspells on their spells/Revoke Existence their Dspheres

Quote from Duxx

Why would you take out Bile Blight? It lets you get rid of the Tokens that Elspeth craps

Yeah but that's all it does, I want to be proactive in the matchup.

Do you run 8 sources of to cast Negate? Negate doesn't get rid of Aetherling.

I splash off 4 temples. I haven't had a problem casting it yet, but I'm open to playing Watery Grave if it becomes an issue (I'd probably go up to 2 Negates as well). And yeah Negate doesn't hit Aetherling but that's why they play it, because almost nothing hits it. Some decks can't even Thoughtseize it. But unlike Pithing Needle and Thoughtseize, Negate takes care of topdecked revelations.

There are way better options than Negate.

I dunno, being able to counter any counterspell/Planeswalker/Revelation is pretty nice. Plus they never see it coming.

Land base is budget influenced (I don't want to buy a bunch of shocks/temples just for this silly deck without testing it first)


The idea is to assemble a critical mass of enchantments + Sphere of Safety. Then cast Mana Bloom for x = 0, extort with Blind Obedience, then pick up Mana Bloom next turn and repeat. Of the non-enchantment spells, there are 5 cards that dig for enchantments, and 4 Dissolves to counter Gray Merchant/Fanatic of Mogis/anything else that is troublesome.

I've been really liking Negate in the sb for the Revelation decks. Its like a safety net against losing to topdecked Revelation. The only thing it doesn't hit is Aetherling and I added a Pithing Needle for that (which also hits Elspeth and its good in the mirror).

My current board plan against them is:
-2 Bile Blight
-3 Devour Flesh
-1 Doom Blade
-1 Hero's Downfall
-1 Pack Rat
-1 Swamp (I ok with potentially missing land drops in exchange for bringing in more action)
======
+4 Duress
+2 Erebos
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Negate
+1 Whip of Erebos

The deck still feels very strong to me. It has good matchups against all creature-based decks, and control is winnable (though pretty hard with game 1 being so bad). But I would say it's a deck that requires a lot of experience to get the most out of it. I've been playing the deck a few months and I still have a lot of trouble Thoughtseizing, knowing when to use my last removal spell, etc.

Quote from sovietbacon

@supazio

Good analysis. I like Gainsay over Negate in a blue splash, as Negate is too narrow. Other than that, everything seems sound.

Yeah, Gainsay isn't unreasonable, but I'd rather counter Elspeth than Aetherling. (Other than that they're almost the same card against control)

Brief writeup I did on the deck. I'm not an expert, but I've been playing the deck a few months and I've been having quite a bit of success with it. I'll probably add another paragraph or something summarizing the deck.

Card choices:

Creatures:

Pack Rat: Not quite the powerhouse it used to be, this rat still does work. These days it feels more like a finisher once you’re both basically out of resources. Play 2-4

Lifebane Zombie/Nightveil Specter: Some black decks have begun running 4 Lifebane Zombies instead of the usual 4 Specters. Some players swear by the Zombie, others say Specter’s still good. It mostly comes down to preference (though I’m personally a strong believer in Lifebanes mainboard). Play 3-4 Zombies in your 75, play 0-4 Nightveil Specters in the main deck.

Desecration Demon: This guy’s huge. He beats for 6, he eats their creatures. He’s pretty bad against token generators (for example he does nothing against a Brimaz/Precinct Captain that’s already pooped out a guy) but some creature decks just can’t deal with him. Play 4.

Erebos, God of the Dead: Some decks play 1 Erebos in the main. It’s a meta/preference call. It acts as Underworld Connections #5 and can also beat down/block for days. Play 2-3 in your 75, 0-1 in the main.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Play 4.

Other spells:

Thoughtseize: Thoughtseize is a very strong hand disruption spell. It lets you know what you’re up against and lets you take any spell. Play 4.

Hero’s Downfall: A catchall removal spell. The only creatures it doesn’t kill have Hexproof/Protection from black. Outside of that, it gets anything off the board. Play 4.

Devour Flesh: It’s not the most elegant removal spell, but it always hits a creature, it can kill a resolved Blood Baron/turn 2 Caryatid. I think it’s risky to go without any Devours in your deck, but I don’t think it’s strong enough to be a 4-of. Play 1-3.

Bile Blight: An upgraded version of Pharika’s cure. It kills Pack Rats, Reckoner, Specter, Mutavault, Master of Waves, etc… It’s not great against green creatures though. This card absolutely hoses White Weenie and RDW. Play 2-4, depending on how much aggro you expect.

Doom Blade: The best of the 2 mana removal spells unless you expect to face a lot of black. Running too many in the main can be a liability, but when it’s good, it’s GREAT. Play 3-4 in your 75, 0-2 in the main.

Underworld Connections: The draw engine of the deck. Most other decks can’t keep up with the card advantage generated by Connections, so landing a Connections while you aren’t under much pressure can simply win the game against a lot of decks. It’s one of the few cards that lets you keep up with Sphinx’s Revelation decks. A lot of the time they get cut to bring in more removal, but I still think it’s correct to run them in the main. Play 4.

Lands:

Mutavault: Mutavault does a little of everything. It attacks for 2, it chumps(or double blocks a Blood Baron), it pumps Pack Rat, you can sacrifice it to Devour Flesh/Away, it’s immune to Verdict/Dsphere... Play 4.

Scry lands: These are the real deal in standard right now. Play at least 4, I’m currently trying out 6. Them coming in tapped is a pretty small cost for free scrying (and you can throw them off with the turn 1 land. Turn 1 temple of silence could be mono b, u/w, esper, or b/w). I wouldn’t be surprised if I find myself playing 8 soon.

Play 25-26 lands.


Splashing:
There are benefits from splashing for any color, (though a worse manabase is a real cost to consider) these are cards I would consider splashing for:

White: Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Revoke Existence.

Blue: Negate (Notion Thief is too cute and doesn’t do anything against non-Revelation spells. I don’t think it’s close to playable)

Green: Abrupt Decay, Reaper of the Wilds, Golgari Charm

Red: Mizzium Mortars (mainly for Blood Baron, its nice that it also kills anything small), Rakdos’ Return, Slaughter Games (I don’t think it’s worth splashing for Dreadbore when black already has great tools for dealing with creatures and planeswalkers)

Right now green is the hardest splash because there’s no B/G scryland yet. Other than that it depends what matchups you want to improve.


Building a sideboard:
You can’t know what your sideboard will need until you start playing the deck, popular cards are Duress, Erebos, Lifebane Zombie (if you’re not running it in the main), Dark Betrayal, Drown in Sorrow, Doom Blade, Pithing Needle, and Bile Blight.

My prediction for the decks to beat this weekend: U/W with Doom Blades/Dark Betrayals in the sideboard, Mono Black with Lifebanes in the main. I think this is gonna be a pretty miserable weekend for people playing white/green creatures. I feel like all I play against now are W/x/x midrange decks, G/R, U/W/x control, and G/W.

idk though that's just the impression I get.

Quote from PJ I

Is that a meta call??

Yep. Imo it depends on what mix of black/selsnya/RG monsters you expect to see. Ultimate Price misses half of G/W, Doom Blade against black only hits Mutavault, Bile Blight doesn't kill anything important in G/R. So you can balance those numbers against what you expect to see. The mono-black craze seems to have died down some, so I think Doom Blade is the best spot removal in standard right now. Post board against any non-black creature decks I have 4 Downfall, 4 Doom Blade, 3 Devour Flesh + Bile Blight/Drown for the smaller creature decks and it feels somewhat unfair. But then again in some metas, running Doom Blade in the main is a huge liability and you want 4 Dark Betrayals in the side. Against an unknown field though, I'd load up on Doom Blades.

edit: I run 4 Downfall, 3 Devour Flesh, 2 Bile Blight, 1 Doom Blade main, with 3 Doom Blade, 3 Drown in Sorrow, 1 Dark Betrayal in the side

Quote from PJ I

That's the thing. I'm from buffalo,ny and the GP is in Cincinnati. I don't know what the meta will be like. So the question is going into an unknown meta which creature is better?

Unless you expect a very heavy mono black presence, I would take the Lifebanes. I think they're much better in every matchup except black. Even then it at least lets you know what you're up against. I cut the Specters and don't miss them.