Overview of the Deck
Angel chord (aka Abzan Chord, Angel Feeder, Chord Combo) is a BWG midrange/combo deck built around Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder. The deck can win as early as turn 4 with this combo. However, like many modern decks, abzan chord is not an all out combo deck that must combo to win. The deck also has a strong "plan B" that uses Gavony Township alongside Lingering Souls and the variety of mana dorks to allow it to gain inevitability in a longer game where the opportunity to combo doesn't come up or is suboptimal.
The combo is achieved by getting both Spike Feeder and Archangel of Thune into play, often using Chord of Calling to find the missing piece. Once both cards are in play you remove a counter from Spike Feeder to gain life. When life is gained, Archangel of Thune is triggered, putting a counter on each creature. Spike Feeder will always have counters, thus allowing you to activate feeder infinite times and triggering archangel infinite times. You will gain as much life as you wish, and all creatures in play (except Spike Feeder which will stay with 2 counters) will gain as many counters as you wish. This usually results in a lethal attacker (or more commonly a concession from the opponent) as soon as the loop is established.
Decklist
The archangel/spike feeder combo has been part of various abzan decks for many years (birthing pod/abzan company) as a plan B or plan C win condition usually involving a single archangel and spike feeder. Decks dedicated to archangel/spike feeder as a plan A combo broke out at pro tour Oath of the Gatewatch with two different lists finishing with 24+ points.
Card Choices Birds of Paradise - Must have 4 of to accelerate your mana. Later on having flying is relevant for gavony township turning this into a potential threat. Noble Hierarch - Must have 4 to accelerate your mana. The exalted trigger is also key. Wall of Roots - Probably the best card in this deck. Gives you 2 mana for chord of calling and helps stall the opponents attack. Courser of Kruphix - This card helps stall the ground to buy time to execute either plan. Also good synergy with archangel (life gain) and just a good value card to smooth out draws. Usually a 2 of. Archangel of Thune - Part of the combo and also a beating on its own if not answered makes this an easy 4 of. Spike Feeder - Part of the combo. Not great by itself which is why it is mostly played as a 3 of. Qasali Pridemage - Your main deck chord target for artifact/enchantment removal. Orzhov Pontiff - Sweep away the opponents X/1s. Can also pump the team on offense. Very good in this meta and versatile enough for the main deck. Scavenging Ooze - A good all around main deck chord target that doesn't hurt you if you draw it in the wrong matchup. This is your graveyard hate. Chord of Calling - The reason this deck exists. Allows you to find the combo or a silver bullet card to disrupt the opponent. Lingering Souls - Part of the beatdown plan of the deck. Souls + gavony township can get out of hand quickly and many opponents simply don't have an answer. Also helps add mana for chord. Path to Exile - Main deck interaction. Dismember could also sub in here. Gavony Township - We max out on township due to playing lingering souls. This is the all star card in grindy matchups like jund or control.
Guide to Playing the Deck
In the early turns this deck wants to accelerate using birds, hierarch and wall of roots. The best hands have a turn 1 mana dork and it is often appropriate to mulligan into one. On turn 2 you can further accelerate with wall of roots or play lingering souls/courser of kruphix. Basically, the first few turns you want to power out mana while gumming up the ground. Once the ground is stabilized with walls, tokens or other sizable toughness creatures, you can then start to execute the end game plan. With gavony township and a chord of calling in hand, you can decide to chord for a combo piece or pump the team. It's often best to be patient, waiting for the opponent to make a move while holding up chord to go for the win or disrupt their game plan by searching up spellskite, pridemage, pontiff or other hate out of the board. If they don't make a move, pump the team and continue the beats.
Matchups & Sideboarding
Sideboarding usually comes down to shaving a few less significant spells for impact cards and/or swapping out chord targets for more relevant hate. As such, you are usually not switching out a high volume of cards.
Favorable Matchups
Burn - Lot's of ways to gum up the ground and combo pieces that gain life on their own means this matchup is very favorable. Relevant sideboard cards include worship and burrenton forge-tender.
Infect - Maindeck spellskite with chord to find it goes a long way in this matchup. Also, you have access to lots of relevant blockers for inkmoth nexus and path to exiles to help keep unblockable infectors off the board. It gets better after board when you bring in Melira to find with chord.
Affinity - Lingering souls and birds of paradise go a long way in keeping cranial plating fliers from ending the game early. Souls tokens are also a great way to neutralize signal pest. Orzhov pontiff is also great here. Game 1 can still be tough, but after board you have access to kataki and stony silence which both do work.
Even Matchups
Eldrazi - The eldrazi matchup plays out very differently depending on the build of the deck. You have a more favorable matchup against colorless and UR, while facing tougher odds against UW and GR. This is because UW and GR has added combo disruption in the form of path to exile and kozilek's return. Against UR and colorless you are in a straight race, hoping to gum up the ground enough to combo out before they can kill you. GR and UW plays out similarly, just hope they tap out to give you a window. Sometimes you just have to pull the trigger and hope they don't have it. It's also worth nothing that wall of roots can put in some serious work. Keeping it at 5 toughness if possible helps block thought-knot seer. There are games when the tokens plan can get there in stalled board states. Worships out of the board give you a chance at stealing a game although don't forget the UW version will likely board in disenchant.
Jund/Junk - Hand disruption and a bevy of removal makes it hard to pull off the combo. It may be appropriate to board out most of the spike feeders and look to win a grind fest with souls tokens and archangel. This is a fun matchup that usually has a lot of play to it on both sides with several important decisions. Sigarda is a house in this matchup and is the best card out of the board. Painful truths is also a real winner in the postboard games.
Jeskai Control/UW Control - Another grindy matchup that rewards skilled play. Supreme Verdict and other sweepers are tough to deal with. This deck has to overextend into mana producers early and getting them wiped out on turn 4 can be a beating. Gavony Township is the all star in these matchups, as you can make a couple souls tokens into threats. Thoughtseize comes in after board to help get info and strip out their sweepers. Painful truths can also come in.
Merfolk
Abzan Company
Storm
Poor Matchups
Tron - This one is dreadful. They are faster and we don't have many good ways of interacting. The best hope is to try and jam the combo on turn 4 or 5 and hope they don't have oblivion stone or pyroclasm. If they have stone, karn, ugin or ulamog as their turn 3 or 4 payoff it's good game. Postboard, aven mindcensor is a fine chord target but still probably too slow. Stony silence is good at delaying them and giving us a chance.
Living End - Another tough one. We have relevant interaction with scavenging ooze but it is sometimes too slow to find and activate. They only need to bin a couple of creatures before cascading into living end on turn 3 and they likely take the game. Postboard, ethersworn canonist helps shut off cascade. Relic of Progenitus would also be a fine SB card to bring in.
So, something I am going to try now that Abrupt decay won't hit Garruk Relentless is to cut the Lingering Souls for Garruk Relentless -- and possibly a mix of other walkers. One I was considering was moving the black splash to Red for Domri (2 domri/2 Garruk). Garruk is slightly slow but his tutor mode is extremely powerful in this deck, and the token making isn't bad either.
I really do not care for the black splash; it's pretty rough on the manabase and really is just a way to get card advantage out of lingering souls and abuse their synergy with township.
The red splash for Domri would give us Crumble to Dust, which could really turn the Tron matchup upside down. Also, lightning bolt might be better than Path in the main deck, and there could be some better sideboard cards out there.
As good as Orzhov Pontiff is, I think we can work around that.
Also: I would consider renaming this deck to Angel Chord, since there is an Abzan value chord list and this deck could be straight GW or splash something other than black pretty easily. Even Blue might be OK.
Good points Pokken. That one PT list did splash some blue so the name Abzan chord might be limiting. That's the name I keep seeing the deck referred to as (or sometimes chord combo). I'll try angel chord and see if that sticks.
As for removing the black splash, I do find thoughtseize to be a very useful sideboard card in the control matchup. I'm not sure that matchup is favorable without it. I have considered adding planeswalkers, mainly elspeth, to the board for that matchup along with the Jund/Junk matchup. If you test it out let us know how it goes.
The thought I've had about the deck is somehow including another threat outside of angel and lingering souls. I tried out Knight of the Reliquary but that didn't work out great since it is just as easy to remove as archangel and likely just worse on its own. I sometimes feel that I need another win condition that is immune to spot removal but not as expensive as Sigarda. Maybe that could be a couple of walkers like Garruk.
If anyone has matchup/sideboarding analysis to add just let me know. I haven't yet faced every matchup with the deck and am just basing some of the recommendations off of theory for now.
There are several pretty significant differences between this list and abzan company which make the game play and strategy very different. I don't believe this deck is better than abzan company, but it is different and depending on the meta and your personal play style might be an appropriate choice. Cutting Company and the 3 card melira combo (instead playing 4 archangel and 3 feeder) you open up 8+ spots for other options.
1) Main deck spot removal, most lists play 3 path or dismember.
2) Lingering Souls - the main reason to play the deck in my opinion. Improves the matchup against midrange and control and offers a serious clock as early as turn 5 with gavony township.
3) More mana acceleration. Lists usually play all 12 birds/noble/wall or roots. This means you are more likely to see these cards in your opener and improve the quality of your chords.
4) Reducing the double colored mana requirements (anafenza, finks) allows you to play all 4 gavony township more easily. This offers a very reliable plan alongside lingering souls and birds of paradise.
These changes make the lines you take with this deck different than with abzan company. It seems to fit my play style a little better.
Some other advantages are a lack of dependence on the graveyard to combo. You are also a little more resilient to hate like grafdigger's cage since you can more easily just draw into the combo. Spot removal is also much worse against this deck as you can just play archangel and attack with it, forcing them to play removal if they have it and you can win in response with a feeder activation. Some decks just can't beat a turn 3 archangel, its a must answer threat. There is also surprise factor, as most people just assume you are abzan company and board in hate that's bad.
There are also disadvantages. The deck is slower. You are also more likely to just draw air like 0 power creatures and lands. There are probably more. In the end, I really like playing this deck. For me its a better choice than abzan company.
To reiterate what MackieFloyd says: This deck has almost no vulnerability to graveyard hate. There are no kitchen finks or redcaps or eternal witnesses. That is a huge strength and a major differentiation between this deck and Abzan company. None of your draws will fold to a Scavenging Ooze or a Relic.
Archangel is far from a bad card on his own - while she's vulnerable to removal, she will win the game on his own in very short order if unchecked. With all the spellskites, it's entirely possible to stick her and have her take over.
This deck, in general, plays all baneslayers -- there are no value creatures, they're just all creatures that want to stay on the board and generate no value on their own. This is a plus and a minus - but the main plus is that we are not vulnerable to torpor orb.
In fact, our combo is vulnerable to almost no hate at all -- Suppression Field and Linvala are about it, and Linvala can't beat Courser+Archangel, or Township.
You will also find that Spike Feeder is a better card than you'd expect; a spike feeder + township is very very hard to stop for most decks.
I am going to try something very close to this on Friday and will report back. I may jam all four Garruks just to make sure I give them a fair test.
Context on a few choices--
There are multiple tron decks in my meta still, so having some conclusive answer to them is huge.
There's a time warp deck that I run into a lot, so the extra pridemage and the spirit of the labyrinth is a hedge against that.
Not sure about everything there obviously, but I think Domri is likely to be pretty good in the deck. Hit ratio is pretty high, especially with coursers. Deck's definitely a bit slower, but a bit more resilient to verdicts and pyroclasms I think.
Some things I'm thinking about:
--Whether to cut paths for bolts. I suspect that at my shop bolts will be better, but not having paths is risky.
--Whether to add a raging ravine in place of the 4th township. It might be better, and make colors easier. It can conflict with mana dorks but also can help close out those Tron matches.
Interested to hear how you do, the flip side of garruk relentless does have a lot of relevant abilities for the deck. I've found lingering souls to be great, so I'm happy keeping the black splash. I could see cutting a forest for a stomping ground and adding crumble to the dust to the board. I'm not sure that will even be enough to make the tron matchup winable.
The other red option I considered was Magus of the Moon. May try 2 crumbles 1 Magus.
I'm making some more tweaks and will likely run without bolts.
Let us know how Garruk goes. With the changes to flip cards, I think he has a real shot of being good. Pumping out tokens, tutoring and offering an overrun in the late game seems pretty useful. Deathtouch tokens are always sweet as well.
How does everyone feel about man lands? Given that all three abzan colored ones are small bodies, are they even worth it over guaranteed untapped lands?
Red should be burn, Goblins, Dragons, draw/discard, and Standard-unplayable 5CMC cards with insane, lengthy effects that take 10 minutes to figure out what they do and another 20 to actually make their effects work on the field.
I am going to run one raging ravine in my Naya list I think.
The only real huge issue with Garruk is that he is boltable, so if bolt becomes good in the meta again it won't be ideal. It's possible he is just worse than Huntmaster, who is pretty solid chord fuel, or Pia and Kiran (although they strain the manabase quite a bit).
@ribo - Nice list, lots of interesting sideboard tech. How has RIP been for you? I've been playing 2x relic because I don't want to exile my own lingering souls. I agree that more SB graveyard hate is warranted. I think the list could adapt for a tron metagame. If eye of ugin gets banned I'm not sure tron gets back to tier 1 anyway.
@Pokken - Tron is likely brining in pyroclasm or kozilek's return if they don't have it main which makes magus of the moon far less effective than crumble to dust. I'd just max out on crumble for tron hate and maybe also add a aven mindcensor as a chord target.
My meta does not have a lot of really good targets for path, so I'm considering going without maindeck removal (since Domri and Garruk provide sorcery speed removal, and Linvala stops opposing creature combos).
It's entirely possible blue would be better! It opens a lot of doors, for sure, but meddling mage is not good enough to handle the diversity of tron's threats anymore. Negate or Unified Will might be good enough though. Unified Will might actually be the best, since we'll always have more creatures than Tron early-mid game, and it stops all of their threats.
Because this deck doesn't need to maintain a critical mass of creatures like a coco deck (you can go down to 22-24 creatures even after board), your splash options are pretty significant.
Had a rough night tonight. Ran into uw walkers and almost took it down but the match is brutal. Combo one game and ground out the others.
Second round got annihilated by titan shift, didn't draw sideboard cards and had some bad beats, think match is OK. Mark of asylum would have been great but I tried dromokas instead and paid the price.
Bye round three. Match four was a close 2-1 vs Jund.
Overall I think the concept is sound. Domri and courser were insane.
Garruk was just okay, but in testing he was great vs affinity.
Knight of the reliquary was just mediocre but kesig wolf run was excellent.
Overall don't think deck has enough shocks and basics to play knight as he really tended to make mana sketchy if used much.
Will likely try some huntmasters next week. Less vulnerable to pierce and negate.
Kiki and resto are both very weak topdecks in general. Archangel takes over games and doesn't due to bolt. Resto presents a six turn clock.
Three main draws for me are the improved burn match and superior mana. I don't like four colour decks and we get to play 8 dorks because of township.
The combo is far more resilient to bolt too, since playing feeder after angel results in for life and double anthem if they bolt it vs nothing if they bolt kiki.
Kiki chord is a value deck that tries to grind out wins with ETB triggers and eternal witness. The combo is there as sort of an oops I win option. This deck is much more focused on 2 different game plans. The combo win is much more prevalent in this deck but then there is also the township beatdown plan. Each of these is very different than the way kiki chord plays. In my opinion this deck is superior to kiki chord and its not really close. That said, there are some skilled kiki players that can make the deck look good. Kiki chord seems like a very challenging deck to play optimally.
Kiki and resto are both very weak topdecks in general. Archangel takes over games and doesn't due to bolt. Resto presents a six turn clock.
Three main draws for me are the improved burn match and superior mana. I don't like four colour decks and we get to play 8 dorks because of township.
The combo is far more resilient to bolt too, since playing feeder after angel results in for life and double anthem if they bolt it vs nothing if they bolt kiki.
I disagree on Kiki and Resto being a bad topdeck. Part of the deck's strength is in having multiple etb creatures and being able to reuse their etb abilities is incredibly strong.
I've been playing this deck since January when Gerry Thompson wrote an article about it and I would like to share some insight. I'll keep it short since I am very tired and it's nearing 6 am.
Black plays an integral role with Archangel Chord because of its much needed value from cards like Painful Truths, Sin Collector, Orzhov Pontiff and most importantly Lingering Souls. Souls is the biggest reason we want black. It not only has synergy with the deck's Plan B (going wide with gavony/thune triggers) but because the deck lacks threats aside from the combo pieces, four 1/1 fliers that can close out the game within a few turns is more than necessary. Aside from this, I've had situations where my opponent would win the next turn even after I combo off and an infinite/infinite flier has been absolutely crucial in slipping past their defenses to win because infinite power/toughness means nothing if they can just block. Furthermore, Souls gives us HALF of the mana we need from convoking with Chord to grab Thune.
Another big reason for black is Thoughtseize. The deck has a tough time against control, midrange, and decks that are faster than us and TS helps against all of these matchups. Against midrange and control, I would say its about a 60-40 G1 and after they side in wraths/pyroclasms in G2 (which really hurts us because of how quickly we spread thin) and we side in TS, it's about a 50-50. Souls is really great in these matchups but both decks have answers to it postboard.
Thoughtseize isn't for combo as much as it is for control. The UWx matchup is unfavorable without thoughtseize in my opinion. Lingering souls is really spectacular in the meta too. Great blocker, chord fuel and a quick clock. Rather than cut black, I think there is room to add a 4th color splash. Red could work just for crumble to dust in the board. I'm more intrigued by blue, as hierarch makes the mana easier and unified will is a catchall answer that isn't as narrow as crumble. For now, the abzan colors work great for the eldrazi meta as with more testing I've found even the UW eldrazi matchup to be favorable. Once that deck gets pieces banned, it will be time to explore if a color splash is needed to improve the tron/midrange matchups.
Lingering souls was really poor against UWx in my experience, particularly UWR. Detention sphere can be a massive blowout from UWA, Gideon is pretty tough, Electrolyze is not pleasant. Even just Verdict can be good enough.
Domri got the job done against UW--was only my gross misplays that cost me those games.
Because the Abzan deck has zero 2-for-1's except lingering souls, I don't see how thoughtseize evens that matchup up, but I'd be interested in hearing some examples -- I mean, you can try to clear the way for comboing off I guess, but grand abolisher would be better for that use-case most likely (since it can beat snapcaster+spell).
Overview of the Deck
Angel chord (aka Abzan Chord, Angel Feeder, Chord Combo) is a BWG midrange/combo deck built around Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder. The deck can win as early as turn 4 with this combo. However, like many modern decks, abzan chord is not an all out combo deck that must combo to win. The deck also has a strong "plan B" that uses Gavony Township alongside Lingering Souls and the variety of mana dorks to allow it to gain inevitability in a longer game where the opportunity to combo doesn't come up or is suboptimal.
The combo is achieved by getting both Spike Feeder and Archangel of Thune into play, often using Chord of Calling to find the missing piece. Once both cards are in play you remove a counter from Spike Feeder to gain life. When life is gained, Archangel of Thune is triggered, putting a counter on each creature. Spike Feeder will always have counters, thus allowing you to activate feeder infinite times and triggering archangel infinite times. You will gain as much life as you wish, and all creatures in play (except Spike Feeder which will stay with 2 counters) will gain as many counters as you wish. This usually results in a lethal attacker (or more commonly a concession from the opponent) as soon as the loop is established.
Decklist
The archangel/spike feeder combo has been part of various abzan decks for many years (birthing pod/abzan company) as a plan B or plan C win condition usually involving a single archangel and spike feeder. Decks dedicated to archangel/spike feeder as a plan A combo broke out at pro tour Oath of the Gatewatch with two different lists finishing with 24+ points.
4 Archangel of Thune
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Courser of Kruphix
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Spellskite
3 Spike Feeder
4 Wall of Roots
Spells
4 Chord of Calling
4 Lingering Souls
3 Path to Exile
2 Forest
4 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Marsh Flats
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
3 Painful Truths
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
3 Stony Silence
3 Thoughtseize
2 Worship
4 Archangel of Thune
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Fauna Shaman
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Myr Superion
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shriekmaw
1 Spellskite
2 Spike Feeder
4 Wall of Roots
4 Chord of Calling
4 Lingering Souls
Lands
1 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
4 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Intrepid Hero
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 Unified Will
This list, similar to the PT OGW lists changed up the sideboard and placed 2nd at an SCG IQ on 2/21/16
2 Spellskite
4 Archangel of Thune
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Spike Feeder
4 Wall of Roots
2 Courser of Kruphix
Lands (23)
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Marsh Flats
1 Overgrown Tomb
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Temple Garden
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
4 Chord of Calling
1 Dismember
2 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
1 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Stony Silence
2 Worship
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Dragonlord Dromoka
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
3 Painful Truths
3 Thoughtseize
Card Choices
Birds of Paradise - Must have 4 of to accelerate your mana. Later on having flying is relevant for gavony township turning this into a potential threat.
Noble Hierarch - Must have 4 to accelerate your mana. The exalted trigger is also key.
Wall of Roots - Probably the best card in this deck. Gives you 2 mana for chord of calling and helps stall the opponents attack.
Courser of Kruphix - This card helps stall the ground to buy time to execute either plan. Also good synergy with archangel (life gain) and just a good value card to smooth out draws. Usually a 2 of.
Archangel of Thune - Part of the combo and also a beating on its own if not answered makes this an easy 4 of.
Spike Feeder - Part of the combo. Not great by itself which is why it is mostly played as a 3 of.
Qasali Pridemage - Your main deck chord target for artifact/enchantment removal.
Orzhov Pontiff - Sweep away the opponents X/1s. Can also pump the team on offense. Very good in this meta and versatile enough for the main deck.
Scavenging Ooze - A good all around main deck chord target that doesn't hurt you if you draw it in the wrong matchup. This is your graveyard hate.
Chord of Calling - The reason this deck exists. Allows you to find the combo or a silver bullet card to disrupt the opponent.
Lingering Souls - Part of the beatdown plan of the deck. Souls + gavony township can get out of hand quickly and many opponents simply don't have an answer. Also helps add mana for chord.
Path to Exile - Main deck interaction. Dismember could also sub in here.
Gavony Township - We max out on township due to playing lingering souls. This is the all star card in grindy matchups like jund or control.
Guide to Playing the Deck
In the early turns this deck wants to accelerate using birds, hierarch and wall of roots. The best hands have a turn 1 mana dork and it is often appropriate to mulligan into one. On turn 2 you can further accelerate with wall of roots or play lingering souls/courser of kruphix. Basically, the first few turns you want to power out mana while gumming up the ground. Once the ground is stabilized with walls, tokens or other sizable toughness creatures, you can then start to execute the end game plan. With gavony township and a chord of calling in hand, you can decide to chord for a combo piece or pump the team. It's often best to be patient, waiting for the opponent to make a move while holding up chord to go for the win or disrupt their game plan by searching up spellskite, pridemage, pontiff or other hate out of the board. If they don't make a move, pump the team and continue the beats.
Matchups & Sideboarding
Sideboarding usually comes down to shaving a few less significant spells for impact cards and/or swapping out chord targets for more relevant hate. As such, you are usually not switching out a high volume of cards.
Favorable Matchups
Burn - Lot's of ways to gum up the ground and combo pieces that gain life on their own means this matchup is very favorable. Relevant sideboard cards include worship and burrenton forge-tender.
Infect - Maindeck spellskite with chord to find it goes a long way in this matchup. Also, you have access to lots of relevant blockers for inkmoth nexus and path to exiles to help keep unblockable infectors off the board. It gets better after board when you bring in Melira to find with chord.
Affinity - Lingering souls and birds of paradise go a long way in keeping cranial plating fliers from ending the game early. Souls tokens are also a great way to neutralize signal pest. Orzhov pontiff is also great here. Game 1 can still be tough, but after board you have access to kataki and stony silence which both do work.
Even Matchups
Eldrazi - The eldrazi matchup plays out very differently depending on the build of the deck. You have a more favorable matchup against colorless and UR, while facing tougher odds against UW and GR. This is because UW and GR has added combo disruption in the form of path to exile and kozilek's return. Against UR and colorless you are in a straight race, hoping to gum up the ground enough to combo out before they can kill you. GR and UW plays out similarly, just hope they tap out to give you a window. Sometimes you just have to pull the trigger and hope they don't have it. It's also worth nothing that wall of roots can put in some serious work. Keeping it at 5 toughness if possible helps block thought-knot seer. There are games when the tokens plan can get there in stalled board states. Worships out of the board give you a chance at stealing a game although don't forget the UW version will likely board in disenchant.
Jund/Junk - Hand disruption and a bevy of removal makes it hard to pull off the combo. It may be appropriate to board out most of the spike feeders and look to win a grind fest with souls tokens and archangel. This is a fun matchup that usually has a lot of play to it on both sides with several important decisions. Sigarda is a house in this matchup and is the best card out of the board. Painful truths is also a real winner in the postboard games.
Jeskai Control/UW Control - Another grindy matchup that rewards skilled play. Supreme Verdict and other sweepers are tough to deal with. This deck has to overextend into mana producers early and getting them wiped out on turn 4 can be a beating. Gavony Township is the all star in these matchups, as you can make a couple souls tokens into threats. Thoughtseize comes in after board to help get info and strip out their sweepers. Painful truths can also come in.
Merfolk
Abzan Company
Storm
Poor Matchups
Tron - This one is dreadful. They are faster and we don't have many good ways of interacting. The best hope is to try and jam the combo on turn 4 or 5 and hope they don't have oblivion stone or pyroclasm. If they have stone, karn, ugin or ulamog as their turn 3 or 4 payoff it's good game. Postboard, aven mindcensor is a fine chord target but still probably too slow. Stony silence is good at delaying them and giving us a chance.
Living End - Another tough one. We have relevant interaction with scavenging ooze but it is sometimes too slow to find and activate. They only need to bin a couple of creatures before cascading into living end on turn 3 and they likely take the game. Postboard, ethersworn canonist helps shut off cascade. Relic of Progenitus would also be a fine SB card to bring in.
I really do not care for the black splash; it's pretty rough on the manabase and really is just a way to get card advantage out of lingering souls and abuse their synergy with township.
The red splash for Domri would give us Crumble to Dust, which could really turn the Tron matchup upside down. Also, lightning bolt might be better than Path in the main deck, and there could be some better sideboard cards out there.
As good as Orzhov Pontiff is, I think we can work around that.
Also: I would consider renaming this deck to Angel Chord, since there is an Abzan value chord list and this deck could be straight GW or splash something other than black pretty easily. Even Blue might be OK.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
As for removing the black splash, I do find thoughtseize to be a very useful sideboard card in the control matchup. I'm not sure that matchup is favorable without it. I have considered adding planeswalkers, mainly elspeth, to the board for that matchup along with the Jund/Junk matchup. If you test it out let us know how it goes.
The thought I've had about the deck is somehow including another threat outside of angel and lingering souls. I tried out Knight of the Reliquary but that didn't work out great since it is just as easy to remove as archangel and likely just worse on its own. I sometimes feel that I need another win condition that is immune to spot removal but not as expensive as Sigarda. Maybe that could be a couple of walkers like Garruk.
I see no reason to run more than a copy of Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder in a Chord of Calling deck as they are pretty bad on their own and take slots in the deck which should rather go to Collected Company and Eternal Witness.
Why play this list over Abzan Company ?
1) Main deck spot removal, most lists play 3 path or dismember.
2) Lingering Souls - the main reason to play the deck in my opinion. Improves the matchup against midrange and control and offers a serious clock as early as turn 5 with gavony township.
3) More mana acceleration. Lists usually play all 12 birds/noble/wall or roots. This means you are more likely to see these cards in your opener and improve the quality of your chords.
4) Reducing the double colored mana requirements (anafenza, finks) allows you to play all 4 gavony township more easily. This offers a very reliable plan alongside lingering souls and birds of paradise.
These changes make the lines you take with this deck different than with abzan company. It seems to fit my play style a little better.
Some other advantages are a lack of dependence on the graveyard to combo. You are also a little more resilient to hate like grafdigger's cage since you can more easily just draw into the combo. Spot removal is also much worse against this deck as you can just play archangel and attack with it, forcing them to play removal if they have it and you can win in response with a feeder activation. Some decks just can't beat a turn 3 archangel, its a must answer threat. There is also surprise factor, as most people just assume you are abzan company and board in hate that's bad.
There are also disadvantages. The deck is slower. You are also more likely to just draw air like 0 power creatures and lands. There are probably more. In the end, I really like playing this deck. For me its a better choice than abzan company.
To reiterate what MackieFloyd says: This deck has almost no vulnerability to graveyard hate. There are no kitchen finks or redcaps or eternal witnesses. That is a huge strength and a major differentiation between this deck and Abzan company. None of your draws will fold to a Scavenging Ooze or a Relic.
Archangel is far from a bad card on his own - while she's vulnerable to removal, she will win the game on his own in very short order if unchecked. With all the spellskites, it's entirely possible to stick her and have her take over.
This deck, in general, plays all baneslayers -- there are no value creatures, they're just all creatures that want to stay on the board and generate no value on their own. This is a plus and a minus - but the main plus is that we are not vulnerable to torpor orb.
In fact, our combo is vulnerable to almost no hate at all -- Suppression Field and Linvala are about it, and Linvala can't beat Courser+Archangel, or Township.
You will also find that Spike Feeder is a better card than you'd expect; a spike feeder + township is very very hard to stop for most decks.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
http://www.mtgmintcard.com/articles/writers/zen-takahashi/the-ultimate-angel-chord-sideboarding-guide
2 Forest
4 Gavony Township
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Plains
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Spellskite
4 Wall of Roots
2 Courser of Kruphix
3 Spike Feeder
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
4 Archangel of Thune
1 Domri Rade
3 Garruk Relentless
Instants
3 Path to Exile
4 Chord of Calling
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Mark of Asylum
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 Stony Silence
I am going to try something very close to this on Friday and will report back. I may jam all four Garruks just to make sure I give them a fair test.
Context on a few choices--
There are multiple tron decks in my meta still, so having some conclusive answer to them is huge.
There's a time warp deck that I run into a lot, so the extra pridemage and the spirit of the labyrinth is a hedge against that.
Not sure about everything there obviously, but I think Domri is likely to be pretty good in the deck. Hit ratio is pretty high, especially with coursers. Deck's definitely a bit slower, but a bit more resilient to verdicts and pyroclasms I think.
Some things I'm thinking about:
--Whether to cut paths for bolts. I suspect that at my shop bolts will be better, but not having paths is risky.
--Whether to add a raging ravine in place of the 4th township. It might be better, and make colors easier. It can conflict with mana dorks but also can help close out those Tron matches.
Definitely interested in any comments.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I'm making some more tweaks and will likely run without bolts.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Let us know how Garruk goes. With the changes to flip cards, I think he has a real shot of being good. Pumping out tokens, tutoring and offering an overrun in the late game seems pretty useful. Deathtouch tokens are always sweet as well.
How does everyone feel about man lands? Given that all three abzan colored ones are small bodies, are they even worth it over guaranteed untapped lands?
The only real huge issue with Garruk is that he is boltable, so if bolt becomes good in the meta again it won't be ideal. It's possible he is just worse than Huntmaster, who is pretty solid chord fuel, or Pia and Kiran (although they strain the manabase quite a bit).
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
@Pokken - Tron is likely brining in pyroclasm or kozilek's return if they don't have it main which makes magus of the moon far less effective than crumble to dust. I'd just max out on crumble for tron hate and maybe also add a aven mindcensor as a chord target.
http://deckbox.org/sets/1353888
My meta does not have a lot of really good targets for path, so I'm considering going without maindeck removal (since Domri and Garruk provide sorcery speed removal, and Linvala stops opposing creature combos).
It's entirely possible blue would be better! It opens a lot of doors, for sure, but meddling mage is not good enough to handle the diversity of tron's threats anymore. Negate or Unified Will might be good enough though. Unified Will might actually be the best, since we'll always have more creatures than Tron early-mid game, and it stops all of their threats.
Because this deck doesn't need to maintain a critical mass of creatures like a coco deck (you can go down to 22-24 creatures even after board), your splash options are pretty significant.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Second round got annihilated by titan shift, didn't draw sideboard cards and had some bad beats, think match is OK. Mark of asylum would have been great but I tried dromokas instead and paid the price.
Bye round three. Match four was a close 2-1 vs Jund.
Overall I think the concept is sound. Domri and courser were insane.
Garruk was just okay, but in testing he was great vs affinity.
Knight of the reliquary was just mediocre but kesig wolf run was excellent.
Overall don't think deck has enough shocks and basics to play knight as he really tended to make mana sketchy if used much.
Will likely try some huntmasters next week. Less vulnerable to pierce and negate.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
For a guy in the middle, what's the pros over the cons?
[Between the two]
Three main draws for me are the improved burn match and superior mana. I don't like four colour decks and we get to play 8 dorks because of township.
The combo is far more resilient to bolt too, since playing feeder after angel results in for life and double anthem if they bolt it vs nothing if they bolt kiki.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I disagree on Kiki and Resto being a bad topdeck. Part of the deck's strength is in having multiple etb creatures and being able to reuse their etb abilities is incredibly strong.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
Black plays an integral role with Archangel Chord because of its much needed value from cards like Painful Truths, Sin Collector, Orzhov Pontiff and most importantly Lingering Souls. Souls is the biggest reason we want black. It not only has synergy with the deck's Plan B (going wide with gavony/thune triggers) but because the deck lacks threats aside from the combo pieces, four 1/1 fliers that can close out the game within a few turns is more than necessary. Aside from this, I've had situations where my opponent would win the next turn even after I combo off and an infinite/infinite flier has been absolutely crucial in slipping past their defenses to win because infinite power/toughness means nothing if they can just block. Furthermore, Souls gives us HALF of the mana we need from convoking with Chord to grab Thune.
Another big reason for black is Thoughtseize. The deck has a tough time against control, midrange, and decks that are faster than us and TS helps against all of these matchups. Against midrange and control, I would say its about a 60-40 G1 and after they side in wraths/pyroclasms in G2 (which really hurts us because of how quickly we spread thin) and we side in TS, it's about a 50-50. Souls is really great in these matchups but both decks have answers to it postboard.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Domri got the job done against UW--was only my gross misplays that cost me those games.
Because the Abzan deck has zero 2-for-1's except lingering souls, I don't see how thoughtseize evens that matchup up, but I'd be interested in hearing some examples -- I mean, you can try to clear the way for comboing off I guess, but grand abolisher would be better for that use-case most likely (since it can beat snapcaster+spell).
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall