“The world may crumble, but I shall remain.”
Art:Armament Corps
by Steven Belledin
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Armament Corps is an awesome Abzan commander, The only Abzan commander, but that’s alright! This card is super powerful and a ton of fun to build around. We have a deck full of awesome creatures who give and benefit us from having counters as well as a bunch of proliferation effects. I have had so much testing and playing with this one, and it’s a fan favorite amongst my playgroup, too, frequently getting passed around after games. This deck combines some of my favorite colors with one of my favorite archetypes in the format, this deck is a true win/win! For all of the Abzan lovers out there, this one is for you. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Armament Corps Counters!
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Why Armament Corps?
Armament Corps is certainly expensive at five mana, but since it can buff two creatures and is a 4/4, we have no problem with that; we also have some ramp to help us get closer. We are a counters deck through and through, but we don’t need to cast our commander if we don’t need to, while it certainly helps if we can’t. For whatever reason, the gameplan will continue to do well.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
Let’s talk about some of our +1/+1 counter payoffs, like Ainok Bond-Kin
, which makes us way better in combat. Longshot Squad
, which helps address one of the biggest weaknesses in our deck in flying creatures. As well as Gnarlid Colony
which makes us very strong in combat. My personal favorite payoff is either Hagra Constrictor
or Deepwood Denizen
because they can make us near unstoppable in combat and get us a ton of cards both of which are amazing. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have some early game ramp like Avacyn's Pilgrim
, Elves of Deep Shadow
, and Ornithopter of Paradise
, which are all great early game ways to establish all of our colors and ramp out our commander. Slith Ascendant
is an amazing card that only gets better; if we can get this down early, we can have quite the attacker after only a couple of turns. The same is true for Spiteful Squad
, which basically has “Modular” and is a great attacker/blocker because of death touch.
Instants:
Our instant package is pretty much all removal, with some of my favorites being Victim of Night
, Murder
, and Go for the Throat
because they can hit a variety of targets. We also have Return to Nature
, which is a strong artifact/enchantment removal and can be graveyard hate if we need it. Unbounded Potential
is a card we almost always want to entwine, but either mode can be very strong in a pinch or in a combat.
Sorceries:
We have some ramp like Cultivate
and Kodama's Reach
as well as Farseek
, which are great ways to get all of our colors established. We also have some very strong buffs for the deck in Silverflame Ritual
and Inspiring Roar
which can make us quite a threat when attacking and allows us to be great blockers. Atraxa's Fall
and Spread the Sickness
are two amazing pieces of removal for the deck and can help us take out flying creatures, which is one of our deck weaknesses and proliferate. To round it all out, we have some draw in Read the Bones
and Night's Whisper
, which lets us refill our hand and keep the counters coming.
Artifacts:
We of course, have format staple mana rocks like Arcane Signet
and Bonder's Ornament
but we also have some Abzan-specific ones like Abzan Banner
which is a little expensive but gives us every color and can give us a card in a pinch. We also have Golgari Locket
and Selesnya Locket
, which are great rocks as well. The reason we are not playing Orzhov Locket
is because of the percentage of white cards we have in the deck and the W/G combo is much better for us than W/B. We also have two equipment in Greatsword of Tyr
, which is one of the best cards in the format and is perfect for our deck, as well as Armory of Iroas
, which helps further our counter gameplan.
Enchantments:
To start off, we have removal in every color in Lignify
, Oblivion Ring
, and Oubliette
. These all functionally serve the same purpose but are great ways to deal with problematic creatures/commanders from our opponents. I love Master Chef
in this deck, as it makes all of our payoffs and proliferation hit even harder. Forced Adaptation
is another amazing card that just makes a creature better every turn.
Land Base:
We have to have a decently complicated land base since we are in Three-Colors. We have all three on-color “thriving” lands which are great duals for the deck and adapt to what mana we need at any given point and are very good. We also have some draw in every color, like The Hunter Maze
and The Dross Pits
. We, of course, have some on-color tap duals like Radiant Grove
and Scoured Barrens
, which can help us get two out of three colors established early. I love this landbase and have not had much trouble with it, while being at common isn’t the best or quickest landbase it absolutely functions with no issues.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are generally pretty strong in combat since we can buff up our creatures and give them a leg-up.
- We are a midrange deck, but since we can buff our creatures a lot, just one or two creatures on the board can be huge threats to our opponents.
- Being in Abzan allows us to access the best of all three colors, like buffs, draws, and amazing removal spells.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- If we don’t hit our ramp pieces, we can be a little slow-going in the beginning, which leaves us open to aggressive decks.
- We have a lot of mana fixing, but establishing all of our colors is the primary goal of the early turns; while we are majority green, establishing colors is key; this can be a little difficult depending on the hand we keep. Due to this, we need to be aggressive with our mulligans.
- We have no real recursion so we are decently weak to creature hate.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We win the game solely through combat. Granted, this is made easier by the fact that we have a ton of buffs and ways to proliferate counters, which allows us to threaten our opponent’s life totals with only a few creatures out. Combine that with a ton of payoffs for all of our counters, and we are quite the threat.
Conclusion:
Armament Corps is a very sweet commander who is the only option for Abzan, but hey, that’s alright; this card is quite strong and an absolute bomb when it hits the field. I love the counters, the Abzan colors, and all of the sweet cards they offer! I have been having an absolute blast with this one, and if anyone at Wizards is listening, please, more Wedge commanders in the next year! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!