MTG Salvation

Quote from Zinch »

I don't think the Ballista competes against CB for spots. The Ballista is an artifact in a deck where this attribute is very important. It fights with cards like Executioner's Capsule, Engineered Explosives, Welding Jar: the artifact silver bullets.

I will be testing 1 as I see potential in the card.

That's what I meant, but you worded it way better. I will play 1 as well and keep dumping my hand with collective brutality.

I am not sure if walking ballista is fighting with collective brutality for room in this deck.

If we go off the bridge plan, then the discard mode of Collective brutality is suddenly irrelevant instead of an upside and the modes suddenly become vastly more expensive as we're less willing to pay the price.

Fatal Push is going to be great, no doubt about it, but this card can be recycled and tutored and is going to be great to kill the X/1's of the format, sometimes netting you an X for 1 even. (This is probably the most often used mode of Collective Brutality; kill target x/1). Fatal push can be saved for the tarmagoofs etc.

I think it shares space with removal, just like collective brutality does, just like fatal push does. Before we played Dismember, Abrupt Decay, Smother, Go for the Throat, all kinds of junk. We can now probably reduc that to 4 fatal push, a number of collective brutalities and probably one walking ballista.

Testing time I suppose.

Metallic Rebuke looks really good for this deck at first glance, but ultimately we are a tap-out control deck due to Ensnaring Bridge. It feels really, really bad to hold your counterspell in your hand when your opponent keeps not casting anything and just plinking you to death with 1-2 blinkmoth nexuses. Maybe Bridge is not the answer for every game anymore, but I feel, while the meta is so aggro (and I think it will remain aggro for a bit) it is immensely strong. I haven't decided yet.

Maybe in the sideboard when we side out our bridges anyway (i.e. 'combo' decks like storm/Ad Nauseum/cheeri0s/Tron) this can be a very powerful card allowing us to develop our board while keeping our shields up. It is hard to combat the top deck -that is generally why I run 2 spellskites as sacrificial fodder.

The 3/3 Treasure keeper is trash for this deck imo - we don't really rock creatures that are just there to fight and replace themselves (except Glint nest crane, but he flies) and we really do not need more 4 drops.

Still very excited for the Walking Ballista though; removal that you can slowly load up in our many stalled out games that even represents a wincon if they let it, it is basically removal-proof because you'll just unload in their face, it is recyclable with academy ruins. I really like this card.

So far, I like Fatal Push and Walking Ballista a lot and metallic rebuke is cool but maybe not for this. Cannot wait to test

Im waiting for the rest to drop to really get brewing, but I am fairly certain I'm going to drop the chalice heavy build and work with fatal push and discard. Yaheeni's expertise will see play I think and I think that Ballista Triskelion might be worth checking out. Easy casting cost, easy to load up (how often do you sit behind a bridge, both topdecking, especially G1?) so you can shoot. Recycable artifact. Better than hangarback in this deck since it can act as straight up removal for 2 (colorless even) for a lot of creatures.

I think the Ballista can be a very good card in this deck.

Maybe something like:

Might be sweet G2 out of the sideboard when they expect an ensnaring bridge game, but honestly, 3 mana (and a card) to make a single 5/5 out of something isn't something we're that interested in if we're playing Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas -since he is the source of that repeatable effect (+others on the same card).

Going to say that Standard BU artifacts will be sweet as hell though.

I think the colorless land that becomes a city of brass/mana confluence if you control an artifact will do fine instead of glimmervoid. I have had the downside come up a few times (but always in games I was down already, it was just extra icing on the *****cake so to say), and I use it as a colorless land 80% of the time regardless. Worth testing.

Fatal Push can replace all the removal we packed before and makes the Chalice=1 plan not as good G1 as it was before. I think I will play more discard and fatal push maindeck and go into chalices G2 against certain decks. Fatal Push is going to be great. Whir of innovation does a thing we are already solid at (finding the artifact you need) for a very difficult cost (UUU) and the space of a card -Our other search enables also do other work (Tezz wins, Glint Crane blocks, Inventor's Fair gains life). I am not a fan of that card in Modern.

I am super happy we got 1 mega playable that shores up a lot of matchups.

I don't think we need any cards that cost mana and a card and do not do anything unless they're turned into creatures by tezzeret. I do not believe vehicles are for this deck.

I'd play a trinket mage over a trophy mage. The 3 drop artifacts that we want we just play 4 off because bridge is great. All the silver bullets are 1 drop. But between Glint nest crane, Tezz and inventor's fair, we've got the searching down pat.

Still like battle for the bridge & Yahenni's <<whatever, just give me the free 3 drop to a wrath>>.

Yup, adds absolutely 0 to the deck. We don't need to ramp beyond 4; we make 5/5's way easier with previous Tezz. His removal is okay but I am not paying 4 mana for conditional removal that anti-synergizes with the main tezz/win con.

This guy doesn't have a place in this deck, but I suppose I should play standard.

Blood Moon and Ensnaring Bridge attack different things. Blood moon attacks their resources and bottlenecks them from deploying anything. Ensnaring Bridge just deals with whatever they have deployed. blood moon can be stronger because it prevents spells and ETB abilities from destroying your bridge. However, it only slows them down, it does not stop them. A Bridge will single-handedly stop a creature based assault and people's board state becomes irrelevant until they deal with the bridge. However, there are ways to deal with bridge, and then their entire board floods you. They're different.

Ghirapur Aether Grid is great - it lets you convert your continuous artifacts (;)) into damage sources. It is also a card type they do not expect to deal with (though a lot of things kill artifact OR enchantment). shooting snapcasters, pinging EOT is all great. That's why I have great hopes for this upcoming [[Improvise]] mechanic. I think the battle on the bridge will be excellent because of this. (You can overtap to gain more life which can be significant. I see this as a GREAT card in a burn matchup. Kills Eidolon without killing you.)

Quote from Curundil »

Thought about swapping one or two of my six targeted discard spells (two each of Thoughtseize, Inquisition and Collective Brutality in the main deck) for Harsh Scrutiny. Thoughts?

While it desn't necessarily improve the difficult match-ups, and is nearly useless against Dredge, it seems reasonable against Infect, Zoo, Burn (Eidolon!), Jund and Affinity, among others. Plus, when it misses (and more so when it hits), the Scry 1 is a real pay-off turn 1 and even later in the game. It's basically "pay B, look at target opponent's hand, scry 1" with the possible benefit of hitting a creature. In my current Infect-heavy meta it seems worth considering.

I dismissed the card earlier this year, but now I find myself re-considering. Is it too narrow? Hitting a creature T1 can be nice, and even when our opponent is empty-handed in the later game, we still get the scry. Or is a split of stronger discard like Inquisition plus Serum Visions just better in any scenario? Scrutiny helps set up draws without clogging our hand, though, if we already have bridge running.

We are generally strong against creatures already. I think you should use the few slots you have for targeted discard to kill their answers preemptively//to deal with things you cannot deal with otherwise.


Akalah > Maybe we can play less rocks if this Improvise mechanic is as great as we all dream. Currently, this is pretty good since you can use your relic of progenitus, torpor orb, bridges, chalices, thopter foundry, sword of the meek - to pay for this.

No, the intro pack one is garbage, for sure, but I was just suggesting that his abilities and colors are kind of hopeful for the 'real one'. I think you are right in that they will not reprint Tezzeret, and I don't think they'll ever reprint PW in story sets. It's like Hasbro rereleasing the original G1 transformers line in the middle of the current movie as the tie-in toys.

Battle at the Bridge is going to be sick sideboard removal. That lifegain is real and a dismember+ for B with lifegain rider will be incredible for us vs Burn, Jund & All aggro decks as it will allow you to drop your pieces and still remove a creature cheaply and rebuy some more time with the life.

That whole improvise mechanic will be pretty amazing in our deck. Maybe we can drop the mana rocks more and just rely on that. Would be amazing. Grab the 0 drop darksteel relic as another (indestructible) mox opal.

Not sure about any vehicles.

However, the Intro Deck PW Tezzeret has A) UB so that looks promising. B) -3 opp. loses life equal to artifacts C) +1 artifact tutoring ability. I think we might either get an Agent of Bolas Reprint or a card that will do similar things. I'm really curious now.

T3 Damnation or Tezzeret AOB. Artifact count uptick. Disposable 5/5's