Card choice breakdown (Let me know if you disagree)
Martyr of Sands: A very valuable card in this deck. I play her turn one if I know she won't be killed or turn two where you can sack her in response to any threat. If turn two she can block and still activate for additional value. Her ability is the main power for Serra Ascendant. She can be tutored and recurred for great effect and combos well with Squadron Hawk
Serra Ascendant: The main beater and win con. Good for a turn one drop to eat removal or block as you can always recur or tutor up more. Once you get one or more out and pumped it's hard to lose.
Ranger of Eos
: A tutor on legs. One card gets you both pieces in the Martyr of Sands, Serra Ascendant combo. The fact that you also get a blocker and that it can be recured by emeria is just bonus.
Squadron Hawk: I mostly use this to fill my hand for Martyr of Sands but it's also very useful to stall against aggro. It blocks Tarmogoyf for four turns and if you have Mistveil Plains then it can last indefinitely. If you have no other options 4 in the air can end games.
Ghostly Prison: This can be even better than a wrath in many cases and it comes down a turn earlier. One or even two shut down any aggro strategy and makes control decks uncomfortable about tapping out to swing with a man land.
Oblivion Ring
: only one in the main to deal with things that can't be hit with
Recumbent Bliss
.
Recumbent Bliss
: It doesn't stop creature effects but I find the one life really adds up. I've had several opponents Path to Exile or Lightning Bolt their own creatures to avoid having it hit.
Proclamation of Rebirth
: This is a serious game swinger. After they've exhausted 3 spells to kill your creatures you use one to get them all back. Putting them right on the field is even better. You can often get a Martyr of Sands and two Serra Ascendant to end the game with. Usually you won't be using the forcast effect but it's there if you get in an attrition war and don't have
Emeria, The Sky Ruin
online.
Wrath of God: Devastates the aggro matchup. Usually gets sided out otherwise.
Path to Exile: There are whole threads discussing this card so I won't explain why it's included in every white deck.
Elspeth Tirel: Life gain, Three blocks, and a recurring board wipe makes this a great card to pull you back from a loss or guarantee a win.
Emeria, The Sky Ruin
: Rarely gets activated, but in the control matchup it wins the war of attrition.
Mistveil Plains: Here for squadron hawk, and to put your win con back in if you don't have
Proclamation of Rebirth
.
Scrying Sheets: Card advantage is where we beat the control matchup and this gives us a 1/3 chance at an extra draw every turn and helps speed up activating
Emeria, The Sky Ruin
Snow-Covered Plains
: Included for obvious reasons
The Sideboard
Aven Mindcensor: We don't run fetches so any greedy mana base can be punished. Tron is also our worst matchup as they have inevitability and we have to try to play aggro.
Celestial Purge: This hits a lot of decks that we can struggle with and can be a good swap for Wrath of God if we want to be more selective with what we get rid of.
Spellskite: Stops splinter twin, infect, and boggles. Also my favorite card in the game.
Oblivion Ring
: Also for control. Usually for the wraths too because recumbant bliss may actually be preferred over Path to Exile if we can hit a Delver of Secrets
or Snapcaster Mage.
Stony Silence: Tron is a really bad matchup. Also helps against the moderate matchup affinity.
