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I usually try not to highlight the winning deck for Deck Overviews, as they tend to get a lot of press anyway. That said, Oliver Tamajko's deck from the Providence Open this weekend is really awesome. Whip decks have historically been a little durdly with a lot of role-playing cards that were probably too expensive for what they did. I was never big on Sidisi, Brood Tyrant even in graveyard-centric decks. Alternatively, it's hard to argue with Siege Rhino. Oliver's deck eschews most of the nonsense commonly found in Whip of Erebos decks and instead features most of the things that make Abzan great.
Abzan Reanimator
Satyr Wayfinder helps the deck smooth out its mana and also enables four copies of Murderous Cut. This allows the deck to play a removal spell and a threat on the same turn much faster than a deck leaning heavily on Hero's Downfall for removal.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier is great with Whip of Erebos for multiple reasons, and I really like the inclusion here. I'm more skeptical of Den Protector. Den Protector is a great card in its own right, but it's a pretty small creature and while it makes sense with the graveyard theme it is generally less effective than Tasigur, the Golden Fang.
The sideboard here is well-built, too, as when you can't afford to durdle around too much you can just bring in Fleecemane Lion and beat down. I'd like to see the full four Thoughtseize, but all things considered this looks like a great new flavor for Abzan.
