Arena Standard - Abzan Control (70% WR High Rank Ladder)

6 46 9
0 29 5 26
Control

Overview:

This is a modified version of Sonio's Abzan Spells deck. It is, bar-none, the best Abzan deck there is in Standard. As well as the best Abzan deck we've had in almost a decade. Sonio went 3-0 in Mythic taking him from #40 to #30. Last season I blasted from Platinum 4 to Diamond 2 with a 70% win rate. Early this season has been no different. This says a lot about the deck considering the grind to Platinum from Gold immediately at the start of a season is notorious for being uncharacteristically difficult. The stellar performance holding up both at Mythic and below it is a strong indicator of a powerful archetype.

Similar to most control styles, the main strategy of this deck is to keep the opponent's threats under control until you build enough momentum to start draining them out with Professor Onyximage, Sorin the Mirthlessimage, and Invoke Despairimage. With vampires and Hive of the Eye Tyrantimages as secondary measures to beat their life total down, and even Witherbloom Commandimage to squeeze a little more life out.

The deck packs loads of card draw and filtering to help keep you from stalling out; a major problem Abzan Control decks suffered from in the past.

We're happy running Green over Blue because it gives us access to Dig Upimage, which helps us fix our mana (usually grabbing more swamps). But more importantly, it allows us to curve into, or fetch more Invoke Despairimages. We also get access to Learn via Field Tripimage. With Divide by Zeroimage being banned, this option sticks out a little more. There are eight cards in the deck with X mana costs that enjoy the extra mana scaling as well, giving Field Tripimage some additional synergies.

The removal suite is extremely flexible, with almost every spell hitting two or more permanent types. This helps make up for the fact that you cannot counter your opponent's spells, and shores up another major past Abzan Control weakness where you just had loads of dead removal in certain matchups. Permanents of all kinds are easily hit by your spells. This deck is able to remove up to 15 planeswalkers, 16-18+ creatures, 14-16 enchantments, and 10-12 colored artifacts. Colorless artifacts are the closest thing this deck has to a problematic permanent as the deck can 'only' remove 6-8 of them.

Invoke Despairimage is the main star of the deck. It can draw into itself, or other Dig Upimages, letting you chain Despair into Despair into Despair. It isn't terribly unusual to line up all four of them to burn your opponent's life total out. In tandem with your planeswalkers, you create an engine that not only lets you draw more answers than your opponent has threats but allows you to drain away their life total at the same time.

Changes to the Original List:

Sonio's original decklist is tuned extremely well, and I would strongly advise against messing too much with it. Some of the changes I have tried were replacing a Sorin for a Legion Angelimage, which didn't work out because the mana base is not built to hit double white on turn four, in addition to Legion Angel being worse against control where a Resolved Sorin is more likely to continually accrue value. I have tried replacing a Forest for a single Boseiju, Who Enduresimage, but this will lead to significantly more half-dead Field Tripimages mid-game. Three is exactly where you want it. By the time you don't have forests left, you usually won't care anyway. The three Swamps are required to give us plenty of on-color basics to fetch with Dig Upimage and Environmental Sciencesimage without eating into Field Trip's land pool.

I've made just a couple of more subtle changes to the original list. The first is replacing a second copy of Mascot Exhibitionimage with a second copy of Containment Breachimage. I found myself rarely ever needing one copy of the Mascots, and I was always wanting another Containment Breach to deal with some of the enchantment decks. The second is replacing one Shattered Sanctumimage and one Deathcap Gladeimage with a Silverquill Campusimage and Witherbloom Campusimage respectively. I chose to replace the dual lands instead of pathways because you already have starting hands where you're playing a dual land tapped. When you have two, one of them being a Campus doesn't make a difference. Second, this deck has a large enough pool of 2-3 MV spells that it isn't difficult to play around a Campus popping up mid-game.

Sometimes you will still find yourself running out of steam after a long streak of only drawing removal, and not drawing any of your card advantage generators. It feels pretty bad being so far ahead before falling behind in the topdeck war. The Campuses allow you to inch a bit further ahead when you might otherwise be drawing lands for the next three turns. Normally I would run four total, but the mana base demands extra basics. Don't underestimate what these Campuses can do for you. They are extremely effective at breaking stalls.

Strategy:

When you have the option of spending spot removal on a target before casting Invoke Despairimage or saving it and getting the 'edict' effect, the right choice is usually to spend it. Especially if you can cast both on the same turn. The extra life loss and cantrip often puts you further ahead than holding back the removal. Every two life they don't lose adds up, and the chance of drawing into another nonland by the end of the next draw step is very high. So always try to clear up the board as best as you can first.

Fetching with Dig Upimage is usually a matter of whether you have a win con in your hand already. If you already have an Invoke Despairimage, I would consider how confident I am about hitting the required lands before taking the greedier Cleave route for extra Despair. If you have planeswalkers or other card generating or filtering effects that can start earning you value, prioritize reaching them first. On the other hand, if your hand is loaded with removal, but has no foreseeable way to keep the train rolling, consider fetching Despair.

You will typically want to fetch Invoke Despairimage with Dig Upimage. But be mindful not to be greedy when you should be grabbing The Meathook Massacreimage to deal with a wide board instead. Likewise, you're usually grabbing Environmental Sciencesimage with your first Field Tripimage because you want to get enough black sources for Invoke Despairimage as quickly as possible.

Don't forget March of Otherworldly Lightimage hits man lands and treasures. The latter rarely comes up, but it does come up when removing those treasures means they cannot spend mana on counterspells. Bear in mind the mana they tap for in response is cleared when you move on to combat or your second main phase. This can make the difference in forcing through more Invoke Despairimages.

The Celestusimage gains life at the beginning of each turn it triggers. Keep this synergy in mind when you have Mortality Spearimage in your hand. Your opponents won't be expecting a catch-all removal during their turn when all you have open is BG mana.

Don't be too afraid to exile cards for March of Otherworldly Lightimage and March of Wretched Sorrowimage. This deck will test your ability to distinguish when you need to be doing this. Whenever you're holding one of these cards, make sure you're regularly evaluating which cards in your hand are the least impactful. As an aside, you could consider replacing a card in your lesson board for a single copy of Inkling Summoningimage, which can be exiled to either March. But get a feel for the deck first.

You can enter full control and spam instants targeting Professor Onyximage or your other permanents to cheese extra damage. March of Wretched Sorrowimage on zero targeting her is excellent for this. Mortality Spearimage and Vanishing Verseimage as well, with the former getting the discount from the first magecraft trigger. Just be sure not to let them resolve until you've cast everything you need to.

For Witherbloom Commandimage you have an overall 80% chance to hit at least one land when targeting yourself with the first ability. Almost 82% if you haven't fetched any basics, and about 79% if you've fetched two with Field Tripimage and Environmental Sciencesimage. Barring unlucky streaks, this mode will usually get you that land. With your choice of two lands about 30% of the time.

Takenuma, Abandoned Mireimage is fantastic when it comes up, but don't try to force it. It's better used as a land or held until you actually draw your planeswalker than as a longshot chance of milling a planeswalker. Statistically speaking, you would need to mill nine cards prior to milling with the Mire before you could expect a Planeswalker to wash up. If you are considering this, just be aware that you have a 25% chance of hitting a planeswalker whenever you mill three cards. Each Witherbloom Commandimage you use before trying for the longshot hit with Takenuma makes doing so less risky. From a 75% chance to whiff, down to a 25% chance.

Don't forget you can scry with your Campus before you draw. This is useful in instances where you have more than enough extra lands after scrying to cast whatever you might topdeck. Usually after you've tapped out your previous turn, or whiffed your last scry on the opponent's end step and absolutely need to draw an answer. When to start doing this is debatable. But it's worth strongly considering once you've reached nine or ten lands. It could very well allow you to weasel your way out of a tight spot.

Err towards +1-ing your Professor Onyximage and Sorin the Mirthlessimage. And try to do so by holding out on playing them until the battlefield is clear of anything that threatens to kill them. Liliana will draw you into your next removal spell, which loyalty-wise, will always be equal to the -3 ability against a creature with four power. With the exception that you're also getting a magecraft trigger by using her +1.

Sorin can use his +1 against two power on the board four times. Or twice against three power. Oftentimes, your opponent is going to have something that can remove the vampire the turn it comes down. This is very bad for your tempo if they can threaten to swing at him for even two damage on their turn. The vampires are usually best in certain aggro matchups where your opponent's creatures are expected to stay at 2 or less power for at least a couple of turns after Sorin comes down. They're also ideal when you absolutely need them to defend your life total, and where it creates a blocker for Liliana. Versus control, you want the extra cards. Going straight to his -7 gives you significantly more damage significantly faster than any other combination of his abilities. Thirteen damage over four turns. Going the 'vampire army' route only does eight damage over four turns, and still only twelve damage over five turns. Surpassing at turn six. Going straight to -7 after doing a -2 the turn he comes down is even worse, with only six damage on turn four, and still only ten damage on turn six. Surpassing at turn seven. If you've played against Izzet Turns, you know exactly how much of a difference just a single turn can make.

In general, when playing against Azorius Control, you will need to pay close attention to when it is appropriate to shift gears from drawing as many win-cons and removal pieces out of your deck as you can, to sitting back and just answering their threats for the rest of the game. They do not usually run cards that prevent them from decking out. But there is often a point where you have answered all of their win cons, and they can answer all of yours. And it comes down to who has the most cards left in their deck. Always always always keep an eye on how close you are to out-drawing them.

Performance:

At the time of writing this, and based only on matchups with three or more games, the most difficult ones are Mono-White at 17%, Dimir Ninjas at 33%, and Jeskai Hinata at 33%. Conversely, my win rate against Selesnya is at 80%, Orzhov at 75%, Izzet at 80%, Mono-Green at 80%, Mono-Black at 67%, Esper at 67%, Mono-Red at 67%, Golgari at 100%, Azorius at 100%, and Rakdos at 100%. With Boros equipment at 50%.

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Jiroxys
Last Updated: 05 Mar 2022
Created: 04 Mar 2022
820 366 0

Mainboard - 60 cards (24 distinct)

Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (29)
$0.39
$0.25€0.190.03
$2.37
$0.75
$0.15€0.020.03
$50.05
$0.33€0.390.12
$1.00
$2.00
$1.77€2.032.46
$3.71
Land (26)
$0.20€0.080.03
$0.25€0.090.03
$5.60
$18.70
$3.20
$10.03€9.362.52
$17.60
$0.110.03
$0.120.03
$2.96€5.103.37
$0.110.03
Planeswalker (5)
$9.01
$9.50

Sideboard - 7 cards (6 distinct)

$0.19€0.070.03
$0.45
$0.23€0.130.03
$0.23€0.130.03
$1.00
$0.15€0.070.03

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