MTG Salvation

I am really liking some of these colorless guys from Oath. With the number of Ghost Quarter, Tectonic Edge and/or Gavony Township (not to mention I run Brushland and Wooded Bastion) we play, I think it's very reasonable to be able to run these cards. Some of them seem worth it too, or at least worth the testing. Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher in particular have caught my eye.

I have found Twin to be somewhat difficult, depending on the draw of course. Choke is very good against them. Their best weapon against us is Blood Moon.

Good point about Archangel needing to be untapped for it to stop Twin. The triple white has also been a strain on the mana base from time to time. Maybe it's time to try Augustin in that slot.

Hey all. I haven't posted in a while. While I haven't had a lot of time to play, I have had a chance to get one event in locally with what I'm calling my turbo tax variant. I'm even inclined to try splashing blue for Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and Geist of Saint Traft. The core of it is the following cards:

• Leonin Arbiter
  
• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
  
• Vryn Wingmare
  
• Aven Mindcensor
  
• Archangel of Tithes
  
• Linvala, Keeper of Silence
  

This new version is very obviously heavy on white. I am still playing green for Noble Hierarch, Voice of Resurgence, and Qasali Pridemage (exalted triggers are great with all of the fliers). I'm still getting wrecked by Blood Moon if I can't respond to it immediately with Path to Exile or Ghost Quarter. Playing Aether Vial could help me get around that, by still being able to vial in Pridemage with BMoon on the board {which is also good vs Twin).

On CoCo, I have to admit that it is a spell I've been looking at. It's probably terrible in my build, as I'm so heavily built for taxing. It's a very good card, and plays well with Arbiter. Definitely worth testing at the very least.

I hadn't played the Hatebears in a while, but tweaked my list for a local event last night. I went 3-1, losing to the guy who took first (playing Affinity). I beat Amulet, UW Delver and Grixis Delve (could have been a Delver deck, but I didn't see Delver). I didn't have time to balance my mana base before the event, but felt pretty good about how the deck played overall.



I'm not really sure where I want to make changes. I'm pretty heavy on white mana symbols, so I kind of want to up my white mana count, but at the same time all of my 1 drops are green which makes me want to have more than the 13 green sources I am currently running (I have 14, but one is Stirring Wildwood which EtB tapped). I may cut one of each basic for a couple more duel lands. This will increase my count for each color by 1, but also reduces my resilience to Blood Moon. Brushland is the only other land I'm not playing that I can think of which allows the turn 1 mana dork, so I might up the Horizon Canopy count to 3 and add one of those to balance the mana.

The sideboard was pretty solid. Fracturing Gust is the only card I'm considering replacing, but I'm not sure what I would replace it with. The hard match ups are Affinity, Tokens, Soul Sisters, Merfolk, Bogle, Twin, Blue Moon and Storm. I feel well prepared for Storm with 3x Thalia in the main. I've also got a lot of hate for Affinity post board. Choke, EE and Sunlance match up well against Merfolk. I feel like the deck could use more answers for Soul Sisters, Tokens, Bogle and Twin. Blue Moon is probably the deck I'm least prepared for, but I also don't expect to see it. Although I wouldn't be surprised to see Blood Moon from Twin or Affinity.

I've been playing Fracturing Gust for well over a year, and it's still the most oppressive card for the Affinity match up that still has other applications as well. It comes in against Ux Tron, Bogle, and some other random things. The only downside is that it can be a turn too slow for Affinity (has happened to me exactly once), but at instant speed you are hitting their man lands and gaining an absurd amount of life that they just can't recover from it.

Chalice has been played for a while too, and is still great against Burn, Living End, Bogle (set to 1 shuts off 95% of their deck), Affinity on the play (set to 0), etc... Horseshoe Crab wrote a whole post on when and where to play Chalice, which I linked to in the Primer (look at Chalice of the Void under Sideboard section). Check it out.

Grand Abolisher was one of the cards that initially drew me to this archtype. Generally I like Voice better. It's usually easier to cast, and the token generation is a big plus. Even if it dies, it still leaves a body behind (which can be enough to buy time).

I've been playing a modded version of Wilson's list and I am really liking it. There is a lot of synergy within the deck and it is well positioned for the current meta. I've made room for some Abrupt Decay, Scavenging Ooze, a 4th Smiter and a singleton Tasigur, as well as a singleton Tectonic Edge. I'm liking the layers of hate for Liliana/Hand disruption. Souls, Liege and Smiter are all boss here. I like the additional creatures from Souls that get pumped by Liege, as well as the tokens from Voice (which I've mentioned in the past). Pridemage, Voice, Smiter, Rhino and Finks all get a double pump off of Liege as well, which can lead to overwhelming board states. Kitchen Finks and Rhino also give the deck a fair amount of lifegain, and Scooze only adds to it with an improved late game. This gives the deck some cushion room against the aggressive decks like Burn, Zoo and Affinity, and can make decks like Storm and Scapeshift have to work a little harder. The deck really has a good feel to it. The only bummer is that Tasigur doesn't get pumped by Liege, which I am entirely fine with.

Here is the list:



I'm still not really sure what I am going to do with the sideboard yet. I will likely add in some hand disruption, Aven Mindcensor, some sort of grave hate, possibly Timely Reinforcements. Decay 3-4 and/or Maelstrom Pulse also seems solid.

I feel like I'm alone in the camp that thinks we should discuss both variants in here. We have been discussing this type of build quite a bit lately, and Abzan colors have been brought up a number of times in the past. This is just the first time we have seen someone do well with this kind of build in the new meta. Most of the cards in the deck are part of the Hatebears shell, and I don't think that we should write it off as a separate deck just because there is no Arbiter/Mindcensor. Several people have posted their own lists which exclude Arbiter and Mindcensor, so I feel it would be inconsistent to suddenly stop discussing these variants.

EDIT: On a side note, my updated decklist:

We have discussed pretty much all of the cards in that Abzan deck. I'm probably going to sleeve it up, and squeeze in Tasigur, the Golden Fang while I'm at it.

This is like a mash up of Hatebears and Abzan. I've been toying around with a similar list and think it's a good strategy. Notable Hatebears cards include Hierarch, Voice, Pridemage, Smiter, Liege and Path.



I'm a little surprised no Abrupt Decay. I would probably cut a Bird for a 4th Smiter.

A Hatebears list made 3rd at the SCG IQ this weekend: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=79426

Pretty standard list. Looks solid.



I would be a little uncomfortable running 6 colorless sources with Sigarda and Liege. I'm also not a fan of Forge-Tender, but I suppose Scapeshift running Firespout and Affinity running Whipflare one could make the argument for BFT. I've never played Brimaz, but maybe I will have to give him a shot.

Vial is pretty much only good vs the control decks, and we have other cards that are also good vs them. To me it was always mana dork vs Vial. Even if I played both, I would sometimes have both in my opening hand and had to make the decision for one or the other. I found that playing a dork to ramp into a 3 drop on turn 2 is better than playing vial to pump out a 2 drop on turn 3. Being aggressive can put our opponents on their heels before they get a chance to really get going. Sometimes that quick opening would close out games before they get finished, and that is usually better than playing a grindy game with Vial. We also have Loxodon Smiter and Aven Mindcensor to play around counter magic, and we can run Thrun, the Last Troll and Restoration Angel as well if we want to.

I will say that I'm really liking Qasali Pridemage moving forward. I expect Affinity, Twin, Tron and Burn to see a lot of play, and Pridemage hits relevant cards in all of those decks. I recommend running at least 2 main right now, but I will probably be leaning towards 3.

I think Hatebears without land hate is still viable, but I would still keep in Arbiter. He is a problem for a lot of decks and they have to answer him if they don't want to lose a lot of tempo just fetching. I've also had problems in the past where I was unsure if I wanted to blow up a land or wait until I could cast Baneslayer/Sigarda/Batterskull. This sort of removes that choice from me, and then I don't mind running a singleton Gavony Township. I've been testing another deck lately, but when I come back to this deck I will probably give it a go. I'm going to wait until after the PT and see what happens with the meta though.

Quote from GuyverII »

Quote from from DOLZero »

Siege Rhino + Wilt-Leaf Liege seems pretty good. Especially if Liliana shows up a lot more. Maybe Restoration Angel is better? I really can't say for sure as I haven't played much in the current meta. If lots of Liliana and Zoo, I like Liege. If lots of control, I like Thrun and Restoration Angel. If lots of Burn, I like Rhino. There is also Sigarda, Baneslayer and Batterskull. At this point I am waiting to see how the meta shapes up before I make that decision.

My biggest criticism is the mana base. You've only got 6 black mana sources. I would try to find some more in there, whether it's Sandsteppe Citadel, Mana Confluence, or more Overgrown Tomb/Godless Shrine.

What do you feel about this:
-1 Aven Mindcensor +1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
-1 Forest +1 Overgrown Tomb
-1 Plains +1 Fetid Heath

Aven is useful against Scapeshift, but not quite feeling it in some games. I feel the spot could be used better by Wilt-Leaf Liege like you pointed out. Turning Rhino into 6/7 Trampler is pretty brutal.

My only worry is Bloodmoon. I'd have access to green mana through Noble, but I'd have no access to black.

(tried so post links, but it says I have too low of a post count)

I really don't worry about Blood Moon personally. It's a card that sees some play in a very few number of decks. The chances of running into it are slim.

I also think that 8 sources for a single color are not enough. Even if I were to splash, I would run at least 11 sources. Probably 12.

I really like Yeva, and I keep one on hand in case I want to run it. I haven't had a chance to give it a thorough testing though.