Last weekend, I journeyed out to Cleveland, Ohio for the Open Series. After taking the previous weekend off of Magic, it felt good to get back into the
swing of things. The last few months I have started to feel burnt out a bit on Magic, but right now the fire is burning as hot as ever. I actually really
love playing Standard right now, and I’m really enjoying the testing I’m putting in and the thrill of traveling to events.
I spent the week leading up to Cleveland testing with Abzan Aggro. Esper Dragons ruled the roost, and I wanted a build that was effective at beating that
deck. I turned to cards like Thoughtseize and Whisperwood Elemental with Mastery of the Unseen in the sideboard as a method to beat Esper Dragons.
Turns out, it wasn’t a very good method. I went a whopping 1-5 against control decks in the event, and 8-1 against the rest of the field. Oddly enough,
Whisperwood Elemental was very strong against every non-control deck I played against, and very mediocre against my control opponents. It was basically the
exact opposite of what I expected. Mastery was good, but Perilous Vault was out in force, and sometimes you draw a Mastery on turn 6 and can’t race the
Ojutai that’s clocking you.
The good news is that there is always another tournament and another chance to correct and learn from mistakes. This upcoming weekend is another Standard
event: a Grand Prix in Toronto. I’ve spent this entire week testing updates to Abzan Aggro, and I feel like I have a much stronger build and a much
stronger grasp on what makes the deck good against the field now than I did then.
To start with, let’s take a look at the deck itself.
Creatures (20)
- 4 Fleecemane Lion
- 4 Anafenza, the Foremost
- 2 Wingmate Roc
- 4 Rakshasa Deathdealer
- 4 Siege Rhino
- 2 Warden of the First Tree
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (12)
Sideboard
My maindeck is a lot leaner than it was last weekend. Gone are the Whisperwood Elementals that would often clog up the hand, and now we have access to
threats like Warden of the First Tree to help us get on the board earlier in the game.
I’ve also gone back to playing a few copies of Wingmate Roc. I don’t want more than two, as it is very easy to flood on this kind of expensive effect, but
having access to this card gives the deck a lot of game against the various Den Protector + Deathmist Raptor shells that are so good at locking up the
ground and making it impossible to attack.
Another change I’ve made is a move to a full four copies of Abzan Charm. Abzan Charm is a great divination effect against Esper Dragons that can also
double as a way to remove Dragonlord Silumgar, and occasionally Dragonlord Ojutai when they attack. It’s very versatile and powerful in that matchup.
Additionally, it’s a phenomenal answer to Deathmist Raptor. Being able to exile Deathmist Raptor with both Anafenza + a normal removal spell or trade in
combat or by Abzan Charm-ing it is a great way to give us the ability to slog through that card.
This build is going to leave us weaker to Stormbreath Dragon, but that card is on the decline in terms of popularity, and it’s often possible to beat it
without even killing it by simply racing it with cheap, powerful threats, or by gaining so much life with Sorin that they can’t compete.
Where things get interesting for the deck is the sideboard. I’ve built the sideboard with the purpose of maximizing Den Protector. Den Protector is going
to come in against any decks that are aiming to win by grinding us out. Various Abzan decks, including the mirror, and Esper Dragons are prime examples of
these kinds of decks.
Den Protector provides us with a solid body and a nice effect to really hammer things home against those decks. Basically, we want to take the most
efficient and powerful cards in those matchups and use Den Protector to get as many uses out of them as possible. In the mirror, that means we are going to
be playing a bunch of Self-Inflicted Wounds and using Den Protector to rebuy them so we can fire them off over and over again.
Against a deck like Esper Dragons, we are going to overload on Thoughtseize and Duress and utilize Den Protector as a way to get more uses out of those
cards. It’s also conceivable in some matchups to rely on Ultimate Price and Den Protector to provide a lot of Doom Blades, but generally speaking, that
interaction can be too slow against decks where Ultimate Price is good.
All things told, I really like this build a lot. It’s efficient. It has the best answers in the format in terms of cards like Thoughtseize, Dromoka’s
Command, and Abzan Charm. It gets plenty of free wins by just curving out Lion into Witch into Wardrobe. Even just Fleecemane Lion into Anafenza into a
removal spell or two is often good enough in some matchups. It’s capable of going over the top of grindy decks with Wingmate Roc, and it’s actually
possible to simply grind them out the normal way with cards like Fleecemane Lion and Rakshasa Deathdealer being so hard to block, and Anafenza, the
Foremost providing giant value with her exile ability.
Standard right now is full of a lot of powerful decks, and Abzan Aggro is just another powerful deck among them. The difference is that Abzan Aggro is
faster than those other decks and can provide a number of free wins that decks like Esper Dragons or Abzan Megamorph can’t really offer. The drawback is
that you still do lose a number of games to the manabase. It’s certainly better now that the deck has a far lower need for black mana, but sometimes a hand
full of painlands and Mana Confluence will still kill you.
Sideboard
VS Abzan Megamorph
Out:
In:
The key in this matchup is to keep them from gaining insane amounts of card advantage. Take opportunities to exile Deathmist Raptors and try to reduce the
amount of value they can get off of Den Protector. The endgame plan is to use Sorin Vampires and Wingmate Roc to clock them in the air while you keep them
off balance on the ground. Sometimes you can also just kill them really fast with an aggressive draw backed up with Self-Inflicted Wounds.
VS Esper Dragons
Out:
In:
The plan here is to use Den Protector and Thoughtseize to rip their hand apart. Generally speaking, I am looking to strip their Dragons first, card
advantage spells second, and removal spells last, but it is all contextual. Without access to Hero’s Downfall, their single copy of Ugin can sometimes be
problematic, so it’s worth playing around that.
Sometimes there is value in casting Anafenza and then playing a Thoughtseize afterward. If you hit a Dragon, it gets exiled and they can’t bring it back
later with Haven of the Spirit Dragon. Self-Inflicted Wound serves as a way to kill Ojutai and retain tempo in the process. The reason Ojutai is so
unbelievably good is that it’s hard to attack into it, and it’s hard to tap out when they have one in play since you don’t want them to draw extra cards.
Abzan Charm makes it easier to attack into it, and Self-Inflicted Wound lets you kill it on your own turn and then hit them for hopefully a giant chunk of
change.
VS U/B Control
Out:
In:
U/B Control is basically the same sideboard plan as Esper Dragons. The only difference is that you keep in Hero’s Downfall over Self-Inflicted Wound, which
tends to be more valuable against U/B since they rely more on planeswalkers like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon to win.
VS Abzan Aggro
Out:
In:
I’m still figuring out exactly how you want to sideboard in terms of what to take out. I think it’s conceivable that you can just cut all the Hero’s
Downfalls, but by the same token, a lot of Abzan Aggro lists are still playing Elspeth in their sideboard, and it’s important to not just lose to that
card. Dromoka’s Command is a card I don’t want to draw a lot of, but it’s usually really hard to beat when you have it early in the game with any sort of
reasonable draw.
G/R Dragons
Out:
In:
* Den Protector is an option over the Self-Inflicted Wound
Even without many ways to kill Stormbreath Dragon, I have still had a lot of success in this matchup. Sorin is phenomenal as a way to gain a lot of life so
you can win the race. He also demands they send five damage at him the next turn, which isn’t always convenient and sometimes requires that they attack
with multiple Dragons at Sorin, which also gains even more virtual life.
VS Bant Heroic
Out:
In:
I haven’t found Anafenza to be very effective against Heroic. It doesn’t trade that well with their creatures, and it’s hard to race them effectively
unless you’re on the play with Lion into Anafenza. After sideboard, we get access to so many removal spells. The gameplan is basically to just keep
creatures off the table. Thoughtseize taking creatures along with an enormous amount of removal spells should keep them from killing you long enough for a
Rhino, Lion, or Deathdealer to finish things. This matchup is generally very good for Abzan Aggro.
VS Mono Red
Out:
In:
Keeping a few copies of Thoughtseize in against them actually isn’t even that bad. Stripping Heelcutters or Hordeling Outbursts is actually well worth the
two life loss. I like Thoughtseize more than Duress mainly because of Goblin Heelcutter.
VS Jeskai Tokens
Out:
In:
Things get way more grindy after sideboard. Not having a removal spell for Ojutai could be an issue, but we can still kill it with Dromoka’s Command
sometimes or we can also strip it from their hand with Thoughtseize. The last way to do things is just be on the board so hard that they have to trade it
off defensively.
I think this is a pretty strong matchup. Dromoka’s Command takes care of Ascendancy, and we can use our hand disruption spells to either protect our
creatures or take out cards like Treasure Cruise that will give them an edge.
Abzan Aggro is quietly one of the top decks in the format. Not many people are writing about it. It’s not getting anywhere near the same hype as Esper
Dragons or other sweeter, newer, more shiny decks. However, Abzan Aggro continues to put up phenomenal results and continues to be a very solid and
powerful strategy to take to a tournament. I’ve really enjoyed the deck a lot, and I don’t see myself switching off it until I find a good enough reason to
do so. Right now, I’m still searching for that reason, and I’m enjoying the ride until that time comes.