Hi All. I thought I'd post the current deckles I've been trying out, which I think utilises Abrade quite well in the current meta.
The simple reason why I went with <Red> as opposed with the more traditional <White> is:
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Dack who aside from being great against shops and of course colossus, allows me to filter through specific inconsequential cards in any given match up (i.e. REB's, Mindbreak Traps, Null Rods etc.). I tend to find that since the meta is so polarised between Brown and Blue that main deck answers are required for both but obviously in different instances,
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Abrade, which one would assume falls into the above mentioned category of situational, similarly to what Stephen Menedian suggested in his podcast, is actually almost always a great draw. It has replaced By Force in the main, which perennially felt quite clunky. The mentor sequence usually involves waiting til your turn to Abrade, ideally with one or no mana open on the other side. Since mentor lists play few instants that interact with a creature-less decks (swords) they are left with Ancestral, Brainstorm and Dig as their main pumps for Mentor as response (assuming FOW is the other card). Usually that feels like an ok play since one of the above cards must be played prior to FOW.
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A lack of a 'pure' removal that white offers is somewhat neutralised by Dismember, however fatties aren't the easiest to deal with.
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The main drawback of course is the much less versatile
The Decklist is as follows:
Maindeck: 60
1 Black Lotus
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Null Rod
1 Consecrated Sphinx
4 Standstill
3 Abrade
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Dig Through Time
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Pyroblast
2 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Strip Mine
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
2 Dack Fayden
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise
SB:
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Sulfur Elemental
2 Dismember
Any comments or suggestions are MORE than welcome, as this deck is very much a moving feast at this point in time.
All the best, NBA84