MTG Salvation

I swear to you, I came to the forum this morning to share this card. Hivemind!

I think this card looks sweet; between Bauble, Phyrexian spells, cyclers, lands etc., it should pretty consistently be a 3/3. And opponents are unlikely to grave hate against us.

That's just too funny.

edit: The density of Instants would (i imagine) mitigate the worry of delving away delirium.

And what's your take on Gut Shot? I think it could be a powerhouse in certain MUs. Kills hierarch, Melira, Viscera Seer, Infect dudes, Pyromancer, Delver, etc etc.

Makes me wonder how viable Gut Shot is? Lots of awesome 1/1s in this format.

What are your thoughts on Night of Souls' Betrayal? Too slow? Too anti-synergy?

I personally haven't seen it, but I'm assuming it's full of hasty 1/1s ? What does a typical matchup look like against it? How fast is it?

I highly recommend selling to Card Kingdom for store credit. It's allowed me to round out many decks with tough to find cards.

No I don't mess around with Dakmor, for the simple fact that I don't want any of my lands to CIPT. I often find myself operating on 2-3 lands, and that would definitely cause me to lose games. A dredgeable land is interesting, but I don't often find myself lacking dredgers.

May I ask: what's with the pain lands?

Could this deck run Darkblast in the SB to better handle Affinity/Infect/Mana dorks? It could be supported by Noxious Revival and Postmortem Lunge.

edit: and where the heck is Apostle's Blessing?

I'm not at all sold on Abbey, I'd have to see it in action to form an opinion about it.

Something important to remember, if we play Smallpox we will likely need to support it with Urborg (or a higher density of Swamps).

I'm personally thrilled by the notion of all this recursion. In fact, I'd say this shell is practically begging for a Smallpox core. We don't suffer the disadvantage like our opponent does, and it buys us time to establish a board. Amalgam is free, Ghast is free, Gravecrawler is practically free. We can operate on a very low curve, conditions that Pox just thrives under.

Also, as some have noted, the inclusion of Amalgam doesn't necessitate blue mana. There are plenty of was to dump it without casting it. We have better plays than a 3/3 for 3 mana.
That said, blue does open up Stitchwing which could be a very busted creature, or it could be garbage. In some cases, it acts like a better Infestation activation. But it requires cards in hand and very specific mana to activate. I'm personally not crazy about ditching green because RIP is actually my least favorite card in this format.

Ghoulsteed solves the problem of needing blue mana, and it can also go toe-to-toe with some large beaters. We can also reduce the number of Pharaoh with the extra blocking power.

Seems to me like Asylum Visitor is exactly what you want beside Necrogen Mists. You stack the Visitor trigger first, then Mists, discarding 0 cards and gaining card advantage against your opponent.

I may also suggest Funeral Charm over Dreadbore (depending on your meta). Charm allows you to kill small things like Hierarch, OR it allows you to 1. force a discard at the end of draw step or 2. at the beginning of upkeep, to help power up Racks/Affliction and Asylum Visitor if you choose to run it.

Illness in the Ranks shuts down Thopter.

Also, Asylum Visitor is an absolute house alongside Liliana. I just, I can't.

SB Wasteland Strangler can handle Ancestral Vision if it picks up.

All this talk of Bloodghast, Amalgam, Gravecrawler has me thinking about some M11 jank: Jinxed Idol. Gives us reach, a faster clock, nobody sees it coming. Few decks have trash creatures they can afford to throw away to send it back.

Granted, this moves the deck further away from the "Dump library, go" plan. But it's another tool to consider.

I like it, but it lacks Lingering Souls which I don't particularly love. Why the push for Tec Edge and less GQ?

Also, doesn't the falling off of Eldrazi mean Abzan Midrange has an opening again? Or was that during the Twin meta?

I feel like it might make more sense (moving forward into a presumed GY-hate meta) to reduce Dredgers and increase goodstuff. We axe Stinkweed, Grave Troll, reduce Darkblasts, and emphasize value cards like Pyroclasm, Smallpox, etc. Obviously Pox is terrible against swarm, but pretty amazing against most other decks. So the SB would have to operate transformatively, removing Pox for goodness like Clasm, Maelstrom Pulse, Flaying Tendrils? Languish? Shattering Spree?

But IMO pox operates better when we have access to higher value GY interaction (like URites mentioned above). I used to play Assault Loam/Reanimator, and I feel like that strategy (ported into Zinfestation) could be a knockout. I'd lose the threat density of 4 Darkblast 3 Conflagrate, but would gain stupid blowout potential with 3 Rites, 1 Elesh Norn, X Borborygmos, etc. The traditional Reanimator issue of "Opp has GY hate, whoops I lose" isn't as much of an issue when we can still produce Zombie tokens.

Thoughts?

I like the idea of reducing the dependance on the GY and moving toward attrition. I think this might make Unburial Rites sexier: rather than stuff the yard with medium value goodies, we could selectively place high value goodies. Though getting to 4 lands is tricky with Smallpox/GQ/Raven's. I'm psyched about Relentless Dead tbh.