Have anyone tried playing with 4 mana Elspeth knight-errand? Her +1 making grim flayer a flying 5/5 with trample or 7/7 is really nice. Not to mention with some mishras baubles in the grave and a 9/10 tarmogoyf with flying.
Agree with that elspeth is not needed. It is at the top of the curve for a beatdown deck to finish opponents off. I am testing Shalai at the moment. What are others experience of her? She seems somewhat win more but I am trying her as a one of in the main of the centralised list.
In my opinion, when LoTV is bad, we should just cut down to 3 copies. But I personally haven't seen a well perfoming list without at least 3 copies of her. If you feel you don't even want the 3 copies of LoTV, then I think it is a good indication that the deck as a whole is poorly positioned actually.
Agree with that elspeth is not needed. It is at the top of the curve for a beatdown deck to finish opponents off. I am testing Shalai at the moment. What are others experience of her? She seems somewhat win more but I am trying her as a one of in the main of the centralised list.
Shalai is one of the reasons (next to Path being good) why i'm considering, or at the very least testing another Abzan (traverse) build. I don't know about win-more. When alone, she's still a big butt flyer. Could be a great curve topper next to or instead of Siege Rhino.
My collected thoughts from playing GP Birmingham's Modern sides this weekend:
- Damping Sphere isn't great. We can't spare 2 more sideboard slots for the Tron matchup and we don't need more help Vs Storm. With 1 in the Sb, we're not that likely to draw it in the 1 MU it comes in.
-Worship is greeaaattttt, Boggles and Affinity are everywhere in the UK right now and it shuts them down a lot of the time. It can be answered, yes, but most of the time it buys us enough turns to stabilise.
-3+ Paths in the 75 is a must in the current super aggro meta.
-Karn, Scion of Urza is good against us, kill on sight.
-Stony Silence can be really good against Skred :')
-4 Inq/2 Seize split seems best with aggro everywhere, 3rd Seize in the side is not unreasonable.
If I think of anything else I'll post it up
i also have my doubts about Damping Sphere. What would your new sideboard look like considering the meta at GP Birmingham?
I felt Flaying Tendrils wasn't good enough anymore and replaced it with a second Damnation, was thinking of Worship as well.
Agreed on 3 path and 4/2 Inq/TS, i've had the same for a while now.
I had 1 Damping Sphere left in SB by the end of the weekend. Aggro was everywhere, but there was still plenty of diversity. As for what to cut the Sphere for, I would feel OK putting something reasonably specific in. I am considering Engineered Explosives, third Stony Silence, Kataki, Back to Nature, second Worship, Maelstrom Pulse (2 main) or a Blessed Alliance.
Because Bitterblossom is naturally not a grindy card. Its an incredibly bad topdeck and if you get it onto the bf early, you dont want games to go long. It naturally doesnt fit the deck.
It's preference, but for me, no.
Try tracker vs affinity compared to lingering souls. Same against Jund and control matches.
Path is still better than the 2mana black removal spells.
Manlands are even worse.
I can;t really see what the Rock has to offer compared to Jund and Junk.
I won't say that these things outweigh what Jund or Junk offers, but there are key advantages with BG in mana consistency (which comes up a lot with Ooze and against Blood Moon or Field of Ruin), a lot less painful mana (I've felt this comes up way, way more often than I realized against Aggro), and the ability to run a playset of Field of Ruin without worries. I don't feel like the removal suite is that much lacking now with Fatal Push, Cast Down, Dismember, Collective Brutality, Abrupt Decay, and Maelstrom Pulse as options, but I won't argue that Path and Terminate are much better at being general purpose. Tireless Tracker and Tasigur also are beefy threats even when the graveyard is being nuked, although Tasigur may be a bit expensive at that point.
To the downsides I have to admit Hissing Quagmire has some nice upsides with the Deathtouch, but agree that Raging Ravine and Shambling Vents I feel are better overall. At least we still keep Treetop Village. I can't comment on Lingering Souls though since I haven't actually played Junk and instead come from Jund. Honestly what I miss most from Jund is K-Command for grind, but I'm starting to become addicted to Field of Ruin. It doesn't make Tron favorable by any means and honestly does nothing to Valakut, but hitting greedy mana bases and utility lands for what can be close to free has crazy value. I also have a soft spot for Tireless Tracker, and coming from Jund I'm comparing that to BBE.
I am new to this thread, and to BGx decks in general. Just wanted to start off by saying a quick thanks to FlyingDelver for a fantastic primer. Now, moving on (warning: long post ahead!)...
Ever since getting into Modern almost two years back (which was preceded by decades of on-and-off kitchen table casual play), I've cycled in and out of decks an almost embarrassing number of times. This is a consequence of having a great deal of free time at work to read and theorycraft, combined with a severely restricted ability to actually get out and play due to familial obligations. Keeping 3+ decks tuned for a meta I rarely experience has begun to feel like a fool's errand. The only reason I mention this is to emphasize my strong desire to stick with one major archetype and get really bloody good at it. For a variety of reasons (interactive playstyle, stability as a constant meta presence, adaptability, cool factor), I've settled on BGx as that archetype--and I'm starting off with Abzan in particular, because red cards just aren't as appealing to me.
With that in mind, I've read the primer closely, especially the matchup section. The sheer number of cards that get sided in and out in this deck is unusual to say the least; I'm more accustomed to decks where the risk of overboarding is quite real. Due to this, I'm zeroing in on some sideboard protocols for decks that aren't mentioned in the primer, but are at least somewhat common in my local meta.
Please note that I've only played a couple dozen or so games with this deck! It's possible that I'm way, way off; if so, don't hesitate to let me know. What follows is my initial crack at a variety of sideboard plans, but first, for reference, my list:
The list is close enough to a stock build to make the following sideboarding discussions widely relevant. I followed the formula seen in the primer, wherein the highest priority changes are at the top of the list. On to the matchups:
vs. Ad Nauseam
- 3 Fatal Push
- 3 Path to Exile
- 2 Scavenging Ooze
- 1 Lingering Souls
This one I'm fairly confident is at least close to the mark. Scooze is just a grizzly bear and Souls is a tad slow, while the Paths and Pushes are completely dead. (Even if they're the type to pack a Grave Titan or whatever in the side for an alternative wincon in certain matchups, we still have some answers). So we bring in hand hate, Surgical to extract Ad Nauseam itself (or a white combo piece under certain circumstances), and all kinds of ways to cripple their mana production without losing much of anything in the way of a clock.
vs. Merfolk
- 2 Lingering Souls
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
I'll admit to plenty of uncertainty here, most especially regarding the low number of changes. I cut a couple of Souls because they line up poorly against what Merfolk has to offer, even if we're better than most decks at keeping them off Islandwalk. Lost a Scooze because they're clunky in multiples while being vulnerable to interaction like Harbinger of the Tides and Merfolk Trickster. Speaking of Trickster--he's very good against our creature suite, especially Goyf. Should trimming Goyfs be considered here, or is that pure heresy? Nothing else looks great out of the side--maybe the Fulminators and Lili the Last Hope, at a stretch? I'd love any thoughts here.
vs. Skred
+ 2 Stony Silence
+ 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
+ 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
+ 1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Alright, this is another weird one. The spot removal is pretty bad here--half the point of Skred is that its threats blank a lot of interaction--but I'd leave in one Push (Pia and Kiran Nalaar) and two Path (Hazoret the Fervent). If they're on an old-school Boros Reckoner list, leave in most of those spells. Brutality's discard mode is surprisingly likely to whiff, the -2/-2 kills nothing relevant outside of P&K, and the drain isn't what we want to spend a card on. Finally, losing a Scooze might seem terrible against a red deck--and maybe it is--but they play 4x Relic of Progenitus, and of course Blood Moon, which means even if we aren't toally hosed, green mana may be at a premium. As for what comes in: Kalitas survives Bolts and Angers; Thrun survives everything. Lili the Last Hope grants more grinding power, even if her abilities aren't at their best. Stony Silence tops the list because it is low-key amazing against Skred. Shutting off Relics and Mind Stones can make them look like a Limited deck that happened to draft a lot of big haymakers--and they can't even remove Stony, because their catch-all answer is Ratchet Bomb, lol.
I've been working on a couple other matchups, but that should suffice for now. Once again, I'm quite new to piloting Abzan--so if these suggestions need a major overhaul, I'd love any advice! Thanks for reading.
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Hey Grim_Flayer, welcome to the forums and thank you for your feedback, appreciate it!
Onto your list, it looks really solid, nothing odd here.
For the matchups: Against Ad Nauseam your plan looks good, the one thing what you could think about is which threat is slower: Ooze or Souls? Souls comes down a turn later but has 4 power total and Ooze can attack sooner but doesn't get to eat many creatures. I tend to think Ooze is still a little bit better, for which reason I would keep Ooze and board out Souls completely.
Against Merfolk you have 6 cards which you want to bring in: 1 Liliana, the Last Hope, 1 EE, 1 Damnation, 2 CB, 1 Kalitas. Kalitas is pretty clear, it is really good in creature based matchups, Damnation and EE are also self explanatory. CB and LtLH are mainly in to be able to kill Master of Waves. Its really important since this creature can overwhelm you quite a bit if you don't have other removal. On the other hand, both can just act as additional removal.
I would board out all Souls, and then some number of discard spells (I think IOK over TS) you can either side out all IOKs and bring in 2 CBs, which I would do on the play, and I would only side out 1 IOK and bring in no CB if you are on the draw, since you want to be able to snag a turn 2 Spreading Seas, which is really strong from them on the play.
Skred is a very tough matchup. I think we can pretty much not beat the deck, unless we discard any removal for Goyf and then hit them hard with quick goyfs. I think I would board out all Pushs and keep the Path.
Hey Grim_Flayer, welcome to the forums and thank you for your feedback, appreciate it!
Thanks!
Onto your list, it looks really solid, nothing odd here.
For the matchups: Against Ad Nauseam your plan looks good, the one thing what you could think about is which threat is slower: Ooze or Souls? Souls comes down a turn later but has 4 power total and Ooze can attack sooner but doesn't get to eat many creatures. I tend to think Ooze is still a little bit better, for which reason I would keep Ooze and board out Souls completely.
Makes sense. I hedged a little bit toward Souls, thinking of the value from having all 3 Brutalities main post-side, but you’re probably right. I could see leaving in one Scooze and one Souls as well. Either way, the changes we’re able to make here feel great.
Against Merfolk you have 6 cards which you want to bring in: 1 Liliana, the Last Hope, 1 EE, 1 Damnation, 2 CB, 1 Kalitas. Kalitas is pretty clear, it is really good in creature based matchups, Damnation and EE are also self explanatory. CB and LtLH are mainly in to be able to kill Master of Waves. Its really important since this creature can overwhelm you quite a bit if you don't have other removal. On the other hand, both can just act as additional removal.
I would board out all Souls, and then some number of discard spells (I think IOK over TS) you can either side out all IOKs and bring in 2 CBs, which I would do on the play, and I would only side out 1 IOK and bring in no CB if you are on the draw, since you want to be able to snag a turn 2 Spreading Seas, which is really strong from them on the play.
This is great insight. I forgot that Master of Waves only has one toughness (same is true for Silvergill Adept, for what it’s worth). Brutality and Last Hope were actually the other cards I was considering, but I had talked myself out of them. Your case for them has changed my mind.
Siding out more Inquisitions on the play than on the draw seems really counterintuitive on its face, but in context of Merfolk’s redundancy and what you mentioned about Spreading Seas, I actually love it. I feel a lot more clarity as it regards this matchup now.
Skred is a very tough matchup. I think we can pretty much not beat the deck, unless we discard any removal for Goyf and then hit them hard with quick goyfs. I think I would board out all Pushs and keep the Path.
Fair assessment, lol. Yeah, Path is mostly just better. In general, I’m probably getting a little too cute by leaving in too many one-ofs.
Thanks again for the welcome and the feedback; this has been quite fruitful.
If you (or anyone else) are so inclined, I’d be very interested in thoughts on how to best side against Bant Knightfall, Ponza, and 8Rack. I’ve worked on some ideas for these matchups as well, but I’ll defer to the experts before sharing my thoughts.
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For Knightfall, Kalitas is an all-star here. Damnation and Last Hope is good as well. Not too sure with EE but it’s still solid on 3. I would take out Liliana, specially on the draw. Too slow and Finks and Voices will make her feel bad. Bring in all the removals you have. As for discards, I would cut some IoK for Brutality. They might be running CoCo bit watch out for Smiters and/or Baloths.
8Rack. Depending on the list but usually all Push and Path goes out same goes for any type of discards. Bring in EE and creatures. You need to race them. Last Hope and Extraction is not bad against them.
As for Ponza, I don’t like this mu. Lol. The best way, I believe, to beat them is through discards early on and kill the dorks. T2 BM is kinda bad. Discards and a good threat is prolly the best way against them, specially in Junk coz Junk is slower. You don’t wanna grind against them coz they can go bigger than us.
So that’s just my 2cents based on experience. Hope this helps and hopefully other people with add in their ideas as well.
For Knightfall, Kalitas is an all-star here. Damnation and Last Hope is good as well. Not too sure with EE but it’s still solid on 3. I would take out Liliana, specially on the draw. Too slow and Finks and Voices will make her feel bad. Bring in all the removals you have. As for discards, I would cut some IoK for Brutality. They might be running CoCo bit watch out for Smiters and/or Baloths.
I’m totally with you here. EE on 1 isn’t bad at all either in certain situations; I think it’s well worth including.
vs. Bant Knightfall
+1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
+1 Liliana, the Last Hope
+2 Collective Brutality
+1 Damnation
+1 Engineered Explosives
On the play:
-3 Liliana of the Veil
-2 Lingering Souls
-1 Inquisition of Kozilek
On the draw:
-4 Liliana of the Veil
-2 Inquisition of Kozilek
I’ll be rolling with something like that.
8Rack. Depending on the list but usually all Push and Path goes out same goes for any type of discards. Bring in EE and creatures. You need to race them. Last Hope and Extraction is not bad against them.
Sounds about right. What are the best Extraction targets? Thoughtseize seems like the first of our discard spells that should go, but would you rather leave in IoK or Brutality if there aren’t enough slots to replace discard with?
As for Ponza, I don’t like this mu. Lol. The best way, I believe, to beat them is through discards early on and kill the dorks. T2 BM is kinda bad. Discards and a good threat is prolly the best way against them, specially in Junk coz Junk is slower. You don’t wanna grind against them coz they can go bigger than us.
I share your distaste for Ponza, believe me! Agreed on early discard and spot removal being absolutely crucial. When you say that playing the grindy game isn’t good here, I agree to some extent. I can’t see Souls doing much, and this might be a match to move away from the one-of Tireless Tracker and maybe even a Scooze due to mana constraints. (Correct me if I’m wrong; for some reason I tend toward shaving on Scooze more than I probably should.)
On the other hand, I think other grindy options like Last Hope and Fulminator would be great here. Explosives on 1 can be superb as well, and if there’s a mid-game window, I don’t hate laying it down on 3 either as a hedge against future Moons—although that will depend greatly on the board state and whether or not a topdecked Moon will radically influence the game.
I am not sure how cards like Kalitas, Thrun, and Damnation factor in.
So that’s just my 2cents based on experience. Hope this helps and hopefully other people with add in their ideas as well.
It was helpful for sure! I too would love to hear more input on these matchups, and any other ones people feel like discussing.
Hi all, bringing you guys a different Rock style list. I've been playing variations of this for over a year now with decent results although Im not really able to attend any large events. My meta is highly competitive though. Here's my latest FNM report. I have many more in the GB eldrazi midrange forum but that's a more eldrazi focused deck.
r1: jeskai nahiri
g1: he doesn't do much and I discard some of his removal, make sure to never play too much into sweepers and manage to dodge nahiri for easy win. g2 he was able to land nahiri and I couldn't get to her. That lady closes games quick. g3 long drawn out game but came down to top decks and i drew 3 lands in a row and he didn't
0-1
r2 GW death and taxes
g1 he lands a quick gavony and I couldn't race it. Never saw my eldrazi and mirran crusader closed the game very quick. G2 and 3 were just total slaughters. I have 4 sweepers coming in on top of a bunch of removal. FoR took care of gavony when relevant and since all my guys are huge there's not much cards like Thalia and voice of resurgence are going to do for him. Kalitas was mvp.
1-1
r3 jund
These were quick games. He kinda stumbles on mana but it didn't matter my removal lined up well and none of his did. TKS would remove things like terminate and everything else was too big. my deck doesn't care too much about lightning bolts and usually fatal push.
2-1
r4 humans
g1 I mull to 5 but manage to stall with a couple huge goyfs and a tracker. Tracker ended up drawing me like 5 cards. He was drawing irrelevant stuff and I just managed to draw the removal I needed for mantis rider while chipping in with a 5/6 goyf. g2 was hilarious. I just drew like a god and had all the removal in the world. My deck shut him down and smasher took it home easy.
3-1
Lucked into top 4
Semis burn
g1 I think he got flooded as he didn't do much. THankfully he was on mostly creature plan which my deck has no problem with. Was still close but I got there without too much anxiety. g2 I keep a semi slow hand but he gets stuck on 1 land for a few turns which gives me all the time I need. I slam kalitas and he gains me 9 life to close out the game.
4-1
finals mono U tron
This is a very competent player and while the deck is far from mainstream he plays it well and it is still very strong. g1 I manage to have a solid hand of discard and multiple field of ruins. He also drew too many power plants and I was able to shut him off tron lol. I was able to close out the game before he was able to find huge idiots thanks to liliana. g2 was a very long game. I was able to ruin and surgical him off tron but he had so many ways to slow me down that eventually a huge ballista ended me. I punted hard that game but I'm not sure it mattered. g3 went the opposite I end up getting a very early TKS when he didn't have an island and took his threat and thoughtseized his other threat. he assembles tron but it doesn't matter as he has nothing to play. I slam smusher and gg friend. tracker was MVP, drew me like 6+ cards in the match. turns out card is great who knew.
5-1
I love the GB style lists and have been on them forever. I have a love hate with Bob and haven't really found a GBx list i love outside of this. I love the eldrazi top end. TKS and Smushers are everything GB decks want to be doing and tracker and tasigur are doing everything else the deck wants. Mana can be awkward at times but nothing is color intensive outside liliana but that's where oath shines. Card is great. Feels like a necessary evil for my deck as it finds what I need early and late and occasionally pumps goyf. Deck has a lot of game. Fast aggro and certain combo can be a real issue.
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Current Decks:
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange BWG Abzan value evolution BUG BUG Midrange
To keep the discussion going here is my latest list. This list has been getting me consistent 4-1's, 3-2s online. Alas still no trophy but every loss is either out of my hands or a good lesson for next time.
Main things of note. Have tried damping sphere but prefered the versatility of Fulminator Mage. Kalitas is the flex slot and he has won me so many games. 2 Damnations due to humans and general aggro decks. Cast Down has been great for me so far, instead of one path. I have won games due to not ramping opponents and also not needing to aggressively fetch. Brutality main has also been very good helping several game ones such as UWR control. Current things in my mind are whether to go for EE still or Thrunn. Love EE but havent seen as much bogles lately/as before. Seeing a lot of burn, control, and amulet titan. Also affinity on the uptick hence the need/want of 3 stonies. It also shores up tron somewhat.
I feel that FoR is best in the BG shell where with tracker it truly shines. I tried 2 at one time but didn't like it. i don't think we have enough basics to make it work. You risk turning paths into better swords to plowshares. I could see 3 LoTV so I can fit LtLH back in as the 4th walker. That would also allow me to keep EE in the board. I just cant go past having 4 LoTV sometimes haha. Might give it a try.
23 lands and my land package is fairly standard and the right amount imo
I finally got to bring my Abzan deck to its first Modern tourney. Went out of town, met up with a couple of friends, and played four rounds against an almost entirely blind meta, running the following list:
Match 1 vs. Bant Knightfall
Nothing like driving many miles and playing at an unfamiliar store only to wind up sitting down against your main testing partner—and facing an unfavorable matchup to boot. Good times!
G1 I nailed him with a T2 Brutality, killing his Hierarch and taking away his CoCo. He followed up with a Voice of Resurgence, which I was able to answer T3 with a Path into a Goyf. He flooded out and I rode the Goyf to victory with an assist from some Souls tokens, killing a Spell Queller along the way.
You can see my sideboard plan a few posts up. I followed it and lost G2 to a T2 Exalted Kitchen Finks that went most of the distance while my Goyf and Flayer ate Paths, and it was my turn to flood out. But I took G3 on the back of another T2 Brutality that not only killed his Birds and took his Negate (which I was moderately surprised to see), but also revealed a hand with Queller and some funky mana (no white access). A T3 Goyf went the entire way as I found more discard and held up removal spells.
Match 2 vs. Humans
G1 we both interacted heavily with him finding multiple copies of Phantasmal Image to Freebooters and Meddlers, but he never really developed a beefy board presence. So I was able to leverage my T2 Confidant into enough advantage to overwhelm him. A motley crew of Bob, Flayer, Souls, and a Treetop Village were my beaters that put the game away.
I sided as per the guide and then ran into my worst luck of the night. My hand was straight fire:
It would be hard to design a better hand against Humans. He mulled to 6 and on my T1 I Inquisitioned and saw a very mediocre and durdly hand. Slammed my T2 Bob and knew the game was in the bag even though I didn’t hit a third land yet. But five turns and ten draws later, I STILL have no third land, Bob triggers have wrecked my life total, I haven’t been able to play the Scooze or Lilis in my hand that could take over the game, and I’m dead to two straight topdecked Mantis Riders. Rough.
G3 I kept a 3-land 7 with Bob, Goyf, IoK, and LoTV, but no spot removal. I started strong but found 0 pieces of removal and once more died to two Mantis Riders (one was an Image). Can’t help feeling pretty hard done by here; I think both keeps were correct and I don’t believe I made any gameplay mistakes. It happens.
Match 3 vs. Dimir Mill
G1 I hit the poor dude with 3 discard spells in the first two turns, taking away Mesmeric Orb, Fraying Sanity, and Mind Funeral. He hit me back with a Glimpse the Unthinkable, and then I slammed a 7/8 Goyf, followed up the next turn by a delirious Flayer for good measure. T5 kill.
-3 Path
-3 Push
+2 Brutality
+1 Last Hope
+2 Fulminator
+1 Extraction (this is probably incorrect, but I was gunning for Ensnaring Bridge, and it was that or the third Fulminator)
G2 he stuck a T2 Orb that I was unable to answer. I went Bob into Goyf into Thoughtseize + Brutality, and taking away two mill spells gave me enough breathing room to close out the game despite Orb doing significant damage.
Match 4 vs. Kiki-Chord
G1: he leads on Birds, I Push them. He plays Voice, I Thoughtseize and see three lands plus a Restoration Angel. I take the Angel, Path the Voice, and then have too much gas in my hand for his land-heavy hand to keep up with, with Goyf and Souls putting the damage across.
After making sideboard changes that were very similar to how I ran against Knightfall, I opened on a strong 7, but it wasn’t enough. Throughout a heavily interactive early/mid game, my opponent buried me in value (Renegade Rallier/Voice/Eternal Witness/Chord), and I flooded out when I needed some big topdecks. Manlands extended the game but their efforts were not sufficient.
G3 I opened on manland into Bob. On my end step, opponent Pathed the Bob and then untapped and played a Voice. I was fortunate enough to have a T3 that allowed me to answer back with a Path of my own and a second Bob, who stuck around and provided me with an insurmountable advantage. After answering several of his plays, I closed out the game with a classic board state of Bob, Goyf, and both Lilianas, with Vent swings keeping me out of the death-by-Bob red zone.
3-1 my first time out, with the sole loss coming to one of the store’s best players running Modern’s top deck, and me being desperately unlucky to whiff on a third land for twelve straight draws, which my opponent agreed he couldn’t have won through with the sheer amount of gas I started with and drew into. That said, I can’t complain about my luck overall. G2/3 against Humans aside, my progressions were always at least reasonable, and I think I only mulliganed once over 11 games.
Couldn’t be more pleased to be all-in on the GBx life! I hold the perhaps unpopular opinion that Abzan is criminally underplayed right now, especially relative to Jund’s meta share—not only because of the power of Souls and the access to Stony, arguably the format’s strongest silver bullet—but also because Path seems like it’s approaching must-have status for fair decks, with all of the high-CMC or huge-statted creatures running around.
One of my goals moving forward is to develop a comprehensive sideboard plan for even fringe or obscure matchups, so if anyone feels like sharing their thoughts on facing literally any deck out there, I’m interested.
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I'm not a fan of Path but otherwise I like your list. Lingering Souls also seems to be a good card right now, I'm really happy about it in my Mardu deck.
Congratz on your finish.
Thank you.
The Path question may perhaps the most important one for Abzan pilots to work out. You're certainly in good company (a certain Mr. Duke springs to mind) when it comes to eschewing Path in this deck. I get the reasoning behind that stance--giving the opponent a free anything, even a basic land, is a little weird in a build that otherwise wants to grind them out of resources--but I just see it as a necessary evil. We're still in a world of Hollow Ones, Gurmag Anglers, Wurmcoil Engines, Primeval Titans, and Bedlam Revelers, to say nothing of all the CMC 3-4 dudes that you can't guarantee Push will be live for when you really need it. If these cards are a concern, Path is as clean an answer as we've got.
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Back with another tourney report, this time from a different store (one with tougher opponents on average). I won’t clog up the thread with a ton of these, but I’m still new to the deck and stoked about it, so here goes:
Match 1 vs Amulet Titan: I opened on Thoughtseize and saw Sakura-Tribe Scout, Azusa, Primeval Titan, and 4 lands. Took away the Titan and now he needed to draw another one or a Summoner’s Pact, and for a while he didn’t. I went T2 Flayer into T3 LoTV and clocked him good while running him out of resources and filtering my draws so I could answer Titans (double Path in hand). Flayer went the whole way.
G2 he has a wicked threat-dense hand with 2 lands (one bounce), Explore, Tribe-Scout, and lots of big critters (Titan, Thragtusk, Ruric Thar). My T1 IoK takes Explore and he doesn’t draw more lands for a couple turns. I slam T3 LoTV and just start wrecking his hand. T4 I play Goyf, who eventually closes the game with help from the Ape Village.
Match 2 vs Jeskai Tempo: G1 he opened on Delver. I had discard but no removal; saw he had a handful of gas. His Delver flipped right away and started the clock. I flooded out and made the stand with some Lingering Souls, but he out-tempoed me and finished with end step Snap->Helix, untap Snap->Bolt.
G2 I opened on IoK and saw a one-land 7 with Delver and Serum. I took the Serum. He played Delver, I played Goyf, he topdecked a Serum to flip Delver but whiffed on a land for that one turn, which let me pull ahead with a T3 discard + second Goyf. He then found a second land but was too far behind to deal with 4/5 Goyfs. G3 was quite fun and close. I curved out perfectly and just dominated early, but he topdecked two straight Snapcasters (I had already cracked my early Spellbomb to blank an earlier Snap) to almost claw his way back in. But in the end, Goyfs were just too hard for him to answer efficiently. Props to Shambling Vent for helping me stay out of double burn spell range.
Match 3 vs Storm. G1 was INSANE, lol. I lost the die roll and drew this 7:
Vent
Swamp
Catacombs
Goyf
Goyf
Flayer
LoTV
I would have likely kept that on the play (T2 threat, T3 Lili, tick down to kill a cost reducer if he has one, start ticking up to win), but on the draw I needed earlier interaction. Shipped it and drew a no-land 6, shipped that and drew an ok 5. I Pushed his T2 Eletromancer then landed a Bob. A 30 minute game followed where he value Grapeshotted 3 or maybe 4 different times (once on T4 to kill my Bob and LoTV, 10 minutes later to answer another Lili, and near the end to kill a Scooze that was on the verge of putting the game away, maybe another time in between that I can’t recall).
Eventually, after a ton of back and forth, I got there. That Scooze was clutch, coming down the turn after after a value GS to eat his Past in Flames. G2 was a lot quicker. I had a strong 7, he mulled to a weak 6 with no cost reducer and I just buried him with discard into Goyf into LoTV. Grew the Goyf to a 6/7 by pitching an extra LoTV and EE to LoTV +1s.
Round 4 vs Infect: on the draw, I mulled to a 6 with Push and IoK. He opened on Glistener Elf, I pushed it and passed. He played Blighted Agent, I played IoK and saw lethal in his hand. No second removal spell, but I bluffed one. He went for it anyway and T3ed me despite eating removal and discard in the first two turns. No wonder Probe got banned, lol.
G2 I went IoK (seeing an Inkmoth but no creatures, taking a Blossoming Defense) into Bob, who buried him in card advantage. Things were still a little hairy midgame but I found a Fulminator for his Inkmoth. Bob and Flayer beats got me there. G3 I once again leveraged Bob to take over the game—he is absurd when your life total doesn’t matter, lol. I thought I had it all locked up with Goyf and some Souls tokens attacking, always leaving one back to block his Inkmoth (he had Pendelhaven so I was forced to repeatedly chump, but four chumpers from one card was still great here). I found a bunch of discard but no removal in the late game.
He topdecked a Distortion Strike to make my blockers irrelevant. He actually had lethal in hand but didn’t go for it because I had a nearly full hand and he just assumed I had Push/Path/Decay. He just kept forcing chumps and chumped with his own Hierarchs, presumably hoping to draw a protection spell to go all in. But I found another Fulminator first, and that was that.
4-0! I won the matchup lottery for sure, but also had to really earn every win besides the Amulet Titan ones, which just sorta lined up perfectly for me. Having all kinds of a good time on Abzan, to the point where my desire to acquire the red pieces needed to be able switch over to Jund at times is basically nonexistent. I’m so happy with Lingering Souls that I’m considering the fourth copy in place of Tireless Tracker—otherwise, this 75 feels great.
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Shalai is one of the reasons (next to Path being good) why i'm considering, or at the very least testing another Abzan (traverse) build. I don't know about win-more. When alone, she's still a big butt flyer. Could be a great curve topper next to or instead of Siege Rhino.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
I had 1 Damping Sphere left in SB by the end of the weekend. Aggro was everywhere, but there was still plenty of diversity. As for what to cut the Sphere for, I would feel OK putting something reasonably specific in. I am considering Engineered Explosives, third Stony Silence, Kataki, Back to Nature, second Worship, Maelstrom Pulse (2 main) or a Blessed Alliance.
The rest of my sideboard is:
I won't say that these things outweigh what Jund or Junk offers, but there are key advantages with BG in mana consistency (which comes up a lot with Ooze and against Blood Moon or Field of Ruin), a lot less painful mana (I've felt this comes up way, way more often than I realized against Aggro), and the ability to run a playset of Field of Ruin without worries. I don't feel like the removal suite is that much lacking now with Fatal Push, Cast Down, Dismember, Collective Brutality, Abrupt Decay, and Maelstrom Pulse as options, but I won't argue that Path and Terminate are much better at being general purpose. Tireless Tracker and Tasigur also are beefy threats even when the graveyard is being nuked, although Tasigur may be a bit expensive at that point.
To the downsides I have to admit Hissing Quagmire has some nice upsides with the Deathtouch, but agree that Raging Ravine and Shambling Vents I feel are better overall. At least we still keep Treetop Village. I can't comment on Lingering Souls though since I haven't actually played Junk and instead come from Jund. Honestly what I miss most from Jund is K-Command for grind, but I'm starting to become addicted to Field of Ruin. It doesn't make Tron favorable by any means and honestly does nothing to Valakut, but hitting greedy mana bases and utility lands for what can be close to free has crazy value. I also have a soft spot for Tireless Tracker, and coming from Jund I'm comparing that to BBE.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
I am new to this thread, and to BGx decks in general. Just wanted to start off by saying a quick thanks to FlyingDelver for a fantastic primer. Now, moving on (warning: long post ahead!)...
Ever since getting into Modern almost two years back (which was preceded by decades of on-and-off kitchen table casual play), I've cycled in and out of decks an almost embarrassing number of times. This is a consequence of having a great deal of free time at work to read and theorycraft, combined with a severely restricted ability to actually get out and play due to familial obligations. Keeping 3+ decks tuned for a meta I rarely experience has begun to feel like a fool's errand. The only reason I mention this is to emphasize my strong desire to stick with one major archetype and get really bloody good at it. For a variety of reasons (interactive playstyle, stability as a constant meta presence, adaptability, cool factor), I've settled on BGx as that archetype--and I'm starting off with Abzan in particular, because red cards just aren't as appealing to me.
With that in mind, I've read the primer closely, especially the matchup section. The sheer number of cards that get sided in and out in this deck is unusual to say the least; I'm more accustomed to decks where the risk of overboarding is quite real. Due to this, I'm zeroing in on some sideboard protocols for decks that aren't mentioned in the primer, but are at least somewhat common in my local meta.
Please note that I've only played a couple dozen or so games with this deck! It's possible that I'm way, way off; if so, don't hesitate to let me know. What follows is my initial crack at a variety of sideboard plans, but first, for reference, my list:
1x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Shambling Vent
2x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
1x Treetop Village
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Liliana of the Veil
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Lingering Souls
2x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Thoughtseize
4x Dark Confidant
2x Grim Flayer
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Tarmogoyf
1x Tireless Tracker
2x Abrupt Decay
3x Fatal Push
3x Path to Exile
2x Collective Brutality
1x Damnation
1x Engineered Explosives
3x Fulminator Mage
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Stony Silence
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
The list is close enough to a stock build to make the following sideboarding discussions widely relevant. I followed the formula seen in the primer, wherein the highest priority changes are at the top of the list. On to the matchups:
vs. Ad Nauseam
- 3 Fatal Push
- 3 Path to Exile
- 2 Scavenging Ooze
- 1 Lingering Souls
+ 2 Collective Brutality
+ 1 Surgical Extraction
+ 2 Stony Silence
+ 1 Engineered Explosives
+ 3 Fulminator Mage
This one I'm fairly confident is at least close to the mark. Scooze is just a grizzly bear and Souls is a tad slow, while the Paths and Pushes are completely dead. (Even if they're the type to pack a Grave Titan or whatever in the side for an alternative wincon in certain matchups, we still have some answers). So we bring in hand hate, Surgical to extract Ad Nauseam itself (or a white combo piece under certain circumstances), and all kinds of ways to cripple their mana production without losing much of anything in the way of a clock.
vs. Merfolk
- 2 Lingering Souls
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
+ 1 Engineered Explosives
+ 1 Damnation
+ 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
I'll admit to plenty of uncertainty here, most especially regarding the low number of changes. I cut a couple of Souls because they line up poorly against what Merfolk has to offer, even if we're better than most decks at keeping them off Islandwalk. Lost a Scooze because they're clunky in multiples while being vulnerable to interaction like Harbinger of the Tides and Merfolk Trickster. Speaking of Trickster--he's very good against our creature suite, especially Goyf. Should trimming Goyfs be considered here, or is that pure heresy? Nothing else looks great out of the side--maybe the Fulminators and Lili the Last Hope, at a stretch? I'd love any thoughts here.
vs. Skred
+ 2 Stony Silence
+ 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
+ 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
+ 1 Liliana, the Last Hope
- 2 Fatal Push
- 1 Path to Exile
- 1 Collective Brutality
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
Alright, this is another weird one. The spot removal is pretty bad here--half the point of Skred is that its threats blank a lot of interaction--but I'd leave in one Push (Pia and Kiran Nalaar) and two Path (Hazoret the Fervent). If they're on an old-school Boros Reckoner list, leave in most of those spells. Brutality's discard mode is surprisingly likely to whiff, the -2/-2 kills nothing relevant outside of P&K, and the drain isn't what we want to spend a card on. Finally, losing a Scooze might seem terrible against a red deck--and maybe it is--but they play 4x Relic of Progenitus, and of course Blood Moon, which means even if we aren't toally hosed, green mana may be at a premium. As for what comes in: Kalitas survives Bolts and Angers; Thrun survives everything. Lili the Last Hope grants more grinding power, even if her abilities aren't at their best. Stony Silence tops the list because it is low-key amazing against Skred. Shutting off Relics and Mind Stones can make them look like a Limited deck that happened to draft a lot of big haymakers--and they can't even remove Stony, because their catch-all answer is Ratchet Bomb, lol.
I've been working on a couple other matchups, but that should suffice for now. Once again, I'm quite new to piloting Abzan--so if these suggestions need a major overhaul, I'd love any advice! Thanks for reading.
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Onto your list, it looks really solid, nothing odd here.
For the matchups: Against Ad Nauseam your plan looks good, the one thing what you could think about is which threat is slower: Ooze or Souls? Souls comes down a turn later but has 4 power total and Ooze can attack sooner but doesn't get to eat many creatures. I tend to think Ooze is still a little bit better, for which reason I would keep Ooze and board out Souls completely.
Against Merfolk you have 6 cards which you want to bring in: 1 Liliana, the Last Hope, 1 EE, 1 Damnation, 2 CB, 1 Kalitas. Kalitas is pretty clear, it is really good in creature based matchups, Damnation and EE are also self explanatory. CB and LtLH are mainly in to be able to kill Master of Waves. Its really important since this creature can overwhelm you quite a bit if you don't have other removal. On the other hand, both can just act as additional removal.
I would board out all Souls, and then some number of discard spells (I think IOK over TS) you can either side out all IOKs and bring in 2 CBs, which I would do on the play, and I would only side out 1 IOK and bring in no CB if you are on the draw, since you want to be able to snag a turn 2 Spreading Seas, which is really strong from them on the play.
Skred is a very tough matchup. I think we can pretty much not beat the deck, unless we discard any removal for Goyf and then hit them hard with quick goyfs. I think I would board out all Pushs and keep the Path.
Thanks!
Makes sense. I hedged a little bit toward Souls, thinking of the value from having all 3 Brutalities main post-side, but you’re probably right. I could see leaving in one Scooze and one Souls as well. Either way, the changes we’re able to make here feel great.
This is great insight. I forgot that Master of Waves only has one toughness (same is true for Silvergill Adept, for what it’s worth). Brutality and Last Hope were actually the other cards I was considering, but I had talked myself out of them. Your case for them has changed my mind.
Siding out more Inquisitions on the play than on the draw seems really counterintuitive on its face, but in context of Merfolk’s redundancy and what you mentioned about Spreading Seas, I actually love it. I feel a lot more clarity as it regards this matchup now.
Fair assessment, lol. Yeah, Path is mostly just better. In general, I’m probably getting a little too cute by leaving in too many one-ofs.
Thanks again for the welcome and the feedback; this has been quite fruitful.
If you (or anyone else) are so inclined, I’d be very interested in thoughts on how to best side against Bant Knightfall, Ponza, and 8Rack. I’ve worked on some ideas for these matchups as well, but I’ll defer to the experts before sharing my thoughts.
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For Knightfall, Kalitas is an all-star here. Damnation and Last Hope is good as well. Not too sure with EE but it’s still solid on 3. I would take out Liliana, specially on the draw. Too slow and Finks and Voices will make her feel bad. Bring in all the removals you have. As for discards, I would cut some IoK for Brutality. They might be running CoCo bit watch out for Smiters and/or Baloths.
8Rack. Depending on the list but usually all Push and Path goes out same goes for any type of discards. Bring in EE and creatures. You need to race them. Last Hope and Extraction is not bad against them.
As for Ponza, I don’t like this mu. Lol. The best way, I believe, to beat them is through discards early on and kill the dorks. T2 BM is kinda bad. Discards and a good threat is prolly the best way against them, specially in Junk coz Junk is slower. You don’t wanna grind against them coz they can go bigger than us.
So that’s just my 2cents based on experience. Hope this helps and hopefully other people with add in their ideas as well.
Modern.
GBW Junk
GBR Jund
UG Infect
Thank you!
I’m totally with you here. EE on 1 isn’t bad at all either in certain situations; I think it’s well worth including.
vs. Bant Knightfall
+1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
+1 Liliana, the Last Hope
+2 Collective Brutality
+1 Damnation
+1 Engineered Explosives
On the play:
-3 Liliana of the Veil
-2 Lingering Souls
-1 Inquisition of Kozilek
On the draw:
-4 Liliana of the Veil
-2 Inquisition of Kozilek
I’ll be rolling with something like that.
Sounds about right. What are the best Extraction targets? Thoughtseize seems like the first of our discard spells that should go, but would you rather leave in IoK or Brutality if there aren’t enough slots to replace discard with?
I share your distaste for Ponza, believe me! Agreed on early discard and spot removal being absolutely crucial. When you say that playing the grindy game isn’t good here, I agree to some extent. I can’t see Souls doing much, and this might be a match to move away from the one-of Tireless Tracker and maybe even a Scooze due to mana constraints. (Correct me if I’m wrong; for some reason I tend toward shaving on Scooze more than I probably should.)
On the other hand, I think other grindy options like Last Hope and Fulminator would be great here. Explosives on 1 can be superb as well, and if there’s a mid-game window, I don’t hate laying it down on 3 either as a hedge against future Moons—although that will depend greatly on the board state and whether or not a topdecked Moon will radically influence the game.
I am not sure how cards like Kalitas, Thrun, and Damnation factor in.
It was helpful for sure! I too would love to hear more input on these matchups, and any other ones people feel like discussing.
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2 scavenging ooze
4 tarmogoyf
3 tireless tracker
4 thought-knot seer
3 reality smasher
2 Tasigur, the golden fang
spells
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 thoughtseize
4 fatal push
4 oath of nissa
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 hissing quagmire
4 eldrazi temple
3 field of ruin
1 surgical extraction
1 choke
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
r1: jeskai nahiri
g1: he doesn't do much and I discard some of his removal, make sure to never play too much into sweepers and manage to dodge nahiri for easy win. g2 he was able to land nahiri and I couldn't get to her. That lady closes games quick. g3 long drawn out game but came down to top decks and i drew 3 lands in a row and he didn't
0-1
r2 GW death and taxes
g1 he lands a quick gavony and I couldn't race it. Never saw my eldrazi and mirran crusader closed the game very quick. G2 and 3 were just total slaughters. I have 4 sweepers coming in on top of a bunch of removal. FoR took care of gavony when relevant and since all my guys are huge there's not much cards like Thalia and voice of resurgence are going to do for him. Kalitas was mvp.
1-1
r3 jund
These were quick games. He kinda stumbles on mana but it didn't matter my removal lined up well and none of his did. TKS would remove things like terminate and everything else was too big. my deck doesn't care too much about lightning bolts and usually fatal push.
2-1
r4 humans
g1 I mull to 5 but manage to stall with a couple huge goyfs and a tracker. Tracker ended up drawing me like 5 cards. He was drawing irrelevant stuff and I just managed to draw the removal I needed for mantis rider while chipping in with a 5/6 goyf. g2 was hilarious. I just drew like a god and had all the removal in the world. My deck shut him down and smasher took it home easy.
3-1
Lucked into top 4
Semis burn
g1 I think he got flooded as he didn't do much. THankfully he was on mostly creature plan which my deck has no problem with. Was still close but I got there without too much anxiety. g2 I keep a semi slow hand but he gets stuck on 1 land for a few turns which gives me all the time I need. I slam kalitas and he gains me 9 life to close out the game.
4-1
finals mono U tron
This is a very competent player and while the deck is far from mainstream he plays it well and it is still very strong. g1 I manage to have a solid hand of discard and multiple field of ruins. He also drew too many power plants and I was able to shut him off tron lol. I was able to close out the game before he was able to find huge idiots thanks to liliana. g2 was a very long game. I was able to ruin and surgical him off tron but he had so many ways to slow me down that eventually a huge ballista ended me. I punted hard that game but I'm not sure it mattered. g3 went the opposite I end up getting a very early TKS when he didn't have an island and took his threat and thoughtseized his other threat. he assembles tron but it doesn't matter as he has nothing to play. I slam smusher and gg friend. tracker was MVP, drew me like 6+ cards in the match. turns out card is great who knew.
5-1
I love the GB style lists and have been on them forever. I have a love hate with Bob and haven't really found a GBx list i love outside of this. I love the eldrazi top end. TKS and Smushers are everything GB decks want to be doing and tracker and tasigur are doing everything else the deck wants. Mana can be awkward at times but nothing is color intensive outside liliana but that's where oath shines. Card is great. Feels like a necessary evil for my deck as it finds what I need early and late and occasionally pumps goyf. Deck has a lot of game. Fast aggro and certain combo can be a real issue.
Modern: BG eldrazi midrange
BWG Abzan value evolution
BUG BUG Midrange
Tiny Leaders: BW Athreos Zombies
Commander: BG Gitrog Monster
To keep the discussion going here is my latest list. This list has been getting me consistent 4-1's, 3-2s online. Alas still no trophy but every loss is either out of my hands or a good lesson for next time.
3 Grim Flayer
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Siege Rhino
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Cast Down
1 Collective Brutality
3 Fatal Push
2 Path to Exile
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
3 Blooming Marsh
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Shambling Vent
1 Treetop Village
2 Collective Brutality
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Damnation
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Stony Silence
Main things of note. Have tried damping sphere but prefered the versatility of Fulminator Mage. Kalitas is the flex slot and he has won me so many games. 2 Damnations due to humans and general aggro decks. Cast Down has been great for me so far, instead of one path. I have won games due to not ramping opponents and also not needing to aggressively fetch. Brutality main has also been very good helping several game ones such as UWR control. Current things in my mind are whether to go for EE still or Thrunn. Love EE but havent seen as much bogles lately/as before. Seeing a lot of burn, control, and amulet titan. Also affinity on the uptick hence the need/want of 3 stonies. It also shores up tron somewhat.
23 lands and my land package is fairly standard and the right amount imo
Match 1 vs. Bant Knightfall
Nothing like driving many miles and playing at an unfamiliar store only to wind up sitting down against your main testing partner—and facing an unfavorable matchup to boot. Good times!
G1 I nailed him with a T2 Brutality, killing his Hierarch and taking away his CoCo. He followed up with a Voice of Resurgence, which I was able to answer T3 with a Path into a Goyf. He flooded out and I rode the Goyf to victory with an assist from some Souls tokens, killing a Spell Queller along the way.
You can see my sideboard plan a few posts up. I followed it and lost G2 to a T2 Exalted Kitchen Finks that went most of the distance while my Goyf and Flayer ate Paths, and it was my turn to flood out. But I took G3 on the back of another T2 Brutality that not only killed his Birds and took his Negate (which I was moderately surprised to see), but also revealed a hand with Queller and some funky mana (no white access). A T3 Goyf went the entire way as I found more discard and held up removal spells.
Match 2 vs. Humans
G1 we both interacted heavily with him finding multiple copies of Phantasmal Image to Freebooters and Meddlers, but he never really developed a beefy board presence. So I was able to leverage my T2 Confidant into enough advantage to overwhelm him. A motley crew of Bob, Flayer, Souls, and a Treetop Village were my beaters that put the game away.
I sided as per the guide and then ran into my worst luck of the night. My hand was straight fire:
Catacombs
Swamp
Inquisition
Confidant
LoTV
Decay
Pulse
It would be hard to design a better hand against Humans. He mulled to 6 and on my T1 I Inquisitioned and saw a very mediocre and durdly hand. Slammed my T2 Bob and knew the game was in the bag even though I didn’t hit a third land yet. But five turns and ten draws later, I STILL have no third land, Bob triggers have wrecked my life total, I haven’t been able to play the Scooze or Lilis in my hand that could take over the game, and I’m dead to two straight topdecked Mantis Riders. Rough.
G3 I kept a 3-land 7 with Bob, Goyf, IoK, and LoTV, but no spot removal. I started strong but found 0 pieces of removal and once more died to two Mantis Riders (one was an Image). Can’t help feeling pretty hard done by here; I think both keeps were correct and I don’t believe I made any gameplay mistakes. It happens.
Match 3 vs. Dimir Mill
G1 I hit the poor dude with 3 discard spells in the first two turns, taking away Mesmeric Orb, Fraying Sanity, and Mind Funeral. He hit me back with a Glimpse the Unthinkable, and then I slammed a 7/8 Goyf, followed up the next turn by a delirious Flayer for good measure. T5 kill.
-3 Path
-3 Push
+2 Brutality
+1 Last Hope
+2 Fulminator
+1 Extraction (this is probably incorrect, but I was gunning for Ensnaring Bridge, and it was that or the third Fulminator)
G2 he stuck a T2 Orb that I was unable to answer. I went Bob into Goyf into Thoughtseize + Brutality, and taking away two mill spells gave me enough breathing room to close out the game despite Orb doing significant damage.
Match 4 vs. Kiki-Chord
G1: he leads on Birds, I Push them. He plays Voice, I Thoughtseize and see three lands plus a Restoration Angel. I take the Angel, Path the Voice, and then have too much gas in my hand for his land-heavy hand to keep up with, with Goyf and Souls putting the damage across.
After making sideboard changes that were very similar to how I ran against Knightfall, I opened on a strong 7, but it wasn’t enough. Throughout a heavily interactive early/mid game, my opponent buried me in value (Renegade Rallier/Voice/Eternal Witness/Chord), and I flooded out when I needed some big topdecks. Manlands extended the game but their efforts were not sufficient.
G3 I opened on manland into Bob. On my end step, opponent Pathed the Bob and then untapped and played a Voice. I was fortunate enough to have a T3 that allowed me to answer back with a Path of my own and a second Bob, who stuck around and provided me with an insurmountable advantage. After answering several of his plays, I closed out the game with a classic board state of Bob, Goyf, and both Lilianas, with Vent swings keeping me out of the death-by-Bob red zone.
3-1 my first time out, with the sole loss coming to one of the store’s best players running Modern’s top deck, and me being desperately unlucky to whiff on a third land for twelve straight draws, which my opponent agreed he couldn’t have won through with the sheer amount of gas I started with and drew into. That said, I can’t complain about my luck overall. G2/3 against Humans aside, my progressions were always at least reasonable, and I think I only mulliganed once over 11 games.
Couldn’t be more pleased to be all-in on the GBx life! I hold the perhaps unpopular opinion that Abzan is criminally underplayed right now, especially relative to Jund’s meta share—not only because of the power of Souls and the access to Stony, arguably the format’s strongest silver bullet—but also because Path seems like it’s approaching must-have status for fair decks, with all of the high-CMC or huge-statted creatures running around.
One of my goals moving forward is to develop a comprehensive sideboard plan for even fringe or obscure matchups, so if anyone feels like sharing their thoughts on facing literally any deck out there, I’m interested.
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Thank you.
The Path question may perhaps the most important one for Abzan pilots to work out. You're certainly in good company (a certain Mr. Duke springs to mind) when it comes to eschewing Path in this deck. I get the reasoning behind that stance--giving the opponent a free anything, even a basic land, is a little weird in a build that otherwise wants to grind them out of resources--but I just see it as a necessary evil. We're still in a world of Hollow Ones, Gurmag Anglers, Wurmcoil Engines, Primeval Titans, and Bedlam Revelers, to say nothing of all the CMC 3-4 dudes that you can't guarantee Push will be live for when you really need it. If these cards are a concern, Path is as clean an answer as we've got.
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Match 1 vs Amulet Titan: I opened on Thoughtseize and saw Sakura-Tribe Scout, Azusa, Primeval Titan, and 4 lands. Took away the Titan and now he needed to draw another one or a Summoner’s Pact, and for a while he didn’t. I went T2 Flayer into T3 LoTV and clocked him good while running him out of resources and filtering my draws so I could answer Titans (double Path in hand). Flayer went the whole way.
G2 he has a wicked threat-dense hand with 2 lands (one bounce), Explore, Tribe-Scout, and lots of big critters (Titan, Thragtusk, Ruric Thar). My T1 IoK takes Explore and he doesn’t draw more lands for a couple turns. I slam T3 LoTV and just start wrecking his hand. T4 I play Goyf, who eventually closes the game with help from the Ape Village.
Match 2 vs Jeskai Tempo: G1 he opened on Delver. I had discard but no removal; saw he had a handful of gas. His Delver flipped right away and started the clock. I flooded out and made the stand with some Lingering Souls, but he out-tempoed me and finished with end step Snap->Helix, untap Snap->Bolt.
G2 I opened on IoK and saw a one-land 7 with Delver and Serum. I took the Serum. He played Delver, I played Goyf, he topdecked a Serum to flip Delver but whiffed on a land for that one turn, which let me pull ahead with a T3 discard + second Goyf. He then found a second land but was too far behind to deal with 4/5 Goyfs. G3 was quite fun and close. I curved out perfectly and just dominated early, but he topdecked two straight Snapcasters (I had already cracked my early Spellbomb to blank an earlier Snap) to almost claw his way back in. But in the end, Goyfs were just too hard for him to answer efficiently. Props to Shambling Vent for helping me stay out of double burn spell range.
Match 3 vs Storm. G1 was INSANE, lol. I lost the die roll and drew this 7:
Vent
Swamp
Catacombs
Goyf
Goyf
Flayer
LoTV
I would have likely kept that on the play (T2 threat, T3 Lili, tick down to kill a cost reducer if he has one, start ticking up to win), but on the draw I needed earlier interaction. Shipped it and drew a no-land 6, shipped that and drew an ok 5. I Pushed his T2 Eletromancer then landed a Bob. A 30 minute game followed where he value Grapeshotted 3 or maybe 4 different times (once on T4 to kill my Bob and LoTV, 10 minutes later to answer another Lili, and near the end to kill a Scooze that was on the verge of putting the game away, maybe another time in between that I can’t recall).
Eventually, after a ton of back and forth, I got there. That Scooze was clutch, coming down the turn after after a value GS to eat his Past in Flames. G2 was a lot quicker. I had a strong 7, he mulled to a weak 6 with no cost reducer and I just buried him with discard into Goyf into LoTV. Grew the Goyf to a 6/7 by pitching an extra LoTV and EE to LoTV +1s.
Round 4 vs Infect: on the draw, I mulled to a 6 with Push and IoK. He opened on Glistener Elf, I pushed it and passed. He played Blighted Agent, I played IoK and saw lethal in his hand. No second removal spell, but I bluffed one. He went for it anyway and T3ed me despite eating removal and discard in the first two turns. No wonder Probe got banned, lol.
G2 I went IoK (seeing an Inkmoth but no creatures, taking a Blossoming Defense) into Bob, who buried him in card advantage. Things were still a little hairy midgame but I found a Fulminator for his Inkmoth. Bob and Flayer beats got me there. G3 I once again leveraged Bob to take over the game—he is absurd when your life total doesn’t matter, lol. I thought I had it all locked up with Goyf and some Souls tokens attacking, always leaving one back to block his Inkmoth (he had Pendelhaven so I was forced to repeatedly chump, but four chumpers from one card was still great here). I found a bunch of discard but no removal in the late game.
He topdecked a Distortion Strike to make my blockers irrelevant. He actually had lethal in hand but didn’t go for it because I had a nearly full hand and he just assumed I had Push/Path/Decay. He just kept forcing chumps and chumped with his own Hierarchs, presumably hoping to draw a protection spell to go all in. But I found another Fulminator first, and that was that.
4-0! I won the matchup lottery for sure, but also had to really earn every win besides the Amulet Titan ones, which just sorta lined up perfectly for me. Having all kinds of a good time on Abzan, to the point where my desire to acquire the red pieces needed to be able switch over to Jund at times is basically nonexistent. I’m so happy with Lingering Souls that I’m considering the fourth copy in place of Tireless Tracker—otherwise, this 75 feels great.
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