My Buddy sent me this list. Here's what he put together. I don't like it. I think it's close, but has a terrible, 2-1 kind of mana base. The rest of the pool's terrible and off-color so I'm just posting the deck/on-color stuff here.

Am I right? Or is it better to jam your best playables and hope for the best? How would you shift the cards to put less pressure on the mana base? What card would you cut? (It's at 23 playables I think.) If this was Sealed would you play the banner? How does this deck change between sealed and draft?

Creature (15)

2 x Abzan Guide
1 x Ainok Bond-Kin
1 x Alabaster Kirin
1 x Alpine Grizzly
1 x Archers' Parapet
1 x Bellowing Saddlebrute
1 x Heir of the Wilds
1 x Highland Game
1 x Hooting Mandrills
1 x Pine Walker
1 x Ruthless Ripper
1 x Siege Rhino
1 x Tuskguard Captain
1 x Unyielding Krumar

Instant (4)

1 x Abzan Charm
1 x Feat of Resistance
1 x Kill Shot
1 x Throttle

Enchantment (2)

1 x Abzan Ascendancy
1 x Debilitating Injury

Land (2)

1 x Blossoming Sands
1 x Scoured Barrens

Sorcery (1)

1 x Incremental Growth

Sideboard (21)

1 x Abzan Banner
1 x End Hostilities
1 x Feed the Clan
1 x Firehoof Cavalry
1 x Jeskai Student
2 x Kheru Dreadmaw
1 x Mardu Skullhunter
2 x Naturalize
1 x Retribution of the Ancients
1 x Roar of Challenge
1 x Rotting Mastodon
1 x Rush of Battle
1 x Savage Punch
2 x Scout the Borders
1 x Shambling Attendants
1 x Sidisi's Pet
1 x Tusked Colossodon
1 x War Behemoth

I at least want to play Roar of Challenge and Shambling Attendants with Ruthless Ripper and Heir of the Wilds. Seems mean.

I think mana wise you have to cut aninok bond kin and maybe the flier too. Run the banner and try to skate by on 3 plains. Maybe 7 forest 6 swamp. Probably cut incremental growth too.

The 0/5 wall wants to make me castrate myself whenever I play it. There are easily 4 cards I'd rather run over it. bear punch, the 2/8, the crocs, and you can just blow people out with end hostilities.

It is hard to say what he could have done differently without seeing the draft though.

I also just read your actual post, and I say screw your mana base. I've gone 6/6/5 in this format and I had 4 leaping masters, 2 of the blue goblin piker, and jeering instagator as my 2 drops. It is so forgiving, and it isn't like your buddy didn't have beef for the end game if he didn't kill them early. The black cards are good enough to splash for easily.

Of course, I'm one of those excessive risk takers. So keep that in mind.

Well, I'd take out the black critter, and go mostly GW, light on black. Cut Unyielding Krumar, Archers' Parapet, and Debilitating Injury, play War Behemoth, Tusked Colossodon, and Roar of Challenge. I haven't really put it together, but I'd go 7/7/5, maybe 8/7/4 GWB sources, with that. No banner, assuming this is draft. I'd also expect to lose two games to mana, but still, I might not, and I would surely lose without the Ascendancy and the Charm. I would not go below 15 critters, but I might lose Incremental Growth for 18th land, for consistency. In fact, this build has almost no two-drops, so 18 mana is probably very much indicated.

Mardu Skullhunter needs to be main decked. Cut the 0/5 wall.

Zlet:It's already at 18 land if I counted correctly.

I agree though that not having Punch seems odd. It's so good with a lot of your creatures.

Run End Hostilities too.