Yep. Completely agree.

Finally, you have to take into the consideration that Kitchen Finks is a lot harder to permanently remove than other cards. Because of the persist, I'll generally discard finks over a goyf or a scooze because it'll take 2 removal spells to kill it.

I need to test, test, test. Both cards have merits.

Being less Blood Moon-able is also nice.

I enjoy testing this deck a lot. Wish I had the resources to make it. Great job with it!

I'm very surprised at just how well Auriok Champion does against Abzan ... I gained nearly 30 life from it in one match!

Worth noting, if the various Collected Company decks continue to pick up steam then not having a maindeck target for Reclamation Sage is relevant. That's a slight (very slight) strike against courser.

I'm agreeing with the Courser of Kruphix choice so far. It has been quite useful in holding off 2/2's and 3/3's at bay. However it doesn't really give more life than a Kitchen Finks can before it has to block and die or get removed, but I think the card advantage of drawing one or two cards is good enough for it.

I think the best card this deck has going for it is Vault of the Archangel. It can turn a game of two Mirran Crusaders into nothing by alternatively swinging for more and gaining more life. I'm so glad I have Mangara of Corondor ...

I don't think the Melira Company decks will go anywhere for a while tooTimid. It's a bit too easy to disrupt and doesn't have much of an early game play, which is bad considering over 30% of the meta is aggro or combo based decks and the rest have disruption galore.

TheAlexGnan - Grixis delver pretty much is T1. It's a good deck. Delver never really goes away. Against Delver Courser is better because it can block the red threats like Monastery Swiftspear whereas Finks can't. Well, it can like twice, whereas Courser can forever.

tooTimid - That is actually a legit downside. I don't see CCompany becoming huge but I don't see it going away completely.

Femme_Fatale - I can trace the history of this deck back in various important choices. The first was swapping Dark Confidant for Taz and some other spells. The second was swapping Gavony Township for Vault of the Archangel. The third was swapping Finks for Courser. It's essentially become far, far more grindy over time.

Collected Company fits in a lot more shells than just Melira combo, which is actually replaced by Anafenza combo. Elves, Zoo, and anything else running a lot of low cost creatures (which mind you is a lot of modern) can benefit greatly from CC.

I am referring to CCompany as a combo deck. I do not think we will start seeing tier 1/1.5 elves, or zoo. Though the combo version of company is hovering around the edges.

I would like to point out though Collected Company while a strong card relies on your deck built for it. So you have two major options for that. GW aggro/ hatebears or you can go a more midrange style of tri color decks with collected at the top of the curve... Though I think most people will go the GW hatebears/ aggro route. What's your thoughts on that ChiefBell ?

CC is in my opinion best in a more meta-hate-bears build since it functions like a form of Dig Through Time. Tie it in with Eternal Witness and you've got yourself some repeatable recursion that can dig 6-18 cards in your deck from one card.

Funny thing though, I had fun beating this deck's face in with 4 Mirran Crusaders on turn 5 XD

At the moment I have been seeing hate bears use collected company as a search tool, and collected company used in podless pod decks.

Edit: may have fixed a typo....

Poodles pod!

I'm so calling fluffybunnypants for this one XD

ChiefBell - Have you tested Dromoka's Command before? I know when I talked to you last you said it was fine, but just worse than other options. Does this remain true? I think it's better in a build with finks, as it can reset persist, but as the resident Abzan expert I'd appreciate your opinion. I've been pretty impressed by it as a one of.

I hated it at first, then I thought it was passable shortly after. Now I think it's legitimately playable BUT I wouldn't take anything out for it right now.

I wouldn't replace removal because it only functions as removal if you have another creature down - that's kind of iffy and I don't feel comfortable relying on that. I wouldn't replace creatures for it because it relies on them, and the ones I have right now are essential. You /could/ cut a taz, a scooze, or both courser's. I like the high creature count in this meta though - against Jund, for example, it's important. That leaves souls, seize, or kozilek. I'm not sure it's better than any of them except souls.

Would I cut a souls for a command? Hmm. It would help against burn but hinder me against creature based aggression. I'm unsure.

If you were to replace anything it would have to be souls.

I think where it would really hurt you is Remand and control decks. That's when it's really at its worst. Luckily, control is non-existent and your matchup against the only Remand deck in the format (delver) is already pretty good. Souls isn't very good against Remand either.

On the other hand, it's very good against burn and good and creature based aggro decks. I'm curious as to why you think it isn't very good against creature based aggro? Or did you just mean that souls is better? Command is very strong against creature based aggro because they are the decks with the least interaction, so you're most likely to have a creature. These are also the matchups where you're most interested in blocking, so the +1/1 counter can be very relevant. In matchups where killing an enchantment is something that matters it's just insane.

That's my thought process. Please excuse my poor articulation/grammar. I'm not a very good writer. :P

It (command) is only good against creature based aggro if I manage to secure early board presence. I have to play a creature first and then this afterwards for the removal to do anything. If I have the time to do that then I'm ahead in the game already. Creature aggro against this deck (to me) is a matchup where I play control. T1 discard or nothing, T2 removal, T3 removal, T4 goyf and removal OR rhino etc. I hurdle with this deck a lot in the current meta. I really do. Command is a card that wants you to be proactive because 2 of its modes depend on you having stuff on the board. I am a person that prioritises removal first and presence second. That's just my style, and it's a style that command does not reward fully.

Also souls is just better against creature based aggro anyway because 4 chump blockers.

My favourite line of play, honestly is

Abrupt Decay into Liliana of the Veil into Tarmogoyf and another removal spell. That's how I like to play.

Edit: I've just suddenly though. All this talk of control being dead at the moment. Don't need Thrun in the sideboard any longer.

Is thrun not good in the mirror? Or vs Jund?

4 toughness - dies to huntmaster, rhino, taz. Sigarda wins the mirror.

Edit: Her and Fulminator Mage. Strip their lands. Play an unremovable threat that's larger than theirs. Try to give it lifelink with Vault of the Archangel. Shake hands.

Varmy - I think it gets easily outclassed by Goyf, Tasigur, and Rhino. I think it's fine, but Sigarda is just better. Thrun is better against pure control decks.

Chief - That makes total sense. Play style is a reasonable concern, and you're 100% correct that it fits a proactive gameplan better. That's part of the reason I feel it's better in a build with Kitchen Finks.