Another possible noble hierarch replacement is utopia sprawl. I plan on using it, partly for budget reasons, but also because it's harder to kill and enables some things dorks don't (turn 1 land, bird, turn 2 land, utopia sprawl on untapped land + loxodon, turn 3 land, rhino + path). You just have to make sure you pick the right color and run more forests.
I'd go sunpetal grove over canopy vista... IMO the fast lands are over-rated and I'd rather have check lands anyway. You can almost always play a shock or basic turn 1 and once you've done that, sunpetal grove is effectively savannah.
For voice, pridemage is reasonable. Also consider tidehollow sculler. I wouldn't run 4, but it has it's uses.
I would see if somebody at your shop would let you borrow a Path. I think Dismember is the second best removal spell, better than Abrupt Decay even. The decision point between the two is whether you want additional outs to Cranial Plating, or all the creature-lands of the format and the real kicker Eldrazi.
I think I'm going to come back to this deck for awhile, as I've done well with it and I've been getting crushed at FNM lately playing other stuff. Anyway, I've been thinking about ways to spice the deck up a bit, and I've got 3 cards I'd like to try out:
1) Gideon Jura: Seems a reasonable 1-of. It's hard to interact with and can break a stalled board wide open. 5 mana is hardly a challenge for this deck, and a finisher that can kill dudes or break a stalemate seems awesome.
2) Brave the elements: Every dude in our deck is white except ooze. This can save a guy from spot removal, push through some damage in a stalemate, let you kill an attacking bomb with a swarm, fog an opponent. Again seems like a stalemate breaker, which this deck occasionally needs. Again, I'd just do a 1-of.
3) Abzan charm: Looks like others already found this one. Exiling or drawing 2 both seem great, and even the counters could be relevant.
Anyway, this is my planned 1st draft. I'm putting the discard in the board.
Interesting, thanks for linking! Not sure however if I agree with the 4th Wilt-Leaf Liege, 4x Tarmogoyf, 4x Dismember and 4x Thoughtseize MB.
I am however pleased to see he's running 22 lands, something I was planned doing too.
I ended up going to a GPT for Charlotte and won. Only 11 people showed up, but the field was extremely diverse with all kinds of decks.
Round 1: 8-Rack (1-0)
G1: I keep a fine hand with Birds, a few guys, and a Path. My oponnent starts to make me discard cards and I end up getting to ditch Smiter and Liege to win.
-4 Path, +1 Thalia, +1 Relic, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Engineered Explosives
G2: I keep another quick hand as my opponent continues to make me discard value and I end up Siege'ing out for the win.
Round 2: U/W Control (2-0)
G1: My opponent gets mana screwed as I pump out souls tokens and Gavony for the win.
-2 Abrupt Decay, -2 Qasali Pridemage, +1 Thalia, +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Relic of Progenitus
G2: Same as my game 1 except my opponent get to 3 lands this game.
Round 3: Kiki-Chord w/ Siege Rhino and Ghostaway (2-1)
G1: I mull to 5 keeping an okay hand with some pressure and a bird. I end up putting out dudes that don't work well against Wall of Omens and lose without drawing interaction to Kiki-Combo.
-3 Kitchen Finks, +1 Worship, +1 Dismember, +1 Abrupt Decay
G2: I keep a hand with some interaction and a fast clock. I put pressure on my opponent as he draws lands and no spells.
G3: I keep a hand after mulling to 6 with 1 bird, 1 Voice, 2 Lands, a Siege Rhino, and 1 Path. I am able to put on early pressure, get path'd a few times, but only draw lands to lose to Kiki once again.
Round 4: Soul Sisters (3-1)
G1: I get destroyed as I keep a hand with no interaction. I am hoping to pull out with a single path, abrupt decay, or anything on the 40/40 Ajani's Pridemate, but to no avail.
-3 Kitchen Finks, -2 Lingering Souls, +1 Worship, +1 Damnation, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Dismember, +1 Scavenging Ooze, +1 Engineered
G2: I put on a tons of early pressure playing a turn 3 smiter, into 2 Rhinos with 1 Abrupt Decay, and 1 Liege. I eventually overwhelm him.
G3: I mull to six keeping a hand with bird, swamp, souls, windwept, path, and dimember. Scrying a Voice to the top. This game was weird. He kept a hand with all removal and 1 soul sister. He proceeds to get beat down until he loses.
-Cut to top 4-
Semi-Finals: U/W Control (same guy as before)
G1: We get our deck backs after our check and I mull a few times ditching some mediocre hands. My opponent shakily keeps. I am able to keep 2 lands, birds, voice, and a rhino. I eventually beat him down as he only has white mana.
SB: (See above)
G2: I keep my hand with a bird, 3 lands, voice, path, and a lingering souls. I able to get early pressure as my opponent stays on land drops (finally). I put on pressure with souls tokens as he deals with my voice via path and continue to pressure with township. I eventually draw a timely thoughtseize to take out a batterskull and see path, condemn, sphinx's rev, elspeth, and a ghost quarter. He eventually is able to stabilize at 3 while I have a voice token, voice. I'm holding double path in hand and he lays double wall of omens with one mana open. I know he has path and I path one of his walls and then he paths my voice (not the token) and I path his wall in response. I have a Lingering Souls sitting in the yard to kill him as he dies from the 3 life he stabilized at to get to the finals.
Finals: Lantern Control
G1: I keep a hand with a bird, a voice, a liege, 2 lands, and a rhino. I quickly put out my hand as my opponent plays mox, a few shredders and bells. I play lingering souls to pressure him as he extracts it on his turn. I eventually am able to push his life total low while he mills himself looking for an Ensnaring Bridge. He never finds it and I am able to kill him on turn 6.
-4 Path, -1 Dismember,-3 Wilt-Leaf Liege +1 Relic, +2 Stony Silence, +2 Thoughseize, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Fracturing Gust
G2: My opponent mills to 6 keeping a mediocre hand. I keep a hand with birds, Stony Silence, Lingering Souls, lands. I am able to land birds, drawing Relic. Next turn I land a stony silence and my opponent proceeds to lose as he never draws an abrupt decay or a Bridge.
Yay, I get my byes at GP Charlotte. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know!
Tron is the worst matchup for this deck, but you bring in Stony Silence and some number of hand disruption with resilient creatures and hope to get there. Graveyard hate can help depending on the version as well because some play the Unburial Rites package.
A similar list is demo'd here.
Not sure if I'm in love with the list, not to mention I do not own 4x Goyf
Tarmogoyf feels really bad in these types of aggro decks. I know I'll avoid playing it if I can, but I think it's a concession for the curve mostly. You'll also note that he plays fewer than average number of mana dorks and more removal spells as well.
Another possible noble hierarch replacement is utopia sprawl. I plan on using it, partly for budget reasons, but also because it's harder to kill and enables some things dorks don't (turn 1 land, bird, turn 2 land, utopia sprawl on untapped land + loxodon, turn 3 land, rhino + path). You just have to make sure you pick the right color and run more forests.
There will never really be a verdant catacombs replacement, but you could run a different green fetch (wooded foothills). More risky but possibly viable budget replacements (I wouldn't run 4, but you could afford 1 or 2 of any of these) are ancient ziggurat, pillar of paruns, city of brass, and mana confluence.
If you can't afford abrupt decay, I'd just run something like doom blade/go for the throat/smother... most of the time you're gonna use it on a creature anyway.
I'd go sunpetal grove over canopy vista... IMO the fast lands are over-rated and I'd rather have check lands anyway. You can almost always play a shock or basic turn 1 and once you've done that, sunpetal grove is effectively savannah.
For voice, pridemage is reasonable. Also consider tidehollow sculler. I wouldn't run 4, but it has it's uses.
Wilt-leaf cavaliers seems reasonable.
Some other budget cards that are probably better than you might think include: Bant sureblade, naya hushblade, saffi eriksdotter, and watchwolf.
3 Noble Hierarch -> 3 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Voice of Resurgence -> 3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Kitchen Finks and 1 Knight of the Reliquary -> 1 Glissa, the Traitor and 1 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Abrupt Decay -> 2 Putrefy
4 Verdant Catacombs -> 1 Bloodstained Mire, 1 Polluted Delta, 1 Wooded Foothills and 1 Wooded Bastion (5 Color Wilted Abzan anyone? lol; I have 1 of each so don't have to spend the money on them)
3 Razorverge Thicket -> 3 Sunpetal Grove
2 Engineered Explosives -> 2 Rest in Peace
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=13143&writer=Craig Wescoe&articledate=2-26-2016&utm_source=tcg-fb-post&utm_medium=tcg-fb-post&utm_content=magic&utm_campaign=tcg-fb-post-magic
1) Gideon Jura: Seems a reasonable 1-of. It's hard to interact with and can break a stalled board wide open. 5 mana is hardly a challenge for this deck, and a finisher that can kill dudes or break a stalemate seems awesome.
2) Brave the elements: Every dude in our deck is white except ooze. This can save a guy from spot removal, push through some damage in a stalemate, let you kill an attacking bomb with a swarm, fog an opponent. Again seems like a stalemate breaker, which this deck occasionally needs. Again, I'd just do a 1-of.
3) Abzan charm: Looks like others already found this one. Exiling or drawing 2 both seem great, and even the counters could be relevant.
Anyway, this is my planned 1st draft. I'm putting the discard in the board.
2 qasali pridemage
3 kitchen finks
2 scavenging ooze
3 loxodon smiter
4 lingering souls
3 wilt-leaf liege
3 siege rhino
1 gideon jura
2 abrupt decay
2 abzan charm
3 utopia sprawl
3 birds of paradise
1 brave the elements
4 windswept heath
3 verdant catacombs
1 godless shrine
3 temple garden
2 stirring wildwood
2 gavony township
1 vault of the archangel
2 forest
1 plains
1 swamp
How many dorks are you running?
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Loxodon Smiter
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Siege Rhino
//Spells (11)
4 Lingering Souls
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
4 Path to Exile
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
2 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Gavony Township
2 Thoughtseize
1 Dismember
2 Stony Silence
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Worship
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Damnation
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Zealous Persecution
I ended up going to a GPT for Charlotte and won. Only 11 people showed up, but the field was extremely diverse with all kinds of decks.
Round 1: 8-Rack (1-0)
G1: I keep a fine hand with Birds, a few guys, and a Path. My oponnent starts to make me discard cards and I end up getting to ditch Smiter and Liege to win.
-4 Path, +1 Thalia, +1 Relic, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Engineered Explosives
G2: I keep another quick hand as my opponent continues to make me discard value and I end up Siege'ing out for the win.
Round 2: U/W Control (2-0)
G1: My opponent gets mana screwed as I pump out souls tokens and Gavony for the win.
-2 Abrupt Decay, -2 Qasali Pridemage, +1 Thalia, +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Relic of Progenitus
G2: Same as my game 1 except my opponent get to 3 lands this game.
Round 3: Kiki-Chord w/ Siege Rhino and Ghostaway (2-1)
G1: I mull to 5 keeping an okay hand with some pressure and a bird. I end up putting out dudes that don't work well against Wall of Omens and lose without drawing interaction to Kiki-Combo.
-3 Kitchen Finks, +1 Worship, +1 Dismember, +1 Abrupt Decay
G2: I keep a hand with some interaction and a fast clock. I put pressure on my opponent as he draws lands and no spells.
G3: I keep a hand after mulling to 6 with 1 bird, 1 Voice, 2 Lands, a Siege Rhino, and 1 Path. I am able to put on early pressure, get path'd a few times, but only draw lands to lose to Kiki once again.
Round 4: Soul Sisters (3-1)
G1: I get destroyed as I keep a hand with no interaction. I am hoping to pull out with a single path, abrupt decay, or anything on the 40/40 Ajani's Pridemate, but to no avail.
-3 Kitchen Finks, -2 Lingering Souls, +1 Worship, +1 Damnation, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Dismember, +1 Scavenging Ooze, +1 Engineered
G2: I put on a tons of early pressure playing a turn 3 smiter, into 2 Rhinos with 1 Abrupt Decay, and 1 Liege. I eventually overwhelm him.
G3: I mull to six keeping a hand with bird, swamp, souls, windwept, path, and dimember. Scrying a Voice to the top. This game was weird. He kept a hand with all removal and 1 soul sister. He proceeds to get beat down until he loses.
-Cut to top 4-
Semi-Finals: U/W Control (same guy as before)
G1: We get our deck backs after our check and I mull a few times ditching some mediocre hands. My opponent shakily keeps. I am able to keep 2 lands, birds, voice, and a rhino. I eventually beat him down as he only has white mana.
SB: (See above)
G2: I keep my hand with a bird, 3 lands, voice, path, and a lingering souls. I able to get early pressure as my opponent stays on land drops (finally). I put on pressure with souls tokens as he deals with my voice via path and continue to pressure with township. I eventually draw a timely thoughtseize to take out a batterskull and see path, condemn, sphinx's rev, elspeth, and a ghost quarter. He eventually is able to stabilize at 3 while I have a voice token, voice. I'm holding double path in hand and he lays double wall of omens with one mana open. I know he has path and I path one of his walls and then he paths my voice (not the token) and I path his wall in response. I have a Lingering Souls sitting in the yard to kill him as he dies from the 3 life he stabilized at to get to the finals.
Finals: Lantern Control
G1: I keep a hand with a bird, a voice, a liege, 2 lands, and a rhino. I quickly put out my hand as my opponent plays mox, a few shredders and bells. I play lingering souls to pressure him as he extracts it on his turn. I eventually am able to push his life total low while he mills himself looking for an Ensnaring Bridge. He never finds it and I am able to kill him on turn 6.
-4 Path, -1 Dismember,-3 Wilt-Leaf Liege +1 Relic, +2 Stony Silence, +2 Thoughseize, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Fracturing Gust
G2: My opponent mills to 6 keeping a mediocre hand. I keep a hand with birds, Stony Silence, Lingering Souls, lands. I am able to land birds, drawing Relic. Next turn I land a stony silence and my opponent proceeds to lose as he never draws an abrupt decay or a Bridge.
Yay, I get my byes at GP Charlotte. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know!
Pack Rat won't work without some card draw backup, and to go that route you probably aren't going to be playing Wilted Abzan.
Underworld Connections and Erebos, God of the Dead are what helped Pack Rat become a superstar.
Tron is the worst matchup for this deck, but you bring in Stony Silence and some number of hand disruption with resilient creatures and hope to get there. Graveyard hate can help depending on the version as well because some play the Unburial Rites package.
Why would you wanna discard any of our creatures for a Rat token?
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1260980
Tarmogoyf feels really bad in these types of aggro decks. I know I'll avoid playing it if I can, but I think it's a concession for the curve mostly. You'll also note that he plays fewer than average number of mana dorks and more removal spells as well.
GW Auras
Ad Nauseam
Merfolk
Blue Moon
U/W Control
This is the meta where I 'm playing , but my sideboard options is not even good for this matchups
My sideboard options
Stony Silence
Rest in Peace
Duress
Thoughtseize
Grafdigger's Cage
Zealous Persecution
2 Gavony Township
4 Polluted Delta
3 Forest
2 Temple Garden
1 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Godless Shrine
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Windswept Heath
3 Loxodon Smiter
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Siege Rhino
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Lingering Souls
4 Path to Exile
3 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Duress
2 Rest in Peace
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Stony Silence