MTG Salvation

Diogo37, I have been playing with that same 5-0 list you posted. I don't have any results with it yet (beyond testing in my kitchen table meta); Hogaak has been amazing, allowing very impressive T2 board states. I will be fiddling with some other cards; if anyone has suggestions or experience with it please chime in.

Good suggestion, I tried it out on Xmage vs. the computer opponent for a few games just to see how a few hands played out. My quick take is that it can really be strong: T1 play the Sage, put a Scientist on top to go with the E Sculptor and land you have in hand for the 5-mana T2 play. Also strong is playing it on T3 (or later) when you have a Looter Scooter ready to attack. You look at four cards and pick the one you want to Loot into, play it 2nd main.

(Also note in the "sage before looter" case, you had a 25% chance of getting that nice action card in any case, no Sage reordering needed.)

It definitely reduces the aggro element of the deck: after it does its thing it is just a blue mana rock. I get a lot of damage with the early 1/1 fliers and the Sage can't attack into anything at all. And if you look at 1 action card and 3 lands without a Scooter, you get the action first which is nice but you still have to draw through the three lands before you can hit any more action. I think the card would be stronger in a deck that had fetches, to shuffle the bad cards away on demand.

I will probably try it in some real games, but I think I like the Assistant more: it gets in damage all the time, and Scrying lets you see more cards and bottom the bad ones, rather than just get the good ones sooner.

UPDATE: I ran a couple more games, and it can really enable some of the busted turn 1's that you love. The sequence for a T3 Wurmcoil is pretty precise: You need a creature on both T1 and T2 plus you need three lands and UU on T3.

I had hand: Sage, 2 lands, Architect, Wurmcoil. Sage on T1 allowed me to sequence: E Sculptor top, land next so I would have the T3 Wurmcoil. Something to think about for sure.

Thanks for the decklist. I am going to try a couple Karn, Scion of Urza in the side for control matchups, and one copy of The Immortal Sun for things like Rock and Jund, with planeswalkers and discard. Come to think of it, might be useful in Phoenix as well? Those games go longer sometimes, but probably too slow.

I think I will also try a single Hurkyl's Recall for Whir Prison/Hardened Scales.

I have run the Myr Superion in the past (at one point we renamed the deck "Knuckleheads") but I find they are stranded too often. I don't have the Ensnaring Bridge in paper yet so I can't try it at FNM, but will revisit it after trying out the planeswalkers.

I was away from this deck for about a year but my interest was rekindled by the Dominaria additions: Artificer's Assistant and Traxos, Scourge of Kroog. I've been playing it quite a bit, played side events at Magicfest Toronto and have taken it to a couple local FNMs. I'm a relatively new player to modern but I have been getting a lot of reps in to try and tighten up my play (and learn the meta) and I've really come to appreciate some of the sequencing and interactions that this pile of miscellaneous junk cards turns out. Here are some observations, in no particular order:

• 8 Blue 1-mana fliers are crucial. Both of these cards serve as evasive aggro damage, ramp and special ability (tax or card filtering). Artificer is a huge upgrade; if I have both it comes out before the Wanderer.
• You want all 8 of the 2-mana ramp cards in the deck, and you want one in your opener. They are both great, not quite interchangeable. For example, E Scultor costs less if another one is out but it can't generate the blue for another Sculptor. Chief Engineer always costs two but he permits convoke which can generate the blue for E Sculptor. A common play pattern is: T1: Assistant, T2: Engineer/Sculptor + 2mana Artifact. You can also go T1: Assistant, T2: Scientist + Sculptor, either way you have 5 CMC out on T2.
• Lodestone Golem is awesome, it gives you hope against a Phoenix deck game 1.
• Traxos, Scourge of Kroog is likewise awesome. It doesn't take long with a 7/7 trampler with pseudo-vigilance to close out the game. Minamo is of course amazing with it, but you have a lot of other options to untap it. And after you get it untapped you just need a way to untap it after attacking to have it be 'vigilant'. Multiple times I have just dumped a 0-mana Ballista into the bin just to untap it the turn I play it for defense.
• Smuggler's Copter does serious work on many fronts; they are the card I always want and pretty much never sideboard out. They let your 2-mana ramp guys turn into 3/3 flyers, they survive sorcery-speed removal, they can be cast with the artifact ramp mana, and they filter cards for you. I just can't stress this enough: all ramp decks can suffer from "drawing the wrong half", and the combo of Assistant plus Copter really lets you see cards and be more consistent.
• Throne of the God-Pharaoh is sneaky good. In an aggro race casting that 2nd main for and additional 4 or 5 damage due to tapped creatures for the win in just fun. The opponent will be looking at 1/1 Fliers, a Blinkmoth, Copter and Walking Ballista on 3 thinking, "I'm good, I'll kill him on the backswing." Note you have two ways you can tap creatures without attacking: Grand Architect for blue creatures and Copter for any creature. Copter can tap everyone to crew, including itself; doesn't have to just be one creature. And you can take a blue mana, turn your Ballista blue for a turn, then tap it for 2 mana with Grand Architect for the Throne ping.
• Turning artifact creatures blue for 1 then tapping for 2 with Grand Architect isn't bad; it let's get 1 mana out of them when you don't have the Engineer out to cast something. It is even more relevant when you are looking to put a counter on Ballista end-of-turn. Blue creatures tap for 2, colorless tap for 1 (effectively, if you have the blue mana free).
• Ensnaring Bridge in the side is new tech, I re-read some Zach Elsig comments and he had suggested it. It seems like a very good answer to matchups that were in the past entirely unfavorable: Elves, Merfok, Zoo, basically anything aggro. It works fine on the bigger creature matchups as well. Yes they will have artifact hate game 2, but I find that you don't need it to last that long. We're not looking to lock them out permanently, just to slow them down long enough to either a) kill them or b) put up some serious defense. The deck has good ways to finish them off from under the bridge: 1/1 fliers, Walking Ballista and Throne do the job just fine.
• Thorn of Amethyst is really good right now; I used to have 3 in the side and it made Phoenix that much better. I have had to cut it back due to the need for more pieces of graveyard hate.
• Dismember is also super important in Phoenix matchup. Wish the deck didn't need the sideboard slots for it, but there it is. (Maybe Bridge could make these less necessary?)

Non-Island Lands: note that none of these comes into play tapped.

• Academy Ruins is pretty self explanatory. Board stalled? Cast Ballista for 6, ping it out, get it back again next turn, rinse-and-repeat.
• Blinkmoth Nexus bits of damage here and there, crews, survives a wrath.
• Oboro, Palace in the Clouds probably the most marginal of the utility lands. You can bounce it back to hand for looting with the Copter late game; less often you can use it filter colorless mana for blue to cast something else (float it for blue, tap a Blinkmoth to bounce it back to your hand, replay it for the 2nd blue.
• Minamo, School at Water's Edge Very nice with Traxos. Not a "slam dunk I win" type of interaction, but every once in a while it comes up. One of the things I like about this deck: it feels like a lot of small edges and interactions that add up to something pretty fun.

Some cards I'm considering but just haven't made the cut:

• Sai, Master Thopterist
• Karn, Scion of Urza
• The Immortal Sun

And I've tried of lot other things; it was interesting to read my earlier posts in this thread (I had completely forgotten I'd every posted!). Master of Etherium, Signal Pest : the above list is better I think. Running less than 4 Chief Engineer? No wai! I suppose the single most significant thing I could say is that embracing the Aggro with this list has been the most satisfying. When I'm constantly getting that extra point of damage here and there, the games seem to end up going my way.

Yeah, I hear that. My older son plays Goblins and I dread that matchup. A 1-mana play from the board that holds up the aggro is nice. I am still trying to judge the effectiveness balanced with other cards. I'm getting good mileage out of Chalice of the Void and Ratchet Bomb in those situations right now; would adding more of those cards be better? I dunno.

I'm struggling with the black to get Engineered Explosives up to 2 counters. I know people like it, but River of Tears has pretty much made me cry on more than one occasion (see what I did there!). Turn 3, dying for a blue source as my 3rd land and I draw it, putting off blue spells another turn. Ugh, still testing things out. I like the options.

I'm new to the discussion and have been playing a little with a proxy Mono-U Tron deck to see how it works. I need a lot more reps before I can comment about how well it plays, but I did have one thought re. the Steel Wall.

How about Thing In the Ice as an 0/4 blocker? It costs 2 mana and a blue, but it has a lot of upside. There are a lot of cantrips in the deck and so flipping it is not unrealistic.

Another (admittedly rare application): Flicker a Sun Titan out of the way while you Supreme Verdict.

FNM was very fun, went 3-2. Sideboard is a different than the first list I posted; didn't have a Wurmcoil on hand and was expecting a little more control. It turned out to be the right choice; didn't face any Eldrazi, so the Unified Will over Ceremonious Rejection worked out.

LOSS: Slivers and Merfolk
WIN: Lantern Control, UW Control and Blue Moon

There were a lot of all-stars in the evening, used every card in the sideboard except the graveyard hate. Winning with Throne of the God-Pharaoh through Ensnaring Bridge was particularly rewarding. Won multiple games with Smuggler's Copter.

The Slivers and Merfolk felt very unwinnable game 1, and the sideboard was very little help. Maybe the Aethersphere Harvester would have helped a bit but I never drew it. I'm thinking a couple of Dismember in the sideboard would help.

Other ideas vs aggro would be welcome!

Thanks for the thread and discussion. I bought the pieces for this deck about a week ago and have been running it in my local meta. With admittedly limited reps, here is what I've got and my choices so far:

• The deck is what I wanted: fun to play with interesting choices. Potential to be explosive. Good game in the current meta. Not a Tier-1 pricetag. (I had a set of Walking Ballista already, so that helped.)
• I played for a while using the 8-birds and 4-ofs for the rest of the creatures, plus the 2 Throne of the God-Pharaoh. The 1-drops were split 4 Wanderer / 2 Signal Pest / 2 Judge's
• Lack of removal in G1 was really hurting me. I've decided to add my "removal package" -- Trinket Mage and Basilisk's Collar -- to the main deck. Sure it is slow and clunky to get the collar on a ballista, but if you can chump for a turn or two it really works out.
• I wanted one big "payoff" for game 1. I'm working with Myr Battlesphere right now, the call being that I'm more likely to see Path to Exile than a bunch of Wraths.
• To make room, I dropped 1 bird (and converted the other to a Judge's Familiar), 1 Lodestone Golem and 1 Chief Engineer.
• Dropping a 2-mana ramp was a hard choice. The Engineer lost out because a) he can't be ramped himself with either method (other Engineers or the Architect); b) his ramp effect doesn't stack; c) he's not buffed by the Master; d) he doesn't grow the Master's base power/toughness.
• Throne is really great. Getting one out early makes such a huge difference in almost every matchup, esp. if you are racing.
• Some people have cut the Master of Etherium, but in my (limited) experience that's not the way to go. Yes it is a 3-mana card, but just a single blue. It can be ramped by either means and it plays well with the Architect. More on the battlefield is just better. And, perhaps most important to how things play out for me, they buff the Smuggler's Copter. The looting plus evasive damage early and often is a lot of pressure. Unanswered 'scooters are a big problem, making them a 4/4 or a 5/5 just adds to the pressure. The Architect has to spend a mana to buff them; the Master does it all the time.
• I liked the Signal Pest a lot, it is an artifact, but a few things make it get the axe for me. a) It is not blue, and can't be used to 2-CMC ramp with Architect; b) doesn't crew copter by itself; and c) can't tax an opponent's spells.
• 7 1-drop tax spells that can crew the 'scooter helps out much more often than I would have thought. Yes the Golem is a tax all the time but it got the cut down to 3-of because its base cost is so much higher. Yes you can ramp it in often, but it is often competing with other cards as a turn 3 or 4 play. I sideboard in the Thorn of Amythest when I need more tax. And when I need more, I usually need it faster as well.

Those are my thoughts; comments welcome. The deck is going to FNM tomorrow, hopefully I can give a report.

I've been testing some with Ponza, thanks for all the good discussion and deck lists.

I've noticed that mid-game there can be dead draws (extra Blood Moons, land destruction when you really need a creature, &tc.). Has anyone experiment with adding Cathartic Reunion to the mainboard? I've also found it helpful on turn 3 or 4 to not miss an important land drop. Two seems like a good number, I haven't played it much yet but I've never drawn it and found it unwelcome.

Hi all, I've been following this thread as I'm looking to choose a first Modern deck for myself. Thanks for all the great ideas, decks and discussion. I'm a relatively new MTG player overall (a little more than a year), and moving from Standard to Modern is a big jump. MTG salvation threads like this one have been great.

I have also been testing the Azorius Titan deck which shares a few similarities with the MartyrProc deck. One card I found that helped with both surviving turn 3 vs beats and with the "all I've got is 1/1s" stall was Gideon of the Trials. Weaker than Gideon Jura overall, mainly because it has no removal, but I find that if I've made it to 5 mana then I've probably already cast one wrath anyway. Neutering one threat on turn 3 can really help get to that wrath on turn 4, and at some point when you stabilize you start beating down with the 4/4.

Another card I am considering for the SB as an "instant win" in drawnout matchups is Aetherflux Reservoir. For a grindy matchup where you can't get in enough damage but things are locked up with, say, a bunch of Ghostly Prison, you can just play it and win. Not a mainboard card but it could be an interesting 1-of SB. Anyone else tried it?