Abzan Midrange
So this is the basic shell of Abzan Midrange, sort of. I put a twist on it and this deck gains a ton of life. I actually got the idea before Craig Wescoe debuted it, I just never built it due to not having any Siege Rhino's. But now, I have what I need. Also, Craig Wescoe utilized about 28 creatures with no removal main. So this is very different.
I'd like to say that first of all, if you like casting Siege Rhino, this is the deck for you because you can cast the rhinoceros more than just 4 times (because there's 4 copies) and that is all thanks to
Temur Sabertooth
. Not only can he help recast Siege Rhino but he can help recast Wingmate Roc to get more flyers. He can also help recast Sidisi, Undead Vizier (once sided in) to keep finding the right cards for the situation at hand. AND he can return a manifested noncreature card to your hand to get use of that much needed removal spell when you need it. Did I mention
Temur Sabertooth
also gets indestructible until end of turn when you do so? I didn't? Well, now he's very playable.
The reason behind having black in here rather than just running G/W devotion like the rest of the fools, is because we get so much great value from the addition. The significant ones in the mainboard being Siege Rhino and Sorin, Solemn Visitor. Sorin is a straight boss in this deck. You thought you can gain a ton with just Mastery of the Unseen, well Sorin adds that extra flair! Also, our removal package gets better. It's necessary because you need it early game at least to stay alive long enough to get your engine going. And even if our removal is bad (versus control), we can just keep manifesting them to create more threats. We can actually outlast control because we can just keep gaining life and they will not be able to out race us because they will be drawing a ton of cards more than likely and losing life because we will have threats on board sometime and we will be attacking. And having an abundance of Deathtouch creatures can act as pseudo removal. It is always fun to flip a deathtouch guy during combat when blocking or it is blocked.
Also, our sideboard gets a lot better as well. It can withstand aggro thanks to the addition of black and the best card for this is Drown in Sorrow. The G/W version has pretty horrendous removal spells that are mediocre at best. And you must be like, "not all decks run creatures, so you do not need that much removal". Stop and think for a second, removal spells are not always creature removal spells.
Valorous Stance
because it protects and/or destroys stuff. End Hostilities because this teamed up with Whisperwood Elemental is straight funny. Thoughtseize is just great in the mirror, midrange or control. Hornet Nest also allows us to fend off aggro Game 2 and is a really sweet interaction with Dromoka's Command. Dragonlord Dromoka, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Sidisi, Undead Vizier and Nissa, Worldwaker allows us to go way over the top and go big. Like my best friend always says, "Go big or go home".
