Why, Wizards?
Why did you have to make one of the two creature-lands from Battle for Zendikar playable in Abzan? I play this stupid Abzan deck because I like
winning, but it doesn’t mean I like the deck. Abzan Aggro has been an unbelievable deck for me in this past month, and I’m grateful that not too many
people played it so I could smash them and win things. Mostly it was just QPs on Magic Online and a Mox Sapphire, but it still felt great. I was super
excited to get to work on post-rotation Standard, when all of a sudden, I realized the best thing I could still be doing is play Abzan Aggro.
Really, Wizards?
I hate this card! I hate it so much because I don’t understand why it exists. That might be the most ignorant reason to dislike something, but it’s true.
Why did Battle for Zendikar only have two creature-lands? Why didn’t they pair Lumbering Falls with “Boros finally has a chance to win land”? Why
did they give a deck that already has everything it needs to succeed yet another reason to play it?
Of course I’m wrong. Battle for Zendikar has the Battle lands, which are going to revolutionize how we build decks. Three-color decks are
invalidated because there is no reason to not easily splash the fourth or even the fifth one. Why play Flooded Strand in your Jeskai deck when you can play
Windswept Heath to be able to play Smoldering Marsh and not be able to fetch basic Island when you are under pressure in the early turns? You didn’t need
to cast that Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy on time anyway!
If you have already commented about how Windswept Heath doesn’t fetch for Smoldering Marsh, you are part of the problem. Read the whole article!
Every decklist I see on the internet is playing off color Battle lands in their two- or three-color decks and 8-15 fetchlands to accommodate their four
color decks. This isn’t feasible in real life scenarios, such as situations where you have someone breathing across from you! These decks might look cool
on paper, but the only artistic builds I’m buying come from Danny West.
Now I understand the philosophy of trying everything being more valuable than trying nothing. It’s important to put the hard work in on the abstract ideas
before just conceding to our rhino overlords. I’m not trying to invalidate everyone’s hard work, I just personally love drinking the kool-aid and find
playing the most powerful deck to be the best decision. This wasn’t the case years ago. I loved playing the weird and quirky strategies, and I didn’t even
do poorly with them. I just didn’t do the best. It wasn’t until the last couple years that I strived to find the best deck no matter what it was and learn
it the best that I could. I learned this from Reid Duke when he smashed me in GP Miami playing Jund while I was playing Aristocrats. I was on figurative
fire that weekend until Reid literally doused me in flames. Since then, I have
been trying to only play the best decks, and unsurprisingly, my win percentage has gone up. That’s why today I’m going to convince you to play Abzan Aggro.
So why wouldn’t one want to play Abzan Aggro? Maybe the loss of Fleecemane Lion is too much for the deck to overcome? It possibly can’t survive without its
trusty Temples? Maybe it’s all in your head and Abzan Aggro is still the best deck thanks to how many powerful cards the deck gets to play. I’m going to go
with that one.
Before we go any further, I want to say that whatever happens at #SCGINDY in two weeks, this is what I 100% believe right now. I believe that this Abzan
list is the best thing out there because no one has beaten me with anything while playing it. I have spent hours crushing Michael Majors over and over
again with this deck while he scours for something good. I will most likely be playing this deck at #SCGINDY, but don’t cry for my head on a stake if Gerry
or Michael convince me to play something else.
Creatures (19)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (21)
Spells (16)
Alright, so this isn’t as stock as I made it out to be. For starters, this is base white, where most other Abzan decks have been base black and/or green.
Courser of Kruphix, Hero’s Downfall, and Languish have forced the older versions of the deck down a path to only need white double white for Elspeth, Sun’s
Champion too far down the line for a dedicated manabase. Things have changed since the days of Theros, and while Hero’s Downfall was a very
necessary card in this archetype, those shoes won’t be filled by Ruinous Path anytime soon.
The mana has also changed for Abzan. Temples left a hole in the archetype’s manabase that would mean the deck would have to adapt to survive. To
successfully play Ruinous Path, one would have to sacrifice many things that make Abzan Control great. For starters, the deck would have to lower its curve
to play enough threats to not lose tempo for sorcery speed answers. Reacting isn’t the worst place to be when playing old school Abzan, but that was due to
all of its one-for-one answers being instant speed. That is changing with Battle for Zendikar Standard since most of the efficient removal is
either situational or sorcery speed.
The aggressive style Abzan decks that one would have to build to accommodate Ruinous Path have terrible mana. Sure they look similar to mine, but they are
forced to take pain off of the painlands much more frequently than this deck due to tempo considerations. They also play Rakshasa Deathdealer and Anafenza,
the Foremost which aren’t even that good. Anafenza, the Foremost is defensible and has been played in this list to good results, but Rakshasa Deadealer is
laughably bad right now thanks to Hangarback Walker.
Knight of the White Orchid is the sleeper of the format. I haven’t seen many decks playing this card, but they should because it’s amazing! It might not
look like the best two-drop on the play since it’s just a 2/2 first striking creature, but that’s not as bad as one would think. Sylvan Caryatid, Courser
of Kruphix, and Fleecemane Lion are all gone. That doesn’t leave many creatures to stand in its way in the early turns. Now think about this little guy on
the draw?
Triggering Knight of the White Orchid feels like cheating. Every time I do this in testing, my opponent feels like they can’t ever win. That’s because
Abzan decks are all about surviving the early turns to gain a significant advantage in the lategame. This card helps speed that process up, and I can’t
actually think of a single game I have lost when I played this card on turn 3 on the draw. What makes it so special is playing cheap removal spells and
lots of four- and five-mana threats. Ignoring three-drops is what you have to do to make not only the Knight of the White Orchids function but also the
manabase. Not playing many three-drops helps out with playing the lands that enter the battlefield tapped.
Now it’s time to talk about the elephant(s) in the room. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Wingmate Roc are the new kids on the block in Standard, which is
exactly why Ruinous Path along with controlling Abzan is bad. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar almost always allows for the raid to trigger on Wingmate Roc. Only
other aggressive strategies backed by Dromoka’s Command have a chance to clean up the board before the turn passes back. Those games can be tough but
outside of that, this combo is extremely deathly and often results in runaway games.
This two card combo forces an opponent to start playing reactive Magic immediately if they don’t have a significant board presence and is the reason why
I’m playing Reave Soul in the maindeck. You want to keep the board as clean as possible before Gideon, Ally of Zendikar comes down. That way, you never
have to worry about them killing the powerful planeswalker and the token in the same turn. If their board position isn’t active, they can’t cast more
creatures or only deal with the token or the Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. They have to deal with both, which is why this combo is super powerful.
What if they don’t deal with either and want to Languish the board away? Gideon, Ally of Zendikar solves that with his emblem by boosting the bird’s power
and toughness just enough to survive the -4/-4 effect. This combo forces them to have it every time and only costs you the slots for win conditions. It’s
not even that bad of an exchange since these are the best things you can be doing in Abzan right now.
I’ve seen both Patrick Chapin and Shaun McLaren adding Reave Soul into their Abzan lists as one-ofs, which makes me not only proud to be on the card but
also impressed they found it as well since I have been playtesting extensively with the set this past week. Reave Soul began as a card that I wasn’t happy
to have to play, but soon became a card I was excited to cast. Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and Mantis Rider are must kill threats that rarely die in the early
turns. Reave Soul is the only card this deck can play that kills them both unconditionally besides Dromoka’s Command. It also keeps opposing Den Protectors
from safely being morphed on turn 3 without potential punishment. I’ve been more and more impressed with this card and will not be shocked when we start
seeing it being played in every Abzan deck moving forward.
The sideboard could still use some work, but from what I have seen so far, this is the way I want to build it. Control decks don’t seem to be as powerful
as they once were, and Abzan mirrors aren’t as difficult thanks to Elspeth, Sun’s Champion hitting the bin. I’ve tried many strategies at trying to break
serve against Gideon, Ally of Zendikar + Wingmate Roc, but the best I’ve found so far is to be as aggressive as possible to try to beat them at their own
game. Being too reactive has cost me more percentage points than just keeping in all the aggressive elements. Knight of the White Orchid has helped
significantly with not falling behind against Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, but it is difficult to win when they follow it up with Wingmate Roc. There’s a
reason why it’s the best thing to be doing after all!
The only other deck that I’m interested in working on revolves around playing Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy alongside Languish and Ruinous Path. I haven’t found a
list worthy of showing off, but I do think these are the best cards at attacking Abzan along with the rest of the field. Counters haven’t been that good to
me, which makes me think that Sultai might be potentially playable since Esper Dragons shouldn’t be good enough to prey on a strategy like this. This
strategy also gets to play a creature-land which is nice. I’ll be posting more decks next week as the information rolls in, but I implore you to try my
version of Abzan Aggro before moving onto other things. It’s consistent, powerful, and flexible.
It also plays Siege Rhino.
Before I go, I wanted to take some time to talk about this weekend’s Prerelease. For many of you, this is a quarterly event that is as common as the
holidays you celebrate. You go in hoping to open, win, and trade for all of the cards you find appealing from the new set. You have your friends you know,
the table you prefer to sit at, and a warm feeling in your heart when you enter the room. This isn’t the case for everyone. For some, this might be the
very first tournament they have ever played in and their first taste of competitive Magic. Instead of playing at their comfy kitchen table, they bravely
embarked into the unknown and entered their very first Magic tournament.
It’s our job to welcome these players with open arms. To help them with their Sealed pools even if they ran hotter than the sun to beat us when we drew
poorly and the new Vancouver Mulligan rule messed up our one land keep. One loss isn’t worth ruining one’s experience. It’s our job to make them understand
just how important this game is to us. Don’t hold accomplishments over their head as if they should be ashamed to have none. Don’t act like being a part of
this community longer is worthy of recognition. We have all been in their shoes at one time and continued playing this game because of the connections we
made throughout the years. Those positive experiences have kept us coming back each and every time. Remember that when you meet new people this weekend.
You can either be an ambassador of the game or a hate-monger. Your choice.