Donation Decklist – Abzan Depths feat. Deeproot Wayfinder

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Hello and welcome back to the ‘Zenith for another donation decklist run through. This article is going to break down the 3 leagues I took Deeproot Wayfinder through MTGO leagues in an Abzan Depths shell. A big thank you to BobMans for the donation and support!

Like many, BobMans was eager to see newly printed Deeproot Wayfinder in a Legacy shell and felt like Depths was the place to start.

Deeproot Wayfinder pros & cons:

First up, let’s look at the good and the bad when it comes to Deeproot.

Pros

  • 2CMC – Other than Sylvan Library, Loam or GSZ for 1 there aren’t many staple 2 drops in GWx Depths
  • Can replace itself and even provide on-going card advantage
  • Can provide mana ramp and additional usage of utility lands
  • Works well in a deck that utilizes both lands and green creatures (Green Sun’s Zenith)
  • It’s ability doesn’t target, so your opponent has to respond to the trigger before you announce what’s coming back (if you have multiple, different lands in the graveyard)
  • Gives you a way to filter the top of your library (great with Sylvan Library)
  • Draws out removal (leaving less for the main threats in the deck)

Cons

  • Doesn’t replace itself on entry
  • Doesn’t have evasion / needs to connect to trigger
  • Yet another creature within Lightning Bolt range
  • Land enters tapped (Can’t fetch or Wasteland straight away)
  • It’s another creature that relies on the graveyard to provide an advantage

The original list not only had 3 copies of Deeproot Wayfinder, but also included Invasion of Ikora for another package / win condition.

“Second part of the list is splashing black instead of red in the GWx Depths shell with the reason for Invasion of Ikoria and Vampire Hexmage.
To run 2 copies of Ikoria I decided that 3 Green Sun’s Zenith was enough. This was also the reason to go down with Crop to 3.” – BobMans

  invasion

Invasion of Ikoira is one of the first Battle cards to see Legacy play, and although I only had a few matches with it, it felt strong and passed the Legacy power level test.

hexmage

For those unaware, once you tutor for Hexmage with Invasion, you’re then able to remove the counters from the Battle straight away (or when best suits) to essentially give you a Legendary 8/8 with reach for 4 mana.

One thing that came up a few times is how Zilortha interacts with Karakas. As it’s not a token, if you or your opponent Karakas this creature, you get it back in your hand as the front side (Invasion).

This means you can defend Zilortha from an exile effect like Swords to Plowshares, then just recast Invasion (x=2) the following turn and grab the Hexmage from the graveyard!

Some final justifications from BobMans:

 Knight of Autumn

Knight of Autumn:

I don’t like to keep track of Day/Night and I like the lifegain from it – the flexibility of the card is really nice. Having a Zenith-able disenchant effect in the maindeck is a must for me.

sylvansafekeeper

Cutting both Safekeeper and Ramunap:

Perhaps I do not utilize them correctly, but I never get any descend value from either card

Knight of the Reliquary Scavenging Ooze

3 Knight of the Reliquary:

4 simply felt to much and in a Depths shell 3 mana felt like a lot. I have been playing 3 KotR for a while now and I kind of like it.

Scavenging Ooze:

Multiple things here. 1 Endurance main for me just doesn’t do much. Scooze is a continuous threat – It is a bit mana intensive, but a house against most importantly Reanimator, Red Painter and Emry (Emry repeating Aether Spellbomb).

GSZStore

Elephant in the room

Minsc & Boo.  Why would you build a midrange GWx Depths deck that isn’t Naya Depths?!

Well, for fun, to get the creative juices flowing and hopefully show why Abzan might just be another option for those Depths lovers.

“While Minsc & Boo are making it really hard to justify not playing red, I felt I wanted something different this time with the Depths shell.”

I will say as well, although it’s not on the same power level, having access to Grist as a Zenith-able planeswalker / removal piece is a great addition.

“About Naya vs Abzan: Going Abzan was an obvious choice for including Hexmage. I liked this, because I feel that currently Naya Depths is locked too much in the same list with little creativity coming out of the community.

Going Abzan opens up more then I choose to include. Grist and Plague Engineer are obvious choices, but possibly it can also include cards like Dark Confidant (is that better then Deeproot?) and Thoughtseize (which has some benefits over Blasts).

Ultimately I’d like to think about it this way. What cards can give me an edge over the more difficult MU’s? Personally I’m talking about brainstorm decks: URx Delver, Control, Sneak&Show. Blasts are nice, but often not enough, against SnS opponents they’re expected to have a FoW ready for the Blast on SnT right?

What cards in what color are going to give us that edge over those decks? Still some food for thought.”

– BobMans

MTGO League #1

Full match including decktech & timestamps (decklist in the video description)

Well playing against Delver 4 times had its benefits. Although we didn’t get exposed to 5 different strategies in the format, we did pretty well against one of the top decks in the format right now.

Wayfinder was…fine. Overall I enjoyed playing with it for a few reasons:
1. The surveil was a nice addition as typically Sylvan Library is your only way to warp the top of your deck. It obviously also gives you an additional chance to get value off it by bringing back a land (if you don’t already have one in the bin)
2. It helps you make Knights & Reclaimers a) get out of bolt range and b) become real threats quicker
The hard part is it relies on a few things to actually get value.
1. Survive the turn
2. Deal combat damage
3. Have a land in the graveyard (or on top) that you can get back

I think these Depths decks in general have solid Delver matchups if you find the right half of your deck. Swords is a premier removal spell, Mox helps you play around Daze, your creatures are out of Bolt range (most of the time).

If you can control the board and 2 of the following things (how many creatures they have in play, how much mana they have to play with, how big their yard is) you’re going to have a decent time against Delver.

One big note out of this league is how Delver is using Grafdigger’s Cage and Unlicensed Hearse against Depths decks. In sideboard games, without Knight of Autumn we don’t actually have a way to interact with these.

Prismatic Ending is most likely the best way to have removal for these as it’s flexible enough to never be a dead card. I did also feel having additional removal in the 75 would be great, so potentially 1 or 2 Ending in the board would be good moving forward.

Some other small quick thoughts:

  • Casting Hexmage isn’t easy without Mox Diamond – It came up a few times but wasn’t the biggest issue
  • Ooze was…solid? Life gain was relevant and against Delver, reducing their yard was also a big plus
  • Utility lands were great and we didn’t feel the need for anything else (other than Saga




MTGO League #2

Full match including decktech & timestamps (decklist in the video description)

We did it – we moved towards Urza’s Saga.

“If Wayfinder is just bringing back fetches, duals and some random utility lands it isn’t that threatening, but if it’s bringing back additional threats or disruption in a card like Urza’s Saga…that’s a whole new ball game. The added bonus is that you don’t really care if Saga comes in tapped as it’s the future turns where you get the value off of it.” – Douges (yes, I just quoted myself)

From our notes, here’s the reasoning and room I found for it.

2 copies of Saga with a Shadowspear in place of the;
– 2nd Steppe (I feel most players expect the 2nd and therefore sometimes play around it altogether. Saga also gives us access to additional threats / win cons and therefore don’t need to be as protective over a single threat)
– 1 Bayou (I think with the 4 Moxen and the Deeproot we should be fine with the 2 Savannah, 1 Scrub, 1 Bayou, 1 Forest, 1 Plains as fetch targets)

“I agree here with Deeproot wanting more value (ie Saga). Perhaps Saga is also something missing for the Control MU, something I have been really struggling with (Brainstorm decks in general). Shadowspear is interesting here because it gives Deeproot trample (some kind of evasion). Shadowspear on the other hand makes the Reclaimer/KotR combat plan more interesting. I kind of want to further explore this area.

About Ikoria + Hexmage: I found this to be a very interesting angle – It seems to line-up very nice with what the deck wants. On the other hand, it also felt awkward sometimes. Mana wise on hand (one game you weren’t even able to make GG for a couple of turns). Perhaps this card has a better home in something like Slow Depths. In comparison, I felt like Ikoria was fighting over slots of Minsc & Boo. Both cards contribute in some kind of way to the main strategy but are also threats on their own. Minsc draws cards, flings Marit Lage, while Ikoria + hexmage can make Marit Lage or find other utility.

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MTGO League #3

Full match including decktech & timestamps (decklist in the video description)

Overall thoughts on Abzan Depths:

3-2, 4-1 and 4-1 take Abzan Depths to a nice 11-4 finish over the 3 leagues.

Wayfinder was…impressive, but didn’t feel like a vital part of the Depths strategy. It’s only going to be as good as its targets, so moving toward a build with Urza’s Saga makes sense. If you’re only getting back fetchlands or Wastelands against a deck that doesn’t care about them, Wayfinder isn’t really a problem.

However, if you’re getting back something like Saga on top of the Depths plan, it may be a must-answer card as soon as it comes down for your opponent.

Having a card like Shadowspear also makes logical sense in a deck with big creatures that want to get through tokens etc. Lifelink can also cause headaches for other creature decks like Delver.

What about Abzan as a shell? Honestly it felt pretty good. It’s really tough to align it with Naya and say it’s going to be just as competitive, but I feel like both decks have similar strengths (midrange, creature matchups) and weaknesses (fast combo).

A huge thank you to BobMans for reaching out and putting together a donation list. If you’re someone who wants to do the same, check out the support page.

Want to support me for free?

Follow me on YouTube, Twitter & Twitch and join the Zenith Discord!

As always, take care & play fair

Douges




About Douges

Hey! Douges here - Founder of the GreenSunsZenith. I've been playing Magic since 2013 and Legacy since 2014. I'm a Death & Taxes pilot turned Maverick aficionado who created the GreenSunsZenith as a resource for both beginners & experts of the Legacy Maverick archetype. I've been fortunate enough to be a guest on several Eternal & Legacy podcasts including Everyday Eternal, Deep Analysis with Brian Coval & Phil Gallagher, The Canadian Threshold, Archetype Influencers and the Dark Depths Podcast You can reach out to me through my social links below. I stream via Twitch on Thursday nights (7:30pm AEST) & Sunday mornings (10:30am AEST). Please let me know if you don't find anything on the site that you'd like to see. If you'd like to support the GreenSunsZenith, I have a Patreon account you can support the platform through :)

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