Thought-Knot Seer also has an acceptable rate. Furthermore, I imagine it’s pretty difficult to blunt the aggression of curving Siege Rhino into Reality Smasher.
This Abzan Aggro decks plays a whopping 27 lands to support what is effectively a four-color deck. There’s a lot of upside here to having a high land count, though. KUKEKE is playing eight creature-lands and Sylvan Advocate is a nice payoff for hitting all your land drops.
Spatial Contortion is another incentive for having access to colorless mana. In addition to being a fine removal spell against the likes of Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and Mantis Rider, it can also serve as a pump spell on one of your larger creatures. This can be particularly effective in conjunction with one of the deck’s seven creatures with trample.
Transgress the Mind makes a lot of sense in a deck with Thought-Knot Seer. Reflector Mage is enemy number one for these big bad Eldrazi, and stripping that card before aggressively curving out is of utmost importance. In addition, Transgress is able to hit the majority of the heavy hitters in the format, including Collected Company.
KUKEKE’s sideboard features a lot of top-end like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Wingmate Roc. This ability to increase the curve post-sideboard is another benefit of having a high land count. It even has a little bit of spice with Foul Renewal to pair with all of these five-toughness creatures!
It’s interesting to see the innovation that has come from even the aggressive Abzan spectrum of the format since Oath of the Gatewatch. Abzan Company, Abzan Blue, and now Eldrazi Abzan all appear to be viable routes for casting Siege Rhinos these days.
Who knows what we will see next before the removal of Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged from Standard?
Creatures (22)
- 4 Anafenza, the Foremost
- 4 Siege Rhino
- 2 Den Protector
- 2 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
- 3 Reality Smasher
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 3 Thought-Knot Seer
Lands (27)
Spells (11)
