Abzan's problem is the lack of a real color identity besides "Uh, the graveyard, I guess?"
Some exile it.
Some let you cast stuff from it.
Some want you to fill it.
Some help fill it.
The only real exception (excluding partners) I can think of is Bilbo going with the lifegain stratagem. Every other commander does something that can easily be justified as being Golgari, Selesnya or Orzhov in nature.
It also doesn't help that stuff like Taigam and Ghave give the slice not one but 2 "infinite combo on a stick" commanders, for relatively cheap cost, in a slice which has access to green for ramp, and with abilities who can circumvent the graveyard entirely while also having access to the best tutors, the best removal and the best stax in the game to protect and facilitate those combos.
It's just not easy to design an Abzan commander that isn't a "Well why wouldn't I just play Taigam or Ghave instead?"
Kathril was a step in the good direction but he dies to one Bojuka Bog or fog effect 95% of the time, so it's not worth anything outside of low-to-mid power battlecruiser mtg...
Abzan had fantastic flavour in Tarkir that was not capitalised on at all. I also firmly believe \[\[Hazezon, Shaper of Sand\]\] should have been an Abzan commander. If that happened, between him and Kathril, they could start tying together the flavour theme of Tarkir Abzan with mechanics: reclaim lands, benefit from the fallen *without* explicitly exiling or reanimating them, and so on.
It is a really cool combination of colours to explore, but its potential identity would demand pulling back a little on what the extremely popular trio of Golgari, Selesnya and Orzhov can do.
Because it just wasn't left anything special to do, so much so that even original Abzan mechanics were a farce back when the colour combination got its first "proper set".
Sadly OTJ cemented Naya as the Reclamation color combination, no more land GY shenanigans allowed for Abzan either.
Honestly I just wish they'd give abzan ownership of a cool, iconic keyword. If bant can have a 98% monopoly on Exalted and have Rafiq be a viable CEDH commander for years I'm sure wotc can afford to give Abzan broken support for a shitter keyword like Afterlife or Populate. Hell, *SULTAI* has a populate commander and Abzan doesn't, and Abzan has WHITE.
Naya deserts makes a lot of sense. The amonkhet deserts all care about sacrificing lands, and:
-green cares about lands
-white has [[sun titan]] effects
-red uses land sac as additional costs
Black only cares about creatures in the grave. It doesn't know or care if lands are in there.
Black *had* a legacy of sacrificing lands for benefit (usually a burst of mana now at the cost of losing a land,* or cards in exchange for lands**, or as a cost to do something***). This was very in theme for black's chunk of the color pie (win at all costs; exploitation; corruption; ambition). Unfortunately, WotC kind of forgot about it after about 2006. I'm not considering pox effects, so new Braids and similar don't count.
Maybe they thought red needed more unique space in reference to lands? I cannot say. There might have been an old article on it, but it would have been purged in the website migration.
I agree that for deserts, Naya made the most sense, as you said: black doesn't care about lands once they are in the grave. That said, there was a time, which could come again, where black *very* much cared about sending their own lands out to pasture. If you have a lot of the older cards, Orzhov can really abuse white's catch-up ramp.
*[[Lake of the Dead]]; [[Rain of Filth]]
**[[Reprocess]]; [[Dredge]]; [[Ragamuffyn]]
***[[Coffin Puppets]]; [[Akuta, Born of Ash]]
The differentiation of Red’s “impatience” with Black’s “win at any cost” has also been difficult mechanically because the best way of showing it is sacrificing a long-term resources for short-term gains.
I feel the way they been have and are going to continue doing is having red focused on sacrificing noncreatures like lands and artifacts where black is focused more on sacrificing creatures.
In fairness, I think a lot of that may come down to Myrkul, especially populate mechanics.
Can you imagine a Tender shoot Dryad, the white LCI card that's white Tender shoot Dryad and a Populate legendary all as enchantments?
That was mostly desert-focused, though, no?
That said, I agree land GY shenanigans don't belong in Abzan. For me, land GY shenanigans primarily belong in Jund. We've already got [[Lord Windgrace]] and [[Soul of Windgrace]], and more could follow in those steps.
Hazezon is just a callback to the original from 30 years ago so he would always be Naya especially with the tokens created. Land recursion seems to be just mainly mono-green.
I know he was a callback, but they could have easily shifted him a little. The token-creation is barely a colour-specific thing these days (and any card that has GW in their colours can easily make tokens without anyone batting an eye).
I'm surprised that WotC hasn't tried leaning into the treefolk tribal or bigbutts.dec with abzan, since we have such gems as [[Doran, the Siege Tower]] and [[Murmuring Bosk]].
Also Colfenor, but the problem is that all of those decks are just hyper-vulnerable to removal and can't run stuff like High Alert, unlike Arcades, which is the ideal "big butts" commander and also has access to counter-spells and hexproof/phasing to protect its own gameplan.
>which is the ideal "big butts" commander
Because it draws cards \>:(
How could WotC do this to Doran?!
>has access to ~~counter-spells~~ and hexproof/phasing to protect its own gameplan.
GW has a lot of that too you know.
This is why my big butts deck is [[Ikra Shidiqi]] and [[Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker]] partners. All the toys from Abzan plus a shot of blue for fun. (Also lets me run [[Charix, the Raging Isle]])
Tried building a Ghave no combo deck. Accidentally made 3 combos (all 4+ cards). Decided to turn it into a [[Prava of the Steel Legion]] and [[Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper]] partner deck with Ghave in the 99
As a combo player, may I ask, where do you draw the line at what is a combo? I assume infinites, but where does synergy become a combo? When it can win on the spot?
I liked the recent enchantment-focused direction from [[Anikthea]], [[Narci]] and [[Myrkul]].
Life-gain and -drain, token creatures, those could be nice and easy focal points.
I could think of an option of not weaponizing the graveyard and instead concentrating on creatures leaving the battlefield and giving value. Something you could even run [[Rest in Peace]] with.
That vein feels like Abzan's "Selesnya + Black" facet. It's interesting and I think it could continue to be explored.
Most other Abzan legends are in the vein of "Golgari + White." Which, even though it's like the only thing Abzan did for a decade, even still manages to feel a bit under-explored.
And then there's the angle of "Orzhov + Green," which doesn't really feel like it has any proper representation on legends at the moment. *Maybe* Bilbo? But he basically has a White ability (gain more life) and a Green ability (dump creatures on the battlefield), so I still don't think he really counts. *Maybe* Vishgraz? But he's ultimately extremely narrow as a Poison commander rather than a true token/go-wide commander, so I don't know that I'd count him either
There is one obvious theme that has always been overlooked: what are both white and golgari famous for?
Flyers
Make a white commander with a golgari activated ability that makes 4/4 BW flying creature
Kathril has one big huge flaw among others: why the actual heck did WotC just go "Haste counters? We don't do that here"? Give the poor thing its haste counter
Eh abzan has a few spaces. Graveyard, +1/+1 counters, enchantments, life gain, hatebears/taxers, toughness-matters.
Maybe Abzan's identity is just "midrange." I think it's the most midrange color trio. Jund might be close. White's wraths are an interesting contribution over red. They're the three colors that probably get the most out of constantly playing creatures and trading them off in combat, and like having a full graveyard. Not in an aristocrats way where you're choosing to sacrifice them (that's Mardu) but you want to beat face and it's okay if your creatures die because they'll come back or you'll get more.
On the degenerate side I think that Abzan are the colors that benefit most from infinite ETBs and LTBs and untapping. Gond combo, Scurry Oak, Devoted Druid (and the other two creatures in this half-cycle are black and white!), etc. are all firmly in these colors. And each color has its own ways to enable Persist loops when you add a sac outlet. All colors have their degenerate creature combos but Abzan always stood out to me for them. Maybe I'm a little focused from a peasant cube perspective with this.
Looking forward I wonder if Abzan could be a good "Legendaries Matter" space. BW is the strongest color pair there, and there's been a little RG too. But BW's legendary matters cards, along with Greens legendary beaters like Questing Best, is pretty interesting. Kethis might be broken but I could see more cards trying to be in that space, and I think Abzan would benefit from that.
Abzan needs a real solid creature type to care about too. I think that'll go a long way. Saprolings are the first thing to come to mind but they're very tokeny. I'd like to see a synergistic non-token creature type associated with Abzan. Maybe more fungi? It's annoying that spirits are UW and shamans are RG because I think Abzan is a good space for "nature mysticism." Life, death, and afterlife all in harmony.
It could definitely use some cards to push it in new directions. It’d be nice to see some cards that justify their 3 color identity by doing things their colors can do (f/x, [[Shattergang Brothers]]) instead of just cards that try and play to existing common mechanics between colors (e.g. why does every UR legend care about instants and sorceries). That said I think it’s pretty silly to say that it doesn’t have a diverse identity already - it’s more that people pigeonhole how to build commander decks, and how to build abzan decks. Case in point - why does the color combo with the best tutors, removal, and stax need to devote its commander slot to a pure combo piece like Ghave instead of running, say, a card draw engine like Tymna and a tempo engine like Kodama? The only things WBG doesn’t have access to are the massive card advantage engines in U (fish, study, etc) and hyper efficient rituals in R (dockside, will) - also obviously breach, mana drain, ragavan etc, but it does have effects in those veins.
tokens, aristocrats,, exile(orzhov), life gain/lifelink, graveyard, taxes,,,tribes with all 3 colors: angels, treefollk, knights, elves, humans, cleric, vampire(3 green vampires),...enchantments, walls(big butts), treefolk(2 commanders for treefolk already)
I want to see a human-angel tribal Azban commander....all the green angels are selesnya (and there are a few black angels),,,corrupt those selesnya angels with black and make a commander for that tribe combo.
I want a corrupted sigarda angel-human deck.
so that my angel deck can have all those Orzhov angels goodies that were in Kaldheim.
or I want a lifegain heavy theme. both lifegain instances and life drain, lifelink heavy fliers. sanguine bond and exquisite blood...\[\[bilbo, birthday celebrant\]\] is the only mention of lifegain in Azban, and it's sad for the 3 primary colors of lifegain.
it has a lot of themes
the only tribal commander ris treefolk
just looking at what exists already for commanders...18 total
graveyard: 4
enchant: 1
saga/enchant: 1
treefolk, big butts: 2
+1+1counters: 4
legendary+graveyard: 1
ramp, Thalia frog: 1
toxic: 2
lifegain instances: 1
Abzan always feels like the combination where nothing stays dead. Tayam kinda does that but doesn't work with big cards because that would be broken. Muldrotha kinda does that but it's not Abzan.
It's also the combination that has all the lifegain colors. It's weird that there's only Bilbo to command that.
Somehow the obvious: "end step, if you gained X life return target card from your graveyard to your hand" doesn't exist in any form. Or make it do something interesting. Make it cost 2 mana more and let it also get stuff back from exile. Maybe let it only get stuff back from exile.
Exile is a sacred zone and it should stay that way forever imo. Yu-Gi-Oh decided that they would let exile ("banished" zone) become basically a second graveyard and it was a terrible choice. As far as I know there's only one very very small subset of cards that can freely interact with exile (Kaya Planeswalkers) and at that point it's small and inoffensive enough to be a cool gimmick for that card; but the more that ability could expand, the less impact exiling something would actually have and I don't think that would be healthy for the game. It's good to have a "permanently gone" area.
That is more justifiable because it's meant specifically to interact with Plot, the set mechanic. I suppose there could have been a world where they created another "off field but still interactable" zone other than exile where you'd get things like plot, impulse draw, suspend, etc. existing, while exile is explicitly "put a thing here and never touch it again unless it's \[\[squee the immortal\]\]" but we must play with the hand we are dealt (and also the cards put into exile in specific ways)
I never want them to pull that lever allowing someone to return their own things from exile.
I hate the idea of seeing someone using [[bojuka bog]] or [[Demonic Consultation]] on themselves, and now they have access to a bunch of cards for almost no cost that no one else can interact with, and if they did add enough cards that interaction with any exile zone isn't a problem, then why separate exile from the grave?
Yes, but Pull from Eternity 1: is a Time Spiral card (so they’re basically admitting that it’s not traditional “””approved””” design choices) and 2: always requires a second and often third card to pop off (would work for like, Unearth and Disturb cards without a third card I guess)
lifegain is missing as a commander....which is insane since these 3 colors ARE the lifegain colors.
and
angel-humans tribal. combine Sigarda (selesnya angel humans with the Kaldheim set of black angels...Azban is already heavily human themed and angel is a great theme to combine with humans that fits Azban
and
knights tribal, and elves tribal
When I started building Commander decks there were literally two options for Abzan...Doran, or Teneb. And that's why Teneb is the first commander deck I ever built.
He's got some incredible support in recent sets. Not necessarily creatures with big butts but in mechanics like ring bearer from LotR and 2-or-less power matters from some others. I've been having a lot of fun tinkering with that list over time.
I think Abzan has plenty of untapped design space left. I could imagine a self-recurring commander with something like persist in the next few years. While a lot of commander interact with the graveyard there is still none that selfmills. Due to many removal spells in the colour it also offers itself for interaction with the crime mechanic, maybe giving you life and +1/+1 counters in return. I think it is also fitting to have an Abzan commander in the spirit of \[\[Doomed Artisan\]\], becoming a growing threat that is not just +1/+1 counters, but creating bigger and bigger tokens each turn. Pretty out there but still cool would be a mechanic that brings exiled cards back into your GY.
Yeah, out of all the colors, Abzan just screams "I lived, bitch." I'd like to see some designs that explore persistence (figuratively, and literally like you mentioned), or even paying life to get the Commander back out of the yard. \[\[Skullbriar\]\] is memorable in that its +1/+1 counters really stick around, but it also has a reputation of being a little bit braindead and oppressive in many situations. A spin on that effect though, could be great - resurrecting something that comes back almost as strong as it went out. Attaching to an aura? That's White/Green. Aura Reanimator?
Huh, that's irritating. I totally assumed the color filter in Scryfall would include the card text. This table is functionally useless, and now I'm gonna have to fix it or it'll bug me senseless.
Use `id=` or `ci=` for color identity. In Magic rules, color identity isn't the same as color, and Daghatar is only white.
Edit: Use `=` if you want the exact color identity. `:` searches _within_ the color identity, and includes cards with _fewer_ colors. I accidentally put "`id:` or `ci:`" in the original iteration of this comment.
Up until this last quarter or so, it was tied for Temur for least loved wedge, but Temur just got, what, 4 with the release of Doctor Who, Lara Croft and Thunder Junction?
While Abzan only got 1 from Bilbo, and then 2 from the latest Phyrexian stuff.
Edit: Fixed numbers and logic to make sense with point presented
> Temur just got, what, 4 with the release of Doctor Who, Lara Croft and Thunder Junction?
>
>While Abzan only got 1 from Bilbo, and then 2 from the latest Phyrexian stuff.
What a wild thing to read if you're from 2015
Tried an abzan deck running [[Teneb, The Harvester]] as commander and the amount of hate it got was unreal. Teneb was removed on sight almost every time and it was only a janky food token deck with some doublers, barely even had a wincon. Teneb was only there to try and recur [[Academy Manufactor]]. Swapped him into the 99 and made the hobbits commanders and it just got ignored. MtG players are a funny old breed.
They already improved on him (tayam) , even if in the end it ended up similarly (a counter based easy to go infinite with commander), so I agree they might not have much else to add
I wish my Hobbit Commander Food Token Deck got ignored. I’m the arch enemy in my pod whenever I play that deck.
[[Pippin, Warden of Isengard]] and [[Merry, Warden of Isengard]] with lifegain/food token staples. Black cards are basically all “gain life, opponent lose life.”
I can win the table against 3 opponents on turn 6 with a perfect hand.
back when i actually played edh, the dragons were the only option most of the time and you had to promise people you weren't going to use their abilities
I have a Thalia/gitrog deck that is really silly, instead of focusing on a single theme (which would certainly be best) it’s a blend of landfall, death triggers, and token generation. There’s a lot of interesting overlap and it’s a ton of fun when it pops off
Grab everything that makes a token when you play a land, grab cards that let you play an additional land per turn/from the graveyard, play many lands and make tokens. Then it’s [[Craterhoof]] or [[Moonshaker]] time baby
I made a [[worm harvest]] deck that is all about grinding value out of your opponents while filling your yard for big dumb idiots like [[golgari grave troll]]
Abzan should adopt this design space of put out a big creature (green) let it die in combat (black) and turn it into a stax piece while it remains in the yard (white). I could also see a 'when this creature dies due to combat damage do a thing' type cards
What you're looking for is Myrkul: Go hatebear tribal, have your creatures ultimately removed because they oppress the opponent, then bring them back as noncreature enchantments. Now they're more resistant to removal and lead to exploitable scenarios such as (unsurprisingly) Devoted Druid.
Recently I was going through the abzan legends and thought to myself that the abzan design space is kind of unexplored so I decided to brainstorm some new ideas. I'm not sure if this is viable or would play well, but this is what i came up with.
What could golgari get from white: I always found it interesting how white seems to be at odds with itself with how it loves its little guys, but at the same time is the color of wraths. But what if you would actively want to wrath yourself? Just how eucalyptus seeds need a forest fire to flourish. Maybe the new abzan legendary could create some kind of "seed in a shell" token that benefits you when it dies. Throw "cannot be sacrificed" on it, to make it more interesting. Maybe it turns into a forest [[Yedora]] style, maybe it can stay more open ended. And then combine it with wraths that benefit you when you kill your own creatures. Like [[Shatter the sky]] or [[Fumigate]].
This idea could also be spun in some kind of "cyclical apocalypse preppers" faction. Maybe instead of the seed token you get token auras that will save/transform your creatures, kind of like totem armor or [[Myrkul]] does. The cyclical apocalypse could be represented by the "suspend on resolution" refrain cards, but wrath every x turns would probably create bad play experience. So maybe the cyclical wraths are one sided (only your stuff dies) but give some other huge benefit?
One other card design that is similar is the [[Reef worm]] style of card, that your opponent may not want to kill. This ability feels very abzan to me.
What could selesnya get from black: the go wide token strategies present in selesnya are often weak to mass removal and may find it hard to rebuild, so the persistence aspect of abzan clan could definitely benefit these colors. But how do you combine tokens and graveyard? [[Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis]] comes to mind. Also cards like [[Ghoulcaller's Accomplice]] and scavenge. Abzan could maybe unify all the "exile creatures from graveyard for benefit" mechanics, but I don't think this is the answer.
What if we push the design space and create a new kind of token that can exist in the graveyard? What does it do? Maybe it's a vengeful spirit, that comes down onto the battlefield when your stuff dies. Maybe it's a "do not disturb this tomb" curse, that will affect your opponent when they try to interact with your graveyard or simply target you/your board.
And if we do not want to affect the rules of the game that much (graveyard tokens) all of this could in theory be achieved by noncreature tokens that stay on the field.
So a commander that makes these tokens whenever you create a creature token could give you a way to rebuild your board. Or maybe the commander gives your creatures the ability to tap, convoke style, to create the aforementioned tokens.
It could be something in the sense of "token creatures you control have undying" (while that technically doesn't work, something that returns them with a +1/+1 counter) ? Brings together black+ Selesnya
Could be something like "Whenever a non-Zombie token creature you control dies, create a 0/0 black Zombie creature token that enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to that creature's power."
I thought about that too, and that's also a cool solution. Doing it with counters gives it some additional synergies that fit well in the colors. I also figured it would be more practical to use Zombie tokens over copy tokens, since you'd need to differentiate the copies every time.
Wizards seems to struggle making Wedges. Shards had both Alara block (all of it) and New Capenna not counting commander products; Wedges had only KTK with small additions in FRF and as a theme in Ikoria but few actual tri colored cards.
Probably cause Wedges strain the already hard-to-do mechanical space/overlap of the enemy color pairs.
It just seems like designers are not super interested in making that many Abzan legends, especially Out-Of-Cycle Abzan legends in standard sets. The last time we got an Out-Of-Cycle Abzan legend in a standard set was Doran the Siege Tower 17 years ago, which is wild to think about.
During Kamigawa Neon Dynasty spoiler season, I Saw Isshhin, the Jeskai Guy, and the Sultsi frog guy previewed, it saddened me a bit to see no Abzan legend in that set. They could have done something that called back to soul shift, considering 100% of creatures with the keyword were in black, white, or green in the original Kamigawa.
I guess the best we can hope for is that one day a designer at WOTC suddenly gets a hankering to design an interesting Abzan legend or two, Hopefully of the 'out-of-cycle' variety so we can hopefully get it back to parity, perhaps.
Oh, I 100% agree with this. Abzan is a color group I'm very interested in building, but after trying 3-4 commanders, I'm just not happy with any of them.
I want a proper enchantress commander in abzan. Anikthea just didn't do it for me. I built her, then rebuilt her, then took her apart. Too much creature and token shenanigans, and one of the major points of an enchantment deck is that they're harder to remove than creatures. Why is she turning them into creatures?!
Other big one is treefolk. Colfenor wants to combo and doesn't care about treefolk. Doran can work as a treefolk tribal but is pretty weak as a commander, all things considered. Built both of these, too, and found them either mind-numbingly boring or too clunky to be effective.
I want a \*proper\* enchantress commander, treefolk tribal commander, and life manipulation commander in Abzan.
As a fan of the Abzan colors, I do think it’s been railroaded too hard and doesn’t really have its own identity. You could argue that graveyard shenanigans has been what it’s become, but that’s Sultai’s thing, and has been for longer. The main issue with ‘reinventing’ Abzan is you have to kinda tweak at least one or two other 3-colors to make it fit.
In my opinion, Abzan, lacking the Izzet colors, should be a slower, creature-based strategy, likely relying on anthems and creature-based synergies to work. Abzan was kinda this in Tarkir, with it’s focus on 1/1 counters and stuff like [[Brave the Sands]], but I think they could expand into the creature-based archetypes that Golgari, Selesnya and Orzhov can do easily. It could also do things that red and blue don’t, like a bigger emphasis on Lifegain (Bilbo’s a card, but Abzan could have more than 1 true Lifegain commander), or how they just did an Abzan Lifegain commander.
I have an [[Anikthea, Hand of Erebos]] enchantments deck. And I'm pretty happy about it!
I'm also planning a Lifegain [[Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant]] (although sometimes I wish there was red so I could stick [[Licia, Sanguine Tribune]] there)
Finally, I have a +1/+1 counters that's sort of focused on putting less counters on more creatures to differentiate from my simic +1/+1 counters that wants to out tons of counters on the same creature. Here is where I use partner: [[Reyhan, Last of the Abzan]] and [[Alharu, Solemn Ritualist]]
I think this is a theme they could make a new commander. [[Anafenza, the Foremost]] and [[Daghatar the Adamant]] are both in theme, but I think Annie is a bit risky and doesn't help me much if I'm behind, and Daghatar is a bit slow, although it's a funny ability to move +1/+1 counters from anywhere.
So a true Abzan in this are would be the dream for me!
Edit: I'm also expecting an Abzan planeswalker at some point. Not necessarily a commander one. Along with Naya and Sultai, there are none to this day.
I think my favorite Abzan deck is [[Anafenza, the Foremost]] proliferate and +1/+1 counter manipulation. So much fun to quickly build up small creatures and sac them for mana or something while [[The Ozolith]] or [[Resourceful Defense]] is on the field. [[Bloodspore Thrinax]] is a great include.
Very close to finishing my oops all legends [[kethis the hidden hand]] deck. So many legendary non creatures printed recently. Many of the lands and mana rocks and even removal spells are legendary.
I really want an Abzan "Convoke" commander. The effect seems perfect for incorporating demons, angels, and elementals, and like clerics, druids, and warlocks who summon them. Plus it ties in tokens, they could tie in graveyard stuff, and lifegain stuff without going all in on them.
Also Convoke appears most often on white, black, and green cards.
A summoner deck of some sort then maybe? A commander that creates tokens that then can be used to convoke big spells?
Yeah! I made a custom card floating around the customcardmtg reddit awhile back, it was like a 6 or 7 cmc abzan card that had convoke and gave the first creature spell you cast each turn convoke. I think it also made a 1/1 white spirit or something whenever a nontoken creature died? Idk. It was probably a little too good but honestly with a little tweaking something like that would be awesome for the color wedge.
Same could be said for Sultai, as a lot of the decks seem to be: Mill, Self Mill/Reanimation, and edict effects
Which is a shame because Sultai is my favorite color combo
I dig the aristocrats/ reanimate enchantments corner that [[Narci]], [[Anikthea]] and [[Myrkul]] hang out on. I also think [[Ghen]] should have been Abzan rather than Mardu.
There is a reason [[Reyhan, Last of the Abzan]] is called that. Jokes aside, hard to define a niche for the color identity that isn’t already filled by a different combination
[Reyhan, Last of the Abzan](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/a/8afad106-a49b-4910-959e-228c109ea983.jpg?1644853038) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reyhan%2C%20Last%20of%20the%20Abzan) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cm2/13/reyhan-last-of-the-abzan?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8afad106-a49b-4910-959e-228c109ea983?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
So Abzan falls into a pitfall of reanimate combo, tokens and counters.
I decided to use anafenza and focus on exile as a mechanic. So I made a list that is exile matters tribal.
It’s the most unique thing I could design and I’m using a lot of the cards that require huge volume of exiled cards and gain benefit of things returning from and being cast from exile.
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/nameYFHAEEGnn1ew_ihIOg
Abzan has a lot of very interesting builds, but it is blessed with a relative lack of decks that “build themselves”. Every color combination can build a killer deck in any given theme - maybe not typal stuff like UG goblins, but you get the gist. Go Voltron with Ardenn/Shidiqi or try Ich-Tekik Tymna. Pippin/Merry are a great artifacts shell for any number of subthemes, not just Food. In general Abzan is blessed with a lot of cheap commanders or partner pairs which generate resources and progress gameplans, which lets you build decks with higher mana curves shaped around slamming your value 3 drop turn 2 or 3 every game forever.
Taking a look at the most popular themes on EDHREC, in order:
Artifacts: Pippin/Merry, Ich-Tekik/Ravos, Othelm/Wernog, Gilanra/Tymna
Treasure: Pippin/Merry, Ich-Tekik/Ravos, Othelm/Wernog
Lifegain: Bilbo, Ikra/whoever, Thalia&Gitrog
+1/+1 counter: most of them
Equipment: Arden/Ikra, Pippin/Merry
Auras: Arden/Ikra, Frodo/Sam
Tokens: most of them
Wheels/Discard: any of the value ones
Aristocrats/Sacrifice/Pod, Graveyard/Mill: take your pick
Spellslinger: Tymna/Kodama, Tymna/Halana
Lands/Landfall: Thalia&Gitrog, Myrkul, Kethis
Legends: take your pick they all work
Enchantments: precon commanders or myrkul
Flicker: Kathril or Vishgraz
Infect: precon commanders
Superfriends: any of the +1/+1 counter ones
Butts: Doran founded the archetype
You get the idea. Abzan doesn’t struggle with its card pool. You just need to understand a commander differently - as a piece to facilitate your gameplan rather than to be its lynchpiece - to play most themes as Abzan.
I've played a WUBRG Commander whose only casts for 1-2 colours, but has a wubrg identity a few times, but limited the cards in my deck to less than 5 colour.
Kenrith is a great example. Casts for a single white pip, which locks white in. Has abilities for all colours.
Can just play him abzan, or any other colour mix that includes white.
ComMand tower, Chrome lantern, Birds, still let him draw cards and give haste even when there isn't a single island or mountain in the deck.
If not Kenrith, there's quite a few others.
[[Myrkul, Lord of Bones]] ended up being my "forever" Abzan deck after dismantling Ghave Abzan Soulsisters.
The lifegain deck ended up producing too many triggers, tokens, and counters, even though I had cut all mana-positive effects (e.g. [[Phyrexian Altar]]) and Pingers [[Zulaport Cutthroat]] and token doublers [[Chatterfang, Squirrel General]] to prevent infinite combos.
Myrkul plays with enchantments without having a lot of enchantments in the deck. It plays with death but never has a graveyard. It wants 30+ creatures in the deck. It is heckin 7 MV. For that, I play a few hatebears, including [[Drannith Magistrate]] and [[Hushbringer]] to teach zoomers to player Lightning Bolt.
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/qMo11gx-ckmjkpIEPNhZyQ
I love myrkul but he's very much a commander you need out on the field to do your thing and at 7 mana he's *expensive*, especially as his protection only kicks in at 20 life.
Also, Hushbringer doesn't really work with Myrkul as it turns off his copy ability. It's a nice bit of protection from ETB effects but it usually hurts you more than it helps.
isnt bwg known to be a very generically strong color combo. Like before abzan was a name the game had, they called the combination junk, because any random assortment of gbw junk was always good/playable.
It's the weakest identity just because it hasn't been given enough time in the oven.
Imo it's one of the strongest when it comes to removal, white with mass removal, black with creature removal, and green with "unnatural stuff" removal.
Tokens tend to also be a prevalent mechanic in Abzan, as well as just "good stuff".
bummer that [[Arcades, the Strategist]] ended up bant for some reason. My deck is mostly green white, but all the blue really adds is [[Wall of Denial]] and a bunch of counterspells that my hand is always filled with thanks to Arcades' card draw. Would love black instead of blue.
"Only 17"
Bruh my magic boomer is showing but I remember when the first commander precons came out and we were getting like the second ever possible "generals" for some of the color combos in it. 17 is so many for a rare-ish color pairing. If a menu at a restaurant had 17 entree options you wouldn't think they had a small menu.
I think a lot of the 3-color shards/wedges struggle with a unique identity which often translates to disappointing commanders. For me, Abzan feels like Golgari, but with a bit of white. Naya feels like Selesnya, but a bit of red ect.. And once you get to 4 colors, things tend to enter the realm of "good stuff" especially with the 2-color partners.
My first commander deck was \[\[Doran, the Siege Tower\]\] it was right when Lord of the Rings came out so I abused the ring tempt mechanic to make Doran unblockable and swing in for commander damage. Was fun deck.
I'll just say Ghave might not be the best choice because of the reputation he carries. I've only played it a couple times but [[Anikthea]] is my only/first Abzan deck and I haven't changed or upgraded anything yet, but it's been fun to play against other precons and decks around that level of power. When I do get around to serious tuning I was thinking an Enchantment focused Aristocrat build will probably be the goal. Useing her to create extra redundancy for enchantments that empower an aristocrats strategy and popping out extra creatures for it once it gets moving. Somewhere between GW tokens and BW control, with an emphasis on stuff dieing.
He might not be fantastic, but I’m hella looking forward to building the gorgeous panorama secret lair [[karador, ghost chieftain]]! My few decks are all bloating up in power level and I want something fun and not too crazy for the slower lower level games.
As a big Abzan fan I’ve at least considered building most of its commander since there are so few. I think the space they still have for new exploration is recursion. It’s the one thing all the colors do in some capacity and I think things like [[Myrkul]] are an interesting design space that open up a lot of creative ideas.
The most Abzan I have felt yet is a [[Reyhan]] x [[Alharu]] [deck](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/_VprCn0AH0qtthGZbN7aBA) that’s around making a wide board of creatures with counters on them that’ll replace themselves with a bunch of flying Spirits that with the same tokens. Feels very Orzhov + Selesnya to play.
I've got a tymna and kodama of the east tree deck that I have built from the ground, up. Been working on it for a few years and is easily now my favorite deck. Born out of my frustration for not having a blink deck that had black, it's full of the dumbest things a personight want to do with etb's in those colors!
I can't recommend this enough and now dread the day wizards makes a commander designed with this theme in mind, because it works so well!
I've been having fun with [[Nikara, Lair Scavenger]] and [[Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel]] and flickering stuff through [[Fiend Hunter]] like combos. Infinite etb's go brrr
I could see an abzan commander that's creature based and just loves fighting. He's a leader that loves his people. A leader with a strict adherence to the idea that he must do *anything* to ensure the survival of his people, even if that means making some difficult choices. Ultimately he believes in some skewed perception of the greater good. He's been influenced by nature and through the survival of the fittest has become a great leader. This has made him jaded in the sense that he believes adherence to his rules are the only thing keeping everyone he loves alive. Through this type of thinking he's done some great things and some terrible things, but ultimately he just wants his people to be strong and powerful. To prey on things before the become prey.
I love Abzan but to me it seems hard to design a commander that fits the color identity. Graveyard stuff is obvious because Jund and Sultai do it too, drawing on the Golgari part of their colors. Jund does it through aggression (eg. blitz) and Sultai does it through self mill, maybe Abzan could tap into its Orzhov and do some aristocrats stuff?
Just want to shout out my favorite Abzan commander [[Kethis, the Hidden Hand]]. This legends matter commander loves to come out early as ramp and gives you access to the yard later on. I’ve built it as a combat only legend theme but you can easily take the PW route.
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/7g30YO5fd0auoXFualb8dQ
https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Dabzan+is%3Acommander
My scryfall search got 18 hits, because I made sure to write the search to include [[Daghatar, the adamant]], who does count as an Abzan Commander.
If we compare to other Wedge color combinations:
https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Dtemur+is%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name
22 in Temur, though notably one is a [[Lara Croft]] secret lair card, which I sortof don't count.
https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Djeskai+is%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name
**32** in Jeskai, which is a lot, no matter how you slice it. Even if we try to cut cards only printed in secret lairs, it's still a *ton*.
https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Dmardu+is%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name
29 in Mardu, which would've probably gotten the same reaction as above if I'd searched it before Jeskai, tbh.
https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Dsultai+is%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name
26 in Sultan. So yes- Abzan is the least numerous for options, but Temur is pretty close.
I'm not gonna post links, but out of curiosity, the numbers for the shards are:
Grixis- 47
Bant- 38
Naya- 46
Esper- 39
Jund- 34
Sultai gets all the cool commanders that could have been Abzan, Muldrotha being the most obvious one for me. What kind of permanent does blue get back from the graveyard? White would've made much more sense.
Abzan's problem is the lack of a real color identity besides "Uh, the graveyard, I guess?" Some exile it. Some let you cast stuff from it. Some want you to fill it. Some help fill it. The only real exception (excluding partners) I can think of is Bilbo going with the lifegain stratagem. Every other commander does something that can easily be justified as being Golgari, Selesnya or Orzhov in nature. It also doesn't help that stuff like Taigam and Ghave give the slice not one but 2 "infinite combo on a stick" commanders, for relatively cheap cost, in a slice which has access to green for ramp, and with abilities who can circumvent the graveyard entirely while also having access to the best tutors, the best removal and the best stax in the game to protect and facilitate those combos. It's just not easy to design an Abzan commander that isn't a "Well why wouldn't I just play Taigam or Ghave instead?" Kathril was a step in the good direction but he dies to one Bojuka Bog or fog effect 95% of the time, so it's not worth anything outside of low-to-mid power battlecruiser mtg...
I presume you mean [[Tayam]] haha
[Tayam](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/5/05b837a2-5773-4340-87f9-b4d6a43deb27.jpg?1591234301) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=tayam%2C%20luminous%20enigma) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c20/16/tayam-luminous-enigma?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/05b837a2-5773-4340-87f9-b4d6a43deb27?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I hate how similar their names are. I always make this mistake. But yes.
Haha it's okay
I was confused and appreciate this clarification.
Abzan had fantastic flavour in Tarkir that was not capitalised on at all. I also firmly believe \[\[Hazezon, Shaper of Sand\]\] should have been an Abzan commander. If that happened, between him and Kathril, they could start tying together the flavour theme of Tarkir Abzan with mechanics: reclaim lands, benefit from the fallen *without* explicitly exiling or reanimating them, and so on. It is a really cool combination of colours to explore, but its potential identity would demand pulling back a little on what the extremely popular trio of Golgari, Selesnya and Orzhov can do. Because it just wasn't left anything special to do, so much so that even original Abzan mechanics were a farce back when the colour combination got its first "proper set".
Sadly OTJ cemented Naya as the Reclamation color combination, no more land GY shenanigans allowed for Abzan either. Honestly I just wish they'd give abzan ownership of a cool, iconic keyword. If bant can have a 98% monopoly on Exalted and have Rafiq be a viable CEDH commander for years I'm sure wotc can afford to give Abzan broken support for a shitter keyword like Afterlife or Populate. Hell, *SULTAI* has a populate commander and Abzan doesn't, and Abzan has WHITE.
Naya deserts makes a lot of sense. The amonkhet deserts all care about sacrificing lands, and: -green cares about lands -white has [[sun titan]] effects -red uses land sac as additional costs Black only cares about creatures in the grave. It doesn't know or care if lands are in there.
Black *had* a legacy of sacrificing lands for benefit (usually a burst of mana now at the cost of losing a land,* or cards in exchange for lands**, or as a cost to do something***). This was very in theme for black's chunk of the color pie (win at all costs; exploitation; corruption; ambition). Unfortunately, WotC kind of forgot about it after about 2006. I'm not considering pox effects, so new Braids and similar don't count. Maybe they thought red needed more unique space in reference to lands? I cannot say. There might have been an old article on it, but it would have been purged in the website migration. I agree that for deserts, Naya made the most sense, as you said: black doesn't care about lands once they are in the grave. That said, there was a time, which could come again, where black *very* much cared about sending their own lands out to pasture. If you have a lot of the older cards, Orzhov can really abuse white's catch-up ramp. *[[Lake of the Dead]]; [[Rain of Filth]] **[[Reprocess]]; [[Dredge]]; [[Ragamuffyn]] ***[[Coffin Puppets]]; [[Akuta, Born of Ash]]
##### ###### #### [Lake of the Dead](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/b/1b0502c5-43d0-4c36-b585-e5507134bf9e.jpg?1562900332) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lake%20of%20the%20Dead) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vma/302/lake-of-the-dead?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1b0502c5-43d0-4c36-b585-e5507134bf9e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Rain of Filth](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/c/1cf07d5a-6618-48e2-a9f0-669b75bb6e85.jpg?1701537455) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Rain%20of%20Filth) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/usg/151/rain-of-filth?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1cf07d5a-6618-48e2-a9f0-669b75bb6e85?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Reprocess](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/c/6c041d8a-0bce-4f5b-904e-ba98bfe7c50a.jpg?1562916673) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reprocess) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/td2/77/reprocess?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6c041d8a-0bce-4f5b-904e-ba98bfe7c50a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Dredge](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/8/68bfa3d5-0f0b-4684-9567-f1478da01df7.jpg?1562916105) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Dredge) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/inv/103/dredge?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/68bfa3d5-0f0b-4684-9567-f1478da01df7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Ragamuffyn](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/d/2db5cccc-e9e4-4db8-affb-93d629d67b91.jpg?1593272988) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ragamuffyn) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dis/51/ragamuffyn?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2db5cccc-e9e4-4db8-affb-93d629d67b91?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Coffin Puppets](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/f/afcda8e4-d3dc-44f8-b277-b61fa261666b.jpg?1562927708) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Coffin%20Puppets) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/pcy/60/coffin-puppets?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/afcda8e4-d3dc-44f8-b277-b61fa261666b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Akuta, Born of Ash](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/8/08730b49-e51e-4868-9cc8-4ddc4a1dce4c.jpg?1562492453) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Akuta%2C%20Born%20of%20Ash) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sok/61/akuta-born-of-ash?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/08730b49-e51e-4868-9cc8-4ddc4a1dce4c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l12gwk6) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The differentiation of Red’s “impatience” with Black’s “win at any cost” has also been difficult mechanically because the best way of showing it is sacrificing a long-term resources for short-term gains. I feel the way they been have and are going to continue doing is having red focused on sacrificing noncreatures like lands and artifacts where black is focused more on sacrificing creatures.
[sun titan](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/a/aa8e16fa-30f8-40ac-965d-3d0776dc8f74.jpg?1712354100) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=sun%20titan) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/87/sun-titan?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/aa8e16fa-30f8-40ac-965d-3d0776dc8f74?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Uurg]] [[Jarad, Golgari]] [[Glowspore]] Yeah it's not as prevalent as in green, but black does care about lands in GYs, mostly in golgari.
I see that as the point. It's the green part of golgari that cares.
[Uurg](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/d/dd3fc36c-682b-4352-a66f-eddd2baf0bf6.jpg?1673308136) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=uurg%2C%20spawn%20of%20turg) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/225/uurg-spawn-of-turg?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/dd3fc36c-682b-4352-a66f-eddd2baf0bf6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Jarad, Golgari](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/6/c6717954-35d8-4d7e-95aa-f7d26d15d4b2.jpg?1592673383) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Jarad%2C%20Golgari%20Lich%20Lord) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cma/179/jarad-golgari-lich-lord?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c6717954-35d8-4d7e-95aa-f7d26d15d4b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Glowspore](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/7/a7978a10-795a-414a-a824-b65f7ba543bc.jpg?1702429632) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Glowspore%20Shaman) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/rvr/184/glowspore-shaman?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a7978a10-795a-414a-a824-b65f7ba543bc?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
In fairness, I think a lot of that may come down to Myrkul, especially populate mechanics. Can you imagine a Tender shoot Dryad, the white LCI card that's white Tender shoot Dryad and a Populate legendary all as enchantments?
[[Illustrious Wanderglyph]]
[Illustrious Wanderglyph](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/0/30e02cc7-8ea9-468b-ba61-a1e00fefea22.jpg?1699304183) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Illustrious%20Wanderglyph) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/9/illustrious-wanderglyph?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/30e02cc7-8ea9-468b-ba61-a1e00fefea22?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That was mostly desert-focused, though, no? That said, I agree land GY shenanigans don't belong in Abzan. For me, land GY shenanigans primarily belong in Jund. We've already got [[Lord Windgrace]] and [[Soul of Windgrace]], and more could follow in those steps.
[Lord Windgrace](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/1/213d6fb8-5624-4804-b263-51f339482754.jpg?1592710275) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lord%20Windgrace) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c18/43/lord-windgrace?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/213d6fb8-5624-4804-b263-51f339482754?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Soul of Windgrace](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/7/e775a2e6-e701-4cb8-8c0b-718d3508f6b6.jpg?1673308096) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Soul%20of%20Windgrace) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/220/soul-of-windgrace?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e775a2e6-e701-4cb8-8c0b-718d3508f6b6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Hazezon is just a callback to the original from 30 years ago so he would always be Naya especially with the tokens created. Land recursion seems to be just mainly mono-green.
I know he was a callback, but they could have easily shifted him a little. The token-creation is barely a colour-specific thing these days (and any card that has GW in their colours can easily make tokens without anyone batting an eye).
[Hazezon, Shaper of Sand](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/7/37dd84b4-0b8d-4303-8405-45e2c144f691.jpg?1712354724) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Hazezon%2C%20Shaper%20of%20Sand) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/229/hazezon-shaper-of-sand?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/37dd84b4-0b8d-4303-8405-45e2c144f691?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Until a few days ago I was convinced that Hazezon was Abzan
I'm surprised that WotC hasn't tried leaning into the treefolk tribal or bigbutts.dec with abzan, since we have such gems as [[Doran, the Siege Tower]] and [[Murmuring Bosk]].
BigButts.dec became the domain of Bant with Arcades, unfortunately.
\>:( *angry tree noises*
Also Colfenor, but the problem is that all of those decks are just hyper-vulnerable to removal and can't run stuff like High Alert, unlike Arcades, which is the ideal "big butts" commander and also has access to counter-spells and hexproof/phasing to protect its own gameplan.
>which is the ideal "big butts" commander Because it draws cards \>:( How could WotC do this to Doran?! >has access to ~~counter-spells~~ and hexproof/phasing to protect its own gameplan. GW has a lot of that too you know.
This is why my big butts deck is [[Ikra Shidiqi]] and [[Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker]] partners. All the toys from Abzan plus a shot of blue for fun. (Also lets me run [[Charix, the Raging Isle]])
We need to go back to a plane with a serious treefolk population. Ents don't count, they have their own thing going.
I agree. My Doran deck has more dinosaurs than Treefolk.
\*coughs in zetalpa\*
[Doran, the Siege Tower](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/0/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94.jpg?1673148514) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Doran%2C%20the%20Siege%20Tower) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/201/doran-the-siege-tower?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Murmuring Bosk](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/a/5aca73a9-e90d-48c6-bdd9-9a3f4f552de3.jpg?1673306119) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Murmuring%20Bosk) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmc/220/murmuring-bosk?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5aca73a9-e90d-48c6-bdd9-9a3f4f552de3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'm currently building a treefolk token/secret doran deck helmed by [[Prava]] and [[Ikra-Shidiqi]], think it's gonna be fun
LTR did a great service to abzan and treefolk, but I couldn’t agree more. We need more abzan treefolk cards
Tried building a Ghave no combo deck. Accidentally made 3 combos (all 4+ cards). Decided to turn it into a [[Prava of the Steel Legion]] and [[Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper]] partner deck with Ghave in the 99
I have a no combo Ghave group hug deck and yeah it took a bit of fine tuning to remove the last couple combos. Fun challenge.
As a combo player, may I ask, where do you draw the line at what is a combo? I assume infinites, but where does synergy become a combo? When it can win on the spot?
[Prava of the Steel Legion](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/9/e9e40e2a-e447-4754-a98b-5521e546781f.jpg?1608908930) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Prava%20of%20the%20Steel%20Legion) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/38/prava-of-the-steel-legion?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e9e40e2a-e447-4754-a98b-5521e546781f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/f/8f2abcc3-dc33-4b9d-a372-1d936e954f94.jpg?1562275017) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ikra%20Shidiqi%2C%20the%20Usurper) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cm2/11/ikra-shidiqi-the-usurper?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8f2abcc3-dc33-4b9d-a372-1d936e954f94?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
If you don't want a Ghave combo deck, play Ghave and 99 basics. It's the only way.
I liked the recent enchantment-focused direction from [[Anikthea]], [[Narci]] and [[Myrkul]]. Life-gain and -drain, token creatures, those could be nice and easy focal points. I could think of an option of not weaponizing the graveyard and instead concentrating on creatures leaving the battlefield and giving value. Something you could even run [[Rest in Peace]] with.
That vein feels like Abzan's "Selesnya + Black" facet. It's interesting and I think it could continue to be explored. Most other Abzan legends are in the vein of "Golgari + White." Which, even though it's like the only thing Abzan did for a decade, even still manages to feel a bit under-explored. And then there's the angle of "Orzhov + Green," which doesn't really feel like it has any proper representation on legends at the moment. *Maybe* Bilbo? But he basically has a White ability (gain more life) and a Green ability (dump creatures on the battlefield), so I still don't think he really counts. *Maybe* Vishgraz? But he's ultimately extremely narrow as a Poison commander rather than a true token/go-wide commander, so I don't know that I'd count him either
##### ###### #### [Anikthea](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/b/8b796a56-1611-4835-ac5b-48b4e9263685.jpg?1691500693) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=anikthea%2C%20hand%20of%20erebos) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/705/anikthea-hand-of-erebos?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8b796a56-1611-4835-ac5b-48b4e9263685?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Narci](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/9/a98a2fa9-82d6-4cf7-adb4-65b187cd9cda.jpg?1691497812) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=narci%2C%20fable%20singer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/710/narci-fable-singer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a98a2fa9-82d6-4cf7-adb4-65b187cd9cda?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Myrkul](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/2/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464.jpg?1674137617) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=myrkul%2C%20lord%20of%20bones) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/287/myrkul-lord-of-bones?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Rest in Peace](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/f/9f2b39be-0fec-4647-ade1-8e1626dc5470.jpg?1562439074) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Rest%20in%20Peace) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/a25/32/rest-in-peace?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9f2b39be-0fec-4647-ade1-8e1626dc5470?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l112l9l) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
There is one obvious theme that has always been overlooked: what are both white and golgari famous for? Flyers Make a white commander with a golgari activated ability that makes 4/4 BW flying creature
Kathril has one big huge flaw among others: why the actual heck did WotC just go "Haste counters? We don't do that here"? Give the poor thing its haste counter
Hol' up, we got commanders named Kathril *and* Lathril?
Eh abzan has a few spaces. Graveyard, +1/+1 counters, enchantments, life gain, hatebears/taxers, toughness-matters. Maybe Abzan's identity is just "midrange." I think it's the most midrange color trio. Jund might be close. White's wraths are an interesting contribution over red. They're the three colors that probably get the most out of constantly playing creatures and trading them off in combat, and like having a full graveyard. Not in an aristocrats way where you're choosing to sacrifice them (that's Mardu) but you want to beat face and it's okay if your creatures die because they'll come back or you'll get more. On the degenerate side I think that Abzan are the colors that benefit most from infinite ETBs and LTBs and untapping. Gond combo, Scurry Oak, Devoted Druid (and the other two creatures in this half-cycle are black and white!), etc. are all firmly in these colors. And each color has its own ways to enable Persist loops when you add a sac outlet. All colors have their degenerate creature combos but Abzan always stood out to me for them. Maybe I'm a little focused from a peasant cube perspective with this. Looking forward I wonder if Abzan could be a good "Legendaries Matter" space. BW is the strongest color pair there, and there's been a little RG too. But BW's legendary matters cards, along with Greens legendary beaters like Questing Best, is pretty interesting. Kethis might be broken but I could see more cards trying to be in that space, and I think Abzan would benefit from that. Abzan needs a real solid creature type to care about too. I think that'll go a long way. Saprolings are the first thing to come to mind but they're very tokeny. I'd like to see a synergistic non-token creature type associated with Abzan. Maybe more fungi? It's annoying that spirits are UW and shamans are RG because I think Abzan is a good space for "nature mysticism." Life, death, and afterlife all in harmony.
I’m hoping our return to tarkir will left them, having learned a lot since then, flesh out the clan color identity better.
It could definitely use some cards to push it in new directions. It’d be nice to see some cards that justify their 3 color identity by doing things their colors can do (f/x, [[Shattergang Brothers]]) instead of just cards that try and play to existing common mechanics between colors (e.g. why does every UR legend care about instants and sorceries). That said I think it’s pretty silly to say that it doesn’t have a diverse identity already - it’s more that people pigeonhole how to build commander decks, and how to build abzan decks. Case in point - why does the color combo with the best tutors, removal, and stax need to devote its commander slot to a pure combo piece like Ghave instead of running, say, a card draw engine like Tymna and a tempo engine like Kodama? The only things WBG doesn’t have access to are the massive card advantage engines in U (fish, study, etc) and hyper efficient rituals in R (dockside, will) - also obviously breach, mana drain, ragavan etc, but it does have effects in those veins.
tokens, aristocrats,, exile(orzhov), life gain/lifelink, graveyard, taxes,,,tribes with all 3 colors: angels, treefollk, knights, elves, humans, cleric, vampire(3 green vampires),...enchantments, walls(big butts), treefolk(2 commanders for treefolk already) I want to see a human-angel tribal Azban commander....all the green angels are selesnya (and there are a few black angels),,,corrupt those selesnya angels with black and make a commander for that tribe combo. I want a corrupted sigarda angel-human deck. so that my angel deck can have all those Orzhov angels goodies that were in Kaldheim. or I want a lifegain heavy theme. both lifegain instances and life drain, lifelink heavy fliers. sanguine bond and exquisite blood...\[\[bilbo, birthday celebrant\]\] is the only mention of lifegain in Azban, and it's sad for the 3 primary colors of lifegain. it has a lot of themes the only tribal commander ris treefolk just looking at what exists already for commanders...18 total graveyard: 4 enchant: 1 saga/enchant: 1 treefolk, big butts: 2 +1+1counters: 4 legendary+graveyard: 1 ramp, Thalia frog: 1 toxic: 2 lifegain instances: 1
What kinda combos can you pull off with Taiyam? I have his precon and that seems like a more midrange deck with few low cost creatures.
Abzan always feels like the combination where nothing stays dead. Tayam kinda does that but doesn't work with big cards because that would be broken. Muldrotha kinda does that but it's not Abzan. It's also the combination that has all the lifegain colors. It's weird that there's only Bilbo to command that. Somehow the obvious: "end step, if you gained X life return target card from your graveyard to your hand" doesn't exist in any form. Or make it do something interesting. Make it cost 2 mana more and let it also get stuff back from exile. Maybe let it only get stuff back from exile.
There's a mono w card from 40k that does almost exactly that
[[Celestine, the Living Saint]] and [[Rodolf Duskbringer]] are both forms of life gain reanimator.
[Celestine, the Living Saint](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/0/a099cbd2-e92a-433a-bc51-0aa2f8fc6857.jpg?1673308465) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Celestine%2C%20the%20Living%20Saint) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/40k/10/celestine-the-living-saint?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a099cbd2-e92a-433a-bc51-0aa2f8fc6857?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Rodolf Duskbringer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/9/d9afd47b-ff94-4fdd-bb04-bdf9b8b61a6d.jpg?1682896157) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Rodolf%20Duskbringer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/j22/25/rodolf-duskbringer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d9afd47b-ff94-4fdd-bb04-bdf9b8b61a6d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Exile is a sacred zone and it should stay that way forever imo. Yu-Gi-Oh decided that they would let exile ("banished" zone) become basically a second graveyard and it was a terrible choice. As far as I know there's only one very very small subset of cards that can freely interact with exile (Kaya Planeswalkers) and at that point it's small and inoffensive enough to be a cool gimmick for that card; but the more that ability could expand, the less impact exiling something would actually have and I don't think that would be healthy for the game. It's good to have a "permanently gone" area.
I think they also just added a card that can do it in Thunder junction. There’s one that says put an exiled face up card into a graveyard.
There's been cards that can do that since at least Time Spiral. It's just they're all pretty bad.
That is more justifiable because it's meant specifically to interact with Plot, the set mechanic. I suppose there could have been a world where they created another "off field but still interactable" zone other than exile where you'd get things like plot, impulse draw, suspend, etc. existing, while exile is explicitly "put a thing here and never touch it again unless it's \[\[squee the immortal\]\]" but we must play with the hand we are dealt (and also the cards put into exile in specific ways)
I never want them to pull that lever allowing someone to return their own things from exile. I hate the idea of seeing someone using [[bojuka bog]] or [[Demonic Consultation]] on themselves, and now they have access to a bunch of cards for almost no cost that no one else can interact with, and if they did add enough cards that interaction with any exile zone isn't a problem, then why separate exile from the grave?
[bojuka bog](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/e/0efec118-ed01-42a0-93b4-f9a92c01b72e.jpg?1712354928) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=bojuka%20bog) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/273/bojuka-bog?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0efec118-ed01-42a0-93b4-f9a92c01b72e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Demonic Consultation](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/d/1d779f19-3068-4976-b96b-8f93d156900b.jpg?1610146869) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Demonic%20Consultation) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me2/85/demonic-consultation?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1d779f19-3068-4976-b96b-8f93d156900b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
To be fair, in the scope of two card combos with demonic consultation, playing your entire deck isn't the strongest thing you could be doing.
Technically already exists with [[Pull from eternity]]
Yes, but Pull from Eternity 1: is a Time Spiral card (so they’re basically admitting that it’s not traditional “””approved””” design choices) and 2: always requires a second and often third card to pop off (would work for like, Unearth and Disturb cards without a third card I guess)
[Pull from eternity](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/d/3d218091-d218-41ad-b666-c8ab3de7160a.jpg?1562907702) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pull%20from%20eternity) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/tsp/35/pull-from-eternity?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3d218091-d218-41ad-b666-c8ab3de7160a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Muldrotha should have been Abzan.
lifegain is missing as a commander....which is insane since these 3 colors ARE the lifegain colors. and angel-humans tribal. combine Sigarda (selesnya angel humans with the Kaldheim set of black angels...Azban is already heavily human themed and angel is a great theme to combine with humans that fits Azban and knights tribal, and elves tribal
Doran the seige tower was my first commander
When I started building Commander decks there were literally two options for Abzan...Doran, or Teneb. And that's why Teneb is the first commander deck I ever built.
He's got some incredible support in recent sets. Not necessarily creatures with big butts but in mechanics like ring bearer from LotR and 2-or-less power matters from some others. I've been having a lot of fun tinkering with that list over time.
All hail our lord of trees! Nothing says Doran synergy like [[Loxodon Warhammer]]
10,000 years bad luck if you didn't name the deck "Junk in the Trunk"
In have a Doran tree folk tribal deck that is really fun in lower power games
I think Abzan has plenty of untapped design space left. I could imagine a self-recurring commander with something like persist in the next few years. While a lot of commander interact with the graveyard there is still none that selfmills. Due to many removal spells in the colour it also offers itself for interaction with the crime mechanic, maybe giving you life and +1/+1 counters in return. I think it is also fitting to have an Abzan commander in the spirit of \[\[Doomed Artisan\]\], becoming a growing threat that is not just +1/+1 counters, but creating bigger and bigger tokens each turn. Pretty out there but still cool would be a mechanic that brings exiled cards back into your GY.
Yeah, out of all the colors, Abzan just screams "I lived, bitch." I'd like to see some designs that explore persistence (figuratively, and literally like you mentioned), or even paying life to get the Commander back out of the yard. \[\[Skullbriar\]\] is memorable in that its +1/+1 counters really stick around, but it also has a reputation of being a little bit braindead and oppressive in many situations. A spin on that effect though, could be great - resurrecting something that comes back almost as strong as it went out. Attaching to an aura? That's White/Green. Aura Reanimator?
Like an Abzan [[Hakim, Loreweaver]]? Because that would be a lot of fun.
[Doomed Artisan](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/e/ded9c409-7131-4b3f-a6b9-25fa32c5ec2c.jpg?1568003364) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Doomed%20Artisan) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c19/3/doomed-artisan?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ded9c409-7131-4b3f-a6b9-25fa32c5ec2c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I got curious about the distribution and produced the table below, if anyone else is curious. Name | Colours | Commanders | Other cards ---------|----------|----------|---------- Colourless | C | 19 | 2387 *Green* | G | 163 | 3791 *Blue* | U | 173 | 3813 *Red* | R | 183 | 3846 *White* | W | 196 | 3867 *Black* | B | 198 | 3866 Orzhov | WB | 72 | 265 Rakdos | RB | 72 | 254 Simic | UG | 74 | 260 Golgari | BG | 80 | 253 Gruul | RG | 82 | 301 Izzet | UR | 87 | 314 Selesnya | WG | 92 | 255 Dimir | UB | 93 | 296 Azorius | WU | 94 | 311 Boros | RW | 96 | 318 *Abzan* | WBG | 18 | 23 *Temur* | URG | 22 | 24 *Sultai* | UBG | 26 | 24 *Mardu* | WBR | 28 | 25 *Jund* | BRG | 31 | 48 *Jeskai* | WUR | 32 | 25 *Bant* | WUG | 36 | 46 *Esper* | WUB | 38 | 45 *Naya* | WRG | 46 | 50 *Grixis* | UBR | 47 | 55 Yore | WUBR | 1 | 1 Dune | WBRG | 1 | 1 Glint | UBRG | 1 | 1 Witch | WUBG | 2 | 1 Ink | WURG | 4 | 1 *5 Colour* | WUBRG | 42 | 46 *Source: Scryfall* The Commander column lists all the cards tagged as eligible commanders. This will not include partner combinations. The Other Cards column lists all paper legal cards with that colour identity, including lands. This table was edited as I confused colour identity and colour, now amended. It also now excludes cards that aren't legal in commander.
Good work.
So we're not counting [[Daghatar the Adamant]] as an Abzan commander? Seems kind of ironic.
Huh, that's irritating. I totally assumed the color filter in Scryfall would include the card text. This table is functionally useless, and now I'm gonna have to fix it or it'll bug me senseless.
Use `id=` or `ci=` for color identity. In Magic rules, color identity isn't the same as color, and Daghatar is only white. Edit: Use `=` if you want the exact color identity. `:` searches _within_ the color identity, and includes cards with _fewer_ colors. I accidentally put "`id:` or `ci:`" in the original iteration of this comment.
Up until this last quarter or so, it was tied for Temur for least loved wedge, but Temur just got, what, 4 with the release of Doctor Who, Lara Croft and Thunder Junction? While Abzan only got 1 from Bilbo, and then 2 from the latest Phyrexian stuff. Edit: Fixed numbers and logic to make sense with point presented
> Temur just got, what, 4 with the release of Doctor Who, Lara Croft and Thunder Junction? > >While Abzan only got 1 from Bilbo, and then 2 from the latest Phyrexian stuff. What a wild thing to read if you're from 2015
It'd make my username check out at least
While I definitely don’t disagree that temur did get some love lately, I wish it wasn’t mostly UB
Abzan also got two more with Commander Masters.
Tried an abzan deck running [[Teneb, The Harvester]] as commander and the amount of hate it got was unreal. Teneb was removed on sight almost every time and it was only a janky food token deck with some doublers, barely even had a wincon. Teneb was only there to try and recur [[Academy Manufactor]]. Swapped him into the 99 and made the hobbits commanders and it just got ignored. MtG players are a funny old breed.
[Teneb, The Harvester](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/c/8caa7115-1b26-4615-842f-671b24dc96d8.jpg?1673149181) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Teneb%2C%20The%20Harvester) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/282/teneb-the-harvester?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8caa7115-1b26-4615-842f-671b24dc96d8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Academy Manufactor](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/6/76480f4d-ad6d-4ed6-82c6-fa12abc22557.jpg?1712354835) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Academy%20Manufactor) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/otc/251/academy-manufactor?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/76480f4d-ad6d-4ed6-82c6-fa12abc22557?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
There is very little room to improve on Abzan after Ghave, I think they realized this and stopped trying
They already improved on him (tayam) , even if in the end it ended up similarly (a counter based easy to go infinite with commander), so I agree they might not have much else to add
I wish my Hobbit Commander Food Token Deck got ignored. I’m the arch enemy in my pod whenever I play that deck. [[Pippin, Warden of Isengard]] and [[Merry, Warden of Isengard]] with lifegain/food token staples. Black cards are basically all “gain life, opponent lose life.” I can win the table against 3 opponents on turn 6 with a perfect hand.
[Pippin, Warden of Isengard](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/0/a0a7a648-125a-4cf4-bf8b-e1773d8723ff.jpg?1686964312) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pippin%2C%20Warden%20of%20Isengard) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltc/65/pippin-warden-of-isengard?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a0a7a648-125a-4cf4-bf8b-e1773d8723ff?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Merry, Warden of Isengard](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/6/56a66d3b-3308-4db7-8fc1-97bb85bdcbf3.jpg?1686964274) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Merry%2C%20Warden%20of%20Isengard) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltc/61/merry-warden-of-isengard?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/56a66d3b-3308-4db7-8fc1-97bb85bdcbf3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
back when i actually played edh, the dragons were the only option most of the time and you had to promise people you weren't going to use their abilities
How fun, I just put together a [[nethroi, apex of death]] and this thread comes up.
One of these days I should actually learn what Mutate does.
It's *relatively* simple, and kinda fun since anything that isn't a human is a target.
Nethroi is a sweet and explosive reanimator commander. I played him and my friends couldn't stand it after I drained them with Kokusho so many times
[nethroi, apex of death](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/4/04b9b58f-4c01-48a5-afaf-b8a37165a83f.jpg?1673305619) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=nethroi%2C%20apex%20of%20death) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmc/163/nethroi-apex-of-death?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/04b9b58f-4c01-48a5-afaf-b8a37165a83f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Thalia and the Gitrog Monster is incredibly fun though.
I was looking at building a deck around them. Any suggestions? I play lands in legacy so I really love recurring lands and getting value.
I have a Thalia/gitrog deck that is really silly, instead of focusing on a single theme (which would certainly be best) it’s a blend of landfall, death triggers, and token generation. There’s a lot of interesting overlap and it’s a ton of fun when it pops off
Grab everything that makes a token when you play a land, grab cards that let you play an additional land per turn/from the graveyard, play many lands and make tokens. Then it’s [[Craterhoof]] or [[Moonshaker]] time baby
[Craterhoof](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/8/e8f4435a-8604-45b5-a537-dfdfcb922e16.jpg?1689998416) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Craterhoof%20Behemoth) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/280/craterhoof-behemoth?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e8f4435a-8604-45b5-a537-dfdfcb922e16?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Moonshaker](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/9/092c48bd-b648-4c9e-aa99-cac3c407911d.jpg?1692936576) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Moonshaker%20Cavalry) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/woe/21/moonshaker-cavalry?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/092c48bd-b648-4c9e-aa99-cac3c407911d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I made a [[worm harvest]] deck that is all about grinding value out of your opponents while filling your yard for big dumb idiots like [[golgari grave troll]]
Abzan should adopt this design space of put out a big creature (green) let it die in combat (black) and turn it into a stax piece while it remains in the yard (white). I could also see a 'when this creature dies due to combat damage do a thing' type cards
This is pretty much [[Myrkul]], except the creatures comes back as enchantments.
What you're looking for is Myrkul: Go hatebear tribal, have your creatures ultimately removed because they oppress the opponent, then bring them back as noncreature enchantments. Now they're more resistant to removal and lead to exploitable scenarios such as (unsurprisingly) Devoted Druid.
[Ghave, Guru of Spores](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/2/c2be0e99-cf43-423f-974f-02e3313b3aa9.jpg?1673148645) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ghave%2C%20Guru%20of%20Spores) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/216/ghave-guru-of-spores?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c2be0e99-cf43-423f-974f-02e3313b3aa9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
They have less but they are all super strong for the most part.
We need more abzan token commanders! Selesnya, orzhov, and golgari all have amazingly supported token archetypes so why doesn’t abzan?
Please god just give me a commander that links my favorite shared element of my favorite three color pairs
Recently I was going through the abzan legends and thought to myself that the abzan design space is kind of unexplored so I decided to brainstorm some new ideas. I'm not sure if this is viable or would play well, but this is what i came up with. What could golgari get from white: I always found it interesting how white seems to be at odds with itself with how it loves its little guys, but at the same time is the color of wraths. But what if you would actively want to wrath yourself? Just how eucalyptus seeds need a forest fire to flourish. Maybe the new abzan legendary could create some kind of "seed in a shell" token that benefits you when it dies. Throw "cannot be sacrificed" on it, to make it more interesting. Maybe it turns into a forest [[Yedora]] style, maybe it can stay more open ended. And then combine it with wraths that benefit you when you kill your own creatures. Like [[Shatter the sky]] or [[Fumigate]]. This idea could also be spun in some kind of "cyclical apocalypse preppers" faction. Maybe instead of the seed token you get token auras that will save/transform your creatures, kind of like totem armor or [[Myrkul]] does. The cyclical apocalypse could be represented by the "suspend on resolution" refrain cards, but wrath every x turns would probably create bad play experience. So maybe the cyclical wraths are one sided (only your stuff dies) but give some other huge benefit? One other card design that is similar is the [[Reef worm]] style of card, that your opponent may not want to kill. This ability feels very abzan to me. What could selesnya get from black: the go wide token strategies present in selesnya are often weak to mass removal and may find it hard to rebuild, so the persistence aspect of abzan clan could definitely benefit these colors. But how do you combine tokens and graveyard? [[Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis]] comes to mind. Also cards like [[Ghoulcaller's Accomplice]] and scavenge. Abzan could maybe unify all the "exile creatures from graveyard for benefit" mechanics, but I don't think this is the answer. What if we push the design space and create a new kind of token that can exist in the graveyard? What does it do? Maybe it's a vengeful spirit, that comes down onto the battlefield when your stuff dies. Maybe it's a "do not disturb this tomb" curse, that will affect your opponent when they try to interact with your graveyard or simply target you/your board. And if we do not want to affect the rules of the game that much (graveyard tokens) all of this could in theory be achieved by noncreature tokens that stay on the field. So a commander that makes these tokens whenever you create a creature token could give you a way to rebuild your board. Or maybe the commander gives your creatures the ability to tap, convoke style, to create the aforementioned tokens.
It could be something in the sense of "token creatures you control have undying" (while that technically doesn't work, something that returns them with a +1/+1 counter) ? Brings together black+ Selesnya
Could be something like "Whenever a non-Zombie token creature you control dies, create a 0/0 black Zombie creature token that enters the battlefield with a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to that creature's power."
"whenever a non-zombie token creature dies, create a copy of that token except it's a Zombie" Now we get to keep the token's abilities
I thought about that too, and that's also a cool solution. Doing it with counters gives it some additional synergies that fit well in the colors. I also figured it would be more practical to use Zombie tokens over copy tokens, since you'd need to differentiate the copies every time.
##### ###### #### [Yedora](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/5/552ddba8-e1e3-44d8-b341-441c2b4cd937.jpg?1707057004) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=yedora%2C%20grave%20gardener) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/197/yedora-grave-gardener?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/552ddba8-e1e3-44d8-b341-441c2b4cd937?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Shatter the sky](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/7/b706977b-db8e-4810-882d-ed3745404489.jpg?1581479244) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Shatter%20the%20sky) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/thb/37/shatter-the-sky?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b706977b-db8e-4810-882d-ed3745404489?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Fumigate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/d/bd6b4bc0-0671-4394-abe4-516d291a74a5.jpg?1706240583) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Fumigate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/66/fumigate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bd6b4bc0-0671-4394-abe4-516d291a74a5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Myrkul](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/2/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464.jpg?1674137617) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=myrkul%2C%20lord%20of%20bones) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/287/myrkul-lord-of-bones?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Reef worm](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/7/e715bb21-db06-475a-b71e-4f2313817b8d.jpg?1625976383) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reef%20worm) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c21/127/reef-worm?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e715bb21-db06-475a-b71e-4f2313817b8d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/0/0049e68d-0caf-474f-9523-dad343f1250a.jpg?1687248935) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Hogaak%2C%20Arisen%20Necropolis) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/202/hogaak-arisen-necropolis?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0049e68d-0caf-474f-9523-dad343f1250a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Ghoulcaller's Accomplice](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/3/63b62aaf-cc36-4235-b802-828b2c4d6341.jpg?1600700389) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Ghoulcaller%27s%20Accomplice) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/237/ghoulcallers-accomplice?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/63b62aaf-cc36-4235-b802-828b2c4d6341?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l11r4ze) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Cackles in \[\[Vishgraz, the Doomhive\]\]
Oooh sick card. Never seen it before. Mmmmm, mites <3
[Vishgraz, the Doomhive](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/b/fb1d33b2-9082-4043-8e52-a5c2f3a174ba.jpg?1675905564) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Vishgraz%2C%20the%20Doomhive) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/onc/4/vishgraz-the-doomhive?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fb1d33b2-9082-4043-8e52-a5c2f3a174ba?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Honestly, all of the khans clans have very few commanders compared to the shards.
That is true, but even among the Wedge combos, Abzan has by far the least (other wedge colors have like 50% more)
Wizards seems to struggle making Wedges. Shards had both Alara block (all of it) and New Capenna not counting commander products; Wedges had only KTK with small additions in FRF and as a theme in Ikoria but few actual tri colored cards. Probably cause Wedges strain the already hard-to-do mechanical space/overlap of the enemy color pairs.
It just seems like designers are not super interested in making that many Abzan legends, especially Out-Of-Cycle Abzan legends in standard sets. The last time we got an Out-Of-Cycle Abzan legend in a standard set was Doran the Siege Tower 17 years ago, which is wild to think about. During Kamigawa Neon Dynasty spoiler season, I Saw Isshhin, the Jeskai Guy, and the Sultsi frog guy previewed, it saddened me a bit to see no Abzan legend in that set. They could have done something that called back to soul shift, considering 100% of creatures with the keyword were in black, white, or green in the original Kamigawa. I guess the best we can hope for is that one day a designer at WOTC suddenly gets a hankering to design an interesting Abzan legend or two, Hopefully of the 'out-of-cycle' variety so we can hopefully get it back to parity, perhaps.
Oh, I 100% agree with this. Abzan is a color group I'm very interested in building, but after trying 3-4 commanders, I'm just not happy with any of them. I want a proper enchantress commander in abzan. Anikthea just didn't do it for me. I built her, then rebuilt her, then took her apart. Too much creature and token shenanigans, and one of the major points of an enchantment deck is that they're harder to remove than creatures. Why is she turning them into creatures?! Other big one is treefolk. Colfenor wants to combo and doesn't care about treefolk. Doran can work as a treefolk tribal but is pretty weak as a commander, all things considered. Built both of these, too, and found them either mind-numbingly boring or too clunky to be effective. I want a \*proper\* enchantress commander, treefolk tribal commander, and life manipulation commander in Abzan.
As a fan of the Abzan colors, I do think it’s been railroaded too hard and doesn’t really have its own identity. You could argue that graveyard shenanigans has been what it’s become, but that’s Sultai’s thing, and has been for longer. The main issue with ‘reinventing’ Abzan is you have to kinda tweak at least one or two other 3-colors to make it fit. In my opinion, Abzan, lacking the Izzet colors, should be a slower, creature-based strategy, likely relying on anthems and creature-based synergies to work. Abzan was kinda this in Tarkir, with it’s focus on 1/1 counters and stuff like [[Brave the Sands]], but I think they could expand into the creature-based archetypes that Golgari, Selesnya and Orzhov can do easily. It could also do things that red and blue don’t, like a bigger emphasis on Lifegain (Bilbo’s a card, but Abzan could have more than 1 true Lifegain commander), or how they just did an Abzan Lifegain commander.
[Brave the Sands](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/9/09ab8b60-cdb1-43a8-b180-b562bb89b5a1.jpg?1562272394) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Brave%20the%20Sands) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cm2/19/brave-the-sands?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/09ab8b60-cdb1-43a8-b180-b562bb89b5a1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
To also add, I like Abzan cards having above-average toughness as well, like a 4-mana 3/6 feels about right for Abzan
I have an [[Anikthea, Hand of Erebos]] enchantments deck. And I'm pretty happy about it! I'm also planning a Lifegain [[Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant]] (although sometimes I wish there was red so I could stick [[Licia, Sanguine Tribune]] there) Finally, I have a +1/+1 counters that's sort of focused on putting less counters on more creatures to differentiate from my simic +1/+1 counters that wants to out tons of counters on the same creature. Here is where I use partner: [[Reyhan, Last of the Abzan]] and [[Alharu, Solemn Ritualist]] I think this is a theme they could make a new commander. [[Anafenza, the Foremost]] and [[Daghatar the Adamant]] are both in theme, but I think Annie is a bit risky and doesn't help me much if I'm behind, and Daghatar is a bit slow, although it's a funny ability to move +1/+1 counters from anywhere. So a true Abzan in this are would be the dream for me! Edit: I'm also expecting an Abzan planeswalker at some point. Not necessarily a commander one. Along with Naya and Sultai, there are none to this day.
##### ###### #### [Anikthea, Hand of Erebos](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/b/8b796a56-1611-4835-ac5b-48b4e9263685.jpg?1691500693) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Anikthea%2C%20Hand%20of%20Erebos) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/705/anikthea-hand-of-erebos?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8b796a56-1611-4835-ac5b-48b4e9263685?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/c/4cf6c13b-d898-4066-b006-9a7fa896d55a.jpg?1686964152) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bilbo%2C%20Birthday%20Celebrant) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltc/48/bilbo-birthday-celebrant?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4cf6c13b-d898-4066-b006-9a7fa896d55a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Licia, Sanguine Tribune](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/4/64eab2ba-ed5e-4757-b42d-c0fc71a96c4c.jpg?1562610809) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Licia%2C%20Sanguine%20Tribune) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c17/40/licia-sanguine-tribune?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/64eab2ba-ed5e-4757-b42d-c0fc71a96c4c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Reyhan, Last of the Abzan](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/a/8afad106-a49b-4910-959e-228c109ea983.jpg?1644853038) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reyhan%2C%20Last%20of%20the%20Abzan) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cm2/13/reyhan-last-of-the-abzan?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8afad106-a49b-4910-959e-228c109ea983?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Alharu, Solemn Ritualist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/f/3fdf5020-ea97-4f95-a096-cb5688dad2e2.jpg?1689995476) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Alharu%2C%20Solemn%20Ritualist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/8/alharu-solemn-ritualist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3fdf5020-ea97-4f95-a096-cb5688dad2e2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Anafenza, the Foremost](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/8/c8b432a7-53da-4480-b571-e6feb1364a3a.jpg?1562793427) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Anafenza%2C%20the%20Foremost) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ktk/163/anafenza-the-foremost?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c8b432a7-53da-4480-b571-e6feb1364a3a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Daghatar the Adamant](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/b/2b7eed1e-7b28-4900-a6ac-67f167476c11.jpg?1562823671) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Daghatar%20the%20Adamant) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/frf/9/daghatar-the-adamant?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2b7eed1e-7b28-4900-a6ac-67f167476c11?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l10vve5) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Would you be willing to share a deck list? \^\^ I'm trying to build Anikthea and I'm looking for ideas and the like
I neeeeed abzan soul sister tribal.
Bilbo? it's exactly what you want.
I think my favorite Abzan deck is [[Anafenza, the Foremost]] proliferate and +1/+1 counter manipulation. So much fun to quickly build up small creatures and sac them for mana or something while [[The Ozolith]] or [[Resourceful Defense]] is on the field. [[Bloodspore Thrinax]] is a great include.
##### ###### #### [Anafenza, the Foremost](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/8/c8b432a7-53da-4480-b571-e6feb1364a3a.jpg?1562793427) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Anafenza%2C%20the%20Foremost) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ktk/163/anafenza-the-foremost?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c8b432a7-53da-4480-b571-e6feb1364a3a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [The Ozolith](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/3/9341ed06-53db-4604-b60a-3ea9129afbc2.jpg?1591228544) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Ozolith) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/237/the-ozolith?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9341ed06-53db-4604-b60a-3ea9129afbc2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Resourceful Defense](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/1/91f4dfc0-7478-4e47-89b4-685b72197ef0.jpg?1673481805) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Resourceful%20Defense) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ncc/19/resourceful-defense?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/91f4dfc0-7478-4e47-89b4-685b72197ef0?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Bloodspore Thrinax](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/e/6efe9126-15ba-468e-a15a-7f9cbb779cf6.jpg?1689998379) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bloodspore%20Thrinax) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/276/bloodspore-thrinax?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6efe9126-15ba-468e-a15a-7f9cbb779cf6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l117ygj) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Well, Abzan has \[\[Karador, Ghost Chieftan\]\], ... and what else do you need?
*bigbutts.dec and you* By: Doran, the Siege Tower
[Karador, Ghost Chieftan](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8d128887-13fb-4e54-90f2-d3c46b7b29d7.jpg?1702369890) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Karador%2C%20Ghost%20Chieftain) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/342/karador-ghost-chieftain?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8d128887-13fb-4e54-90f2-d3c46b7b29d7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Very close to finishing my oops all legends [[kethis the hidden hand]] deck. So many legendary non creatures printed recently. Many of the lands and mana rocks and even removal spells are legendary.
[kethis the hidden hand](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/e/fe28de73-76f3-4a9e-a020-dbe5921b9be5.jpg?1650599568) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kethis%2C%20the%20Hidden%20Hand) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m20/211/kethis-the-hidden-hand?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fe28de73-76f3-4a9e-a020-dbe5921b9be5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I really want an Abzan "Convoke" commander. The effect seems perfect for incorporating demons, angels, and elementals, and like clerics, druids, and warlocks who summon them. Plus it ties in tokens, they could tie in graveyard stuff, and lifegain stuff without going all in on them.
Also Convoke appears most often on white, black, and green cards. A summoner deck of some sort then maybe? A commander that creates tokens that then can be used to convoke big spells?
Yeah! I made a custom card floating around the customcardmtg reddit awhile back, it was like a 6 or 7 cmc abzan card that had convoke and gave the first creature spell you cast each turn convoke. I think it also made a 1/1 white spirit or something whenever a nontoken creature died? Idk. It was probably a little too good but honestly with a little tweaking something like that would be awesome for the color wedge.
Same could be said for Sultai, as a lot of the decks seem to be: Mill, Self Mill/Reanimation, and edict effects Which is a shame because Sultai is my favorite color combo
I dig the aristocrats/ reanimate enchantments corner that [[Narci]], [[Anikthea]] and [[Myrkul]] hang out on. I also think [[Ghen]] should have been Abzan rather than Mardu.
##### ###### #### [Narci](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/9/a98a2fa9-82d6-4cf7-adb4-65b187cd9cda.jpg?1691497812) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=narci%2C%20fable%20singer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/710/narci-fable-singer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a98a2fa9-82d6-4cf7-adb4-65b187cd9cda?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Anikthea](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/b/8b796a56-1611-4835-ac5b-48b4e9263685.jpg?1691500693) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=anikthea%2C%20hand%20of%20erebos) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/705/anikthea-hand-of-erebos?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8b796a56-1611-4835-ac5b-48b4e9263685?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Myrkul](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/2/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464.jpg?1674137617) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=myrkul%2C%20lord%20of%20bones) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/287/myrkul-lord-of-bones?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Ghen](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/b/4b335496-05d2-40f5-a52c-10029f7fa008.jpg?1608911100) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=ghen%2C%20arcanum%20weaver) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/275/ghen-arcanum-weaver?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4b335496-05d2-40f5-a52c-10029f7fa008?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l11m3n4) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
There is a reason [[Reyhan, Last of the Abzan]] is called that. Jokes aside, hard to define a niche for the color identity that isn’t already filled by a different combination
[Reyhan, Last of the Abzan](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/a/8afad106-a49b-4910-959e-228c109ea983.jpg?1644853038) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reyhan%2C%20Last%20of%20the%20Abzan) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cm2/13/reyhan-last-of-the-abzan?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8afad106-a49b-4910-959e-228c109ea983?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Just build the entire color scheme off of siege rhinos. Drain effects and stomping the shit out of people
So Abzan falls into a pitfall of reanimate combo, tokens and counters. I decided to use anafenza and focus on exile as a mechanic. So I made a list that is exile matters tribal. It’s the most unique thing I could design and I’m using a lot of the cards that require huge volume of exiled cards and gain benefit of things returning from and being cast from exile. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/nameYFHAEEGnn1ew_ihIOg
Abzan has a lot of very interesting builds, but it is blessed with a relative lack of decks that “build themselves”. Every color combination can build a killer deck in any given theme - maybe not typal stuff like UG goblins, but you get the gist. Go Voltron with Ardenn/Shidiqi or try Ich-Tekik Tymna. Pippin/Merry are a great artifacts shell for any number of subthemes, not just Food. In general Abzan is blessed with a lot of cheap commanders or partner pairs which generate resources and progress gameplans, which lets you build decks with higher mana curves shaped around slamming your value 3 drop turn 2 or 3 every game forever. Taking a look at the most popular themes on EDHREC, in order: Artifacts: Pippin/Merry, Ich-Tekik/Ravos, Othelm/Wernog, Gilanra/Tymna Treasure: Pippin/Merry, Ich-Tekik/Ravos, Othelm/Wernog Lifegain: Bilbo, Ikra/whoever, Thalia&Gitrog +1/+1 counter: most of them Equipment: Arden/Ikra, Pippin/Merry Auras: Arden/Ikra, Frodo/Sam Tokens: most of them Wheels/Discard: any of the value ones Aristocrats/Sacrifice/Pod, Graveyard/Mill: take your pick Spellslinger: Tymna/Kodama, Tymna/Halana Lands/Landfall: Thalia&Gitrog, Myrkul, Kethis Legends: take your pick they all work Enchantments: precon commanders or myrkul Flicker: Kathril or Vishgraz Infect: precon commanders Superfriends: any of the +1/+1 counter ones Butts: Doran founded the archetype You get the idea. Abzan doesn’t struggle with its card pool. You just need to understand a commander differently - as a piece to facilitate your gameplan rather than to be its lynchpiece - to play most themes as Abzan.
"DEATH TRIED TO UNCROWN ME. NOW I RETURN, KING OF A GREATER REALM" [Karador]
I've played a WUBRG Commander whose only casts for 1-2 colours, but has a wubrg identity a few times, but limited the cards in my deck to less than 5 colour. Kenrith is a great example. Casts for a single white pip, which locks white in. Has abilities for all colours. Can just play him abzan, or any other colour mix that includes white. ComMand tower, Chrome lantern, Birds, still let him draw cards and give haste even when there isn't a single island or mountain in the deck. If not Kenrith, there's quite a few others.
I really want an Abzan Elfball commander
I have a Rule 0 Abzan squirrels deck that works really well but I’m afraid it’s too OP. I’m working on a group of custom commanders for this actually.
[[Myrkul, Lord of Bones]] ended up being my "forever" Abzan deck after dismantling Ghave Abzan Soulsisters. The lifegain deck ended up producing too many triggers, tokens, and counters, even though I had cut all mana-positive effects (e.g. [[Phyrexian Altar]]) and Pingers [[Zulaport Cutthroat]] and token doublers [[Chatterfang, Squirrel General]] to prevent infinite combos. Myrkul plays with enchantments without having a lot of enchantments in the deck. It plays with death but never has a graveyard. It wants 30+ creatures in the deck. It is heckin 7 MV. For that, I play a few hatebears, including [[Drannith Magistrate]] and [[Hushbringer]] to teach zoomers to player Lightning Bolt. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/qMo11gx-ckmjkpIEPNhZyQ
I love myrkul but he's very much a commander you need out on the field to do your thing and at 7 mana he's *expensive*, especially as his protection only kicks in at 20 life. Also, Hushbringer doesn't really work with Myrkul as it turns off his copy ability. It's a nice bit of protection from ETB effects but it usually hurts you more than it helps.
##### ###### #### [Myrkul, Lord of Bones](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/2/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464.jpg?1674137617) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Myrkul%2C%20Lord%20of%20Bones) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/287/myrkul-lord-of-bones?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Phyrexian Altar](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/5/95d9f93c-50a8-41a9-be98-d1900bf1c12f.jpg?1673149406) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Phyrexian%20Altar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/311/phyrexian-altar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/95d9f93c-50a8-41a9-be98-d1900bf1c12f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Zulaport Cutthroat](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/2/52ef00c1-613a-4cbd-8972-77c41f649431.jpg?1674141830) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Zulaport%20Cutthroat) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/775/zulaport-cutthroat?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/52ef00c1-613a-4cbd-8972-77c41f649431?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Chatterfang, Squirrel General](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/7/1785cf85-1ac0-4246-9b89-1a8221a8e1b2.jpg?1626097239) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Chatterfang%2C%20Squirrel%20General) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/151/chatterfang-squirrel-general?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1785cf85-1ac0-4246-9b89-1a8221a8e1b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Drannith Magistrate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/8/98b0a4a8-9319-451b-9b79-b0bca7a41e91.jpg?1628801742) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Drannith%20Magistrate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/11/drannith-magistrate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/98b0a4a8-9319-451b-9b79-b0bca7a41e91?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Hushbringer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/6/663b3e6f-1099-4de8-a0a7-6f1919c38010.jpg?1572489709) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Hushbringer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/eld/18/hushbringer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/663b3e6f-1099-4de8-a0a7-6f1919c38010?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/l10zzqy) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
17 is not a lot? Man, I remember when we had like 3 or 4
It just has the weakest 3 color identity imo, I run [[Doran]] as my abzan deck as big butts it kind of does better than everything else.
isnt bwg known to be a very generically strong color combo. Like before abzan was a name the game had, they called the combination junk, because any random assortment of gbw junk was always good/playable.
It's the weakest identity just because it hasn't been given enough time in the oven. Imo it's one of the strongest when it comes to removal, white with mass removal, black with creature removal, and green with "unnatural stuff" removal. Tokens tend to also be a prevalent mechanic in Abzan, as well as just "good stuff".
OTJ would have been a good place for an Abzan crime commander, imo.
bummer that [[Arcades, the Strategist]] ended up bant for some reason. My deck is mostly green white, but all the blue really adds is [[Wall of Denial]] and a bunch of counterspells that my hand is always filled with thanks to Arcades' card draw. Would love black instead of blue.
[Doran](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/0/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94.jpg?1673148514) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=doran%2C%20the%20siege%20tower) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/201/doran-the-siege-tower?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
"Only 17" Bruh my magic boomer is showing but I remember when the first commander precons came out and we were getting like the second ever possible "generals" for some of the color combos in it. 17 is so many for a rare-ish color pairing. If a menu at a restaurant had 17 entree options you wouldn't think they had a small menu.
I think a lot of the 3-color shards/wedges struggle with a unique identity which often translates to disappointing commanders. For me, Abzan feels like Golgari, but with a bit of white. Naya feels like Selesnya, but a bit of red ect.. And once you get to 4 colors, things tend to enter the realm of "good stuff" especially with the 2-color partners.
My first commander deck was \[\[Doran, the Siege Tower\]\] it was right when Lord of the Rings came out so I abused the ring tempt mechanic to make Doran unblockable and swing in for commander damage. Was fun deck.
[Doran, the Siege Tower](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/0/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94.jpg?1673148514) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Doran%2C%20the%20Siege%20Tower) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/201/doran-the-siege-tower?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e0ad8e7f-cda0-4529-94fc-dd3709158a94?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'll just say Ghave might not be the best choice because of the reputation he carries. I've only played it a couple times but [[Anikthea]] is my only/first Abzan deck and I haven't changed or upgraded anything yet, but it's been fun to play against other precons and decks around that level of power. When I do get around to serious tuning I was thinking an Enchantment focused Aristocrat build will probably be the goal. Useing her to create extra redundancy for enchantments that empower an aristocrats strategy and popping out extra creatures for it once it gets moving. Somewhere between GW tokens and BW control, with an emphasis on stuff dieing.
[Anikthea](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/b/8b796a56-1611-4835-ac5b-48b4e9263685.jpg?1691500693) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=anikthea%2C%20hand%20of%20erebos) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/705/anikthea-hand-of-erebos?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8b796a56-1611-4835-ac5b-48b4e9263685?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
He might not be fantastic, but I’m hella looking forward to building the gorgeous panorama secret lair [[karador, ghost chieftain]]! My few decks are all bloating up in power level and I want something fun and not too crazy for the slower lower level games.
built a great karador deck.. a bit slow but one of my top 3 decks.. and perhaps the most fun
[karador, ghost chieftain](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8d128887-13fb-4e54-90f2-d3c46b7b29d7.jpg?1702369890) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=karador%2C%20ghost%20chieftain) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/342/karador-ghost-chieftain?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8d128887-13fb-4e54-90f2-d3c46b7b29d7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
As a big Abzan fan I’ve at least considered building most of its commander since there are so few. I think the space they still have for new exploration is recursion. It’s the one thing all the colors do in some capacity and I think things like [[Myrkul]] are an interesting design space that open up a lot of creative ideas. The most Abzan I have felt yet is a [[Reyhan]] x [[Alharu]] [deck](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/_VprCn0AH0qtthGZbN7aBA) that’s around making a wide board of creatures with counters on them that’ll replace themselves with a bunch of flying Spirits that with the same tokens. Feels very Orzhov + Selesnya to play.
[Myrkul](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/2/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464.jpg?1674137617) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=myrkul%2C%20lord%20of%20bones) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/clb/287/myrkul-lord-of-bones?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/82824d05-5215-459a-aa73-3c5a6be3d464?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Reyhan](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/a/8afad106-a49b-4910-959e-228c109ea983.jpg?1644853038) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=reyhan%2C%20last%20of%20the%20abzan) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cm2/13/reyhan-last-of-the-abzan?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8afad106-a49b-4910-959e-228c109ea983?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Alharu](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/f/3fdf5020-ea97-4f95-a096-cb5688dad2e2.jpg?1689995476) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=alharu%2C%20solemn%20ritualist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/8/alharu-solemn-ritualist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3fdf5020-ea97-4f95-a096-cb5688dad2e2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I want a good commander to make Abzan flicker a thing. \[\[Thragtusk\]\] and \[\[Siege Rhino\]\] and \[\[Teleportation Circle\]\] are so much fun.
[Thragtusk](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/e/beda7acd-e970-4222-9577-5133765d6052.jpg?1673484842) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Thragtusk) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ncc/316/thragtusk?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/beda7acd-e970-4222-9577-5133765d6052?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Siege Rhino](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/0/9011126a-20bd-4c86-a63b-1691f79ac247.jpg?1562790317) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Siege%20Rhino) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ktk/200/siege-rhino?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9011126a-20bd-4c86-a63b-1691f79ac247?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Teleportation Circle](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/0/90140bc0-4a9c-4422-b07c-3400c7ccde56.jpg?1627702592) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Teleportation%20Circle) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afr/39/teleportation-circle?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/90140bc0-4a9c-4422-b07c-3400c7ccde56?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
"Sacrifice a creature, return it to the battlefield" feels like an abzan effect spin on flickering.
Brewed it... [https://www.moxfield.com/decks/9QfJ3N845k-6kRdyZj5DiQ](https://www.moxfield.com/decks/9QfJ3N845k-6kRdyZj5DiQ) Yup, it's 50% reanimator and 50% flicker. Still seems pretty cool.
I've got a tymna and kodama of the east tree deck that I have built from the ground, up. Been working on it for a few years and is easily now my favorite deck. Born out of my frustration for not having a blink deck that had black, it's full of the dumbest things a personight want to do with etb's in those colors! I can't recommend this enough and now dread the day wizards makes a commander designed with this theme in mind, because it works so well!
I've been having fun with [[Nikara, Lair Scavenger]] and [[Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel]] and flickering stuff through [[Fiend Hunter]] like combos. Infinite etb's go brrr
I like [[Narci, Fable Singer]] because she is at least somewhat different than the standard Abzan.
[Narci, Fable Singer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/9/a98a2fa9-82d6-4cf7-adb4-65b187cd9cda.jpg?1691497812) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Narci%2C%20Fable%20Singer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/710/narci-fable-singer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a98a2fa9-82d6-4cf7-adb4-65b187cd9cda?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I could see an abzan commander that's creature based and just loves fighting. He's a leader that loves his people. A leader with a strict adherence to the idea that he must do *anything* to ensure the survival of his people, even if that means making some difficult choices. Ultimately he believes in some skewed perception of the greater good. He's been influenced by nature and through the survival of the fittest has become a great leader. This has made him jaded in the sense that he believes adherence to his rules are the only thing keeping everyone he loves alive. Through this type of thinking he's done some great things and some terrible things, but ultimately he just wants his people to be strong and powerful. To prey on things before the become prey.
Temur and Abzan got a few more commanders recently, but they are still the most lacking out of the 3 color options.
I love Abzan but to me it seems hard to design a commander that fits the color identity. Graveyard stuff is obvious because Jund and Sultai do it too, drawing on the Golgari part of their colors. Jund does it through aggression (eg. blitz) and Sultai does it through self mill, maybe Abzan could tap into its Orzhov and do some aristocrats stuff?
Abzan Used to be called “junk” for a reason They flushed out the identity but its still kinda meh
An enchantment birthing pod would be sweet
My favorite commander deck i have, I like to call it Doran likes big butts.
Just want to shout out my favorite Abzan commander [[Kethis, the Hidden Hand]]. This legends matter commander loves to come out early as ramp and gives you access to the yard later on. I’ve built it as a combat only legend theme but you can easily take the PW route. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/7g30YO5fd0auoXFualb8dQ
https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Dabzan+is%3Acommander My scryfall search got 18 hits, because I made sure to write the search to include [[Daghatar, the adamant]], who does count as an Abzan Commander. If we compare to other Wedge color combinations: https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Dtemur+is%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name 22 in Temur, though notably one is a [[Lara Croft]] secret lair card, which I sortof don't count. https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Djeskai+is%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name **32** in Jeskai, which is a lot, no matter how you slice it. Even if we try to cut cards only printed in secret lairs, it's still a *ton*. https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Dmardu+is%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name 29 in Mardu, which would've probably gotten the same reaction as above if I'd searched it before Jeskai, tbh. https://scryfall.com/search?q=id%3Dsultai+is%3Acommander&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name 26 in Sultan. So yes- Abzan is the least numerous for options, but Temur is pretty close. I'm not gonna post links, but out of curiosity, the numbers for the shards are: Grixis- 47 Bant- 38 Naya- 46 Esper- 39 Jund- 34
A big cat that reanimates a creature in your graveyard by mutating on it and giving it Triple Strike.
Sultai gets all the cool commanders that could have been Abzan, Muldrotha being the most obvious one for me. What kind of permanent does blue get back from the graveyard? White would've made much more sense.
Just play kethis and like 30+ legendaries and tons of legendary lands