Felothar the Steadfast Felothar the Steadfast | art by Victor Adame Minguez

It's time to take a look at Abzan Armor, the fourth of five Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander decks. Will the deck's toughness win the day? Let's find out.

Package Contents

This is what you'll find inside the box of Abzan Armor:

• 1 Ready-to-play 100-card Commander deck with:
• 1 Traditional foil face commander with borderless art
• 1 Traditional foil featured commander with borderless art
• 10 Double-sided tokens
• 1 Collector Booster Sample Pack
• 1 Deck box

As for tokens, here's what's included:

• 2x Wall // Spider tokens
• 2x Wall // Insect tokens
• 2x Inkling // Insect tokens
• 2x Bird // Inkling tokens
• 2x Spider // Bird tokens

The Commander

The Alternate Commander

Decklist

New Cards

With all Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander decks, we're receiving eight all-new cards in addition to the two included commanders. What do we get with Abzan Armor?

The first of two new dragons contained within Abzan Armor is a flying 5/5 for six in monowhite. And as monowhite likes to do, this particular dragon makes opposing artifacts and/or enchantments disappear, at the rate of two on entering the battlefield, and another two when activating its five-mana Monstrosity ability. Overall, you'll be paying 11 total mana for an 8/8 flying dragon that sends four artifacts and/or enchantments to the shadow zone. Not the worst rate, but not earth-shattering, either. Maybe a single EphemerateEphemerate is better than activating that Monstrosity ability.

We'll go from a monowhite dragon to a monogreen one in Canopy Gargantuan, this time taking the form of a 7/7 with flying and ward . While Protector of the Wastes wants to interfere with your opponents' gameplan, Canopy Gargantuan cares very little for what's going on outside your own board. All it wants to do is help your other creatures live their best lives in the form of adding +1/+1 counters each upkeep based on their toughness. Obviously this gets out of control very quickly,It isn't as immediately impactful as, say, Zopandrel, Hunger DominusZopandrel, Hunger Dominus who triggers on your combat step, but opponents aren't going to want Canopy Gargantuan to stick around regardless.

This friendly-looking dog druid is a four-mana 2/4 mana accelerant, which are bigger than usual numbers for what you generally want to see in a mana accelerant. It's unfortunate that it doesn't count itself with its second ability in the way that similar card Bighorner RancherBighorner Rancher does, but unlike Bighorner Rancher, high toughness comes at a considerably lesser mana cost than high power. A single Tree of RedemptionTree of Redemption on the battlefield, which is conveniently in this deck, justifies Arbor Adherent's mana cost and then some.

A 3/4 elephant advisor for four mana, our tusked friend provides us with some custom masonry in the form of a 1/3 white Wall token when it enters or attacks. It also turns every one of our creatures with defender into a Rampant GrowthRampant Growth - a coincidence in naming, or a subtle pun? We're all about increasing our castle holdings with Rampart Architect, using the tokens to subdue incoming attacks while also building up our lands. It's the perfect card for a deck like Abzan Architect, with its only downside being that it has to attack to continue giving us Wall tokens, a condition that eventually will be hard to fulfill in a typical Commander game.

Here's a callback to a removal spell from the first Tarkir go-around, Foul RenewalFoul Renewal, at least in terms of art color palette and effect. We've got a ton of creatures in Abzan Armor with a large back-end, which means the chances are high that Tip the Scales is just a Toxic DelugeToxic Deluge that doesn't hurt us to cast. It's very dependent on game conditions whether Tip the Scales will be considered a good board wipe, but like Toxic Deluge, we do have the chance to leave us with the only creatures who survive.

We're getting the monoblack slice of the cycle here in Abzan Armor. Four four mana, we've got two choices that again, we're hoping we don't have to make but rather just get both. It's interesting, then that the first ability, which calls for any number of target opponents sacrificing the creature they control with the greatest power then losing some life, is most similar to a decidedly Mardu card in Crackling DoomCrackling Doom. That second ability, however, is pretty universal when it comes to black, as more than two dozen cards with a mana value of four do that exact thing. But when you put the two abilities together, you're looking at a potentially very impactful swing in a game.

The moment this card was revealed, hundreds of Magic players were busy trying to figure out exactly which are the best creatures to reanimate with Reunion of the House. What's "best" and what's "most fun for you" might be different things entirely, however, so do whatever your heart tells you. One suggestion though: there are 118 mono-white creatures with zero power, and wouldn't it be amusing to see how many at once you can bring back with Reunion of the House? Jokes aside, look for this to be much better utilized in decks that feature abilities like Modular where "zero power" is deceptive.

Our only new Enchantment courtesy of Abzan Armor is Jaws of Defeat, but it's a pretty good one. Everyone loves Warstorm SurgeWarstorm Surge, so why not just go ahead and do one of those, but for toughness? It's not exactly Warstorm Surge, as that damage is generated solely by a creature's power, can go anywhere, and is done by the creature itself, but that's just nitpicking. Regardless, if we're looking at focusing our deck to make use of high toughness, it's likely that we'll be able to squeeze three or four points of life from an opponent with each creature. Finally, a use for Unhallowed PhalanxUnhallowed Phalanx!

How The Deck Plays

Those who have been around the block with Doran, the Siege TowerDoran, the Siege Tower will feel right at home with Abzan Armor, as our commander Felothar the Steadfast is literally Doran with a few extra bells and whistles.

For the added cost of a single colorless mana, Felothar provides us the ability to actually attack with creatures locked behind defender, as well as an activated ability that reads like a reverse Greater GoodGreater Good.

In practice, this means a few things. First, we're playing cheap creatures that are made much more terrifying for opponents thanks to Felothar, turning normally fringe creatures like Indulging Patrician into massive damage swings.

And this deck is just lousy with cheap creatures that have high toughness; in fact, of the deck's 41 total creatures, 19 of them are mana value 3 or less, and 14 of those have toughness higher than their mana cost.

Of course, like any deck of this nature, we're very reliant on Felothar being alive and in play in order for our gameplan to be effective, so keep that in mind. We do have some resilience in that regard, however:

Realistically, our goal is to simply wall up the battlefield with our high toughness creatures while we amass the resources to cast some of our haymakers:

Our smaller creatures are expendable, as proven by our commander's activated ability. We don't care if they die in the line of duty, and we've got both multiple board wipes as well as multiple ways to recur them if needed:

In practice, Abzan Armor will play very similarly to the "junk" decks of yore, flooding the board with creatures that are in most contexts not great, but in our gameplan show their true potential.

Combos & Synergy

While we don't have any built-in combos present in Abzan Armor, as illustrated by Commander Spellbook's Combo Finder, we do have a number of easy upgrades if we want to have combos:

Each of those three artifacts, when added to Abzan Armor, create combos with a number of our creatures to generate infinite mana, card draw, power/toughness, you name it. It's up to you if you want to go in that direction.

Keeping it stock, however, we're instead relying on the deck's considerable synergy to get us over the finish line with a victory. Nearly everything in the deck is dedicated to the gameplan of "toughness matters," and you'll feel that manifesting within the first couple turns.

Lands & Mana Rocks

Abzan Armor is running a total of 38 lands, with five swamps, six plains and seven forests forming the foundation alongside 20 nonbasic lands. Among those, we've got many of the selections we've come to expect from a precon:

There aren't too many highlights among the rest of the lands, as we've got the usual checklands like Sunpetal GroveSunpetal Grove, temples like Temple of SilenceTemple of Silence, and reveal lands like Fortified VillageFortified Village. We do, however, get a couple utility lands:

Can't complain about another copy of Bojuka Bog, and the addition of Access Tunnel is clever and fits the deck perfectly. As for mana rocks, we've got Sol RingSol Ring and Arcane SignetArcane Signet, as you'd guess, but we've also got two of the three on-color guild signets, too:

Like Sultai Arisen, we don't get a Fellwar StoneFellwar Stone with Abzan Armor, but that's to be expected as we also get a lot of color fixing and ramp from our creatures:

Upgrading The Deck

Budget Alternatives

Here's a quick five in, five out, with each added card being less than a dollar at the time of this writing:

Out

Of all the preconstructed decks with Tarkir: Dragonstorm, Abzan Armor is the most focused when it comes to the core gameplan, so making cuts is more a matter of preference over clear outliers.

And that's a great thing; in years past, it's not something we could say when it came to commander precons. We'll opt for now to excise a few of the less impactful creatures, as well as Tower Defense, a one-time boon serving as a cuter OverrunOverrun in our deck.

In

Luckily, because of the nature of this deck, we've actually got a ton of very budget options when it comes to upgrades, particularly in the realm of creatures. These are a few suggestions, but if you scope out the Doran, the Siege Tower page on EDHREC, you'll likely gain even more inspiration.

Value Alternatives

Let's say that budget isn't as much of a concern, what would we add then?

Interestingly, the main set Betor is much more suited for the deck's overall build than the one actually contained within it, so it's an easy inclusion to make if we want to keep with the Abzan feel.

As for the rest, they're all cards that fit perfectly into what we're trying to do, but in a way that ramps up the power level just a bit. And if you're wondering, only 12 of the 41 creatures that come in the stock version of Abzan Armor get hit by a MeekstoneMeekstone, and a number of them, like Zetalpa, Primal DawnZetalpa, Primal Dawn, Dragonlord DromokaDragonlord Dromoka, and Protector of the WastesProtector of the Wastes, could easily be cut for other cards.

Bracket Upgrades

As for which Game Changers we might look to add, we want to remember that our deck plays like a mid-range, combat-focused deck seeking to eke out advantage with removal and specialized card draw, which means finding those things is helpful:

Archetype Change

The odd card out in Abzan Armor is actually its alternate commander, Betor. While we're fiddling around with toughness, attacking with creatures with defender, and otherwise doing Doran-esque things, Betor cares solely about lifegain and life loss. What if instead of trying to shoehorn the dragon into a defender deck, we ditched the defender deck and focused on the Dragon?

We're gaining life, we're losing life, and we're jamming in a ton of combos related to those two activities. Technically, this deck is likely a Bracket 4 in terms of combos and power level, but there aren't any Game Changers at the moment. But there could be, if you wanted them hard enough.

Monetary Value vs. MSRP

Currently, Abzan Armor contains $172 of value based on card-by-card figures, which is excellent on a $45 MSRP purchase. As always, these prices will likely fluctuate due to the nature of a preconstructed deck, so keep an eye on it. But for now, here are the biggest-ticket reprints:

It's highly likely that some, if not all of these, will see their prices tank in the coming weeks.

Overall Rating

Abzan Armor is a finely-crafted preconstructed deck that will steer players toward an easy-to-identify gameplan and path to victory.

For some, that's exactly what they want in a precon, but for others, it might be a bit of a disappointment to be so on-rails.

There are a number of needed reprints alongside some very intriguing new cards, and for players who like that mid-range, combat-centric approach, Abzan Armor is an easy pickup.

For that, Abzan Armor gets an A-.

Will you be toughing it out with Abzan Armor? Let us know below!