Historic - Historic: Abzan Vespermalarky

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Combo Jank

This deck has not been tested yet, since I am out of wildcards. The janking will continue however once I am done. Be free to put in some feedback.

Abzan Verspermalarky

Good evening, folks, Shdorsh here from Failure Guaranteed. With the release of Jumpstart: Modern Horizons, we got a bunch of brand new cards. These can be used, of course, in very janky ways, so I decided to make my own take on a new combo right here. Let's see what this is about while I learn to memorize the shards' and wedges' names (Shdorsh, It's Abzan, you moron):

 The combo

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 With the release of the new perpetually mechanics, that change a card for the whole match no matter where it goes (professionals are currently arguing whether this might even include up your butt), most people were crying out that we might become Hearthstone 2.0, while real jankers revelled in the thought. It wouldn't be too long before people started thinking of running this in endless combo decks.

So basically, this deck toys around the idea to give your Vesperlarkimage forever 1 power and -1 toughness with Davriel's Witheringimage, which makes it die as soon as it comes into play. Once Vesperlark has entered the graveyard already, its rules text takes effect, which makes it return a card from your graveyard.

What's that? A Vesperlarkimage that now has less than or equal 1 power? Sure, let's bring it back and see it die right away, as it is a 1/-1! You highly likely see where this loop is going. Now, how do we take advantage of this?

Turning the engine into raw damage

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So, this is it: All we need with this card is another creature or enchantment that deals damage each time a creature of yours dies. Luckily, there's quite a number for this to run well:

  • Cruel Celebrantimage gives an additional 1 life, if you really need it. It  should work pretty well for surviving a tiny bit more, I guess, as it is also a blocker.
  • Bastion of Remembranceimage  is the same in enchantment form, which comes with a free 1/1 that you can use to shield yourself.
  • Blood Artistimage is the same thing, only without the need for white mana and targets a single opponent. This means hexproof will render it non-functional.

Drawing what you need quickly

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Problems with combos usually lie in the game's inconsistency (or variance). You can't get the combo going because you're lacking 1 card and you're left with cards that are pretty bad outside of the context of their synergy. The opponent probably disrupts the combo before it can start while your one card is hiding in your deck and it's over, as you lose too much time: Your lifepoints dwindle and the opponent gets bigger an bigger creatures or fills his hand with counterspells. As such, I have found a bunch of cards that could fit well in here.

Rushed Rebirthimage works nicely to get something that synergizes with your about to be modded Vesperlarkimage card. Just think of applying it before Davriel's Witheringimage, please.

Collected Companyimage also helps putting the whole combo except Davriel's Witheringimage on the board, except it costs 4 and is clunky. I hence decided to exchange it for a Fauna Shamanimage: With 18 creatures, we got enough to sacrifice anyway. I would have loved that Wizards of the Coast put in Eladamri's Callimage in the set, as we are quite starved on creature fetches. Diabolic Intentimage would have been a close second, Altar of Boneimage a third. There's also the stupid idea of putting in a few Season of Growthimage and looping the Vesperlarkimage infinitely until you can see your whole deck and choose a nice spot where you'd like to continue the draw with the scry, but that's... very questionable. I might have to try it for the memes.

I still got 2 Harrowimage in the deck, just to thin it out without losing too much tempo. We don't have many basic lands, but we aren't running tons of land fetches anyway. A little edit here for clarification, these lands do come in untapped, which means that if you got only green mana or you're missing one color, this card pretty much saves the day. Wonderful.

Instrument of the Bardsimage can help if your Vesperlarkimage is hiding below the top 6 cards in your library. Just think of keeping it at 3 counters and not going above that number.

Halp, my combo is in my graveyard!

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No worries, mate, I got you covered. In case Davriel's Witheringimage is the missing piece because you used it as a defense against an opponent's creatures, Mavinda, Students' Advocateimage can help you cast it from your graveyard. So long as you target your own creature, which will be Vesperlarkimage, of course, you can cast it for the same cost. Else, it will cost you a whopping 8 more mana.

In case a creature is missing, Mavinda, Students' Advocateimage can help too so long as you got Rushed Rebirthimage in your graveyard: You put it on your Vesperlarkimage, kill it with Davriel's Witheringimage and instantly search for a Cruel Celebrantimage or Blood Artistimage, finishing the opponent off for 3 mana.

Else I also have a few Call of the Death-Dwellerimage, which lets you put any creature in your graveyard into play since all of them are 3 mana at most. I doubt you'll need the deathtouch and menace, but I guess it can help you out in a pinch. This turns your graveyard into a combo storage, from which you can always finish off your opponent. Come on, tell me I'm genius, baby! I even put in a Malakir Rebirthimage in case you need Mavinda to survive.

Land Base

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We're running 3 colors, so mana screw can always be a thing. Luckily, Indatha Triomeimage lets us cover all our basic needs right away. As it comes in tapped, the pathways do the rest so that we can get what we need as quickly as possible.

Matchups

Since I haven't gotten a lot of feedback, it is hard to tell. There are a couple of cards that might ruin this deck real hard though and it is foreseeable how:

The future of this deck

If Davriel's Witheringimage doesn't get banned outright and this deck lives, it might be able to improve with newer cards, which I already said. Besides, the Minion of the Mightyimage deck is starting to look very reliable now with Scale Upimage on turn 2 kills, so I believe WotC will prioritize pruning there, as this combo here isn't as fast and can be interrupted by a slew of cards, as noted above. I made a variant of Bandit_Mtg's insane deck, which you can find here. Also, Tibalt's Trickeryimage is now even more consistent with the addition of Cascade in Throes of Chaosimage and there are more 3 or more-cost Cascade spells that could be released. People say it is inconsistent, but I've just had a day of 6 different Tibalt decks all popping off correctly, which is just either stupid unlucky or very consistent and not everyone runs counterspells. Anway, here's a quick list of replacements for Vespermalarky I'd take for old cards releasing into Historic:

  • Instrument of the Bardsimage gets replaced by Diabolic Intentimage: Turn 3 (since you need a creature to sacrifice) search anything, including your Davriel's Witheringimage, so you have a way to search instants as well as cards.
  • Fauna Shamanimage gets replaced by Eladamri's Callimage: It is instant speed of an instant vs summoning sickness of a creature. A little bit more specific since it needs white mana as well. Lets you search for a creature card right away without sacrificing a creature or discarding a creature card and spending more mana to do so.

All in all

This looks like a funny deck that could work very well. There are a lot of counters and getting the combo is pretty inconsistent for now, so I don't see any reason why they would ban it, but hey: They banned Brainstormimage for no solid reasons. The fact that Cruel Celebrantimage deals damage past hexproof means that unlike Selesnya Papercuts, this deck here has no probems with Shalai, Voice of Plentyimage and Leyline of Sanctityimage. Valkmira, Protector's Shieldimage will still remove 1 damage, turning your damage output 0, but at least you can get infinite life, which might turn the match into one of the slowest mill fights ever, or just make your opponent concede.

Anyway, that's it for today.I hope you liked this bit of jank combo and as usual, feel free to follow me for more janky decks. Please give me feedback on whether it works, as I am currently extremely short on wildcards for this jank. I want to know how consistent this deck can be, so that I may tune it up a bit for you. I currently have an idea for the Ultimate Delinatm ,which some people like KnightsWhoSayYee (shoutout to you, bro) have already heard about. Sadly, we need a certain card from Kamigawa in the game.

As usual, stay cool stay fresh, and I see you next time, folks! wink

 

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Last Updated: 05 Sep 2021
Created: 27 Aug 2021
534 659 0

Mainboard - 60 cards (19 distinct)

Creature (18)
$1.52
$3.27€2.17
$0.85€0.510.03
$2.75€2.520.02
$0.25€0.180.03
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (20)
$0.47
$1.05
$0.31€0.480.03
$0.80€0.740.03
$5.400.03
Land (22)
$6.13
$0.56€0.170.04
$2.930.81
$3.370.09
$18.45€16.547.02
$0.99€0.600.04
$0.35€0.190.04

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