Been a while since I posted an update - I actually spent some time on MTGO trying out different archetypes, including some brews I had been mulling in my head for a while. Although they were good and fun, it just wasn't the same as the Humans lists I had been working on. I'm a big sucker for creatures with all sorts of abilities and triggers, so here I am. The first list I went back to was the 4C Collected Company list. It looked something like this:
It was a great list, but I felt like it was just a smidge off the mark. Mana was tough at times, some parts of the curve felt awkward etc. I thought about some previous things I had discussed - maybe Lightning Bolt is too tough on the mana. Maybe Duskwatch Recruiter can find a role in here somewhere. Lyev Skyknight, while being a decent 3 drop, just wasn't performing as well as I'd like. I also went back and watched some of the Frank Lepore and Craig Wescoe videos, thinking about the draws and how they compared to my list. After some thought, I came to a list with a maindeck very close to the one played by Lepore and Wescoe, because I realized there were some small, but key differences that made that list tick while mine stumbled. First, my current list:
This doesn't seem like a big change on the surface, but the deck plays much better with these changes. I think the biggest reason for this is the addition of 2 Avacyn's Pilgrim, which took the Lightning Bolt slot. Here's why the changes are for the better:
- This deck doesn't really care about "bolting the Bird." It wants to "Reflector Mage the bird" (on T2) or "set up for a board so overwhelming that the bird can't do anything." Having 2 more PROACTIVE 1 drops is very important because the deck works infinitely better when it can either cast a 3-drop or a pair of creatures on T2. In a humans deck, you want to get out on the front foot, get ahead on board, then lord them to death while using Reflector Mage or Path to Exile to clear any blockers. I further confirmed this when I looked back at the videos I made from my twitch stream a few weeks ago - there were times where Bolt was in my opening hand, but a Pilgrim would have been so much better. It was very rare that the case was the other way around.
- The "conventional" wisdom I had gained from playing decks like Naya Company was that you don't want to run too many mana dorks since they are terrible Collected Company hits. While this is still true, it isn't nearly as big of a cost in a Humans deck. In this deck, any creature can be either made huge thanks to lords or it can grow Lieutenant and Champion. This gives us the unique luxury of being able to run a couple of extra dorks without it significantly impacting lategame draws.
- The mana base is much smoother without having to fetch red for Bolt. I'm able to fetch basics a lot more than I used to.
- The maindeck difference between my deck and the Lepore deck is Duskwatch Recruiter instead of Meddling Mage. I think having a 2 toughness 2 drop is a big deal for us, but I don't like Mage because it's often very awkward - you either need perfect information, play against decks with only 1 card to worry about or be REALLY GOOD at guessing. Without any of those things, it's really just a vanilla 2/2 for 2. Duskwatch Recruiter, on the other hand, is consistently fine in the early game and really good in the mid and late game. He eeks out a little extra card advantage - this doesn't seem like much, but in a deck where each creature means so much, it's nothing to sneeze at. Whether you're looking for one of the toolbox creatures out of the sideboard, a Reflector Mage to bounce a pesky creature or a Mantis Rider to push through damage in a board stall, it's great to have extra ways to find them in a pinch. And since the new list has upped the creature count to 31, it's trivial to hit a creature off of his ability each time. It's also super easy to cast, being Gx as opposed to UW. With all of that said, this is a slot similar to the Lyev Skyknight slot where we don't quite have the right card yet, but this will have to do for now. I've been happy with the choice so far.
- Instead of getting fancy with my 3 drop choices, I came to the conclusion that it was just best to jam four copies of each of the two best 3-drops by a wide margin. This even cleared up a sideboard slot as an added bonus.
- Just want to quickly mention Disdainful Stroke as a card that hits both creatures and spells that we care a lot about. I think a 3/2 split of Negate and Stroke in the board is very good.
As a brewer, I admit it feels a little "bad" to essentially circle around to a deck that was already built, but I really can't argue with the choices. My testing and experience with the deck has led to very similar conclusions as far as the maindeck configuration is concerned. I plan to make similar changes to the Abzan Company list, taking out Dromoka's Command for Avacyn's Pilgrim and taking out the 4th Mayor of Avabruck for a Duskwatch Recruiter. More consistent turn 2 Anafenzas sounds like fun to me .
Why wait for 3 mana when you've got everything you need at 1 and 2 cmc? You get 2 extra lords in Mayor of Avabruck and Hamlet Captain, you've got mid/late game sustainability with Warden of the First Tree, a card which is also fine in the early game as an extra beater. All this along with the usual Humans suspects and you've got a fast, consistent, resilient aggro deck. I've been very happy with it.
This list is about 105 tix on MTGO and can be made cheaper by replacing the fetches. In paper, the mana base would need to be further simplified and maybe some other concessions depending on budget. Some later upgrades would be things like Cavern of Souls and Auriok Champion.
Mayor is curious because he wants you to dump you hand and go wide to get maximum advantage from his lord effect but he also needs you to keep your hand stocked to keep him from flipping at inconvenient times. This has been problematic for a lot of the higher curve CoCo lists (including mine) but your ability to go wide with a low curve + Gather the Townsfolk combined with lots of card draw from Inspector, Bob, and Horizon Canopy might balance those needs better than most lists so far.
Both Mayor and Captain have been great. I think you hit the nail on the head with your last statement. The deck goes so wide so quickly, that all it needs is 1 or 2 swings with a lord in play and it's pretty much game over. It's also not as difficult as one would think to keep some gas in the tank for a post-sweeper rebuild (or Mayor flip prevention, which I'll address in a moment); as you mentioned, Bob, Canopy and Inspector all do fantastic work at that, and proper threat pacing goes a long way as well. It honestly doesn't require that many cards to put big pressure on the opponent. Then, when preparing for a sweeper, I usually try to keep something like a 1 drop and a lord in my hand. Warden of the First Tree ROCKS at this; it's my preferred post-sweeper card. Oh you wiped my board? Have fun with this guy. Then we have stuff like Kytheon, Hero of Akros that threatens to flip before sweepers are available, forcing the opponent to have spot removal and use it before they get to their sweeper. I know I keep gushing about it, but the card quality at 1 cmc just blows my mind in this deck haha. How many decks can play 17-18 1 drops that are either must-answer threats at multiple stages in the game or card advantage? But I digress...
I was very suspicious of Hamlet Captain at first, since he needs you to be able to untap and attack in order to be effective. However, with the way most games play out, it's rarely an issue. I think what's happening is that the opponent's spot removal is stretched so thin, trying to keep cards like Champion of the Parish and Kytheon, Hero of Akros from getting out of hand in the early game, that Hamlet Captain often squeaks through unnoticed. Also, he is almost always set up with 1 or 2 Thalia's Lieutenants or Mayor of Avabrucks on the following turn for maximum damage bursts. This also makes it to where, if the opponent kills him with spot removal, I've got the 2 better lords waiting in the wings anyway.
As for Mayor of Avabruck, he's been a total all star. Maybe I'm weird, but I don't think I've ever minded letting him flip and get me more card advantage. His anthem effect gets utilized the turn he enters the battlefield, and if my opponent wants to do nothing on their turn in response, that's fine. I'll take some tokens. Almost all of the spells I'm truly worried about are sorcery speed. I've even had games where I had multiple spells to play, but didn't, just to let him keep going off with tokens. But in general, the games finish so quickly that he never flips to begin with, which is also perfectly fine. Both sides of the card have been great. Essentially, if Mayor of Avabruck is staying alive long enough for the flipping to matter, I'm already winning the game.
I wanted to love Hamlet Captain but he always felt a little bit too slow. Again, perhaps the potential width of your board makes the payoff worth the slowness. He's definitely the most "win more" card in the deck, though, and -1x Hamlet Captain seems like the right choice if you really want to squeeze in the fourth Bob. Anafenza, The Foremost might replace the other Captain.
I agree here. In any shell that's slower than mine, I feel like Hamlet Captain would be awful and I wouldn't recommend it. It was the first card I cut in my CoCo build. In a super low slung, wide build, however, he seems to shine. With that said, you could be right about him being a win-more, so I'll do some testing with a 4th Dark Confidant in place of the 2nd Hamlet Captain and see how the deck feels. In general, however, anything that boosts the toughness of our creatures is very relevant, as it prevents opponents from trading up with us, which has always been a weakness of this type of deck. Anafenza, the Foremost is far too slow for my build to be a worthwhile addition. Why wait till turn 3 to play a 4/4 when I've usually got an army of multiple 4/4s or bigger by then? I do think Anafenza is a solid card in a more midrange build, but definitely not an aggro build. If I were to replace the 2nd Hamlet Captain, I think it'd be for a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. She is really effective when dropped early and backed up by a fast clock.
I know you want to keep your black splash light but Abrupt Decay would be a nice upgrade over Sundering Growth in the side.
Good point here; most of the stuff I want to hit with Sundering Growth also gets hit by Abrupt Decay. The only potential downside is that the Populate clause is relevant in a list running a playset of Gather the Townsfolk. But this is definitely worth testing out, as Abrupt Decay could be useful in more matchups, which as we all know, is a big upside in this format.
EDIT 2: I also think you could make a case for 2x Brave The Elements over Blossoming Defense. Your core beaters are all still grounded and white so they'd benefit from the evasion (Warden can gain his own Teample). The deck's got card advantage in spades, personally I would value the evasion even if the protection wouldn't cover Bob, Mayor, Warden.
I'm really glad you brought this up, because this has been a big point of contention for me with the list. During testing, I've been specifically paying attention to when I draw Blossoming Defense and asking myself if I would prefer it to be a Brave the Elements. Surprisingly enough, the answer has usually been no, at least so far. There are certain key points in the game where it is very important to be able to play "protect the queen," and having a +2/+2 pump spell is a great combat trick to keep up your sleeve. A lategame scenario with a growing Warden of the First Tree is one of the main use-cases for it, and is one of the major reasons why I have been able to close out long games that most aggro builds would struggle with.
With that said, the cards are very likely interchangeable and I think that once I have a larger sample size of games, the scenarios in which I want one over the other will be more 50/50. So at that point, it's really just a stylistic thing and up to the deck builder to decide which they prefer. My main issue with Brave the Elements is that I'd get into feel-bad situations where I can't protect the creatures I necessarily want to protect (Bob, Warden, Mayor etc). There are also times where my board is something like 1 Thraben Inspector, 1 Hamlet Captain and 1 Warden of the First Tree. Brave is then SUPER awkward. To some, the ability to alpha strike with a wide board more than offsets that. So, in summary, Blossoming Defense is going to be the more consistently good card with little to no downside. Brave the Elements is either going to be REALLY good and win you the game immediately or REALLY bad and be useless. I'm a deck builder that prefers consistency, hence my choice. I can certainly see the merits in swapping out, though.
Regarding your manabase, Razorverge Thicket would be a better choice over Sunpetal Grove.
I have certainly thought about this as well. However, there are only 3 lands in the whole deck (2 Cavern of Souls and 1 Horizon Canopy) that don't play nice with Sunpetal Grove, so I think I like having an untapped mana 99% of the time as opposed to only having it early game. This will lead to some awkward hands where I have a Cavern and a Grove as my 2 lands, but I'll take that. Even though it's a 2 drop deck, it still likes having late game untapped mana for things like Warden of the First Tree and Student of Warfare, or even an untapped mana on turn 3-4 (turn 3 if I've been pathed) for double lords or something. Example: Just yesterday I dropped a post-sweeper Warden against UW control and needed to draw an untapped 6th mana to finish the game - my opponent had just cast Sphinx's Revelation for 6, bringing his life total to 8. If he were to be able to untap with those cards, I was pretty much sure to lose the game. I top decked Sunpetal Grove and he scooped. However, similar to the discussion about Brave vs Blossoming Defense, this is also something that will only become more clear with testing and likely up to the deckbuilder's stylistic choice.
Hey guys, hope the "double post" is ok, but I wanted to report back with some test results. I tried the "aggro" Abzan Coco build that I posted above (but without the Lilianas) and it was total trash. Didn't win a single game. Humans just cannot seem to handle being on the back foot. Playing the slower version just felt really bad and it could never claw ahead. I went back to the old GW build and immediately starting winning again. At that point, I decided to try the slight black splash that I discussed above and came to this list:
This deck has been absolutely killer so far. Key thoughts:
- There were some crazy games with decks spamming 10+ tokens in a single turn, casting 4-for-1 Supreme Verdicts, 2-for-1 Electrolyze etc and the deck just kept finishing people off regardless. I continue to be impressed by the resilience of a 2 drop aggro deck.
- Opponents' spot removal is so stressed and sweepers have to be right on time, otherwise they're taking hits for huge chunks of damage each turn.
- Warden of the First Tree continues to over perform and wins games on its own. Against UW control, I was able to read that my opponent had a sweeper, so I kept Warden in my hand with Blossoming Defense backup. The sweeper came, so I played Warden on my next turn. My opponent was unable to get rid of him before he finished off the game as an 8/8 trample lifelink monster. A similar story happened against a BW tokens deck that quickly found out that tokens aren't good at blocking 8 trampling damage. Having a card that's good in the early game and stellar in the late game has really transformed the deck, imo.
- Being able to fit 4 Path to Exile maindeck continues to be a huge boon for the list, since it is able to consistently clear an attack path for maximum damage.
- Blossoming Defense also continues to shine. 2 feels like the perfect number.
- Not sure if the mana base is 100% correct yet. Only time will tell.
- Unfortunately, I've only gotten to play with Dark Confidant once so far, but he was a total all star in that game. The card draw made a huge difference. Honestly, a deck like this having card-draw-on-a-stick feels like cheating haha. I'd love to add a 4th one, but I cannot find a slot I want to cut for it. #FirstWorldMagicProblems ?
All in all, I am extremely impressed so far. I think tomorrow I'll start playing the deck in leagues to put it to the real test. In preliminary testing, it seems to completely steamroll everything in its path. Granted, I've only played against a handful of T1/T2 decks (Tron, Ad Nauseum, Burn, Affinity) so far, but even those were dispatched with relative ease. I look forward to seeing how it does against some more T1 and T2 decks.
Not sure if these cards have been brought up, but has anyone thought about cards like Selesnya Charm in the SB for Eldrazi and Tron or Evolutionary Leap for more grindy matchups? Selesnya Charm seems good since it can be used proactively or reactively against Tron and Eldrazi since it either removes their creature threats that we care about or gives us a creature or buffs a creature. Tron is always a weird balancing act when trying to keep in Path to Exile since there's always the concern that a large creature gets dropped. But if a large creature doesn't drop, Path is a very dead card. However, with Selesnya Charm, neither scenario is a problem. Evolutionary Leap is a great, low mana cost way to keep the gas tank full in longer matchups. It works well with Voice of Resurgence and Scavenging Ooze too (and can even maybe be a way to keep Eldrazi decks from having creatures to process? ).
So I made a few minor tweaks to the list in my previous post and made the top 8 of my local Super IQ as the #1 seed. Went 5-1 in swiss, my only loss to a double mulligan to 5, then got mana flooded in both quarterfinals games along with a bad misplay in game 2 which sealed my fate. My first thoughts are that this deck feels GREAT against Abzan now. Roast and Thunderbreak Regent were stellar against both the midrange and aggro variants and Encase in Ice was key against the aggro deck. I beat Abzan Aggro convincingly 2-0 (my deck's previous worst matchup), Abzan Midrange 2-1 (narrowly lost game 2) and beat 3 of the 4 Esper/UB Control decks with relative ease (the one loss was the double mull to 5). My 2nd thought is that...strangely enough, Crater's Claws feels bad. I think I used it only once to deal the one final point of damage to an Esper control player (and it got countered), but every other time I was wishing it was one of my powerful creatures (though which one specifically I have not yet determined).
The sideboard slightly changed with -1 Magma Spray, -1 Roast, +2 Disdainful Stroke. I wanted more ways to interact with larger spells and it paid off. Sniped a couple of Siege Rhinos, a Liliana Vess, and a Dig Through Time; it was backbreaking. The mainboard changes were -3 Lightning Strike, +1 Roast, +2 Wild Slash. The idea is that Wild Slash is more efficient against most of the same threats Lighting Strike would deal with, and I don't mind having a 2nd Roast because it helps game 1 against the midrange decks (it does hurt against control, but that matchup is already well in my favor so I don't mind the trade off). All of these were great calls that paid off in several games.
One play in particular that stood out to me was right after my Abzan Midrange opponent played a Siege Rhino which was sitting across from my Boon Satyr and Frost Walker. This would have been almost game over pre-DTK, but this time I played Xenagos, the Reveler, used +1 for two red mana, Roasted it, swung for 8. That type of swing is just brutal and makes me like this deck even more.
But there's nothing quite as fun as the sequence of "I'll cast [non D-Sphere removal spell] on your Prophet." into "In response, I'll flash in another Prophet."
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4 Champion of the Parish
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mantis Rider
3 Reflector Mage
2 Lyev Skyknight
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Spells (10)
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Breeding Pool
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Windswept Heath
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Kataki, War's Wage
4 Negate
1 Reflector Mage
3 Rest in Peace
2 Auriok Champion
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 War Priest of Thune
It was a great list, but I felt like it was just a smidge off the mark. Mana was tough at times, some parts of the curve felt awkward etc. I thought about some previous things I had discussed - maybe Lightning Bolt is too tough on the mana. Maybe Duskwatch Recruiter can find a role in here somewhere. Lyev Skyknight, while being a decent 3 drop, just wasn't performing as well as I'd like. I also went back and watched some of the Frank Lepore and Craig Wescoe videos, thinking about the draws and how they compared to my list. After some thought, I came to a list with a maindeck very close to the one played by Lepore and Wescoe, because I realized there were some small, but key differences that made that list tick while mine stumbled. First, my current list:
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Mantis Rider
4 Reflector Mage
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
3 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Spells (10)
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
1 Breeding Pool
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Windswept Heath
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Negate
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Rest in Peace
3 Arashin Cleric
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 War Priest of Thune
The mainboard changes:
- 2 Lyev Skyknight
- 2 Lightning Bolt
- 1 Mayor of Avabruck
- 1 Misty Rainforest
+ 1 Reflector Mage
+ 2 Duskwatch Recruiter
+ 2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
+ 1 Island
This doesn't seem like a big change on the surface, but the deck plays much better with these changes. I think the biggest reason for this is the addition of 2 Avacyn's Pilgrim, which took the Lightning Bolt slot. Here's why the changes are for the better:
- This deck doesn't really care about "bolting the Bird." It wants to "Reflector Mage the bird" (on T2) or "set up for a board so overwhelming that the bird can't do anything." Having 2 more PROACTIVE 1 drops is very important because the deck works infinitely better when it can either cast a 3-drop or a pair of creatures on T2. In a humans deck, you want to get out on the front foot, get ahead on board, then lord them to death while using Reflector Mage or Path to Exile to clear any blockers. I further confirmed this when I looked back at the videos I made from my twitch stream a few weeks ago - there were times where Bolt was in my opening hand, but a Pilgrim would have been so much better. It was very rare that the case was the other way around.
- The "conventional" wisdom I had gained from playing decks like Naya Company was that you don't want to run too many mana dorks since they are terrible Collected Company hits. While this is still true, it isn't nearly as big of a cost in a Humans deck. In this deck, any creature can be either made huge thanks to lords or it can grow Lieutenant and Champion. This gives us the unique luxury of being able to run a couple of extra dorks without it significantly impacting lategame draws.
- The mana base is much smoother without having to fetch red for Bolt. I'm able to fetch basics a lot more than I used to.
- The maindeck difference between my deck and the Lepore deck is Duskwatch Recruiter instead of Meddling Mage. I think having a 2 toughness 2 drop is a big deal for us, but I don't like Mage because it's often very awkward - you either need perfect information, play against decks with only 1 card to worry about or be REALLY GOOD at guessing. Without any of those things, it's really just a vanilla 2/2 for 2. Duskwatch Recruiter, on the other hand, is consistently fine in the early game and really good in the mid and late game. He eeks out a little extra card advantage - this doesn't seem like much, but in a deck where each creature means so much, it's nothing to sneeze at. Whether you're looking for one of the toolbox creatures out of the sideboard, a Reflector Mage to bounce a pesky creature or a Mantis Rider to push through damage in a board stall, it's great to have extra ways to find them in a pinch. And since the new list has upped the creature count to 31, it's trivial to hit a creature off of his ability each time. It's also super easy to cast, being Gx as opposed to UW. With all of that said, this is a slot similar to the Lyev Skyknight slot where we don't quite have the right card yet, but this will have to do for now. I've been happy with the choice so far.
- Instead of getting fancy with my 3 drop choices, I came to the conclusion that it was just best to jam four copies of each of the two best 3-drops by a wide margin. This even cleared up a sideboard slot as an added bonus.
- Just want to quickly mention Disdainful Stroke as a card that hits both creatures and spells that we care a lot about. I think a 3/2 split of Negate and Stroke in the board is very good.
As a brewer, I admit it feels a little "bad" to essentially circle around to a deck that was already built, but I really can't argue with the choices. My testing and experience with the deck has led to very similar conclusions as far as the maindeck configuration is concerned. I plan to make similar changes to the Abzan Company list, taking out Dromoka's Command for Avacyn's Pilgrim and taking out the 4th Mayor of Avabruck for a Duskwatch Recruiter. More consistent turn 2 Anafenzas sounds like fun to me .
1
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Warden of the First Tree
3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Thraben Inspector
3 Student of Warfare
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Hamlet Captain
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Path to Exile
2 Blossoming Defense
Lands (20)
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
5 Plains
2 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Rest in Peace
2 Natural State
Why wait for 3 mana when you've got everything you need at 1 and 2 cmc? You get 2 extra lords in Mayor of Avabruck and Hamlet Captain, you've got mid/late game sustainability with Warden of the First Tree, a card which is also fine in the early game as an extra beater. All this along with the usual Humans suspects and you've got a fast, consistent, resilient aggro deck. I've been very happy with it.
This list is about 105 tix on MTGO and can be made cheaper by replacing the fetches. In paper, the mana base would need to be further simplified and maybe some other concessions depending on budget. Some later upgrades would be things like Cavern of Souls and Auriok Champion.
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Both Mayor and Captain have been great. I think you hit the nail on the head with your last statement. The deck goes so wide so quickly, that all it needs is 1 or 2 swings with a lord in play and it's pretty much game over. It's also not as difficult as one would think to keep some gas in the tank for a post-sweeper rebuild (or Mayor flip prevention, which I'll address in a moment); as you mentioned, Bob, Canopy and Inspector all do fantastic work at that, and proper threat pacing goes a long way as well. It honestly doesn't require that many cards to put big pressure on the opponent. Then, when preparing for a sweeper, I usually try to keep something like a 1 drop and a lord in my hand. Warden of the First Tree ROCKS at this; it's my preferred post-sweeper card. Oh you wiped my board? Have fun with this guy. Then we have stuff like Kytheon, Hero of Akros that threatens to flip before sweepers are available, forcing the opponent to have spot removal and use it before they get to their sweeper. I know I keep gushing about it, but the card quality at 1 cmc just blows my mind in this deck haha. How many decks can play 17-18 1 drops that are either must-answer threats at multiple stages in the game or card advantage? But I digress...
I was very suspicious of Hamlet Captain at first, since he needs you to be able to untap and attack in order to be effective. However, with the way most games play out, it's rarely an issue. I think what's happening is that the opponent's spot removal is stretched so thin, trying to keep cards like Champion of the Parish and Kytheon, Hero of Akros from getting out of hand in the early game, that Hamlet Captain often squeaks through unnoticed. Also, he is almost always set up with 1 or 2 Thalia's Lieutenants or Mayor of Avabrucks on the following turn for maximum damage bursts. This also makes it to where, if the opponent kills him with spot removal, I've got the 2 better lords waiting in the wings anyway.
As for Mayor of Avabruck, he's been a total all star. Maybe I'm weird, but I don't think I've ever minded letting him flip and get me more card advantage. His anthem effect gets utilized the turn he enters the battlefield, and if my opponent wants to do nothing on their turn in response, that's fine. I'll take some tokens. Almost all of the spells I'm truly worried about are sorcery speed. I've even had games where I had multiple spells to play, but didn't, just to let him keep going off with tokens. But in general, the games finish so quickly that he never flips to begin with, which is also perfectly fine. Both sides of the card have been great. Essentially, if Mayor of Avabruck is staying alive long enough for the flipping to matter, I'm already winning the game.
I agree here. In any shell that's slower than mine, I feel like Hamlet Captain would be awful and I wouldn't recommend it. It was the first card I cut in my CoCo build. In a super low slung, wide build, however, he seems to shine. With that said, you could be right about him being a win-more, so I'll do some testing with a 4th Dark Confidant in place of the 2nd Hamlet Captain and see how the deck feels. In general, however, anything that boosts the toughness of our creatures is very relevant, as it prevents opponents from trading up with us, which has always been a weakness of this type of deck. Anafenza, the Foremost is far too slow for my build to be a worthwhile addition. Why wait till turn 3 to play a 4/4 when I've usually got an army of multiple 4/4s or bigger by then? I do think Anafenza is a solid card in a more midrange build, but definitely not an aggro build. If I were to replace the 2nd Hamlet Captain, I think it'd be for a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. She is really effective when dropped early and backed up by a fast clock.
Good point here; most of the stuff I want to hit with Sundering Growth also gets hit by Abrupt Decay. The only potential downside is that the Populate clause is relevant in a list running a playset of Gather the Townsfolk. But this is definitely worth testing out, as Abrupt Decay could be useful in more matchups, which as we all know, is a big upside in this format.
I'm really glad you brought this up, because this has been a big point of contention for me with the list. During testing, I've been specifically paying attention to when I draw Blossoming Defense and asking myself if I would prefer it to be a Brave the Elements. Surprisingly enough, the answer has usually been no, at least so far. There are certain key points in the game where it is very important to be able to play "protect the queen," and having a +2/+2 pump spell is a great combat trick to keep up your sleeve. A lategame scenario with a growing Warden of the First Tree is one of the main use-cases for it, and is one of the major reasons why I have been able to close out long games that most aggro builds would struggle with.
With that said, the cards are very likely interchangeable and I think that once I have a larger sample size of games, the scenarios in which I want one over the other will be more 50/50. So at that point, it's really just a stylistic thing and up to the deck builder to decide which they prefer. My main issue with Brave the Elements is that I'd get into feel-bad situations where I can't protect the creatures I necessarily want to protect (Bob, Warden, Mayor etc). There are also times where my board is something like 1 Thraben Inspector, 1 Hamlet Captain and 1 Warden of the First Tree. Brave is then SUPER awkward. To some, the ability to alpha strike with a wide board more than offsets that. So, in summary, Blossoming Defense is going to be the more consistently good card with little to no downside. Brave the Elements is either going to be REALLY good and win you the game immediately or REALLY bad and be useless. I'm a deck builder that prefers consistency, hence my choice. I can certainly see the merits in swapping out, though.
I have certainly thought about this as well. However, there are only 3 lands in the whole deck (2 Cavern of Souls and 1 Horizon Canopy) that don't play nice with Sunpetal Grove, so I think I like having an untapped mana 99% of the time as opposed to only having it early game. This will lead to some awkward hands where I have a Cavern and a Grove as my 2 lands, but I'll take that. Even though it's a 2 drop deck, it still likes having late game untapped mana for things like Warden of the First Tree and Student of Warfare, or even an untapped mana on turn 3-4 (turn 3 if I've been pathed) for double lords or something. Example: Just yesterday I dropped a post-sweeper Warden against UW control and needed to draw an untapped 6th mana to finish the game - my opponent had just cast Sphinx's Revelation for 6, bringing his life total to 8. If he were to be able to untap with those cards, I was pretty much sure to lose the game. I top decked Sunpetal Grove and he scooped. However, similar to the discussion about Brave vs Blossoming Defense, this is also something that will only become more clear with testing and likely up to the deckbuilder's stylistic choice.
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4 Champion of the Parish
4 Warden of the First Tree
4 Thraben Inspector
3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
2 Student of Warfare
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Hamlet Captain
3 Dark Confidant
Spells (10)
4 Path to Exile
4 Gather the Townsfolk
2 Blossoming Defense
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
2 Marsh Flats
2 Forest
3 Plains
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Auriok Champion
4 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
2 Rest in Peace
2 Sundering Growth
2 Kataki, War's Wage
This deck has been absolutely killer so far. Key thoughts:
- There were some crazy games with decks spamming 10+ tokens in a single turn, casting 4-for-1 Supreme Verdicts, 2-for-1 Electrolyze etc and the deck just kept finishing people off regardless. I continue to be impressed by the resilience of a 2 drop aggro deck.
- Opponents' spot removal is so stressed and sweepers have to be right on time, otherwise they're taking hits for huge chunks of damage each turn.
- Warden of the First Tree continues to over perform and wins games on its own. Against UW control, I was able to read that my opponent had a sweeper, so I kept Warden in my hand with Blossoming Defense backup. The sweeper came, so I played Warden on my next turn. My opponent was unable to get rid of him before he finished off the game as an 8/8 trample lifelink monster. A similar story happened against a BW tokens deck that quickly found out that tokens aren't good at blocking 8 trampling damage. Having a card that's good in the early game and stellar in the late game has really transformed the deck, imo.
- Being able to fit 4 Path to Exile maindeck continues to be a huge boon for the list, since it is able to consistently clear an attack path for maximum damage.
- Blossoming Defense also continues to shine. 2 feels like the perfect number.
- Not sure if the mana base is 100% correct yet. Only time will tell.
- Unfortunately, I've only gotten to play with Dark Confidant once so far, but he was a total all star in that game. The card draw made a huge difference. Honestly, a deck like this having card-draw-on-a-stick feels like cheating haha. I'd love to add a 4th one, but I cannot find a slot I want to cut for it. #FirstWorldMagicProblems ?
All in all, I am extremely impressed so far. I think tomorrow I'll start playing the deck in leagues to put it to the real test. In preliminary testing, it seems to completely steamroll everything in its path. Granted, I've only played against a handful of T1/T2 decks (Tron, Ad Nauseum, Burn, Affinity) so far, but even those were dispatched with relative ease. I look forward to seeing how it does against some more T1 and T2 decks.
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4x Heir of the Wilds
4x Frost Walker
4x Savage Knuckleblade
3x Boon Satyr
3x Flamewake Phoenix
3x Thunderbreak Regent
2x Surrak, the Hunt Caller
3x Stormbreath Dragon
Planeswalkers - 2
2x Xenagos, the Reveler
Spells - 8
2x Stubborn Denial
2x Crater's Claws
2x Wild Slash
2x Roast
1x Island
3x Forest
2x Mountain
3x Temple of Abandon
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Shivan Reef
3x Yavimaya Coast
4x Frontier Bivouac
1x Temple of Epiphany
2x Back to Nature
1x Magma Spray
3x Encase in Ice
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Roast
1x Barrage of Boulders
1x Xenagos, the Reveler
2x Sarkhan Unbroken
2x Arc Lightning
The sideboard slightly changed with -1 Magma Spray, -1 Roast, +2 Disdainful Stroke. I wanted more ways to interact with larger spells and it paid off. Sniped a couple of Siege Rhinos, a Liliana Vess, and a Dig Through Time; it was backbreaking. The mainboard changes were -3 Lightning Strike, +1 Roast, +2 Wild Slash. The idea is that Wild Slash is more efficient against most of the same threats Lighting Strike would deal with, and I don't mind having a 2nd Roast because it helps game 1 against the midrange decks (it does hurt against control, but that matchup is already well in my favor so I don't mind the trade off). All of these were great calls that paid off in several games.
One play in particular that stood out to me was right after my Abzan Midrange opponent played a Siege Rhino which was sitting across from my Boon Satyr and Frost Walker. This would have been almost game over pre-DTK, but this time I played Xenagos, the Reveler, used +1 for two red mana, Roasted it, swung for 8. That type of swing is just brutal and makes me like this deck even more.
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