MTG Salvation

I just started looking at the format today after seeing it mentioned on Reddit (in teh $2 Legacy thread). Reminds me a lot of when I got into Pauper years before the filter...PRE community, budget and cool looking decks.

How is price determined for cards printed at multiple rarities? If its price legal in any printing its in?

Are there people testing/playing outside the actual events? My next couple Sundays are gonna be tied up, so if there is a 'test night' or w/e, I could try and find that to learn more and try a couple decks.

Post reserved for sutff, like the hyper budget version or something something

Overview of the Deck
Curse of Knowledge is a hard-lock budget deck using the cards Curse of Exhaustion and Knowledge Pool backed with counterspells. SaffronOlive, of MTGGoldfish, featured the deck in his 12/29/2015 Budget Magic article, which includes several gameplay videos.

The lock works like this:

• Curse of Exhaustion allows our opponent to cast only one spell per turn.
• Knowledge Pool, on entry to the battlefield, exiles the top 3 cards of both libraries.
• When a spell is cast from hand, Knowledge Pool exiles it from the stack and the caster may cast one of the previously exiled spells without paying its mana cost.
• Because our opponent can only cast one spell per turn, they are effectively shut out of the game!
• Wincons include a pair of Faerie Conclaves and a singleton Chronosavant, as well as anything useful that Knowledge Pool snagged from our opponent's deck

SaffronOlive's article focuses on a list that was ~$100 when published (now $120), and includes a hyper budget option for ~$50, as well as a fully powered Esper list with fetches, manlands and Thoughtseize for ~$500. As I am posting this in the Budget forum, I'll focus on a Hyper-Budget build (pretty close to what I run online) and something close to the Budget option SaffronOlive used in the videos (pretty close to what I've been running at FNM).

(2/21 note: SCG Louisville has spiked interest in Adarkar Wastes, so my FNM version is prob closer to $200, but should come down, I hope).




Card Choices
Curse of Exhaustion / Knowledge Pool: These are your lock. They help you win the game

Rule of Law: SaffronOlive presents this as a 4th lock piece, and acknowledged the draw back that it also locks you out of the game. If you build the lock with this, you need a manland or Chronosavant to win, or you need to have an Elixir of Immortality on the field so you can mill out your opponent.

Chronosavant: Aside from the two Faerie Conclave's, the deck runs no creatures. Lands are not cast, so getting the Conclaves on board past the Knowledge Pool is straightforward. The Chronosavant's ability to recur itself from the graveyard allows it to work as a finisher. Skipping a turn is no drawback to us, because our opponent can't cast anything, anyway.

Elixir of Immortality: In the worst case scenario where the Pool grabs no creature cards and Chronosavant and the Conclaves are somehow exiled, Elixir allows us to prove a win by milling, if needed. (I have had opponents force me to play out dinking them for 2 a turn at FNM, who knows?) The lifegain can also be useful, as well as popping the Elixir to avoid things like Infinite Obliteration type effects by fizzling the spell due to lack of target.

Mind Stone / Azorius Signet: SaffronOlive advised running some combination of 5 of these rocks. The Mind Stone can draw a card, the signet color fixes. Online (for budget), I run one Stone and 4 Signets. I don't feel like I've ever wanted more Stones online, so any combination is probably fine.

Thirst for Knowledge: At 3 mana, I don't think any other Modern Instant will let you see 3 cards and keep 2. Good to filter for lands, find lock pieces, dig for a counter, etc.

Faerie Conclave: For a budget deck, this manland makes blue, has evasion and serves as an inevitable win once the lock is in place. Celstial Colannade is a clear upgrade if you have it.

Ghost Quarter / Tectonic Edge: Destroy lands opponent has, basically Keep them off Tron or Valakut, hit Eyes and Temples...hopefully you won't need to!

For all other lands, you want to run the best Blue/White fixing you can, while not getting stuck with a bunch of lands coming in tapped. Adarkar Wastes are a great step up from the Tranquil Coves in the list SaffronOlive presents, for example.

Guide to Playing the Deck
The dream sequence is something like:

Turn 1- Land
Turn 2- Land, Azorius Signet or Mind Stone
Turn 3- Land, Curse of Exhaustion
Turn 5- Land, Remand opponent's spell
Turn 6- Knowledge Pool

Getting there, however, is not always so direct. You will often need to hold up counters or play a board wipe to get into position to lock things up. You may only have Curse in your opening and and need to draw into it. In desperation, you may try to land Knowledge Pool while having extra mana up in an effort to pull a Curse out with it.

One place I sometimes err is playing out too many spells before landing the Knowledge Pool. If you have nothing to cast from your hand, it doesn't matter that you could play the winning spell from under the Pool! You have to pace yourself and evaluate what threats need dealing with right now and what can wait for the lock.

With the lock in place, you can make cute plays such as: Play spell, respond to Pool trigger by countering your own spell, counter goes away and becomes a new spell, first spell goes away and you play a second spell. A common line would be targeting an opponent's critter with Path, using the counterspell to play out a board wipe and then the Path pulls out a creature for yourself.


Matchups
Section Still in Progress: I am relatively new to Modern, only playing since about October, and given I only recently started working on writing this primer, decks will be added as I play them and take better notes. If anyone on MTGO with established decks wants to run through a couple matches and help me learn the lines and spots to hit, let me know!

Eldrazi: Bad. So many "when you cast ~" triggers that don't care about getting exiled by Knowledge Pool...Eldrazi is a rough match.

Scapeshift: Counter Scapeshift and Titan, mostly.

Living End: Knowledge Pool only looks at spells cast from the hand, not by Suspend or Flashback, so be mindful of when you need to have a counter up!

Sideboarding and Alternate Card Choices
Cards I am considering:

Trickbind (I forget why...its just on my list of possible pickups for a recent FNM)
Vision Skeins (with a Curse in Play, you should be the one to benefit, and its cheaper than Thirst...need to look at the typical timings on Thirst)
Ethersworn Canonist (again, on my list, but not sure why...maybe as a Rule of Law replacement in SaffronOlive's original deck?)
Ideas Unbound (Once the lock is in place, this can help get to castable cards quickly, and help get Chronosavant to the grave, if needed.)

Primer Objectives and Next Steps
1) Improving the Matchup section is obviously high priority. Beyond that, looking for ways to improve consistency and resiliency are important. Ideally, there will be cards rediscovered in old sets or printed in new sets that can be dropped in and make the deck better.
2) Laying out the MTGO hyper-budget deck and card choices there. The difference in economy is challenging, so I think that will be its own post in thread. The versions are so similar that discussion is parallel, but the player needs for budget reasons should be clearly distinct.
3) Work on removing Rule of Law: The couple times I have dropped Rule instead of Curse, it has been a desperate situation that is still several turns away from dropping some Knowledge. I think there is something better to do with this spot.

Quote from moondemon88 »

Think it might be time to save up and play on mtgo. I'm getting bored of doing it only once a month possibly twice if were lucky and i'm not a fan of standard. Anyone know any good sites to get all the required cards for this deck online?

Cardhoarder and MTGOTraders both have bot chains, and they both have a website where you can buy the cards all at once and pick them up in the MTGO client (payment via paypal gets a small discount, iirc, or you pay with tix at tiem of trade).

Dojotradebots has a bot chain and is a little cheaper, there webstore shows which bots have how many of the cards you search. They'd probably be ~15-20 tix cheaper across the deck, I'm guessing.

Quote from Richard Arschmann »

The idea that the outcome of an alleged skill-based competition should be MASSIVELY warped by equipment penalties is bizarre and unthinkable in other games. Magic is the only game I can think of that has such a bizarre rule. Wizards should change it.

Dig the sports equipment analogy.

Re-reading his article today, it looks like he hadn't shuffled and presented. He was filling out paperwork before the match. Had he presented, it would make much more sense to say 'Pattern visible- GL'.

But woulnd't not giving the GL for a visible pattern encourage some players to push the envelope and try to get this advantage? Perhaps they already do, and the incident will draw attention to them.

(EDIT: Hmm..thought I quoted one of the psoters saying the event was streamed.)

Really?

I play at G&S and have never seen streaming gear, and I was just in there on my way to work to buy sleeves and a deck box and didn't see any new kit in the play area.

This was in the spoilers today: is the effect strong enough on Turn 4+ for the W/b decks?

I feel like there are other cards that do this cheaper, but can't recall what atm.

How close do the W/b decks get? Would dripping this and then windbrisking a spectral procession seal the deal some number of games? (Do the Wb decks run Windbrisk..forgot to checck)

Cliffhaven Vampire - 2WB
Creature - Vampire Warrior Ally (Uncommon)
Flying
Whenever you gain life, each opponent loses 1 life.
"My people are no longer slaves to the Eldrazi, beholden to the past. We will determine our own future."
2/4

Magic will never be a full on LCG like Netrunner or Dominion or w/e, but could a hybrid option work going forward?

For example- could WotC develop a 'core set' each block that can be purchased as a playset with add-on cards only available by booster, which could include premiums of the core set?

Perhaps the commons are the core, and Pauper becomes a tangible, realistic way to access the game, and the uncommons and rares are distributed by boosters, with commons in there just like now.

Limited- nothing changes
Standard- nothing changes
Pauper- buy the current block box at...$40 for playset? 60 for a big set, 40 for a small?

When siding in Wrath of God, what changes in play strategy?

Do you go more for control, holding back creatures and only playing to gain a little life and chump block? Or do you just push for the win regardless and bomb the board if needed, maybe getting lucky and dropping something big off Windbrisk after a 2nd main phase Wrath?

If you're looking at getting a pair and are considering a drop of $5 per, I'd say go for it- if 2 get you over the hump, what do you gain going 3-0 a couple times? I'm guessing enough value (packs or store credit) to make it worthwhile.

I say that as a budget minded player who has gone weeks playing inferior cards to save 5 or 10 bucks while upgrading.

@Bob: where are you on Mentor of the Meek? Too easy to remove? Too expensive or unreliable to activate?

He's the budget option recommended if you don't have Rangers for the base list, and I was considering a 2-2 split on them.

What is the obsession with Sol Ring? I see it keep coming up in these discussions at every website.

The Urza lands will be the same way, but I don't see them mentioned at nearly the same frequency.

Actually, I don't see that card mentioned in this thread.

The decks splashing Black do it pretty lightly. Is there room in those for another off-color dual?

Night's Whisper looks better- only 2 mana for the most likely effect of Painful Truths (draw 2, pay 2 life).

ADD: and what do you cut for it?

The Emeria land seems really sketch with only 9 Plains (if I counted right). The Windbrisk seem dicey to fire- not sure how often you'll be swinging with 3 or more. I think it's too thin on White sources coming in untapped to hit WWW casting costs regularly. I think the mana base is trying to do too much.

Avoiding Serra ascendat and going more towards the stock/traditional sisters will be plenty competitive. I'd probably move 1 or 2 o-rings to the board and swap in some raise the alarm or secure the wastes...something to make Windbrisk fire and give you surprise lifegain.

Your comment about life as a resource led me to search "Pay Life" on W/B cards in Modern to see if there is anything useful that may have been overlooked in the efforts to ramp life up for Serra Ascendant.

Keeping in mind I am still learning the Modern format:

[[Killing Wave]] looks like it could be interesting as a possible board wipe (and [[Return to Ranks]] right behind could be nasty, if thats the graveyard respawn card I'm thinking of)
[[Nihilistic Glee]] could refill a hand later in the game with its Hellbent ability
[[Plague of Vermin]] interacts neatly with Sisters, but is expensive and probably 'too cute'
[[Plunge into Darkness]] again with some kind of recursion could be wild

Just a bit of a brain dump, but perhaps one of these or something I didn't list (I think 88 cards came up, but re-searching in only Black would narrow it down due to reminder text) would be useful?