This past weekend brought us a great deal in the way of Magic content. I spent the better half of my weekend vending for my good friend Jeremy at Savage TCG. For all those who stopped by the booth, I really appreciate all the kind words both about this series as well and about the podcast and business. I had a fantastic time!

The Top 8 of this event once again raised the bar on Standard, as Hangarback Walker showed us that it is not merely a machine to be forgotten about once Ensoul Artifact and Shrapnel Blast are gone. Instead, we saw a number of different decks, everything from the winning Abzhan list to Todd Anderson’s new approach to heroic touting the Chronomaton evolution.

This recent series of events really feels very reminiscent of Goblin Rabblemaster last year. Now considered a staple of the current format, the Rabblemaster was but a lowly bulk rare for the first few weeks of what has been a surprisingly long life—for a Goblin. Hangarback Walker’s price will probably fluctuate over the next year, but I will be surprised to see it dip below $10 for very long at any one time, and it will probably rebound nicely, until at least next summer.

Hangarback Aggro ? Magic Origins Standard | Fabrizio Anteri , 1st Place at Grand Prix London

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Warden of the First Tree
• 4 Den Protector
• 4 Fleecemane Lion
• 4 Siege Rhino
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 4 Anafenza, the Foremost

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
• 1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

• Spells (11)
• 1 Hero's Downfall
• 2 Ultimate Price
• 4 Abzan Charm
• 4 Dromoka's Command

• Lands (26)
• 2 Plains
• 3 Forest
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 3 Caves of Koilos
• 3 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 4 Temple of Malady
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Tragic Arrogance
• 1 Surge of Righteousness
• 2 Self-Inflicted Wound
• 1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 1 Arashin Cleric
• 2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Glare of Heresy
• 1 Ultimate Price
• 4 Thoughtseize

Buy This Deck

This deck got me thinking of what other awesome interactions are plausible with Hangarback Walker and Anafenza to start the shell. I also heard about a deck that was using Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in combination with Whip of Erebos to produce a fairly oppressive late-game card-advantage engine to overwhelm opponents. If I could find any way to work both strategies into the same shell, I would love to work with that deck for the coming weeks and then evaluate where to move forward after rotation. Though the enchantment deck I posted last week is still a focus of mine, it has become clear to me that Courser of Kruphix leaving will probably cripple the core of the deck enough to make the entire idea irrelevant at least going into Battle for Zendikar, and this shell seems to have a much better chance of surviving in some form.

So let’s start with the core of the deck:

4 Anafenza, the Foremost

This card just seems to be a fantastic place to be right now—we have not seen this much value in a 3-drop in a while, and maxing out on copies is probably the correct play, as this will be target numero uno for most removal.

Beyond this deck, I see Anafenza making major waves both leading up to and after rotation. We are clearly getting cards that support removing your opponent's cards from the game, and this is both cheap and efficient outside of that utility. Now that the counter Anafenza provides can do more than just grow a Fleecemane Lion on turn four, we will probably be seeing a lot more of both Hangarback Walker and the legend. Given all of this, I can see getting your play set of this mythic now before you look back and realize you could have picked them up for what the future price may be for one.

4 Hangarback Walker

All we can say at this point is, How did we all miss this during spoiler season? Those tricky Planeswalkers are always the ones that take attention from the real all-stars, and in this case, things were no different. This is a clear four-of, as it is great on turn two or turn twenty.

3 Whip of Erebos

The interaction with Jace got me thinking, and with the given colors, we have at least two playable double-faced Planeswalkers to call up—both are also great to transform, creating card and board advantage even if either just eats a removal spell.

3 Liliana, Heretical Healer

I finally noticed how low this card has become online, and I picked my set up. I will be doing the same in paper soon, as I expect major results from this card over the next year. Transforming this from Whip gives you an additional creature and the ability to either resurrect another creature in this deck reliably or begin to whittle your opponent's resources down while feeding your Whip.

3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer

This is another value creature that can be transformed immediately in the late game. This does force us to play a high number of Forests, so the number may decrease, but for now, I really am going to attempt to make this work for the sake of how well it plays with the rest of the deck.

4 Collected Company

Though it can certainly be a nonbo with Hangarback Walker, it can also fill your board with a ton of power and utility from every other target in the deck. If you haven't noticed before now, everything we have selected so far costs 3 mana or under, meaning we have a great deal of game against control with both this and Whip being must-counters in many cases. We do not currently have enough creatures to make me feel comfortable assuming we will hit two creatures each time, so that is what we approach next.

4 Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner

I do not believe there is any reason to run one over the other, as the tribal affiliation is irrelevant, but this card really ties the deck together and was actually the inspiration for the deck in the first place. I am currently running a two-colored version of this deck without the Anafenza/Hangarback shell to great success on Magic Online, and I believe this will only add to my win percentage.

Fleshbag Marauder combos with nearly everything else in the deck, both giving us a way to create a Thopter army if needed and activating Liliana instantly off Collected Company. Late game, we can lock your opponents out of creatures with this and Whip of Erebos turn after turn. This card can be devastating for some decks, and I currently run six in the main deck, but switching over to have other interactions leads me to believe the aggro matchup will be better, allowing us to cut some from the main deck, probably to be assigned to the ’board.

4 Elvish Mystic

Since most of our curve begins at 3, we want to make it there as quickly as possible, and as we already want a number of Forests, we should be able to build a mana base to support all three colors while also bringing this into play on turn one reliably.

2 Sylvan Caryatid

We really want to make sure we can turn on the gas as quickly as possible in this deck, and Caryatid has faded from the limelight for a while now. We need a way to combat early aggression while moving forward with the game, and I believe Caryatid can help us with both of those issues long enough to start grinding value from our key pieces.

3 Courser of Kruphix

This can let us move through the deck to find the valuable pieces as it has for nearly the past two years and at this point—it really takes very little explaining to understand the value. I do believe this is replaceable after rotation, but I still see most of these midrange decks suffering enough to let the aggressive strategies build a better counter plan.

3 Drown in Sorrow

This may seem to be a strange way to top off the deck, but my experience so far with the other variation is that once your sacrifice engine gets behind due to tokens from mono-red or face-down creatures against Whisperwood Elemental, it can be hard to gain your footing again, and that is what this card does for us. Large creatures are rarely a threat unless the opponent gets too far ahead on board and can land multiples a turn, but when turn-two Dragon Fodder happens, you have a tough time crawling back before you are dead.

Hangarback Abzan ? Magic Origins Standard | Ryan Bushard

• Creatures (27)
• 2 Sylvan Caryatid
• 3 Courser of Kruphix
• 4 Elvish Mystic
• 4 Merciless Executioner
• 4 Hangarback Walker
• 3 Liliana, Heretical Healer
• 3 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
• 4 Anafenza, the Foremost

• Spells (10)
• 4 Collected Company
• 3 Drown in Sorrow
• 3 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (23)
• 1 Plains
• 6 Forest
• 2 Caves of Koilos
• 2 Mana Confluence
• 3 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

The mana base looks to minimize the number of lands we need to play tapped in the first few turns, allowing us to fluidly hit a strong early curve and follow it up with haymakers such as Whip and Collected Company. In the ’board, I would be looking to shore up some of the aggro matchups with some additional efficient removal. Enchantment removal may also be needed, but given that we already play Whip of Erebos, we will want to look beyond Back to Nature.

As always, thank you for reading; this design has been a great deal of fun, and once I get the rest of the deck on Magic Online, I will update with additional results and tweaks. If you have any way to optimize this build or hybridize this strategy with another, I am always open to new ideas, so please share below in the comments. Thanks you, as always, for reading, and have a great week.

Ryan Bushard

@CryppleCommand