Overview:

This Abzan (WBG) deck helmed by Felothar the Steadfast focuses on leveraging high-toughness creatures and defender synergies to control the board and win through combat damage or life-drain effects. The strategy revolves around converting defensive statlines into offensive threats using Felothar's damage-redirection ability and support cards like Assault Formation and Behind the Scenes. Secondary themes include sacrifice-fueled card draw, toughness-based combos, and recursion of key creatures. Felothar acts as both an enabler (allowing defenders to attack) and a value engine (sacrificing creatures for card advantage), though the deck includes redundancy with Doran, the Siege Tower and Bedrock Tortoise to maintain its core strategy.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Early Setup (Turns 1-4): Deploy mana dorks (Axebane Guardian, Overgrown Battlement), defensive value engines (Wall of Omens, Perimeter Captain), and key enchantments (Assault Formation, Primal Rage). Prioritize fixing mana with lands like Sandsteppe Citadel.
2. Midgame Threats (Turns 4-6): Cast Felothar to enable attacking defenders. Deploy high-toughness payoffs like Towering Titan, Tree of Perdition, or Blight Pile. Use Seedborn Muse to untap mana-generating defenders.
3. Win Conditions:
   • Combat: Overwhelm with boosted defenders using Crashing Drawbridge (haste), Primal Rage (trample), and Ohran Frostfang (deathtouch + card draw).
   • Life Swap: Activate Tree of Perdition to set opponents to 13 life.
   • Combo Drain: Blight Pile + multiple defenders for incremental life loss.
   • Mass Recursion: Last March of the Ents or Reunion of the House to flood the board.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 2-3 lands (including color-fixing).
• Prioritize early defenders with ETB value (Wall of Blossoms, Sylvan Caryatid).
• Look for at least one key enchantment (Assault Formation, Behind the Scenes) or redundancy piece (Doran, the Siege Tower).
• Avoid hands without early plays or excessive high-CMC cards.

Key Tips:

• Use Ghostway or Unbreakable Formation to protect your board before a wipe.
• Sacrifice creatures with Felothar post-combat to refuel your hand (e.g., Tree of Redemption draws 13 cards).
• Slaughter the Strong and Expel the Interlopers selectively clear threats while preserving your high-toughness creatures.
• Colfenor, the Last Yew can recur key defenders like Blight Pile for repeated drain triggers.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Relies heavily on Felothar or Assault Formation to enable attacks. Losing both cripples the strategy.
• Minimal stack interaction (only 4 counterspell/protection spells) leaves combos and key pieces vulnerable.
• Weak to mass artifact/enchantment removal (Austere Command, Bane of Progress), which can disable multiple damage-redirection effects.

Moderate

• Slow setup due to taplands (7 enters-tapped lands) and low early aggression.
• Graveyard hate (Rest in Peace) disrupts recursion from Colfenor, the Last Yew and Reunion of the House.

Minor

• Limited card advantage outside creature ETBs and Felothar’s sacrifice ability.
• Struggles against flying-heavy decks without Weathered Sentinels or Tower Defense.

Most Important Cards:

• Assault Formation (Enables combat damage via toughness)
• Seedborn Muse (Untaps defenders for mana/abilities)
• Tree of Perdition (Instant-speed life swap combo)
• Blight Pile (Scaling life-drain engine)
• Last March of the Ents (Mass recursion and board flood)
• Colfenor, the Last Yew (Recur key defenders)
• Slaughter the Strong (Asymmetric board wipe)
• Behind the Scenes (Evasion for defenders)
• Doran, the Siege Tower (Redundant damage redirection)
• Axebane Guardian (Mana acceleration)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 5/10

• Can threaten wins via Tree of Perdition as early as Turn 6-7, but combat victories require slower board development.

Resilience: 4/10

• Limited protection for key pieces and heavy reliance on commander/enchantments. Some recursion exists but is slow.

Consistency: 6/10

• Multiple redundancy pieces for damage redirection and defender support, but lacks tutors for critical combo components.

Interaction: 3/10

• Minimal instant-speed removal (Swords to Plowshares, Golgari Charm) and no counterspells. Relies on board wipes for control.

Rating Justification:

This deck has a focused gameplan with synergistic high-toughness threats but lacks the speed, protection, and interaction to compete with optimized lists. Its primary win conditions (combat, Tree of Perdition swaps) typically come online around Turns 6-8, aligning with mid-power casual tables. While it has some combo potential, its fragility and slow setup cap its ceiling.

Power level: 4.5 - 5.0