So essentially Grafdigger's doesn't address Tarmo or Scooze. But then I run a deck with 3 Abrupt Decay and 3 Path to Exile, therefore neither of those really scare me. Creatures don't generally scare this deck. In fact I have my own goyfs, and scoozes so they're not like my main priorities with graveyard hate because I have my own copies and my own removal. I do understand that RIP is better like 95% of the time, but that 5% when it isn't - you instantly lose the game.

Good point, and I forgot that RIP would hurt you as well, considering you have your own Goyfs and Sc'oozes. And you have Maelstrom Pulse to deal with those. HEY I KNOW! Underworld Cerberus!

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lol nope

just wondering if Murderous Cut or Slaughter Pact are better than Dismember? I understand that Slaughter Pact cannot hit rhino and griselbrand, but what about Murderous Cut? I think the delve is way more optimal than the potential 4 life loss to remove a creature, no? even if it does end up shrinking your goyf a bit

I could see Cut making it in over Dismember yeah.

I think the 1x cut is a better option as well.

the main problem with cut is that you don't want to run too much delve with 4 goyf and 2 tasigur

Yes. Goyf is fine with it Because it counts the opponents GY too. It's actually taz and scooze that worries me.

And I'd say that you want Taz. Taz can withstand a Rhino impact AND get you spells AND fill your yard with stuff, whereas Cut only gets rid of stuff. In the grand scheme of things, Cut is more effective at what it's supposed to be doing (that is, killing creatures), whereas Taz can do more.

Damn. I don't want to be on the receiving end of this deck. Very calculated sideboard. I could learn a thing or two here. +1 for that

Many thanks! A lot of thought did go into designing this deck and I really hope it shows. I'm glad you picked up on it :)

I only started playing anything but kitchen table a few months ago (around when I joined tappedout for that matter). Sideboarding is still new to me, and proving difficult. Hence, I respect a good sideboard.

Pretty good, I'm not really a fan of the price tag on this beast though

4 Tarmogoyfs are absolutely essential to this deck. It's not even close to the same power level without them.

I like this deck a lot and would love to build something like it if I could afford it. But why 1 Dismember over the fourth Path to Exile? It's worse against burn and infect and can't kill a rhino pumped from Noble Hierarch or Gavony Township. Also why 2 Windswept Heath over 2 more Marsh Flats? It would be less painful on your manabase as you want black on turn 1 for discard and double black on turn 3 for lili. Your deck is also black based so getting the right lands in untapped on curve without taking damage is important, especially against aggro. By the way Vault of the Archangel is better here than Gavony Township so you made the right call. It's better in attrition decks without mana dorks because it doubles as removal. Without dorks you can't out gavony the little kid junk decks like Jacob Wilson's at PT Fate Reforged, but you can kill their creatures with deathtouch.

So let me address these questions individually -

• Why dismember instead of 4th path? This is simply because giving your opponent a land is a massive problem. A HUGE problem against certain decks. Decks with low land counts such as aggro archetypes can do a lot with a single land. Control decks can as well. By the time I get to turn 2 or turn 3 I'd rather cast a removal spell that doesn't give the opponent land over one that does. That's it. However, whether Dismember is the right spell is up for debate. I think consensus is that it should go for Murderous Cut.

• Why 2 Windswept Heath over 2 Marsh Flats? I want green on T2 for Abrupt Decay and Tarmogoyf. Therefore I need to run a lot of green sources. If we imagine that I want one green land card in 8 (7 cards in opening hand, 8 cards by T2 after drawing) then 12.5% of my deck should be green to roughly ensure I get a green source when I need one. The answer to that problem is 7.5, or 8. I need 8 green sources to be safe, most of the time. If I want a black source T1 then I need 1 in 7 cards to be a black source. That works out to be 8.5 or 9. If I want two black sources by T3 then I need 2 in 9. This equates to around 13 or 14. I actually have 13 black sources which is a tad under what I calculated, but that is NOT counting Windswept Heath that can actually fetch for Godless Shrine. So in actuality I have 15. I have 11 green sources that can come in untapped on T2.

If I went up to 4 Marsh Flats then I'd probably be able to fetch for a basic Swamp a bit more often. You're correct. But then I'd be -2 green sources. Which would mean I'd probably end up fetching for Temple Garden or Overgrown Tomb on T2 a bit more often. Do you see the knock on effect? I either go a tad heavier on black or on green. Whichever one I don't focus on will end up having to be fetched for using off-colour fetches (like Marsh Flats when I need green) and then shocklands. Either way I'm probably going to end up taking around 4 damage by T3 from my own mana base.

I would mention that this is not a problem and that we don't need to panic! Kitchen Finks, Lingering Souls and Siege Rhino give us a very good matchup against aggro and it's really not a big deal.

I hope I explained that clearly enough

I could go +1, -1 (Marsh Flats, Windswept Heath)

Thanks for clearing that up. Are you going to go to tournaments with this?

So how does this deck usually lose? The only drawback I see is its price tag. I know that's why Abzan is one of the best modern decks, but it has to have some weakness. I know that it can lose if the other deck is simply too fast, but does it ever lose in midrange? I know that's its strongest time, but are there any decks / cards that can beat this deck in a topdecking race at the end?

I run UB midrange-ish for reference. I don't think I have a chance. In playtesting, without sideboarding, I was able to get this deck down to 3 life, but couldn't push through the last 3. I'm also inexperienced at playing this deck which made a difference.

This deck has immunity to everything except counters, but even with counters unless you topdeck them Abzan will just play a Thoughtseize and remove them. It has high power, trample, swarm, and removal from hand, yard, and field. I can't find a weakness to exploit besides speed.

Any tips? I know Sword of Light and Shadow would be amazing but that's just too expensive. Are there any other good sideboard cards in UB that can beat this deck but still have uses against other decks?

TheLitchKing - Yes. I played BG before. The transition to BGW has been quite natural for me.

Figag - Funny you should ask because I've just done a primer that explains what this loses to. Quite simply, this deck loses to quick combos it can't interact with. Things like tron that play Karn Liberated on T3 are difficult because I can't do a lot about planeswalkers. Or things that play Blood Moon really screw up my manabase. A few other matchups that can be tricky are BW tokens (I don't have a lot of trample and my removal is useless against tokens), and occasionally perhaps something like burn (if I fail to draw into lifegain - unlikely). Sometimes Little Kid Junk can be hard due to Voice of Resurgence but I have an effective sideboard to deal with that.

This deck doesn't lose to other midrange decks. This deck rarely loses to control.

Nice button at the bottom chief! xD At least its not a sketchy link like that one guy..

I tried to keep it legit.

For the Vault of the Archangel vs Gavony Township thing:

At the minute, I think I'm with you on this. I generally prefer Township because
- it's better in a board stall IMO (not that Vault is bad in a stall!) and being able to midrange harder is obviously good in grindy matchups
- the permanence of the bonus is not to be understated
- Vault horses trades (albeit favourable ones), while Township can just let you win combats outright
- you already have a fair bit of lifegain (so that part might be irrelevant more often than counters?), and no Bob (I don't think anyone has Bob anymore, but hey)
- it's better with Kitchen Finks, should the -1/-1 counter come up (for what it's worth, in that situation, you can gain a lot of life anyway, but that's fairly marginal)

However you're absolutely right when you say Vault's fantastic for stabilising, and I love Souls + deathtouch, but for me the deal breaker was the burn matchup. Given how well burn performed at the Pro Tour (which will shape the meta, to an extent, until more bannings or the next Modern PT) and how (comparatively) cheap it is as a point of entry to the format, having maindeck lifegain is just so important. I get that you already have Finks, Scooze and the Rhino, but I guess that's a trade-off for the 3-colour fetch-shock mana, plus Thoughtseize, plus the Dismember?

I guess it could go either way, also depending on your local meta, but as things stand I think I do prefer Vault.

Or just play both, which has potential, it just throws off other parts of the manabase.

Thing is, there're a lot of very colour-intensive cards here (particluarly Lily and Rhino), and you also need turn one for discard spells, and as many lands as possible have to produce for Scooze, and still fit in 2 Tec Edge...
It seems a stretch to include both.

The other thing you have to realise is that not only is the deck slowed down by colourless lands but it's also slowed down by lands that come in tapped. At the moment I have 3 colorless lands and 3 that come in tapped - that's 25% of my manabase that's slow. I do need to be careful.