Land (17)
- 1x Academy Ruins
- 4x Aether Hub
- 2x Glimmervoid
- 1x Island
- 2x Mountain
- 4x Spire of Industry
- 3x Spirebluff Canal
Instant (5)
Artifact (23)
Sideboard
Instant (3)
Artifact (4)
What kind of pile is this?
Gargadon Salvage is a combo style deck that sacrifices and reanimates artifacts to force out large, game-ending threats. There are the sacrifice engines and the payoffs, along with reanimate cards squeezed in to enable absolutely broken turns. This is a high risk, high reward deck that could be dangerously explosive around turn 4 (we're talking BIG BIG boys), or it could dilly dally around and play some fair magic if the draws aren't in your favor.
Let’s break down the deck details!
Sacrifice Engines
One of your most valuable sacrifice outlets. At a low mana cost, this colossus is hard to interact with and lets you sacrifice your eggs at instant speed. Keep in mind that it can also get rid of your lands if you plan on using Faiths Reward during the same turn to essentially untap all your lands!
This under-rated powerhouse is a great quick threat that lets you sacrifice a handful of your eggs without leaving room for interaction. Another great threat that works towards your gameplan. Although; the card is limited to only being able to sacrifice 3 artifacts.
This iconic engine is pretty great in this deck, not only does it sacrifice artifacts infinitely and at instant speed, but it also grows to become an insurmountable threat! The major issue with this card is that it’s very easy to interact with when it hits the board, unlike your other sacrifice outlets.
Payoffs
You may be asking why the deck only plays 2 different payoff cards? Well, the sacrifice outlets are also payoffs. Greater Gargadon being a 9/7 and Salvage Titan being a 6/4 are pretty excellent statlines, and oftentimes you won't even need a payoff to start clocking your opponent. These little guys are here for added value, and they do a great job at supplying it!
This card is an excellent payoff. It has flying and gives you a clue token ETB to help speed out a Titan or Gargadon. It’s not uncommon for these little cuties to grow to 7/7s in a game early on, putting a huge clock on your opponent. The only downside is the cost of , but a majority of the time for this deck, it isn’t an issue.
Talk about a value engine. Syr lets you scry every time your artifacts his the grave, this can get really out of hand, really fast. Unfortunately, she is very susceptible to removal and offers no value when she first hits the board, along with having to follow Legendary limitations. Geardrake is a little bit better for this reason.
Time to BREAK THE GAME
The only artifact in the deck that doesn’t draw you a card but enables some busted play patterns. Lotus Bloom is your go-to payment for Faiths Reward, and after you use it, you’ll get it back!
Broken is an understatement. This card will enable some of the most degenerate turns possible. Use it with Lotus Bloom to maximize your value. Not only will it bring back all your artifacts to be re-sacrificed, but it will also bring back all your lands UNTAPPED that you may have sacrificed to Gargadon. I’ve seen 19/19 Geardrakes, 2 Gargadons & 1 Savage Titan on TURN FOUR all off the back of this card.
The little brother to Faiths Reward. It will bring back only 2 of your Eggs but sometimes that’s enough to get the value train rolling. A much worse option to the primary combo piece, but an option nonetheless.
Artifacts & Eggs
Essentially all the artifacts listed below do the same thing. They go “bye-bye” and draw you a card. For this reason, I won’t go in depth on explanations for them, just know they are there to fill your hand after your sacrifice outlets make them disappear:
Two other artifacts making a debut in this deck are for some different reasons:
In a deck with only 17 lands, this card is excellent at giving you that extra land you need when you need it, the fact that it gives you TWO lands total works great with your turn 4 explosive combo when Lotus Bloom comes off suspend.
Just a great card all around for this strategy. Gives you 3 total artifacts that can be used for sacrificing and gives you early chump blockers if needed in some matchups. A flexible artifact that I wouldn’t go to FNM without.
Land Setup
This land base is cheap, simple and flexible. Most of these lands are rainbow lands to help with your color intensive spells, but one utility land is often an MVP.
Your color-friendly lands are:
The utility land of choice that pulls its weight daily is of course..
A game changer. Bring back sacrifice outlets like Arcbound Ravager or Salvage Titan, bring back either of your Payoffs, or just bring back some eggs. A fantastic card for a fantastic deck.
Sideboard
Lets dive into some sideboard options for this deck! Your sideboard should be always changing and adapting to your local or expected metagame but I'll go over some example cards that can be played and outline some areas they might be good!
Battle at the Bridge: Great in aggro matchups or matchups where lifegain is relevant. Strong and flexible artifact supported removal spell.
Soul-Guide Lantern: A cheap sideboard option to deal with graveyards, it also can self-sacrifice to work with your payoffs!
Spell Pierce: One mana counterspell to help against combo and control! Can be interchanged with Dispel as well!
Abrade: An answer to artifacts and creatures! Although if your meta is artifact heavy, you could consider cards like Shattering Spree or By Force.
Ensoul Artifact: For when you want to get aggressive just a little bit faster! Hatch your eggs into violent 5/5 chickens!
Blood Moon: This card can essentially shut down a lot of decks, and since our deck doesn't struggle with colors too much thanks to our color filtering artifacts, its can be used to great effect in our sideboard!
What else would you add? Feel free to explain your thoughts in the comments!
The Future
What would push this deck into the metagame? Payoffs that are harder to remove, more mana rocks that can be recurred, and another copy of Faiths Reward, however; maybe not as broken as Second Sunrise. Here are some examples of cards that I would love to see printed to push this deck into the spotlight.
Example Card #1 Show
Example Card #2 Show
Example Card #3 Show
Although we can only speculate what cards WotC might cook up to help this archetype, I know either way I'll be slamming Gargadons.
Keep in mind, although modern; this deck is mostly casual. It could have very competitive explosive hands, but isn't quite consistent enough to play at the top tables just yet. I will finish off with stating that this deck is capable of turns of Magic you have often only dreamed of, an explosive array of cardboard that will make you look down at the table wondering how you got there. It's consistency is a question, but its strength is not. Feel free to [PLAYTEST] a few hands using the feature on the sidebar.
Let me know what you think of this pile of cards! Thanks!
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Revision 2 See all
(6 hours ago)
| +1 | Abrade | side |
| +4 | Battle at the Bridge | side |
| +1 | Blood Moon | side |
| +3 | Ensoul Artifact | side |
| +4 | Soul-Guide Lantern | side |
| +2 | Spell Pierce | side |
| Date added | 2 days |
| Last updated | a few seconds |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 31 - 8 Rares 11 - 7 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 3.15 |
| Tokens | Clue, Energy Reserve, Servo 1/1 C |
| Folders | Modern Decks I Did Not Make |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
| Shared with | |
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