Also, I personally would run 3-4 Hangarback Walker in this deck because of the amazing synergy with Hardened Scales when it's played and when you pump it for 1 mana. Outside of exiling it, it's total beast of a card.

I'm running 4 Hangarback Walker as well, chump blockers!

Noctem, thechusenone, I would run another Hangarback Walker but right now I only have two. I am probably going to pick up another one soon. I will probably take out a Salt Road Quartermasters to make room for the Hangarback Walker.

I'd also recommend trying the new mythic, 3 mana 2/2 with landfall to place a +1/+1 counter on it, might be good even without Hardened Scales.

$20each

Yeah, I'll try to get my hands on some but the prices for some of the cards in BFZ are just ridiculous already.

Everybody is exited about B.F.Z. but why? Because of Expeditions? If you really consider it, that's probably one of the few good things to come from this, but seriously, what does the new set have for standard besides some new lands? People are only going to buy packs form this set because of expeditions, and due to the demand for these lands, the prices are going to fall. Look at your least favourite rhino from khans. He was $15, now he's $3. Just wait for a decent price.

Oh yeah, see I pre-ordered some stuff from bfz months ago. Back when it was being sold at MRSP value. Now the same stuff I bought is 20% more expensive because of hype. If you haven't pre-ordered stuff for a good price I would really suggest not buying now. Wait a while until the prices drop back to something sensible. 140$ CAD + tax is not sensible for a booster box that should normally cost 110~ + tax.

There is always hype before a pre-release. Prices will go down over the next few months. Just look at cards like Narset Transcendent and how fair they dropped from their pre-release prices. Even Hangarback Walker will drop in price a bit, especially considering its in the BFZ Event Deck.

Yeah btw, that event deck is awesome value if you can get it for 20-26$. Tasigur and hangarback alone currently value the price. Hangarback will go down in value slightly, I figure it'll go down to 10-15$ which is still nice.

Do you feel like Undergrowth Champion would be an alright include in this deck? I feel like he could another card in the deck that has a good chance of going off on its own even if you don't have Hardened Scales

I would say so.

great job!

How about a Gleam of Authority? I think it would be amazing on an Avatar of the Resolute.

Orksrule316, for the suggestion. I have thought about using Gleam of Authority in this deck in the past. The problem I have with it is, what do I take out to make room? It would not doubt make one of my creatures into a huge monster, but I don't want to loss any of my removal cards.

Sideboard?

Just a little message to say in your description you have the deck "Harden scales" linked in, not Hardened Scales :)

How does this deck matchup against the various Aristocrat decks that are hanging around standard right now?

Duckling, thanks for catching that. And thanks for taking the time to read the description. :D

awphutt, thanks for the question. I haven't played any truly Aristocrat deck, but I have played a few different Sultai builds. Based on those games and the Aristocrat decklists, I think my deck would do well against them.

Several players from my LGS have recently decided to form an official playtesting group, so I will definitely be testing against Aristocrats soon. I will let you know how it goes.

Do you know of any good Aristocrats decklists we could use for testing?

The thread here has a decent amount of decks there for testing, although I haven't really done a huge amount of testing with any of them myself, so they might vary on how competitive they actually are.

Alternatively, Christian Calcano's UB Aristocrat list went 6-3 at PTBFZ, and Gabe Nassif went somewhere around 7-5 with his GB version of the deck.

awphutt, thanks for the decklists! I will take a look at them.

Hardened Scales and Servant of the Scale interact so well. Not surprising considering the names, but you get Hardened Scales out first and servant's deaths gives something 3 +1/+1 counters - that's friggin awesome.

I was running temur colours in something similar so I could hit Bring to Light but I really like this version.

Would this deck still work without hangerback walker and den protector? I'm looking for a budget standard deck to take to FNM and this deck wouldn't cost too much if I took those out. If you think it would still work fine without those cards, then what would you suggest I replace them with? Thanks.

slayerk12, thanks for the comment.

Yes, the deck will still work alright without Den Protector and Hangarback Walker. Usually, the most important cards in the deck for creating win conditions are Managorger Hydra and Abzan Falconer.

Before I had Den Protectors, I was using Salt Road Quartermasters. Its ability fits well into the deck's meta and makes for a decent combat trick. As for Hangarback Walker, Endless One might be a good budget replacement. With Hardened Scales in play (which is often), Endless One gets an extra counter and it's playable with any amount of mana. Plus, because it has counters, it gets Flying from Abzan Falconer or Lifelink from Abzan Battle Priest and it triggers Avatar of the Resolute's enter-the-battlefield effect. High Sentinels of Arashin is a good bomb too, however, at 4 CMC I wouldn't add more than 2 to deck.