Given that I got a new LGS finally after six months off, I am trying to cycle through and play each of my decks at least once as I work on some new decks as well. I played Gisela this last week in the first game of the night. Ironically they were mad at me for playing an aggressive deck where I spread out my commander damage rather than running them down one at a time.
T1: Plains, Sol Ring T2: Plains, Commander (Meren plays a rat) T3:Ancient Tomb, The Immortal Sun I roll and random attack which gets me attacking Meren. (Meren plays Descendants' Path and pokes me.) T4: land, Azor's Gateway, Fireshrieker + equip to Gisela. Cycle a card with the gateway and throw away an excess land. The Immortal Sun helps me with its cost reduction. I roll and random attack Zacama. Shalai plays Archangel of Tithes, Zacama ramps, Meren blows up my Immortal Sun. T5:Mind's Eye and I attack Meren in part as vengeance for blowing up my Immortal Sun and also in part because I didn't want to pay to attack Shalai right now. Meren plays a few more rats and I think Zacoma did a little more ramp. Shalai seems to be waiting for more mana to play some angels and such. T6: I cant recall what I did this turn but I was short from being able to lethal Meren so I clocked Zacama putting him one swing from death. I pass turn and draw some more cards. Meren plays more rats and attacks me for 12. Zacama plays Dictate of the Twin Gods and brings it to 24. T7: I swing for 16 commander due to Fireshrieker + Dictate of the Twin Gods and kill Meren. I play Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and fire for 6 damage killing Archangel of Tithes. Both opponents struggle to play anything into double damage Ugin. T8: I play Avacyn and put 16 damage on Shalai. Zacama concedes and Shalai cant go on in 1v1.
Apparently Shalai was about to Iona, Shield of Emeria me near the end but seemed to stumble on lands a little in the mid game (not to mention I was set up fairly good to counter it).
DECK CHANGES:
Golden Guardian -> Avarice Amulet - There is a lot of concern in that I am playing voltron and the gardian misses ramping into my commander not to mention it needs to fight to flip and Gisela needs a toughness buff to live through fighting it. Making this swap gives me more clock and still card advantage for Gisela. I have had on and off issues with Avarice but still, I am kind of waiting for more cards that fit and improve my list more than this card I guess.
Heliod, God of the Sun -> Hobble Heliod is.... just kind of ok. Sure he is stable but I have never found him to be that good of a play. Hobble can be thrown out to just cycle a card and against opposing voltron or vs a big attacker it buys me time and it cycles itself nicely.
Profound Journey -> Sunblast Angel - I have wanted more one sided wraths and I like that sunblast lets me trade punches with someone else with a superior attacking force.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
With M19 arround the corner I guess I will mention that I am already looking forward to a few cards:
Resplendent Angel - So, there is the downside that this angel triggers at 5 life gained in a turn but we are a voltron deck so that seems acceptable. It really seems similar to another Angelic Accord type effect. The downside is that being on a 3/3 creature probably makes it weaker and the cost to buy the new angel is going to cost me more than I think its probably worth in this deck but still I think it will be good given I could pay 3 mana for 7/7 worth of flying angels and the potential to make more later.
Ajani's Influence - The mana for two +1/+1 counters is not great, but it does draw into another card. I counted in the list and a little over 1/3 of my deck is white cards so it should be a fairly safe assumption that it will draw into another card. Overall, I don't think its amazing but it does things I want which is to improve my commander and cantrip.
I suspect I will try to get my hands on a copy of each for this deck. Its likely my Abzan deck will also try to run the angel so I might buy a single copy and shift it between the two while waiting for prices to drop.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Cleansing Nova - I like the versatility in the wrath here. Its not as good as Austere Command but I could see it maybe still being interesting. I might think on it for a bit.
Resplendent Angel - hitting opponents somewhat hard with my lifelinking commander is sort of what this deck strives to do. I like the potential amount of power for the mana it gives with this as well as the fact that I could play this after combat happens and still get the angel. The one smallish concern I have about this card is that it needs 5 life gained which is more than my commander naturally does but I want to try it out at least I think. I don't really think it should be a huge issue overall.
Chaos Wand - ultimately its interesting but 7 mana to play and use it seems hefty for somewhat unknown value. I think I would prefer it more in a deck that would want to cast wraths a little more often if it finds them.
Transmogrifying Wand - From the standpoint that my commander flies and gives me a ton of life, turning my opponents solid creatures into junk tokens is really not a problem. There is also quite a bit of over time value in this card and it might be hard for opponents to just play into this.
Commander 2018:
Boreas Charger - my issue is more that it doesn't fit the deck well. I am not a sac deck and its timing is poor for here.
Empyrial Storm - I am not a token swarm based deck and while it could possibly make a good size for the mana. Overall though it just seems kind of slow upfront.
Heavenly Blademaster - The problems are kind of that this takes the buffs from my voltron strategy and ultimately I am not just in on equipment and auras for my commander. I also don't really have swarm tactics so its a little bit of an odd fit here.
Loyal Unicorn - Given that I already have flying + first strike on my commander I feel like the damage prevention of this bugger is kind of diminished and mostly it seems to be vigilance which I think I can get better elsewhere.
Magus of the Balance - It doesn't seem like it fits this type of deck that well. It could be some token defense but overall it seems like a slow effect outside of decks that have some sort of direct synergy with it which this deck seems to not have.
Endless Atlas - hummmm solid efficient card advantage that does not rely on my commander to function. I like it and will see where I can get it in my list.
Forge of Heroes - its not huge but I do like that it gives me a little bump to my commander's size while still giving me mana. It seems like a great little addition to a mono color voltron deck like this.
Guilds of Ravnica:
Candlelight Vigil - this turns Gisela into a 3 turn clock as well as giving her vigilance to defend and a back end a bit bigger to make some of red's removal options less ideal. My only real issue is that it is on a fragile aura and not an equipment. The cost to cast this is solid and the size + vigilance buffs are all great its just a question of if the fact that its an aura is too fragile or not.
Citywide Bust - its a really cool wrath that only gets big things but realistically I have two issues with it. First of all there is the fact that this is a voltron deck so there might be an issue with the fact that not all buffs are power only so buffing up Gisela might be sort of sabotage for this later. The other issue is that I very much don't want to omit killing tokens as they are very much troublemakers. I think this effect is super cool but ultimately it falls a little flat in that it doesn't give me choices of how to use it.
Crush Contraband - It is..... sort of like another Return to Dust card but it has some situational elements to it. It is nice that its actually an instant where as Return to Dust has always felt like a sorcery to me. Given that I run Forsake the Worldly and almost never feel that I can cycle it I might try to swap this new version in for it due to the added efficiency for just one more mana.
Dawn of Hope - in a lot of ways this reminds me a little of a commander centric Endless Atlas effect but there are interesting things it can trigger off of as well. Additional lifelinkers like Archangel of Thune could trigger it not to mention double strike and triggers like Umezawa's Jitte (lifegain effect) could trigger it separately. The token making effect is interesting to me as well as edict defense or potentially additional sources of lifegain triggers.
DECK CHANGES:
Wall of Omens -> Crush Contraband I like wall of omens but really other than it being cheap and cantriping there is an issue that it really does not fit this list well. I had been contemplating more options of removal and with Crush Contraband having just come out I want to give it a shot. Wall of Omens can always come back in but ultimately its just a cheap cantrip with little other purpose here. I am adding a few other card advantage effects with these changes which is part of why I feel ok with removing this cantrip.
Solemn Simulacrum -> Endless Atlas Solem always hits at the wrong time which is why I am cutting him. He really is small card advantage / ramp but I don't want to play him on four or five mana generally which really makes him worse. He mostly is in here to play off curve and cantrip later for me and at that rate I think I am happy to move to the newer draw effect of the Atlas.
Sunblast Angel -> Resplendent Angel in my old meta more people would use combat to win where as I see more all in one turn wins in the new meta which is why I am shifting away from it. I want to see how the new angel performs in here even with some of the challenges of it needing 5 life gain with a 4 powered lifelink commander.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth -> Transmogrifying Wand I wanted to lessen my eldrazi count in here. I like the other Kozilek a lot more in here given the control it gives rather than the annihilate. Bringing down my eldrazi count will lessen my curve a bit and to be honest this kozilek seemed more awkward than the new one for this deck. I want to try out the wand here in part because of how it can deny value creatures and really slow down opponents who rely on value commanders. It would be a giant pain in the ass if anyone ever steals this from me but artifact theft / clones seems super rare.
Hobble -> Dawn of Hope I think Hobble is still decent but ultimately its just not what I need right now for the meta I am in. With less reliance on combat for wins / them going big swarm I just want the card advantage mostly and with that want I like the new enchantment a lot more as it fits this deck's wants much better.
Temple of the False God -> Forge of Heroes the temple is good but it can screw my opening up so when I was making room for the new Forge which I think does give some great mid / late game pump for my commander it felt better than more mana especially given that temple can screw up my start.
soooooo it seems like every time I look at new cards I put Avarice Amulet back up on the chopping block. Its.... still in there though. Some of these changes just have to do with some of my meta and wierd things they do but ultimately I felt that a lot of these new cards were cool synergy with what the deck wants to do. Candlelight Vigil was ultimately the only new card I thought did fit here well but I didn't include mostly because I had a hard time making room for it due to the fact that it is an aura and thus card disadvantage if and when I do get answered. Its a bit unfortunate though as I think its a super cool card but most of the things I considered cutting for it were more robust and less glass cannon like if I do walk into an answer.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
The game was a 4 player FFA with opponents being Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Zacama, Primal Calamity, and Meren of Clan Nel Toth (Rat Colony build). We rolled and I believe I was third in turn order.
T1: Plains, Sol Ring
T2: Plains, Commander (Meren plays a rat)
T3: Ancient Tomb, The Immortal Sun I roll and random attack which gets me attacking Meren. (Meren plays Descendants' Path and pokes me.)
T4: land, Azor's Gateway, Fireshrieker + equip to Gisela. Cycle a card with the gateway and throw away an excess land. The Immortal Sun helps me with its cost reduction. I roll and random attack Zacama. Shalai plays Archangel of Tithes, Zacama ramps, Meren blows up my Immortal Sun.
T5: Mind's Eye and I attack Meren in part as vengeance for blowing up my Immortal Sun and also in part because I didn't want to pay to attack Shalai right now. Meren plays a few more rats and I think Zacoma did a little more ramp. Shalai seems to be waiting for more mana to play some angels and such.
T6: I cant recall what I did this turn but I was short from being able to lethal Meren so I clocked Zacama putting him one swing from death. I pass turn and draw some more cards. Meren plays more rats and attacks me for 12. Zacama plays Dictate of the Twin Gods and brings it to 24.
T7: I swing for 16 commander due to Fireshrieker + Dictate of the Twin Gods and kill Meren. I play Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and fire for 6 damage killing Archangel of Tithes. Both opponents struggle to play anything into double damage Ugin.
T8: I play Avacyn and put 16 damage on Shalai. Zacama concedes and Shalai cant go on in 1v1.
Apparently Shalai was about to Iona, Shield of Emeria me near the end but seemed to stumble on lands a little in the mid game (not to mention I was set up fairly good to counter it).
DECK CHANGES:
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
I suspect I will try to get my hands on a copy of each for this deck. Its likely my Abzan deck will also try to run the angel so I might buy a single copy and shift it between the two while waiting for prices to drop.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Commander 2018:
Guilds of Ravnica:
DECK CHANGES:
soooooo it seems like every time I look at new cards I put Avarice Amulet back up on the chopping block. Its.... still in there though. Some of these changes just have to do with some of my meta and wierd things they do but ultimately I felt that a lot of these new cards were cool synergy with what the deck wants to do. Candlelight Vigil was ultimately the only new card I thought did fit here well but I didn't include mostly because I had a hard time making room for it due to the fact that it is an aura and thus card disadvantage if and when I do get answered. Its a bit unfortunate though as I think its a super cool card but most of the things I considered cutting for it were more robust and less glass cannon like if I do walk into an answer.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies