MTG Salvation

This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, MTGCast #136: Nicol Bolas, Path to Exile and more Conflux Rumors!. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.

Well, I don't have a complete deck built for the "Evil Presents deck challenge thingy", but the first card I thought of was Sleeper Agent.

Five damage a turn? Immediate four-turn clock (of course with the help of dark ritual/cabal ritual, etc.)? Sign me up!

The first idea that came to mind was Phage the unouchable, i mean, its an instant win when you give it to your opponants, then leveler is always a fun addition, but i wanted to add a third win condition as a pet card of mine, Rakdos the defiler, as the gift that keeps taking. after each turn it deals 7 damage and forces the plaeyer to sac 3/4 of his permanants rounded up. then add in some search engines to find evil presents and a few accelerators and you have a deck that would rock legacy and vintage if evil presents were legal.
here you have it, a present that is wanted less than fruitcake,
No Refunds

I wanted to make a deck that didn't auto-win off the Evil Presents. My thought is to make a deck that puts an annoying dude into play, and pumps him like mad. I find decks are more fun when the opponent at least has a chance to do something. (Not a Spike here) (Sleeper agent is a bad idea. If you put him into play under your opponent's control, you get him back. Seems bad.)


The idea: sit behind your walls and use Evil Presents to access the toolbox and let the gifts keep on giving (damage). Fun ideas, Mungha Wurm w/ your 1st Presents, then Force of Nature. Epic LOLZ during the upkeep.
Please note, I am going on the assumption that the attacking player cannot block. If that is not the case, Bellowing Fiend seems much better.
The name is a reference to presents you don't want, but are getting anyway.

Boldwyr Heavyweights is rather funny as it gets an 8/8 and you go get to go get something to put into play as well

There is an awesome interaction with Evil Presents and Keeper of the Sacred Word. Keeper of the Sacred Word grants you to power to pump it ad nauseam just by saying the same word over and over again. Give it to your opponent, and you can make it a 9002/9003 just by saying Lhurgoyf 3000 times.

I've also have added Gus in case your opponent gets tired of you winning and tapes your mouth shut. Cardboard Carapace it for the rest of the damage.

Phage, the Untouchable is a lame way to win, so use it as an emergency switch.

S.N.O.T says you attach the one that came into play with other ones, so just present one to your opponent and stick them on!

BONUS! I discovered something while looking at Unhinged cards, so here's a puzzle.
How can you find out which two sets Unhinged came in between if you know the order of the fall, winter, and spring sets but not the order nor the position of summer sets?

I wanted to avoid the obvious kill conditions, so I put in a lot of weird drawback creatures as well as Forcefield so you can live through your present. Chaos lord is there for fun and works well with Forbidden Orchard as you can control the number of permanents.

The deck kind of works like a tool box depending on what you need at the time, thus the wide variety of creatures.

I don't know how Evil Presents would work with a tapped Force of Nature, but in either case it is something to put them in the scoop phase. I also put in some card drawing and other drawback creatures. Willbender is there as a safety net for certain things.

I just don't like the automatic kill of Leveler or Phage so I thought I would try something much more fun!

Hey guys, I just wanted to give an update on the elfball deck, including the advice Gavin gave me for the sideboard:
Guttural Response is definitely good, but I've found that Eyes of the Wisent works better. The threat of a 4/4 elemental that can easily be pumped with Overrun or a Loxodon Warhammer makes opponents think twice before they play any sort of counter spell. Speaking of the Warhammer, I can't thank you enough for the suggestion, that thing is gangbusters (so much so I main decked one.)
As for the deck itself, I choose Jagged-Scar Archers over Imperious Perfect, as the perfect doesn't do much- sure it pumps your elves, but the sheer velocity of elvish mass you have on the board should be enough to destroy an opponent (and, if it isn't, Overrun and Coat of Arms take care of that problem.) The archers, however, quickly grow to an insane size and present a huge threat to your opponent. They can also take down pesky creatures such as Cloudthreshers, who quickly ruin your game plan if you have no response.
Unfortunately, even with these changes, the deck still has trouble in the tournament room. It is easily decimated by 5cc, and once a deck sides in a few Pyroclasm's, the game is over. This deck, like the Quillspike/ Devoted druid combo deck and the Treefolk deck, is in that terrible void of being to good for the casual room, but not good enough for the tournament room.

Quote from thecrimsonchin

obviously phage is first plan, with heavyweights/collosus secondary... birds elves and moxes to speed things up.. summoners pact + time of need for fetching phage and the others to a lesser extent.. dimir house guard can get presents or heavyweights.. manamorphose to get the double black and deckthin.. pact of negation to force the presents if need be, v unlikely to be able to pay for it but thats okay cuz phage eliminates that need...

Summoner's Pact can not search up Phage in your deck (it only gets green creatures). You can throw in Painter's Servant and set that to green in order to accomplish what you want.

Dochetwas. Seriously. Best card ever.


A deck full of Christmas wishes and happiness. Happy Holidays!

4 evil presents
56 herbal poultice

HP wins.

but in all seriousness,
4 evil presents
4 dark ritual
4 lord of the pit
4 leige of the pit
4 phage the untouchable,
4 serra avatar
4 SKY SWALLOWER
4 DAMNATION
4 INFEST
4 leveler
4 diabolic tutor
16SWAMP

Ok, I'll have to admit that the foil Korean Rafiq definitely was tempting me so I went crazy with Magic Workstation and developed and tested three different Evil Presents decks, one for standard, one for extended, and one for legacy.

This standard deck was the first kind of deck I thought of. Basically it's a Michael Jackson deck (BW), and has the auto-win with Evil Presents with Phage and can go off on turn three with the help of a turn 2 Mind Stone. Lord of the Pit is the second best finisher taking 2 turns to kill after Evil Presents is cast. I also included Sedraxis Specter to force the player to discard (I wanted to use Hypnotic Specter but it specifically states "whenever it deals damage to an opponent" so attacking yourself wouldn't trigger it :p). Boldwyr Heavyweights is in there for some additional shenanigans like searching out your Hellkite Overlord and swinging for the fences, and then they get to swing at themselves with an 8/8 trample the following turn. One other card I felt was in theme was Sleeper Agent. Although it doesn't work with Evil Presents since you'd end up getting it back, it's fun to play by itself and then you can slap on a spirit link so that it can't hurt you and just sits there syphoning 2 life a turn. The Stillmoon Cavalier acts as a blocker for the Sleeper Agent without killing it, and can also act as a finisher.


This extended deck is a GB deck that can kill on turn 3 with a Wall of Roots accelerator and have Boseiju to protect your money spell from being countered. It includes some additional creature interactions with Evil Presents, such as Leveler which is the second best finisher after Phage and practically an auto-win. My personal favorites after Leveler is Force of Nature, Lord of the Pit, and Liege of the Pit which all hit hard if their upkeeps are not paid and can still attack. Rakdos the Defiler is a beast and forces the players to sac 3/4 of their permanents after they attack themselves. Other nasties include Sky Swallower which will give you all of their permanents and hit them for 8, Worldgorger Dragon will destroy all their permanents and hit for 7, Grid Monitor will prevent them from casting creature spells and hit for 4, Eater of Days will give you an additional 2 turns and then start hitting for 9, Vampiric Spirit and Lava Hounds will hit them for 4 immediately and then attack for 4, and Tempting Wurm will allow you to play your entire hand out for free and then hit them for 5 a turn. I also included Sheltering Ancient to give your opponents creature from Evil Presents additional +1/+1 counters to kill them faster. Some great utility cards include Dimir House Guard to search for Evil Presents or some creatures, Time of Need to search out Phage or Rakdos, and Wall of Roots for some protection and acceleration.


This legacy build is BU deck that has many of the interactions that the extended deck has, but can kill as fast as turn 1 thanks to Dark Rituals and Chrome Moxes. If you don't get the combo right off the bat, you can cycle Street Wraith for free or use a Mystical Tutor to search up the Evil Presents or Dark Rituals. I threw in some additional old favorites of mine that have some harsh drawbacks such as Juzam Djin, Demonic Hordes, Serendib Djinn, Minion of Leshrac, Kezzerdrix, Indentured Djin, Desolation Angel, Mungha Wurm, and Serra Avatar (which can kill them on their first turn).



Other considerations not in the deck lists:

• Primordial Ooze
  
• Cinder Giant
  
• Kookus
  
• Mishra's War Machine
  
• Desolation Giant