I really like Divinity of Pride in a life gain-focused deck. While you want synergy, you really want cards that can do well and stand by themselves. Divinity of Pride as an 8/8 Flying lifeink that also gives you a lot of devotion (as you were saying) is pretty great. Rhox Faithmender is a card that doesn't do too much by itself, if at all. Ghostly Prison is nice for facing swarm decks and aggro, while Rune-Tail prevents damage but doesn't prevent triggers on attack. I think Rhox Faithmender and Rune-Tail are the cuts that pop out to me.
I meant to point out before, but Blind Obedience and Thalia, Heretic Cathar both serve a different purpose even though they're remarkably close to the same thing. The huge difference is that Blind Obedience makes Artifacts your opponents play come into play tapped. That really, really slows down a lot of abusive Artifact synergy and ramp, whereas Thalia taps down non-basic lands. They're both good and serve a purpose in their own right, though if you had to cut one I'd suggest Thalia over Blind Obedience.
Lastly, I notice you're running Eldrazi Displacer. It's really amazing in Ayli! But keep in mind you need a lot of Colorless sources to make it worthwhile.
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- MatsuriFramboise
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Jul 6, 20171
Kelzam posted a message on Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: What Is Dead May Never DiePosted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists -
Jul 6, 2017
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Kelzam posted a message on Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: What Is Dead May Never DieHey everyone, it's been a crazy weak so I haven't had time to post much.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
Cuts I'd make:
-Black Market is essentially a win more card in the deck or any build that's not tokens.4
-Priest of Gix is another combo piece with Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle, but is one of the few creatures in the deck that does nothing after he enters the battlefield. If you're looking for a cut, he's one of the more reasonable pieces to lose.
Truthfully of all the possible cuts, I'd cut either Palace Siege or Serra Avatar. Palace Siege is a lot of mana for what it does, but Serra Avatar is just a big dumb creature that will more often than not die as soon as it hits the battlefield. It's amazing with Ayli on the board, though.
I'd never cut Expedition Map. There are too many important utility lands for the deck to run with it + Sun Titan you can find any utility land you'd ever need when you need it. Profane Command is also a very versatile finisher and spell in the deck. Making the cuts I'm looking at cards and their potential impact on the game and how much they help you move the game towards closing.
By the way, Vizkopa Guildmage + Beacon of Immortality is a win con in itself. -
Jul 6, 20171
SlaveToPhage posted a message on Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: What Is Dead May Never DieI know it sounds like much with artifacts ramp, but I would not go less than 36 lands.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
As for cuts -
Wouldn't cut fumigate, it's really good.
Priest seems kinda meh and the map, you don't have any special lands posted so figured... -
Jun 30, 2017
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Kelzam posted a message on Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: What Is Dead May Never DieI'm glad the feedback has been usefulPosted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
I'm about to leave for the evening to go play some EDH, so I wanted to drop by and see your response real quick and also touch on the Maybe Board that I forgot to reply to (and fix my post because I've been hearing about Aetherworks Marvel so much the last few months that I kept typing that instead of Aetherflux Reservoir :p)
On the finishers: I'd run Profane Command + Exsanguinate or Debt to the Deathless but probably not both. I prefer to stick to Exsanguinate because if I need to cast it in a rough spot, two Black mana can be easier to come by than XWWBB. The argument for Debt I've heard is that yes, in higher amounts of mana it scales better and you gain more life, which may be more ideal for a Lifegain deck, but you also have to be generating massive amounts of mana for it to be more effective than Exsanguinate, and if you're able to produce that kind of mana, you should be able to just win the game with either of them at that time anyway, making it a moot point.
Quote from MatsuriFramboise »
Stuff I have at the side at the moment for consideration but can't decide on:
Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Blind Obedience - Blind Obedience seems like the better choice, but it didn't really seem that important
Grand Abolisher - Might be nice on turns when I'm going off with a finisher?
Underworld Connections - I have better draw engines, I think
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - Seems good and fits my theme of lifegain with a pseudo-anthem that gives lifelink, makes tokens, and has an emblem that forces opponents to sacrifice things
Nihil Spellbomb - Quick graveyard hate that draws a card could be useful
Magus of the Will - Because I can't justify buying Yawgmoth's Will right now
Sorin, Grim Nemesis - Seems like a great card, but I don't have the Sensei's Divining Top and such to make his +1 really useful. But either way it's card draw? I don't know.
Spectral Procession - With all the reanimation this deck can do, I don't know if it's necessary. Lingering Souls is better anyway.
Liliana Vess - Nice utilities! Her -8 is pretty cool. But I already have a Liliana in this deck so I dunno if I want to risk pairing them up.
Mark of Asylum - Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant's able to be reanimated, and the enchantment covers more ground.
Angelic Accord - Seems like a useful card since I'll be gaining a lot of life, but let's be real, it's because I didn't spring for Luminarch Ascension yet
How does it look so far?
Also on my wish list of sorts that aren't listed at all: Sheoldred, Kokusho, Yosei, Weathered Wayfarer, Rune-Scarred Demon, Vish Kal, Karmic Guide, Reveillark, Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Thalia, Heretic Cathar & Blind Obedience - The honest question here is why not both?
They are both great. Thalia is a creature you can reanimate when she dies, but Blind Obedience gives you Extort which is great in itself
Grand Abolisher - A worthy include not only to help protect your finisher, but to stop a lot of combo shenanigans from happening on your turn. No tutoring on your turn before your next opponent's!
Underworld Connections - I think you assessed correctly: You have better options, and they don't take a land out of play or make you have to decide whether that mana is available or not.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - Goes along with what I said about the token theme. He's really good, but sadly out of place here.
Nihil Spellbomb - There's a few options for graveyard hate. I prefer Bojuka Bog because I'd rather use a land slot for the ability than a non-land slot.
Magus of the Will - Not being able to by Yawg's Will is understandable. Sadly in my testing, Magus of the Will is too expensive and too slow and usually gets removed before you can use him. Unless you have Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots, he doesn't have Haste so you have to wait a full turn before activating his ability. If you do have Haste, you have to spend his mana cost (3) plus the equip cost (0 or 1) plus the mana to activate him (3) which means you've used 6-7 mana just to use him, and opponents can target him in response to you putting the equip activation on the stack. So, he's really actually a poor immitation, I'm afraid.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis - You don't necessarily need Top to make him worthwhile. His +1 still draws you an extra card each turn while dealing a wallop to your opponents, and his -X is a Death Grasp serving as a removal or killer of other Planeswalkers
Spectral Procession - Was another tokens card. I will say about it though that one-off effects like this are worse in EDH where games last longer than they are in 60-card constructed. You want your spells and abilities to really make a splash in EDH, or work together to make a lot of gains and value over time. For tokens it's a pretty low end card since it's a one-off effect, you'd want to replace it with something you can continuously get value out of.
Liliana Vess - She's an excellent Planeswalker and has a Vampiric Tutor attached to her and her Finisher is extremely dangerous. She's pretty good, even if her +1 isn't that great.
Mark of Asylum - I agree with sticking to Rune-tail, Kitsune Ascendant here for this type of effect, for exactly the reasons you said
Angelic Accord - It's a pretty poor imitation of Luminarch Ascension but if left unchecked does give you some inevitability in the game.
Some suggestions of my own:
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - If you can't afford many good tutors because they keep getting more and more expensive, Sidisi is relatively cheap and you can sac and reanimate her for value.
Knight-Captain of Eos - She's really cheap and you can reanimate her to keep making more Soldiers to sacrifice to prevent combat damage. She's also a beautiful political tool and can be used to make allies. Incidentally, she works really well with Elspeth, Sun's Champion because you can forever disable opponents from dealing combat damage to you
Test of Endurance - It's not banned, and another win condition
Cliffhaven Vampire - That's a ton of potential triggers!
Gray Merchant of Asphodel - This guy is another potential finisher combined with reanimation shenanigans, and will gain you huge amounts of life otherwise. -
Jun 30, 2017
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Kelzam posted a message on Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: What Is Dead May Never DieHey Matsuri, thanks for posting your listPosted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists I'm trying to look at it to understand what kind of build you're going for here. It looks very much like you're focused on a life gain here more than anything. This'll probably turn into a wall of text, so apologies ahead of time. I haven't normally gotten around to critiquing decks or I forget to, it's not something I do too often so hopefully I don't meander too much here.
Lands - Right now you have 68 non-land cards. That means you only have room for 32 Lands, which is really really low for the deck. You generally don't want to go below 36 unless you have a decent chunk of mana ramp. You have Sol Ring and Commander's Sphere currently, and Everflowing Chalice. I will say I'm not a fan of Everflowing Chalice outside of decks that can ramp mana really fast to help pay the multikicker a few times. Paying 2 mana you get a mana rock that taps for 1, making Mind Stone strictly better, there. Paying 4 you get a mana rock for two, which isn't all that great compared to Thran Dynamo. If you're playing tons of Mana Rocks or ramp and can accelerate ahead of the normal curve to where you can speed it out with 3-4 charge counters on it it's not too spectacular. You'll probably want to run Orzhov Signet and at least one more mana rock. You have a really flat mana curve at the moment so if you don't have some more ramp, there's a high chance you'll stall out in the early game. I'll talk more on that in a moment.
Theme/Archetype - One thing that jumped out at me was some of the cards focused on creating Tokens. There's actually not that many here. You have Annointed Procession in there which is great for a tokens build, but actually have very little support in the build so far for a Tokens build. So far you have 5 cards that can make tokens, and that's not which will probably leave Annointed Procession as a dead card much of the time: Hanweir Militia Captain, Hero of Bladehold, Hidden Stockpile, Oketra's Monument, Phyrexian Processor and Elspeth, Sun's Champion. Hanweir Militia Captain is great in a token build, and for generating sacrificial fodder, but is honestly really slow. Hero of Bladehold is great at making tokens when attacking, but it's combat oriented and you don't really have any support for going into combat in the list. For this reason, Ravos Soultender and Tymna the Weaver seem kind of out of place in the deck. You don't have much of anything else going on with combat in the deck, so their ability and trigger don't particularly seem relevant here. Hidden Stockpile is something I've passed on myself because Viscera Seer allows me to scry by sacrificing a creature for free, and because it's a Creature I can reanimate it if I need to. Getting a single 1/1 Servo per turn if you choose to sacrifice something isn't necessarily the best way to build up fodder or a token army and is a bit slow.
Oketra's Monument lets you discount the mana cost of 14 creatures currently in the deck (before you do any changes). You have 24 White cards that you could get a token off of by casting here. The problem is again that it's kind of out of place in a deck that doesn't particularly care about tokens. The best you could do with your token generation is some life gain off of Soul Sisters, which is okay if Karlov of the Ghost Council or Aetherflux Reservoir are on the battlefield. But if you don't have that setup, the tokens don't do anything by themselves. Meanwhile, Phyrexian Processor seems like a really cute card, but seems counter-intuitive to the point of gaining life in the deck if that's your means of winning. You can pay the initial cost and sacrifice a token to Ayli to gain the life right back, but if you're getting some hate and can't keep your life total up, it ends up a really dead card. It also has the unfortunate downside that the tokens it generates can be blocked all day long, and without Annointed Procession only makes one per turn. In short, Phyrexian Processor is pretty slow and a huge target for removal. In all likeliness you'll pay a large amount of life to make it threatening, and as a result see it removed asap before you get to do much with it.
One token-related thing I will agree with is that Elspeth, Sun's Champion is an excellent Planeswalker and worth including in any build. With Ashnod's Alter or other sac outlets out, the ability to make three 1/1's for fodder is amazing (She pays for herself the turn she comes out if you have Ashnod's by sacrificing the three soldiers to it) and the semi-Wrath for creatures power 4 or greater is very nice. Her ultimate is again less relevant unless you're running a deck that intends to get in the combat zone a lot, but her first two abilities are great. With a Soul Sister or two out, you can gain multitudes of life off of just using her +1 ability.
Card Draw - Dark Prophecy, Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence are great enchantments, but I would probably drop Dark Prophecy for the deck for the same reasons above. It's generally good for decks that are creating a lot of fodder to sacrifice, allowing you to benefit from the triggers, but again there's not much token support here, and if you're going the Lifegain route then you generally aren't going to want to sacrifice many of the creatures you have listed here that are helping you towards that. It's probably a bit overkill to run all three, regardless, and you're also running Well of Lost Dreams and Skullclamp which should let you draw a lot of cards, too.
Finishers - I saw Death Grasp here and unfortunately I just can't imagine running it instead of Profane Command, Exsanguinate or Debt to the Deathless. Only being able to target one player or creatures is a huge drawback of Death Grasp, and it feels even worse if you want to use it on a creature and it's Indestructible or whatnot. Being able to drain every player at the table for the same mana with Exsanguinate that you're paying to drain one player with Death Grasp makes it just that much better. Profane Command at least offers various modes of utility here so that you don't necessarily have a dead card in your hand until you're ready to kill off one player with Death Grasp or a target creature. While Death Grasp can take out Planeswalkers, there is a lot of good removal out there like Utter End, Vindicate and Anguished Unmaking that you can use instead for that purpose. I will say that at the moment I feel like you have some good board wipes, but really need some more targeted removal. One of Orzhov's best abilities is being able to target and kill or exile almost any permanent with removal and that's something I'd really suggest taking advantage of! Also, Merciless Eviction is a very underrated board wipe
Mana Curve - Right now your average mana cost is 3.4. That's not awful, but not great. At the same time, your mana curve isn't really a curve, which is something to take into consideration. I uploaded your deck onto tapped out to check out your stats/averages so I could critique things a bit better - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/matsuriframboise-ayli-help/ and you'll see that you have fourteen 2 and 3 cost cards and twelve 4 and 5 cost cards. The reason this is bad is that with is that about 76% of your deck costs the same amount of mana. That means you have a really high chance of having a lot of cards in your opening hand or early game that you won't be able to play. You want to try to have something to play or do every turn, even if it's removal on your opponent's turn. So you can fix that a few ways. You ideally want 3 to be the top of your curve, so you can do that by taking away some 2-mana and 5-mana cards, which would make it more of a curve like you want to aim for. You can also just take away some 5-mana cards and add more 3-mana cards. How you approach it is up to you, what cards you have available to you and what makes the most sense for the deck. Cutting is hard, but mana curve is super important so you don't end up board waiting for the mana to cast spells a lot of the time.
Last Thoughts - My only other critiques at the moment are that I think even though you're playing a mostly lifegain deck, I think Aetherflux Reservoir may not be the win con you're looking for. The thing about Aetherflux Reservoir is that you're probably not going to gain too much off of it's first ability. Ayli isn't a spellslinging deck so it's very rare to ramp that up. You can probably kill another player with it when you get to 50-60 life, but the problem right there is that anyone can target you with a damage spell in response to paying the life to activate Aetherflux Reservoir[/c] and peg you off. The Reservoir is funny with Exquisite Blood, but again you have to assume you're going to be at 50 life, or that you're well above that to make using the Reservoir less dangerous. Being a lifegain deck you might not have any problem with that, or you might become the archenemy or get hated early in the game and never get your game plan off of the ground. Lastly, even though Whip of Erebos gives your creatures Lifelink, again so far it doesn't look like the deck is supporting hitting opponents with creatures very often, so that seems less relevant than you'd hope. But I also don't like running it because I love to reanimate things, and no matter what happens, the clause of using Whip of Erebos is that you lose your toy at the end of turn. No ifs, ands or buts. It's also a bit slow because you can only use it at Sorcery speed and it costs 8 mana to use on the same turn.
Anyway! I hope some of this helps. I realize I didn't offer too many suggestions on what I'd play instead of some of the things I've mentioned. That's mostly because I'm not sure what your aim is for your build or how you want to play it.
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Jun 29, 2017
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Kelzam posted a message on Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: What Is Dead May Never DiePosted in: Multiplayer Commander DecklistsQuote from MatsuriFramboise »Hello! Really liking this guide and I've been using it for inspiration ever since I decided I wanted to start building an Ayli deck (main theme: drain/bleed lifegain wincons, with a token subtheme for use as ammo for Ashnod's Altar or Ayli's second ability, for throwing out spot removal/disruption).
I haven't totally finished my deck yet, but I had a question. Since I'm focusing on lifegain/draining for this deck, one of the cards I planned for my 99 was Serra Avatar. It seems like it has good potential, but I want to be sure before I try it: Say I have 100 life and I sacrifice the Avatar to Ayli's first skill. Would I gain 100 life from that as it's toughness would be 100, tied to my life total, or would it be zero as it's a * amount? Because if it works like I hope it does, it'd have a Beacon of Immortality effect that pairs beautifully with Sanguine Bond or Vizkopa Guildmage. A shame you can't really do any recursion shenanigans with it, though.
Is that how it works, or am I just crazy?Quote from Jonas Ukulore »I think Ayli's first ablity just checks whatever the toughness of the creature is, this is including */* stats like Serra Avatar, or the minus from an equipped skullclamp, fore example.
So how this works is that when you activate Ayli's ability and sacrifice a creature, putting her ability on the stack, it looks at the last known information about that creature when it was on the battlefield before it was sacrificed. In other words, if you were at 100 life and Serra Avatar was a 100/100 creature on the battlefield and you sacrificed it as part of the cost for Ayli's 1st activated ability, you would gain 100 life. You sacrifice the creature when it's on the battlefield, so that is what the stack looks at. Another way to look at it is that it's power/toughness wouldn't change to 0/0 unless it weren't on the battlefield already, making it an illegal target for Ayli
As an Aside...
I was searching through the Black binder at my LGS for a card for another deck and noticed Demonic Consultation. I had to read it because I couldn't remember what it did.
"Name a card. Exile the top six cards of your library, then reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal the named card. Put that card into your hand and exile all other cards revealed this way."
It then occurred to me that it works perfectly with Approach of the Second Sun after you cast it for your first time, which puts itself as the 7th card from the top. That means you use Demonic Consultation to exile the top 6, name Approach of the Second Sun and to immediately reveal it and put it back in your hand
So if anyone wants to have fun with a super cheesy combo, there you go. -
Jun 29, 20171
Jonas Ukulore posted a message on Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim: What Is Dead May Never DieI think Ayli's first ablity just checks whatever the toughness of the creature is, this is including */* stats like Serra Avatar, or the minus from an equipped skullclamp, fore example.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists -
Oct 7, 2016
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dsmonsta posted a message on Death And TaxesGearhulk is a card that can salvage a board state that is lopsidedly against us. It's the opposite of a win-more card.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo
It may find its way into one of my sideboards but I think it's main deck worthy in a cat mix style wbc list. -
Oct 7, 20165
deathandcatmix posted a message on Death And TaxesPosted in: Aggro & TempoBreaking in Kaladesh with Death And Taxes
The good, the bad, the ugly:
Kaladesh has brought us a reasonable amount of material worth investigating. There are some interactions that may be worth taking some deeper looks when constructing an updated Death And Taxes list. In example, I did not expect Smuggler's Copter to have any bearing in the list until I jammed a couple of games with it. The sad and unfortunate is that some of the new additions may be lowering the consistency that our builds have began to achieve. Something like Kambal has great merit in some matches but takes us back to prior iterations where we have lopsided hate cards in our deck. Remember main decking Linvala, Keeper of Silence or play sets of Aven Mindcensor? We did not have better options at those times but now we have a deeper card pool that really pushes and forces our deck to take proper form.
Catmix's Picks:
Smuggler's Copter:
This card is better than it appears. Having a "equipment"/"creature" that is hard to engage with is great but one that draws cards while flying is amazing! 2 mana makes this easy to get on curve. Not sure how many copies a build would want though.
Padeem:
4 mana is rough. But this card in a proper build has card draw and hex proof for your Phyrexian Revokers, Blade Splicer tokens, and Aether Vials. I will be putting in the testing hours on this card for certain.
Concealed Courtyard:
It has been quite awhile since I ran a true to heart BW Death And Taxes list. That was mostly beacause this card did not exist. Rejoice all those that have patiently waited for this card's arrival.
Inventors' Fair:
This is a decent utility land for late game. I do not see a world where you can build around this while maintaining a true Tax presence but heavier artifact list can reach for the skies in late games with the likes of: Spellskite, Phyrexian Revoker, Cataclysmic Gearhulk, Batterskull, Swords of X & Y, and etc.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk:
5 mana is absolutely brutal in Modern. But, the decks that you will bring this in against will allow you time to develop accordingly. Sadly, I was not able to assemble any Gearhulk plays in my stream today. I played in my personal space about an hour ago and locked up Gearhulk/Displacer shenanigans against some creature match ups. After begging both players not to scoop (for testing purpose), it turns out it is almost unfathomable that creature decks can break the lock. A pair is going to have to find a way into my board for: Affinity, Merfolk, Elves, Lantern Control, Abzhan Coco, Kiki, Soul Sisters, BW Tokens and so forth.
The rest:
There are some other cards that have bubbled up in conversations or just are close to playable (fragmentize, dwarve fiend hunter guy*, SkySovereign). While there is possibility that they are being undervalued, I see them as fringe for Modern. We just don't have the luxury to fall too far from the tested goods we know now. I think of Infect as an example. Infect has a golden standard and will only do functional replacements as they become available. In example, Apostle's Blessing has moved to Blossoming Defense. Has the same clause but with upside now instead (essentially). Looking at cards for added strategies is getting harder because we do not ave the space. Until we have virtual card advantage built into our creatures more efficiently (think Stoneforge Mystic, Wall of Resurgence, Blade Splicer,), we are going to have to be less "impressed" with new cards.
Conclusion:
Unless you are digging for Masterpiece Aether Vials, Gambling on Cataclysmic Gearhulk/Smuggler's Copters, or just want to brew, there is not a card I think that is a guarantee add to the archetype. I am happy to have the additions and flexibility when looking at card pool but do not feel like we are getting cards that improve our tier status at the moment. It seems that the way white cards exist now are certainly different in development. The days of Mother of Runes, Stoneforge Mystic, and Enlightened Tutor are long gone. Hopefully with Aether Revolt, we can get required tools or a ban lis that acknowledges the current state of Modern.
Tell me your thoughts!
-Catmix -
Oct 6, 20162
x1uo3yd posted a message on Death And Taxes@MatsuriFramboise: Jendo87 was using the white one in the twitch game versus deathandcatmix. Modern-legal (almost) Cataclysm on a 5cmc beatstick.Posted in: Aggro & Tempo - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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I'm especially interested in darktutor's build-- unlike the standard D&T concepts we've had, almost all of its creatures are flying. That can really help speed our game along. Though, the fact that almost all creatures have 1 toughness worries me-- there's little that can survive effects that deal 1 damage or -1/-1 to all creatures.
Perhaps we can add something to protect them, like Selfless Spirit or put in something fat, synergistic, and disruptive like Mistbind Clique? Imagine: champion a Spellstutter Sprite or Pestermite when flashing in Mistbind Clique. This taps down all your opponent's land. You can then Vial in Flickerwisp (or flash in Resto, if you run her) to flicker the Clique in response to a spell and have Spellstutter Sprite counter it before she gets re-championed and Clique comes back, tapping your opponent out again-- or flicker Clique in response to a move to combat step, bring Pestermite back in, tap your opponent's most worrisome creature (or untap our Vial to vial in more disruption or another blocker), and then Clique comes back, taps your opponent out, and can be used as a solid blocker.
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How you know when your deck is bad: when you're running Abzan of all things and cannot beat a white weenie lifegain deck at low health for multiple turns and allow a complete recovery, leading to your defeat.
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