I'm going to replace the two Tasigurs in the main with Elspeth in my aggro build. Green devotion is starting to pop up and Elspeth is a much needed pseudo-board wipe and a finisher, and it doesn't lose value against the control matchups I had him for.
I have been considering the same thing, actually. The new Temur Devotion deck and the traditional G Devotion decks are rough.
OK, here's what I have so far. I have an awesome plan for dealing with RW Aggro, but I'm worried that I took up so much of my sideboard with that that I ended up with too little room for other matchups.
The plan is to run the aggro form against most everything, since it beats up on most everything. But when RW Aggro comes to town, we morph from an aggro deck to a midrange:
-4 Warden of the First Tree
-4 Fleecemane
-4 Rakshasa
-1 Abzan Charm
+1 Courser of Kruphix
+2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
+4 Drown in Sorrow
+2 Bile Blight
+2 Erase
+2 Abzan Advantage
This shores up a couple of key weaknesses we have against RW Aggro:
* Everything with under four toughness gets yanked. This slows some of the burn and forces some hard decisions with Stoke and Chained. It slows us down some, but Courser and Anafenza are both tough on aggro decks: Courser can trade with most of what they throw at us and gives us a slew of miscellaneous buffs, while Anafenza mauls anything they dare to throw at her with her 4 power. And combined with the next point, the slower pace isn't a problem.
* We add in some quality removal to further stifle their attacks. It's a lot harder to go in on us when we're threatening board wipe with Drown in Sorrows and token wipe with Bile Blight, on top of the fact that we can hit anything big except Stormbreath with Abzan Charm, we can stuff an attack completely with Valorous Stance, and we can hit anything including Stormbreath with Downfall. With 18 removal cards at our disposal, we should be able to hold them off, until...
* We get to the 2 Elspeth we added in. Elspeth + Sorin is filthy together, giving us a minimum of 6 life per turn they're both around (and doing so while incrementally bumping them closer to their emblem bombs). Elspeth gives us a second way to hit Stormbreath as well. Sorin's other ability probably isn't that big a deal here, but it's still nice to get a 2/2 flier to put pressure on, and it can become a big deal if we're not finding our token removal. Elspeth is still really helpful without Sorin, too, so she's not too limited.
* Finally, we round it out with some good old enchantment hate. Nothing like tapping 1 white at oppo end phase to get Rhino back for a 6-pt life swing and an unaccounted-for 4 dmg to the face next turn. Abzan Advantage might seem like an odd choice, but when you consider that it basically reads "Target opponent sacrifices enchantment, also make your weakest creature able to survive Stoke the Flames," you can see where this becomes useful.
I don't have a specific sideboard plan for the other decks, but I rounded out the sideboard with 2 copies of Glare of Heresy, and I think with Elspeth, Glare, some enchantment hate, and the ability to basically switch decks on the fly between aggro and midrange, we probably have a winning strategy somewhere in here.
Being on end of contract and temporarily unemployed has allowed me to get A LOT of games in LOL. Starting fresh with the posts from today. Here's where I am with my aggro build. Would like some input. The sideboard keeps evolving and could use some help here.
Vault is literally the only artifact even played right now, and trying to sideboard against it when it's easy to play around isn't a good idea. There's also the fact that sometimes you only have a small window of opportunity to get rid of it.
Vault is literally the only artifact even played right now, and trying to sideboard against it when it's easy to play around isn't a good idea. There's also the fact that sometimes you only have a small window of opportunity to get rid of it.
Maybe I'm skewed from all the UB Control I've been running into on MTGO. How would you fit Elspeth into the SB at this point? -1 Valorous -1 Thoughtseize or just ditch the 2 Reclamations?
Anybody given Sandblast a look? (Hide it from RW...)
Seems like it would be a cool sideboard card for matches where we want to go slower - 3 mana for 5 damage to a creature is pretty efficient. I don't know whether we have room for it in the 75, though. That's my only real hangup. We have so much removal that I'm not sure if this has a spot.
Anybody given Sandblast a look? (Hide it from RW...)
Seems like it would be a cool sideboard card for matches where we want to go slower - 3 mana for 5 damage to a creature is pretty efficient. I don't know whether we have room for it in the 75, though. That's my only real hangup. We have so much removal that I'm not sure if this has a spot.
There is like a billion other better removals at the moment. Why play that over any of them?
So here's my deck now adjusted to deal with the increase of big green decks.
- I've put Thoughtseize back into the 75 because the meta's diversed itself to need them. Taking a dangerous Nissa, Ugin, and even Temur Ascendancy is more important than ever now.
- I'm still going back and forth on End Hostilities or Elspeth, but for now I'm going for EH.
For those playing Warden of the First Tree, let me pick your brains for a second:
Can you give me a typical curve/how a game plays out when you have Warden? My reason for not playing him was that I have rarely found a shortage of things to do with my mana, so he often ends up being a 1/1 that never grows. I've also found that I'd still much rather play a tapped land (Citadel/scryland) on T1, because it helps me fix mana in a deck that wants those three colors online. I just want to see how Warden fits into all of this, because my belief is that Rakshasa/Lion are much better early drops, and that I should be playing a full set of both before even thinking of Warden.
Part of the reason I'm hesitant with Warden is also R/W Aggro. Note that I have not gotten much reps in against the deck (just a couple of games playing with a friend on MWS/few IRL games), but just some thoughts spinning around: Warden is a card that wants me to adjust my manabase to accommodate it T1. The obvious answer is more painlands, less ETB tapped lands, but now I'm taking more damage against a deck that can punish me very hard for doing so.
And speaking of R/W Aggro... yeah, I'm getting eaten by it too. Looking at some of the ideas here, especially the midrange transition post-board. How is Valorous Stance against them? A pal said it's great at helping your creatures eat some burn spells, but I have yet to test it. Kind of hesitant to put in a blank against Stormbreath.
Not sure where I can start with improving against R/W, so here's the decklist I have right now. I swap a few cards around regularly here and there, but mostly this is what I play:
That's 35 cards, with 3 flex spots. Regulars in those spots include the 3rd Roc, the 3rd Downfall, Thoughtseize, and Tasigur.
Oh, and nice to see Abzan Advantage popping up in some lists, too. My friend knocked me for thinking of even playing that card, until my 5/6 Rhino ate his puny 4/5 Rhino.
I'm actually thinking about switching to Warden in my deck. I tend to prefer the t1 scryland/triland into t2 lion / t3 annie / t4 rhino curve, but Warden gives me a backup t1 play if I don't hit what I need to start that sequence or if I end up not curving out smoothly.
Some advantages Warden provides:
- He's another mana sink and quite possibly the best of all. You will want him in a grinder game [b]so[/s] much more than Lion or Rakky, it's not even funny. Lion can sink 5 mana once, and while he gets some pretty sweet plays for it, that's it. He caps at a respectable 4/4 hexproof indestructible. Rakky can go up as high as you want and has added durability with regenerate, but the boosts are temporary. Warden becomes an 8/8 trample lifelink with the ability to go up 5/5 every subsequent turn, permanently.
- Even though he's obviously at his best when you can sink mana into him, the truth is that he's still an okay card to have when you can't. The advice I've gotten from people running Warden is that his primary utility is in giving you a solid backup option if/after you curve out. Ideally you're curving out through Rhino, but if you don't, then you can just turn around and pump Warden. For whatever reason, people don't like to use burn on a scrubby 1-drop, so he tends to stick around long enough to be pumped up.
- His pump puts him at 3 toughness, which dodges a lot of burn (Magma Jet, Wild Slash, Magma Spray) - and again, no one wants to waste Lightning Strike on a 1-drop.
On the whole, I would agree that Rakshasa and Fleecemane are better early creatures. But the aggro version probably wants 12 cmc<3 creatures so it can reliably threaten on t2/t3 while it hopes to curve out into Rhino. Warden is really competing with Heir for that distinction, and I think Warden at a minimum earns that spot.
Valorous Stance is becoming a must-have card IMO. It is really good. Against RW Aggro it obviously loses some of its shine, since the only eligible target for its second mode is Sarkhan, who I think has fallen out of favor lately for Stormbreath. But that honestly doesn't even matter much because of the first mode! All of RW Aggro's creatures have low enough toughness that they end up trading with our guys. Valorous Stance makes our guys indestructible, which stops Rabblemaster in its tracks and throws a wrench in Mentor's / Seeker's gameplan too.
Looking at your card choices:
- I mostly like your creature shell. I would scrap Wingmate Roc and one Anafenza for another set of 2-drops (or Wardens). In my experience, The Roc tends to be a win-harder card, superb when you're ahead in board development (aka situations you mostly win anyway) and deplorable when you're behind. I'd scrap the 4th Anafenza because you don't really want a 4-of with any Legendary Creature; too much potential for a dead draw. 3 is the sweet spot IMO. If you're (understandably) concerned about ensuring your curve is good, you can add a 3rd Courser to get 6 3-drop creatures (although I don't think I would, I've had a lot of success with 5). As for why a 3rd set of 2-drops - you really want the t2 play in an aggro deck. You want to put the early pressure on and maximize your chance of having somewhere to go after t2 if you don't curve out well.
- Sorin is a superb 2-of and a better "curve topper" than Roc imo. (He's sitting tied with Rhino atop the curve, but you obviously would rather Rhino -> Sorin over Sorin -> Rhino every time you can.) Keep him in the main deck and try to get 2 Elspeth in the sideboard - you can punish slow decks unbelievably hard by spawning 3 Soldiers a turn paired up with Sorin's +1. It's really hard to deal with 6 lifelink dmg into 12 into 18 etc. And otherwise he's just a good card that gives you enough life to afford a high # of painlands.
- I would make your removal more efficient, it looks like you're trying to plan for everything instead of focusing on just putting the best 60 cards in the deck. Bile Blight in particular I don't feel is worthy of a maindeck spot (although YMMV depending on local meta flavor). I go 4-of Downfall/Charm/Stance MB, you don't have to do that but I would specialize a little bit at least.
- What's your land plan btw? I see 25 spots for it, which IMO is the right place to be. Curious what your strategy is with it though
Thoughts on adding Brimaz into the aggro deck for some more pressure? I was thinking something like this. Not sure if I wanted a 4x of Warden of the First Tree or have something with deathtouch early. Added Phyrexian Revoker to the SB as another option to shut down Planeswalkers.
Won a sweet Ugin playmat today by winning my LGS Game Day. Beat W/R Heroic, Jeskai, lost to RW Aggro, and beat Temur Aggro to get into the top 4 (out of 16), and then beat RW Aggro and Jeskai for the finals. For those of you who still doubt Warden of the First Tree, I'd highly suggest you test the card out. Much like Rakshasa Deathdealer, it's another early game beater that can win you the game if you and your opponent are in top-deck mode turn 10+. Between Abzan Charm, Anafenza, the Foremost, and Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, adding his trample/lifelink to a few pump spells can ruin games for opposing aggro players.
Here's my deck-list, for those who are interested:
Thoughts on adding Brimaz into the aggro deck for some more pressure? I was thinking something like this. Not sure if I wanted a 4x of Warden of the First Tree or have something with deathtouch early. Added Phyrexian Revoker to the SB as another option to shut down Planeswalkers.
Think most of the time you're better served with Warden over Rats. For sure pick one over the other though, because of the next comment...
Running a green 1-drop, 1 black 1-drop, a green-black 2-drop, and Brimaz is asking for trouble. Brimaz can be good for us, but if you're going to run Brimaz then your 2-drop almost has to be Fleecemane Lion if you want any chance of curving out on schedule.
It almost looks like you have most of the pieces for two sets of curves: Rats-Rakshasa-Anafenza-Rhino, and Warden-Lion-Brimaz-Rhino. Both of those curves are killer, but you really need to pick one and commit to it, imo. Your current setup tries to do both, and while in concept being able to curve out two different ways is nice, what you're going to find more often than not is that you ended up with parts of one curve and parts of the other, and you won't have enough mana to make it work.
I also separately have found Wingmate to be an underperformer, but if he works for you then go for it. I'm not sure I would run five creature/planeswalkers to be played after Rhino though. You might benefit from cutting a little bit there and adding a couple more spells.
Round 1: RW Devotion
I lost to him last night due to bad misplays. This time I was able to control the game by killing any creatures he played with my kill spells before unloading my own. 2-0
Round 2: UB Control
Game one I won by playing only Thoughtseize and Deathdealer. Deathdealer won the game all by himself, even though I had two more in hand along with an Ana and two Rhinos. I lost game two when he removed my early threats on curve. Game three he kept a bad hand. Two Thoughtseizes in a row took care of a Vault and Ashiok, allowing my creatures to breeze through. 2-1
Round 3: Abzan Midrange
This was an odd deck. The first game he flooded. The second he played a Whisperwood Elemental, getting to manifest twice. I lost when he flips to reveal both were Reaper of the Wilds and Soul of Theros. Game three I had the perfect curve and won. 2-1
Round 4 and 5: Mono Black aggro and RW aggro
Drew both to get into Top 8.
Top 8 Round 1: Abzan Aggro
Both games I went the curve of Lion/Deathdealer > Ana > Rhino > Wingmate. The first game he couldn't match it, while in the second he saw nothing but mismatched kill spells. 2-0
Top 8 Round 2: Abzan Aggro
Three Abzan Aggro players today and I played both. Game one he couldn't get more than two lands, but was still able to play two Lions and a Deathdealer to slow me down. Game two came with my favorite play on the day. He was at 6 and had a Courser revealing End Hostilities next with three open mana (Abzan Charm). I had five mana open with Ana and Rhino. I played Downfall on the Courser. Before I attacked he tried to Charm my Rhino. I responded by playing Bile Blight on it to avoid the Charm, declared attacks and got Rhino a counter and dealt the 6 damage. 2-0
Top 8 Final Round: Sultai Control
I've gone 11-1 against all sorts of control, with my one loss due to mana flooding against a good opponent. Guess what? It happened again to the same opponent. But it was okay, because someone offered to buy the mat before we started to play. My opponent and I decided to sell it to him but splitting the profit. I lost, by I still got to walk away with $35. 0-2
Overall I think I did very well. Putting Thoughtseize back into the main was the right call since it helped me win the matches I think I could have lost or had no answers to.
So here's the current state of my deck, feel free to give advice and criticism, ask questions, etc.
I view it as a midrange deck that can transition between being midrange-beatdown and midrange-control depending on the matchup. It's more on the beatdown end of the spectrum, but it flexes out to midrange-control against decks that go faster than it. The fundamental question, as always, is determining who's the attacker and who's the defender. In most matchups we're fast and big enough to be the attacker, but some decks just go faster than us, so we flex to a build that is better at playing the defender.
Heir of the Wilds: This guy is possibly the best 2-drop threat we have if we're the aggressor. It's not hard to trigger Ferocious to make him a 3/3 deathtouch creature in this deck, and even if he's just a 2/2, he might as well be a flier most times, because no one wants to block him. And if we're on the defensive, he still is a pretty good value, because he can trade up like nobody's business. His one weakness compared to the other 2-drops is that he's the most limited in terms of becoming better; he caps out at 3/3 without assistance while Rakshasa is bulking up and regenerating, Fleecemane becomes a 4/4 hexproof indestructible and Warden's growth potential is insane (not to mention that he becomes a 3/3 trample lifelink without much trouble). Ideally you want your lower drops to still have the ability to contend later in the game, and Heir does this worse than Rakshasa and Fleecemane in my observations, so if I do get a playset of Wardens, they'll probably take his place. Still, in the meantime he's a good value who's won some games for me just because no one wants to block him.
Rakshasa Deathdealer: The most versatile 2-drop in the deck. He's the card that finally taught this up-and-comer how to use mana wisely. The mindgames that Rakshasa opens up are a nightmare to deal with. He has really good synergy with our various instant-speed removal, because you can leave mana open until after blockers are declared and then read and react to the declared blocks. You force the opponent to commit first and thus you get to make the optimal play, always. He's also good on defense if we get caught backpedaling, because he can be regenerated relatively inexpensively after chump blocking a major threat if pumping isn't an option. His one drawback is a somewhat tough mana requirement, but the deck has extremely high mana fixing to try to counteract this.
Fleecemane Lion: This is the most consistent 2-drop we have. His default stats are a little bulkier than the others, which means that we're getting his best performances more regularly than we would from, say, Rakshasa. He doesn't dodge Lightning Strike, but he does dodge basically all other burn, so in a lot of cases he's capable of going 2-for-1 against faster decks. And did I mention he's a 3-power 2-drop? He's also a major threat later in the game, because he can pump at instant speed into a 4/4 hexproof indestructible. His weakness is that he's also tough on the mana base, and in a different way (using W instead of B) from Rakshasa, but again, the lands are carefully designed to attempt to minimize conflict.
Anafenza, the Foremost: Our Khan is an incredible fighter. She's a great value at 4/4 for 3, the strict mana requirement isn't even all that bad given the deck fixing, she gives us an extra edge with the +1/+1 counter that can often make a huge difference, and she even has some Delve/Whip hate going on with the second ability. The only reason I don't run four of her is because of the Legendary Creature rule; I've pulled multiple copies of her on several occasions just running three in the deck, four is liable to just be a dead draw more often than not.
Courser of Kruphix: Arguably the best creature in Standard. I went for a long time without using him, because I just didn't believe that a beatdown deck had a use for him. First of all, I was outright wrong there: the draw fixing, lifegain and extra turn's notice is pretty awesome, even if the last ability works for your opponent as well. He's such a good utility card that he might have a shot at making it into a beatdown deck despite not being a beater (2/4 for cmc 3). Secondly, we ended up not being pure beatdown anyway, and in order to make the sideboard plan manageable, some Coursers had to make it into the maindeck anyway. I've seen the light. This guy puts in work.
Siege Rhino: 4cmc 4/5 trample with instant 6-pt lifeswing. Don't tell Fleecemane, but this guy is the king of beasts. Resolving this guy on curve after Anafenza and <insert 2-drop> is answer-or-die territory.
Warden of the First Tree: Opinion seems to be mixed about him, but I'm here to say he's definitely got a place in our deck IF you know what his purpose is. He isn't a pseudo-two-drop 3/3 with haste. You aren't using him as a replacement for your 2-drop. Instead, what you're ideally doing is dropping him on turn 1 and curving out with other creatures. As soon as you miss your curve for whatever reason - missed a land drop, ran out of creatures to curve out - and you find yourself on Main 2 with nothing to do, you pump him. Until then, he's swinging for cheap free damage when the opponent doesn't have blockers to declare, or he's chump blocking something you either can't answer or don't want to answer that turn. His value comes in expanding your options for spending mana, giving you an extra body if you need it until you're ready to pump, and because he can be a pseudo-two-drop 3/3 with haste (and with less stringent mana reqs than Fleecemane or Rakshasa, to boot), he's also giving you more flexibility in keeping otherwise-questionable opening hands.
Noncreature Spells
Abzan Charm: Almost never a dead draw. Every mode on it has several highly valuable uses. This card is only not a 4-of because I needed room for Drown in Sorrow without shafting the other spells too much; if you find you don't need some of the others as much due to local meta, mainboard four of these immediately.
Hero's Downfall: The premiere spot removal spell in Standard right now. (Eat your heart out, Delved Murderous Cut.) Three-mana answer to almost every threat in the metagame right now, and with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, trivial to cast by t4 or so. Like with Charm, 3-of is only to allow room for Drown in Sorrow. Feel free to go 4-of if you think you can get away with it.
Valorous Stance: Another multiple-mode instant spell that's highly useful. It's a useful combat trick against faster decks and a very mana-efficient removal spell against bigger decks. I've loved the 4-of here, but this is probably where I would cut first if you're looking to add different spells, because even though it has two useful modes, those modes are still a little bit selective; you'll see them often enough to justify having the card, but it's still more situational than the other spells.
Drown in Sorrow: I used to run 4 in the sideboard and none mainboard. Instantly losing every time Hornet Queen resolves sucks, though. Or instantly losing every time Monastery Mentor is allowed to go off, or Rabblemaster getting a few turns to spew goblin tokens, or Rabblemaster into Hordeling Outburst. All of these cards are super prevalent in the meta right now, so having an unequivocal get-out-of-here answer in the mainboard is necessary. Cut this a bit if you think tokens aren't as prevalent where you play, but do not cut all of them. Hornet Queen resolving once is barely manageable without it. Hornet Queen resolving, intentionally getting killed and then revived with Whip of Erebos is a loss over 90% of the time. Rabblemaster or Mentor staying alive for more than 2 turns is a loss over 90% of the time. Bring Drown in Sorrow or prepare to drown in sorrow as you watch game 1 evaporate before your very eyes. It's that simple.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor: This guy is our "curve-topper" (technically he's a 4-drop with Siege Rhino, but in all cases you want to cast Rhino first, since Sorin can go +1 on the turn he resolves, while Rhino can't attack the turn he resolves). His +1 is invaluable for lifegain and can help break a stalemate on the board, and if he's not answered immediately, his emblem is almost impossible to come back from. He's bad playing from behind, but unlike a lot of planeswalkers, he's not useless from behind; he can at least go -2 if the opponent is threatening lethal anyway to give you a flying Vamp token. Great card whose +1 mode is off-the-charts good for our deck.
Lands
Sandsteppe Citadel, Windswept Heath, Forest, Plains: Self-explanatory. Basic lands are a bit awkward for this deck since it very actively uses all three colors, so we want to minimize the number of them we have. It can be awkward if we end up with a Windswept Heath after already playing our four basic lands, but Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth gives us some relief in this regard.
Caves of Koilos, Llanowar Wastes: Crucial for ensuring we get to curve out ASAP. Sorin and Rhinos give us enough lifegain to make this okay, as long as we don't end up in the awkward situation where we have nothing but painlands.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Mostly self-explanatory for a deck that runs black. Two is a bit of an odd (well, even) number to use for a Legendary Land, but in this case it's right where we want it: frequent enough to get it out regularly (which is huge, since it lets our painlands tap for black without hurting us, and it lets our stranded fetchlands be useful again; never mind the mana fixing it provides), but infrequent enough to avoid drawing multiples too close together. The Legendary restriction can actually be mitigated, to highly amusing results, by playing the second copy of Urborg after tapping the first, then tapping the second after it resolves; the tapped one is discarded and you can effectively tap again for a turn.
Temple of Malady: Scrying is incredibly useful t1, when your draws are most crucial, and are honestly good enough to warrant passing on a t1 play / not having one in the first place. We want Malady here because all of our 1-2 drops use green and our most critical answers (Downfall, Sorrows) use black, but there's an argument for using Temple of Plenty instead, especially since our sideboard runs a fair dose of white spells. Just don't do Temple of Silence if you experiment here; you really want the green above all else.
The Skinny
Like I said before, the primary use of the sideboard is to allow our deck to transition from beatdown to control mid-match, after scouting the opponent's deck to see what they try to be. The most fundamental strength of the House of Abzan is its versatility. It's prevalent in the lore, it's prevalent in the cards, it's prevalent in the astonishing variety of strategies present around the "Kill Stuff With Siege Rhino" shell, it's prevalent in the fact that this thread is essentially an Abzan Megathread on a subforum dedicated to analysis of very specific, narrow deck concepts. I think the biggest mistake a lot of Abzan players make is that they don't take advantage of this versatility. They decide for themselves whether they want to run Abzan Midrange-Beatdown or Midrange-Control, they commit 60 cards to it and they build a sideboard of counters and hate toward other decks.
The Specifics
This strategy came to me after getting my ass kicked at an MTG event last Tuesday. Almost everyone there ran RW Aggro, and it was obvious that Abzan Midrange-Beatdown is too slow to deal with it. We're the defender in that matchup, and a deck designed to be a beatdown just can't defend right. RW Aggro has too many weapons to snipe our guys. I designed a transformative sideboard strategy with the goal of removing as many vulnerable creatures as possible from the deck, and replacing them with more durable creatures or spells designed to stall out aggro. The specific deadline I drew was 3 toughness: if you had fewer than that, you came out. This stops their burn from being removal in all cases except Stoke the Flames and Chained to the Rocks, which hurts their capacity to clear the way for their horde of small creatures. This does let them try to burn us out, but Rhino and Sorin should give us a chance to resolve some crucial lifegain before we get in trouble.
The Coursers of Kruphix come in as 3-cmc blockers that fix our draws to maximize our chances of resolving our win condition: Siege Rhino or Elspeth, Sun's Champion paired with Sorin. Elspeth and Sorin is the dream team of this deck, pairing up to deal 6, then 12, then 18, etc. lifelink damage if allowed to rampage ucontested. Elspeth can also nuke any bigger threats that managed to resolve, like Stormbreath Dragon.
The rest of it depends on what kind of beatdown we're looking at. Typically you'll want to bring in the fourth copies of Drown in Sorrow, Hero's Downfall, Valorous Stance and Abzan Charm at a minimum. If the opponent is running a token deck, Bile Blight comes in as the 5th and 6th Drown in Sorrow. If they're relying on enchantments, you have good enchantment hate in Erase and Abzan Advantage. (Abzan Advantage is a favorite of mine, not only for the bolster effect but also because it manages to bypass both indestructible AND hexproof to eliminate pesky enchantment creatures. It gives the opponent the choice, which can be a pain sometimes if they've got multiple enchantments, but the benefits are well worth this drawback. Erase, on the other hand, is a 1-drop targeted anti-enchantment bullet.) If your opponent likes white cards, hit 'em with Glare of Heresy.
Thoughtseize: This card is useful, I just excluded it because I didn't have the money for it and wasn't sure it was strictly necessary. It has use in every matchup though, and it might be worth maindecking if you can find space for it. I don't think I would use this as a 4-of, because it's a bad topdeck lategame and it's not always especially useful, but it's certainly worth a look as a 2-of.
Sylvan Caryatid: Doesn't fit in an aggro shell at all, even if we're trying to flex into control. We don't really need or even have much use for ramp, and Fleecemane Lion is a better blocker if we really badly wanted a 2-drop blocker for whatever reason.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: Another useful card that I just didn't have space for. He would probably be a really good card for the control transition, since he can be a 5th and 6th Rhino, he can Delve in for cheap and he can get us more cards. Having more >4 toughness creatures than the opponent can Chain is nice.
End Hostilities, Duneblast, Crux of Fate: This might actually be worth a 1-of in the sideboard for the control transition, it's just that it's a rare situation where either of these can do work that Drown in Sorrow or Bile Blight can't. Against decks that produce creatures big enough to survive those two cards, we're typically trying to play the beatdown mode and develop our board before they can resolve their threats; a board wipe isn't what we're in the market for. The only one I would really consider is Crux of Fate, and only if your meta is infested with Silumgar, the Drifting Death, and only then as a sideboard 1-of.
Nissa, Worldwaker: She was cool back when Perilous Vault was the sweeper of choice for control. Now Crux of Fate is, and Nissa turns Crux into a land wipe on top of a creature wipe. Talk about backfiring. This is one where I feel pretty confident saying "don't use this one ever."
Wingmate Roc: I love The Roc, but I think he's not nearly as good as he seems like he would be on paper. 6 in the air spread out among two attackers plus lifegain for 5 cmc is a great deal in theory, but it really depends on you already having developed your board state at least to parity (and ideally to an advantageous state), and in games where you're winning the development battle, Roc really tends to be a win-harder card rather than a card that decides anything. And when you're behind on development, Roc is awful.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos: You would think a deck that wants a healthy dose of 4+ toughness creatures to deal with token spam would love a 3/4 3-drop token generator that can swing and block, but in my limited attempts to use him, I've found the WW cost to be too intensive with my other desired plays. He's not unworkable, I just find myself preferring the twelve 2-drop aggro look with the ability to drop black-based removal early, which requires too much G/B to swing Brimaz with as well. Plus he competes with Anafenza and Courser for room on the curve, which is never a good place to be.
Murderous Cut: Between Abzan Charm and Valorous Stance, we already have de facto 5th-12th copies of Downfall.
I might do some matchup analysis later, but this is the primer to my deck. Hope it's helpful, either as discussion fodder or inspiration for a new build!
I find Drown in Sorrow does the job better typically. I don't have as much experience with GR Aggro, but my local meta has a ton of RW Aggro, and I know I'd much rather have Drown in Sorrow - it hits Rabble and his goons (whereas Blight only hits the goons OR Rabble), Mentor/Seeker/Soulfire and the monks, Hornet Queen and her spawn. It misses Brimaz, so Bile is better vs him (Instant vs Sorcery, one fewer mana cost), but Sorrow performs better vs the rest.
Actually, I'm kinda curious why Blight was ever the preference. I guess it sucks for Rakshasa or Heir to get hit by Drown, but Rakshasa can maybe be pumped or regen'd. Sorrow hitting more than one creature name, and the fact that none of the token producers (sans Brimaz) have toughness > 2, puts it over the top for me.
- Instant speed
- Combat tricks
- 2CMC
- Extra -1/-1 makes a difference
It's not even an argument, Bile is better in the main. Bile is only fairly dead in the control matchup, while Drown is more narrow since it's dead against control, the mirror, and most midrange decks. Also with all the flyers and haste creatures (I'm looking at YOU, Shaman of the Great Hunt), catching them before attacking is crucial. A deck like GR Aggro is playing nearly all haste, flyers, and flash so a Sorcery speed removal is too late because they've done the damage.
While our threats are arguably the pound-for-pound strongest in the format, I think those of you who are overlooking Wingmate Roc are making a huge mistake. It's the big curve topper, the closer that finishes out games because it's so difficult to answer. It can even pull you back into games where you've fallen behind on the board by providing 2 beefy blockers that can start swinging life totals by at least 8 next turn. It's not win-more... it's just win.
I'll go over the Warden discussion in the morning, but I am watching GP Seville right now - anyone else watching?
Game 3 of the Finals and Pierre Sommen playing Abzan Aggro has his Siege Rhinos boarded out against U/B Control. Is there something we're missing here?
Took this list to Game Day today. Went 4-0 and took the Ugin mat home. Opened garbage in my prize packs (I should have traded them in. Must have got caught up in the moment).
Match 1: Jeskai Ascendancy Tokens W 2-1
I was not 100% prepared to play against this today. Game 1 was long and ended the turn before I was going to win with him top decking a Jeskai Charm to gain more life than I could chew through before being killed by tokens & ascendancy pump. Oh yeah, and he played a Monastery Mentor whose prowess token actually did have an impact.
Game 1 I sequenced my lands so that I could play a T2 Rakshasa Deathdealer. Had I T1 Thoughtseize and played a tapped land T2, I would have been in good shape to win. Instead, I played a tapped land T1, Rakshasa Deathdealer T2 and he plays an Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver on his T3 (he went first). I Thoughtseize on my T3 and see a terrible hand - make him discard Dissolve. My opener had 2 lands and I didn't see another one the rest of the game while Ashiok destroyed me (insultingly milling lands that I would have drawn next turn).
Games 2 and 3 Thoughtseize put in major work and I navigated around his counterspell effects. One notable play was when I didn't play anything T3 into counter magic but set up a T4 where I played multiple 2 drops so that one stuck. The Fleecemane Lion from that turn went monstrous and he wasn't able to get rid of it before it killed him.
Match 3: Green Devotion W 2-0
I go on auto-pilot against this deck these days. Kill/Thoughtseize their big creatures and make them do combat with their mana guys. Both games I waited for him to miss playing a fatty and stuck a Siege Rhino as a follow-up to win it. I noted that Rakshasa Deathdealer blocks Polukranos, World Eater like a boss.
Match 4: GR Midrange W 2-1
This deck I was worried about and you can tell by my sideboard.
Game 1 I T1 Thoughtseize to get rid of Stormbreath Dragon early and then curve out perfectly the game is over in minutes. As it turned out, I would not have drawn another answer to Stormbreath Dragon and it would have probably raced me successfully or slowed me down enough for him to stabilize.
Game 2 I drew an absolute ton of land. I mean, by the end of the game I easily had 12 or 13 lands in play. He didn't draw well either and eventually did draw a string of Sarkhan, Sarkhan, Polukranos while I kept drawing land.
Anafenza, the Foremost is awesome. The 4/4 body and {G}{W}{B} casting cost (which is easier than double colors in our deck) is very consistently good. The exile creature clause didn't matter today, but it does sometimes. The +1/+1 counter for Fleecemane Lion or Rakshasa Deathdealer was very relevant. I may try working another into the deck.
I didn't play Wingmate Roc all day and actually sided it out in several match-ups. That said, it is still amazing in the mirror which continues to represent a lot of the meta.
If you followed any of my previous lists, I needed to turn my land for this iteration. I feel my current manabase is very consistent and doesn't require an excessive pain land count.
I think Brimaz, King of Oreskos is more relevant today than it has been in the past because of how it stands up against tokens. I ran 3 for the longest time but I've cut it down to 2, which I actually feel is a more comfortable number. If I ran 3 of one of the legendary 3 drops, I think it would be Anafenza, the Foremost for its ability to punch through 4 toughness creatures and the sheer damage it outputs with any of our 2 drops. It felt really good today to attack with Anafenza, the Foremost and Fleecemane Lion for 8 after playing a removal spell.
I only made 1 small Game Day with the more controlling Abzan list. I went 2-1 for no playmat.
Match 1: Mardu Aggro w/Alesha, Rabble
G1: Kept a 2 lander vs an opponent mull to 5, didn't get a third land until too late to matter.
Sideboard: -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Liliana, -2 Read the Bones; +1 Bile Blight, +3 Drown, +1 Downfall
G2: Mulled a 1 lander, then no G mana and G creatures makes for a multiple mulligan. I fell to the third Rabblemaster. Likely I should have mulled again.
Loss 0-1
Match 2: UW Heroic Brew w/Elspeth?
G1, G2: kill all of the creatures, play Siege Rhino, win
SB: -1 Liliana, -2 Read the Bones; +1 Glare, +1 Bile Blight, +1 Downfall
Win, 1-1
Match 3: BW Warrior brew w/Disowned Ancestors, Sorin and
G1: Kill stuff, Rhino
SB: -1 Liliana, -2 Read the Bones; +1 Bile Blight, +1 Sorin, +1 Downfall
G2: Flooded severely, Duneblast and End helped, made enough 2 for 1s to survive. Eventually Elspeth, then Sorin do what they do.
Win 2-1
Conclusions: Tweaked manabase to include 2 Plains so I can fetch for a second Plains. This meta being more aggro and without as much UB control as the other shop I play at, I want to swap a few Brimaz into the sideboard when I play here.
The Sideboard was also adjusted. I tried Abzan Advantage first, but it was super bad. Really, do not play this card. Bad Situation 1 was when opponent had 2 Banishing Light and could choose which creature you get back and Bad Situation 2 was when I had the Abzan Advantage and the other opponent had a Ordeal of Thassa.
While everyone's experience is relative to evaluating a card, calling it 'super bad, do not play' seems like a significant over-statement. Especially coming out of a weekend where it saw main deck play in a GP top 8 deck, and blew out an opponent on camera in the X-1 bracket of the SCG Open in Houston. I have doubts as to whether it should be played over Erase coming out of the board still, but hyperbole about how bad a card is from a sample size of 2 seems a little over the top.
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lol
this is what I should have been doing all along
thinking of my cards as "50 deck, 25 sideboard" with 10 of the "sideboard" cards starting in the deck so I always know what to take out
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
I have been considering the same thing, actually. The new Temur Devotion deck and the traditional G Devotion decks are rough.
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
4 Warden of the First Tree
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Courser of Kruphix
4 Siege Rhino
Noncreature Spells (14)
4 Abzan Charm
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Valorous Stance
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Plenty
2 Abzan Advantage
2 Bile Blight
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Drown in Sorrow
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Erase
2 Glare of Heresy
The plan is to run the aggro form against most everything, since it beats up on most everything. But when RW Aggro comes to town, we morph from an aggro deck to a midrange:
-4 Warden of the First Tree
-4 Fleecemane
-4 Rakshasa
-1 Abzan Charm
+1 Courser of Kruphix
+2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
+4 Drown in Sorrow
+2 Bile Blight
+2 Erase
+2 Abzan Advantage
This shores up a couple of key weaknesses we have against RW Aggro:
* Everything with under four toughness gets yanked. This slows some of the burn and forces some hard decisions with Stoke and Chained. It slows us down some, but Courser and Anafenza are both tough on aggro decks: Courser can trade with most of what they throw at us and gives us a slew of miscellaneous buffs, while Anafenza mauls anything they dare to throw at her with her 4 power. And combined with the next point, the slower pace isn't a problem.
* We add in some quality removal to further stifle their attacks. It's a lot harder to go in on us when we're threatening board wipe with Drown in Sorrows and token wipe with Bile Blight, on top of the fact that we can hit anything big except Stormbreath with Abzan Charm, we can stuff an attack completely with Valorous Stance, and we can hit anything including Stormbreath with Downfall. With 18 removal cards at our disposal, we should be able to hold them off, until...
* We get to the 2 Elspeth we added in. Elspeth + Sorin is filthy together, giving us a minimum of 6 life per turn they're both around (and doing so while incrementally bumping them closer to their emblem bombs). Elspeth gives us a second way to hit Stormbreath as well. Sorin's other ability probably isn't that big a deal here, but it's still nice to get a 2/2 flier to put pressure on, and it can become a big deal if we're not finding our token removal. Elspeth is still really helpful without Sorin, too, so she's not too limited.
* Finally, we round it out with some good old enchantment hate. Nothing like tapping 1 white at oppo end phase to get Rhino back for a 6-pt life swing and an unaccounted-for 4 dmg to the face next turn. Abzan Advantage might seem like an odd choice, but when you consider that it basically reads "Target opponent sacrifices enchantment, also make your weakest creature able to survive Stoke the Flames," you can see where this becomes useful.
I don't have a specific sideboard plan for the other decks, but I rounded out the sideboard with 2 copies of Glare of Heresy, and I think with Elspeth, Glare, some enchantment hate, and the ability to basically switch decks on the fly between aggro and midrange, we probably have a winning strategy somewhere in here.
Any feedback would be lovely.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Siege Rhino
3 Warden of the First Tree
3 Wingmate Roc
//Planeswalkers
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
//Spells
3 Abzan Charm
2 Bile Blight
2 Drown in Sorrow
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Valorous Stance
3 Caves of Koilos
2 Forest
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Plains
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
3 Temple of Malady
3 Temple of Silence
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Windswept Heath
3 Back to Nature
2 Drown in Sorrow
1 Valorous Stance
4 Thoughtseize
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Crux of Fate
1 End Hostilities
I'd like to add Elspeth back into the SB but I'm torn on what to remove. I was thinking ditching -2 Reclamation Sage entirely, +1 Back to Nature, -1 Valorous Stance, +2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Not sure if a +4 of Back to Nature is too much or if I should invest in a little more hate in terms of Crux of Fate or End Hostilities. My only concern is Perilous Vault with U/B Control, as Reclamation Sage gave me an answer to both Enchantments and Artifacts. Maybe adding in Naturalize? Thoughts?
GWUBAtraxa and Her Superfriends
WUB Oloro, the Life Drain Train
URG Animar, Soul of Elements
WBR Kaalia of the Vast
BWTeysa Karlov, Scion of Orzhov
R Purphoros, Goblins of Pain ($100 Budget Challenge)
U Talrand, Fun Police (Needs updating)
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Maybe I'm skewed from all the UB Control I've been running into on MTGO. How would you fit Elspeth into the SB at this point? -1 Valorous -1 Thoughtseize or just ditch the 2 Reclamations?
GWUBAtraxa and Her Superfriends
WUB Oloro, the Life Drain Train
URG Animar, Soul of Elements
WBR Kaalia of the Vast
BWTeysa Karlov, Scion of Orzhov
R Purphoros, Goblins of Pain ($100 Budget Challenge)
U Talrand, Fun Police (Needs updating)
Seems like it would be a cool sideboard card for matches where we want to go slower - 3 mana for 5 damage to a creature is pretty efficient. I don't know whether we have room for it in the 75, though. That's my only real hangup. We have so much removal that I'm not sure if this has a spot.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
There is like a billion other better removals at the moment. Why play that over any of them?
So here's my deck now adjusted to deal with the increase of big green decks.
2 Wingmate Roc
4 Siege Rhino
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Abzan Charm
3 Bile Blight
4 Thoughtseize
25 Lands
2 End Hostilities
2 Utter End
1 Murderous Cut
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Hushwing Gryff
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Back to Nature
- I've put Thoughtseize back into the 75 because the meta's diversed itself to need them. Taking a dangerous Nissa, Ugin, and even Temur Ascendancy is more important than ever now.
- I'm still going back and forth on End Hostilities or Elspeth, but for now I'm going for EH.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Can you give me a typical curve/how a game plays out when you have Warden? My reason for not playing him was that I have rarely found a shortage of things to do with my mana, so he often ends up being a 1/1 that never grows. I've also found that I'd still much rather play a tapped land (Citadel/scryland) on T1, because it helps me fix mana in a deck that wants those three colors online. I just want to see how Warden fits into all of this, because my belief is that Rakshasa/Lion are much better early drops, and that I should be playing a full set of both before even thinking of Warden.
Part of the reason I'm hesitant with Warden is also R/W Aggro. Note that I have not gotten much reps in against the deck (just a couple of games playing with a friend on MWS/few IRL games), but just some thoughts spinning around: Warden is a card that wants me to adjust my manabase to accommodate it T1. The obvious answer is more painlands, less ETB tapped lands, but now I'm taking more damage against a deck that can punish me very hard for doing so.
And speaking of R/W Aggro... yeah, I'm getting eaten by it too. Looking at some of the ideas here, especially the midrange transition post-board. How is Valorous Stance against them? A pal said it's great at helping your creatures eat some burn spells, but I have yet to test it. Kind of hesitant to put in a blank against Stormbreath.
Not sure where I can start with improving against R/W, so here's the decklist I have right now. I swap a few cards around regularly here and there, but mostly this is what I play:
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Courser of Kruphix
4 Siege Rhino
2 Wingmate Roc
2 Bile Blight
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Abzan Charm
1 Murderous Cut
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
That's 35 cards, with 3 flex spots. Regulars in those spots include the 3rd Roc, the 3rd Downfall, Thoughtseize, and Tasigur.
Oh, and nice to see Abzan Advantage popping up in some lists, too. My friend knocked me for thinking of even playing that card, until my 5/6 Rhino ate his puny 4/5 Rhino.
Some advantages Warden provides:
- He's another mana sink and quite possibly the best of all. You will want him in a grinder game [b]so[/s] much more than Lion or Rakky, it's not even funny. Lion can sink 5 mana once, and while he gets some pretty sweet plays for it, that's it. He caps at a respectable 4/4 hexproof indestructible. Rakky can go up as high as you want and has added durability with regenerate, but the boosts are temporary. Warden becomes an 8/8 trample lifelink with the ability to go up 5/5 every subsequent turn, permanently.
- Even though he's obviously at his best when you can sink mana into him, the truth is that he's still an okay card to have when you can't. The advice I've gotten from people running Warden is that his primary utility is in giving you a solid backup option if/after you curve out. Ideally you're curving out through Rhino, but if you don't, then you can just turn around and pump Warden. For whatever reason, people don't like to use burn on a scrubby 1-drop, so he tends to stick around long enough to be pumped up.
- His pump puts him at 3 toughness, which dodges a lot of burn (Magma Jet, Wild Slash, Magma Spray) - and again, no one wants to waste Lightning Strike on a 1-drop.
On the whole, I would agree that Rakshasa and Fleecemane are better early creatures. But the aggro version probably wants 12 cmc<3 creatures so it can reliably threaten on t2/t3 while it hopes to curve out into Rhino. Warden is really competing with Heir for that distinction, and I think Warden at a minimum earns that spot.
Valorous Stance is becoming a must-have card IMO. It is really good. Against RW Aggro it obviously loses some of its shine, since the only eligible target for its second mode is Sarkhan, who I think has fallen out of favor lately for Stormbreath. But that honestly doesn't even matter much because of the first mode! All of RW Aggro's creatures have low enough toughness that they end up trading with our guys. Valorous Stance makes our guys indestructible, which stops Rabblemaster in its tracks and throws a wrench in Mentor's / Seeker's gameplan too.
Looking at your card choices:
- I mostly like your creature shell. I would scrap Wingmate Roc and one Anafenza for another set of 2-drops (or Wardens). In my experience, The Roc tends to be a win-harder card, superb when you're ahead in board development (aka situations you mostly win anyway) and deplorable when you're behind. I'd scrap the 4th Anafenza because you don't really want a 4-of with any Legendary Creature; too much potential for a dead draw. 3 is the sweet spot IMO. If you're (understandably) concerned about ensuring your curve is good, you can add a 3rd Courser to get 6 3-drop creatures (although I don't think I would, I've had a lot of success with 5). As for why a 3rd set of 2-drops - you really want the t2 play in an aggro deck. You want to put the early pressure on and maximize your chance of having somewhere to go after t2 if you don't curve out well.
- Sorin is a superb 2-of and a better "curve topper" than Roc imo. (He's sitting tied with Rhino atop the curve, but you obviously would rather Rhino -> Sorin over Sorin -> Rhino every time you can.) Keep him in the main deck and try to get 2 Elspeth in the sideboard - you can punish slow decks unbelievably hard by spawning 3 Soldiers a turn paired up with Sorin's +1. It's really hard to deal with 6 lifelink dmg into 12 into 18 etc. And otherwise he's just a good card that gives you enough life to afford a high # of painlands.
- I would make your removal more efficient, it looks like you're trying to plan for everything instead of focusing on just putting the best 60 cards in the deck. Bile Blight in particular I don't feel is worthy of a maindeck spot (although YMMV depending on local meta flavor). I go 4-of Downfall/Charm/Stance MB, you don't have to do that but I would specialize a little bit at least.
- What's your land plan btw? I see 25 spots for it, which IMO is the right place to be. Curious what your strategy is with it though
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Siege Rhino
2 Typhoid Rats
2 Warden of the First Tree
3 Wingmate Roc
//Planeswalkers
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
//Spells
4 Abzan Charm
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
3 Caves of Koilos
2 Forest
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Plains
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
3 Temple of Malady
3 Temple of Silence
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Windswept Heath
4 Drown in Sorrow
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Back to Nature
2 Valorous Stance
1 End Hostilities
1 Crux of Fate
GWUBAtraxa and Her Superfriends
WUB Oloro, the Life Drain Train
URG Animar, Soul of Elements
WBR Kaalia of the Vast
BWTeysa Karlov, Scion of Orzhov
R Purphoros, Goblins of Pain ($100 Budget Challenge)
U Talrand, Fun Police (Needs updating)
Here's my deck-list, for those who are interested:
4 Warden of the First Tree
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
3 Fleecemane Lion
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Siege Rhino
2 Wingmate Roc
Non-Creature Spells
3 Thoughtseize
3 Hero's Downfall
4 Abzan Charm
2 Utter End
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
3 Temple of Malady
3 Temple of Silence
4 Windswept Heath
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Caves of Koilos
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Thoughtseize
2 Bile Blight
3 Glare of Heresy
2 Abzan Advantage
1 Back to Nature
3 Drown in Sorrow
2 Citadel Siege
1 Liliana Vess
Think most of the time you're better served with Warden over Rats. For sure pick one over the other though, because of the next comment...
Running a green 1-drop, 1 black 1-drop, a green-black 2-drop, and Brimaz is asking for trouble. Brimaz can be good for us, but if you're going to run Brimaz then your 2-drop almost has to be Fleecemane Lion if you want any chance of curving out on schedule.
It almost looks like you have most of the pieces for two sets of curves: Rats-Rakshasa-Anafenza-Rhino, and Warden-Lion-Brimaz-Rhino. Both of those curves are killer, but you really need to pick one and commit to it, imo. Your current setup tries to do both, and while in concept being able to curve out two different ways is nice, what you're going to find more often than not is that you ended up with parts of one curve and parts of the other, and you won't have enough mana to make it work.
I also separately have found Wingmate to be an underperformer, but if he works for you then go for it. I'm not sure I would run five creature/planeswalkers to be played after Rhino though. You might benefit from cutting a little bit there and adding a couple more spells.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
2 Wingmate Roc
4 Siege Rhino
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Abzan Charm
3 Bile Blight
4 Thoughtseize
25 Lands
2 End Hostilities
2 Utter End
1 Murderous Cut
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Hushwing Gryff
1 Bile Blight
1 Glare of Heresy
2 Back to Nature
Round 1: RW Devotion
I lost to him last night due to bad misplays. This time I was able to control the game by killing any creatures he played with my kill spells before unloading my own.
2-0
Round 2: UB Control
Game one I won by playing only Thoughtseize and Deathdealer. Deathdealer won the game all by himself, even though I had two more in hand along with an Ana and two Rhinos. I lost game two when he removed my early threats on curve. Game three he kept a bad hand. Two Thoughtseizes in a row took care of a Vault and Ashiok, allowing my creatures to breeze through.
2-1
Round 3: Abzan Midrange
This was an odd deck. The first game he flooded. The second he played a Whisperwood Elemental, getting to manifest twice. I lost when he flips to reveal both were Reaper of the Wilds and Soul of Theros. Game three I had the perfect curve and won.
2-1
Round 4 and 5: Mono Black aggro and RW aggro
Drew both to get into Top 8.
Top 8 Round 1: Abzan Aggro
Both games I went the curve of Lion/Deathdealer > Ana > Rhino > Wingmate. The first game he couldn't match it, while in the second he saw nothing but mismatched kill spells.
2-0
Top 8 Round 2: Abzan Aggro
Three Abzan Aggro players today and I played both. Game one he couldn't get more than two lands, but was still able to play two Lions and a Deathdealer to slow me down. Game two came with my favorite play on the day. He was at 6 and had a Courser revealing End Hostilities next with three open mana (Abzan Charm). I had five mana open with Ana and Rhino. I played Downfall on the Courser. Before I attacked he tried to Charm my Rhino. I responded by playing Bile Blight on it to avoid the Charm, declared attacks and got Rhino a counter and dealt the 6 damage.
2-0
Top 8 Final Round: Sultai Control
I've gone 11-1 against all sorts of control, with my one loss due to mana flooding against a good opponent. Guess what? It happened again to the same opponent. But it was okay, because someone offered to buy the mat before we started to play. My opponent and I decided to sell it to him but splitting the profit. I lost, by I still got to walk away with $35.
0-2
Overall I think I did very well. Putting Thoughtseize back into the main was the right call since it helped me win the matches I think I could have lost or had no answers to.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
I view it as a midrange deck that can transition between being midrange-beatdown and midrange-control depending on the matchup. It's more on the beatdown end of the spectrum, but it flexes out to midrange-control against decks that go faster than it. The fundamental question, as always, is determining who's the attacker and who's the defender. In most matchups we're fast and big enough to be the attacker, but some decks just go faster than us, so we flex to a build that is better at playing the defender.
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Fleecemane Lion
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Courser of Kruphix
4 Siege Rhino
Noncreature Spells (14)
3 Abzan Charm
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Valorous Stance
3 Drown in Sorrow
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Plains
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Caves of Koilos
3 Temple of Malady
2 Abzan Advantage
1 Abzan Charm
2 Bile Blight
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Drown in Sorrow
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Erase
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Valorous Stance
4 Warden of the First Tree
Creatures
Heir of the Wilds: This guy is possibly the best 2-drop threat we have if we're the aggressor. It's not hard to trigger Ferocious to make him a 3/3 deathtouch creature in this deck, and even if he's just a 2/2, he might as well be a flier most times, because no one wants to block him. And if we're on the defensive, he still is a pretty good value, because he can trade up like nobody's business. His one weakness compared to the other 2-drops is that he's the most limited in terms of becoming better; he caps out at 3/3 without assistance while Rakshasa is bulking up and regenerating, Fleecemane becomes a 4/4 hexproof indestructible and Warden's growth potential is insane (not to mention that he becomes a 3/3 trample lifelink without much trouble). Ideally you want your lower drops to still have the ability to contend later in the game, and Heir does this worse than Rakshasa and Fleecemane in my observations, so if I do get a playset of Wardens, they'll probably take his place. Still, in the meantime he's a good value who's won some games for me just because no one wants to block him.
Rakshasa Deathdealer: The most versatile 2-drop in the deck. He's the card that finally taught this up-and-comer how to use mana wisely. The mindgames that Rakshasa opens up are a nightmare to deal with. He has really good synergy with our various instant-speed removal, because you can leave mana open until after blockers are declared and then read and react to the declared blocks. You force the opponent to commit first and thus you get to make the optimal play, always. He's also good on defense if we get caught backpedaling, because he can be regenerated relatively inexpensively after chump blocking a major threat if pumping isn't an option. His one drawback is a somewhat tough mana requirement, but the deck has extremely high mana fixing to try to counteract this.
Fleecemane Lion: This is the most consistent 2-drop we have. His default stats are a little bulkier than the others, which means that we're getting his best performances more regularly than we would from, say, Rakshasa. He doesn't dodge Lightning Strike, but he does dodge basically all other burn, so in a lot of cases he's capable of going 2-for-1 against faster decks. And did I mention he's a 3-power 2-drop? He's also a major threat later in the game, because he can pump at instant speed into a 4/4 hexproof indestructible. His weakness is that he's also tough on the mana base, and in a different way (using W instead of B) from Rakshasa, but again, the lands are carefully designed to attempt to minimize conflict.
Anafenza, the Foremost: Our Khan is an incredible fighter. She's a great value at 4/4 for 3, the strict mana requirement isn't even all that bad given the deck fixing, she gives us an extra edge with the +1/+1 counter that can often make a huge difference, and she even has some Delve/Whip hate going on with the second ability. The only reason I don't run four of her is because of the Legendary Creature rule; I've pulled multiple copies of her on several occasions just running three in the deck, four is liable to just be a dead draw more often than not.
Courser of Kruphix: Arguably the best creature in Standard. I went for a long time without using him, because I just didn't believe that a beatdown deck had a use for him. First of all, I was outright wrong there: the draw fixing, lifegain and extra turn's notice is pretty awesome, even if the last ability works for your opponent as well. He's such a good utility card that he might have a shot at making it into a beatdown deck despite not being a beater (2/4 for cmc 3). Secondly, we ended up not being pure beatdown anyway, and in order to make the sideboard plan manageable, some Coursers had to make it into the maindeck anyway. I've seen the light. This guy puts in work.
Siege Rhino: 4cmc 4/5 trample with instant 6-pt lifeswing. Don't tell Fleecemane, but this guy is the king of beasts. Resolving this guy on curve after Anafenza and <insert 2-drop> is answer-or-die territory.
Warden of the First Tree: Opinion seems to be mixed about him, but I'm here to say he's definitely got a place in our deck IF you know what his purpose is. He isn't a pseudo-two-drop 3/3 with haste. You aren't using him as a replacement for your 2-drop. Instead, what you're ideally doing is dropping him on turn 1 and curving out with other creatures. As soon as you miss your curve for whatever reason - missed a land drop, ran out of creatures to curve out - and you find yourself on Main 2 with nothing to do, you pump him. Until then, he's swinging for cheap free damage when the opponent doesn't have blockers to declare, or he's chump blocking something you either can't answer or don't want to answer that turn. His value comes in expanding your options for spending mana, giving you an extra body if you need it until you're ready to pump, and because he can be a pseudo-two-drop 3/3 with haste (and with less stringent mana reqs than Fleecemane or Rakshasa, to boot), he's also giving you more flexibility in keeping otherwise-questionable opening hands.
Noncreature Spells
Abzan Charm: Almost never a dead draw. Every mode on it has several highly valuable uses. This card is only not a 4-of because I needed room for Drown in Sorrow without shafting the other spells too much; if you find you don't need some of the others as much due to local meta, mainboard four of these immediately.
Hero's Downfall: The premiere spot removal spell in Standard right now. (Eat your heart out, Delved Murderous Cut.) Three-mana answer to almost every threat in the metagame right now, and with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, trivial to cast by t4 or so. Like with Charm, 3-of is only to allow room for Drown in Sorrow. Feel free to go 4-of if you think you can get away with it.
Valorous Stance: Another multiple-mode instant spell that's highly useful. It's a useful combat trick against faster decks and a very mana-efficient removal spell against bigger decks. I've loved the 4-of here, but this is probably where I would cut first if you're looking to add different spells, because even though it has two useful modes, those modes are still a little bit selective; you'll see them often enough to justify having the card, but it's still more situational than the other spells.
Drown in Sorrow: I used to run 4 in the sideboard and none mainboard. Instantly losing every time Hornet Queen resolves sucks, though. Or instantly losing every time Monastery Mentor is allowed to go off, or Rabblemaster getting a few turns to spew goblin tokens, or Rabblemaster into Hordeling Outburst. All of these cards are super prevalent in the meta right now, so having an unequivocal get-out-of-here answer in the mainboard is necessary. Cut this a bit if you think tokens aren't as prevalent where you play, but do not cut all of them. Hornet Queen resolving once is barely manageable without it. Hornet Queen resolving, intentionally getting killed and then revived with Whip of Erebos is a loss over 90% of the time. Rabblemaster or Mentor staying alive for more than 2 turns is a loss over 90% of the time. Bring Drown in Sorrow or prepare to drown in sorrow as you watch game 1 evaporate before your very eyes. It's that simple.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor: This guy is our "curve-topper" (technically he's a 4-drop with Siege Rhino, but in all cases you want to cast Rhino first, since Sorin can go +1 on the turn he resolves, while Rhino can't attack the turn he resolves). His +1 is invaluable for lifegain and can help break a stalemate on the board, and if he's not answered immediately, his emblem is almost impossible to come back from. He's bad playing from behind, but unlike a lot of planeswalkers, he's not useless from behind; he can at least go -2 if the opponent is threatening lethal anyway to give you a flying Vamp token. Great card whose +1 mode is off-the-charts good for our deck.
Lands
Sandsteppe Citadel, Windswept Heath, Forest, Plains: Self-explanatory. Basic lands are a bit awkward for this deck since it very actively uses all three colors, so we want to minimize the number of them we have. It can be awkward if we end up with a Windswept Heath after already playing our four basic lands, but Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth gives us some relief in this regard.
Caves of Koilos, Llanowar Wastes: Crucial for ensuring we get to curve out ASAP. Sorin and Rhinos give us enough lifegain to make this okay, as long as we don't end up in the awkward situation where we have nothing but painlands.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Mostly self-explanatory for a deck that runs black. Two is a bit of an odd (well, even) number to use for a Legendary Land, but in this case it's right where we want it: frequent enough to get it out regularly (which is huge, since it lets our painlands tap for black without hurting us, and it lets our stranded fetchlands be useful again; never mind the mana fixing it provides), but infrequent enough to avoid drawing multiples too close together. The Legendary restriction can actually be mitigated, to highly amusing results, by playing the second copy of Urborg after tapping the first, then tapping the second after it resolves; the tapped one is discarded and you can effectively tap again for a turn.
Temple of Malady: Scrying is incredibly useful t1, when your draws are most crucial, and are honestly good enough to warrant passing on a t1 play / not having one in the first place. We want Malady here because all of our 1-2 drops use green and our most critical answers (Downfall, Sorrows) use black, but there's an argument for using Temple of Plenty instead, especially since our sideboard runs a fair dose of white spells. Just don't do Temple of Silence if you experiment here; you really want the green above all else.
The Skinny
Like I said before, the primary use of the sideboard is to allow our deck to transition from beatdown to control mid-match, after scouting the opponent's deck to see what they try to be. The most fundamental strength of the House of Abzan is its versatility. It's prevalent in the lore, it's prevalent in the cards, it's prevalent in the astonishing variety of strategies present around the "Kill Stuff With Siege Rhino" shell, it's prevalent in the fact that this thread is essentially an Abzan Megathread on a subforum dedicated to analysis of very specific, narrow deck concepts. I think the biggest mistake a lot of Abzan players make is that they don't take advantage of this versatility. They decide for themselves whether they want to run Abzan Midrange-Beatdown or Midrange-Control, they commit 60 cards to it and they build a sideboard of counters and hate toward other decks.
The Specifics
This strategy came to me after getting my ass kicked at an MTG event last Tuesday. Almost everyone there ran RW Aggro, and it was obvious that Abzan Midrange-Beatdown is too slow to deal with it. We're the defender in that matchup, and a deck designed to be a beatdown just can't defend right. RW Aggro has too many weapons to snipe our guys. I designed a transformative sideboard strategy with the goal of removing as many vulnerable creatures as possible from the deck, and replacing them with more durable creatures or spells designed to stall out aggro. The specific deadline I drew was 3 toughness: if you had fewer than that, you came out. This stops their burn from being removal in all cases except Stoke the Flames and Chained to the Rocks, which hurts their capacity to clear the way for their horde of small creatures. This does let them try to burn us out, but Rhino and Sorin should give us a chance to resolve some crucial lifegain before we get in trouble.
The Transition: Beatdown to Control
-4 Heir of the Wilds
-4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
-4 Fleecemane Lion
+2 Courser of Kruphix
+2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
+8 Varies
The Coursers of Kruphix come in as 3-cmc blockers that fix our draws to maximize our chances of resolving our win condition: Siege Rhino or Elspeth, Sun's Champion paired with Sorin. Elspeth and Sorin is the dream team of this deck, pairing up to deal 6, then 12, then 18, etc. lifelink damage if allowed to rampage ucontested. Elspeth can also nuke any bigger threats that managed to resolve, like Stormbreath Dragon.
The rest of it depends on what kind of beatdown we're looking at. Typically you'll want to bring in the fourth copies of Drown in Sorrow, Hero's Downfall, Valorous Stance and Abzan Charm at a minimum. If the opponent is running a token deck, Bile Blight comes in as the 5th and 6th Drown in Sorrow. If they're relying on enchantments, you have good enchantment hate in Erase and Abzan Advantage. (Abzan Advantage is a favorite of mine, not only for the bolster effect but also because it manages to bypass both indestructible AND hexproof to eliminate pesky enchantment creatures. It gives the opponent the choice, which can be a pain sometimes if they've got multiple enchantments, but the benefits are well worth this drawback. Erase, on the other hand, is a 1-drop targeted anti-enchantment bullet.) If your opponent likes white cards, hit 'em with Glare of Heresy.
Thoughtseize: This card is useful, I just excluded it because I didn't have the money for it and wasn't sure it was strictly necessary. It has use in every matchup though, and it might be worth maindecking if you can find space for it. I don't think I would use this as a 4-of, because it's a bad topdeck lategame and it's not always especially useful, but it's certainly worth a look as a 2-of.
Sylvan Caryatid: Doesn't fit in an aggro shell at all, even if we're trying to flex into control. We don't really need or even have much use for ramp, and Fleecemane Lion is a better blocker if we really badly wanted a 2-drop blocker for whatever reason.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: Another useful card that I just didn't have space for. He would probably be a really good card for the control transition, since he can be a 5th and 6th Rhino, he can Delve in for cheap and he can get us more cards. Having more >4 toughness creatures than the opponent can Chain is nice.
End Hostilities, Duneblast, Crux of Fate: This might actually be worth a 1-of in the sideboard for the control transition, it's just that it's a rare situation where either of these can do work that Drown in Sorrow or Bile Blight can't. Against decks that produce creatures big enough to survive those two cards, we're typically trying to play the beatdown mode and develop our board before they can resolve their threats; a board wipe isn't what we're in the market for. The only one I would really consider is Crux of Fate, and only if your meta is infested with Silumgar, the Drifting Death, and only then as a sideboard 1-of.
Nissa, Worldwaker: She was cool back when Perilous Vault was the sweeper of choice for control. Now Crux of Fate is, and Nissa turns Crux into a land wipe on top of a creature wipe. Talk about backfiring. This is one where I feel pretty confident saying "don't use this one ever."
Wingmate Roc: I love The Roc, but I think he's not nearly as good as he seems like he would be on paper. 6 in the air spread out among two attackers plus lifegain for 5 cmc is a great deal in theory, but it really depends on you already having developed your board state at least to parity (and ideally to an advantageous state), and in games where you're winning the development battle, Roc really tends to be a win-harder card rather than a card that decides anything. And when you're behind on development, Roc is awful.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos: You would think a deck that wants a healthy dose of 4+ toughness creatures to deal with token spam would love a 3/4 3-drop token generator that can swing and block, but in my limited attempts to use him, I've found the WW cost to be too intensive with my other desired plays. He's not unworkable, I just find myself preferring the twelve 2-drop aggro look with the ability to drop black-based removal early, which requires too much G/B to swing Brimaz with as well. Plus he competes with Anafenza and Courser for room on the curve, which is never a good place to be.
Murderous Cut: Between Abzan Charm and Valorous Stance, we already have de facto 5th-12th copies of Downfall.
I might do some matchup analysis later, but this is the primer to my deck. Hope it's helpful, either as discussion fodder or inspiration for a new build!
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Actually, I'm kinda curious why Blight was ever the preference. I guess it sucks for Rakshasa or Heir to get hit by Drown, but Rakshasa can maybe be pumped or regen'd. Sorrow hitting more than one creature name, and the fact that none of the token producers (sans Brimaz) have toughness > 2, puts it over the top for me.
GW ~ Angels ~ WG
Modern:
RBW ~ Shadowmancer ~ WBR
Legacy:
BUG ~ Shadow Delver ~ GUB
- Combat tricks
- 2CMC
- Extra -1/-1 makes a difference
It's not even an argument, Bile is better in the main. Bile is only fairly dead in the control matchup, while Drown is more narrow since it's dead against control, the mirror, and most midrange decks. Also with all the flyers and haste creatures (I'm looking at YOU, Shaman of the Great Hunt), catching them before attacking is crucial. A deck like GR Aggro is playing nearly all haste, flyers, and flash so a Sorcery speed removal is too late because they've done the damage.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Game 3 of the Finals and Pierre Sommen playing Abzan Aggro has his Siege Rhinos boarded out against U/B Control. Is there something we're missing here?
4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
4 Fleecemane Lion
2 Anafenza, the Foremost
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Siege Rhino
2 Wingmate Roc
Planeswalkers (3)
1 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Instants/Sorceries (14)
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Abzan Charm
4 Thoughtseize
2 Bile Blight
2 Forest
3 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Windswept Heath
1 Mana Confluence
1 Llanowar Wastes
2 Caves of Koilos
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Sandsteppe Citidel
3 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Malady
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion (Big green lists like G/Gx Devotion, Monsters, Abzan Mirror)
2 End Hostilities (Big green lists like G/Gx Devotion, Monsters, Abzan Mirror)
1 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes (UBx Control)
4 Drown in Sorrow (1-drop aggro, tokens)
1 Glare of Heresy (Abzan Mirror, Jeskai Ascendancy)
1 Utter End (any deck that has relevant non-creatures)
2 Back to Nature (constellation, enchantment control)
1 Silence the Believers (Stormbreath Dragon insurance or in board stalls)
1 Murderous Cut (GR Midrange, anything with Stormbreath Dragon)
Match 1: Jeskai Ascendancy Tokens W 2-1
I was not 100% prepared to play against this today. Game 1 was long and ended the turn before I was going to win with him top decking a Jeskai Charm to gain more life than I could chew through before being killed by tokens & ascendancy pump. Oh yeah, and he played a Monastery Mentor whose prowess token actually did have an impact.
Game 2 I stuck a T3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos and he had no answer. He played Hordeling Outburst and 2 Raise the Alarm but Brimaz, King of Oreskos's tokens and vigilance ate through them. I did need to Glare of Heresy a Jeskai Ascendancy at some point to put the nail in the coffin.
Game 3 I drew into multiple Drown in Sorrow and Bile Blight and wrecked him.
Match 2: Esper Control W 2-1
This was a deck featuring End Hostilities, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and a lot of counterspells with Hero's Downfall and Utter End to clean up things that resolve.
Game 1 I sequenced my lands so that I could play a T2 Rakshasa Deathdealer. Had I T1 Thoughtseize and played a tapped land T2, I would have been in good shape to win. Instead, I played a tapped land T1, Rakshasa Deathdealer T2 and he plays an Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver on his T3 (he went first). I Thoughtseize on my T3 and see a terrible hand - make him discard Dissolve. My opener had 2 lands and I didn't see another one the rest of the game while Ashiok destroyed me (insultingly milling lands that I would have drawn next turn).
Games 2 and 3 Thoughtseize put in major work and I navigated around his counterspell effects. One notable play was when I didn't play anything T3 into counter magic but set up a T4 where I played multiple 2 drops so that one stuck. The Fleecemane Lion from that turn went monstrous and he wasn't able to get rid of it before it killed him.
Match 3: Green Devotion W 2-0
I go on auto-pilot against this deck these days. Kill/Thoughtseize their big creatures and make them do combat with their mana guys. Both games I waited for him to miss playing a fatty and stuck a Siege Rhino as a follow-up to win it. I noted that Rakshasa Deathdealer blocks Polukranos, World Eater like a boss.
Match 4: GR Midrange W 2-1
This deck I was worried about and you can tell by my sideboard.
Game 1 I T1 Thoughtseize to get rid of Stormbreath Dragon early and then curve out perfectly the game is over in minutes. As it turned out, I would not have drawn another answer to Stormbreath Dragon and it would have probably raced me successfully or slowed me down enough for him to stabilize.
Game 2 I drew an absolute ton of land. I mean, by the end of the game I easily had 12 or 13 lands in play. He didn't draw well either and eventually did draw a string of Sarkhan, Sarkhan, Polukranos while I kept drawing land.
Game 3 I mulligan a 6 lander. I found a hand with 4 lands, Siege Rhino and Abzan Charm. Good enough I thought. I drew into another Siege Rhino, Anafenza, the Foremost and Murderous Cut. Siege Rhino x2 ended the game very quickly attacking into Elvish Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid.
Retrospect
Anafenza, the Foremost is awesome. The 4/4 body and {G}{W}{B} casting cost (which is easier than double colors in our deck) is very consistently good. The exile creature clause didn't matter today, but it does sometimes. The +1/+1 counter for Fleecemane Lion or Rakshasa Deathdealer was very relevant. I may try working another into the deck.
I didn't play Wingmate Roc all day and actually sided it out in several match-ups. That said, it is still amazing in the mirror which continues to represent a lot of the meta.
If you followed any of my previous lists, I needed to turn my land for this iteration. I feel my current manabase is very consistent and doesn't require an excessive pain land count.
I think Brimaz, King of Oreskos is more relevant today than it has been in the past because of how it stands up against tokens. I ran 3 for the longest time but I've cut it down to 2, which I actually feel is a more comfortable number. If I ran 3 of one of the legendary 3 drops, I think it would be Anafenza, the Foremost for its ability to punch through 4 toughness creatures and the sheer damage it outputs with any of our 2 drops. It felt really good today to attack with Anafenza, the Foremost and Fleecemane Lion for 8 after playing a removal spell.
UBRGrixis Kiki Control
BGUSultai Shadow
GWRBushwhacker Zoo
EDH:
BGU Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose
GWU Roon of the Hidden Realm
Ran this:
4 Llanowar Wastes
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Mana Confluence
1 Forest
2 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Windswept Heath
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
3 Temple of Malady
1 Temple of Plenty
1 Temple of Silence
Creatures
3 Warden of the First Tree
4 Fleecemane Lion
3 Rakshasa Deathdealer
2 Heir of the Wilds
3 Anafenza, the Foremost
4 Siege Rhino
3 Wingmate Roc
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Thoughtseize
Planeswalkers
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Instants
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Abzan Charm
2 Valorous Stance
2 Bile Blight
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Abzan Advantage
1 Murderous Cut
3 Thoughtseize
4 Drown in Sorrow
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
Match 1: Mardu Aggro w/Alesha, Rabble
G1: Kept a 2 lander vs an opponent mull to 5, didn't get a third land until too late to matter.
Sideboard: -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Liliana, -2 Read the Bones; +1 Bile Blight, +3 Drown, +1 Downfall
G2: Mulled a 1 lander, then no G mana and G creatures makes for a multiple mulligan. I fell to the third Rabblemaster. Likely I should have mulled again.
Loss 0-1
Match 2: UW Heroic Brew w/Elspeth?
G1, G2: kill all of the creatures, play Siege Rhino, win
SB: -1 Liliana, -2 Read the Bones; +1 Glare, +1 Bile Blight, +1 Downfall
Win, 1-1
Match 3: BW Warrior brew w/Disowned Ancestors, Sorin and
G1: Kill stuff, Rhino
SB: -1 Liliana, -2 Read the Bones; +1 Bile Blight, +1 Sorin, +1 Downfall
G2: Flooded severely, Duneblast and End helped, made enough 2 for 1s to survive. Eventually Elspeth, then Sorin do what they do.
Win 2-1
Conclusions: Tweaked manabase to include 2 Plains so I can fetch for a second Plains. This meta being more aggro and without as much UB control as the other shop I play at, I want to swap a few Brimaz into the sideboard when I play here.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.