I may be wrong, but I feel like there are too many 1-of's in your sideboard. Having a variety of answers is of course good, but too much variety can leave you without enough consistency.

What's your opinion on the man lands we have in junk now? How would you order them as far as relevance? I'm on the edge between quagmire and vents. Something about paying 3 to make my land boltable..

And how do you think we are positioned to place in an eldrazi free meta?

Always appreciate your input chief!

I'm not sure that Oath of Nissa is better than Dark Confidant in here. I see that your curve is high and you really don't want to flip a Tasigur, the Golden Fang but oath is just a cantrip for you. Confidant actually gains you an advantage. I see that it can help you cast a lily but is that really worth it? Let me know if i'm missing something.

To deal with Affinity, I would recommend more Stony Silence or Kataki, War's Wage. Batterskull also eats Etched Champions for breakfast and provides you with a resilient threat that's good against a lot of aggro.

As for Merfolk, perhaps more Damnation is the answer. I do think you need to hone your sideboard to do a few versatile things rather than a slew of cards that might not show up (because they're one-ofs).

@buildingadeck Batterskull's token is black so it can't block an Etched Champion with metalcraft.

Ah, that makes sense. I think my mind went: colorless artifact? colorless creature. Thanks for the clarification.

8vomit - My sideboard isn't done yet. I've been testing a lot of different options to find out what I'm not very good against and from there I can narrow it down more.

As you may be aware Junk's manabase is ok but not amazing, given that you want both and turn 1 for Path to Exile or Thoughtseize, then turn 2 for Tarmogoyf etc. It's tricky. More often than not it works but it often involves a lot of life loss. Given this I have chosen to include 1 of each manland for fixing purposes first, and creature purposes second. Stirring Wildwood is obviously the best manland, but black is the most prevalent colour. Therefore it's important to include a mixture. My personal opinion is that it is useless including lots of the manland you want if it jeopardises your chances of actually casting spells!

Junk is never poorly position. Even against Eldrazi I frequently won if they didn't have the god hand (ie. multiple Eldrazi Mimic on turn 1). If they played a slower game then I was very happy to Abrupt Decay their Endless Ones and Path to Exile their other dudes, then use Scavenging Ooze to eat all the dead and become horrifically large. I wasn't at all favoured but I still felt like I was playing a powerful deck. As the format slows down, with the recent ban, Junk will be even more of a powerhouse because it'll have more time to play out those rhinos and come into its own.

sirbar - It is uncommon for Abzan to run Dark Confidant simply because it is not a control deck primarily, and therefore wants to invest as much as possible in solid bodies. This is a deck that hits people with creatures first, and a deck that plays removal second. Given this, spending 2 mana on long term card advantage is not necessarily the right choice, for a few reasons. The first is that we don't necessarily want the game to go long. We hope to play some Rhinos and some Goyfs and win promptly. The second reason for his exclusion is that we don't need card advantage like Jund does. Whereas Lightning Bolt, Terminate, Abrupt Decay etc are one-shot effects that necessitate card draw, playing creatures ensures repeatable pressure (unless they're removed!) that does necessitate drawing more replacements frequently.

Oath of Nissa is included because it helps us to fuel out more creatures by immediately allowing us to draw into one for a single mana. It's arguably better than Bob against blue control because it's easier to sneak it under counterspells and it's arguably better against control with removal spells because its effect is instantaneous. It fits a proactive deck very nicely. Will Edel has been testing it too and really likes it.

buildingadeck - I've been testing a lot for this new Modern season (post-eldrazi, post-SOI) and therefore I kept a very wide sideboard. As I find the matchups that I don't do well against I'll narrow the sideboard down. I think Kataki, War's Wage might be good.

So you would suggest quagmire over treetop village, because of the color fixings? I kind of feel like treetop is better. 1 less to activate and has trample.

I've had very good experience with kataki. I like him better than stony silence even though he is a big target.

Yeah I would just for colour fixing though treetop is obviously the better beater.

I don't know how you find your manabase but mine often frustrates me and for this reason I run one of each of the dual manlands.

How do you think this deck will fare against upcoming Ancestral Vision control decks?

Probably not so well. We usually count on the control deck being unable to answer everything. With ancestral that won't happen. Conversely though it is possible for BGx to keep the control decks win conditions at bay through maelstrom pulse etc. It's not a terrible matchup but is tricky. With ancestral being legal we lose a potential line of play we had before.

I'm uncertain of how slow the format is going to be. Yes there's going to be more control decks because of the unbannings, but the requirement for them to stay alive till turn 5 is a tough requirement. Remember that before the Eldrazi, post Twin, there was a plethora of aggro decks in infect, affinity, merfolk and rdw. I don't think that control decks can survive all of those right away, because games can be determined far faster before turn 5.

Yep. Femme is right. For all the control going around there is still the threat of aggro, which this deck can react to nicely, whereas control struggles. I've recently tweaked the sideboard to capitalise on those matchups. I need to be 2-1ing (or 2-0ing) creature based aggro consistently so that I can throw the games to control running visions. My niche has tightened a bit because its harder for me to blag wins against a deck that can draw 3 cards at a time, and so as a consequence of that I'm solidifying my matchups against the decks I really should be winning against with ease.

Extra hate against thopters, affinity, merfolk, goblins, other weenies etc.

I read this and it seemed like such a fun deck. Honestly I would build something very similar to this. I was wondering if you have ever thought of making a cheaper version of this deck and if so what might you make it? The only reason i really ask is because I want to play modern and Abzan has been one of my favorite color combo's along with siege rhino for a long time. I guess it would be more of a casual deck due to funding issues. +1 for awesome deck though mate!

jaeger_Konig - GB/X decks are difficult to budget. They rely a lot on Liliana of the Veil, Tarmogoyf and hand disruption spells like Thoughtseize, which are all expensive cards.

It is duable, I guess, (Junk budgets better than Jund any day.)

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/youll-let-me-finish-2/

Tappedout is bugged and wont let me link it.

jaeger_Konig, BG/x decks are essentially good stuff decks. You can't budget them without losing the deck's functionality because the decks are basically just the best cards ever printed.

I figured as much. I guess i am just going to have to wait for a different deck someday. Thank you

jaeger_Konig -

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/youll-let-me-finish-2/

Tappedout won't let me link it correctly.

Four Damnation feels kind of excessive. What matchup do you board in the full playset?

Ohthere was a time where the meta near me was just Zoo, Merfolk, and Affinity pretty much. Because I wanted to absolutely, 100% guarantee those wins I had 4.

Control is back so I need to shift the sideboard a bit.

That double relic + triple voice + Extirpate + choke sideboard makes me want to cry.

How does this deck feel about the new card "Nephelia Academy"? Makes the discards strictly worse IMO.

Nephalia academy will not see widespread play in modern, barring some sideboard use.

Just a few updates.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos was good against aggro but Jund is the top competitor now so Kitchen Finks comes in instead. Finks is used due to how difficult it is to kill with Liliana or spot removal.

A single Oath of Nissa becomes a single Painful Truths. I still want the ability to draw early but it's also nice to potentially put 3 cards in my hand in the late game.

A single Scavenging Ooze becomes one more Thoughtseize. Turn 1 discard is just so important in disrupting a variety of decks. It can grab Karn from Tron or an Expedition Map to keep them off lands. It can grab Nahiri, the Harbinger from Jeskai Control. Liliana of the Veil from Jund, or Dark Confidant. The flexibility for just 1 mana can't be overstated.

Hi. Would Leatherback Baloth be too much green devotion to play in this deck? 3 mana for a 4/5 is hard to pass up.