MTG Salvation

Is there another place with discussion on this archetype?

E: like a Facebook group or subreddit

Congrats on the solid finish. I’m getting ready to take the deck to an IQ this weekend.

Have you tried Kitchen Finks and just not liked it?

Reason being, he’s a house against Jund and Death Shadow. He always buys me enough time to stabilize.

Went 1-2 at a small 8 person TNM. I hate these types of odd metagames.

Round 1 vs. Jeskai Control. I put early pressure on him, but eventually ran out of gas and he drew cards off the top to remove each of my threats. Collected Company would have been good. Then he got Search for Azcanta to flip, using it once to get a Path to Exile. He had played 4 Path to Exile and a bunch of other stuff by the middle of the game. In the next one, he stumbled on 3 land and I had too much of a hand by then. In the final game, he barely stabilized when I couldn't find a 4th land (kept on 3). He drew for the turn and Sphinx's Revelation lets him stay in it. That Sphinx's Revelation gives him ScM #3 and Cryptic Commands #3 and #4. He also got value off a bunch of Logic Knots in these games, which it just didn't seem that there was an opportunity to play around them. 1-2.

Round 2 vs. UW Superfriends with Terminus. He plays Terminus on turn 4 and 1 for 1 answers me with cards off the top of his library. He draws a land once and I get there by comboing off. He had an Elspeth, Sun's Champion, so there's no way I'm beating him in combat. In the next game, I get a Tireless Tracker and Knight of the Reliquary after a mana dork, but I get stuck on my original 2 lands from my hand. He got stuck on 3 land, but gets the next one because of Search for Azcanta and does Miracle Terminus on turn 3 into turn 5 Wrath of God. I can only play 2 threat per turn. I draw a land 11 turns later, so now I have 3. He got too many things in play by this time. Gideon of the Trials, Teferi, Hero, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. In the final game, I put pressure, but turn 2 miracle Terminus into some Wrath effects and 3 Path to Exile gets me in a top decking situation. A million lands later, I am close to lethal. I have a Walking Ballista in hand and he's at 3 life, but he has Cryptic Command #3 and #4 to allow for end step Chords, then Path to Exile both creatures immediately and leave up Cryptics #3 and #4. He has PWs by this time. I actually didn't know he had a Gideon emblem or I probably would have scooped. He uses his 4th Path to Exile while I draw a bit of nothing. Had every land in my deck except 1 more Horizon Canopy and 3 fetches. 1-2.

Round 3 vs. Jund. In the first game, he discards me, then gets Tarmogoyf, but I get Collected Company to resolve and I get too much value, while Knight of the Reliquary and Tireless Tracker get big. Still had 3 Clues. In the next game, I get stuck on the original 2 lands and he ends up getting there with removal on 4 mana dorks and 2 Devoted Druid during this game. In the final game, I keep on 2 land again and a similar thing happens, but he has no pressure. He plays Bolts, then double Anger of the Gods, but I top deck 3 lands in a row. He forgot to attack 1 turn with Treetop Village and it cost him after a terrible CoCo by me. I draw Voice of Resurgence in the midgame of this game, the first I drew this tournament after siding them in all games 2 and 3 this whole tournament. I use it to block twice. I got the 5th land and get Avacyn, Archangel of Hope to block the Treetop Village and Noble Hierarch to block Goyf. I swing him to 1 life the next turn and he scoops after drawing nothing good.
2-1.

I finish 1-2. The games were super close, but the deck cannot draw as well late game as these decks and stumbling on mana in the early game can cost this deck some wins.

Quote from Jeffisanhero »

Congrats on the solid finish. I’m getting ready to take the deck to an IQ this weekend.

Have you tried Kitchen Finks and just not liked it?

Reason being, he’s a house against Jund and Death Shadow. He always buys me enough time to stabilize.

Agree 0 finks seems rough.

Quote from Zlaxx »

Hey Folks,

Conclusion: Overall I'm 7-3, wich resulted in an 63rd place finish, and I’m pretty happy with this result, even though, on paper, I need to win the first match against Jund and the match against Bogles in Round 5, but a mixture of punts and bad draws prevented me from going even better than 7-3. But thats Magic! I will certainly learn from this mistakes and try again next time.

After playing this Deck over ten rounds, I would probably make some changes before the next event. The 2nd Tireless Tracker felt a bit too much, and the 1-of Courser of Kruphix didn't peform for me as well (Probably due to the absence of Aggro-Decks in my matchups). For the next event, I will most likely be cutting these two for two extra copys of Eternal Witness, as is missed the ability to get back cards in the grindier post-board matches against Jund i. e.
In the Manabase, I'll cut one Forest for one Horizon Canopy, wich was a budget choice in the first place. The rest felt solid.

The Sideboard seems solid, the MVP of the event was certainly Voice of Resurgence, every time I had one on the field, i felt like I can't loose. If they tap out on their Main Phase to dodge the token they run danger to die to the combo on the crack back wich felt awesome.
I also wanted to try out Dusk // Dawn so badly, but never drew it. In theory it looks great against BG/x decks and Death's Shadow variants.

Thank you for the detailed review. I have two questions:

1) As Jeffisanhero mentioned, I feel unconfortbale to drop the whole set of finks, I actually never though of droping it at all!!! Did you miss them?

2) How Knight of the Reliquary is doing? I think u replaced finks for them... In the G/W Value he is nuts, but on a shell where u have few interactions like only 2 Tireless Tracker (that u re going to drop to one), only 1x Courser of Kruphix and no Azusa, Lost but Seeking and no Ramunap Excavator, how good is the trade finks/reliquary?

My actual build is All in combo with 4 flex spots, wich Im running 1x Ooze, 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar, 1x Spellskite and 1x Worship. Wondering about the real value of all other addition in a combo shell (again, if u re more oriented to value, not to combo, I think the inclusions are really good)

Has anyone tried this version?

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=14652&writer=Raphael Levy&articledate=5-23-2018&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term&utm_content=magic&utm_campaign=content

Seems like a super quick, more glass cannon version, but interesting.

Quote from Torpf »

Updated the primer. I added Shalai, Voice of Plenty from DOM, and moved Tireless Tracker to 'proven maindeck cards'. I also made some smaller text changes, and formatting changes in some places.

I'd like to update the three sample decks near the beginning of the primer. What do people think would be the best representation of the deck in recent results? ie: the SCG deck that combined GW Value town and out deck. I'm not putting in the turbo druid deck lol. Please leave some suggestions with links and I'll update the primer again tomorrow or the day after.

As zlaxx mentioned, I think that Abzan and Value versions should be the used in the primer, dunno about the blue thing because its completely new for me (the same for the turbo version, seems like All in linear combo risk stuff)

I did not perform as well at the IQ as I should have. The deck felt fine but a couple of misplays really cost me. That’s what I get for being rusty.

Spoiler: I ended up going 2-2 and dropping to save time.

Round 1: Jeskai Control 1-2
I lost the dice roll.

Game 1: Opponent opens with scalding tarn into Hallowed Fountian and I know I’m in for a fun one. I don’t remember much about this game. It went long and I was on the beat down plan for most of it. I got him down to 2 but could not finish him off. Azcanta+Teferi was too much.

Out:
1 Qasali Pridemage
3 Vizier of Remedies
1 Chord of Calling
In:
3 Sin Collector
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit

Game 2 goes better for us. I curve Hierarch into Spirit into Finks into Shalai and he uses all his resources to clear them out of the way. I drop Druid and combo off shortly after.

Game 3 was another grind fest. Again I was able to get him low a sphinx for 4 was able keep him alive. I had one last chance to untap and combo but my opponents single card in hand was a path for my Druid. Colonnade beats sealed the deal.

We finished this round with about 3 minutes left. Overall it was a fun match against a really nice guy.

Round 2: Burn 2-0

I lose the dice roll and opponent opens with Goblin Guide. My opponent was a young kid and showed that he was still pretty new to the game. I was able to exploit it by comboing easily game 1 and 2.

Out:
3 Eternal Witness
1 Qasali Pridemage
In:
3 Sin Collector
1 Burrenton-Forge Tender

Round 3: Burn 0-2
I lost the dice roll again.

Game 1: My opponent leads with a swift spear. I didn’t know my opponent was on burn and kept a hand that was pretty punishing. Horizon Canopy + Fetchland with no dork and no finks. I lost handily before I could do anything.

Out:
3 Eternal witness
1 Qasali Pridemage
In:
3 Sin Collector
1 Burrenton-Forge Tender

Game 2: My first hand consisted of only one land, a Gavony township. I mulled and the second hand had no lands. I mulled to 5 and kept Land, Land, Hierarch, Chord, CoCo. My opponent plays turn 1 Grafdigger’s Cage and shuts off half of my hand. I proceed to draw Township, land, BoP, and another chord. He durdles on draws for a little while and I put some significant pressure on with Gavony beats but ultimately lose.

I didn’t see a Finks or Shalai either game.

Round 4: U/W Control
I won the dice roll.

Game 1: My opponent decides to drop a Search for Azcanta instead of pathing my Druid and I combo off. (He didn’t know the combo)

I sideboard the same as round 1.

Game 2: I am putting significant pressure and feeling confident with 2 Finks and a selfless spirit. He plays terminus and then beats me down with colonnade.

Game 3: I play around the terminus and am able to out value him.

Overall, the deck felt fine. I omitted my crucial play mistake that I made against the second burn player because I don’t feel like typing THAT much. I felt like I played fine other than that one critical mistake.

There were times when I wasn’t sure if I should just ‘go for it’ against Jeskai or hold back and play smart. I need more reps with the deck.

Went to a 38-player modern tournament and went 4-0-2 but lost during the quarterfinals. I seldom do paper tournaments due to family issues. I usually play on Cockatrice and I am pretty happy with my list.

Round 1: Junk 2-0
Round 2: Esper Control 2-0
Round 3: Burn 2-1
Round 4: Jund 2-0
Round 5: ID
Round 6: ID

Quarter finals: Ponza 0-2. Game 1 turn 2 blood moon into stone rain my basic forest. Game 2 mulled to 5 and eventually having not enough gas.

My list:
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble hierarch
4 Devoted Druid
3 Vizier of Remedies
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Knight of the reliquary
4 Tireless Tracker
3 Eternal Witness
1 Walking Ballista
1 Rhonas the indomitable

4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company

5 Forest
1 Plains
4 Windswepth Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Ghost quarter
1 field of ruin
2 Temple garden
1 Stomping ground
1 Kessig Wolf-run

SB:
3 Path to Exile
2 Stony Silence
1 Kataki
1 Burrenton forge-tender
1 Selfless spirit
1 Qasali pridemage
1 Scavenging ooze
1 Eidolon of rhetoric
1 Bujoka bog
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Luminesce

Overall, I think the mashup of value town and counters company is very strong. It can combo fast, grinds as well and beats face at the same time. I think luminesce is also a good sideboard card but only have used it once during the tournament. Usually siding it in on burn, decks with red sweepers (Mardu pyro, Affinity whipflares, Jeskai), Storm and Deathshadow.

That's a somewhat odd list. I feel that Knight of the Reliquary is a 4-of or don't play any, but I could be wrong. I guess Hawks is probably solid against Affinity, but I have doubts elsewhere.

I actually have done worse with the "Value Town/GW Company" list than the Abzan Counters Company list, but a lot of that is because of the uptick in removal.dec. (Jeskai, Grixis, Jund, UW, etc.) Well, I should clarify that Jund and UW aren't bad, but I can't run through them like I can against other decks.

Quote from Ageless127 »

New deck guide https://www.cardknocklife.com/deck-spotlight-abzan-counters-company/

it's a nice article, and well-written considering English isn't their first language. I enjoyed reading it and i'm a bit jealous of those endless 5-0s haha.

Thier sideboard is a little strange. I've been including worship and liliana, the last hope in mine and have been mightily impressed by both cards. I wouldn't personally run as much one-for-one removal as this person, but i can kind of see where they are going with it. 3x path seems fine though.

my sideboard for comparison currently looks like this:


Their section on Hollow One seems to lack understanding of the texture of the matchup though.
I've won 100% of my matches against that deck so far, which is kind of ridiculous so take that very much with a pinch of salt. the reason is usually that I chord for Eidolon of Rhetoric, rather than graveyard hate. this stops them from casting their self-discard spells and makes them hard-cast hollow ones and also prevents them from digging and following up with a threat. it's a great card for the matchup. it's not pitch-perfect but it's great.

i disagree with their choice to run 4x duskwatch recruiters. the card is fine, but often doesn't do much by itself. I have run 2 since the start and never felt like my performance or analysis led me towards playing more. I even dropped down to one for a while and that was acceptable, but two seems fine and i've stuck with that number in the fullness of time.

I believe it's to combo as quickly as you can. If you run into hate for search effects, try to have cards that deal with that after SB. But I believe the best thing is to combo or you may be able to have bigger creatures than the non-Eldrazi version as well.

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

I believe it's to combo as quickly as you can. If you run into hate for search effects, try to have cards that deal with that after SB. But I believe the best thing is to combo or you may be able to have bigger creatures than the non-Eldrazi version as well.

we're pretty immune to cards like eldrazi displacer as we run amazing ETB cards like finks and witness. My experience so far has been that we can out-grind them quite well if we are able to hit a single CoCo. gavony township helps here a lot as well, although having your guys blinked does somewhat mitigate your advantage there.
comboing early is definitely doable but they do play maindeck paths and dismembers across the different versions of the deck. worth bearing in mind.

I've had very limited experience with those matchups, but I've comboed to win most of the time. I've probably played against D and T maybe 3 times? I've played against BW E Taxes and/or GR Eldrazi around 9 times? Yeah, Displacer can actually be a pain in the ass occasionally because they can put more damage on us than the life we gain or cards from our graveyard that we recoup.

I am more than aware of the Paths and Dismembers. As a 4 of at most, it seems unlikely to stop 1-2 combo tries, but then again I probably try to combo much more than the average player. It's what got me to stop playing Kiki Chord, even when my results were good.

Quote from FoodChainGoblins »

but then again I probably try to combo much more than the average player.

haha, if we aren't trying to combo, why are we playing this deck? =D

I see most builds run 2 Noble Hierchs. Are they needed? I can not afford them and was wondering what you would play instead.

Quote from Kizzel »

I see most builds run 2 Noble Hierchs. Are they needed? I can not afford them and was wondering what you would play instead.

I wouldn't personally play without them, but I guess you could try Llanowar Elves or Avacyn's Pilgrim, depending on which mana you want to slant toward.

Quote from Kizzel »

I see most builds run 2 Noble Hierchs. Are they needed? I can not afford them and was wondering what you would play instead.

Like most decks, by subbing out the best possible variant of an effect for a weaker version, you'll lose some games as a result. Not many, but occasionally it'll happen. The extra power given in combat does come up frequently, and isn't just a theoretical bonus.

That said, despite losing a certain percentage from making a swap to (for example) avacyn's pilgrim, you would still be getting part of the functionality just fine, which is the ability to ramp with a 1cmc mana dork.

In essence you'll still have the deck and be able to win games, and the difference will be small but noticeable. There's a very good reason why we run Noble hierarch and never any other kind of mana dork as our secondary non-bird option.

And for what it's worth I run three. After a year or more playing the deck it became clear that 7 dorks is better than 6
=)