Pojo's Magic The Gathering news, tips, strategies and more!

Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner


Trading Card
Game

Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports


Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff



120x90 Ad Space
For Rent!



BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Mike's white angel deck

May 8, 2006

Magic is full of iconic creature types: Elf, Goblin, Zombie, Vampire, and so on.  These creatures are a part of what makes Magic fun; the thought of unleashing a Dragon just tends to put smiles on people's faces.  Of course, not every creature type makes powerful decks.  Sometimes you have to work to get it to....well, work.
Hello, This is the basic break down of my deck:
 
Lands:
24 Plains
 
Creatures: (17)
3 Suntail  Hawk
2 Devoted Retainer
2 Slith Ascendant
1 Leonin Skyhunter
1 Diving Griffin
1 Wall of Nets
1 Wall of Swords
1 Gustcloak Savior
1 Serra Advocate
1 Serra Angel
1 Exalted Angel
1 Radiant, Archangel
1 Silver Seraph
 
Artifacts: (3)
1 Fireshrieker
1 Leonin Sun Standard
1 Whispersilk Cloak
 
Enchantments: (10)
3 Glorious Anthem
2 Arrest
1 Spirit Link
1 Sacred Ground
1 Rule of law
1 Noble Purpose
1 Righteous Cause
 
Sorcery's: (5)
2 Sacred Nectar
2 Breath of Life
1 Wrath of God
 
Instants: (6)
3 Awe Strike
3 Holy Day
 
Thank you for taking the time to help me, it is very much appreciated.  Alright, I know you can't exactly call this a angel deck, but if angels were cheaper (both mana cost and $) I would have my angel deck. I originally created this deck because my friend had a green elf deck that would waste me on land so, naturally, I took the battle to the skies.  I wanted a fast deck that would "peck" at my opponents.  As you can tell, this would mean that I would have to dominate the early game to win.  Unfortenatly, that doesn't always work out, so I added some stronger creatures for the late game incase my hawk/anthem combo didn't work.  I would like your advice, maybe you can help me improve my deck.
 
-Mike
Well, first of all, let me sympathize with you on the difficulty of acquiring and casting Angels.  Everybody loves an Angel, so every Angel card tends to be expensive.  And of course White isn't exactly the mana-accelerating color either.  But these factors need not deter you from your goal of a glorious winged victory announced by the heavenly trumpet of a skyful of angels.

First of all, take out your Walls, Diving Griffin, and Devoted Retainer.  In their place, put four Courier Hawk and four Beacon Hawk.  This will help move your early creatures to the sky, lower their overall mana costs, and make them all Hawks for theme purposes.  Then you can have a Hawk/Angel deck of sorts.  Beacon and Courier make especially good early beaters, as the Courier can poke your opponent for 1 a turn while still being able to block, and the Beacon can untap your best defender if it hits (and if you've got enough open mana, the best defender may be Beacon itself.)
 
Next, your enchantments.  You have an awful lot of them.  Replace all but the Glorious Anthems with 4 Ghostly Prison.  While those other enchantments seem to be giving you a life pad to compensate for being attacked, the Prison will simply stop your opponent from attacking (or make him choose between attacking and playing spells, which in the long run is just as good as you develop your board unhindered).
 
As far as your instants and sorceries go, I'd like to see Holy Day and Sacred Nectar become Righteousness and Reciprocate (or Condemn, if you can afford them).  Your card choices, like all the rest, seem to be centered around preventing damage and life gain.  It's much better to be able to stop the threats themselves, rather than simply prevent the damage they're dealing now.  Especially if those threats are permanents; a Holy Day only works once but a creature can keep attacking.  A Righteousness, on the other hand, will usually kill the blocked creature, thus stopping the problem once and for all.  If you still really think you need lifegain after that, you can use Angel's Feather (it fits the theme).
 
Best of luck to you, Mike, and may the heavens bless all your topdecks ;)

 
Copyright© 1998-2006 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.