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Main » Articles » Abzan Aggro and the Standard Metagame

Abzan Aggro and the Standard Metagame

Kyle Boggemes
Posted on September 1, 2015
 Reddit

Hey, everyone!

I’m back this week with an update on the best deck in the format: Abzan Aggro. Over the last month, you have seen Standard make wild swings from one tournament to the next.

The Pro Tour featured Mono-Red and Thopters taking the top slots, but then Michael Majors won a Grand Prix with U/R Mill. While mill won a Grand Prix, Brian Kibler’s G/W deck from Pro Tour Magic Origins was also gaining momentum. This caused a surge of Dromoka's Commands to enter the metagame, which suppressed Thopters, Mono-Red, and Mill. Since there were so many white removal spells, Stormbreath Dragon took market share from Green Devotion. If you think the swings are done, you’re mistaken, my friends!

Now G/W needs another color to kill the Dragons or die. Luckily, Abzan Aggro is an established deck that looks like G/W but that can fight Stormbreath Dragon. Now all we need to do is throw Hangarback Walker into the mix, and we have ourselves the best deck in the format!

Here’s the list I used to split the Top 4 of a 1k at Get Your Game On in Ann Arbor, MI a couple weeks ago:

Abzan Aggro ? Magic Origins Standard | Kyle Boggemes

There were only twenty players in the event, but the skill level was high. It was similar to the Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier crowd that attends all of the Michigan events, but with fewer stragglers, and that made the rounds harder than a normal event.

Rakshasa Deathdealer
This list is fairly standard, but I made a few changes. I never cared for Warden of the First Tree, so I cut it for a Rakshasa Deathdealer. When other writers have described the changes to the deck, they have said the same thing: “I cut all the Rakshasas for Hangarback Walkers because they are better against Languish.” While this is true, I don’t see why you can’t make Rakshasa the ninth early creature instead of Warden. It has the added benefit of removing a monochromatic creature for something that doesn’t die to Ultimate Price. The downside is that the Deathdealer doesn’t play well with Plains, but that’s why I only have a single copy.

The removal suite should always be changing to adapt to the fast-paced Standard metagame. I don’t want to main-deck four Dromoka's Commands because you need a creature to make them good. There are less Constellation, red, and Thopter decks, so I need them less than I did before. Ultimate Price is good against Abzan Control to kill Courser of Kruphix and Tasigur, the Golden Fang, but it’s terrible in the mirror. I still want to play them because they are great against red and big green decks.

The Bile Blight is a concession to the popularity of the mirror match. I don’t want to main-deck three Ultimate Price in a field of gold creatures. Although it isn’t amazing in the mirror, it still does a good job of killing opposing Thopter tokens. I still want a good number of ways to kill creatures for less than 3 mana.

I have seen many players opt to trim down to two Abzan Charms, but I really like the synergies with Hangarback Walker. It also happens to be among the ways to remove large Walkers from the game. The cost to playing this is high because I can’t support all of the 3-drop removal spells I want. I need to make room for a couple copies of Hero's Downfall because Elspeth, Sun's Champion is popular, and it also kills Stormbreath Dragon.

The deck performed well for me, but I dropped a couple matches to Abzan Control. My draws were lackluster, and I was able to beat it in the Top 8. There are changes I would make to the deck to account for upcoming metagame shifts.

Just What Are These Metagame Shifts Anyway?

Dromoka's Command
I don’t expect the format to move at the pace it was in the past month because Abzan Aggro is the best deck, and it doesn’t have any natural foils, unlike the previous winning decks. It’s not very difficult to come up with a deck that beats burn; most players will simply adapt by respecting it again. Dromoka's Command being insane against both Burn and Thopters was too convenient. Players weren’t preparing for the long haul, but simply playing linear decks that preyed on the successful decks of last week. They would be hated out a week later, but who cares? In order to do well in an event, you need to have the best deck for the tournament rather than the best deck in the format.

Now that Abzan Aggro is the top dog, things get a little more complicated. What decks are favored against Abzan Aggro? The easy answers are Abzan Control and Green Devotion. Magic Origins was able to shift that dynamic thanks to Hangarback Walker and Tragic Arrogance. I can account for Green Devotion increasing in popularity by sticking with Ultimate Price in the main deck and playing at least two copies of Tragic Arrogance in the sideboard to make it a fair fight. It’s not all fun and games because Green Devotion doesn’t care about Hangarback Walker—because that deck’s plan is to go over the top of your army. Green Devotion didn’t get a fair shake at Worlds, but I still respect the deck. Ultimate Price is great against white devotion as well, so I don’t feel bad overloading on them.

On the flipside, we have Abzan Control that cares about Hangarback Walker because Languish is its premier removal spell in the matchup. I didn’t expect the tokens to give the control decks such a headache because they also have Abzan Charm to remove them, but they already have so many other things to do with the Charm that they don’t want to trade it one for one. Despite making the matchup closer, Abzan Control can still take games off Abzan Aggro, which is why I think it will become more popular. There weren’t many archetypes being played at Worlds, but Abzan Control was one of them for good reason.

Abzan Aggro is going to play the role of the fun police. The reason we initially had so many new and exciting archetypes is that Magic Origins pushed a critical mass of build-around-me cards. A few examples of those include Demonic Pact, Thopter Spy Network, and Sigil of the Empty Throne. Each one of these cards springs to life an entire new archetype that can have multiple variations; examples include G/W Constellation and Abzan Constellation.

Hangarback Walker
In addition, Magic Origins being legal for Standard means we have the largest pool of cards available to us. Two core sets being legal at the same time means we will have redundant effects because the older core set hasn’t yet rotated. For a brief period of time, we have the best ability to make Standard decks that push synergies to the limits. These glass-cannon strategies are easy to hate out because they are so focused on doing a few things, and that is why you saw Standard move so much each weekend. Dromoka's Command appears to be the spell that is keeping a lot of these decks at bay, which will reduce the number of good decks to play. As long as Abzan Aggro remains popular, these “combo” decks will be kept at bay.

Since the beginning of the format was very diverse at first, thanks to the large card pool and wealth of build-around-me cards, control decks were at a major disadvantage. How can you play a consistent sixty-card deck that had to fight Burn, Thopters, Constellation, Abzan Control, Devotion, Jacekai, and the mirror? It’s challenging enough for U/B decks to fight enchantments; their answers are clunky spells like Perilous Vault and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, but I also have to account for those cards being bad in other matchups, such as against Mono-Red. Now that the format is becoming consolidated thanks to Dromoka's Command, control players can narrow their focus to beating the few decks that can hang with the big dogs.

U/B Control and Esper Dragons are better positioned now that the most popular removal spell is Dromoka's Command. Since Abzan Charm is more popular than Hero's Downfall, it makes sense to attack with Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. Perilous Vault was the best weapon to fight Abzan Aggro in the past, and the large number of Hangarback Walkers in the format only make it stronger. I started writing this article before the results started to pour in from Worlds, the SCG Invitational, and Grand Prix Prague, but you can already see this coming to fruition. Esper Dragons made a splash at Worlds, and U/B Control Top 8’d in Prague and at the StarCityGames Invitational.

The overall point I’m trying to make is that Abzan Aggro will not cause the format to stagnate, but it will also remain a top contender, unlike the previous winning decks that proved to be flashes in the pan. There will be new decks reemerging that have a passable matchup as well as decks that beat those decks.

Abzan Aggro Updates

Now that I spilled my guts on what I think the metagame is going to do, it’s about time I shared my latest version of Abzan Aggro. I took what I learned from the 1K at Get Your Game On and the weekly tournament I played a few days later to make a new version. In addition, I split the finals of a tournament a few days later to take home a box of Modern Masters (2015 Edition). After all of these positive results, this is where I stand with the deck:

Abzan Aggro ? Magic Origins Standard | Kyle Boggemes

I feel really good about this list. There are some notable exclusions from this list, and they promote a different way of thinking about the deck. I cut Wingmate Roc in favor of additional Den Protectors because the Rocs are weak against Abzan Control, which has been gaining steam. I don’t like attacking with my creatures that are already bad against Languish only to cast a bomb with 4 toughness.

Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Sorin, Solemn Visitor is the most expensive optional spell in my deck; I don’t count Siege Rhino as a high drop because there’s no way to play fewer than four copies. Many versions of Abzan Aggro have become more midrange, which makes Sorin weaker. It’s not good at defending itself, so you want to be able to dump as many creatures on the board as possible before it enters the battlefield; this is why it’s bad in Abzan Control. The ability to make a 2/2 Vampire is nice, but the +1 ability to pump my team and gain lifelink is why I’m playing it. It’s great at making Den Protector difficult to block or to make my Thopter tokens into serious threats.

The idea behind this deck is to be naturally favored against aggressive strategies by making the flex spots low to the ground. Since I have more Den Protectors and fewer Wingmate Rocs, I can play my 5-drop on turn two as a defensive play. Rakshasa Deathdealer can come down early to make an early Dromoka's Command more likely. There are so many early options that can be leveraged late game; I think it’s a good way to approach building this deck.

Speaking of adding more great late-game top-decks that can be played reasonably early, I added a third Hero's Downfall to the mix. This is to account for the higher number of Elspeths, Ashioks, and Ugins in the field. I also like having another way to deal with Stormbreath Dragon without including a third main-decked Ultimate Price. The 3-drop removal is less scary when you have an additional 2-drop creature to play, like Deathdealer, so you can get on board and follow it up with killing creatures as a tempo play.

Since my deck has a lower curve to fight aggressive decks, I am not playing Arashin Cleric in the sideboard. The only bad cards I have against red are Hero's Downfall and Abzan Charm, so I made sure to have six cards I want to include from my sideboard: two Duress, one Dromoka's Command, one Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and two Ultimate Price.

Tragic Arrogance
I am not playing Tragic Arrogance in my sideboard because Constellation and Thopters have waned in popularity. Recall these decks faded in popularity thanks to the rise of Tragic Arrogance and Dromoka's Command, and now I’m cutting them because the rest of the field has scared them away. The only deck that’s popular and that I want Tragic Arrogance against is Green Devotion, but I still have plenty of expensive cards to ’board in against those decks in the form of Elspeth and Herald of Torment, so I’m not sad about cutting them. I didn’t want to be too controlling against Green Devotion because I’m not prepared to fight that fight. Those decks will kill me with a big threat in the long game; Elspeth and Herald are able to win games quickly at the top of the curve.

My sideboard is full of anti-removal spells like Tasigur, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Elspeth. This is because I don’t want to have Ultimate Price or Dromoka's Command in my deck after sideboard. Since I have five discard spells, I can return more cheap spells with Den Protector and force through my bomb: Elspeth. They will also fill the graveyard quickly for an early Tasigur.

 

 

So there you have it: Abzan Aggro is very good, and I would highly suggest playing it in Standard until the next rotation. The results from Worlds, SCG Invitational New Jersey, and Grand Prix Prague showed us it’s here to stay even when everyone knows the power. There is a lot of play to the deck, which is nice because I feel rewarded for practicing. I don’t find it surprising that I have been posting increasingly stronger records as I learn more tricks. Good luck at your next tournament!

Thanks for reading,

Kyle

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TAGS articles, standard, strategy, constructed, deck lists, decks, kyle boggemes, abzan, magic origins

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