The strategy of this deck is pretty easy and straightforward. Spotting the right moments to 'die and drain' can be a lot harder though. You practically play the game in two 'steps':
(Step 1) In the really early game you want to get in a lot of fodders like Doomed Traveler and also maybe create some tokens with Lingering Souls. with those you will be able do deal quite some damage.
(Step 2) After getting those little ones on the field attacking a bit, get a Blood Artist in to bring back your opponents remaining health by killing of your 1/1 weaklings with a sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer. If the creatures you sacrifice aren't tokens Abzan Ascendancy will make a lot of spirits which then can be used to attack in huge amounts or to be sacrificed for more damage with Blood Artist.
If this wasn't enough, you can repeat the whole progress with just one card. This 'big combo' can be achieved with a sac outlet like Viscera Seer, Blood Artist (or even better, 2 of 'em), and Return to the Ranks. It should be used once a lot of fodders are used for sacs and chumpblocks and are in the graveyard. Cast Return to the Ranks to potentially bring back your entire graveyard to the battlefield. Convoke helps a lot here. Then either leave them on the battlefield to attack the next turn or sac all of 'em to do tons of damage with (multiple) Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat. This can easily lead to an instant victory, especially if more artists or cutthroats are on the battlefield or returned together with the fodders. Just watch out for counterspells or removal targetting Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat.
I find this deck to be really fun to play, especially if I can get 'the big combo' to work, but also just attacking with 10 1/1 flying spirits feels good. You play an AoE spell? Oh well, I'll just sacrifice everything for 10 damage, 10 heals and 10 scries.
Of course this deck can get a lot better, because I'm still a noob at deckbuilding. This actually is my first attempt at building an affordable competitive deck and I really want to improve it. Can you help? Any suggestions are more than welcome, but please bear in mind that I don't really want to spend more than 10$ on a single card. A deck that contains 4 Voice of Resurgence of course is way better than this one, but for me it's not affordable to buy cards such as that or to buy a land base including lands like Verdant Catacombs.
Some changes I made:
- Added in Grim Haruspex for card advantage and hopefully not having an empty hand on turn 6.
- This didnt really help because the haruspex is pretty removal sensitive (eg Lightning Bolt) and this deck also doesnt run that much nontoken fodders. Blisterpod and Doomed Traveler often already are used for chump blocking the moment Grim Haruspex enters the battlefield. Also, Grim Haruspex can't be returned with Return to the Ranks.
- Because of this I decided to switch them with Satyr Wayfinder. I don't really care about the ability to find a land (it can help if you don't have the right colors though, and also it might find that needed Vault of the Archangel later in the game). What I like better is that it fills up the graveyard pretty easily and he also is a one time nontoken fodder. More value of Return to the Ranks! Also Lingering Souls can still be flashbacked. It has more synergy with the plan that your late game is your graveyard and not your library. Milling an Abzan Ascendancy or a Return to the Ranks sucks though (Unless you have them in hand already), so I am not totally sure if I should use this card.
- Removed Catacomb Sifter because I already was scrying enough with Viscera Seer.
