MTG Salvation

I played with Sanity Grinding a while back, using a bunch of the super high hybrid mana stuff such as Ghastlord of Fugue, but was not able to make it work. If you can, that would be lots of fun.

Lately, I've been toying with Death's Shadow, Unearth and Altar of Dementia.

Seems like a great mid to late game blocker that allows us to control the damage we take, and then might be the final nail in the coffin to bury them. The newly legal Unearth allows us to replay it for the same cost.


Paired with the normally run Snapcaster Mage and/or Mission Briefing, three times just might be the charm.

A deck with this may consider going Esper, because Teferi, Time Raveler's +1 gives so many opportunities to do janky things like block with Death's Shadow, sac it to Altar, Unearth it, block another creature, and sac it again. Meanwhile, they are blocked from responding.
The -3 can be a lifesaver in a spot of bother to get Snapcaster or Death's Shadow back.


In the same vein, Hunted Horror also becomes a power play.

We need Snowboro, Palace in the Blizzard for sure!

New Hedron Crab!

Iceberg Cancrix


Let the UB mill rejoice! Replace your basics with Snow, and go to town!

I'm having a really hard time seeing the utility of Blast Zone. You have to tap 2 mana AND BZ to put a counter on it. Then to activate it, you have to tap 3 mana and BZ.

If all you are doing is getting Blast Zone online, methinks you are dead. Blast Zone strikes me as a mana sink for control decks that want to react to your actions. That's not Mill. Even if you never add a counter to it, and just activate it for all the 1 drops, that's still not happening before T4. By then, cards like Aether Vial have loaded the Humans board, Noble Heirarch has ramped sufficiently, and it's more Ensnaring Bridge that is called for. Engineered Explosives or one of it's related cohorts might be better for what you need. Barring that, you have Fatal Push or Ensnaring Bridge to lock out their creatures. If you need aught else, 2 copies of Spell Pierce, Force of Negation or some other counter of your preference will be the order of the day. Hell, if it's Karn/Lattice you fear, just put 4 Hurkyl's Recall back into the sideboard.

With Modern Horizons looming, there are 3 cards on my watch list.

Rumor has it that Horizons will promote tribal strategies of Goblins, Elves and Merfolk. Some even think, due to a comment by MaRo recently, it may also have Faeries. If so, we can expect Cavern of Souls to rise sharply, and become a strong competitor with Scalding Tarn for most expensive land/card in Modern.

Secondly, with Neoform threatening to be a T1 or T2 deck, Surgical Extraction will become even more necessary. That could also spike yet again to as much as $100 a card. If you do not have your playset for mill yet, I'd jump on it. Expect Extirpate to also see a rise to even greater heights. There are some other lesser options people may look to such as Lost Legacy, Sadistic Sacrament and Bitter Ordeal, but these are truly not optimal. They may see increase in use in sub-optimal builds, or niche cases.



Last card that has been mentioned to keep an eye on is Spell Pierce. It is noted it kills an amazing number of key cards on T1. Mox Opal, Aether Vial, Amulet of Vigor, and the list continues. About the only key cards it does not hit are mana dorks like Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise. It even continues working past T1 with Engineered Explosives type threats. Basically, it kills the non-creature curve.

Counterspell is widely considered a lock to be included in Horizons, so you may want to pick up your preferred versions. Force of Will and Daze are often mentioned, but considered unlikely. The format could use Force of Will to combat the super fast decks, but since those were not in the meta when the set was designed, it is almost a 0% chance.

But the most important card for us, is clearly Surgical Extraction and his lil bro, Extirpate. Barring reprints, those 2 could see crushing increases in price if you do not have them.

Spoilers start in ~2 weeks.

Quote from IQglitch »

I’ve also been changing my mentality about how to play surgical extraction in a shell that runs exiling effects. It’s lead me to dig deeper into decks I don’t play in an attempt to understand them better; to understand what cards enable their game plans. Now, I try and focus on stripping out the card you need to get your threats online instead of the threats themselves. It sounds odd, but I feel like it’s forced me to make smarter plays with my surgicals.

I've often wondered about a deck focusing on land removal. Modern runs very few basics. Run Surgical on their Fetchlands, and then hit them with Mind Funeral. Not consistent enough, though. You always run into that mono color deck that ruins your day.

Lately, I'm toying with Chancellor of the Spires.

Is it just me, or is on the play Chancellor into Thoughtseize into Surgical Extraction a really solid play? I get to see ~25% of their deck, and toss something from their hand, even Surgical a land if I am lucky, or nail a key creature or even a wincon.

The problem, of course, is what to do with 4 dead cards in your deck. In 3 weeks, maybe we can pitch them to Force of Will? Who knows?

I like the new Ashiok, Dream Render. It's very good against any deck that uses the graveyard, and decks that run Eldrazi Titans.

Turning off their fetchlands can also be a pretty big deal, but I'd say that advantage becomes negligible on the draw.

The question is, is it better than Crypt Incursion?

Esper is a very common approach. if you search the pages, you'll find a lot of Esper lists.

I recommend starting from the beginning, and reading all 114 pages. It will be a time capsule of the deck, and you can follow as people try new cards out, and how they feel as they keep it or discard it. It will open your eyes to a whole lot of older cards, and probably keep you from wasting time trying stuff we've concluded does not work.



Yes, it's a lot of reading, but it's pretty entertaining stuff.

Ashtrolar, the list of Dimir mill creatures begins and ends with Hedron Crab, Jace's Phantasm, and Snapcaster Mage. Jury is still out on Thing in the Ice.
(Not a fan of Manic Scribe. Not enough impact.)
There is a reason Ensnaring Bridge appears so often in decklists.

It is until you realize you can search for it rather easily with Sylvan Scrying or Expedition Map. It's a 4 of, anyway. You are going to run into it, or, with the new Mulligan rule, you'll mull into it.

Not if you are casting it for free. If only we had a Doubling Season for it....

I suppose Fraying Sanity might pull it's weight now?

It works like Mission Briefing, without the exile part.

Cast Archive Trap, cast Reversal, copy makes them mill 13, then Trap goes back to hand where you cast it again. Mill 13 again. If you Frayed their Sanity, GG.

Not a bad use of 2 mana.

I see it now. T2 image does not pay off till t3, which is much too late. You'd be running Image on T3, and that's not a good move unless you somehow can also play a 2nd Crab and fetch. Even then you are only milling 18, which is not enough on T3, considering you have left no mana open.

So whyn't you run Phantasmal Image?