This is a full primer on the abzan yorion pod archetype. This archetype focuses on playing mana creatures to accelerate into strong enters the battlefield creatures that eventually takes you over the top of your opponent. If they are doing something to busted to out value, you can either hose it with tutorable hatebears or go even further over the top with infinite life and infinite damage.
At the bottom of the curve we have 6 mana dorks in the form of 4 birds of paradise and 2 noble hierarchs. they get you to your 3 drops faster and help out in the late game to cast all the mana intensive spells that win you the game. 2 thoughtsieze also occupy the 1 drop suite mostly because thoughsieze is incredibly powerful and because the deck needs more black cards for grief, another card that will make its appearance latter in the primer. The deck also contains 4 ephemerates that I don't necessarily think of as 1 drops but they take the deck from a collection of moppy creatures to a menagerie of must answer threats. The two drop spot contains 3 wall of omens, 2 wall of roots, 3 fiend artisan, 1 charming prince, and 1 collector ouphe. The wall of omens may seem unassuming however they turn ephemerate into one mana divination if you can stick one on the field. The wall of roots is another un-dartable mana dork that has synergy with chord of calling, one of the main value engines of the deck. the wall can add mana with its ability as well as tap for convoke making it superb to have on the field when attempting to chord for the right creature. The 3 fiend artisan are only just part of the extensive tutoring package that the deck relies on however they are incredibly important. They are not the best in the early turns compared to the other tutors as it is easily removed and answered, however as the game goes on and the removal dries up, the artisan will take over games. Its chord of calling-esque ability dodges counterspells and its graveyard ability makes it a huge two mana beater in those midrange grindfests. The artisan also has something that none of the other tutors have to offer, it is black and can be pitched to grief which is a very nice upside in a deck that struggles to make the black splash enough to run grief. The charming prince is, interestingly enough, one of the only cards in the deck you never really want to draw. he is the cheapest chord target to get that can blink a creature so he is here to make a sometimes clunky chord more versatile. his big downside is that he doesn't blink at instant speed making him worse with grief and solitude. collector ouphe is the first hate bear in the deck and quite possibly the most hateful. he has come into favor as the artifact decks in modern have sky rocketed. he is good against food, stoneblade, affinity, tron, and even merfolk because of the aether vials. kataki is another consideration though and testing will be done to figure out which card most effectivly hates out the artifact decks.
Though the 1 and 2 drop slots in the deck are important, the 3 drop spot is what really makes this deck do it's thing. this deck plays 14 total 3 mana cards which is a ton even in an 80 card deck. The deck plays 1 anafenza, the foremost, 2 blade splicer, 1 eternal witness, 3 chord of calling, 3 kitchen finks, 2 eldritch evolution, 1 skyclave apparition, and 1 spike feeder. The spike feeder may look weird, however it is part of the two card combo with archangel of thune. when it tics down it gains life which triggers the angel that puts a counter on every creature you control making infinite life and infinite damage. the spike feeder is a lot like the prince with both being underpowered to the point that they are terrible to draw but they are both great to grab out of your deck. skyclave apparition is removal on a body and is great in the deck to get when you have to answer anything under 4 mana. some decks similar to this one run more skyclave's but I don't think it is so good in the meta that it needs to be more than a 1 of. it is worth noting that skyclave is great with instant speed flicker effects because you can flicker before the removal trigger to get a free exile without giving the opponent a illusion. eldritch evolution is the weakest of the tutors in the deck at the moment however the other tutors are not 4 ofs because they are so clunky in multiples. eldritch evolution is much less mana intensive and can get the tutor target you need much faster than the other cards. it is very weak to counterspells though which is why only 2 are seen in the whole deck. the kitchen finks in the deck are great with a number of things in the deck that include, eldritch evolution, anafenza, blink effects, fiend artisan, and archangel of thune. the finks also carry the matchup against prowess and burn so they are a must in a deck like this. chord of calling is my favorite tutor in the deck hands down. it has synergy with so many things in the deck I can't even contain myself when I talk about it. this is a card that can search for any hatebear, it can search for eternal witness to get back chord and then find a blink creature to get insane value that just keeps going, it can search for a blink creature and instant speed to save your evoke elementals like greif and solitude so ya, its sorta an all star. Eternal witness is another one of the best cards in the deck. it is great with chord but even more insane with ephemerate. When the ephemerate is cast off of rebound you can bounce the witness and pick back up the ephemerate which makes another crazy value engine. Eternal witness is a little mana intensive and clunky though like a lot of other cards in the deck so it only gets to be included as a 1 of. The blade splicers are another value 3 drop that are great with flicker effects, fiend artisan, eldritch evolution, and chord of calling. Anafenza the foremost is in the deck as a graveyard hate card first and a black card to exile with grief, four power body, and finks resetting menace second. overall she is great.
3 grief, 2 siege rhino, and 1 restoration angel are the resident 4 mana spells of the deck. the griefs have a combo with the ephemerates that leaves a greif on the board and three cards discarded after turn 1. The way it works is when you cast a grief for its evoke cost you can stack the triggers so that you steal a card and then exile the grief before its evoke trigger ever happens. The grief coming back is seen as a new game object so the sacrifice doesn't happen. The rhinos are great for stabilizing and racing with the fair decks in the format and if they are not good they can pitch to solitude or grief depending on which one is in hand. The rhinos can also drain people out through no damage locks with an slow infinite blink combo involving yorion and a way to blink. the restoration angel is another way to blink things at instant speed and has the same synergies as ephemerate with the pitch elementals. It also combos with yorion and is helpful in chord chains with eternal witness.
After the 3 drops spot, the 5 drops spot is the second most important in the deck. The 4 solitude, 1 archangel of thune, and 1 thragtusk top out the already resilient 80 cards. the solitude act as the removal suite on legs that has great synergy with blinks weather its evoked or hard cast. the thragtusk is the fair finisher that should do it against any midrange or control decks and archangel of thune is the completely over the top combo fatty that ends games on the spot with its friend spike feeder. It should be known that the archangel is not all bad when you draw it naturally like the other half of the combo would be. the deck has plenty of ways to life gain trigger the angel and a 3/4 life linker in the air that grows the whole team is no joke.
The deck technically has 7 drop spot because of crime/punishment even though the card mostly gets cast for 2,3, or 4 mana. the punishment is the better half of the card as it gets rid of asmo, tokens, and urza's saga when cast with x equaling zero. the crime is also cool against reanimator decks but that's not the focus of the card.
Yorion is also technically in the sideboard but I will talk about him in the main deck portion of the primer. Yorion is a beast. When you cast him with a board full of ETB effects you basically win the game and when he's bad you can just cast him as your 4/5 flying 8th card. The 80 card requirement almost makes the deck better because there are a few cards in the deck you never want to draw anyway so there is essentially no downside the companion requirement.
the sideboard is pretty straight forward, including a bunch of 1 of creatures that hose specific concepts and decks. these cards include aven mindcensor for search decks, blightbeetle for counters decks, eidolon of rhetoric for combo and cascade decks, endurance for graveyard and mill decks, gaddock teeg for control decks, and linvala, keeper of silence for creature combo and elves decks. extra thoughtsiezes and assassin's trophys are also in the sideboard when needed.
I hope this primer was helpful and this deck will see more play now that its out in the open.
