Sorry I should have clarified. The Stoneblade version of this deck seems non-existent on MTGGoldfish, whereas the old school version with Coco/Chord Finks combo ect is much more prevalent. So which version of this deck is truly best currently? Devoted Stoneblade or Abzan Company?
Seems there's a major disconnect between this Forum and MTG Goldfish. Everyone here seems to be on Devoted Stoneblade lately, whereas on MTGgoldfish with lists putting up real results, it seems people aren't even touching Stoneforge mystic. What's up with that?
If we go by MTGgoldfish numbers, the old school version of this deck with Coco and Chord is about tied with the newer all-in version with Evolution and Lunge, and the Stoneblade version doesn't really appear.
I've had no issues whatsoever with Incubation/Incongruity. I either dig for a creature if I need one, or I hold it up as removal for opponent creatures. It's literally never been a dead or whiffed card for me, though admittedly I've only played ~10 matches (best of 3's) with the deck. That said, every list that has placed recently is playing this card, so it's obviously very good
How has Knight of Autumn in the maindeck been for you? I've been warned against playing such things in the MD, as it is effectively just a hate card for opponents' sideboard measures.
Your list definitely has too few hits! I can't imagine Incubation/Incongruity performing well in your list, despite the popularity of your list.
How is Eladamri's Call performing for you? It seems pretty slow to me.
Knight of Autumn saved my ass against UR Phoenix and against Burn in the games I played. Obviously it was very situational, but a 1-of in the MB seems to make sense given it's versatility.
Incubation/Incongruity worked perfectly fine in my deck. It always hit something in the games I played. If I didn't want to dig for a creature, turning an opponent creature into a 3/3 with no abilities is vital against so many different match ups.
I only got to cast eldamaris call once and it worked how I expected it to. The deck felt fast and consistent. Way better than any other version I've played. That's not to say it's perfect, I'm sure there will be many tweaks as the meta adapts, but that list performed really well for me and felt consistent throughout my matches.
Looks like the deck is changing significantly with all the new cards. I've been playtesting this version and doing exceptionally well with it. I beat Burn, UR Phoenix, and Humans. The list plays no Chords and no Coco as it really doesn't need them anymore. It also no longer plays Kitchen Finks combo, which is fine as the deck gets MUCH more consistent with this list. It's basically become a Spell-based combo which uses creatures as the vehicle to go off. Let me know what you think!
I agree that it's probably a mix of me making mistakes, plus not having enough experience against different matchups. That said, the deck still feels incredibly weak against anything that has interruption + a clock, which is basically every deck in the format.
Could you link Saint Dooms SB guide? It's not in the main post and I can't seem to find it.
Played an FNM for the first time in months. Went 1-3 so not the best. The deck felt awful in basically all my matchups (and honestly never feels consistent when I play it). The list is in my sig, here were the matchups.
Game 1: Mono white death and taxes. Round 1 I combo off on turn 3. Round 2 is a grind but drawing into 3x Kitchen Finks keeps me alive and eventually I win with beat down. 2-0 win.
Game 2: Sultai Control. I've never played against this before (In fact I didn't even know it was a thing). Round 1 I can't find the combo and by turn 4 he has full control and I lost. Round 2 I manage to bring him to 3 life with early aggression, then he stabilizes and I can't finish as he keeps me off combo and has answers for all my stuff. 45 minute grind for me to just scoop once I realize I can't win and he has a million mana for his nonsense. 0-2 lose.
Game 3: Bant spirits. Round 1 he kills me with pumped flying lords + spirits, I didn't have much of a chance to do anything. Round 2 he keeps me off combo consistently and I lose to beatdowns again. 0-2 lose.
Game 4: The Rock, BG. Round 1 he kills me with beatdowns from Goyf after taking my Devoted druid away on turn 1. I never find any other combo pieces. Round 2 he has Khalitas and Goyf beat downs again + tons of removal. I don't find any sideboard cards that can help me win. 0-2 lose.
Overall I'm quite frustrated with this deck. I've been playing it for nearly 2 years, and every time I attend an FNM, I lose almost every game I play. To make it worse, when I play with friends, I also lose almost all the time with this deck. The deck can win out of nowhere sometimes, but most of the time I find myself either missing a combo piece, or being disrupted too much to do anything. Very, very frustrated with this deck. It only seems to work when the opponent doesn't have interaction, but even then it will lose to not finding combo pieces, mana flooding, or other luck related events.
If WAR doesn't change the deck meaningfully, I'm going to sell it and move on. This deck just feels like an awful choice in this meta and falls apart to anything that has a clock + interacts, and also loses to faster combo decks that don't interact. Basically every deck in the format right now is better than this garbage.
Coming back to MTG after having been out of the game for a few months. I've polished up my list and playtested a few times with friends. Seems solid overall, but any feedback would be appreciated!
I want to play a deck that's powerful, fun, and has a lot of staying power, without being so strong that it gets banned. There are a few decks that come to mind when thinking about these specifics, notably Burn, Affinity, and Tron.
I'm looking to build a new deck that has the following:
Highly consistent
Long term staying power in the top level meta
Powerful but not over-powered
Most importantly, fun to play
I already have Burn, which I think fills those roles perfectly.
I'm not a huge fan of Affinity or Tron from having play-tested them. I was looking at Humans, and I think the deck has all the above criteria, but its history in Top Tier Modern is relatively short, which can be worrying for it's long term staying power.
My Abzan Company deck is pretty much dead and I need something new. What do you guys recommend based on the above?
The meta has changed a lot over the past year, and it seems Abzan Company has completely fallen out of favour. The current Top 8 most played decks in the Meta are horrible matchups for Abzan Company as they all have removal + a fast clock, which is this decks weakness.
The main deck which still places on MTGO is played by Laplasjan, and his list is more of a mid-range beat down with combo as a backup, which I really don't like, and don't feel it better than the Modern 10K list.
Is this deck mostly dead now, or is it still good and just not as popular as the newer decks?
I'm playing a version that's very similar to the Modern 10k list from a few months ago that ran a third combo with Safi Eriksdotter for infinite scry. (see my sig for decklist).
Any chance this deck comes back to at least Top 16? I haven't seen it Top 16 in a LONG time, except for MTGO.
Played this deck for the first time in a while since I've been on GTron for PPTQ season. I got my Buglers which I've been itching to try out as I talked about here, and sailed to a 4-0 for the night! The deck felt super powerful, possibly the most powerful iteration of the deck I've played yet. My sample size is only 4 matches mind you, but I had some crazy games which are explained below. List for reference:
Some notes about the deck before the games:
- Yes that is a 14 card sideboard. I must have forgot one at home, but it didn't seem to matter at all.
- Omitting the Finks + Seer package for Bugler + KotR. This allows Bugler to hit every card in the deck.
- 1 Courser of Kruphix compliments the KotR's. Because of it's inclusion I am playing 7 dorks and 22 lands, as opposed to my normal 8 dorks and 21 lands. Yes I like to cheat on the lands, but not here.
- KotR even acts as a dork in some cases, especially if you play it turn 2, so you are playing what is essentially 15 "dorks" not even inducing EWit getting fetches back. I never had mana problems.
- Only 3 Eternal Witness. I always like 4, but I figured with Bugler I could drop one to make the deck a little less reliant on the graveyard.
- I played before with 6 land destruction lands, but found that against the majority of decks they didn't do what I wanted them to do. Because of this I dropped to 3. This lets me still kill stuff like the random Inkmoth/Mutavault while also slowing down Tron and Valakut enough to win those matchups (in theory). With the 3 extra "utility land" slots I was able to include a second Horizon Canopy to help out the combo and flooding in general, and a Gavony Township for when the deck goes real wide.
Onto the games:
Round 1 vs Grixis Death's Shadow:
Game 1 was a grind fest with him removing my Druids, but not having a fast start himself. Once I accepted that I wasn't going to combo I went all in on the KotR plan. The game was decided with him using a Temur Battlerage on his 8/8 Shadow to kill my 10/10 Knight. I then Companied into Knight + EWit, using the company again to hit another Knight and win the game since he ran out of blockers. Game 2 was more of the same with me boarding out the combo and into a midrange deck (everything but Kataki, Rec Sage, and Eidolon). I overwhelmed him with value and won with 2 11/11 Knights while destroying his lands thanks to Path removing his only two basic lands. Bugler kept on finding Knights or EWits that Companies couldn't and kept the value train going. 2-0
Round 2 vs Mardu Pyromancer:
More of the same as round 1. The dude went Lootings into Pyromancer and I won some turns after with the combo by casting some Companies and Bugler finding what I wanted. Boarded the same as against Death's Shadow since I figured I couldn't combo again through all of the removal. The game this time went pretty long with him killing my turn 2 druid and resolving a LotV which I had to then throw away a Knight and Ewit to. I eventually got there though as he couldn't discard my companies, and I started chaining them to fill up the board. I found my Scooze and kept his graveyard out of relevant stuff while I had a Spellskite and Forge-Tender as backup. The Scooze then went on to continually attack him and win. 2-0
Round 3 vs UG Infect:
This was the guy I lost to in the top 8 of the PPTQ on Sunday. Game 3 was the only relevant one and super intense with him on the play. Turn 2 he has a Blighted Agent while I have a Temple Garden and Horizon Canopy to play a Devoted Druid. His turn 3 he hits me for 7 infect, and will hit me for a guaranteed 3 more the next turn so I have to win. I untap, and my hand is Vizier, Ghost Quarter, Bugler, and some other not relevant stuff. I play the Vizier with the Temple Garden since I can draw a card with Canopy. This is only better than playing Bugler if I draw a Chord or Company, so I figure I'll Bugler instead sine I can hit 2 Recruiters and 1 Ballista in 4 cards. I miss, but hit another Bugler. It then dawned on me that I could Ghost Quarter my land to get an untapped Plains and cast the second Bugler to tray again. Lo and behold it hits a Recruiter and I get a clutch win! You can watch the video of the match here. 2-1
Round 4 vs Eldrazi Tron:
This is the guy I beat in round 5 of the PPTQ. Games were grindy with me eventually using a Chord to get through his Chalice on 2 and win the game. It was weird since he know the Chord was coming but didn't Dismember the Druid... Game 2 was won off of the back of KotR and some land fetching shenanigans to block Reality Smashers after the wiped my graveyard. Again a misplay on his part as he should have waited and he would have won. Re-watching the footage I also missed a Duskwatch trigger, so I'll have to remember that for the future. It didn't matter though as it died the turn after. You can watch the video of the match here. 2-0
---
Thoughts on the deck:
- I really really liked Bugler. The deck has been getting away from the graveyard more and more, but is still dependent with Eternal Witness and Knight of the Reliquary. It's not the worst is hate is brought in for it, but it certainly is annoying. Bugler helps get away from this (replacing Finks).
- Hitting a Bugler off of a Company almost guarantees hitting something that you need since you get to keep digging. I found if I was ever wanting a card I could always find it within the next 1-2 turns. It also makes the combo much more consistent meaning you will fizzle less when getting infinite mana.
- A downside with Bugler is that you are more dependent on W during the combo, so you have to be mindful to fetch it out.
- KotR is a beast, and is often the biggest thing on the battlefield. With Finks I found I was using it to chump and stay alive until I could squeak out a combo. Now for the same mana cost I am winning combats, ramping, and thinning my deck. You lose life gain in the deck, and if anything take more damage from fetches, so I can imagine the Burn matchups is suddenly harder.
- The plan of going super-combo maindeck and transitional value-midrange deck in the sideboard worked out well. I was able to race things like without interaction like Infect (and Affinity in pre-event games) while absolutely destroying the opponent with value post-board.
- I'm not sure what I want sideboard card #15 to be. Perhaps a Pridemage, or another Scooze...?
I will hopefully play this again Wednesday and see if I can replicate the results.
Took the deck to a 3-1 tonight, which puts Bugler version at 7-1 overall. Only changes were +1 Selfless Spirit MD, +1 Courser of Kruphix & +1 Qasali Pridemage SB so I had 15 cards this time. List for reference:
Wins were 2-0 vs taking Turns. I won the match in about 10 mins total with a turn 3 combo each game. 2-1 vs G Devotion. I kept a slow hand game 1 hoping I could just get there, whereas games 2 and 3 I forced the combo and blew him out of the water. 2-1 vs Scales Affinity, with game 3 him mulling to 5 while I had the turn 3 win. He didn't have removal on his turn 2 so I won.
My loss was to UW Control, 0-2. Game 1 I kept a 1 land hand with Hierarch, Druid, Druid, Vizier, Chord, EWit, Forest. On turn 2 I drew a second Chord, and he Logic Knotted my Druid for 1. If I had drawn a land it would have resolved and I was pretty confident in my chances, but alas I didn't. I went on to draw Chords for 2 more turns, so I had all 4 in hand before I got my second land. Wasn't winning that one. Second game was more of the same, with a T2 Bugler finding Druid, playing the Druid T3, and him wrathing the board on his T4. From there he stabilized with a Teferi and then Jace, so I was lost at that point. I hoped to see a Company so I could start trying to flood the board with it and EWits, but never saw either card and was grinded out.
The control matchup was pretty bad, especially with them playing Terminus now. My strategy was to force the combo and hope they can't Logic Knot for enough on Turn 2, as we aren't going to win the long game. Their Planeswalkers out value us, unlike other midrange decks that we can play the grindy-value game with. Perhaps adding a Breeding Pool and 3 Unified Will to the sideboard is the best bet for this matchup. Countering their first wrath or PW will give us a window to try and win. Thoughts on the matchup?
My list was unchanged from the one I played when I went 3-1. Matchups went as follows:
2-0 vs Eldrazi Tron, 2-1 vs Infect, 2-0 vs Hardened Scales Affinity, 2-1 vs Bant mirror (he played Queller's instead of Bugler's). Not a ton to talk about since the games are really playing out the same each time. With the addition of Militia Buglers I can slam the combo pretty much whenever I need too since digging for it is really easy, and this was a night of playing very uninteractive decks allowing me to combo as fast as I wanted. Pretty much every match I was sideboarding out the Knights and bringing in Spellskites and Paths, among other things. I didn't really get to play vs any midrange decks which my sideboard is tuned for. The good thing about that is that it means the maindeck is good enough to combo at the speed of some the best. Only changes to the deck I would do would be the addition of another Militia Bugler since that card has been insane and helps the deck be less graveyard dependent.
If you want to watch the Infect match you can here, and the Bant Company match here.
I have a player of the year championship on Saturday I may take this too since it's been doing so well, but I'm expecting a lot of UW Control to show up. At the last PPTQ at this store there was 6/47 pure UW Control which is scary. This will be an invite only tourney though, so possibly more KCI and Humans (less pet decks) which I'm fine with. I guess there are no haymaker cards that can beat UW Control while staying pure GW eh? Something like Pharika, God of Affliction vs GB decks.
My main LGS has a bi-annually "Players Championship" which is a 24 player invite only tourney and you get there by a point system from playing events. First place was free events for a year, and second place was free events for a year but you had to pick week days or weekends. It was a three format tournament of Standard, Modern, M19 draft. I hadn't touched Standard cards since ~2012, but managed to go 1-2 and made the cut to the Modern round. Continuing my hot streak lately, I went 3-0 in the Modern portion (putting my record at 13-1 match wins in the last 4 events since a guy dropped to me round 3) to make top 8 and drafted a pretty average BW Lifegain deck that was pretty weak individually, but had a billion synergies in it. Had a super grindy 3 games against RW Aggro, and then lost to the most disgusting UB deck I've ever seen. He curved Walking Corpse into Death Baron, into Skeleton Archer which killed my only creature, and then into Bone Dragon. Game 2 wasn't much different and I lost that one real fast. Still ended up with $100 in credit which was a good result for a free tournament.
I played UW Control winning 2-1, and Boggles winning 2-0. List was slightly changed and optimized:
There are 2 Field of Ruin and 1 Ghost Quarter maindeck now because FoR keeps your lands and you have lots of basics so it's fine, and you can still hit Tron before they Tron you but you have that 1 Ghost Quarter in case you reeeally need it. Sideboard is the same since the combo is so damn fast game 1 now I want to just side into an unbeatable midrange deck.
I beat UW Control in a super grindy game 1 where he just bricked after his first miracled Terminus. Game 2 he brought in Spell Quellers (??? why???) and they caught me off guard and beat me down. Game 3 was super grindy and I eventually out-valued/outplayed him to win on Turn 4 of turns since we went to time.
The second round against boggles was quick since I combo'd on turn 3 each game. They don't have any interaction to stop it. And my third round never happened because the person wanted to go home.
I'm sticking with this list for a while as it's been doing great, and I liked the land change. Now if only they printed Sumala Woodshaper at 1GW it would have broken the format in half (I can dream).
Skipped a week of Modern and played for the first time last night to a garbage fire 2-2 record, dropping the deck winrate from 92.8% to 83.3%
Lost round 1 to Hardened Scales Affinity. I won game 1 when he couldn't find a Ballista, and lost game 2 when I untapped with infinite mana and only a Company which missed big time. I then went on to draw 3 lands in a row while he grew his team and beat me down. Game 3 my Druids met 2 Dispatches before I could get some protection down, and then he landed a Ballista which locked me out. I've been having such a good run of Company and Bugler flips recently my luck was bound to run out eventually.
Round 2 was vs Mardu Pyromancer in which KotR's and Scavenging Ooze beat him down both games.
Round 3 I beat Revolt Zoo in some close-ish games. I just threw chumpblockers infront of his guys until I could combo off. Post-board, my Knights and Spellskites, and Buglers were able to stall and widdle down his board while keeping me at a reasonable life total the whole time.
Round 4 I lost to Humans. Won game 1 when he drew all 4 Vials and 3 Hierarchs. Games 2 and 3, I mulled to 6 and never had a turn 1 dork but wasn't about to push it further. Missed some landdrops and got overrun pretty bad.
Still like the configuration of the deck, but I was thinking about dropping Knight of the Reliquary from the main once Knight of Autumn is legal. It does a bit of everything but nothing great. Moreso, it would open up 3-4 sideboard slots for other things that I can play which is big. I could even drop the 2 Voice of Resurgence I have for midrange matchups and have lots of space for Tireless Trackers to grind out midrange harder.
I've been quite busy and not playing much lately. Managed to get out after about a month or more and went undefeated 3-0-1. Beat BG Rock, Drew with UW Control, Beat Burn, Beat Humans. You can see the Burn match here and the Humans match here. I'm playing the same list as before, but with 3x Knight of Autumn in the sideboard instead of Pridemage, Recsage, and Kataki.
I like your list but I'm not sure about Militia Bugler, seems kind of "win more" if you're combo'ing, and doesn't really do much if you're not combo'ing. I'd rather have a mix of silver bullets, or a third combo (Saffi + Rallier) like the Modern 10k List has.
I'd really recommend fitting in a 22nd land. This is a deck that absolutely needs to play land turns 1-3, and often turn 4 as well. All the advantage of a turn 1 mana creature is lost if you miss your land drop on turn 3, or can't cast that coco/chord in your hand. Otherwise, I think this build looks really good and is close to what I'd play right now. I'm not sure the saffi and ralliers are worth the slots, but they are some cool tech.
I've been working on a build with 4X Tidehollow Sculler in the maindeck, but have been struggling to make the mana work since needing B/W turn 2 and GGGX turn 3 for chord is a tall order, especially with Gavony Township in the mix. Sculler is just good against everything right now and I'm trying to figure out if this deck can be configured to support the casting cost.
Also, Renegade Rallier can grab a fetch from the graveyard if you're stuck on 2 lands. That along with the infinite combo with Saffi + Seer is really nice. I'd rather go all-in combo on game 1, then have a Beat-down/Utility sideboard for G2 and 3.
I like your list a lot, I will try it for sure.
Maybe -2 Rallier +2 Duskwatch, its a really good card in many situations; and a bolt eater too.
Concerning Voice, I like have a copy of it in my 75, in sideboard in general.
Greetings,
B00NTY
I wouldn't remove Rallier. It gives us a third combo with Vicera Seer and Saffi Eriksdotter to allow for infinite scry. Doesn't win the game on the spot, but it has to be answered or it gives an insurmountable advantage.
If we go by MTGgoldfish numbers, the old school version of this deck with Coco and Chord is about tied with the newer all-in version with Evolution and Lunge, and the Stoneblade version doesn't really appear.
https://my.cfbevents.com/deck/view/a6b4b12d-22cc-4b1d-bf84-68c141ce7ba9
Knight of Autumn saved my ass against UR Phoenix and against Burn in the games I played. Obviously it was very situational, but a 1-of in the MB seems to make sense given it's versatility.
Incubation/Incongruity worked perfectly fine in my deck. It always hit something in the games I played. If I didn't want to dig for a creature, turning an opponent creature into a 3/3 with no abilities is vital against so many different match ups.
I only got to cast eldamaris call once and it worked how I expected it to. The deck felt fast and consistent. Way better than any other version I've played. That's not to say it's perfect, I'm sure there will be many tweaks as the meta adapts, but that list performed really well for me and felt consistent throughout my matches.
1 Walking Ballista
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Giver of Runes
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Devoted Druid
1 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Vizier of Remedies
2 Eternal Witness
1 Knight of Autumn
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Shalai Voice of Plenty
Spells (13)
2 Postmortem Lunge
4 Eladamri's Call
4 Finale of Devastation
4 Incubation // Incongruity
1 Breeding Pool
3 Forest
4 Horizon Canopy
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Temple Garden
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Path to Exile
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collector Ouphe
3 Ravenous Trap
1 Plague Engineer
1 Thrun the last troll
2 Damping Sphere
Could you link Saint Dooms SB guide? It's not in the main post and I can't seem to find it.
Game 1: Mono white death and taxes. Round 1 I combo off on turn 3. Round 2 is a grind but drawing into 3x Kitchen Finks keeps me alive and eventually I win with beat down. 2-0 win.
Game 2: Sultai Control. I've never played against this before (In fact I didn't even know it was a thing). Round 1 I can't find the combo and by turn 4 he has full control and I lost. Round 2 I manage to bring him to 3 life with early aggression, then he stabilizes and I can't finish as he keeps me off combo and has answers for all my stuff. 45 minute grind for me to just scoop once I realize I can't win and he has a million mana for his nonsense. 0-2 lose.
Game 3: Bant spirits. Round 1 he kills me with pumped flying lords + spirits, I didn't have much of a chance to do anything. Round 2 he keeps me off combo consistently and I lose to beatdowns again. 0-2 lose.
Game 4: The Rock, BG. Round 1 he kills me with beatdowns from Goyf after taking my Devoted druid away on turn 1. I never find any other combo pieces. Round 2 he has Khalitas and Goyf beat downs again + tons of removal. I don't find any sideboard cards that can help me win. 0-2 lose.
Overall I'm quite frustrated with this deck. I've been playing it for nearly 2 years, and every time I attend an FNM, I lose almost every game I play. To make it worse, when I play with friends, I also lose almost all the time with this deck. The deck can win out of nowhere sometimes, but most of the time I find myself either missing a combo piece, or being disrupted too much to do anything. Very, very frustrated with this deck. It only seems to work when the opponent doesn't have interaction, but even then it will lose to not finding combo pieces, mana flooding, or other luck related events.
If WAR doesn't change the deck meaningfully, I'm going to sell it and move on. This deck just feels like an awful choice in this meta and falls apart to anything that has a clock + interacts, and also loses to faster combo decks that don't interact. Basically every deck in the format right now is better than this garbage.
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Devoted Druid
3x Duskwatch Recruiter Flip
3x Eternal Witness
4x Kitchen Finks
3x Noble Hierarch
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2x Viscera Seer
4x Vizier of Remedies
1x Walking Ballista
4x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
Land (22)
3x Forest
2x Gavony Township
2x Horizon Canopy
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
2x Razorverge Thicket
2x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Anafenza, the Foremost
2x Assassin's Trophy
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Knight of Autumn
1x Mirran Crusader
2x Path to Exile
1x Remorseful Cleric
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Sin Collector
I'm looking to build a new deck that has the following:
I already have Burn, which I think fills those roles perfectly.
I'm not a huge fan of Affinity or Tron from having play-tested them. I was looking at Humans, and I think the deck has all the above criteria, but its history in Top Tier Modern is relatively short, which can be worrying for it's long term staying power.
My Abzan Company deck is pretty much dead and I need something new. What do you guys recommend based on the above?
The main deck which still places on MTGO is played by Laplasjan, and his list is more of a mid-range beat down with combo as a backup, which I really don't like, and don't feel it better than the Modern 10K list.
Is this deck mostly dead now, or is it still good and just not as popular as the newer decks?
I'm playing a version that's very similar to the Modern 10k list from a few months ago that ran a third combo with Safi Eriksdotter for infinite scry. (see my sig for decklist).
Any chance this deck comes back to at least Top 16? I haven't seen it Top 16 in a LONG time, except for MTGO.
I like your list but I'm not sure about Militia Bugler, seems kind of "win more" if you're combo'ing, and doesn't really do much if you're not combo'ing. I'd rather have a mix of silver bullets, or a third combo (Saffi + Rallier) like the Modern 10k List has.
Have you seen this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/9qtlmg/1st_place_at_modern_10k_with_abzan_company_101/
Also, Renegade Rallier can grab a fetch from the graveyard if you're stuck on 2 lands. That along with the infinite combo with Saffi + Seer is really nice. I'd rather go all-in combo on game 1, then have a Beat-down/Utility sideboard for G2 and 3.
I wouldn't remove Rallier. It gives us a third combo with Vicera Seer and Saffi Eriksdotter to allow for infinite scry. Doesn't win the game on the spot, but it has to be answered or it gives an insurmountable advantage.