MTG Salvation

Angelic Accord

I plan on messing around with the Oloro deck, and in the inevitable search for cards that trigger off gaining life, ran across this card for the 42nd time. I already plan on running Paradox Haze, and noticed that it would get me to the 4 life threshold, at least on my turns. So basically, do you think this card might be worth running in Oloro, and how many cards should I be running that let me reliably trigger it?

That depends. How much life are you going to be gaining on average when Paradox Haze isn't around?

Quote from blackkithkin20

That depends. How much life are you going to be gaining on average when Paradox Haze isn't around?

Basically this.

Paradox Haze is pretty amazing, but it shouldn't be the single lynch-pin to everything you have. If you don't reliably make 4 life a turn without Haze, then Accord is just a waste of space. On the other hand, if you run a bunch of other passive or repeatable life gain effects, then Accord becomes a lot better.

short answer? no. AA is only good when you KNOW you are going to trigger it. if you cant get that 4 life it is a do-nothing enchantment. trust me when i say this card is a trap in EDH, it is more effective in 60 card when you can consistently turn it on with 4x of cards that have synergy with it. there are better cards for this slot. luminarch ascension for example practically guarantees those angels for less of a mana investment.

Quote from arguskos

Basically this.

Paradox Haze is pretty amazing, but it shouldn't be the single lynch-pin to everything you have. If you don't reliably make 4 life a turn without Haze, then Accord is just a waste of space. On the other hand, if you run a bunch of other passive or repeatable life gain effects, then Accord becomes a lot better.

That was the second part of the question, though. What do you consider "a bunch"/enough to justify running it?

Quote from wallycaine

That was the second part of the question, though. What do you consider "a bunch"/enough to justify running it?

At least 15-20. Note: I'm not recommending that you run a bunch of bad cards that just gain steady life. Instead, I recommend that you run lots of cards like Pristine Talisman and whatnot, things that do something you care about but also gain a life.

Quote from arguskos

At least 15-20. Note: I'm not recommending that you run a bunch of bad cards that just gain steady life. Instead, I recommend that you run lots of cards like Pristine Talisman and whatnot, things that do something you care about but also gain a life.

This. Another card you may consider along this vein that is also a win-con is Chalice of Life / Chalice of Death. Rhox Faithmender can also get you there.

Angelic Accord is crap in most decks. It can work well in decks with a lot of extort and lifelink effects, meaning it is often best in WB decks, though you can also get there with mono-W.

It's never made the cut for me, even though I run a WB bleeder deck, because extort expends mana. This makes it difficult to get 4 life a turn with extort and still do much else.

Probably the most reliable way to get there is with lifelink creatures, plus small effects that give you life while doing something useful, such as Pristine Talisman.

It will probably be good in Oloro, because as long as Oloro isn't tucked into your deck, Oloro puts you half-way to getting an angel each turn. If I get around to making an Oloro deck, I might well add Angelic Accord to see if I can make it worthwhile.

I'm trying to solve this exact problem. Off the top of my head:

Batterskull
Obzedat, Ghost Council (plus Oloro)
Trading Post
Drogskol Reaver
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Whip of Erebos

And any big, beefy lifelinking Angels, i.e. Baneslayer and Thune.

Don't forget that extort steals the life from EACH opponent - that means with just 2 opponents + Oloro, you get an angel on your turn when you extort.

You'd still want more support than that though.

I definitely agree it's not for most decks. I think the fact that Oloro innately gets you halfway there and encourages you to build around lifegain anyways makes it potentially playable.

Fifteen to twenty sounds like a good number to shoot for, especially if we're including stuff like Pristine Talisman. At the moment, without having explicitly created a decklist, it looks like I'm going to end up with 15 sources of lifegain, a few of which are unlikely to trigger the Accord on their own. I'll probably try running it, and see if it works out.

You might consider adding in Orzhova, Church of Deals and Orzhov Guildmage as well if you are considering adding the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond combo. Its a glass cannon but I feel like sometimes you needs those kinds of combos to just end games that are simply running too long.

Quote from alphagprime

You might consider adding in Orzhova, Church of Deals and Orzhov Guildmage as well if you are considering adding the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond combo. Its a glass cannon but I feel like sometimes you needs those kinds of combos to just end games that are simply running too long.

I'm actually planning to take Sanguine Bond out for Exquisite Blood, mostly because I don't want to make Exquisite Blood a kill on sight card. It's got amazing synergy with Oloro as it is, so it's worth it not to make it "it must go now or he might drop Sanguine Bond" and more "It's worth killing, but I'll take my time about it."

I would only run it in a Trostani enchantress deck. Run something like Archangel of Thune and/or Luminarch Ascension instead.

Angelic Accord is the centerpiece of my deck. I combo it with Archangel of Thune, Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Rhox Faithmender, Anjani's Pridemate, and Staff of the Sun Magus

Archangel of Thune, Sanguine Bond, and Vizkopa Guildmage strike me as other lifegain triggers worth playing. Maybe [card}Drogskol Reaver[/card].

For lifegain itself, Exquisite Blood (loliwin), a lot of lifelink dudes (Vampire Nighthawk, Baneslayer Angel), possibly some progressive lifegain like Dega Sanctuary, Pristine Talisman, and maybe the applicable Mirrodin lucky charms. (When Reaver or Oloro is out, you can cantrip off them for 1 and hit everyone for 1 at the same time.) Also feel free to use incidental lifegain effects like Absorb.

I'm running it in Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and I love it there. However, that deck is dedicated to all sort of lifegain sources and effects so when it hits play I can usually manipulate things so that I'm gaining life pretty much every turn. In that kind of deck its great, but I think it takes that kind of deck to make it worthwhile.

Breaking it down to the bottom line:

If you can gain four life the turn you play Angelic Accord, you have played a 4/4 flier for 3W. This is a fine baseline for a creature. Actually, it's pretty darn good. Passes the vanilla test with flying colors (pun intended).

If you can gain four life next turn, you have gotten two of those creatures and Angelic Accord is downright amazing as a card that gives two 4/4 fliers for four mana.

If you also have a good way to gain the needed life on other people's turns, the card becomes absolutely bonkers as a token engine.

Yeah, this is all contingent on if you've got the life gain, but if you don't, you won't be running this card. It's worth noting that the enchantment fuels itself if you've got something like the Whip of Erebos out, giving your creatures lifelink.

I have a standard casual non edh multiplayer deck focused on Angelic Accord, Brindle Boar, and Gift of Immortality. Generating an angel on everyone's turn and gaining 4 life has been a blast. I'm not sure this card translates as well to commander though.