Yes, this is a great deck! I Love it!

I would run Undergrowth Champion over Oran-Rief Hydra or Woodland Wanderer.

I would lose the Oran-Rief Hydra and 1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir for either 2 Undergrowth Champion or Avatar of the Resolute. Mana seems good. Duress, Murderous Cut, and/or Ultimate Price for sideboard.

All that said I like, +1

Atarka's Command

bglattes: still not completely sold on Undergrowth Champion due to it's susceptibility to removal and no trample, as well as the high price point. However I do agree that Oran-Rief Hydra should come out, it's more of a placeholder right now. I like Woodland Wanderer for the same reason I don't love Champion, and it has the added bonus of being able to come in on turn 4 as a 7/7 if I can get both Beastcaller Savant and Hardened Scales out.

Psychosocial: As I said above, not so sold on Champion, but I really like the idea of Avatar of the Resolute. Thanks for the advice and sideboard help!

This is making me want to run Jund, I had planned on Abzan counters feat. Drana. (Maybe both :))

One last suggestion, I'd add one mountain just in case you need to fetch and play untapped.

Inspiring Call

I would definately be one to reconsider Mana gorger Hydra as it is rather dependent on your opponant and in the late game top deck wars it isn't a good card to draw itself and it doesn't reward you for top decking land late game. Although neither does a lot of the other cards but heyho

Managorger is just to elite here especially with scales and fetches

Didn't mean fetches lol, too tired

I would run Rattleclaw Mystic over the Beastcaller Savant, it gives you fixing for two of your colors and it also gives you another +1/+1 counter on your Woodland Wanderer

Psychosocial glad I could inspire lol! The mountain is a good idea, but I don't know what I could cut for it without screwing up the mana. Any ideas? I agree with you on Managorger.

bobisepiccom see: Psychosocial's comment. I am willing to risk the late game dead in hand for the eliteness Managorger Hydra offers early on, it's a pretty aggro deck, after all. Thanks for the idea though!

tep Good call. I'll try to fit it in to either SB or main.

VikingBlood I had actually thought about Rattleclaw Mystic when I first made the deck, and after some testing I'm not too impressed with Beastcaller Savant. I'll test further, and in all likelihood it's gonna switch.

Thank you all so much for the feedback! It's been really helpful :)

This deck seems to want Den Protector. It even combos with Hardened Scales.

HijackAttack Can't believe I didn't consider Den Protector yet! What would you drop for it?

Glad I could help, as for the mountain I would simply cut a swamp out.

If interested, this is my counters deck in progress for the new cycle. Abzan style.

My deck:

Abzan BFZ Beatdown+Counters Playtest

Standard* Psychosocial

SCORE: 10 | 8 COMMENTS | 1374 VIEWS

Uptown Junk You Up sounds better

mmpq2 you could probably shave some amount of Trangress the Mind.

Honestly Beastcaller Savant is better cause it has haste, and they both make the wanderer the same size, cause beastcaller taps for any color......

Psychosocial: I actually considered a very similar deck at first! I think both color sets have their benefits and drawbacks, it really could go either way.

420swed: I know! If only...

HijackAttack: Hmm, I'm already a little short on quality removal so I'm hesitant to cut what little I have. However, Transgress the Mind may likely end up as a better SB card. I think I'll try out a few Den Protectors instead for a little while.

allthingsMTG: I definitely see your point. What I've found is that the haste Beastcaller Savant has really doesn't actually matter apart from being able to swing for 1 turn 2. His pros: tap for any color; cons: only tap for creatures. Rattleclaw Mystics pros: tap for any spell; cons: only taps for two of my colors. The thing that entices me is the versatility of Rattleclaw in that it can cast anything, so I think I'm gonna try it for now. We'll see though as testing goes on, not a huge difference anyhow.

Have you considered Inspiring Call as protection against boardwipes? In a counters deck it can be a massive tempo swing! The deck looks great by the way!

Scratch that; I see that you're already considering it. In that case I'll just reinforce that it is a good card, at least sideboard!

Also Display of Dominance can fill a similar role with some more versatility, and that's my last comment I swear

BigPoppaHads: I'm currently working on the sideboard, and I'm sure Inspiring Call is gonna make it in, thanks for the reinforcement! Display of Dominance will also be in SB!

Play tested it and you're absolutely right; Drana + Scales + Shaman is disgusting. Wasn't super stoked about the converge dude until i made a 6/6 turn 3. After a couple games I'd say that the deck is stellar good build sir.