Guys, what are your thoughts about Abzan Company generaly as a deck in modern? Dont include your passion in answer, please. For me, it seems like its getting hated much in last month or two and there isnt any good record recently in last touraments. Even saw few touraments without Abzan Company in Top16 or Top32. Although I still think this deck is a thing(really good thing), but is still T1? I think its on line between T1 and T2. What are your thoughts?
I would say the main reason is due to the Nahiri decks. Its been drawing a lot a buzz, not one of Company's strongest matchups, and the two decks share a splash-able, 1 mana hate card that stop both combos. Tron does well against both (not entirely sure of the details of Jeskai Nahiri vs Tron matchups but it seems to favor Tron) and has become more of a presence in the metagame.
As for being T1 still, sure. There is always an ebb and flow to the metagame. If it was stagnant, no one would be playing it. Sometimes its just that week to hate out affinity. Maybe next week, its time to run 4 crumble to dusts, 4 fulminator mages to stop tron (would not recommend). This time its just Company's turn to get hated out for a bit. If the deck is strong enough to warrant the hate, its got to be doing something right.
Guys, Traverse the Ulvenwald seems to be interesting. Any thoughts to use it? It is not a chord, but for 1 mana is reasonable.
I'm not much of a fan for it in this deck. Typical lists are barely running enough permanent types to hit 4 (lands, creature, instant, spellskite) and the non-delirium search is not what the deck is looking to do.
Looks like Tron is getting some tech to further prey upon the CC/aggro decks. It even goes through the usual answers that are run sideboard to combat their pyroclasms.
Kozilek's Return
2R
Instant
Devoid
Kozilek's Return deals 2 damage to each creature.
Whenever you cast an Eldrazi creature spell with converted mana cost 7 or greater, you may exile Kozilek's Return from your graveyard. If you do, Kozilek's Return deals 5 damage to each creature.
How have the Forbidding Watchtowers been working for you? Is the entering tapped/white mana better than than running Mutavaults or is it just a cost concern?
Finally the most overlooked card in the board Telekinetic. He is strong against control, twin, 3+ color mana based decks, and tron. He is good to keep their lands tapped during opponents upkeep. With sentinel in play it just isn't fair for your opponent. Any other questions left me know.
Frank Lepore revisited slivers again using the decklist that top 8'd in Cincinnati. Telekinetic Sliver was an absolute all-star against the Tron/Bloom matches.
Went 2-2 then dropped the last round for Monday Night Magic. My deck list isn't very optimized though <budget> so I didn't expect much (whatever helps me sleep at night, right :sunny:) Also lost the die roll for each game.
G1: Start the game with land into bird. He bolts my flier. He keeps up the removal and counters my first CC on his EOT. Turn 5, I untap and go for another, getting two witnesses into play getting them back. My next two CC's go unanswered, revealing 2 Finks, Melira and an Avacyn's Pilgrim. With no cards in hand, he draws for the turn and passes. My draw is just a land so I go to swing with the team. He flashes in an Exarch and blocks the 4 power finks, dropping to 4 life. Next turn he gets the Twin. My next card was the Seer.
G2: Start with a mull to 6. Get down a t1 pilgrim that meets a burn spell. Turn 2 Melira is snared. Turn 3 I go for a Phyrexian Revoker naming Exarch, he flashes in pestermite (ugh). I have no paths/decays so I hope for the best and it turns out he had the twin anyway.
0-1
Match 2: RG Tron (2-1)
G1: He cycles through about 5 artifacts casts a pyroclasm and lands a Wurmcoil Engine the turn after. I had a path for that but he follows up with an Ugin and the dream dies.
G3: He starts off with a Karplusan Forest into Ancient Stirrings grabbing a tron land. I get a birds into play. Turn 2 drops a mine and casts Sylvan Scrying for the tower. I follow with a lonely finks and pass. His follow up is one of the artifact rocks and tower. Turn 3 I go into a seer and anafenza gaining 3 Billion. He completes tron, casts O-Stone and cracks it. We hit time at this point and gives me the win since he couldn't ultimate karn by then.
1-1
Match 3: GB Elves (0-2)
G1: Mull to 6. He has his way with me. Not even close. Able to overrun 3 times by turn 5 or 6.
G2: Mull to 5. He has his way with me some more. Felt violated at this point. Same results as last game but one less overrun activation.
1-2
Match 4: Naya Burn (2-0)
G1: Start with two Finks in hand and it helps me stabilize enough as he runs out of gas.
G2: Opening hand has a Burrenton Forge-Tender and a Big Anafenza. Both stop any creatures on the ground and helps me stall long enough to combo to life.
2-2
-I didn't like the Orzhov Pontiff in the main. Usually the field is a lot of pyromancers or affinity so wanted a stronger match against them but its such a dead card most of time.
-Big Anafenza was a lot better than I thought. It helped to close out games but the exile ability was not very relevant in any the matches that night. Might be worth exploring Loxodon Smiters or something.
-I did miss having both SpellSkite and Voice of Resurgence which I think would have helped a great deal.
-Didn't draw into Tidehollow Sculler, Grand Abolisher, or any chords all day but would move the Sculler to the side and replace the three slots with voices.
-Stony Silence was added minutes before and worked out real well in my case.
-Duress would be a better discard spell if money was infinite but gets what I want most of the time.
-I've had previous success with Stain the Mind but again, never drew it.
I have been a big fan of Knight of New Alara for a while now and have a casual deck similar to the one below. The deck looks to gain advantage in just having big efficient beaters backed by the anthem on a stick. Main deck does have a few hatebear-esque creatures to disrupt the opponents game plan long enough to go the distance. Board stalls and late game are backed by the Gavony Townships and help to make the Elves a little better of a late game top deck. Non-color producing utility lands do have to stay down in count since the casting costs for the creatures are pretty strict.
There is definitely the possibility to splash a third color for some more spicy cards in blue,black, or red. Of course there are more options for these colors but just trying to get the creative juices flowing. Theoretically, its possible to go all colors/gold with some rainbow lands (Ancient Ziggurat,Pillar of the Paruns,mana confluence,City of Brass) but that may be getting a little too greedy with Blood Moon on the rise.
Went to my first modern tournament last night and ended up going 3-1. I am running a more budget version of the deck because of the whole being poor issue :rolleyes:.
Match 1: UW Gifts Tron
Oh man, what a game to start on. I have little hate on Tron overall so I was just hoping to at least steal a game. Didn't end up happening but it was a good stepping stone for the rest of the day.
Game 1: I on the draw and already off to a good start taking a mull to 6. I am able to get a Finks, Birds, and Seer out by turn 4, but he does a wrath to follow up. Next turn I draw a company and cast on my turn in case he was running counter magic (no clue he was gifts at this point). I only flip a finks and pass. The opponent casts a gifts grabbing Rites/Elesh Norn which I don't draw an answer for.
Me: 0 Enemy: 1
Game 2: The opponent mulls to 4 and my hand couldn't capitalize fast enough. I do get him to 5 and he casts gifts grabbing the elesh/rites combo on turn 4/5 (cant remember). He flashes back the rites, wipes my board. I play out a few mana dorks as a follow up drawing path for the turn. He only swings with the norn (which meets the path) and colonnade. At this point he is one land from Tron and gets it on his next upkeep. He casts Iona on white and cry inside. I rip a chord off the top and start searching for 3. I realize that I accidentally took out my Fiend hunter and that's the end for me.
Me: 0 Enemy: 2
0-1
Match 2: Grixis Delver
Game 1: I get a good start flooding the field with a bunch of creatures. His turn 2 Angler starts bashing in and he spends the little removal he drew on my seer/finks. Once I path his dead fish, I go on the finks beat down plan backed by Township and he ends up conceding as my life hits 30.
Me: 1 Enemy: 0
Game 2: He has a lot more removal and gets a tasigur/Young Pyromancer into play. End of his turn, I company getting a Finks/Big Anafenza to join my bird and other finks. I play my township and start the beat down plan. His Tasigur activation gets him a terminate killing the Anafenza. Next turn, I draw another company getting a sin collector and witness. I return a path and strip the Kolaghan's command from his hand. He draws an island and concedes.
Me: 2 Enemy: 0
1-1
Match 3: Boros Burn
Game 1: She has a fast start but today I have been on the "All finks all the time" plan and negate a lot of the life she took off. After stabilizing, I company into both the seer and melira going infinite twice since her last card was a skullcrack.
Me: 1 Enemy: 0
Game 2: I take the greediest of all hands and pay for it dearly. I only get off a forest bird and play nothing else the rest of the game. She does the nut draw of 3 Eidolons. I couldn't even kill myself and concede.
Me: 1 Enemy: 1
Game 3: I have a worship in my opener so I figured why not. I do get to play a finks turn two but a block and rift bolt take care of him. I drop the little anafenza next turn and she burns it down too. I finally get to play my worship with no creatures and me getting to a very uncomfortable life total. She empties her hand with a rift bolt and monastery swiftspear hitting me down to 4. I respond back with a pilgrim and witness getting back my finks. She rifts the witness and drops me to 2. From this point, I'm able to stall long enough and go off with the combo again.
Me: 2 Enemy: 1
2-1
Match 4: Affinity
Game 1: He just explodes a bunch a 1/1s and only has two cards left in hand. I play a meager pilgrim and pass. He is stuck on 1 land (inkmoth) for a while allowing me to build my board a bit with adding a finks and melira. He does draw another land and is able to play his steel overseer but I have a path waiting. I follow with a company getting a witness and tidehollow grabbing his thoughtcast before his island was free and returning my company. His followup is another memnite and I company again missing the combo but he does concede.
Me: 1 Enemy: 0
Game 2: He gets a similar explosive start ending his turn with only 2 cards in hand. My play is similar to the previous with a land and bird. He keeps pinging me with a memnite/vault skirge/inkmoth while I build a force of Qasali Pridemage, finks, little anafanza. He does get a welding jar negating my pridemage (no open mana) and starts being a bit more aggressive. I do get a company and path his skirge. Back on his turn he only plays a steel overseer and gets me up to 4 poison counters. I company during combat and get a tidehollow and another witness bring back my path. He scoops it up from all the card advantage.
Me: 2 Enemy: 0
3-1
Overall, I had a lot of fun with the deck. I didn't combo off as much as I thought and I usually went the distance just being on the beat down plan. I made a few misplays here and there (the bolster triggers off of company especially) but the deck is resilient enough to cover a lot of decks. Without the tron hate, its such a hard matchup that chances of winning even a game are really slim. I didn't see many of my maindeck bullets a lot so I can't really say how much they are working for me but I really did like TideHollow Sculler over Sin Collector. More than likely it was just the decks I played but when I saw their hand, I could really feel the instant/sorcery restriction. Eventually, I would like to get some Spellskites, Voice of Resurgence, and probably some fulminator mages.
On the Twin match-up:
I can see how some versions have a worse Twin match-up, but I haven't been losing to Twin on a regular basis with my fast list or my slow list. The fast list combos off fast enough consistently enough that Twin is on the back foot for the first some turns holding up disruption for the combo (thus, I don't lose to Twin all the time), while the slow list tends to put enough offensive pressure on Twin fairly often (thus, I don't lose to Twin all the time). Then again, the slow list does maindeck 3 Tidehollow Sculler, 2 Qasali Pridemage, 2 Abrupt Decay, and 1 Garza's Assassin as disruption (and 4 Collected Company but 0 Chords). Both lists take advantage of how inconsistent Tempo Twin has become (no, 6 cantrips aren't enough consistency). ...Both lists have relatively even match-ups against Twin from my experience.
My guess is that the combo oriented version is mainly a race to "who draws it first without the other interfering." The slower/disruption has a lot more tools to battle their pieces with some of the cards you added in as good examples. Another big reason in my mind though is the removal package. Typically, we either run Path to Exile or Abrupt Decay main. Decks running decay have a much easier time since you are guaranteed it hitting their creatures.
I am pretty sure you mean Wilt-leaf Liege, rather than wilt-leaf cavaliers. Cavaliers is pretty solid, though. The reason it is run is that it has apparently a better burn matchup than convential azban because it is faster and can gain life more easily, or can at least be tuned that way. It is worse vs. combo, though. Other than that, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Being bolt proof and laughing at discard makes it pretty solid.
That's what I figured too. I was just a bit surprised since people would still be linking the cavaliers. The names are just too similar
Sorry if this is a silly question but Ive been out of the game for a few months now. I'm starting to see a lot of lists running Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers nowadays (not limited to knight decks). What changed to bring these guys into the limelight? Is it just another knight to dodge bolt without a lord in play? With a Light from Within it beats both Tasigur and Siege Rhino but that is mainly only run in knights lists.
I tried to make it a catch all kind of thing until I have a better understanding of the meta in the area which is why there is the split for Mirran Crusader and Paladin en-Vec. I do not have any expensive swords or anything so for card advantage I run the Mask of Memory. And a friend of mine is going to be running W/U Tron hence the mainboard Tec-edges
Sideboard-wise the only cards not typically run are the Harm's Way. I really want Sunlance to be a thing but being a sorcery really kills it sometimes. It does kill a lot of relevant creatures like DRS, Delver, and mana dorks without giving lands though.
Hey guys. Im a long time lurker, first time poster and was wondering if anyone could post a game of theirs against another modern deck. The lgs in the area is starting up Modern Night Magic and I just wanted to see how knights stood up to storm or other combo decks. I will also post my knights lists when I get back home~
To continue the Mirran Crusader debate, would his protection abilities become more relevant with Jund decks turning more towards blue than to red? He can block tarm all day and with swords and +1/+1 from anthem effects, he provides a faster clock.
Also, what is the concensus for Blind Obedience? Would it work better as a sideboard option? Better for more aggro oriented metas? Or I am just too excited about it?
As for being T1 still, sure. There is always an ebb and flow to the metagame. If it was stagnant, no one would be playing it. Sometimes its just that week to hate out affinity. Maybe next week, its time to run 4 crumble to dusts, 4 fulminator mages to stop tron (would not recommend). This time its just Company's turn to get hated out for a bit. If the deck is strong enough to warrant the hate, its got to be doing something right.
I'm not much of a fan for it in this deck. Typical lists are barely running enough permanent types to hit 4 (lands, creature, instant, spellskite) and the non-delirium search is not what the deck is looking to do.
Kozilek's Return
2R
Instant
Devoid
Kozilek's Return deals 2 damage to each creature.
Whenever you cast an Eldrazi creature spell with converted mana cost 7 or greater, you may exile Kozilek's Return from your graveyard. If you do, Kozilek's Return deals 5 damage to each creature.
How have the Forbidding Watchtowers been working for you? Is the entering tapped/white mana better than than running Mutavaults or is it just a cost concern?
Frank Lepore revisited slivers again using the decklist that top 8'd in Cincinnati. Telekinetic Sliver was an absolute all-star against the Tron/Bloom matches.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=12845&writer=Frank Lepore
Fans of mill decks can just run the old Ruin Ghost and Hedron Crab couple, but that has a rough time against Tron decks.
4x Forest
2x Gavony Township
1x Godless Shrine
4x Windswept Heath
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Swamp
2x Temple Garden
3x Razorverge Thicket
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Plains
Creatures (29)
2x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
2x Birds of Paradise
3x Eternal Witness
4x Kitchen Finks
2x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Orzhov Pontiff
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Grand Abolisher
3x Viscera Seer
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Anafenza, The Foremost
1x tidehollow sculler
2x Path to Exile
3x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Burrenton Forge-Tender
2x Duress
1x Aven Mindcensor
2x Mirran Crusader
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Stain the Mind
1x Sin Collector
3x Stony Silence
Match 1: Grixis Twin (0-2)
G1: Start the game with land into bird. He bolts my flier. He keeps up the removal and counters my first CC on his EOT. Turn 5, I untap and go for another, getting two witnesses into play getting them back. My next two CC's go unanswered, revealing 2 Finks, Melira and an Avacyn's Pilgrim. With no cards in hand, he draws for the turn and passes. My draw is just a land so I go to swing with the team. He flashes in an Exarch and blocks the 4 power finks, dropping to 4 life. Next turn he gets the Twin. My next card was the Seer.
G2: Start with a mull to 6. Get down a t1 pilgrim that meets a burn spell. Turn 2 Melira is snared. Turn 3 I go for a Phyrexian Revoker naming Exarch, he flashes in pestermite (ugh). I have no paths/decays so I hope for the best and it turns out he had the twin anyway.
0-1
Match 2: RG Tron (2-1)
G1: He cycles through about 5 artifacts casts a pyroclasm and lands a Wurmcoil Engine the turn after. I had a path for that but he follows up with an Ugin and the dream dies.
G2: I get a t2 stony silence and that buys me enough time to beat down with a pilgrim, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Finks, Qasali Pridemage and Big Anafenza.
G3: He starts off with a Karplusan Forest into Ancient Stirrings grabbing a tron land. I get a birds into play. Turn 2 drops a mine and casts Sylvan Scrying for the tower. I follow with a lonely finks and pass. His follow up is one of the artifact rocks and tower. Turn 3 I go into a seer and anafenza gaining 3 Billion. He completes tron, casts O-Stone and cracks it. We hit time at this point and gives me the win since he couldn't ultimate karn by then.
1-1
Match 3: GB Elves (0-2)
G1: Mull to 6. He has his way with me. Not even close. Able to overrun 3 times by turn 5 or 6.
G2: Mull to 5. He has his way with me some more. Felt violated at this point. Same results as last game but one less overrun activation.
1-2
Match 4: Naya Burn (2-0)
G1: Start with two Finks in hand and it helps me stabilize enough as he runs out of gas.
G2: Opening hand has a Burrenton Forge-Tender and a Big Anafenza. Both stop any creatures on the ground and helps me stall long enough to combo to life.
2-2
-I didn't like the Orzhov Pontiff in the main. Usually the field is a lot of pyromancers or affinity so wanted a stronger match against them but its such a dead card most of time.
-Big Anafenza was a lot better than I thought. It helped to close out games but the exile ability was not very relevant in any the matches that night. Might be worth exploring Loxodon Smiters or something.
-I did miss having both SpellSkite and Voice of Resurgence which I think would have helped a great deal.
-Didn't draw into Tidehollow Sculler, Grand Abolisher, or any chords all day but would move the Sculler to the side and replace the three slots with voices.
-Stony Silence was added minutes before and worked out real well in my case.
-Duress would be a better discard spell if money was infinite but gets what I want most of the time.
-I've had previous success with Stain the Mind but again, never drew it.
There is definitely the possibility to splash a third color for some more spicy cards in blue,black, or red. Of course there are more options for these colors but just trying to get the creative juices flowing. Theoretically, its possible to go all colors/gold with some rainbow lands (Ancient Ziggurat,Pillar of the Paruns,mana confluence,City of Brass) but that may be getting a little too greedy with Blood Moon on the rise.
4x Noble Hierarch
3x Birds of Paradise
2x Dryad Militant
2x Bant Sureblade
3x Naya Hushblade
3x Voice Of Resurgence
2x Qasali Pridemage
4x Loxodon Smiter
2x knight of the reliquary
4x Knight of New Alara
2x Marisi's Twinclaws
2x Dromoka's Command
4x Path to Exile
Lands (23)
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Temple Garden
4x windswept heath
3x Plains
3x Forest
3x Horizon Canopy
2x Gavony Township
2x Stony Silence
2x Bojuka Bog
2x Gaddock Teeg
1x Fracturing Gust
3x Kitchen Finks
2x Brave the Elements
4x Leyline of Sanctity
Of the top of my head, the decklist looks like:
4x Forest
2x Gavony Township
1x Godless Shrine
4x Windswept Heath
1x Verdant Catacombs
2x Swamp
2x Temple Garden
3x Razorverge Thicket
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Plains
Creatures
3x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
2x Birds of Paradise
2x Eternal Witness
4x Kitchen Finks
2x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Orzhov Pontiff
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Grand Abolisher
1x Varolz, the Scar-Striped
2x Viscera Seer
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Sin Collector
1x tidehollow sculler
2x Path to Exile
2x Chord of Calling
4x Collected Company
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Burrenton Forge-Tender
1x Anafenza, The Foremost
1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
1x Reveillark
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Stain the Mind
1x Sin Collector
3x Worship
Match 1: UW Gifts Tron
Oh man, what a game to start on. I have little hate on Tron overall so I was just hoping to at least steal a game. Didn't end up happening but it was a good stepping stone for the rest of the day.
Game 1: I on the draw and already off to a good start taking a mull to 6. I am able to get a Finks, Birds, and Seer out by turn 4, but he does a wrath to follow up. Next turn I draw a company and cast on my turn in case he was running counter magic (no clue he was gifts at this point). I only flip a finks and pass. The opponent casts a gifts grabbing Rites/Elesh Norn which I don't draw an answer for.
Me: 0 Enemy: 1
Game 2: The opponent mulls to 4 and my hand couldn't capitalize fast enough. I do get him to 5 and he casts gifts grabbing the elesh/rites combo on turn 4/5 (cant remember). He flashes back the rites, wipes my board. I play out a few mana dorks as a follow up drawing path for the turn. He only swings with the norn (which meets the path) and colonnade. At this point he is one land from Tron and gets it on his next upkeep. He casts Iona on white and cry inside. I rip a chord off the top and start searching for 3. I realize that I accidentally took out my Fiend hunter and that's the end for me.
Me: 0 Enemy: 2
0-1
Match 2: Grixis Delver
Game 1: I get a good start flooding the field with a bunch of creatures. His turn 2 Angler starts bashing in and he spends the little removal he drew on my seer/finks. Once I path his dead fish, I go on the finks beat down plan backed by Township and he ends up conceding as my life hits 30.
Me: 1 Enemy: 0
Game 2: He has a lot more removal and gets a tasigur/Young Pyromancer into play. End of his turn, I company getting a Finks/Big Anafenza to join my bird and other finks. I play my township and start the beat down plan. His Tasigur activation gets him a terminate killing the Anafenza. Next turn, I draw another company getting a sin collector and witness. I return a path and strip the Kolaghan's command from his hand. He draws an island and concedes.
Me: 2 Enemy: 0
1-1
Match 3: Boros Burn
Game 1: She has a fast start but today I have been on the "All finks all the time" plan and negate a lot of the life she took off. After stabilizing, I company into both the seer and melira going infinite twice since her last card was a skullcrack.
Me: 1 Enemy: 0
Game 2: I take the greediest of all hands and pay for it dearly. I only get off a forest bird and play nothing else the rest of the game. She does the nut draw of 3 Eidolons. I couldn't even kill myself and concede.
Me: 1 Enemy: 1
Game 3: I have a worship in my opener so I figured why not. I do get to play a finks turn two but a block and rift bolt take care of him. I drop the little anafenza next turn and she burns it down too. I finally get to play my worship with no creatures and me getting to a very uncomfortable life total. She empties her hand with a rift bolt and monastery swiftspear hitting me down to 4. I respond back with a pilgrim and witness getting back my finks. She rifts the witness and drops me to 2. From this point, I'm able to stall long enough and go off with the combo again.
Me: 2 Enemy: 1
2-1
Match 4: Affinity
Game 1: He just explodes a bunch a 1/1s and only has two cards left in hand. I play a meager pilgrim and pass. He is stuck on 1 land (inkmoth) for a while allowing me to build my board a bit with adding a finks and melira. He does draw another land and is able to play his steel overseer but I have a path waiting. I follow with a company getting a witness and tidehollow grabbing his thoughtcast before his island was free and returning my company. His followup is another memnite and I company again missing the combo but he does concede.
Me: 1 Enemy: 0
Game 2: He gets a similar explosive start ending his turn with only 2 cards in hand. My play is similar to the previous with a land and bird. He keeps pinging me with a memnite/vault skirge/inkmoth while I build a force of Qasali Pridemage, finks, little anafanza. He does get a welding jar negating my pridemage (no open mana) and starts being a bit more aggressive. I do get a company and path his skirge. Back on his turn he only plays a steel overseer and gets me up to 4 poison counters. I company during combat and get a tidehollow and another witness bring back my path. He scoops it up from all the card advantage.
Me: 2 Enemy: 0
3-1
Overall, I had a lot of fun with the deck. I didn't combo off as much as I thought and I usually went the distance just being on the beat down plan. I made a few misplays here and there (the bolster triggers off of company especially) but the deck is resilient enough to cover a lot of decks. Without the tron hate, its such a hard matchup that chances of winning even a game are really slim. I didn't see many of my maindeck bullets a lot so I can't really say how much they are working for me but I really did like TideHollow Sculler over Sin Collector. More than likely it was just the decks I played but when I saw their hand, I could really feel the instant/sorcery restriction. Eventually, I would like to get some Spellskites, Voice of Resurgence, and probably some fulminator mages.
My guess is that the combo oriented version is mainly a race to "who draws it first without the other interfering." The slower/disruption has a lot more tools to battle their pieces with some of the cards you added in as good examples. Another big reason in my mind though is the removal package. Typically, we either run Path to Exile or Abrupt Decay main. Decks running decay have a much easier time since you are guaranteed it hitting their creatures.
That's what I figured too. I was just a bit surprised since people would still be linking the cavaliers. The names are just too similar
20 Plains
2 Tectonic Edge
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
Creatures
3 Student of Warfare
2 Knight of Glory
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Paladin en-Vec
4 Knight Exemplar
4 Hero of Bladehold
4 Path to Exile
3 Mask of Memory
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Harm's way
2 Faith's Shield
2 Divine Offering
I tried to make it a catch all kind of thing until I have a better understanding of the meta in the area which is why there is the split for Mirran Crusader and Paladin en-Vec. I do not have any expensive swords or anything so for card advantage I run the Mask of Memory. And a friend of mine is going to be running W/U Tron hence the mainboard Tec-edges
Sideboard-wise the only cards not typically run are the Harm's Way. I really want Sunlance to be a thing but being a sorcery really kills it sometimes. It does kill a lot of relevant creatures like DRS, Delver, and mana dorks without giving lands though.
To continue the Mirran Crusader debate, would his protection abilities become more relevant with Jund decks turning more towards blue than to red? He can block tarm all day and with swords and +1/+1 from anthem effects, he provides a faster clock.
Also, what is the concensus for Blind Obedience? Would it work better as a sideboard option? Better for more aggro oriented metas? Or I am just too excited about it?