White and Black have always been colors that deal with life totals. But more recently in magic they have been colors that push tokens very heavily especially since the Original Commander sets came out with Ghave, Guru of Spores . But it is finally time to say no to the tokens. Tokens are not the way to victory. White and Black have some of the best boardwipes and tokens can’t deal with these balancing spells. They lose too much tempo to these boardwipes. So if you came here to look at a token strategy, you can hit the back button on your web browser now. This deck list is meant to deal with what Black and White truly do best: abuse life and death.
For most Magic the point is to drop everyone's life to 0. And any deck can do this but what deck does this by first killing yourself? To kill someone with this deck, you must die first, except for the fact you don't lose for being at 0 life. This might seem like madness and it really is. The deck is a very interesting way of playing magic that blindsides most people who play against it. The fact that they are hitting you with all their spells and creatures actually help you achieve your goal is something that most opponents don't get in the first time that they play against this.
I am a college student at NDSU. (Go Bison) Besides the point is I have been play magic since Zendikar and have been play EDH since the week I started playing magic. I have made over 50 some EDH decks and have lists for nearly every I am very much a Timmy/Johnny Player. I play a Mono-green Aggro Deck in Legacy so this this next piece of info shouldn’t be a surprise: I dislike playing already made decks. I really enjoy finding long janky combos or trying to adapt an old idea into something new. But more on Selenia.
The Deck's History and Origin
This deck started as Selenia, Dark Angel with the same style in 2012. I realized I had both Selenia and Phyrexian Unlife in a binder sitting next to each other. It took me a week or so of theorizing how I could make an effective deck from both and since then it went from a junky 40 dollar budget fun deck to one of my most fun and competitive decks but this change wasn't overnight or even close to it, heck its taken me about 2 years since I made it to coem to this list and It still changes every few months. It use to have a Voltron Package that I will be adding as optional playstyle ideas in the later parts of the thread. Some pieces have stayed the same since the decks creation while many others have changed wheter it was upgrades that I could afford or completely . Greed became Phyrexian Arena which eventually became Night's Whisper, Unburial rites became Debtors' Knell which became Lich. Many upgrades have happened over the 2 year I have been playing her. She is the only one of the original 4 commander deck I built that has remained the whole time in full construction and is still my favorite deck to pilot.
The deck has been heavily influenced by Hardcasting's List. It was only through talking with HardCasting that the deck went from swap life totals as a janky combo to a very cutthroat combo deck that I still enjoy playing way too much to this day so many thanks to Hardcasting.
Why Play Selenia
Selenia is a very interesting angel. She ends up dying in the story but ironically she almost never actually dies in a game with this deck. To start off the analysis of Selenia: her body. She has a wings and a wicked ponytail... Just kidding she is a 3/3 Flying Angel. She has a decently relevant creature type and a fairly decent attack and defense, however it does take 7 swings with her to get a voltron kill so no one expects it much the the Spanish inquisition. Selenia plays a key piece to this decks’s obscure life loss strategies. She has the ability that states: Pay 2 life: Return Selenia to owner’s hand. This ability allows you to have Selenia never die. In the game of EDH, 2 life is almost nothing and to be able to pay that to prevent having to pay 2 more each time someone tries to kill her would get tiresome furthermore we can stack her ability.
So you might be asking why not play anyone of the other legends and I’ll tells you why: You can’t drop your life to 0 at the tip of your hat with anyone else in the B/W Commanders. Selenia allows you to stack her bounce ability and drop your life in increments of 2. However we can only drop our life to 0 if we are at an even life total.
But the other Commanders regardless:
Ghost Council of Orzhova & Obzedat, Ghost Council – The Ghost Councils like almost every other W/B Commander screams token. Both minorly tick away life which can be very good in standard but unless your deck is all life taxes, your games are going to go very long.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion- Another token deck but rather a token combo deck. We may combo in the deck but we run nearly no creatures so not our #1 choice.
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts- This girl is one who I’ve loved since she was revealed. She has so much potential as a voltron or pillow fort commander but not many people attempt her due to her high cmc.
Triad of Fates- Man slow to set up but can be deadly but not dealing with life so going to have to take a pass.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter- Tokens that go voltron. He is really powerful when built right but as we aren’t tokens he is missing a key element if he commanded our deck. Found out he is really fun with Dark Mike. This is another deck that enthuses the Johnny inside of me.
And the others that aren’t W/B: Oloro, Ageless Ascetic – Oloro is the only commander that has interested me as an alternative commander. He allows for the control aspect of blue to be added on top of the life swapping. He has a life gain ability which is useful but Selenia allows us to drop life so rapidly that she ends up winning out in my opinion for the spot.
And finally the commander who would be the most realistic as another option to Selenia, her lover:
Crovax, Ascendant Hero. Man, this guy is lore filled. He ends up killing Selenia originally in the story and then becoming a vampire from it. But in the Planar Chaos, Mirri ends up killing Selenia and he becomes all cool with his feather cape. But for the function of the deck besides flavor copying, it also can be a monowhite version of this deck. I have wanted to make a list for him but as my little brother plays him as his weenie commander so I haven’t yet.
Now that I’ve given the other possible commanders for W/B here is why you should play Selenia:
Play Selenia if you: W:If you like bizarre combos B:You dislike creatures W:If you love drawing cards B:You are okay with mass land destruction. W:You like long games
Don’t Play Selenia if you: B:Hate comboing off to win W:Love creatures B:Hate keeping track of life W:Dislike mana rocks.
Chromatic Lantern: Our land base has quite a few basics which this card helps us deal with that but further helps us deal with the monored decks that use Blood Moon effects to slow us down. Further it allows our Fetch Lands to tap for mana if we don't want to adjust our life from an even number to an odd number or vice versa.
Chrome Mox: One of the "free" mana rocks that allow us to land a turn 1 Selenia if we so choose but i don't recommend. This is one mana rock that we often should shuffle away in our opening hand if we can choose to depending on our groups mulligan rules. We prefer this mana rock to pop up once we pull off the Ad Nauseam Combo so we can cast other spells to win. The loss of a card really hurts at times but often doesn't matter too much if we want to get an early start with a defensive card or an early threat.
Coldsteel Heart – The first of our 2 converted mana costed mana rock. This one does tap to snow mana which is largely irrelevant int he current build of our deck. If you so choose to run snow lands and Scrying Sheets then this card becomes even more important but otherwise it just is another mana rock. Sidenote: we only get to choose 1 color to produce with this mana rock, so if you are evenly split choose W as the Ad Nauseam Combo needs white for Angel's Grace and will produce copious amounts of B.
Commander's Sphere: Its like an upgraded Mind stone as it makes colored mana and it's draw effect is free. The draw effect normally only matters late game if a control deck has you top-decking and you need more gas otherwise I normally keep it as a rock,as it adds more to our game plan as a mana rock however normally.
Crucible of Worlds: This allows us to play lands from our graveyard. This is incredibly useful with our fetch lands that allow us to filter our lands out of our deck so we can draw more gas. This card is not needed for the deck if you are trying to build a budget version of the deck and could be replaced with either more card draw or
Darksteel Ingot: A mana rock that is indestructible is always nice as no one can remove it (well you can exile it) with a board wipe. Again mana rocks are the key to this deck as we are racing everyone and even if that Red deck does go on a Shattering Spree you can rest semi-easy as this one will withstand.
Ivory tower: With Lich and this out, we often draw a large compounding amount of cards. Otherwise with Land Tax out, it also generates us a lot of life which is quite useful to keep up our resource of life.
Mana Vault: Sol Ring 2.0. Its downside of losing life doesn’t bug us nearly as much as most other decks as losing life is this decks specialty. It ramps above and beyond a normal mana rock and is an exceptional turn one drop. However it doesn't untap so we often want to save the mana until we NEED the mana to win or prevent someone from winning. If we have to manually untap it, it slows us down a turn so we need to make sure we plan carefully when using it.
Mind Stone – A mana rock that can be played turn one off of a sol ring. the fact that this can be played off of Sol ring turn one is huge and it along with the other 2 CMC mana rocks are very important due to this. Having these rocks early game is key to a good game for the deck. Further like Commander's Sphere it can also be turned into a draw spell at the cost of . Like with sphere, we often want to wait until late game to use the draw spell as the rock provides crucial ramping to our deck.
Mirror Universe:The original life swapping effect. It is kind of an expensive card but an Italian legend version only runs for about 22 bucks so its not the worst but in a budget version shouldn't be included right away. The sad part of the card is that we can't us it except from on our upkeep phase.
Mox Diamond: Another 0 costed mana rock. This is one rock that like Chrome Mox we often will shuffle away in our opening hand if we get the choice unless we have 3-4 lands as we prefer the rock to pop up once we pull off the Ad Nauseam Combo so we can cast other spells to win. The loss of a land doesn't really hurts in the long run but early game it can be devastating if it causes us to miss a land drop. If we do keep this in our opening hand, make sure that we have at least 3 lands minimum as our first 3 turns we must hit our land drops to keep pace for our combo attempt.
Noetic Scales: A very defensive card for us. Scales helps us keep creature based decks under control. Our deck has no problem keeping its hand filled but the G/X decks can't keep up and often overextend. Be wary however of ETB effects such as Terastodon that can be abused from this.
Orzhov Signet: It's our filtering mana rock. It it another 2 cmc rock that loves early play when the filtering is most useful.Often this rock will help us but we need to remember that you must have an open to filter through it otherwise it can't be used at all.
Pristine Talisman: The most important mana rock to our combo. This mana rock can up our life total by 1 which in several cases can win you the game as you need to be at an even number of life to drop to 0 life to kill someone with repay in kind.
Sensei's Divining Top: This helps us control what we draw. I really shouldn’t need to go too indepth on why this card is great. It helps us filter our draws and gives us info on when we should use our shuffle effects. It is a really useful card however if you are trying to keep a budget when first building this deck it can be cut for a cheaper Crystal Ball.
Scroll Rack: when combined with Land Tax it makes a very nice draw engine. Otherwise it allows us to dump cards that we don't need before we use a shuffle effect. Again a card that is ridiculously powerful with the fetches but isn't needed for our deck and could be replaced with more ramp if budget is an issue.
Sol Ring: the debatablely best card in Magic as it ramps you ahead 2 mana for 1 mana. That is a net total of on that turn you play it unlike more mana rocks where you invest or into getting the ramp for the next turn. It is a fantastic early game card and with it we can keep some 1 land opening hands but like most cards that are great early game, it is often unwanted if we hit topdeck mode. However it is a staple none the less and is always welcome when we cast our Ad Nauseam combo.
Soul Conduit: Finally to of of the very important pieces of the Selenia puzzle. Soul Conduit switches the life totals of 2 players. Now this is catastrophic when we are able to drop our life to 0 life and live to swap with others as 0 life causes an immediate loss of the game if they can't stop the activated ability. Now this ability can't be stopped if we can tap to use the ability as even if they destroy Soul Conduit, the ability goes on the stack and still resolves. This will cause the other person to lose while we gain their life total. This huge swap in life totals counts for both loss of life and lifegain triggers for cards that these effects are relevant.
Tainted Sigil: Man does this trinket do work. It gains life from all players who lost life this turn. Its great after bouncing Selenia to kill someone, if someone had a huge attack phase, or after an Exsanguinate to gain even more life. Overall a very key piece to the deck.that shouldn't be forgotten. To make it even more valuable to us it can be recurred with Sun Titan which means we can use it more often.[/left]
Children of Korlis: These kids are the worst card in Magic, ethically. "Why?" you might ask and the reason is this the first two words on the card are “Sacrifice Children” which is kind of a taboo in a majority of cultures. But the reason these kids are in the deck is after those two horrible words. They allow us to gain back all life we lost this turn. This is extremely powerful after a Selenia life drop or a life total swap or even after we take a beating from an opponent's creatures.
Desolation Angel: This winged beauty is actually a 7 drop. It might not seem like that but this angel is an Armageddon on a 5/4 beatstick. She does a lot of work especially if you have 2-3 mana rocks in play and 2 lands in hand, which really isn’t hard in this deck. However we MUST pay the kicker on her otherwise only we lose all of our lands and our opponents get to keep theirs making it a 7 drop.
False Prophet: Our #1 attack deter-er. Basically no one with creatures on the field ever wants to attack us on the ground when we have him out. Basically there is one rule to him and that is: if we like our creatures on the field DO NOT cast him but if we have no creatures cast away.
Grand Abolisher – He is a guy who likes to lets us play by ourselves on our turn. He provides a lot of protection so we can combo out without people interrupting us with a fatal lightning bolt, which if we play with a playgroup a lot, they often will add in a couple burn spells to kill us mid combo. He also provides us with a nice chump blocker who can be returned by Sun Titan.
Magus of the Mirror – Mirror Universe on a stick. It switches life totals but only on upkeep which is a bummer but is honestly worth the spot as it saves us 20 dollars. If you have money to spend on the deck by all means buy Mirror universe too but this wizard serves as a nice budget replacement.
Magus of the Tabernacle – Once again is a card on a stick but this time it is a The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale on a stick. Really powerful as it helps with the no creatures theme. However if you choose to run a more creature heavy version of the deck I would recommend cutting this guy. But either way he really hoses token decks.
Skirge Familiar: With Ad Nauseam's combo this card allows us to discard our whole deck in order to cast Exsanginate for a large amount. Basically this imp is a combo piece that lets us use unwanted card in our hand as mana for a non-infinite kill spell.
Sun Titan: This titan does work. He recurs land after a MLD, brings mana rocks back, and several enchantments. He recurs and beats. Basically at my last count he recurs 60 out of our 99 cards which means he provides too much utility for us not to run him.
Vizkopa Guildmage: A replacement Sanguine Bond that allows us to use the Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood combo that everyone knows and loves. He also grants lifelink to any creature so we can use that effect for political shenanigans to save certain players if we can get something from having them at the table still.
Weathered Wayfarer:Our litt;e Land tutor. He is a sudo-Land Tax but can grab non-basic lands which makes him often much more vital to our game plans. He is incredibly powerful if you decide to run the Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth combo that I have decided not to run currently.
Aura of Silence: This card does a lot of work for a 3 cmc enchantment. With artifacts being a core to many EDH decks this card helps slow those decks down while allowing us an opportunity to remove an artifact or enchantment that becomes too much of an issue later on.
Blind Obedience: Extort is a powerful thing but the even more powerful thing: is it slows creatures down that would have haste and also slows mana rocks. Both of these effects allow us to combo out easier.
Exquisite Blood: A notorious combo piece that will be often used to offset our lifeloss through out the game. It does get used with Sanguine bond or thwe second ability of Vizkopa Guildmage but I personally try to not use that combo too often as it is so common for a black deck to use it to win it feels so boring but both serve a unique purpose in our deck so I include both.
Ghostly Prison: only needs two word to describe this card: Attack Prevention. But in reality it helps us from becoming too much of a target as hitting us with a lot of creatures is a pain with this card out. However it doesn't prevent voltron or cawblade style hits. It also doesn't prevent attacks to any Planeswalkers we may run.
Near-Death Experience: This is one of my favorite win cons in the deck. the only thing is that ist can be difficult to pull off because at the beginning you must have 1 life. You can’t just drop to 0 life with Selenia to win at upkeep but rather you drop during the untap step or end of turn. Angel’s Grace is this cards best friend as it allows us to stay at 1 life without having us worrying about someone pinging us. Normally we just drop this mid-game while setting up another combo and just use it as a contingency plan in case our combo doesn't work.
Lich: Our riskiest way to survive at 0 life but it offers us a way to gain an absurd amount of cards assuming we have either tainted Sigil or Children of Korlis out when we cast Lich. However be warned we can't sacrifice non-token permanents so just keep that in mind when you cast it. However there is another thing to note on Lich: if you have Phyrexian Unlife out in addition you can exile Lich if it was to be removed to not die as Lich must go to the graveyard for its last effect to take effect.
Land Tax: This little beauty allows us to nearly every turn search our library for 3 basics assuming we are behind on land drops as we run no way of hitting more land drops than the 1 a turn. It also combos with Scroll Rack to make a nice draw engine.
Necropotence: The best draw engine in the deck. Normally I draw about 30 cards and then pop Tainted Sigil or Children of Korlis to gain all of the life right back. But otherwise it is a great draw engine that will often times be the reason we can combo out. However be warned this card raises our threat level considerably to majority of players.
Phyrexian Unlife – A key piece to killing someone with a life swap. It allows you to drop to 0 life then swap your life away to kill someone as only damage gives you infect counters. It is a key piece to majority of our combos that's effect can only be replaced with Lich.
Angel's Grace – This deck’s saving grace. Pun Intended. But it does actually saves us quite regularly with the fact it can stop combo decks dead in their tracks along with being able to save us from being milled out for a turn. The card allows us to interact with nearly every our wincon opponents use and gives us a chance to both postpone their win but also stop it depending on what is needed to do that.
Dismember: Cheap efficient removal. Sure it might not kill some of the larger targets but it deals with small indestructible commanders. Also the fact we can pay 4 life and is a great thing for keeping mana open to keep other plans open in case our opponents do something else that needs to be responded to.
Enlightened Tutor – This is probably our most fair tutor in the deck as it is a Mirage tutor meaning it puts the card on top of the deck. Typically we will use this at end of turn or right before a draw spell. This is the reason we play both draw mana rocks because it enables this tutor to go to hand rather than the top of our library.
Hatred – Selenia’s Voltron Package. The card enables us to pay 18 life to get her to 21 commander damage after she is unblocked. However we may need to faint attacks semi regularly to allow someone to just let us hit them. Basically just swing 2-3 times before we cast this card to make sure they aren't expecting it. However when needed don't worry about that and just swing to win.
Necrologia – a mini necropotence. This card often will win the game for us as we can easily pay 20 life for 20 cards normally and it often is more efficient than Ad Nauseam as our average cmc is 3.35 compared to the 1 life per card. (the Average CMC with Lands is 2.2)
Path to Exile – Removal for the pesky creature for 1 mana but does give a land so early game its not nearly as good as Swords to Plowshares but late game normally giving a land never hurts as much as their threat would.
Return to Dust– Removes 2 artifacts or enchantments from the game on your turn for 4 mana. It enables us to 2 for 1 someone or just 1 for 1 if the threat needs to be dealt with immediately. But more often i save this to remove our Lich if we have Phyrexian Unlife out in case someone tries to destroy it was its last clause only goes off if it goes to the graveyard.
Utter End– Remove a nonland permanent from the game seems like a decent deal for 4 mana. The fact we can do it end of turn or in response to something means this card is miles ahead of Vindicate in most cases.
Karn Liberated:Karn is some of our removal as he just exiles things left and right. We almost never use his ult but if we plan on using his ult we normally exile cards from our own hand in preparation so we can deal with the new game.
Ancient Craving: Smaller draw spells have proven to be more useful in this deck over the few years of playing it. This is here as we get the cards immediately instead of cards like Phyrexian Arena were we have to wait until our upkeep. This speed on the draw is extremely important as it allows us to plan ahead sooner and that always helps us when we need to combo off. However the downside is that these spells can't be returned by Sun Titan.
Armageddon: Mass land destruction to buy more time for the combo to set up or just to bait out the Counterspell that the player has sitting in their hand. It often also secures our win especially if Sun Titan and a couple mana rocks are on the field. We should normally only use this if we can win directly after as most players frown upon MLD and not winning a few turns after but I am still willing to use it turn 4 if we have 2 mana rocks out and a land in hand as we have Crucible of worlds to return lands.
Austere Command: Our swiss army knife of boardwipes. Hits everything but Land and Planeswalkers which we can deal with in otherways. It also enables us to keep some of our utility guys if the board is too scary this allows us to wipe the enchantress deck and the giant voltron deck off the field in one swipe. Or vice versa if a army of tokens is sitting across from us we can whip those tiny tokens and then take out something else too. The possibilities are endless (well actually there are six combinations).
Decree of Pain: This card has two of the main things this deck loves: boardwipes and draw in one. However it does cost a lot of mana which can be a problem at times. This is one that we often don't use before our first combo attempt as we normally attempt for the first time between turns 5-7. This card is for if the first attempt doesn't work as it allows us to clean the board up and draw to set up our second attempt.
Demonic Tutor: Our deck loves this card. It is unconditional searching for a combo piece or for an answer to another deck. It is a fantastic card but if some prefer to not play with tutors which is understandable which then replace this card with another draw spell.
Exsanguinate: Our main wincon post Ad Nauseam combo. However it can be used very successfully with tainted sigil or one of the other cards that deal with life totals changing ie Exquisite blood. Overall it is a kill card that if used should turn the game in our favor drastically.
Final Judgment: Creatures are this deck's bane and exiling these problems just seems logical in this case. Exiling all creatures seems to deal with them as it reduces grave-based decks advantages from getting the field wiped but also prevents a deck with high tutoring from dumping the creatures back out if we tuck them all.
Night's Whisper: Draw power is key to this deck and with this card we can draw early on to ensure land drops or dig for a combo piece late game. How it compares to its "twin" Sign in blood is basically this: it is much easier to cast but can't be used as a damage spell on opponents if we can only drop to 1 life before swapping life totals. They are about equal in power and ability due to these differences.
Repay in Kind: This beauty of a card sets all life totals equal to lowest life total which is our's, 99% of the time but if it isn't we can always use Selenia's ability to make it such. This is typically one of the 3 ways how our deck will pull off the combo win with Phyerxian Unlife as we can then set our life to 0 life.
Reverse the Sands: This card also give us the ability to switch life totals but also allows for full table’s life to change, meaning time to pay back those who have been mean to you. However just note that if we are at 0 life when we do this, we can only kill 1 opponent and then everyone will be very wary of the deck.
Sign in Blood: Our other 2 cmc draw spell. While compared with Night's Whisper like mentioned above it can kill opponents low in life, However is more difficult to cast due to the BB cost and it plays a bit better to our decks themes as it allows us to if we aren't able to drop to 0 life go to 1 or 2 and still kill someone when we swap life totals.
Terminus: Boardwipes are a key part of this deck and this one is just as important. It started from a different era of commander, back when tucking a commander kept it in the deck. Most of the old tuck cards were removed from many decks but for our purposes Terminus is fantastic as we are playing Sensei's Divining Top which can enable the miracle cost at any given point through the draw aspect of Top. Otherwise it still is a great boardwipe for 6 mana. It also helps us hate on grave-based decks and also gets around indestructible and regeneration.
Toxic Deluge: Another boardwipe but this one gets by the dreaded Gaddock Teeg. Furthermore it has a fixed mana cost of 3 which means we can cast it early in case of explosive aggro decks. The life part can be a hindrance if we are planning on drawing a lot later but our life is like water, it just keeps flowing and changing.
Vindicate: Our go-to remove anything card. Budget wise Mortify works if you cant drop the cash for one but I really enjoy being able to remove lands and planeswalkers with this.
Wrath of god: The last of our boardwipes and its a classic. The 4 CMC is fantastic and the no regeneration clause is great if we have a problem Thrun, the last troll deck on the other side of the table. otherwise it can be replaced with day of Judgment if budget is a concern.
Bloodstained Mire:one of our fetch lands. Helps us thin our deck and gives us a shuffle effect for Scroll rack and Sensei's divining top Bojuka Bog: A great way of dealing with a pesky graveyard based deck. Often times bog is a card I will shuffle away in my openning hand unless i am sitting across from a know grave based commander such as Karador, Ghost Chieftain.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: The easiest way to stop our combos is to counter the spells we cast which majority of them are sorceries. Boseiju prevents opponents from countering our spells which means we have one less thing to worry about when setting up our combo. However it doesn't tap for mana unless its for its uncounterable ability.
Caves of Koilos: Our painland really helps us fix our colors. The life per mana can hurt if we get this land too early and need the fixing but more often than not we don't need the mana fixing in late game. But it also doubles as a life adjuster so we can be at an even or odd life total for things that we need to adjust our life total for.
Command Tower: My favorite land for mana fixing. Its a true staple for any commander deck that plays more than one color.
Glacial Chasm: Prevent a token horde from killing you or damage just in general. Normally this land is just a 2-3 turn card but occasionally it goes for up to 8 turns in my experience. Basically just remember we have to sacrifice a land to use this so if we can cast sun titan around when we play this, our tempo for mana doesnt diminish to drastically.
Godless Shrine: Our shockland doesn’t get much better as it is tutorable with any search effect that searches for a plains or swamp. The Shock it gives us hurts at times but we don't have to worry about it as our life will be gone at some point.
Isolated Chapel: a nice land that taps for both colors but it does check our lands before coming in so ideally we want to have either a plains or swamp out first.
Maze of Ith: This beauty stops voltron decks directly in their path. It can also be used to attack with Sun titan and prevent him from dying in combat. The main problems with this land are that it doesn't tap for mana and must target the creature to stop it so hexproof can be an issue at times.
Reliquary Tower: No maximum hand size is a fantastic thing and with how much this deck draws. It is the best thing to have out before paying 20 to necropotence as then we get to keep our cards to discard to Skirge familiar.
Seraph Sanctuary: Helps offset how much life is lost with Selenia and can help adjust life total by 1 making it possibly to go to 0 or 1 exactly.
8 Swamp:Our other basic land that is a staple fo the deck as it withstands nonbasic hate.
Tainted Field: There are enough swamps in the deck that this is normally online by atleast turn 3 if it was in our opening hand.
Temple of silence: Our scry Land. Typically this is the best turn 1 land unless we have either Sol ring or Land tax in our hand. The coming into play tapped can effect our tempo later so it is less welcome in our mid game when we are racing to combo off the first time. However it is a great late and early game land due to the scry aspect.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: This legendary land makes all of our lands swamps which in particular really helps our mana fixing. However we need to remember that it makes ALL lands swamps so if a player who is using black is color screwed for B that we don't give it to them. Windswept heath: one of our fetch lands. Helps us thin our deck and gives us a shuffle effect for Scroll rack and Sensei's divining top.
Felidar Sovereign: This cat beast is a wincon that never survives. It normally takes too long as it needs a full turn cycle at 40 life or more to pull of a win. This card was in a flex spot which was later replaced with the Crucible of world + fetches which made cards such as Sensei's divining top and Scroll Rack more useful. I still love tha card as it provides us with an alternative wincon.
Mortify – Versatile removal that is good but is not as great as Vindicate which I am trying to get my hands on as a replacement. The card however still hits two very relevant forms of permanents and atleast its at instant speed.
Early Game Turns 1-3: The main thing to remember when piloting the deck is that our life total is a resource. If we forget this it can often lead to losing our cool when playing the deck. For the early game make sure our hand holds some early ramp such as Orzhov Signet, Sol Ring or Land Tax and at least 2 lands but no more than 4. We need to get our land drops as soon as possible and our rocks out just as quickly as we are on a clock almost immediately as we run less creatures than nearly every other deck. By doing this it allows us to have mana to set up a defensive piece or two. Defensive pieces include Grand Abolisher, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Ghostly prison ect. These defensive pieces are key to us being able to combo off as our combo is fragile and can be interrupted easily if the opponents know what’s going on.
Midgame (turns 4-6): This is when people start to focus us with attacks. Most opponents start to realize we don’t carry a ton of creatures and they like to poke us with attacks. This isn’t a huge worry as remember the attacks chip at our resource that we want to hit zero eventually. However this is the time period we will have our first attempt at comboing out.
Our Combos Are:
B: Angel's Grace or Phyrexian Unlife + Ad Nauseam: This combo allows us to draw our whole deck. It is followed with Chrome Mox or Mox Diamond onto a black card for Chrome Mox so we can cast Rain of filth and sac our lands down so we can cast Skirge Familiar and then discard cards until we can Exsanguinate for enough to kill everyone. We can typically pull this off turn 4 or 5 assuming we have the cards and at least 2 pieces of ramp in hand but is much more fragile as it requires more pieces.
W: Phyrexian Unlife +Selenia, Dark Angel: This allows us to drop to 0 life as Selenia's ability is an activated one we can stack it as much as we want and drop to 0 life. And then if we add in Repay in Kind, Soul Conduit, Magus of the Mirror or Reverse the Sands we can swap life totals with another player and kill them and then gain a ton of life. Again note that when we change life totals we both lose and gain that amount of life so that effects card like Vizkopa Guildmage's ability. This combo needs more set up than our Ad Nauseam previously mentioned. We often need to cast Selenia, Dark Angel the turn previously so that we have more mana for the life swapping ability. This combo goes off turn 5 or 6 but much more stable and resilient than the previously mentioned combo.
B: Exsquisite blood + Sanguine bond or Vizkopa Guildmage's second ability: When we gain life or an opponent loses life it creates an infinite amount of each opponent losing life and us gaining life. This combo is our slowest and often goes off turn 7 or 8 and typically is the most threatening in opponents eyes as it much more common of a combo.
Any of these combo may not work the first time we attempt them but that is why we have the 3 main combo shells. Each of these combos have cards that can be replaced if need be, for example if sanguine bond gets removed we can use Vizkopa Guildmage as a substitute card. But don't worry if you can't pull off any of the combos as that's why we pack a late game so we don't become one of those combo decks that is too much like a glass cannon.
Late Game (Turns 7+): At this point in the game we should have attempted a combo at least once and failed or killed atleast one person. Here is where we have to start playing defensively again. We should be wrathing the board quite regularly and playing more reactively as we set up our second combo attempt but this time more slowly than before. We can't go all in like we do in turns 4-6 as now others will have a stronger board presence while we will be sitting with a very small board. This is why we pack so many board wipes. This is also the time to start resorting not to our combos as much but rather our alternative wincons.
Our alternative win cons consist of: W: an alpha Hatred strike with Selenia, dark angel or another players commander paired with either Children of Korlis or Tainted Sigil to hit someone for lethal commander damage. The Children and Sigil are optional but they help us stay alive after such a risky move.
B: Near-Death Experience is one of our other alternative wincon. It nearly never works but if you can pair it with Angel's Grace it can lead to a surprise win out of nowhere.
W: Felidar Sovereign is our last alternative wincon and relies on us getting sovereign out and being below 40 life before our turn. Yes I did say below 40 life because if we are above 40 life Sovereign will get auto-targeted by every opponent alive. We get above 40 life before our turn by using stuff such as tainted sigil, Sanguine Bond, or Sword to plow sharesing our own creatures.
Otherwise late game the name of the game is survive to the best of our ability by removing threats and by trying to maximize on our synergies in the deck that draw us the most cards so we can combo out. These synergies are:
B: Land Tax + Scroll Rack Allows us to search for 3 basic lands then swap those 3 lands with our top three cards then shuffle the deck when we do it again the next turn.
W: Lich + Ivory Tower With this synergy we are walking the edge of the knife but its risk pays of drastically if it survives. Basically we gain life with Ivory tower which when Lich is out makes us draw cards which in turn will draw us more cards next turn.
Strengths and Weakness of the Deck
As a combo deck our main weakness is getting our peices out and actually comboing off. We have a decent amount of tutors and draw spells to help us with this but we could always add more if we can afford it. The other main weakness as a combo deck is we are creatureless or nearly so. We have a hard time with decks that are an all-in aggressive deck such as some versions of Edric, spymaster of trest or Lovisa Coldeyes as examples. We play plenty of wraths but often these decks we won't be able to stop their steady output of creatures. We also has a life swapping combo have issues with direct damage cards such as Lightning bolt if we don't have Phyrexian Unlife out and even then they still hurt. Two noteable commanders we are at a disavantage against are: Heartless Hidetsugu: His ability to kill everyone at an even lifetotal with a damage doubler is scary and is why we have to play so much even/odd life total adjusters. Basically any Red deck wins deck we will have issues with but he is the most notable.
Edric, Spymaster of trest: The tempo of this deck is often backbreaking for us and they have so much counterspell and enchantment removal that we often can't keep up with them. Other decks that tempo well are an issue for us but this is the most notable commander.
Our last weakness is one about playgroups. We are a deck that the more our playgroup sees our deck the more comfortable and difficult it is for us to combo just like every combo deck but more so for us as we rely on the element of surprise to swap life totals out of nowhere. we also prefer smaller playgroups and are at a bigger disadvantage for most of our combos when the playgroup gets larger.
Our strengths come from the element of surprise like I just mentioned. When a pod of players is small and have never played against our deck we are almost ensured the win unless another deck gets one of their god hands. We also have a huge advantage over hard control or stax decks as often times we can abuse their engines just as much as they can.
Non-Combo Variants
Now here is where I will discuss variants of our deck list and offer various options for how we play. The colors are very versatile in how we play and often times playing a bit from a variant style and the main combo shell will end with the best results. So enjoy and I plan to expand more and more on each variant style as I get more experience play each one.
Angels Tribal
Angels have always been an interesting creature type. From Serra Angel from Alpha to Selenia, Dark Angel of Tempest, Angels have ruled magic. They are iconic and powerful and why not throw these beautiful slayers into the mass of our Deck. The core of our deck swaps life and angels unlike most creatures types, play with life total fairly well as a creature type. However if you choose to run angels I’d recommend dropping some of the anti-creature tech that I run to allow for some more sweet angelic flavor.
One note for those thinking of using angels is that often times angels cost a bit of mana and we normally don’t have the mana for that so if you do want angels I’d recommend thinking about using reanimation as a way to pump out the angels.
So this list is not all inclusive but covers what I would run in my Selenia list.
Angel of Despair: A Vindicate on an angelic stick. This beater is terrifying if we can ramp her out early or use reanimation to return her to the field early. Being able to solve any problem permeant is very worth of an inclusion. Angel of Finality: Gravebased decks are quite a common thing in most metas, mine especially. I have found exiling their graveyard is often a really strong move at stopping these gravebased decks and lets us combo out faster. Well worth a spot if you make an angels list. Archangel of Thune: We gain a lot of life in our deck so getting +1/+1 counters each times allows us to play a bit more aggressive than the combo deck plays. However I know of no combos with it in Orzhov colors which is slightly saddening. Archangel of Tithes: A very large Ghostly Prison that I have been considering in the non-angle version of the list as it protects us from large token swings. In an angel version of the deck this card is almost an auto include. Indomitable Archangel: We play a lot of artifacts in our combo such as mirror universe and our ramp is oftentimes artifact based so giving them shroud seems like it is a good choice to consider. Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Linvala helps slowdown a lot of EDH decks and would allow us to combo out faster as other decks are slower in comparison. Resolute Archangel: Resetting life totals is what this deck loves. It helps use after a life drop to get our life back and with all of our effects that mess around with this there are ways to kill people with this effect.
Cavern of Souls: making our angels uncounterable seems like a very powerful effect if you so choose to play the tribal version of the list. Harsh Mercy: A tribal boardwipe that allows us to keep our angels. Yay however if you are playing against another tribal deck this can be risky.
If you would like a more in-depth play by play for how to pilot the deck feel free to ask. I am more than willing to go more in depth if people would like it. Otherwise Thanks for reading my thread on Selenia and I hope you enjoyed it.
8-01-15: Update with a Thread update!
Drops:
1 Plains
2 Swamps
1 Temple of the False God: it kinda a weak ramp cards and the fetches seemed like a better upgrade.
1 Felidar Sovereign: Had some upgrades so I cut the sovereign as it was one of the weaker cards.
1 Mortify: Direct upgrade to Vindicate
Adds:
1 Mirror Universe: I was down a card for some reason. Mirror Universe has been needed for a while and I had to pull some overtime.
1 Vindicate
1 Crucible of worlds: I added the Khans fetches so i figured i'd finally add my crucible to the deck.
4 Khans fetches: I finally have all 4 so might as well toss them in now.
5-19-15: I put the deck back together after taking it apart last fall.
Drops: Fellwar stone: I needed to get rid of some of the ramp and this made the cut for some other cards as Land Tax is just better overall. Orzhov Keyrune: Needed to get rid of ramp. I will miss the adjusting life of the animated form but I need space for the Scroll rack and land Tax combo. Rune-Scarred Demon: The Demonic tutor on a stick was great but I wanted to try something new. I also threw Demonic Tutor back in as I got my hands on one finally. Nefarious Lich: I'm just tired of the card. It was good but i was just bored of it. Phyrexian Arena: Smaller draw spells I found have been better in the long run. Unmake: Utter End is just better Liliana Vess: I picked up a Karn Liberated and I only used Liliana for tutor so I felt more removal better and just more fun int he long term. Promise of Power: Smaller draw spells. Rout: picked up a Wrath of God and its just better as less mana is involved. Esper Panorama: Just better lands are available Evolving Wilds: Just better lands are available Terramorphic Expanse:Just better lands are available Orzhov Guildgate:Just better lands are available
Adds: Commander's Sphere: I changed some of my ramp so I can draw instead once I need to win. Scroll Rack: Allows me to dig more in my deck once I need to combo. Felidar Sovereign: Another Wincon Land Tax: Ramp that combos with Scroll tax to make a draw spell. Utter End: Universal Removal is better than exile a creature. Karn Liberated: Universal removal is always good. Demonic Tutor: Universal tutors are good. I had mine stolen a while back but finally got my copy back form he store the kid sold it to. Night's Whisper: Small draw spells are faster and easier to use than the larger spells. Sign in Blood: Small draw spells are faster and easier to use than the larger spells, Also works as a kill spell if I get an opponent low enough in life Wrath of God: Low CMC wrath is always good when the deck is mana hungry. Boseiju, Who Shelters All: Allows me to combo without someone countering the spell. Temple of Silence: Scry is better than a nomral tap land. It is best early game. Maze of Ith: I picked one up and this deck seemed like the best home for it. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Allows me not worry amount mana costs as much.
7-31-14
Drops: Æther Vial- Got stolen. So figured Im not going to replace it for what it costs currently. Day of Judgement - Needed space and this was on the cutting block already. Night's whisper - was always underwhelming. Winter orb- was needed in a different deck. Righteous Aura - I'm not sure what happened but the voltron decks disappeared from my meta.... hmmm Im okay with this. Demonic tutor - Another stolen card..... Getting one soon so it will go back in.
Additions: Ivory tower- Added more combo orrented wincons so this works quite well with Lich Mox Diamond - Was able to pick one up from a friend for some smaller trades. Not complaining about minimal cost ramp. Skirge Familiar and Rain of filth - Going for the full-out combo win now so were needed for a while. Lich - a key engine to the deck and finally got a copy at a decent price. Nefarious Lich - a second lich. Toxic Deluge - Finally got my hands on one.
6-24-14
Drops: Sorin Markov - He has been lacking recently. Yes he can put someone at 10 life but normally when he is drawn I normally always wish it was something else. So Im dropping him for more ramp. bloodgift demon- The drawing was useful as was the kill ability but the 5 mana was killing me after several games of artifact hate. Culling Sun - Readding Ad Nausaem to the deck and this card was the card I figured I'd miss least. wound reflection- Im cutting sorin and trying to drop my curve a tad. so this card was on the chopping block and now has been cut free. Debtors' Knell Never had mana to use it. Too much combo in my meta and the mayael deck has be decomissioned so it lost a lot of its power. Kirtar's Wrath - Cutting some boardwipes. Haven't been needing them nearly as much anymore, don't know if it is a meta-change or what but it hasn't been performing properly. debt to the deathless - Used this once in the past 20 games and it was only for x=3. Sure it helped me offset my lifetotal but wasn't working how it should so Figured should upgrade for less mana.
Additions: Chrome Mox- found one on sale and figured why not. I need 0 cost artifact ramp and I don't want to drop money on a mana crypt. Dismember- Found I needed more spot removal. Dismember is just too good not to include as it normally just cost 1 mana. Winter Orb - Because Combo has become too prevalent in my meta and I need to slow it down. This shouldn't effect me nearly as bad as it effects others with the large amount of rocks I run. Ad Nausaem- Back in as I am dropping my curve as much as I can so I can abuse this. Boseiju, Who Shelters All & 1 Plains - Finally came in the mail. Figured I'd up my land count with this and one more plains due to getting color screwed a few games now. Swords to plowshares - one of my copies became free now that I took apart a different deck. I needed more spot remvoal so hopefully this will help.
6-12-14
Drops: Star compass- Just too underwhelming and as much as i love mana rocks this one just wasn't as much fun to see when I would draw it. Killing Wave - just too situational and never did exactly what I wanted. Was used more as a bait the counterspell card but with 3 new boardwipes it has been cut. Spoils of the Vault - was very underwhelming in my testing of it. Only once performed how I was wanting it to drop me to 0 life to swap life totals with an opponent. I found I would prefer to rely on Selenia, Dark Angel instead to drop my life. Dark Ritual - enabled a faster start but would rather make room for something else. Its testing didn't go as well as planned and I've accepted my altered art one will have to sit in my binder. gift of the estates- Never really needed it. Deck always hand land in hand and could just be another wrath.
Additions: grand abolisher - Protect my life when dropping to 0 to kill someone. a poorly timed lightning bolt really ruins my day in this deck. Debtors' Knell- Everyone keeps wanting em to try reanimation and I just realized i had one of these in my binder. this card is one that I am planning on testing to see if it actually does enough work to keep it or if it will make space for other cards. Rout- Instant speed boardwipe with an elesh norn, grand cenobite art. whats not to love? I have a feeling this will earn a more permanent spot in my deck and that day of judgment might be getting dropped later for this. Austere command- figured out I had one sitting around and I figure i'd play it again now that my freinds fork deck is no longer a thing. was a meta choice to cut it originally. kirtar's Wrath - Another boardwipe however this one is just a place holder until I get Wrath of God.
I have thought about ad nauseam but with such high costed spells it seem extremely dangerous. I will try it out how ever as it does seem powerful. Thanks for the suggestion.
I recommend cutting: Dark Ritual (it doesn't do enough), Killing Wave (never good to give your opponents a choice, they will always choose what you don't want them to),
I just did this in my Athreos deck, but maybe try swapping Day of Judgment for Rout? It costs one more at sorcery speed, but the creatures it kills can't be regenerated, and the option for it to be cast at instant speed if you need it is pretty sweet.
Other than that, the only thing I can see is to try to get ahold of a copy of Temple of Silence, either as another duel land or an upgrade to Orzhov Guildgate. The deck looks interesting though. ^.^
I figured I should respond since this deck is getting a little publicity:
I actually ran consume the meek earlier int he deck and found that I preferred Culling sun cause it fit with being multicolor and having a tad more flavor fromt hat but I might try running both again. But the reason that I was willing to change is that i am the only person to play regeneration in my meta with Thrun, the last troll.
Killing wave actually was more a of a tempo card for the 2 control decks that my meta plays and that hurt this deck the worst. They love the couple creatures that they run and Killing wave forces them to normally pay 4-10 life for them and then i follow up with a boardwipe afterwards.
I have a Selenia deck too and is very similar to yours.
As I've told someone else playing Selenia, I don't recommend Platinum Angel. It's not so much the "you can't loose the game" part of the text that players hate but the part that says "and other players can't win the game" that rustles their jimmies. Every time I have played Platinum Angel in the past, it immediately turns the entire table against you. And with the nature of the deck always being somewhat so close to death, it's hard the take on that kind of heat. That and it sucks to have it stolen or copied too.
You might also want to look into a bit of the Pestilence package with cards you can give lifelink like Crypt Rats or Thrashing Wumpus. Nothing wrong with board wiping, dealing some damage, and gaining life.
Really nice deck though, I'd like to know a bit more on how useful Righteous Aura is. I've considered it since I first built the deck.
Okay Im back from class now so I can comment more.
Okay i'll start with Zoth's comments first because this will be shorter. I originally used Unspeakable symbol and souldrinker in the deck as alternative Selenias but after I added Aether vial I found that they were pointless. Having selenia out was almost always better than those two. However I do like Mischievous Poltergeist especially because of the flying. I will try out the ghost.
Now on to Jackpuddy:
I was about to type out something very similar to your platinum angel piece. I have tested the angel and it always backfires on me so i have dropped it as it wasn't worth it. I have been thinking about Eternity Vessel also but knowing my group this will act much like a Platinum angel so I am trying to avoid it but I might pick one up for testing. Pestilence was in the beginning versions of the deck until i decided to go with more boardwipes which has lead to it getting destroyed too often so I decided to cut it but i might toss it back in as a finishing mechanism which i Have lacked several games now. And Finally one of my favorite cards in the deck Righteous Aura. I have 2 voltron decks in my meta and they have learned the hard way that if I have white open that I won't ever lose to them unless they can get rid of this. It is fabulous with redirect damage effect at you and I will gladly pay 2 life rather than fatal everytime. plus it gets around shroud!
Edit: Missed finishing up Airithne's comment
Airithne- I actually just put rout in the deck . I don't remember what's place it took but I tossed it in as i got the elesh art one from conspiracy.
Sweepers are good. Here are some I would consider adding/upgrading: Catastrophe: Costs 2 more than Armageddon but is flexible for when you need to kill creatures. Merciless Eviction: The utility on this is awesome, plus it exiles. Austere Command: This is my favorite sweeper in the format, if I'm in white, I run this card.
That's a good call on Rout, that card is so good at catching people off guard. But also... what Xoth said about Merciless Eviction andAustere Command. Gods are popular and having the choice to destroy badass creatures and problematic enchantments at the same time is a good time. They have done so much work, I can't say that enough.
I'm also wondering how the land destruction is working for you? I can't ever seem to get enough mana for my deck so I can't see myself running any Armageddon type of effects. Is that more of a meta thing for you?
I find that will the high amount of mana rock I run I can use MLD to pull the game in my favor heavily. Normally I use the Land destruction with Magus of the Tabernacle is an extremely fun and powerful two card game changer. Normally it is kinda of a meta choice with how much several decks ramp but its also just another stall tactic for setting up the combo.
I know I use to run Austere Command and pulled it out for some reason but now for the life of me i don't know why it isn't in here and I am moving back after I am done typing this. I will update/make a changelog for the deck after all the publicity it has gotten today. Catastrophe i guess i missed this card when doing searches for this deck.... I'll be tossing it in, in place of day of judgment.
and finally Merciless Eviction the reason I wasn't running this was because of the Fork deck my friend was running and how catastrophic it was when he declared enchantments. Now that I think of it thats why Austere Command was cut. Now that he is gone, I am going to have to add both back in.
Okay going throguht some serious editing to this deck now that some stuff has come in. I will be making and adjusting the changelog later tomorrow after my final exam but before i do that I want some opnion of cards:
Angel of Despair- I use to include her in the deck but took her out in the early edits towards a creatureless deck. But now she is kinda calling me back. I really am wanting thoughts on her and yes vindicate is better and on my wish list once I get some cash.
Crovax, Ascendant Hero- I have now had a game where I couldn't flicker Selenia in response to a tuck and then the deck fell apart... I am thikning of him as a contingency plan but am unsure.
Sustaining Spirit- How had I not found her before today? I am really thinking of testing her and am curious to see what others think of her.
Because I started to go more creatureless, I took out the whole Worship package I had going on as well. Although, Sustaining Spirit seems like it does the whole package, more or less, in one card. I might have to look into it.
I also run Purity as another effect to keep me out of bolt range. Sweet blocker. Also is good with my Pestilence effects.
As far as a contingency plan goes... I figure you win some, you lose some. It's just kinda the nature of the deck. Plus,You have a bunch of tutors to fetch her back into your hand as well as other ways to strip your life total. Maybe a bit slower, but still does the job. You could try Erebos, God of the Dead or Greed if you need more ways to hit your self down while keeping the deck efficient. Or maybe you just need more ways to gain a huge amount of life like Arbiter of Knollridge so you can always respond with her ability. I don't know what I'm saying, a contingency plan might be the way to go and Crovax, Ascendant Hero is a pretty sweet one.
With eleven creatures, Aether Vial is weird here. I get that you’re trying to exploit Armageddon’s symmetry here, but mana rocks would do it much more consistently and flexibly. In fact I kind of want to suggest Gilded Lotus and/or Crucible of Worlds here to further commit to that plan.
Dark Ritual is an interesting decision here, but makes more sense in a deck building a storm count for an explosive early turn combo than a mid-to-late game combo which is more your flavor.
Aim to get a minimum of thirty eight lands if you ever expect cast these CMC 6+ and CMC X cost cards (of which there are several).
With eleven creatures, Aether Vial is weird here. I get that you’re trying to exploit Armageddon’s symmetry here, but mana rocks would do it much more consistently and flexibly. In fact I kind of want to suggest Gilded Lotus and/or Crucible of Worlds here to further commit to that plan.
Dark Ritual is an interesting decision here, but makes more sense in a deck building a storm count for an explosive early turn combo than a mid-to-late game combo which is more your flavor.
Aim to get a minimum of thirty eight lands if you ever expect cast these CMC 6+ and CMC X cost cards (of which there are several).
Okay dang lots of card addition ideas but I will go ove rmy responses to most of them:
Pestilence is actually in the deck but Haven't had a chance to update the deck list since last week so that will be update as i said in an eariler post later today after my final is done. (yay study breaks for commenting)
All of these are not in the deck as they draw too much hate for me. I commented on Platinum angel earlier on how everyone focuses me immediately for not allowing them to win. Felidar Sovereign use to be in my lifegain version of this and if it ever survived even to the end of my turn was a miracle. I guess i should say this: this deck sits int he background until it becomes a threat. Normally this deck is not a problem cause I pull it out when I am playing with people I don't play with normally.
Of all of these larger removal creature the only two I have thought about are Duplicant and Angel of Despair as they are the only two that are cost effective in my eyes. I know others might like Ashen rider over Angel of Despair but I prefer Angel becasue it has arelevant creature type that can trigger a little life gain off of Seraph Sanctuary also with 2 Kaalia of the vast decks in my meta that play patriarch's bidding for angels or dragons it is more relevant to me but thats just me and my meta and personal choice, I also like the art more sooo there is that too.
I don't play enough creatures to make animate dead or necromancy worth it. Yes I can reanimate from opponents graves but I am trying to combo not win via beatdown and normally opponents creatures don't help me along with my goal of comboing out.
I don't run enough creature to play skullclamp. there is nothing more to say really on that. For me I need atleast a token generator or have 20+ creatures to make it worth it for skullclamp. Expedition Map could be played but then again it could be played in several decks. Normally I don't need to tutor up lands because I have weathered wayfarer or due to the fact I normally have a very large hand due to the draw engines this deck runs. I'm going to add it to card that will need to be tested because i still feel it could be relevant in certain situations but majority of the time I don't feel I'll need it.
Mirror Universe is one card I have been wanting to buy for sooo long. It has stayed stable in price and I will eventually pick one up but until then I am still a broke college student who really can't afford a Mirror Universe yet.
Tithe - This was in my original version of the deck but I never seemed to want it. If I drew it I always felt it was a wasted draw. It got replaced by coldsteel heart which i have been much happier with. Volrath's Stronghold- I would love to get one of these but I wouldn't use it in this deck however. he who hungers's claims that land if I ever pick one up. Kor Haven- I really really want one of these. I am planning on getting one eventually for the deck but currently haven't been able to trade for one/Buy one. Boseiju, Who Shelter's All - I actually have one of these in the mail right now! It included in the edit that I am going to be doing afterward. Strip Mine & Tectonic Edge - I actually dislike target land destruction in here. I know I should run them both but I find I never need it cause I normally will just wipe the board.
Æther Vial has one purpose if you read the card explanations: to put the bounced Selenia dark angel back onto the field after I bounce her to my hand. It gets really tiring to pay 5 mana every turn for her. the vial allows me to not have to was my mana on that and can focus it elsewhere.
Finally my land count, Everyone hates on my land count but with how my meta works is we draw 10 and shuffle 3 cards back into our decks for our initial hands. I normally get 3 land in that with a mana rock. That means I have until turn 3 to draw another land which normally by then I have a draw spell that refills my hand for land. I have been mana-screwed once in my past 30 games of Selenia. My land base is fine. I have enough draw and ramp via rocks to compensate for my lower amount of land. Sorry if I am a bit irritable on this topic of my land but I get really tired of people telling me to up land count even after I have done the math to optimize it. Could I run one or 2 more lands, Yes. Would 5 more help? not at all that will end with me holding 2 lands in hand when I really need spells.
This deck needs more Lichs. It is one of the most powerful draw engines in a deck like this.
I am beginning to agree with you after some more testing. Lich is an extremely powerful card but it is extremely risky in my meta. I have 3 decks that love aura shards a bit too much and that is becoming a problem.
I am still going to do more testing on Lich but I am beginning to come over to your side on it.
Side note: I am linking your thread on mine for additional readings for people who are thinking of making the deck.
Just a bit of an update on my deck today for you. Not sure if you tested Eternity Vessel yet, but from my experience it was a no go. My deck already has has a high mana curve and it basically was an over expensive Ghostly Prison that also caused me to lose life at times if I could gain more than the total. And If I ever drew it at at a low life, which if you can guess how many times that happens with this deck, it's a dead card.
Also, if you were still looking for a contingency plan, just do what everyone else does and try out High Market. I also use it to tinker with my life total between even or uneven.
Drops: Sorin Markov - He has been lacking recently. Yes he can put someone at 10 life but normally when he is drawn I normally always wish it was something else. So Im dropping him for more ramp. bloodgift demon- The drawing was useful as was the kill ability but the 5 mana was killing me after several games of artifact hate. Culling Sun - Readding Ad Nausaem to the deck and this card was the card I figured I'd miss least. wound reflection- Im cutting sorin and trying to drop my curve a tad. so this card was on the chopping block and now has been cut free. Debtors' Knell Never had mana to use it. Too much combo in my meta and the mayael deck has be decomissioned so it lost a lot of its power. Kirtar's Wrath - Cutting some boardwipes. Haven't been needing them nearly as much anymore, don't know if it is a meta-change or what but it hasn't been performing properly. debt to the deathless - Used this once in the past 20 games and it was only for x=3. Sure it helped me offset my lifetotal but wasn't working how it should so Figured should upgrade for less mana.
Additions: Chrome Mox- found one on sale and figured why not. I need 0 cost artifact ramp and I don't want to drop money on a mana crypt. Dismember- Found I needed more spot removal. Dismember is just too good not to include as it normally just cost 1 mana. Winter Orb - Because Combo has become too prevalent in my meta and I need to slow it down. This shouldn't effect me nearly as bad as it effects others with the large amount of rocks I run. Ad Nausaem- Back in as I am dropping my curve as much as I can so I can abuse this. Boseiju, Who Shelters All & 1 Plains - Finally came in the mail. Figured I'd up my land count with this and one more plains due to getting color screwed a few games now. Swords to plowshares - one of my copies became free now that I took apart a different deck. I needed more spot remvoal so hopefully this will help.
Changes have been made to the deck once again. I will be updating the narrative later this weekend with the changes and another section.
I actually found this card: Sustaining Spirit. I guess I never noticed it was a thing. But Im currently testing it in place of blind obedaince and have been loving it. But Im not sure Im going to keep it yet as it still is very fragile.
And I found the same with Eternity Vessel. It great in some situation but majority of the time I never like drawing it.
High market seems like it could be good, i'll have to look into it more.
For most Magic the point is to drop everyone's life to 0. And any deck can do this but what deck does this by first killing yourself? To kill someone with this deck, you must die first, except for the fact you don't lose for being at 0 life. This might seem like madness and it really is. The deck is a very interesting way of playing magic that blindsides most people who play against it. The fact that they are hitting you with all their spells and creatures actually help you achieve your goal is something that most opponents don't get in the first time that they play against this.
The deck has been heavily influenced by Hardcasting's List. It was only through talking with HardCasting that the deck went from swap life totals as a janky combo to a very cutthroat combo deck that I still enjoy playing way too much to this day so many thanks to Hardcasting.
So you might be asking why not play anyone of the other legends and I’ll tells you why: You can’t drop your life to 0 at the tip of your hat with anyone else in the B/W Commanders. Selenia allows you to stack her bounce ability and drop your life in increments of 2. However we can only drop our life to 0 if we are at an even life total.
But the other Commanders regardless:
Ghost Council of Orzhova & Obzedat, Ghost Council – The Ghost Councils like almost every other W/B Commander screams token. Both minorly tick away life which can be very good in standard but unless your deck is all life taxes, your games are going to go very long.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion- Another token deck but rather a token combo deck. We may combo in the deck but we run nearly no creatures so not our #1 choice.
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts- This girl is one who I’ve loved since she was revealed. She has so much potential as a voltron or pillow fort commander but not many people attempt her due to her high cmc.
Triad of Fates- Man slow to set up but can be deadly but not dealing with life so going to have to take a pass.
Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter- Tokens that go voltron. He is really powerful when built right but as we aren’t tokens he is missing a key element if he commanded our deck. Found out he is really fun with Dark Mike. This is another deck that enthuses the Johnny inside of me.
And the others that aren’t W/B:
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic – Oloro is the only commander that has interested me as an alternative commander. He allows for the control aspect of blue to be added on top of the life swapping. He has a life gain ability which is useful but Selenia allows us to drop life so rapidly that she ends up winning out in my opinion for the spot.
And finally the commander who would be the most realistic as another option to Selenia, her lover:
Crovax, Ascendant Hero. Man, this guy is lore filled. He ends up killing Selenia originally in the story and then becoming a vampire from it. But in the Planar Chaos, Mirri ends up killing Selenia and he becomes all cool with his feather cape. But for the function of the deck besides flavor copying, it also can be a monowhite version of this deck. I have wanted to make a list for him but as my little brother plays him as his weenie commander so I haven’t yet.
Now that I’ve given the other possible commanders for W/B here is why you should play Selenia:
W:If you like bizarre combos
B:You dislike creatures
W:If you love drawing cards
B:You are okay with mass land destruction.
W:You like long games
Don’t Play Selenia if you:
B:Hate comboing off to win
W:Love creatures
B:Hate keeping track of life
W:Dislike mana rocks.
1 Selenia, Dark Angel
Artifact (17)
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Chrome Mox
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Commander Sphere
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Ivory Tower
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Mirror Universe
1 Mox Diamond
1 Noetic Scales
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Pristine Talisman
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Soul Conduit
1 Tainted Sigil
Creature (11)
1 Children of Korlis
1 Desolation Angel
1 False Prophet
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Magus of the Mirror
1 Magus of the Tabernacle
1 Skirge Familiar
1 Sun Titan
1 Vizkopa Guildmage
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Aura of Silence
1 Blind Obedience
1 Exquisite Blood
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Land Tax
1 Lich
1 Near-Death Experience
1 Necropotence
1 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Sanguine Bond
Instant (8)
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Angel's Grace
1 Dismember
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Hatred
1 Necrologia
1 Path to Exile
1 Rain of Filth
1 Return to Dust
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Utter End
Planeswalker (1)
1 Karn Liberated
Sorcery (12)
1 Ancient Craving
1 Armageddon
1 Austere Command
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Exsanguinate
1 Final Judgment
1 Night's whisper
1 Repay in Kind
1 Reverse the Sands
1 Sign in Blood
1 Terminus
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Vindicate
1 Wrath of God
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, who shelters all
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Maze of ith
8 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Seraph Sanctuary
8 Swamp
1 Tainted Field
1 Temple of silence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Windswept Heath
1 Selenia, Dark Angel
Ramps (15)
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Chrome Mox
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Commander Sphere
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Land Tax
1 Mana Vault
1 Mind Stone
1 Mox Diamond
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Pristine Talisman
1 Rain of Filth
1 Skirge Familiar
1 Sol Ring
1 Weathered Wayfarer
Draw and Tutors (9)
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Ancient Craving
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Lich
1 Necrologia
1 Necropotence
1 Night's whisper
1 Sign in Blood
Boardwipes (9)
1 Armageddon
1 Austere Command
1 Decree of Pain
1 Desolation Angel
1 False Prophet
1 Final Judgment
1 Terminus
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Wrath of God
1 Angel's Grace
1 Children of Korlis
1 Exsanguinate
1 Exquisite Blood
1 Magus of the Mirror
1 Near-Death Experience
1 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Repay in Kind
1 Reverse the Sands
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Soul Conduit
1 Tainted Sigil
1 Vizkopa Guildmage
Defensive Pieces (9)
1 Aura of Silence
1 Blind Obedience
1 Boseiju, who shelters all
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Magus of the Tabernacle
1 Maze of Ith
1 Noetic Scales
Spot Removal (7)
1 Dismember
1 Karn Liberated
1 Mortify
1 Path to Exile
1 Return to Dust
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Utter End
1 Vindicate
1 Hatred
1 Ivory Tower
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sun Titan
Mana Land (31)
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Caves of Koilos
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
8 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Seraph Sanctuary
8 Swamp
1 Tainted Field
1 Temple of silence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Windswept Heath
Individual Card Breakdown: The Short Version
Chromatic Lantern: Our land base has quite a few basics which this card helps us deal with that but further helps us deal with the monored decks that use Blood Moon effects to slow us down. Further it allows our Fetch Lands to tap for mana if we don't want to adjust our life from an even number to an odd number or vice versa.
Chrome Mox: One of the "free" mana rocks that allow us to land a turn 1 Selenia if we so choose but i don't recommend. This is one mana rock that we often should shuffle away in our opening hand if we can choose to depending on our groups mulligan rules. We prefer this mana rock to pop up once we pull off the Ad Nauseam Combo so we can cast other spells to win. The loss of a card really hurts at times but often doesn't matter too much if we want to get an early start with a defensive card or an early threat.
Coldsteel Heart – The first of our 2 converted mana costed mana rock. This one does tap to snow mana which is largely irrelevant int he current build of our deck. If you so choose to run snow lands and Scrying Sheets then this card becomes even more important but otherwise it just is another mana rock. Sidenote: we only get to choose 1 color to produce with this mana rock, so if you are evenly split choose W as the Ad Nauseam Combo needs white for Angel's Grace and will produce copious amounts of B.
Commander's Sphere: Its like an upgraded Mind stone as it makes colored mana and it's draw effect is free. The draw effect normally only matters late game if a control deck has you top-decking and you need more gas otherwise I normally keep it as a rock,as it adds more to our game plan as a mana rock however normally.
Crucible of Worlds: This allows us to play lands from our graveyard. This is incredibly useful with our fetch lands that allow us to filter our lands out of our deck so we can draw more gas. This card is not needed for the deck if you are trying to build a budget version of the deck and could be replaced with either more card draw or
Darksteel Ingot: A mana rock that is indestructible is always nice as no one can remove it (well you can exile it) with a board wipe. Again mana rocks are the key to this deck as we are racing everyone and even if that Red deck does go on a Shattering Spree you can rest semi-easy as this one will withstand.
Ivory tower: With Lich and this out, we often draw a large compounding amount of cards. Otherwise with Land Tax out, it also generates us a lot of life which is quite useful to keep up our resource of life.
Mana Vault: Sol Ring 2.0. Its downside of losing life doesn’t bug us nearly as much as most other decks as losing life is this decks specialty. It ramps above and beyond a normal mana rock and is an exceptional turn one drop. However it doesn't untap so we often want to save the mana until we NEED the mana to win or prevent someone from winning. If we have to manually untap it, it slows us down a turn so we need to make sure we plan carefully when using it.
Mind Stone – A mana rock that can be played turn one off of a sol ring. the fact that this can be played off of Sol ring turn one is huge and it along with the other 2 CMC mana rocks are very important due to this. Having these rocks early game is key to a good game for the deck. Further like Commander's Sphere it can also be turned into a draw spell at the cost of . Like with sphere, we often want to wait until late game to use the draw spell as the rock provides crucial ramping to our deck.
Mirror Universe:The original life swapping effect. It is kind of an expensive card but an Italian legend version only runs for about 22 bucks so its not the worst but in a budget version shouldn't be included right away. The sad part of the card is that we can't us it except from on our upkeep phase.
Mox Diamond: Another 0 costed mana rock. This is one rock that like Chrome Mox we often will shuffle away in our opening hand if we get the choice unless we have 3-4 lands as we prefer the rock to pop up once we pull off the Ad Nauseam Combo so we can cast other spells to win. The loss of a land doesn't really hurts in the long run but early game it can be devastating if it causes us to miss a land drop. If we do keep this in our opening hand, make sure that we have at least 3 lands minimum as our first 3 turns we must hit our land drops to keep pace for our combo attempt.
Noetic Scales: A very defensive card for us. Scales helps us keep creature based decks under control. Our deck has no problem keeping its hand filled but the G/X decks can't keep up and often overextend. Be wary however of ETB effects such as Terastodon that can be abused from this.
Orzhov Signet: It's our filtering mana rock. It it another 2 cmc rock that loves early play when the filtering is most useful.Often this rock will help us but we need to remember that you must have an open to filter through it otherwise it can't be used at all.
Pristine Talisman: The most important mana rock to our combo. This mana rock can up our life total by 1 which in several cases can win you the game as you need to be at an even number of life to drop to 0 life to kill someone with repay in kind.
Sensei's Divining Top: This helps us control what we draw. I really shouldn’t need to go too indepth on why this card is great. It helps us filter our draws and gives us info on when we should use our shuffle effects. It is a really useful card however if you are trying to keep a budget when first building this deck it can be cut for a cheaper Crystal Ball.
Scroll Rack: when combined with Land Tax it makes a very nice draw engine. Otherwise it allows us to dump cards that we don't need before we use a shuffle effect. Again a card that is ridiculously powerful with the fetches but isn't needed for our deck and could be replaced with more ramp if budget is an issue.
Sol Ring: the debatablely best card in Magic as it ramps you ahead 2 mana for 1 mana. That is a net total of on that turn you play it unlike more mana rocks where you invest or into getting the ramp for the next turn. It is a fantastic early game card and with it we can keep some 1 land opening hands but like most cards that are great early game, it is often unwanted if we hit topdeck mode. However it is a staple none the less and is always welcome when we cast our Ad Nauseam combo.
Soul Conduit: Finally to of of the very important pieces of the Selenia puzzle. Soul Conduit switches the life totals of 2 players. Now this is catastrophic when we are able to drop our life to 0 life and live to swap with others as 0 life causes an immediate loss of the game if they can't stop the activated ability. Now this ability can't be stopped if we can tap to use the ability as even if they destroy Soul Conduit, the ability goes on the stack and still resolves. This will cause the other person to lose while we gain their life total. This huge swap in life totals counts for both loss of life and lifegain triggers for cards that these effects are relevant.
Tainted Sigil: Man does this trinket do work. It gains life from all players who lost life this turn. Its great after bouncing Selenia to kill someone, if someone had a huge attack phase, or after an Exsanguinate to gain even more life. Overall a very key piece to the deck.that shouldn't be forgotten. To make it even more valuable to us it can be recurred with Sun Titan which means we can use it more often.[/left]
Children of Korlis: These kids are the worst card in Magic, ethically. "Why?" you might ask and the reason is this the first two words on the card are “Sacrifice Children” which is kind of a taboo in a majority of cultures. But the reason these kids are in the deck is after those two horrible words. They allow us to gain back all life we lost this turn. This is extremely powerful after a Selenia life drop or a life total swap or even after we take a beating from an opponent's creatures.
Desolation Angel: This winged beauty is actually a 7 drop. It might not seem like that but this angel is an Armageddon on a 5/4 beatstick. She does a lot of work especially if you have 2-3 mana rocks in play and 2 lands in hand, which really isn’t hard in this deck. However we MUST pay the kicker on her otherwise only we lose all of our lands and our opponents get to keep theirs making it a 7 drop.
False Prophet: Our #1 attack deter-er. Basically no one with creatures on the field ever wants to attack us on the ground when we have him out. Basically there is one rule to him and that is: if we like our creatures on the field DO NOT cast him but if we have no creatures cast away.
Grand Abolisher – He is a guy who likes to lets us play by ourselves on our turn. He provides a lot of protection so we can combo out without people interrupting us with a fatal lightning bolt, which if we play with a playgroup a lot, they often will add in a couple burn spells to kill us mid combo. He also provides us with a nice chump blocker who can be returned by Sun Titan.
Magus of the Mirror – Mirror Universe on a stick. It switches life totals but only on upkeep which is a bummer but is honestly worth the spot as it saves us 20 dollars. If you have money to spend on the deck by all means buy Mirror universe too but this wizard serves as a nice budget replacement.
Magus of the Tabernacle – Once again is a card on a stick but this time it is a The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale on a stick. Really powerful as it helps with the no creatures theme. However if you choose to run a more creature heavy version of the deck I would recommend cutting this guy. But either way he really hoses token decks.
Skirge Familiar: With Ad Nauseam's combo this card allows us to discard our whole deck in order to cast Exsanginate for a large amount. Basically this imp is a combo piece that lets us use unwanted card in our hand as mana for a non-infinite kill spell.
Sun Titan: This titan does work. He recurs land after a MLD, brings mana rocks back, and several enchantments. He recurs and beats. Basically at my last count he recurs 60 out of our 99 cards which means he provides too much utility for us not to run him.
Vizkopa Guildmage: A replacement Sanguine Bond that allows us to use the Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood combo that everyone knows and loves. He also grants lifelink to any creature so we can use that effect for political shenanigans to save certain players if we can get something from having them at the table still.
Weathered Wayfarer:Our litt;e Land tutor. He is a sudo-Land Tax but can grab non-basic lands which makes him often much more vital to our game plans. He is incredibly powerful if you decide to run the Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth combo that I have decided not to run currently.
Aura of Silence: This card does a lot of work for a 3 cmc enchantment. With artifacts being a core to many EDH decks this card helps slow those decks down while allowing us an opportunity to remove an artifact or enchantment that becomes too much of an issue later on.
Blind Obedience: Extort is a powerful thing but the even more powerful thing: is it slows creatures down that would have haste and also slows mana rocks. Both of these effects allow us to combo out easier.
Exquisite Blood: A notorious combo piece that will be often used to offset our lifeloss through out the game. It does get used with Sanguine bond or thwe second ability of Vizkopa Guildmage but I personally try to not use that combo too often as it is so common for a black deck to use it to win it feels so boring but both serve a unique purpose in our deck so I include both.
Ghostly Prison: only needs two word to describe this card: Attack Prevention. But in reality it helps us from becoming too much of a target as hitting us with a lot of creatures is a pain with this card out. However it doesn't prevent voltron or cawblade style hits. It also doesn't prevent attacks to any Planeswalkers we may run.
Near-Death Experience: This is one of my favorite win cons in the deck. the only thing is that ist can be difficult to pull off because at the beginning you must have 1 life. You can’t just drop to 0 life with Selenia to win at upkeep but rather you drop during the untap step or end of turn. Angel’s Grace is this cards best friend as it allows us to stay at 1 life without having us worrying about someone pinging us. Normally we just drop this mid-game while setting up another combo and just use it as a contingency plan in case our combo doesn't work.
Lich: Our riskiest way to survive at 0 life but it offers us a way to gain an absurd amount of cards assuming we have either tainted Sigil or Children of Korlis out when we cast Lich. However be warned we can't sacrifice non-token permanents so just keep that in mind when you cast it. However there is another thing to note on Lich: if you have Phyrexian Unlife out in addition you can exile Lich if it was to be removed to not die as Lich must go to the graveyard for its last effect to take effect.
Land Tax: This little beauty allows us to nearly every turn search our library for 3 basics assuming we are behind on land drops as we run no way of hitting more land drops than the 1 a turn. It also combos with Scroll Rack to make a nice draw engine.
Necropotence: The best draw engine in the deck. Normally I draw about 30 cards and then pop Tainted Sigil or Children of Korlis to gain all of the life right back. But otherwise it is a great draw engine that will often times be the reason we can combo out. However be warned this card raises our threat level considerably to majority of players.
Phyrexian Unlife – A key piece to killing someone with a life swap. It allows you to drop to 0 life then swap your life away to kill someone as only damage gives you infect counters. It is a key piece to majority of our combos that's effect can only be replaced with Lich.
Sanguine Bond – See Exquisite Blood for more on that combo but can be paired with either tainted Sigil or Children of Korlis and Selenia, Dark Angel to drop to 1 or 2 life and go back up to kill a player.
Dismember: Cheap efficient removal. Sure it might not kill some of the larger targets but it deals with small indestructible commanders. Also the fact we can pay 4 life and is a great thing for keeping mana open to keep other plans open in case our opponents do something else that needs to be responded to.
Enlightened Tutor – This is probably our most fair tutor in the deck as it is a Mirage tutor meaning it puts the card on top of the deck. Typically we will use this at end of turn or right before a draw spell. This is the reason we play both draw mana rocks because it enables this tutor to go to hand rather than the top of our library.
Hatred – Selenia’s Voltron Package. The card enables us to pay 18 life to get her to 21 commander damage after she is unblocked. However we may need to faint attacks semi regularly to allow someone to just let us hit them. Basically just swing 2-3 times before we cast this card to make sure they aren't expecting it. However when needed don't worry about that and just swing to win.
Necrologia – a mini necropotence. This card often will win the game for us as we can easily pay 20 life for 20 cards normally and it often is more efficient than Ad Nauseam as our average cmc is 3.35 compared to the 1 life per card. (the Average CMC with Lands is 2.2)
Path to Exile – Removal for the pesky creature for 1 mana but does give a land so early game its not nearly as good as Swords to Plowshares but late game normally giving a land never hurts as much as their threat would.
Rains of Filth: One of our combo ramp cards. It normally gives us 5-10 extra mana when we really need it. This card is only for when we combo off or blow up lands with Armageddon otherwise it is too risky. Often times we use this card to make enough mana to cast Skirge Familiar to then make more mana for a win.
Return to Dust– Removes 2 artifacts or enchantments from the game on your turn for 4 mana. It enables us to 2 for 1 someone or just 1 for 1 if the threat needs to be dealt with immediately. But more often i save this to remove our Lich if we have Phyrexian Unlife out in case someone tries to destroy it was its last clause only goes off if it goes to the graveyard.
Utter End– Remove a nonland permanent from the game seems like a decent deal for 4 mana. The fact we can do it end of turn or in response to something means this card is miles ahead of Vindicate in most cases.
Ancient Craving: Smaller draw spells have proven to be more useful in this deck over the few years of playing it. This is here as we get the cards immediately instead of cards like Phyrexian Arena were we have to wait until our upkeep. This speed on the draw is extremely important as it allows us to plan ahead sooner and that always helps us when we need to combo off. However the downside is that these spells can't be returned by Sun Titan.
Armageddon: Mass land destruction to buy more time for the combo to set up or just to bait out the Counterspell that the player has sitting in their hand. It often also secures our win especially if Sun Titan and a couple mana rocks are on the field. We should normally only use this if we can win directly after as most players frown upon MLD and not winning a few turns after but I am still willing to use it turn 4 if we have 2 mana rocks out and a land in hand as we have Crucible of worlds to return lands.
Austere Command: Our swiss army knife of boardwipes. Hits everything but Land and Planeswalkers which we can deal with in otherways. It also enables us to keep some of our utility guys if the board is too scary this allows us to wipe the enchantress deck and the giant voltron deck off the field in one swipe. Or vice versa if a army of tokens is sitting across from us we can whip those tiny tokens and then take out something else too. The possibilities are endless (well actually there are six combinations).
Decree of Pain: This card has two of the main things this deck loves: boardwipes and draw in one. However it does cost a lot of mana which can be a problem at times. This is one that we often don't use before our first combo attempt as we normally attempt for the first time between turns 5-7. This card is for if the first attempt doesn't work as it allows us to clean the board up and draw to set up our second attempt.
Demonic Tutor: Our deck loves this card. It is unconditional searching for a combo piece or for an answer to another deck. It is a fantastic card but if some prefer to not play with tutors which is understandable which then replace this card with another draw spell.
Exsanguinate: Our main wincon post Ad Nauseam combo. However it can be used very successfully with tainted sigil or one of the other cards that deal with life totals changing ie Exquisite blood. Overall it is a kill card that if used should turn the game in our favor drastically.
Final Judgment: Creatures are this deck's bane and exiling these problems just seems logical in this case. Exiling all creatures seems to deal with them as it reduces grave-based decks advantages from getting the field wiped but also prevents a deck with high tutoring from dumping the creatures back out if we tuck them all.
Night's Whisper: Draw power is key to this deck and with this card we can draw early on to ensure land drops or dig for a combo piece late game. How it compares to its "twin" Sign in blood is basically this: it is much easier to cast but can't be used as a damage spell on opponents if we can only drop to 1 life before swapping life totals. They are about equal in power and ability due to these differences.
Repay in Kind: This beauty of a card sets all life totals equal to lowest life total which is our's, 99% of the time but if it isn't we can always use Selenia's ability to make it such. This is typically one of the 3 ways how our deck will pull off the combo win with Phyerxian Unlife as we can then set our life to 0 life.
Reverse the Sands: This card also give us the ability to switch life totals but also allows for full table’s life to change, meaning time to pay back those who have been mean to you. However just note that if we are at 0 life when we do this, we can only kill 1 opponent and then everyone will be very wary of the deck.
Sign in Blood: Our other 2 cmc draw spell. While compared with Night's Whisper like mentioned above it can kill opponents low in life, However is more difficult to cast due to the BB cost and it plays a bit better to our decks themes as it allows us to if we aren't able to drop to 0 life go to 1 or 2 and still kill someone when we swap life totals.
Terminus: Boardwipes are a key part of this deck and this one is just as important. It started from a different era of commander, back when tucking a commander kept it in the deck. Most of the old tuck cards were removed from many decks but for our purposes Terminus is fantastic as we are playing Sensei's Divining Top which can enable the miracle cost at any given point through the draw aspect of Top. Otherwise it still is a great boardwipe for 6 mana. It also helps us hate on grave-based decks and also gets around indestructible and regeneration.
Toxic Deluge: Another boardwipe but this one gets by the dreaded Gaddock Teeg. Furthermore it has a fixed mana cost of 3 which means we can cast it early in case of explosive aggro decks. The life part can be a hindrance if we are planning on drawing a lot later but our life is like water, it just keeps flowing and changing.
Vindicate: Our go-to remove anything card. Budget wise Mortify works if you cant drop the cash for one but I really enjoy being able to remove lands and planeswalkers with this.
Wrath of god: The last of our boardwipes and its a classic. The 4 CMC is fantastic and the no regeneration clause is great if we have a problem Thrun, the last troll deck on the other side of the table. otherwise it can be replaced with day of Judgment if budget is a concern.
Bloodstained Mire:one of our fetch lands. Helps us thin our deck and gives us a shuffle effect for Scroll rack and Sensei's divining top
Bojuka Bog: A great way of dealing with a pesky graveyard based deck. Often times bog is a card I will shuffle away in my openning hand unless i am sitting across from a know grave based commander such as Karador, Ghost Chieftain.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: The easiest way to stop our combos is to counter the spells we cast which majority of them are sorceries. Boseiju prevents opponents from countering our spells which means we have one less thing to worry about when setting up our combo. However it doesn't tap for mana unless its for its uncounterable ability.
Caves of Koilos: Our painland really helps us fix our colors. The life per mana can hurt if we get this land too early and need the fixing but more often than not we don't need the mana fixing in late game. But it also doubles as a life adjuster so we can be at an even or odd life total for things that we need to adjust our life total for.
Command Tower: My favorite land for mana fixing. Its a true staple for any commander deck that plays more than one color.
Flooded Strands: one of our fetch lands. Helps us thin our deck and gives us a shuffle effect for Scroll rack and Sensei's divining top
Glacial Chasm: Prevent a token horde from killing you or damage just in general. Normally this land is just a 2-3 turn card but occasionally it goes for up to 8 turns in my experience. Basically just remember we have to sacrifice a land to use this so if we can cast sun titan around when we play this, our tempo for mana doesnt diminish to drastically.
Godless Shrine: Our shockland doesn’t get much better as it is tutorable with any search effect that searches for a plains or swamp. The Shock it gives us hurts at times but we don't have to worry about it as our life will be gone at some point.
Isolated Chapel: a nice land that taps for both colors but it does check our lands before coming in so ideally we want to have either a plains or swamp out first.
Maze of Ith: This beauty stops voltron decks directly in their path. It can also be used to attack with Sun titan and prevent him from dying in combat. The main problems with this land are that it doesn't tap for mana and must target the creature to stop it so hexproof can be an issue at times.
8 Plains: Basics are the flesh and blood of most decks. Great in case a Ruination or Back to Basics show up.
Polluted Delta:one of our fetch lands. Helps us thin our deck and gives us a shuffle effect for Scroll rack and Sensei's divining top
Reliquary Tower: No maximum hand size is a fantastic thing and with how much this deck draws. It is the best thing to have out before paying 20 to necropotence as then we get to keep our cards to discard to Skirge familiar.
Seraph Sanctuary: Helps offset how much life is lost with Selenia and can help adjust life total by 1 making it possibly to go to 0 or 1 exactly.
8 Swamp:Our other basic land that is a staple fo the deck as it withstands nonbasic hate.
Tainted Field: There are enough swamps in the deck that this is normally online by atleast turn 3 if it was in our opening hand.
Temple of silence: Our scry Land. Typically this is the best turn 1 land unless we have either Sol ring or Land tax in our hand. The coming into play tapped can effect our tempo later so it is less welcome in our mid game when we are racing to combo off the first time. However it is a great late and early game land due to the scry aspect.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: This legendary land makes all of our lands swamps which in particular really helps our mana fixing. However we need to remember that it makes ALL lands swamps so if a player who is using black is color screwed for B that we don't give it to them.
Windswept heath: one of our fetch lands. Helps us thin our deck and gives us a shuffle effect for Scroll rack and Sensei's divining top.
Mortify – Versatile removal that is good but is not as great as Vindicate which I am trying to get my hands on as a replacement. The card however still hits two very relevant forms of permanents and atleast its at instant speed.
Temple of the False God: a budget version of ancient tomb. Our deck really wants an ancient tomb but until then this has to work until I have the fund to drop on one.
More will be added later.
Early Game Turns 1-3: The main thing to remember when piloting the deck is that our life total is a resource. If we forget this it can often lead to losing our cool when playing the deck. For the early game make sure our hand holds some early ramp such as Orzhov Signet, Sol Ring or Land Tax and at least 2 lands but no more than 4. We need to get our land drops as soon as possible and our rocks out just as quickly as we are on a clock almost immediately as we run less creatures than nearly every other deck. By doing this it allows us to have mana to set up a defensive piece or two. Defensive pieces include Grand Abolisher, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Ghostly prison ect. These defensive pieces are key to us being able to combo off as our combo is fragile and can be interrupted easily if the opponents know what’s going on.
Midgame (turns 4-6): This is when people start to focus us with attacks. Most opponents start to realize we don’t carry a ton of creatures and they like to poke us with attacks. This isn’t a huge worry as remember the attacks chip at our resource that we want to hit zero eventually. However this is the time period we will have our first attempt at comboing out.
Our Combos Are:
B: Angel's Grace or Phyrexian Unlife + Ad Nauseam: This combo allows us to draw our whole deck. It is followed with Chrome Mox or Mox Diamond onto a black card for Chrome Mox so we can cast Rain of filth and sac our lands down so we can cast Skirge Familiar and then discard cards until we can Exsanguinate for enough to kill everyone. We can typically pull this off turn 4 or 5 assuming we have the cards and at least 2 pieces of ramp in hand but is much more fragile as it requires more pieces.
W: Phyrexian Unlife +Selenia, Dark Angel: This allows us to drop to 0 life as Selenia's ability is an activated one we can stack it as much as we want and drop to 0 life. And then if we add in Repay in Kind, Soul Conduit, Magus of the Mirror or Reverse the Sands we can swap life totals with another player and kill them and then gain a ton of life. Again note that when we change life totals we both lose and gain that amount of life so that effects card like Vizkopa Guildmage's ability. This combo needs more set up than our Ad Nauseam previously mentioned. We often need to cast Selenia, Dark Angel the turn previously so that we have more mana for the life swapping ability. This combo goes off turn 5 or 6 but much more stable and resilient than the previously mentioned combo.
B: Exsquisite blood + Sanguine bond or Vizkopa Guildmage's second ability: When we gain life or an opponent loses life it creates an infinite amount of each opponent losing life and us gaining life. This combo is our slowest and often goes off turn 7 or 8 and typically is the most threatening in opponents eyes as it much more common of a combo.
Any of these combo may not work the first time we attempt them but that is why we have the 3 main combo shells. Each of these combos have cards that can be replaced if need be, for example if sanguine bond gets removed we can use Vizkopa Guildmage as a substitute card. But don't worry if you can't pull off any of the combos as that's why we pack a late game so we don't become one of those combo decks that is too much like a glass cannon.
Late Game (Turns 7+): At this point in the game we should have attempted a combo at least once and failed or killed atleast one person. Here is where we have to start playing defensively again. We should be wrathing the board quite regularly and playing more reactively as we set up our second combo attempt but this time more slowly than before. We can't go all in like we do in turns 4-6 as now others will have a stronger board presence while we will be sitting with a very small board. This is why we pack so many board wipes. This is also the time to start resorting not to our combos as much but rather our alternative wincons.
W: an alpha Hatred strike with Selenia, dark angel or another players commander paired with either Children of Korlis or Tainted Sigil to hit someone for lethal commander damage. The Children and Sigil are optional but they help us stay alive after such a risky move.
B: Near-Death Experience is one of our other alternative wincon. It nearly never works but if you can pair it with Angel's Grace it can lead to a surprise win out of nowhere.
W: Felidar Sovereign is our last alternative wincon and relies on us getting sovereign out and being below 40 life before our turn. Yes I did say below 40 life because if we are above 40 life Sovereign will get auto-targeted by every opponent alive. We get above 40 life before our turn by using stuff such as tainted sigil, Sanguine Bond, or Sword to plow sharesing our own creatures.
Otherwise late game the name of the game is survive to the best of our ability by removing threats and by trying to maximize on our synergies in the deck that draw us the most cards so we can combo out. These synergies are:
B: Land Tax + Scroll Rack Allows us to search for 3 basic lands then swap those 3 lands with our top three cards then shuffle the deck when we do it again the next turn.
W: Lich + Ivory Tower With this synergy we are walking the edge of the knife but its risk pays of drastically if it survives. Basically we gain life with Ivory tower which when Lich is out makes us draw cards which in turn will draw us more cards next turn.
As a combo deck our main weakness is getting our peices out and actually comboing off. We have a decent amount of tutors and draw spells to help us with this but we could always add more if we can afford it. The other main weakness as a combo deck is we are creatureless or nearly so. We have a hard time with decks that are an all-in aggressive deck such as some versions of Edric, spymaster of trest or Lovisa Coldeyes as examples. We play plenty of wraths but often these decks we won't be able to stop their steady output of creatures. We also has a life swapping combo have issues with direct damage cards such as Lightning bolt if we don't have Phyrexian Unlife out and even then they still hurt. Two noteable commanders we are at a disavantage against are:
Heartless Hidetsugu: His ability to kill everyone at an even lifetotal with a damage doubler is scary and is why we have to play so much even/odd life total adjusters. Basically any Red deck wins deck we will have issues with but he is the most notable.
Edric, Spymaster of trest: The tempo of this deck is often backbreaking for us and they have so much counterspell and enchantment removal that we often can't keep up with them. Other decks that tempo well are an issue for us but this is the most notable commander.
Our last weakness is one about playgroups. We are a deck that the more our playgroup sees our deck the more comfortable and difficult it is for us to combo just like every combo deck but more so for us as we rely on the element of surprise to swap life totals out of nowhere. we also prefer smaller playgroups and are at a bigger disadvantage for most of our combos when the playgroup gets larger.
Our strengths come from the element of surprise like I just mentioned. When a pod of players is small and have never played against our deck we are almost ensured the win unless another deck gets one of their god hands. We also have a huge advantage over hard control or stax decks as often times we can abuse their engines just as much as they can.
Now here is where I will discuss variants of our deck list and offer various options for how we play. The colors are very versatile in how we play and often times playing a bit from a variant style and the main combo shell will end with the best results. So enjoy and I plan to expand more and more on each variant style as I get more experience play each one.
One note for those thinking of using angels is that often times angels cost a bit of mana and we normally don’t have the mana for that so if you do want angels I’d recommend thinking about using reanimation as a way to pump out the angels.
So this list is not all inclusive but covers what I would run in my Selenia list.
Angel of Despair: A Vindicate on an angelic stick. This beater is terrifying if we can ramp her out early or use reanimation to return her to the field early. Being able to solve any problem permeant is very worth of an inclusion.
Angel of Finality: Gravebased decks are quite a common thing in most metas, mine especially. I have found exiling their graveyard is often a really strong move at stopping these gravebased decks and lets us combo out faster. Well worth a spot if you make an angels list.
Archangel of Thune: We gain a lot of life in our deck so getting +1/+1 counters each times allows us to play a bit more aggressive than the combo deck plays. However I know of no combos with it in Orzhov colors which is slightly saddening.
Archangel of Tithes: A very large Ghostly Prison that I have been considering in the non-angle version of the list as it protects us from large token swings. In an angel version of the deck this card is almost an auto include.
Indomitable Archangel: We play a lot of artifacts in our combo such as mirror universe and our ramp is oftentimes artifact based so giving them shroud seems like it is a good choice to consider.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence: Linvala helps slowdown a lot of EDH decks and would allow us to combo out faster as other decks are slower in comparison.
Resolute Archangel: Resetting life totals is what this deck loves. It helps use after a life drop to get our life back and with all of our effects that mess around with this there are ways to kill people with this effect.
Harsh Mercy: A tribal boardwipe that allows us to keep our angels. Yay however if you are playing against another tribal deck this can be risky.
If you would like a more in-depth play by play for how to pilot the deck feel free to ask. I am more than willing to go more in depth if people would like it. Otherwise Thanks for reading my thread on Selenia and I hope you enjoyed it.
8-01-15: Update with a Thread update!
Drops:
1 Plains
2 Swamps
1 Temple of the False God: it kinda a weak ramp cards and the fetches seemed like a better upgrade.
1 Felidar Sovereign: Had some upgrades so I cut the sovereign as it was one of the weaker cards.
1 Mortify: Direct upgrade to Vindicate
Adds:
1 Mirror Universe: I was down a card for some reason. Mirror Universe has been needed for a while and I had to pull some overtime.
1 Vindicate
1 Crucible of worlds: I added the Khans fetches so i figured i'd finally add my crucible to the deck.
4 Khans fetches: I finally have all 4 so might as well toss them in now.
5-19-15: I put the deck back together after taking it apart last fall.
Drops:
Fellwar stone: I needed to get rid of some of the ramp and this made the cut for some other cards as Land Tax is just better overall.
Orzhov Keyrune: Needed to get rid of ramp. I will miss the adjusting life of the animated form but I need space for the Scroll rack and land Tax combo.
Rune-Scarred Demon: The Demonic tutor on a stick was great but I wanted to try something new. I also threw Demonic Tutor back in as I got my hands on one finally.
Nefarious Lich: I'm just tired of the card. It was good but i was just bored of it.
Phyrexian Arena: Smaller draw spells I found have been better in the long run.
Unmake: Utter End is just better
Liliana Vess: I picked up a Karn Liberated and I only used Liliana for tutor so I felt more removal better and just more fun int he long term.
Promise of Power: Smaller draw spells.
Rout: picked up a Wrath of God and its just better as less mana is involved.
Esper Panorama: Just better lands are available
Evolving Wilds: Just better lands are available
Terramorphic Expanse:Just better lands are available
Orzhov Guildgate:Just better lands are available
Adds:
Commander's Sphere: I changed some of my ramp so I can draw instead once I need to win.
Scroll Rack: Allows me to dig more in my deck once I need to combo.
Felidar Sovereign: Another Wincon
Land Tax: Ramp that combos with Scroll tax to make a draw spell.
Utter End: Universal Removal is better than exile a creature.
Karn Liberated: Universal removal is always good.
Demonic Tutor: Universal tutors are good. I had mine stolen a while back but finally got my copy back form he store the kid sold it to.
Night's Whisper: Small draw spells are faster and easier to use than the larger spells.
Sign in Blood: Small draw spells are faster and easier to use than the larger spells, Also works as a kill spell if I get an opponent low enough in life
Wrath of God: Low CMC wrath is always good when the deck is mana hungry.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: Allows me to combo without someone countering the spell.
Temple of Silence: Scry is better than a nomral tap land. It is best early game.
Maze of Ith: I picked one up and this deck seemed like the best home for it.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Allows me not worry amount mana costs as much.
7-31-14
Drops:
Æther Vial- Got stolen. So figured Im not going to replace it for what it costs currently.
Day of Judgement - Needed space and this was on the cutting block already.
Night's whisper - was always underwhelming.
Winter orb- was needed in a different deck.
Righteous Aura - I'm not sure what happened but the voltron decks disappeared from my meta.... hmmm Im okay with this.
Demonic tutor - Another stolen card..... Getting one soon so it will go back in.
Additions:
Ivory tower- Added more combo orrented wincons so this works quite well with Lich
Mox Diamond - Was able to pick one up from a friend for some smaller trades. Not complaining about minimal cost ramp.
Skirge Familiar and Rain of filth - Going for the full-out combo win now so were needed for a while.
Lich - a key engine to the deck and finally got a copy at a decent price.
Nefarious Lich - a second lich.
Toxic Deluge - Finally got my hands on one.
6-24-14
Drops:
Sorin Markov - He has been lacking recently. Yes he can put someone at 10 life but normally when he is drawn I normally always wish it was something else. So Im dropping him for more ramp.
bloodgift demon- The drawing was useful as was the kill ability but the 5 mana was killing me after several games of artifact hate.
Culling Sun - Readding Ad Nausaem to the deck and this card was the card I figured I'd miss least.
wound reflection- Im cutting sorin and trying to drop my curve a tad. so this card was on the chopping block and now has been cut free.
Debtors' Knell Never had mana to use it. Too much combo in my meta and the mayael deck has be decomissioned so it lost a lot of its power.
Kirtar's Wrath - Cutting some boardwipes. Haven't been needing them nearly as much anymore, don't know if it is a meta-change or what but it hasn't been performing properly.
debt to the deathless - Used this once in the past 20 games and it was only for x=3. Sure it helped me offset my lifetotal but wasn't working how it should so Figured should upgrade for less mana.
Additions:
Chrome Mox- found one on sale and figured why not. I need 0 cost artifact ramp and I don't want to drop money on a mana crypt.
Dismember- Found I needed more spot removal. Dismember is just too good not to include as it normally just cost 1 mana.
Winter Orb - Because Combo has become too prevalent in my meta and I need to slow it down. This shouldn't effect me nearly as bad as it effects others with the large amount of rocks I run.
Ad Nausaem- Back in as I am dropping my curve as much as I can so I can abuse this.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All & 1 Plains - Finally came in the mail. Figured I'd up my land count with this and one more plains due to getting color screwed a few games now.
Swords to plowshares - one of my copies became free now that I took apart a different deck. I needed more spot remvoal so hopefully this will help.
6-12-14
Drops:
Star compass- Just too underwhelming and as much as i love mana rocks this one just wasn't as much fun to see when I would draw it.
Killing Wave - just too situational and never did exactly what I wanted. Was used more as a bait the counterspell card but with 3 new boardwipes it has been cut.
Spoils of the Vault - was very underwhelming in my testing of it. Only once performed how I was wanting it to drop me to 0 life to swap life totals with an opponent. I found I would prefer to rely on Selenia, Dark Angel instead to drop my life.
Dark Ritual - enabled a faster start but would rather make room for something else. Its testing didn't go as well as planned and I've accepted my altered art one will have to sit in my binder.
gift of the estates- Never really needed it. Deck always hand land in hand and could just be another wrath.
Additions:
grand abolisher - Protect my life when dropping to 0 to kill someone. a poorly timed lightning bolt really ruins my day in this deck.
Debtors' Knell- Everyone keeps wanting em to try reanimation and I just realized i had one of these in my binder. this card is one that I am planning on testing to see if it actually does enough work to keep it or if it will make space for other cards.
Rout- Instant speed boardwipe with an elesh norn, grand cenobite art. whats not to love? I have a feeling this will earn a more permanent spot in my deck and that day of judgment might be getting dropped later for this.
Austere command- figured out I had one sitting around and I figure i'd play it again now that my freinds fork deck is no longer a thing. was a meta choice to cut it originally.
kirtar's Wrath - Another boardwipe however this one is just a place holder until I get Wrath of God.
Portcullis
Humility
Wishlist for card That I can't afford Yet
Damnation
Mana Crypt
Humility
Mox Opal
Leyline of Sanctity
Cards I Need to Get
Mirror universeÆther Vial
B:
Angels Tribal VariantW:Voltron Variant
B:Doomsday Combo Exploration and Thoughts
W:Budget List
B:Notable Exclusions
If you want another example of the deck that runs a tad differently, look at HardCasting's Deck.
Combo Explanation hopefully uploaded next week after finals.
Cool deck!
I recommend cutting: Dark Ritual (it doesn't do enough), Killing Wave (never good to give your opponents a choice, they will always choose what you don't want them to),
I recommend adding: Platinum Angel (so you don't loose for having negative health), Isochron Scepter (you can stick something like Angel's Grace on it), Ad Nauseam (I second it!), Swords to Plowshares, Toxic Deluge and Dark Confidant (if you have a spare one or can afford it).
Other than that, the only thing I can see is to try to get ahold of a copy of Temple of Silence, either as another duel land or an upgrade to Orzhov Guildgate. The deck looks interesting though. ^.^
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I actually ran consume the meek earlier int he deck and found that I preferred Culling sun cause it fit with being multicolor and having a tad more flavor fromt hat but I might try running both again. But the reason that I was willing to change is that i am the only person to play regeneration in my meta with Thrun, the last troll.
Killing wave actually was more a of a tempo card for the 2 control decks that my meta plays and that hurt this deck the worst. They love the couple creatures that they run and Killing wave forces them to normally pay 4-10 life for them and then i follow up with a boardwipe afterwards.
I will comment on the rest after my class.
As I've told someone else playing Selenia, I don't recommend Platinum Angel. It's not so much the "you can't loose the game" part of the text that players hate but the part that says "and other players can't win the game" that rustles their jimmies. Every time I have played Platinum Angel in the past, it immediately turns the entire table against you. And with the nature of the deck always being somewhat so close to death, it's hard the take on that kind of heat. That and it sucks to have it stolen or copied too.
Instead I'm trying out Eternity Vessel as it acts as a super expensive Children of Korlis at times or a Ghostly Prison as people won't attack you unless they can one shot you.
You might also want to look into a bit of the Pestilence package with cards you can give lifelink like Crypt Rats or Thrashing Wumpus. Nothing wrong with board wiping, dealing some damage, and gaining life.
Really nice deck though, I'd like to know a bit more on how useful Righteous Aura is. I've considered it since I first built the deck.
Okay i'll start with Zoth's comments first because this will be shorter. I originally used Unspeakable symbol and souldrinker in the deck as alternative Selenias but after I added Aether vial I found that they were pointless. Having selenia out was almost always better than those two. However I do like Mischievous Poltergeist especially because of the flying. I will try out the ghost.
Now on to Jackpuddy:
I was about to type out something very similar to your platinum angel piece. I have tested the angel and it always backfires on me so i have dropped it as it wasn't worth it. I have been thinking about Eternity Vessel also but knowing my group this will act much like a Platinum angel so I am trying to avoid it but I might pick one up for testing. Pestilence was in the beginning versions of the deck until i decided to go with more boardwipes which has lead to it getting destroyed too often so I decided to cut it but i might toss it back in as a finishing mechanism which i Have lacked several games now. And Finally one of my favorite cards in the deck Righteous Aura. I have 2 voltron decks in my meta and they have learned the hard way that if I have white open that I won't ever lose to them unless they can get rid of this. It is fabulous with redirect damage effect at you and I will gladly pay 2 life rather than fatal everytime. plus it gets around shroud!
Edit: Missed finishing up Airithne's comment
Airithne- I actually just put rout in the deck . I don't remember what's place it took but I tossed it in as i got the elesh art one from conspiracy.
I noticed you run Armageddon and Day of Judgment.
Sweepers are good. Here are some I would consider adding/upgrading:
Catastrophe: Costs 2 more than Armageddon but is flexible for when you need to kill creatures.
Merciless Eviction: The utility on this is awesome, plus it exiles.
Austere Command: This is my favorite sweeper in the format, if I'm in white, I run this card.
I would at least consider Merciless Eviction and Austere Command as must adds.
Vedalken Orrery on the other hand in my deck has yet to prove its worth. Might be time to try out Righteous Aura
I'm also wondering how the land destruction is working for you? I can't ever seem to get enough mana for my deck so I can't see myself running any Armageddon type of effects. Is that more of a meta thing for you?
I know I use to run Austere Command and pulled it out for some reason but now for the life of me i don't know why it isn't in here and I am moving back after I am done typing this. I will update/make a changelog for the deck after all the publicity it has gotten today. Catastrophe i guess i missed this card when doing searches for this deck.... I'll be tossing it in, in place of day of judgment.
and finally Merciless Eviction the reason I wasn't running this was because of the Fork deck my friend was running and how catastrophic it was when he declared enchantments. Now that I think of it thats why Austere Command was cut. Now that he is gone, I am going to have to add both back in.
Soul echo- Could keep me alive...?
Angel of Despair- I use to include her in the deck but took her out in the early edits towards a creatureless deck. But now she is kinda calling me back. I really am wanting thoughts on her and yes vindicate is better and on my wish list once I get some cash.
Crovax, Ascendant Hero- I have now had a game where I couldn't flicker Selenia in response to a tuck and then the deck fell apart... I am thikning of him as a contingency plan but am unsure.
Sustaining Spirit- How had I not found her before today? I am really thinking of testing her and am curious to see what others think of her.
Because I started to go more creatureless, I took out the whole Worship package I had going on as well. Although, Sustaining Spirit seems like it does the whole package, more or less, in one card. I might have to look into it.
I also run Purity as another effect to keep me out of bolt range. Sweet blocker. Also is good with my Pestilence effects.
As far as a contingency plan goes... I figure you win some, you lose some. It's just kinda the nature of the deck. Plus,You have a bunch of tutors to fetch her back into your hand as well as other ways to strip your life total. Maybe a bit slower, but still does the job. You could try Erebos, God of the Dead or Greed if you need more ways to hit your self down while keeping the deck efficient. Or maybe you just need more ways to gain a huge amount of life like Arbiter of Knollridge so you can always respond with her ability. I don't know what I'm saying, a contingency plan might be the way to go and Crovax, Ascendant Hero is a pretty sweet one.
Phyrexian Reclamation – Reusable renanimation
Pestilence – It’s really a shoo-in in this kind of deck
Kagemaro, First to Suffer – An additional board wipe
Felidar Sovereign – An additional wincon
Platinum Angel – a lingering Angel’s Grace effect, that is almost more vulnerable because it’s a creature on the table.
Angel of Despair/Ashen Rider/Archon of Justice/Duplicant – Removal on a body
Necromancy/Animate Dead
Skullclamp
Expedition Map - to find your utility lands[card]
Mirror Universe[/card] - I know it’s expensive, but there are so few of these effects
Tithe
Land Tax
Scroll Rack
Volrath’s Stronghold
Kor Haven
Boseiju, Who Shelter's All - It'd be a shame if your game-ending Repay in Kind ate a counterspell.
Strip Mine
Tectonic Edge
Cut Culling sun add Wrath of God
Cut Killing Wave, it’s never really a sweeper when you really need it to be. Give this slot to Hallowed Burial.
With eleven creatures, Aether Vial is weird here. I get that you’re trying to exploit Armageddon’s symmetry here, but mana rocks would do it much more consistently and flexibly. In fact I kind of want to suggest Gilded Lotus and/or Crucible of Worlds here to further commit to that plan.
Dark Ritual is an interesting decision here, but makes more sense in a deck building a storm count for an explosive early turn combo than a mid-to-late game combo which is more your flavor.
Aim to get a minimum of thirty eight lands if you ever expect cast these CMC 6+ and CMC X cost cards (of which there are several).
Oh Rider, my heart will go on...
Okay dang lots of card addition ideas but I will go ove rmy responses to most of them:
Phyrexian Reclamation - Just nope. If i wanted reanimation I would play unburial rites. Reanimating would only be good to onto the field.
Pestilence is actually in the deck but Haven't had a chance to update the deck list since last week so that will be update as i said in an eariler post later today after my final is done. (yay study breaks for commenting)
All of these are not in the deck as they draw too much hate for me. I commented on Platinum angel earlier on how everyone focuses me immediately for not allowing them to win. Felidar Sovereign use to be in my lifegain version of this and if it ever survived even to the end of my turn was a miracle. I guess i should say this: this deck sits int he background until it becomes a threat. Normally this deck is not a problem cause I pull it out when I am playing with people I don't play with normally.
Of all of these larger removal creature the only two I have thought about are Duplicant and Angel of Despair as they are the only two that are cost effective in my eyes. I know others might like Ashen rider over Angel of Despair but I prefer Angel becasue it has arelevant creature type that can trigger a little life gain off of Seraph Sanctuary also with 2 Kaalia of the vast decks in my meta that play patriarch's bidding for angels or dragons it is more relevant to me but thats just me and my meta and personal choice, I also like the art more sooo there is that too.
I don't play enough creatures to make animate dead or necromancy worth it. Yes I can reanimate from opponents graves but I am trying to combo not win via beatdown and normally opponents creatures don't help me along with my goal of comboing out.
I don't run enough creature to play skullclamp. there is nothing more to say really on that. For me I need atleast a token generator or have 20+ creatures to make it worth it for skullclamp. Expedition Map could be played but then again it could be played in several decks. Normally I don't need to tutor up lands because I have weathered wayfarer or due to the fact I normally have a very large hand due to the draw engines this deck runs. I'm going to add it to card that will need to be tested because i still feel it could be relevant in certain situations but majority of the time I don't feel I'll need it.
Mirror Universe is one card I have been wanting to buy for sooo long. It has stayed stable in price and I will eventually pick one up but until then I am still a broke college student who really can't afford a Mirror Universe yet.
- Land Tax
- Scroll Rack
please see mirror universe for reasoning.Tithe - This was in my original version of the deck but I never seemed to want it. If I drew it I always felt it was a wasted draw. It got replaced by coldsteel heart which i have been much happier with.
Volrath's Stronghold- I would love to get one of these but I wouldn't use it in this deck however. he who hungers's claims that land if I ever pick one up.
Kor Haven- I really really want one of these. I am planning on getting one eventually for the deck but currently haven't been able to trade for one/Buy one.
Boseiju, Who Shelter's All - I actually have one of these in the mail right now! It included in the edit that I am going to be doing afterward.
Strip Mine & Tectonic Edge - I actually dislike target land destruction in here. I know I should run them both but I find I never need it cause I normally will just wipe the board.
Æther Vial has one purpose if you read the card explanations: to put the bounced Selenia dark angel back onto the field after I bounce her to my hand. It gets really tiring to pay 5 mana every turn for her. the vial allows me to not have to was my mana on that and can focus it elsewhere.
Finally my land count, Everyone hates on my land count but with how my meta works is we draw 10 and shuffle 3 cards back into our decks for our initial hands. I normally get 3 land in that with a mana rock. That means I have until turn 3 to draw another land which normally by then I have a draw spell that refills my hand for land. I have been mana-screwed once in my past 30 games of Selenia. My land base is fine. I have enough draw and ramp via rocks to compensate for my lower amount of land. Sorry if I am a bit irritable on this topic of my land but I get really tired of people telling me to up land count even after I have done the math to optimize it. Could I run one or 2 more lands, Yes. Would 5 more help? not at all that will end with me holding 2 lands in hand when I really need spells.
Here's the link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autocardanywhere/eobkhgkgoejnjaiofdmphhkemmomfabg?hl=en
I am beginning to agree with you after some more testing. Lich is an extremely powerful card but it is extremely risky in my meta. I have 3 decks that love aura shards a bit too much and that is becoming a problem.
I am still going to do more testing on Lich but I am beginning to come over to your side on it.
Side note: I am linking your thread on mine for additional readings for people who are thinking of making the deck.
Also, if you were still looking for a contingency plan, just do what everyone else does and try out High Market. I also use it to tinker with my life total between even or uneven.
Drops:
Sorin Markov - He has been lacking recently. Yes he can put someone at 10 life but normally when he is drawn I normally always wish it was something else. So Im dropping him for more ramp.
bloodgift demon- The drawing was useful as was the kill ability but the 5 mana was killing me after several games of artifact hate.
Culling Sun - Readding Ad Nausaem to the deck and this card was the card I figured I'd miss least.
wound reflection- Im cutting sorin and trying to drop my curve a tad. so this card was on the chopping block and now has been cut free.
Debtors' Knell Never had mana to use it. Too much combo in my meta and the mayael deck has be decomissioned so it lost a lot of its power.
Kirtar's Wrath - Cutting some boardwipes. Haven't been needing them nearly as much anymore, don't know if it is a meta-change or what but it hasn't been performing properly.
debt to the deathless - Used this once in the past 20 games and it was only for x=3. Sure it helped me offset my lifetotal but wasn't working how it should so Figured should upgrade for less mana.
Additions:
Chrome Mox- found one on sale and figured why not. I need 0 cost artifact ramp and I don't want to drop money on a mana crypt.
Dismember- Found I needed more spot removal. Dismember is just too good not to include as it normally just cost 1 mana.
Winter Orb - Because Combo has become too prevalent in my meta and I need to slow it down. This shouldn't effect me nearly as bad as it effects others with the large amount of rocks I run.
Ad Nausaem- Back in as I am dropping my curve as much as I can so I can abuse this.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All & 1 Plains - Finally came in the mail. Figured I'd up my land count with this and one more plains due to getting color screwed a few games now.
Swords to plowshares - one of my copies became free now that I took apart a different deck. I needed more spot remvoal so hopefully this will help.
Changes have been made to the deck once again. I will be updating the narrative later this weekend with the changes and another section.
I actually found this card: Sustaining Spirit. I guess I never noticed it was a thing. But Im currently testing it in place of blind obedaince and have been loving it. But Im not sure Im going to keep it yet as it still is very fragile.
And I found the same with Eternity Vessel. It great in some situation but majority of the time I never like drawing it.
High market seems like it could be good, i'll have to look into it more.
Ad Nauseam draws your whole deck with Phyrexian Unlife and the like. I can't believe it wasn't in your deck earlier.
Also, with Ad Nauseam, you need some way to win instantly once drawing your deck. It is because of this that I recommend Rain of Filth.
Here's the link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autocardanywhere/eobkhgkgoejnjaiofdmphhkemmomfabg?hl=en
I'd recommend Skirge Familiar over Rain of Filth, since it synergizes better with a hand of sixty cards or more.
Here's the link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autocardanywhere/eobkhgkgoejnjaiofdmphhkemmomfabg?hl=en