MTG Salvation

Re: Draw_Gone: I'd swap Sweltering Suns for Golden Demise or Yahenni's Expertise and change some of your Mountains for Swamps--it feels like the double-red cost is taxing your mana base. Even with the Aether Hubs, you're at a real risk of not being able to cast Vraska's Contempt or Lost Legacy in a timely manner, and you can be more sure of early black for Fatal Push as well.

As much as I love my Torment of Hailfire variant, I agree it's wise not to count on flipping Azor's Gateway. Five turns on the field adds up to a lot of chances to get blown up, especially in the current meta. Despite the downside, I think it wins out over Treasure Map--we don't need the card draw from Treasure Cove and the ramp payoff from Gateway is obviously superior, if you get there.

I think I'm going to try out a copy of Tetzimoc as a pseudo-sweeper in my version, as there does appear to be some risk of getting overwhelmed by larger creatures if you miss a counterspell. Hoping to bring some version of the deck to a PPTQ in a couple weeks.

I think Azor's Gateway is going to be a lot of fun to play with. I'm still rebuilding my Esper Hailfire list (see the previous page) but I'm thinking two copies each of Gateway, Search for Azcanta, and Treasure Map; that way you have reliable access to some kind of filtering and mana acceleration (both critical if you're going the Torment route) but you don't wind up with dead copies of the legendaries.

I played around with an Esper Hailfire build at GP New Jersey last weekend (ten or so one-off matches between rounds of other events) and was rather happy with it. I didn't come up against any Temur decks but it handled excellently against other control and midrange builds--nothing like Torment of Hailfire on X=12 to ruin someone's day. Went 1-1 in my two matches against Ramunap Red--the win thanks to early Fatal Push, Battle at the Bridge, and a perfectly timed Vona, Butcher of Magan. I suspect I need more life gain in the sideboard to consistently survive that matchup.

It's a work in progress (notably the manabase, which is short a few rare lands) but overall I feel it performs pretty consistently. It can take a while to work up to a winning position, particularly if you're like me and bury all your Gearhulks with Azcanta activations, but it's usually resilient enough to get there. The combination of Treasure Map and Search provides a great ramp into the late game and sidesteps the downsides of running too many copies of Search. It's also great Abrade bait to protect the Gearhulks.

Sideboard remains under construction; so far it's mostly been the typical Negate, Duress, Aetherborn, and so on. Never gotten to use it yet but I've been including a Spell Swindle as a nasty surprise for Approach decks. I also tried out Consign // Oblivion for a while as a Gearhulk target but not sure it's worth a slot.

Quote from MeddlingMage88 »

What does grixis present better than URG in terms of cycle lands?

I'm guessing because you can play two sets (UB and BR) instead of one (GR). I doubt you'd want to run so many of them that it would be a major factor though.

Speaking of which, tried out a Grixis Tower build this afternoon. I definitely need to practice the deck, lost a couple of games due to misplays. Still not sure if it's truly viable, it seems to have a lot of trouble stabilizing without the extra energy from Attune.

I took Temur Tower out for a spin at GPNJ and it just didn't work for me. I still like the idea of Tower, though, so I'll be trying out the following Grixis build next time I get a chance, with fingers crossed for some exciting new additions with Amonkhet. Thoughts?



Still tweaking and working on the sideboard. Looking at a pair of Noxious Gearhulks, a handful of situational counterspells, another 1-2 Radiant Flames and probably 2 Lost Legacy.

Has anyone tried a 4-color Tower build? I'd love to include both Attune with Aether and Fatal Push/Unlicensed Disintegration but I worry it would make the UU costs harder to meet.

Went to GPNJ this weekend and played in the side Standard tournaments. First round I tried out Temur Tower but it wasn't working out so I switched back to Temur Energy for the rest of the weekend. Here's the list I settled on by day 3:



I started the weekend with a lower curve but kept getting blown out by planeswalkers in game 1 so I brought the Skysovereigns back to the mainboard. With the exception of some very frustrating games vs. 4-color Saheeli, I was quite satisfied with the deck's performance. I went at least 2-2 in three of the five tournaments, and could have done significantly better if I'd prepared properly and not misplayed several key games. I played against a ton of Copycat, a few B/R and Mardu aggro decks, two Temur Tower and one G/B Constrictor. Highlights included:
-baiting out a Torrential Gearhulk vs. Tower to include it in a Release the Gremlins
-hitting a Glimmer with the sideboarded Dispel (same match)
-numerous opponents' reactions to me dropping Hellion G2, T3
-G1 use of the mainboard Natural State vs. Heart of Kiran was a lifesaver

I lost my only game against B/G Constrictor so I'm still not sure on that matchup. My only real issue is getting through all the planeswalkers in 4C Copycat; I may need more Negate in the sideboard, probably in place of Heroic Intervention (never used) and Dispel (useful but not critical).

Disappointed to see no changes. I only played in side events at GPNJ but the Saheeli decks were such a pain; they represented maybe half the decks I faced and 80% of my losses. That said, I'm fairly convinced that the problem is the deck, not the combo. The combo is easy enough to break; the problem is that it's extremely difficult to deal with Gideon, Chandra, Tamiyo, etc. while also holding up Shock/Negate/Lightning. A Gideon ban might have done the trick but I'm not sure where that would leave Mardu Vehicles relative to B/G Constrictor.

And this is coming from a deck practically built to kill planeswalkers (Shock, Negate, haste and trample creatures, flying vehicles including Skysovereign). I have to imagine it's even more frustrating for other builds.

I would say Lifecrafter's Bestiary could be valuable in the Jund version as a source of card draw/scry in slower matchups; I haven't tried it out in that context but generally found it redundant in a Temur deck with Rogue Refiner and Jace, Unraveler of Secrets.

I'm currently considering a switch to the Temur Tower build, but I am quite intrigued by the inclusion of Dynavolt Tower as a 2-of as seen above to help level out energy counters and provide some extra burn, as I have had a similar experience of often ending a game with more energy than I know what to do with. Still, I'm not sure it helps in the early game, which is where I've experienced more issues with this deck. Maybe that's just my lack of Heart of Kiran though.

No Pummeler here, and unfortunately no Heart of Kiran, it's outside my budget. I'm fond of Rogue Refiner but I'll acknowledge that blue just may not be the strongest build right now. I'm missing some key cards to make the move to black though (only one Blooming Marsh and Scrapheap Scrounger). I am planning to add more Aethersphere Harvester so maybe that will help.

Brought a Temur version to a local tournament last weekend and am still struggling against RW aggro even with Natural State and Release the Gremlins plus 8-10 burns. Is there any argument for running Chandra's Pyrohelix in order to 2-for-1 Exemplars, Motorists, and Needle Spires? I'm hesitant to go for a sweeper since it hits your own side of the board nearly as hard.

Quote from lugger »

I wonder if there's something to maindecking Metallic Rebukes. People seem interested in playing it out of the sideboard of GB lists.

Unlike Revolutionary Rebuff, it actually hits everything and scales into the lategame better.

I hadn't considered the Metallic Rebuke + Key to the City synergy. Quite nice, especially if you also have a reasonable number of vehicles or 1-2 Lifecrafter's Bestiary. I may have to give that a shot next time I take the deck out.

Some very interesting new options opened up by the new set, particularly in other colors as I see you've all been discussing. Personally, I would favor keeping blue in the deck--I found myself adding more and more blue during Standard Showdown and even post-bannings I think it has great value as a way to answer planeswalkers and remain competitive in the late game. Rogue Refiner looks like a great option as well, especially since I never acquired a full playset of Tireless Tracker. If it turns out that blue is less important than it was, then Jund might be an option, but I'm not sure if the payoff is there in terms of replacing red with black in a GUx version. Harnessed Lightning and Shock are solid and cost-effective removal options; most black removal is more mana-intensive or has drawbacks or limitations. In particular, I feel like Fatal Push might be a trap, at least in the builds I've seen so far, because the deck's only way to reliably trigger Revolt is sacrificing Tireless Tracker's clues.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on Aethersphere Harvester. I was impressed playing with and against it at the prerelease and it fits the deck almost perfectly, especially as a sideboard option against troublesome planeswalkers or aggro strategies. The only downside is that we don't run any 1-power creatures to crew it efficiently, but Servant of the Conduit is a perfectly fine choice that doesn't sacrifice offense. Heart of Kiran also seems quite viable as we have many 3-power creatures to crew with. I don't see myself paying $20 for one when the Harvester is an option though.

The Temur version can counter Emrakul (Ceremonious Rejection) or Aetherworks (Rejection, Negate, etc) and has some ability to beat Emrakul (mostly by bouncing with Jace). Winning before your opponent has a chance to cast Emrakul (in the absence of counters) is definitely harder though.

Rough day for me today. 2-2, first loss was against the same R-W vehicles that beat me week 1 (at least I went 2-1 this time), second to a UB control (first game came down to the wire, just got completely hosed by my deck in the second). Wins against B Eldrazi and UW control. Hard to say if it was the deck, bad luck, or misplays on my part--I identified some minor misplays in retrospect but nothing that I think would have swung any of the games in question. Gideon is still a problem...a second copy of Skysovereign to board in might do the trick if I owned one, or some Fleetwheel Cruisers. Not a lot of extra room in the sideboard though.

On the upside, I managed to recover from an opposing Jace ult in game 1 using the draw power of my own Jace to make up for the auto-countered spells and force through Skysovereign, which he was unable to respond to once it reached play.

Locally, I've consistently beaten and/or placed above the pummeler variants with a Temur midrange build, using blue for counters, Jace, and Woodland Wanderer. The most recent version is back a page, thinking about adding a second Jace this week. However, my meta is almost entirely midrange, which seems to be favorable for my deck; it could be pummeler performs better in more aggro- or control-dominated settings.