MTG Salvation

Quote from Sparki »

Played in a weekly legacy event and took lands.. basically the same list that I've been playing for quite some time now. 3/2 Stage/Depths split.

Board was:

2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Sphere of Resistance
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Trinisphere
2 Krosan Grip
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Golgari Charm
2 Choke

Ended up 4-0 against:

D&T
GW Eldrazi
Grixis Delver
12-post

Going 2-0 and realizing I have to play against Zach on Lands as Grixis Delver: i cri evry teim.

GJ, dude.

Rather than complain, I'll ask the obvious question: where to go from here?

Do we go back to Dream Halls/EtI for redundancy? If so we likely have to drop our red splash. Is there any reason NOT to go for Dream Halls/EtI at this point?

Or do we all just transition to Sneak and Show? I don't think that deck has gotten any new toys in quite a while...

You decklist looks pretty good. Hits all the major players in Golgari colors but with only 18 artifacts, I really feel as though you aren't using Glissa's recursion engine to the fullest.

My Glissa list started very similarly to yours: mostly ramp into big things with some good black graveyard/sacrifice synergies and simple artifact recursion where I could. As my meta became more competitive, though, winning through combat was less likely (lots of board wipes and prison effects) so I shifted gears and really went the artifact recursion/combo route, while retaining some of the powerhouse creatures: Vorinclex, Mikaeus, Triskelion, Wurmcoil Engine, etc.

Now, you don't have to go down that route, but there are some artifact engines you should consider without having to go combo-centric. Here are my suggestions:

• Karn, Silver Golem. This dude is a powerhouse. Have an evasive creature about to smack you with Sword of Body and Mind? pay (1), animate the sword and it falls off the equipped creature. Want to get around Mana Vault/Mana Crypt downsides? pay (1) to animate them. They die as state-based-action and you can recur them with Glissa or Salvaging Station later.
• Salvaging Station. Can combo off easily with other graveyard/sac effects, but even just being able to get back cards like Lotus Bloom/Lotus Petal/Mana Crypt and your spellbombs/Expedition Map, etc back is worth the slot, IMO.
• Kark-Clan Ironworks. Instant speed ways to get artifacts in the yard for Glissa triggers or Karn + Salvaging station shenanigans. Animate an artifact with Karn, then sac it to KCI. If it's <=1 cmc you can tap Salvaging Station to get it back. Repeat this process for infinite colorless mana/enters the graveyard triggers, etc. Really gross with edict enchantments like Grave Pact since the Karn-animated artifacts are creatures when they hit the yard. Also, with Sensei's Divining Top + KCI + Karn + Salvaging Station, you can draw your whole deck (and make inf colorless mana) or use it like a free Necropotence.
• More artifact ramp. Lotus Bloom is good if you only suspend and cast it once, but it gets REALLY good when you can Salvaging Station it back into play. Casting and cracking 2x Black Lotus per turn is... broken and lets you drop those fatties absurdly fast.
• Tooth and Nail. This really needs to be in your list. Even if you aren't going for the Mikaeus/Triskelion combo, the utility is fantastic. With as much ramp as you have access to, it's not uncommon to see this get entwined by T4 (I have).
• Crop Rotation. Just an all-star at making sure you hit your Cabal Coffers/Urborg combo, or if you wanna get spicy, toss in Boseiju, Who Shelters All so that your huge Genesis Wave/Exsanguinate/Tooth and Nail/Black and Green Sun's Zeniths/etc make it past permission.

Here is my list, currently. I haven't really updated it since Origins, but it's fairly well-tuned at this point. It's a bit spikier than what you'd typically find at a kitchen table, but you don't have to go all-out combo in order to include some of the raw value engines in the deck.

Hope this helps/is valuable.

I've been having a great time piloting Sydri combo.

My list is here.

Extremely consistent t5 wins comboing off with infinite life/mana/turns via Thopter Assembly + Sword of the Meek + (optional) Time Sieve.

Most of my matches have been against Geist. If they get him unblockable, via enchantments, it can be rough. I try to keep Remand and Muddle the Mixture up after t4, but prefer to use Muddle as a tutor. Post-board it gets easier with Toxic Deluge, Drown in Sorrow, Ratchet Bomb. Getting Ashnod's Altar out really helps make sure I can keep up UU for either Geist or protections for him.

I rarely even have to cast Sydri unless games go long with lots of disruption of my combos. At that point, I go into beat-down-with-swords mode. I prefer not to win through combat, though I also have a plan B combo of infinite mana + Stroke of Genius.

My weakest card is probably Trinket Mage. He only hits the artifact lands and Top. Which is nice, but kinda 'meh' at the 3 cmc slot. I may just put in Caltrops mainboard, unless y'all can recommend something else I'm obviously missing.

Flamewake Phoenix seems odd in a deck full of 2 power creatures. I'd sub it for Anger as a haste enabler. Easy to sac it or discard it.

I made a budget Alesha list that focuses more on sacing/discard to fuel her. Goal was to be well below $100 not including the commander. Ended up being $81 from TCGPlayer. It may give you some ideas.

Here's the list.

Huh. You're right, not sure what I was thinking of. Maybe Nature's Lore. Anyway, GSZ for 0 to fetch it is always a good play and the other interactions are still valid. So... thoughts?

I tried using the 'search thread' option and nothing came up, so:

Can you see any downside to running Dryad Arbor instead of a Forest? Fetchable with GSZ and Farhaven Elf. You can pitch it to Survival if you draw it late game, Skullclamp turns it into 2 cards, etc.

Thanks!

I think he was maybe more discussing Ugin's ultimate as a hat-tip to Nicol Bolas', only in reverse.

Quote from Woohah »

Quote from Jandro »

Jandro's Decklist

If you wanted an opinion on the decklist, it's definitely decent. I'm not a big fan of infinite combo (I spot Mike and Trike, as well as Mindslaver lock) and some of your picks I'm a little iffy on (Food Chain's not great in a deck that wants to reuse it's creatures, and are Avenger and Craterhoof in there just because of Tooth and Nail?) Still, I think it's a solid list.

Anyway, I ordered something special for the deck for Christmas, so here he is...

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - I cannot wait to windmill slam this guy and Ulamog together off of a Genesis Wave. Annihilator 4 and draw 4 on a 12/12 for 10 mana? It's a shame he can be chump blocked, but for all this advantage, I'll get over it. Replaces Diabolic Revelation, since the deck's got enough wincons.

Omg! I totally didn't meant to hit "Post Reply" on that! I was just fidgeting with the [deck] tags! Ack, sorry.

Anywho, I do have an updated list that is becoming less and and less centered around big fatties, and more about abusing Glissa's trigger and various powerful artifact interactions. Here's the list. I did end up taking Food Chain out as exiling wasn't really what I wanted to be doing and basically functioned as a worse Birthing Pod. I may actually take out Thornbite Staff for Necropotence or Toxic Deluge or Entomb and then call it "good".

I'm thinking this will likely be the final list for more "casual" play and I'll transform the deck a bit for more competitive tables; removing the combat step as a wincon and focusing more on comboing out with artifacts (including adding Mindslaver).

I've really enjoyed this primer, though, as it started me on a year+ journey of building and tweaking the deck to where it is now.

Cheers!

Thanks for the info everyone! Super helpful. Jaytron and I were going back and forth about this and just ended up confused

Karn-animating at the end step looks to be the most effective way to get around it, just have to make sure I have 1 available.

I tried looking this up and got a lot of conflicting info. I'm running all these in my Glissa EDH deck and just wondering if this works the way I think it does.

Having a 3/2 flier swinging by T2 is pretty good. With Ponder and Brainstorm in the deck, it isn't that shaky of a 'combo' to pull off. If you happen to get Daze in your opener as well, that's a pretty big game as you can start the permission train rolling to protect your delver immediately.

That being said, I haven't noticed a significant need for pedal in my testing. Going to try Thrornwind Faeries to replace Serrated Arrows and see how I like it. Being able to kill indestructible weenies is nice, though.

Quote from Darkninja107

Quote from XBM Yosho

I think I might want to try and add some Lotus Petals to speed the deck up a bit. Delver is already fast but I think a bit more speed might make me enjoy it a bit more. As for Zephyr Sprite, I got sick of nearly everything taking out my Phantasmal bears so that is why I made the swap.

Oh man! Lotus Petal sounds so EVIL for Delver! Dropping one first turn would be ridiculous!

If you have Delver and Brainstorm in hand you could set up a guaranteed flip on T2, provided you don't totally brick with Brainstorm. Pretty good.

I played some more with this deck today (against my own modern Affinity deck, even). I let a friend pilot the pauper deck and while looking through it he was surprised I was running Serrated Arrows and Spire Golem. What do people usually play in the Spire Golem spot? It seemed really good against my Affinity deck (I went 0-2, btw, and not from misplays or particularly bad draws. That much bounce just wrecks the affinity gameplan) in that I had to either stick an Etched Champion/Steel Overseer (not likely with so much countermagic) or use Ravager to sack and add modular counters in order to swing in profitably. A 4 butt is hard to swing through! I was able to kill one with a Galvanic Blast, but that was about it.

I didn't sideboard because I don't have a sideboard for the this deck.