I read a TCGplayer article this week written by Seth Manfield. The topic of discussion was the potential advantage that 4C mana bases provide in today's standard. As we all know, Abzan is at the forefront of the standard meta in the form of either midrange or aggro. These are simply the most powerful colors in standard at the moment as they dont just give you access to one aspect of game play. For example, the Courser of Kruphix, Sylvan Caryatid, Siege Rhino backbone allows for ramp, significant blockers, significant pressure, and an alarming amount of deck manipulation with the ability to play lands off the top and crack fetches for extra life gain and removing less than favorable top decks. These colors also have access to great removal... need I say more? Seth spoke of several builds in his article, but one really resonated with me. A deck built by Brad Nelson. The concept was new and refreshing, yet surprisingly streamlined. Take a good thing and make it better, stronger, more versatile. The deck ran Abzan midrange with the inclusion of red for access to
Butcher of the Horde
, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Crackling Doom, and Chained to the Rocks. I threw it together and it was impressive.
But for months now, I have been wanting a superfriends deck that wows people and is consistently powerful. With this rock-solid mana base, 4C has never been easier and I crammed as many threats as I could into this thing. Now we are able to ramp into any threat imaginable by T4 and then each subsequent turn plays another. Your opponent will likely answer one threat, or two, or three; usually the
Butcher of the Horde
or Siege Rhino because they simply must be dealt with... but eventually, they will stall. And when they do, they will watch the
End Hostilities
smash and then they will watch you cast Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker with an Elspeth, Sun's Champion revealed on top of your library. This is obviously a disconcerting position to be in for your opponent. Please play-test before suggestions because at first glance, the deck just looks down right greedy, but I assure you, it works well. I played against nearly every relevant archetype last night and took first place at FNM with 3/5 matches being 2:0. I faced sultai control (with ease), Temur midrange (with ease), Jeskai ascendancy (was a race but T4 elspeth kept him at bay game one and sideboard Anger of the Gods and Drown in Sorrow devistated game 2), Abzan midrange (with ease; I just had more threats, plain and simple), and Mono Black Aggro (was another race but could stabilize consistently at 10ish life and then run away with it).
With this deck, every card that is not a land or a Sylvan Caryatid is literally mana spent on instant board presence... every card. I love feedback, please lmk what you think!
