Creatures – 10
2 Child of Alara
1 Maelstrom Archangel
1 Charnelhoard Wurm
1 Kaervek the Merciless
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Godsire
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Progenitus
Other Spells – 25
4 Rampant Growth
2 Bant Charm
4 Cultivate
2 Jund Charm
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Pernicious Deed
3 Vindicate
4 Allied Strategies
1 Lavalanche
2 Savage Twister
Land – 25
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Terramorphic Expanse
5 Forest
4 Mountain
4 Plains
3 Island
4 Swamp
General Strategy: You’d have to try really hard to make a bad deck out of this card pool, but there are still a few auto-excludes. There are 2 main phases in a game you play with Mana Mastery. Phase 1, play your ramp spells, collect the 5 colors of mana, and play some removal along the way to keep your opponent at bay. Phase 2, start dropping fatties and win, playing more removal and card draw as needed, while working your way to having 2 of each land to cast Progenitus if necessary.
There weren’t any major deckbuilding issues to deal with while tweaking this deck, since the base deck is pretty darn good on its own. The biggest issues I had were Day of Judgment (more on that in a bit) and there were times where I was sitting around waiting for a creature while having extra removal in my hand. This told me 2 things. First, I needed to run a couple more bombs, and second, I could afford to cut a bit of the removal.
The creature selection does have its own issues, mostly coming from the lack of protection. There are a couple things that alleviate this, like including the creatures that do have some protection, Bant Charms that can potentially counter an instant speed removal spell, or just having bombs that have an effect upon entering. There is another option with this card pool, which is including the Prophetic Bolts in addition to Kaervek, Magister Sphinx, and possibly Prince of Thralls to set up win conditions that doesn’t require attacking with creatures. I almost built the deck this way, except including the Bolts meant taking out a couple of the big creatures, then I was right back into the situation I was earlier with not having enough bombs and having extra removal while waiting to draw something.
Rampant Growth/Cultivate – These are auto-includes. Thinning land from your deck, ramping, and getting you the colors you need. There’s no reason not to run all of these.
Allied Strategies – And this card gets the award for my most initially underrated card in the deck. I thought I wouldn’t run any of these, or only 1-2 at the max. However, this is easily a card that should be a 3-4 of in this deck. After playing your mana ramp and some removal, you’ll need something to refill your hand, dig for bombs, and just give you lots of card advantage. I run 4 because I always want to see at least 1 of these in a game, if not 2. What’s the worst thing that could happen with these? You draw too many cards and have to discard, in which case you can just discard an extra Allied Strategies or an extra land. I recommend running all 4.
All Suns’ Dawn – Bringing back stuff from the graveyard is nice. However, it’s really competing here with Allied Strategies. Strategies can be played effectively as soon as you get 5 mana, and you’ll always get 4-5 cards from it. All Suns’ Dawn however, won’t be as useful when you get to 5 mana. It won’t really be useful until later in the game. By the time you can play it, you’ll be wishing it was just an allied strategies that you could have played earlier.
Conflux – It’s kinda in the same boat as All Suns’ Dawn. Yeah, for 8 mana, you can tutor any 5 cards you want, but for the same amount of mana, you could play Allied Strategies sooner, or for 8 mana, you can play Strategies and a 3 mana removal spell. It just isn’t necessary.
Lavalanche – Aside from the mana ramp and card draw, I’d say this is the most auto-include card in the deck. It’s a 1 sided board wipe, and it can function as a non-creature finisher, making it a great follow up to a Magister Sphinx.
Bant Charm – I’ve seen a lot of people not running this, and I can’t figure out why. One of the complaints about this deck (if you want to call it a complaint) is that most of the creatures don’t have protection, and that this deck doesn’t have much instant speed removal. Bant Charm can function to fill both of those roles, so why not run it? A lot of removal is in the form of an instant, so this can counter one of those instant speed removal spells, making it one less removal card your opponent has. Bant Charm is also the only removal in this deck, instant speed or otherwise, that doesn’t destroy its target. Why does this make it good? Well, for a couple examples, Bant Charm doesn’t care about the totem armor ability of the Umbras in Aura Servants, or the Undying ability of Vorapede.
Jund Charm – Instant Speed mass removal for 3 mana. Run it, it’s your best early game defense against weenie rush decks. Exiling a graveyard can occasionally be useful, and I’ve even used it as a combat trick for a Maelstrom Archangel to overcome a Simic Sky Swallower.
Naya Charm – It’s not terrible, but I don’t feel it’s all that necessary. The 3 abilities never really impressed me. It is instant speed 3 damage removal though.
Day of Judgment – What would a deck analysis by me be without a semi-controversial cut? Well, for this deck, that’s Day of Judgment. There are 2 major reasons I cut Day of Judgment, the first reason is obvious, the double white cost. When I had the Days in the deck, it wasn’t too much of a hassle getting double white. It does come at the cost of not getting all 5 colors as soon as you can, or at the occasional cost of not being able to cast a Child of Alara or Allied Strategies for 5 cards until you draw another fetchland or rampant growth. It never seemed like that much of a big deal. Then I dropped the Days for a few games, and a wave of relief followed. Without the Days in the deck, you no longer have to worry about if you should fetch that second plains because you might draw a Day next or if you should focus on collecting all 5 colors. Now you don’t have to worry, because you just focus on getting all 5 colors, since every card in the deck that costs 5 mana or less only requires a single land for any particular colored cost. The only things in the deck with a double color in their mana cost are Empyrial Archangel, Godsire, and Progenitus. Once you get to 8 mana, the double costs are pretty negligible, especially since you should be focusing on getting 2 of every color for Progenitus anyways.
This deck is not lacking mass removal. Even without the 3 Day of Judgments, there’s still 2 Savage Twister, Lavalanche, Pernicious Deed, 2 Jund Charms, and 2 Child of Alara for mass removal. That’s 8 mass removal cards still in the deck, how much mass removal do you need? And that brings me to my second major issue with Day of Judgment in this deck. All of the other mass removal is either variable and controlled by me (like Twister and Deed), it’s one-sided (Lavalanche), won’t deal enough damage to kill my own stuff (the charms), or it’s mass removal attached to a beatstick (Child of Alara). Why is this significant? In a deck with only 10 creatures, I can play any of the other mass removal while I have one of those creatures on the board, and I can fix it so that my own creature is not affected by my own mass removal. You can’t do that with Day of Judgment. You want to wipe the board again when you have a creature out? Day of Judgments says “sorry, but you’ll be sacrificing your creature too.” It’s not uncommon for a good opponent to drop multiple creatures against this deck once you drop one of yours. Why? Because they know if you play Day of Judgment to get a board wipe, it would now be a 2-for-2 trade since you’ll lose your own creature too. But this isn’t a problem when Day of Judgment isn’t in the deck. I think the only time I’d want Day of Judgment over the other removal is in the mirror match to deal with an opposing Archangel or Progenitus. Other than that, it can sit in the sideboard, I haven’t missed them since I cut them.
Charnelhoard Wurm – Trample goes great with its other ability. No protection, but a devastating effect if it hits makes it worth including. Without All Suns’ Dawn or the Naya Charm, it’s also the only way to recur cards from your graveyard.
Magister Sphinx – It’s one of the only cards that allows you to regain life. It also can act as a nice one-two punch with Lavalanche or Kaervek.
Empyrial Archangel – One of the 3 creatures with built in protection and an ability that essentially extends your life total makes it an auto-include.
Kaervek the Merciless – This may seem like an odd choice, it’s the smallest body in the deck, and getting hit with a Terminate won’t be much different from Terminating a Meglonoth. However, his effect can have a drastic and immediate impact on your opponent’s playstyle. If they can’t immediately and cheaply remove Kaervek, suddenly they have be very careful about what cards they play. It pairs great with Magister Sphinx and Lavalanche, and the Prophetic Bolts too (if you run those).
Progenitus – Hey look, an instant 2 turn clock (1 turn if you cast Magister Sphinx just before attacking with this). His protection may not save him from forced sacrifice like Diabolic Edict, or mass removal like Day of Judgment, but for the most part, nothing can touch him. Auto-include imo.
Sphinx of the Steel Wind – I see people talk about the creatures not having protection, and then they don’t run this card. Yeah, it’ll still die to Vidicate, but it’s the protection from red and lifelink that really make this guy shine here. This deck can have problems with most of the red decks in this game, and likewise, between Goblins, Chandra, Mindstorms, and Grinning Malice, the only cards that can deal with this guy are Worldfire, Mana Leak, Insurrection, and Din of the Fireheard, most of which aren’t run (and if there’s anything else I’m forgetting, it’s probably run even less). Not only can you regain life and get out of burn range, but you essentially have protection from those whole decks. First strike and Vigilance makes it great on the offense, defense, and in combat. For these reason, I’d say this is an auto-include.
Gloryscale Vaishino/Lightning Angel/Witch-Maw Nephilim – I just don’t find the 4 mana creatures worth running, because as soon as you can cast your bigger creatures, there’s no real reason to play these other than attempting to draw out removal. That’s hardly a good reason. With all the card draw, the charms, Lavalanche, and Progenitus, there’s more reliable and bomby options to win without having to resort to playing lesser creatures to draw spot removal. Besides, if I was going to add more creatures to this deck, it wouldn’t be any of these.
Fusion Elemental – 5 mana for an 8/8 is pretty efficient, but I’d rather have something with Vigilance or some other bomby effect.
Broodmate Dragon – Probably the other controversial cut. I just felt underwhelmed by having 2 4/4s. I know it adds up to 8 power, and it would take 2 spot removal spells to get rid of them, but 1 removal spell, and you’ll left with a 4/4 flyer, which is underwhelming and not bomby enough for a card that is probably the first creature you end up playing in the game.
Godsire – I’m comparing this with Broodmate here, because it can make multiple bodies and be good against spot removal, provided it survives for a turn. If it does survive, it’s much more bomby than Broodmate, hence why I picked Godsire just slightly over Broodmate and Meglonoth. Vigilance lets it work offense and defense while still being able to pump out an 8/8. Big and threatening, that’s what a deck with 10 creatures needs.
Defiler of Souls – It has some dissynergy with Broodmate, so be careful if you are running both. Other than that, I find his forced sacrifice effect to be a bit situational, and not all that necessary given the loads of removal already present in the deck. Not a bad card to run though by any means.
Meglonoth – Another creature that just barely didn’t make the cut. It almost did make the cut for having Vigilance and Trample, which makes it good for offense and defense.
Enigma Sphinx – Cascade can be good, so can coming back 3 turns later. On the downside, it is just a 5/4 with flying, which would make it the worst body size in the deck next to Kaervek. Cascade can also be dead, like if you hit an X spell or some removal spell when you don’t have anything to remove. For that, I’d like something a bit more consistently bomby.
Prince of Thralls – Might be a good idea for the Magister Sphinx, Kaervek, Lavalanche, Propetic Bolt win condition route. Otherwise, I’m just going to stick with Godsire.
Violent Ultimatum – My issue with this isn’t the double black or double green cost, because those become negligible once you get above 6 mana (you’re building towards Progenitus anyways). The issue here is the triple red cost, which really just gets in the way of other things, especially the Empyrial Archangel which wants double white. No thanks, this deck already has enough removal, removal which isn’t so heavy on the colored mana cost. If this was Cruel Ultimatum, that’d be a different story, and I’d almost certainly include that.
Elder Mastery – A deck with 10 creatures doesn’t need a 6 mana aura that doesn’t even grant protection. One of the few auto-excludes next to Death Mutation.
Maelstrom Nexus – The way I see it, it’s competing with Allied Strategies, and once again, I’d rather have the Strategies. Nexus is a permanent in a deck with only 10 permanents, so even though it’s an enchantment, there’s still a decent chance it might not do anything before getting destroyed. The cascade can also randomly give you cards that aren’t useful, like X spells. If I’m going to spend 5 mana on a card that has no immediate impact on the board, I’d rather play Allied Strategies and get 5 cards immediately which will (generally) be safer sitting in my hand than an enchantment that only gives me 1 card per turn would be sitting on the field.