You make a very good point. Instant advantage on the board is indeed worth while. Originally, Shepard was a Shadows of the Past. I was able to Scry like crazy, but couldn't use the mana ability very often. Rather than the second GR, I am gonna try Kazandu or Hagra in that spot for now. Gonna test Kazandu first.

Thanks again!

Hey Lockhammer.. welcome back

I'm not too sold on this color combo being better than what Naya offers. Red offers Radiant Flames + Chandra's Ignition, and Rolling Thunder is an incredible finisher in a ramp deck. The fact that Radiant Flames comes online a turn earlier and has only a single red requirement in it's casting cost is very significant vs aggressive starts. Speaking of aggressive starts, red also grants access to Grove Rumbler who has been superb when played on curve. Playing an Evolving Wilds after dropping Rumbler is bringing some serious early game heat to the durdle/ramp decks.. and even if you don't change colors, you need to find two spots for Woodland Wanderer. That dude is absolutely, positively amazing.. and will win you the game all day if they don't answer him. I think it's the best value creature in the game.. certainly better than the singleton Elvish Visionary in the list you posted.

Edit: Ohh yeah.. I forgot the realest reason to play red Omnath, Locus of Rage.

Thanks, just got finished moving and unpacking in NC a lititle bit before Battle For Zendikar dropped.

I am exploring the idea of Jund version as well going that route. Radiant Flames can only burn for 3 versus Languish hitting for -4/-4. The real reason I'm going Languish over Flames is most Awaken lands are 4/4. It gives a loophole to my sweepers. Rolling Thunder is indeed a might card, I plan on running it with anything I do in Red. It is a must.

My Visionary is my fourth Gatecreeper. I use it as a draw engine rather than just a fetch land. I very rarely Ultimate Lilly and Visionary is cheap enough to keep chump blocking only to bring it back with Lilly and drawing a card.

If Kazandu doesn't pan out, I will test Woodland Wanderer in to see how it goes.

Thanks for the advice!

The other major advantage of rolling thunder is taking out opposing planeswalkers.. in Abzan the only out you have to that is Suppression Bonds.

Why are you even playing Lily? What's she do for you? You said she let's you spam your singleton Visionary, but you gotta minus her to do that.. resulting in zero net card advantage. Her value has really gone down with BFZ.. and I believe she was overvalued by all of us beforehand. Getting back Fleshbag is still her best attribute.. but after that.. she's pretty bad.

I can agree is that, which is some of the things I'm testing. She does also thin out your opponent's hand as well, forcing them to top deck. I am not 100% with anything in this deck at this point. I am constantly switch in cards and finding what works best for me.

I am wanting to keep Azban colors for now, and will try Naya or Jund if it doesn't feel powerful enough. As it stands, I'm 25 and 5 for the week on the current build.

What do you remember about the 5 loses? What did they teach you?

Do you really feel that you need Moss? Everyone keeps telling me how great it is but I'm not really seeing/feeling it. I cut it out of all my decks at the moment.. I'd just rather have more creatures/removal/cheaper ramp. I had a rank 40 guy cast double Animists Awakening on me and Ulamog really quickly. I think that strategy might be more effective. I've lost once to land destruction since BFZ came out.. and it was more bc of a rough mulligan on my part than his Moss spam. This increases the value of early game attackers even more IMO.. hence Grove Rumbler and Woodland Wanderer in my Naya/Gruul build. Basically.. if they're gonna Moss me, they're gonna fac down a 5/5 or 6/6 trampler on the backswing

Honestly, to play better. Boros got ahead of the curve a couple of times of times. Otherwise it was mostly misplays on my half. But, I'm looking at Woodland Wanderer and find myself wondering if I should play him. It will never hit full potential in my deck. It needs 4 colors to converge to greatest effect.

A 5/5 vigilant trampler for 4 mana is still quite strong.. it still trades with Gaea's Revenge.

True. I'll try running it if Kazunda doesn't pan out.

I just finished a few matches with CGB's latest (at least based on his last Twitch stream with the deck) version of your Abzan Control, with 3x Retreat to Kazandu. I was skeptical of the Retreats myself, but they won me a match vs a RDW (the go-wide version) and were pretty crucial in an epic match against a GRU Ramp deck. I love the deck, in classic control style it has a LOT of play to it. The GRU Ramp match in particular required me playing to my only outs for about four turns in a row while playing around a potential Spell Shrivel that I'm not sure my opponent was even running. But man, did it feel good (Planar Outburst on your Omnath + elemental token + Oblivion Sower, then Ulamog your followup Ulamog!). Lockhammer, are you running 4x Read the Bones like CGB is? I can't decide whether that's the right number (or even *quite* whether it belongs in the deck or not), but that's been key for me in a few matchups as well. I'm still not sure on the exact build I like here, and I'd love to see other folks' builds of the deck. I went with CGB's build because it was more recent and because, of course, he has a lot more games under his belt than I do, but I'm really interested in what others are running as well.

At the moment, I am running Blue's list. It is pretty solid, and I have been very focused with Golgari Control 2.0. I think Blue has the right idea of running 4 Bones. It has a consistent with streak for me. I was like 70-11 with that deck last weeek, or something close to it. I know I was testing it to get Blue data. I personally like Bones over say Visionary in a deck with lifegain. Yes, Visionary offers a blocker, but Bones sorts the deck faster. Made that switch in my Sultai Walkers 2.0.

So, there was this idea in the Orzhov thread; here is the deck theorycraft.
A little sad Duels didn't get Zulaport Cutthroat, but what can you do.

Shoutout to DJ0045, whose Sultai Mill Sac deck the engine is based on.


More Blood for the Bloodlord!
4 x Blisterpod
4 x Bone Splinters
4 x Gatecreeper Vine
2 x Evolutionary Leap
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer
3 x Fleshbag Marauder
4 x Nantuko Husk
2 x From Beyond
2 x Languish
2 x Smothering Abomination
1 x Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 x Nissas Renewal
1 x Oblivion Sower
2 x Defiant Bloodlord

1 x Plains
5 x Forest
6 x Swamp
3 x Blighted Steppe
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Woodland Cemetary
4 x Evolving Wilds


Primary wincon is (yet again) drawing a bunch of cards; secondary wincon is the combo of Defiant Bloodlord + Blighted Steppe.
The deck still looks a little fragile to me, it is possible the deck doesn't need the Bone Splinters and wants more ramp (Mwonvuli Acid-Moss comes to mind) or just something like 3 Carrier Thrall + Ulamog.

I'd love to hear your input!

Modulo there are no white cards in that deck why is it in this thread?

Just joined the site. I play full junk.

I think perhaps you guys are forgetting something.

think Modern

.... anyone care to guess?

I am sure nobody knows, since this is only for cards in Magic Duels, and you can't play Modern in Magic Duels.

It's a plane! No, it's a bird! No, it's Superman !

i do know that dude. It is a very bad card pool on DUELS. But the same rule apply when playing junk Modern as Junk standard as Junk Duels online. The difference is there are no mana dorks (eg. birds, mystics) In DUELS you have to make one..

Every other junk rule still applies in Duels, Modern, and Standard.

When you play this color combo every card has to further the board state on every turn.

There has to be a reason to splash white in a green black deck and it aint for any white black or white green creatures that are in the Magic Duels Online pool.

Why not just splash blue so you can play jace?

also, when in the nell are they going to fix GreenWarden?

p.s. I have been playing these colors in paper magic for years.

1 sunblade plus 1 shambling vent gave a perfect beatdown to a 36 rank blue deck today.

it was beautiful to watch.

that's nice honey

so do you want to work on the list or no?

serious question.