While Abzan Amalia Combo wreaked havoc in Pioneer prior to its ban back in 2024, it hasn’t really made an impact in older formats where it remains legal. Despite popping up from time to time in Modern, its lack of resiliency was hard to overcome in such a cutthroat environment.
That being said, the strategy did just unexpectedly 5-0 a Magic Online Modern League, utilizing a powerful new Reality Fracture tool. This potent one-drop helps the deck on multiple angles, giving it a better shot to compete.
A New Combo Helper
Like the once-popular Abzan Amalia Pioneer deck, this Modern shell revolves around two combo pieces:
Amalia Benavides Aguirre
Amalia Benavides Aguirre
Ward—Pay 3 life.
Whenever you gain life, Amalia Benavides Aguirre explores. Then destroy all other creatures if its power is exactly 20. (To have this creature explore, reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.)
and
Wildgrowth Walker
Wildgrowth Walker
Whenever a creature you control explores, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and you gain 3 life.
. With both cards in play, all you need to do is gain life once to start a chain reaction. Amalia will Explore once, which in turn triggers Walker to gain three life, retriggering Amalia and so on.
The easiest way to reliably trigger life gain is just to land one of your Soul Sisters effects. Both
Guide of Souls
Guide of Souls
Whenever another creature you control enters, you gain 1 life and get {E} (an energy counter).
Whenever you attack, you may pay {E}{E}{E}. When you do, put two +1/+1 counters and a flying counter on target attacking creature. It becomes an Angel in addition to its other types.
and
Haliya, Guided by Light
Haliya, Guided by Light
Whenever Haliya or another creature or artifact you control enters, you gain 1 life.
At the beginning of your end step, draw a card if you've gained 3 or more life this turn.
Warp {W} (You may cast this card from your hand for its warp cost. Exile this creature at the beginning of the next end step, then you may cast it from exile on a later turn.)
fill the role nicely, but now, this deck even gets to add
Liliana the Faultless
Liliana the Faultless
Whenever another creature or planeswalker you control enters, you gain 1 life.
{1}, {T}, Discard a card: Another target creature or planeswalker you control gains hexproof until end of turn.
in the mix. This one-drop is particularly powerful because it also doubles as a protection source for Amalia, essentially forcing your opponent to kill it before they can mess with your combo pieces.
Once you manage to get your combo engine rolling, you’ll end up with a 20-power Amalia that wipes the rest of the board, setting up a lethal attack. While this technically opens the door for the opponent to kill Amalia, your numerous Explore and Life Gain triggers help find and enable
Aetherflux Reservoir
Aetherflux Reservoir
Whenever you cast a spell, you gain 1 life for each spell you've cast this turn.
Pay 50 life: This artifact deals 50 damage to any target.
as an alternate win condition.
Notably, finding
Return to the Ranks
Return to the Ranks
Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
Return X target creature cards with mana value 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
also enables you to reassemble the combo altogether when necessary. This card even increases your chances of winning fairly by reviving Guide of Souls and
Ocelot Pride
Ocelot Pride
First strike, lifelink
Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.)
At the beginning of your end step, if you gained life this turn, create a 1/1 white Cat creature token. Then if you have the city's blessing, for each token you control that entered this turn, create a token that's a copy of it.
at will. The inclusion of
Ajani Resolute
Ajani Resolute
Whenever you gain life, put a loyalty counter on Ajani.
0: You gain 1 life.
−4: Create a 2/2 white Cat Soldier creature token named Ajani's Pridemate with "Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on this token."
−10: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+2."
further helps the cause, threatening to continuously create
Ajani’s Pridemate
Ajani’s Pridemate
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
tokens or provide a double anthem effect via its ultimate ability.
Better, but Still Flawed
As a deck with tons of sources of life gain and a board-wiping combo, it isn’t too shocking that Abzan Amalia lines up well against opposing creature decks. Having your own copies of Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride lets you stave off early pressure from Boros Energy, while the combo provides inevitability. The only real concern is
Goblin Bombardment
Goblin Bombardment
Sacrifice a creature: This enchantment deals 1 damage to any target.
, but
Thraben Charm
Thraben Charm
Choose one —
• Thraben Charm deals damage equal to twice the number of creatures you control to target creature.
• Destroy target enchantment.
• Exile any number of target players' graveyards.
takes care of that just fine.
If that weren’t enough, you also have access to a playset of
Solitude
Solitude
Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand.
, which answers any problematic threat without sacrificing tempo. This makes the Prowess matchup significantly easier, as it stops you from getting punked by
Slickshot Show-Off
Slickshot Show-Off
Flying, haste
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
Plot {1}{R} (You may pay {1}{R} and exile this card from your hand. Cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost. Plot only as a sorcery.)
.
Unfortunately, you don’t have much room for other pieces of interaction in the maindeck, which hurts your chances against faster combo strategies like Ruby Storm. Similarly, racing a fast
Living End
Living End
Suspend 3—{2}{B}{B}
Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield.
is tough, especially in draws involving
Subtlety
Subtlety
Flash
Flying
When this creature enters, choose up to one target creature spell or planeswalker spell. Its owner puts it on their choice of the top or bottom of their library.
Evoke—Exile a blue card from your hand.
. While
Damping Sphere
Damping Sphere
If a land is tapped for two or more mana, it produces {C} instead of any other type and amount.
Each spell a player casts costs {1} more to cast for each other spell that player has cast this turn.
and
Vexing Bauble
Vexing Bauble
Whenever a player casts a spell, if no mana was spent to cast it, counter that spell.
{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.
will sometimes cheese the sideboarded games, you’re pretty reliant on sticking one of these trinkets to have a chance.
On a different axis, the combination of
Wrath of the Skies
Wrath of the Skies
You get X {E} (energy counters), then you may pay any amount of {E}. Destroy each artifact, creature, and enchantment with mana value less than or equal to the amount of {E} paid this way.
and Solitude makes it tough to get traction versus Azorius Control. Even if you manage to combo off, this deck can easily exile your huge Amalia and then counter Reservoir, effectively negating your progress.
All things considered, Abzan Amalia is still a flawed archetype in Modern, and will likely remain overshadowed by Abzan
Devoted Druid
Devoted Druid
{T}: Add {G}.
Put a -1/-1 counter on this creature: Untap this creature.
and other creature combo decks. Nonetheless, Liliana is a solid addition to Abzan Amalia, and could help it pop up from time to time.
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