About this time last year was when I wrote my very first article for PureMTGO which was based on the Kaleidoscope format which can be found here, I believe I've become a better writer since then but still have a long way to go. I decided to do something special this week to celebrate my first year with PureMTGO. I wanted to write about something that's been with me from the very start when I opened my first packs of paper cards back in Revised, that was the moment when I first saw Serra Angel.
I decided to dedicate this article to all of the angels in magic the gathering from the original Serra Angel through to the newest in M11 Angelic Arbiter. Going back to Serra Angel she's been in every core set apart from 5th and 6th edition where she was given a break, Wizards did receive a lot of slack as she is one of the most iconic cards of the game so she made a comeback in 7th edition and has carried on her legacy all the way through to and including M11.
She was a game winning card back in the very first championship in 1994, below is the deck piloted by Zak Dolan.
As you can see 50% of the cards are not online yet so we can't play this deck, come on Wizards Masters Edition 4 is just round the corner you can do it. I wanted to give it a go even though we don't have Stasis yet, trying to make a Stasis deck without the card is not the easiest thing to do but we have the card combination to make it happen it just costs a combination of 10 mana instead of two.
The cards needed to pull the stasis lock off are Temporal Distortion and Eon Hub. Temporal Distortion delays tapped creatures and lands untapping by placing a counter on them, you remove the counter from the card in your upkeep and untap it the following turn. Eon Hub takes away your upkeep phase so those hourglass counters are never removed.
So my first quest of the article was set to re-create a Stasis like deck with Serra Angel as the main win condition. This was the hardest deck of the article as your looking at three cards which cost five mana each.
Did I manage it, of course I don't like a deck idea getting the better of me. So we have our three main cards which is the easy part. Now we need to find a way of playing them as early as possible I did try playing with Ancient Tombs but the damage was too much and I keep loosing, the other option was Grim Monolith which may have worked but the price was a bit past me after I had paid for all the cards I was missing for the other decks in the article. In the end I found a card that was a lot more useful and cheaper which is Azorius Chancery if you have two in hand they can unlock each other by retuning the one with a hourglass counter on back to your hand. Now I needed another source of fast mana that wasn't a land so didn't fall under the hourglass rules and that was Coalition Relic. Also for a bit of light mana relief if you're feeling a bit under pressure Mana Drain is a great choice you cancel their spell and gain the mana next turn perfect.
The main threat of the deck I found was fast aggro and goblin decks those nasty critters get everywhere if you give them the slightest leeway. So to slow down their attack I added three copies of Ghostly Prison and for extra punishment three copies of Propaganda as well, now let's see the goblin hordes get round those defenses. To help maximize my defenses and pull out a Temporal Distortion when needed I added a few copies of Enlightened Tutor, I can't leave home without one.
The creatures are simple Serra Angel is a given as it's her we are building the deck round. To help her out I added two Serra Avengers, they also have Vigilance so don't tap to attack and a new card to us online Radiant, Archangel from Urza's Legacy. This was rounded out by four copies of Wall of Omens for defense and draw.
Here's the final deck list, how did it play well after lot's of testing to get it this far I feel the build is quite strong you always get one of the prison effects into play quite early to slow down the enemy for you to get your lock into place. I then found I was using the Coalition Relics and bouncing the Azorius Chancerys to play the Serra Angel to take the win. Mana Drain was very effective in all the games it showed up in, I did at one point have Reset in the deck but it was always a dead card in hand. If we get Stasis online I expect Reset may be added back into the deck.
The next port of call is Legends where we find two new young ladies entering our world the first is a legend Gabriel Angelfire who falls into the sorry your behind is too big for magic in this day and age to even consider playing. The other card is playable and has had several other creatures follow in her footsteps, she is non other than the Fallen Angel who spawned Nantuko Husk from Onslaught, Vampire Aristocrat from M10 and the recent Bloodthrone Vampire from Rise of the Eldrazi, who is also confirmed for M11.
I do plan to bring you a deck with the mighty Fallen Angel when we hit Invasion block.
Well I nearly overlooked a complete set but my Eagle eyes picked up on it while I was adding the deck lists how could I forget the stunning angels of Ice Age. Well quite easily is the answer but don't forget this set also includes the ahem lost expansion Coldsnap as well so we do have a card to look at that's worth playing. The first card from this cold winter set is Seraph um yea see what I mean, to be honest she's not bad if you get her in an ME draft if you have the mana but otherwise why would you bother? The next lady on the list is Sustaining Spirit from Alliances, there's only one card that makes her hot and that's Eon Hub to take away the upkeep phase. Last up is our star from Coldsnap Adarkar Valkyrie, now she is worth having around in a lot of decks which I may look at in part two.
So moving on to the next block Mirage when we were given a load of old chaff, none of the cards were playable although I do remember trying to use Archangel from Visions as her picture wasn't that bad. The other two are Melesse Spirit from Mirage and Guiding Spirit from Visions. Granted Guiding Spirit isn't that bad but I've never seen any one play her.
A quick pit stop for Portal, there were three Angels introduced in this set the first isn't online yet and may never be as it's really bad for its mana cost Starlit Angel, but I really like the art work so hope she's in ME4. The other two cards are from portal second age the first is Angel of Fury which is really dire and the second is a popular card for casual players Angel of Mercy, this is when she had good artwork.
Next stop on the angel train is Tempest block, which brings us to the next three Angel's the first two are from Tempest Avenging Angel and Selenia, Dark Angel. The third is the first attempt at what later turned out to be Exalted Angel, Warrior Angel her mana cost was way too expensive to be used.
The first deck I found looking round the web as I couldn't think of a way to use Selenia, Dark Angel was a deck by Mark Gottlieb called Gateway to Heaven. It was a bit dated so I made some changes by updating the angels and the mana base and came up with the following build.
The main combo involves quite a few cards. You need to have two angels in play with Selenia, Dark Angel in hand. Cryptic Gateway lets you tap your two angels to play Selenia, Dark Angel. When she enters play Intruder Alarm untaps both of your so called Gatekeepers and you can pay two life to return Selenia to your hand and repeat the process. This will kill you so you need to abuse her by having either Angelic Chorus for infinite life or Pandemonium to kill your opponent, be careful of your own life total though do the math's before you commit with Pandemonium.
For card draw I went with Mark Gottlieb's selection of Compulsion and Fact or Fiction. I added two copies of Enlightened Tutor as well.
Yes I now eat my own words as I have kept the Guiding Spirit in the deck and she is very useful. How does the deck fare well it's really quite good, I wasn't so sure until I played it and it's been my deck of choice for a few days which is unusual for me. The deck is tribal legal although I found it worked better in classic in the casual room as the format is that little bit slower.
Also Selenia, Dark Angel seems to be a popular choice for EDH players as their commander as well.
As a double whammy for Tempest I also have another deck to show you that I created that's built round Avenging Angel. It's a very simple concept using the Avenging Angels ability to go to the top of your deck when she's killed. So to maximize on this I built a wrath effect deck using Wrath of God, Damnation, Day of Judgment and Austere Command. Overkill yes but that's the idea. Most decks in casual room are creature based so this deck will hit them where it hurts.
To speed up our wrathing and to help bring out our Avenging Angel I added a few copies of Pearl Medallion and also Phyrexian Totem who can also turn into a creature.
On the creature front we need something quite hardy or a card that's not affected by wrath effects. This is where our second angel comes in Twilight Shepherd with her persist ability. I also run four Mishra's Factory's as they evade destruction and a few planeswalkers who don't mind a clean playing field Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Gideon Jura.
For those tricky moments we have Swords to Plowshares we don't want our opponent playing man lands as well. There are also two copies of Hideous Laughter for Stuffy Dolls.
Here's the finished deck
Urza's Saga block is where we next pick up traces of angel activity, including a whole cycle of angels. There are a staggering twelve angels in this set but don't forget this set was built around Serra for the white theme.
Let's have a look at the voice cycle of angels first there are four each with protection from a colour, the funny thing is they were all later outdone in a single card Voice of All I bet they felt ripped off after that card was released as they knew they would never enjoy the tides of battle again.
We have four really bad cards next that don't really have a home in any deck I can think of these are Angelic Curator, Angelic Page, Herald of Serra and Serra Advocate, would you give these girls the time of day?
The next angel in the block isn't the hottest but she is useful and good in limited as well, she is the Sustainer of the Realm. She doesn't have a bad ability and is costed better than the other angels above.
Of the last two cards the first is a legend that I used in the first deck Radiant, Archangel which could work out very well with Emeria Angel and her bird tokens. The second is Karmic Guide which is really useful, as she can bring a creature back from your graveyard to play. She even has protection from black thrown in.
Time for another deck this one is built round a card that's not an angel but is on theme, the card is Angel's Trumpet. The deck also runs Karmic Guide as well.
This deck is tribal legal and was designed for the format but will play just as well as a casual classic deck.
The main card of the deck is Angel's Trumpet, which is an artifact with the following ability.
All creatures have vigilance.
At the beginning of each player's end step, tap all untapped creatures that player controls that didn't attack this turn. Angel's Trumpet deals damage to the player equal to the number of creatures tapped this way.
To get the most out of our deck we need to find ways of stopping our opponent's creatures from attacking. The most common in angel decks is Moat and we will be using it here as well. There are also other ways as well my favorite is Intimidation Bolt, I also included Peace Talks as well.
As the deck is tribal the rest of its made up with angels starting at Serra Avenger and working your way up with Exalted Angel, Emeria Angel, Linvala, Keeper of Silence who is a fantastic angel, Karmic Guide to bring back our dead and finishing off with two Baneslayer Angels.
On the land front the most important card to note is Forbidden Orchard which is used to give your opponents extra creatures that they can't attack with, thereby they take damage from the Trumpet.
The deck plays very well in fact I haven't lost many games at all with it, the mana ramp seems spot on. If you are looking for something different to play give it a go.
Moving on now into Masques block giving us three new angels to play with two of these are not yet online the first being the missing voice card from the previous set Voice of Truth, she has protection from white. She's not missed though.
The next card has potential and is needed online. The card is Copper-Leaf Angel, she is a 2/2 artifact flyer for five mana but comes with a nice ability "
, Sacrifice X lands: Put X +1/+1 counters on Copper-Leaf Angel.". If we had Fastbond in ME4 you could have a nice loop using Crucible of Worlds and Grazing Gladehart.
Picture this
The last card in the block is a really strong card in casual as it's been re-printed in a core set Blinding Angel. She just asks for a Moat and you will keep her happy for days.
Another deck for you this time using Blinding Angel in a tribal tool box build.
This deck has angels for all occasions and the cards to go with them which are all searchable via Enlightened Tutor. Moat is back again just because it's an angel tribal deck and it stops so many other tribes. Then we have Worship to go with the Pristine Angel, Story Circle is a great card to search for against mono coloured decks. The moving on we have Wrath of God which ties in with Twilight Shepherd and her persist ability.
The deck also runs mana acceleration in the form of Pearl Medallion and Ancient Tomb for un-morphing Exalted Angel on the attack on turn three. Then we have our Blinding Angel if your opponent can't remove her she can act like Moat if they don't have flyers. Last but not least we are also playing Desolation Angel in the deck for the win after we do our Wrath of God, say goodbye to your lands.
It's quite a fun deck to play but can irritate your opponent when you have an answer for everything they play, but hey that's the game.
I was going to do every angel in one article but due to all the deck lists I have left I'm going to split into two maybe even there but we shall see. I hope you all enjoyed the article. In next week's article we will start with Invasion block.
Most of the decks in the article contain Masters Edition dual land's which are expensive but can easily be replaced with other types such as pain lands, Ravnica duals or even the Shadowmoor/Eventide cycle.
Flippers_Giraffe
Links
My PureMTGO Archive / The Rare Drafter June / The Coalition League
5 Comments
Awesome article. I remember when I first started playing I ran into a guy who said he found a deck list on the internet and wanted to try it out. It was the Dolan list, and needless to say my Sedge trolls, nightmares and Sengir vampires didn't stand a chance.
Archangel was big time back then. A bigger Serra Angel with cooler set? Sounds awesome!
Interesting decks too. I knew there was a use for Angels Trumpet.
Happy anniversary!
Angels are my favorite tribe of all times and the Angel's Trumpet deck really is an excellent idea. Just one thing: I would personally replace those 2x Voice of All with 2x Baneslayer Angel (or with 1x Baneslayer Angel & 1x Karmic Guide (or with 2x Admonition Angel to remove unwanted permanents)).
LE
Angels are a fun tribe.
One little correction though---- Gabriel Angelfire is not a female.
"Gabriel Angelfire is not a female."
Wow I didn't realise that in all the years I've been playing
fantastic stuff even though I was hoping for a bit more lore to go with :)