MTG Salvation

Hey DemolitionColorScheme! Welcome to Salvation. I'm glad you stumbled across this thread! I'm in class (but we're taking a short break at the moment) so I don't have a lot of time to respond but I wanted to share a few things briefly until I have a chance to reply in full.

weltkrieg is one you probably would like to talk to because he was interested in a Flurry of Wings build at one point in time and might have some good ideas. I actually took some time to put together a Flurry of Wings build at one point as well but I confess that I threw it together quickly and didn't do much testing.

Here was my list for reference:



So yeah, it is definitely rough. At first glance, I wouldn't suggest running a fourth color (for the sake of mana stability) to run Baleful Strix, even though Strix is easily one of the best birds ever printed. I want to comment on a lot more things and support you in building your list but I will have to add more later.


PS: I've been playtesting against common Legacy decks with a new budget list. I'll share my results and lists later

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Island Sanctuary (IS) these days like I used to be. My local meta has just shifted to a place where IS isn't that effective anymore. Currently it is a 1-of in my maindeck. I tend to be much more satisfied with Back to Basics in its place. My tournament meta is high-powered and pretty devoid of basics so this card is very effective. It's a great way to capitalize on the strengths of a budget manabase.

One card I constantly wish I could run in this deck is Suppression Field but it just ruins so much. I'd have to retool the entire deck for that card. I'm just not willing to give up Jitte. Speaking of Jitte, I am back to running four in the deck. It's just too good and something I want to see as many games as possible.

Currently Aven Mimeomancer is fighting for slots with Aven Mindcensor which I re-evaluated and started running again. Mindcensor is good tech against Stoneforge and fetchlands. It comes down turn three at the earliest but it does real damage and pairs very nicely with Back to Basics.

I'm no longer running Kor Skyfisher. Right now he really is a weak link to me. I much prefer the Cloud of Faeries which is generally always a strong play. I can definitely see Cloudfin being stronger in lists packing Mimeomancer's but I still feel it is inferior to Cloud of Faeries, especially with Jitte. One very powerful play for this deck is getting having an active Jitte strapped to an evasive creature by turn three. Here are a few ways it can be done:

Turn 1: Land, Judge's Familiar
Turn 2: Land, Jitte
Turn 3: Equip and swing

or

Turn 1: Land
Turn 2: Land, Cloud of Faeries, Jitte
Turn 3: Equip and swing

Cloudfin's price is right at one mana but it's reliance on another creature is problematic in certain situations like when we don't have another creature to boost him for instance. Those are problems while not incredibly common are problems I'd just rather not have in the deck.

I feel that his potential additional toughness/power of other options isn't worth the risk (and the fact that he is a terrible late game topdeck). That said I haven't run him with Mimeomancer. +4/+1 could end the game quick.

Here's the budget list I'm tinkering with right now:




Also, Fourth22, if you are looking for alternate means of card advantage beyond Sky Hussar, you might also consider Mask of Memory and Curiosity (though getting two for one'd isn't good). They aren't as explosive as Bident but could have potential. Also Coastal Piracy isn't vulnerable to artifact removal and isn't legendary. Also Mentor of the Meek. Or something I might consider is Sword of Fire and Ice.

Sword of Fire and Ice is creature removal, damage boosting, card advantage and protection from burn all in one. Hard to beat that.

I've been running this with reasonable success, in case you are looking for a combo elves deck that doesn't use Glimpse.

Hmm, Bident of Thassa[ is very interesting. It's more vulnerable to being countered/removed, etc and it takes longer to come online (turn 4 as opposed to turn 3) but it also has the potential to be more ridiculous and not having to tap your creatures is very nice. I think I will tinker around with it some.

Mimeomancer is a card I haven't used in a long time but I've been wanting to mess around with him again for awhile. He does a pretty good job at boosting damage and that he can minimize threats is just an added bonus.

As for Cloudfin Raptor, I haven't been a huge fan of him. Sure he can hit in for a little extra damage but unless he is in my starting hand or first/second draws, I really hate seeing him. Fourth22, you really think he's that good?

Also, are you running Cloud of Faeries at all?

Been awhile since I've played with my Ambush Elves list. I've actually been working a lot on Food Chain Elves behind the scenes recently. Anyways, with the release of Theros, we now have Nylea's Presence to go with Lush Growth to enable forestwalk. I still like Mind Bend and Magical Hack better but if you are looking to eliminate blue from the list, this isn't a half bad way to do it.

Any thoughts on Spellheart Chimera? Seems potentially decent.

Yeah, the draw back of the Drake is pretty annoying but it definitely has power. I feel like I might tinker around with it a bit in my list just to see if I could build him in without screwing the deck over.

For the way you play, especially with needing the mana, I could definitely see the Moxen being solid.

I hear you, Weltkrieg. I'm just spit-balling ideas here but have you considered anything like Sea Drake for your list? Seems like a viable way to keep Land Tax active, boost Empyrial Plate and drop a nice beater onto the field.

Another thought I had was Mox Diamond in Land Tax builds. Seems like a decent way to build mana and while keeping Tax active or just making use of those extra lands. Pretty anti-synergistic with Empyrial Plate, though.

Right now I'm having a serious love/hate relationship with Island Sanctuary. There's no way I want to take it out of my 75 but there are also just decks that it feels practically dead against. Either that or I don't have an active Hussar engine going to make the Sanctuary worth it. It's still mind blowing as a 'save your bacon' card, though. Part of me is wrestling with maindecking or sideboarding it. Either that, or I've also been curious about running more draw card abilities in the deck to increase the value of Sanctuary.

And then for kicks, I was looking through white and blue's non-flying creatures that could be useful in the deck and I was half wondering about Soltari Champion.

Good question, Hymenator. The idea of a tutor sideboard is to increase the consistency of drawing one-ofs that you run in your sideboard or deck. Depending on what I'm facing, I'd probably side out some but not all Island Sanctuary and Umezawa's Jitte to fit the E-Tutors. Then I would side out irrelevant cards (like Swords to Plowshares if facing some sort of combo deck) to fit in toolbox answers to their deck.

Personally, I don't think I would run an E-Tutor sideboard these days. It adds more versatility at the cost of speed and card disadvantage and with the already built-in card advantage, deck thinning and library manipulation found in Sky Hussars, Augury Owls, Squadron Hawks, Stoneforge Mystics and Land Taxes (if you are considering it), it doesn't really seem too necessary. The sideboard on the main page is something I will get around to updating or at least providing other variations of.

Glad you are liking the list, by the way! Let us know how you continue to feel about it in testing.

We've messed around with Mistveil Plains in the past. The interaction with Squadron Hawk is nice but all in all not worth the slot(s), in my opinion. I don't like that it sets us back a turn in mana and is basically a crappier plains when we're not holding a Hawk. I would not want to run more than one in the list if I were to use it. Spooky, you are a very respected deck builder! If you were to throw a list together, what would yours look like?

Weltkrieg, the Aether Vial isn't too bad but I'm not sure I'm sold on it. There are times when they load up in my hand and are useless and I'm not real fond of that. It's not in here to fight countermagic more so than it is in here to balance out our mana (or provide "color fixing") when we are Wastelanding and tapping Rishadan Ports to slow our opponent down. It also allows us to take advantage of the extra draw from Hussar when we want to be aggressive. In many ways it increases our explosive starts. The other thing it does is make it plausible to use Pride of the Cloud's token generator while still dropping our other business creatures.

One thing this deck does well is consistently churn out creatures or drop an active Jitte on turn three. This is game over in a lot of situations. Turn three Jitte is very plausible in this deck by either:

Turn one: Judge's Familiar
Turn two: Jitte
Turn three: equip and swing

or

Turn one: Aether Vial
Turn two: Vial in Judge's Familiar, cast Jitte
Turn three: equip and swing

or

Turn one: do whatever
Turn two: Cloud of Faeries, Jitte
Turn three: equip and swing


PS: Don't take this seriously but I thought it would be hilarious to swap out some birds for Narcomoebas and then shoehorn the Cephalid Breakfast combo into this deck with Skyhussar as the win-con. Just throw a Shuko into a Stoneforge Mystic list along with Dread Return, Kiki Jiki and Cephalid Illusionist and you're good to go! =P The shock on someone's face if we comboed out with this deck would be priceless. But I digress. Weltkrieg, have you had any solid new ideas for the deck?

This is a late response. Your list was playing out decently well. It's a little slow at times for my taste but but Back to Basics is a strong choice for the list and does a fantastic job of neutering a lot of decks.

That said, I took another break from the deck because I was having "deck builder's block" so to speak. Recently I've come back and have been working on a non-budget list that has been playing out quite well for me.

For anyone that is interested, here's what it looks like right now:

In the list I was running Pyromancer in, I was still packing 18 instants/sorceries which was fairly significant. Everyone's play style is different, however, and I just haven't found a list that I've really liked yet. Needless to say, that only encourages me to continue brewing.

I also built an alternate list forgoing YP that tries to be a little more aggressive.



Can't say I'm the biggest fan of this list either but for what it is worth, turn one Blood Moons and Stoneforge Mystics are pretty cool. That said, the YP list with no Petals and more instants is the strongest list I've tried so far.

Treva, that list you shared looks pretty sweet! I like the Baleful Strix in there.

Anyways, I'm reviving this thread because while my buddy energizerzax2.0 doesn't post here much, he's still been hard at work on his unique Stoneblade list and I seriously think this version is the strongest and most polished it's ever been.

He has been placing in the top four consistently in our fairly high-powered local meta in which nearly all players are running tier 1-1.5 decks. I really think it's worth looking at because the deck really does maintain the sense of consistency and control that most Stoneblade decks have while also generally being more aggressive.

Here's the latest:



If you're interested in actually playtesting it go here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/skam-40/

That is actually exactly what I've done. A land count of twenty (I run twenty-two) is also very low considering 4x of those are Wastelands. I wouldn't want to have to rely so heavily on them for my own mana production. Generally these kinds of decks try to run 19-20 lands plus Wasteland.

I've also tossed in a play set of Lotus Petals which color fixes in case I can't get a Plains down and also ramps mana as well. In fact, Lotus Petals allow for a turn 1 Stoneforge into a turn 2 Batterskull which is pretty sweet. However, I have to be honest that I'm not liking Young Pyromancer, even when I drop stuff like the Petals for more instants. So far he has been okay at stalling games for time but really nothing more. If I win with him, it's usually because I already locked my opponent out with Blood Moon at which point he's almost win-more. He seems pretty underwhelming, honestly.

You have any thoughts about this in your play testing? What other decks have you tested against?

I'm not denying that we have great control options for the early game. However, if we are going to consider running blood moon cards, I'd strongly consider running some form of ramp. Here's why. Without ramp, the earliest Blood Moon can hit is turn three. This gives our opponents time to use their fetch lands to grab the basics they need. At that point, Blood Moon might not be that great. However, if we land it early enough, their fetches are useless because they're just plain old mountains. =)

I think, actually, that we may be able to run some ramp without having to change the deck list considerably. I'm going to test a bit more and then maybe I'll share a list tomorrow if I'm satisfied with it.

Nice! I figured I wasn't the only person trying to brew up some sort of R/W Stoneblade deck now that we have Young Pyromancer.

My initial list is somewhat similar to yours.



I threw this list together pretty quickly and as I was playtesting, I had a few thoughts. First, I really feel that Blood Moon effects are too powerful to not heavily consider running in a deck like this. However, as I was playing this, I also felt that it could be better. If we are going to run Blood Moon effects I think I'd also consider revising the mana base so that we can reliably get them down sooner. My first thought was to consider something more akin to a Dragon Stompy mana base. Maybe something like...



If we were to go down that route creatures like Phyrexian Revoker and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben might be worth considering also.

However, a list like this would need to rely less on instants/sorceries thereby making Young Pyromancer a poor choice and that would turn this into a very different deck. If I come up with anything good, I'll share a list.

What I do know is that this deck needs to be able to distinguish itself from other Stoneblade decks. Right now I find myself asking why I'd want to run this over any other Stoneblade variant because they do what they do better than this does what it does. I'm not saying there isn't hope for this deck or that it isn't good. It just seems like a worse version of what's already out there at the moment.