The glory of a scales deck is that it hits hard and quick, putting huge creatures on the board quickly. By turn 3 you can easily drop a 5/4 Avatar, providing you have a Scales and at least one HBW or Servant on the board. Evasion a la trample and flight with Falconer will ensure your damage goes through. Ideally, you'll be winning before your enemy can run their major control/ creature spells.Abzan scales though, doesn't do that.

Here's the deck I've been using the last couple of weeks: Abzan Counters Walk Into the Club Like What Up

It goes the distance, believe me. It can go tit for tat in a lot of cases, but that's not what the deck should do. Scales is aggro, pure in simple. Hitting like a ton of bricks from turn 3 up. If you're not, you're playing into midrange decks strategy and they will pick you apart for it. Abzan scales is essentially a gimmicky control deck, and it can be good, but mostly, it just fizzles.

Look at fine tuning the deck. Pure G/W is a good option or better yet, check out Bant Scales, it's what I'm planning to switch to. Naya is tempting as well cause it removes those smaller nuisances, like death touchers, and clears the way for your boys to do damage.

ok so just out of curiosity, what would a bant scales deck look like? I assume the core of the abzan deck would remain, but what additions would make it more effective?

Stubborn Denial to refute those sacrifice/kill/counter spells.

and kioras too i presume?

Kiora wouldn't be a bad idea but most people don't include her

I have my deck HERE. It's done great. I'm thinking about putting just a sliver more blue in to lean more into Bant.

Unless I have terrible nights I usually end up going 3-1 or 4-1 most times at FNM with it as it is currently.

Are you looking to make this competitive or just a fun deck?

Yeah im working my hardest to try and make this competitive. Obviously, I don't quite have the mana fixing done ( i need the new white blue lands and maybe some Yavimaya Coast. Thank you so much for the reference syandell86! I really appreciate your help and think i might try to add some den protectors. Really thinking the naya is a good idea though! Thanks!

I'd look to focus on synergy as much as possible. The goal of this deck is to hit hard and quick by having huge creatures out and swinging by turn 4. Creatures that enter the field with counters on them is a must. I'd take out the dragon lords, Nissa's, Skyriders, Wingmates, and Woodland Wanderers. Converge is a trap, netting you only one additional counter. Look to get a four of Managorger Hydras HBWs and another Avatar of the Resolute. 4 Stubborn Denials are going to cover all your counter-spell needs, but if you want extra, Dispel and Clash of Wills will cover your needs as well. Compare against my deck or syandell86's, both operate with the core cards of a Scales deck along with our own unique twists.

So... I went Naya for shit's n'giggs... but yeah. I agree.

OK awesome. Sorry i have been encumbered in a ton of AP work this week so i couldn't get back faster. Okay. So cut the wanderers? Done. Nissa does not seem to get much return investment on her so cutting her is ok too. With wingmate roc, think i should move him over to sideboard? he has doen incredibly well with smashing some people's boards in while basically saving me the game. I agree that he is not horribly necessary right now and that there are better options out there since he gets no counters. Elves can go, and the dragonlords can easily be cut. I will be checking out your guys' decks (a lot) and collecting some better ideas for getting these synergies kicking! Eventually i will have a playset of managorgers and HBWs (those are my top priority list atm) so until then I will be looking for some easy subs for them until i can get my hands on some more on friday. Thank you guys a TON for donating so much time to helping me out. I really appreciate all of it!

~Echo

Hey echo9999, have you ever considered Gleam of Authority and / or Collected Company? Evolving Wilds + Undergrowth Champion might be a good fix until you get more Managorger Hydra and Become Immense + Sudden Reclamation work together really well. (and you can reuse evolving wilds or a fetch!) Ruthless Instincts and Display of Dominance are great sideboard cards! I would also make it 25 lands myself. I hope some of these ideas help ya out!

Yes! Gleam of Authority is pretty unused so it could be a great unexpected hit. honestly, thus far i haven't had any horrible issues with mana, number of lands, or any of that jazz, so i think i will probs pass on the 25 land, but i do like Undergrowth Champion and Evolving Wilds interacting together. Plus the Ruthless Instincts is pretty gimmicky and i will probably find a place for it in my sideboard! also the Become Immense and Sudden Reclamation combo I will give a shot. I really like sudden reclamation since it offers some cheap and easy revival (especially off of Kiora's -2). Become Immense is also another pretty fun combat tactic. I will update accordingly! Thanks for being awesome!

~Echo

Hey, just wanted to say GREAT JOB at FNM, sounds like you did good! (Fate just blocked ya from a flawless victory!!) Also, wanted to say thanks, you made me look at Kiora, Master of the Depths again and she could do really well with a Mage-Ring Network or Crucible of the Spirit Dragon! I am making a new mono black deck, I'll keep ya updated, see if you can put that brain to use and help me out!

Damn, that's fun. Love the deck, will buy when I has monies.

Thank you very much for the support IZZETannoying! I'm eager to see how building it goes!

~Echo

I just have to ask but why is their a Lantern Scout in the side deck? I would imagine a lot of other lifegain based cards could be more useful then this one because it relies on rally to trigger. You might wan to consider replacing this sideboard card with Hidden Dragonslayer as this lifelink creature helps kill large targets or could even be placed as an early 2 drop for quick lifestealing. Suggesting this because you mentioned needing possible control type spells.

Like everything else you are running. Hope it goes well for you next game.

I am super on the fence with Hidden Dragonslayer. Lantern Scout is exclusively in my deck in order to gain a lot of life very quickly (1 turn) against matchups with heavy burn spells that could potentially win, regardless of the board state. With Hidden Dragonslayer I don't really see that kind of versatility as it takes a turn before I can start gaining life, and it only gains life 2 or 3 at a time. The beauty behind Lantern Scout is that by the time I need it, I typically already have a relatively established field, which then allows me to swing all out with lifelink so that I can gain 10, 20 , or even 30 in one go. As a result, Lantern Scout ensures that i'm out of the danger-zone of burn and then I can go ahead and clean up the field. That being said, Hidden Dragonslayer features the megamorph ability to kill a siege rhino or something big. This is especially useful in the Abzan-aggro matchups, or even the mirror matchups. So i'm not really sure where I stand on Hidden Dragonslayer. I definitely will not switch it out for Lantern Scout, but I may put it in as a 1 or 2 of in the sideboard for midrangey matchups. Thanks for the suggestion!

~Echo

Hey Bud, love the list. I wonder if, and I do mean IF, Stratus Dancer isn't worth looking at out of sb. It works with the theme it FLYS and it deals with pesky spells. +1 from moi. Please check out my list UB Processor Control

hmm I haven't really considered Stratus Dancer. The only hiccup I have with it (and Hidden Dragonslayer is that it isn't really +1/+1 counter oriented like the other main creatures. That way we can two drop a monstrous Avatar of the Resolute pretty quickly. That being said, It is certainly a really nifty card. I will consider it for the future!

Thanks for everything!~echo

I think its funny that you say it isn't really a +1/+1 counter oriented card since it is still getting advantages from your main card Hardened Scales. But I understand your worry. You are looking for cards that swing hard and fast, that take advantage of +1/+1 counters so you can start with them for when you play Avatar of the Resolute and watch it gain value. A fun thing you can do is put both Stratus Dancer and Hidden Dragonslayer in the deck as options to play and make people worry what is face down. Will this be super effective to deck play... maybe not. But for when you are just playing casual games it could be fun to do.

That is actually an excellent point. Plus they will "know" that there is a Den Protector face down even though it is either a Stratus Dancer or Hidden Dragonslayer. I have been thinking about the potential of those cards for quite a bit, and I'm thinking of maybe adding two of each into the sideboard, or taking out 2 Abzan Falconers for at least the dragonslayers. The megamorph may not be huge and game changing, but I really do like the idea. I will keep shuffling stuff around and try my hardest to somewhat incorporate Hidden Dragonslayer and Stratus Dancer in!

Again, thanks for everything!

~Echo

I was saying that more as a joke but I hope it works out for you.

Yeah as I said i thibk it could work, just super on the fence on it. But hidden dragonslayers arent a bad idea, at leasts for as long as siege rhinos continue to exist xD

~Echo

Definitely agree with the Gleam of Authority comments. When I play a similar deck I have 4. You might think "auras aren't that great" but this is the exception, if you have 10+ counters on your creatures, which you very often will, you do the math