MTG Salvation

I think 6 loyalty is the protection. The looting is good value, and the second +1 will push through damage or act as removal. Big fan of the card, but not a big fan of running 3 walkers, even though they all fit into different shells.

I ran two different Geddons until I found a Ravages for like $40 soon after the Judge foil hit. It was fine.

I'm off Looting and back on Sleight of Hand. The card disadvantage is already real when playing Force, plus extra blue cards feels good. We also do have a mana sink in Hexdrinker to make use of the extra lands Wrenn gets.

Moreover, the Wrenn and Six ultimate is super fun and not all that difficult to achieve in grindy games. You either win very soon with Bolts, or you get to do sweet stuff like pitch a land to counter a spell. I've also found a pair of Magmatic Sinkhole to be very good. I'm off Tarfire for now because Wrenn is filling some of that role, and there are more things Sinkhole kills that Tarfire doesn't touch. Think walkers, Thing, TKS, etc.

I had the Delver pseudo scry feth loop going with Wrenn and Six last night, the first time I ever cast it. Cool effect as it marches up to emblem.

I'm going to try out 2 Looting for next week. I'll be down to 24 blue cards, and becausebim playing a set of Forces, I don't want to go lower.

The only real mana intensive play in my build is Hexdrinker, but even then I only need 5 lands to be able to cast it and having it swing at level 8 next turn.

Quote from CatParty »

My faith in this deck is restored, though it was against a sampling of 2 decks. What this deck really could use is a Nerset in the sideboard to bring in against decks that go really long like UW Control. That deck shuts down if they can't draw more than once per turn, and we need her dig ability to find answers that can close the game - like Lightning Bolt.

I asked in the discord about Cindervines against UW, but you answered my question here. Good to know.

And for Narset: I'm running one in the board for now, though I have had 2 in the past. I think it's great against UW because the static messes up some of their sequencing. It's hard to tell because it's not actively countering anything. But I think it's great as an engine they can't just answer. UW has a very hard time against it. Phoenix can burn it, but you just cast it and don't activate it right away and then they have to use 2 spells on it. You can activate it when you untap and have the mana to protect it.

Quote from Mikefon »

You did play against the best decks for W6 to shine. I'd like to know how they perform in other MUs. Glad that we have another option though.

True, true. GDS and Jund are both decks where a card advantage engine helps out a ton, like Huntmaster in the older builds. Other decks you want that kind of engine are any flavor of Control or midrange. But you also want the card against go wide creature strategies. The fact that you've got both of those on the same 2 mana card that doesn't die to most easy removal and also wins the game if they cant deal with it is huge to me.

You know how sometimes decks play Grim Lavamancer from the side to deal with small creature decks? Wrenn and Six is like that stapled to Dark Confidant, and you get to choose the most relevant mode each turn, and it activates right away, and it doesn't die to Bolt if you don't want it to. I get that it doesn't flip Delver, but at some point the raw quality of the card overcomes the being slightly off plan.

I'm also debating swapping my Sleight of Hands for a pair of Faithless Looting. I've thought about the swap for a while but have been hesitant to lessen the number of blue cards. But I think I can balance it, and the extra selection combined with the synergy with W6 might make it worth a swap.

Agreed on Hexdrinker being a 4cmc creature against W6 decks.

Played 2x Wrenn and Six tonight, and it was great. Went 1-2-1 overall, which isn't great, but the losses were in very close games against Dredge and Jund. The draw was against a very slow GDS player after a G2 where I ulted a W6, had Blood Moon out, but couldn't find a Bolt to retrace for a long time. G3 got 2 turns in before they called turns. I was in okay shape and it was 50/50.

Not going to bother with a full report on a lackluster night, butI'll say this. You know how Jund runs you out of resources? How would you like to have 5 cards in hand, with 5 lands on board, plus a Goyf and planeswalker on turn 5? Because that's where I was at. I think W6 is the engine we've been waiting for, and all we have to do to play it is ditch 2 flex instants / sorceries anyway. In exchange, we get a machine gun against x/1s, never miss a land drop, and a win con on a different axis. It's great.

Fry is definitely better at killing walkers. Obviously it's narrow, but it does that job plus acts as hardnosed removal for Humans, Thing, and Spirits, too.

Have you played with Hexdrinker? I find it just replaces all the 4cmc threats we've all played in the board, and is something we want anyway as a 1 cmc threat. Off the top in a grindy game, it just wins. But you can also cast it early and chip in for damage, and they have to deal with it before it levels out of control.

I'm with you on Hazoret. It's great against Jund and Rock, but very marginal against the Celestial Colonnade decks, and outside of those matchups, I never found myself bringing it in.

I think Hexdrinker does everything you want against the grindy matchups, but is also very solid in the linear matchups. And you can play 4 of them, and cast them starting turn 1. Hexdrinker has totally changed how the UWx matchups play, and so I don't find myself wanting that extra creature threat from the board. Instead, I'm playing a Narset as a different angle of attack that also has utility against Phoenix, Storm, etc.

I find Burn to be a little stressful. If they're on the creature plan, you want a Goyf asap. You always want counters. I let through pretty much all Lava Spikes unless they're lethal, and try to counter any Searing Blaze blowouts and Helix if I can help it.

Eidolon is really rough on us and difficult to beat once resolved.

Meanwhile, I went 4-1 in a league with this:



Same as my paper deck, except the Traps are Surgicals in paper. Here's what I said in the Discord:

Round 1: Lost to E Tron 1-2. I cast Moon and cut myself off green early, had some Bolts and a Force for the inevitable planeswalkers, but after surviving the first two little Ugins, I lost to the Karn I didn't have an answer for. Actually, I lost to the Expedition Map that found him Wastes to unlock his hand. Rough matchup.

Round 2: Beat Scales 2-0. I think this is secretly one of our better matchups. Forced an Animation Module G1 backed up by pressure and Bolts to clear the way for Goyf. G2 I kept 2 lands,, Abrade, Return to Earth, EE, Bolt, and Tarfire, figuring I'd run opponent out of threats and find one soon. Worked great. Goyf and an EE on 0 held off a huge Hangarback Walker while Hexdrinker got ulted and swung uncontested for the last 6.

Round 3: Beat Rock 2-1. Had a grindy G1, but as always, their Goyfs are just better than ours. And the card I lost to was Spawn of Mayhem, of all things. Opponent must have been trying it as a random 4 drop in the spot they usually use for Kalitas. Flample is real. G2, they discarded a Hexdrinker and Goyf, but I had a third one and they flooded out. They Field of Ruined my red source, I Bolted down to 6, and they scooped. Prematurely, to me, but whatever. G3 I kept 2 lands, 2 Delvers, and a Hexdrinker. Delver flipped early and lived, I Bolted a Scooze and Leaked another, and after I got a Goyf out, they scooped when I flashed in a naked Snapcaster to eat a Liliana edict. Untap, attack, Bolt for lethal.

Round 4: Beat UW 2-1. G1 I didn't have enough disruption for their stuff, and they ended up with a flipped Search, Narset, and Jace ticking up. Drew lands, even when shuffling after the Jace activation, and scooped in the interest of time. G2 was quicker, when I got down a Delver that flipped T3, hit twice before eating a Path. Veil of Summer was huge here, forcing a Goyf through a Mana Leak or Spell Snare. Narset was quite good for me, too. G3 was more of the same, except Veil just cycled in response to Snap-Path. Punted a thing: opponent has two Snaps out, I've got a Goyf and a Narset. They swing to put me lower on life than they were and cast Timely. I had 2 Bolts and could've basically countered it. Fry was great as it tagged a Baneslayer. I won with the one Tarfire I left in after a Path I couldn't answer.

Round 5: Beat Jund 2-1. G1 I just got Junded. Seems to happen at least once a round against this deck, where they Thoughtseize your most important card, Push your threat, and land Liliana uncontested. G2 I don't much remember, but it was over when I flashed in a naked Snapcaster to eat the Liliana edict (apparently a favorite play against BGx) and swung back with a Bolt to the face. G3 was similar, except it involved me countering an Abrupt Decay with Veil of Summer. More than anywhere else, that card is great here. It's good against UW but it's straight up Cryptic Command here.

I'm going to trim a Vapor Snag and something else to try out a pair of Wrenn and Six in paper in a week and a half, but overall I've had really good luck with this list. I'm 13-8 in matches I've paid for, both paper and this league, and a lot of that is dragged down by an awful night at the LGS where I went 0-4, including the hugest combat math punt of my Modern career. The point is: the deck feels like it has some legs.

I'll be testing Wrenn and Six in a week and a half. Very optimistic. They shore up two hard matchups: go wide aggro and the decks that force a longer game. Am going to try a pair to start, replacing probably a Tarfire and a Vapor Snag to start.