Fish Five-0: Abzan Midrange (Standard, Magic Arena)
This week we're going to try something without blue entirely! We've got a sweet Abzan Midrange list that looks to be good ol' fashioned midrange fun reminiscent of standard's past!
Gameplan
We're just going to play the powerful Explore package of creatures and just grind our opponents out of cards.
The core of this deck is just a Selesnya Midrange gameplan but we've also added black because of the much-needed answers in the colors. By adding black we get access to cards like The Elderspell out of the sideboard. We also get Despark, Duress, and other power houses like Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord and Vraska, Golgari Queen!
These sweet planeswalkers that black gives us access to allow us to grind our opponents out while also being able to use Sorin to ping down low loyalty planeswalkers and potentially buying us a much-needed turn from an untimely ultimate! Vraska is just a great late-game engine that can turn our land flood into potential new cards and lifegain. What's also nice is her ultimate is actually a game-ending ultimate. As I had mentioned above, our sideboard gets a lot more powerful as we can disrupt a ton of decks with Duress which is always a welcomed sight on turn one. The Elderspell catches us up when we're behind on board and potentially can give us a game-winning ultimate when combined with Vivien Reid or Vraska, Golgari Queen.
Conclusion
The addition of black definitely gives this deck some staying power and definitely feels like a classic midrange slogfest style of deck. My only complaint might be my lack of main deck removal and interaction as this deck doesn't have many ways to catch back up on board if it falls too far behind. I don't know if I would say this is an upgrade over Sultai as having a card like Hydroid Krasis is huge and an important part of staying in the game but if you've got the cards laying around and want to try something else, you can definitely take this for a spin! With #MTGM20 on its way out relatively soon, we can keep our eyes and ears on the set to see if we get any sweet new tools so looks like we're right back in spoiler season which has me excited.
See you at the next one!
-TheAsianAvenger
Twitter: @TheAsianAvenger || twitch.tv/TheAsianAvenger || Email: theasianavenger@mtggoldfish.com