/!\ Not entirely up to date, check the comments to understand the last changes /!\
Introduction
So this is a midrange angel-tribe deck. Yeah I know, the name is pretty lame but I couldn't think of anything smart at the time, anyway! Lots of synergies going on, feels really smooth to play the deck given all the redundancy, tutoring, and answers to many different threats. It's also quite interactive compared to say a mono-green devotion deck, which makes it less boring for the opponent to play against. I have been experimenting with this deck since the end of 2017 and I can say that amongst all the modern decks I experiment with it's the one I come back to all the time.
Thanks to all the mono-white devotion decks, and to Drcfan and his Devotion to White Angels for the inspiration, as you can see there are a lot of cards in common (edit: as time goes by both decks look more and more identical!). I would have never thought of the Weathered Wayfarer and Thalia's Lancers without him! If you're interested in a more control version of angels, or to get a complete understanding of this description here, I HIGHLY recommend checking his deck and his description, as it completes mine in some regards, and he also has been playing it and testing stuff for a lot longer than I.
This version is different in that it tries to be more aggro by making good use of the recent printings of Resplendent Angel, Lyra Dawnbringer, combined with the quite good Archangel of Tithes.
How is it played?
The goal here is to play strong white cards while controlling your opponent until you just outvalue him at some point. The end game angels ; Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Iona, Shield of Emeria and Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
; are paid using devotion and drawn using the Lancers which give great redundancy. The cards used provide a huge amount of devotion on average, which makes Nykthos even more reliable.
A sidenote for what I consider one of the key cards of the deck, the Weathered Wayfarer. It does a tremendous job at making sure you always hit a Nykthos when you need one. It allows you to reliably cast one of the big angels on turns 6/7, and to still play the deck despite its high CMC. It's so important that I always try to go 2nd in most matchups. It allows you to consistently get one land per turn until turn 5 (with your starting lands). It allows you to go for Emeria and Arch of Orazca in longer matchs, Cavern of Souls against control decks, Field of Ruin against annoying lands, or Seraph Sanctuary against aggro or for the combo with Resplendent Angel and Lyra. And finally it also filters through the deck which you can feel in more control matchups, during the last turns of the game, by drawing on average more value cards than your opponent.
To survive early turns against aggro decks, and reach the late game spells, it has a good bunch of cards to tempo. Path to Exile, Wall of Omens, Runed Halo, Gideon of the Trials, Archangel of Tithes and Wrath of God. You can also gain some life with Seraph Sanctuary, Lyra and the 9 angels, but maybe not as reliably. Still, it often makes the difference needed.
Against slower decks you got your own ways of putting pressure on them with Archangel of Tithes, Lancers, Gideon and Lyra.
- Runed Halo against Storm with Grapeshot, Dredge, Infect, Eldrazi, Bogles, Death's Shadow, Valakut... It's really good to the point I'm considering putting more directly main board. Edit: now it's done!
- Leyline of Sanctity against Burn, 8-Rack, Storm and others
- Stony Silence against Affinity and Tron and, well, artifacts
- Rest in Peace against Dredge, Hollow One, Living End... Careful with Emeria in control matchups
- Nevermore as a test right now against combo and maybe some other stuff
- Wrath of God and Terminus against aggro, got some more humans and merfolks in my area recently
My local meta is quite focused on aggro and midrange, so to be fair I'm not entirely sure this deck is well suited against control or combo heavy decks (particularly I haven't played much against Tron or Storm, or any UB deck). Oh and Infect is a super tough matchup, just hope to draw all your Runed Halo.
Notes
- Used to play 2-3xOblivion Ring, but swapped it out for Runed Halos, for the curve, the devotion, the ability to target hexproof cards, and the fact is pushes my opponent to over commit creatures into a Wrath of God. It's only default is its inability to protect Gideon. Edit: now they're back again with the Halos too, targeting planeswalkers was just too important!
- 2-3xKnight of the White Orchid were going against the flow created by the Weathered Wayfarers, you can't play them before turn 3, and if they are used on turn 3 I can't use anything else that costs 3, and then on turn 4 with Nykthos I often had enough mana so that the Knight had little impact. I know some people play them with the borderposts to have an explosive kind of white devotion deck, but I don't like the unstability it generates.
- 1xGodsend. Well, there wasn't a game where I felt like going for Godsend instead of another legendary with the Lancers. It was always the card that felt good, but less than something else.
- 3xGhostly Prison. I used to play them AND 3x Archangels of Tithes, which was a bit too much. Besides, my mana curve was too high on 3-drops, the devotion wasn't great for its cost, and it couldn't protect Gideon. I compensated by adding a 4th Archangel of Tithes, which is doing really good.
- A 4th Gideon. Too many.
- Ghost Quarter instead of Field of Ruin. I was often missing the land sacrificed this way during the later turns of the game, where Nykthos starts to become really powerful but not enough. Also in control matchups very late game I was often just missing the 7th Plains needed for Emeria because of it.
- 4xFlagstones of Trokair. Well the 1st one is always wasted compared to a Plains for reaching the 7 Plains. It was only interesting for filtering the deck and because I could tutor it with the Lancers and act as a tutored Plains, and could Ghost Quarter it. But that would in fact almost never happen and more often than not resulted in my inability to reach a 7th Plains. And it's also a liability when facing Blood Moon (but on the other hand it could be useful against aggressive land destruction as in Ponza decks). Removed them when I removed the Ghost Quarters.
- 1xShalai, Voice of Plenty. Well, I never went for her with the Lancers, my creatures are not very prone to getting targetted, she doesn't provide much devotion, and if I'm in a match where I need the hexproof myself I can just side in the Leylines.
- 3xDamping Sphere in the side. Messed too much with my own mana, for storm I have Runed Halos and Leylines, and for tron Stony Silences and Oblivion Rings.
- 1xGideon Jura. Doesn't work with the Archangels of Tithes at all.
- 2xSerra the Benevolent and 1xMutavault. Tested the Serras as they seemed to be pretty much a better version of Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in this deck, and used the Mutavault as a way to enable the Worship emblem after a boardwipe for . But well it was a bit weird, I'm not sure it was doing well with the gameplan. Maybe Gideon Blackblade would do better on its own as a 1-of or 2-of?
Final words
Well thanks for reading up to this point, I'm planning on creating a section to explain each card choice like a true primer in the future. I welcome any question or suggestion in the comments!
