Let the puns begin. When a fringe card pops up in a top eight deck list it can be a flashpoint for discussion. When the card name can interact with the discussion of its value, it can provide an evening full of entertainment in the form of bad puns. But is it a bad card? Is it a good card? I don't know that I'm qualified to answer that question, but can share with you my experiences at SGC:DC playing the card.
Before I go into analysis of performance of the card itself, I want to talk about how we got here. So why decide to main deck Abzan Advantage? To be completely honest, part of the reason is simply a lack of proper preparation on my part. I didn't make the time to finalize my list until the day before the event, and shifted the focus of the list in doing so. I'd been considering the Jeskai shell configured in a more controlling fashion and wanted main deck enchantment removal that wasn't a blank if my opponent didn't have an enchantment in play. Abzan advantage fit that bill, as well as having some corner case applications like saving a Seeker of the Way or Mantis Rider from Lightning Strike or Bile Blight. Despite moving to a more aggressive list I kept the card in the main deck.
I still almost cut Advantage, but decided to make a list of enchantments that could swing the game against me. Unblockable/flying enchantments or an early Ordeal of Thassa in heroic. Courser in general and Whip specifically in G/B/x. Chained the to Rocks in R/W/x. Jeskai Ascendancy in Jeskai Tokens. Frontier Siege into an early Hornet Queen also worried me enough that I decided the value of the card when it was applicable was worth it being mediocre to sub-par when the enchantment removal aspect of it was not.
So how did it perform? The majority of the instances where it was good was in removing Courser early in the game, and a valorous stance could have done the same job while being able to get Siege Rhino and the soon to be extensively played Tasigur. I was able to use Advantage to get back a chained to the rocks Seeker in my opponent's end step on a turn where he had used a wrath effect, giving me a fresh 3/3 Seeker of the Way to press the attack on my turn. It was also used to save a Seeker from a Bile Blight in a game I lost, and Mantis Rider in a similar fashion in a game I won. It had the potential to break up the Temur Ascendancy Combo deck I played in round 14, although it ended up not being relevant in that fashion.
More important to analyzing the card's performance is when I had it in hand and it would have been better as something else, either Valorous Stance or Stormbreath Dragon, both of which I felt I could have used more of. Additional burn in those slots in the form more Jeskai Charms or another Wild Slash seems reasonable as well. I counted two instances across the tournament where if it had been Valorous Stance or Stormbreath Dragon I might've been able to turn around games that I lost. One of those instances burn would also have won the game, assuming my opponent had no counter magic.
At this point I'm not sure about the card myself. I like the potential it has, but that potential can only be realized in a enchantment rich environment. While six of the seven other top eight decks from SGC:DC had main deck targets the enchantment removal could hit, they only number in the 2-4 range per deck. Running three as I did was definitely excessive, but depending on how the format continues to develop this particular enchantment removal spell might be the right call to leverage an 'advantage' over your opponent.
Just found this thread. I still play a variant of your Jeskai aggro list and have gone to 0x in the mainboard and 2x in the sideboard. It's a sweet card when it works though, it has won me several games.
So consensus would be that it should replace Erase in the sideboard? In some ways I like it better as a 1 or 2 of in the main with Erase in the board for targeted removal, but the card just hasn't been showing up in testing for me. A couple of the Jeskai decks that top 8'ed regionals had it main, but that in and of itself doesn't necessarily point to it as a good main deck card (if Dave Shiels or Zack Kanner are reading this I'd love to hear from you about how it worked for you at Regionals, in PM or via this thread).
hmm.. i dont like it mainboard... there is so much r/w aggro/tokens around and a lot of other decks where this is a +1+1 counter for 2 mana and nothing else..
but i removed erase from my sideboard and replaced them with abzan advantage, because its more versatile. and its cool to kill their courser with it and give your seeker of something a counter.
It's still a relatively strong card against R/W. Between outpost siege and chained to the rock they're usually running 5-6 mainboard enchants it can hit to provide you with a lot of value.
I rescued a mantis rider late-game from a chained to the rocks and swung in for 4. It was fantastic
The main reason to play Abzan Advantage is because of the Bolster effect. Mantis Rider and Seeker of the Way both die to Bile Blight and Lightning Strike which is the removal package for Abzan Control, Abzan Aggro and Boros Aggro. It saves our creatures, and the opponent's Courser of Kruphix or Chained to the Rocks dies along the way. The single crucial turn where we can save our creature and swing the tempo in our favor can win us games.
Let the puns begin. When a fringe card pops up in a top eight deck list it can be a flashpoint for discussion. When the card name can interact with the discussion of its value, it can provide an evening full of entertainment in the form of bad puns. But is it a bad card? Is it a good card? I don't know that I'm qualified to answer that question, but can share with you my experiences at SGC:DC playing the card.
Before I go into analysis of performance of the card itself, I want to talk about how we got here. So why decide to main deck Abzan Advantage? To be completely honest, part of the reason is simply a lack of proper preparation on my part. I didn't make the time to finalize my list until the day before the event, and shifted the focus of the list in doing so. I'd been considering the Jeskai shell configured in a more controlling fashion and wanted main deck enchantment removal that wasn't a blank if my opponent didn't have an enchantment in play. Abzan advantage fit that bill, as well as having some corner case applications like saving a Seeker of the Way or Mantis Rider from Lightning Strike or Bile Blight. Despite moving to a more aggressive list I kept the card in the main deck.
I still almost cut Advantage, but decided to make a list of enchantments that could swing the game against me. Unblockable/flying enchantments or an early Ordeal of Thassa in heroic. Courser in general and Whip specifically in G/B/x. Chained the to Rocks in R/W/x. Jeskai Ascendancy in Jeskai Tokens. Frontier Siege into an early Hornet Queen also worried me enough that I decided the value of the card when it was applicable was worth it being mediocre to sub-par when the enchantment removal aspect of it was not.
So how did it perform? The majority of the instances where it was good was in removing Courser early in the game, and a valorous stance could have done the same job while being able to get Siege Rhino and the soon to be extensively played Tasigur. I was able to use Advantage to get back a chained to the rocks Seeker in my opponent's end step on a turn where he had used a wrath effect, giving me a fresh 3/3 Seeker of the Way to press the attack on my turn. It was also used to save a Seeker from a Bile Blight in a game I lost, and Mantis Rider in a similar fashion in a game I won. It had the potential to break up the Temur Ascendancy Combo deck I played in round 14, although it ended up not being relevant in that fashion.
More important to analyzing the card's performance is when I had it in hand and it would have been better as something else, either Valorous Stance or Stormbreath Dragon, both of which I felt I could have used more of. Additional burn in those slots in the form more Jeskai Charms or another Wild Slash seems reasonable as well. I counted two instances across the tournament where if it had been Valorous Stance or Stormbreath Dragon I might've been able to turn around games that I lost. One of those instances burn would also have won the game, assuming my opponent had no counter magic.
At this point I'm not sure about the card myself. I like the potential it has, but that potential can only be realized in a enchantment rich environment. While six of the seven other top eight decks from SGC:DC had main deck targets the enchantment removal could hit, they only number in the 2-4 range per deck. Running three as I did was definitely excessive, but depending on how the format continues to develop this particular enchantment removal spell might be the right call to leverage an 'advantage' over your opponent.
Just found this thread. I still play a variant of your Jeskai aggro list and have gone to 0x in the mainboard and 2x in the sideboard. It's a sweet card when it works though, it has won me several games.
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU
but i removed erase from my sideboard and replaced them with abzan advantage, because its more versatile. and its cool to kill their courser with it and give your seeker of something a counter.
I rescued a mantis rider late-game from a chained to the rocks and swung in for 4. It was fantastic