Innistrad is overrun by the undead menace, Zendikar being devoured by the eldrazi hordes, W/U humans are all over standard, and there's some dragons on Tarkir. Who could possibly put an end to the atrocities and dragons being witnessed by the innocent? The Gatewatch and friends of course! Or not, but whatever.
The name says it all really. A midrange Abzan deck with removal, hand disruption, and planeswalkers coming out the wazoo, allowing your walkers to flood the board with tokens, beefing them up, pushing to victory. Two things this deck is really good at is mid game, and long grindy games. The boat loads of removal is to survive the early game, and mid/late game your top decks are mostly going to be better (except in some cases ramp).
The deck has a couple win conditions, the first and foremost being tokens.Using cards like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
+
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
for token spawn, and using Gid ult and Nissas second ability to power them up. Kalitas can help push out tokens, give an extra body to block and swing, get beefy (if you have mana to spare) and keep things out of the graveyard (Deathmist Raptor haunts me). If beefing up an army of 0/1 plants just isn't your style, then you always have Westvale Abbey to flip to REALLY make their head turn.
Tokens getting removed? Can't amass an army of spooky zombies, plants, and knights? Look no further than the patented(tm) beat down/drain! Gideon +1, Sorin +1, Man Lands, Avacynn. We have all your beat down needs in a loosely nit package. It's not as reliable as spawning tokens for years, but it gets the job done.
Now some of you might be asking "but Nick, Jace is a blue planeswalker that costs blue mana. Abzan doesn't have blue". Well of course my neary deary friend and fellow magic player, but that's where Oath of Nissa comes in. This card is what makes the deck a whole heck of a lot easier to manage. The 1 of for Jace, Chandra, and Arlinn is something I had originally questioned, but after MANY draws and tests, I can reliably hit Oath of Nissa before or at the same time as these walkers.
The Ob Nix, Jace, and Chandra are in the deck for (mostly) 2 reasons: 1) Card Draw 2) Removal The Jace bounce is a lot better than I expected. Because he starts at 5 counters, he can easily bounce twice before he just gets absolutely demolished by whatever abomination walks down his alley. Of course, Ob Nix bombing something is technically better, his draw compared to Jaces is kinda booty. Scrying is way too good.
Well there you have it. It may to you look like a lame ass token deck to you, but that's because it is a lame ass token deck. However, playing with Planeswalkers is hella fun and it's cool to say your deck is super friends. ESPECIALLY if you have 0 friends. So go out, have fun, take this deck idea if you want. It's a free country.
