MTG Salvation

Quote from RafiqoftheFew

i would run Sphinx of Jwar Isle Platinum Ange Brainstorm Isochron Scepterthey are really good in an Esper colored deck try and get a Silence for the Scepter yeah its mean but it can buy you time to win

I would disagree with all of those choices.
- Sphinx of Jwar Isle: It's not an artifact, its ability to peek at your top card is not very relevant with a Top and all the many ways to find it, and there are plenty of other big flyers in your colors that would work better in this deck. Most of the good examples are already in the original list.
- Platinum Angel: This is a cute card, but when it really counts, you are not going to stay alive through a vanilla 4/4 that does not have a way to protect itself from dying (Sharuum's ability doesn't count).
- Brainstorm: This is a one-trick pony that doesn't really net you any cards. Blue has a ton of good instants that draw cards, black has a lot of sorceries that draw cards, and there are also lots of permanents that continuously draw cards. There are far too many examples to list here, but for the sake of argument, I would rather have Fact or Fiction, Scroll Rack, Grafted Skullcap, or any of the options listed in the original list.
- Isochron Scepter: You have a total of maybe ten targets for the Scepter, so the odds are slim that you'll have a target to imprint on it. Even if you manage to draw something to imprint, odds are very high that someone will use an artifact-removal spell to get rid of the Scepter, and then you have lost two cards (one of which is RFG'd). Isochron Scepter is almost unplayable in this format (outside of a few narrow situations).
- Silence: Another one-trick pony that doesn't have a lasting effect on the game. You shut out ONE person for ONE turn and that's it. Not good enough in this format.

EDIT: Some budget suggestions that you could probably get for at most a buck or two.
- Arcum Dagsson: He'll cost you about a dollar, he can tutor up a lot of good things for you, and he's re-usable.

If you are looking to go artifact beatdown, you need to add Master Transmuter, the three capsules from Shard's of Alara, Esperzoa, Etherium Astrolab, Ethersworn Adjudicator, The border posts from Reborn, Sanctum Gargoyle, Scouglass, Sharding Sphinx, and Oblivion Stone. Most of these cards should be auto includes any time you play Sharuum, becuase there are so many mini combos that are available when you play her. Generally when you show up to a game with Sharuum, you get a big bullseye, becuase of the shenanigans she can pull. Everybody hates Magister Sphinx followed by a Rite of Replication. You obviously don't need all of the cards, but a few are perfect fits.

I need to get Sharding Sphinx, I can't believe I forgot about such a perfect card for the deck. I'm also gonna keep an eye out for Oblivion Stone. Also, any suggestions on cutting a few cards so I'm not over 100?

Edit: Nevermind, I cut it down. But any advice would still be more than welcome.

Quote from invasj

If you are looking to go artifact beatdown, you need to add Master Transmuter, the three capsules from Shard's of Alara, Esperzoa, Etherium Astrolab, Ethersworn Adjudicator, The border posts from Reborn, Sanctum Gargoyle, Scouglass, Sharding Sphinx, and Oblivion Stone. Most of these cards should be auto includes any time you play Sharuum, becuase there are so many mini combos that are available when you play her. Generally when you show up to a game with Sharuum, you get a big bullseye, becuase of the shenanigans she can pull. Everybody hates Magister Sphinx followed by a Rite of Replication. You obviously don't need all of the cards, but a few are perfect fits.

Now THIS is some good advice. All of these cards are effective and in-expensive.

For some cuts, I would suggest the following:
- Sphinx Sovereign: 3 life is not very much when you start at 40, so this guy is just a big dumb flyer.
- Negate: Counterspell is legal in this format.
- Opportunity: Six mana is a lot, and a one-trick pony like this isn't worth it when you can recur Courier's Capsule.
- Mortify: You can recur Dispeller's Capsule and Exceutioner's Capsule, and Duplicant for that matter.
- Ancestral Vision: Too slow. You shouldn't have to wait four turns to draw your cards. In those four turns, you could have played and re-used a Capsule or something else at least once.

@Brainstorm: Yeah, that's a cute theory, but in the real world, the odds of you drawing that ONE card early in the game are very small. Late-game you are better off just drawing a bunch of cards with Fact or Fiction or Mind's Eye.

@Silence/Isochron Scepter: Even if you manage to find a way to untap the Scepter during everyone else's turn AND you can afford to pay 2 every turn to re-use the Scepter, AND you actually find both the Scepter and the Silence in the same game, the odds are that ONE of the many people you are trying to lock out will have an instant-speed way to kill your Scepter and then smack you for playing such an annoying combo.

Or, they'll just stop playing games with you because your douchebag combo prevents people from playing the game.

I'd like to fit Dispeller's Capsule in here since I really have no way to deal with artifacts/enchantments on a single-target basis. What should I take out for it? (a couple suggestions would be nice so I have an easier time picking one)

As soon as FTV: Relics is out I'll be adding the spiffy new Nevinyrral's Disk, but I still want at least one spot removal for artifacts/enchantments. Vindicate would be nice too, but that's a bit harder to find.

Edit: I can probably get away with taking a land out for it, if nothing else...I think I will do that.

Edit 2: Also Austere Command is gonna become All Is Dust as soon as I get one.

so im looking to make a deck similar to this and I was curious if anyone has run into any problems keeping sharuum alive? it seems arti / creature hate could really make things difficult, but then again ive never playtested it so i dont know. how do these decks function without sharuum.? any insights would be great!

In my experience, she does die quite often. However, I don't consider that a problem. Remember, she reanimates an artifact everytime she dies, so killing her just gives her another chance to bring back something nasty. And you should have plenty of artifact mana, so recasting her a couple times shouldn't be too hard. I had one game where I brought her out SIX times before the game ended (when I won). Plus, the threat of a mass boardwipe everytime she dies is usually a bit of a deterrent for spot-removal.

Needs more Voyager Staff, Momentary Blink, and maybe even Turn to Mist.

All these cards basically read with Sharuum, return a card from your graveyard to play... for well under it's CMC.

Double bonus Voyager Staff is also easily recurable with Academy Ruins.

so if you could only include 1 of dreamstone hedron, etherium astrolabe and courier's capsule, which one would it be? i like all 3 in their own regard, but im having trouble fitting them all in there.

Courier's Capsule. I'm not really a fan of any of them, but the Capsule gives you the cheapest way to draw cards and doesn't require sacrificing another artifact for each card. If you want mana, I'd run Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo, and Worn Powerstone before I'd run Dreamstone Hedron.

You seem to be missing Time Sieve.
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the meek + Time Sieve = Unlimited Turns and unlimited life. Artifact resurrection like Mine Excavation or Argivian Restoration would be useful as well.

I didnt read all the replies so this may be repeating whats been said....you need open the vaults.

I've updated the original post with detailed explanations for every card in the deck that isn't just a manaproducing land. This is to help me personally to better understand the interactions of my cards, and also to provide people with a solid alternative to all of the Sharuum combo-builds I've seen posted.

I'm not really looking for suggestions (I feel that the deck is pretty much optimized within my constraints), but I'm always happy to discuss the deck so comments are welcome.

I will suggest Rings of Brighthearth, you can have double activations for your creatures, planeswalkers and even fetchlands

That is something I've been considering for a while. There's nothing I really want to take out for it, but I think it'll probably find its way in eventually once I hit 7 or more planeswalkers.

Molten Shark,

I LOVE the deck design. It seems really powerful while still being pretty fair (ie no infinite combos). What do you think about Sorin Markov and, more specifically, Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Elspeth is just insane in general, any particular reason you don't run her?

I don't run Sorin Markov because I have Magister Sphinx. I can usually recur the Sphinx as much as I need to, so an extra instance of the effect that's much harder to tutor is unnecessary. Also, I prefer to only run planeswalkers if I can see myself wanting every ability they have. Sorin's "thirst" is okay, but not great, and I'm not a fan of Mindslaver effects so I have no interest in his ultimate. He's certainly not bad, I just don't feel like he does enough that I want or need to warrent cutting anything else.

As for Elspeth, Knight-Errant, I ran her for a long time. All of her abilities have been relevant, and she is a very good card. However, I eventually found that she just doesn't have quite enough impact in multiplayer compared to my other 'walkers. A 1/1 soldier is nice, but given the threat her ultimate poses she is very likely to die before my next turn, and if I'm only getting one use out of a walker I'd prefer a tutor or actual card advantage over a token or an extra 3 damage. Again, she definitely wouldn't be a bad addition to the deck, but I feel that there's nothing in the deck now that I'd want to play her over.

As it stands now, the deck has passed beyond the point where making cuts is hard to the point where I'm half-hoping WotC stops printing new cards so I don't need to figure out how to possibly fit them into the deck. Or at least stops printing cards that aren't obviously "strictly better" upgrades to cards already in the deck, since for something like Snapcaster Mage there's no real analogue in the deck to compare it to, and yet it definitely deserves a trial run at the very least. New Liliana didn't even make it that far because of how tight the list is, which is a shame because I'm sure she's a beautiful foil.

Quote from Voodoo Child

You seem to be missing Time Sieve.
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the meek + Time Sieve = Unlimited Turns and unlimited life. Artifact resurrection like Mine Excavation or Argivian Restoration would be useful as well.

Dude, no offense but read the topic. it says Sharuum [no combo]

Anyway, the addition of the new Ajani could be considered I guess. I'm definitely trying this one out, though I'm not running that many mass removal spells. Prefer passive defense like Ghostly Prison, norn's annex etc. Makes the game much more friendlier.

The problem with the passive defense cards like those is that they don't actually work for protecting planeswalkers. Ghostly Prison and the like won't tax creatures attacking your 'walkers, and Norn's Annex doesn't actually deter people at all. 2-6 life is a much easier price for most players to pay than some amount of mana for killing a planeswalker, and if that life actually matters to them then you don't care about your 'walker because you can probably kill them in one hit with Sharuum. Mass removal is much better because it doesn't leave the choice of attacking your 'walkers up to your opponents, and you can easily recover from it with Sharuum.

Ajani is not worth a slot. He can't protect himself, you don't have anything that really cares about the +1/+1 counter, and his flying + double strike is rather useless in a deck that wants to play very defensively most of the time. For comparison, I have used Elspeth, Knight-Errant's Angelic Blessing once in this deck. Ever.

I do like Liliana of the Dark Realms, especially since picking up a foil Urborg will become much easier in a month or so, but she will only make the cut if Return to Ravnica has new duals with basic land types instead of shockland reprints. Otherwise, I don't run enough Swamps for her to find to justify the slot.

Hey Molten Shark, I saw your list and I really loved the idea as it's something I hadn't really done with any of my decks yet (artifacts or walkers). I made mine a little bit more budget friendly and would like your input, I feel the function is nearly the same:



I'll probably replace the dismiss with a Cryptic Command when I get my hands on one.