Help Finishing up Abzan Tokens Deck
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on June 23, 2017, 6:35 p.m. by PTsmitty
I have been working on building an Abzan tokens deck over the last few weeks, and I think I have narrowed down my vision for the deck. What I was trying to achieve with the deck is to disrupt by opponents strategy and plan with Black, and then use Green and White to create a token army for the win. My biggest question is whether or not I should use creature ramp. All token builds I find have Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise as early mana ramp options, but I will not buying the Heirarch's due to their price. The best I can do is Birds of Paradise and Avacyn's Pilgrim. I realize that mana ramp does not fit the overall theme of my deck so I was thinking of taking it out. However, I was not sure if this would severely hinder my chances of winning since it would slow down my token production. Here is my deck for anyone interested in looking it over and giving me some advice. My idea was take out the 4x Avacyn's Pilgrim and then use x3 Fatal Push and add another Spectral Procession instead.
So do you think running x4 Birds of Paradise is enough or do I need to include more ramp? Basically, my plan turn 1 is to play either Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek to disrupt my opponent's hand. So the earliest it would come out would be tun 2. Would that be defeating the purpose of including ramp, or is ramp still good even on turns 2 or 3? I am definitely interested in the Fatal Push possibility. I know Liliana of the Veil is played at my local shop so I was looking for a way to deal with her so Abrupt Decay is included right now. I could always include it in my sideboard for more specific removal.
June 24, 2017 8:57 a.m.
Oloro_Magic says... #4
Birds just makes things quicker and by the off chance you don't have discard turn one you still have a play, theoretically you could flashback Lingering Souls turn three which really pressures your opponent. If you have a lot of Liliana of the Veil in your meta than Abrupt Decay is a good choice then. As said before Noble Hierarch gives exalted triggers which tokens can really benefit from and that is why you want Hierarch, but birds accelerates your clock so even if you play it turn two it is a great card to have.
June 24, 2017 9:10 a.m.
I appreciate the feedback. I was worried I was bouncing between the idea of hand disruption and ramp too much and that was putting my deck at risk of failing since I was not committing to just one thing. I think I will try the ramp with Birds of Paradise and see how it goes. I would rather pay $20 on cards that I may take out than $260 for x4 Noble Hierarch and then just take them out, HA!
Oloro_Magic says... #2
Honestly, Birds of Paradise is just a nice card to have turn one in three colours. The Noble Hierarch is more because of the exalted trigger which is great in tokens, definitely take out the Avacyn's Pilgrim for birds. Personally I would run Fatal Push over Abrupt Decay in the main, it is cheaper and relevant in just about every matchup, Abrupt Decay is a great surprise sideboard option.
June 23, 2017 10:42 p.m.