I apologize. I phrased my point as "'only' one card a turn" incorrectly. What I meant was that Smothering Abomination can eat through your board state pretty quickly if you sac creatures to in addition to its trigger (I kind of see its trigger as lost value compared to other sac outlets, but I you do get the card draw so I guess it's not that big of a deal). After seeing a friend test a couple similar builds, I do think Haruspex outperforms Abomnination in them, but those builds ran neither Hangarback Walker nor Abzan Ascendancy which I imagine make a huge difference between which is the better draw engine.

As for Rally the Ancestors, I brought it up because I didn't see you address how it plays in conjunction with the rest of your deck. I understand that the decks that have played it use it for explosive moves, but with the kinds of abilities your deck is running, I kind of see it as something akin to Return to the Ranks in the Modern version of Aristocrats. I see it more as something that doesn't really win the game (but can) so much as something that produces a lot of value with your sac effects and Abzan Ascendancy (surprise blocks, card draw, life gain, tokens, etc.).

Anyway, I don't know if you've tested it or not (it sounds like you have), but I was mainly hoping to gain a little perspective on how it interacts with your deck. I hope I didn't offend you by suggesting something you've already turned down.

@Phelgming You are right that Smothering Abomination can be pretty rough on an near-empty board state (and is just unplayable on an empty one). I mostly prefer it over Grim Haruspex because it seems to provide more raw card drawing over the Haruspex due to how many more tokens I end up with in this deck than actual creature cards thanks to Abzan Ascendancy and Hangarback Walker. It may not be good enough for the deck and it has been in and out of the main, but it's in for now on the grounds that 2 has seemed like a pretty good number in testing. I think that a straight B/G deck would rather have Grim Haruspex, though.

I think the main problem with Rally the Ancestors in this deck is that I don't actually have a reliable way to fill the graveyard. In the modern version, there is Satyr Wayfinder to fuel graveyard interactions. Also, Return to the Ranks lets you keep the creatures forever. Rally the Ancestors basically requires that I have a free sacrifice outlet on the field, else all my guys can just get exiled for no value. If the creatures were sacrificed at end of turn, it would be a completely different story and I would probably be running 4 and working hard to make it good. I'm certainly not offended by your curiosity about why I'm not running Rally, I just get the question a lot (even IRL).

How in the world did you find this deck isn't the perfect home for Bloodsoaked Champion?

@Isntitizzet I tested Bloodsoaked Champion earlier on in this deck's lifetime on a suggestion from a friend, but ran into one major problem: the only way this deck survives in the early game against aggressive decks is by chump blocking. Bloodsoaked Champion sounds great in theory, but in practice it only does anything in the very late game when I have a bunch of mana available, so I found it to be lackluster.

Can you explain your sideboard? I've been testing this deck and I'm having a hard time with things like jeskai mid range and all abzan decks due to anafenza.

no 4 color fun with red to include humble defector for card draw and butcher of the horde?

@dacamell I've added a new FAQ section and included a sideboard explanation in there. I've found that Jeskai is definitely a pretty bad matchup, but I haven't found a good way to fix it yet. Abzan has been pretty good for me, with the main problems being Anafenza, the Foremost and Wingmate Roc. Everything else is very manageable, so try and save your removal for those two cards.

@LDM393 I've considered a small red splash for Butcher of the Horde, but I think that would just end up making the deck less reliable since I'd have to add off-color fetches (probably Bloodstained Mire) to the manabase in order to find red mana. I'm going to stick with Abzan in this deck for now, but I'm always open to the possibility of more colors. If Wizards prints the rest of the Battle Land cycle in the next set (which I'm not so sure they will), it's likely that the mana will get reworked and red will make the cut.

Great deck Rot Shambler maybe?

In response to what you said about the mana base for 4 colors, in BFZ 4 colors is actually better than wedges. Abzan Red/Mardu Green has a much better landbase than the wedges alone. Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills, Canopy Vista, Cinder Glade, Smoldering Marsh, and basics make a much better base than pains and trilands.

Another thing what do you think of 1 or 2 rogues passage as another win condition with nantuko husk

@Zankaa I would agree with you in general, but since this deck is base and with a splash of (which is the opposite of current Abzan decks), I think it ends up with a worse mana base when adding a fourth color because there is no / Battle Land to fetch up. Instead, the mana base seems like it would be too heavy in and to support Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip and Evolutionary Leap. Tri-color cards like Abzan Ascendancy would be easier to cast, but others that rely heavily on mana of one color would be too difficult. If you can brew up a working B/G/w/r Aristocrats list, I would be very interested in seeing it. It sounds awesome. I do think you would end up having to go without Leap, though, which is a big hit to the deck's consistency.

@dacamell I think that Rogue's Passage is, unfortunately, just too rough on this deck's mana base. It's a cool idea, but this deck is too color-intensive to run any colorless lands.

I know hes expensive but adding a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar for extra token production and a damage threat.

@epicice Thanks for the suggestion! I am aware that Gideon is a powerful card, but this deck can't reliable cast double-white spells with its mana base, especially on turn 4. I think that if I were to run a 4-mana planeswalker in the main it would be Sorin, who has been doing great work in the sideboard. He is easier to cast and provides a great way to race aggressive decks via his +1.

How do you deal with atarka red. I recently played a bunch of games with a friend testing the match up and it seemed like it was very hard. Even though you can chump block it seems every time you try to trade creatures the opponent has so many spells to trigger prowiss you end up losing the trade. Unlike B/W warriors which is easy to defend against since they dont have 1/2's that turn into 3/4's on the dime

@dacamell Atarka Red is a tough matchup for sure, especially with the new builds that include Thunderbreak Regent and the like. I think that in that particular matchup you have to only try and trade your creatures for theirs if you are sure it will work -- otherwise, you're better off just chump blocking because at least that way you're only losing one guy and not multiple. I feel like this deck needs to draw Zulaport Cutthroat in game 1 in order to have a real fighting chance, since it provides a way to gain back some life while simultaneously putting pressure on them. One thing I would recommend against aggressive Red strategies is to board out an Evolutionary Leap or two. It's just too slow, and you can make room for Arashin Clerics or Sorin, Solemn Visitor in that slot.

Im trying to build a similar deck, but use Rally the Ancestors and enable it with Scout the Borders. Scout will net you 5 in the yard, were Wayfinder will net you 4. Also with Scout, you can keep a land or creature. There is also Gather the Pack to consider. Its cheaper, but wont allow you to fix you mana.

I know, I already posted it somewhere else, but you get one,too. :)

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/04-10-15-jOu-abzan-aristocrats/ hey this is my budget version of your deck If I have only another $20-30 what upgrades would you recomend?

So, I noticed that you run Collected Company in the modern version, but not in the standard. Any reason why? From the playtesting I've done it produced favorable results nearly 90% of the time.

In regard to splashing in red from comment #8: You can fetch a Cinder Glade with your Windswept Heaths

Around Turn 18 I had to give up because my head was hurting too much.

Solid build. +1

@Raishen717 When I was testing CoCo in the early versions of this build, I found that having ~23 creatures that you can hit off of it was just too low. It wasn't uncommon to just hit one creature. As a result, I opted to replace it with cards like Smothering Abomination and Abzan Charm that have more of an impact on the board and provide great utility in the late game. Collected Company could be reasonable in a more creature-heavy build with Catacomb Sifter and whatnot, but I just don't have room for it in my style of deck.

TheFanatic I actually have a list, but it isn't updated-- I haven't had the time. After watching SCG Open Indy, I've tweaked the manabase and the core of the deck, but haven't updated the list on Tappedout to reflect that. I'll let you know when it's up to date.

It's...It's beautiful...

I'm building this right now. Finally I can play Abzan without siege rhino :D