[Deck] Salvager Game (Golden Grahams)

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Originally Posted by nightshade81

@Trash's list:

basically Sylvan Library > Innocent Blood, interesting theory. Allows you to find a more versatile cards that sac Gamekeeper (Therapy, Deed, Wish). I think it's a good plan overall. Having you considered running MD land that allow you to sac the keeper to make-up for the missing Innocent Bloods?

I'm still not sold that Sylvan Library > Sensei's Divining Top but that's minor.

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First. It's Tash. Not Trash. Sorry if I sound bitchy, years of elementary school ridicule made that one just not amusing.

Second, no. I find the manabase to be fairly optimal, and I try to work my manabase as best as I can around wastelands. Hence the 9 basics, along with all the fetches that can go get said basics.

Library > Top because of the fact that this decks curve doesn't forgive you for Top activations. Like I said in my nice long 10 game report on the drain "Sensei's Divining Top reads "Sphere of Resistance: Me" " While library is a good 2 drop and just keeps going from there, no more investment, just reaping the benefits from there on.

@BotL
Yes, Explosives. It's another way to take care of Chris Pikula. It got tossed in when I couldn't find a chromatic star before a tournament one day, and had to haphazardly toss in a card and grabbed the explosives. In the 3 games I got to play of testing (the tourney was canceled), Explosives made its presence known each time, taking out needles, crypts, and planar voids with no remorse.

not meaning to necro any older threads or anything, but I think this deck has everything it needs to compete and succeed in the current format.

First off, I have ben playing around with this deck for a while now... I think it is by far the most fun deck out there... and it is good!

I was wondering (If anyone will even look at this), what they thought of my current list, and tell me wht I could/should fix.

lands//17
4 scrubland
4 bayou
1 polluted delta
1 bloodstained mire
4 windswept heath
1 forest
2 swamp

creatures//5
3 game keeper
2 Auriok Salvengars

spells//38
4 duress
4 night's whisper
4 innocent blood
4 cabal therapy
2 hymm to tourach
4 dark ritual
4 lion's eye diamond
4 chromatic star
1 krosan reclamation
1 pyrite spell bomb
3 living wish
3 infernal tutor


sideboard//
4 pernicious deed
4 engineered plague (might become krosan grip/Orim's chant)
2 darksteel collosis
1 gamekeeper
1 auriok salvenger
1 viridian zealot (maybe become Urungatung)
1 boneshredder (might become the terror creature)
1 mesmiric fiend

the sideboard probably needs a lot of work, but any advice right now will be considered good advice... seeing as I don't have much experience with any deck not running blue.

Has this deck fallen off the radar?

Last posts were ...

6-20-07
8-27-07

I'd say yes, it has indeed fallen off the radar.
Seems like a really fun deck, though.

Yeah, someone in my meta will play it randomly, and I am talking about 1 person out of quite a few who plays it like once every couple of months. Really it isn't that hard to disrupt and it is just to slow and ineffecient in the current meta game. Don't get me wrong, it is a good deck, it just isn't suited to the current Legacy metagame.

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Originally Posted by Pulp_Fiction

Yeah, someone in my meta will play it randomly, and I am talking about 1 person out of quite a few who plays it like once every couple of months. Really it isn't that hard to disrupt and it is just to slow and ineffecient in the current meta game. Don't get me wrong, it is a good deck, it just isn't suited to the current Legacy metagame.

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This gives me an idea. This thread has been down for a while and will probably recede away, but it's good to see someone still interested in it.

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Originally Posted by Pulp_Fiction

Yeah, someone in my meta will play it randomly, and I am talking about 1 person out of quite a few who plays it like once every couple of months. Really it isn't that hard to disrupt and it is just to slow and ineffecient in the current meta game. Don't get me wrong, it is a good deck, it just isn't suited to the current Legacy metagame.

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Lol hey Jason, its Kevin.

Im definitely thinking about putting this deck together for atleast some casual play.

Hey man, this would be a lot of fun in casual, the infinite damage thing is really funny. I really did consider building this because it is a combo that can't fizzle once it gets going but decks like Goblins ravage it. Especially if Goblins are running 4x Port and some Wastelands. It is immune to the general combo hate like Chalice and 3sphere but sucks a lot more against straight up counterspells where as storm combo usually just laughs at them and casts Empty the Warrens. It also dies to Leyline of the Void, however it does have solid answers to all of the above hate cards, but it is just to slow.

are you on crack? This deck folds to chalice and 3-spehere like no other... even a thorn or sphere of resistance cocks this... if they chalice at 0 or 1 you either have no infi mana loop or you have no kill (if pyrite is still the method) not to mential making Diamond cost any more stops the combo because the loop netted 1 mana if any of those arifacts spheres or thorn are out you net zero mana again stopping it...

You say it has answers to all the above... what answers? Also while on the Empty topic if you wanted to you could actually use storm as a kill by simply generating infi mana and using the bombs to draw ur deck until you get a kill...

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Originally Posted by nodahero

are you on crack? This deck folds to chalice and 3-spehere like no other... even a thorn or sphere of resistance cocks this... if they chalice at 0 or 1 you either have no infi mana loop or you have no kill (if pyrite is still the method) not to mential making Diamond cost any more stops the combo because the loop netted 1 mana if any of those arifacts spheres or thorn are out you net zero mana again stopping it...

You say it has answers to all the above... what answers? Also while on the Empty topic if you wanted to you could actually use storm as a kill by simply generating infi mana and using the bombs to draw ur deck until you get a kill...

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Are you on crack? This deck top 8'ed at Worlds not too long ago. And the cards fore-mentioned were populous in sideboards across the board even then. I'm not saying it's overly viable anymore, but this deck hardly folds to Chalice given the tools available today - especially when you board in Darksteel Colossus.

Either way, if someone is going to advance the deck or port it for today's metagame, I'd be interested in a revision. Otherwise, what's the point?

I would love to work on an update of this deck for the current metagame. I want to get back into playing legacy, and this is one of the few decks I actually know how to pilot. Anyone interested in some brainstorming on what the real challenges are for Salvager Game and how to overcome them?

i just can imagine someone getting colossus, and then the other player playing nought and blocking it all day :P hilarious...

I believe Tash played this at the GP Indy side event and did alright. I didn't see him play but it didn't sound like to much had changed in the deck from what people were telling me. He might have added Thoughtseizes, but I don't think much else has changed.

It's been a long time since I last ran Salvage Game, but reflecting on the deck, I can't believe we never used Eladamiri's Call in here. You'd need MD Pernicious Deed and SB Krosan Grip for Counterbalance to ...

Also, to whoever said it, Salvage Game PWNed the ever living Christ out of Goblins, the deck fell off the radar because Cephalid Breakfast showed up.

I've been casting around for something to play at GenCon this year, and Salvager Game has two things going for it that make it stand out.

1) I've played it before, so I know what I'm doing.
2) It doesn't require me to drop $200 on Tarmogoyfs.

The list I'm thinking of running is basically Tash's list from a couple pages back, with a few minor changes.

Lands: 20
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
2 Windswept Heath
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Badlands
2 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Forest

Creatures: 5
3 Gamekeeper
2 Auriok Salvagers

Spells: 36
4 Living Wish
2 Duress
2 Thoughtsieze
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Tainted Pact
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Chromatic Star
4 Sylvan Library
3 Dark Ritual
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Chromatic Sphere

Sideboard 15
SB: 1 Gamekeeper
SB: 1 Auriok Salvagers
SB: 1 Phyrexian Tower
SB: 1 Orzhov Guildmage
SB: 1 Harmonic Sliver
SB: 1 City of Brass
SB: 1 Shriekmaw
SB: 1 Vexing Shusher
SB: 3 Massacre
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void

Changes from Tash's list are in bold.

I haven't played Legacy for some time, so I could really use you guys' thoughts on this. Is there something major this list is going to have a problem with?

What do you all think of cutting the 4th Dark Ritual for a 2nd Engineered Explosives? I felt that without Innocent Blood, the deck would be hurting for removal. Also, I recall that while DRs were useful, I never had to rely on them, so it seemed like a a natural change. Plus, it helps Tainted Pact.

Comments? Advice?

Cutting Innocent Blood is terrible, you don't need Engineered Explosives when you have Pernicious Deed and Living Wish, but you do need an answer to Goblin Lackey and Tarmogoyf.

Tainted Pact is awful, run E.Call.

SB needs 4xKrosan Grip, Abeyance is useful too.

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Originally Posted by BreathWeapon

Cutting Innocent Blood is terrible, you don't need Engineered Explosives when you have Pernicious Deed and Living Wish, but you do need an answer to Goblin Lackey and Tarmogoyf.

Tainted Pact is awful, run E.Call.

SB needs 4xKrosan Grip, Abeyance is useful too.

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That was my reaction to not having Innocent Blood as well, but apparently Tesh did well without them.

I can see E. Call in the Tainted Pact place, unless you were trying to get a Deed or sac outlet for Gamekeeper.

What would you recommend cutting from the MD those IBs and possible Abeyances? I'm also having trouble finding SB space for Grips.

Thoughts?

That is/should be a solid MD and SB,

3 Gamekeeper
2 Auriok Salvagers
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chromatic Star
4 Thought Seize
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Sylvan Library (or E.Call)
4 Living Wish
4 Pernicious Deed (or Damnation)
4 Innocent Blood
4 Dark Ritual
19 Lands

1 Gamekeeper
1 Auriok Salvagers
1 Orzhov Guildmage
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Xantid Swarm
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Shriekmaw
4 Krosan Grip

Yeah, that looks like a good "standard" list +Sylvan Library.

I'm not convinced, though, that Tainted Pact actually is bad. I had a couple ideas about how to shore up the TP based list against goblins/other aggro. Crypt Rats in the wishboard makes for a wishable sweeper. And Quicksand can stand in for Innocent Blood as a Lackey killer and as a way to off Gamekeeper.

EDIT::Here's a list I'm thinking about taking to the Legacy tourney at GenCon:

Lands: 20
3 Quicksand
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Savannah
1 Badlands
2 Windswept Heath
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Plains

Creatures: 5
3 Gamekeeper
2 Auriok Salvagers

Spells: 35
4 Living Wish
2 Duress
2 Thoughtsieze
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Tainted Pact
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Chromatic Star
4 Sylvan Library
4 Dark Ritual
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Chromatic Sphere

Sideboard 15
SB: 1 Gamekeeper
SB: 1 Auriok Salvagers
SB: 1 Phyrexian Tower
SB: 1 Orzhov Guildmage
SB: 1 Harmonic Sliver
SB: 1 City of Brass
SB: 1 Shriekmaw
SB: 1 Darksteel Colossus
SB: 1 Crypt Rats/Vexing Shusher/Harmonic Sliver/Xantid Swarm/Faerie Macabre
SB: 3 Massacre
SB: 3 Krosan Grip

Quicksand is really awesome, in my opinion. It stops Lackey, dangerously large Piledrivers, and a variety of other things, and also provides a way to kill Gamekeeper for effectively 1 mana. Innocent Blood is much better against Gro, but on the other hand, Quicksand costs no maindeck slots, and can't be countered.

This deck is really, really, really resilient to hate. I don't know if I can actually think of an unwinnable hate scenario. Anything you can't remove you can basically alter your plan to accommodate.

The only slot, basically, that I'm not sure about is the last SB spot. Vexing Shusher and Xantid Swarm do similar things, but while swarm is much less mana-intensive, it needs and attack step, where the shusher doesn't, and the shusher is better against Counterbalance or chalice. Harmonic Sliver #2 is also a possibility. It's possible I'll want to destroy more than 1 artifact or enchantment in the course of a game. Crypt Rats seems techy as a wishable sweeper, but I haven't actually tested it yet, and it might just cost too much mana to wish for it, cast it, and activate the ability. Faerie Macabre could improve my game against other graveyard strategies (I'm thinking breakfast, loam, and Ichorid) and has the benefit of not costing any mana to use and being uncounterable.

Thoughts?

EDITmk2::doh.

Riftsweeper wants to be in your sideboard. It says to hell with your extirpate.