Midrange decks are very difficult to pilot and take many hours to master. Don't let this discourage you! It will pay off and reward you greatly!
Coming from burn, you're probably used to a linear strategy. Junk is exactly the opposite. You need to know exactly what cards you need and what cards you lose to in order to stop linear decks and hit back. From the matches you had, Eldrazi was the real difficult one for Midrange. The others will definitely improve over time.
Just keep playing the deck, look at videos, learn what decisions you have and have to make.
Welcome to the family!
Well said.
Matsoni, good job taking down Infect. Heavy interaction with a big threat clocking them sounds like it got you there, and that’s exactly the sort of hands you need to see against Storm. Drawing the proverbial “wrong half of the deck” may not be quite as much of a problem for Abzan as it is for, say, a traditional control deck, but it’s still something you’ll have to get used to (and do your best to avoid) coming from a deck like Burn, where redundancy is quite high. If you know you’re against a combo deck like Storm where all forms of our interaction line up well, you should be mulliganing functional but low-interaction hands in search of discard effects and spot removal.
You’re not likely to pull off the win against colorless Eldrazi nut draws, sadly. As for the Pyro matchup, getting Mooned out of the game twice is rough. That’s a card that really needs to be respected. Borderline keep/mull decisions can be influenced by how well your lands line up against a prospective Moon. Depending on your and your opponent’s progression, it can also be correct to pass turns with GB mana open and a Decay in hand (especially if you’re on the play and landed a T2 threat) to answer the Moon.
Still, the card will frequently just get you. I love the art, flavor, and nostalgia factor of older sets, but holy crap do some of these 8th Edition cards have the potential to drain the joy out of games!
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Since Rock is crammed in with abzan I'm goin to post my last 2 fnm reports here but I'll put them in spoiler tags so people can skip if not interested.
I've been on rockdrazi build for quite some time. I think it's just as viable as any other GBx variant but I certainly will not say it's better than any of them. although it's almost certainly better than sultai.
r1: serum powder colorless eldrazi
we had an epic g1 which ended at us both at 1 for many turns. If either of us draw a smusher we just die. He had sea gate wreckage active for a few turns till I found the field of ruin for it. Eventually I got there after he started to run out of gas. Thankfully outside of smusher his guys are actually smaller than mine. g2 he has a t2 smasher and well I couldn't race it. g3 I had a t2 TKS into a second so it was good to give him a taste of his own medicine. Turns out neither deck can really beat 2 temple draws haha. Magic is a silly game sometimes.
1-0
r2: abzan
we had 3 epic games as one would expect from 2 GB decks. g3 8 goyfs were seen and 7 were played (I chose a traker over goyf early on from oath). He ended up having a scooze for way too long and that ultimately won him the game as it chipped in and was able to gain him enough life. No regrets were fun games. I was 1 turn off damnation haha.
1-1
r3: jund
Jund is a much easier match than abzan. we exchanged a lot of resources but my guys are bigger and typically faster. My removal in general lines up much better. Having access to field of ruin was absolutely key in this match. g3 came down to a very close smasher+treetop for the win and I was dead on the swing back with his HUGE raging ravine. I couldn't find any removal for it so my line was I just swing in for lethal and make him have the removal to kill me. Turns out he didn't this time.
2-1
r4 mono green enchantress
This is actually a very brutal deck for other decks that don't have interaction and a clock. Well mine has both and i drew what I needed for a COMICALLY hilarious stomping of this deck. One highlight was g2 I t1 inquisition. t2 goyf, t3 field of ruin his nykthos + push his eidolon of blossoms and swing in for 5. Being so far ahead at that point there was nothing he could do but I follow up with TKS the next turn for good measure.
3-1
r1: hollow one
Lets put it this way, when hollow one doesn't just nut draw you with huge early fatties, it's not that hard of a deck to beat. Phoenix is still really annoying but I have things to fight it SB.
1-0
r2: Jeskai ascendancy
discard and fast clock made this match very easy. I got kinda lucky he bricked off the turn he tried. He didn't have a choice as he was dead next turn but perhaps he could have gotten there. g2 he boarded into lingering souls but I had a cage anyways. super sweet tech but in this instance it didn't matter.
2-0
r3: sultai control/midrange
Another match that went well for me. As another GB deck it basically whoever comes out ahead early will win and he was drawing cards and stuff but I had threats and discard so it didn't matter much. That's the one issue I have with adding blue. Azcanta, jace and visions and snaps are fantastic cards but when behind they kinda suck (except snap)
3-0
r4: naya bushwhacker zoo
I will admit I got hella lucky in this match. I've played this guy before and not only is he a great player but I'm a dog in this matchup. Turns out the 1 way I can beat him is if he floods and or doesn't have an insane burning-tree turn. He did flood enough so that he could never effectively apply pressure. Since my guys are huge there's only so much he can do after a certain point.
4-0
r5 top 4 mardu pyromancer
I thought this was a great matchup post SB and maybe that's true. The problem is game 1 outside a nut draw from me, I just can't deal with the souls and go wide strategy. plus MD moons doesn't help. In game 3 I kept a great hand but turns out he just has a blood moon he will slam on his t3 (my t2) and I had no way to answer it with no basics. It's amazing how punishing being on the draw can be in modern. I had everything I needed but sometimes you just get shut down. I have so much in SB for this match oh well. I think my takeaway is I need some number of early discard for just that problem.
4-1
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Current Decks:
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
I was playing reshaper for a long time as well and I'm not going to lie I miss it sometimes. Tracker+tasigur is just so much more value and punishes me less (smoother mana base and tracker helps with flooding). Reshaper is faster than tracker so that's a thing but I just love the solid GB shell more than I like eldrazi tribal (and tracker is one of my all time favorite cards). I've been debating going a lower curve build cutting some top end and maxing out on reshaper value but it is almost assuredly too cute, but maybe not.
I'm pretty confident I won't be going back to reshaper unless some new cards push me into it. Honestly though, TKS is both the best and worst card in the deck. Smusher is almost always MVP on the other hand, the card is bonkers in a GB shell.
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Current Decks:
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
Casting aside all thematic concerns for a moment, I really wish Alpine Moon was green! While I don’t expect the card to see much play in Modern overall, it does seem to fit a whole lot better into GBx than Damping Sphere does. It shuts off Tron just as well, hits Valakut (this is huge), and perhaps most importantly is a one-drop, leading to a far more impressive opening sequence of disruption + clock compared to a two-drop like Sphere. It also seems worth bringing in against UWx (Azcanta, or Colonnade if you’re able to answer the Azcantas in other ways) and Infect (Inkmoth).
Alpine Moon loses the upside Sphere brings against combo decks, but we’re well-positioned enough there that I would make the trade in a heartbeat.
Oh well, red gets another toy. At least we’ll have SFM soon if the Modern community’s consensus is anything to go by.
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I have a question to you all, where would the SFM package slot into the deck?
I guess the deck needs some serious reworking. I mean, it is 5 cards main at least, and a few side board cards to really profit from it.
My thoughts on SFM would be heavy turn 1 disruption (4 IoK, 3 Seize, 6 1 mana removal) 4 sfm, 4 souls, 3-4 grim flayers and maybe even voice of resurgences and something like 2 gideon ally of zen. Sticky, CA and trampling/flying threats to maximize equipments
Impressive quadruple post aside, I'll say what I said on the Facebook group: Demon of Catastrophes is a No From Me. Just why bother? There will be a lot of times you won't have a toke to sacrifice to it, and you'll just get blown out by a removal spell with nothing to show for it. Just play Rhino if you want a heavy hitting 4-drop.
In each instance, you’d probably want an extra piece of equipment in the side, whether it be a different Sword (access to Fire and Ice, Light and Shadow, and Feast and Famine would be ideal but not always realistic) or a second copy of Batterskull.
Also worth noting the minor nonbo between Bob and Batterskull (I say minor because it’s most often your first tutor target, especially if you have played or will play an early Bob). For that reason, I’d be inclined to shave down to three Bobs, and probably cut my one-of Tracker as well, it being the least efficient weapon bearer and its card advantage somewhat replaced by SFM. It’s tempting to look at Flayers as the next cut, just to keep the density of answers high, but Flayer just looks too good with a Sword in hand. 6/6 Trample with three damage triggers, seems alright!
On another note, what are people’s impressions of the players’ caliber in the MTGO Tournament Practice room? I’ve been spamming a ton of matches there over the last couple weeks—with family stuff, I sort of need to be able to leave on short notice a fair amount of the time and due to this would rather not spend money to play—but I’m wondering how strong the opposition tends to be. I’m approaching 50 matches and my winrate is around 65%, which feels great. It’s often said that competitive league players are about equivalent to day 2 players at a big Open, and the people in friendly leagues are about as good, just more likely to play non Tier 1 decks. How close is the tourney practice room to this level of play, in your experience?
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Looking to go a bit of a reanimator route. Looking for ideas I might be missing. You can see I dropped all 3cmc spells except the 1 of Athreos. Not sure how the lack of finks will treat me but I do think I gain a tiny bit off bob being all 2’s. Would still like to find grim flayer room too just know that my build will get there fast enough.
On another note, what are people’s impressions of the players’ caliber in the MTGO Tournament Practice room? I’ve been spamming a ton of matches there over the last couple weeks—with family stuff, I sort of need to be able to leave on short notice a fair amount of the time and due to this would rather not spend money to play—but I’m wondering how strong the opposition tends to be. I’m approaching 50 matches and my winrate is around 65%, which feels great. It’s often said that competitive league players are about equivalent to day 2 players at a big Open, and the people in friendly leagues are about as good, just more likely to play non Tier 1 decks. How close is the tourney practice room to this level of play, in your experience?
So I looked into this, and the discussions I’ve found had people reporting winrate drops between 15-25% when going from Tournament Practice to Competitive Leagues. That’s a higher number than I had assumed*, but so is my current winrate. I finished my 50th tournament practice match earlier, and my standing record is 37-13, a winrate of 74% including five straight 2-0s for games 46-50. Couldn’t be happier with those results, even if the competition is a cut below. Each game was played with the same list I’ve posted here except -1 Surgical Extraction and +1 Golgari Charm.
To reiterate a point I’ve already made, I believe that stock Abzan is criminally underplayed right now. The deck feels decent to great against everything except Valakut—even Tron, while undeniably bad, is far from unwinnable!
* This was my assumption, in part, because I didn’t really run into any true brews at all over the course of those 50 games. While the incidence of opponents on Tier 1 decks wasn’t high—maybe 25-30%—the closest things to “brews” I saw were fringe but coherent strategies like Sultai Midrange, UG Eldrazi, and UW Enduring Ideal.
In my build I run 4 Tireless Tracker; I believe they're better than Dark Confidant. Regarding the basic land count I like 3/3 but instead swapped a basic swamp for an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. The manabase is pretty solid in this deck since im only running 2 colors.
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‘If you dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologize.’
I'd like to ask for people's thoughts on the 3 cost toolbox removal slot.
The widely established choice is Maelstrom Pulse, but there are two other cards I've toyed with recently in Anguished Unmaking and Beast Within
Anguished is instant speed and exiles, but has a slightly trickier mana cost and a steep life cost. I've been playing this one and it's proved game-winningly good a few times where maelstrom pulse would not have dug me out of a hole. Specifically, it can be held up to blow up the big planeswalkers as they come out and other resilient large threats. My meta has a fair amount of controlly-midrange going around so it has perhaps overperformed.
Beast to me seems like a really interesting choice as well in the right build of abzan. Being able to take out lands is becoming more and more relevant given how land dependent the meta is at the moment (tron, humans, 3 colour decks, valakut). Doing it instant speed seems sweet. Giving an opponent a 3/3 isn't great but if you're on the goyf/rhino/fatal push/abrupt decay/finks kind of game that blank it being able to follow up early disruption with an answer to whatever they manage to put together seems great. I'd be curious as to how one might build an abzan deck specifically tailored to let BW shine.
I imagine this is a perennial discussion and maelstrom pulse has seemed to hold the upper hand forever. I'm reluctant to play 3 cost sorcery speed removal against a lot of what I come up against.
I'd like to ask for people's thoughts on the 3 cost toolbox removal slot.
The widely established choice is Maelstrom Pulse, but there are two other cards I've toyed with recently in Anguished Unmaking and Beast Within
Anguished is instant speed and exiles, but has a slightly trickier mana cost and a steep life cost. I've been playing this one and it's proved game-winningly good a few times where maelstrom pulse would not have dug me out of a hole. Specifically, it can be held up to blow up the big planeswalkers as they come out and other resilient large threats. My meta has a fair amount of controlly-midrange going around so it has perhaps overperformed.
So without going into deeper analysis, but if you compare Anguished Unmaking to Pulse, the only really important difference is that Unmaking is better tempo wise. Namely the instant vs sorcery aspect. However, if we talk about midrangey/controllish matchups, the most important aspect of the match is definitely not tempo. It is CA and grind. And if you compare both cards again, you will see if you cast Unmkaing your opponent casts effecitvely a free litghtning bolt on you. Life is also a resource. So in that sense, I think Pulse is miles better in that types of matchups your described. I think it mostly does not matter when I take out an opposing PW, they can inevidably activate the PW at least once anyway. (So it shouldn't matter if I do it EOT or in my following turn) There are some cases where it matters, but on average, I think this should not matter.
The same is true for BW. I really don't like giving your opponent a free 3/3. Abzan is a grindy deck, which is already tight on resources since more powerful grindy decks are out there atm. So never give your opponent a free type of resource, we should be on a resource denial plan. If you want Land destruction, just play Fulminator. Also, if you BW a permanent and have to Push the 3/3 afterwards, this seems really bad. You are 2-for-1 in yourself which is not what we should do.
So without going into deeper analysis, but if you compare Anguished Unmaking to Pulse, the only really important difference is that Unmaking is better tempo wise. Namely the instant vs sorcery aspect. However, if we talk about midrangey/controllish matchups, the most important aspect of the match is definitely not tempo. It is CA and grind. And if you compare both cards again, you will see if you cast Unmkaing your opponent casts effecitvely a free litghtning bolt on you. Life is also a resource. So in that sense, I think Pulse is miles better in that types of matchups your described. I think it mostly does not matter when I take out an opposing PW, they can inevidably activate the PW at least once anyway. (So it shouldn't matter if I do it EOT or in my following turn) There are some cases where it matters, but on average, I think this should not matter.
I totally get the life loss thing, it makes the card a real pain to play and it's a cost that loses me games from time to time. I disagree with the instant/sorcery thing. I often find myself in a situation where I'm very much ahead on board against most of the U/B/x or U/R/x midrange/control decks I run up against- a board of a goyf or a few tokens and a lili or something. In that position I will almost always try and not play more into open mana and force them to make the first move with less information. This means I'm often not tapped out on their turn and if their response to that board state is to put down a jace or gideon or something, I can deal with it and then have mana open on my turn to really twist the screws while they're tapped down. If I'm playing pulse I'd need to take a turn to answer back and those decks tend to win games where that main-phasing back and forth contest develops. So I do think tempo can be pretty important, just not in the conventional rushdown kind of way and specifically against other value-oriented decks.
As far as fulminator goes, I do play three in the board, but I don't think I could justify putting them in the main, whereas Beast slots in to an existing mainboard slot. Ultimately you'd probably want to rely on your deck reliably putting out creatures that make a 3/3 token look pretty harmless rather than pushing, but in matches where they're mostly removing those creatures they're unlikely to have the kind of creatures that you'd want to push, thus giving it some relevance in the matchup. I'm not saying this is a great plan, but I so often end up with a dead push in my hand G1 against jeskai or esper I can see the advantage. Based on that I'm thinking this would make more sense in the fatty abzan style with no bobs and more trackers/rhinos. I agree that in traditional abzan with bob/path it doesn't work so well.
Well said.
Matsoni, good job taking down Infect. Heavy interaction with a big threat clocking them sounds like it got you there, and that’s exactly the sort of hands you need to see against Storm. Drawing the proverbial “wrong half of the deck” may not be quite as much of a problem for Abzan as it is for, say, a traditional control deck, but it’s still something you’ll have to get used to (and do your best to avoid) coming from a deck like Burn, where redundancy is quite high. If you know you’re against a combo deck like Storm where all forms of our interaction line up well, you should be mulliganing functional but low-interaction hands in search of discard effects and spot removal.
You’re not likely to pull off the win against colorless Eldrazi nut draws, sadly. As for the Pyro matchup, getting Mooned out of the game twice is rough. That’s a card that really needs to be respected. Borderline keep/mull decisions can be influenced by how well your lands line up against a prospective Moon. Depending on your and your opponent’s progression, it can also be correct to pass turns with GB mana open and a Decay in hand (especially if you’re on the play and landed a T2 threat) to answer the Moon.
Still, the card will frequently just get you. I love the art, flavor, and nostalgia factor of older sets, but holy crap do some of these 8th Edition cards have the potential to drain the joy out of games!
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I've been on rockdrazi build for quite some time. I think it's just as viable as any other GBx variant but I certainly will not say it's better than any of them. although it's almost certainly better than sultai.
2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
1 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
3 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
1 cast down
1 abrupt decay
2 collective brutality
2 liliana of the veil
1 liliana, the last hope
1 maelstrom pulse
2 llanowar wastes
2 Blooming marsh
4 verdant catacombs
1 overgrown tomb
3 swamp
2 forest
1 twilight mire
1 treetop village
1 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 maelstrom pulse
1 grafdigger's cage
1 lost legacy
2 flaying tendrils
1 damnation
1 night of souls' betrayal
1 thrun, the last troll
1 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 reclamation sage
1 fulminator mage
1 ratchet bomb
2 damping sphere
we had an epic g1 which ended at us both at 1 for many turns. If either of us draw a smusher we just die. He had sea gate wreckage active for a few turns till I found the field of ruin for it. Eventually I got there after he started to run out of gas. Thankfully outside of smusher his guys are actually smaller than mine. g2 he has a t2 smasher and well I couldn't race it. g3 I had a t2 TKS into a second so it was good to give him a taste of his own medicine. Turns out neither deck can really beat 2 temple draws haha. Magic is a silly game sometimes.
1-0
r2: abzan
we had 3 epic games as one would expect from 2 GB decks. g3 8 goyfs were seen and 7 were played (I chose a traker over goyf early on from oath). He ended up having a scooze for way too long and that ultimately won him the game as it chipped in and was able to gain him enough life. No regrets were fun games. I was 1 turn off damnation haha.
1-1
r3: jund
Jund is a much easier match than abzan. we exchanged a lot of resources but my guys are bigger and typically faster. My removal in general lines up much better. Having access to field of ruin was absolutely key in this match. g3 came down to a very close smasher+treetop for the win and I was dead on the swing back with his HUGE raging ravine. I couldn't find any removal for it so my line was I just swing in for lethal and make him have the removal to kill me. Turns out he didn't this time.
2-1
r4 mono green enchantress
This is actually a very brutal deck for other decks that don't have interaction and a clock. Well mine has both and i drew what I needed for a COMICALLY hilarious stomping of this deck. One highlight was g2 I t1 inquisition. t2 goyf, t3 field of ruin his nykthos + push his eidolon of blossoms and swing in for 5. Being so far ahead at that point there was nothing he could do but I follow up with TKS the next turn for good measure.
3-1
Lets put it this way, when hollow one doesn't just nut draw you with huge early fatties, it's not that hard of a deck to beat. Phoenix is still really annoying but I have things to fight it SB.
1-0
r2: Jeskai ascendancy
discard and fast clock made this match very easy. I got kinda lucky he bricked off the turn he tried. He didn't have a choice as he was dead next turn but perhaps he could have gotten there. g2 he boarded into lingering souls but I had a cage anyways. super sweet tech but in this instance it didn't matter.
2-0
r3: sultai control/midrange
Another match that went well for me. As another GB deck it basically whoever comes out ahead early will win and he was drawing cards and stuff but I had threats and discard so it didn't matter much. That's the one issue I have with adding blue. Azcanta, jace and visions and snaps are fantastic cards but when behind they kinda suck (except snap)
3-0
r4: naya bushwhacker zoo
I will admit I got hella lucky in this match. I've played this guy before and not only is he a great player but I'm a dog in this matchup. Turns out the 1 way I can beat him is if he floods and or doesn't have an insane burning-tree turn. He did flood enough so that he could never effectively apply pressure. Since my guys are huge there's only so much he can do after a certain point.
4-0
r5 top 4 mardu pyromancer
I thought this was a great matchup post SB and maybe that's true. The problem is game 1 outside a nut draw from me, I just can't deal with the souls and go wide strategy. plus MD moons doesn't help. In game 3 I kept a great hand but turns out he just has a blood moon he will slam on his t3 (my t2) and I had no way to answer it with no basics. It's amazing how punishing being on the draw can be in modern. I had everything I needed but sometimes you just get shut down. I have so much in SB for this match oh well. I think my takeaway is I need some number of early discard for just that problem.
4-1
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
I'm pretty confident I won't be going back to reshaper unless some new cards push me into it. Honestly though, TKS is both the best and worst card in the deck. Smusher is almost always MVP on the other hand, the card is bonkers in a GB shell.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
Alpine Moon loses the upside Sphere brings against combo decks, but we’re well-positioned enough there that I would make the trade in a heartbeat.
Oh well, red gets another toy. At least we’ll have SFM soon if the Modern community’s consensus is anything to go by.
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I guess the deck needs some serious reworking. I mean, it is 5 cards main at least, and a few side board cards to really profit from it.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
Modern.
GBW Junk
GBR Jund
UG Infect
4 inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 Liliana of the veil
4 lingering souls
Creatures 18
4 bob
4 goyf
4 voice of resurgence
4 kitchen finks
2 demon of catastrophies
4 blooming marsh
4 marsh flats
4 verdant catacombs
2 overgrown tomb
1 godless shrine
1 temple garden
2 swamp
1 forest
1 plains
2 gavony township
2 stirring wildwood
2 collective brutality
2 scooze
2 Kalitas
2 abrupt decay
2 stony silence
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 fulminator mage
1 Liliana, the last hope
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
4 inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 Liliana of the veil
4 lingering souls
Creatures 18
4 bob
4 goyf
4 voice of resurgence
4 kitchen finks
2 demon of catastrophies
4 blooming marsh
4 marsh flats
4 verdant catacombs
2 overgrown tomb
1 godless shrine
1 temple garden
2 swamp
1 forest
1 plains
2 gavony township
2 stirring wildwood
2 collective brutality
2 scooze
2 Kalitas
2 abrupt decay
2 stony silence
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 fulminator mage
1 Liliana, the last hope
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
4 inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 Liliana of the veil
4 lingering souls
Creatures 18
4 bob
4 goyf
4 voice of resurgence
4 kitchen finks
2 demon of catastrophies
4 blooming marsh
4 marsh flats
4 verdant catacombs
2 overgrown tomb
1 godless shrine
1 temple garden
2 swamp
1 forest
1 plains
2 gavony township
2 stirring wildwood
2 collective brutality
2 scooze
2 Kalitas
2 abrupt decay
2 stony silence
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 fulminator mage
1 Liliana, the last hope
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
4 inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 Liliana of the veil
4 lingering souls
Creatures 18
4 bob
4 goyf
4 voice of resurgence
4 kitchen finks
2 demon of catastrophies
4 blooming marsh
4 marsh flats
4 verdant catacombs
2 overgrown tomb
1 godless shrine
1 temple garden
2 swamp
1 forest
1 plains
2 gavony township
2 treetop village
2 collective brutality
2 scooze
2 Kalitas
2 abrupt decay
2 stony silence
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 fulminator mage
1 Liliana, the last hope
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
In regards to SFM, I could see the following configurations making sense:
- 3 SFM, 1 Batterskull, 1 Sword
- 4 SFM, 1 Batterskull, 2 Swords
- 4 SFM, 2 Batterskull, 1 Sword
In each instance, you’d probably want an extra piece of equipment in the side, whether it be a different Sword (access to Fire and Ice, Light and Shadow, and Feast and Famine would be ideal but not always realistic) or a second copy of Batterskull.
Also worth noting the minor nonbo between Bob and Batterskull (I say minor because it’s most often your first tutor target, especially if you have played or will play an early Bob). For that reason, I’d be inclined to shave down to three Bobs, and probably cut my one-of Tracker as well, it being the least efficient weapon bearer and its card advantage somewhat replaced by SFM. It’s tempting to look at Flayers as the next cut, just to keep the density of answers high, but Flayer just looks too good with a Sword in hand. 6/6 Trample with three damage triggers, seems alright!
On another note, what are people’s impressions of the players’ caliber in the MTGO Tournament Practice room? I’ve been spamming a ton of matches there over the last couple weeks—with family stuff, I sort of need to be able to leave on short notice a fair amount of the time and due to this would rather not spend money to play—but I’m wondering how strong the opposition tends to be. I’m approaching 50 matches and my winrate is around 65%, which feels great. It’s often said that competitive league players are about equivalent to day 2 players at a big Open, and the people in friendly leagues are about as good, just more likely to play non Tier 1 decks. How close is the tourney practice room to this level of play, in your experience?
YouTube Channel, with deck techs, gameplay, analysis, spoiler reviews, and more!
1 Athreos, God of Passage
4 Dark Confidant
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Voice of Resurgence
Instant (7)
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Cast Down
4 Fatal Push
Planeswalker (4)
2 Ajani, advisory of tyrants
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
Sorcery (7)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Thoughtseize
3 Blooming Marsh
2 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Damping Sphere
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Golgari Charm
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Lone Missionary
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Remorseful Cleric
2 Tidehollow Sculler
So I looked into this, and the discussions I’ve found had people reporting winrate drops between 15-25% when going from Tournament Practice to Competitive Leagues. That’s a higher number than I had assumed*, but so is my current winrate. I finished my 50th tournament practice match earlier, and my standing record is 37-13, a winrate of 74% including five straight 2-0s for games 46-50. Couldn’t be happier with those results, even if the competition is a cut below. Each game was played with the same list I’ve posted here except -1 Surgical Extraction and +1 Golgari Charm.
To reiterate a point I’ve already made, I believe that stock Abzan is criminally underplayed right now. The deck feels decent to great against everything except Valakut—even Tron, while undeniably bad, is far from unwinnable!
* This was my assumption, in part, because I didn’t really run into any true brews at all over the course of those 50 games. While the incidence of opponents on Tier 1 decks wasn’t high—maybe 25-30%—the closest things to “brews” I saw were fringe but coherent strategies like Sultai Midrange, UG Eldrazi, and UW Enduring Ideal.
YouTube Channel, with deck techs, gameplay, analysis, spoiler reviews, and more!
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Hissing Quagmire
4 Tireless Tracker
3 Collective Brutality
2 Grim Flayer
3 Blooming Marsh
4 Field of Ruin
4 Fatal Push
1 Cast Down
1 Windswept Heath
2 Thoughtseize
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Treetop Village
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Forest
1 Dismember
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Languish
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Gaze of Granite
1 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Damnation
3 Damping Sphere
Modern Only
Currently Running:
BG Midrange
Modern Only
Currently Running:
BG Midrange
The widely established choice is Maelstrom Pulse, but there are two other cards I've toyed with recently in Anguished Unmaking and Beast Within
Anguished is instant speed and exiles, but has a slightly trickier mana cost and a steep life cost. I've been playing this one and it's proved game-winningly good a few times where maelstrom pulse would not have dug me out of a hole. Specifically, it can be held up to blow up the big planeswalkers as they come out and other resilient large threats. My meta has a fair amount of controlly-midrange going around so it has perhaps overperformed.
Beast to me seems like a really interesting choice as well in the right build of abzan. Being able to take out lands is becoming more and more relevant given how land dependent the meta is at the moment (tron, humans, 3 colour decks, valakut). Doing it instant speed seems sweet. Giving an opponent a 3/3 isn't great but if you're on the goyf/rhino/fatal push/abrupt decay/finks kind of game that blank it being able to follow up early disruption with an answer to whatever they manage to put together seems great. I'd be curious as to how one might build an abzan deck specifically tailored to let BW shine.
I imagine this is a perennial discussion and maelstrom pulse has seemed to hold the upper hand forever. I'm reluctant to play 3 cost sorcery speed removal against a lot of what I come up against.
So without going into deeper analysis, but if you compare Anguished Unmaking to Pulse, the only really important difference is that Unmaking is better tempo wise. Namely the instant vs sorcery aspect. However, if we talk about midrangey/controllish matchups, the most important aspect of the match is definitely not tempo. It is CA and grind. And if you compare both cards again, you will see if you cast Unmkaing your opponent casts effecitvely a free litghtning bolt on you. Life is also a resource. So in that sense, I think Pulse is miles better in that types of matchups your described. I think it mostly does not matter when I take out an opposing PW, they can inevidably activate the PW at least once anyway. (So it shouldn't matter if I do it EOT or in my following turn) There are some cases where it matters, but on average, I think this should not matter.
The same is true for BW. I really don't like giving your opponent a free 3/3. Abzan is a grindy deck, which is already tight on resources since more powerful grindy decks are out there atm. So never give your opponent a free type of resource, we should be on a resource denial plan. If you want Land destruction, just play Fulminator. Also, if you BW a permanent and have to Push the 3/3 afterwards, this seems really bad. You are 2-for-1 in yourself which is not what we should do.
I totally get the life loss thing, it makes the card a real pain to play and it's a cost that loses me games from time to time. I disagree with the instant/sorcery thing. I often find myself in a situation where I'm very much ahead on board against most of the U/B/x or U/R/x midrange/control decks I run up against- a board of a goyf or a few tokens and a lili or something. In that position I will almost always try and not play more into open mana and force them to make the first move with less information. This means I'm often not tapped out on their turn and if their response to that board state is to put down a jace or gideon or something, I can deal with it and then have mana open on my turn to really twist the screws while they're tapped down. If I'm playing pulse I'd need to take a turn to answer back and those decks tend to win games where that main-phasing back and forth contest develops. So I do think tempo can be pretty important, just not in the conventional rushdown kind of way and specifically against other value-oriented decks.
As far as fulminator goes, I do play three in the board, but I don't think I could justify putting them in the main, whereas Beast slots in to an existing mainboard slot. Ultimately you'd probably want to rely on your deck reliably putting out creatures that make a 3/3 token look pretty harmless rather than pushing, but in matches where they're mostly removing those creatures they're unlikely to have the kind of creatures that you'd want to push, thus giving it some relevance in the matchup. I'm not saying this is a great plan, but I so often end up with a dead push in my hand G1 against jeskai or esper I can see the advantage. Based on that I'm thinking this would make more sense in the fatty abzan style with no bobs and more trackers/rhinos. I agree that in traditional abzan with bob/path it doesn't work so well.