Abzan Return to the Ranks
(Abzan Return for short)
Death is only the beginning of the end.
Also known as: Next Level Abzan, Abzan Aristocrats, Abzan Ascendancy
Contents
1) What is Abzan Return?
2) Card Choices
3) Decklists
4) Matchups and Sideboarding
5) Articles/Videos
1) What is Abzan Return?
Abzan Return is a WBG deck that consists mostly of creatures that create tokens when they die. You play a bunch of creatures and get them into your graveyard either through combat, sacrifice outlets, or Satyr Wayfinder. Then, cast Return to the Ranks using tokens to pay for part of the cost, and get all your creatures back. Do this a few times, throwing in cards that trigger on your creatures dying (e.g. Blood Artist, Abzan Ascendancy), and you’ll have more creatures than your opponent can handle.
So, is this a Collected Company deck? How is it different from Melira Company?
This deck does play 3 Collected Company, but I wouldn’t say it’s a Collected Company deck. It has more copies of Return to the Ranks, after all. In Collected Company decks, you’ll see a lot of creatures at 3CMC since they’re the largest things you can get off CC (e.g. Kitchen Finks, Loxodon Smiter, Ezuri, Renegade Leader). Flipping two 3CMC creatures off Collected Company means you paid 2 mana less than if you were to hardcast both of them. In this deck, however, the magic number is 2, because of Return to the Ranks.
How is it different from Melira? Well, for one, it doesn't have Melira, or any of the other combo pieces besides Viscera Seer. The other difference lies in the support cards that each deck plays. Melira has mana dorks to accelerate into turn 2 Finks, or turn 3 Collected Company, and for their late-game plan of Gavony Township. Abzan Return, on the other hand, has Doomed Traveler and Blisterpod for support, which work a little differently. They're there to gum up the board and maybe sneak in a few points of damage in the early turns.
Why should I play Abzan Return?
1) Good “fair deck” matchups. Decks that want to play long grindy games match up poorly against Abzan Return. Cards like Blood Artist and Abzan Ascendancy allow you to win a war of attrition, while Return to the Ranks is absolutely monstrous when topdecked late-game.
2) Resistance to spot removal. A lot of the cards in Abzan Return trigger when they die, or when something else dies. Return to the Ranks and Collected Company give you 2 or more bodies out of 1 card. As a result, spot removal fares poorly against this deck.
3) Something for everyone! This is just personal opinion, but I feel that this deck appeals to a wide range of players. If you liked Aristocrats in Standard, this deck plays out very similarly. If you liked Disciple of the Vault + Arcbound Ravager (or are simply lamenting the ineffectiveness of Disciple due to the lack of artifact lands), you’ll like Viscera Seer + Blood Artist. If you like sacrificing your whole board and bringing it back (Eggs!?), you’ll like Return to the Ranks. Even Abzan Ascendancy’s effect will be familiar to people who play Rage Forger.
Why should I NOT play Abzan Return?
1) Bad combo matchups. Abzan Return isn’t fast enough to race combo, and has little in the way of disruption.
2) Weakness to grave hate and sweepers. As this deck relies on its graveyard, Rest in Peace hoses it pretty hard. Relic of Progenitus does not stop death triggers, but it prevents effective usage of Return to the Ranks. The same goes for Grafdigger’s Cage, which blanks Collected Company on top of Return. Sweepers like Pyroclasm and Anger of the Gods tend to kill off your tokens with no recourse, undoing all your efforts at getting ahead in board position. Anger is particularly bad as it exiles, so the creatures that are killed by it won’t trigger.
3) Tons of triggers. This deck tends to generate a lot of triggers when something dies - first the creature might have an inbuilt trigger, then Viscera Seer would let you scry, and Blood Artist or Abzan Ascendancy would drain life or make tokens. In paper, you need to be careful not to miss any triggers, while online, it can be a bit slow to click through all of them.
2) Card Choices Death Triggers
Doomed Traveler: The best 1-mana creature that creates a token when it dies. Both the creature and the token it produces tap for white for Return to the Ranks. The token even flies! Blisterpod: An upgrade to Tukatongue Thallid. It’s generally worse than Doomed Traveler. The token can sac itself for mana, which serves to let you rush out Collected Company on turn 3 if you REALLY need to (don’t throw away your tokens for no good reason!), or simply to trigger Blood Artist without Viscera Seer/Cartel Aristocrat. Also, it can chump block an Etched Champion and survive Ugin, the Spirit Dragon’s -X.
Note that you cannot tap the Scion token and sac it to pay 2 for Return to the Ranks. Tukatongue Thallid: Worse than Blisterpod and Doomed Traveler, but before Battle for Zendikar, it was the only other token-making option at 1 mana. Young Wolf: Another option in early versions of the deck. When it dies, it leaves behind a 2/2, which is larger than a 1/1 Spirit or Eldrazi Scion. When the 2/2 dies, it triggers Abzan Ascendancy, unlike those tokens. However, unlike Doomed Traveler and Blisterpod, it does not leave a body behind in the graveyard to Return when it dies, making it less abusable. Also, putting a +1/+1 counter on a 1/1 Young Wolf with Abzan Ascendancy turns off its undying ability. Voice of Resurgence: A 2/2 for 2 that creates a token when it dies. With Return to the Ranks and Collected Company providing you with multiple bodies in 1 card, it’s not hard for the token to become massive. Voice of Resurgence also punishes your opponent for playing spells on your turn (mostly counterspells). Blood Artist: This card is simultaneously grindy and combo-riffic. It ensures that any sequence of plays which involves trading off creatures favors you. It also opens up a “combo kill” where you sacrifice everything you have to kill your opponent with Blood Artist triggers. Abzan Ascendancy: Two good abilities in a deck that goes wide. +1/+1 counters increase your creatures’ combat potential (especially on flying Spirit tokens), while the death trigger means even more tokens for convoking or attacking.
You can sacrifice creatures in response to the ETB trigger of Abzan Ascendancy. This gives you a 2/2 (1/1, with a +1/+1 counter) flying Spirit for each nontoken creature that you sacced. If the sacced creature has a built-in trigger that makes another token on death, that token gets a +1/+1 counter too. So, for example, a 1/1 Doomed Traveler can turn into two 2/2 flying Spirits!
Sac Outlets
Viscera Seer: The cheapest repeatable sac outlet that doesn’t cost any mana to activate. Scry 1 is not the best reward for saccing a creature, but it’s better than nothing.
As with Serum Visions, crack your fetchlands before scrying. Satyr Wayfinder can also mess up scry - if you end up having to sac creatures while Satyr Wayfinder's trigger has yet to resolve, you'll want to put all nonland cards on the bottom on your library, unless you're setting up for a Return to the Ranks or Eternal Witness in your hand. Cartel Aristocrat: Secondary sac outlet. Giving it protection lets it attack unblocked, survive removal spells, and block bigger creatures without dying.
What are sac outlets good for, anyway?
- putting creatures into your graveyard for Return (obviously)
- triggering “when this creature dies” abilities (also obvious)
- getting value out of removal spells on your creatures
- fizzling a Maelstrom Pulse targeting a creature that you have multiple copies of, as well as stopping secondary effects on cards like Electrolyze and Lightning Helix
- getting value when your creature chump blocks
- blocking a creature with lifelink (e.g. Vault Skirge, Wurmcoil Engine, Slippery Bogle with auras), then saccing the blocker to prevent the life gain
- saccing your board in response to a Living End cast (make sure they actually cast it before you sac!)
Card Advantage
Return to the Ranks: The best card in the deck. It’s an X-for-1 that lets your creatures turn into mana dorks while casting it. As mentioned in the intro, most of the time you will sac your creatures to make tokens and use those tokens to pay for Return to the Ranks. Collected Company: An instant speed 2-for-1. This card loses some of its effectiveness when most of the creatures in the deck are CMC 2 or less, so you merely break even in terms of mana most of the time, as opposed to coming out ahead if you flip over two 3s. Still, it helps you find your combo kill of sac outlet + Blood Artist. Flipping over a Voice of Resurgence which then turns into a 5/5 token isn’t too bad either.
Other
Tidehollow Sculler: Necessary disruption. Slows down your opponent while you attack with your other creatures. Crucial against combo decks.
You can exile a card permanently with Tidehollow Sculler if you hold priority and sac it to Seer/Aristocrat after it enters the battlefield, but before the ETB trigger resolves. The LTB trigger resolves first and does nothing, then the ETB trigger resolves and exiles the card forever. This trick will also get careless or inexperienced players who Bolt it before the ETB trigger resolves. Satyr Wayfinder: Utility guy. It grabs a land from the top 4 cards, dumps creatures into the graveyard for Return to the Ranks, and provides a body for attacking/blocking/convoking. It’s even returnable with Return to the Ranks!
Try not to dump shocklands/basics into your graveyard with Satyr Wayfinder. You only have 1 copy of each shock/basic in your deck (well, 2 Godless Shrine), so getting screwed out of a particular combination or running out of fetch targets is a concern. Eternal Witness: Green’s Snapcaster Mage. Most of the time you’ll get one of your big payoff spells like Return, Ascendancy, or Company. It can get cards that were dumped by Satyr Wayfinder. Teysa, Orzhov Scion: Does a lot of things, but isn’t exceptionally good at any one of them. Her CMC is low enough to be flipped off Collected Company. She’s a sac outlet with a powerful effect, but it costs 3 of your own creatures and they must be white. She has Abzan Ascendancy’s effect, but only for black creatures, and doesn’t apply to herself.
White is the most important color in the deck - Return to the Ranks costs two white, and all of your multicolored 2-drops cost 1 white. Next is black - all sac outlets and Blood Artist cost 1 black. Green is the least important - Blisterpod and Satyr Wayfinder are mostly filler and frequently boarded out, while Collected Company costs just 1 green mana out of 4.
Dryad Arbor lets you turn any of your green fetches into a creature for Blood Artist/Abzan Ascendancy shenanigans. 1 is enough; you hardly ever want to draw it naturally.
Land Sequencing
This deck has a lot of spells that cost 2+ colors of mana, or two mana of one color, so it’s important to ensure that you’re fetching properly.
Overgrown Tomb + Plains is the best shock + basic combination. It lets you cast all of your 2-drops. If your turn 1 play is Doomed Traveler, then fetch Plains on turn 1 and Overgrown Tomb on turn 2. Otherwise, fetch Overgrown Tomb for turn 1 Viscera Seer/Blisterpod, then Plains on turn 2.
Watch the amount of white mana and creatures you have - you don’t want to sac your whole board only to discover that you don’t have double white for Return to the Ranks. Most of the time, 1 white-producing land is enough - if you use it to cast a white creature, that creature will tap for the second W for Return. All your white token-making creatures create white tokens on death.
Eternal Witness costs 2 green. This isn’t really a big deal since it’s unlikely that you draw her naturally. You should have 2 green by the time you draw her. Either that, or you flip her off Collected Company.
Try to save your green fetches for later, since they can get Dryad Arbor. You can curve a turn 2 Dryad Arbor into turn 3 Abzan Ascendancy, but it’s not recommended if your opponent has removal. Turn 4 Dryad Arbor + Abzan Ascendancy is safer.
Sideboard
Stain the Mind: Your best card against combo. 1- and 2-drops help you cast it early. Burrenton Forge-Tender: Protects against red sweepers like Pyroclasm and Anger of the Gods. Path to Exile: Breaks up creature-based combos. Also good against big creatures with trample that can punch through chump blockers. Spellskite: Staple SB card. Stops the Twin combo, Infect, Bogles. Orzhov Pontiff: One-sided board wipe against decks with small creatures like Affinity, Elves, Melira, Infect, and the mirror. Pumping your entire team for lethal is also an option. Sac outlets help you trigger haunt on demand - you can sac Pontiff to haunt one of your creatures, then sac the haunted creature to get the Profit // Loss effect.
You can give your opponent’s team -2/-2 if you have a sac outlet and they have an x/1. Hold priority after Pontiff ETBs, then sacrifice Pontiff and haunt the x/1. Then allow Pontiff’s ETB trigger to resolve, killing the x/1, causing haunt to trigger, netting another -1/-1. Qasali Pridemage: Artifact/enchantment removal. It grants an Exalted bonus and taps for convoke while not in use.
Infect
-4 Blood Artist
-4 Satyr Wayfinder
+2 Path to Exile
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+3 Spellskite
+2 Orzhov Pontiff
Merfolk
-2 Tidehollow Sculler
+2 Path to Exile
Unfavorable Twin
-3 Collected Company
-1 Return to the Ranks
-1 Cartel Aristocrat
-2 Blisterpod
-2 Satyr Wayfinder
+2 Path to Exile
+1 Keening Apparition
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+3 Spellskite
+2 Stain the Mind
RG Tron
-2 Blood Artist
-4 Satyr Wayfinder
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+2 Path to Exile
Amulet
-4 Blood Artist
-3 Collected Company
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+1 Keening Apparition
+3 Stain the Mind
+2 Path to Exile
Grishoalbrand
-4 Blood Artist
-2 Blisterpod
-1 Cartel Aristocrat
-3 Collected Company
+3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+1 Keening Apparition
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+3 Stain the Mind
+2 Path to Exile
Blisterpod and Satyr Wayfinder are usually the first few cards to come out. Blisterpod is just worse than Doomed Traveler. Wayfinder is weak against fast decks; it’s neither a good blocker nor attacker for its cost.
Blood Artist is an easy cut against decks that don’t care about your life total. Infect and most combo decks fall under this category.
Burrenton Forge-Tender comes in against decks with red sweepers. If your opponent relies too heavily on red removal to survive during the early turns, a turn 1 Forge-Tender can give you a nice life lead into the midgame by simply poking for 1 every turn until they find a blocker.
When boarding in Stain the Mind, keep your creature count and curve in mind. Your ideal start is T1 1-drop into T2 1-/2-drop into T3 Stain the Mind. Board out Collected Company to keep your curve constant.
I generally like Zulaport Cutthroat much more than Blood Artist; besides not targeting, Cutthroat also has a crucial 1 power. It trades with Snapcaster Mage and more! I generally don't care as much that Cutthroat cannot take advantage of opposing stuff dying. I'd go with more than 4 Artist effects, but go with 4 Cutthroat before I get any Artists.
I'm also trying Hangarback Walker and Gavony Township--Hangarback is fairly good as a pseudo-Doomed Traveler that can make more than one flying guy, and Township has probably won me two games because of the pump (and synergy with Hangarback). Township has colour screwed me into one loss, though.
Blood Artist punishes Arcbound Ravager. I tend to board out Blood Artist against the decks that can board in Leyline of Sanctity anyway (they're usually combo, and Blood Artist isn't fast enough) so the non-targeting of Cutthroat isn't a big factor for me.
Hangarback Walker - now that I can't see why you'd want to play. It nonbos with Return to the Ranks and Collected Company.
This deck has a lot of things that require colored mana, so I'd view Gavony Township strictly as a spell, instead of a land that has a spell effect (like I would for other GW decks). When I put it like that it feels like the fourth Abzan Ascendancy is just better than Township.
Liliana seems like a passable choice. She could take the Teysa spot. I haven't done a lot of exiling with Teysa.
Dryad Arbor is just there because the cost for including it is low. You have 7 green fetches to get it. The body is small, but in this deck, Blood Artist and Abzan Ascendancy make 1/1s relevant even on late turns.
Here's my current list. I felt like Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and Safehold Elite were decent enough in this deck to justify adding for their combo-kill potential. The quicker combo will hopefully help in the race-oriented matchups like Affinity, Burn, Twin and Infect. Speaking of those decks, Spellskite is a fantastically well-positioned card in the format and is supported by our main engine. The listed cards with slashes between them are deckslots that I need help deciding on. I initially liked Thoughtseize because it provided some exceptionally strong curve-outs and theoretically should be able to handle most of the cards this deck is weak to, but I'm thinking Path might be a better option since it's usually a more capable topdeck, goes positive on tempo, and can answer threats like Deceiver Exarch, Scavenging Ooze, and huge Affinity dudes more reliably. I've also been trying Blisterpod over Doomed Traveler, though I usually prefer the Traveler unless I have a Collected Company in hand. Evolutionary Leap has shined at times that Collected Company wouldn't and vice versa, but I'm thinking that Eternal Witness might be better than either of them, since Witness on Return to the Ranks is usually a game-winning sequence.
I choose Stony Silence over Orzhov Pontiff, its faster and more effective. I mean, you cant Return to Ranks it.
Although i really like the idea of liliana heretical healer
Blood Artist punishes Arcbound Ravager. I tend to board out Blood Artist against the decks that can board in Leyline of Sanctity anyway (they're usually combo, and Blood Artist isn't fast enough) so the non-targeting of Cutthroat isn't a big factor for me.
Hangarback Walker - now that I can't see why you'd want to play. It nonbos with Return to the Ranks and Collected Company.
This deck has a lot of things that require colored mana, so I'd view Gavony Township strictly as a spell, instead of a land that has a spell effect (like I would for other GW decks). When I put it like that it feels like the fourth Abzan Ascendancy is just better than Township.
Liliana seems like a passable choice. She could take the Teysa spot. I haven't done a lot of exiling with Teysa.
Dryad Arbor is just there because the cost for including it is low. You have 7 green fetches to get it. The body is small, but in this deck, Blood Artist and Abzan Ascendancy make 1/1s relevant even on late turns.
Thanks for the Kid Liliana and Dryad Arbor explanations.
Hangarback Walker's been fine so far, but I can see its hit-and-miss-ness. Its tokens are pretty good at Convoking for bigger numbers but not for Convoking for colour fixing. More frustratingly, it is indeed a whiff with CC, although triggering Artists when it dies upon CC flip is funny.
At least on Cockatrice, I rarely meet Affinity, so that's why Zulaport Cutthroat has been a bazillion times better than Blood Artist for me.
One crucial difference between Gavony Township and Abzan Ascendancy #4: Township is a land that taps for mana and gets retrieved by Satyr Wayfinder, while Ascendancy isn't. Timing Ascendancy has gotten really tricky for me lately, while timing Township is a piece of cake.
I have been watching this deck for awhile now in the Aristocrat thread and I'm happy that it now has it's own thread. This is the next deck that I'm looking to build and I'm probably going to use the standard list but with Liliana, Heretical Healer as a one of along with Eternal Witness.
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So I have been thinking of putting in Gravecrawler and making a small package of Tidehollow Sculler and Liliana, Heretical Healer (when it flips it gives a zombie) to support it. Satyr Wayfinder already helps us mill a few crawlers, you can have those crazy plays where you keep sacing crawlers to get multiple blood artist triggers as well. I'll post a decklist soon.
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On mtgsalvation people don't want to discuss ideas, so I give people something else to discuss: my controversial opinions.
I wondered how this deck isn't just Abzan Aristocrats lol. Still, I think that having a dedicated place to discuss the Abzan variant is useful. The problem with the Aritocrats thread is that there are 3 variants (Orzhov, Abzan, and Mardu) and so no single varriant gets enough attention.
I do find it interesting that this deck really prefers Return to the Ranks. I think Rally is just a much more powerful card. With enough Blood Artists/Zulaport Cutthroats on the board it really improves the combo match up because you try and Rally->Sac for the win in response to the combo deck going off. Also, for the same cmc Rally grabs more creatures than Return can. This is also good with Liliana, Heretical Healer because you can Rally X=3 and grab Lili. If you can flip her before you have to exile her then she gets to stay.
I've been testing Grim Haruspex in an Orzhov Aristocrats build. I think the card is actually quite powerful. I don't know what you would/could cut in these lists to play it though.
Stain the Mind is an interesting sideboard choice.
Eternal Witness is quite powerful with CoCo. I'm shocked these lists don't play more copies especially since returning a Blisterpod or Doomed Traveler, or other easily castable creature, to your hand is great when you have 4 mana and just need to clog up the board.
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This deck is really hard to grind out because because you can often scry the reanimation spells to the top. Ofc graveyard hate really hurts, but often you can grind through it and just win without comboing off. Satyr Wayfinder is the catalyst of the deck. Just make sure you always play your sac outlets first. Feels good to finally have a positive matchup vs GR Tron with an Abzan deck. Playing vs living end is hilarious!
Is something like Golgari Thug possible here? He kind of fits with the Wayfinder theme and could potentially bring back Blood Artist effects that got milled or otherwise removed.
@Hert79: that looks pretty good. I'd already moved to the 2/2 Anafenza/Melira split, and I was thinking about playing with Eternal Witness over the 4th Cartel Aristocrat but given how all-in this deck goes with the graveyard I agree that running 1x Qasali Pridemage in the main might be the way to go.
With that said, I have a question for you or anyone running a RallyFenza variation:
What do you guys sideboard out, in general? (my deck is pretty close to Hert79's)
The whole deck is one big super redundant combo engine so it's hard for me to identify what the most flexible slots are. Here's what I've gathered so far from playing:
1) Cartel Aristocrats 3 & 4 both seem flexible as their effect doesn't stack and isn't as useful as the Seer's scry.
2) If enough creatures are coming out, CoCo becomes less consistent, so I'll sometimes side out CoCo 3 & 4.
3) Not sure on Wandering Satyr. On one hand he's not technically a part of the combo engine, but he is an important enabler and pulls lands. I could maybe see boarding out the 4th satyr. Or maybe this is a mistake?
@Hert79: that looks pretty good. I'd already moved to the 2/2 Anafenza/Melira split, and I was thinking about playing with Eternal Witness over the 4th Cartel Aristocrat but given how all-in this deck goes with the graveyard I agree that running 1x Qasali Pridemage in the main might be the way to go.
With that said, I have a question for you or anyone running a RallyFenza variation:
What do you guys sideboard out, in general? (my deck is pretty close to Hert79's)
The whole deck is one big super redundant combo engine so it's hard for me to identify what the most flexible slots are.
Yeah, I'm toying around with some slots as well. Don't really know yet what is best.
I usually take out the 3rd aristocrat, 2nd melira, a blood artist and a return to the ranks. Sometimes some companies as well.
1) Cartel Aristocrats 3 & 4 both seem flexible as their effect doesn't stack and isn't as useful as the Seer's scry.
Yeah, if I could I would play 7 seers. But sometimes the aristocrat is better as once your opponent figures out your deck he'll realize he needs to remove the sac oulets asap, and the aristocrat is a lot harder to get rid of.
2) If enough creatures are coming out, CoCo becomes less consistent, so I'll sometimes side out CoCo 3 & 4.
I'm going to try the deck without companies, so far in my testing they've been very meh. I think I'm going to try 2 decays and 2 grisly salvage, and then swap the qasali for an Abzan Ascendancy. Not sure whether this is a good idea.
3) Not sure on Wandering Satyr. On one hand he's not technically a part of the combo engine, but he is an important enabler and pulls lands. I could maybe see boarding out the 4th satyr. Or maybe this is a mistake?
Never, ever, ever take out the satyr waayfinders. They are supergood. I wish I could play 8. They are the ones that enable the T4/T5 kills. Play wayfinder sac, rally, wayfinder triggers again (hopefully ditching your missing combo piece in the yard) and then convoking return to the ranks for the last piece gets you some explosive kills out of seemingly nowhere.
Went 3-1 at FNM last night with the list I posted earlier. Beat U Tron, Reatreat Company and Elves. Lost to allies. You'd think it's a good matchup but the protection guy kept me from chump blocking for value and I died pretty fast both games. Main deck decay would help against this.
Deck feels very good atm, although a it still feels like a glass cannon.
Is something like Golgari Thug possible here? He kind of fits with the Wayfinder theme and could potentially bring back Blood Artist effects that got milled or otherwise removed.
Thoughts?
Dredge is interesting but we don't really want to bring back creatures to the top of our library IMO. We want them in the graveyard.
2) If enough creatures are coming out, CoCo becomes less consistent, so I'll sometimes side out CoCo 3 & 4.
I'm going to try the deck without companies, so far in my testing they've been very meh. I think I'm going to try 2 decays and 2 grisly salvage, and then swap the qasali for an Abzan Ascendancy. Not sure whether this is a good idea.
I also tried cutting the CoCos. although haven't gotten around to playing enough games to say for sure if I like it better or not.
Here's the list I'm currently playing. Very similar to yours.
I figured the 1-of Eternal Witness becomes very useful when you end up ditching a bunch of your recurssion spells from all the wayfinders/salvages. Also with the salvages, I feel like we're committing even more to the gy plan thus making us more 'glass cannon-y' like you said.
Loyal Cathar is like Young Wolf: it doesn't leave behind a body to Return back.
Bloodghast has no ETB/death trigger and costs double black. It's better in decks that play Faithless Looting or Smallpox (this deck doesn't) since you can get it from your hand into the graveyard with those cards.
Carrier Thrall technically would "work", but is pretty inefficient. The stats on the tokens that a creature makes are generally more important than the stats on the creature itself since you'll end up saccing the creature anyway. I'd play more 1-drops like Blisterpod/Tukatongue Thallid before adding Carrier Thrall.
So between Carrier Thrall and Doomed Traveler the latter is preferable ?
Despite the option to sac' Thrall's token to ramp into Return/Rally (or something else).
Also, what do you think about using Cauldron Haze in this deck to give every creature Persist before sac'ing them to get double triggers from Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat ?
Yes. Doomed Traveler is the best 1-drop that makes a token when it dies. If you feel like you need more Scions, play more Blisterpods.
Rally the Ancestors is better than Cauldron Haze. They both do pretty much the same thing, which is to double your Artist triggers, but you can play Rally the Ancestors on an empty board.
I didn't mean to replace Rally but to add an additional instant speed option to double the death triggers (for instance to cast it on opponent's end step and sac the creatures), is it unnecessary ?
It also costs only 2 mana which seems rather cost-effective for the purpose of this deck.
I'm building an Orzhov variation of the deck so no Blisterpod for me, that's why I thought about using Carrier Thrall.
#Back to Loyal Cathar (and Young Wolf), why is it a disadvantage that they don't leave behind a body to "Return" back ?
Can't you just Sac' them again for this ?
(Abzan Return for short)
Death is only the beginning of the end.
Also known as: Next Level Abzan, Abzan Aristocrats, Abzan Ascendancy
Contents
1) What is Abzan Return?
2) Card Choices
3) Decklists
4) Matchups and Sideboarding
5) Articles/Videos
1) What is Abzan Return?
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3gfpQWM5ks)
So, is this a Collected Company deck? How is it different from Melira Company?
This deck does play 3 Collected Company, but I wouldn’t say it’s a Collected Company deck. It has more copies of Return to the Ranks, after all. In Collected Company decks, you’ll see a lot of creatures at 3CMC since they’re the largest things you can get off CC (e.g. Kitchen Finks, Loxodon Smiter, Ezuri, Renegade Leader). Flipping two 3CMC creatures off Collected Company means you paid 2 mana less than if you were to hardcast both of them. In this deck, however, the magic number is 2, because of Return to the Ranks.
How is it different from Melira? Well, for one, it doesn't have Melira, or any of the other combo pieces besides Viscera Seer. The other difference lies in the support cards that each deck plays. Melira has mana dorks to accelerate into turn 2 Finks, or turn 3 Collected Company, and for their late-game plan of Gavony Township. Abzan Return, on the other hand, has Doomed Traveler and Blisterpod for support, which work a little differently. They're there to gum up the board and maybe sneak in a few points of damage in the early turns.
Why should I play Abzan Return?
1) Good “fair deck” matchups. Decks that want to play long grindy games match up poorly against Abzan Return. Cards like Blood Artist and Abzan Ascendancy allow you to win a war of attrition, while Return to the Ranks is absolutely monstrous when topdecked late-game.
2) Resistance to spot removal. A lot of the cards in Abzan Return trigger when they die, or when something else dies. Return to the Ranks and Collected Company give you 2 or more bodies out of 1 card. As a result, spot removal fares poorly against this deck.
3) Something for everyone! This is just personal opinion, but I feel that this deck appeals to a wide range of players. If you liked Aristocrats in Standard, this deck plays out very similarly. If you liked Disciple of the Vault + Arcbound Ravager (or are simply lamenting the ineffectiveness of Disciple due to the lack of artifact lands), you’ll like Viscera Seer + Blood Artist. If you like sacrificing your whole board and bringing it back (Eggs!?), you’ll like Return to the Ranks. Even Abzan Ascendancy’s effect will be familiar to people who play Rage Forger.
Why should I NOT play Abzan Return?
1) Bad combo matchups. Abzan Return isn’t fast enough to race combo, and has little in the way of disruption.
2) Weakness to grave hate and sweepers. As this deck relies on its graveyard, Rest in Peace hoses it pretty hard. Relic of Progenitus does not stop death triggers, but it prevents effective usage of Return to the Ranks. The same goes for Grafdigger’s Cage, which blanks Collected Company on top of Return. Sweepers like Pyroclasm and Anger of the Gods tend to kill off your tokens with no recourse, undoing all your efforts at getting ahead in board position. Anger is particularly bad as it exiles, so the creatures that are killed by it won’t trigger.
3) Tons of triggers. This deck tends to generate a lot of triggers when something dies - first the creature might have an inbuilt trigger, then Viscera Seer would let you scry, and Blood Artist or Abzan Ascendancy would drain life or make tokens. In paper, you need to be careful not to miss any triggers, while online, it can be a bit slow to click through all of them.
Death Triggers
Blisterpod: An upgrade to Tukatongue Thallid. It’s generally worse than Doomed Traveler. The token can sac itself for mana, which serves to let you rush out Collected Company on turn 3 if you REALLY need to (don’t throw away your tokens for no good reason!), or simply to trigger Blood Artist without Viscera Seer/Cartel Aristocrat. Also, it can chump block an Etched Champion and survive Ugin, the Spirit Dragon’s -X.
Note that you cannot tap the Scion token and sac it to pay 2 for Return to the Ranks.
Tukatongue Thallid: Worse than Blisterpod and Doomed Traveler, but before Battle for Zendikar, it was the only other token-making option at 1 mana.
Young Wolf: Another option in early versions of the deck. When it dies, it leaves behind a 2/2, which is larger than a 1/1 Spirit or Eldrazi Scion. When the 2/2 dies, it triggers Abzan Ascendancy, unlike those tokens. However, unlike Doomed Traveler and Blisterpod, it does not leave a body behind in the graveyard to Return when it dies, making it less abusable. Also, putting a +1/+1 counter on a 1/1 Young Wolf with Abzan Ascendancy turns off its undying ability.
Voice of Resurgence: A 2/2 for 2 that creates a token when it dies. With Return to the Ranks and Collected Company providing you with multiple bodies in 1 card, it’s not hard for the token to become massive. Voice of Resurgence also punishes your opponent for playing spells on your turn (mostly counterspells).
Blood Artist: This card is simultaneously grindy and combo-riffic. It ensures that any sequence of plays which involves trading off creatures favors you. It also opens up a “combo kill” where you sacrifice everything you have to kill your opponent with Blood Artist triggers.
Abzan Ascendancy: Two good abilities in a deck that goes wide. +1/+1 counters increase your creatures’ combat potential (especially on flying Spirit tokens), while the death trigger means even more tokens for convoking or attacking.
You can sacrifice creatures in response to the ETB trigger of Abzan Ascendancy. This gives you a 2/2 (1/1, with a +1/+1 counter) flying Spirit for each nontoken creature that you sacced. If the sacced creature has a built-in trigger that makes another token on death, that token gets a +1/+1 counter too. So, for example, a 1/1 Doomed Traveler can turn into two 2/2 flying Spirits!
As with Serum Visions, crack your fetchlands before scrying. Satyr Wayfinder can also mess up scry - if you end up having to sac creatures while Satyr Wayfinder's trigger has yet to resolve, you'll want to put all nonland cards on the bottom on your library, unless you're setting up for a Return to the Ranks or Eternal Witness in your hand.
Cartel Aristocrat: Secondary sac outlet. Giving it protection lets it attack unblocked, survive removal spells, and block bigger creatures without dying.
What are sac outlets good for, anyway?
- putting creatures into your graveyard for Return (obviously)
- triggering “when this creature dies” abilities (also obvious)
- getting value out of removal spells on your creatures
- fizzling a Maelstrom Pulse targeting a creature that you have multiple copies of, as well as stopping secondary effects on cards like Electrolyze and Lightning Helix
- getting value when your creature chump blocks
- blocking a creature with lifelink (e.g. Vault Skirge, Wurmcoil Engine, Slippery Bogle with auras), then saccing the blocker to prevent the life gain
- saccing your board in response to a Living End cast (make sure they actually cast it before you sac!)
Collected Company: An instant speed 2-for-1. This card loses some of its effectiveness when most of the creatures in the deck are CMC 2 or less, so you merely break even in terms of mana most of the time, as opposed to coming out ahead if you flip over two 3s. Still, it helps you find your combo kill of sac outlet + Blood Artist. Flipping over a Voice of Resurgence which then turns into a 5/5 token isn’t too bad either.
You can exile a card permanently with Tidehollow Sculler if you hold priority and sac it to Seer/Aristocrat after it enters the battlefield, but before the ETB trigger resolves. The LTB trigger resolves first and does nothing, then the ETB trigger resolves and exiles the card forever. This trick will also get careless or inexperienced players who Bolt it before the ETB trigger resolves.
Satyr Wayfinder: Utility guy. It grabs a land from the top 4 cards, dumps creatures into the graveyard for Return to the Ranks, and provides a body for attacking/blocking/convoking. It’s even returnable with Return to the Ranks!
Try not to dump shocklands/basics into your graveyard with Satyr Wayfinder. You only have 1 copy of each shock/basic in your deck (well, 2 Godless Shrine), so getting screwed out of a particular combination or running out of fetch targets is a concern.
Eternal Witness: Green’s Snapcaster Mage. Most of the time you’ll get one of your big payoff spells like Return, Ascendancy, or Company. It can get cards that were dumped by Satyr Wayfinder.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion: Does a lot of things, but isn’t exceptionally good at any one of them. Her CMC is low enough to be flipped off Collected Company. She’s a sac outlet with a powerful effect, but it costs 3 of your own creatures and they must be white. She has Abzan Ascendancy’s effect, but only for black creatures, and doesn’t apply to herself.
Marsh Flats
Verdant Catacombs
Godless Shrine
Temple Garden
Overgrown Tomb
Plains
Swamp
Forest
Razorverge Thicket
Isolated Chapel
Dryad Arbor
White is the most important color in the deck - Return to the Ranks costs two white, and all of your multicolored 2-drops cost 1 white. Next is black - all sac outlets and Blood Artist cost 1 black. Green is the least important - Blisterpod and Satyr Wayfinder are mostly filler and frequently boarded out, while Collected Company costs just 1 green mana out of 4.
Dryad Arbor lets you turn any of your green fetches into a creature for Blood Artist/Abzan Ascendancy shenanigans. 1 is enough; you hardly ever want to draw it naturally.
Land Sequencing
This deck has a lot of spells that cost 2+ colors of mana, or two mana of one color, so it’s important to ensure that you’re fetching properly.
Overgrown Tomb + Plains is the best shock + basic combination. It lets you cast all of your 2-drops. If your turn 1 play is Doomed Traveler, then fetch Plains on turn 1 and Overgrown Tomb on turn 2. Otherwise, fetch Overgrown Tomb for turn 1 Viscera Seer/Blisterpod, then Plains on turn 2.
Watch the amount of white mana and creatures you have - you don’t want to sac your whole board only to discover that you don’t have double white for Return to the Ranks. Most of the time, 1 white-producing land is enough - if you use it to cast a white creature, that creature will tap for the second W for Return. All your white token-making creatures create white tokens on death.
Eternal Witness costs 2 green. This isn’t really a big deal since it’s unlikely that you draw her naturally. You should have 2 green by the time you draw her. Either that, or you flip her off Collected Company.
Try to save your green fetches for later, since they can get Dryad Arbor. You can curve a turn 2 Dryad Arbor into turn 3 Abzan Ascendancy, but it’s not recommended if your opponent has removal. Turn 4 Dryad Arbor + Abzan Ascendancy is safer.
Burrenton Forge-Tender: Protects against red sweepers like Pyroclasm and Anger of the Gods.
Path to Exile: Breaks up creature-based combos. Also good against big creatures with trample that can punch through chump blockers.
Spellskite: Staple SB card. Stops the Twin combo, Infect, Bogles.
Orzhov Pontiff: One-sided board wipe against decks with small creatures like Affinity, Elves, Melira, Infect, and the mirror. Pumping your entire team for lethal is also an option. Sac outlets help you trigger haunt on demand - you can sac Pontiff to haunt one of your creatures, then sac the haunted creature to get the Profit // Loss effect.
You can give your opponent’s team -2/-2 if you have a sac outlet and they have an x/1. Hold priority after Pontiff ETBs, then sacrifice Pontiff and haunt the x/1. Then allow Pontiff’s ETB trigger to resolve, killing the x/1, causing haunt to trigger, netting another -1/-1.
Qasali Pridemage: Artifact/enchantment removal. It grants an Exalted bonus and taps for convoke while not in use.
4 Windswept Heath
3 Marsh Flats
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Tukatongue Thallid
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Young Wolf
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Blood Artist
4 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Return to the Ranks
4 Abzan Ascendancy
2 Path to Exile
4 Stony Silence
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Choke
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Stain the Mind
3 Torpor Orb
4 Doomed Traveler
3 Tukatongue Thallid
4 Viscera Seer
4 Voice of Resurgence
3 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Eternal Witness
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
4 Return to the Ranks
3 Abzan Ascendancy
3 Collected Company
3 Marsh Flats
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Godless Shrine
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Path to Exile
3 Stain the Mind
2 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
3 Marsh Flats
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Tukatongue Thallid
4 Viscera Seer
4 Blood Artist
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Teysa, Orzhov Scion
1 Eternal Witness
3 Abzan Ascendancy
3 Collected Company
4 Return to the Ranks
3 Stain the Mind
3 Spellskite
2 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Path to Exile
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Keening Apparition
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
Jund
-1 Satyr Wayfinder
-1 Blisterpod
-1 Viscera Seer
+3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
Grixis
-2 Blisterpod
-1 Satyr Wayfinder
+3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
Affinity
-1 Cartel Aristocrat
-4 Satyr Wayfinder
+2 Spellskite
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+2 Orzhov Pontiff
Collected Company Zoo
-1 Blisterpod
-1 Satyr Wayfinder
+2 Path to Exile
Even
Burn
-4 Satyr Wayfinder
+3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+1 Keening Apparition
Infect
-4 Blood Artist
-4 Satyr Wayfinder
+2 Path to Exile
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+3 Spellskite
+2 Orzhov Pontiff
Merfolk
-2 Tidehollow Sculler
+2 Path to Exile
Unfavorable
Twin
-3 Collected Company
-1 Return to the Ranks
-1 Cartel Aristocrat
-2 Blisterpod
-2 Satyr Wayfinder
+2 Path to Exile
+1 Keening Apparition
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+3 Spellskite
+2 Stain the Mind
RG Tron
-2 Blood Artist
-4 Satyr Wayfinder
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+2 Path to Exile
Amulet
-4 Blood Artist
-3 Collected Company
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+1 Keening Apparition
+3 Stain the Mind
+2 Path to Exile
Grishoalbrand
-4 Blood Artist
-2 Blisterpod
-1 Cartel Aristocrat
-3 Collected Company
+3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+1 Keening Apparition
+1 Qasali Pridemage
+3 Stain the Mind
+2 Path to Exile
Blisterpod and Satyr Wayfinder are usually the first few cards to come out. Blisterpod is just worse than Doomed Traveler. Wayfinder is weak against fast decks; it’s neither a good blocker nor attacker for its cost.
Blood Artist is an easy cut against decks that don’t care about your life total. Infect and most combo decks fall under this category.
Burrenton Forge-Tender comes in against decks with red sweepers. If your opponent relies too heavily on red removal to survive during the early turns, a turn 1 Forge-Tender can give you a nice life lead into the midgame by simply poking for 1 every turn until they find a blocker.
When boarding in Stain the Mind, keep your creature count and curve in mind. Your ideal start is T1 1-drop into T2 1-/2-drop into T3 Stain the Mind. Board out Collected Company to keep your curve constant.
Frank Karsten: http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-karsten-modern-next-level-abzan/
Sam Pardee: http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-pardee-time-modern-abzan-ascendancy/
David Heineman: http://www.gatheringmagic.com/richardcastle-02112015-inside-the-deck-modern-aristocrats-return/
Frank Lepore: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=12364
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
I'm also trying Hangarback Walker and Gavony Township--Hangarback is fairly good as a pseudo-Doomed Traveler that can make more than one flying guy, and Township has probably won me two games because of the pump (and synergy with Hangarback). Township has colour screwed me into one loss, though.
Liliana, Heretical Healer is popular in this deck. An explanation about why so many lists run Dryad Arbor should also be warranted.
Hangarback Walker - now that I can't see why you'd want to play. It nonbos with Return to the Ranks and Collected Company.
This deck has a lot of things that require colored mana, so I'd view Gavony Township strictly as a spell, instead of a land that has a spell effect (like I would for other GW decks). When I put it like that it feels like the fourth Abzan Ascendancy is just better than Township.
Liliana seems like a passable choice. She could take the Teysa spot. I haven't done a lot of exiling with Teysa.
Dryad Arbor is just there because the cost for including it is low. You have 7 green fetches to get it. The body is small, but in this deck, Blood Artist and Abzan Ascendancy make 1/1s relevant even on late turns.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
4x Viscera Seer
3x Doomed Traveler / Blisterpod
4x Satyr Wayfinder
4x Voice of Resurgence
4x Blood Artist
3x Safehold Elite
3x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
3x Tidehollow Sculler
2x Spellskite
2x Thoughtseize / Path to Exile
4x Return to the Ranks
2x Abzan Ascendancy
2x Collected Company / Evolutionary Leap
LANDS (20)
4x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Flooded Strand
3x Polluted Delta
1x Godless Shrine
1x Temple Garden
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Isolated Chapel
1x Sunpetal Grove
2x Plains
1x Swamp
1x Forest
Here's my current list. I felt like Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and Safehold Elite were decent enough in this deck to justify adding for their combo-kill potential. The quicker combo will hopefully help in the race-oriented matchups like Affinity, Burn, Twin and Infect. Speaking of those decks, Spellskite is a fantastically well-positioned card in the format and is supported by our main engine. The listed cards with slashes between them are deckslots that I need help deciding on. I initially liked Thoughtseize because it provided some exceptionally strong curve-outs and theoretically should be able to handle most of the cards this deck is weak to, but I'm thinking Path might be a better option since it's usually a more capable topdeck, goes positive on tempo, and can answer threats like Deceiver Exarch, Scavenging Ooze, and huge Affinity dudes more reliably. I've also been trying Blisterpod over Doomed Traveler, though I usually prefer the Traveler unless I have a Collected Company in hand. Evolutionary Leap has shined at times that Collected Company wouldn't and vice versa, but I'm thinking that Eternal Witness might be better than either of them, since Witness on Return to the Ranks is usually a game-winning sequence.
Although i really like the idea of liliana heretical healer
Thanks for the Kid Liliana and Dryad Arbor explanations.
Hangarback Walker's been fine so far, but I can see its hit-and-miss-ness. Its tokens are pretty good at Convoking for bigger numbers but not for Convoking for colour fixing. More frustratingly, it is indeed a whiff with CC, although triggering Artists when it dies upon CC flip is funny.
At least on Cockatrice, I rarely meet Affinity, so that's why Zulaport Cutthroat has been a bazillion times better than Blood Artist for me.
One crucial difference between Gavony Township and Abzan Ascendancy #4: Township is a land that taps for mana and gets retrieved by Satyr Wayfinder, while Ascendancy isn't. Timing Ascendancy has gotten really tricky for me lately, while timing Township is a piece of cake.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
I failed a question on my Rule Adviser test saying this was true. Are you sure you are correct?
edit: ok, I got that wrong, it was the Scion token and not Blisterpod
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
Like I said before, my list focuses on the synergies of gravecrawler, satyr wayfinder, Tidehollow Sculler and Liliana, Heretical Healer for the zombie synergy.
Decks I'm playing in Modern right now:
URB Grixis Reveler (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-grixis-reveler/)
UB Faeries (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/ub-fae-2/)
UW Azorious Control (http://www.mtgvault.com/supast4r7/decks/modern-ojutai-control-2/)
I do find it interesting that this deck really prefers Return to the Ranks. I think Rally is just a much more powerful card. With enough Blood Artists/Zulaport Cutthroats on the board it really improves the combo match up because you try and Rally->Sac for the win in response to the combo deck going off. Also, for the same cmc Rally grabs more creatures than Return can. This is also good with Liliana, Heretical Healer because you can Rally X=3 and grab Lili. If you can flip her before you have to exile her then she gets to stay.
I've been testing Grim Haruspex in an Orzhov Aristocrats build. I think the card is actually quite powerful. I don't know what you would/could cut in these lists to play it though.
Stain the Mind is an interesting sideboard choice.
Eternal Witness is quite powerful with CoCo. I'm shocked these lists don't play more copies especially since returning a Blisterpod or Doomed Traveler, or other easily castable creature, to your hand is great when you have 4 mana and just need to clog up the board.
https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
4 Birds of paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Viscera Seer
3 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Melira, Sylvok outcast
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree spirit
1 Spike Feeder
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Eternal Witness
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Gifts Ungiven
3 Path to exile
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Bring to Light
1 Unburial Rites
1 Return to the Ranks
1 Rally the Ancestors
22 Lands
I'm sure the Ascendancy iterations are much more effective. But this was a fun combo concept.
Draft My Cube!
4 Viscera Seer
3 Cartel Aristocrat
2 Melira, Sylvok outcast
2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree spirit
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
4 Blood Artist
4 Safehold Elite
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Collected Company
3 Return to the Ranks
4 Rally the Ancestors
Lands (21):
21 Lands
4 Toughtseize
3 Path to Exile
2 Lone Missionary
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Eidolon of Retoric
3 Stony Silence
This deck is really hard to grind out because because you can often scry the reanimation spells to the top. Ofc graveyard hate really hurts, but often you can grind through it and just win without comboing off. Satyr Wayfinder is the catalyst of the deck. Just make sure you always play your sac outlets first. Feels good to finally have a positive matchup vs GR Tron with an Abzan deck. Playing vs living end is hilarious!
3 stony silences + 3 pridemages are necesary to win through our arch nemises: rest in peace, leyline of the void, nihil spellbomb and relic of progenitus.
Thoughts?
Draft My Cube!
With that said, I have a question for you or anyone running a RallyFenza variation:
What do you guys sideboard out, in general? (my deck is pretty close to Hert79's)
The whole deck is one big super redundant combo engine so it's hard for me to identify what the most flexible slots are. Here's what I've gathered so far from playing:
1) Cartel Aristocrats 3 & 4 both seem flexible as their effect doesn't stack and isn't as useful as the Seer's scry.
2) If enough creatures are coming out, CoCo becomes less consistent, so I'll sometimes side out CoCo 3 & 4.
3) Not sure on Wandering Satyr. On one hand he's not technically a part of the combo engine, but he is an important enabler and pulls lands. I could maybe see boarding out the 4th satyr. Or maybe this is a mistake?
I appreciate any advice you can offer.
Thanks!
Yeah, I'm toying around with some slots as well. Don't really know yet what is best.
I usually take out the 3rd aristocrat, 2nd melira, a blood artist and a return to the ranks. Sometimes some companies as well.
Yeah, if I could I would play 7 seers. But sometimes the aristocrat is better as once your opponent figures out your deck he'll realize he needs to remove the sac oulets asap, and the aristocrat is a lot harder to get rid of.
I'm going to try the deck without companies, so far in my testing they've been very meh. I think I'm going to try 2 decays and 2 grisly salvage, and then swap the qasali for an Abzan Ascendancy. Not sure whether this is a good idea.
Never, ever, ever take out the satyr waayfinders. They are supergood. I wish I could play 8. They are the ones that enable the T4/T5 kills. Play wayfinder sac, rally, wayfinder triggers again (hopefully ditching your missing combo piece in the yard) and then convoking return to the ranks for the last piece gets you some explosive kills out of seemingly nowhere.
Went 3-1 at FNM last night with the list I posted earlier. Beat U Tron, Reatreat Company and Elves. Lost to allies. You'd think it's a good matchup but the protection guy kept me from chump blocking for value and I died pretty fast both games. Main deck decay would help against this.
Deck feels very good atm, although a it still feels like a glass cannon.
Dredge is interesting but we don't really want to bring back creatures to the top of our library IMO. We want them in the graveyard.
I also tried cutting the CoCos. although haven't gotten around to playing enough games to say for sure if I like it better or not.
Here's the list I'm currently playing. Very similar to yours.
2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4 Blood Artist
3 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Eternal Witness
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Safehold Elite
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Viscera Seer
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Grisly Salvage
4 Rally the Ancestors
3 Return to the Ranks
Lands (21)
1 Forest
2 Godless Shrine
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Isolated Chapel
2 Marsh Flats
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
I figured the 1-of Eternal Witness becomes very useful when you end up ditching a bunch of your recurssion spells from all the wayfinders/salvages. Also with the salvages, I feel like we're committing even more to the gy plan thus making us more 'glass cannon-y' like you said.
Bloodghast has no ETB/death trigger and costs double black. It's better in decks that play Faithless Looting or Smallpox (this deck doesn't) since you can get it from your hand into the graveyard with those cards.
Carrier Thrall technically would "work", but is pretty inefficient. The stats on the tokens that a creature makes are generally more important than the stats on the creature itself since you'll end up saccing the creature anyway. I'd play more 1-drops like Blisterpod/Tukatongue Thallid before adding Carrier Thrall.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Despite the option to sac' Thrall's token to ramp into Return/Rally (or something else).
Also, what do you think about using Cauldron Haze in this deck to give every creature Persist before sac'ing them to get double triggers from Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat ?
Rally the Ancestors is better than Cauldron Haze. They both do pretty much the same thing, which is to double your Artist triggers, but you can play Rally the Ancestors on an empty board.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
It also costs only 2 mana which seems rather cost-effective for the purpose of this deck.
I'm building an Orzhov variation of the deck so no Blisterpod for me, that's why I thought about using Carrier Thrall.
#Back to Loyal Cathar (and Young Wolf), why is it a disadvantage that they don't leave behind a body to "Return" back ?
Can't you just Sac' them again for this ?