Abzan Midrange (Standard)

The deck is a current version of the Golgari deck with a white splash.

1) The Golgari choices.

I prefer Karn over Vraska, Golgari Queen. I'm looking at the card draw capabilities, and I am not looking to sacrifice my permanents. I plan on testing out a possible split of 1 and 1 as well.

Other choices just revolve around numbers of each. I want x3 Contempt and x3 Find // Finality for the current meta. I'm only playing x2 Midnight Reaper, but this depends upon how much midrange and control the format is. Tokens and aggro arefairly prominent right now, if that changes then I may play an extra copy of Reaper, likely in place of a copy of Find.

2) Why the white splash?

a) I like what Lyra brings to the table more than Doom Whisperer.

b) Adanto Vanguard is so hot right now lol. I like it in this format, even with the uptick of exile removal. I'm fine with Walker in the sideboard as it works well against decks that Vanguard is weaker to.

c) The sideboard grows considerably with the splash.
-Shalai gives the deck even more protection and is the perfect side out choice for Chupacabra.
-Knight of Autumn is the perfect card to deal with aggro red decks and heavy white decks with enchantment removal rocks.
-In my opinion, Settle the Wreckage is a major upgrade for the deck. It is a stretch with this mana base, but we get to dig pretty deep with explore to find white sources.

3) What have we sacrificed?

The mana base takes the biggest hit. It is stretched thin for our double color 4cmc cards. Also, Llanowar Elves only has 10 sources that make it playable turn 1. Most current Golgari decks do not play many more than that anyway, but I tend to like 12/13 untapped turn 1 lands for 1cmc creatures. That is just me though.