MTG Salvation

Quote from zenzog

So I took my list with some minor changes to the TCGplayer 5k in Dallas. Here's my list:

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures: 4 Angel of Glory's Rise 4 Undercity Informer 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Fiend Hunter 3 Huntmaster of the Fells 2 Cartel Aristocrat Instants: 4 Grisly Salvage Sorceries: 4 Mulch 4 Faithless Looting 4 Unburial Rites	Lands: 2 Blood Crypt 2 Overgrown Tomb 4 Woodland Cemetery 2 Dragonskull Summit 2 Temple Garden 3 Cavern of Souls 2 Sunpetal Grove 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Isolated Chapel 3 Stomping Grounds 1 Clifftop Retreat	Sideboard: 3 Mayor of Avabruck 1 Golgari Charm 2 Rolling Temblor 1 Burning Oil 3 Loxodon Smiter 1 Zealous Conscripts 3 Abrupt Decay

I lost to RG aggro, Naya humans, and RW aggro/burn.
My opponents had pretty good draws, and I got pretty unlucky... like keeping a 2 land hand with rolling temblor and looting in my 7 and never seeing another land.
The RW aggro/burn deck played things like fervent cathar and slayers stronghold to get past my blockers.

I beat Gb beatdown, Aristocrats, Junk Rites, and Esper control decks.

I will be experimenting with deathrite shaman or restoration angel in the sideboard instead of Mayor.

I was at the same 5k and piloted Humanimator to a 3rd place finish (7-0-2 before top 8). My list is generic, but still one of the most consistent decks that I've played this standard.


I played Naya Blitz (2-0), BR Zombies(1-1-1), Gr Homebrew(2-0), American Midrange(2-1), Junk Reanimator(2-0), Junk Reanimator(2-0), Esper Control(2-1), Prime Speaker Bant (2-0), Jund Aggro (ID), Prime Speaker Bant (2-1 in top8, then we split top 4).

I feel like the only decks that we have a problem with is aggro's fast clock. Thus, I gear 14/15 cards of the board to beating aggro, and mulligan aggressively. I normally take out 1 of everything (+1 Angel, Unburial, Emissary, and Mulch) to make the deck less consistent, but more resilient. I never had to mulligan aggressively against the aggro decks, but would have. The 1-of Lab Maniac is just in case I see Witchbane orb. I generally only bring it in game 3, and it won me the Esper match when he tapped out for witchbane. Against white decks that could have Rest in Peace, I try to board in 1-2 Abrupt decay without seeing anything, and board in the remaining if I definitely saw it over something else like Purify the Grave.

I prefer the farseek over Avacyn's pilgrim like some lists have because it can't be burned, and combos with Burning-Tree. Also, I used to have a 1-of Cartel Aristocrat in the deck, coupled with two MD Abrupt decay, but ended up cutting all three for the farseek, since the extra speed/fixing vs the control matchup is nice.

Quote from Rivenor

There we go

Thanks a bunch Rivenor! I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Thanks for the replies. I'm able to shuffle it fine, but once it gets to a point with enough land/card search that I've shuffled the deck 3+ times, my opponents in casual play started to get annoyed. I just skipped to the point of asking a judge in case my opponents were too antsy and wanted me to speed up.

I'm going to be playing Battle of Wits in this week's FNM and I was a little confused on things. I understand that you can call a judge over if you do not believe that your opponent's deck is sufficiently shuffled, but are you allowed to call a judge for help with shuffling? The time constraint on shuffling without getting a slow play penalty is 3 minutes if I recall correctly, but since the deck is 244 cards, and I have a judge helping, what would it take to be sufficient? Can I be called on time if my opponent won't help me shuffle and the judge is currently tied up? Or do all of my questions get tossed out the window because its a Regular REL vs anything higher up there competitively?

@Kaiyla: With all the removal, desecration demon is actually worse. Sure it stops very specific decks in their tracks, but most have a way around it. Strangleroot is a bad option if you're having mana issues. Most people have moved away from it anyways. A playset of abrupt decay seems like a little much, but if you have an excess of aggro decks or ones that use d-sphere, I guess it can work. Farseeks are used for mana fixing as much as they are for ramp. A single green mana (+1 of anything) gives you access to every color you need. Olivia and the keyrune activation can be pretty color intensive, and normally if I have at least one green source I only search for blood crypts.

Nighthawk also allows for fun Wolf-Run shenanigans. There was a list that I saw the other week in a StarCity open that ran a single Bloodline keeper in addition to 3 olivias and 3-4 Nighthawks. I would want to try something like that.

I would honestly keep the Brimstone in, but tbh I don't play much aggro, only tested with it for a friend. My reasoning would be that it negates the lifegain from a thrag, or can kill the olivia without needing the death turned on. Most of the time I play olivia at 6 mana so I can get her out of range of Searing Spear and Brimstone, or to be able to just get their creature the next turn.

Conscripts are pretty good against us, and extra card draw would really work. I'm not entirely sure on the extra guildgate, but you'd definitely need a better end-game than what you normally have unless you can keep a hand with Conscripts, or have him t5.

I'm starting to consider going back to cremate from Deathrite Shamans. Abrupt Decay is in the frites boards now, but the don't have counters for cremate. The cantrip is also pretty good to think about. However, it only gets rid of one card, wheras other forms of GY removal are more than one card most of the time.

@Koopa: A singleton Slaughter Games could help you out if you wanted another catch-all in the side, but I think you were one of the people that didn't particularly like the card. In that case, add another Appetite for Brains: it'll help out against the mirror, reanimator, and other midrange decks.

@IT: I hope I don't have to play you, but Ill cheer on anyone else taking a Jund deck to Dallas with us. Keyrunes are way too good in comparison to BLR imo. It survives board clears and cant be hit by sorcery speed creature removal. It also allows for a t4 Thrag instead of just another land in hand. On the flip side, if they remove the keyrune, it's tempo loss, but I think that the first strike is powerful enough to warrant the risk.

Here's what I'm taking:


I was considering swapping a few things:
~Two land for Cavern of Souls
~The Searing Spears for Abrupt Decay
~Two mainboard cards for Thundermaw Hellkites

I got first out of ~35 people at a competitive FNM beating the mirror twice and an esper Superfriends deck, but I don't know for sure what the overall Dallas meta will be. Searing spears have been doing really well for me since I swapped them for what used to be Abrupt Decay, but if there ends up being more control decks at the Open, then I'll be wishing for the Decays. I had a friend borrow my Thundermaw, and ended up having Relentless in the MB because of it, and he worked really well, but its something else I'm not entirely positive about. I have the 1-1 split of Underworld and RR main since I don't like seeing RR vs aggro (what my lgs meta was for a while). Vraska hasn't really been used yet, so she might come out for something.

Thoughts?

Sever the bloodline is always a must in the MB now for me, since it's so retardedly good. It used to only be sideboard vs tokens, but with most of the removal only being sorcery speed, Sever is golden. I have two main, and used to have one in side until the zombie lists started dying out at my lgs. The ability to flashback is what really makes me giddy about the card. From the games you lost, it would have 2-1 on the first cast, then potentially again on the second. Maybe 2 bonfire swapped for the severs? or a dreadbore and an underworld or something like that?

My meta is almost entirely aggro with a little midrange and some homebrew lists scattered about. I ended up switching to 3 VPN from 2 Thundermaw and another card since they're so vital in securing that matchup. It dies to searing spear, which blows, but so does olivia, unflipped huuntmaster, and both parts of thragtusk. VPN can be a threat with WolfRun, but it's pretty narrow in use. The other thing that it's good against is Sigarda, since it can't be Selesnya Charmed.

I feel like Thundermaw is a pretty decent counter to Tamiyo. If you know you're in a match against one, keep the Thundermaw in hand until you can either alpha strike, or when they drop her. Since it clears the skies and has 5 power and haste, there's not much they can do to stop it besides a charm or feeling of dread.

It's not too terrible of a card, but at the moment, there simply aren't enough targets. Walkers, olivia, and Keyrunes are really the only thing you can name that will have a big enough impact on the game.

I'd like to make a request for a signature with:
Bloodbraid Elf (planechase edition), Tarmogoyf, and Dark Confidant on the left
Jund written in the middle
Huntmaster of the Fells, Thragtusk, and Olivia Voldaren on the right.

Thanks in advance!

I've not been impressed with Bonfire of the Damned recently. It used to steal games at random last standard season, but it isn't what it used to be. With mortars playable, and being modular, do we still want Bonfire in our deck? Top decks had gone down to very few or none at all. What are everyone's thoughts on it?

I agree with Neon. My meta is either midrange or Zombies. If I'm not hitting a mana dork with the pillar, I'm keeping a messenger down. It hits huntmaster, but most of the time I side them out against the mirror. GWx, Zombies, and UW Humans are really the only matchup I keep them in. It's not that great against Esper Spirits, Control or the mirror. If you want, you can probably take out a pillar for an extra Sever the Bloodline. That card is so good I wouldn't mind it in the zombie match up, but it doesn't come down in time to stop mana dorks.