So I plan on making a full an in-depth primer on this deck after more extensive testing and tweaking, but if you're looking for something hella fun to play for Eternal Weekend and are feeling kinda "meh" about your current deck choice anddddd wanna audible into something super spicy and actually quite powerful. . . HERE. . . IS. . . THE. . . DECK. . . FOR. . . YOU!

I give you:

5-Color Human Stompy

Lands (20):
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Mana Confluence
4 Windswept Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
2 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland

Artifacts (7):
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Chalice of the Void

Enchantments (2):
2 Stony Silence

Creatures (26):
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Deathrite Shaman
2 Dark Confidant
4 Kitesail Freebooter
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
3 Mantis Rider
2 Palace Jailer

Instants (5):
3 Path to Exile
2 Abrupt Decay

Sideboard
4 Containment Priest
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Kataki, War’s Wage
2 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Path to Exile
2 Wasteland
1 Abrupt Decay

Ok, basics to know about this deck:

1. The manabase looks like hot garbage but it works when you realize that the only spell that requires R or U is Mantis Rider. The rest of the deck is Abzan colors.

2. Mantis Rider is worth it. Without Mantis Rider a purely Abzan Approach tends to lack the velocity to finish the job. Think of Mantis Rider as this deck's Reality Smasher or Walking Ballista. It is often the way you deal those final points of damage in critical moments. The impact on the manabase is often negligible and you can have it stuck in hand early as most of your initial plays will be lock pieces or disruption.

3. Kitesail Freebooter is an effective card vs. most all blue but gets sided out vs. shops. This card has a very important role to play vs. combo as it can swipe most everything you care about. It also gives the deck a critical extra turn 1 play off a mox.

4. Kambal is a house vs. anything that isn't shops.

5. The deck has a bit of a transformational board into a mini-Knight of the Reliquary engine for Shops + Ramunap + Kataki. I think, that the way shops is currently configured you need to, if you are a fair creatures deck:

a. Have an answer to turn 1 Inspector (Path in our case)
b. Have a way to mess with the engine (2 Stony in our case)
c. Have some basic lands/fetchlands to protect YOUR early mana cause they could give two shits about wasting a land drop on a waste effect.
d. Have some cards that outclass what they are doing (Mayor in our case primarily but also Mantis to a lesser extent cause of evasion).
e. Attack their life total to make their tombs a problem for them.
f. Attempt to Waste their Shops/Academy to tactically slow them down a bit.

I think this deck employs the right "stew" of all these things and thus I think it has a fairly decent shop matchup.

6. This is an aggro deck with tempo elements. Don't be afraid to be aggressive but also know when you need to sit back and play control (ie going for the hatebear instead of the Mantis even if the Mantis gives you more damage faster).

7. Hands with many lands are pretty decent in some matchups.

8. The deck is a work in progress and is always able to be tweaked but UNDERSTAND WHY YOU ARE TWEAKING IT. I think my list here is a good template for what to do and I'm open to suggestions (ie I've considered cutting the jailers and going up on bobs, or I've considered some mental missteps in the sb), but please keep the discourse civl.

all right, I'm open to feedback and would love to see someone take a deck like this to champs and do well with it as I won't be able to make it this year. If you have any questions feel free to post them here or PM me for a deeper discussion.

Thanks for reading!

-Storm

@stormanimagus

Wow, 102 views and NO comments/replies?

136, currently

@stormanimagus Did you try the list with Unclaimed Territory? I feel like it fits well here. Not the same security as cavern but allows for extra mana fixing. It may be a good addition to the caverns. I know you said the mana is working well, just a thought.

Good old scab-clan berserker is always strong.

Would 1x thorn of amethyst be any good in here?

Or Chalice of the Void.

People seem overoptimistic about a sideboard "plan" or "engine." 2 copies /1 copy (KotR/Ramunap, respectively) of a card, without draw, filter, or tutoring, does not a plan make. (2 copies of x/1 Dark Confidant is not a likely effective draw source against Shops.)

@bazaarofbaghdad said in 5-Color Humans (Now with Fetchlands):

Or Chalice of the Void.

There's a chalice. Its a solid list.

@bazaarofbaghdad My grandpa always said
"2 are better than 0"
What a wise man he was.
I think we all here can agree on the fact that 4 copies are easier to find rather than 2. So, I don't get your point. What are you trying to say? Or maybe you where just suggesting a better idea? Because I can't find it in your post.

@zylvorak Truth in advertising, friend. But also to help out newbies: that if they should play these cards with that sideboard intention, then they should not "plan" around them showing up since the likelihood of them doing so is less than the likelihood of them remaining absent. They're solid support cards, nothing more.

@bazaarofbaghdad

To respond to the comments about some of my numbers of copies of things being questionable let me say this:

2x Bob and not more than that is because it actually ISN'T very good vs. shops (see ballista) and I also don't really want it early game as I'm going to be curving out on lock pieces/aggro-pieces for a while. 2 seemed the right number for maybe seeing 1 copy over the course of a grindy game, but not seeing more than that.

2x Knight for a similar reason. I've found that getting flooded on Knights isn't ideal, but it's a solid weapon to have.

0x Unclaimed Territory - I've tested this card a bunch in a City of Brass Manabase and boy is it god aweful. It doesn't cast anything but Humans and with no uncounterable upside it's doing very little advance my gameplan and opens me up to a lot of hate/awkward draws.

Note that I run 2x Palace Jailer. Those are, ostensibly, my bob #3 and #4.

0x Thorn - I don't like this card in aggressive decks and it's a horrid later game rip which chalice is NOT. I was trying it for a while, but I think Freebooter helps the combo matchup enough with Thalia and Kambal. I don't think we really want/need Thorn.

0x Scab-Clan Berserker - Obviously I used to run this card as a 3-4x but ever since the printing of Kambal I think this card is just totally outclassed by him. If I wanted 7-8 of this effect I'd start dipping into berserker again, but I think Kitesail helps shore up the same match-ups and at 1B instead of 1RR.

Hope this helps answer some questions.

-Storm

I think that 2 or 3 Confidants along with 2 or 3 Palace Jailer is correct (I play 5 total but 4 is fine I think).

@hierarchnoble Meddling Mage seems like a good pseudo-preventive answer to Ballista.

Icatian Javeliners or Fireslinger could be options against Ravager, Revoker, and Balista? Legacy getting 4 probes in thier lists with Boots and Meddling seems sum good.

@serracollector Revoker is kind of irrelevant against Humans. Ravager and Ballista can easily be bigger than 1/1 so no, they aren't answers =/

guys, I've already put this deck on the back-burner for now in favor of a knight humans list with better cards that match-up better vs. the field. I'll come back to you all when I think it is relevant again.

-Storm