If you picked up the Magic: The Gathering Commander pre-constructed deck Abzan Armor from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, you might not be content with just playing it right out of the box. Sure, you love all the toughness-based synergies with both of the two commanders you can choose from, Felothar the Steadfast and Betor, Ancestor’s Voice, but maybe you aren’t sold on all the card choices.
That’s where these budget swaps come up. Little card upgrades you can make to improve your deck and keep up with your playgroup. We’ll keep with the overall toughness-based theme of the deck since that has the most support from the main deck.
10Add: Fecund Greenshell
Cut: Indomitable Ancients
A multifunctional creature that is perfect in Commander, the Fecund Greenshell is an amazing addition to your Abzan Armor deck. For just five mana you get an anthem effect, giving your creatures +2/+2 as soon as youhit ten or more lands.
To help you get there, Fecund Greenshell also has an ability that triggers when it or another creature with toughness greater than its power enters the battlefield under your control. You get to take a peek at the top card of your deck, putting it directly into play tapped if it’s a land or into your hand if it’s anything else.
9Add: Bedrock Tortoise
Cut: Jaddi Offshoot
If you’re looking to fill multiple roles with one card, you’re able to’t go wrong with Bedrock Tortoise. On your turn, this massive Turtle gives all your creatures hexproof, preventing any instant speed shenanigans from your opponents.
The Bedrock Tortoise also lets your creatures assign combat damage with their toughness rather than their power, which is a necessary thing to have in your deck. You’ll want multiple instances of this ability in your deck just in case your opponents are able to remove them turn after turn. That also turns Bedrock Tortoise into a functional 6/6 for just four mana which is huge.
8Add: Dawn’s Truce
Cut: Indulging Patrician
Keeping your permanents safe is necessary to maintain a strong board state, especially against board wipes and other mass removal spells. Dawn’s Truce is a two mana way to keep everything safe, letting you choose to go with a flat hexproof shield or an indestructible one as well, if you gift a card to an opponent.
While other cards have the same effects without giving away a card, they are generally more expensive and breach that ten-dollar limit. Taking out Indulging Patrician is an easy swap, since it falls into the lifegain camp of the deck design rather than any toughness synergies.
7Add: Betor, Kin To All
Cut: Betor, Ancestor’s Voice
Betor, Ancestor’s Voice is an interesting card to be sure, it just doesn’t do anything for us in the deck. That’s why we’re going to pull the main set iteration of the Spirit Dragon and replace it with Betor, Kin to All.
This creature has a scaling ability that triggers once you reach various different thresholds. They are:
Once you hit the next tier, you’ll get all the benefits of the one before, making Betor a massive benefit to your deck.
6Add: Stalwart Shield-Bearers
Cut: Rhox Faithmender
The fact that this little creature isn’t automatically included in the deck is mind-bogging, but it does make for an easy swap-in if you’re struggling to find cards to bring in. Stalwart Shield-Bearers give your other creatures with defender +0/+2, which is a pretty big boost to their toughness.
Rhox Faithmender is an easy swap out since it is so focused on lifegain. It does happen to have a fairly large toughness stat, which helps the overall strategy, but since we’re cutting most, if not all the lifegain out of the deck, it just doesn’t have a place.
5Add: Crystal Barricade
Cut: Nyx-Fleece Ram
Swapping one two mana creature out for another makes for an easy exchange, but with Crystal Barricade, you get a much better deal out of it.This Wall gives you hexproof, making you immune to most spells that affect you directly, which is a pretty big boon in Commander.
Even better, Crystal Barricade will prevent all noncombat damage dealt to your creatures. While there might not be a lot of burn spells that can touch your defender creatures, having that little bit of backup protection helps. You might want to hold up this Wall until a little later in the game, since your opponents will be eager to get rid of it as soon as they can.
4Add: Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield
Cut: Ikra Shidiqi, The Usurper
A bit of a mouthful but Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield is an incredible card to slot right into this deck. This legendary artifact gives you a 0/3 Wall token with defender every time you cast your second spell each turn, and then gives your defender creatures exalted at the start of combat on your turn.
Exalted is a triggered ability that happens when a creature you control attacks alone. Each exalted trigger will give your solo attacker +1/+1 for the turn.
Getting even five exalted triggers can elevate a creature past what your opponents can handle, so Rammas Echor is a huge benefit to your deck.
3Add: Doran, The Siege Tower
Cut: Zetalpa, Primal Dawn
Just a simple Treefolk Shaman, the original Abzan toughness-based commander is a classic card to add to your deck since it is cheap and does one thing very well. Doran, the Siege Tower makes it so all creatures in play, yours and your opponent’s, deal combat damage based on their toughness rather than their power.
Taking out Zetalpa, Primal Dawn is a pretty obvious choice since the card does nothing to further the strategy of your deck. The card is good despite being memed on a bit in recent years, but just doesn’t do anything here.
2Add: Guardian Project
Cut: Staff Of Compleation
Kind of a more generic upgrade to include, but one that guarantees sustained card draw turn after turn is the Guardian Project. This enchantment checks the name of all your creature cards anytime you have a creature come into play, drawing you a card if you don’t share a card with the same name in play or in your graveyard.
Staff of Compleation is tuned more for a lifegain-based deck, and works really well under those conditions. But since we’re cutting most of the lifegain cards in the deck, it just doesn’t fit anymore.
1Add: Unnatural Growth
Cut: Shalai, Voice Of Plenty
Generally, Shalai, Voice of Plenty is a fine card, but it’s very much in the camp of eitherforcing a board wipeor getting your opponents to team up on you. So let’s swap out that for the enchantment Unnatural Growth.
During each combat, yours and all your opponents, you get to double the power and toughness of all your cards. While the power might not do much for you most of the time, doubling your toughness just makes all your creatures twice as good. Since the increase lasts for the rest of the turn, you’re able to combine it with other cards that check for toughness stats for even more benefits.
