Here I am hoping to recruit some help from people more knowledgeable about the myriad cards that exist and deck play styles and things. While I do realize that this idea may not take the world by storm, I still want to make it happen.
The goal was to either slow them down or force them to overextend into wraths, then win with superior creatures in the late game. Here's an example list:
Later versions changed things around. More removal, yes, still things to control the early game. I added more legendary Angels, splashing a symbol each of green and red to have Sigarda, Host of Herons and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. It was kind of one of those decks where any given Angel came down and made things hard for the opponent.
Of course, when this deck was made originally in 2012, there was a lot yet to come out, and things I didn't know about. Cavern of Souls, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and other things. Now, even more stuff is out, and I'm more than a little out of the loop.
Over time, I feel like it lost cohesion, or maybe I just wasn't aware of everything that is there. I've tried versions with Angel of Jubilation (so fun to stuff fetches and other mechanics), Archangel of Tithes, different legendaries (I love Avacyn so much). I considered splashing a bit more green for Time of Need and just building a deck that straight up tutors for a given legendary Angel to suit a particular need.
Lots more stuff has come out, including Giada, and now white is (slowly) getting access to card draw and, at least in the one case, conditional mana ramp. I'm looking at maybe going back to that original concept: a tempo control deck that disrupts the early game and wins late with superior creatures.
I've even considered using Silence as a way of stopping main phase spells for a turn, having an early game way to say "no creatures this turn" to most decks or the like. Play it on their upkeep, buy yourself some time early. I've used Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to help slow down things, and Leyline of Sanctity for both devotion and to prevent discard, burn, mill, etc. from directly targeting me.
Does any of this make sense? I really want to make this deck work. I'm looking at things like The Book of Exalted Deeds, Giada, Lyra Dawnbringer, maybe something like Oust over Path (because ramping the opponent hurts more than their gaining life; we don't care about life gain because if we win, our creatures will beat down a few extra points of life). I've wondered about Settle the Wreckage or other wraths. There's also Resplendent Angel and even things like Segovian Angel to consider.
Basically, any advice you can give me on how to build a unique deck like the one I used to have would be so very appreciated. Bonus points if if includes any form of Avacyn, who was my favorite creature in all of Magic, and I was so angry they killed her off. I could also use some advice on sideboard stuff. I liked having answers for lots of different things in the deck, and I liked being able to adapt to different threats. Here's hoping we can make something workable!
There are many cards with mana value of 6 and greater and little interaction. It might be better to build the deck for commander.
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pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
I hate to say it but wanting to "Make a deck work" and wanting to make a deck that "works in modern" are mutually exclusive tasks 99% of the time. Unless you are playing a casual format like (most of) Commander, decks emerge not from a desire to do something specific but as a natural response of using whatever happens to be most powerful. "Brewing" in a competitive context refers to the incidental discovering of synergies and using them to try to get ahead of the meta (finding and using the deck that happens to be the most powerful first, not forcing a deck to be powerful).
You could make a reanimator deck if you really wanted but there are better reanimator targets than angel and you are shooting yourself in the foot by using angels. You can try to use the obscure white counters and control tools but you are hamstringing your decks by keeping to mono white and not using the better tricks in other colors.
Making "the best possible" white angel deck that happens to be modern legal is a realistic goal. The current meta and card pool do not appear to allow for a competitive angel modern deck.
I would also advise you that even if an angel deck DOES emerge in the future, the versions of the deck that work may not be the version you want. Consider that decks called "Delver decks" may not include delver of secets and that "Affinity decks" have long run few to no actual cards with affinity for artifacts. Even if an "Angels" deck emerges, it is more than likely that it will be running exactly 1 angel (maybe 2 if the stars align) in it as part of a hyper efficient combo.
Well, let's try to make it as strong as we can. It's something I would play competitively, say. It doesn't matter to me if it actually succeeds. I just want to build a shell for it.
I hate to say it but wanting to "Make a deck work" and wanting to make a deck that "works in modern" are mutually exclusive tasks 99% of the time. Unless you are playing a casual format like (most of) Commander, decks emerge not from a desire to do something specific but as a natural response of using whatever happens to be most powerful. "Brewing" in a competitive context refers to the incidental discovering of synergies and using them to try to get ahead of the meta (finding and using the deck that happens to be the most powerful first, not forcing a deck to be powerful).
Hey, Rosy. I always liked your comments on the spoiler pages!
You are right about all this, but I'm just trying to make a bit of a rogue deck, if possible. One of the problems is that I simply don't know all the cards that are out there like a lot of the really experienced people seem to, the way they know everything. And I thought someone might help me develop a new idea.
You could make a reanimator deck if you really wanted but there are better reanimator targets than angel and you are shooting yourself in the foot by using angels. You can try to use the obscure white counters and control tools but you are hamstringing your decks by keeping to mono white and not using the better tricks in other colors.
I am not necessarily opposed to going other colors, but I would very much like to keep this an Angel-centric deck. I do like the idea of a tempo control kind of thing, disrupting and stalling until we get to the high-powered Angels who will win in the late game.
Making "the best possible" white angel deck that happens to be modern legal is a realistic goal. The current meta and card pool do not appear to allow for a competitive angel modern deck.
This I am okay with. I am stubborn and silly enough to try anyway. I'd like to see what the "best possible Angel deck in Modern" is like. We can keep it mono-white or add in some other colors. I'm mostly just curious what's out there that would help with this purpose.
I would also advise you that even if an angel deck DOES emerge in the future, the versions of the deck that work may not be the version you want. Consider that decks called "Delver decks" may not include delver of secets and that "Affinity decks" have long run few to no actual cards with affinity for artifacts. Even if an "Angels" deck emerges, it is more than likely that it will be running exactly 1 angel (maybe 2 if the stars align) in it as part of a hyper efficient combo.
Right. Unfortunately for me, I'm a total sucker for strong themes in a deck. I like stuff to tell a bit of a story, not just jam all the best things of a color together. Sadly, most card games seem to make you choose between "strong" and "fun," at least to me, because theme stuff doesn't often work. My Elf deck was pretty strong.
Anyway. If there's something we can do along these lines, I'd like to see what it is!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
She was made of November rain
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
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I am such a huge Angel fan in Magic. They're my favorite thing, even more than dinosaurs, and anyone who knows me knows how much I love dinosaurs! I wanted so badly to make a cool Angel deck in Modern. I did have one for a time, which was pretty unique. It used Mana Tithe, Lapse of Certainty, Wrath of God, Dawn Charm, Porphyry Nodes, and some other things early. It also utilized Quicksilver Amulet to get out some powerful Angels: Chancellor of the Annex, Angelic Arbiter, Sunblast Angel, Baneslayer Angel. Then there were three legendary Angels in the original build: Reya Dawnbringer, Iona, Shield of Emeria, and Akroma, Angel of Wrath.
The goal was to either slow them down or force them to overextend into wraths, then win with superior creatures in the late game. Here's an example list:
4x Chancellor of the Annex
3x Sunblast Angel
3x Angelic Arbiter
1x Reya Dawnbringer
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Akroma, Angel of Vengeance
3x Austere Command (think I ended up subbing this out for Wrath of God)
4x Mana Tithe
4x Lapse of Certainty
3x Rebuff the Wicked
Artifacts and Enchantments
4x Coalition Relic
3x Endless Horizons
2x Resurrection
4x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
20x Plains
Later versions changed things around. More removal, yes, still things to control the early game. I added more legendary Angels, splashing a symbol each of green and red to have Sigarda, Host of Herons and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. It was kind of one of those decks where any given Angel came down and made things hard for the opponent.
Of course, when this deck was made originally in 2012, there was a lot yet to come out, and things I didn't know about. Cavern of Souls, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and other things. Now, even more stuff is out, and I'm more than a little out of the loop.
Here's one later version:
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
3x Angelic Arbiter
2x Austere Command
1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
4x Chancellor of the Annex
3x Sunblast Angel
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
4x Mana Tithe
3x Rebuff the Wicked
3x Silence
4x Quicksilver Amulet
3x Endless Horizons
4x Emeria, The Sky Ruin
19x Plains
Over time, I feel like it lost cohesion, or maybe I just wasn't aware of everything that is there. I've tried versions with Angel of Jubilation (so fun to stuff fetches and other mechanics), Archangel of Tithes, different legendaries (I love Avacyn so much). I considered splashing a bit more green for Time of Need and just building a deck that straight up tutors for a given legendary Angel to suit a particular need.
Lots more stuff has come out, including Giada, and now white is (slowly) getting access to card draw and, at least in the one case, conditional mana ramp. I'm looking at maybe going back to that original concept: a tempo control deck that disrupts the early game and wins late with superior creatures.
I've even considered using Silence as a way of stopping main phase spells for a turn, having an early game way to say "no creatures this turn" to most decks or the like. Play it on their upkeep, buy yourself some time early. I've used Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to help slow down things, and Leyline of Sanctity for both devotion and to prevent discard, burn, mill, etc. from directly targeting me.
Does any of this make sense? I really want to make this deck work. I'm looking at things like The Book of Exalted Deeds, Giada, Lyra Dawnbringer, maybe something like Oust over Path (because ramping the opponent hurts more than their gaining life; we don't care about life gain because if we win, our creatures will beat down a few extra points of life). I've wondered about Settle the Wreckage or other wraths. There's also Resplendent Angel and even things like Segovian Angel to consider.
Basically, any advice you can give me on how to build a unique deck like the one I used to have would be so very appreciated. Bonus points if if includes any form of Avacyn, who was my favorite creature in all of Magic, and I was so angry they killed her off. I could also use some advice on sideboard stuff. I liked having answers for lots of different things in the deck, and I liked being able to adapt to different threats. Here's hoping we can make something workable!
Thank you!
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
There are many cards with mana value of 6 and greater and little interaction. It might be better to build the deck for commander.
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation
You could make a reanimator deck if you really wanted but there are better reanimator targets than angel and you are shooting yourself in the foot by using angels. You can try to use the obscure white counters and control tools but you are hamstringing your decks by keeping to mono white and not using the better tricks in other colors.
Making "the best possible" white angel deck that happens to be modern legal is a realistic goal. The current meta and card pool do not appear to allow for a competitive angel modern deck.
I would also advise you that even if an angel deck DOES emerge in the future, the versions of the deck that work may not be the version you want. Consider that decks called "Delver decks" may not include delver of secets and that "Affinity decks" have long run few to no actual cards with affinity for artifacts. Even if an "Angels" deck emerges, it is more than likely that it will be running exactly 1 angel (maybe 2 if the stars align) in it as part of a hyper efficient combo.
Well, let's try to make it as strong as we can. It's something I would play competitively, say. It doesn't matter to me if it actually succeeds. I just want to build a shell for it.
I know, but I don't like a lot of things about Commander, so I want to try to make a typical 60-carder out of the idea, if possible.
Hey, Rosy. I always liked your comments on the spoiler pages!
You are right about all this, but I'm just trying to make a bit of a rogue deck, if possible. One of the problems is that I simply don't know all the cards that are out there like a lot of the really experienced people seem to, the way they know everything. And I thought someone might help me develop a new idea.
I am not necessarily opposed to going other colors, but I would very much like to keep this an Angel-centric deck. I do like the idea of a tempo control kind of thing, disrupting and stalling until we get to the high-powered Angels who will win in the late game.
This I am okay with. I am stubborn and silly enough to try anyway. I'd like to see what the "best possible Angel deck in Modern" is like. We can keep it mono-white or add in some other colors. I'm mostly just curious what's out there that would help with this purpose.
Right. Unfortunately for me, I'm a total sucker for strong themes in a deck. I like stuff to tell a bit of a story, not just jam all the best things of a color together. Sadly, most card games seem to make you choose between "strong" and "fun," at least to me, because theme stuff doesn't often work. My Elf deck was pretty strong.
Anyway. If there's something we can do along these lines, I'd like to see what it is!
Pleasure and pain
Scorpion stings
Pretty things
and the flames of Phoenix wings
—Michelle Schaper
4 Bishop of Wings
3 The Book of Exalted Deeds
4 Giada, Font of Hope
4 Righteous Valkyrie
4 Martyr of Sands
3 Kaya's Guile
4 faceless haven
pucatrade
big receipts
alpha mox emerald
beta time walk
4 goyfs received
3 liliana of the veil
4 karn liberated
3 force of will
4 grove of the burnwillows
snapcaster mage
3 horizon canopy
2 full art damnation