A bit sad that there was no Abzan in the top 32 SCG Syracuse. However, 4 copies of abzan made day 2. That's something. Brandon Zadzilka made a strong finish in the SCG Modern Open Syracuse ending 4th.
Hey that's me! If anyone has questions about the deck or the tournament feel free to ask.
First things first, great job man and congrats ending 4th! Oeee, I'll go first :-D! In general I'd like to know your matchups, sideboarding an thoughts. If you feel like writing a tournament wrap-up.
Also, I have a few specific questions regarding your main board setup:
Did you like the 4-2 split in discard spells? In the current meta I think that 3-3 might be better because of the big mana decks?
Is there a specific reason for you to run Nihil Spellbomb MB? You don't run Grim Flayer, but you grow Tarmogoyf and it's good against graveyard decks, I guess.
Thank you! I'll definitely get a tournament report by tomorrow, but for now I'll just answer those bullet points.
Voice of Resurgence was very good for me, against death's shadow and control they need to get rid of it quickly so they can interact properly, and it can protect a walker quite well, along with blocking a big attacker which allows you to send a huge crackback at them with say, a creature-land, the voice token, souls tokens, and anything else you have laying around. Makes decks like Death's Shadow think twice about attacking, or avoid attacking entirely, which happened at least twice that i can remember.
The split of discard spells I ran was actually 3-3, for the same reason you mentioned!
For Nihil Spellbomb, I wanted some mainboard hate against the graveyard decks and it served me well in the games I drew it. There's almost always a random application for it G1.
I didn't really miss Gavony Township at all, I felt like the creatures I had along with the creature-lands were enough to get the job done in terms of damage. However, I DO feel I missed out by not having 1-2 Ghost Quarter somewhere in the 75. I played against a few Gavony Townships and they were very hard to slog through (and sometimes I couldn't).
"The worst part isn't the pain, or the smell, or even the fear of death. It's hearing the clatter of bone on stone and knowing the bones are yours."BRG
Interesting evolution there -- almost looks more like a Sultai deck splashing white for Souls (and Stony Silence) in the sideboard. Plays sets of both Confidant and Hierarch. Looks like the usual Sultai troubles dealing with large creatures though; wonder how this list handled with only two Pulses and the LoTVs.
Yeah, it's always hard to tell with these decks if they're Sultai splashing white, or Abzan splashing blue. Or if it matters. Other than the snappies this is a pretty stock Abzan mainboard minus Path to Exile, which as you noted would be nice to have against large creatures/Delve fatties.
I love that snappy gives you additional virtual copies of all your spells, but Snap > Maelstrom Pulse is a 5 mana play to kill a large threat if needed. I'd definitely love to find room for a couple Path. As much as I love Bob, I'm not sure the full playset of both this and Noble is necessary. There's really nothing to ramp into except for Lili (though I suppose a noble or two can make that Snapcaster > Maelstrom Pulse a bit easier to pull off.)
Honestly, I don't think I have the balls to sleeve something like this up for competitive play, but it looked too fun not to share.
Yeah that kind of distinction typically isn't very valuable. When I see a 4 color list I usually check though because there's always a question of whether the 4th color is worth the extra inconsistency. In that list I'm not sure I'd splash white just for Souls; I love the card but it's a value generator (not a bomb) that can be situational. I do like the the Creeping Tar Pits. Seems like those would help break board stalls against creature decks where we can't quite push the issue otherwise.
Snappies are excellent if you're flashing back the typical cheap Abzan spells -- Push, Inquisition, Thoughtseize -- for tempo. Playing any of those Turn 1 into a Turn 2 Tarmogoyf and flashing back for Turn 3 should put you ahead in most match-ups. But like you mention, reusing a Pulse is a lot of mana for a deck intending to run lean. Much harder to count on doubling those as your only large removal. Good point on the Hierarchs. What are they ramping into? Seems like the intersection of the low CMC Confidant strategy with ramp, that can play very differently based on your opening hand.
My biggest concern when I've tried going Sultai is that it pushes all in on the graveyard strategy in a meta that is already prepared for that angle. A sizeable share of Tier 1 and 2 decks can neuter our Goyfs with RIP, Relic, or Nihil Spellbomb. Snapcaster similarly becomes impotent against the hate that is already being brought in Game 2/3.
Thanks for sharing the list though! Always a fan of creatively pushing the bounds. Not something I'd give a spin but hat tip to the pilot for his results.
To me the card feels very 50/50. Against some decks it does really good work (Combo/Control decks, Mirror match, Elves ect.) but against other decks it does almost nothing (Eldrazi, Gurmag/Tasi, Deaths Shadow).
It also seems difficult to get Delirium in some cases, especially if not running bauble / traverse.
Does it make sense to run this card in a non Traverse / Bauble build? Just seems kind of inefficient compared to our other 2 drops. Thoughts?
Round 2: RG Titanshift, 2-1
I won games 1 and 3 by playing Liliana of the Veil on turn 3 on the play, which was pretty darn good. He punked me out game 2 with an early Prime Time, as that deck tends to do. The Extraction brought in was mostly for Primeval Titan should I steal it from his hand or kill one, but also possibly for Valakut if he was to pitch it to Liliana. Souls feels too slow against them.
Out: Fatal Push x3, Lingering Souls x2, Nihil Spellbomb
In: Kitchen Finks x2, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2, Surgical Extraction x1
Round 3: Esper Goryo's Vengeance, 2-1
This was the fringey-est deck i played against, and I didn't really know it was a thing until my friend played against it the day before in the Open. Thankfully, I got the idea pretty quickly and knew how I wanted to sideboard. Game 1, we were in topdeck mode and he peeled Elesh Norn on seven mana and crushed me with Creeping Tar Pits while wiping my board. Game 2 I disrupted him pretty heavily with a Surgical Extraction and beat down with Goyfs, and game 3 he kept a LOT of removal in his opener but I curved Liliana, the Last Hope into Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and the game was pretty much over from that point on (ended up with 2 Gideon emblems and a Lili emblem). My creature lands were very good in this matchup as well. I trimmed on Lilianas because I didn't want him discarding value, abrupt decay is pretty bad, but Push still hits tar Pits and baby Jace.
Out: Abrupt Decay x2, Fatal Push x1, Liliana of the Veil x2, Inquisition of Kozilek x1
In: Surgical Extraction x2, Kitchen Finks x2, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2
Round 4: GW Value-Town, 0-2
Oh boy did I get smashed in this one. Thankfully my opponent was nice and we had a lot of fun with it. Game 1 he landed a bunch of dorks and Gavony Township and I really couldn't do much but play creatures that eventually got outsized. If I had drawn a Liliana of some sort it might have ended differently because I had a decent amount of chumpers. Game 2 I was able to land a Gideon with protection, but a sick Collected Company hit was able to snipe him and I fell too far behind from there. Liliana is bad against GW go-wide decks, and I didn't want hand hate that couldn't hit Collected Company. Siege Rhino was the last cut and just seemed like the worst remaining card.
Out: Liliana of the Veil x3, Inquisition of Kozilek x3, Siege Rhino x1
In: Flaying Tendrils, Collective Brutality x1, Kitchen Finks x2, Damnation, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2
Round 5: Abzan, 2-0
This round was interesting. He was running a list that played Knight of the Reliquary, Vault of the Archangel, Gavony Township, and Bitterblossom. Game 1 I just had better draws and rode a Liliana of the Veil and two Dark Confidant triggers to victory. Game 2 my opponent made a mistake that I think cost him the game. He had bitterblossom and 3 faeries out, and cast lingering souls, but used the same token to represent all of the fliers. Next turn, he swung with two of the fliers and I asked if they were spirits, faeries, or what. He seemed to think it didn't matter and attacked with the spirits, which next turn allowed me to Maelstrom Pulse all the faeries away and get in too much damage for him to recover from, as he had left all his mana open hoping to activate Vault on defense. I boarded out the hand hate as usual for the mirror and mirror-esque matches as well as Lilianas which seemed generally bad against a token heavy Abzan list. I bring in the most two-for-one-ish cards I have as well as more removal for bitterblossom and tokens. Brutality was the last card to come in and was just better than the third Liliana.
Out: Inquisition of Kozilek x3, Thoughtseize x3, Liliana of the Veil x3
In: Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, Damnation, Flaying Tendrils, Kitchen Finks x2, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2, Collective Brutality x1
Round 6: Death's Shadow, 2-0
This round went really smoothly for me. My removal lined up well against his threats, and drawing 3+ of any combination of Voice of Resurgence, Lingering Souls, and Siege Rhino is basically enough to KO them. Voice was extremely disruptive game 1, and he was forced to Push the Voice main phase and terminate the huge token, then ended up using Pushes and Terminates on single souls tokens before losing to more. Post board I bring in even more annoying cards like Gideon and Finks. I feel pretty favored in this matchup, especially post-board. I feel like I can bring out the hand hate for more resilient threats and less bad topdecks.
Out: Inquisition of Kozilek x3, Thoughtseize x3, Fatal Push x1
In: Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2, Kitchen Finks x2, Blessed Alliance, Damnation, Maelstrom Pulse
Round 7: UR Gifts Storm, 2-1
Game 1 I disrupted him fairly well, but my Bob betrayed me and kept flipping Lingering Souls and Maelstrom Pulse, which left me dead to a non-combo Grapeshot for 7. Nihil Spellbomb and hand hate, along with a 6/7 Tarmogoyf took game 2 for me, and then Game 3 I saw his opener and chose to rip a combo piece out and leave him with Blood Moon, and just play around moon since it did nothing to help him combo. I brought in an extra Pulse in case he was able to cast an Empty the Warrens for a bunch, and took out my six slowest, non-disruptive cards.
Out: Lingering Souls x4, Liliana, the Last Hope, Siege Rhino x1
In: Abrupt Decay, Surgical Extraction x2, Collective Brutality x2, Maelstrom Pulse
Quarterfinals: UW Control 2-0
Game 1 I had the wombo combo of T1 Inquisiton, T2 Bob, T3 Liliana of the Veil; even though the Bob bit the dust to Path, he didn't have a counter for Liliana, and she stripped him of too many cards. Game 2 we both had ridiculous draws for at least seven consecutive turns after Liliana of the Veil brought us into topdeck mode very quickly (Something like Bob for me into D-sphere for him into Abrupt Decay for me into Path for him into Souls for me into Gideon for him into Maelstrom Pulse for me), but fortunately Liliana was still out for that entire time and I rode the ultimate to victory after ripping Souls, Souls, Finks while he hit mostly lands. I took out one Goyf to limit bad draws against an inevitable Rest in Peace, and kept in a few Paths over Pushes because it hits Collonades as well as Gideon if he swings.
Out: Fatal Push x3, Siege Rhino x2, Abrupt Decay x1, Path to Exile x1
In: Collective Brutality x2, Kitchen Finks x2, Maelstrom Pulse, Gideon, Ally of Zendikdar x2
Semifinals: Burn, 1-2
Game 1, he got one too many Goblin Guide hits, and I got land each time, it just didn't matter because of how awkward my lands ended up being that game. I had to shock myself which basically ended up giving him enough gas to kill me before I could stabilize. Game 2 I had the Push for the Guide and the Inquisition for the Eidolon, and turn 3 I had a 5/6 Goyf that clocked him very quickly along with a Shambling Vent and a Voice, which sealed the deal when he was forced to give me an Elemental token by bolting my Shambling Vent. Game 3 my hand was a little risky in that my only life gain was a Kitchen Finks, but it had removal, lands, and disruption so I went with it. It basically came down to whether or not he had the Skullcrack for my Finks and unfortunately, he did.
Out: Thoughtseize x3, Dark Confidant x3, Nihil Spellbomb
In: Kitchen Finks x2, Collective Brutality x2, Blessed Alliance, Abrupt Decay, Flaying Tendrils
Overall I had a great experience, and had a lot of fun playing the deck and talking with my opponents, especially in the top 8 where basically all we did was joke with each other (I also played magic to the best of my ability). I really liked how Voice performed for me. Granted, I didn't play against Eldrazi Tron, but I feel like it's not as bad as it seems against them, since it survives All is Dust, and the Elemental can often tangle with the bigger Eldrazi just fine. In the testing I did against Spaghetti Tron it didn't seem like a liability. I think I would want a Ghost Quarter and one more card against Burn somewhere in the 75, but other than that I feel really good about this list. That does it for the tournament run-down, I'll do my best to answer any questions/suggestions!
I didn't really miss Gavony Township at all, I felt like the creatures I had along with the creature-lands were enough to get the job done in terms of damage. However, I DO feel I missed out by not having 1-2 Ghost Quarter somewhere in the 75. I played against a few Gavony Townships and they were very hard to slog through (and sometimes I couldn't).
Congrats on your sweet finish, just wondering how you found treetop village in your games. Did the faster clock matter? Been wanting to try it over both Shambling vent and Stirring Wildwood. Voice is an interesting choice I'm willing to try in my meta. Great write up too man!
To me the card feels very 50/50. Against some decks it does really good work (Combo/Control decks, Mirror match, Elves ect.) but against other decks it does almost nothing (Eldrazi, Gurmag/Tasi, Deaths Shadow).
It also seems difficult to get Delirium in some cases, especially if not running bauble / traverse.
Does it make sense to run this card in a non Traverse / Bauble build? Just seems kind of inefficient compared to our other 2 drops. Thoughts?
I would not run Grim Flayer in a non-Traverse list that wasn't dedicated to hitting Delirium as quickly as possible. I mean, even as a 2/2 that lets you filter the top of your deck/throw cards in the'yard, Grim Flayer is great when he connects. But without the additional power, connecting is often rather difficult. Don't get me wrong, I think Grim Flayer is great, but multiple experts (Reid/Willy) have said not to run it without at least 3 artifacts main, and that as a 2/2 for 2 you have better options in GBx.
Has anyone considered using Darkblast in the 75 for Abzan Traverse? It's been a pet card of mine for some time and I want to try it in a straight Rock Traverse list.
I think fatal push/ path/ murderous cut would be better. I feel you would want a more general removal to deal with all the Eldrazi/ Death Shadow floating around.
I've been testing for SCG Syracuse this weekend, and I'm still trying to round out a few slots of my main deck. I'm not really a big fan of Grim Flayer against death's shadow, I've been playing him for a long time now and he seems kinda meh in this meta. Some of my friends recommended Bitterblossom and Voice of Resurgence, citing their usefulness against eldrazi tron, UW control, and death's shadow, and i was wondering what people on here think of that. I can't really find many lists online playing those cards.
My issue with Bitterblossom is lingering souls is just so much better in alot of scenarios. I could see 1-2 Voice of resurgence. I'm really not a fan of more than 2 Voice. Personally, I would play Dark Confidant if you really dislike Grim Flayer.
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
I've been testing for SCG Syracuse this weekend, and I'm still trying to round out a few slots of my main deck. I'm not really a big fan of Grim Flayer against death's shadow, I've been playing him for a long time now and he seems kinda meh in this meta. Some of my friends recommended Bitterblossom and Voice of Resurgence, citing their usefulness against eldrazi tron, UW control, and death's shadow, and i was wondering what people on here think of that. I can't really find many lists online playing those cards.
My issue with Bitterblossom is lingering souls is just so much better in alot of scenarios. I could see 1-2 Voice of resurgence. I'm really not a fan of more than 2 Voice. Personally, I would play Dark Confidant if you really dislike Grim Flayer.
I only see one match where you don't bring in Kitchen Finks. Maybe it's time to just mainboard that card. I find myself bring it in in more matchups than not as well.
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"The worst part isn't the pain, or the smell, or even the fear of death. It's hearing the clatter of bone on stone and knowing the bones are yours."BRG
@JunkBeezy: great read! Thanks for taking the time. You were able to dodge e-tron and traditional tron, good times! About the match against Titanshift, did you win solely on LoTV? I sometimes feel it isn't enough because a topdeck scapeshift or titan just wins the game on the spot.
Thanks, no problem! I'm glad I can contribute to helping the Abzan community. Sometimes it's not enough to just have Liliana, I also had one piece of hand removal to take I think a Pact out of his hand. Variance may have been on my side since he didn't rip his Prime Times after that. Game 3 I saw more midrange cards like Courser in against me and they just died without helping him much.
Congrats on your sweet finish, just wondering how you found treetop village in your games. Did the faster clock matter? Been wanting to try it over both Shambling vent and Stirring Wildwood. Voice is an interesting choice I'm willing to try in my meta. Great write up too man!
Treetop Village has been awesome! It applies so much quick pressure for only 1G, and it has trample so tiny chump blockers can't stop it. I like it for assassinating planeswalkers like Karn and Lilianas, too. Having a third creature-land also just makes you have less dead draws later in games.
Congrats for your Finish and for Great report!i'd like to ask hier the 3/1 lilly Split works out for you?
Thank you very much! I think it worked out well, if you have a Veil in play and draw a Last Hope, you have the choice to -2 the Veil for value and cast the Last Hope, or just discard the Hope, so it won't be a dead draw. Last Hope is very good against Counters Company and Affinity, she's able to pick off creature after creature for free each turn, and in the mirror she lets your Goyfs always be bigger and can come out, -2 to get a creature, and still absorb a removal spell from your opponent. Her ultimate is also an instant game over against any midrange/control deck, whereas Veil is only sometimes an instant KO, and Veil cannot plus to protect herself. Basically between the two of them I think they cover all your bases nicely.
I only see one match where you don't bring in Kitchen Finks. Maybe it's time to just mainboard that card. I find myself bring it in in more matchups than not as well.
I'm still on the fence about it, since it's basically dead against some decks like Storm and Affinity, and I have very little room to move numbers around it seems like. I don't think I would end up putting more than 1 in the main.
@JunkBreezy
Thanks, time to test one out. I really don't like the abzan version that runs 3-4x Treetop as a way of copying Jund's Ravine. 1-2 would be more reasonable.
Just curious, what would you cut for ghost quarter? Especially since you lose a dual color source by putting treetop instead of the usual 3x shambling vent. You have almost no tron/land hate in your board, what's the game plan there?
After seeing list from the classic I finally gave in to my temptations of running a couple of voice in the mb of my list and took this to a 4-0 finish tonight:
Sideboard was heavily skewed to beat the local metagame. Teeg, 2nd pulse, and decay are cards I would likely not run in a larger event. Teeg was originally a last minute add when I noticed a player that has been on UW Turns for the last couple of weeks. I didn't get paired against him (and he was on UWR nahiri anyways), but Teeg did come in against RW Prison (moon, chalice, and 4 cmc planeswalkers) where he would have been good against. He also won me an awkward game against UWR control where I topdeck Teeg w/ goyf out, and his follow up topdeck was verdict, which allowed me to crack in for lethal lol.
Rounds were as follows, not enough time before bed to add any real detail here though:
R1 - Mirror match, my opponent had literally copied @JunkBeezy's list card for card lol. 2-0
R2 - UWR Control. G2 I keep a 2 lander and IoK where he reveals a 7 land hand, lol. I never see a 3rd land and actually manage to lose that. Teeg for the meme dreams in g3 though. 2-1
R3 - RW Prison. Absolutely crush him both games. My SB was accidentally hell for him w/ decay, 2 pulse, and teeg.
R4 - Merfolk. Notably in g2 I mulled to 5, but w/ an opener of catacombs, blooming marsh, decay, pulse, and EE. Scry revealed a path. almost Literally the best sequence of cards I could've seen for that game. 2-0
This list is pretty fun, and i'll probably stick w/ it for at least a week or two. Regardless, I absolutely refuse to play GB(x) w/out 2 copies of Tireless Tracker in the 75. Him + Bob is what allows me to grind so many opponents out of the game.
Look at the card. Now back to Jace. Now back to that card, now back to Jace! Sadly, it isn't Jace, but if it stopped being a junk rare and became relevant, it could act like it's Jace. Crack some Worldwake. What do you have? You have a Jace, the card you wish this card could be like. Look again. THE CARD IS NOW A $75 BILL. Anything possible when you play Magic with Jace and not junk rares. This is probably spam.
@pizz0wn3d, Nice run! Tracker seems great but do you think dropping a blooming marsh for another fetchland is a good idea? Bob + Tracker seem so dirty together
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Hey that's me! If anyone has questions about the deck or the tournament feel free to ask.
Thank you! I'll definitely get a tournament report by tomorrow, but for now I'll just answer those bullet points.
Voice of Resurgence was very good for me, against death's shadow and control they need to get rid of it quickly so they can interact properly, and it can protect a walker quite well, along with blocking a big attacker which allows you to send a huge crackback at them with say, a creature-land, the voice token, souls tokens, and anything else you have laying around. Makes decks like Death's Shadow think twice about attacking, or avoid attacking entirely, which happened at least twice that i can remember.
The split of discard spells I ran was actually 3-3, for the same reason you mentioned!
For Nihil Spellbomb, I wanted some mainboard hate against the graveyard decks and it served me well in the games I drew it. There's almost always a random application for it G1.
I didn't really miss Gavony Township at all, I felt like the creatures I had along with the creature-lands were enough to get the job done in terms of damage. However, I DO feel I missed out by not having 1-2 Ghost Quarter somewhere in the 75. I played against a few Gavony Townships and they were very hard to slog through (and sometimes I couldn't).
Note: Flaying Tendrils would kill Etched Champion regardless of the "devoid" keyword because it doesn't target, nor deal damage. Languish, Yahenni's Expertise, Toxic Deluge, etc would also work.
Interesting evolution there -- almost looks more like a Sultai deck splashing white for Souls (and Stony Silence) in the sideboard. Plays sets of both Confidant and Hierarch. Looks like the usual Sultai troubles dealing with large creatures though; wonder how this list handled with only two Pulses and the LoTVs.
I love that snappy gives you additional virtual copies of all your spells, but Snap > Maelstrom Pulse is a 5 mana play to kill a large threat if needed. I'd definitely love to find room for a couple Path. As much as I love Bob, I'm not sure the full playset of both this and Noble is necessary. There's really nothing to ramp into except for Lili (though I suppose a noble or two can make that Snapcaster > Maelstrom Pulse a bit easier to pull off.)
Honestly, I don't think I have the balls to sleeve something like this up for competitive play, but it looked too fun not to share.
Snappies are excellent if you're flashing back the typical cheap Abzan spells -- Push, Inquisition, Thoughtseize -- for tempo. Playing any of those Turn 1 into a Turn 2 Tarmogoyf and flashing back for Turn 3 should put you ahead in most match-ups. But like you mention, reusing a Pulse is a lot of mana for a deck intending to run lean. Much harder to count on doubling those as your only large removal. Good point on the Hierarchs. What are they ramping into? Seems like the intersection of the low CMC Confidant strategy with ramp, that can play very differently based on your opening hand.
My biggest concern when I've tried going Sultai is that it pushes all in on the graveyard strategy in a meta that is already prepared for that angle. A sizeable share of Tier 1 and 2 decks can neuter our Goyfs with RIP, Relic, or Nihil Spellbomb. Snapcaster similarly becomes impotent against the hate that is already being brought in Game 2/3.
Thanks for sharing the list though! Always a fan of creatively pushing the bounds. Not something I'd give a spin but hat tip to the pilot for his results.
To me the card feels very 50/50. Against some decks it does really good work (Combo/Control decks, Mirror match, Elves ect.) but against other decks it does almost nothing (Eldrazi, Gurmag/Tasi, Deaths Shadow).
It also seems difficult to get Delirium in some cases, especially if not running bauble / traverse.
Does it make sense to run this card in a non Traverse / Bauble build? Just seems kind of inefficient compared to our other 2 drops. Thoughts?
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
Round 1: Burn, 2-1
Somehow I managed to take game 1 by casting no creatures, swinging with shambling vent, and binning Liliana, the Last Hope for a ton of zombies. Game two he basically had the nuts and kinda wrecked me. Game three I was able to curve Inquisition of Kozilek into Collective Brutality, which basically ended the game. Sideboarding was pretty simple, take out my totally dead cards for more useful ones. it's possible I should have taken out a Souls instead of spellbomb, though they're both pretty bad.
Out: Thoughtseize x3, Dark Confidant x3, Nihil Spellbomb
In: Kitchen Finks x2, Collective Brutality x2, Blessed Alliance, Abrupt Decay, Flaying Tendrils
Round 2: RG Titanshift, 2-1
I won games 1 and 3 by playing Liliana of the Veil on turn 3 on the play, which was pretty darn good. He punked me out game 2 with an early Prime Time, as that deck tends to do. The Extraction brought in was mostly for Primeval Titan should I steal it from his hand or kill one, but also possibly for Valakut if he was to pitch it to Liliana. Souls feels too slow against them.
Out: Fatal Push x3, Lingering Souls x2, Nihil Spellbomb
In: Kitchen Finks x2, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2, Surgical Extraction x1
Round 3: Esper Goryo's Vengeance, 2-1
This was the fringey-est deck i played against, and I didn't really know it was a thing until my friend played against it the day before in the Open. Thankfully, I got the idea pretty quickly and knew how I wanted to sideboard. Game 1, we were in topdeck mode and he peeled Elesh Norn on seven mana and crushed me with Creeping Tar Pits while wiping my board. Game 2 I disrupted him pretty heavily with a Surgical Extraction and beat down with Goyfs, and game 3 he kept a LOT of removal in his opener but I curved Liliana, the Last Hope into Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and the game was pretty much over from that point on (ended up with 2 Gideon emblems and a Lili emblem). My creature lands were very good in this matchup as well. I trimmed on Lilianas because I didn't want him discarding value, abrupt decay is pretty bad, but Push still hits tar Pits and baby Jace.
Out: Abrupt Decay x2, Fatal Push x1, Liliana of the Veil x2, Inquisition of Kozilek x1
In: Surgical Extraction x2, Kitchen Finks x2, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2
Round 4: GW Value-Town, 0-2
Oh boy did I get smashed in this one. Thankfully my opponent was nice and we had a lot of fun with it. Game 1 he landed a bunch of dorks and Gavony Township and I really couldn't do much but play creatures that eventually got outsized. If I had drawn a Liliana of some sort it might have ended differently because I had a decent amount of chumpers. Game 2 I was able to land a Gideon with protection, but a sick Collected Company hit was able to snipe him and I fell too far behind from there. Liliana is bad against GW go-wide decks, and I didn't want hand hate that couldn't hit Collected Company. Siege Rhino was the last cut and just seemed like the worst remaining card.
Out: Liliana of the Veil x3, Inquisition of Kozilek x3, Siege Rhino x1
In: Flaying Tendrils, Collective Brutality x1, Kitchen Finks x2, Damnation, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2
Round 5: Abzan, 2-0
This round was interesting. He was running a list that played Knight of the Reliquary, Vault of the Archangel, Gavony Township, and Bitterblossom. Game 1 I just had better draws and rode a Liliana of the Veil and two Dark Confidant triggers to victory. Game 2 my opponent made a mistake that I think cost him the game. He had bitterblossom and 3 faeries out, and cast lingering souls, but used the same token to represent all of the fliers. Next turn, he swung with two of the fliers and I asked if they were spirits, faeries, or what. He seemed to think it didn't matter and attacked with the spirits, which next turn allowed me to Maelstrom Pulse all the faeries away and get in too much damage for him to recover from, as he had left all his mana open hoping to activate Vault on defense. I boarded out the hand hate as usual for the mirror and mirror-esque matches as well as Lilianas which seemed generally bad against a token heavy Abzan list. I bring in the most two-for-one-ish cards I have as well as more removal for bitterblossom and tokens. Brutality was the last card to come in and was just better than the third Liliana.
Out: Inquisition of Kozilek x3, Thoughtseize x3, Liliana of the Veil x3
In: Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, Damnation, Flaying Tendrils, Kitchen Finks x2, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2, Collective Brutality x1
Round 6: Death's Shadow, 2-0
This round went really smoothly for me. My removal lined up well against his threats, and drawing 3+ of any combination of Voice of Resurgence, Lingering Souls, and Siege Rhino is basically enough to KO them. Voice was extremely disruptive game 1, and he was forced to Push the Voice main phase and terminate the huge token, then ended up using Pushes and Terminates on single souls tokens before losing to more. Post board I bring in even more annoying cards like Gideon and Finks. I feel pretty favored in this matchup, especially post-board. I feel like I can bring out the hand hate for more resilient threats and less bad topdecks.
Out: Inquisition of Kozilek x3, Thoughtseize x3, Fatal Push x1
In: Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2, Kitchen Finks x2, Blessed Alliance, Damnation, Maelstrom Pulse
Round 7: UR Gifts Storm, 2-1
Game 1 I disrupted him fairly well, but my Bob betrayed me and kept flipping Lingering Souls and Maelstrom Pulse, which left me dead to a non-combo Grapeshot for 7. Nihil Spellbomb and hand hate, along with a 6/7 Tarmogoyf took game 2 for me, and then Game 3 I saw his opener and chose to rip a combo piece out and leave him with Blood Moon, and just play around moon since it did nothing to help him combo. I brought in an extra Pulse in case he was able to cast an Empty the Warrens for a bunch, and took out my six slowest, non-disruptive cards.
Out: Lingering Souls x4, Liliana, the Last Hope, Siege Rhino x1
In: Abrupt Decay, Surgical Extraction x2, Collective Brutality x2, Maelstrom Pulse
Round 8: Death's Shadow, 2-0
This was honestly the easiest match of the day, partially because both of my openers were 3 Land, Voice, Souls, Rhino, and a kill spell. He stripped my kill spell game one and lost to Voice+Souls+Rhino, then game 2 he took the Voice but lost to Path+Liliana+Pulse.
Out: Inquisition of Kozilek x3, Thoughtseize x3, Fatal Push x1
In: Gideon, Ally of Zendikar x2, Kitchen Finks x2, Blessed Alliance, Damnation, Maelstrom Pulse
Round 9: Intentional Draw (Clean Cut to Top 8)
Quarterfinals: UW Control 2-0
Game 1 I had the wombo combo of T1 Inquisiton, T2 Bob, T3 Liliana of the Veil; even though the Bob bit the dust to Path, he didn't have a counter for Liliana, and she stripped him of too many cards. Game 2 we both had ridiculous draws for at least seven consecutive turns after Liliana of the Veil brought us into topdeck mode very quickly (Something like Bob for me into D-sphere for him into Abrupt Decay for me into Path for him into Souls for me into Gideon for him into Maelstrom Pulse for me), but fortunately Liliana was still out for that entire time and I rode the ultimate to victory after ripping Souls, Souls, Finks while he hit mostly lands. I took out one Goyf to limit bad draws against an inevitable Rest in Peace, and kept in a few Paths over Pushes because it hits Collonades as well as Gideon if he swings.
Out: Fatal Push x3, Siege Rhino x2, Abrupt Decay x1, Path to Exile x1
In: Collective Brutality x2, Kitchen Finks x2, Maelstrom Pulse, Gideon, Ally of Zendikdar x2
Semifinals: Burn, 1-2
Game 1, he got one too many Goblin Guide hits, and I got land each time, it just didn't matter because of how awkward my lands ended up being that game. I had to shock myself which basically ended up giving him enough gas to kill me before I could stabilize. Game 2 I had the Push for the Guide and the Inquisition for the Eidolon, and turn 3 I had a 5/6 Goyf that clocked him very quickly along with a Shambling Vent and a Voice, which sealed the deal when he was forced to give me an Elemental token by bolting my Shambling Vent. Game 3 my hand was a little risky in that my only life gain was a Kitchen Finks, but it had removal, lands, and disruption so I went with it. It basically came down to whether or not he had the Skullcrack for my Finks and unfortunately, he did.
Out: Thoughtseize x3, Dark Confidant x3, Nihil Spellbomb
In: Kitchen Finks x2, Collective Brutality x2, Blessed Alliance, Abrupt Decay, Flaying Tendrils
Overall I had a great experience, and had a lot of fun playing the deck and talking with my opponents, especially in the top 8 where basically all we did was joke with each other (I also played magic to the best of my ability). I really liked how Voice performed for me. Granted, I didn't play against Eldrazi Tron, but I feel like it's not as bad as it seems against them, since it survives All is Dust, and the Elemental can often tangle with the bigger Eldrazi just fine. In the testing I did against Spaghetti Tron it didn't seem like a liability. I think I would want a Ghost Quarter and one more card against Burn somewhere in the 75, but other than that I feel really good about this list. That does it for the tournament run-down, I'll do my best to answer any questions/suggestions!
Congrats on your sweet finish, just wondering how you found treetop village in your games. Did the faster clock matter? Been wanting to try it over both Shambling vent and Stirring Wildwood. Voice is an interesting choice I'm willing to try in my meta. Great write up too man!
https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/abzan-decklist-by-brandon-zadzilka-700062
UWRUWR Delver/Lynx TempoUWR-------UWRUWR Midrange GeistUWR-------UWRUWR Nahiri ControlUWR-------UWRUWR SaheeliUWR
BGRJund / Jund ShadowBGR-------BGWAbzan / Abzan ShadowBGW
Commander (Leviathan/MTGO): UWGeist of Saint TraftUW
I would not run Grim Flayer in a non-Traverse list that wasn't dedicated to hitting Delirium as quickly as possible. I mean, even as a 2/2 that lets you filter the top of your deck/throw cards in the'yard, Grim Flayer is great when he connects. But without the additional power, connecting is often rather difficult. Don't get me wrong, I think Grim Flayer is great, but multiple experts (Reid/Willy) have said not to run it without at least 3 artifacts main, and that as a 2/2 for 2 you have better options in GBx.
I know this has been discussed to death, but that's part of the reason I am running 4 Dark Confidant in its place in my non-Traverse build, atm. And, case in point, another Bobzan list went 5-0 in a competitive league today: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2017-08-08 (second list down). Other than 2 Maelstrom Pulse main, the deck looks pretty stock.
I think fatal push/ path/ murderous cut would be better. I feel you would want a more general removal to deal with all the Eldrazi/ Death Shadow floating around.
My issue with Bitterblossom is lingering souls is just so much better in alot of scenarios. I could see 1-2 Voice of resurgence. I'm really not a fan of more than 2 Voice. Personally, I would play Dark Confidant if you really dislike Grim Flayer.
You might like this list:
http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=16453&d=301671&f=MO
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
I'm sure they like that list - it's theirs. Tournament report 6 posts up.
I only see one match where you don't bring in Kitchen Finks. Maybe it's time to just mainboard that card. I find myself bring it in in more matchups than not as well.
Thanks, no problem! I'm glad I can contribute to helping the Abzan community. Sometimes it's not enough to just have Liliana, I also had one piece of hand removal to take I think a Pact out of his hand. Variance may have been on my side since he didn't rip his Prime Times after that. Game 3 I saw more midrange cards like Courser in against me and they just died without helping him much.
Treetop Village has been awesome! It applies so much quick pressure for only 1G, and it has trample so tiny chump blockers can't stop it. I like it for assassinating planeswalkers like Karn and Lilianas, too. Having a third creature-land also just makes you have less dead draws later in games.
Thank you very much! I think it worked out well, if you have a Veil in play and draw a Last Hope, you have the choice to -2 the Veil for value and cast the Last Hope, or just discard the Hope, so it won't be a dead draw. Last Hope is very good against Counters Company and Affinity, she's able to pick off creature after creature for free each turn, and in the mirror she lets your Goyfs always be bigger and can come out, -2 to get a creature, and still absorb a removal spell from your opponent. Her ultimate is also an instant game over against any midrange/control deck, whereas Veil is only sometimes an instant KO, and Veil cannot plus to protect herself. Basically between the two of them I think they cover all your bases nicely.
I'm still on the fence about it, since it's basically dead against some decks like Storm and Affinity, and I have very little room to move numbers around it seems like. I don't think I would end up putting more than 1 in the main.
Thanks, time to test one out. I really don't like the abzan version that runs 3-4x Treetop as a way of copying Jund's Ravine. 1-2 would be more reasonable.
Just curious, what would you cut for ghost quarter? Especially since you lose a dual color source by putting treetop instead of the usual 3x shambling vent. You have almost no tron/land hate in your board, what's the game plan there?
3 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Tireless Tracker
Non dude threats - 7
4 Lingering Souls
3 Liliana of the Veil
Non dudes - 17
3 Inquisition of kozilek
3 thoughtseize
2 collective brutality
3 Path to Exile
3 Fatal Push
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
2 Shambling Vent
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Plains
1 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extractin
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Engineered Explosives
Sideboard was heavily skewed to beat the local metagame. Teeg, 2nd pulse, and decay are cards I would likely not run in a larger event. Teeg was originally a last minute add when I noticed a player that has been on UW Turns for the last couple of weeks. I didn't get paired against him (and he was on UWR nahiri anyways), but Teeg did come in against RW Prison (moon, chalice, and 4 cmc planeswalkers) where he would have been good against. He also won me an awkward game against UWR control where I topdeck Teeg w/ goyf out, and his follow up topdeck was verdict, which allowed me to crack in for lethal lol.
Rounds were as follows, not enough time before bed to add any real detail here though:
R1 - Mirror match, my opponent had literally copied @JunkBeezy's list card for card lol. 2-0
R2 - UWR Control. G2 I keep a 2 lander and IoK where he reveals a 7 land hand, lol. I never see a 3rd land and actually manage to lose that. Teeg for the meme dreams in g3 though. 2-1
R3 - RW Prison. Absolutely crush him both games. My SB was accidentally hell for him w/ decay, 2 pulse, and teeg.
R4 - Merfolk. Notably in g2 I mulled to 5, but w/ an opener of catacombs, blooming marsh, decay, pulse, and EE. Scry revealed a path. almost Literally the best sequence of cards I could've seen for that game. 2-0
This list is pretty fun, and i'll probably stick w/ it for at least a week or two. Regardless, I absolutely refuse to play GB(x) w/out 2 copies of Tireless Tracker in the 75. Him + Bob is what allows me to grind so many opponents out of the game.
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