With the preview of the reprint of the Invasion card Absorb, this time under the Azorius guild affiliation, it is just a norm to look on the build of an Azorius control deck in Ravnica Allegiance Standard. There are just a few cards from the set but I think we can come up with a decklist as the deck’s components are mostly from the previous sets. The card highlight is Absorb and here below is an initial decklist.

Standard UW Control

1 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide

4 Absorb
1 Blink of an Eye
3 Chemister’s Insight
3 Cleansing Nova
1 Essence Scatter
1 Negate
3 Settle the Wreckage
3 Sinister Sabotage
2 Syncopate

4 Seal Away
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Lands
1 Arch of Orazca
2 Field of Ruin
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
8 Island
8 Plains

There is an ongoing debate in a Reddit thread that I have checked on that discusses the card value over the other choice, Sinister Sabotage. Absorb is more aligned to be effective versus aggro decks, while the sabotage is a generic counterspell in three-color builds like Jeskai and Esper decks. The Surveil bonus is more likely to be used because it gets you a one-card dig in your deck for your answer/threat. In the list above, I decided to have three copies of Sinister Sabotage added.

Personally, I am happy to see the reprint of this card as it was very pricey at its time in Standard way back. The Modern format would also enjoy this reprint as Blue White Control is also a strong contender in their metagame.

Let me know what you think of this card and its probable impact in Standard. Just hit the comments below.