Round 1 was against Affinity and it went to a draw (1-1-1). A bad misplay from my opponent on game 2 and a misplay from me on turns (I have the infinite life combo on the board at the start of turns) Instead of scrying for my druid and then scrying for Eternal Witness I went with some artifact hate- it ended up putting us at a stalemate instead so a draw was the end result.
Round 2 was against a new, young kid who didn't have much of a deck to start with Pretty fast 2-0. Kid was pretty upset afterward so I bought him a few packs and told him to keep practicing and don't give up.
Round 3 was against Esper Shadow- my opponent never saw his Shadows. Finks beats for game one and a Selfless Spirit beats on game 2 (with Exalted back up) I was able to weed out the Stubborn Denials to get there.
Round 4 was against Blue Tron. I just kept fighting my opponent with a Duskwatch Recruiter until he ran out of counter spells. After that it was beats with CoCo. I made another mental mistake here: On game 2 I kept a questionable hand and hoped for a good land pull which didn't happen.
Round 5 was against Jund. Sadly my opponent didn't de-sideboard and played a Kitchen Finks. Our Shop rules are basically tournament rules so that was a game loss for him. Game 2 he stuck a cage and just kept the pressure. Game 3 was lots of attrition, but I was able to get there through CoCo-Witness-CoCo-Witness-CoCo. Never saw the combo but Vizer and Finks for blocks for days and an Exalted Bird to get over when needed. It was a rough match from the game loss and my opponent was pretty salty and I felt bad about it as well since it was a tainted win, etc.
Overall thoughts:
I still like 20 lands but it can make questionable keeps/decisions.I'm usually OK keeping a 1-land (fetch or forest) due to the 8 Birds/Nobles (plus 4 Druids). Though with cutting the lands down I feel like Godless Shrine should be pulled for another Temple Garden/Overgrown Tomb to avoid those one hand blah moments.
Rhonas- every time I got that card I hated it- I'm really considering pulling it but I know it's needed- Going the Walking Ballista Route is just better- but I know there will be times when I won't be able to do that.
What are you guys' opinion on Dreamstealer in the deck? It seems fairly good at attacking from another angle than we currently do. (Not sure how to link cards on mobile, my apologies)
I don't see how Dreamstealer would fit in the deck. We're not trying to get rid of their hand, we're either trying to outvalue the or snipe for specific cards - in both cases there are better options.
What's people's graveyard-hate cards of choice? I usually run Anafenza, the Foremost as she doesn't die to Darkblast from Dredge and hates on Living End as well as Reanimator. However, there's a lot of potential options, so I'm curious to see what people are running and why.
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
I still like 20 lands but it can make questionable keeps/decisions.I'm usually OK keeping a 1-land (fetch or forest) due to the 8 Birds/Nobles (plus 4 Druids). Though with cutting the lands down I feel like Godless Shrine should be pulled for another Temple Garden/Overgrown Tomb to avoid those one hand blah moments.
Rhonas- every time I got that card I hated it- I'm really considering pulling it but I know it's needed- Going the Walking Ballista Route is just better- but I know there will be times when I won't be able to do that.
If you're on 20 lands you cannot run a swamp either. I would replace that with a forest most likely or potentially another horizon canopy. Second OG tomb for the shrine and canopy for the swamp would be my recommendation to start.
What rationale do you have for the ballista? I've needed it exactly one game in 40 matches or so and that's because I wasn't playing kitchen finks (so couldn't alternatively jam 4 kitchen finks to get out of burn range).
I've been tinkering with added a Razorverge Thicket to replace the swamp- it does make sense at this time- our meta was a lot of Blood Moon/Paths so that's why I ran it (but I was also on 22 land at that time)
Why Ballista: For me it seems that it goes easier in the synching of the deck- (obviously) you go infinite life or you get unlimited mana- I run three Duskwatch's so digging with infinite mana seems to work better than going Rhonas beats- to each their own though
Re: Dreamstealer- it looks spicy- I've heard from others that like and use it but I don't think it's for me at this time.
Went 3-0 today at a small FNM, matchups were: 2-0 vs UW Turns (combo both games, he basically killed himself by tapping out and casting Days Undoing in game 2), 2-0 vs Esper Mentor (combo g1, grind and finish with Ballista for 4 g2), 2-1 vs Mono W Death & Taxes (combo g1, flood g2, very close g3, had to grind for a while due to the double Arbiter start and my mull to 6, eventually found a Druid to cast the 3 Companies in my hand and eventually combo him out).
@SB vs Tron
I agree with Pokken, focus on a fast combo kill. Spellskite is decent against all their removal apart from Ugin, Phyrexian Revoker and Aven Mindcensor can be alright sometimes.
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
Banewhip Punisher has been decent for me the last few weeks. I've rarely not enjoyed seeing it, but it also doesn't totally fix any board state, so decent is the best I can give it.
I'm to the point of 1 main, 1 side Sigarda, Host of Herons. Drazi tron is fairly common where I am and Sigarda seems to just be a huge burden on them unless they can windmill slam an Ugin. If she's in play, I'm probably winning that game against Drazi. Ya, she's awkward to see with Company and hard to Chord for, but drawing her is great and Chord is manageable unless you have zero board.
Right now I'm suffering under Ponza. Apart from keeping a 2+ dork and 4+ land hand, I have no idea how to do anything relevant against them. They Primal Command into Inferno Titan putting a land on top of my deck to guarantee a win. So... I'm almost ashamed to say I'm trying Phyrexian Crusader as a cheap pro-red that will eventually kill the titan. Is anyone else having issues with Ponza?
I went 3-1 last night, losing a close game to BG midrange that I think I misplayed in a bunch (because I haven't been playing Finks for a while i didn't use them right I don't think).
Round 1 I played against a friend on Eldrazi Tron, and he just didn't have enough interaction and tapped out at inopportune times. He's new to modern. Game 1 I was on the play, played a few derpy mana dudes end step coco'd into the combo and killed him on turn 4.
Round 2 I played BG midirange and got wrecked 2-0. Games were close, in that I had many outs, but this is a game where my somewhat aggressive mana base punished me--and I learned a lesson that Banewhip punisher is not good in a light black splash, so I am gonna cut that. Never had BB (though to be fair I likely would not in traditional company either). He had 4 ghost quarters so I was able to take advantage of my "board out a questionable land on the draw" which seemed to work OK.
Round 3 I played another friend on Eldrazi tron, and he knew more of what to do. Game 1 was a turn 3 combo, Game 2 was a really drawn out game where I assembled infinite life in response to a walking ballista for 3 -- which then got a basilisk collar attached. He killed 2 combo pieces, I had scried an eerie interlude to the top, which I was able to resolve and witness back chord then chord for reclamation sage on my turn, forcing him to kill the rec sage with the ballista (by rec saging it).
He then untapped and slammed karn and plussed it behind a wall of reality smashers and thought knot. I was forced to spend my turns playing dudes and townshipping until I could get a guy through Karn; I think he topdecked nothing but smashers, playing all 5 into infinite life, and never drawing a payoff. He pithing needled devoted druid, I played the combo but couldn't execute. Then I topdecked a witness, witnessed the needle and killed him. Easily the longest game I have ever had vs. E-tron; he drew pretty badly, except for the karn, despite two cards a turn off of sea gate wreckage.
Round 4 vs. zoo-burn (with goyf+nacatl). I feel super advantaged in this matchup especially on the play because the creatures are much worse than burn spells for the most part, especially since he wasn't running the full complement of blazes and skullcracks. I was on the play and it went well, I did what was needed which is draw kitchen finks. Pro magic there.
Game 1 I killed him with infinite life after dropping 2 finks. Game 2 he was able to kill me through two finks and anafenza by having a ridiculous hand and me having a slow one. I did make a mistake here deployin anafenza+vizier to reset my finks when I should have coco'd to try to win, since I was dead to burn off the top. Game 3 he had an eidolon heavy draw, and I drew a rec sage and assembled a big board while he had a hand full of creatures he couldn't deploy behind eidolon while also keeping removal up; I assembled two finks and anafenza and beat him down.
I felt like the deck was good. Two things I hated in the main deck were banewhip with my mana (should be fiend hunter or flickerwisp) and spellskite. I get the appeal of skite, I love it myself, but it is wrong for my shop meta. Spirit it is.
I REALLY missed renegade ralliers. I kept one, but the deck is so much more dynamic when heavy on ralliers. I might try a straight GW version with no finks at some point.
The finks combo didn't really shine because of Eldrazi tron of course, but I can't complain because the druid combo got it done. And it did win me one game vs. E-tron by giving me a ton of time to assemble.
I'm really unsure of what the right build is at this point, but I loved having 4 townships and I did like finks in the burn matchup.
@Pokken
Could you elaborate on why you didn't like the Spellskite vs Eldratron? Haven't played the MU a lot, but in theory it seems like a great answer to Ballista, which I'd think is the biggest problem in the MU apart from All Is Dust.
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
No, it was fine there I just didn't have it in time. I just really, really wanted Selfless in the GBx matchup. Skite is specifically for the Eldratron matchup. I think I hated it because I drew it in both games in the GB matchup so probably just not being critical enough in my thinking, I was left with a bad taste Had I drawn Selfless I would have likely won both games I had skite for. Looking back on it Skite was probably the right call I was just being a salty baby.
Note that ballista with basilisk collar woulda made it seem pretty bad, but that's a two-card wombo that shouldn't be something we deck build for
I suspect township/finks woulda been better for me against GBx if my opponent had not had insane aggro draws with t5 and t6 kills on combat damage respectively with multiple removal backups. I think I just need to respect that his draws were very good and sometimes you lose to that.
@Pokken
Gotcha Wasn't sure if I was missing something regarding the MU. Personally I find Skite the better mainboard option in general (if running protection main) due to the bigger butt and ability to protect against exile effects, but yeah, sometimes it'll be just meh.
Also, Collar-Ballista seems like a clear "they won the combo race" situation to me
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"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
pokken, after about 50 matches online i went back to abzan from straight gw. i didnt want to because i did love the lean mana base, the ghost quarters and the room for utility. the main reasons were aggro matchups like burn and affinity, which were super hard if they had disruption, you didnt find the combo before about turn 5 or your sideboard cards let you down, and grindy matchups in which the 'ops infinite life' factor is just golden and the solely GW grind is just cumbersome and your forced to overextended.
I really do not like ghost quarters in these decks. You never want to be giving up the mana advantage. I run 4 gavony townships in my micro-splash Abzan and so far that's been stellar. Township wins games.
I am going to probably cut pharika and banewhip and maybe try to be even leaner on the black splash. I think Finks is a bit too good right now despite how frustrating it has been vs. Eldrazi tron which is apparently the only deck at my shop anymore:P I just really hate to committing to the black manabase for only a couple cards.
I keep hoping they'll print an open sac outlet in White or green one of these days
@Pokken
Gotcha Wasn't sure if I was missing something regarding the MU. Personally I find Skite the better mainboard option in general (if running protection main) due to the bigger butt and ability to protect against exile effects, but yeah, sometimes it'll be just meh.
Also, Collar-Ballista seems like a clear "they won the combo race" situation to me
I actually won that game! Eerie Interlude with Eternal witness is sick.
Just wanted to mention something, as I've met a couple of players of this deck that didn't know it.
You can put counters on your druid even if it has summoning sickness. Like for example if you want it in the graveyard instead of a land from path, or if you have 2 and they Maelstrom pulse it. There's never any reason to get your druid exiled if you don't want it to be.
Had a friend say he didn't want to play out 2, because he suspected maelstrom pulse from his opponent, but they can never kill 2 druids with that if you don't want them to.
Round 1 Was against Grixis Control- game 1 my opponent have 3 Visions in Suspend so I just got picked apart. Game 2 I stuck with Gavony Beats and held back creatures for second attacks after Push/Bolt, etc. Game 3 we both mulled to five but I had the nut draw and there wasn't much he could do. 1-0 (2-1 for the day)
Round 2 was against B/R Pack Rat and it did not go well. My hands got picked apart, followed up by Bolt/Push/Brutality. Both games were equally bad. 0-2 (2-3 for the day)
Round 3 I went up against Elves. Game 1 combo to Ballista. Game 2 he stuck an Ezuri and that was game for me. Game 3 I picked his battlefield apart with a Ballista, Path, and finally hit a Linvala for the win. 2-1 (4-4 for the day)
Round 4 was Eldrazi Tron Game 1 I played towards Gavony Beats and dropped them to 10 life, then topdeck All is Dust. Game 2 led me to more Gavony Beats as I couldn't find an answer to Grafdigger's Cage. Game 3 we ended up with a draw as we both couldn't close the game out after dealing with each other's threats. I made several misplays here, but thankfully so did my opponent. 2-1-1 (5-5-1 for the day)
Round 5 was against Soul Sisters (Paired down). Not much to say here. Both games I went infinite and they scooped. 2-0 (7-5-1 for the day)
Round 6 I had to win and hope for good breaks for top 8. I was up against Esper Control. Game 1 Spell Queller did it's think and took away two companies from me. Game 2 I brought in hate (plus Path to Exile to deal with the Quellers) and go there on Gavony Beats. Game three we went to turns and I got the infinite life combo and he conceded. 2-1 (9-6-1 for the day)
I played the waiting game for a few minutes and found out I took 9th just missing top 8. My round 4 opponent (Eldrazi Tron) had better breakers than me so they got the 8th place spot. I ended up with a half box as prize support so it wasn't that bad.
Overall fun day, wish I could have been better but oh well. Still lots to learn about the deck and being more flexible with thinking and playing to various outs (there's times I should have chorded for another creature that I thought of after the fact)
I'm still happy with the 20 land version (after some mana base adjustments). Rhonas got the win on the last game of Round 1. Ballista got the majority of the wins for me as well (when it was combo based). Gavony Beats is a legit plan as well for grindy control matches. I feel I was lucky as I didn't play any Shadow or Affinity that was there.
I'm really happy with my current build but if I had to make any changes I would probably go with cutting a Duskwatch Recruiter and putting Fiend Hunter Back in.
Just wanted to mention something, as I've met a couple of players of this deck that didn't know it.
You can put counters on your druid even if it has summoning sickness. Like for example if you want it in the graveyard instead of a land from path, or if you have 2 and they Maelstrom pulse it. There's never any reason to get your druid exiled if you don't want it to be.
Had a friend say he didn't want to play out 2, because he suspected maelstrom pulse from his opponent, but they can never kill 2 druids with that if you don't want them to.
I should mention that there is a caveat to this rule; you can't have Vizier of Remedies already on the battlefield or else Druid will never get the counters to kill itself.
I started playing this deck this spring and have been playing it a bit more lately. I have a fairly standard build - I'm not sure on how to do the card tags yet but will figure it out and post my list. 22 lands, 4 Eternal Witness , 4 Devoted Druid , 4 Vizier of Remedies , 2 Noble Hierarch, 4 Birds of Paradise plus 3 Renegade Rallier.
I ran into an opponent earlier this summer running a "cousin" of our deck. No CoCo but he had 4 Aether Vials plus Eldrich Evolution. Vial seems like a decent idea and he loved Evolution to be able to just directly pick cards to hit his combo. I found Evolution to be kind of slow in my old Kiki Chord deck.
Any thoughts on these cards as potential options for our builds? I am really thinking of trying 2 Aether Vial main deck.
Tweeked the Sideboard again for meta adjustments.
2 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
4 Devoted Druid
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
3 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Viscera Seer
4 Vizier of Remedies
1 Walking Ballista
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Orzhov Pontiff
3 Path to Exile
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Sin Collector
Round 1 was against Affinity and it went to a draw (1-1-1). A bad misplay from my opponent on game 2 and a misplay from me on turns (I have the infinite life combo on the board at the start of turns) Instead of scrying for my druid and then scrying for Eternal Witness I went with some artifact hate- it ended up putting us at a stalemate instead so a draw was the end result.
Round 2 was against a new, young kid who didn't have much of a deck to start with
Round 3 was against Esper Shadow- my opponent never saw his Shadows. Finks beats for game one and a Selfless Spirit beats on game 2 (with Exalted back up) I was able to weed out the Stubborn Denials to get there.
Round 4 was against Blue Tron. I just kept fighting my opponent with a Duskwatch Recruiter until he ran out of counter spells. After that it was beats with CoCo. I made another mental mistake here: On game 2 I kept a questionable hand and hoped for a good land pull which didn't happen.
Round 5 was against Jund. Sadly my opponent didn't de-sideboard and played a Kitchen Finks. Our Shop rules are basically tournament rules so that was a game loss for him. Game 2 he stuck a cage and just kept the pressure. Game 3 was lots of attrition, but I was able to get there through CoCo-Witness-CoCo-Witness-CoCo. Never saw the combo but Vizer and Finks for blocks for days and an Exalted Bird to get over when needed. It was a rough match from the game loss and my opponent was pretty salty and I felt bad about it as well since it was a tainted win, etc.
Overall thoughts:
I still like 20 lands but it can make questionable keeps/decisions.I'm usually OK keeping a 1-land (fetch or forest) due to the 8 Birds/Nobles (plus 4 Druids). Though with cutting the lands down I feel like Godless Shrine should be pulled for another Temple Garden/Overgrown Tomb to avoid those one hand blah moments.
Rhonas- every time I got that card I hated it- I'm really considering pulling it but I know it's needed- Going the Walking Ballista Route is just better- but I know there will be times when I won't be able to do that.
What's people's graveyard-hate cards of choice? I usually run Anafenza, the Foremost as she doesn't die to Darkblast from Dredge and hates on Living End as well as Reanimator. However, there's a lot of potential options, so I'm curious to see what people are running and why.
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
Abzan Toolbox Primer
GWBAbzan CompanyBWG
GWBUGifts RockUBWG
If you're on 20 lands you cannot run a swamp either. I would replace that with a forest most likely or potentially another horizon canopy. Second OG tomb for the shrine and canopy for the swamp would be my recommendation to start.
What rationale do you have for the ballista? I've needed it exactly one game in 40 matches or so and that's because I wasn't playing kitchen finks (so couldn't alternatively jam 4 kitchen finks to get out of burn range).
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Why Ballista: For me it seems that it goes easier in the synching of the deck- (obviously) you go infinite life or you get unlimited mana- I run three Duskwatch's so digging with infinite mana seems to work better than going Rhonas beats- to each their own though
Re: Dreamstealer- it looks spicy- I've heard from others that like and use it but I don't think it's for me at this time.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
For the most part every strategy in Abzan except "go faster and kill their artifact/enchantment hate cards" is dead. Fulminator mages suck. etc.
I'm back on Abzan tonight and since my shop is apparently 100% eldrazi tron now I am gonna try some Eerie Interludes. Letcha know how that goes
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
@SB vs Tron
I agree with Pokken, focus on a fast combo kill. Spellskite is decent against all their removal apart from Ugin, Phyrexian Revoker and Aven Mindcensor can be alright sometimes.
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
Abzan Toolbox Primer
GWBAbzan CompanyBWG
GWBUGifts RockUBWG
I'm to the point of 1 main, 1 side Sigarda, Host of Herons. Drazi tron is fairly common where I am and Sigarda seems to just be a huge burden on them unless they can windmill slam an Ugin. If she's in play, I'm probably winning that game against Drazi. Ya, she's awkward to see with Company and hard to Chord for, but drawing her is great and Chord is manageable unless you have zero board.
Right now I'm suffering under Ponza. Apart from keeping a 2+ dork and 4+ land hand, I have no idea how to do anything relevant against them. They Primal Command into Inferno Titan putting a land on top of my deck to guarantee a win. So... I'm almost ashamed to say I'm trying Phyrexian Crusader as a cheap pro-red that will eventually kill the titan. Is anyone else having issues with Ponza?
"Reveal a Dragon"
My list is below:
4 Gavony Township
4 Horizon Canopy
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
1 Banewhip Punisher
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
4 Devoted Druid
1 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Renegade Rallier
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Spellskite
1 Viscera Seer
3 Vizier of Remedies
2 Eerie Interlude
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
3 Path to Exile
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Reveillark
1 Scavenging Ooze
Round 1 I played against a friend on Eldrazi Tron, and he just didn't have enough interaction and tapped out at inopportune times. He's new to modern. Game 1 I was on the play, played a few derpy mana dudes end step coco'd into the combo and killed him on turn 4.
Round 2 I played BG midirange and got wrecked 2-0. Games were close, in that I had many outs, but this is a game where my somewhat aggressive mana base punished me--and I learned a lesson that Banewhip punisher is not good in a light black splash, so I am gonna cut that. Never had BB (though to be fair I likely would not in traditional company either). He had 4 ghost quarters so I was able to take advantage of my "board out a questionable land on the draw" which seemed to work OK.
Round 3 I played another friend on Eldrazi tron, and he knew more of what to do. Game 1 was a turn 3 combo, Game 2 was a really drawn out game where I assembled infinite life in response to a walking ballista for 3 -- which then got a basilisk collar attached. He killed 2 combo pieces, I had scried an eerie interlude to the top, which I was able to resolve and witness back chord then chord for reclamation sage on my turn, forcing him to kill the rec sage with the ballista (by rec saging it).
He then untapped and slammed karn and plussed it behind a wall of reality smashers and thought knot. I was forced to spend my turns playing dudes and townshipping until I could get a guy through Karn; I think he topdecked nothing but smashers, playing all 5 into infinite life, and never drawing a payoff. He pithing needled devoted druid, I played the combo but couldn't execute. Then I topdecked a witness, witnessed the needle and killed him. Easily the longest game I have ever had vs. E-tron; he drew pretty badly, except for the karn, despite two cards a turn off of sea gate wreckage.
Round 4 vs. zoo-burn (with goyf+nacatl). I feel super advantaged in this matchup especially on the play because the creatures are much worse than burn spells for the most part, especially since he wasn't running the full complement of blazes and skullcracks. I was on the play and it went well, I did what was needed which is draw kitchen finks. Pro magic there.
Game 1 I killed him with infinite life after dropping 2 finks. Game 2 he was able to kill me through two finks and anafenza by having a ridiculous hand and me having a slow one. I did make a mistake here deployin anafenza+vizier to reset my finks when I should have coco'd to try to win, since I was dead to burn off the top. Game 3 he had an eidolon heavy draw, and I drew a rec sage and assembled a big board while he had a hand full of creatures he couldn't deploy behind eidolon while also keeping removal up; I assembled two finks and anafenza and beat him down.
I felt like the deck was good. Two things I hated in the main deck were banewhip with my mana (should be fiend hunter or flickerwisp) and spellskite. I get the appeal of skite, I love it myself, but it is wrong for my shop meta. Spirit it is.
I REALLY missed renegade ralliers. I kept one, but the deck is so much more dynamic when heavy on ralliers. I might try a straight GW version with no finks at some point.
The finks combo didn't really shine because of Eldrazi tron of course, but I can't complain because the druid combo got it done. And it did win me one game vs. E-tron by giving me a ton of time to assemble.
I'm really unsure of what the right build is at this point, but I loved having 4 townships and I did like finks in the burn matchup.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I've had great experiences recently against death's shadow. I found myself thinking "why would anyone play anything else?" haha
Could you elaborate on why you didn't like the Spellskite vs Eldratron? Haven't played the MU a lot, but in theory it seems like a great answer to Ballista, which I'd think is the biggest problem in the MU apart from All Is Dust.
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
Abzan Toolbox Primer
GWBAbzan CompanyBWG
GWBUGifts RockUBWG
Note that ballista with basilisk collar woulda made it seem pretty bad, but that's a two-card wombo that shouldn't be something we deck build for
I suspect township/finks woulda been better for me against GBx if my opponent had not had insane aggro draws with t5 and t6 kills on combat damage respectively with multiple removal backups. I think I just need to respect that his draws were very good and sometimes you lose to that.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Gotcha
Also, Collar-Ballista seems like a clear "they won the combo race" situation to me
- Yeva, Nature's Herald
Abzan Toolbox Primer
GWBAbzan CompanyBWG
GWBUGifts RockUBWG
I really do not like ghost quarters in these decks. You never want to be giving up the mana advantage. I run 4 gavony townships in my micro-splash Abzan and so far that's been stellar. Township wins games.
I am going to probably cut pharika and banewhip and maybe try to be even leaner on the black splash. I think Finks is a bit too good right now despite how frustrating it has been vs. Eldrazi tron which is apparently the only deck at my shop anymore:P I just really hate to committing to the black manabase for only a couple cards.
I keep hoping they'll print an open sac outlet in White or green one of these days
I actually won that game! Eerie Interlude with Eternal witness is sick.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
You can put counters on your druid even if it has summoning sickness. Like for example if you want it in the graveyard instead of a land from path, or if you have 2 and they Maelstrom pulse it. There's never any reason to get your druid exiled if you don't want it to be.
Had a friend say he didn't want to play out 2, because he suspected maelstrom pulse from his opponent, but they can never kill 2 druids with that if you don't want them to.
2 Gavony Township
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Devoted Druid
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
3 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Viscera Seer
4 Vizier of Remedies
1 Walking Ballista
1 Dusk
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Orzhov Pontiff
3 Path to Exile
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Sin Collector
Round 1 Was against Grixis Control- game 1 my opponent have 3 Visions in Suspend so I just got picked apart. Game 2 I stuck with Gavony Beats and held back creatures for second attacks after Push/Bolt, etc. Game 3 we both mulled to five but I had the nut draw and there wasn't much he could do. 1-0 (2-1 for the day)
Round 2 was against B/R Pack Rat and it did not go well. My hands got picked apart, followed up by Bolt/Push/Brutality. Both games were equally bad. 0-2 (2-3 for the day)
Round 3 I went up against Elves. Game 1 combo to Ballista. Game 2 he stuck an Ezuri and that was game for me. Game 3 I picked his battlefield apart with a Ballista, Path, and finally hit a Linvala for the win. 2-1 (4-4 for the day)
Round 4 was Eldrazi Tron Game 1 I played towards Gavony Beats and dropped them to 10 life, then topdeck All is Dust. Game 2 led me to more Gavony Beats as I couldn't find an answer to Grafdigger's Cage. Game 3 we ended up with a draw as we both couldn't close the game out after dealing with each other's threats. I made several misplays here, but thankfully so did my opponent. 2-1-1 (5-5-1 for the day)
Round 5 was against Soul Sisters (Paired down). Not much to say here. Both games I went infinite and they scooped. 2-0 (7-5-1 for the day)
Round 6 I had to win and hope for good breaks for top 8. I was up against Esper Control. Game 1 Spell Queller did it's think and took away two companies from me. Game 2 I brought in hate (plus Path to Exile to deal with the Quellers) and go there on Gavony Beats. Game three we went to turns and I got the infinite life combo and he conceded. 2-1 (9-6-1 for the day)
I played the waiting game for a few minutes and found out I took 9th just missing top 8. My round 4 opponent (Eldrazi Tron) had better breakers than me so they got the 8th place spot. I ended up with a half box as prize support so it wasn't that bad.
Overall fun day, wish I could have been better but oh well. Still lots to learn about the deck and being more flexible with thinking and playing to various outs (there's times I should have chorded for another creature that I thought of after the fact)
I'm still happy with the 20 land version (after some mana base adjustments). Rhonas got the win on the last game of Round 1. Ballista got the majority of the wins for me as well (when it was combo based). Gavony Beats is a legit plan as well for grindy control matches. I feel I was lucky as I didn't play any Shadow or Affinity that was there.
I'm really happy with my current build but if I had to make any changes I would probably go with cutting a Duskwatch Recruiter and putting Fiend Hunter Back in.
I should mention that there is a caveat to this rule; you can't have Vizier of Remedies already on the battlefield or else Druid will never get the counters to kill itself.
Avatar and Signature by XenoNinja via Heroes of the Plane Studios
I ran into an opponent earlier this summer running a "cousin" of our deck. No CoCo but he had 4 Aether Vials plus Eldrich Evolution. Vial seems like a decent idea and he loved Evolution to be able to just directly pick cards to hit his combo. I found Evolution to be kind of slow in my old Kiki Chord deck.
Any thoughts on these cards as potential options for our builds? I am really thinking of trying 2 Aether Vial main deck.