Heh, I'm enjoying reading all this banter against Ari Lax and his mannerisms. I like the guy, he writes very well, but he does come off as a "heel" to some people. At least people are hating on someone that isn't Bertoncini, for a change.
I'd love to see an Abzan Midrange vs. Abzan Aggro final, but McLaren is no slouch. Apparently he was already sure of his deck a week before the Pro Tour and didn't even test with any Pro teams. That's amazing.
Wait, how did Lee sideboard in this G2? He said in the video that he'd switch gears and bring in the creatures (Knuckleblade/Polukranos), but he still has the combo pieces. What did he take out?
You just gotta feel for Lee Shi Tian, that emotion he showed was just amazing to watch, especially since after he talked about how much this T8 means to him with all that's going on in Hong Kong right now. Great stuff, and we'll be watching videos of this in the future.
Feel sorry for Turtenwald, though. Goes into the last round as one of 7 at 36 points, and is the odd man out and gets paired down with Yuuya. Them's the breaks, I guess.
Deck-wise I'd like to see Sigrist take this, Abzan Aggro! If Ivan Floch pulls off back-to-back Pro Tour wins that would be amazing though. Ari Lax winning would put such a huge statement on his career, too.
(There is a foil uncommon there, one of the Bloodflies, if you're counting uncommons).
How would you build this? I started of well, but had a bad misplay in Round 3 (not attacking during extra turns) that turned a W into a D, and after losing in Round 5 and pretty much ensuring no Top 8 I just dropped so I could attend a dinner. I will post my decklist later when I recall it, but I built Abzan splashing the 2 other colors for Zurgo and Icy Blast.
0 copies of Sylvan Caryatid. It started off when I got annoyed at how I would be topdecking Caryatid late into the game - you might as well have told me to not draw a card. So I went down to 3, because I just wanted to see one on average every game. Then 2. Then 1, and finally zero. I still don't feel like I need it. Sure, you'll be taking some pain, but there's a healthy amount of lifegain in the midgame to make it up, plus some decent early defense to make sure you get there. I took the idea (some different cards MD, but still 0 Caryatid) to a 180+ person tournament last weekend and could count the number of mulligans I had over 8 rounds - 3. May have been luck, but I've since played some more times since then and I still haven't felt the need for the 0/3 fixer.
Creatures are pretty much what you expect - Courser, Fleecemane, Rhino, Roc - and a singleton Arbor Colossus. That could just be a 3rd Roc, but I am testing it as of now.
At the 4-drop slot there's quite a decent number of lifegain options, and to some extent you can probably just swap them around. Aside from Sorin & Ajani there is also Whip of Erebos which is pretty funky with Siege Rhino, right now I'm testing Ajani.
Removal: I seem set/happy on 4 Downfall, 1 Murderous Cut (you WILL cast this for fairly cheap when you have it, you have Fetchlands + Tseize + removal hitting the yard) and at least 3 Abzan Charm. Right now I am testing out Silence the Believers and loving it - it takes out most stuff you want off the board while having the flexibility to wipe more than one creature off. In the games I have it it has been exceptional. There is a Drown in Sorrow main, not the best MD card but with a lot of Jeskai Burn/aggro running around where I play I like having an MD answer to a Rabblemaster/Seeker swarm / red guy swarm.
Oddly I haven't been too hot on 4 Thoughtseize main, I may move one to the side.
Back to Nature is for all those pesky Doomwake Giant/Whip of Erebos decks running around, just be careful to not shaft yourself too hard if you have Courser out. Sheep/Sorrow is the regular anti aggro package, Utter End as additional catch-all removal. I like Liliana Vess rather than Ajani, Mentor of Heroes as an additional walker post-board - Vess allows you to tutor for exactly what you need (just don't crack a fetch after), whereas Ajani MoH's +1 sometimes whiffs. That SB is short a couple of cards and I am trying out various stuff in those spots.
Some cards that I've tried and am not too hot on:
- Bow of Nylea - this isn't green devotion where you have excess mana to spend on gaining 3 life a turn, your lifegain is at the 4-drop slot instead.
- Brimaz, King of Oreskos - GG, BB and WW on Turn 3 is difficult, especially in Standard where there are actual aggro decks that can punish you for being too greedy. Chapin pulled it off in block because the aggressive deck in that format (heroic) is less consistent than the aggro decks Standard has (MBA/RDW). I think you can only run 2 of 3 between Brimaz, Downfall and Courser, and have gone with the latter 2.
- Nissa, Worldwaker - The difference between Nissa here and Nissa in green devotion is that the latter is a deck that doesn't mind chucking its lands at you. Between Nykthos and lots of mana dorks, they can actually afford to turn their lands into beatsticks because they have so much mana in the first place. When I tried her here it's often easy to put yourself in trouble by turning the wrong land into a creature, or even risking your lands getting blown up by removal. She's still very powerful, though.
I know it's the Pro Tour and the meta will change drastically, but I just wanted to post what I've had in the first two weeks of Khans. I'm looking forward to how the pros shake up/define Standard, and do believe that Abzan Midrange will be a deck (in some form), the power level you get access to from these three colors is simply amazing.
Salt Road Patrol gums up the ground like it's nobody's business. Reminds me of Rotted Hulk, for sure. The P/T is designed in a way that it gets through common red removal (Bring Low) while still dodging Smite the Monstrous (until you Outlast). Oftentimes I had this as a 3/6 that just stopped the board.
Even earlier than that, though: Archer's Parapet. In grindy Abzan mirror matches this card won me games because it just sits there and plays defense while pinging your opponent. It's (really slow) inevitability that shores you up, allowing you to hide behind walls and Outlast your guys.
Those two, plus Disowned Ancestor really help Abzan stall and come through late game with bigger stuff. Not to mention you can grow the Ancestor into a beatstick that will probably not die.
I did not like Jeskai Windscout at least in Sealed. It might be nuts in draft, though, where you can really make Prowess work and just tempo-cheap swing the opponent the death.
Seems like good starts for builds. Two of them seem like a Dredge build that has Necropolis Fiend, Whip of Erebos and Hornet Queen, there's a Constellation build, even an Aggro build that curves Pantheon into Rakshasa Deathdealer into Anafenza.
Of the six, I'm most interested in the one that got 2nd. It's fairly straightforward - has 4 Hero's Downfall, 4 Thoughtseize, and 4 Drown in Sorrow between the 75. I've been playtesting it for the past couple of hours and mana is much, much more consistent than the other builds I've been playing (those with Brimaz, King of Oreskos wants WW on turn 3, this one just wants W T3 for Abzan Charm0.
Plus a large amount of warrior creatures in the colors, and even some in the two clans it slots into (Abzan and Mardu).
R/W seems to be pointing towards something aggressive, as with Highspire Mantis and Ride Down. Does seem to fit with the way Mardu (aggro rush) and Jeskai (aggressive tempo + prowess) want to play.
As well as a wipe that takes care of weenies but not it's high toughness guys - Death Frenzy. Obviously meant to play with both the B/G clans - Sultai wants to buy time to set up Delve, Abzan wants to buy time to get a stalled board and just start outlasting to victory.
I am not sure what U/R is, but there's something there.
The allied-color pairs are probably a little more straightforward than this because they're all just in one clan, but I can't figure it out. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to go? Seems like in draft I'd try to stick to an enemy-color pair early on so I'm open to two clans as the draft progresses, as compared to an allied-color pair since that just leads to one.
I have to admit, those five-color builds made me wish I played those. So it seems like I was on the way towards an Embodiment of Spring ramp build (which is true), but FTW ended up with Butcher (I thought it was too greedy, probably could have gotten away with it) and less morphs (but with Abzan Guide) while I went towards having morphs that I could consistently turn face up (Glacial Stalker and Mistfire). In hindsight, I wasn't a fan of the Mistfire and the Stalker was unspectacular, if alright, so I think I should have played Abzan Guide. He also has Jeskai Charm where I have Temur.
magicmerl ended up with something very different, though, and for that I'm curious as to how you approached building this deck/your thought process that led to this. I'd never have thought to play Tormented Voice, actually.
Out of all the Sealed Pools I have I posted this because of the amount of fixing available is just a lot - 5 banners, 9 colored nonbasics and 2 Embodiment of Spring - so there's definitely a lot of options.
Adrian Sullivan is on Wescoe/Lax's team? That I didn't know.
Lol at this Youtube live chat "Ari Laxsack"
That plus Jeskai Charm is crazy.
I'd love to see an Abzan Midrange vs. Abzan Aggro final, but McLaren is no slouch. Apparently he was already sure of his deck a week before the Pro Tour and didn't even test with any Pro teams. That's amazing.
And then Ari topdecks Elspeth. Lovely.
Mike Sigrist currently 1-0 up against Aven Flock.
EDIT: Sigrist beats Floch 2-0
No back-to-back Pro Tours!
Feel sorry for Turtenwald, though. Goes into the last round as one of 7 at 36 points, and is the odd man out and gets paired down with Yuuya. Them's the breaks, I guess.
Deck-wise I'd like to see Sigrist take this, Abzan Aggro! If Ivan Floch pulls off back-to-back Pro Tour wins that would be amazing though. Ari Lax winning would put such a huge statement on his career, too.
Over the weekend I took place in a GPT for one of the upcoming Grand Prixs in the region (January). The pool was this:
1 Erase
2 Firehoof Cavalry
1 High Sentinels of Arashin
1 Mardu Hordechief
1 Salt Road Patrol
1 Siegecraft
1 Smite the Monstrous
2 War Behemoth
1 Dig Through Time
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Embodiment of Spring
2 Glacial Stalker
1 Icy Blast
1 Jeskai Elder
1 Jeskai Windscout
1 Mystic of the Hidden Way
1 Scaldkin
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Treasure Cruise
2 Wetland Sambar
1 Debilitating Injury
1 Despise
1 Dutiful Return
1 Kheru Bloodsucker
1 Mardu Skullhunter
1 Murderous Cut
1 Rakshasa’s Secret
1 Rite of the Serpent
1 Shambling Attendants
2 Sultai Scavenger
2 Swarm of Bloodflies
2 Unyielding Krumar
1 Arrow Storm
1 Bloodfire Expert
1 Canyon Lurkers
1 Dragon Grip
1 Goblinslide
1 Shatter
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Trumpet Blast
2 Valley Dasher
1 Alpine Grizzly
1 Archer’s Parapet
2 Highland Game
1 Hooting Mandrills
1 Incremental Growth
1 Pinewalker
1 Sagu Archer
1 Smoke Teller
1 Tusked Colossodon
1 Tuskguard Captain
1 Windstorm
1 Abzan Guide
1 Armament Corps
1 Duneblast
2 Efreet Weaponmaster
1 Mardu Roughrider
1 Master the Way
1 Sultai Soothsayer
1 Trap Essence
1 Winterflame
1 Zurgo Helmsmasher
1 Lens of Clarity
1 Mardu Banner
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Sandsteppe Citadel
1 Scoured Barrens
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Tranquil Cove
(There is a foil uncommon there, one of the Bloodflies, if you're counting uncommons).
How would you build this? I started of well, but had a bad misplay in Round 3 (not attacking during extra turns) that turned a W into a D, and after losing in Round 5 and pretty much ensuring no Top 8 I just dropped so I could attend a dinner. I will post my decklist later when I recall it, but I built Abzan splashing the 2 other colors for Zurgo and Icy Blast.
2 Plains
3 Forest
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Temple of Malady
3 Caves of Koilos
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Siege Rhino
2 Wingmate Roc
1 Arbor Colossus
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Ajani Steadfast
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Abzan Charm
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Murderous Cut
1 Silence the Believers
1 Utter End
1 Drown in Sorrow
0 copies of Sylvan Caryatid. It started off when I got annoyed at how I would be topdecking Caryatid late into the game - you might as well have told me to not draw a card. So I went down to 3, because I just wanted to see one on average every game. Then 2. Then 1, and finally zero. I still don't feel like I need it. Sure, you'll be taking some pain, but there's a healthy amount of lifegain in the midgame to make it up, plus some decent early defense to make sure you get there. I took the idea (some different cards MD, but still 0 Caryatid) to a 180+ person tournament last weekend and could count the number of mulligans I had over 8 rounds - 3. May have been luck, but I've since played some more times since then and I still haven't felt the need for the 0/3 fixer.
Creatures are pretty much what you expect - Courser, Fleecemane, Rhino, Roc - and a singleton Arbor Colossus. That could just be a 3rd Roc, but I am testing it as of now.
At the 4-drop slot there's quite a decent number of lifegain options, and to some extent you can probably just swap them around. Aside from Sorin & Ajani there is also Whip of Erebos which is pretty funky with Siege Rhino, right now I'm testing Ajani.
Removal: I seem set/happy on 4 Downfall, 1 Murderous Cut (you WILL cast this for fairly cheap when you have it, you have Fetchlands + Tseize + removal hitting the yard) and at least 3 Abzan Charm. Right now I am testing out Silence the Believers and loving it - it takes out most stuff you want off the board while having the flexibility to wipe more than one creature off. In the games I have it it has been exceptional. There is a Drown in Sorrow main, not the best MD card but with a lot of Jeskai Burn/aggro running around where I play I like having an MD answer to a Rabblemaster/Seeker swarm / red guy swarm.
Oddly I haven't been too hot on 4 Thoughtseize main, I may move one to the side.
The sideboard package looks something like this:
3 Nyx-Fleece Ram
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Back to Nature
1 Utter End
2 Liliana Vess
1 Arbor Colossus
Back to Nature is for all those pesky Doomwake Giant/Whip of Erebos decks running around, just be careful to not shaft yourself too hard if you have Courser out. Sheep/Sorrow is the regular anti aggro package, Utter End as additional catch-all removal. I like Liliana Vess rather than Ajani, Mentor of Heroes as an additional walker post-board - Vess allows you to tutor for exactly what you need (just don't crack a fetch after), whereas Ajani MoH's +1 sometimes whiffs. That SB is short a couple of cards and I am trying out various stuff in those spots.
Some cards that I've tried and am not too hot on:
- Bow of Nylea - this isn't green devotion where you have excess mana to spend on gaining 3 life a turn, your lifegain is at the 4-drop slot instead.
- Brimaz, King of Oreskos - GG, BB and WW on Turn 3 is difficult, especially in Standard where there are actual aggro decks that can punish you for being too greedy. Chapin pulled it off in block because the aggressive deck in that format (heroic) is less consistent than the aggro decks Standard has (MBA/RDW). I think you can only run 2 of 3 between Brimaz, Downfall and Courser, and have gone with the latter 2.
- Nissa, Worldwaker - The difference between Nissa here and Nissa in green devotion is that the latter is a deck that doesn't mind chucking its lands at you. Between Nykthos and lots of mana dorks, they can actually afford to turn their lands into beatsticks because they have so much mana in the first place. When I tried her here it's often easy to put yourself in trouble by turning the wrong land into a creature, or even risking your lands getting blown up by removal. She's still very powerful, though.
I know it's the Pro Tour and the meta will change drastically, but I just wanted to post what I've had in the first two weeks of Khans. I'm looking forward to how the pros shake up/define Standard, and do believe that Abzan Midrange will be a deck (in some form), the power level you get access to from these three colors is simply amazing.
Even earlier than that, though: Archer's Parapet. In grindy Abzan mirror matches this card won me games because it just sits there and plays defense while pinging your opponent. It's (really slow) inevitability that shores you up, allowing you to hide behind walls and Outlast your guys.
Those two, plus Disowned Ancestor really help Abzan stall and come through late game with bigger stuff. Not to mention you can grow the Ancestor into a beatstick that will probably not die.
I did not like Jeskai Windscout at least in Sealed. It might be nuts in draft, though, where you can really make Prowess work and just tempo-cheap swing the opponent the death.
http://www.magic-league.com/deck/85910/black_aggro_with_sorin.html#Abzan Midrange191726
Seems like good starts for builds. Two of them seem like a Dredge build that has Necropolis Fiend, Whip of Erebos and Hornet Queen, there's a Constellation build, even an Aggro build that curves Pantheon into Rakshasa Deathdealer into Anafenza.
Of the six, I'm most interested in the one that got 2nd. It's fairly straightforward - has 4 Hero's Downfall, 4 Thoughtseize, and 4 Drown in Sorrow between the 75. I've been playtesting it for the past couple of hours and mana is much, much more consistent than the other builds I've been playing (those with Brimaz, King of Oreskos wants WW on turn 3, this one just wants W T3 for Abzan Charm0.
Chief of the Edge
Chief of the Scale
Raider's Spoils
Rush of Battle
Plus a large amount of warrior creatures in the colors, and even some in the two clans it slots into (Abzan and Mardu).
R/W seems to be pointing towards something aggressive, as with Highspire Mantis and Ride Down. Does seem to fit with the way Mardu (aggro rush) and Jeskai (aggressive tempo + prowess) want to play.
B/G looks like high-toughness, defensive creatures - just basing this off Kin-Tree Invocation but the color pair has access to some rather large butts:
Disowned Ancestor
Archer's Parapet
Sidisi's Pet
As well as a wipe that takes care of weenies but not it's high toughness guys - Death Frenzy. Obviously meant to play with both the B/G clans - Sultai wants to buy time to set up Delve, Abzan wants to buy time to get a stalled board and just start outlasting to victory.
I am not sure what U/R is, but there's something there.
The allied-color pairs are probably a little more straightforward than this because they're all just in one clan, but I can't figure it out. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to go? Seems like in draft I'd try to stick to an enemy-color pair early on so I'm open to two clans as the draft progresses, as compared to an allied-color pair since that just leads to one.
I have to admit, those five-color builds made me wish I played those. So it seems like I was on the way towards an Embodiment of Spring ramp build (which is true), but FTW ended up with Butcher (I thought it was too greedy, probably could have gotten away with it) and less morphs (but with Abzan Guide) while I went towards having morphs that I could consistently turn face up (Glacial Stalker and Mistfire). In hindsight, I wasn't a fan of the Mistfire and the Stalker was unspectacular, if alright, so I think I should have played Abzan Guide. He also has Jeskai Charm where I have Temur.
magicmerl ended up with something very different, though, and for that I'm curious as to how you approached building this deck/your thought process that led to this. I'd never have thought to play Tormented Voice, actually.
Out of all the Sealed Pools I have I posted this because of the amount of fixing available is just a lot - 5 banners, 9 colored nonbasics and 2 Embodiment of Spring - so there's definitely a lot of options.