I guess its been a while since I did a good update here. I kind of lazily did some testing of some of the C18 cards but to be honest none of it really stood out as something I was happy with after testing it. Well.... nothing other than Endless Atlas I guess which I will include in the below changes.
Twilight Shepherd -> Baneslayer Angel - Twilight continued to let me down. With this deck I really just want some solid angels and ability to gain some life to make it harder to kill me. I am also toying with a little more lifegain matters with some of these changes so it seems like a fine time to slot in the old wallet slayer and see what it can do for me.
Weatherlight -> Endless Atlas - I think this change gives me a more reliable draw effect as crewing and attacking with weatherlight seems like it could still be a pain. The Atlas just seems like it comes with a lot less strings and complications in general not to mention that the historic count could still be a little wonky in here.
Reito Lantern -> Dawn of Hope - the lantern was just a little too wierd to make room for it here. I agree that I need grave hate and I am juggling with how much and what kind I want. I haven't seen too many land clones lately so I might shift this slot to my landbase and run Scavenger Grounds instead and see how that goes. Dawn of Hope is a little bit of draw and a bit of a mana dump. I have had a lot of times where I have excess mana and turning it into tokens and draw sounds very appealing to at least test.
Loxodon Warhammer -> Resplendent Angel - loxy is cool on my commander I guess but its just a big mana investment. I think Resplendent could also be a little funky but my lifegain options in deck are going up and the option to pay to pump it could come up now and then. The bodies that it possibly could freely provide is tempting so I want to try it out. Its also a 3/3 for 3 with flying which is not half bad especially given that a lot of my creatures are expensive.
Forsake the Worldly -> Crush Contraband - Given that I cant recall I time I have cycled Forsake I think for one more mana getting a second target at the same speed is worth it for me.
Sorry for the long time with no updates. Hopefully we get more spicy angel / humans for me to test out going forward.
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I had a super brutal drawn out 6 player FFA game of commander last night. I ended up winning but given how long it was as well as how many opponents I can't really detail all of the game but I guess I will mention the start and some highlights of it.
T2:Wall of Omens T3:Resplendent Angel T4:Mask of Memory, equip to angel and swing. T5:Lyra Dawnbringer, swing to filter / gain life with Resplendant. One of the opponents playing sort of a fort deck plays a Planar Collapse between the turns and I don't really see anyone preparing to stop it given I have a fairly good setup people are not super happy about lol. T6:Golden Guardian, swing both angels at the one who played the Planar Collapse. When the Collapse goes off I fight my Lyra with the Guardian. Random side note but that triggers the lifelink on Lyra which if in any other situation would have generated me an angel token from Resplendent which I find amusing. T7:Bruna rezing Lyra Dawnbringer. Someone Oblivion Rings Lyra before my next turn. T8:Darksteel Plate, equip to Bruna. Equip Mask of Memory and swing. I use a Thespian Stage to copy Gold-Forge Garrison
From here, it got muddled and is harder to recall. I believe I wrathed soon after this because the Abzan deck was set up with a Reya Dawnbringer. The same player ended up dragging the game WAY out using both Reya and Journey to Eternity to be incredibly challenging to slow down or stop. I ended up going through 2x Strip Mines trying to slow down the land portion but he was using Eternal Witness creatures to recover it most of the time until I put a stop to it with a Dust Bowl + Crook of Condemnation turn. At one point the abzan player got set up with the ability to Luminate Primordial at instant speed off of Atzal, Cave of Eternity which really slowed my game to a crawl.
Another player tried winning via Approach of the Second Sun protecting himself with Dovescape and using his commander Taigam, Ojutai Master to protect it but then the Abzan player pointed out that he could Luminate Primordial at instant speed to answer Taigam which would counter Second Sun. It was funny because nobody was really playing counter magic and we couldn't kill him in time so his own Dovescape backfired and killed him in this case.
I ended up closing out the last 3 people with angel beats getting a Altar of Dementia online which could mill out the Abzan player as needed as he had been dredging his deck for most of the game.
There was a point in the middle of the game where I couldn't really play my angels due to Luminate Primordial rez options where I shifted to playing with Dawn of Hope + The Immortal Sun and I ended up drawing like an extra 10 cards and 16-20ish life from the tokens I made with it. The combination of Dawn of Hope + Bazaar of Baghdad really let me dig deep to get resources and fill my bin as needed. I ended up with something like 16-20 mana in lands by the end of the game so the ability to dump mana for lifelink tokens and then turn said tokens into draw was really helpful for me.
I don't know if I really have any changes right this second but if anything from this game I potentially want even more grave hate so I guess its possible I might consider Angel of Finality yet in addition to the ones I run currently.
I had another REALLY great game last week where I won't outline it too much but I did manage to set up some sweet board states thanks to Emeria Shepherd. When I first played her I also cracked a Myriad Landscape which managed to rez a Sun Titan recovering the landscape which was just absolutely brutal. I ended up eating a few wraths but rezing Sun Titan + Solemn off of the landscape was just absolutely brutal ramp / value. Moat kept me from being brutally murdered by a Najeela, the Blade-Blossom deck and then continued to defend me from a token deck as well.
I won said game off of the back of several angels lots of rez, and just grinding it out vs an answer deck that didn't have grave hate. Someone did drop a Night Soil and I wrathed it away keeping a few angels I had in hand that had been bounced at the time.
DECK CHANGES:
Blinding Angel -> Archangel of Tithes - I have been seeing Blinding Angel a bit more and while I like the concept of what it does, I don't like needing to have it in play before I have a problem and proactively keeping someone at bay before they are a problem. It kind of reminds me of Nevs Disk in some regards in that it feels like its never in play before I need it and the lack of much haste in the deck has proven to make it not as good as I want it to be. Archangel of Tithes on the other hand can protect me against a swarm and technically it can be evasion. Given the options though I think I like the protection of Archangel of Tithes more right now. Enough to give it a shot and see how it goes.
Adarkar Valkyrie -> Angel of Finality - I wanted to add a bit more grave hate to my list and I like that Angel of Finality is a strong effect and it doesn't hit me. I think it can still be underwhelming at times but I am including it for those times where its effect is needed. Adarkar Valkyrie has been..... lacking for me and I have been working on trying to find a replacement for it.
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I've had similar results with Emeria Shepherd recently. It's just so devastatingly good being able to get back any nonland permanent to hand or battlefield. Steep CMC, but the interactions it offers are so good - I had fun last game Sword of the Animist and rez'ing Magus of the Moat, Aura of Silence and True Conviction repeatedly. It really just made my gamestate sort of indomitable and impossible to keep down.
Sounds like Dawn of Hope has been decent tech for you. I don't have quite the same life gain opportunities in my deck, so I've been hesitant to add it. How good is it in a vacuum?
I've had similar results with Emeria Shepherd recently. It's just so devastatingly good being able to get back any nonland permanent to hand or battlefield. Steep CMC, but the interactions it offers are so good - I had fun last game Sword of the Animist and rez'ing Magus of the Moat, Aura of Silence and True Conviction repeatedly. It really just made my gamestate sort of indomitable and impossible to keep down.
Sounds like Dawn of Hope has been decent tech for you. I don't have quite the same life gain opportunities in my deck, so I've been hesitant to add it. How good is it in a vacuum?
Emeria Shepherd - the card is nuts. Its really a question of if opponents can field grave hate or tuck / exile effects. Shy of an opponent doing those its probably going to be a rough game for opponents when she rolls out.
Dawn of Hope - I wouldn't say its necessary but my testing so far with it has been mostly positive. I had one game where my opponent wrathed me off the board and prepared to rez Luminate Primordial every turn at instant speed. In that game I actually stopped casting creatures and instead shifted to making tokens. Those tokens ended up giving me something to do and they drew me something like another 8 cards that game. I would probably say though that my conclusions from the card are far from complete but given that it gives me a source to make lifelinkers as well as a means to use said lifelinkers to draw cards its been fairly good. Something like Well of Lost Dreams can be stronger if you have more of a dedicated theme to lifegain but what I like about Dawn of Hope is that it can function as both sides. It also gives something a little more meaningful to do with excess mana than something like Sacred Mesa for this deck where we don't really ever plan to win via tokens so just being able to make more powerful tokens isn't that relevant considering we don't really pack means to make that effect better.
I think its possible to go deep on lifegain if you would want. There are some REALLY sweet lifegain trigger effects out there like Well of Lost Dreams, Cradle of Vitality, Angelic Accord, Dawn of Hope. I have thus far not delved too far into that because I also have a Gisela, the Broken Blade deck which is a bit more dedicated to that concept. So far for me, Resplendent Angel just seems like a fairly good angel to have which is part of why I did a little bit of delving into lifegain. The other part for me though was just that my deck was doing well as a late game sticky control deck and gaining life helped me against chip damage and random dying to burn or drain effects as well as making it harder for opponents to kill me with token type decks. Dawn of Hope for me has been an optional mana dump if my card advantage is running low and it does have options to work with lifegain creatures which I already had justified running before adding these cards to my list.
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Yes, I like that Dawn of Hope doesn't require anything else to do what it does. It's mana intensive, but that's mono white.
I'm not super sold on going deep on lifelink. It's doable, it just doesn't fit perfectly with what my build currently does, and there doesn't seem much of a point outside of Well of Lost Dreams, Dawn of Hope and Aetherflux Reservoir - a card I (perhaps irrationally) hate. I could see maybe adding one or two of the Soul Sisters to my build even out the curve, but maybe not much else. I might have to give Dawn of Hope a go, though.
So, not much to report. The deck is doing generally well with still having some issues against decks that go way over the top with overruns and such but shy of that the list is doing well. I thought I would take a second to talk about the newly spoiled card though (in a spoiler for those who don't want to know).
So, overall there are some downsides here in that this deck is built around creatures (specifically humans and angels). The nice thing about Serra though is how fast she can come in and put up her own means of defense. Being that the token is an angel still means that there is some small bit of synergy with it and the deck given Lyra is in the deck but thats about it. What I do like about her though is that this deck often plays defense fairly well so even later into the game she still seems somewhat hard to attack into assuming we have Bruna in play.
I don't think this spoil is crazy but I think in general, I like her as a white walker that seems to generate decent value at a reasonable cost. Even if she dies immediately she probably makes opponents pay to kill her and she leaves some value over that is not irrelevant. I definitely want to get my hands on a few copies and try her out in a few places.
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Yeah, I don't think she's an automatic add. It's nice to see Serra finally, though. All of her abilities are relevant, though not incredibly strong. It's probably another walker where you race for the ultimate, which gets a little tiresome - my preference is for a walker that has a reasonable amount more value in the first 2 abilities. There's some there, but neither of the first abilities excel at what they do; there's easier ways to buff your angels (Lyra) and easier ways to pump out angel tokens (Luminarch Ascension/Entreat the Angels/Divine Visitation).
Still, I'll be interested to hear how she performs.
Hey ISB, just wondering, have you ever tested Well of Lost Dreams in the deck? Seems with the life gain that's here it could do some good work. I've been tossing it up for my build, but you definitely have a higher level of life gain than I do.
Hey ISB, just wondering, have you ever tested Well of Lost Dreams in the deck? Seems with the life gain that's here it could do some good work. I've been tossing it up for my build, but you definitely have a higher level of life gain than I do.
I haven't. Most of which being that it only does something when I have lifegain going. I have a copy of it in my Gisela build but I have a dedicated lifegain commander there. Part of why I did pull the trigger on testing Dawn of Hope was because it could also function off of just mana and time to draw me cards if needed. I like Well a lot more when my commander somehow adds to the plan or lifegain is a little more core. I only counted something like 8-9 cards in my deck that gain me life so I felt like I could still kind of function on time and mana to draw cards with Dawn where it seems a lot more swingy with the Well on if it does something or not.
Man I keep hoping we get some more sweet angel / humans. I feel like I keep kicking around 2-4 slots on that front where I want more numbers so I can find them reliably but I don't like the ones we have access to.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Hey ISB, just wondering, have you ever tested Well of Lost Dreams in the deck? Seems with the life gain that's here it could do some good work. I've been tossing it up for my build, but you definitely have a higher level of life gain than I do.
I haven't. Most of which being that it only does something when I have lifegain going. I have a copy of it in my Gisela build but I have a dedicated lifegain commander there. Part of why I did pull the trigger on testing Dawn of Hope was because it could also function off of just mana and time to draw me cards if needed. I like Well a lot more when my commander somehow adds to the plan or lifegain is a little more core. I only counted something like 8-9 cards in my deck that gain me life so I felt like I could still kind of function on time and mana to draw cards with Dawn where it seems a lot more swingy with the Well on if it does something or not.
Man I keep hoping we get some more sweet angel / humans. I feel like I keep kicking around 2-4 slots on that front where I want more numbers so I can find them reliably but I don't like the ones we have access to.
I figured this would be why. Personally I think there's enough lifegain density in your build to make it work, but I guess in case of board wipe it literally does nothing at all. My situation is more tenuous with it too, having less density of lifelink/life gain. I still think it could be worth playtesting, but I guess worst case scenario it could just sit there taking up space.
Agreed re new releases. I think there's probably not likely to be a huge density of additions in War of the Spark. It's clearly dedicated to walkers, both landing them and dealing with them, so the most I'm hoping for there is some good tech for dealing with them in a variety of colours. There's still a chance though - Boros has some angel flavour, and so does Orzhov to a degree, but given that all guilds have been represented thus far in the block it really isn't clear how things will look here. You never know, we could get some sweet releases. I'm especially keen for more low curve humans with control factors. I'm picking up Serra Ascendant soon, but it'd still be nice to see more obvious inclusions lower in the curve.
What’s your take on Intrepid Hero? I’ve had a lot of success with him.
Also, would Silverblade Paladin be right for this deck? On the one hand, your deck is more defensive. On the other, he makes your angels compete with the bigger creatures that you’ll have to deal with. Bruna soul bonded may earn you a kill that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. And he also has synergy with Archangel of Thune, Mask of Memory, Sword of Fire and Ice, and really any life linker.
Finally, perhaps more appropriate for this build, how do you feel about Seraph of the Sword and Knight-Captain of Eos? I like them as aggro deterrent, which I find to be a winning strategy. Throw up a fortress. Let them fight amongst themselves. Pick off anyone I can
What’s your take on Intrepid Hero? I’ve had a lot of success with him.
Also, would Silverblade Paladin be right for this deck? On the one hand, your deck is more defensive. On the other, he makes your angels compete with the bigger creatures that you’ll have to deal with. Bruna soul bonded may earn you a kill that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. And he also has synergy with Archangel of Thune, Mask of Memory, Sword of Fire and Ice, and really any life linker.
Finally, perhaps more appropriate for this build, how do you feel about Seraph of the Sword and Knight-Captain of Eos? I like them as aggro deterrent, which I find to be a winning strategy. Throw up a fortress. Let them fight amongst themselves. Pick off anyone I can
Intrepid Hero is a cool card, my main hesitation with it comes from the fear of clones and or theft. Its also a very vulnerable fragile creature who is slow to act in that it needs to tap so my expectation of it living can sometimes be questionable and its value against opposing decks will depend a lot on what they are playing. The value of it against this deck would be a very bad situation for us. Bruna can also be a good offensive and defensive creature against a lot of decks where Intrepid Hero might be good against as well.
Silverblade Paladin - its fine to include. It makes your clock faster with Bruna but given her mana cost I tend to play this more as a survival kind of a deck rather than trying to speed up my clock much. I don't see an issue with running it. I opted to pass on it given how slow and responsive I tend to play Bruna myself though. Keep in mind as well that some situations where Bruna / equipment might not be relevant (aka a maze or fog bank or something) this card doesn't always make you relevant through. In a lot of cases Double Strike doesn't fix a bad attack situation in my opinion. You will see in my list that I do however include True Conviction in part because its a mass buff and the mass lifelink. I find that to be a more reasonable effect in part because the mana difference between these two cards is less relevant given that we have a more expensive often reactive commander. Its not like I can't afford to pay six mana instead of three the turn after casting my seven mana commander after all. My other issue is that while Silverblade can be rezed by Bruna there is the question of if its a better rez than anything else in our graveyard to which I feel like the answer often might be no. I think this effect is just.... ok. If someone has spot removal for instance this feels like we really only have one good threat in play where as if I were to rez a 5+ mana human / angel instead I often spread out my threats and give opponents multiple targets.
Seraph of the Sword - Its good on defense but so too is Bruna. It doesn't help vs swarms or trample (it blocks 3 dmg and trample goes over it). It kind of reminds me of a more expensive Fog Bank with a bit of power. If you need more defense vs random beaters it seems fine but I don't like that its kind of only defensive. We have so many tools that can serve as both offense and defense. Baneslayer Angel for instance isn't exactly a stellar angel but it gives a 10 life swing which lets me be both offensive and defensive. Its not really likely that Seraph of the Sword blocks more than 6 damage in an attack so I guess if you are using it against every player its ok but overall I think its a bit lacking in that its sort of redundant alongside Bruna lots of the time because she can often block the same sort of things. It can work but I don't see a lot of situations where someone has multiple mid sized beaters I am trying to repel.
Knight-Captain of Eos - I like it more than Seraph of the Sword in that it can stop a wider variety of situations even if its a finite resource. This deck is so robust though I try to go a little more offensive when I can though and this is almost entirely a defensive stalling measure. When it comes to fogs you have to ask yourself if buying yourself 1-2 more combats will let you turn the tables on someone.
Great write up. I think some of my suggestions are very meta based. My group loves big creatures and dragons. Knight-Captain has been good every time I’ve drawn him. Seraph of the Sword I admit has sometimes done nothing. However, the same is true for Magus of the Moat. In fact, not only has he been a dead card, he’s actually helped an opponent who started running away with the game. He benefitted more from the moat than me. I actually wished I had been able to kill my own Magus.
You make a good case against Silverblade Paladin. When Bruna dies, I don’t want to be left with nothing but a Grizzly Bears. I went a somewhat toolbox route with my angels/humans, and double strike is a unique effect (plus I run Recruiter of the Guard), but really the paladin is better when I cast him right before attacking. He’s not very good getting him back with Bruna.
Maybe this is crazy, but Bastion Protector hasn’t been that great for me. I love the theme of this card, but my problem is she’s not good without Bruna in play. And even then, there is so much removal that ignores indestructible. To be sure, there have been times where she was good, but for me it’s too situational.
Great write up. I think some of my suggestions are very meta based. My group loves big creatures and dragons. Knight-Captain has been good every time I’ve drawn him. Seraph of the Sword I admit has sometimes done nothing. However, the same is true for Magus of the Moat. In fact, not only has he been a dead card, he’s actually helped an opponent who started running away with the game. He benefitted more from the moat than me. I actually wished I had been able to kill my own Magus.
You make a good case against Silverblade Paladin. When Bruna dies, I don’t want to be left with nothing but a Grizzly Bears. I went a somewhat toolbox route with my angels/humans, and double strike is a unique effect (plus I run Recruiter of the Guard), but really the paladin is better when I cast him right before attacking. He’s not very good getting him back with Bruna.
Maybe this is crazy, but Bastion Protector hasn’t been that great for me. I love the theme of this card, but my problem is she’s not good without Bruna in play. And even then, there is so much removal that ignores indestructible. To be sure, there have been times where she was good, but for me it’s too situational.
Moats - its going to vary from meta to meta and against different opponents. I see a LOT of tokens in my current meta which I respond to with trying to give them a giant middle finger. Its important to not just curve moats into play though, there are a lot of times where I wait for specific boards to play a moat or not play a moat at all. I generally wait to see if someone is getting big enough to cause me a big problem or overwhelm the whole board before I will play one or if someone is coming after me on the ground I will play it but in a lot of cases its not an effect that I will just curve in. For me this is in some regards so that it doesn't just get removed by some random sweeper without doing anything and also as a political effect that a lot of people don't want to remove if and when its holding back a flood of creatures on one board. I play with a lot of moats because 1) I think its cool and flavorful and 2) I see too many swarmy token decks.
Bastion Protector - its value will vary with how much removal your meta runs that ignores indestructible. A few other things to keep in mind with it though, it turns Bruna into a 3 attack clock where as naturally she is a 5 swing clock. The extra stat buffs change her from bouncing titans off her to killing probably 90+% of creatures in combat as a 7/9. Its actually the same buff to an attack clock as Silverblade Paladin while technically doing less damage its the same number of attacks assuming you had one or the other. In a lot of cases I don't get people targeting Bruna with spot removal though with how I play it because it just means me picking up more value on the next cast so for me its more that it makes her more relevant in combat and gives some protection from wraths in that I have some board immediately. If its not working for you though, I think its far from critical.
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Eos is just not meant for this deck. As ISB mentioned, Bruna is remarkably robust, so fog effects end up being a little redundant. Frankly when I’m faced with a daunting board state I’d prefer to blow it up, considering it’s much easier for us to rebuild than a lot of other archetypes. I’ve just generally found fog effects help us survive but don’t help us thrive.
Hero did pull some weight for me, but having to tap him down and being conditional removal made him a little less than satisfactory in my build. At the same spot in the curve I’ve found Thalia, Heretic Cathar far more helpful. We already ramp pretty heavy early, so having her slow the table down further for us to land some threats is far more helpful. As mentioned, too, Bruna trades well anyway, so the hero is a little redundant, unless you’re clearing the air for a voltron strike.
Paladin I’ve found more helpful than you guys obviously. Early game he helps our lower end of the curve deal a bit more efficiently with any necessary combat, and Bruna isn’t the only creature he can help get in for serious damage. Bonding with Lyra Dawnbringer, Emeria Shepherd or any of our flying threats has helped make me fairly formidable in combat. If nothing else he’s also worked well as a rattlesnake for me in deterring people from sending their critters my way.
Bastion Protector I definitely get. It’s very conditional and the conditions are quite obvious. I think Bruna is the reason she stays, purely on account of how easily she can be reanimated. Otherwise, she’s not something you just casually drop into play - she lurks in your hand till the time is right, and there’s a chance that doesn’t happen.
My thoughts on the moats is that they’re a meta call - I’d definitely rather have the tool there than not, it just depends what threat you’re facing down as to whether you drop them into play or not. The same applies to Magus of the Tabernacle in my build - there’s going to be times it’s not the right play to drop him. Obviously if you’re facing down some swarm he’s a huge middle finger, otherwise just hold him, or filter him through Azor’s Gateway. I sort of treat the humans in my build as a toolbox. I try to find what’s right for the situation and use my reanimation to help it stay in play. I’d love to expand that toolbox more, but there really hasn’t been much come up in white humans to add in recent releases.
Eos is just not meant for this deck. As ISB mentioned, Bruna is remarkably robust, so fog effects end up being a little redundant. Frankly when I’m faced with a daunting board state I’d prefer to blow it up, considering it’s much easier for us to rebuild than a lot of other archetypes. I’ve just generally found fog effects help us survive but don’t help us thrive.
Hero did pull some weight for me, but having to tap him down and being conditional removal made him a little less than satisfactory in my build. At the same spot in the curve I’ve found Thalia, Heretic Cathar far more helpful. We already ramp pretty heavy early, so having her slow the table down further for us to land some threats is far more helpful. As mentioned, too, Bruna trades well anyway, so the hero is a little redundant, unless you’re clearing the air for a voltron strike.
Paladin I’ve found more helpful than you guys obviously. Early game he helps our lower end of the curve deal a bit more efficiently with any necessary combat, and Bruna isn’t the only creature he can help get in for serious damage. Bonding with Lyra Dawnbringer, Emeria Shepherd or any of our flying threats has helped make me fairly formidable in combat. If nothing else he’s also worked well as a rattlesnake for me in deterring people from sending their critters my way.
Bastion Protector I definitely get. It’s very conditional and the conditions are quite obvious. I think Bruna is the reason she stays, purely on account of how easily she can be reanimated. Otherwise, she’s not something you just casually drop into play - she lurks in your hand till the time is right, and there’s a chance that doesn’t happen.
My thoughts on the moats is that they’re a meta call - I’d definitely rather have the tool there than not, it just depends what threat you’re facing down as to whether you drop them into play or not. The same applies to Magus of the Tabernacle in my build - there’s going to be times it’s not the right play to drop him. Obviously if you’re facing down some swarm he’s a huge middle finger, otherwise just hold him, or filter him through Azor’s Gateway. I sort of treat the humans in my build as a toolbox. I try to find what’s right for the situation and use my reanimation to help it stay in play. I’d love to expand that toolbox more, but there really hasn’t been much come up in white humans to add in recent releases.
Yea I constantly struggle in that there is clearly tiers of how good a lot of the creatures in this deck are. Several of the less key options can be substituted out for what works for you and or what your meta calls for. Unfortunately I can't get them to give me 3 functional reprints of Lyra Dawnbringer for some reason .
@Kungfu_Hero don't worry if you want to try out some different things. We adapt our decks based on how they run. I have reasons for what I run but some of those reasons come down to meta decisions. Moats / Tabernacles can be strong but if you constantly see a swarm of dragons it might change how you want to build somewhat. My own current meta consists of a lot of token decks which has driven some of how I build.
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I asked two of my magic buddies if I should cut Magus of the Moat. They told me I was crazy. lol For the record though, moat has backfired on me. It’s a symmetrical effect. When you play it, it’s like everyone played it. You could be helping your opponents just as much as hurting them. Even if when you played it was a good idea, the game state can change where moat can begin helping another player more than you. When an opponent is running away with the game, the last thing you want to do is prevent the table from attacking him. I’ll definitely keep it in my build, but the card has some drawbacks.
Similar to the knight-captain, moat doesn’t actually handle their threats. So the same criticism of the knight-captain should be applied to moat, too. They’re similar cards actually. Both prevent them from attacking. Moat only handles grounders. Knight-captain handles anything, but only works twice. Also, there is a subtle but powerful advantage to the knight-captain. Unlike moat, he allows your opponents to attack each other. That’s pretty strong. Moat stops aggro, but the knight-captain sends it another way. That can be so much better. I run Kor Haven, Maze of Ith and Thaumatic Compass/Spires of Orazca for this reason as well. I would go so far as to say those three cards have done more damage for me than any other card in my deck. Letting your opponents do things for you is a big part of multiplayer.
Really, it just depends what you need, and this definitely sounds like a meta thing. I don't see a ton of dragons in my meta, but honestly, if I did, I'd stock up on board wipes knowing that Bruna bounces back remarkably well from them and they tend not to so much. She can withstand a lot of hostility, so don't be afraid to run more than you might usually. Otherwise, don't be afraid to cut the moats if they don't work. Just because they're generally thought of as good, doesn't mean they cover every situation perfectly.
Yeah, and I do like Moat. The advantage of it over another wrath is that 1) it stays there forever until handled, and 2) your fliers can keep attacking. For me, Knight-Captain has been better, but yeah, it’s a meta thing.
So what do y’all think about Erratic Portal? It has obvious synergy, but I’ve never actually run it. It’s not like I’ll be bouncing Bruna every turn, and there aren’t a lot of etb creatures in my deck. However, Bruna starts to cost a LOT of mana, and the portal helps with that big time, while also being a nuisance to other players.
I asked two of my magic buddies if I should cut Magus of the Moat. They told me I was crazy. lol For the record though, moat has backfired on me. It’s a symmetrical effect. When you play it, it’s like everyone played it. You could be helping your opponents just as much as hurting them. Even if when you played it was a good idea, the game state can change where moat can begin helping another player more than you. When an opponent is running away with the game, the last thing you want to do is prevent the table from attacking him. I’ll definitely keep it in my build, but the card has some drawbacks.
Similar to the knight-captain, moat doesn’t actually handle their threats. So the same criticism of the knight-captain should be applied to moat, too. They’re similar cards actually. Both prevent them from attacking. Moat only handles grounders. Knight-captain handles anything, but only works twice. Also, there is a subtle but powerful advantage to the knight-captain. Unlike moat, he allows your opponents to attack each other. That’s pretty strong. Moat stops aggro, but the knight-captain sends it another way. That can be so much better. I run Kor Haven, Maze of Ith and Thaumatic Compass/Spires of Orazca for this reason as well. I would go so far as to say those three cards have done more damage for me than any other card in my deck. Letting your opponents do things for you is a big part of multiplayer.
Its kind of funny because people don't let me play with stuff like that anymore. If they see I have limited defenses like that suddenly everyone at the table won't let me keep it. They will be overly aggressive towards me and force me to use the resource over killing players that they might be able to freely kill. Then again though, I draw aggro as a player not always based on what my board is.
Timing a moat correctly is a matter of reading the board and the aggression. If someone else is running rampant with some dragons or something its probably not time to stop the ground creatures. As toc said, wraths are also a very good solution if they continue to be a problem. A cool tech answer could be Haazda Shield Mate. I don't run him but I also don't face down a bunch of midsized beaters very often.
So what do y’all think about Erratic Portal? It has obvious synergy, but I’ve never actually run it. It’s not like I’ll be bouncing Bruna every turn, and there aren’t a lot of etb creatures in my deck. However, Bruna starts to cost a LOT of mana, and the portal helps with that big time, while also being a nuisance to other players.
I find that if I can just put more lands in play its usually better than trying to abuse Bruna. She is a lot of mana to try to play with like that so I would rather just push people to answer my board and chump with her if need be and recast. Most people don't find killing Bruna to be that appealing and so I use that with trying to hit a lot of land drops with draw, filter, and transform cards where I can to just make sure I can recast her a bunch in a game.
Another option I used to run was Weathered Bodyguards. It's expensive to cast, but if you can keep it protected with Greaves or whatever it's a fort of a card. Plus being a human you can reanimate it to your heart's content here
edit: I kind of like Erratic Portal, in that it keeps Bruna relatively cheap to cast. Most games I'll cast her 3-4 times minimum. That being said, I'm not afraid of leaving her in the graveyard to resurrect with Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Karmic Guide or Emeria Shepherd either, so it's much of a muchness to me. I think ideally you'd want Portal if you're really spamming that cast trigger. I could see it coming into my list if I had a copy, I just haven't had a look at what I'd cut for it.
Another option I used to run was Weathered Bodyguards. It's expensive to cast, but if you can keep it protected with Greaves or whatever it's a fort of a card. Plus being a human you can reanimate it to your heart's content here
He’s pretty cool. I’m scared to not block their creatures, only for them to kill the bodyguard and me take a bunch of damage. The greaves are definitely a must with him.
One fundamental problem I’ve had with Bruna are the turns leading up to casting her. Most angels/humans suck compare to what’ll be on the battlefield. If I get Serra Ascendent, Gisela, Baneslayer or Lyra I’m fine. Sometimes though I’m facing down Doran, the Siege Tower and another beater with nothing but an Angel of Condemnation. Once I cast Bruna and get something back, it’s incredible value and stats on the table, but until then things can get rough.
On a different topic, I’ve had tremendous success with Palace Jailer and Protector of the Crown. My deck is very good at keeping the crown, and getting it back with fliers if I have to. The jailer is a great Bruna target, and I can tutor for him with Recruiter of the Guard. And the protector combos nicely with Avacyn. The crown does put a target on you, though. But when you lose the crown it puts aggro on someone else. Monarch has only backfired on me in one game. It was down to me and one last player. He got the crown with The Locust God tokens, and I just couldn’t get it back or get back in control of that game. However, in every other game I’ve ever had the monarch, it was tremendous card drawing.
Hmmmm. It'd probably be easier to see a decklist, but it sounds like you need to look at ramp/draw options for acceleration. It sounds weird for mono white, but I often end up being the most ramped player at the table. I know ISB has had similar results of late.
Other than that if the concern is creatures not trading well in combat, there's options like Cathars'Crusade or True Conviction. If it's a swarm issue, the one old-ass obscure card ISB brought to my attention, Eye of Singularity is literally an off-switch for those decks. As well as anyone running Sol Ring. It's been a great addition for me. Otherwise, my other recommendation is don't be afraid of trading creatures when you need to. My reanimation is pretty decent, so I'm not overly afraid to take the hit and lose some board presence if it means taking out a key piece of someone's board presence.
As an aside, the obvious play to me when staring down Doran, the Siege Tower with Angel of Condemnation in play is to exert her and revert combat rules to normal. Assuming he's commander this is only temporary, but it still gives you a little breathing space.
I like the addition of Monarch, too. I've thought about running Throne of the High City and some of the other pieces in the past, maybe I should give it another look.
The Doran/Condemnation wasn’t the best example. lol But the gist of it is that I feel outclassed before I get Bruna out, unless I draw the right lifelinkers or Magus of the Moat for grounders. Stonehewer Giant has been pretty good for me. Also, simply chump blocking with random dudes like Solemn or Recruiter is usually enough to make me last until Bruna comes out.
Maybe I could use more early ramp. I tend to just make sure I hit all my land drops with cards like Land Tax. I have some early ramp, but not enough that I consistently draw it early game every game.
I don’t know how y’all are keeping up with green and black when it comes to mana. That doesn’t seem possible unless your meta just doesn’t like ramp.
Sorry for the long time with no updates. Hopefully we get more spicy angel / humans for me to test out going forward.
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T2: Wall of Omens
T3: Resplendent Angel
T4: Mask of Memory, equip to angel and swing.
T5: Lyra Dawnbringer, swing to filter / gain life with Resplendant. One of the opponents playing sort of a fort deck plays a Planar Collapse between the turns and I don't really see anyone preparing to stop it given I have a fairly good setup people are not super happy about lol.
T6: Golden Guardian, swing both angels at the one who played the Planar Collapse. When the Collapse goes off I fight my Lyra with the Guardian. Random side note but that triggers the lifelink on Lyra which if in any other situation would have generated me an angel token from Resplendent which I find amusing.
T7: Bruna rezing Lyra Dawnbringer. Someone Oblivion Rings Lyra before my next turn.
T8: Darksteel Plate, equip to Bruna. Equip Mask of Memory and swing. I use a Thespian Stage to copy Gold-Forge Garrison
From here, it got muddled and is harder to recall. I believe I wrathed soon after this because the Abzan deck was set up with a Reya Dawnbringer. The same player ended up dragging the game WAY out using both Reya and Journey to Eternity to be incredibly challenging to slow down or stop. I ended up going through 2x Strip Mines trying to slow down the land portion but he was using Eternal Witness creatures to recover it most of the time until I put a stop to it with a Dust Bowl + Crook of Condemnation turn. At one point the abzan player got set up with the ability to Luminate Primordial at instant speed off of Atzal, Cave of Eternity which really slowed my game to a crawl.
Another player tried winning via Approach of the Second Sun protecting himself with Dovescape and using his commander Taigam, Ojutai Master to protect it but then the Abzan player pointed out that he could Luminate Primordial at instant speed to answer Taigam which would counter Second Sun. It was funny because nobody was really playing counter magic and we couldn't kill him in time so his own Dovescape backfired and killed him in this case.
I ended up closing out the last 3 people with angel beats getting a Altar of Dementia online which could mill out the Abzan player as needed as he had been dredging his deck for most of the game.
There was a point in the middle of the game where I couldn't really play my angels due to Luminate Primordial rez options where I shifted to playing with Dawn of Hope + The Immortal Sun and I ended up drawing like an extra 10 cards and 16-20ish life from the tokens I made with it. The combination of Dawn of Hope + Bazaar of Baghdad really let me dig deep to get resources and fill my bin as needed. I ended up with something like 16-20 mana in lands by the end of the game so the ability to dump mana for lifelink tokens and then turn said tokens into draw was really helpful for me.
I don't know if I really have any changes right this second but if anything from this game I potentially want even more grave hate so I guess its possible I might consider Angel of Finality yet in addition to the ones I run currently.
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I won said game off of the back of several angels lots of rez, and just grinding it out vs an answer deck that didn't have grave hate. Someone did drop a Night Soil and I wrathed it away keeping a few angels I had in hand that had been bounced at the time.
DECK CHANGES:
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Sounds like Dawn of Hope has been decent tech for you. I don't have quite the same life gain opportunities in my deck, so I've been hesitant to add it. How good is it in a vacuum?
Emeria Shepherd - the card is nuts. Its really a question of if opponents can field grave hate or tuck / exile effects. Shy of an opponent doing those its probably going to be a rough game for opponents when she rolls out.
Dawn of Hope - I wouldn't say its necessary but my testing so far with it has been mostly positive. I had one game where my opponent wrathed me off the board and prepared to rez Luminate Primordial every turn at instant speed. In that game I actually stopped casting creatures and instead shifted to making tokens. Those tokens ended up giving me something to do and they drew me something like another 8 cards that game. I would probably say though that my conclusions from the card are far from complete but given that it gives me a source to make lifelinkers as well as a means to use said lifelinkers to draw cards its been fairly good. Something like Well of Lost Dreams can be stronger if you have more of a dedicated theme to lifegain but what I like about Dawn of Hope is that it can function as both sides. It also gives something a little more meaningful to do with excess mana than something like Sacred Mesa for this deck where we don't really ever plan to win via tokens so just being able to make more powerful tokens isn't that relevant considering we don't really pack means to make that effect better.
As a side note I thought I would mention a few other cards that could be Bruna friendly and might work with some lifegain themes:
Soul's Attendant
Soul Warden
Auriok Champion
Angel of Invention
Angelic Skirmisher
Victory's Herald
I think its possible to go deep on lifegain if you would want. There are some REALLY sweet lifegain trigger effects out there like Well of Lost Dreams, Cradle of Vitality, Angelic Accord, Dawn of Hope. I have thus far not delved too far into that because I also have a Gisela, the Broken Blade deck which is a bit more dedicated to that concept. So far for me, Resplendent Angel just seems like a fairly good angel to have which is part of why I did a little bit of delving into lifegain. The other part for me though was just that my deck was doing well as a late game sticky control deck and gaining life helped me against chip damage and random dying to burn or drain effects as well as making it harder for opponents to kill me with token type decks. Dawn of Hope for me has been an optional mana dump if my card advantage is running low and it does have options to work with lifegain creatures which I already had justified running before adding these cards to my list.
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I'm not super sold on going deep on lifelink. It's doable, it just doesn't fit perfectly with what my build currently does, and there doesn't seem much of a point outside of Well of Lost Dreams, Dawn of Hope and Aetherflux Reservoir - a card I (perhaps irrationally) hate. I could see maybe adding one or two of the Soul Sisters to my build even out the curve, but maybe not much else. I might have to give Dawn of Hope a go, though.
So, overall there are some downsides here in that this deck is built around creatures (specifically humans and angels). The nice thing about Serra though is how fast she can come in and put up her own means of defense. Being that the token is an angel still means that there is some small bit of synergy with it and the deck given Lyra is in the deck but thats about it. What I do like about her though is that this deck often plays defense fairly well so even later into the game she still seems somewhat hard to attack into assuming we have Bruna in play.
I don't think this spoil is crazy but I think in general, I like her as a white walker that seems to generate decent value at a reasonable cost. Even if she dies immediately she probably makes opponents pay to kill her and she leaves some value over that is not irrelevant. I definitely want to get my hands on a few copies and try her out in a few places.
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Still, I'll be interested to hear how she performs.
I haven't. Most of which being that it only does something when I have lifegain going. I have a copy of it in my Gisela build but I have a dedicated lifegain commander there. Part of why I did pull the trigger on testing Dawn of Hope was because it could also function off of just mana and time to draw me cards if needed. I like Well a lot more when my commander somehow adds to the plan or lifegain is a little more core. I only counted something like 8-9 cards in my deck that gain me life so I felt like I could still kind of function on time and mana to draw cards with Dawn where it seems a lot more swingy with the Well on if it does something or not.
Man I keep hoping we get some more sweet angel / humans. I feel like I keep kicking around 2-4 slots on that front where I want more numbers so I can find them reliably but I don't like the ones we have access to.
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I figured this would be why. Personally I think there's enough lifegain density in your build to make it work, but I guess in case of board wipe it literally does nothing at all. My situation is more tenuous with it too, having less density of lifelink/life gain. I still think it could be worth playtesting, but I guess worst case scenario it could just sit there taking up space.
Agreed re new releases. I think there's probably not likely to be a huge density of additions in War of the Spark. It's clearly dedicated to walkers, both landing them and dealing with them, so the most I'm hoping for there is some good tech for dealing with them in a variety of colours. There's still a chance though - Boros has some angel flavour, and so does Orzhov to a degree, but given that all guilds have been represented thus far in the block it really isn't clear how things will look here. You never know, we could get some sweet releases. I'm especially keen for more low curve humans with control factors. I'm picking up Serra Ascendant soon, but it'd still be nice to see more obvious inclusions lower in the curve.
Also, would Silverblade Paladin be right for this deck? On the one hand, your deck is more defensive. On the other, he makes your angels compete with the bigger creatures that you’ll have to deal with. Bruna soul bonded may earn you a kill that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. And he also has synergy with Archangel of Thune, Mask of Memory, Sword of Fire and Ice, and really any life linker.
Finally, perhaps more appropriate for this build, how do you feel about Seraph of the Sword and Knight-Captain of Eos? I like them as aggro deterrent, which I find to be a winning strategy. Throw up a fortress. Let them fight amongst themselves. Pick off anyone I can
Intrepid Hero is a cool card, my main hesitation with it comes from the fear of clones and or theft. Its also a very vulnerable fragile creature who is slow to act in that it needs to tap so my expectation of it living can sometimes be questionable and its value against opposing decks will depend a lot on what they are playing. The value of it against this deck would be a very bad situation for us. Bruna can also be a good offensive and defensive creature against a lot of decks where Intrepid Hero might be good against as well.
Silverblade Paladin - its fine to include. It makes your clock faster with Bruna but given her mana cost I tend to play this more as a survival kind of a deck rather than trying to speed up my clock much. I don't see an issue with running it. I opted to pass on it given how slow and responsive I tend to play Bruna myself though. Keep in mind as well that some situations where Bruna / equipment might not be relevant (aka a maze or fog bank or something) this card doesn't always make you relevant through. In a lot of cases Double Strike doesn't fix a bad attack situation in my opinion. You will see in my list that I do however include True Conviction in part because its a mass buff and the mass lifelink. I find that to be a more reasonable effect in part because the mana difference between these two cards is less relevant given that we have a more expensive often reactive commander. Its not like I can't afford to pay six mana instead of three the turn after casting my seven mana commander after all. My other issue is that while Silverblade can be rezed by Bruna there is the question of if its a better rez than anything else in our graveyard to which I feel like the answer often might be no. I think this effect is just.... ok. If someone has spot removal for instance this feels like we really only have one good threat in play where as if I were to rez a 5+ mana human / angel instead I often spread out my threats and give opponents multiple targets.
Seraph of the Sword - Its good on defense but so too is Bruna. It doesn't help vs swarms or trample (it blocks 3 dmg and trample goes over it). It kind of reminds me of a more expensive Fog Bank with a bit of power. If you need more defense vs random beaters it seems fine but I don't like that its kind of only defensive. We have so many tools that can serve as both offense and defense. Baneslayer Angel for instance isn't exactly a stellar angel but it gives a 10 life swing which lets me be both offensive and defensive. Its not really likely that Seraph of the Sword blocks more than 6 damage in an attack so I guess if you are using it against every player its ok but overall I think its a bit lacking in that its sort of redundant alongside Bruna lots of the time because she can often block the same sort of things. It can work but I don't see a lot of situations where someone has multiple mid sized beaters I am trying to repel.
Knight-Captain of Eos - I like it more than Seraph of the Sword in that it can stop a wider variety of situations even if its a finite resource. This deck is so robust though I try to go a little more offensive when I can though and this is almost entirely a defensive stalling measure. When it comes to fogs you have to ask yourself if buying yourself 1-2 more combats will let you turn the tables on someone.
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[Modern] Allies
You make a good case against Silverblade Paladin. When Bruna dies, I don’t want to be left with nothing but a Grizzly Bears. I went a somewhat toolbox route with my angels/humans, and double strike is a unique effect (plus I run Recruiter of the Guard), but really the paladin is better when I cast him right before attacking. He’s not very good getting him back with Bruna.
Maybe this is crazy, but Bastion Protector hasn’t been that great for me. I love the theme of this card, but my problem is she’s not good without Bruna in play. And even then, there is so much removal that ignores indestructible. To be sure, there have been times where she was good, but for me it’s too situational.
Moats - its going to vary from meta to meta and against different opponents. I see a LOT of tokens in my current meta which I respond to with trying to give them a giant middle finger. Its important to not just curve moats into play though, there are a lot of times where I wait for specific boards to play a moat or not play a moat at all. I generally wait to see if someone is getting big enough to cause me a big problem or overwhelm the whole board before I will play one or if someone is coming after me on the ground I will play it but in a lot of cases its not an effect that I will just curve in. For me this is in some regards so that it doesn't just get removed by some random sweeper without doing anything and also as a political effect that a lot of people don't want to remove if and when its holding back a flood of creatures on one board. I play with a lot of moats because 1) I think its cool and flavorful and 2) I see too many swarmy token decks.
Bastion Protector - its value will vary with how much removal your meta runs that ignores indestructible. A few other things to keep in mind with it though, it turns Bruna into a 3 attack clock where as naturally she is a 5 swing clock. The extra stat buffs change her from bouncing titans off her to killing probably 90+% of creatures in combat as a 7/9. Its actually the same buff to an attack clock as Silverblade Paladin while technically doing less damage its the same number of attacks assuming you had one or the other. In a lot of cases I don't get people targeting Bruna with spot removal though with how I play it because it just means me picking up more value on the next cast so for me its more that it makes her more relevant in combat and gives some protection from wraths in that I have some board immediately. If its not working for you though, I think its far from critical.
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Eos is just not meant for this deck. As ISB mentioned, Bruna is remarkably robust, so fog effects end up being a little redundant. Frankly when I’m faced with a daunting board state I’d prefer to blow it up, considering it’s much easier for us to rebuild than a lot of other archetypes. I’ve just generally found fog effects help us survive but don’t help us thrive.
Hero did pull some weight for me, but having to tap him down and being conditional removal made him a little less than satisfactory in my build. At the same spot in the curve I’ve found Thalia, Heretic Cathar far more helpful. We already ramp pretty heavy early, so having her slow the table down further for us to land some threats is far more helpful. As mentioned, too, Bruna trades well anyway, so the hero is a little redundant, unless you’re clearing the air for a voltron strike.
Paladin I’ve found more helpful than you guys obviously. Early game he helps our lower end of the curve deal a bit more efficiently with any necessary combat, and Bruna isn’t the only creature he can help get in for serious damage. Bonding with Lyra Dawnbringer, Emeria Shepherd or any of our flying threats has helped make me fairly formidable in combat. If nothing else he’s also worked well as a rattlesnake for me in deterring people from sending their critters my way.
Bastion Protector I definitely get. It’s very conditional and the conditions are quite obvious. I think Bruna is the reason she stays, purely on account of how easily she can be reanimated. Otherwise, she’s not something you just casually drop into play - she lurks in your hand till the time is right, and there’s a chance that doesn’t happen.
My thoughts on the moats is that they’re a meta call - I’d definitely rather have the tool there than not, it just depends what threat you’re facing down as to whether you drop them into play or not. The same applies to Magus of the Tabernacle in my build - there’s going to be times it’s not the right play to drop him. Obviously if you’re facing down some swarm he’s a huge middle finger, otherwise just hold him, or filter him through Azor’s Gateway. I sort of treat the humans in my build as a toolbox. I try to find what’s right for the situation and use my reanimation to help it stay in play. I’d love to expand that toolbox more, but there really hasn’t been much come up in white humans to add in recent releases.
Yea I constantly struggle in that there is clearly tiers of how good a lot of the creatures in this deck are. Several of the less key options can be substituted out for what works for you and or what your meta calls for. Unfortunately I can't get them to give me 3 functional reprints of Lyra Dawnbringer for some reason .
@Kungfu_Hero don't worry if you want to try out some different things. We adapt our decks based on how they run. I have reasons for what I run but some of those reasons come down to meta decisions. Moats / Tabernacles can be strong but if you constantly see a swarm of dragons it might change how you want to build somewhat. My own current meta consists of a lot of token decks which has driven some of how I build.
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Similar to the knight-captain, moat doesn’t actually handle their threats. So the same criticism of the knight-captain should be applied to moat, too. They’re similar cards actually. Both prevent them from attacking. Moat only handles grounders. Knight-captain handles anything, but only works twice. Also, there is a subtle but powerful advantage to the knight-captain. Unlike moat, he allows your opponents to attack each other. That’s pretty strong. Moat stops aggro, but the knight-captain sends it another way. That can be so much better. I run Kor Haven, Maze of Ith and Thaumatic Compass/Spires of Orazca for this reason as well. I would go so far as to say those three cards have done more damage for me than any other card in my deck. Letting your opponents do things for you is a big part of multiplayer.
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
Masako the Humorless
Selfless Squire
Hixus, Prison Warden
Sanctum Prelate
Magus of the Disk
Magus of the Balance
Mageta the Lion
Really, it just depends what you need, and this definitely sounds like a meta thing. I don't see a ton of dragons in my meta, but honestly, if I did, I'd stock up on board wipes knowing that Bruna bounces back remarkably well from them and they tend not to so much. She can withstand a lot of hostility, so don't be afraid to run more than you might usually. Otherwise, don't be afraid to cut the moats if they don't work. Just because they're generally thought of as good, doesn't mean they cover every situation perfectly.
So what do y’all think about Erratic Portal? It has obvious synergy, but I’ve never actually run it. It’s not like I’ll be bouncing Bruna every turn, and there aren’t a lot of etb creatures in my deck. However, Bruna starts to cost a LOT of mana, and the portal helps with that big time, while also being a nuisance to other players.
Its kind of funny because people don't let me play with stuff like that anymore. If they see I have limited defenses like that suddenly everyone at the table won't let me keep it. They will be overly aggressive towards me and force me to use the resource over killing players that they might be able to freely kill. Then again though, I draw aggro as a player not always based on what my board is.
Timing a moat correctly is a matter of reading the board and the aggression. If someone else is running rampant with some dragons or something its probably not time to stop the ground creatures. As toc said, wraths are also a very good solution if they continue to be a problem. A cool tech answer could be Haazda Shield Mate. I don't run him but I also don't face down a bunch of midsized beaters very often.
I find that if I can just put more lands in play its usually better than trying to abuse Bruna. She is a lot of mana to try to play with like that so I would rather just push people to answer my board and chump with her if need be and recast. Most people don't find killing Bruna to be that appealing and so I use that with trying to hit a lot of land drops with draw, filter, and transform cards where I can to just make sure I can recast her a bunch in a game.
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edit: I kind of like Erratic Portal, in that it keeps Bruna relatively cheap to cast. Most games I'll cast her 3-4 times minimum. That being said, I'm not afraid of leaving her in the graveyard to resurrect with Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Karmic Guide or Emeria Shepherd either, so it's much of a muchness to me. I think ideally you'd want Portal if you're really spamming that cast trigger. I could see it coming into my list if I had a copy, I just haven't had a look at what I'd cut for it.
He’s pretty cool. I’m scared to not block their creatures, only for them to kill the bodyguard and me take a bunch of damage. The greaves are definitely a must with him.
One fundamental problem I’ve had with Bruna are the turns leading up to casting her. Most angels/humans suck compare to what’ll be on the battlefield. If I get Serra Ascendent, Gisela, Baneslayer or Lyra I’m fine. Sometimes though I’m facing down Doran, the Siege Tower and another beater with nothing but an Angel of Condemnation. Once I cast Bruna and get something back, it’s incredible value and stats on the table, but until then things can get rough.
On a different topic, I’ve had tremendous success with Palace Jailer and Protector of the Crown. My deck is very good at keeping the crown, and getting it back with fliers if I have to. The jailer is a great Bruna target, and I can tutor for him with Recruiter of the Guard. And the protector combos nicely with Avacyn. The crown does put a target on you, though. But when you lose the crown it puts aggro on someone else. Monarch has only backfired on me in one game. It was down to me and one last player. He got the crown with The Locust God tokens, and I just couldn’t get it back or get back in control of that game. However, in every other game I’ve ever had the monarch, it was tremendous card drawing.
Other than that if the concern is creatures not trading well in combat, there's options like Cathars'Crusade or True Conviction. If it's a swarm issue, the one old-ass obscure card ISB brought to my attention, Eye of Singularity is literally an off-switch for those decks. As well as anyone running Sol Ring. It's been a great addition for me. Otherwise, my other recommendation is don't be afraid of trading creatures when you need to. My reanimation is pretty decent, so I'm not overly afraid to take the hit and lose some board presence if it means taking out a key piece of someone's board presence.
As an aside, the obvious play to me when staring down Doran, the Siege Tower with Angel of Condemnation in play is to exert her and revert combat rules to normal. Assuming he's commander this is only temporary, but it still gives you a little breathing space.
I like the addition of Monarch, too. I've thought about running Throne of the High City and some of the other pieces in the past, maybe I should give it another look.
The Doran/Condemnation wasn’t the best example. lol But the gist of it is that I feel outclassed before I get Bruna out, unless I draw the right lifelinkers or Magus of the Moat for grounders. Stonehewer Giant has been pretty good for me. Also, simply chump blocking with random dudes like Solemn or Recruiter is usually enough to make me last until Bruna comes out.
Maybe I could use more early ramp. I tend to just make sure I hit all my land drops with cards like Land Tax. I have some early ramp, but not enough that I consistently draw it early game every game.
I don’t know how y’all are keeping up with green and black when it comes to mana. That doesn’t seem possible unless your meta just doesn’t like ramp.