MTG Salvation

Quote from drmarkb »

Bridge lists all use ssg for acceleration to avoid the "turn behind" syndrome....
I have an all in list with all the boom bust /tones/citadel tech and 4 SField and 4 ssg to hit the molten rains t2. That is the only way I have found to make up for lack of 1 drops in straight landkill. SF feels right. My list needs looking at- but in general cards like the red command work well as refilling both player's hand when you have a mana advantage is great- they get 2/3 lands, you get a similar number of landkill spells plus 4 cards. I like my list, but it is not one I bring to events.


I would not worry about finks too much though, regardless of deck you use. Eventually metas all end up with balance, yours will end up like all the others- such is the problem when decks cost a lot people can't switch quickly. Most paper metas have a burn player eventually, and presence of infect, affinity, twin, tron, UBx, hatebears etc. Magus blocks fink, anyway, and if you use gp and sphere of safety in a more pillow esque build it will be fine- it will not be able to attack much- as an attacking force it is weaker than goyf. Post b you get RIP, cage etc. Eventually we run out of board slots, so flexible cards like lightning helix reign supreme, being good vs. both infect and burn, two decks that are very fast and thus problematic for all prison decks.


Pillow fort has yet more early drops, nodes, seals in some, but mainly t0 Leyline, 4 halo and often 4 sf. I think we need relevant t0-2 plays, SF is a good starting point. Keep at it and report back....you have a handle on the deck already, but I would also suggest thinking in terms of 75 cards- there are always lopsided Modern matches, for which he board is vital. White Red offers the best board options of all.

Quote from drmarkb »

Yes, strangely enough the answer is in the post - siege is the best present regarding CA- it does not stock your hand as such, but might as well.

For my money the issue with such builds is the lack of 1 slot action- why there are no tier one true prison decks- B gets thoughtseize, blue get 1cc counters (that conunter 2 drops, rather unfairly) and sv, green gets dorks etc.
We get relatively little in whatever prison deck you use- temple scry, maybe the odd fringe card in certain builds.

FWIW I think thoughts of ruin is not the way to go.

There are two basic approaches to landkill/stax builds- use men and flicker/reanimate your way to victory - d and t in RW or RuW
Or you can go spell based- often all in on boom bust/suppression field.
I think the bridge decks based on less landkill are slightly more flexible and better, but the stax builds can be competitive with care, as long as you avoid the recursive locks like world queller and play more good cards.

will be turning my

Quote from drmarkb »

Makes more sense, more competitive too.
In that case I would say that nobody too my knowledge has included WF in any such list. Normally a lot of stax-y lists use flagstone boom//bust tech but it fails with Moon, I think WF would be hard to pull off profitably unless you can get a good stream of landkill going. In full on all-in landkill lists with s field I have used it myself, and have used the red incendiary command too. Different aim really with those decks, though.

Obviously you need to avoid SField in Alesha/f mage lists.

Magus is a great blowout card it is rarely a 4 of in any stax-y deck. The issue is the reverse blowout- paying 4 mana in expectation of a huge tax plus great blocker only for decks to pay B and Murderous Cut or W and Path at EOT. Unlike front loaded riders, 4 mana is a lot for a dude that may disappear EOT.
The issue this deck has is the number of relevant things you can do in t1/2 is relatively low, and post board you will not be able to use some of the usual suspects.
Please keep us informed. Feel free to post lists....

Quote from zerodown »

Watched match 3. Naya CoCo. Too many little mistakes took their toll, in game 3 not milling Stony at the opponent's EOT was weird. But his demise came when he recurred a second Spellskite. He should have drawn the Decay on top of his library, which was his only out against the only out of his opponent, an exalted sneak attack. Though its another match that shows the resiliency of the deck, he walked through Kataki and all those Qasalis like a champ... only to lose to BoP.

@TheCounterGuy: Yes its been tried, mainly in older UW & UB attempts. Not really an all-star. But then again maybe the correct list with it just hasn't been streamlined yet, give it a go. The current lists cannot consistently guarantee a U source to play it fast enough though, the manabase needs to change and theres not much U offers to shift in that direction.

Quote from Lauphiette Kincey »

Not a fan of these decks really. They lack focus.

This standard format looks very tempo and synergy based and the bug builds so far are lacking that. PW aren't actually that great since Sarkhan kills almost all of them the turn he's played and he's likely gonna be one of the most played cards comeing up. Additionally, unlike block, the agro decks in standard can deal with a caryatid/courser start.

My real concern with this super friends approach to control is that there's no lingering souls. Courser and caryatid are fine for locking down ground guys, but if you tap out for a walker, you're soft in the are. Prognostic sphinx is fine, but he's a 5 drop and most of you aren't even playing that.

You're all basically building board control decks that add to the board, but don't actually control it. I suggest building around Sidisi as that cards an actual engine, win condition, and stabilizer, all at 4 mana when you need these things.