I need help with "Budget" Abzan.
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 29, 2015, 1:47 p.m. by EverythingIsK
I want to get into the midrange Abzan business, but I don't want to drop $500 on goyf, $400 on lili, and more on the rest of it. That's where my deck is building from. Everything Abzan minus these two and bob. I love Siege rhino, so I wanted to build around him a little.
I know "budget" Abzan isn't a thing, but I want to cut the cost where I can. There is no real replacement for goyf, nor is there a quality replacement for liliana of the veil. I just want something that doesn't sacrifice the curve of abzan while still able to give people some headaches.
Here's the obligatory link for the lazy:
"Budget" Abzan Playtest
Modern*
SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 62 VIEWS
Please give any help you can give other than, "Spend more money".
Thanks in advance!
Har you seen Wilt leaf abzan? It's a cheaper varient and can be played with qasali pridemages over voices to keep costs down, however it doesn't have the same playstyle as traditional abzan, if you look through the modern forum to a few days ago I posted a few budget alternatives to the key money cards and while they won't win you many tier one games they are pretty good at tier 1.5-2 depending on how competitive you want to make the deck.
September 29, 2015 2:23 p.m.
A few budget minded thoughts -
I would replace Fleecemane Lion with Scavenging Ooze, it's an important card to be in the maindeck and Fleecemane Lion has little upside for the 2 drop that still dies to Lightning Bolt.
Gavony Township is better than Vault of the Archangel if you're on the Lingering Souls Wilt-Leaf Liege style Abzan since it can run away with a game.
Also, your manlands Stirring Wildwood and Treetop Village are pretty cheap and well worth including.
Noble Hierarch would be worth including if it's not outside the budget - I would shave some of the removal since 12 is already a little too much. Otherwise I would still shave 1-2 for a bit more threats.
September 29, 2015 2:31 p.m.
Slycne -
Wilt leaf style abzan is weak against unfair combo decks. The kind of unfair combo decks that play Primeval Titan and Wurmcoil Engine. In those instances Vault of the Archangel is mose definitely going to be better than Gavony Township. Nice uses but I find vault better in those 'oh shit' moment, and gavony better when you're already ahead.
September 29, 2015 3:16 p.m.
EverythingIsK says... #6
@readerrw07 I actually don't play any standard now. My deck was theros heroic, and nothing else has really taken my fancy. Probably dragons if I really wanted to, but eh. As for my meta, its a real mixture of BGx, Twin, Affinity, Merfolk, and an assortment of other tier 1/1.5 decks. Not sure how else to describe it. Essentially I would just want to try to keep up as much as I could.
@Uzumaki1 I saw it and Loxodon Smiter and thought about that. I figured if I use it, I'd have to go in a more aggro type of game plan. If you could link me to that post, I would love it. I can't find it. :/
@Slycne For Scavenging Ooze, I need to fix my mana base so I can get more green. I found it hard to make him effective as soon as he came out. As for those two utility lands, is it really that bad I can't have both? I'll probably wait for Oath's spoilers to come with the GB Manland and see if it'll be worth getting, otherwise I'll get a few Stirring Wildwood.
Thanks all for the help so far.
September 29, 2015 10:19 p.m.
Can't remember how to link things on here, it's name is "how good is abzan midrange without the money cards" however most of the posts simply tell you it's unplayable. There is a variant of wilt leaf that is more midrangey and I'll try and find you a link for it, it runs no mana dorks and a lot more discard and removal, it still does pretty well as I came third with it in a GPT.
Here's my post from the other page
Depends on how competitive you want to make it, other than wilt leaf or undying there are a few cheaper alternatives but it won't be as good as the original. And won't win many tier one matches. Dark confidant could be replaced by phyrexian arena, lili by either the origins version, or butcher of malikar while if can't remember the name it's a card that gets a counter whenever you play a non green spell (or possibly managorger hydra, shapeshifter or strangleroot Geist) unfortunately thoughtseize is a nessisary and abrupt decay would be hard to replace aswell.
I spent quite a while trying to make a budget junk deck work against tier one decks but eventually caved and slowly acquired the real cards for it.
Hope it'll help.
September 30, 2015 4:03 a.m.
EverythingIsK says... #8
Fortunately, I can get Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay easily, and I'll try managorger. I was also reading up on that converge elemental that's a vigilant trample that gets a counter for each color spent on it. Probably better with lists with Noble Hierarch. Thanks for it again. It's really helping.
September 30, 2015 7:01 a.m.
Fleetwood-Mat says... #9
One of the things you will need to be careful of is combos that your opponents are running. Eidolon of Rhetoric is a good card to stop a LOT of modern combos, but isn't going to stop them if they want to flash in Pestermite on your turn to combo with Splinter Twin on their turn. In the case that you're facing this particular combo in either a grixis/twin or twin/burn deck, you might consider sideboarding something along the lines of Illness in the Ranks or just making sure you have instant removal to kill that Pestermite once he's flashed in.
Honestly though, making Abzan without Liliana of the Veil is no easy thing to do. Part of what makes Liliana so important in modern is the ability to take out those pesky Slippery Bogle decks. It's very popular now, so much so that in my UB faerie deck, I added two Lilianas and two Chalice of the Void into my sideboard. Chalice is also good against Red Deck Wins/Burn. Bogles can be beaten without Liliana as well, but then you're relying on having Inquisition of Kozilek or Thoughtseize in your opening hand and being on the play, however, if you have one of those in your hand and you cast it and see two hexproof 1 drops, you're probably going to lose without Liliana.
Another option for your deck, which is reasonably priced right now is Bitterblossom. It's chump blockers for days against most decks, stops flyers and it's only 2 cmc. If you're doing stuff like Siege Rhino and Restoration Angel, you might want to consider it.
October 1, 2015 2:32 p.m.
readerrw07 says... #10
And to think this could all be fixed with some convenient commander 15 reprints :P Or if rich people would stop driving the price of cards up then complaining that their modern meta is only three people.
readerrw07 says... #2
Play standard? :P
How competetive are you wanting it? Ehats your meta like?
September 29, 2015 2:22 p.m.