Pioneer Peak: Abzan Midrange (Pioneer, Magic Online)

Last time we took Abzan for a spin, we ended with a 1-4 record as it was more of an Abzan tokens deck that felt too slow to be aggressive and not grindy enough to make it into the late game,  but time we're going to play an Abzan list that was piloted to a 5-0 finish by rushi_00

Gameplan

The deck is most certainly a midrange deck that is looking to grind our opponents out with a ton of removal while we sit behind a friendly sieging rhino!

This card was an absolute beating in its standard life as a 4/5 with trample is a pretty decent rate but then you throw on the ability to drain for three and now we're talking value. The nice thing is how often we can probably get this out on turn three with Sylvan Caryatid. Another thing that Sylvan Caryatid can ramp us into?...

We've already seen Nissa do work in standard and the mono green ramp deck so naturally we had to try it out in this build. We don't have as many forests as a mono green deck which can be a concern along with the fact that we don't have any crazy payoffs with all the extra mana but Nissa just takes over games when left unchecked.

We also have a tiny Delirium package built into the deck and this was the main thing that drew me to this list. I love me some Delirium as I really did enjoy playing the Jund and Golgari variants when they were in standard. Vessel of Nascency feels a bit slow but can instantly load our graveyards up to help turn our Traverse the Ulvenwald into a tutor for anything we need which is perfect as we can grab Emrakul, the Promised End or Murderous Rider to deal with problematic planeswalkers.

Conclusion

Although we did better than last time, we ended with a league record of 2-3. I think this deck could be a bit better if it were packed with a few more ways to get Delirium and maybe a few more ways to deal with resilient threats like Rekindling Phoenix and The Scarab God. Maybe adding a few more Devout Decree and Vraska's Contempt to exile cards like World Breaker and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. If I were to take another crack at a league with this deck, the changes that come to my mind are all in the sideboard

The deck definitely did things that I liked but my search for an Abzan list shall continue!

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