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!



BeJoSe's Deck Garage
Angels
December 15, 2008

Well I wrote in a while back about this deck, which is mainly angels. I managed to fix it up with some of my friends at the college but I need it to be a bit more consistent and it seems to get wrecked by everyone else's decks. The main point of it is to be able to stall until I can get out angels by using Calciform Pools. The deck is mono-white and is 61 cards. Here's the card list.

Lands: 19 Total
15 Plains
4 Calciform Pools

Instants/Sorcery/Enchanments: 18 Total

1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Light from Within
1 Righteousness

1 Mass Calcify
1 Pacifism
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Angel's Grace

3 Holy Day
3 Triclopean Sight
3 Sacred Nectar

2 Demystify

Artifacts/Equipments: 3 Total
1 Sword of Kaldra
1 Scythe of the Wretched
1 Fireshrieker

Creatures: 21 Total
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Reya Dawnbringer
1 Twilight Shepherd
1 Exalted Angel
1 Pristine Angel
1 Platinum Angel
1 Serra Angel
1 Battlegrace Angel
2 Serra Avenger
1 Stonehewer Giant
1 Celestial Crusader
1 Indomitable Ancients
1 Diving Griffin
1 Paladin en-Vec
1 Leonin Den-Guard
1 Wall of Glare
2 Leonin Skyhunter
1 Lantern Kami
1 Soul Warden

Currently there are only 2 turn 1 creatures I can play and only 6 turn 2 ones. It would really help if you did a fix on this.
Either way, thanks in advance if you do decide to take a look at this.

Curtis


Angels have probably always been one of my favorite tribes.
The main problem they face however is that most are very expensive at don't come down till at least turn 5. As such we're going to need some stall to hold your opponents at bay until then.
Firstly, raise your land count to at least 24, when your playing a slow deck like this you want to be able to hit all of your land drops to ensure you can play your more expensive spells

Stall Ideas -

  • Wrath Of God, absolute must have here, it allows you to wipe the field of opposing threats and turn 4-5 is usually the turn you want to do that. While there are alternatives (Final Judgement, Hallowed Burial etc) these come online way to late in a deck like this)
  • Wall Of Essence/Hope, people generally won't waste a removal spell on a wall (it's not a threat) but won't bother to attack you until they have a creature with 3 or 4 power and by that time you should be able to wrath
  • Holy Day was never the greatest card, basically your only really going to need it if your already losing, and then it only prolongs your defeat by 1 turn, much better to use removal. However if you still want to you use similar cards there are better options such as; Prismatic Strands (allows you to use it as a combat trick and prevent only the damage your opponents creatures would deal and it can be used twice), Pollen Lullaby (allows you to lock down your opponents creatures for an extra turn) and Dawn Charm because of its versatility.
  • Sacred Nectar has the same problem as Holy Day in that it only prolongs your defeat rather than helping you to turn a situation around. In general you should try to avoid cards that only gain you life. There are exceptions to this when the lifegain is very good for the cost. Examples of this are Pulse Of The Fields and Sun Droplet, they both can gain you a large amount of life over the course of a game. For your deck I would use Sun Droplet as it can come down early and gain you quite a bit of life over the course of the game.
  • In relation to the previous point, cards that combine an effect with lifegain are generally very good, take Faith's Fetters for instance. It basically combines Sacred Nectar and Pacifism into one card and while more expensive can target more permenants and also shut down their abilities.


Acceleration -

  • Solemn Simulacrum, accelerates, blocks and draws a card, a very nice creature all round
  • Mind Stone, accelerates and draws a card when your done with it
  • Remote Farm, while it does have a limited number of uses it can be worth it in the short term
  • Grim Monolith, can come down early and quickly ramp you up to angel casting cost and when you have the spare mana you can untap it.


Angels, you've made some good choices here and I'm going to suggest the ones that you should try to get more copies of -

  • Pristine Angel, if you've got the instants to protect it this can be an excellent attacker and blocker.
  • Exalted Angel, a very very good creature. the big toughness protects it from alot of burn and the lifelink ability helps to keep you the game while beating your opponent down.
  • Akorma, excellent beater. Attacks and defends as well as protection from the two major sources of removal? Sign me up.
  • Twilight Shepherd, even with just persist ths would be a worthwhile card; for an extra W you get and extra +1/+1 over Serra Angel and it comes back a second time add in the ability and it becomes just super


General -

  • Because your running a mono-color deck you shold take advantage of some non-basic lands such as: Forbidding Watchtower, while it comes into play tapped it provides your a good blocker without taking up a non-land spot in your deck; Kor Haven, while I did say that holy day wan't exactly a good card Kor Haven has the same advantage as the watchtower in that it doesn't take up a non-land spot in your deck while still providing you with an effect (a repeatable one at that)
  • You've got a bit of an equip sub-theme going on, either make this a much bigger part of the deck or cut it entirely. This doesnt mean you have to cut the equipment itself, rather cut the support cards of that such as Leonin Den-Guard


Wizards is also releasing a Devine vs Demonic duel deck soon so you might want to check that out, other than that good luck!


 

Copyright© 1998-2008 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.