EDIT: Maro has confirmed the rest of the Pathway lands will be in Kaldheim so hopefully we get more spells and efficient threats within our colors, come next set.
With the loss of the shock lands the mana base for our deck will be severely diminished so probably will wait for now in continuing this deck once the other half of the cycle is released. So this portion will strictly be discussion only. Maybe I can create an Abzan variant for theory crafting once the whole set is revealed. Anyway, here are my thoughts.
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Bloodchief's Thirst - Been asking for a Fatal Push like card for some time, and it will be coming soon. But in a standard without fetchlands, it won't be as effective. Enter this bad boy. For one mana it can kill small threats early game, not to mention Plansewalkers (take that W6 and Tibalt), and can be useful even in the late game to kick and kill all manners of creatures and Plansewalkers. Good vs Aggro decks and slower Midrange/Plansewalker-control decks.
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Nissa of Shadowed Boughs - I. Love. This. Card. Joining the Golgari roster, Nissa plays the role almost similar to her Kaladesh counterpart both as a threat, being able to +1 for a 3/3 menace land to go through blockers and pressure opposing walkers. She also serves as a virtual 5-drop in order to activate her ultimate in the same turn and revive a 5 drop from your graveyard. Either that or have has as a virtual 5-drop and put her into 6 loyalty with landfall, keeping her away from taking too much damage.
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Nighthawk Scavenger - This is a strange one. On one hand it pretty much is a Tarmogoyfish card (albeit your opponent's graveyard) and in the other Escape is a current mechanic. Not to mention some graveyard hate. At worst this is a 1/3 or 2/3 flying, lifelink, and deathtouch that can trade with anything, which is not bad at all. The 3 toughness makes it relatively hard to kill and trades very well and scales well into the late game. If this boy can be often a 3/3 then we have a solid beater here. Daddy be proud to see little Vampire Nighthawk all grown up.
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Soul Shatter - Sexy. Sexy art and sexy effect. Being a big fan of card: Into the Slaughter, having a card that gets around hexproof and indestructible effects are always a welcome inclusion. Not only that but it nullifies the innate drawback by making the opponent sacrifice their best card in terms of CMC. Yeah it may not hit large tokens such as those made by Ominous Seas or Shark Typhoon, per say, but with the right tools it will force our opponents to choose the best of what they have, leaving us to deal with the other easily as we have the means to do so.
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Roiling Vortex - And where were YOU when Fires of Invention was legal?! I love it when our colors gets tools that help us play F A I R magic again. For a low investment of two mana, it severely punishes decks that intent to cheat out mana costs in casting such as the mentioned Fires, Bolas's Citadel, Dreadhorde Arcanist, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Emergent Ultimatum, etc. and it even has a small upside of being a clock that slowly burns our our opponent. As icing on the cake, with one Red mana, it shuts down lifegain so even works vs Soul Sisters. Guaranteed will have a place in the sideboard.
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Cleansing Wildfire - I do not need to explain this card. 100% sideboard playable in multiple formats even. Moving on.
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Inscription of Ruin - This one is hard to evaluate. It reminds me of maybe a weaker Kolaghan's Command, one of the cards I love to play with and saw a good amount of play. On the surface it seems very slow and expensive, especially its kicker cost. Though what I want to look and focus at is its modality. At best without kicker it's a Mind Rot, which isn't too bad. Its other abilities would be considered overcosted, with the second ability being a more expensive (and weaker) Unearth and the last being an Eliminate than only hits creatures. The abilities helps us in the Control and Aggro matchups at least to it's never really a dead card. Worth a try but I do not see myself playing more than a single copy in play testing and even in final brewing.
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Feed the Swarm - So Black's getting targeted enchantment removal, eh? Now that I see it...wow. Just wow. To be honest I was expecting much more of a downside but there really isn't, if you think about it. Slapping the word "instant" would just make this a Smash Mouth. It's unconditional creature removal at 2 mana and enchantment removal, which can be relevant in some instances (Doom Foretold). I see and hear people comparing this to Pharika's Libation, due to it being instant-speed. But a simple argument that would solidify it's playability is that 2 mana is more resource efficient than 3 mana.
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Magmatic Channeler - For the longest time all i wanted was an efficient threat in the 2-drop slot in order to establish dominance and efficiency early and into the mid-late game. I keep on clamoring for a Tarmogoyf or a Grim Flayer (since I also love grimmy boy). While I was walking down the sidewalk back to my house and refreshed reddit, lo and behold. With the way the deck is built, and with the addition of MDFCs not gumming up the mainboard slot, we can easily fulfill the "Spell Mastery" requirement to reward us a 4/4 worth of stats constantly with each new body dropped since four or more instants and/or sorcery cards in the yard is not too difficult to reach. Not only the body, it has built in card selection to sift through the top cards of our day and play them, even a land drop. Having a combination of form and function pushes this card over the top and really makes it stand out among the rest.
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Hagra Mauling
Flip - I gotta say this is one of the best cards that we can have for our deck. Yeah it may just be a horrible Murder but one important thing to take note: It. Is. A. Land. It being land first, spell second helps mitigate this card's case of it being bad. If you need a land drop for the turn, no problem. If you can curve into a needed removal spell, no problem. It does not even cost you a card slot in the deck, technically. A free spell in a deck full of spells is very powerful.
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Shadows' Verdict - The implications of this card in current (and upcoming) standard is up there, exiling both the field and the graveyard with a specific target in mind that rhymes with "You Know". This is more of a control card, I'd say with the particularly high mana cost of 5 and with it hitting our creatures in the graveyard completely negating Liliana, Waker of the Dead and Nissa of Shadowed Boughs but I just want to point out it's existence. As of now Extinction Event will be our go to until we have something coming from the new 2021 sets.
