[Single Card Strategies] The Abyss

[jazzykat]

With almost no Morphling to be found and Nimble Mongoose on the decline I think it may be time to look at some serious recurring creatures removal.

First let's look at the abyss.
Pro's
It's permanent
It gets anything but non targetable and artifact
It can be played pre-emptively (perhaps the best reason)


Cons
It's slow
If it get's nuked it will cost you tempo
It targets
It needs to be out for a turn to do anything (although this is often true for deed)
It will kill your creatures

With decks like Team America and the new gooseless thresh this seems like an awesome weapon.

Since I don't design decks my general thinking is that the reasons it's not played are:

1. It's slow to cast
1.a It's slow to affect the board
2. It takes a turn to work
3. It limits you to man lands and/or morphling
4. You need to kill more than 1 creature NOW (Wrath/Damnation)

I love the card but is it a relic of a bygone era?

[Forbiddian]

Cons
It's slow

3B is way too expensive to cast something that doesn't end the game or completely swing the board. It's way too slow, control can deal with it, combo doesn't care, and I don't even think it'd give Aggro much trouble.

It doesn't really even slow down gobs or other aggro. Against Goblins, it's like a Terror that costs 3B and they get to pick the target! Only after three turns does it really seem decent, but by then Goblins has had 7 turns. The Abyss alone won't win. You need to do something other than The Abyss... and if you can stop them without The Abyss, then why bother playing it? It's called a win more.


Abyss was from an era where Bears with nifty abilities and Savannah Lions constituted a beatdown plan. It was also from an era where it'd get powered out turn 3 off of Mana Drain while you still have mana untapped to sculpt your hand or remove extra creatures.

It's really a good thing for Legacy that the format is too good for old staples like The Abyss. Card advantage is one thing, but people are starting to realize that tempo is at least as important for most games and Abyss offers no tempo and only gives you card advantage very far into the future.

[dahcmai]

I love the card also and still have 4 of them sitting in my commons box collecting dust.

The truth of it is that it is just too slow and the aggro decks you'd want it most against just don't care that much about it.

I can see it being an effective card (if you managed to cast it) against Team America and Eva Green styles just because their threat range is low. They tend to try and run off one creature and disrupt you all to hell in the mean time which again makes it not so hot. Trying to cast a 4 mana enchantment against a deck that packs Thoughtseizes and Dazes seems rough at the very least.

I think it's days are done sadly enough.

[Omega]

Agreed on the "slowness" of the card. Humility costs 4 too and "wins" the game once it hits play. Abyss doesn't do that

[Valtrix]

But humility doesn't "win" the game, really. You need a lot more defense than humility to help you win the game, because humility doesn't save you against an army of 1/1s. Likewise the abyss doesn't stop you against an army in general.

I'm really a fan of cards that I reusable like this, for card advantage, but tempo and flexibility are much more important. I mean, look at force of will. That's straight up card disadvantage, but it's great tempo, and a lot of decks play it. Or take engineered explosives, which while not the fastest gives you a lot more flexiblity and control in removal.

There's just really a large space in legacy for cards that don't have an immediate impact on the gamestate, especially at such a high mana cost. (This is easily a debateble point, although I hope that you understand my meaning on this.)

[Toad]

Part 2 of the article I wrote with Stephen Menendian (should be up tomorrow) features a Blue/Black Stax build using The Abyss as a game ending lock component against Aggro-Control and Aggro. It is a powerful weapon in this deck since every other card is geared towards achieving the same goal The Abyss does. It is actually even decent against Goblins since once you have stopped the first assault and put a few stall cards on the board, they will also have trouble casting 2+ creatures per turn. With Propaganda, Ensnaring Bridge and Maze of Ith, The Abyss will kill a lot of creatures. It is quite an autowin game 1 against Aggro-Control here regardless, and one that does not affect you at all.

[Infinitium]

Abyss is pretty tech in Black Stax in general since most to all decks relying on creatures getting there can't keep up with it once it hits the board. Not getting Dreadnaught is a problem, but Damnation/Seal of Doom solves that to some degree. Dropping it on an empty board effectively locks the game down as well.

[dahcmai]

Nice, tell Steve thanks also for breathing some life into The Abyss. I love the card. I'll be sure to read it.

[hi-val]

http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=21142

This deck, sporting 2 Abyss, took 1st place in a 87 person event. Not too shabby!

[Omega]

Sorry, i did not make myself clear. Obviously, humility doesn't win the game. However, if it hits play, it has immediate impact on the board. Abyss, on the other hand, takes at least 1 turn to have an effect (right? unless i am confusing cards)

Robert

[Adan]

Sorry, i did not make myself clear. Obviously, humility doesn't win the game. However, if it hits play, it has immediate impact on the board. Abyss, on the other hand, takes at least 1 turn to have an effect (right? unless i am confusing cards)

Robert

Not quite, it will at least act like an Edict. You drop it, pass he turn, the opponent has to sac a creature that is targetable and nonartifact.

[rockout]

http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=21142

This deck, sporting 2 Abyss, took 1st place in a 87 person event. Not too shabby!

That deck only has 58 cards. I was thinking the missing cards might be 2 pernicious deed to make it 4 total, but I'm not sure.

[hi-val]

It's 2 lands, if you count up the manabase and spells. At least, I would hope it was two land (specifically, fetches) and that it didn't crutch on 23 lands and a prayer or two.