This is my current Abzan Hero list. On MTGA, it capped out at Diamond 1 with one win to Mythic (season ended) so there must be some merit to it. It is, as the name suggests, based around Hero of Precinct One and a multicolor toolbox of cards. It is also packed with synergies that enable it to have a proactive gameplan while holding answers for later.
Wincons: Grind the opponent out of their resources while maintaining yours.
Pros:
+Strong, Flexible Removal
+Variety of Game Ending Threats
+Good at Controlling Game Momentum
+Recursive
Cons:
-Vulnerable to Counter-Based Strategies Pre-Sideboard
-Wins Slowly
-Synergy Can Be Disrupted
-Vulnerable to Grave-Hate
Key Cards (+Synergies):
Elspeth Conquers Death
One problem I see with a lot of Hero decks is that people try to make everything multicolored. While it's good to have the majority of the deck be multicolored, you want to make sure you aren't passing up quality in doing so. Enter Elspeth Conquers Death. Despite being mono white, this absolute beast of a card does everything we want out of our deck. It removes problem permanents of any type. It slows our opponents. And the third stage is where it enables our deck to go off.
+Acolyte of Affliction allows us to semi-infinitely chain these two together until we find the permanent threats we need to address our problems.
+Garruk, Cursed Huntsman allows us to immediately ultimate and get past those annoying Catsac decks.
Garruk, Cursed Huntsman
Garruk, Garruk, Garruk. The reason I knew this deck had legs. In a pile of synergy, he is the synergiest. All of his abilities serve a purpose toward winning, but what we're most looking for is his ultimate. And we have many different ways to quickly get there.
+Vraska, Golgari Queen allows us to create dogs and then sacrifice them to ult Garruk immediately.
+Ajani, the Greathearted allows us to ultimate whether or not we have dogs, but can be used in combination with the 0 to immediately have a strong board.
Matchup Guide
Mono Red Aggro: This can be a tough one. Knight of Autumn, Vraska, Golgari Queen and Bronzehide Lion are key.
Sacdos: Another rough one. Knight of Autumn, Vraska, Golgari Queen, and Murderous Rider will help you beat them down. End them with Garruk.
Jeskai Fires: Honestly pretty easy. Murderous Rider can carry you through most of the game by himself. Focus on getting together a Garruk combo.
Sultai Ramp: Can be a joke or can be insanely hard. Hand destruction won't hurt us as bad because of redundancy and recursion, but Casualties can gut us if we get too behind.
Maybeboard:
These are all cards I HAVE run in the past, or shuffle in and out of the deck. While I do like them, I'll explain my reasoning they don't have a permanent home.
-Casualties of War and Assassin's Trophy are obviously good cards, but can be milled past with Glowspore Shaman or Acolyte of Affliction with no way to recur them.
-Kaya, Orzhov Usurper is a sleeper op card that I feel doesn't get enough credit. Has some immediate strength vs Sacdos and Escape strategies, but struggles to beat out Ashiok as a sideboard option.
-Shadowspear is a card I have seen very little hype about outside of mono white, but one I believe has a place. Dream Trawler is a very popular control tool, and being able to force discards/kills from your opponent for one mana can be a very effective tactic against them.
-Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis held the original maindeck slot currently occupied by Kunoros. She is very good vs aggro matchups, but she can be very grave-hungry in a deck that uses its graveyard to make plays.
