Standard: Azorius Battlefront - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

When revealed during the preview season, United Battlefront generated a lot of discussion in the communities and social media due to direct comparisons with Collected Company, despite the clear differences in restrictions between both cards.

The similarity, however, ends at the restrictions: the new card requires deckbuilding concessions around non-creature permanents, which expands the possibility of using enchantments, artifacts and even Planeswalkers, but removes from the equation the main factor that made Collected Company a staple — Creatures.

It took some time for players to start exploring the potential of United Battlefront, but the time seems to have come: with Simulacrum Synthesizer and Repurposing Bay, a new artifact-based strategy aims to get the most out of the spell to cheat on mana costs.

This is the base list that has been used in Magic Online Leagues recently. Some versions prefer more counterspells in the sideboard, and some even risk running cards like Get Lost to have more interaction on the opponent's turns.

High Noon will work as long as the Metagame is focused on Prowess and Bounce, which is the main advantage that this archetype has, despite running many cards with higher mana value and operating mostly on the turn itself.

Playing with Azorius Battlefront

Azorius Battlefront operates as an artifact-based Midrange that tries to get the most out of United Battlefront, the closest we have to Collected Company in the current format. Since the card only finds non-creature permanents, we focused on this category due to the interactions we gain with Simulacrum Synthesizer and the ETB effects that have become more common in game design.

We want cards like The Irencrag to speed up casting United Battlefront and finding the artifacts we need. From these, we can create tokens every turn with Simulacrum Synthesizer, or even use Repurposing Bay on The Irencrag to find the key artifact from the list and continue with our plan — it's worth noting that Repurposing Bay can also sacrifice tokens to find cards with a mana value one like Basilisk Collar or Ghost Vacuum in the Sideboard.

With the “engine” ready, all we have to do is interact with the opponent’s board with Spring-Loaded Sawblades, Perilous Snare and Braided Net while we accumulate tokens on the board to finish the game. In longer games, we have some artifacts that create other victory lines: Clay-Fired Bricks also puts more tokens into play, as well as Thousand Moons Smithy, which we can search for with Repurposing Bay and, if we turn it into a land, operates as an extra copy of Simulacrum Synthesizer each turn, in addition to sacrificing High Noon to pull the last points of damage to the opponent.

Maindeck

The heart of the deck.

United Battlefront requires some heavy deckbuilding concessions to pull off, and this list manages to do so with a number of cheap artifacts that turn this spell into a mix of card advantage and mana cost cheating in a single slot, allowing for some explosive interactions when we find Simulacrum Synthesizer, or when we already have one of it in play and draw other cards with a mana value three.

Kayla’s Reconstruction functions as extra copies of United Battlefront, which can grow in potential as the game goes on and can put multiple permanents on the board in a single turn, while costing only one more mana to have the same effect in most games.

The win conditions.

Simulacrum Synthesizer is the main way to establish board pressure with the various three-mana artifacts that we have in the maindeck. Each one will always come with a token whose power and toughness are equal to the number of artifacts you control, commonly making them 4/4 or higher.

Thousand Moons Smithy also creates one of these tokens when it comes into play. Turning it into a land is not a difficult task in a list with so many artifacts, where it also puts a Golem into play every turn you cast an artifact to expand your board position.

Repurposing Bay is not necessarily a win condition, but it searches for Simulacrum Synthesizer and Thousand Moons Smithy while also searching for other three-mana artifacts when we sacrifice other cards that, normally, will have already done their job when they come into play.

High Noon benefits from being able to put permanents into play with Repurposing Bay and United Battlefront to bypass its restrictions while permanently locking down the chances of Cori-Steel Cutter to create an army of tokens on the board. It also prevents Bounce lists from doing too much in a single turn with Nurturing Pixie or This Town Ain’t Big Enough.

The Irencrag, despite being a legendary, deserves multiple slots as we can always sacrifice it with Repurposing Bay while its extra mana speeds up United Battlefront and Kayla’s Reconstruction in one turn.

Clay-Fired Bricks doesn’t offer the extra mana of The Irencrag, but it guarantees the land drop we need to get to three or four mana, increasing the consistency of our keeps while providing extra breathing room in the early game and an additional win condition in longer games.

Basilisk Collar offers a way to gain life quickly against Aggro decks and hold off other archetypes' beatdown with any creature. We can sacrifice a Simulacrum Synthesizer token with Repurposing Bay to get this one-of if needed.

The interaction.

Spring-Loaded Sawblades deals with most of the early game threats that permeate the current Metagame and also deals with larger creatures like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse if the opponent attacks with it. Its flip side is a cheap win condition with an efficient clock.

Perilous Snare deals with any category of nonland permanent, triggers Simulacrum Synthesizer, and its Max Speed ​​ability can occasionally be useful in longer games to amplify the power of our creatures.

Braided Net stops activated abilities, removes blockers from the path, or prevents an otherwise lethal attack—all while its Craft ability provides an efficient source of card advantage.

Fomori Vault offers filtering and selection in the same slot as a land, making it easy to dig five or more cards off the top with the amount of artifacts we put into play.

Our mana base mixes the twelve untapped duals with Meticulous Archive to increase the consistency of mana access with Floodfarm Verge and Sunbillow Verge — whose access to red mana provides a way for us to use High Noon to deal damage to our opponent.

Sideboard

Negate is the only card that can't be found with United Battlefront in our list, and perhaps two copies aren't enough to deal with the many occasions where it's essential: responding to Abuelo's Awakening, possible answers like Brotherhood's End, Planeswalkers, among others.

Ghost Vacuum is the standard answer against graveyards, can be found with Repurposing Bay by sacrificing a token and guarantees a safety valve against Abuelo's Awakening and Abhorrent Oculus, in addition to working against Shiko, Paragon of the Way.

The Stone Brain permanently deals with combo pieces like Omniscience, and we can also use it to deal with troublesome key cards in other matchups.

Unable to Scream deals with any creature in the format today. It doesn't remove them from the game and has the problem of being dealt with by Bounce effects, but it's our best cheap answer against Screaming Nemesis, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, or other cards that have permanent effects on the board or that can create snowballs, like Overlord of the Mistmoors.

Glass Casket is another removal against decks with low mana value creatures, whether from Mono Red Aggro, or archetypes like Dimir Midrange, which runs various creatures with mana cost three or less.

Authority of the Consuls is an effective answer to Red Aggro and Prowess variants by punishing them for creating tokens with Cori-Steel Cutter while removing the immediate impact of Slickshot Show-Off and Monastery Swiftspear.

The Filigree Sylex deals with the army of tokens that Prowess lists can create with Cori-Steel Cutter or Stormchaser’s Talent, as well as dealing with the range of one-mana permanents used by Bounce decks — it also destroys Simulacrum Synthesizer's tokens, so we should time it appropriately if it destroys our permanents as well.

Mazemind Tome offers more breathing room and card advantage in attrition games.

Izzet Prowess

IN

OUT

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Exper Bounce

IN

OUT

Dimir Midrange

IN

OUT

Jeskai Oculus

IN

OUT

Azorius Omniscience

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!