Three PPTQ Top 8. Zero wins. After a colossus battle in the semi finals of the first PPTQ top 8, the next two top eights were less exciting as I lost to basically double mulligans and flat openers. There are a couple more PPTQs coming up but I’ll be more focused on the upcoming WMCQ .
World Championships and the re-emergence of Abzan
Brian Braun-Duin (“BBD”) was crowned World Champion over the weekend. In his interview he dedicated his win to all the grinders out there, which to me, were words of inspiration for those players like myself who just grind games day-in day-out to improve and trying to get to the next level.
The final match was something for the ages and if you have two hours, do go back and watch how BBD and Marcio Carvalho went back and forth in game three, trading resources and just trying to stay ahead on board. I could imagine the mental drain on both players, but this is what you signed up for playing Bant Company. Awesome match regardless.
But the road the WMC took a nice turn over the weekend as we saw the re-emergence of Abzan. Eight of the twenty four players brought a version of Abzan and while there were a few cards separating the versions, the core elements remain the same where Grim Flayer became the focal point and pressing advantages from other zones such as Lingering Souls fueled the long attrition matchups. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar made its big stage appearance for Modern and who knew Liliana the Last Hope and Liliana of the Veil could co-exist with each other.
Looking at the lists, the Abzan is basically a “complete” deck. It had the right tools to fight any aggressive strategy – Affinity, Burn, Zoo and also had the right number of disruption for combo strategies – Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize and Collective Brutality AND huge pressures on the board with Grim Flayer, Tarmogoyf and Scavenging Ooze. Lingering Souls and Liliana(s) rounds out the power level of this deck. Rarely I say this, but I can’t find a flaw in either of this builts and I see why many of the pros went with this option.
For a control deck, the curve has been tuned down to include zero copies of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Abzan staple – Siege Rhino. Also note LSV's list runs 22 lands, pushing further the 23 land boundary which I felt is already stretching it. There was an interesting conversation between LSV and PVDD (Paolo Vitor) in his CFB article on the number of lands the deck runs (LSV says 22, PVDD says 33).
Fine choice for WMCQ?
No doubt in my mind. However with metagame potentially swinging the Abzan-way, how do you get an edge in the mirror? I think the combination of Lingering Souls and Gideon pushes the pilot across the line and the numbers of these 2 cards in your 75 will be crucial if you expect plenty of mirrors in the upcoming WMCQ. Gideon also gives Abzan a huge and fast threat vs Tron decks which normally has been an issue in the past for Black-Green variants. You can also watch the tight back and forth match between Luis Scott Vargas and Thiago Saporito (skip video to 51:00):
What I don't like about Abzan?
Abzan is a fine deck with utility and a toolbox of answers. I do advocate for sure in a Malaysian metagame littered with linear aggro such as Burn and Affinity. But I would imagine encountering difficult match-ups vs BantDrazi and its Jund counterpart (with Liliana, the Last Hope). The 22 land in LSV list is rather tight, but I can see his logic behind it in addition to Noble Hierarchs. But in a Jund/Abzan head-to-head, I wouldn't like to be the one missing land drops. And what about its matchup vs my pet deck, Merfolk? Merfolks ability to flood the board quickly back with some well timed disruption traditionally cause Abzan some fits. But this new Abzan has better early plays (Grim Flayer), additional Abrupt Decays and always efficient removal in Path to Exile (over Lightning Bolt) which deals with Master of Waves (which Jund has an issue most of the time). Hence overall I think on paper Merfolk feels like the underdog here (in fact on paper, Merfolk feels like an underdog against any matchup).
September 13th
A little less than a week to WMCQ 3 which would be the big reveal who would be the forth member accompanying us to Rotterdam in November. While already qualified, I still spent the last few weeks playing tonnes of modern and drafting a lot on Magic Online. The new Draft Leagues are great. In Chye’s words, we can basically “Turbo-Draft” and finish up a 6-2-2-2 within 90 minutes. Hence I’ve logged more drafts via this format compared to the rest of the entire 2016. Honestly, I do see the little bit of improvement here.
Leveling Up
Eugene Tong got married over the weekend and once again, on behalf of your Decards brothers - huge congratulations and wishing you and Adeline the best! Team Decards was in attendance and we had a blast. Its quite a change seeing Wei Han, Obama and Ron outside their usual casual dressing transforming into sleak and smart looking suits.
Team Decards plus one
PS: While Eugene was the man of the night, it didn’t stop the rest of the Decards boys attempt to make an impression on our lovely guest singer of the night..... who also so happens to be Eugene’s younger sister.
So now with the celebrations out of the way, we got a few more days to work on the WMCQ decks. See you this weekend.
PM out.
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