Ok so I'm quite new to Magic, so try to take it a bit easy on my horrid deck building skills for now haha . I recently started playing right when M14 came out and decided to build a deck that wouldn't go out of date for quite some time, so I started looking at the cards I pulled and started thinking of ideas. I've gone through a ton of different iterations of this deck and I feel that this is the closest to achieving my idea with the cards I currently have, though there is certainly a lot of room for improvement. I'll try to explain the reasons for and ideas behind my deck. Feel free to point out my dumb ideas, but try to also point me in the right direction .
Here's my thinking behind it:
Simply put, the base goal of the deck is to survive until I can get an Archangel out of the field then trigger the 1/1 counters and lifelink bonuses as much as possible. I have tried several ways to achieve this, and decided that the best (and most enjoyable to play) route would be to utilize low mana creatures, especially ones that would continue to be useful later in the game.
So I start off with Soulmenders, which help regenerate health in the early game and can use that same ability to trigger the Archangels' distribution of 1/1 counters later in the game. The Angelic Wall, Seacoast Drakes, Walls of Frost and Haazda Snare Squad are used for defense. The Snare Squads are also useful on offense with their ability to tap creatures when attacking. Other useful creatures on offense would be the Trained Condors, which are particularly useful when my opponent is lacking air defense. The Banisher Priests are...well...just super useful in many scenarios, and the Fiendslayer Paladin is really nice to have for the extra lifelink. The Wardens of Evos Isle can exploit lack of air defense and help get Archangels out quicker. Seraph of the Sword is another very useful card, especially on defense. So I tried not to blindly add low mana creatures, but instead add ones that would help me achieve my goal.
Then as for the Enchantments, some of them serve a defensive purpose. The Pacifisms and Claustrophobias help me weather the storm of creature/token spam decks. Indestructibility can have many uses; either on defense to keep me alive or on offense to enable myself to swing in with lifelink. Path of Bravery is probably one of my favorite additions to the deck. It rewards high health numbers with a 1/1 counter and it rewards health whenever I attack, meaning the Archangels abilities will trigger on that as well as their actual attack. That, along with the creatures that give bonuses for attacking, feels like a nice combination. The two Staffs will also trigger the Archangel ability and the Angelic Accord will allow the effect to swell even greater.
Sadly, I only have MTG Forge to be able to regularly test out my deck ideas, so I don't have a great way to see how this will work in a live setting. But from what I can tell, it can be a somewhat fragile strategy, mainly against heavy aggro decks, but when it works, it snowballs out of control for the opponent insanely quick. Right now the card count is at 66 and I'm trying to keep it as close to 60 as possible.
So anyways, I'm really looking for comments on how I can improve this deck. I personally like the idea behind it, but I'm sure the execution could use work and some trimming around the edges. I have some decent sideboard cards like Jace Memory Adept, Colossal Whale, Essence Scatters, Negates, Riot Control, Congregate etc to work with as well. I actually feel like Jace could be useful because once I get 6-8 mana out on the field, I usually deal out my hand pretty quick and could use the extra influx of cards. But I'll stop blabbing and let people who actually know what they're talking about help me out because I definitely don't! Thanks for your time .
Here's the deck:
3 Soulmender
3 Seacoast Drake
1 Angelic Wall
1 Imposing Sovereign
2 Haazda Snare Squad
2 Trained Condor
2 Warden of Evos Isle
2 Wall of Frost
2 Phantom Warrior
3 Banisher Priest
1 Fiendslayer Paladin
1 Seraph of the Sword
4 Archangel of Thune
4 Pacifism
2 Clasutrophobia
2 Path of Bravery
1 Staff of Mind Magus
1 Staff of Sun Magus
2 Indestructibility
1 Angelic Accord
Land
12 Island
14 Plains
1 Angelic Wall
1 Banisher Priest
1 Riot Control
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Congregate
1 Guardian of the Ages
3 Negate
1 Colossal Whale
1 Jace Memory Adept
1 Gift of Orzhova
1 Solemn Offering
Here's my thinking behind it:
Simply put, the base goal of the deck is to survive until I can get an Archangel out of the field then trigger the 1/1 counters and lifelink bonuses as much as possible. I have tried several ways to achieve this, and decided that the best (and most enjoyable to play) route would be to utilize low mana creatures, especially ones that would continue to be useful later in the game.
So I start off with Soulmenders, which help regenerate health in the early game and can use that same ability to trigger the Archangels' distribution of 1/1 counters later in the game. The Angelic Wall, Seacoast Drakes, Walls of Frost and Haazda Snare Squad are used for defense. The Snare Squads are also useful on offense with their ability to tap creatures when attacking. Other useful creatures on offense would be the Trained Condors, which are particularly useful when my opponent is lacking air defense. The Banisher Priests are...well...just super useful in many scenarios, and the Fiendslayer Paladin is really nice to have for the extra lifelink. The Wardens of Evos Isle can exploit lack of air defense and help get Archangels out quicker. Seraph of the Sword is another very useful card, especially on defense. So I tried not to blindly add low mana creatures, but instead add ones that would help me achieve my goal.
Then as for the Enchantments, some of them serve a defensive purpose. The Pacifisms and Claustrophobias help me weather the storm of creature/token spam decks. Indestructibility can have many uses; either on defense to keep me alive or on offense to enable myself to swing in with lifelink. Path of Bravery is probably one of my favorite additions to the deck. It rewards high health numbers with a 1/1 counter and it rewards health whenever I attack, meaning the Archangels abilities will trigger on that as well as their actual attack. That, along with the creatures that give bonuses for attacking, feels like a nice combination. The two Staffs will also trigger the Archangel ability and the Angelic Accord will allow the effect to swell even greater.
Sadly, I only have MTG Forge to be able to regularly test out my deck ideas, so I don't have a great way to see how this will work in a live setting. But from what I can tell, it can be a somewhat fragile strategy, mainly against heavy aggro decks, but when it works, it snowballs out of control for the opponent insanely quick. Right now the card count is at 66 and I'm trying to keep it as close to 60 as possible.
So anyways, I'm really looking for comments on how I can improve this deck. I personally like the idea behind it, but I'm sure the execution could use work and some trimming around the edges. I have some decent sideboard cards like Jace Memory Adept, Colossal Whale, Essence Scatters, Negates, Riot Control, Congregate etc to work with as well. I actually feel like Jace could be useful because once I get 6-8 mana out on the field, I usually deal out my hand pretty quick and could use the extra influx of cards. But I'll stop blabbing and let people who actually know what they're talking about help me out because I definitely don't! Thanks for your time .