Overall, It went well.
There were some games where i thought it was over on turn two due to a mediocre hand and a bad draw, but then i'd hit what i needed(or E.call) on turn three and gain control of the board.
I won a game by:
Turn 1- stomping ground, elf
Turn 2- temple garden, Sprawl(white), tap-untap-tap cast garruk, make beast token
Turn 3- fetch sacred foundry untapped, -1 garruk, cast aurelia, swing in for 7, swing in for 7, friend conceeded.
I think it's pretty neat how the deck pulled an early win with a random hand and one threat.
The games where i got flooded with lands weren't too prosperous. I only hit courser in one of those games and it helped get fresh draws, but. That doesn't really help when those fresh draws are more land.
E.Call rocks. Being able to use unused mana that's held for beast within at opponents EoT to grab a threat is just the mid-late game push this deck needed.
ok, the list needs cheaper interaction. Fast decks like infect would kill you easy.
-2 Boros Charm -2 Beast Within, +4 Lightning Bolt
-3 Courser of Kruphix + 3 Eternal Witness, to help bring back dead angels and feeders.
why do you have aurelia and gisela? they could easily be banelslayer angels for more deck speed.
Gosh, i haven't played against infect in forever.
I still have to assemble most of an updated sideboard. I know that Chalice of the Void puts in work against most fast decks, while Leyline of Sanctity helps against a decent chunk of decks as well. That means i've got 7-8 spots open in my sideboard, but i wasn't really thinking about that until i have the main pile tweaked and consistent. I'm planning on having a mix of bolt and path in my sideboard, i just haven't thought about what the numbers will be yet. With that said, i think Beast Within pulls too much weight to cut for Bolt. I can cast it a decent amount of the time on turn two and it can deal with just about any permanent. I'll give it a shot, though.
Great suggestion with Eternal Witness. I'm content with pulling a combo piece that got blasted out of my deck with E.Call, but more options are always nice. I'll have to test Witness and see if it fits.
Aurelia and Gisela kill on the turn they come down. Aurelia moreso than Gisela. So, i've been thinking of cutting Gisela to stick in a Baneslayer, like you and Weltkrieg have suggested.
I could also cut Garruk for more control in the main 60, considering he's been feeling "win-more" lately and i don't really need him to hit 6 mana early.
I'm excited to see how it works.
I've been contemplating cutting Garruk and finding a different means of ramp to replace him with. Got any suggestions?
Lyra and Shalai seem like they'd help enough to warrant testing. I'll have to give them a shot.
I cut a gisela and Aurelia to test Eladamri's Call. I have to say, it seems to make a difference whenever i draw Call. I still feel Aurelia and Gisela have a place in the deck, though. Tutor at opponent's eot, grab whichever will help you win on your turn, cast in your mainphase, gg. Basically, grab Aurelia if gisela can't help multiply damage into lethal. Grab Gisela if you're in a pinch and need to extend your life, or if she can create lethal with one swing.
Do you think a one-of Elvish Piper would be a good move if i go all-in on a Call toolbox to cheat a drawn bomb out?
Courser is decently useful early-mid game. He can block chumps, gain me life, speed up drawing into more gas by letting me play the top card of my library if it's a land, and has pretty good synergy with Archangel of Thune. If/when Courser starts growing, he's considered a threat after a couple +1/+1 counters.
I agree on not having enough control. The goal of this deck is to rush somebody with angels as fast as possible, but having a card heavy ramp system makes working in control elements tough. That's why i had my control in the sideboard(chalice, blood moon). I'll have to look at commands and swiss army knife cards to see if i can find any that do multiple things i'm either lacking or have now but could replace.
Boros Charm has pulled a lot of weight and still does. Critical life range for opponents is 4, which has won games. Double strike is used a decent amount to win on swing during turn 4. Indestructible creatures beat Damnation, Wrath, ect. I, personally, think Boros Charm is a boss in this deck. It's won me a lot of games in different ways and i never wish it's a different card when i draw it. I hope that answers your question.
That's not a bad idea, adding redundancy with beast within-esque destruction. Moreorless, the only reason i use Volcanic fallout is because of lingering souls. So, you're probably right in saying winds won't function properly against it. With Hogaak banned, the only big threat i need to worry about in the early game is Primeval Titan, but Beast Within deals with him.
I don't use Path becausei've never really been big on ramping my opponents. There aren't many early game flyers that this deck can't compete with, either. The goal is to ramp on the first two turns and then drop bombs third turn and later. This is why this deck needs an arbor elf and sprawl 5-6. Increasing consistency of elf + enchant land(Wild Growth should be modern) in opening hand would turn this deck into a whole new pile.
Anyway. Hitting lines like:
T1: Land, elf
T2: Land, sprawl, Garruk. Or elf -in a cobra, drop and crack fetch, courser. Or any other possible ramp combo the cards give you. I'm not too worried about smaller creatures that can be bolted because this deck can deal with them already. I'm not afraid to turn a Dark Confidant or Tarmogoyf into a 3/3 beast, if i have to. But, a little extra burn aimed at opponents might not be a bad idea... Back to path for a second: It could help ramp as well, if path is in your hand but you have no charm to keep a bomb alive. It doesn't seem like something that would be frequent, but something for me to think on, nonetheless. What would you chop to add in your preferred mixture of Bolt/Path?
Eladamri's call is a good tutor, to be sure. That said, does it do what you need it to do? It makes more angels maindeck able. For example, you could consider sigarda, gisela, etc, as the case may be. It takes you from beatdown midrange to toolbox midrange.
Some powerful cards that were printed?
veil of summer is a powerful protection spell...so powerful that it's banned in 2 formats now. Once upon a time is quite similar. It allows a ton of consistency to all sorts of decks with green in them. winds of abandon is a powerful one sided wrath, may be worth it as a 2 of. It's not path to exile, but it can clear the way for your victory
Once Upon a Time seems like it could help a decent amount, as well as possibly find that missing piece to end the game early. Or, hit the wincon you need mid-late game to close out a grind.
Winds could definitely replace Vallcanic Fallout, or pair with it for extra removal. I feel like it would be better to drop fallout instead of beast within, If winds works like i think it will. Thoughts?
You can think what uou want, it doesn't change the results i've had with this deck.
What results? What results you on about? Some results that are 3 years old? Alright old man...
Yes, because that's All the testing that's ever been done./sarcasm
C'mon, man. If you don't have an actual input on the deck other than," it's not competitive," or any constructive criticism, especially without seeing it played, feel free to find a thread you Will do that in.
It's close to the same as before. I've tested a couple different angels and wasn't a fan of them. They tested out as less aggressive than what's already in the deck and didn't add a good control factor. The biggest upgrade i made was finally replacing KotR with Spike Feeder. With how fast modern was over the past year, i needed a quick "oops, infinite life," button. I'll update the OP after i finish this post.
Any thought on adding Eladamri's Call for added Archangel/spike feeder lifegain?
I haven't paid much attention to new sets over the past few years other than Horizons, unfortunately. Are there any newer control/protection spells that make something in the list/sideboard obsolete?
You can think what uou want, it doesn't change the results i've had with this deck.
There's a lot of ways you can build an angel deck. Build a version best suited for you and your playstyle to see the best results. The same can be said for any deck idea.
Hedron Crab is mean, but you have to pair it with 8-10 fetchlands( Polluted Delta, Misty Rainforest, etc.). Milling 3-6 cards each turn just from dropping your land for the turn is great.
Use a few sweepers in your main deck, or have them in your sideboard. I use Damnation, but there are other good ones.
Surgical Extraction and Extirpate put in work. You can extract anything but basic lands, which means you can attack any deck from any angle. People blast me for playing 6 extraction spells in my main and 2 in my sideboard, but it gives me the chance to pull the rug right out from underneath opponents by crippling their land base right off the bat.
I'm pretty sure the actual mill thread is in the established decks area, if you'd like to see years of peoples opinions on certain cards and how they thought testing them went.
I say you'd want lord of riots(LoR) to ramp and use the other two as your beatsticks and late game control. The downsides to LoR is that you need to make somebody lose life And have 2 red and two black mana. The solution? Red ramp.
Chandra, along wiuth a few Gut Shots, will take care of one of the requirements to cast LoR.
You'll need something that'll buy you a few turns, which Blood Moon is pretty decent at. If you have any doubt about not having the proper mana, you could always run Manamorphose.
If you want to add madness into the deck as well, you'll like how fast using red ramp empties your hand to enable the abilitu.
There were some games where i thought it was over on turn two due to a mediocre hand and a bad draw, but then i'd hit what i needed(or E.call) on turn three and gain control of the board.
I won a game by:
Turn 1- stomping ground, elf
Turn 2- temple garden, Sprawl(white), tap-untap-tap cast garruk, make beast token
Turn 3- fetch sacred foundry untapped, -1 garruk, cast aurelia, swing in for 7, swing in for 7, friend conceeded.
I think it's pretty neat how the deck pulled an early win with a random hand and one threat.
The games where i got flooded with lands weren't too prosperous. I only hit courser in one of those games and it helped get fresh draws, but. That doesn't really help when those fresh draws are more land.
E.Call rocks. Being able to use unused mana that's held for beast within at opponents EoT to grab a threat is just the mid-late game push this deck needed.
I've only one question:
Kessig Wolf Run or Gavony Township?
4 Arbor Elf
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Courser of Kruphix
2 Eternal Witness
4 Spike Feeder
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
4 Archangel of Thune
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Eladamri's Call
3 Beast Within
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
Land(22):
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
4 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
I cut boros charm for eternal witness and dropped Gisela to fit in a Baneslayer.
I'm going to test it against some friends tonight. It should be ineresting, to say the least.
Gosh, i haven't played against infect in forever.
I still have to assemble most of an updated sideboard. I know that Chalice of the Void puts in work against most fast decks, while Leyline of Sanctity helps against a decent chunk of decks as well. That means i've got 7-8 spots open in my sideboard, but i wasn't really thinking about that until i have the main pile tweaked and consistent. I'm planning on having a mix of bolt and path in my sideboard, i just haven't thought about what the numbers will be yet. With that said, i think Beast Within pulls too much weight to cut for Bolt. I can cast it a decent amount of the time on turn two and it can deal with just about any permanent. I'll give it a shot, though.
Great suggestion with Eternal Witness. I'm content with pulling a combo piece that got blasted out of my deck with E.Call, but more options are always nice. I'll have to test Witness and see if it fits.
Aurelia and Gisela kill on the turn they come down. Aurelia moreso than Gisela. So, i've been thinking of cutting Gisela to stick in a Baneslayer, like you and Weltkrieg have suggested.
I could also cut Garruk for more control in the main 60, considering he's been feeling "win-more" lately and i don't really need him to hit 6 mana early.
4 Arbor Elf
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Courser of Kruphix
4 Spike Feeder
4 Archangel of Thune
1 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Shalai, Voice of plenty
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
4 Utopia Sprawl
2 Boros Charm
3 Eladamri's Call
3 Beast Within
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
Land(22):
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
4 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Forest
2 Plains
I'm excited to see how it works.
I've been contemplating cutting Garruk and finding a different means of ramp to replace him with. Got any suggestions?
-4 Baneslayer Angel
+2 Lyra Dawnbringer
+1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
+1 Beast Within
Also, thoughts on Angel's Grace?
I cut a gisela and Aurelia to test Eladamri's Call. I have to say, it seems to make a difference whenever i draw Call. I still feel Aurelia and Gisela have a place in the deck, though. Tutor at opponent's eot, grab whichever will help you win on your turn, cast in your mainphase, gg. Basically, grab Aurelia if gisela can't help multiply damage into lethal. Grab Gisela if you're in a pinch and need to extend your life, or if she can create lethal with one swing.
Do you think a one-of Elvish Piper would be a good move if i go all-in on a Call toolbox to cheat a drawn bomb out?
Courser is decently useful early-mid game. He can block chumps, gain me life, speed up drawing into more gas by letting me play the top card of my library if it's a land, and has pretty good synergy with Archangel of Thune. If/when Courser starts growing, he's considered a threat after a couple +1/+1 counters.
I agree on not having enough control. The goal of this deck is to rush somebody with angels as fast as possible, but having a card heavy ramp system makes working in control elements tough. That's why i had my control in the sideboard(chalice, blood moon). I'll have to look at commands and swiss army knife cards to see if i can find any that do multiple things i'm either lacking or have now but could replace.
That's not a bad idea, adding redundancy with beast within-esque destruction. Moreorless, the only reason i use Volcanic fallout is because of lingering souls. So, you're probably right in saying winds won't function properly against it. With Hogaak banned, the only big threat i need to worry about in the early game is Primeval Titan, but Beast Within deals with him.
I don't use Path becausei've never really been big on ramping my opponents. There aren't many early game flyers that this deck can't compete with, either. The goal is to ramp on the first two turns and then drop bombs third turn and later. This is why this deck needs an arbor elf and sprawl 5-6. Increasing consistency of elf + enchant land(Wild Growth should be modern) in opening hand would turn this deck into a whole new pile.
Anyway. Hitting lines like:
T1: Land, elf
T2: Land, sprawl, Garruk. Or elf -in a cobra, drop and crack fetch, courser. Or any other possible ramp combo the cards give you. I'm not too worried about smaller creatures that can be bolted because this deck can deal with them already. I'm not afraid to turn a Dark Confidant or Tarmogoyf into a 3/3 beast, if i have to. But, a little extra burn aimed at opponents might not be a bad idea... Back to path for a second: It could help ramp as well, if path is in your hand but you have no charm to keep a bomb alive. It doesn't seem like something that would be frequent, but something for me to think on, nonetheless. What would you chop to add in your preferred mixture of Bolt/Path?
Once Upon a Time seems like it could help a decent amount, as well as possibly find that missing piece to end the game early. Or, hit the wincon you need mid-late game to close out a grind.
Winds could definitely replace Vallcanic Fallout, or pair with it for extra removal. I feel like it would be better to drop fallout instead of beast within, If winds works like i think it will. Thoughts?
Yes, because that's All the testing that's ever been done./sarcasm
C'mon, man. If you don't have an actual input on the deck other than," it's not competitive," or any constructive criticism, especially without seeing it played, feel free to find a thread you Will do that in.
Any thought on adding Eladamri's Call for added Archangel/spike feeder lifegain?
I haven't paid much attention to new sets over the past few years other than Horizons, unfortunately. Are there any newer control/protection spells that make something in the list/sideboard obsolete?
There's a lot of ways you can build an angel deck. Build a version best suited for you and your playstyle to see the best results. The same can be said for any deck idea.
Any reason why you want to use blue?
Use a few sweepers in your main deck, or have them in your sideboard. I use Damnation, but there are other good ones.
Surgical Extraction and Extirpate put in work. You can extract anything but basic lands, which means you can attack any deck from any angle. People blast me for playing 6 extraction spells in my main and 2 in my sideboard, but it gives me the chance to pull the rug right out from underneath opponents by crippling their land base right off the bat.
I'm pretty sure the actual mill thread is in the established decks area, if you'd like to see years of peoples opinions on certain cards and how they thought testing them went.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Rakdos the Defiler
Rakdos, the Showstopper
I say you'd want lord of riots(LoR) to ramp and use the other two as your beatsticks and late game control. The downsides to LoR is that you need to make somebody lose life And have 2 red and two black mana. The solution? Red ramp.
Things like:
Desperate Ritual
Pyretic Ritual
Simian Spirit Guide
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Koth of the Hammer
Chandra, along wiuth a few Gut Shots, will take care of one of the requirements to cast LoR.
You'll need something that'll buy you a few turns, which Blood Moon is pretty decent at. If you have any doubt about not having the proper mana, you could always run Manamorphose.
If you want to add madness into the deck as well, you'll like how fast using red ramp empties your hand to enable the abilitu.