Edric, Spymaster of Trest or Derevi, Empyrial Tactician pretty easily. Some people will tout Azami, but Edric does the same thing except you get to kill your opponent while you draw your cards and he comes down 2 turns sooner and gives you access to a whole extra color should you want it. All told he is basically strictly better than Azami.
Derevi was banned in duel commander, a format where Stasis (perhaps the best card in the deck) isn't even legal. In traditional EDH Derevi is even worse (better?).
I would certainly say that of the legal generals, they are the two biggest offenders. Braids, Cabal Minion is probably the worst overall but it's a moot point since you can't play her anyway.
I like the ideas re: genesis hydra, crater's claws, and see the unwritten. The deck is mostly five drops because the one thing I want this deck to be able to do semi-consistently is lay down a five-drop monster with generator servant on turn 3.
I need mana sinks for after I spit out my hand, so crater's claws and hydra are perfect for that.
Taplands...I don't need no stinking taplands.
I am also going to add medomai the ageless (because seriously when else is this guy going to get played?) and ob-nixilis unshackled (or as I like to refer to him, django unchained), just to see if I can catch someone cracking a fetchland after he comes out.
"Boom! Boom! Boots the size of oxcarts, then an axe like a falling sun. Elves scattered. Trees scattered. Even the hills ran for the hills!"
—Clachan Tales
name any aspect of magic, any card or strategy - there are EDH players out there who will cry and complain about it. EDH's extremely persnickety player base is the main reason why I've lost a lot of interest in EDH recently. I once played a goblin rally in a purphoros deck and one of my opponents got SO PISSED, started getting pejorative and calling me a "typical combo bully," "unimaginative," "griefer," etc. I've seen a lot of that kind of behavior: everything I choose to do is right, whatever you choose to do is wrong (if it means i may be in danger of losing the game). I dont want to generalize but there are so many players who want to have their cake and eat it too; they openly condemn effective strategies like combo or ramp or just plain synergy and discourage people from playing to win, yet what pisses them off the most is not winning. I've often played with a guy who will criticize nearly every good play his opponents make because it's "against the spirit" but then will get seriously butthurt whenever he doesnt win. I mean which is it, buddy? a lot of players say all they want is to play a nice friendly game but then they get seriously pissed if they dont win in the end. anyway /rant
sidisi whip decks are peaking right now so we need to account for it in the sideboard. I've actually been working on constellation-izing my abzan deck. I'm seeing a lot of hornet queen so I added in more doomwakes (was mb'ing one already) and then I decided to give abzan constellation a proper try. as a result ive been running agent of erebos in the sideboard and it does terrible and hilarious things to the whip decks. i dont know if i'd use revoker, it gets doomwaked like a muh. i like tormod's crypt or cranial archive better. gryff is good because it's going to either eat their removal or peck away at their life, unlike the revoker which will probably die (quickly) without being able to deal any damage.
this is my (still experimental) abzan constellation list:
group hug is the most obnoxious type of deck/player, in my opinion. I always try to kill them first. I dont understand why group huggers think it's SO HILARIOUS. die, die, die. we're trying to play a game here.
the point of MM is to provide an entry point for modern players, not to make the format less expensive. wizards does well when game stores have access to cards that they can resell as singles. its the same reason why wizards is so crazy about printing multicolored cards. cards like dual lands get high secondary market prices and game stores need that to sell lots of singles.
I said I would post a report from FNM so I'm doing that...even though I feel like I learned next to nothing.
Match 1 - Mardu, loss
game one, he got three stormbreath dragons out. I had removal for the first two, but the third one went monstrous and got me. my draws sucked.
game two, I was horribly flooded. Stormbreath got me again, and he crater's clawsed for 13 to finish me off.
Match 2 - Temur, win
game one, I was on the ropes. got down to one life after getting pummeled by heirs of the wild and 3 ashclouds. drew a whip just in time and finally established a superior board position. reaper of the wilds beat up on her while I gained life, and I pulled it out.
Game two, she was horribly mana screwed, mulled to 4, kept a 4 card hand with no lands. I felt really bad when I doomwake giant'ed her mana dorks. Wasnt ever really close.
Match 3 - mirror, loss
I dont really know what to say here. He drew removal and I didnt, that's basically what it came down to. He hit me with 3 downfalls in each game. We traded thoughtseizes and removal in game two but the cards just werent on my side.
Match 4 - red aggro, win
I saw a temple of triumph but no white spells, so im not sure exactly what I was facing. turn 3 rhino won game one, and a turn 4 whip put game two out of his reach. he told me he was winless going in, and was just playing an experimental/casual deck.
so I went 2-2.
Lessons learned: whip essentially won me two matches with the lifegain,
temur monsters could turn into temur dragon madness.
U/B control gets a huge, huge card in crux of fate. With two wraths in the format things could get very very grindy. This makes me think they might print some absolutely bonkers aggro stuff. If they do, I'll be pumped!!!!!
Is this a joke?
I need mana sinks for after I spit out my hand, so crater's claws and hydra are perfect for that.
Taplands...I don't need no stinking taplands.
I am also going to add medomai the ageless (because seriously when else is this guy going to get played?) and ob-nixilis unshackled (or as I like to refer to him, django unchained), just to see if I can catch someone cracking a fetchland after he comes out.
"Boom! Boom! Boots the size of oxcarts, then an axe like a falling sun. Elves scattered. Trees scattered. Even the hills ran for the hills!"
—Clachan Tales
2x Battlefield Forge
1x Frontier Bivouac
4x Mana Confluence
2x Mystic Monastery
2x Nomad Outpost
2x Opulent Palace
3x Sandsteppe Citadel
3x Temple of Abandon
1x Temple of Malady
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Yavimaya Coast
Enchantment (1)
1x Temur Ascendancy
Creature (22)
2x Butcher of the Horde
4x Mantis Rider
4x Rattleclaw Mystic
3x Sagu Mauler
4x Siege Rhino
1x Surrak Dragonclaw
4x Sylvan Caryatid
1x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
2x Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Instant (5)
1x Lightning Strike
4x Stubborn Denial
Sorcery (3)
2x Crater's Claws
1x Villainous Wealth
2x Back to Nature
2x Barrage of Boulders
2x Disdainful Stroke
3x Doomwake Giant
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
2x Glare of Heresy
3x Lightning Strike
this is my (still experimental) abzan constellation list:
2x Caves of Koilos
5x Forest
1x Jungle Hollow
1x Llanowar Wastes
2x Plains
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Temple of Malady
2x Temple of Silence
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Windswept Heath
Instant (5)
3x Abzan Charm
2x Hero's Downfall
4x Courser of Kruphix
3x Doomwake Giant
2x Eidolon of Blossoms
1x Hornet Queen
1x Pharika, God of Affliction
4x Siege Rhino
4x Sylvan Caryatid
Enchantment (9)
2x Abzan Ascendancy
4x Banishing Light
2x Brave the Sands
1x Skybind
Planeswalker (1)
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
3x Whip of Erebos
2x Agent of Erebos
1x Bile Blight
2x Drown in Sorrow
1x Erase
2x Extinguish All Hope
2x Glare of Heresy
1x Liliana Vess
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Nyx-Fleece Ram
1x Plummet
1x Hero's Downfall
Match 1 - Mardu, loss
game one, he got three stormbreath dragons out. I had removal for the first two, but the third one went monstrous and got me. my draws sucked.
game two, I was horribly flooded. Stormbreath got me again, and he crater's clawsed for 13 to finish me off.
Match 2 - Temur, win
game one, I was on the ropes. got down to one life after getting pummeled by heirs of the wild and 3 ashclouds. drew a whip just in time and finally established a superior board position. reaper of the wilds beat up on her while I gained life, and I pulled it out.
Game two, she was horribly mana screwed, mulled to 4, kept a 4 card hand with no lands. I felt really bad when I doomwake giant'ed her mana dorks. Wasnt ever really close.
Match 3 - mirror, loss
I dont really know what to say here. He drew removal and I didnt, that's basically what it came down to. He hit me with 3 downfalls in each game. We traded thoughtseizes and removal in game two but the cards just werent on my side.
Match 4 - red aggro, win
I saw a temple of triumph but no white spells, so im not sure exactly what I was facing. turn 3 rhino won game one, and a turn 4 whip put game two out of his reach. he told me he was winless going in, and was just playing an experimental/casual deck.
so I went 2-2.
Lessons learned: whip essentially won me two matches with the lifegain,
Stormbreath presented a huge problem.
U/B control gets a huge, huge card in crux of fate. With two wraths in the format things could get very very grindy. This makes me think they might print some absolutely bonkers aggro stuff. If they do, I'll be pumped!!!!!