MTG Salvation

I chose this general for its ability to wipe out a table in one go out of nowhere. Plus, I get to play Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust in the same deck, so win. Anyway, looking forward to everyone's comments. Please keep in mind this is built for multiplayer.



For those wondering, total creature count is 22.

Notable cards that I have excluded:

Grim Harvest - I found that the deck is very mana hungry and I can't really afford to leave mana open for recover. The deck really likes to use all its mana every turn due to the nature of the general.

Syphon Soul - I'm not sure why but this card always felt much worse than Blood Tithe whenever I played it and I was never really happy to see the card. I can justify making space for it in the main, but I don't know what to cut.

Angelic Edict and Iona's Judgment: Versatility is nice but these cards are just so expensive for what they do. Due to extort and my general, I don't really want to be paying 5 mana for this effect.

Sun's Bounty - See Grim Harvest.

Alabaster Potion - worse than any of my other life gain spells.

Dawnglare Invoker - I already have an awesome mana sink, my general.

Rend Flesh - Worse than every removal spell in my deck besides Doom Blade, which I wanted to keep for Transmute.

Snuff Out - very tempting inclusion, as it is one of the best transmute targets for dimir house guard, and this deck doesn't mind the life loss one bit. Don't know what to cut for it though.

Thoughts? Mostly, should I cut anything for Syphon Soul and Guardian of the Guildpact? Are there any cards I missed? Thanks in advance!

In my experience, you're better off focusing on the "blow out" potential and less on the constant irritation of extort, for political reasons. This also alleviates the mana hunger so you can run powerful engines with recover. My Vizkopa looks a bit different than yours - I can put up a list if you want. A few goodies:

Mark of the Vampire and Lifelink: The biggest blow outs you can get with Vizkopa and Crypt Rats. Think about it. MotV even lets Rats survive, but it doesn't really matter as you win on the spot from easily doing 50-ish total damage from all targets that rats hit (players and creatures), which you gain in life, which you convert to damage for all.

My removal suite is a bit different. I prefer creatures, enchantments and artifacts since I can recur them (hence Seal of Doom over Doom Blade etc). Snuff Out might be good enough to run anyways, but Faith's Fetters or Tendril's of Corruption are other good transmute targets that do more than just kill a dude.

I don't think Guardian of the Guildpact is necessary in Vizkopa, neither is Ulamog/Whispersilk Cloak if you ask me.

I would suggest expidition map (for orzhov basillica). It is quite close to armilliry sphere (map is better early - because 1 mana followed by 2 mana is better than 2 mana and then 2 mana, even though the lands comes into play untapped).

Hi. Thanks for this awesome inspriration. Here's my take on Vizkopa Guildmage.
I included 3 'beaterz' - for a plan B, and a few t(r)appears, for holding opponent's big guns at bay.