This is the final version of Abzan that I'm playing, and I'm really happy with it, I can't imagine how to make it much better...I think this is the time when my first draft and the final build has been closer, I have barely touched a couple cards...but the pieces where all there in plain sight, so that's not that meritory, lol

Midabzan Forte

2 x Sylvan Ranger
2 x Sylvan Advocate
2 x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
2 x Duskwatch Recruiter
2 x Declaration in Stone
3 x Grasp of darkness

2 x Bygone Bishop
2 x Tireless Tracker
1 x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2 x Anguished Unmaking
2 x Pulse of Murasa
1 x Ulvenwald Mysteries

2 x Woodland Wanderer
1 x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 x Languish

1 x Archangel Avacyn
2 x Planar Outburst
1 x Ob Nixilis Reignited

1 x Greenwarden of Murasa
1 x Woodland Bellower
1 x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

3 x Plains
3 x Swamp
4 x Forest

1 x Hissing Quagmire
2 x Shambling Vent
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Woodland Cemetery
2 x Sunpetal Grove
4 x Evolving Wilds


Comment: 25 lands and 2 rangers seem enough

Not having Ever After saddens me...but I don't want many cards that are conditional on others to be useful...still, maybe in exchange of Mysteries, the other conditional...

Recruiter is awesome, I don't get why he isn't autoinclude in this archetype...for the love of dog, he's a quasi-Evolpea and/or a mana-Lord!...besides quite a body in himself

Byshop is a must too...they are almost as good as Trackers...enough said

Wanderers work and work for me again and again...even at 5/5...the last touch to keep the pressure always coming, and if Stoned or something, better for my Kaly/Avy/Trackers

Languish is survivable for half my critters, and kills unkillable things (ahem...Tormentors?)
Outburst, besides reset, are there for the awaken/Advocate/manlands side plan...and they kill PWs

Of all the finishers/biggies, I find Murasa, Bellower+tracker/advocate and Sorin to be the most powerful

The card that add a whole new layer of options is Pulse. Just to name one, Pulse+zombiAvy as a combat trick is ragequit, garanteed. Pulse + Murasa...well, you know...and the 6 life is just sweet, makes a whole world of difference against the ocasional RDW etc

Mysteries is about the only card tuneable...for the moment, it keeps performing...makes the sweeps less painful, combs with trackers, bishops, gideon's emblems...makes wellcomed fodder...tends to be useful almost always...but I can see the reasons to not run it, so...free slot

Tier 1 indeed, imho

Ran across a pretty neat low-curve sacrifice Azban deck that I tried recreating, would appreciate any input.

To the Slaughter
4 x Blisterpod
2 x Hanweir Militia Captain
3 x Carrier Thrall
3 x Duskwatch Recruiter
4 x Sylvan Ranger
4 x Bloodflow Connoisseur
1 x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 x Smothering Abomination

4 x Bone Splinters
2 x Declaration in Stone
2 x Anguished Unmaking
2 x Languish

1 x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

4 x Plains
6 x Swamp
5 x Forest
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Woodland Cemetery
2 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Sunpetal Grove
1 x Westvale Abbey


Another sac style creature I've considered is Rot Shambler, played it for a bit but cut it for languish, which I can usually handle by saccing all to the Bloodflow Connoisseur.

In regards to enchantments something like Shadows of the Past or Ulvenwald Mysteries.

And lastly some of the usual higher curve options like Sorin, Grim Nemesis, Archangel Avacyn, and Ob Nixilis Reignited.

I haven't seen many Abzcrats lists. I liked this but I just had to slot in tracker and Ulvenwald Mysteries. This has turned into more of a Clue/Crats list. Low curve but significant staying power for the late game. You can go for a quick win with Husk or a flipped Abbey - or you can grind out a win with all the card advantage available to this deck. Your call.

3 x Blisterpod
3 x Bone Splinters

2 x Hanweir Militia Captain
3 x Carrier Thrall
2 x Duskwatch Recruiter
4 x Sylvan Ranger
2 x Declaration in Stone

4 x Nantuko Husk
2 x Tireless Tracker
3 x Ulvenwald Mysteries
2 x Anguished Unmaking
1 x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

1 x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 x Smothering Abomination
1 x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

1 x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

4 x Plains
5 x Swamp
5 x Forest
2 x Canopy Vista
2 x Westvale Abbey
2 x Woodland Cemetary
2 x Isolated Chapel
2 x Sunpetal Grove


Still in the process of testing. Not many double mana costs but I still might have to add to the manabase.

Background:

I've now played up to Rank 30 in the new season, and feel like I have a rough handle on the developing metagame. There's a lot of aggro - primarily humans, in a variety of colors, taking advantage of the new anthems and Thalia. There's a lot of midrange G/B decks, very similar to last format with the addition of Murder. There's some people trying to durdle for days with graveyard recursion strategies - zombies or otherwise. And there's a variety of people playing janky brews attempting to make Delirium or Emerge into things (they're not) or Vampires (it might be, but it's still worse than humans).

The notable absences:

Five colors walkers is completely dead. The mana base is unplayably bad without Sylvan Ranger, and there are no viable replacements that are cheap enough, versatile enough, and have enough board presence to keep you alive against aggro. Four color walkers can survive, but it needs to be very lean on the colors, and might need to run things like Explosive Vegetation.

Esper Control got a ton of tools - but the aggro decks got way more. If you face off against Mono-White or W/R or W/G Humans and you don't have Languish on turn four or Planar Outburst on turn five, you die. If they have Selfless Spirit, Planar Outburst might not be enough. I think Counter-Control still has a home somewhere, but it's a lot tougher.

Ramp got basically nothing. Brisela is playable, but it's not a significant upgrade. Also, one of Ramp's better matchups (Walkers) is gone, and their worst matchup (Humans) is stronger than ever. The strategy's still playable, but definitely worse.

With all that in mind, you probably know me (or should) as the person who always wants to be playing the biggest and strongest midrange deck. Especially with Esper Control being at a low in the new meta, we can go very big and not worry about getting countered off all our payoffs. The trouble, of course, is surviving to get there. This is my current approach:


The Fading Light ()
(Midrange-Control)

Threats

2x Sylvan Advocate
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer/Nissa, Sage Animist
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
1x Gisela, the Broken Blade/Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1x Archangel Avacyn/Avacyn, the Purifier
1x Tamiyo's Journal
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
1x Linvala, the Preserver
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
1x Woodland Bellower
1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
1x Bruna, the Fading Light/Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Removal

3x Blessed Alliance
3x Grasp of Darkness
1x Oath of Liliana
3x Murder
2x Anguished Unmaking
2x Languish
2x Tragic Arrogance

Lands (26)

2x Plains
6x Swamp
2x Forest
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Hissing Quagmire
2x Shambling Vent
2x Canopy Vista
2x Woodland Cemetery
2x Isolated Chapel
2x Sunpetal Grove


Mana Source Reasoning
Pretty simply here - this deck is very mana hungry, in exactly three colors. We have no space for fancy lands, so take all the playable duels and fetches, and fill in the rest with basics. We've got and costs we want to be able to fetch for, but overwhelmingly need , so all the spares are swamps. There's some argument for adding a third Forest for Nissa, but casting black spells reliably matters so much more. Gisela is a pretty bad turn four play (she either dies, gets tapped, or gets bounced) so you mostly want on turn five.


Strategy
Those familiar with the last set might recognize this deck - it's Four Color Walkers! Wait, didn't I just say walkers was basically dead from lack of mana fixing? Well, that's why we're down to three colors now - Red has been cut entirely. We're also playing non-walker spells in and now, which means we can cut Oath of Nissa - notorious for showing you Languish but refusing to let you select it - because it doesn't actually improve the mana base. The only casualty is Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, who was decent against aggro decks - much less so with Thalia, Heretic Cathar around, though. We've also lost a lot of early creatures, with Sylvan Ranger gone for good, and Lambholt Pacifists missing in action. Instead, they've been replaced with a boatload of removal.

The main reason for this push is twofold - first, Thalia is a very real issue for trying to play blockers. Ride Down causes much the same problem. Against Bant, Spell Queller eats your sorcery speed play for value, and Reflector Mage bounces it. The short version is that playing cards and expecting to block with them is probably expecting too much. If you want to survive against aggro, you'll need to either kill things or gain an incredible amount of life (or both). The addition of Murder also forces us into costs - at which point, Grasp of Darkness is a much more reasonable card. Blessed Alliance is also an all-star; it edicts without needing to pay , and late in the game gains you some life on the side. The untap option is even good against Thalia or Tamiyo. Most notably, the lack of any creatureless control/mill decks allows us to feel fairly comfortable playing 11 cards that do nothing but kill creatures. Side benefit, this deck has no fear of man-lands (and gets to blow out aura decks) with all the removal being at instant speed.

Most of this deck makes a lot of sense - some things might stand out as odd, though. The one-of Tamiyo's Journal is a normally unplayably slow card in a fast format. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, again in a deck with no ramp. Tragic Arrogance over Planar Outburst. All of these are - for the moment - metagame calls. The grindiest Sultai recursion decks have effectively infinite card advantage - you cannot one-for-one them out of the game. So to win, you need to either kill them, or lock them out prison-style. We aren't playing enough threats to easily kill, so we're left with the second option. That's what Ulamog, Bruna+Gisela, and Tamiyo's Journal to search for any of them allow - you get to say "no, the game is over now" and ignore their value plan of infinite 1/1s and 2/2s. They give you a form of inevitability that isn't card advantage based. Same for Liliana, Nissa, and Ob Nixilis - ultimating any of them ends the game from basically any board state. The Tragic Arrogance is similarly a reset button in board states where Planar Outburst wouldn't be - it cleans up piles of enchantments or stacks of unused clues, and handily ignores Selfless Spirit and Avacyn triggers.

The finishers were also all chosen with a specific goal in mind - if Murder is going to be floating around a lot, they need to be good even if they die on the spot. Against mono-white, they need to be able to block or interact with multiple creatures, immediately. Thus, every threat from Gideon on down (except the aforementioned Journal) brings a second threat or a removal effect with it. Kalitas adds so much value to your removal spells that he's worth the cost of not having an immediate impact, and Gisela is primarily there to meld with Bruna - she's actually lackluster on her own in most matchups. Bruna, by comparison, can return Tireless Tracker, Gisela, Avacyn, or Linvala.


And that's a wrap...

Welcome to the new EMN format, and all hail our new mono-white human overlords! Luckily, the heroic strategy of "mash all your mythics into a deck" remains alive and well to combat the menace. Suggestions on card selection / strategy appreciated as always, and have fun melding Brisela while discovering the token limit on Zombies! (spoiler: it's 100)

I have been playing a similar list to this but I absolutely think you need to play 4 read the bones in a deck like this. It's amazing for consistency and gives much needed card advantage and selection.

Update: Removed two of the flex slots for two Declaration in Stone; meta is feeling more and more aggro/recursion heavy, and this cheaply deals with both. Ulamog is the last card worth cutting if there's a better option, though I do like the way he gives the deck another angle to attack on.