MTG Salvation

Quote from Vlasiax »

Looks good, however, didn't that change rise your average CMC a little? Also how about mana base? I think it should prioritise a little more B lands like Rugged Prairie for Luxury Suite?

• Force of Virtue - Given how this is a three color deck and heavily black at that this would be hard to alternate cast. The idea of a tempo anthem is kind of interesting but given how difficult and selective it probably is to cast it for free its not likely to be good enough. Its also very questionable as to if its worth two cards for a simple anthem even if we could get it for free.
• Generous Gift - Three mana any target removal is quite useful but I think that the 3/3 it leaves behind might be enough of a pain for this deck that I wouldn't say its a shoe in. Anguished Unmaking is a really good card for a deck like this and in general a 3/3 isn't a big loss for commander but for this deck I think I am willing to pass on this effect.
• Impostor of the Sixth Pride - It doesn't have a very good statline and no evasion.
• On Thin Ice - sorcery speed removal, and the reliance of snow lands to boot is a pass. There are so many cheap removal options we have and this one doesn't measure up.
• Ranger-Captain of Eos - Similarly to Ranger of Eos, I don't think its good enough card advantage and there isn't really a one drop I feel the need to tutor at the cost of playing a three drop non vampire to do so. Really in a lot of cases we could also run the recruiters to do the same.
• Winds of Abandon - It could be a means of removing defenses to send the team through. The problem being that shy of the overload it seems very bad and even the overload might be a little concerning if you don't kill players very soon afterwards. It kind of reminds me of Mizzium Mortars but maybe with a worse drawback.

• Magmatic Sinkhole - given that we have access to things like Swords to Plowshares (which I am not currently using) I don't think this really stands out all that well as far as removal options go.

• Changeling Outcast - Evasion one drop vamp, sign me the hell up.
• Cordial Vampire - This one has a lot better synergy with sac outlets but it still gives some measure of evasion in that anything that is killed in combat makes the rest of them stronger.
• Force of Despair - the option to kill multiple threats entering together with no mana spent is kind of appealing. Some decks might make a large setup of tokens in one turn so, maybe? The downsides being that its responsive and actually casting it isn't very reasonable leaving it mostly to be cast for the alternate cost which requires some card draw setup to really make the tempo casting of it reasonable.
• Graveshifter - Given we get 4 bodies for 5 mana probably its.... ok. Its slower and more reactive than I would really like though.
• Mob - Given the free bodies we get on casting vamps convoke could be decent. The issue is that this effect is probably a bit responsive rather than something we can plan to use assuming you want it to be an instant and that is probably the main reason its going to be worse than 1-2 mana removal.
• Return from Extinction - Its similar card advantage as Sign in Blood but its more reactive than something we can proactively do.
• Yawgmoth, Thran Physician - As far as removal goes, this resembles Goblin Bombardment in a lot of ways to me. The fact that its draw AND removal really has me intrigued. It doesn't have the reach to remove players that Goblin Bombardment has but honestly I never thought I would have a card that I felt even came close to Goblin Bombardment. While its hard to compare them directly I think there are other things to keep in mind with Yawgmoth. If for instance I am attacking with multiple 2/2 vampires and I am blocked by a 2/2, I could use Yawgmoth to sacrifice and shrink the size of the blocker without going as far as killing it which I would have to do with Goblin Bombardment if I wanted to save that creature. It means that our utility vampires might be able to more freely attack while Yawgmoth is in play.

• Etchings of the Chosen - Three mana non vampire anthems are a little suspect. The protection this card gives doesn't really help a swarm strategy all that well and the fact that it costs mana to activate really keeps us from using it very broadly. If someone has a sweeper its probably going to get almost everything which makes this card a little questionable in my mind.
• Kaya's Guile - The options are decent but as far as a three mana instant goes, it feels a lot more like the type of card you would want in a very responsive deck rather than a proactive low curve deck like this. We tend to move fast enough that graveyard effects tend not to be my biggest concerns and as far as the edict effect goes, we could get the same for less.

• Mox Tantalite - Suspend three is just wayyyyyyyyy too much time to wait. Moxes tend to fall off given time and even if you were to open with this in your hand the fact that it has a three turn wait is just too much.
• Sword of Sinew and Steel - I like the effects of this card but I like it more for midrange and control type of decks. Paying 5 mana to cast and equip this seems a little questionable in this deck. I don't love the protection evasions and we tend to rely more on swarm tactics then powering up specific attackers.
• Sword of Truth and Justice - This sword seems best utilized for a voltron deck or a planeswalker deck. You could theoretically push +/+ counters about slowly but it seems too slow for my likes.
• Universal Automaton - Another 1 drop vampire. Nothing really to say about it other than that its colorless. Its not really high on my own list but I could see it being reasonable if you need more one drops or have challenges with what your landbase looks like.

• Prismatic Vista - Its nice that its another fetchland that can fix as needed. My issue is that it fixes with basics which is really unfortunate as it means that our landbase isn't set up as well after it is used. In a lot of cases we want heavier black mana as many of our vampires are black and things like Necropotence are very demanding. My issue with this land is that while it fixes immediately the landbase isn't established as well as drawing a dual land or fetchland in most cases. I think...... for now I plan to pass on it.
• Silent Clearing - Its probably worth testing. The life loss from producing mana isn't really a huge deal my issue is more that if I am doing little enough that sacrificing this land to draw a card is a reasonable move I am doing REALLY bad and its not that likely that using mana and lands to draw a card is going to really leave me in a great position. In a lot of cases I use a lot of mana with this deck and I don't always have card draw but I still usually want to have more lands to do things like cast Edgar or cast multiple things in a turn. I just don't really see much appeal in sacrificing a land and essentially paying 2 mana and losing one of those lands to draw a single card.
• Sunbaked Canyon - essentially a less appealing Silent Clearing in that it produces no black mana.

• Brought Back - This could be a fun card to use to recover fetchlands or with some sac tactics potentially too. My concern offhand is the WW casting cost. Without pushing for more sac outlets and sac friendly effects its also probably not great.

• Cavalier of Flame - The activated ability on this is actually really good for this deck. The ETB seems fine as well. The death trigger probably won't be huge but is ok. Really the reason I won't be playing this comes down to the RRR casting cost, 5 cmc, and the fact that its not a vampire. The activated ability is kinda sweet but its too expensive and not a vampire.
• Chandra, Acolyte of Flame - Assuming you want to play more of an Aristocrats / sac based build this is actually kind of sweet. The two tokens that she makes die at end of turn on their own so even if you don't have a sac outlet it would still trigger Grave Pact / Blood Artist effects.

• Blood Burglar - inferior two drop, pass.
• Bloodthirsty Aerialist - its effect is ok. Maybe if it was a two drop but as a three drop its too slow.
• Cavalier of Night - its not a vampire and its slow. That said, its a kill spell and a rez effect. Even given all that, its probably not good enough for this deck but if you run heavier sac built it could kind of be nice but I think still probably a miss.
• Knight of the Ebon Legion - Its a one drop black vamp that grows on its own and has options to buff for mana. It looks really nice and I am absolutely putting it in.
• Scheming Symmetry - If it was a to hand tutor it might change my thoughts on this card but as it is, your opponent gets to draw theirs first and its too much of a risk for this deck to do that. If this card tutored to hand it would probably be worth testing as you could theoretically tutor a wincon to win right then and there and let someone tapped out tutor. As it is, I don't think this really has any chance of being good for us.
• Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord - I like that its a cheap walker who helps vampires. My issue though is that for the most part it doesn't do enough for this deck in commander. The buff portion of it is single target which doesn't help our swarm tactic very well. The sacrifice to bolt portion is not terrible and in a lot of cases we can sacrifice weak tokens to remove bigger blockers and or utility creatures so I guess maybe that portion is decent. The last ability to put a vampire into play really doesn't have good synergy with how this deck is built and it bypasses the commander's free token. Overall, the sacrifice to bolt is probably the strongest option with him but I am not sure how much I like him for that.
• Vampire of the Dire Moon - One drop vamps are great, this one can trade up which is also great. I am totally putting it in. The lifelink portion of it is a lot less important than the deathtouch part but why not I guess.
• Vilis, Broker of Blood - Everything it does seems nice for this deck, it just costs too much to cast for this deck.
• Sorin, Vampire Lord - The ult looks nice, but the other abilities are very weak and he costs too much. Not a chance.
• Savage Gorger - Its actually not that bad. As a three drop its not quite good enough but if it was a two drop it probably would have made it in. Close but not quite.
• Sorin's Guide - It costs too much for its body and the Sorin it tutors isn't very good.
• Thirsting Bloodlord - Hummmmmmmm it really sucks in that its a worse stat line than really all of the other anthem vamps. Its not so bad that I am going to say that it can't / won't be run but for now I am probably going to pass. This seems like a good budget vamp though for sure for those whose lists are a little slower and need more beefing up.

• Corpse Knight - So, its a creature, non vampire Impact Tremmors. Generally speaking its probably worse to have Impact Tremmors be a creature instead of an enchantment butttttttt there might be some exceptions depending on your build if you were to say cast Command the Dreadhorde (given that you could rez among the others).

• Icon of Ancestry - When you break down the different anthems that could be run in vampires this one might be one of the better small anthems. Generally speaking +1/+1 isn't sufficient of a buff in commander though. I would say this one is probably still worse than Eldrazi Monument and Vanquisher's Banner but comparing a three mana anthem to 5 mana anthems isn't really fair either. I probably won't be running this myself but I think this is probably a lot better than a random Glorious Anthem / Spear of Heliod for this deck. It could perhaps be useful in a budget deck serving as both an anthem and potential card draw.

• Field of the Dead - Its an ETB tapped colorless land which is kind of really really bad for this deck. In the late game it would be fun to get free zombie tokens but I think the cost upfront for a deck trying to move as fast as this deck is likely is too much. This deck runs so few basic lands that it would really be easy to trigger its effect for zombies but I think the ETB tapped and colorless mana production is enough that I will hold off.
• Lotus Field - its a cool effect but I don't see a lot of advantage to run it in this deck.

• Olivia's Bloodsworn -> Changeling Outcast two drop with evasion for a one drop with evasion. This seems like a reasonable swap.
• Tithe Drinker -> Knight of the Ebon Legion Tithe Drinker never really did what I wanted it to do for me. The knight is cheaper and should be better in combat which seems like a big upgrade.
• Vampire Interloper -> Vampire of the Dire Moon Interloper is ok, it has evasion and is a two drop. I like this new wave of one drops though so lets move instead to one that trades up nicely and could be used effectively on defense in a pinch.
• Rakish Heir -> Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Rakish is probably my worst lord effect. I would love to have another anthem vamp instead.
• Stromkirk Condemned -> Cordial Vampire I have always questioned Stromkirk in that its a tempo anthem which takes a lot of good draw to maintain and make useful. Cordial Vamp seems like he will be good with sac outlets and even without anyone blocking vampires will make the rest more powerful and make it harder for some sweepers to work against me.

• Drana, Liberator of Malakir -> Yahenni, Undying Partisan Drana is cool card and I really like her design. That said, she is slow. Given recent improvements with sacrificing creatures I figured I would go deeper down that path and I like that Yahenni is robust and can grow big.
• Scapegoat -> Falkenrath Aristocrat I think that Scapegoat is a cool card but I also haven't gotten to test it much and its responsive rather than proactive. Its a cool card if you can keep up the mana for it and have it work out but there are a lot of other situations that can come up that it doesn't help with. I prefer to be proactive with this deck and I think that really any sort of wrath protection effects might all have the same issues with them which is why for now, I am just going to move away from them entirely. If someone reading is having issues with being swept, I encourage to run more draw cards and its even possible that some sort of mass resurrect effects could be useful but keeping mana up and waiting to respond and stop a sweeper seems like probably the wrong way to do it (at least to me). This deck is very mana hungry and keeping resources to respond seems like its not the goal that this deck should have. Falkenrath is kind of expensive but I like that its a big hastey flyer who is very robust and its a sac outlet. Its a card I have always enjoyed and with having more cards that care about sacrificing creatures it seems like a fun card to have access to. Moving the mana cost up is something I am a little hesitant to do but I want to try it out.
• Dolmen Gate -> Judith, the Scourge Diva I have really been struggling with what I want in this slot. I tried a few different things and with the shift to more sac outlets I think that Judith makes more sense now than ever before. She gives a good anthem that works with the tokens and the pinging on deaths helps give me reach or trade in combat / kill blockers and utility creatures.
• Blood Seeker -> Pawn of Ulamog Blood Seeker is a creature who can have wildly varrying results. I love it when I get him against a token deck but there are plenty of decks he doesn't do much against. I figured its better to work off of what our deck does than rely on opponents to be playing specific tactics. Adding Pawn in helps a lot more with the sac outlet plan we have coming in and honestly the mana it could produce is also kind of appealing.

Quote from GloriousGoose »

Signature spells have a commander tax, too, which means Bolt is probably terrible as a signature spell. Would you really be willing to pay 4R for a simple Bolt effect?

Quote from 3drinks »

You might take a look at my Sarkhan/Volt Charge then. Might be exactly what you're looking for, and you could even cut some dragons for more general purpose RDW stuff.

Quote from Bitterblossom125 »

Interested to hear what ISBP thinks the weakest two-drops are in the current list, aside from stromkirk condemned which he has expressed disappointment with before.

Quote from Spacebeest »

I still feel like I want to drop the vampire curve lower if possible so I'm going to cut a two drop. Mainly because it feels better to play two one drops instead of one two drop because we then have 4 bodies. I also think we have the card draw to support this play style. However I'm not sure yet what the right mana curve is for Edgar so I might change my mind on this in the future. Anyway It's an upgrade over some of our other one drops for sure!

Quote from Spacebeest »

whoop whoop Changeling Outcast more of this!

Silent Clearing is in for sure as well!

Sunbaked Canyon I don't think this will make a huge difference for the deck. I'm just not a fan of lands that don't produce black but it'll probably be fine if you have one. If it's going to be 30 euro's I don't think I'll get one though.

Prismatic Vista, we are a three color deck, but I just don't see any situation where I'd like to go get a mountain or plains. (except if there's like a blood moon in play but yeah....). When I have a plains or mountain in my opening hand it always feels bad. It's probably fine though, but not a significant improvement for Edgar.

Etchings of the Chosen I don’t think I'll try this for the reasons mentioned by ISBPathfinder. I've tested a lot of anthem effects and they just don't work. Same for effects that require you to keep mana up. Force of Virtue does have some appeal. Unfortunately we probably don't have enough white and I’m not entirely sure that exiling a card is worth it's effect...... a 'free' anthem effect however is something I’d be willing to try out.

Regarding Vault of the Archangel I've found that it comes up like in one out of 20-30 games where it's useful. It's fine but not really significant. It's just useful enough to include for me though, since I don't know any other colorless sources that are useful to us. I'm currently trying out ancient tomb in its place. Can't evaluate this change though.

I don't own any Battlebond Lands so I can't really give an opinion on those. But then again you didn't ask for my opinion in the first place

Anyway really nice set so far, and two cards that I’m really really happy with!

Quote from cryogen »

Well for edh mono blue and.mono red have created the most demand for snow lands. But these are also full art, so there will be demand across the board.

Somewhat related, I hope they print the enemy snow duals to finish that cycle.

Quote from CrashCapt »

Since changeling is a theme there is a bunch of hope in getting to play something better than a Savannah Lion!

"stepmom" is a Kor Cleric. really wish the word ally was there somewhere, would make sense and have minimal impact

Quote from toctheyounger77 »

Hmmmm. It'd probably be easier to see a decklist, but it sounds like you need to look at ramp/draw options for acceleration. It sounds weird for mono white, but I often end up being the most ramped player at the table. I know ISB has had similar results of late.

Other than that if the concern is creatures not trading well in combat, there's options like Cathars'Crusade or True Conviction. If it's a swarm issue, the one old-ass obscure card ISB brought to my attention, Eye of Singularity is literally an off-switch for those decks. As well as anyone running Sol Ring. It's been a great addition for me. Otherwise, my other recommendation is don't be afraid of trading creatures when you need to. My reanimation is pretty decent, so I'm not overly afraid to take the hit and lose some board presence if it means taking out a key piece of someone's board presence.

As an aside, the obvious play to me when staring down Doran, the Siege Tower with Angel of Condemnation in play is to exert her and revert combat rules to normal. Assuming he's commander this is only temporary, but it still gives you a little breathing space.

I like the addition of Monarch, too. I've thought about running Throne of the High City and some of the other pieces in the past, maybe I should give it another look.

Quote from Decimator1 »

Etchings of the Chosen seems right up Edgar's alley. An anthem, a sac outlet (albeit not free), and a way to save a couple important creatures in the face of a board wipe.

Quote from Hermes_ »

From my understanding,correct me if i'm wrong, but MH is going to be a Print to demand set so I think it may push prices down a bit maybe by fifty cents or even a dollar