Abzan Midrange

[Codester1991]

Abzan Midrange 60 cards, 15 sideboard 4 {Verdant Catacombs} 4 {Marsh Flats} 1 {Windswept Heath} 2 {Overgrown Tomb} 1 {Temple Garden} 1 {Godless Shrine} 2 {Blooming Marsh} 1 {Concealed Courtyard} 2 {Swamp} 1 {Plains} 1 {Forest} 2 {Hissing Quagmire} 1 {Gavony Township} 23 lands 2 {Tasigur, the Golden Fang} 2 {Scavenging Ooze} 3 {Noble Hierarch} 4 {Siege Rhino} 4 {Tarmogoyf} 15 creatures 1 {Maelstrom Pulse} 2 {Abrupt Decay} 3 {Thoughtseize} 3 {Inquisition of Kozilek} 3 {Fatal Push} 3 {Path to Exile} 3 {Liliana of the Veil} 4 {Lingering Souls} 22 other spells 1 {Worship} 1 {Zealous Persecution} 1 {Thrun, the Last Troll} 1 {Damnation} 2 {Gideon, Ally of Zendikar} 2 {Stony Silence} 2 {Leyline of Sanctity} 2 {Surgical Extraction} 3 {Fulminator Mage} Sideboard

[Codester1991]

Broke down and bought the Lilliana's and Tarmogoyfs. Going to be sporting this for a while.

[Codester1991]

Thinking of dropping qasali and going up to 25 land but what is everyone's else's opinion on that?

[Kaalia with haste]

I feel 24 lands is fine, I'm also not huge on main deck pridemage without chord or company or a way to find it like that. I'd suggest adding in some number of voice of resurgences, grixis has such a hard time dealing with that card and it's just fantastic against literally every fair deck while pridemage is good against way less decks.

Also possible that noble hierarch should be here in some numbers instead of smiter.

Twilight mire is almost definitely worth inclusion due to scavenging ooze.

Creeping corrosion is probably better than fracturing gust as well.

Spellskite is probably worth a sideboard slot.

Damnation is an amazing sb card.

[Codester1991]

I feel 24 lands is fine, I'm also not huge on main deck pridemage without chord or company or a way to find it like that. I'd suggest adding in some number of voice of resurgences, grixis has such a hard time dealing with that card and it's just fantastic against literally every fair deck while pridemage is good against way less decks.

Also possible that noble hierarch should be here in some numbers instead of smiter.

Twilight mire is almost definitely worth inclusion due to scavenging ooze.

Creeping corrosion is probably better than fracturing gust as well.

Spellskite is probably worth a sideboard slot.

Damnation is an amazing sb card.

All of these are amazing additions and thoughts, will definitely take them into consideration. Unfortunately traded my damnations away for lilianas lol

Land base is set I'll have to pick up twilight mired along the way because I have none as of now.

Smiter is so good lol but voice may be better after some play testing.

I will eventually get some damnations and mires, I do have corrosions but boggles is so big right now the life gain and extras with gust is just so good I don't want to switch lol. I may try and squeeze in hierarchs but I'll have to see what other things I need to swap out...

[Kaalia with haste]

I feel 24 lands is fine, I'm also not huge on main deck pridemage without chord or company or a way to find it like that. I'd suggest adding in some number of voice of resurgences, grixis has such a hard time dealing with that card and it's just fantastic against literally every fair deck while pridemage is good against way less decks.

Also possible that noble hierarch should be here in some numbers instead of smiter.

Twilight mire is almost definitely worth inclusion due to scavenging ooze.

Creeping corrosion is probably better than fracturing gust as well.

Spellskite is probably worth a sideboard slot.

Damnation is an amazing sb card.

All of these are amazing additions and thoughts, will definitely take them into consideration. Unfortunately traded my damnations away for lilianas lol

Land base is set I'll have to pick up twilight mired along the way because I have none as of now.

Smiter is so good lol but voice may be better after some play testing.

I will eventually get some damnations and mires, I do have corrosions but boggles is so big right now the life gain and extras with gust is just so good I don't want to switch lol. I may try and squeeze in hierarchs but I'll have to see what other things I need to swap out...

Is gust actually good against boggles? It seems like by the time you get to five you're dead. Also good boggles pilots won't extend into an edict, and therefore gust. That said I don't play this deck and it could be completely correct to play gust.

[Kaalia with haste]

Was just looking over your deck and it seems you've added batterskull. My suggestion is going to sound extremely unorthodox but hear me out: blood baron of vizkopa over batterskull.

Pros of batterskull:

Vigilance. It will grind out every game it resolves.

Pros of bloodbaron:

Dies to virtually no removal spell in the format.

Races almost as well as batterskull but not quite.


These factors alone make it seems as though it's basically up to persona preference and the difference isn't huge but I haven't said the big one yet:

Doesn't die to kolaghan's command! This is HUGE. Jund and grixis are able to beat this card and even get a 2 for 1 out of it with command. Blood baron will either win you the game or get you a 2 for one on bolts.

[Codester1991]

Hmmm blood baron is decent and by the time you drop batterskull you have controlled the board and don't have many worries

[Kaalia with haste]

Hmmm blood baron is decent and by the time you drop batterskull you have controlled the board and don't have many worries

Depends on the deck you're playing against. Against zoo/burn either ends the game. Against grixis or jund they could just can just kommand it and raise dead something, untap and cast an angler or whatever.

[Codester1991]

Hmmm blood baron is decent and by the time you drop batterskull you have controlled the board and don't have many worries

Depends on the deck you're playing against. Against zoo/burn either ends the game. Against grixis or jund they could just can just kommand it and raise dead something, untap and cast an angler or whatever.

True but that's why so many poker players play this game, there's no way of knowing what your opponent is gonna play.

[Kaalia with haste]

Hmmm blood baron is decent and by the time you drop batterskull you have controlled the board and don't have many worries

Depends on the deck you're playing against. Against zoo/burn either ends the game. Against grixis or jund they could just can just kommand it and raise dead something, untap and cast an angler or whatever.

True but that's why so many poker players play this game, there's no way of knowing what your opponent is gonna play.

Yes there is, that's sort of the whole thing with magic,  is trying to figure out what your opponent could potentially have and how you can best play around it. Players like Reid Duke and LSV are always talking about what their opponent might have and why they thing think that. Then they act accordingly.

[Codester1991]

You can guess as much as you want and that's what they do, they guess buddy. But that's it. They do not get a deck list or brew with every player the night before. So no they don't know, they guess to the best of their knowledge and prepare for it. And that is with all the meta data they've prepared prior.

[Kaalia with haste]

You can guess as much as you want and that's what they do, they guess buddy. But that's it. They do not get a deck list or brew with every player the night before. So no they don't know, they guess to the best of their knowledge and prepare for it. And that is with all the meta data they've prepared prior.

Yes and you and I are both aware that people will be playing the card kolaghan's command. Blood baron fills every role batterskull does and doesn't get wrecked by a popular card, hell it's even cheaper on tcgplayer.

[Codester1991]

I already own all these cards(with the exception of goyfs coming in the mail Friday) just for the record. Also, yes Kommand is popular but skull is versatile and protects itself, me(vigilance), and pumps my creatures. I'm not saying blood baron is bad but there's a reason he doesn't see much modern play, he's straight up dead anytime a goyf hits the board on the opponents side and he's easier to kill with burn, plus triggering his +6 and flying is almost likely to never happen considering I'm fetching and shocking ridiculously with this deck. With cards like t-sieve, inquisition, and lili I can play around k-command.

This is just my justification for using batterskull. Also, it's a fun game two when you equip it to sigarda.

[griffin131]

Smiter is really good against jund  and abzan midrange.

As a zoo player, I'm a million times more scared of Baron than I am Batterskull.

I main board removal for skull. I have to block Baron and trade - not always profitably.