MTG Salvation

Sorry about this post and how unorganized it is... this is kinda how I build decks I go throughout gatherer and try to find all the somewhat viable cards for my idea and then go through and find what I want. Finding everything took a while so I didn't have much time to go back and go give good descriptions will be trying to get that done tonight.

Edit: semi updated will still go back and take out some cards that are taking up space and will update with new spoilers.

So with the newest set here is a deck that uses a few cards from previous sets that never saw much play, but I think that they can be put to use in this deck. This deck's goals are to control your opponent while you get lands into your graveyard so that you can get a huge advantage by using Splendid Reclamation to get them all back into play.

I think Hazoret's Favor is good for leave the battlefield effects (Matter Reshaper, Treasure Keeper, Solemn Simulacrum, etc). It's nice because it will help act as a psuedo sac outlet, helps with haste, and can let you get those last points of damage in throughout a game. Since it's an enchantment it might also avoid a lot of removal from your opponents if your meta doesn't run a lot of enchantment hate.

With my deck I have found myself running around 5-8 enchantments just because they can sit out on the battlefield and provide me with immense amounts of value throughout the game. My opponents most times can find answers to my creatures but not for those few pesky enchantments that'll let me get right back into the game. When I look at hazoret's favor I see a card that if I land it turn 3 it can let me get an additional 10 damage throughout the game, while providing haste, and possibly letting me reuse etbs. So I'm definitely gonna try it out in my deck and see how it plays.

Combat Celebrant is very interesting. I want to slot him in to see how many different ways I can get him to go infinite. Sadly he is a human so he won't be going infinite with mike. The only thing I don't like about him is that he doesn't untap himself when you go to take an extra combat he only untaps all other creatures, but cloning him makes it really funny.

As for Arcbound Ravager I recently got a masterpiece of it and don't have a deck to try it in. So I'm going to count how many artifact creatures I have in my deck and most likely slot it in.

Hey there guys a little while back I posted a comment about Indomitable Creativity and if it has a place in this deck or not. After a few weeks of playing with it in I think it 100% deserves a spot in this deck. I have been able to use it around 5 times in these few weeks and every time I got it in hand getting the triple red wasn't to hard to do (I am running nearly all fetches, shocks, and a few lands that tap for any color). Whenever I used it I would normally have marchesa out and 1-2 creatures and all had +1/+1 counters on them so for x=3 I would get to have all the creatures I killed re enter the battlefield so more etb triggers, and I would get 3 creatures (40ish creatures and like 8 artifacts in my deck) from my library out into play which would just double my boardstate. You can also pay one more into it to snipe someones commander dead and in my meta a lot of my players aren't very creature good stuff deck so they normally get a mana rock, or some value creature, but not normally a big crazy creatures like blightsteel or anything. So I think you guys should take a second look at this card and test it out in your deck.

I have made a waste not deck, but it isn't quite prison since there isn't many ways of keeping your opponent off of options for long. I don't know there just needs to be cards that can help these strategies.

Hey what about having a blue splash build using Baral, Chief of Compliance. Having stuff cost 1 less can really help you get those Diabolic Tutors and Seasons Past fire off quicker, and let you drop your hand faster after a seasons past so that you can clear more targets before repeating the loop.

I think that one problem frontier suffers from is that for a multitude of different archetypes they are very close to becoming good, but are missing some vital keys for success (ex. Waste Not not having any good wheel effects in frontier). In modern a lot of these archetypes can become viable because they have the card pool and just a lot of good alternatives to put in their decks. I feel that frontier just needs to start earlier like RTR or Theros. I feel that you either need to have the start point further back or wizards needs to be more active in printing more supplemental cards for these strategies to become viable. You can always wait for them to print these types of cards, but frontier might not get off the ground because a lot of decks don't have their needed cards and people don't feel like waiting for these cards to come out.

I would say I get salty from time to time. In my playgroup we had a guy who for the longest time only had a Zur the Enchanter deck that had very few win cons (like 2-3). His deck was pretty budget, but he had a good few pillowfort/stax cards. These cards weren't like backbreaking stax, but they were really irritating (Blind Obedience, Leyline of the Void, etc).
One night I decide to play my Marchesa deck with my playgroup and since his zur deck is his only deck he plays that. Opening hand has a few pieces to get my game plan going (sac outlet and some draw), and after we all keep the zur player drops a Leyline of the Void. my deck is pretty much shutdown from doing the fun stuff that the deck is supposed to do. I'm a wee bit salty because he says his opening hand was terrible (misses t3 land drop), and he only kept to screw me over (being the only graveyard deck at the table).
I decide to go straight after him claiming the way for me to play a good game is to kill you so I send all my attacks at him (with my 45 creature filled deck). Funnily enough after I kill him I happen to draw my combo the next turn that requires me to be able to use my graveyard (buried alive(grimgrim, kikijiki, anger)+necrotic ooze). My whole playgroup is then salty at me for gunning for the zur player then comboing off as soon as he is dead.

Is what I did wrong? I mean my deck doesn't have a lot of enchantment hate so the best form of removal I had was player removal. Then for the rest of the night I was sharked for that. I feel that getting sharked for that was a little uncalled for when the main reason I went after him was that I wanted to play my deck and the zur player kept that hand just to prevent me from doing that.

So I've been toying with the idea of an improvise deck using Inspiring Statuary, Endless One, and Sanctum of Ugin. The idea is to be able to play big eldrazi by just tapping out my artifacts and then cracking the sanctum to get another eldrazi to try to end the game.



This is basically what I feel the core of the deck is going to be but I want to fit in some removal in this list and I don't know what I should remove to make space for it. Also any suggestions on card alternatives would be highly appreciated.

---

Welcome to the Theft Fest

---

So I had this idea of making a tempo-esq deck to where you turn Kari Zev's Expertise and Wrangle into really cheap Slave of Bolas. You can make this possible with sac effects like Yahenni, Undying Partisan, Defiant Salvager, and Stitcher's Graft. This deck is made to kill most of your opponent's creatures while leaving some goodies left for you to steal and then remove to your sac effects while getting some damage in.

So why would you want to play this deck? Well do you like playing tempo? Do you like playing with your opponent's cards? Do you like seeing your opponents face when your steal their creatures, hit them in the face, and then sacrifice their creature? If you answered yes to these questions then this deck should be for you.

---

Removal

---

This deck plays a good removal package to deal with your opponents irritating creatures that either aren't steal worthy or when you don't have your sac outlet out yet. The removal package includes:

• Harnessed Lightning: This is in here as a 4 of because it is the one of the most reliable removal spell in standard right now while still being very cheap at 2 cmc. It is the most reliable because it can deal with creatures with toughness 3 or less with only the energy the card provides, and with our Glint-Sleeve Siphoners, Aether Hubs, and Glimmer of Geniuses it helps it kill even beefier targets. Also if we kill 1-2 toughness creatures it will net us energy to feed glint sleeves, aether hubs, and future harnessed lightnings.
• Fatal Push: We play this in our deck as a 2 of because it is a good removal card for targets with low cmc and getting revolt is also not too hard with our sac outlets. We have 2 more in sideboard for when we play against mardu vehicles and other decks to where this is just a cheaper unlicensed disintegration.
• Unlicensed Disintegration: We play this as a 2 of because it is a solid instant speed removal spell that can sometimes bolt our opponent or their planeswalker.
• To the Slaughter: It is in here as a 1 of because there are quite a few situations having a sac outlet just isn't what you need, but it is in here because having it to take care of random eldrazi, random Planeswalkers, or other hard to remove creatures. We also run 1 more in sideboard for those matchups to where you need to have an answer to these pests.

---

The Theft

---

Now then let's move onto what the deck is really all about... Stealing your opponent's stuff!

• Kari Zev's Expertise:Once everything was spoiled everyone said that this was the weakest expertise(it kinda is :P), but this deck is about beating our opponents in the face with their own crud so why not run an act of treason that lets us drop a 1 or 2 drop from our hand for free which could be a wrangle and steal two of their creatures for the price of one. We run this as a 3 of because getting it once or twice is nice, but we need our other components for this card to work best.
• Wrangle:This card is a cheaper act of treason with a slight downside, but it still makes this card very good even beyond that slight downside. We run this as a 3 of because it is cheap and can combo with our expertise.
• Confiscation Coup:We only have 2 in sideboard because we don't want to be playing a very expensive card in the main board that often not have good targets to use this on. It is still good for matchups where your opponents have some big creatures or artifacts that you want to permanently steal rather than just let go of. This card also goes well with the rest of the energy cards in our deck to help power this up.

---

The Sac Outlets

---

Now for the sac outlets that turn our act of treason effects into kill spells.

• Yahenni, Undying Partisan: We only run 2 in mainboard mainly because she is legendary, and we only need 1 sac outlet to enable the steal and kill. She is good in this deck because she is rather cheap being only a 3 drop, has haste, and grows as we kill our opponents creatures. She is really nice because she can give herself indestructible at instant speed by saccing a creature with no additional costs, but sadly she does nonbo with stealing creatures then killing them because she only gets the +1/+1 counters if the creature is under an opponent's control when she dies. Even then this creature is very solid in this deck.
• Defiant Salvager: This creature is really here for testing as a 2 of. I like it because it is a sac outlet that can sac creatures and artifacts(expertise can steal vehicles, but doesn't crew so this gets around that) and it also grows whenever it sacs anything. Although this card does have downsides being that it can only sac at sorcery speed so that there can't be any combat tricks, and the fact that it doesn't do much else other than sac. If I were to cut this card I would probably slot in maybe 1-2 more yahenni and maybe something else.
• Stitcher's Graft: This card is really great and is in here as a 3 of. The reason this card is so great is that it is really cheap, buffs whatever it equips, taps whatever creature attacks using this, and sacs the permanent(being creature or vehicle) when it becomes unequipped. This artifact combos really nicely with our creatures as well since we run a few creatures with menace. The real only downsides to this artifact is that it has an equip cost of 2 so when you steal something you need additional mana to equip this, and that you need another creature to equip it to afterwards so that it doesn't stay on that creature and your opponent gets the buff. Other than that this equipment is really solid and helps your creatures and the creatures you steal hit like a truck.

---

The Card Draw

---

To keep our hand full we run a good few card draw spells.

• Glint-Sleeve Siphoner: This card is so good i'm amazed that it isn't seeing more play then it is right now and that is why he is a 4 of in our deck. Our deck is full of three drops and having this be a 2 drop really does help(you can also drop him with expertise). This card can have you drawing extra cards as early as turn 3 if you get an aether hub out t1-2 or you play harnessed lightning on t3 upkeep. Along with this guy providing a good amount of card advantage he has menace to sneak in a few points of damage behind your enemies backs. He's also another body that you can have suit up with the stitcher's graft or to transfer it off of one of your opponents creatures. Getting energy to keep this thing going isn't to hard especially since we have 14 cards that provide energy.
• Painful Truths: This is one card that I'm on the fences about. It is really good at refilling my hand, it really isn't hard getting the 3 different colors for this, but I don't know whether I want to play this or Live Fast. Live fast doesn't hurt as much and gives me energy to fuel my glint-sleeves and my harnessed lightnings, but that 1 extra card can matter a lot most times. Live fast also doesn't need 3 colors to do be at its full effect while painful truths does. The last thing is that you can't flash it back with Goblin Dark-Dwellers while you can flashback live fast. I really don't know both seem good, but im running painful truths for the extra card.
• Glimmer of Genius: Great instant speed card draw that lets you dig a bit for the answers/sac outlets/or steal cards that you want if you need them. It also gives 2 energy to help fuel lightnings and energy bobs so there is that too.

---

The Bombs

---

Then all that's left is the big flashback creatures.

• Goblin Dark-Dwellers: This guy is great in our deck as he is a big body with menace that on etb can let us recast any instant/sorcery spell from our grave(except Glimmer and the nonbo painful truths) for free. I'm running 3 right now, but I'm thinking of cutting one for some counterspells
• Torrential Gearhulk: Another great bomb that you can drop at instant speed and flashback any instant in our grave which is most of our removal and glimmer of genius. Just a great card overall, but it costs 6 mana so we're only running 2.

---

Lands

---

Well here are the land explanations

• Aether Hub:Great land that provides energy on etb and can tap for any color so we run 4.
• Smoldering Marsh:A dual land that will most likely be entering untapped past 4. Running 2 so that we don't have many feels bad enters tapped instances.
• Foreboding Ruins:A R/B land that will most likely enter untapped t1-3. Running 2 so that we don't have many feels bad enters tapped instances.
• Wandering Fumarole:A good U/R manland that can at times have stitcher's graft equipped to it in crazy instances also can attack and block pretty well. Only running 2 since it enters tapped and blue is not the most needed color.
• Spirebluff Canal:Good U/R fast land. Only running 2 because we don't want all our late drops to be a turn late because of a tap land.
• Choked Estuary:Nice dual land we can play early game and have it enter untapped.
• Sunken Hollow:Good land we can play tapped either early or have enter untapped late.
• Mountain:We want 5 because we need red pretty bad for our expertises.
• Swamp:We want 5 to be able to consistently get black.

---

Sideboard

---

And finally for the sideboard.

• Confiscation Coup:Explained in theft section.
• Fatal Push:Explained in removal section.
• To the Slaughter: Explained in removal section.
• Negate:A good counterspell that is usable in most strategies, but we really want to throw this in against strategies that a very dependent on their non creature spells, or for a control matchup.
• Radiant Flames:An early boardwipe for possibly 3 damage. Thinking about switching this out for Flaying Tendrils mainly to deal with Scrapheap Scrounger and friends, but being able to get that extra point of damage can be very important. Sadly it nonbos with Goblin Dark-Dwellers while flaying tendrils does not nonbo with it.
• Release the Gremlins:Really the best artifact removal in grixis colors. After removing the artifacts it kills you get some 2/2s that are bodies that can take a stitcher's graft and attack.
• Liliana, the Last Hope:Testing this card out seems really good in a lot of matchups. Can shoot down crew creatures, tokens, and plays really well against control.
• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet:Really good against aggressive decks that can beat through a 3/4 lifelink, and denies Scrapheap Scrounger. Also can on the rare occasion be a sac outlet if you steal an enemy vampire or zombie.

---

Card Alternatives

---

I've talked about these in the specific cards, but just as a recap.

• Live Fast: This card would be swapped in for Painful Truths. The upsides for switching it in: it is easier mana wise, gives energy, and can be used again with Goblin Dark-Dwellers. The downside is not being able to get 3 cards from it. I'll probably test out a mix of these two in the mianboard.
• Flaying Tendrils: In sideboard I'm still not sure about whether to run this or to run Radiant Flames. The upsides to this is that it exiles what it kills which can be really useful in many matchups, and that it can be brought back with goblin dark-dwellers. The downsides is that it can't kill creatures with 3 toughness like how radiant flames can.

Okay so I have Inspiring Statuary, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, and one more untapped artifact out in play. I go to combat and hit my opponent with grenzo using the exile ability on my opponents top card. Let's say that card exiled from their library was a creature and had the mana cost of 1R. Could I then tap both the inspiring statuary and the other artifact to pay for the cost since it says I can use mana as if it were any color or can I just reduce the cost by 1 and then pay a red. I'm assuming the latter of the two, but want to be sure.

Quote from JamesBrine »

I'm recently building a grenzo deck. I've played three games and each found Grenzo underwhelming. The deck does not seem to get going by turn 3-4 at the earliest. If I play turn 1 creature, turn 2 Grenzo I might get a spell for turn 3 from an opponent) but considering most edh decks start at 3 mana my chances of hitting a decent card are minimal. In addition, you need to cast the cards second main. Which seems really bad considering you want to play your cards typical before you attack. What turn does Grenzo begin to shine?

The deck really wants to always play cards, but wants to use your opponents cards to build board advantage so that you don't have to run out of cards in hand. For me most times just having grenzo is enough to be able to practically always get in on your opponent before turn 5 most times (about the time each opponent starts getting creatures out). I think one problem this deck might have is for the metas that you play in. If you're in a meta that revolves around late game plays, doesn't use many mana rocks, and doesn't use many tutors, then I think grenzo needs a different build for those types of metas. On the other hand if you are playing in a meta with people who use mana crypt, mana vault, Demonic tutor, etc, then grenzo should shine. Another thing to keep in mind is what opponents to hit (my meta involves: Mono White Voltron, Leovold steals your stuff, Mayael's big stuff, Zur pillowfort, 4 color non blue good stuff, etc). The decks in my meta all run a good number of mana rocks, tutors, and just commander staples. I know my friends decks pretty well, so I know which decks run good removal, small creatures, big creatures, control effects, board wipes, etc, and with this information I can figure out who is the best opponent to attack and steal from. There still is a lot of luck involved in getting useful cards from your opponents, you will sometimes whiff and you will sometimes get consecutive great hits. Another problem is if your opponents are really heavy in removal and board control then this deck might not be great for that meta, basically what I'm trying to say is that depending on your meta you will need to have a major variation for this deck.

PS: Update for Aether Revolt is done

Have you tested this deck out and if so I wanna know how you feel about having the Merchant's Dockhand feels in the deck, and how having 4 Metallic Rebuke in has been because late game it can kinda feel lack luster, and also maybe run a one of Summary Dismissal or Disallow. Also for sideboard maybe consider 1 or 2 Bastion Inventor because the hexproof can really screw over control centric decks.

Quote from Phone »

Just jumped into this deck. Built it with mono-red draft leftovers, and it performed absurdly well playing 1v1. I haven't had a chance to play multiplayer with it yet, but I was surprised by how well the deck played out. I'm curious if you've played any more games with it?

I have played many games with this deck, but I have around 5 decks that I also play and my other decks have been having a lot more changes recently, so I have been playing those a bit more. In multiplayer though It can be pretty fun, but if you fall behind early you get set back a lot.

Quote from cyberium_neo »

What do you think of Five-Alarm Fire in such a deck?

I don't really like it much in commander in general I mean even having a 5 damage removal spell just doesn't feel like it has much of an impact in the game. This deck prefers to either steal removal from opponents or just say hey opponents you deal with this problem.

Also haven't been keeping up with this thread much since there hasn't been much traffic here and i've been doing a lot of frontier and standard brewing so it's a lil hard to keep up with this deck, but I do feel like doing a revamped decklist one of these days especially since this deck has gotten a lot of interesting cards in the last few sets.

You gonna do an update for Aether Revolt because the set has some really awesome cards for this deck. Scrap Trawler, Aid from the cowl, Treasure Keeper, Walking Ballista, Paradox Engine, Inspiring Statuary, Implement of Ferocity, Implement of Malice are all great cards for this deck in my opinion.