It seems to me that this deck is mostly dead, and will never come back into Tier 1 or 2. Traditional Abzan / Jund are just better overall against a wider variety of decks, and barring a heavy Jund/Abazan with control meta, I just don't see this deck making a come back.
I've decided to sell all my Siege Rhino, Wilt Leaf, Souls, Voice of Resurgence ect. and trade into Abzan Company.
Is this a good move or should I trade it into regular Abzan instead?
The deck definitely has a problem with emptying your hand quickly, and unfortunately there's no catch-all solution to that. Abzan Charm helps somewhat, and Sea Gate Wreckage has the activation issue. I don't like Painful Truths as much but it's something.
The best solution I've found to this is just play more threats and cut down on removal. This is the list I'm currently running and it's been doing quite well:
Eldrazi will have something banned from it eventually, that deck is just straight broken.
Against Affinity you are right, however that matchup depends heavily on games 2-3 and finding your SB cards. This is when I would side out my 4 drops to lower the curve. In general, I dont see a good reason for cutting the Rhino unless your meta is nothing but Affinity and Eldrazi.
Worth a shot I guess but I wouldn't play it personally. I've also realized I'm on 23 lands from when I was running 6 dorks, now that I'm running 7 I will probably cut a land (Ghost quarter most likely) for either a 3'ed Abrupt decay or 4th Lingering souls.
Also very interesting take from Nevelo running 0 copies of Siege Rhino. What was your reasoning for that?
I may be altering my list to increase threat density and reduce removal to the bare minimum, slotting in more creatures in the main and moving the removal/Utility to the SB. I was even thinking of cutting the souls completely and put my Decay, Pulse and Dromoka's in the MB to free up some SB slots but I'm not sure if that's a good idea.
Ranulfs list posted above looks pretty solid. That said I disagree with a few choices.
I would remove the 2x Fleecemane lion for an extra Noble and Voice. Next I would cut a Wilt-Leaf Liege for a single Maelstrom pulse. I'm not sure if cutting souls is a good idea though as it buys a lot of time by clogging up the board, and is also good against counterspells.
The SB looks ok but I'm not sure about Thragtusk and Resto Angel. I would replace them for 2x Zealous persecution and 2x Engineered explosives
Eldrazi Displacer seems like an awful substitute for Smiter. What does he do for this deck? He's not bigger than Smiter, can be countered/discarded and doesn't get pumped by Wilt-Leaf. Seems pretty *****ty if you ask me.
He's also very good against control. KotR is just another big beater when it really comes down to it. Sure he has nice utility with the land fetching, but it's just "win-more" and isn't nearly as diverse Smiter.
Also KotR can take longer to "get going" if you don't have at least 2 lands in the GY. This makes it bad against hyper aggro (burn, infect, affinity) from my testing.
I've decided to sell all my Siege Rhino, Wilt Leaf, Souls, Voice of Resurgence ect. and trade into Abzan Company.
Is this a good move or should I trade it into regular Abzan instead?
Thoughts?
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
Until then, I play Infect or Burn at my LGS. I use this deck for casual play with friends
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
The best solution I've found to this is just play more threats and cut down on removal. This is the list I'm currently running and it's been doing quite well:
2x Forest
2x Gavony Township
1x Godless Shrine
1x Marsh Flats
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
3x Razorverge Thicket
1x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Noble Hierarch
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Siege Rhino
4x Voice of Resurgence
3x Wilt-Leaf Liege
Instant (7)
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Path to Exile
Sorcery (3)
3x Lingering Souls
1x Celestial Purge
1x Dromoka's Command
2x Duress
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Stony Silence
4x Thoughtseize
2x Zealous Persecution
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
Against Affinity you are right, however that matchup depends heavily on games 2-3 and finding your SB cards. This is when I would side out my 4 drops to lower the curve. In general, I dont see a good reason for cutting the Rhino unless your meta is nothing but Affinity and Eldrazi.
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
Also very interesting take from Nevelo running 0 copies of Siege Rhino. What was your reasoning for that?
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
Thoughts on this list?
2x Forest
2x Ghost Quarter
1x Godless Shrine
1x Marsh Flats
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
3x Razorverge Thicket
1x Stirring Wildwood
1x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Siege Rhino
4x Voice of Resurgence
3x Wilt-Leaf Liege
2x Scavenging Ooze
Sorcery (3)
3x Lingering Souls
Instant (6)
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Path to Exile
1x Abrupt decay
1x Dromoka's Command
1x Maelstrom pulse
2x Duress
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Stony Silence
4x Thoughtseize
2x Zealous Persecution
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
I would remove the 2x Fleecemane lion for an extra Noble and Voice. Next I would cut a Wilt-Leaf Liege for a single Maelstrom pulse. I'm not sure if cutting souls is a good idea though as it buys a lot of time by clogging up the board, and is also good against counterspells.
The SB looks ok but I'm not sure about Thragtusk and Resto Angel. I would replace them for 2x Zealous persecution and 2x Engineered explosives
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
It depends on your meta, however it still hits many relevant cards that hurt us quite badly, or have the potential to put us in a bad spot.
Cards such as: Blood Moon, Supreme verdict, Damnation, Cryptic Command, Scapeshift, Collected company, Cranial plating, goryo's vengeance, Retreat to coralhelm, Ensnaring bridge, Ghostly prison, Any planeswalker, Storm spells, Cascade spells, as well as any Burn(Aggro)/Counter(control)/Destroy(BGx)/Pump(Infect/Zoo) spell.
I personally run 2, down from 3 after the Twin ban.
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company
Also KotR can take longer to "get going" if you don't have at least 2 lands in the GY. This makes it bad against hyper aggro (burn, infect, affinity) from my testing.
RWG Burn
GW Abzan Company