Welcome back to part two of the History of Angels. Week one was mostly centered around the casual room this week the decks are a lot more competitive and all but one were played in the tournament practice room for a change. I don't expect you want to hear me rambling so let's continue from where we left off last week.
To view part one please click on the link below.
The History of Angels part one Alpha/Beta - Masques block
Now in our history lesson we see the dark side of the Angels emerge when we visit Invasion block. There are some really nice new angels in this set but let's take out the dead wood first, yes I'm looking at you Glimmering Angel. The other two angels from the Invasion set are Crypt Angel and Reya Dawnbringer.
First of all I'll look at Reya Dawnbringer she's been in and out of graveyards for years on the end of some re-animation deck or another. At one point before she was printed in M10 she was a very expensive card if I remember correctly around the $20 mark (I could be out though), now you can find an Invasion copy for about $4 and the M10 version at $1.50 so she still has some class and hasn't gone under a $1 into the bargain bin.
Crypt Angel hasn't seen much play I couldn't find any pro tour decks with her name mentioned anywhere. She has an interesting ability to reach into your graveyard and bring back red or blue creatures which means she really needs to be played in a three coloured Grixis deck.
The best creatures I found for this are ones with Evoke or Echo as they naturally can go to the graveyard. Mulldrifter was the first card I thought of which will do very well for our card draw. The other card I chose to run was an Echo creature Avalanche Riders, oh you should see how many players in the casual room concede at the site of him. I added Ingot Chewer as a source of artifact removal and he's not a bad size either at 3/3.
The other side of the creature base I included Fallen Angel as a way to sacrifice either the Mulldrifter or the Avalanche Riders so the Crypt Angel could bring them back again if I paid their full cost. To also boost the Fallen Angels I included Bitterblossom for lot's of faeries to sacrifice to feed her everlasting hunger. To use the Fallen Angel as a double edged weapon after she attacks I included Fling as well so you can see her right up close after her meal.
Keeping a slight faerie theme I also added Pestermite to the deck as well as it's a very useful utility card. The deck was rounded out with Earthquake and the cheaper alternative Fault Line which is a bargain card, it does the same as Earthquake but for an extra red mana which gives the card instant speed and its only $0.15 each. For mana ramp I added Obelisk of Grixis and the final card to put the icing on the cake is Turn to Mist to bounce those Evoke and Echo cards yes its mean and dirty but oh so fun.
I really enjoyed playing the deck in the casual room it is strong and powerful. But be warned you will get people conceding to Avalanche Riders and Fallen Angel. I've no idea why they concede to Fallen Angel sometimes that's before I even cast Bitterblossom.
Now we look to Planeshift which has a single angel which is the mighty Voice of All which I talked about in the last article. Then we move on to the final set of Invasion block Apocalypse, where we meet some studded stars. We have Desolation Angel, Haunted Angel and Lightning Angel. I'm still playing with ways to break Haunted Angel at the moment so I won't be including a deck for her at this moment in time.
First up is the queen of darkness the Desolation Angel she has an Armageddon effect built in as a kicker cost it reads as follows.
Kicker 
(You may pay an additional as you cast this spell.)
Flying
When Desolation Angel enters the battlefield, destroy all lands you control. If it was kicked, destroy all lands instead.
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Now I first tried playing with Desolation Angel in a classic build in the casual room but I had too many complaints so I decided to move the deck over to the tournament practice room and change it to Legacy. To use her effectively you will need to cast her by paying the kicker cost to destroy all the lands in play. This costs seven mana so the deck needs to hold its own until you get to this point. As we are already in black and white I decided to go down the hand destruction route. I added the best discard spell Hymn to Tourach and also the second best Gerrard's Verdict both of which force you opponent to discard two cards.
To hold off the creatures if any get past the discard, there is always one. I went for some heavy removal in the form of Pernicious Deed, Maelstrom Pulse and Swords to Plowshares. I also added a single copy of Moat to my main deck which can be tutored by Enlightened Tutor.
To stabilize after casting our winged Armageddon I included a few copies of Crucible of Worlds to bring back our destroyed lands. This also works quite well if you are playing with Wastelands as well.
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On to the card draw and we have Brainstorm, Catalog and Fact or Fiction. I'm also playing with three copies of Mana Leak at present but they may be changed for something else as the deck progresses.
The sideboard contains the third copy of Crucible of Worlds if we play a deck heavy with Wastelands. There are four copies of Leyline of the Void against re-animation decks, I also added two copies of Helm of Obedience to give an alternative win condition if the Leyline's are sided in. Leyline of the Void is also good vs aggro decks that run Tarmogoyf, Knight of the Reliquary and Grim Lavamancer There are two more copies of Moat and also a single copy of Ghostly Prison to slow down aggro decks as this is where the deck has the most issues. There are the standard Null Rod and Pithing Needle which I tend to run in most of my Legacy sideboards at the moment. I nearly forgot to mention the single Animate Dead which is used to animate discarded creatures or to steal re-animation targets.
The deck does perform well in the tournament practice room but it's not ready for the big time yet. As I say aggro is the worst match up I've played against so far due to its pure speed and Qasali Pridemage who is a real thorn in my side. Goblins and elves aren't so bad as I can usually slow them down with Pernicious Deed or Moat enough to take the win.
Next is Lightning Angel who has seen quite a bit of play in the so called Captain America deck due to her colours. But we can't really have our deck named after Captain America as the article is based on angels so the next best super hero is Miss Victory.
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I think she fits in perfectly as she's on colour sporting the red, white and blue just like our Lightning Angel. Now this deck will be based in Extended as Lightning Angel was reprinted in Time spiral as a Time Shifted card. So she will be legal until October when the block rotates so I'm getting the most out of her while I can. Again this deck was mainly played in the Tournament Practice room as it was too good for casual which seems to be the theme with this week's angel decks.
To start off with Lightning Angel doesn't have the easiest mana cost to cast being    . So to get round this I first added a way to slow our opponents down via land destruction the card I chose to run is Boom from the split card Boom/Bust which destroys both one of your lands and one of your opponents. The way for us to get round the mana denial is to run Flagstones of Trokair which when destroyed lets you search for a plains, which also helps thin your deck down. The other early defense and card drawer is Wall of Omens.
The idea of the deck is to it fast and heavy I included a card which got me a few comments in the TP room but it is very effective in this deck Hellspark Elemental. To round out the creatures I added a few late game flyers Baneslayer Angel as she is on theme and just an excellent all round card and the other is a dragon Numot, the Devastator which will keep your opponents land count down.
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On to the removal which sees us running Lightning Bolt and Temporal Isolation which comes in very handy as it can be played at instant speed and doesn't give your opponent life or a land like Path to Exile or Condemn would. Jace Beleren came along for the ride in the deck as another source of card draw and Coalition Relic is a very important piece of mana ramp in the deck.
The sideboard has the ever popular Linvala, Keeper of Silence which actually managed to outrun a re-animated Temporal Isolationed It that Betrays in one game to take the win before she was annihilated. The only other card to note in the sideboard which is a bit different is three copies of Meddling Mage which can be very useful vs Eldrazi ramp decks which I keep finding myself matched up against.
The deck is doing a great job in the TP room the only changes I would make is to replace the Sejiri Refuges with Celestial Colonnade.
The next block is Odyssey which wasn't the best block for angels it had quite a few let downs namely Angel of Retribution and Silver Seraph who's mana costs are really too expensive to be considered in most decks. This leaves us with two angels the first Iridescent Angel has been played in a few competitive decks that made top three places back in 2005/2006 in Oath of Druids builds, although only as a sideboard card due to her protection from all colours. The last card in the block is Wayward Angel which hasn't seen much pro play but she is a good casual card. Let's have a look at her Threshold ability
Threshold — As long as seven or more cards are in your graveyard, Wayward Angel gets +3/+3, is black, has trample, and has "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature."
It's not that bad but again with her mana cost and the conditions need to reach Threshold and keep her feed its possible but not worth running.
I must say though the art work on these four cards is really bad in my opinion, angels are supposed to look elegant which these don't.
Now the next block Onslaught only has two angels but they are two of the greatest to have ever graced the skies. They have been used in so many competitive and casual decks which gave them a hefty price tag back in their day.
The first card is from Onslaught which is Exalted Angel which is my favorite angel and one of my all time favorite cards as well. She has everything that you could want from an angel decent artwork speed via her morph ability which could see her being played and un-morphed on the attack on turn four without assistance. Then she has lifelink as well which really adds the icing on the cake.
She's currently doing the rounds in Legacy in the White Stax deck which looks like this, I looked at a number of versions and they play between one and three Exalted Angels. I picked the below version as it won a Legacy event.
The deck is all about control I haven't played it as I don't have all the cards. The idea is to deprive your opponent of land while you have a Magus of the Tabernacle in play or Ghostly Prison. You then have a load of board control cards such as Smokestack, Trinisphere and Armageddon. If there are any Legacy players reading this I'd like to know how well it performs online as it looks like a very interesting deck.
Before Stax Exalted Angel was present in Angel Stompy this is the build I've been running in the tournament practice room. I've added blue to include Meddling Mage main board and two copies of Serendib Efreet which can be cast on turn two via Ancient Tomb like Exalted Angel. I decided to run Samurai of the Pale Curtain main board to stop any dredge or re-animation decks and also aggro decks as I talked about in the Desolation Angel build towards the start of the article.
Our other main creatures in the deck are Soltari Priest and Silver Knight which both have protection from red. In the TP room I've never had an issue playing against red decks with these two, they slaughter goblins for breakfast. The other creature in the main deck is Stoneforge Mystic which has the ability to tutor up a nice selection of weaponry when she comes into play. She has the choice of Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Light and Shadow and the famous Umezawa's Jitte.
I'm also running Enlightened Tutor if we don't draw Stoneforge Mystic and in addition to weapons we can tutor for Crucible of Worlds and Pithing Needle which I carry a single copy of main board.
The removal consists of four Path to Exile's and three Swords to Plowshares.
The sideboard has a bit of everything another copy of Crucible of Worlds to make the most of our Wastelands if our opponent is playing lots of dual lands. Disenchant well I don't really need to explain this one. Ethersworn Canonist against aggro decks, Null Rod vs affinity and also decks running lots of artifact mana sources like Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond. Tariff is my answer to Natural Order or re-animation decks, here's the card text as a lot of players may not know this card.
Each player sacrifices the creature he or she controls with the highest converted mana cost unless he or she pays that creature's mana cost. If two creatures a player controls are tied for highest cost, that player chooses one.
The last two cards are The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale for aggro decks again this card is excellent vs goblin decks. The other card is to stop graveyard decks which is the Wheel of Sun and Moon.
I do like playing this deck but it's not ready to take on the world as it has a issue with counter top decks that I haven't been able to get round, this deck is still a pet project at the moment.
The other angel in the block is Akroma, Angel of Wrath from Legions she still see's play up to this day in Legacy decks the most current one I found is surprise surprise a re-animation deck.
Note that this deck is no longer legal due to the banning of Mystical Tutor but it's a good example. She also sees quite a bit of play in Oath of Druids decks as well where you can get round her mana cost.
Akroma is probably the most popular angel you will see in the casual and multi player room. A lot of mono white EDH decks include her as standard some even use her as their Commander. What's not to like about her she even had a makeover in the dual deck Divine vs Demonic which Chippy done a grand job on.
A further point to note is that it was Akroma herself back in 2003 who single handily managed to get the Legend rule changed. At this point in time if a Legendary card was in play you were not allowed to play another copy. This was during the time Akroma was being played in block constructed and it had a drastic effect on the top four results in Venice, you can read more about what happened here from a Swimming with Sharks article by Mike Flores.
Well I only managed to cover three blocks in this article due to all the decent angels there were quite a few decks, next time we will continue with the artifact block Mirrodin. There will be a Rare Drafter article next week though as it's that time of month.
Links
My PureMTGO Archive / The Rare Drafter June / The Coalition League
2 Comments
I've seen a couple stax lists using Baneslayer instead of exalted, shame to see exalted lose a slot since it doesnt see much play these days
Really enjoyed reading through the article, lots of cool deck ideas, and look forward to the next part.