Abzan Company is a deck that has defined the Modern metagame at various points in its existence. Right after Aether Revolt, we saw a brief resurgence of the deck as Renegade Rallier gave it a whole bunch of new and exciting tricks with fetchlands and Saffi Eriksdotter. Amonkhet may be giving the deck yet another exciting angle to attack from thanks to Vizier of Remedies. Let’s take a look at this list by Joel Larsson:
Vizier Abzan Company - Modern | Joel Larsson
- Creatures (29)
- 1 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
- 1 Archangel of Thune
- 1 Fiend Hunter
- 1 Murderous Redcap
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
- 1 Spike Feeder
- 1 Walking Ballista
- 2 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 2 Eternal Witness
- 2 Noble Hierarch
- 2 Viscera Seer
- 3 Devoted Druid
- 3 Vizier of Remedies
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- Instants (8)
- 4 Chord of Calling
- 4 Collected Company
- Lands (23)
- 1 Plains
- 1 Swamp
- 2 Forest
- 1 Godless Shrine
- 1 Horizon Canopy
- 1 Marsh Flats
- 2 Gavony Township
- 2 Overgrown Tomb
- 2 Razorverge Thicket
- 2 Temple Garden
- 4 Verdant Catacombs
- 4 Windswept Heath
- Sideboard (15)
- 1 Kataki, War's Wage
- 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
- 1 Orzhov Pontiff
- 1 Phyrexian Revoker
- 1 Reveillark
- 1 Selfless Spirit
- 1 Sin Collector
- 2 Maelstrom Pulse
- 3 Path to Exile
- 3 Tidehollow Sculler
The big innovation here is the inclusion of Vizier of Remedies and Devoted Druid. For the purposes of persist combos, Vizier of Remedies functions the same as Melira, Sylvok Outcast. However, when used in conjunction with Devoted Druid, Melira prevents you from being able to pay the cost of Devoted Druid’s ability, while Vizier of Remedies allows you to generate infinite Green mana as early as turn three. This opens up all manner of interesting deck-building opportunities.
The advantage to doing this is two-fold. Firstly, you can just win with the Devoted Druid combo. You can cast all of your Collected Company and Chord of Callings to try to find Duskwatch Recruiter, which lets you loop through your deck until you find Walking Ballista to end the game on the spot. Even if you can’t kill your opponent, the Devoted Druid combo puts even more pressure on opposing removal to break up even more lethal interactions. Eventually, you hit a high enough threshold of synergy that your opponents just can’t break up what you’re trying to get done.
The other advantage to Devoted Druid is that it can net two mana on its own for a key turn. This can let you cast Archangel of Thune on turn three with no ramp spells except Devoted Druid. It means it’s more likely for you to be able to Chord of Calling for more than three. It means you have some interesting tricks by being able to kill your own creatures, like shutting off opposing Bridge from Belows or lifelink triggers.
All in all, Vizier of Remedies and Devoted Druid add another interesting dimension to this deck. This combination is certainly very powerful, and it will be interesting to see if people prefer the more versatile Renegade Rallier or the more powerful Devoted Druid combination as the format moves forward.