Tag Archives: brew

Abzan Ascendancy is Very Sexy!

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Welcome back. Look i have a post up on a Monday, it is about to get cold people! Hell freezing over cold.

Joking aside, i have been working on different versions of more or less the same list for a few hours now. Trying to find the right balance of this card and/or that card for the deck i hope to use to win Gameday this weekend. Deck choice is still in the air. I could swap to red/black agro or my warrior deck on a whim. But i really like the idea of a combo like creature deck at the moment. Something that punishes the control lists in the meta and that i hope can get around the different agro decks with good blocks and a trip to value town.

Here are the lists as they stand at the moment.

abzan_leap

abzan_rites

abzan_grim

abzan_abomination

Like i said they are just a few cards off. Grim Haruspex or Smothering Abimination for extra card draw? How many leaps vs Vamp Rites? Bone splinters or Collected Company and sacrifice dudes like merciless executioner?

I just don’t know for sure. I do know i want to explore this list this week big time.

You know that agro list is looking better and better.

You know i love to read your thoughts.

<3s

Don’t Tell Anyone but I Have Been Brewing

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Welcome back everyone. I know it has been a little while, man i feel like i am always saying that but i needed some not writing time to try and get some writing done.

A couple of things, first there should be a new podcast starting here in a day or two. I will let me explain things in the podcast but basically it will be all about Magic brewing and whatever else we feel like and i hope to have it out weekly. I hope.

Two, there are some sick possibilities mana wise in this new standard and mana bases are about to become the hard part of MtG- Standard.

The Gurobo clan has been brewing away for a little while now and i have to say there are some sick little decks out there and i am not sold on any one kind of build. Last standard i knew that my red/black token deck was the best deck for me. I did really well with that list the whole time it was legal and i think that it was a real contender. I might port something like it into modern. Who knows?

Right now we have 3 main lists in the works.

Remmie (aka the boy) is working on a Green/White morph list with a heavy life gain theme. Yes, Felidar Sovereign is a huge player in the list. It is not good, yet! But we are working on it. And if i had my way we would make a few quick tweaks and it would gain a ton but this is a lesion for us both (Remmie and I). He his learning how to find what cards are good and where the balance between “for fun” decks and “winning is fun” decks. Mean while i am learning how to let him do his own thing and find his own path. It is hard because well he is not good at things yet. He is 16? Almost 16. For all intensive purposes he is 16. Meaning he is a monster.

Updates to the red/black token deck. I lost a few things, Goblin Rabblemaster and Stoke the Flames being the main ones. Dragonmaster Outcast, Hangarback Walker and Molten Vortex help to fill the void. Not sure how good it is yet. But i bet it is fairly solid.

My main focus is on a 5 color Collected Company list, seems good enough for next weekend but i might need to add some more interaction to the list. It is not the fastest kill ever. Might be fine vs anything other then the huge life gain deck. But the real trick with it comes down to the mana base and do i want to add in a Bring to Light tool box. Right now i am not using them but i might need to go for it. It would make the sideboard much much MUCH sweeter. I want to jump into the trickiest part the mana base.

4 wooded foothills
4 windswept heath
2 polluted delta
2 flooded strand
1 forest
1 island
1 mountain
1 plains
2 canopy vista
2 cinder glade
2 prairie stream
1 sunken hollow
1 smoldering marsh

aka “What is left in my deck?” and “What do i need to find now?”

But i think this covers the mana base fairly well. I can Company on 4 with ease. If i have a 1 drop (the only one atm is Warden of the First Tree you should be able to play it with out too many issues and hitting most 3 mana dorks is simple enough on curve but 4 is most likely. I have learned a few things: 3 Catacomb Sifter is 1 too many, Evolutionary Leap is in fact huge win more card when you have time to pair it with Yasova Dragonclaw.

I will try and have a finished deck list for you soon but the above mana base should get you started on your own 5 color adventure well enough.

Magic players, if you were to build a Bring to Light tool box sideboard what are your must haves? What silver bullets do you add to the main deck? I will take a look at the 5 color winners from last big standard event and again post PT this coming weekend, but i want to know your thoughts.

<3s

Last Hurrahs of the Best Standard I Can Remember.

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I have decided for this last hurrah of the current standard environment to only draft in FNMs if the standard constructed event fails to fire. Also i plan to take a new deck each week. This includes some revamped old favorites as well as some builds that are completely new that i feel can only happen in this window. And the last few weeks of living this plan has been a lot of fun. That being said not all of these decks have been good. Winning at least 1 FNM while crashing and burning in others. But that is why the family is drafting, they can carry team Gurobo even if i am not around to do so.

Also i want to add that i was able to take down my shops Gameday tournament with my Red/Black Impact Tremors deck. Totally unchanged for the expected meta. I just played to even out the field of players so we wouldn’t have to deal with bye rounds. My only loss on the day was due to a Mardu dragon deck with a turn 2 Soulfire grand master each game followed up with a Draconic Roar WITH A revealed Dragon for a huge tempo/live swing. Game 2 i was able to push threw this until my opponent was able to Anger of the Gods wiping both board (mostly mine) while gaining 21 life. I held back just in case and started to recover. But a second Anger off the top for my opponent knocked me out of the game and it was just me drawing hoping for a removal spell for his 4/4 dragon… But i was able to make the top 8 and win out. Thankfully my son took down the Mardu player with his blue devotion/artifact deck.

So lets look at the next build i have in process.

I really want to rock a crazy enchantment list while i can. Herald of the Pantheon, Sigil of the Empty Throne and Starfield of Nyx just seem insane mix in a few cards from left field like the Font of XXXs from Journey into Nyx as to control when my enchantments are men and when they are not as well as sweet value cards like Courser and Eidolon of Blossoms.

Here is what i have so far.

4 Font of Fertility
4 Font of Vigor
4 Suspension Field/Silkwrap some combo of these with the others in the sideboard for games 2-3
4 Herald of the Pantheon
4 Banishing Light
1 Bow of Nylea
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Eidolon of Blossoms
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 Starfield of Nyx

This leaves me with a few slots, 5ish… Unless we do some trimming. If we want to start adding things like Commune with the Gods, Kruphix’s Insight or End Hostilities we start needing to make those cuts. Let alone making room for some way to return our Starfield in the event they get hit other then the Bow of course….

So how do flesh this mess out? We start by looking at our meta. My meta is a hand full of agro decks. Slikwraps and FoVs should handle the early game well enough. If we make it to the mid/late game we should be golden vs them. An Abzan midrange list. As long as we have a Banishing Light for Elisabeth and can recover/stop an Ugin from destroying us we should be okay. Ugin makes me want to splash blue for Disdainful Strokes.. Blue and/or Red is an fairly easy splash thanks to fetches and the FoFs…. Wonder if we want to take advantage of that? I also have a few Artifact decks floating around for the most part i just need to keep my life total high and use the removal enchantments to take things out. There is a few control decks about but they shouldn’t be too much of a problem unless they manage to wipe when i can’t unman my maned up enchantments. Yeah that was a crazy line, but i like it.

I know i want 2 End Hostilities, 3 Kruphix’s Insights. I would like 3 Reclaim and some number of the Green Siege… Sigh. Big mana spells need fast mana if you want them to hit the board quickly.

So lets crunch some numbers.

Is 8 targeted removal spells and 2 sweepers enough/Too much or just right? it feels right to me. You want those 8 early. Most of the time you will be happy to draw 2 or more a game. Hell you might HAVE to draw 3+ to win some games.

Are the 4 FoVs right? I am not sure. I want at least 1 a game. But i also want at least one Starfield and with 3 Kruphix’s Insights and potential drawing from Eidolon of Blossoms it seems safe to trim here.

Could we go below 24 lands? Don’t think so. We want land. In most match ups the more the better. Hell we might want to trim to go up to 25 or 26…

Think i will try it out as

4 Font of Fertility
2 Font of Vigor
4 Suspension Field/Silkwrap Think you go 3/1 Silkwrap/Field
4 Herald of the Pantheon
4 Banishing Light
1 Bow of Nylea
4 Courser of Kruphix
3 Kruphix’s Insights
2 Eidolon of Blossoms
2 Frontier Siege
2 End Hostilities
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 Starfield of Nyx

4 Green/White fetch
3 White/blue Fetch
3 Green/Red Fetch
2 Green/White Temple
4 Plains
6 Forest
2 Island

4 Disdainful Strokes
2 Stubborn Denial
4 The other of the Suspension Field/Silkwrap
3 Reclaim
1 Mountain
1 Font of Ire

There will be some games where we wont be able to win fast enough with the Sigil’s 4/4 fliers. If we can get a little FoI engine running we might be able gain the needed reach that surprises our opponents. I mean 6 mana for 5 damage to the face is just bad. 10 for 10 is better but still bad. 15 for 14 also bad but if you are making 4/4 fliers each turn and it is uncountable it might be better.  If it is bad these last two slots are FoVs for the rush match ups where we are just buying time.

Thoughts?

<3s