Abzan Armor Upgrade Guide: 17 Easy Changes You Can Make

Will of the Abzan | Illustration by Yigit Koroglu

The new set is upon us, which means we get new commanders galore and a host of new precons. Tarkir: Dragonstorm has a whopping five precons, one for each of Tarkir’s five clans that correspond with 3-color wedges.

The Abzan Armor precon, helmed by Felothar the Steadfast, seeks to bash its opponents with high-toughness creatures while forming an impenetrable defense. But can this precon live up to these lofty ideals? And how can we support the Abzan () as they go to war?

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck - Abzan Armor

• FIGHT DRAGONS WITH DRAGONS—Return to Tarkir for an epic battle between dragons and clans; discover which clan fits your playstyle with distinct three-color gameplay, and add draconic power to your collection
• LET YOUR SHIELD BE YOUR SWORD—Ally with the Abzan clan to play defenders and turn toughness into power with this White-Black-Green Commander deck
• 2 FOIL BORDERLESS COMMANDERS—Command your army with Abzan’s Mythic Spirit Dragon, Betor, or Felothar, khan of the Abzan clan; every deck includes 2 Traditional Foil Legendary Creature cards featuring gorgeous Borderless art
• BATTLE ALONGSIDE YOUR CLAN—The Abzan are stalwart warriors with strong familial bonds who summon their ancestors’ spirits; they preserve the history and lineage of their clan through impenetrable defenses and sacred ancestral Kin-Trees
• INTRODUCES 10 COMMANDER CARDS—Each deck introduces 10 never-before-seen Commander cards to Magic: The Gathering

$44.90

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Deck Overview

Abzan Ascendancy | Illustration by Mark Winters

Any time you pick up a Commander precon, you should be aware of four weaknesses that persist across sets, though the impact they have on individual decks vary:

• Under-supported themes — Precons often bundle together two or three themes with none of them receiving proper support; it’s likely that this occurs to give players options to upgrade their precons, but it leads to generally incoherent decks out of the box.
• Too little interaction — Precons tend to run light on removal, and the removal they do run are almost always board wipes. This just leads to crappy gameplay: You’re either stuck in the game for five hours because nobody can interact with a player without nuking everything, or one player just runs away with the game because you have three spot removal spells.
• Individually weak cards — These come in two flavors. The first are bafflingly weak cards that shouldn’t be seen outside their Limited format, if even there. The second are cards that don’t work in the deck and seem to be in the precon because WotC wants to introduce them to Commander without sending them through Standard.
• Terrible mana bases — WotC is allergic to giving precons good mana bases, especially 3-color ones; an abundance of tapped lands and basics lead to slow, inconsistent gameplay.

How does Abzan Armor do with these? Honestly… surprisingly well.

Instead of three or four undersupported themes, it has one: Its lifegain theme is present only because some players might want to play the backup commander, Betor, Ancestor's Voice. I find it mind boggling that the precon contains this iteration of Betor, which doesn’t care about the toughness-matters theme, while the Standard set has Betor, Kin to All. This might become my go-to example of an un-synergistic card in a precon just to introduce it to Commander.

But! Even ill-fitting lifegain cards like Wall of Reverence and Jaddi Offshoot have high toughness, especially for their mana value, so Abzan Armor should play fairly well out of the box. Of the three Tarkir precons I’ve upgraded, this one seems the most cohesive by far.

The mana base has the usual sins of a WotC precon; tapped lands and an unfortunate number of basics for a deck like this.

The deck has its share of weak cards, but many of them are weak because the deck lacks support for the lifegain theme, and some of them are still playable, though there are better options.

When it comes to the interactive suite, I really like one-sided board wipes like Slaughter the Strong and Expel the Interlopers that maintain your board presence while damaging your opponents. They provide a means of breaking through opposing boards without damaging your own.

All together, this looks like a decent precon that suffers more from the systemic flaws precons have than any particular fault within the deck itself. But we can always make it better!

Upgrade Plan

My upgrade focuses on fixing the first three flaws; I could write a full article expounding on the failures of WotC mana bases and how to fix them, but I don’t have space for it here so I’ll simply say any untapped lands you can squeeze in will improve the deck.

I’m cutting the lifegain theme, including Betor, to make room for better toughness-matters and defender cards that enhance the deck’s main theme. I don’t want to enhance the lifegain theme because that would veer more towards a rebuild than an upgrade.

I’m also trimming weak cards for more removal and protection. The deck has a solid base of cheap, high-toughness creatures that slap your opponents for lots of damage with Felothar in play, so I want to make sure they stay in play uncontested.

None of my suggested cards cost more than $10 at time of writing.

Fecund Greenshell

Suggested Cut: Betor, Ancestor's Voice

As excited as I am to mess around with Betor, Ancestor's Voice in the command zone of my decks, it has no place in this strategy.

Fecund Greenshell promises card advantage, ramp, and an eventual anthem, making it the distinctly better choice.

Stalwart Shield-Bearers

Suggested Cut: Rhox Faithmender

I’m rather surprised that the defender lord didn’t make the initial list. Stalwart Shield-Bearers is so much better for the list than Rhox Faithmender.

Sapling of Colfenor

Suggested Cut: Indulging Patrician

I’ll grant that Indulging Patrician is cute with Felothar since it triggers itself, but Sapling of Colfenor is a far more powerful card that isn’t reliant on your commander.

Perimeter Captain

Suggested Cut: Wall of Limbs

Wall of Limbs was a payoff for the five or so lifegain cards in the deck… so just not good, especially as I cut them. Perimeter Captain admittedly gains life, but incidental lifegain can be useful, and it’s just a 1-mana 4/4.

Wall of Souls

Suggested Cut: Wall of Reverence

Putting Wall of Reverence into a deck built around creatures with little to no power was… a choice. Wall of Souls is much, much more interesting. This deck doesn’t mind paying 2 mana for an 0/4, and the ability deters attackers as life totals dwindle.

Giant Ox

Suggested Cut: Jaddi Offshoot

I wouldn’t normally put a vanilla creature in my decks, but what a vanilla creature! Giant Ox absorbs practically all early-game aggression while becoming a fearsome threat with Felothar or Assault Formation.

Earthshaker Giant

Suggested Cut: Canopy Gargantuan

Canopy Gargantuan is flashy, but it’s all smoke and mirrors. This is a big, expensive creature that needs to survive for a turn, and I don’t imagine it being a better finisher than a proper Overrun effect that grants trample.

I went with Earthshaker Giant for budget reasons, but if your prerelease packs are kind, it could be a Craterhoof Behemoth.

Windgrace’s Judgment

Suggested Cut: Seedborn Muse

Seedborn Muse is a fantastic card if you have something to do with your mana each turn. This deck only has Felothar the Steadfast’s activated ability. While powerful, I don’t think this deck wants to sacrifice three or four of its creatures a turn when it could attack with them. I’m much happier with Windgrace's Judgment clearing aside blockers or problematic permanents the turn after I play Felothar.

Soul Shatter

Suggested Cut: Staff of Compleation

Staff of Compleation is incredibly out of place in the deck. It took me a full day to puzzle out its inclusion: It’s the only life loss card in the deck so that the second part of Betor, Ancestor's Voice’s ability does something. How about we play a meaningful card instead?

Some players decry Soul Shatter since edicts have built-in weaknesses, but the threat you need to get rid of often correlates with the most expensive one, especially around precon power levels. It’s also just a cheap three-for-one, which is good value even if you don’t hit exactly what you want.

Grasp of Fate

Suggested Cut: Hornet Nest

Grasp of Fate plays out like a slower but more precise Soul Shatter, dealing with the exact threat you need and more permanent types. Clearing aside multiple blockers always helps in Commander.

Hornet Nest didn’t commit any particular sin and was actually the last card I chose to cut; I just couldn’t think of a worse card and really wanted Grasp.

Dusk // Dawn

Suggested Cut: Arasta of the Endless Web

I like WotC’s inclusion of Slaughter the Strong so much that I wanted another one. Dusk / Dawn is an exceptional option because it’s both a wrath to handle your opponents’ boards and a recursion piece to handle your opponents’ wraths—assuming their upgrades weren’t Farewell.

Meekstone

Suggested Cut: Wakestone Gargoyle

Wakestone Gargoyle is a poor substitute for Felothar since your defenders don’t have power. The deck has two other backups in Walking Bulwark and Assault Formation, so I replaced the Gargoyle with some cool defender tech. Meekstone locks down opposing creatures while leaving yours, with 0 power, untouched. This works best when played towards the middle of the game, when a bunch of opposing creatures have tapped in combat.

MacCready, Lamplight Mayor

Suggested Cut: Protector of the Wastes

I don’t think Protector of the Wastes is terrible, and I look forward to discussion about its place in the format versus Angel of the Ruins. But I added a ton of cheap interaction and have a bunch of cards that specifically punish big creatures.

MacCready, Lamplight Mayor lets your walls slip past your opponents unnoticed, as you’d expect for moving masonry.

Dawn’s Truce

Suggested Cut: Dragonlord Dromoka

I cut Dragonlord Dromoka for pretty much the same reasons as Protector of the Wastes, though this one’s less interesting.

This is an aggressive deck that plays to the board, so you need protection—especially around the precons level, which are bogged down with board wipes. Dawn's Truce isn’t as good as various phasing protection spells, but I appreciate the price point.

Unbreakable Formation

Suggested Cut: Feed the Swarm

I like Feed the Swarm specifically in Grixis () decks that struggle to handle enchantments without it. But you have access to green and white, so you don’t need to run subpar removal for flexibility.

Unbreakable Formation mostly protects you from opposing board wipes and occasionally provides the last few points of damage you need to win the game.

Tamiyo’s Safekeeping

Suggested Cut: Shalai, Voice of Plenty

I don’t get why this deck ran Shalai, Voice of Plenty. Even in decks that can exploit the counter distribution, there are better options. I’m happy to throw the angel back to the quarter bin and run a decent protection spell in Tamiyo's Safekeeping.

Rebuff the Wicked

Suggested Cut: Shadrix Silverquill

Shadrix Silverquill works in some decks; I fear it made this one because big toughness good.

Rebuff the Wicked provides yet another protection spell; I know this is a lot of protection, but this deck is fairly reliant on the commander, so you must keep it in play at all costs. It’s also really funny to throw down a counterspell in Abzan.

Final Deck and New Cards

Here’s the final, upgraded decklist alongside all my suggested upgrades. If you want to pick up the full list, or just the upgrades, check out the shopping cart in the corner!

Commanding Conclusion

Wall of Omens | Illustration by James Paick

While Abzan Armor has a lot going for it, it’s still a WotC precon at the end of the day and filled with weaknesses they won’t correct, for one reason or another. These changes trim a completely out of place theme to enhance the deck’s original goal. If you wanted to go deeper into lifegain and life loss, I’d recommend starting by putting Betor in the command zone, then looking for Soul Sisters and cards that trade life for cards like Call of the Ring.

What do you think of Abzan Armor? Which precon are you interested in upgrading? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

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