Abzan Sagas

Modern BGW (Abzan, Junk)

Alphamew17

Land (22)

• 2x Bojuka Bog
• 2x Forest
• 2x Godless Shrine
• 2x Marsh Flats
• 3x Overgrown Tomb
• 2x Plains
• 1x Swamp
• 3x Temple Garden
• 2x Verdant Catacombs
• 3x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (19)

• 3x Chainer's Torment
• 2x Fall of the Thran
• 3x Ghostly Prison
• 4x History of Benalia
• 2x Starfield of Nyx
• 1x The Eldest Reborn
• 4x Utopia Sprawl

Creature (19)

• 4x Birds of Paradise
• 3x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Heliod, God of the Sun
• 3x Herald of the Pantheon
• 3x Hex Parasite
• 2x Satyr Enchanter
• 3x Thrull Parasite

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Sideboard

Enchantment (8)

• 2x Authority of the Consuls
• 2x Leyline of Sanctity
• 2x Rest in Peace
• 2x Stony Silence

Artifact (3)

• 2x Damping Sphere
• 1x Quicksilver Fountain

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Aether Snap

Instant (3)

• 3x Path to Exile

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Maybeboard

Creature (6)

• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Ferropede
• 1x Medicine Runner
• 1x Renegade Rallier
• 1x Thing in the Ice  ^Flip
• 1x Thrull Parasite

Artifact (2)

• 1x Power Conduit
• 1x Quicksilver Fountain

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Nature's Spiral

Instant (1)

• 1x Clockspinning

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Alright, so when the Sagas came out, I thought "hey, those look pretty neat" and thought nothing more of them.

...until I saw Hex Parasite.

The goal of the deck is repeatedly utilizing certain modes on various sagas to gain maximum value from them. Using Hex Parasite and Thrull Parasite, you can remove counters from the Sagas to reset certain chapters (for example, repeatedly using Fall of the Thran's first chapter to have no lands for anyone). Even if saga's do happen to go off in full, they're still useful. Starfield of Nyx can be used to repeat used up sagas, Herald of the Pantheon makes it easier to cast them and gains life, and other ideas are in progress.

Early Game

Ramp. Ramp as much as you can to get out Saga's faster. You'll likely want at least one Birds of Paradise or Utopia Sprawl in hand to be able to play a History of Benalia right away. If you get a Herald of the Pantheon, even better, as it sets you up to play the big drops fast and will gain some life back from shocks and fetchs.

Having a Hex Parasite or Thrull Parasite out right away really isn't that useful, as they tend to be eaten by a fatal push. Hex Parasite is best to play AFTER a saga has been dropped (with the exception being Fall of the Thran), as you can at least drain a counter BEFORE it gets pushed/killed. Thrull Parasite is decent in early game, since if you have nothing better to do with mana you just extort the opponent, but you'd much rather have a BoP or Sprawl to start with.

Synergies

• Starfield of Nyx + any Saga: Did your opponent get rid of your parasites? That's ok, with Starfield of Nyx your sagas will be coming back sooner or later. Plus, if you ever have enough of them on the field, your enchantments can start swinging in and join in the fun!

Hex Parasite/Thrull Parasite synergies

• Fall of the Thran: As long you have Birds of Paradise with Hex Parasite (or just the Thrull Parasite, your opponents will never see more than 1 mana again. Since the Saga's don't add counters until after the draw step, it's super easy to remember to remove a counter on upkeep or at the opponent's end step, depending on the scenario. With a Bojuka Bog, you can also exile all the lands from your opponent's grave, either by playing it after the Fall of the Thran or by bringing it back with the second chapter of the saga. Once the opponent's lands are gone from grave, just keep the saga at 2 counters to get all your lands back.
• Chainer's Torment: While it's much better with Hex Parasite, you get to drain the opponent for 2 life every turn, and eventually if you feel it is safe to do so, make an X/X Horror to end the game faster.
• History of Benalia: One of the key strategies of the deck, make a bunch of knights. Why swing with two 4/3 knights when you could swing with ten? Or fourteen? You don't even have to let it go off, you can simply swing with and increasing amount of 2/2's every turn.
• The Eldest Reborn: One of my favorite ones to mess with, as it's fairly versatile. Opponents have creatures? Over a few turns, not anymore. Don't want to deal with your opponent having a hand? Make them discard every turn. See something in a graveyard you like? Let it go off and get the creature/planeswalker of your choice.
• Quicksilver Fountain: While this may be a sideboard card, it's still a nice synergy in the deck. Sure, we don't play blue spells, but we won't have any islands. We'll just remove a flood counter every turn. As long as we keep doing that, eventually the opponent will be "flooded" and won't be able to cast any spells.

Match Records

11/14/18

• Esper... Battle of Wits? 2-1: very interesting deck, game 1 he couldn't get his set up to work and I delt with a Silent Arbiter to swing in. Game 2 he played Battle of Wits turn 5 and I had no solution. But game 3 was by far the most interesting and definitely showed that this could pull through tough situations. The opponent had a Lich's Mastery and another arbiter, then Traumatised themself, effectively putting them at 100 life. I ended up draining them for 4 every turn until one of the Chainer's Torment went off making a 19/19 horror, then blew up all lands with Fall of the Thran and swung until he conceded. Pretty hard comeback, but was completely possible.

• Naya Burn, 0-2-0: Burn is something I've realized as a difficult MU. You HAVE to have a Leyline in hand from the board, and I didn't. Even if I did, they ran Destructive Revelry to get rid of my enchantments, blowing up prison and history while Searing Blaze got rid of my creatures. It's gonna be hard to beat, will have to think of some countermeasures.

• Abzan... something, 2-0-0: Game 1 I managed to get some enchantments out and recurred stuff with Starfield of Nyx, which was too big for abrupt decay. Game 2 was much closer, he had some Tarmogoyf and the ape land and hit me with them as often as he could, Bojuka Bog weakened the goyf for a while, and every Lili of the veil he played I fed to hex Parasite. Managed to finish it with exact damage at 1 life by eating eating two counters off Chainer's Torment, then draining them for two, then taking the last counter off spending the 2 life I gained and swinging with a 4/1 parasite and a courser. This deck can clutch out wins in spectacular fashion!

11/15/18

• UG Evolve Aggro, 2-0-0: Was a pretty neat deck, using stuff like strangleroot and a 1/1 wolf with undying to evolve a bunch, but both games I managed to get past his counter spells and put in a Ghostly Prison, game 1 I played Fall of the Thran then a Bojuka Bog as my land for the turn and he scooped. Game 2 was much harder, but once the prison was out, I just started draining him with Chainer's Torment and wiping his creatures with The Eldest Reborn, he was NOT pleased about it.

• Bant Turbo Fog, 2-0-0: Once again, someone not very pleased with the design of Sagas. Game 1 he didn't get enough fogs and I drained him while swinging with whatever I had each turn. Game 2 he had an instant that gained 7 life on an Isochron Scepter and a Fog on another one, asked me if it was gg, and I said "nah, I've got a solution" and played Fall of the Thran with both thrull and hex parasite out + two BoPs. He proclaimed "what kind of unbalanced sh*t is this" and scooped. No one likes land destruction.

This is still a major work in progress, so if you have any suggestions to make this work (primarily in early game), they are super appreciated!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	22 - 2 Mythic Rares 15 - 11 Rares 16 - 2 Uncommons 2 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.61
Tokens	Enchantment Cleric 2/1 W, Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance, Nightmare Horror */* B
Folders	Awesomeness , Potential Decks, zzInspiration (not own)