Arena Standard - Abzan Yorion Mill

50 6 30 20
24 26 1 29
Control

Like other Abzan Yorion decks, this deck has some late-game tricks up our sleeve. Unlike other Abzan decks, milling out the opponent is one of them. Lurrus of the Dream Den and The Binding of the Titans combo together. Whenever you pull out Binding, each player has to mill 3 cards. Used together with Lurrus, Yorion, and the Acolyte, you can continuously blink Binding to grind your opponent's deck down to zero while packing your graveyard with bombs. Because this is a Yorion deck, you're able to mill out 60 card decks without worrying too much about milling yourself out first. You can mill up to 24 cards in a single turn. Usually around 15-18 cards. Allowing you to have a lot fewer cards than your opponent, but still pull through by playing one or two additional sagas, then blinking all four to mill them out before passing the turn.

This deck does not solely rely on milling, however.

Binding, Lurrus, Acolyte, and Elspeth Conquers Death all form a feedback loop which lets you get value while filling your graveyard. You can curve t2 Binding into t3 Lurrus into t4 Acolyte. Or you can curve t4 Acolyte unearthing Lurrus into t5 Lurrus undearthing Binding. Thanks to Acolyte and Legion Angel, resolving them lets you continuously dump value-generating bodies onto the battlefield which will wear down your opponent's removal. The Acolyte can also increase your odds of curving into T5 Yorion. Most notably however, is how Elspeth Conquers Death can return a 3/4 Acolyte to the battlefield, and allow you to fetch the same ECD to re-play it next turn. Each Acolyte in your graveyard will allow you to chain ECD into another instance of itself. When nothing else shows up, you can fetch either of the creatures in order to keep your value chain going and growing.

This deck is loaded with feedback loops which ensure you're getting heaps of value from each card. Most of the cards in this deck, when utilized appopriately, will already provide you 2-for-1 or greater card advantage. Just about everything you play replaces itself or generates extra value at the bare minimum so that your opponent's answers never matter and they fall behind. Cards like Mazemind Tome and Legion Angel can bring you up three cards. In the late game, you'll also be able to repeatedly fetch your most powerful permanents from your graveyard to fit the situation. Lurrus is able to keep himself alive with Binding, pressuring your opponent to delay removal until after the final chapter resolves. At which point you will be capable of playing an Acolyte or ECD to get him back anyway.

Glass Casket, Elspeth's Nightmare, Skyclave Apparition, and Shatter the Sky all provide defense against aggro. Mire Triton, Lurrus, and Mazemind Tome provide healing support to widen the gap while you assemble your value engine. Legion Angel does double duty by not only being useful for closing games, but by acting as a lethal wall that your opponent has to sacrifice up to five creatures or pitch four removal to. This is a burden that decks like RDW struggle with due to their lack of being able to replace cards.

Rogue players are forced to blow their counterspells on your early removal, leaving them open to being hit with Eerie Ultimatum or Ugin. Because they run few counterspells and many kill spells, most of your creatures will have already given you extra value that they cannot prevent. Because the self-mill is entirely under your control, you can simply shift gears so avoid milling yourself out while still abusing the abundance of options in your graveyard. Recuring Elspeth's Nightmare will ensure you pull the card draw and answers out of their hands, leaving them dry of resources.

Cycling is hit hard by the lifegain in this deck, as well as the graveyard hate. Because 1/3 of their deck is lands, hitting them with Binding may often not be detrimental. Because odds are one of them is a land, and you can exile both of the cycling cards potentially healing 2. Effectively negating as much damage as if you had exiled four cards. Between that, you recur Elspeth's Nightmare to deprive them of opportunities to cycle and pick out Zenith Flare before exiling their graveyard. All while using your removal to keep their board clear. Once they get topdecking, you can pull ahead before they can hope to recover.

Just about everything in this deck demands to be removed because everything that sticks lets your snowball value. This is an incredibly relentless deck with lots of tools at its disposal. 

Considerations:

Dropped from 4 Acolytes to 3 because Legion Angel fits the four CMC slot and generates more value. You have the option of fishing out a playset of Acolytes pretty effortlessly. Replacing one with a Legion Angel allows you to get potentially seven four-drops by stringing them along. Thought about replacing Polukranos instead, but he's always been welcome when he shows up.

Can squeeze in another Castle Locthwain. I'm testing with one Castle, but minus a Plains, Swamp, and Forest for single copies each of Emeria, Agadeem, and Turntimber.

I'm seriously surprised how well the Lurrus + Binding pair goes with the Acolyte + ECD pair. Dropping Lurrus or even just one copy can be considered, but the synergy appears very good between all four of them. Lifelink threatens to slow the game down further if he isn't removed. Having doubles isn't great, but it isn't difficult to work around.

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4 comments

Jiroxys
Thanks for the input Monastario! I'll take that into consideration as I keep tweaking the deck. Right now, the only way to deal with barrens is to chump until you can get a Triton out to block it. The version of the deck I'm running right now swaps out one each of Eerie Ultimatum, ECD, and Yorion in favor for 3x Acquisitions Expert. In this deck it can potentially have party 3 (Acolytes + Angels) but we could cut some out for more Tritons, Hagra Mauling, or Field of Ruin.
Monastario
Well, I tested the deck for like 15 games and it feels to me like lands are not consistent enough, but maybe that's just me playing bad or keeping bad hands. The problem for me is that with aggro you cannot always make mana extending plays, like Visionary, etc. You need to keep removing threats and then I end up missing land drops, which is really bad for a deck like this. Another thing to point out is that the deck cannot deal with Barrens, it would be nice to have one or two answers to it.
Jiroxys
Monastario,

Yes, I noticed that as well. This was a modification I made to another Abzan Yorion deck that was previously listed on this site. While the land drops do feel a bit tight, I haven't had consistent issues with being able to play my cards thanks to Mazemind, Prince, and Binding. Visionary ramps as well as gives you extra chances to draw lands, and Acolyte can bring stuff like milled lands or Mazeminds back to your hand. So it's been working out pretty well so far.
Monastario
Hello Jiroxys,

It seems like a really nice deck, but don't you think a land count is a little too low? 29 lands for this kind of an 80 cards deck seems too low. Is it enough from your experience?
Jiroxys
Last Updated: 19 Jan 2021
Created: 19 Jan 2021
255 239 4

Mainboard - 80 cards (25 distinct)

Creature (24)
$0.40€0.330.02
$2.00€1.854.61
$0.24€0.100.03
$0.25€0.210.04
$0.65€0.770.03
$1.80€1.440.02
$0.25€0.190.03
$0.99€1.180.02
$1.00€1.050.09
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (26)
$0.99€0.520.03
$0.35€0.220.07
$0.25€0.180.03
$0.20€0.060.03
$0.40€0.200.03
$0.21€0.060.03
$5.49€5.530.02
Land (29)
$3.50€2.060.56
$3.90€3.426.56
$2.20€1.460.39
$3.26€2.340.44
$2.97
$18.30€15.118.28
$4.020.26
$6.63€4.470.23
Planeswalker (1)
$26.80€23.540.27

Sideboard - 4 cards (2 distinct)

$0.65€0.770.03
$0.40€0.330.02

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