MTG Salvation

NOTE: This deck has been retired from use as-of July 2014. No further updates to the list will be forthcoming.

Hello again,

I had mentioned a few months ago that I was contemplating taking apart my Vorosh, the Hunter deck due to not having much fun with what was essentially a "goodstuffs" deck. Vhati il-Dal was one of the generals that I proposed to replace him with in my stable of decks, but the community urged me to instead wait until the Commander product was released to see if I would change my mind regarding the BUG color-scheme. I do like Damia, Sage of Stone as a better goodstuffs general, and I also like the potential of The Mimeoplasm (especially the Hermit Druid build), but neither of them seamed like it would pull me from my BUG funk at the time.

Vhati il-Dal has a special place in my heart, because it was the cornerstone of one of the first dedicated multiplayer decks I ever saw in action about 10 years ago (the other being Mundungu, but he doesn't lend himself well to the EDH format). The deck could pride itself on controlling the board's creature state without breaking a sweat. Big fatty coming at you? Vhati acts like a Forcefield. Utility man driving you nuts? Take him down with a Serrated Arrows or a Fevered Convulsions.

Those previous 2 cards mentioned have stuck with the deck ever since I saw it 10 years ago, and I've thrown in a few of my older former loves (No Mercy for example). Without rambling too much longer:





Criticism is always welcome. Thanks for taking a look.

Playing around with the deck so far, I've noticed that it's quite mana hungry, despite my attempts to keep the average cmc down in the deck. I really want to find some room for another land, Mana Reflection, Explosive Vegetation, Bloodgift Demon, and Rune-Scarred Demon

I'll try to update the list once I have it worked out.

Update!

-Darkblast / +Swamp
-Shizo, Death's Storehouse / +Swamp
-Pine Barrens / +Woodland Cemetery
-Carnifex Demon / +Mana Reflection
-Ancient Craving / +Bloodgift Demon
-Ambition's Cost / +Explosive Vegetation

Are you still playing this deck? Any updates?

Vhati really, really wants Midnight Banshee. And Necroskitter, while you're at it.

Quote from nutterbutter

Are you still playing this deck? Any updates?

I am still playing it, though I haven't had many chances to since the beginning of the year.

I've been considering Sever the Bloodline over the Ashes to Ashes currently in the deck. Both of them have pro/cons, but I think that I'll end up keeping the A2A that's there right now.

Mask of Avacyn has also been on my radar, but I haven't needed much more protection for my general than I've had already.

I'm very much tempted by Deadly Allure (lol!) as an unconventional kill spell, but I feel like it's just too slow, and has no way to affect a creature if it's tapped for any reason.

I like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and may end up replacing my Dread with him.

Quote from Shabbaman

Vhati really, really wants Midnight Banshee. And Necroskitter, while you're at it.

I've looked at Necroskitter before, but decided I didn't have enough sources of -1/-1 counters. I do however like your suggestion of the Banshee... I'll get back to you guys on that one...

I've actually written a Primer on this specific general(link in sig), feel free to take a look. I'll second Midnight Banshee and Necroskitter, those are both great adds. I see you already have Night of Souls' Betrayal, which is the cornerstone piece of the whole combo, so that's good(it's the first thing I always tutor for). One of my favorite things about this strategy, is that it kills indestructible things without blinking. I just find this interaction fascinating, especially as people are always scrambling for their Darksteel Plates, and Shield of Kaldras.

Don't cut Darkblast. Because a one-mana dredge-able Terminate is awesome. Minion of Tevesh Szat never looked so good, either!

Two omissions I've noticed that should be remedied, are Horobi, Death's Wail, and Thousand-Year Elixir. In fact, the former was so awesome, it inspired me to make a deck around her, as well. I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention Pestilence here, as well. Also Pestilence Demon, and Thrashing Wumpus. Crypt Rats for the one-shot.

From my list(and some ideas you could get from my Horobi list) you'll find as I have, there are roughly twenty "combos" I am playing that interact favorably with Vhati il-Dal. So check it out, you won't be disappointed! Hope this helps you!

Alright, I decided to make a couple of changes. I've been pretty happy with the way the deck is running as a whole, but I feel like too often, I am leaving myself open for too large of a retaliation from the table at-large. To try to improve the defense of the deck, while still maintaining it's offensive capabilities, I'm going to try out the following changes:

-Ashes to Ashes / +Worm Harvest
-Golgari Signet / +Life From the Loam
-Fauna Shaman / +Hermit Druid
-2x Vivid Lands / +Slippery Karst & Polluted Mire

I also decided I may have dismissed the Necroskitter too quickly. I do have a few -1/-1 counters that will interact well with it (especially because of the way Shambling Swarm is worded), and it will kinda act as a big-time deterrant for any creatures that my opponents want to keep around. I think for that, I'm going to go:
-Consumptive Goo / +Necroskitter

I'm glad that you liked my suggestion. Necroskitter gives the deck a nice twist. Unfortunately it can only shine if you build your deck around it, but I think those cards make sense in a Vhati-deck anyway.

Don't forget that wither and infect give -1/-1 counters as well! I feel you could push that theme a bit more. Poison'd also give you an alternate wincondition that would let you to end games a bit quicker. Think of cards like Grafted Exoskeleton. Putting that on Pestilence Demon is bound to freak people out.

Another possibility is proliferate. Contagion Engine guarantees a kill with Vhati, but the proliferate gives you more counters on your planeswalker and Serrated Arrows. Obviously it also works fine with poison counters.

If you're really going overboard with -1/-1 counters, take a look at Blowfly Infestation. I've spent some time in New Zealand, and I absolutely hate blowflies. The card doesn't do much on it's own (personally I wouldn't run it), but it's janky and obscure so you'll get style points.

Some random card suggestions:
-Curse of Death’s Hold isn't global, but it's worth looking at
-Thousand-Year Elixir is sort of a lightning greaves, but not quite. It'll get double duty out of Vhati though

Quote from Shabbaman

I'm glad that you liked my suggestion. Necroskitter gives the deck a nice twist. Unfortunately it can only shine if you build your deck around it, but I think those cards make sense in a Vhati-deck anyway.

Don't forget that wither and infect give -1/-1 counters as well! I feel you could push that theme a bit more. Poison'd also give you an alternate wincondition that would let you to end games a bit quicker. Think of cards like Grafted Exoskeleton. Putting that on Pestilence Demon is bound to freak people out.

Another possibility is proliferate. Contagion Engine guarantees a kill with Vhati, but the proliferate gives you more counters on your planeswalker and Serrated Arrows. Obviously it also works fine with poison counters.

If you're really going overboard with -1/-1 counters, take a look at Blowfly Infestation. I've spent some time in New Zealand, and I absolutely hate blowflies. The card doesn't do much on it's own (personally I wouldn't run it), but it's janky and obscure so you'll get style points.

I don't think I'll be going too far with further -1/-1 counters and definitely not with poison, but thanks for the suggestions.

Some random card suggestions:
-Curse of Death’s Hold isn't global, but it's worth looking at
-Thousand-Year Elixir is sort of a lightning greaves, but not quite. It'll get double duty out of Vhati though

I had the Thousand-Year Elixir in the deck for a little while, but decided to go with the Puppet Strings I have in there now, since it's a better defensive card, and it is still plenty useful even if I don't have Vhati on the board.

I missed that one. Puppet strings is a nice card indeed.

Desert for lands. Phyrexian Plaguelord for creatures. Both would work good with general.

Okay, why no P. Titan? I don't even care if I was on a 30 dollar budget, I'd put that in and buy a buncha commons@! ^^

How about Carnifex Demon or Death's Head Buzzard?

Quote from JARY

Desert for lands. Phyrexian Plaguelord for creatures. Both would work good with general.

Okay, why no P. Titan? I don't even care if I was on a 30 dollar budget, I'd put that in and buy a buncha commons@! ^^

Desert is kinda cool, but it sucks defensively, since you can only use the ability after damage is dealt. I've also been burned before by making a mana-base that tries to do too much without enough colored support.

I love the plaguelord, as he's one of my nostalgia favorites, but I don't feel like I have enough of an excess creature base that I want to be sacrificing all of my beaters. I may change my mind of him though, since he works as a pretty decent sac-outlet in a pinch.

re. Prime Time - I just didn't feel like putting him in. I'm not running Cabal Coffers in here either, so I'm not pushing to assemble a killer land combo. It may ultimately just be me being lazy, but I don't want to find a cut for him.

Quote from paragonweapon

How about Carnifex Demon or Death's Head Buzzard?

I had the Carnifex Demon in here far a while, but cut him to make the mana curve lower. He did work well though with all my guys who enjoy -1/-1 counters (like Wickerbough Elder)

Changing things up again, and trying to refocus the deck a little better:

-Hermit Druid / +Primeval Titan
-Vuturous Zombie / +Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
-Worm Harvest / +Necrogenesis
-Dread / +Curse of Death's Hold

Maybe also adding in an Abrupt Decay. Looking for cuts now...

This should take out a little bit of the land.dec feel. I still have quite a strong ability to draw/play lands, so I feel like Ob is actually a better "big-dumb-beater" than the V-Zombie. At least if I can swing through with him, I can still drain an opponent for 3 with each land. It also gives me added strength if I draw into a Cultivate-tpye spell in the late game, and should make combat more interesting with my newly added Prime-Time. Necrogenesis comes back in after a long hiatus to give me a better chance of having targeted grave hate when necessary.

Well that didn't last long. At least I got a new toy to play with at the same time.

-Primeval Titan / +Kokusho, the Evening Star

Well the thing that I have liked about him the most, is that he provides incentive for players to not attack you. If I have a No Mercy on the battlefield, is it really worth it to attack me if your best creature is going to only do 1 damage and die, or do you think you should send that attacker at a different opponent?

Granted, there aren't a terrific number of these synergies in my deck, and my Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker deck uses this concept much better. It is something to keep in mind as a thematic consideration as you build though.

Update:

I decided I wanted to improve my ramp in the deck. Contrary to what you may be thinking, I did not add in several new ramp spells. Rather, I upgraded a few of my previous slots that were ramp to ones that would actually assist with getting my commander out on turn 3 rather than turn 4. To do this I made this switch:
-Garruk Wildspeaker, Explosive Vegetation / +Deathrite Shaman, Farseek

The shaman, although a less reliable ramp piece, does certainly provide the deck with a little more versatility. I can chip away at the table and remove recursion pieces in addition to just "straight" ramp. I went with Farseek over something like Nature's Lore, because I figure if I have the green to cast this spell, I'll have enough green to cast Vhati as well.

I also reviewed my manabase, and noticed that roughly 25% of my lands were coming into play tapped. I'm making this switch to try to fix that issue:
-Polluted Mire, Slippery Karst / +Mirrodin's Core, Forest

I'm also going to switch one nostalgia pick for another:
-Shambling Swarm / +Masticore

Update:

-Puppet Strings / +Staff of Domination

After the un-banning last week, this seems like a pretty straightforward upgrade. Much more flexible (for a slightly different cost), and useful in virtually any situation..

Easy swap with the new set:
-Infest / +Drown in Sorrow

Overall, I'm continuing to be underwhelmed by the potential new tools each set has brought for the last few years.

Another easy swap:
-Gilt-Leaf Palace / +Temple of Malady