I wanted to make a deck that successfully ran Crested Sunmare , and realized that Deathgorge Scavenger and Gifted Aetherborn would be perfect cards for a deck like that. I continued building from this strategy, and realized that white and black have very good removal and green and black have some of the strongest creatures in the format. Thus, Abzan Midrange was born!
Creatures:
Deathgorge Scavenger-An All-Star in any midrange strategy, it is especially good in this deck due to it's lifegain potential and exiling any potential threats to be revived by The Scarab God. The heart of the deck that makes a strategy like this possible.
Gifted Aetherborn-The best 2 drop in standard right now, it trades well against our opponents bigger threats, while also providing lifegain. Having 3 health is also a plus as it requires our opponents to play out their Harnessed Lightning's and Lightning Strike's. We love to see this card in our opening hand.
Narnam Renegade-An efficient one drop that trades upwards very nicely. We usually don't get it's revolt trigger, but it's nice for it to be available.
Bone Picker-due to the removal suite we have in our deck, we can often play this for it's lower cost. Other than that, it's a card that can usually stay un-contested in the air and beat down our opponent. It is weak against Glorybringer, but we have a couple of answers for that creature to avoid this weakness.
Ripjaw Raptor-An incredible 4 drop that is hard to answer from our opponent. It is also one of the few sources of card draw in the deck and just puts us at a massive advantage. If it lands turn 4, we usually are in a winning position in the game.
Regal Caracal-An extremely good 5 drop that gives us more creatures to pressure our opponent's life total, or blocker's to avoid a very bad back-swing.
Crested Sunmare-The 5 drop that originally inspired this deck and the payoff for all the life gain in the deck. A late-game threat that usually seals a game if we get even one of it's endstep triggers.
Removal:
Fatal Push-One of the most efficient removal cards in standard. Good in early game, and once in a while we can get it's trigger late game to take out an important threat. It's also a very good answer to Hostage Taker.
Vraska's Contempt-An answer to the big threats of Hazoret the Fervent, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and The Scarab God at instant speed. It also can trigger our Crested Sunmare.
Battle at the Bridge-Another answer for Hazoret the Fervent and other Gods, though it can be a great mana-sink since we can overkill a creature to gain back necessary life to stay in the game.
Cast Out-An efficient answer to almost anything in the format. A really solid removal card that I am glad to run.
Slash of Talons-Mostly a tech card against Ramunap Red, though it can clear the way of small blockers to push through for damage. Often the card we sideboard out for better answers against other decks.
I am really happy with how this list plays. I'm still working on the sidedeck and am open to any suggestions people might have. If you have a suggestion or want to share your experience with playing the deck, please comment below.
