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



 



BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Monowhite reanimator Angels
July 23, 2007

Hey this is David and im a beginner in magic....
Im trying to make a casual self discard angel deck and i need help!!  I hope u can help me improve my deck and i don't really have any problems how u change the deck as long as it remains in the theme of angels. This is my deck-
 
The whole point of this deck is by discarding my angels by using enchantments such as peace of mind, vengeful dreams, hypochondra etc then resurrecting them by breath of life or resurrection. This is an extremely slow deck so i usually hold by opponent by using ghostly prison, pacifism, aurfication or faith's fetter. And if im lucky and i can play my angels, its a piece of cake for me to kill my opponent but i usually get owned be4 i can do anything
 
The problem is the deck is to slow... so i need ur help BMoor!
 
24 plains
 
13 creatures-
 
3 serra angel
1 reya dawnbringer
1 adarkar valkyrie
1 serra avenger
1 platinum angel
1 haunted angel
1 angel of retribution
1 warrior angel
1 exalted angel
1 voice of all
1 akroma angel of wrath
 
23 non creature spells-
 
1 angel's feather
1 wrath of god
1 ghostly prison
1 glorious anthem
1 aurification
1 righteousness
1 hypochondra
1 vengeful dreams
2 peace of mind
2 faith's fetter
2 pacifism
1 urza incubator
4 breath of life
4 resurrection

I've seen quite a few reanimator decks, but this is the first mono-white one I've seen!  You have my respect already, David, simply for remembering Breath of Life.

Now, on to the fix.  You say you need the deck to
be faster, and I say you need the deck to be less composed of random cards that look just thrown in.  We'll start with the creatures.

Reanimating creatures from the graveyard is a
fine strategy, but even when the majority of your creatures are supposed to be resurrected, you still need some creatures you can actually cast.  Serra Avenger is a nice inclusion; one I'd recommend more of.  However, not coming down until Turn Four means that to speed up this deck, you need some early blockers.  A full set of Angelic Wall should come in, to hold the early onslaught.  Also, I'd have a second look at your Angels; especially Haunted Angel.  Make sure the ones you don't intend to cast are big enough to justify their inclusion.  I'd say anything smaller than 4/4 need not apply unless it has a REALLY good ability, but I'll leave the final decision to you.

Now, to your noncreature spells.  This section needs some serious help: everything looks just thrown in.  I'm going to just "remove" all these cards, and put back what should be here.  First, the four Ressurection and four Breath of Life; the best things you've done.  Next, you'll need discard outlets, so put in four copies each of Peace of Mind and Vengeful Dreams.  Hypochondria can go back in the trade binder.

Hopefully I shouldn't have to point out why Peace of Mind is better than Hypochondria.  Let's assume you want to discard a card, and you have one of each on the table.  If you use Peace of Mind's ability, you get 3 life.  If you use Hypochondria's ability, you get to be 3 life higher than you would've been, if your opponent deals damage to you.  Life gain and damage prevention have long been condisered weak because they don't really help you win
, but life gain is still better than damage prevention.  So four Peace of Mind and four Vengeful Dreams (a powerful anti-aggro card) should be plenty.

Now, you'll need some general utility spells.  To further speed you up, I'd like to see either some card draw or mana acceleration.  Trouble is, white doesn't get card draw unless you're willing to play subpar cantrips like Carom (which is hilarious the first time but disappointing from then on).  Fortunately, Mind Stone is both.  So in go a playset of those.  Finally, add that Wrath of God back in, plus a few more copies if there's room.  I think there'll be room for 3 copies at this point, which should be good.  Wrath is especially potent in a deck that seeks to win with one big beater, and that's basically you.  You don't need that Aurification or Ghostly Prison anymore since the Angelic Walls should hold off a good number of small attackers.

I'm hoping you'll take my advice on this one, David, because this concept is a really good one.  With a more refined decklist, you could be tearing up the tables with this one.  Good luck, and may the Angels smile on you!

~BMoor

 

Copyright© 1998-2007 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.