Standard: Abzan Bounce - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

The clans of Tarkir are one of the most famous elements of Magic: The Gathering. Today, the old three-color nomenclatures have been replaced by their names, and many fans expected a return to the plane to revisit these factions after the events of the Tarkir block, released in 2015.

A decade later, Tarkir: Dragonstorm brought the clans back with several multicolored cards and new themes, which mixed with the extensive Standard pool to create some successful strategies, such as Jeskai Control and today's deck, Abzan Bounce, which runs the famous Nurturing Pixie package with several creatures in colors to force a game of attrition in the traditional Midrange mold.

This list follows the same shell as the version ran by Rasmus Nilsson at the Bologna Standard Open on April 27th. A few changes were made to the Sideboard because some slots didn't feel right in the current Metagame, or performed worse than I expected in ranked play.

Other versions run Spiteful Hexmage for a more aggressive early game plan, but as I played this deck, it became clearer that the additions of work best when it works on the longer attrition plan rather than forcing Tempo and beatdown plays that will never be more efficient than Esper.

The Sideboard is extremely changeable. It would be easy to include 15 different cards in it and still not have everything we need for every Standard game today, so here we focus on a version more geared towards MTG Arena ranked play, but adjust it as you see fit.

Playing with the Deck

Unlike the traditional versions, Abzan focuses on the ETB effect of creatures, especially with the dozen new features that Tarkir: Dragonstorm brought to this color combination, such as Skirmish Rhino and Severance Priest. Since these have a higher mana value, we adopt the stance of a classic Midrange, curiously not different from the Abzan lists in Khans of Tarkir Standard.

The first turns are based on the classic interactions of Hopeless Nightmare and Nowhere to Run with Nurturing Pixie and Sunpearl Kirin. From later turns onwards, we move up our mana curve with Severance Priest and Skirmish Rhino, and we start to operate more like Golgari or Mono Black Midrange, where we gradually move up the curve until we reach Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Overlord of the Balemurk.

Each of our creatures interacts with the Bounce package, and one of the best tools this variant has is the interaction of Yathan Roadwatcher with the rest of the list, especially with Nurturing Pixie or Sunpearl Kirin that come into play and return Roadwatcher to the hand, ensuring a constant flow of threats with them, or allowing him to find another creature from the graveyard to return on the same turn, or the following turn.

Maindeck

Creatures that return permanents to hand are the centerpieces of this list's interactions, and they also offer a relatively decent clock and evasion for cheap.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm offered a pretty comprehensive package of creatures with efficient ETBs in Abzan colors.

The Siege Rhino at home, or Skirmish Rhino, makes up for the lack of a larger body and one less point of damage in the ETB with a lower mana value that allows it to be reused with Yathan Roadwatcher. Additionally, a 3/4 body trades positively with many creatures in the current Metagame and survives Nowhere to Run, Lightning Strike, and Cut Down.

Severance Priest provides information about your opponent's hand, removes any of them, and has a decent body with Deathtouch. The token created by its LTB ability can be troublesome in some circumstances, so consider the possibilities before returning it to your hand.

Yathan Roadwatcher reuses most of the creatures on the list with its ETB, and has an interaction with Nurturing Pixie and Sunpearl Kirin to reuse multiple creatures in a turn from the graveyard if there is enough mana available.

Loran of the Third Path in the maindeck provides a clean answer against several troublesome cards in a reusable slot. Main targets today include Cori-Steel Cutter, Stormchaser’s Talent, Up the Beanstalk, Unholy Annex, among others.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is our curve-topper and remains one of the best threats that the format’s midranges have today, and partially justifies running Overlord of the Balemurk as extra copies of Yathan Roadwatcher since Duskmourn's avatar allows you to bring it back from the graveyard while having an efficient ETB and a body that closes games quickly.

The interaction of Hopeless Nightmare with Nurturing Pixie or other creatures that return the enchantment to the hand remains one of the main reasons to play Bounce, as it depletes the opponent's resources while offering a way to gain more reach in long games.

Grim Bauble, Nowhere to Run, and Momentum Breaker are the cheap removals that we can also reuse with Bounce creatures, each one has a distinct property which makes us diversify them: Grim Bauble deals with smaller creatures for a lower cost while Momentum Breaker is better used against Midranges, and its life gain offers an extra breath against Aggro.

Maelstrom Pulse as a one-of is an answer to deal with Cori-Steel Cutter tokens with the same slot in which we resolve Unholy Annex or larger creatures like Shiko, Paragon of the Way and Archfiend of the Dross.

Our mana base is made up of several dual lands of various types. We can maximize them with painlands instead of betting on Lush Portico and Bleachbone Verge, but our mana requirements are too heavy, and we can't afford to take a Lightning Bolt every time we pay to cast a spell.

Sideboard

Kutzil’s Flanker offers life gain and graveyard hate in the same slot with a reusable ETB effect in this list, and is also ideally costed for Yathan Roadwatcher to return from the graveyard when needed.

Ghost Vacuum is a more assertive answer to graveyards for a low cost. Opponents can play around it, but it’s difficult to deal with two distinct fronts against graveyards in the same matchup.

Duress and Dreams of Steel and Oil complement Severance Priest as targeted discard. Dreams of Steel and Oil also has the advantage of exiling cards from the graveyard, making it a viable option against Jeskai Oculus while Duress works better against Prowess and Bounce.

Temporary Lockdown is our standard answer against Izzet Prowess and the Bounce mirror. We can always return it to the hand with Nurturing Pixie or Sunpearl Kirin to reuse the ETBs of the enchantments we control that were exiled with it, but most of our list has a mana value of three or higher, so we don’t get as much value out of it as the Orzhov variants.

Gix’s Command is another sweeper against Aggro, but it works as a multimodal tool in many matchups, especially in Midrange mirrors.

Anoint with Affliction solves most of the troublesome creatures in the current Metagame, ranging from Heartfire Hero and Screaming Nemesis to Abhorrent Oculus.

Tear Asunder is the main answer we have against artifacts or enchantments, but its Kicker cost also allows us to use it as extra removal in longer games, especially if we need to deal with Planeswalkers.

Izzet Prowess

IN

OUT

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Mono Black Midrange

IN

OUT

Esper Bounce

IN

OUT

Jeskai Control

IN

OUT

Jeskai Oculus

IN

OUT

Azorius Omniscience

IN

OUT

That’s all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!