Well i haven't been playing humans long, and coming into it right as dka came out and threw things out of whack im having difficulty adjusting the deck to fit my meta. here it is| Note: The elite Vanguard is just a placeholder until i can get my 3rd Thalia
I know i need 2 seachromes but the store in my town never has them in stock and my only way of aquiring them is by trading atm. My meta is pretty heavy with mono green aggro and b/w Tokens.
thanks!
i'd move sword of war and peace mainboard, it's procs are a blast, and the protections are very relevant. Also, i dislike mana leaks in general. The turns mana leak is going to be effective(2-5) you want to be pouring threats down the table, not hold back mana for leak.
This also leads up to the adding of some O-rings in the mainboard, as it is a much more reliable and diverse removal than your fiend hunters.
For your sideboard, did you try corrosive gale? It works wonders vs the token decks, which i suppose got tons of flyers(they do in my local meta)
If your meta is heavy with green aggro and bw tokens, what do you need abolishers main for?
The red and black mages around Soru seem heavily affected by the increase in the rumbling. Calm and collected Soru taps deeper in the blue mana flow and calls forth an elemental
in my testing,(me running BW tokens) i could easily beat pre-dka humans, but i feel that a t2 thalia is a disaster for tokens that don't have an immediate answer to her.
since i play the thalia/creature heavy build ill put this from my side.
if i am on the play, i will just go t2 thalia and boom... there goes your plan, making gather a practically useless card as when you will be able to play it, ill be in hero range next turn.
on my draw however, it has viability, but i still don't find it that charming.
if you'll cut something for thalia, cut the mana leaks
3 thalias for 3 mana leaks is the optimal number i think
mana leak for me is a mediocre card for this deck at best, and lowering your spells for creatures increases thalia's potential.
on your exact question:
We have to consider, when do we side out grand abolisher? That is, on the mirror, pod, tokens and WRR (which is currently out of favor though)
while the first choices seem obvious, disrupting WRR's ramp with removing a sphere of the suns is quite essential.
On the tokens matchup, i too believe that loyal cathar is much more solid, since he helps in recovery post-DoJ.
As for his pros and cons in general
Pros
Vigilance
Is white
Wipe recovery
Cons
When flipped he neither gets HotP bonus, nor can he block.
All in all, it is a card to be considered, but given the current meta, i'd rather have 3 Relic-warders in my sideboard than 3 loyal cathars. Of course if your local meta is different, this is subject to change.
siding in 1 extra angelic destiny didn't hurt me vs control because your best case scenario against them probably is
t1 champ
t2 abolisher swing for 2
t3 geist (they either tapped out to kill abolisher or they can do nothing to stop you) swing for 4
t4 destiny swing for 14
basically, in a metagame filled with UW Humans and Mage-blade variants (along with some Bant Pods) i switched to a heavy creature version, running 26 Creatures along with 2 swords as my main pumping up technique, abandoning destinies for the relevant protections plus life swings.
if you want to play thalia, you will play even more creature based. I tried this today on my local GPT Lille, (taking out even oblivion rings for fiend hunters) and it lead me to the final where we split.
im playing vapor snag main. If you want to do that combo so badly, why not have a card that can send an opponent's creature to his hand, making eg your geist unblockable on the occasions when you dont have the fiend hunter/relic-warder combo?
imho this card doesn't deserve a spot in out 75
rdw isn't a bad matchup for any reason. And the only way tokens can upset us is by playing elesh norn.
The challenging matchup is that of the Mage-Blade variants, sometimes we get too much tempo controlled, other times early flipping delvers just wreck their way to win... but it is still winnable imo
also getting champ killed means less firepower vs the guys that really matter. Would you like to see a galvanic blast wasted on turn 2 because champ is getting at 3, or EOT turn 3 when you drop a mirran?
champion only once left my decklist in the months that i run the uw humans, and he was sorely missed.
i'd move sword of war and peace mainboard, it's procs are a blast, and the protections are very relevant. Also, i dislike mana leaks in general. The turns mana leak is going to be effective(2-5) you want to be pouring threats down the table, not hold back mana for leak.
This also leads up to the adding of some O-rings in the mainboard, as it is a much more reliable and diverse removal than your fiend hunters.
For your sideboard, did you try corrosive gale? It works wonders vs the token decks, which i suppose got tons of flyers(they do in my local meta)
If your meta is heavy with green aggro and bw tokens, what do you need abolishers main for?
if i am on the play, i will just go t2 thalia and boom... there goes your plan, making gather a practically useless card as when you will be able to play it, ill be in hero range next turn.
on my draw however, it has viability, but i still don't find it that charming.
3 thalias for 3 mana leaks is the optimal number i think
mana leak for me is a mediocre card for this deck at best, and lowering your spells for creatures increases thalia's potential.
We have to consider, when do we side out grand abolisher? That is, on the mirror, pod, tokens and WRR (which is currently out of favor though)
against the mirror pod and wolf run, i believe Leonin Relic-warder to be a much more useful bear, since it can steal these:
-Honor of the Pure
-Oblivion Ring
-Sword of War and Peace
-Angelic Destiny
-Birthing Pod
-Batterskull
-Sphere of the Suns
-And, probably more rarely a solemn simulacrum or a wurmcoil engine
while the first choices seem obvious, disrupting WRR's ramp with removing a sphere of the suns is quite essential.
On the tokens matchup, i too believe that loyal cathar is much more solid, since he helps in recovery post-DoJ.
As for his pros and cons in general
Pros
Vigilance
Is white
Wipe recovery
Cons
When flipped he neither gets HotP bonus, nor can he block.
All in all, it is a card to be considered, but given the current meta, i'd rather have 3 Relic-warders in my sideboard than 3 loyal cathars. Of course if your local meta is different, this is subject to change.
It says return target creature to it's owner's hand. Not target creature an opponent controls.
t1 champ
t2 abolisher swing for 2
t3 geist (they either tapped out to kill abolisher or they can do nothing to stop you) swing for 4
t4 destiny swing for 14
exactly 20 damage
as for my list on the GPT Lille
4 champion of the parish
3 thalia, guardian of thraben
3 Grand Abolisher
2 Fiend Hunter
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Mirran Crusader
3 Hero of Bladehold
4 Honor of the Pure
1 Angelic Destiny
2 Sword of War and Peace
11 Plains
1 Island
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Moorland Haunt
and my sideboard
2 Divine Offering
3 Leonin Relic-Warder
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Dismember
2 Midnight Haunting
3 Timely Reinforcements
basically, in a metagame filled with UW Humans and Mage-blade variants (along with some Bant Pods) i switched to a heavy creature version, running 26 Creatures along with 2 swords as my main pumping up technique, abandoning destinies for the relevant protections plus life swings.
imho this card doesn't deserve a spot in out 75
The challenging matchup is that of the Mage-Blade variants, sometimes we get too much tempo controlled, other times early flipping delvers just wreck their way to win... but it is still winnable imo
champion only once left my decklist in the months that i run the uw humans, and he was sorely missed.
4 doomed
4 champion
3-4 abolisher
3 thalia
now, playing a champ on turn 1 leaves 13-14 people that can pump him to 2/2 on t2, that is quite a certainty now, no?
that matchup is in our favor from g1, and tilts even more to our side post-sideboard.