MTG Salvation

Because who doesn't like drawing your whole deck in one turn?

Guess what this deck does?





Note: The general and main engine is now BANNED in commander effective June 20. Success!



Hit the players most likely to disrupt you with point discard, ramp into your general, draw your deck and just kind of laugh. Skirge Familiar -> Tendrils/Exsanguinate/ect for the win.

Let's discuss how awesome/bonkers this guy is!

Damnation and The Abyss for board control before Griselbrand?

Lightning Greaves so we can draw 7 more?

You don't much care about what's on the board - everyone is dying equally at the same time.

As for greaves - it's useless. If someone tries to kill your general, draw 7 in response. This deck wins the turn you drop your general - there is no turn after.

Protection for him is likewise useless - there is no combat step, only d7 filled death.

Edit: Think maralen only better, because your opponents don't get a free tutor and you dont have to fill your deck with only low cmc cards that do nothing.

Consider adding Xiahou Dun to your list. You can blow a smaller exanguinate to gain a ton of life and turn that into more cards for a lethal one.

I agree with the addition of Xiahou Dun.

For lands, consider adding Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Deserted Temple.

I can't wait until this set is released. This is the type of deck that I've been wanting to play.

When I saw Griselbrand spoiled, I thought "combo deck". I'll be adding input for a while because I'll probably be working on a similar deck.

Edit:
Couple of things I'm wondering about this deck after thinking about it for a bit.

Soul Spike: really confused about this one. High CMC hits hard on Dark Confidant effects, and at the expense of two other black cards. Is it just because it's potentially free?

Street Wraith: Although it does cycle for a card, its life/card exchange rate is worse than Griselbrand's at 1 life/card. Maybe it might be relevant on "creature in graveyard" matters cards.

For the deck idea in general, I find this deck difficult to win. The wincon is Exsanguinate. To kill off an entire multiplayer table (4 man) with Tendrils of Agony requires a storm count of over roughly 50, which I don't think is quite possible for this deck, or at least consistently. So then, the wincon must be Exsanguinate, fueled by Skirge Familiar, fueled by Griselbrand. The problem here then is that at the time you can consistently cast Griselbrand at about T3-T6, if they know you are trying to combo out fast, they can still put some pressure on you through damage. The pointed discard is used for counterspells and if they hit you for >5 damage, you lose 7 cards right there, bringing your fuel to 28 cards off Griselbrand. On top of that, the deck runs additional life losing card draw effects. Those 28, or 35 if they didn't pressure you, cards discarded to Skirge Familiar will only fuel a X ~= 28-35 Exsanguinate, which is not enough to win the game. Although you are in an advantageous position if it resolves, the rest of the table will spare no expenses in killing you, and the only way for you to win after is through Griselbrand swinging through.

I like the idea of having an explosive black combo deck, but the 8 CMC, although warranted for power level, makes it extremely difficult to abuse Griselbrand. Perhaps just run many of the black combos such as Helm/Leyline or something else, but the deck isn't as fun that way either. I'm trying to brainstorm what can give this deck more resiliency in a tested playgroup.

Extraplanar Lense comes down early and helps a fast ramp

Tendrils of Agony alone is not sufficient, but that's why you have Yawgmoth's Will. You can also cast mini-Tendrils (or mini-Exanguinate) to fuel yor life and draw more cards, then Yawgmoth's Will and finish them off.

Don't you need something like 70-80 life to draw your deck here?

Quote from Rishana

Consider adding Xiahou Dun to your list. You can blow a smaller exanguinate to gain a ton of life and turn that into more cards for a lethal one.

Quote from mogz

I agree with the addition of Xiahou Dun.

For lands, consider adding Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Deserted Temple.

I can't wait until this set is released. This is the type of deck that I've been wanting to play.

Xiahour Dun - Defenitely in.

Urborg is useless to me, imo. Deserted Temple, however, is not.

Quote from shneakyshneaky

When I saw Griselbrand spoiled, I thought "combo deck". I'll be adding input for a while because I'll probably be working on a similar deck.

Edit:
Couple of things I'm wondering about this deck after thinking about it for a bit.

Soul Spike: really confused about this one. High CMC hits hard on Dark Confidant effects, and at the expense of two other black cards. Is it just because it's potentially free?

Street Wraith: Although it does cycle for a card, its life/card exchange rate is worse than Griselbrand's at 1 life/card. Maybe it might be relevant on "creature in graveyard" matters cards.

For the deck idea in general, I find this deck difficult to win. The wincon is Exsanguinate. To kill off an entire multiplayer table (4 man) with Tendrils of Agony requires a storm count of over roughly 50, which I don't think is quite possible for this deck, or at least consistently. So then, the wincon must be Exsanguinate, fueled by Skirge Familiar, fueled by Griselbrand. The problem here then is that at the time you can consistently cast Griselbrand at about T3-T6, if they know you are trying to combo out fast, they can still put some pressure on you through damage. The pointed discard is used for counterspells and if they hit you for >5 damage, you lose 7 cards right there, bringing your fuel to 28 cards off Griselbrand. On top of that, the deck runs additional life losing card draw effects. Those 28, or 35 if they didn't pressure you, cards discarded to Skirge Familiar will only fuel a X ~= 28-35 Exsanguinate, which is not enough to win the game. Although you are in an advantageous position if it resolves, the rest of the table will spare no expenses in killing you, and the only way for you to win after is through Griselbrand swinging through.

I like the idea of having an explosive black combo deck, but the 8 CMC, although warranted for power level, makes it extremely difficult to abuse Griselbrand. Perhaps just run many of the black combos such as Helm/Leyline or something else, but the deck isn't as fun that way either. I'm trying to brainstorm what can give this deck more resiliency in a tested playgroup.

Soul Spike - Mostly because I can. Once you start drawing with Griselbrand, this pretty much lets you draw a few more cards.. ..but mostly because I can.

Street Wraith - Think of it as free draw. After you've spammed the draw 7s, you do have a bit of extra lee-way life to do with what you will might as well draw!

Winning - It's not that difficult. You're drawing a massive portion of your deck, and there had better be a tutor somewhere there. Search for either Exsanguinate or Tendrils, and have at it. You can easily get up to 20 or 30 storm just through mana rocks, which is enough to kill one or two people, and then use the life you've gained from it to draw even more cards from your deck. You can then Yawgmoth's Will for another giant tendrils and kill everyone else.

If you're familiar with modern UR storm, you can think of the Tendrils win sort of like Remanding your original Grapeshot to artificially inflate the storm count needed.

Quote from Mithrao

Extraplanar Lense comes down early and helps a fast ramp

I can't stand this card.

Quote from bobthefunny

Onyx Talisman works quite well with Cabal Coffers and a lot of draw.

... I like it. Probably unnecessary, but I like it.

Quote from zalachan

Tendrils of Agony alone is not sufficient, but that's why you have Yawgmoth's Will. You can also cast mini-Tendrils (or mini-Exanguinate) to fuel yor life and draw more cards, then Yawgmoth's Will and finish them off.

^^^^ listen to the man.

Quote from mkxyz

Don't you need something like 70-80 life to draw your deck here?

Tendrils or Exsanguinate to artificially inflate your life total - and if you don't draw a tutor or one of these in the top x cards you draw with Griselbrand, you're incredibly unlucky, because the odds are beyond low.

Hmm... I guess it could work. To that end, I have other card suggestions:

Creatures that tap for mana: Iron Myr, Basal Thrull. Bad for the turn you "go off" but can provide enough of a boost possibly earlier on? I'm not particularly set on those however.

Songs of the Damned: Not hard to get at least 1 creature in the bin, where it just ups the storm count by 1, but more than 1 creature in the GY makes this an accelerant.

In addition to Culling the Weak, there's Sacrifice which can accelerate you and/or save your Griselbrand from tuck/exile on your second wind.

Also, I think a thing this deck could really use is Repay in Kind. It's 7 CMC seems inordinately high for a storm/CMC matters deck, but with Skirge Familiar and other accelerants it makes knocking out enemies much, much easier with Tendrils or Exsanguinate. It synergizes well with Griselbrand's ability.

Rings can't copy Coffers or Lake of the Dead, but the other interactions may be good enough to put it in.

The colourless ramp/filter just seems to slow.

Part of me wants this deck to play sickening dreams so, so much.

Burnt Offering has R so it's a no go

Oh man, Rings of Brighthearth. 2 colorless, 7 life: draw 14 cards.

OK, I'm now officially on board.

Dude sorry to mess you up but Lion's Eye Diamond is banned in commander. I know 6B is almost just as much as Griselbrand but you could go with a Herald of Leshrac. Demonic Consultation will end up killing you. Why aren't you running a Spellbook in here as well.

Quote from Griselbrand

Dude sorry to mess you up but Lion's Eye Diamond is banned in commander. I know 6B is almost just as much as Griselbrand but you could go with a Herald of Leshrac. Demonic Consultation will end up killing you. Why aren't you running a Spellbook in here as well.

Covering for Gaka...

Huh. Didn't LED come off the ban list for a little while?

Herald is gonna be too slow, and is he running Consultation? Risky.

The entire point of the deck is to ramp, draw into the lethal spells as quick as possible, and combo that same turn. Spellbook doesn't do anything for the format anyway, and Reliquary Tower doesn't seem to do any good when he's comboing off in one turn.

I would assume so, anyway.

How'd I do, O Trollish Overlord? lol

Quote from Griselbrand

Dude sorry to mess you up but Lion's Eye Diamond is banned in commander. I know 6B is almost just as much as Griselbrand but you could go with a Herald of Leshrac. Demonic Consultation will end up killing you. Why aren't you running a Spellbook in here as well.

LED got unbanned awhile ago.

Quote from Sanity"s_Eclipse

Covering for Gaka...

Huh. Didn't LED come off the ban list for a little while?

Herald is gonna be too slow, and is he running Consultation? Risky.

The entire point of the deck is to ramp, draw into the lethal spells as quick as possible, and combo that same turn. Spellbook doesn't do anything for the format anyway, and Reliquary Tower doesn't seem to do any good when he's comboing off in one turn.

I would assume so, anyway.

How'd I do, O Trollish Overlord? lol

Herald is useless. The only time I'd ever run it is if I was really bored or had some sort of land steal/sac theme of some sort. It's just bad.

Demonic Consultation is amazing, and you should all feel bad about hating on it. Let's put it this way - you're about to die, or you need that one card in order to go off without waiting for the next player over to untap, which would effectively kill you. Whatcha gonna do? DC for what you need! At a ~6% chance of killing you outright, a one mana tutor instant speed tutor seems fine to me.

Spellbook is beyond bad, and you should feel bad for suggesting it before Reliquary tower, which is equally useless. The whole point is to win the turn you cast Griselbrand, and you don't even need to cast him if you're willing to play russian roulette with ad naus or some such. It might even be fun to throw in a doomsday loop here. ..on that note, IGG needs to go in.

Sanity - Not bad. Not bad at all



now - covering the rest:

I looked at Songs of the Damned, but decided it would be dead too often to matter. In an iname list, it's amazing. Here? not so much.

Rings of Brighthearth - I originally said no because I thought it would only be useful for comboing with basalt monolith.. however, I forgot that the general's ability was activated. Think "When Charlie Sheen enters the battlefield, draw your deck and pay ALL the life. Win." which clearly does not interact with rings ...but being able to double up on my draws for only two mana each make it seem like a good option. It also gives fetches a decent reason to be included. So I think I will.

Graveborn Muse - added.

Thawing Glaciers - Too slow to matter.

Terrain Generator - Equally slow.

Arena - I can't believe I'm calling this winmore, but it really is. Unnecessary. Ignore the combo deck, please.

Quote from Son_of_the_Suns

Venser's Journal gives you extra life, accelerating the griselbrand draw. I think it's worth a slot.

Once you start caring about Griselbrand draws, your life total is irrelevant, and so is lifegain based on those totals. Remember - the only number that matters is the last one.

I'm not sure if you've seen this list but it seems like it's comparable.

I have, but the main problem Maralen has is that any competent player will just tutor up an answer to her.

In one memorable game, my chosen target was Stranglehold. The rage that went on was glorious.

I don't want a deck that folds that easily. The simple fact I can run cards with additional cmc gives me an edge over maralen - because I have more business.

Consider adding walking Atlas. If you need to drop a land (and have him on the field when) you can still later drop your coffers after drawing so much win. I often found when I was playing a similar deck with Mournsong that I often needed just that one mana to begin going crazy. Helm of Awakening is good to drop before pooping mana rocks all over the field. Makes Sol Ring Mana Vault etc free.

I added a few of the sacrifice rituals as well as defense grid to the deck. Why not.

I already run Helm of Awakening, it's insanely good, and a must for pretty much any storm deck.