MTG Salvation

Removing Scavenging Ooze seems really terrible. I get the appeal of having higher Elf density, but that card does too much work in too many MUs. I'm also not a fan of removing Spellskite. I get that they are reactive cards in a proactive deck, but resolving one of these in G1 goes a very long way to shoring up some of our less good MUs. ScOoze seems especially pertinent given the rise of Goryo's Vengeance. Elf density is key, but a deck with 4 CoCo and 4 Chord definitely has room for a few bullets. These cards are also better with Elvish Visionary.

EDIT: Leonin Arbiter is just worse than Aven Mindcensor, in my opinion. I'd only run Arbiter if I couldn't acquire a Mindcensor. While Leonin is a better Turn 2 play I feel like having Flash and being asymmetrical are more valuable than being mildly more proactive. I do like that it will generally set Bloom and decks with a lot of fetch lands back a turn though.

Quote from Torpf »

If you are playing 23 lands then play 3 Townships. You can get away with it then, but 99% of other lists have converged on 22 lands. Orzhov Pontiff is a boardwipe vs. Affinity, UWR Ghiest, the mirror, Delver, and Elves & Merfolk (sometimes), it is pretty valuable. I would also suggest the inclusion of the 4th Kitchen Finks as it does a ton for the deck on its own.

I agree 22 lands is optimal. I might just have a chronic case of the run-bads, but I found myself stuck a lot with 22. Though, that was before I added 2x Wall of Roots. I had the fourth Finks, but wanted to make some room to try the MD 'Lark. I could cut a land for a fourth Finks instead.

I love Pontiff, as a card. I see that it has uses, but they rarely work out like I want them to. It's deceptively mediocre against elves as they play plenty of lords, can save their Heritage Druid with Pendelhaven, and all the elves that let them actually win the game are x/2s. He's still in my 75, but I've really hated him in the MD.

It's really a matter of how reliant you want to be on your commander. Rhys decks play a lot of cards a regular elf deck may not necessarily. Freyalise is definitely where you want to be if you're more interested in a focused Elf list, though Rhys combo is definitely a better deck. Rhys is pretty underwhelming by himself while Freyalise is guaranteed value. Rhys can accomplish more with an amount of set up.

I run Okina. There's little reason not to, especially if you're playing an all green maindeck.

I also have to say that Essence Warden is amazing in this deck. It does a ton of work in a ton of matchups. When you play 4x Chord of Calling and 4x Collected Company you can afford a few silver bullets without affecting your consistency. Warden is an elf, so it really is almost strictly upside. This deck does a lot of winning on turn 4. Essence Warden helps assure we get there and, since we run no shock/fetchlands, an extra few points of life can make all the difference.

I'm trying out the 1-of Mirror Entity. I haven't had a chance to really test it (I've been focusing on my Melira CoCo deck), but I like it on paper. Ezuri is generally better, but sometimes making your 3 dudes into 4/4s is enough to kill people in this format. It's an Elf and it costs 3 mana. We play enough white sources.

Reclamation and Spellskite round out my bullets. I'm running 2x Scavenging Ooze right now because I think that card is amazing.

I'm definitely in favor of 4x Chord. I Chord for Nettle Sentinel all the time and I see nothing wrong with that. It also makes our sideboard more efficient.

I'm unconvinced of Horizon Canopy here, to be honest. It's good, but I think this deck should be more focused on applying as much damage as possible. If we are in a position where our Nykthos isn't pulling its weight then I feel we won't want to be throwing away green sources.

Copperhorn Scout feels pretty win-more to me. Gives us more reason to overextend without offering any real benefit. The nature of our mana base leaves the aggro decks with a very different clock than usual, more 1-drops that don't help you win combat don't seem appealing. If there's an Ezuri on board the one Overrun is almost always going to end the game. Build-your-own-Nykthos just seems like a slot that could be better used for applying more pressure sans Ezuri or dealing with problem cards.

I sleeved this deck and Elves the day I saw Collected Company had been printed. I feel like the straight combo version is definitely better right now. This makes Wall of Roots and 4x CoCo much more compelling, IMO. I really hate almost all the 4 drop options. I'm not sold on Archangel of Thune/Spike Feeder. Spike Feeder isn't good on its own and Archangel is basically an Anafenza with a clock.

I was maindecking 2x Abrupt Decay. I still really like that plan. Instead I'm testing Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Reveillark. Linvala gives you a great clock on a hard to beat body and randomly shuts decks down.

After a couple months of testing, this is what I'm working with:



The Scullers can easily be Thoughtseize. They were originally, but they've gotten worse as Kolaghan's Command sees more play. Other than that I think this is a pretty solid list to bring into an unknown metagame. Reclamation Sage may be a weak slot, but I feel at least one more piece of artifact/enchantment destruction is needed. Orzhov Pontiff is also not great, but I like it often enough to give it the slot (for now).

I could get behind a 1-of new Liliana, but I really love Fiend Hunter right now. She provides marginally more value than E Wit sometimes, but E Wit offers more options in most cases.

I might be able to cut a land to get another combo piece in, but I find Gavony Township has been doing a lot of work. I'm contemplating maybe a third one. I would probably play a Horizon Canopy or two if I could afford them.

The moral of the story is not to try to out future sight the time traveling elder dragon Walker.

Quote from Beware »

I've got my skeleton. It needs a bunch of cuts and it has a bunch of do-nothing cards in it, but this is all I have time to do today. Most of the Flashback spells will be cut.

I expressly stated cards like Demystify will be getting cut. Flashback was a sub theme I was playing with and I immediately conceded it is not where I want the deck to be.

I also firmly believe that Transmute cards are not worth playing if they are not relevant beyond their transmute ability. Muddle the Mixture is an excellent card, but I'm not going to play it as my only counterspell.

I've got my skeleton. It needs a bunch of cuts and it has a bunch of do-nothing cards in it, but this is all I have time to do today. Most of the Flashback spells will be cut. The real decision I have to make is how hard I want to lean on the combo. Should I pack a bunch of other semi-synergistic combos and make it a dedicated combo deck? What about a plethora of board control spells and lean more towards a control deck with a combo finish? Could it be a simple Good Stuff pile that uses Bloom as an engine? Green and Blue actually have some excellent land destruction spells, maybe that's an angle worth exploring?

Right now I've only focused on Cadaverous Bloom and Tasigur synergy. The actual core of the deck is pretty succinct, so options are plentiful. I've built in a ton of redundancy is this version. Again, it's only a basic list of stuff, hasn't been tuned at all. Once I have decided what kind of deck I want it to be, I'll get to tuning.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/tasigur-the-prosperous-bloom/

Dredge-ish cards like Life from the Loam and Nyx Weaver ensure you will always get two cards back. It's all about manipulating your graveyard. I'm still looking for more ways to exile cards and return them when necessary. I'm thinking Food Chain might be a worthwhile, complementary engine. Relic of Progenitus is excellent. Including as many flashback spells as possible makes cards like Runic Repetition and Quiet Speculation potentially explosive.

Illusionist's Bracers makes Tasigur+Cadaverous Bloom a full loop. Training Grounds and Heartstone make it even sillier. I'm building this right now.

I find it hard to believe that removing Hive Mind is ever correct. Hive Mind is how this deck out speeds the fastest decks in the format. It gives you inevitability against a huge portion of decks that Primeval Titan can't beat on their own. It's how this deck can potentially turn 1 (with SSG).

Crucible of Worlds is a great answer to LD. Leyline is a great option against discard, no matter how janky it may seem.

Additional wincons are never bad. Mind's Desire is absolutely worth the effort it takes to cast it. Ignite Memories is awkward because it takes forever to resolve and will randomly NOT kill people. Mind's Desire (beyond being one of the most fun cards to cast ever) actually furthers your plan pretty much no matter what it does. Temporal Fissure is also very good. If you can afford it/allow proxies in your meta Timetwister is decidedly not banned. Most notably you're missing Seething Song. Chief Engineer does a great Etherium Sculptor impression.

I think using Mishra expressly to create a little engine instead of a stax core is really creative. I'm also kicking myself for not thinking of using Mishra for an Eggs base. I got so tied up in needing white that I failed to really think outside the box. Though, I think if Mishra is your commander you should go a little deeper on him. Possibility Storm is probably worthwhile since it's just free spells all day. I don't know if Cephalid Shrine is worthwhile, but it seems like it should be tested.

I'd also be tempted to have some efficient 2-card combos in here like Grim Monolith + Power Artifact.Goblin Cannon and Magma Mine are great win-cons with infinite mana and are pretty tutorable.

Decided to add some of the more recently printed additions. M15 gave Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient while Commander 2014 added quite a bit. There was also the unbanning of Staff of Domination and Metalworker which are auto-includes. Because of that, I need a bunch of cuts.

I'm not sure what of these new spells are playable. Hellkite Tyrant has yet to have any effect on the game, but still seems excellent when using it for value with Sneak Attack or Feldon, of the Third Path. I've begun cutting reactive cards. I'm keeping at least Spine of Ish Sah and maybe Cyclonic Rift as answers to Null Rod and Stony Silence. This is a proactive combo deck, cards that spend time controlling do nothing but delay your win. Muddle the Mixture tutors for several very relevant cards, including a tucked Nin and Power Artifact. Liquimetal Coating has probably played out its usefulness.

This is my Nin deck. As far as I can discern, this is the first Nin Welder list out there. It runs like clockwork and is extremely powerful. It is a brutally competitive combo deck that takes advantage of the multiple Goblin Welder type cards available to both blue and red. The idea is to get one of the many infinite mana combos available to the colors then kill people with Nin (or draw your deck with Nin and do it again). She is a win condition or she is Braingeyser and a repeatable source of removal that lives in your Command zone.

My thread has a section about budget versions. I built my version to be as brutal as possible, so it takes advantage of things like Mishra's Workshop and Bazaar of Baghdad. The list is, overall, land-light because it plays such a huge concentration of rocks. Generating colored mana is its biggest weakness.

Nin has fallen to the wayside in my roster in favor of Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient. The friend I built the Nin list for originally still pilots it though. I'm working on updating the Nin list right now. It gained Daretti, Scrap Savant, Scrap Mastery, and maybe Feldon of the Third Path since my last update in addition to the unbanning of Metalworker. In short, it's received a lot of cards since my posted version, so I need quite the handful of cuts.

The answer to all your problems is proxies. A lot of EDH circles have no problem with proxies as long as they are well-made (full-size, full-color). If pay to play in a casual environment chafes you then your only options are to stick to budget lists or buck the trend in its entirety. Either way, resource denial strategies (like land destruction) or mono-colored control decks (like Talrand) are your best options for shutting down egregiously broken EDH decks. Play cards that force others to play on your level.