Played against GBx and brought the bridges in just to see how they felt, they took the place of fatal push and other removal.
Went 2 - 1 (lost first match before sideboard from terrible draw/mulligans)
The deck definitely felt different playing with bridge, much closer to a prison rather than mid-range deck, slamming down moon and bridge early and using targeted discard to prevent my opponent from removing them. Then just passing time till bedlam revelers draw me into lingering souls.
Overall it seems cute, and certainly left my opponent pretty salty.
So I've been playing this deck for a little bit now, which from my previous deck has trended away from full aggro into a mid-rangish style dependent on bringing sideboard cards and tutoring them up with eldritch evolution.
Overall I'm pretty satisfied, whilst the deck doesn't quite feel super competitive, post-sideboard it seems favorable in a decent range of match-ups. By moving away from aggro I've greatly improved the odds against decks that previously felt unwinnable, these generally being combo-based such as Saheeli or Druid (my local meta has a Saheeli player I always find myself playing against, note the Tocatli Honor Guard in my sideboard).
The sacrifice for this is playing a generally slower deck, which has reduced my consistency against normally straight forward match-ups like Burn, especially in Game 1 before sideboarding. I am enjoying the extra gas Tracker can provide though.
The Angel / Feeder combo is pretty iffy. I rarely get the combo going since I'm usually favoring other cards when using Eldritch Evolution, but in some matches it can provide an easy win-con. Angel of Thune is a pretty solid card by itself with Finks and Rhino providing extra triggers but Spike Feeder obviously is a mostly do nothing card by itself. If I cut the combo I would probably swap the pieces for another Rhino or Wilt-Leaf.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk can be pretty clutch against decks like Elves or Humans, there's something very satisfying about wiping the board of your opponents creatures whilst also slamming a fat body down onto the table.
Shalai can be a slow/dead card in some match-ups but overall she is just too useful against lots of strategies for me to replace her with something else. Although it doesn't happen often I love getting Worship down with Sigarda, since this completely locks a lot of targeted damage strategies out of the game.
After a fair bit of experimentation I'm pretty set on this deck format, able to race most midrange decks whilst still holding up enough control to deal with aggro threats. Mesmeric orb is the real powerhouse of the deck, and can pretty much win games on it's own.
I'd say Manic Scribe is the weakest card in the deck, I probably get a delirium trigger from it in about 50% of games, otherwise it's best asset is in chumping.
Edit: 3 main board surgical might be overkill, and it can certainly be a waste to draw a starting hand with two of them, however my local meta has lots of combo based decks so I'm not sure what I would replace them with.
I don't think it's necessary to run a ton of fetches to maximize the crabs, since ipnu exists. I find that I don't need crabs to be that efficient to close out the game, since archive trap does so much in one go. For pure mill, let's compare long-term value of a fetchland to Ipnu Rivulet. If you have no crabs, ipnu gives you more value. If you have 1 crab, ipnu is still a little better than a fetchland. When you have multiple crabs, then the fetchland is better by a little bit.
I'll have to disagree with you on the fetches vs rivulet, rivulet may mill one more but it puts you down a land as well as requiring two mana to actually use (three effective on that turn), that's a big tempo loss. Fetches on the other hand are instant speed and can get you a variety of mana. Blood moon is a big problem for this deck and i'd much rather have a fetch for the early turns so I can get my basics out.
Visions of Beyond can be powerful, but honestly I find it to be one of my worst cards. I'm always using my mana, so even 1 mana can be a sacrifice. I find it hard to trigger with so much focus on Archive Trap too. I'm generally prepping for one big archive trap turn, by using the forced shuffle of field of ruin. But if I can only draw a bunch of cards late in the game, then Visions isn't really helping me that much. There's probably a low opportunity cost to running this card though with a large upside, which is good. I think 3 is pretty reasonable, which is what I've been running, as they can be much worse in multiples.
Visions is an absolute house. Yes, it requires you to get twenty into the graveyard, but that can usually be achieved with crabs / mesmeric / archive trap quite early. I would go so far as to say visions is NEEDED to prevent this deck from running out of gas. At worst its a 1 mana cycling card, but at best its the most efficient card advantage spell in the game. I am always happy to see a Visions in my starting hand or top-deck one later, although I agree that seeing two of them at the start of the game can be a bit of a tilt if you don't have any easy way to fill their graveyard.
It does cause a non-bo with bridge, but this is usually avoidable by casting during their upkeep and just playing carefully.
I've been playing with a toolbox style version of the deck recently, using Tireless Trackers for card advantage and silver-bullet sideboard creatures to play a more mid-range focused deck.
Shalai should be an automatic include for this type of deck, either you draw her when you don't need her and have a reasonable flyer to beat with, or you can pull her up through evolution to prevent decks like burn, red prison, or mardu pyro from disrupting your game plan. The hexproof often proves beneficial in games where you wouldn't of immediately considered it, such as preventing Shaman of the Pack from nuking you Vs Elves.
Longer slower games also benefit from her 4GG ability, which can often be used to protect her from big damage spells like Chandra's -3 or Walking Ballista.
I've been having a lot of success with Cataclysmic Gearhulk also, being able to tutor up a boardwipe vs decks like elves and humans has been a lot of fun.
My current deck is pretty similar to the Fraser Phillips one I posted before, still testing to see how resilient it is and if it's any better Vs combo decks.
Played against GBx and brought the bridges in just to see how they felt, they took the place of fatal push and other removal.
Went 2 - 1 (lost first match before sideboard from terrible draw/mulligans)
The deck definitely felt different playing with bridge, much closer to a prison rather than mid-range deck, slamming down moon and bridge early and using targeted discard to prevent my opponent from removing them. Then just passing time till bedlam revelers draw me into lingering souls.
Overall it seems cute, and certainly left my opponent pretty salty.
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Swamp
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
Creatures
1 Archangel of Thune
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fairgrounds Warden
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
2 Siege Rhino
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Spike Feeder
3 Tireless Tracker
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
Sorcery
4 Eldritch Evolution
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Quasali Pridemage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tocatli Honor Guard
2 Stony Silence
1 Worship
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Thoughtseize
So I've been playing this deck for a little bit now, which from my previous deck has trended away from full aggro into a mid-rangish style dependent on bringing sideboard cards and tutoring them up with eldritch evolution.
Overall I'm pretty satisfied, whilst the deck doesn't quite feel super competitive, post-sideboard it seems favorable in a decent range of match-ups. By moving away from aggro I've greatly improved the odds against decks that previously felt unwinnable, these generally being combo-based such as Saheeli or Druid (my local meta has a Saheeli player I always find myself playing against, note the Tocatli Honor Guard in my sideboard).
The sacrifice for this is playing a generally slower deck, which has reduced my consistency against normally straight forward match-ups like Burn, especially in Game 1 before sideboarding. I am enjoying the extra gas Tracker can provide though.
The Angel / Feeder combo is pretty iffy. I rarely get the combo going since I'm usually favoring other cards when using Eldritch Evolution, but in some matches it can provide an easy win-con. Angel of Thune is a pretty solid card by itself with Finks and Rhino providing extra triggers but Spike Feeder obviously is a mostly do nothing card by itself. If I cut the combo I would probably swap the pieces for another Rhino or Wilt-Leaf.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk can be pretty clutch against decks like Elves or Humans, there's something very satisfying about wiping the board of your opponents creatures whilst also slamming a fat body down onto the table.
Shalai can be a slow/dead card in some match-ups but overall she is just too useful against lots of strategies for me to replace her with something else. Although it doesn't happen often I love getting Worship down with Sigarda, since this completely locks a lot of targeted damage strategies out of the game.
Anyone else trying something similar?
4 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
3 Ipnu Rivulet
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Shelldock Isle
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
Creatures
4 Hedron Crab
4 Manic Scribe
2 Search for Azcanta
Artifacts
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Mesmeric Orb
Instant
4 Archive Trap
1 Crypt Incursion
3 Fatal Push
3 Surgical Extraction
4 Visions of Beyond
Sorcery
2 Collective Brutality
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
2 Profane Memento
2 Crypt Incursion
2 Echoing Truth
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Spell Pierce
2 Damnation
2 Set Adrift
After a fair bit of experimentation I'm pretty set on this deck format, able to race most midrange decks whilst still holding up enough control to deal with aggro threats. Mesmeric orb is the real powerhouse of the deck, and can pretty much win games on it's own.
I'd say Manic Scribe is the weakest card in the deck, I probably get a delirium trigger from it in about 50% of games, otherwise it's best asset is in chumping.
Edit: 3 main board surgical might be overkill, and it can certainly be a waste to draw a starting hand with two of them, however my local meta has lots of combo based decks so I'm not sure what I would replace them with.
I'll have to disagree with you on the fetches vs rivulet, rivulet may mill one more but it puts you down a land as well as requiring two mana to actually use (three effective on that turn), that's a big tempo loss. Fetches on the other hand are instant speed and can get you a variety of mana. Blood moon is a big problem for this deck and i'd much rather have a fetch for the early turns so I can get my basics out.
Visions is an absolute house. Yes, it requires you to get twenty into the graveyard, but that can usually be achieved with crabs / mesmeric / archive trap quite early. I would go so far as to say visions is NEEDED to prevent this deck from running out of gas. At worst its a 1 mana cycling card, but at best its the most efficient card advantage spell in the game. I am always happy to see a Visions in my starting hand or top-deck one later, although I agree that seeing two of them at the start of the game can be a bit of a tilt if you don't have any easy way to fill their graveyard.
It does cause a non-bo with bridge, but this is usually avoidable by casting during their upkeep and just playing carefully.
Shalai should be an automatic include for this type of deck, either you draw her when you don't need her and have a reasonable flyer to beat with, or you can pull her up through evolution to prevent decks like burn, red prison, or mardu pyro from disrupting your game plan. The hexproof often proves beneficial in games where you wouldn't of immediately considered it, such as preventing Shaman of the Pack from nuking you Vs Elves.
Longer slower games also benefit from her 4GG ability, which can often be used to protect her from big damage spells like Chandra's -3 or Walking Ballista.
I've been having a lot of success with Cataclysmic Gearhulk also, being able to tutor up a boardwipe vs decks like elves and humans has been a lot of fun.
My current deck is pretty similar to the Fraser Phillips one I posted before, still testing to see how resilient it is and if it's any better Vs combo decks.
Abzan Evolution – Fraser Phillips (3rd-4th)
http://f2fseries.facetofacegames.com/red-deer-open-may-12th-2018/
Thoughts?
Been having lots of fun with the deck, but I am getting smashed by combo (knightfall, grishoalbrand, etc)
Feels like I only have enough control to prevent one or two combo pieces sticking, but eventually they find the cards.
Has anyone ever tried Worship in this deck? Might make a nice one of...