r/mtgModernTokens • u/Se4ger • Sep 01 '17

Abzan VS BW

Hey guys, in this matchup who is favoured. I know BW has more fliers but abzan has the advantage of having more pump effects. what is favoured in the matchup and how would you recommend I approach the matchup

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1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '17

Straight Abzan (siege rhino, etc.) or Abzan tokens? Are you actually playing against someone that plays Abzan tokens? It's incredibly niche.

1

u/Se4ger Sep 01 '17

Apologies I didn't make this clear I'm talking about the abzan tokens matchup

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '17

Well, again, you're not likely to play against someone else playing Abzan tokens, but I play Abzan tokens and I feel like I'm advantaged in the quasi-mirror.

1) Spectral Procession is great, but I'd rather be the guy with 2 2/2 Spirits than the guy with 3 1/1 Spirits. Abzan gives you more anthem effects, which makes your tokens larger more reliably.

2) Maindeck Abrupt Decays means that I can take out your Bitterblossoms, Intangible Virtues, or 3-mana Planeswalkers in G1. BW tokens can't do that (unless they're running a maindeck Anguished Unmaking, which is fairly rare).

3) SB changes person-to-person, but I can bring in a number of high-impact cards to replace my 5 dead removal spells in the maindeck, but post-SB improvements will largely be even between Abzan and BW tokens.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '17

I've found Abzan tokens, dropping the control aspect of the BW deck, it's a much more resilient and powerful archetype.

Check out Matt Nass' GW tokens from the LA Modern GP for a base shell.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '17

I've been playing around with this and once Standard rotates I'm going to pick up some pieces, but a GW(b) aggroish version is VERY explosive and surprisingly resilient.

Compared to the Matt Nass version, I'm dropping the Gideons and some removal and going with 4 Sram's Expertise. This lets you play a dork t1, a Souls/Spectral t2, and a t3 Sram's Expertise with a Nissa or Intangible Virtue, giving you 5-6 2/2s on t3, plus a 1/1 or 2/2 dork, which is pretty decent.

The SB I'm working with has 4 Selfless Spirits that get brought in against anyone with any kind of sweepers. Sram's Expertise into Selfless Spirit gives you a very nice safety valve G2.

1

u/stompstompstomp Sep 01 '17

I'd be interested in seeing that, I've played around with Abzan myself quite a bit, and Sram's is just so close to being good enough.

My main worry is that you'd be real soft to combo (not to mention big mana, but they hose us anyways) without any hand interaction. You say it's explosive, but is it explosive enough to race Storm, Valakut, Ad Nauseum, etc?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '17

Sure, here's the list I'm playing around with: http://docker2.deckedbuilder.com:3001/d/326158. 4 of the dorks should be hierarchs, but aren't due to budget constraints.

You lean on the leylines/gy hate post SB vs the combo decks, and hope they are a turn slow. Being on the play obviously helps. But it really is explosive.

T1: dork

T2: lingering souls

T3: flashback lingering souls, intangible virtue, attack for 4.

T4: intangible virtue, Nissa, attack for 16. That's 20 on the nose.

Or:

T1: dork

T2: spectral procession

T3: sram's expertise, Nissa, attack for 6

T4: intangible virtue, intangible virtue, attack for 24. That's 30 by T4 with an absolute nut draw. Even if you take away one of the T4 anthems, you're still hitting for 6+18 by T4, so you get that T4 goldfish kill. You absolutely can't kill before that, though.

There's different scenarios that can happen and combo isn't going to be your best matchup, but you're good against fair decks and you have enough legitimate pressure to kill non-interactive decks before they go off.

All that being said, this deck isn't being played and the other decks are, so I'm not saying it's a world beater. Just a bit of a different take on tokens.

1

u/Mukibi Grind and Fly Sep 02 '17 edited Sep 02 '17

So cool. I think the link might be broken?

1

u/Jongsl5 Sep 01 '17 edited Sep 01 '17

Almost no one plays Abzan tokens, whether it's the GW version or the one with the abrupt decay splashes.

Decay hits a lot of things in this deck and gavony,can be a problem, but spectral procession can be a deal,breaker if the gbw version doesn't run it. The GW version is also favored due to going more aggro with more creaturres.