Abzan vs. control
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on July 24, 2015, 5:40 a.m. by thewyzman
My abzan control deck almost always either (a) goes to time, or (b) loses outright, against control.
What are my best sideboard options against U/B control which loves to counter and kill everything I cast?
U/W also?
Thoughtseize and Duress are your best cards against them. Gaea's Revenge is like $1 each and pretty good also.
July 24, 2015 6:04 a.m.
Well, you already play these I assume, so i would suggest a playset of Fleecemane Lions for the SB for those matchups - get ridof removal and get in with the Lions and be the beatdown.
July 24, 2015 6:11 a.m.
I don't think Lion is good. Everyone is obsessed with Languish and they've always had Foul-Tongue Invocation.
July 24, 2015 6:14 a.m.
i would use Crux of Fate to destroy all their dragons. also, Celestial Flare.
July 24, 2015 9:13 a.m.
For the most part, Abzan Control is a huge underdog against the blue based control decks, you just have to accept that it's a bad match-up in general. They have better card advantage, fewer dead cards, and Abzan is too slow to get under or later pressure counterspells.
Game 1 - Just hope you draw the right parts of the deck. Aggressively cycle Abzan Charms since you'll generally have plenty of removal stuck in hand when you want to fight over one of their creatures.
Game 2 - Pitch the dead removal spells like Bile Blight for more discard and card advantage - Duress and Read the Bones. Den Protector is a huge help to have since you can just keep buying back discard or draw two cards. It almost doesn't matter what your threats are, just keep sticking 2-for-1s on them. You can actually card advantage them after board and can save your discard to force threats through.
As for managing the clock, this is a match-up you'll want to play at a brisk pace otherwise finishing three games will be rough. A few general notes...
If it's early in the tournament and you're going to draw. You might honestly want to consider conceding instead. You're just going to play more UX control in the draw bracket.
One of the more important aspects about the match-up is managing their Dig Through Times. Sometimes it's correct to run something into a counterspell so that they can't Dig Through Time that turn. Also vice versa, don't just jam spells every turn if they are right below ideal Dig Through Time mana/delve.
July 24, 2015 10:32 a.m.
I think the best way is use hand removal like wish12oz mentioned.
July 24, 2015 10:32 a.m.
gnarlicide says... #9
As a U/B Control player, I would say that I want you to let the game drag out as long as it can. What I have is inevitability, the abzan deck does not.
with that said, a SB with some aggressive creatures and hand disruption would be your best bet. With your hand disruption, you should ALWAYS take the card draw effects from the control player! Always. I have only lost games to shenanigans like that. The same goes for the control mirror. I honestly do everything in my power to counter the draw spells, as that is how UB control and UW will get to their (very few) win cons.
If you go ham on attacking and steal my draw spells, then I cannot stabilize in enough time to do the important things. think about this, I have 27 lands. Hardly any kill spells that cost less than 3, counters that cost 3 (the revenant ones against aggressive game plans), and around (on a good day) 5 ways to win the game post board. Pre board I have about 3 at most (Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Ugin and PLA)
July 24, 2015 3:10 p.m.
Man, I got whooped 0-4 in games last night by Monogreen Devotion AND UB Control... again! Here's my deck:
It's not pronounced Obzon Playtest
Standard
SCORE: 1 | 16 COMMENTS | 589 VIEWS
(I held back a list in the OP because we weren't allowed to post decklists outside the Deck Help forum, lest we be smited by Epoc).
Despite the unrelenting mana screwing on ALL FOUR games (WTF mana gods!), I just didn't have a chance. The games against MGD were clear and swift blowouts. It got a bit grindy against UB control, but Ashiok took half my rhinos while working in combination with Monastery Siege+Sphinx's Tutelage to whittle my library down to 0.
I'm just about fed up with Abzantrol at this point. I don't know how I can possibly deal with these decks. I boarded in End Hostilities against MGD but never even got to play it.
I wanted to use Foul-Tongue Invocation against Silumgar, the Drifting Death, but Ashiok made sure he had stolen other creatures as protection against it, not to mention the counterspells...
July 25, 2015 11:27 a.m.
Your list looks nothing like the ones I usually see. On Monday when the new lists go up for the starcity open, I suggest copying one of those that does well and trying that list, without making any changes. Things like Thoughtseize being the sideboard instead of main are just.... weird.
I also suggest looking at youtube for videos of pro's playing the deck and watching them, that can help a lot. I know channelfireball uploaded a set of videos of Reid Duke playing the deck not long ago.
July 25, 2015 4:48 p.m.
I took the thoughtseizes out and I play drowns mainboard because of how agro-heavy my own meta is. I've looked at quite a few decklists, and have even copied them, with little success, so it's probably just me. The duresses are because the other half of my meta is control, and removal spells pretty much own abzan control deck thus far.
Right now, the power deck to beat at my LGS is pretty much Green Elves, which would suffer against a couple drowns... but I have yet to play against it. I can't get past these damn Monogreen decks!
Boza says... #2
A link to the deck will be good. Is U/W control a thing?
July 24, 2015 5:48 a.m.