I have to chime in on this. I've heard a lot of talk about people looking to include this in maverick. Voice is way better than Abolisher. He has such great value as a 2-drop for a midrange build. The problem with Abolisher is that they just kill him. If you're surrounding voice with a bunch of other good creatures (and maybe a rancor on him) your opponent is going to not want to kill him unless they have to. Abolisher just stopped them from playing on your turn. Voice's death clause makes him much stronger.
I tested with 4x Voice a lot over the weekend in a Junk tokens standard deck. In descending order it's best to worst against
1. Control - Great for immediately getting them out of their comfort zone
2. Aggro - Decent for stalling the game 1 or 2 turns
3. Midrange - Usually worse than just casting a turn 2 farseek
It did cause for some strange plays, though. I felt bad for the Izzet control player who charmed him at the end of my turn, giving me two 2/2s in the process.
Against Midrange decks like Jund I finally realized it's just better to board them out for charms or hand disruption spells.
Fun card but not deserving of a $25 price, in summary.
For the past few weeks I've been playing and tweaking a BG midrange list that has put up some 4-0 in MTGO dailies. I feel like it has real strength against the meta and is super fun to play. It plays some very flexible and unfair cards early and then, if left unchecked, creates amazing card advantage in the late game.
About the land choices:
Evolving Wilds is there instead of the Golgari Guildgate. I run 3 Deathrite Shaman and this little change from the other BG lists let's me do some fun things. A lot of opponents in standard totally forget to account for the Shaman's mini ramp utility. It's helped in a couple games where I go turn 1 DRS, turn 2 Evolving Wilds, activate DRE for a Farseek, Sign in Blood, or surprise Abrupt Decay. Sets up nicely for the rest of the game. Fun times.
About the creature choices:
All of these critters create wild amounts of card advantage. DRS early will to eat a few cards from graveyards or draw out a removal spell. Later in the game he's even a decent top deck, how rare is that ever said for a one drop?
Disciple of Bolas and Desecration Demon require the most finesse to play. Jamming them when an opponent has untapped mana or instant speed removal could result in you having a bad day. Know your matchups and play intelligently.
Going turn 4 mutilate into turn 5 Demon or Thrag into turn 6 Disciple is insurmountable. You're probably saying "oh magical christmas land" but with borderline overpowered early cards like DRE, Lily and Geralf's paired with great removal you will see board states that favor these 4-5 mana cards.
About removal choices:
Here is the biggest area of contention, how exactly to kill stuff. Black mage problems lol. Similar lists run Murder or Ultimate Price and I think these are fine as well. Mutilate is a card you need to plan for, either by seeing it in your opening 7 or being OK with losing a Deathrite for the Greater Good. I'd really like to fit a fourth one in my board. Against humans and and gruul aggro it's really crucial to prevent getting swarmed out on turn 5.
About the misc section:
All pretty straightforward here. I don't like 4 Sign in Blood, I think it chews up too much of our life and doesn't help our board state. I will say that it's incredible for closing out games. I've cast it on my opponent a lot of times for the win. Farseek is great early, terrible late since we have no mana sinks to abuse, if anything it's an acceptable card to pitch to Lily if you're OK for lands. Lily is obviously a game warping card whatever format she's played in. Side her out against GW or just use her edict and let her take a swing or two. I've played so many games where casting her with a DRE created these board states that look more like Legacy than Standard. Any game that I've cast Staff of Nin I've won. Garruk is all about flexibility. Sometimes he removes a guy, eats a spear or just sits there pumping out wolves.
About the sideboard:
Against control: Underworld, Duress, Charm if they run sphere.
Against midrange: Appetite, Human Frailty (
huntmaster!), Witchbane (Jund specifically), Sever
Against aggro: Charms, Human Frailty, Sever
Against rogue: Vraska is my catch all for random jank
Anyway that's where I'm at right now. Any advice or discussion is much appreciated!
I've been testing and tweaking this shell and having a great time. Top decks like Jund Midrange and American Midrange feel like the toughest matchups but with tight play it's close.
I missed the coverage. What was the Olivia misplay that people keep mentioning?
If it's the match I watched the scenario was this (roughly)
Jund player has Olivia and mana up to kill opponents 3/3 beast token. Opts to ping the beast once swing in with Olivia killing a Garruk and leave the beast alive. Opponent untaps, casts a boar with haste and swings with both with searing spear for lethal.
My feeling is Sphinx's Revelation gets worse as the format speeds up. This card did great when it was a sea of midrangey decks. Now winning aggro builds, whether Jund or Naya Humans, make 8+ turn games more and more rare.
The meta feels like it's accelerating to a point where this type of control strategy is pushed into irrelevancy. I play mostly online and the control decks I've played against typically run 2-3x of the card.
I am very curious to see where the price eventually settles.
GW seems strong, but the decision to forgo red seems like a mistake to me. Zealous Conscript is just too good right now. Flipping this guy off a Descendant's Path and then drawing a Hero of Bladehold with a Lightning Mauler on the field?
I went 1-2 against a very solid WRG humans list. Lightning Mauler is pretty incredible.
Game 1 went
Turn 1 Champion of Parish
Turn 2 Gather
Turn 3 Champion of Lambholt
Turn 4 Hamlet Captain, Lightning Mauler, swing with everything (I died)
Game 2 I O-ring his Lambholt and play Gavony Riders then Hero of Bladehold. Win that.
Game 3
He boarded out his Zealous Conscripts for 2x Bonfire which he miracled then swings for exactsies. Ouch
@NoHeavenNoHell Against WRR:Thalia to slow their ramp, Fiend Hunters for their Titans and, as you mention, Trackers for their Inkmoths. Also Thalia out they are spending 1 more for Slagstorm and Whipflare which delays their ramping even further. Land a Hero of Bladehold after they wipe and it's definitely winnable from there.
Against Delver. Aggressively mull for Champion of the Parish and Thalia. Race them like the Daytona 500. Watch out for that nasty flash angel. Tough matchup.
Without Cavern of Souls this deck is terminally slow. All the 1WW and 1GG dudes need to land turn 2 or 3 for things to go as planned.
Skinshifter is working as a two of so far. One game I had two Pilgrims out with a Skinshifter and a Silverblade Paladin. Was up to 39 life and feeling pretty good.
Oh yes, with Souls added every draw gets so much better. Just played 2/3 against Delver and a Miracle deck. Thalia and Mayor were allstars against them.
I think 2x Grand Abolisher in the board is better than Divine Deflection. Great against Delver, turns off their Mages, Snags, Think Twice, etc. Yet another early game card that demands they spend removal or get severely punished.
I tested with 4x Voice a lot over the weekend in a Junk tokens standard deck. In descending order it's best to worst against
1. Control - Great for immediately getting them out of their comfort zone
2. Aggro - Decent for stalling the game 1 or 2 turns
3. Midrange - Usually worse than just casting a turn 2 farseek
It did cause for some strange plays, though. I felt bad for the Izzet control player who charmed him at the end of my turn, giving me two 2/2s in the process.
Against Midrange decks like Jund I finally realized it's just better to board them out for charms or hand disruption spells.
Fun card but not deserving of a $25 price, in summary.
Here's my list:
2 Forest
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Evolving Wilds
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Disciple of Bolas
3 Desecration Demon
4 Thragtusk
3 Tragic Slip
3 Mutilate
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Victim of Night
2 Sign in Blood
2 Farseek
2 Garruk Relentless
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Staff of Nin
3 Duress
3 Appetite for Brains
2 Human Frailty
2 Golgari Charm
1 Vraska the Unseen
1 Sever the Bloodline
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Underworld Connections
Lands:
About the land choices:
Evolving Wilds is there instead of the Golgari Guildgate. I run 3 Deathrite Shaman and this little change from the other BG lists let's me do some fun things. A lot of opponents in standard totally forget to account for the Shaman's mini ramp utility. It's helped in a couple games where I go turn 1 DRS, turn 2 Evolving Wilds, activate DRE for a Farseek, Sign in Blood, or surprise Abrupt Decay. Sets up nicely for the rest of the game. Fun times.
Critters:
About the creature choices:
All of these critters create wild amounts of card advantage. DRS early will to eat a few cards from graveyards or draw out a removal spell. Later in the game he's even a decent top deck, how rare is that ever said for a one drop?
Disciple of Bolas and Desecration Demon require the most finesse to play. Jamming them when an opponent has untapped mana or instant speed removal could result in you having a bad day. Know your matchups and play intelligently.
Going turn 4 mutilate into turn 5 Demon or Thrag into turn 6 Disciple is insurmountable. You're probably saying "oh magical christmas land" but with borderline overpowered early cards like DRE, Lily and Geralf's paired with great removal you will see board states that favor these 4-5 mana cards.
Removal:
About removal choices:
Here is the biggest area of contention, how exactly to kill stuff. Black mage problems lol. Similar lists run Murder or Ultimate Price and I think these are fine as well. Mutilate is a card you need to plan for, either by seeing it in your opening 7 or being OK with losing a Deathrite for the Greater Good. I'd really like to fit a fourth one in my board. Against humans and and gruul aggro it's really crucial to prevent getting swarmed out on turn 5.
Card Advantage, Ramp and Walkers:
About the misc section:
All pretty straightforward here. I don't like 4 Sign in Blood, I think it chews up too much of our life and doesn't help our board state. I will say that it's incredible for closing out games. I've cast it on my opponent a lot of times for the win. Farseek is great early, terrible late since we have no mana sinks to abuse, if anything it's an acceptable card to pitch to Lily if you're OK for lands. Lily is obviously a game warping card whatever format she's played in. Side her out against GW or just use her edict and let her take a swing or two. I've played so many games where casting her with a DRE created these board states that look more like Legacy than Standard. Any game that I've cast Staff of Nin I've won. Garruk is all about flexibility. Sometimes he removes a guy, eats a spear or just sits there pumping out wolves.
And the sideboard:
About the sideboard:
Against control: Underworld, Duress, Charm if they run sphere.
Against midrange: Appetite, Human Frailty (
huntmaster!), Witchbane (Jund specifically), Sever
Against aggro: Charms, Human Frailty, Sever
Against rogue: Vraska is my catch all for random jank
Anyway that's where I'm at right now. Any advice or discussion is much appreciated!
If it's the match I watched the scenario was this (roughly)
Jund player has Olivia and mana up to kill opponents 3/3 beast token. Opts to ping the beast once swing in with Olivia killing a Garruk and leave the beast alive. Opponent untaps, casts a boar with haste and swings with both with searing spear for lethal.
The meta feels like it's accelerating to a point where this type of control strategy is pushed into irrelevancy. I play mostly online and the control decks I've played against typically run 2-3x of the card.
I am very curious to see where the price eventually settles.
I went 1-2 against a very solid WRG humans list. Lightning Mauler is pretty incredible.
Game 1 went
Turn 1 Champion of Parish
Turn 2 Gather
Turn 3 Champion of Lambholt
Turn 4 Hamlet Captain, Lightning Mauler, swing with everything (I died)
Game 2 I O-ring his Lambholt and play Gavony Riders then Hero of Bladehold. Win that.
Game 3
He boarded out his Zealous Conscripts for 2x Bonfire which he miracled then swings for exactsies. Ouch
Against RUG Pod
-4 Thalia
-1 Descendants' Path
+3 Beast Within
+2 Oblivion Ring
@NoHeavenNoHell Against WRR:Thalia to slow their ramp, Fiend Hunters for their Titans and, as you mention, Trackers for their Inkmoths. Also Thalia out they are spending 1 more for Slagstorm and Whipflare which delays their ramping even further. Land a Hero of Bladehold after they wipe and it's definitely winnable from there.
Against Delver. Aggressively mull for Champion of the Parish and Thalia. Race them like the Daytona 500. Watch out for that nasty flash angel. Tough matchup.
Without Cavern of Souls this deck is terminally slow. All the 1WW and 1GG dudes need to land turn 2 or 3 for things to go as planned.
Skinshifter is working as a two of so far. One game I had two Pilgrims out with a Skinshifter and a Silverblade Paladin. Was up to 39 life and feeling pretty good.
Thraben Heretic is a good substitute for Purify the Grave in the sideboard if reanimator is a thing in your meta.
Here's what I'm working with:
3 Champion of Lambholt
4 Champion of the Parish
3 Fiend Hunter
3 Hero of Bladehold
3 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Nearheath Pilgrim
4 Silverblade Paladin
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
2 Skinshifter
3 Descendants' Path
Land
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Forest
3 Gavony Township
5 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
Board:
2 Elite Inquisitor (Zombies, RG Aggro)
3 Beast Within (WRR, Solar Flare)
2 Oblivion Ring (Solar Flare)
2 Grand Abolisher (UB or Delver)
2 Ulvenwald Tracker (Inkmoth WRR)
2 Riders of Gavony (Zombies, Mirror)
1 Fiend Hunter (GR Aggro)
1 Angel of Glory's Rise (Zombies)
I think 2x Grand Abolisher in the board is better than Divine Deflection. Great against Delver, turns off their Mages, Snags, Think Twice, etc. Yet another early game card that demands they spend removal or get severely punished.