Standard - Abzan Stax

18 26 17
17 22 0 22
Control

The best part of Magic for me is brewing decks. And I have a special treat for you today. I have been brewing this since the beggining of the ELD standard and let me say upfront - the deck feels super cool and is actually competitive - it got me to mythic twice with around 80% winrate and is keepeng me in high ranks (~99%) now. But it did not look this way at first. In this particular build, I lost a few dozen games before I started to understand how the deck is actually supposed to work. The deck is very hard to master, since there are so many little things that can make or break a game - but once you actually get a grasp of how to play with this deck - it is a very, very rewarding experience. It is a deck that has all sorts of crazy synergies and understanding them is a key to playing well. This version is optimized for best-of-three play.

 

Te Game Plan

First and foremost - this is a control deck. It is crucial to survive until late game - a very late game. The best-of-three matches ending by timing out an opponent (or, sadly, sometimes us) is not that rare. I happened to have a few wins as early as turn 7, but in general, you want to survive until the late game. You do that via three things:

a) Putting early chump blockers like Cauldron Familiarimage, the human token from Lovestruck Beastimage adventure, or Charming Princeimage.

b) Generating and sacrificing lots of food from Gilded Gooseimage, Golden Eggimage and Trail of Crumbsimage for life. Trail of Crumbsimage is also the central combo piece of the deck which I will describe in a moment.

c) Removing opponent's early threats with cards like Murderous Riderimage, Prison Realmimage and Oath of Kayaimage.

 

Second - this is a Stax deck. One of the most important cards in the whole deck is Doom Foretoldimage. You only play three copies because unlike in the Esper Stax, where you can bring it back with Dance of the Manseimage, here you do not want the Doom to 'go off' - you want to keep it on board as long as possible with both your opponent and you sacrificing permanents. That is why a lot of the removal cards in the deck come in the permament form, like Oath of Kayaimage and Prison Realmimage - but this is by far not the only reason. One of the Key interactions in this deck is sacrificing a Golden Eggimage with Doom Foretoldimage. That would be no different from the way Esper Stax works, if it weren't for Trail of Crumbsimage - Trail does not care if you sacrifice the food for life, for mana with Gilded Gooseimage of because of Doom Foretoldimage - it triggers anyway. So what you want to do is sacrifice Golden Eggimages with Doom Foretoldimage. The sad thing about Doom Foretoldimage is that you can not sacrifice token foods for it. Well, unless you have the Cauldron Familiarimage it is - you can sacrifice the Cauldron Familiarimage to the Doom Foretoldimage and then being it back with a token food - effectively sacrificing a token food to the Doom Foretoldimage

 

Third - you win in this deck with Bolas's Citadelimage - both the static and the activated abilities play their part. The huge upside of this deck is a lot of cards that scry and Trail of Crumbsimage which by paying 2+ mana can both add some fule to the Bolas's Citadelimage engine by giving oyu life - and removing a land stack on the top of your library by putting it into your hand. I had one game where I played 20 spells of the top of my library in a single turn, with 10 spells achievble frequently. And yes, the way you kill your opponent is by sacrificing those 10 permanents...

 

Fourth - for a pretty high mana curve control deck 22 lands is very little. Such a small amount is however necessary to generate value with Bolas's Citadelimage. 22 land work, but you have to make it work, by 'aggresively' scrying for lands in the first few turns. That is why anything that scries Charming Princeimage like or draws you cards like Golden Eggimage early in the game is huge.

 

Cards and Caviots

Now that the gameplan in general is presented, let's go over specific cards and their role in the deck:

Cauldron Familiarimage - a great chump blocker in the early game, you can sacrifice him to Doom Foretoldimage and most importantly, it is a way to sacrifice the food tokens for free, so that the mana you have can be spent for Trail of Crumbsimage triggers.

Cavalier of Dawnimage - destroys opponent's threats. When it dies, you can get an Oath of Kayaimage back from the graveyard or if the opponent has destroyed your Bolas's Citadelimage, you can get it back too.

Charming Princeimage - scires in the early game, give you life if in a pinch and in the late game it can blink your Cavalier of Dawnimage, Massacre Girlimage or Knight of Autumnimage for some additional value. If you cast your second prince and are not sure which of the triggered abilities is best now, you can postpone the choice by making the charming princes blink each other until you are in need of aither scrying or life.

Gilded Gooseimage - ramps, produces food and is a blocker in the air. Only 3 copies though since there is no need for utra consistent turn 1 ramp.

Knight of Autumnimage - destroys Fires of Inventionimage. Also gives 4 life which is a lot of fuel for your Bolas's Citadelimage. Also has only 1 toughness, so it makes our Massacre Girlimage kill more creatures.

Lovestruck Beastimage - he is not here to attack, but to protect. Turn 1 he provides a 1/1 chump blocker and turn 3 another 5/5 blocker which can kill Questing Beastimage. Also when casting him with Bolas's Citadelimage you can spend just 1 HP casting his adventure side, and then later cast him with mana.

Massacre Girlimage - kills all creatures. Especially since we have a couple of 1 toughenss creatures ourselves that generate more massacre triggers. Moreover, it leaves bahind a 4/4 body which can block and kill a Questing Beastimage. Also is a permanent so it's fetchable with Trail of Crumbsimage. Great against adventure decks. And you can blink her with Charming Princeimage!

Murderous Riderimage - a black staple. The life loss is however very painful in this deck, so only a 2-of.

Bolas's Citadelimage - a way to win the game, as described above.

Doom Foretoldimage - keeps the board in check, as described above.

Find//Finality - I initially put that card for the Finality side. Killing everything, wihile leaving your biggest body behind is very useful against aggro and midrange decks. But the Find side is even more powerful against control.

Gift of Paradiseimage - beacuse of Doom Foretoldimage, we need a ramp card that can't be destroed as easily as Gilded Gooseimage. It also gives 3 life which is huge for Bolas's Citadelimage as well as provides huge mana fixing allowing us not to worry about casting Cavalier of Dawnimage or Bolas's Citadelimage.

Golden Eggimage - draws you cards in the early game which helps you stay on curve. More importantly, it is a NONTOKEN FOOD, which matters a lot for Doom Foretoldimage and Trail of Crumbsimage.

Oath of Kayaimage - removal and lifegain that leaves a permanent behind. Do not be afraid to cast your second Oath of Kayaimage, which would result in putting the first one to the graveyard, even if you have Doom Foretoldimage - a dying Cavalier of Dawnimage has to have a target in the graveyard.

Prison Realmimage - you could argue that instead of two copies of this, one could play additional 2 copies of Murderous Riderimage. There are however some things that you can't kill - like Wicked Wolfimage - or dont wont to kill, because they have a death trigger. Moreover, it scries.

Trail of Crumbsimage - this is what gives the deck significant card advantage. The most important card in the deck.

 

Sideboard cards

Giant Killerimage - I can not stress this enough how important this card is. It is good against decks that run moderately powerful creatures (most notably gruul). It kills Questing Beastimage, instant speed. Against aggro, it is an additional 1-drop blocker that improves our survivability. I cant be fetched with Trail of Crumbsimage. But most importantly, the card is HUGE against SIMIC FLASH - one drop that taps their power grown Brineborn Cutthroatimage, and it kills the Nightpack Ambusherimages.

Realm-Cloaked Giantimage - great against aggro and creature-based midrange decks.

Shifting Ceratopsimage - great against simic flash, UW Control and Esper Control.

Duressimage - great against most control decks.

Legion's Endimage - perfect against aggro and adventure decks, not so much against cat decks.

Sorcerous Spyglassimage - turns off planeswalker and Witch's Ovenimages

Ashiok, Dream Renderimage - great against all decks with high graveyard synergy. Moreover against vary late -game control decks like Esper and azorius control - they draw more than you, so you can try to mill them out.

 

Matchups and sideboarding

These are general advice, what you do shoud depend on the particular build the opponent is running as well as weather you are on the draw or on the play.

Simic Flash: -2 Cavalier of Dawnimage, -2 Lovestruck Beastimage, -1 Oath of Kayaimage, -1 Doom Foretoldimage

                  +2 Giant Killerimage, +2 Shifting Ceratopsimage, +2 Duressimage

Make sure you are casting more than one spell per turn. Try to flood the board with one-drops as quickly as possible. If you have a Giant Killerimage, you want to use his adventure side to kill the Nightpack Ambusherimage at your endstep when the simic player is short in mana and then cast the Giant Killerimage on your following turn.

Adventure decks and aggro decks: -3 Doom Foretoldimage, -2 Knight of Autumnimage (unless their playing lucky clover)), -1 Oath of Kayaimage

                  +2 Giant Killerimage, +2 Legion's Endimage, +2 Realm-Cloacked Giant

You want to exile their Edgewall Inkeepers and wipe the board again and again. Eventhough Doom Foretoldimage is one of the most important cards in this deck, it does nothing of us here.

Grixis Fires: -2 Massacre Girlimage, -2 Lovestruck Beastimage -1 Oath of Kayaimage

                  +2 Duressimage, +3 Sorcerous Spyglassimage

Turn of Bolas first.

Jeskai Fires: -2 Massacre Girlimage,  -3 Oath of Kayaimage

                  +2 Giant Killerimage, +2 Duressimage, +1 Sorcerous Spyglassimage

Beware of Kenrith, the Returned Kingimage and Cavalier of Flameimage - if you expect them, leave mana for Giant Killerimage or Murderous Riderimage adventure.

Cat sacrifice decks: -3 Doom Foretoldimage

                            +3 Sorcerous Spyglassimage

Turn off the oven, not the cat. Doom foretold actually hits us more than them in this matchup, espectialy is they play red and Mayhem Devilimage

Temur Reclamation: -3 Oath of Kayaimage, -1 Find//Finality

                            +2 Shifting Ceratopsimage, +2 Duressimage

You want to be as agressive as possible. Duress away the Expansion//Explosion an not the reclamation.

Gruul Midrange: -2 Cavalier of Dawnimage, -2 Charming Princeimage, -1 Oath of Kayaimage, -1 Doom Foretoldimage

                            +2 Gaint Killer, +2 Legion's Endimage, +2 Realm-Cloaked Gaint

Azorius and Esper Control: -3 Oath of Kayaimage, -2 Knight of Autumnimage, -2 Lovestruck Beastimage,

                                      +3 [[Sorcerous Spyglass], + 2 Duressimage, +2 Ashiok, Dream Renderimage

Stall. Try to survive as many turns as possible and keep them thiking. Do your moves quickly. Maybe they time out.

More matchup sideboard advice coming soon.

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1 comments

sinpyro
To my surprise, I am only missing three rares out of here (crucial rares unfortunately). I am intrigued by this possibility as I am an avid Abzan fan. I will give this a shot when I can and let you know what I think.
Los_Arkos
Last Updated: 22 Nov 2019
Created: 21 Nov 2019
1060 194 1

Mainboard - 61 cards (27 distinct)

Creature (17)
$0.330.02
$0.79€0.860.03
$1.80€1.440.02
$0.950.10
$0.67€0.310.02
$2.25€1.550.30
$6.24€7.080.15
$1.18€1.350.03
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (22)
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$0.29€0.140.02
$11.50€3.780.03
$0.38€0.210.02
$0.20€0.100.03
$0.55€0.260.03
$0.40€0.270.02
$0.19€0.050.03
Land (22)
$0.15€0.060.04
$3.90€3.426.56
$6.70€4.290.26
$12.05€9.600.33
$0.25€0.130.04
$0.40€0.060.04
$0.50€0.310.02
$0.24€0.050.03
$11.27€9.470.19
$0.25€0.080.03
$12.00€9.830.23

Sideboard - 15 cards (7 distinct)

$0.490.04
$0.500.14
$0.47€0.200.03
$1.09€0.630.53
$0.30€0.140.02
$0.20€0.060.03
$1.50€1.030.38

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