There are certainly a lot of ways to build this deck. I tried to keep a pro-active plan and to play the most powerful cards available in the colors. The sideboard probably includes 4-6 wrath effects, utter end, and perhaps azban ascendancy. Debilitating Injury and despise are the weakest cards. Murderous cut isn't looking too great either with so few fetches and non-permanents, but the other two weakest cards make it a bit better. Maybe the first two should be creatures, and I should be playing utter end over murderous cut?
Either way, this deck looks seriously powerful. Every creature can stand on its own as a strong threat.
Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
Right now your only way to handle Sarkhan is Abzan Charm. I'd try -1 Roc, -1 Cut +2 Utter End.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
I think you missed Despise, but I really like those changes. Wingmate and murderous cut will be clunky in multiples.
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Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
I used this list to test my Jeskai ideas. It struggles against the fast attack, so a think a sideboard with easy ways to recover life or stop the bleeding. usually if you can get a rhino or a sorin and they can't answer it and you can stabilize
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Heir is an interesting choice considering how many ways to trigger it. I'm surprised to see 4 utter End and no Cuts.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Anafenza sure, but Sorin is backbreaking to an aggro strategy. He basically says kill me or you may have already lost due to your 5/5 lifelink rhino.
I guess you could do 3 with 1 in the board. Of course you may not even need cut md.
Right now I think this is probably the best deck in the format. There may be a Sultai build hanging around out there since Dead Drop would really hose this deck most of the time esp if you were getting a stream of zombies off Sidisi or something.
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Sorin is good vs aggro, but he's much better in a mardu tokens deck than in an abzan deck. An aggro deck can easily tempo abzan out by casting multiple spells per turn. This abzan deck plays a ton of tapped lands. So you might only have 1 creature in play by the time you cast sorin, and they could easily remove or attack through that one creature. Hopefully a murderous cut would help you catch back up on tempo.
Sorin is good vs aggro, but he's much better in a mardu tokens deck than in an abzan deck. An aggro deck can easily tempo abzan out by casting multiple spells per turn. This abzan deck plays a ton of tapped lands. So you might only have 1 creature in play by the time you cast sorin, and they could easily remove or attack through that one creature. Hopefully a murderous cut would help you catch back up on tempo.
Right. Also I just remembered (because I'm playing against one in draft) that heir of the wilds has deathtouch. That makes him a lot better.
Here's a question for you. You and your opponent are both in topdeck mode on an empty board. and you topdeck Roc. Do you play it?
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Depends on the board state, life totals, and if I know if the opponent left in despise.
I think the answer is yes since so many things have to go right for you to trigger it. You have to draw a creature, you have to have attack with it which means you opponent didn't draw removal or the opponent drew a creature where you don't mind attacking into.
Right now I think this is probably the best deck in the format. There may be a Sultai build hanging around out there since Dead Drop would really hose this deck most of the time esp if you were getting a stream of zombies off Sidisi or something.
I'm with you. This is the deck to beat. Siege Rhino is ridiculously powerful, and wingmate roc isn't far behind.
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Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
4-0'd a DE with it. I played the main deck in post #5. The screen shot i posted in this thread, has +1 land -1 utter end. I like the 8 sweepers in the sideboard, but i'm not sure what the other 7 cards should be.
I beat:
WB warriors
Mono red w/ hordeling outburst
Jeskai who sideboarded into a control deck (this was close, and I don't have any sideboard cards for this match up)
Temur (also very close, he almost won off icy blast, but my curve was better)
Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
I'm not sure about the correct amount of color sources, Frank's article on mana bases is a bit light on the topic of gold cards. I think you have to play almost all of the dual lands since the mana requirements are pretty steep, especially the black ones. The life gain from the lands makes up a bit for taking a turn off though.
The complex thing is that these lands all come into play tapped, so you're not going to cast these cards on curve. If you remove some for basics, it increases your chances to cast cards on curve, but decreases your chance to cast the cards since you're running less colored sources.
Despise is fine. It's not like we have the choice between thoughtseize and despise, and we're playing despise for budget reasons. Though replacing it with Bloodsoaked Champion is interesting. It doesn't make you want to play more basic swamps though, which is something you can't really do.
I think you should just side out sorin vs cackling doom.
I could see cutting despise, shaving an anafenza and sorin, and playing 4x blood soaked champions and 2x Grim Haruspex, though that makes my sideboard plan of 8x sweepers pretty bad
I'm really confused by the results that are getting posted. Nothing in my personal experience in 2-player queues and TP games has changed the opinion I expressed here which is that Abzan is potentially the best deck in the format:
I've played a lot against Jeskai using something like the Abzan list posted there that Rickster went 4-0 with, and I've never felt out of it. Against the aggro version you have a lot of lifegain and post-board wraths. Against the controlling version you have Rakshasa Deathdealer and high threat density. I can't overstate how amazing Deathdealer is against Jeskai control. If you look at Bhautina's 4-0 list from the other day, it has literally zero answers to the card in its 75 (not even Jeskai Charm), other than cancel if you get lucky with the timing. I don't see how a control deck that doesn't put up meaningful early pressure can beat that card and you play 4x it.
I do see that it's not doing well in events though, so either people are playing it and it's not as good as I think or people just aren't playing it for some reason.
Azban is a little more pricey than the other decks, by ~$100 or so. Maybe that's the reason it's being played less?
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Some facts of magic:
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
That could be a factor. However people have played plenty of expensive decks in block before, and in fact the deck is way cheaper now than it was 3 weeks ago which is when block constructed normally launches, and people used to play like the GW voice deck or GR monsters as soon as it was released even though it cost a fortune.
I played against BW Warriors, Mardu Warriors, and Jeskai aggro in the final.
I went 6-2. Probably could've been 6-1 but I made a mistake against Jeskai that was probably a punt.
I am probably going up to 4 Sorin though. Even if you get him out and just swing once with his +1 it pretty much the beginning of the end for all the aggro deck.
I think Suspension Field is a must in the board though. Its cheap, theoretically great in the mirror, and it gets Mantis Riders before they can do much damage. Is there anything in the format that blows it up right now? If not I think there is no reason not to have it in there.
Erase will take care of Suspension Field, but some decks still aren't playing it in their boards.
Also I've never played with the High Sentinels outside of limited. It's definitely powerful if you can keep it around, but I feel like it's effect is too slow. How do you think it affected your games?
Erase will take care of Suspension Field, but some decks still aren't playing it in their boards.
Also I've never played with the High Sentinels outside of limited. It's definitely powerful if you can keep it around, but I feel like it's effect is too slow. How do you think it affected your games?
What other enchantments are worthy of Erase?
There was a 3-1 List with results 10/27.
GARRUK17 (3-1)
KTK BLOCK CONSTRUCTED DAILY #7589587 ON 10/27/2014
Man the new mothership site makes it hard to copy these lists.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
I only ever got it down once and it was immediately removed by Utter End. Which is surprising because every time I boarded in my wraths I boarded in the other two copies of it as well.
It is good to have as an extra flyer and 4 drop though I think. 3/4 flyer at 4 is reasonable enough but some times is will hit the table a little bigger.
I had a few games were I wrathed once or twice and then got in a top deck battle with the opponent. In that situation I was hoping to draw him to end the game quickly.
He is probably fine just coming out of the board to replace the Rocs though when you are boarding in your End Hostilities. He probably shouldn't be in the main, or if so maybe just a one of.
RMAC (4-0)
KTK BLOCK CONSTRUCTED DAILY #7704636 ON 11/25/2014
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Creature (18)
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Siege Rhino
3 Wingmate Roc
Sorcery (1)
1 Savage Punch
Instant (8)
4 Abzan Charm
2 Murderous Cut
2 Utter End
1 Abzan Ascendancy
3 Debilitating Injury
1 Suspension Field
Land (25)
1 Blossoming Sands
3 Forest
4 Jungle Hollow
2 Plains
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Scoured Barrens
3 Swamp
4 Windswept Heath
1 Debilitating Injury
2 Suspension Field
1 Utter End
1 Bitter Revelation
1 Dead Drop
2 Death Frenzy
1 Duneblast
3 End Hostilities
1 Erase
2 Rakshasa's Secret
You guys didn't think I'd leave this one out did you? I've got the brew bug. I think Abzan will be one of the best decks in the format.
4 Debilitating injury
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Abzan Charm
4 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Wingmate Roc
4 Murderous Cut
4 Windswept Heath
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Jungle Hollow
2 Scoured Barrens
1 Blossoming Sands
4 Plains
4 Swamp
2 Forest
There are certainly a lot of ways to build this deck. I tried to keep a pro-active plan and to play the most powerful cards available in the colors. The sideboard probably includes 4-6 wrath effects, utter end, and perhaps azban ascendancy. Debilitating Injury and despise are the weakest cards. Murderous cut isn't looking too great either with so few fetches and non-permanents, but the other two weakest cards make it a bit better. Maybe the first two should be creatures, and I should be playing utter end over murderous cut?
Either way, this deck looks seriously powerful. Every creature can stand on its own as a strong threat.
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
I could see a 3/1 or 2/2 split of utter end and cut
It's also possible I could shave 1 anafenza and 1 sorin for muderous cut so i don't get those hands in the screen shot that often
Anafenza sure, but Sorin is backbreaking to an aggro strategy. He basically says kill me or you may have already lost due to your 5/5 lifelink rhino.
I guess you could do 3 with 1 in the board. Of course you may not even need cut md.
Right now I think this is probably the best deck in the format. There may be a Sultai build hanging around out there since Dead Drop would really hose this deck most of the time esp if you were getting a stream of zombies off Sidisi or something.
Right. Also I just remembered (because I'm playing against one in draft) that heir of the wilds has deathtouch. That makes him a lot better.
Here's a question for you. You and your opponent are both in topdeck mode on an empty board. and you topdeck Roc. Do you play it?
I think the answer is yes since so many things have to go right for you to trigger it. You have to draw a creature, you have to have attack with it which means you opponent didn't draw removal or the opponent drew a creature where you don't mind attacking into.
I'm with you. This is the deck to beat. Siege Rhino is ridiculously powerful, and wingmate roc isn't far behind.
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
I beat:
WB warriors
Mono red w/ hordeling outburst
Jeskai who sideboarded into a control deck (this was close, and I don't have any sideboard cards for this match up)
Temur (also very close, he almost won off icy blast, but my curve was better)
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
The complex thing is that these lands all come into play tapped, so you're not going to cast these cards on curve. If you remove some for basics, it increases your chances to cast cards on curve, but decreases your chance to cast the cards since you're running less colored sources.
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/frank-analysis-how-many-colored-mana-sources-do-you-need-to-consistently-cast-your-spells/
I think you should just side out sorin vs cackling doom.
I could see cutting despise, shaving an anafenza and sorin, and playing 4x blood soaked champions and 2x Grim Haruspex, though that makes my sideboard plan of 8x sweepers pretty bad
Looked like it was all Jeskai and Mardu for 3-1 and 4-0.
I was hoping to translate my standard Abzan into a good block deck as well.
I'm really confused by the results that are getting posted. Nothing in my personal experience in 2-player queues and TP games has changed the opinion I expressed here which is that Abzan is potentially the best deck in the format:
http://puremtgo.com/articles/around-block-57-format-launched
I've played a lot against Jeskai using something like the Abzan list posted there that Rickster went 4-0 with, and I've never felt out of it. Against the aggro version you have a lot of lifegain and post-board wraths. Against the controlling version you have Rakshasa Deathdealer and high threat density. I can't overstate how amazing Deathdealer is against Jeskai control. If you look at Bhautina's 4-0 list from the other day, it has literally zero answers to the card in its 75 (not even Jeskai Charm), other than cancel if you get lucky with the timing. I don't see how a control deck that doesn't put up meaningful early pressure can beat that card and you play 4x it.
I do see that it's not doing well in events though, so either people are playing it and it's not as good as I think or people just aren't playing it for some reason.
I will probably try out Rickster's list this week sometime. I just got to pick up 2 more Sorins first!
-Terror is an emotion which, when experienced, results in death.
-The pox was a disease notorious for having killed one-third, rounded up, of Europe’s population. Smallpox, on the other hand, killed only a single person.
-A person riding a horse cannot be stopped by foot soldiers, large animals, walls, archers, or even catapults.
More facts of magic
My deck was a little different I had:
Main:
-1 Sorin, Solemn Vistor
-1 Wingmate Roc
+2 High Sentinels of Arashin
Board:
-2 High Sentinels of Arashin
-1 Utter End
+2 Suspension Field
+1 Duneblast
I played against BW Warriors, Mardu Warriors, and Jeskai aggro in the final.
I went 6-2. Probably could've been 6-1 but I made a mistake against Jeskai that was probably a punt.
I am probably going up to 4 Sorin though. Even if you get him out and just swing once with his +1 it pretty much the beginning of the end for all the aggro deck.
I think Suspension Field is a must in the board though. Its cheap, theoretically great in the mirror, and it gets Mantis Riders before they can do much damage. Is there anything in the format that blows it up right now? If not I think there is no reason not to have it in there.
Also I've never played with the High Sentinels outside of limited. It's definitely powerful if you can keep it around, but I feel like it's effect is too slow. How do you think it affected your games?
BU Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
BR Tor Wauki
BG Savra, Queen of the Golgari
BWURG Karona, False God
Standard
Currently nothing.
Modern
B 8-Rack
Casual
BW Pestilence
B Multiplayer Discard
Block Constructed
BWG Abzan Midrange
What other enchantments are worthy of Erase?
There was a 3-1 List with results 10/27.
GARRUK17 (3-1)
KTK BLOCK CONSTRUCTED DAILY #7589587 ON 10/27/2014
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Siege Rhino
3 Wingmate Roc
Sorcery (4)
4 Despise
Instant (7)
4 Abzan Charm
2 Murderous Cut
1 Utter End
3 Suspension Field
Land (25)
1 Blossoming Sands
3 Forest
4 Jungle Hollow
2 Plains
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
3 Scoured Barrens
4 Swamp
4 Windswept Heath
1 Debilitating Injury
1 Suspension Field
1 Utter End
Man the new mothership site makes it hard to copy these lists.
It is good to have as an extra flyer and 4 drop though I think. 3/4 flyer at 4 is reasonable enough but some times is will hit the table a little bigger.
I had a few games were I wrathed once or twice and then got in a top deck battle with the opponent. In that situation I was hoping to draw him to end the game quickly.
He is probably fine just coming out of the board to replace the Rocs though when you are boarding in your End Hostilities. He probably shouldn't be in the main, or if so maybe just a one of.