Reyhan, Last of the Abzan // Ravos, Soultender
Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, brings the Abzanity no matter what zone he is headed to. Akin to Skullbriar, Reyhan helps to conserve counters, working against your opponents removal efforts. The difference is that Reyhan spreads those counters around your board. Reyhan is a cheap commander that can come down early game and avoid notice until it is too late, while opponents have their eyes diverted to your bigger guns and flashy artifacts
Ravvos, Soultender is a triple threat. His anthem affect is only slightly relevant, yet being a flyer to stack counters onto that deals commander damage can be a sneaky aristocrat-style one-shot kill for players stuck on the ground. His recursion ability is strong, and when combined with Meren of Clan Nel Toth, your graveyard will become a house for you to live in.
DISCLAIMER: If you build this deck, you might want to purchase MORE DICE because you will need them to pile on top of your huge creatures before crushing your opponents. This deck is a +1/+1 counter machine that stops your opponents from advantageously killing your creatures while you scale up exponentially and trample over everyone.
Great staples for this archetype are Cathar's Crusade and Hardened Scales, though both of these enchantments are highly noticeable by opponents. Creatures like Forgotten Ancient and Juniper Order Ranger can give you big benefits just by showing up. Add in a Corpsejack Menace and a Kalonain Hydra and you will probably be reaching for more dice than you've brought.B Team Countercorp cards are Death's Presence, Grave Betrayal, Cauldron of Souls, Abzan Falconer, Mikaeus the Lunarch. Several recent releases have cropped up in our build, including Winding Constrictor, which is exactly what the deck wants - a two-drop play that builds your counter's momentum early and confuses your opponents threat-analysis.
Win conditions in this game include similar features of Meren's deck, i.e. Mycoloth, Bloodspore Thrinax, and Avenger of Zendikar. These creatures coupled with a sack outlet such as Ashnod's Altar or Perilous Forays can give you the flexibility to smash with earned counters. This interaction can save you against most Red board clears, any -x/-x affects, and with any of the auxiliary pieces available, could make you stronger for it.
Triskelion and Walking Ballista are two single-card wincons. The inevitable board-wipe will attemptto calm down your board-state, which will certainly backfire and create a giant Tommy Gun to shoot down the opponent that dare attack you. Paired with a sack outlet and a couple counters on the board already, one of these Tommy's is your fastest, and only non-combat, win condition.
Ramp in our deck is a beautiful thing. Besides a basic Wood Elves and Sakura Tribe Elder for early game value, Gyre Sage and either version of Selvala can be played, depending on how benevolent you want to be. Ranger's Path is the best turn two play you can imagine. Midgame, Fertilid can give you something non-aggressive to do with your counters, while hoping a Zendikar Resurgent can stick to the board. Card Quality choices such as Sylvan Library and Lifecrafter's Bestiary also make the deck.
One thing this deck has over Meren and Skullbriar decks is access to sweet, sweet white removal. Swords to Plowshares, Mortify, Utter End, Anguished Unmaking, Return to Dust, and Path to Exile all vie for a spot on the team, with Krosan Grip and Beast Within always great options as well. Depending on your local metagame, you may want seven of the above-mentioned spells, but five is a basic minimum that this deck has no problem meeting.
Aura Shards is a powerhouse of an enchantment that is pure value with only 2 triggers, and will likely draw out enchantment removal that could hurt your counters strategy. Best case scenario: Aura Shards with a Mycoloth and Cathar's crusade on the board at the same time. Pure. Counter. Christmasland.
Board wipes for this deck has one tailor-made auto-includes. The deck is resilient to board wipes, but doesn't bounce back reflexively. The Abzan colored board wipe like Duneblast could be just what the Khan ordered. Step One: Choose one of your creatures, perhaps one like Ravos, being a flyer with a recursion ability. Step two: destroy all creatures, and flood your Ravos with counters thanks to Reyhan's ability. Step Three: Attack.Generic board wipes like Mass Calcify and Wrath of God are called for as well as a Supreme Verdict. While you seldom wish to exile any of your creatures, if you are behind and have only a Reyhan and some enchantments on the board, the drawback will be acceptable. Conversely, if you build your creatures, and find yourself against enchantment or artifact heavy decks, Supreme Verdict could be the card that evens the playing field. Bane of Progress is included for the same reason, bringing our build to five board-wipes.
Panharmonicon and Blade of Selves are included, though are considered diversionary cards. They are way too powerful to be allowed to live, and should be dismissed. If removed, you are freer to make other plays, and if not, every play you make is doubled or quadrupled in effect. These cards might want to come down before your Aura Shards, Hardened Scales, or Meren of Clan Nel Toth for this reason.
HAIL HYDRA! Hydras have a great synergy with Reyhan, providing instant counters for you to float around your board, given the right sack outlets. Use Hydra's like a multitool and include four or five that serve your needs in your meta. Scourge of Skola Vale is a great staple, as it is a low costed creature and a free, albeit slow sacrifice outlet that can turn into big multipliers mid-game. Imagine sacking a Lifeblood Hyrda with five counters on to Scourge, with Reyhan alone on the board; Scourge gets five counters, Reyhan allows you to put five counters wherever you want, and you draw five cards from Lifeblood Hydra.
Kalonian Hydra is another staple, and is certainly an aggressive way to get big, fast. Inclusions like reveillark and karmic guide can target hydras that enter with counters on them, while Ravvos can let you recast hydras with X in the cost for even bigger hydras, all without losing any of your total power!
Recursion comes to us through our commander Ravos and his bff Meren, but in order to be truly resilient we will need more. We also include Obzedat's Aid and Victimize for direct-to-battlefield effects. We have Reveillark and Karmic Guide. Creeping Rennaisance can be a sudden shift in your favor, should your hand be empty, and can even be flashed back.
In our land base, there are two inclusions worth mentioning. Khalni Garden is a turn one that will provide you with a 0/1 Plant token that can help make other plays down the line, especially with Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Mycoloth, or Bloodspore Thrinax. This is useful when you mulligan down to five cards looking for Sol Ring into Swiftoot boots, but don't find it.
We also play Krosan Verge, because of the flexibility to get any plains AND any forest card right to the battlefield. We can grab duals and get our bases covered while actually multiplying our current land base, thinning our deck of lands by a further 3%. Every little bit counts, right?An alternate build to this deck would focus on the color black's ability to make people sacrifice permanents along with you. Butcher of Malakir, Fleshbag Marauder, Mazirek, and Vulturous Zombie are all auto-includes if you're interested in a little more tit-for-tat in your game. Smothering Abomination and Grim Haruspex can fuel your hand while Meren and Ravos hand out second and third chances to your graveyard, all while counters are raining down. This version looks a lot like Mazirek and Jarad decks already do, with an added win-con of going big on one creature. Because Golgari aristocrat decks don't focus much on combat beyond that, we feel it's a direction OUR Abzanity deck doesn't want to go down, instead preferring to reap rewards within combat.
While similar to other Golgari and Abzan colored decks, this partner pair gives you a dynamic machine that puts big bodies on the ground. This deck becomes strong in the mid-game and builds on its own momentum. Recursion and Removal are strengths of ours while we carve out a path through the battlefield, practically throwing dice on the table. Like the noble Abzan, we march on through danger and ill-weather for the values of counters, counters, and more counters!
