Revised Abzan Rally Sideboard

Standard Deck Help forum

Posted on Aug. 7, 2015, 2:21 a.m. by UpperDeckerTaco

So I want to see what people think before I run this at FNM. We all know Abzan Rally mainboard is solid. But as for the sideboard, I have implemented my own changes. I was wondering what everyone thought. Instead of posting the decklist here, I figured I'd just post the sideboard. Suggestions would be helpful. I will put my "2 cents" in on my changes.

3x Anafenza, the Foremost

3x Arashin Cleric

2x Brain Maggot

2x Dromoka's Command

2x Hero's Downfall

2x Minister of Pain

1x Reclamation Sage

My changes are instead of 2 Drown in Sorrow, I'm running 2 Minister of Pain because it can be hit off of CoCo and Rally. Plus the Exploit can trigger Grim Haruspex and Liliana, Heretical Healer  Flip as well. It also can deal with those Thopter tokens that make it harder to attack through with intimidate VS U/W Thopter control and others like that. And it just annihilates Mono Red.

The other change I made is instead of 1 Fleshbag Marauder and 1 Murderous Cut I put in 2 Brain Maggot in their place. The Maggot is helpful hitting off of CoCo and Rally, which can make for an instant speed "discard" spell which is nice when I'm comboing off, or at the very least, it gets a card and gives me information. This is especially helpful playing against control.

What does everyone think?

Ajex says... #2

Minister is bad because the current mono-red deck runs few 1 toughness creatures.

August 7, 2015 10:01 a.m.

Ajex but I won't get beat by a Goblin Rabblemaster alone, I'll get beat by the tokens it brings with. I won't get beat by a Zurgo Bellstriker. I won't get beat by a Goblin Piledriver, I'll get beat by the small goblins and tokens on the board. I won't get beat by a single Monastery Swiftspear. Lightning Beserker isn't scary. Goblin Heelcutter won't beat me because I'll be pumping out threats that can block even if he has a target. Foundry Street Denizen is a joke against this deck. The only thing I could get possibly beat by is a ton of burn spells and a lot of goblin tokens.

August 7, 2015 3:06 p.m.

Ajex says... #4

Atarka red is no longer the rdw deck of choice. By analyzing Joel's deck, minister kills most of the creatures. However, that doesn't make minister good. Zurgos and swiftspears going unchecked is a huge beating. Not only would minister be bad in that scenario, but the pro-tour winning decklist is not how all red decks look. Most red decks don't play firedrinkers, due to the anticipation that they will play a lot of mirrors. If you look at the other two red decks which "current" mono red lists closer resemble, they have no more than 7 creatures than minister actually kills. Mono red is easily one of your worst matchups, so you can't skimp on sideboard hate if you expect to have a winnable matchup.

August 7, 2015 5:17 p.m.

Ajex Played against U/W Thopter control, 2 different mono red decks, and a off the wall Sphinx's Tutelage deck. For the U/W and mono red decks, Minister of Pain put in some serious work. I was also able to play him, sac himself, bring him back via liliana, and sac him again to neg their whole board -2/-2. I would say it performed well.

August 8, 2015 5:05 a.m.

SirFowler says... #6

Why wouldn't you run Virulent Plague against token decks? It's a lot better since it's a permanent wipe for tokens. Sure it can't be hit by CoCo/Rally, but in the end game, it could be more useful.

August 8, 2015 9:39 a.m.

This discussion has been closed