Magic: The Gathering - Angel Deck
I played my first round of Magic: The Gathering last weekend with a couple buddies. It was a ton of fun, despite the fact I was struggling to keep upcmd.
They also introduced me to Magic: The Gathering Arena where you can play against bots and strangers. It also provides starter decks to try out. After running through all of them, the Arcane Aerialists deck made the most sense to me. I decided to use it as the base for putting together my own deck. Here's the progression:
Original Starter Deck
This is the initial deck provided in the starter pack.
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Lands 4 Azorius Guildgate (FDN) 683 7 Island (FDN) 274 8 Plains (FDN) 273 1 Temple of Enlightenment (FDN) 698 4 Tranquil Cove (FDN) 270 Non-Lands 2 Aegis Turtle (FDN) 150 2 Chart a Course (FDN) 586 2 Cloudblazer (FDN) 653 1 Curator of Destinies (FDN) 34 1 Giada, Font of Hope (FDN) 141 2 Goldvein Pick (FDN) 253 2 Dazzling Angel (FDN) 9 3 Empyrean Eagle (FDN) 239 2 Faebloom Trick (FDN) 38 2 Fog Bank (FDN) 591 2 Healer's Hawk (FDN) 142 1 High Fae Trickster (FDN) 40 2 Inspiring Overseer (FDN) 496 1 Lyra Dawnbringer (FDN) 707 2 Serra Angel (FDN) 147 2 Spectral Sailor (FDN) 164 3 Stasis Snare (FDN) 581 2 Vanguard Seraph (FDN) 28 2 Youthful Valkyrie (FDN) 149
Version 1
First tweak was consolidating to use fewer types of cards. The Empyrean Eagles went to the sideboard (which I didn't know what did at this pointsb).
Removing the two Aegis Turtle's in favor of adding two more Fog Banks was the easiest decision. They're more susceptible to getting nuked by spells but infinitely more durable to creature attacks.
I also threw in the Angels of Finality after learning there are cards that can return an entire graveyard to the battle field. That was over-optimizing for one case, but it turned out to be useful since there's all kinds of other plays that use graveyards.
Lands 4 Azorius Guildgate (FDN) 683 4 Island (FDN) 274 4 Plains (FDN) 273 4 Temple of Enlightenment (FDN) 698 4 Tranquil Cove (FDN) 270 Non-Lands 4 Angel of Finality (FDN) 136 4 Angel of Vitality (FDN) 706 2 Cloudblazer (FDN) 653 1 Empyrean Eagle (FDN) 239 4 Fog Bank (FDN) 591 4 Giada, Font of Hope (FDN) 141 4 Inspiring Overseer (FDN) 496 1 Lyra Dawnbringer (FDN) 707 4 Sharlayan, Nation of Scholars (FIN) 288 4 Spectral Sailor (FDN) 164 4 Stasis Snare (FDN) 581 4 Youthful Valkyrie (FDN) 149 Sideboard 3 Empyrean Eagle (FDN) 239
Version 2
Found Exemplar of Light in my library which gets more powerful when you gain life. I'd found Dazzling Angels in the prior iteration which did just that. This update was mainly about putting those two things together.
Still didn't know what the sideboard did.
Lands 4 Island (FDN) 274 4 Lonely Arroyo (OTJ) 260 4 Plains (FDN) 273 4 Sharlayan, Nation of Scholars (FIN) 288 4 Temple of Enlightenment (FDN) 698 4 Tranquil Cove (FDN) 270 Non-Lands 4 Angel of Finality (FDN) 136 4 Dazzling Angel (FDN) 9 3 Exemplar of Light (FDN) 11 4 Fog Bank (FDN) 591 4 Giada, Font of Hope (FDN) 141 4 Inspiring Overseer (FDN) 496 1 Lyra Dawnbringer (FDN) 707 4 Make Your Move (FDN) 143 4 Spectral Sailor (FDN) 164 4 Youthful Valkyrie (FDN) 149 Sideboard 3 Empyrean Eagle (FDN) 239 4 Stasis Snare (FDN) 581
Version 3
This is the deck where I went through and figured out where I wanted to spend all the wildcardswc I had. I made it to "Gold 4" playing ranked games with this setup.
Careful observers will note this deck has xx cards. More than the 60 used in standard play. The game warned me when I had too few cards. It didn't seem to mind when I increased the size. I figured it was cool. Turns out the game just picks an initial random set of 60 cards for you to play with.
Still didn't know what the sidebar did. Just threw everything in the deck itself.
Lands 12 Island (FDN) 274 4 Temple of Enlightenment (FDN) 698 4 Tranquil Cove (FDN) 270 1 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269 4 Demolition Field (FIC) 385 4 Lonely Arroyo (OTJ) 260 3 Abandoned Air Temple (TLA) 263 4 North Pole Gates (TLA) 274 4 Hidden Courtyard (LCI) 274 1 Soulstone Sanctuary (FDN) 133 14 Plains (TLA) 282 1 White Lotus Tile (TLA) 262 Non-Lands 4 Giada, Font of Hope (FDN) 141 4 Inspiring Overseer (FDN) 496 3 Exemplar of Light (FDN) 11 4 Spectral Sailor (FDN) 164 1 Lyra Dawnbringer (FDN) 707 4 Fog Bank (FDN) 591 4 Youthful Valkyrie (FDN) 149 4 Angel of Finality (FDN) 136 4 Dazzling Angel (FDN) 9 4 Make Your Move (FDN) 143 4 Three Tree Mascot (FDN) 682 1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer (TDM) 11 3 Path to Redemption (TLA) 31 4 Curious Farm Animals (TLA) 14 1 Team Avatar (TLA) 38 1 Smile at Death (TDM) 24 1 Virtue of Knowledge (WOE) 76 1 Agatha's Soul Cauldron (WOE) 242 4 Honor (EOE) 21 1 Perfected Pastry (OM1) 170 1 Airbending Lesson (TLA) 8 4 Opt (FDN) 512 4 Quick Study (FDN) 513 1 Arcanis the Omnipotent (FDN) 585 4 Imprisoned in the Moon (TLE) 14
Version 4
I've put about 50 hours into the game. Decided it was worth it to spend $100 to improve the deck some with either draw or getting wildcards.
The specific adds I was after were the two new copies of Smile at Death and the three new copies of Soulstone Sanctuary. I so Authority of the Consuls when I was going through the packs and added it as well.
Still way to many cards here.
Deck 4 Giada, Font of Hope (FDN) 141 4 Inspiring Overseer (FDN) 496 3 Exemplar of Light (FDN) 11 4 Spectral Sailor (FDN) 164 1 Lyra Dawnbringer (FDN) 707 4 Fog Bank (FDN) 591 4 Youthful Valkyrie (FDN) 149 4 Tranquil Cove (FDN) 270 4 Temple of Enlightenment (FDN) 698 4 Angel of Finality (FDN) 136 8 Island (FDN) 274 4 Demolition Field (FIC) 385 4 Dazzling Angel (FDN) 9 1 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269 4 Make Your Move (FDN) 143 4 Lonely Arroyo (OTJ) 260 3 Abandoned Air Temple (TLA) 263 4 Three Tree Mascot (FDN) 682 4 North Pole Gates (TLA) 274 4 Hidden Courtyard (LCI) 274 1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer (TDM) 11 3 Path to Redemption (TLA) 31 4 Curious Farm Animals (TLA) 14 3 Smile at Death (TDM) 24 9 Plains (TLA) 282 4 Opt (FDN) 512 4 Quick Study (FDN) 513 4 Soulstone Sanctuary (FDN) 133 4 Imprisoned in the Moon (TLE) 14 4 Authority of the Consuls (FDN) 137
Version 6
I learned about sticking to 60 cards and how the sidebar works. It was a fun exercise to limit things down.
This is the final version of the deckfinal.
Deck 2 Giada, Font of Hope (FDN) 141 4 Inspiring Overseer (FDN) 496 2 Exemplar of Light (FDN) 11 1 Lyra Dawnbringer (FDN) 707 4 Tranquil Cove (FDN) 270 4 Temple of Enlightenment (FDN) 698 2 Fog Bank (FDN) 591 2 Dazzling Angel (FDN) 9 2 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269 4 Make Your Move (FDN) 143 2 Abandoned Air Temple (TLA) 263 4 North Pole Gates (TLA) 274 2 Hidden Courtyard (LCI) 274 1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer (TDM) 11 2 Banishing Light (EOE) 6 3 Smile at Death (TDM) 24 7 Plains (TLA) 282 2 Authority of the Consuls (FDN) 137 2 Curious Farm Animals (TLA) 14 4 Imprisoned in the Moon (TLE) 14 1 Angel of Finality (FDN) 136 3 Youthful Valkyrie (FDN) 149 Sideboard 2 Angel of Finality (FDN) 136
The basic idea is to do what amounts to compound interest with angels where they stack on each other when new ones are added.
I've played few rounds with it. If I get a decent first draw it does well against the players I'm ranked against. We'll see if it holds up against stronger players.
-a
Footnotes
We were playing "Commander" style which involves a bunch of combining the effects of different cards. Way more than "Standard" which is what this deck is for. That later being a much better format to learn with.
The sideboard is for switching out cards between rounds. In Arena, I think it's mainly for use in Best of Three matches.
Each card belongs to a rarity group. Either common, uncommon, rare, and mythic. You get cards by making advancements or buying digital packs which have random cards in them. Sometimes you get a "wildcard" a given rarity. You can use them to get specific cards you're after.
If I want to tweak more, I'll make a clone of this deck so I can get back to it.