I played a Fate Reforged prerelease last night. I had an Abzan kit, and ended up stickign with that clan. I did pretty well, I went 3-1-0. My fixing really supported going Abzan, and I was able to get a good number of power cards in those colors. Particularly, Dromoka, the Eternal was really impressive.
One combo that turned out to be pretty strong was using Temur Sabertooth to bounce my own Sandsteppe Outcast. It allowed me to repeatedly bounce and recast Outcast to generate tokens.
I'm looking for any suggestions for how you would have built a deck from this pool:
curve notes:
I counted Wildcall as 5 cmc. I also counted Gurmag Angler as 5cmc, even though I often only had to pay 1 mana for it because I didn't have any other delve cards in the deck.
One question: why Throttle over Reach of Shadows? Reach seems stronger to me with everyone's expensive bombs running around at the prerelease.
Reach of Shadows is obviously the better choice. I didn't know anything about the set going in because I didn't have a chance to look at the spoilers. The only thing I had heard was that there was a "strong colorless theme" in this set. So I was worried that there would be a bunch of artifact bombs that Reach couldn't touch. Well I didn't really see anything like that. I'm pretty sure that Reach would have been better than Throttle.
Formless Nurturing didn't do much, you are right - especially with Wildcall in my deck already. I took Gurmag Angler because I didn't have any other delve spells and I only had one bomb in Dromoka, the Eternal and possibly another with Wildcall. At the risk of falling into results oriented thinking, I was able to cast him late in the game twice for a single mana (delving away my entire graveyard).
Ugin's Construct is a big question mark though. I think I'd be happy to replace him with Dragon Bell Monk. As far as my experiences with the Construct, there is a unique situation that occurred twice. On turn two or three I'd play a creature like Hooded Assassin. Then on their turn 3 I'd trade that creature with my opponent's creature for an empty battlefield on both sides. Then on turn 4 I'd play Ugin's Construct. Because I didn't have any colored permanents, I didn't have to sacrifice anything leading to me having a 4/5 with nothing in the way. I'm not convinced that it is a great card, but I'm not convinced that it is bad either. I'd like to hear some thoughts on this.
The construct is fine. Possibly you should run it over Honor's reward. I think they do similar things (when the opponent blocks your morph attacking on T4, it leaves a 4 power creature behind and them with nothing).
One combo that turned out to be pretty strong was using Temur Sabertooth to bounce my own Sandsteppe Outcast. It allowed me to repeatedly bounce and recast Outcast to generate tokens.
I'm looking for any suggestions for how you would have built a deck from this pool:
2 Abzan Advantage
1 Abzan Falconer
1 Abzan Runemark
1 Ainok Bond-kin
1 Aven Skirmisher
1 Dragon Bell Monk
1 Firehoof Cavalry
1 Great-Horn Krushok
1 Honor's Reward
1 Rally the Ancestors
1 Pressure Point
1 Salt Road Patrol
2 Sandsteppe Outcast
1 Suspension Field
Blue
1 Cloudform
1 Enhanced Awareness
1 Lotus Path Djinn
1 Mindscour Dragon
1 Monastery Flock
1 Neutralizing Blast
1 Reality Shift
1 Refocus
1 Sultai Skullkeeper
1 Wetland Sambar
1 Whisk Away
1 Will of the Naga
1 Write into Being
1 Battle Brawler
1 Bellowing Saddlebrute
1 Diplomacy of the Wastes
1 Douse in Gloom
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Hooded Assassin
1 Krumar Bond-kin
1 Mardu Strike Leader
1 Reach of Shadows
1 Tasigur's Cruelty
1 Throttle
1 Typhoid Rats
Red
2 Bathe in Dragonfire
2 Collateral Damage
1 Flamerush Rider
1 Friendly Fire
1 Horde Ambusher
1 Lightning Shrieker
1 Mardu Scout
2 Temur Battle Rage
1 Valley Dasher
1 War-Name Aspirant
Green
1 Ainok Guide
1 Archers of Qarsi
1 Formless Nurturing
1 Fruit of the First Tree
1 Highland Game
4 Map the Wastes
1 Naturalize
1 Return to the Earth
1 Scout the Borders
1 Sudden Reclamation
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Temur Runemark
1 Wildcall
1 Abzan Charm
1 Abzan Guide
1 Dromoka, the Eternal
3 Ethereal Ambush
2 Harsh Sustenance
Artifact
1 Abzan Banner
1 Mardu Banner
1 Ugin's Construct
Land
1 Bloodfell Caves
2 Blossoming Sands
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Jungle Hollow
1 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
1 Windswept Heath
1 Abzan Falconer
1 Abzan Guide
1 Ainok Bond-Kin
1 Ainok Guide
1 Battle Brawler
1 Bellowing Saddlebrute
1 Dromoka, the Eternal
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Hooded Assassin
1 Mardu Strike Leader
2 Sandsteppe Outcast
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Ugin's Construct
1 Abzan Charm
1 Formless Nurturing
2 Harsh Sustenance
1 Suspension Field
1 Throttle
1 Wildcall
Land (18)
2 Blossoming Sands
4 Forest
1 Jungle Hollow
3 Plains
1 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Scoured Barrens
5 Swamp
1 Windswept Heath
Curve:
1 C
2 CCCS
3 CCCCCCSSS
4 CCCS
5 CCSS
curve notes:
I counted Wildcall as 5 cmc. I also counted Gurmag Angler as 5cmc, even though I often only had to pay 1 mana for it because I didn't have any other delve cards in the deck.
Reach of Shadows is obviously the better choice. I didn't know anything about the set going in because I didn't have a chance to look at the spoilers. The only thing I had heard was that there was a "strong colorless theme" in this set. So I was worried that there would be a bunch of artifact bombs that Reach couldn't touch. Well I didn't really see anything like that. I'm pretty sure that Reach would have been better than Throttle.
Formless Nurturing didn't do much, you are right - especially with Wildcall in my deck already. I took Gurmag Angler because I didn't have any other delve spells and I only had one bomb in Dromoka, the Eternal and possibly another with Wildcall. At the risk of falling into results oriented thinking, I was able to cast him late in the game twice for a single mana (delving away my entire graveyard).
Ugin's Construct is a big question mark though. I think I'd be happy to replace him with Dragon Bell Monk. As far as my experiences with the Construct, there is a unique situation that occurred twice. On turn two or three I'd play a creature like Hooded Assassin. Then on their turn 3 I'd trade that creature with my opponent's creature for an empty battlefield on both sides. Then on turn 4 I'd play Ugin's Construct. Because I didn't have any colored permanents, I didn't have to sacrifice anything leading to me having a 4/5 with nothing in the way. I'm not convinced that it is a great card, but I'm not convinced that it is bad either. I'd like to hear some thoughts on this.