Commander Collection: S(i)erra Sidewinder

Commander / EDH Angels Flying Mono-White

Jurrane

Creature (37)

• 1x Angel of Vitality
• 1x Angel of the Dire Hour
• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Archangel of Tithes
• 1x Archivist of Oghma
• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Baneslayer Angel
• 1x Battle Angels of Tyr
• 1x Bishop of Wings
• 1x Deep Gnome Terramancer
• 1x Emeria Shepherd
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Gisela, the Broken Blade  ^Meld
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Herald of the Host
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1x Metropolis Reformer
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Resplendent Angel
• 1x Righteous Valkyrie
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Serra Avenger
• 1x Serra Paragon
• 1x Serra's Emissary
• 1x Shattered Angel
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Starnheim Aspirant
• 1x Subjugator Angel
• 1x Sunblast Angel
• 1x Thraben Watcher
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Youthful Valkyrie

Land (35)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Minas Tirith
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 18x Plains
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Seraph Sanctuary
• 1x Three Tree City
• 1x Urza's Cave
• 1x War Room

Artifact (7)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Pearl Medallion
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of the Animist

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Reduce to Memory
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Commander (1)

Instant (12)

• 1x Akroma's Will
• 1x Dawn's Truce
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Excise the Imperfect
• 1x Flare of Fortitude
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Orim's Chant
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Stroke of Midnight
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Folk Hero
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Smuggler's Share

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Serra the Benevolent

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{W}{W}{W} Introduction: The Heavenly Host {W}{W}{W}

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We sit down at the EDH table. Our opponents see we’re playing mono white and think they’re getting an easy ride. Let’s teach them the error of their foolish ways.

Welcome to my primer for my white Angels EDH tribal deck featuring Giada, Font of Hope as the Commander. Angels is a tribe that’s slowly been improving over recent years, with some great new cards added in Kaldheim and Streets of New Capenna. It’s also good to see the introduction of more strong white impact cards in newer sets, to the point where running mono white isn’t a meme for being completely terrible, and well built mono-W lists can have decent game against many different opponents.

Lyra Dawnbringer had been my Angels commander of choice but she’s been replaced by Giada, Font of Hope from Streets of New Capenna. Giada has the advantage of coming into play much earlier, she’s a ramp or mana rock effect for higher costed Angels, and her buff is potentially more explosive than Lyra’s. I'm finding her ramp effect to be particularly effective, granting the deck a useful bit of speed in the early game and the +1/+1 counters she gives other Angels allows them to hit much harder. She's the real deal.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

I would classify this as one of my Tier 2 decks. It's well tuned and features optimised card selections in most categories, other than fast mana. It has an infinite damage win condition, with the combo pieces able to be found with multiple different tutor cards. I generally try to play it against other stronger decks as it can be a bit overpowered for some casual tables. It currently has a 60% win rate.

Budget

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The average price for this deck on Card Kingdom is between $800-$900. It's very definitely not a budget build and I've spent a lot of time over the past few years to make it as competitive as possible. However it's perfectly possible to build Angels tribal on a budget and for it to be fairly strong. In particular, being mono coloured means you don't have to worry about an expensive land base and there are plenty of viable Angels (plus strong support cards) listed here: https://edhrec.com/commanders/giada-font-of-hope/angel/budget

If I was to upgrade to a higher budget build, my priority would be to add fast mana sources like Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Chrome Mox, Jeweled Lotus etc. But they aren't essential and the deck performs well without them at the moment.

An Almanac of Angels

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Here's a full list of all the Angels I'm using in this deck and why I've chosen them.

• Angel of Vitality: Boosts our lifegain sub-theme and is a nice low mana value flyer.
• Angel of the Dire Hour: Play it at the right time and she can wipe out an attacking army in one fell swoop. Opponents will probably suspect shenanigans if they're attacking into seven open mana but sometimes they won't see it coming.
• Archangel of Thune: One of our most powerful Angels. Our army can get out of control quickly if she's in play and we're gaining life from multiple sources.
• Archangel of Tithes: A great card whether we're on offence or defence. On defence she's a psuedo-Ghostly Prison that taxes our opponents if they want to attack us. On offence she means other players have to keep mana up if they want to block, which they won't always do.
• Avacyn, Angel of Hope: Eight mana is a pretty significant investment but she's worth it. Much harder to destroy our stuff if she's around.
• Baneslayer Angel: A bunch of relevant keywords and protection from demons and dragons is occasionally relevant. All these years later and opponents are still scared of her.
• Battle Angels of Tyr: Absolutely bonkers if Giada, Font of Hope is in play. The original and copies will all see each other at the same time and get a bunch of counters. Smart opponents won't let it stick around to attack.
• Emeria Angel: Our best source of recursion. Expensive to cast but definitely worth it.
• Gisela, the Broken Blade  : I don't run the other angel that makes her meld but a 4/3 flying, lifelinking frist-striker is very strong for just {2}{W}{W}
• Herald of the Host: Similar to Battle Angels of Tyr, another myriad Angel that's OP with Giada, Font of Hope.
• Lyra Dawnbringer: The OG commander of this deck. She's definitely been outclassed by Giada but her lord ability and lifelink mean she's still worth including.
• Metropolis Reformer: Another nice low-cost Angel to play on curve. Sometimes it's reverse lifelink ability will discourage opponents from attacking.
• Resplendent Angel: We have lots of lifegain in this deck so its token generation ability should be pretty easy to trigger. Giving it lifelink is expensive but is a useful mana sink if we don't have other ways to spend it.
• Righteous Valkyrie: One of the best lifegain abilities in the deck. It's not hard for us to go above 40 life which means he boosts our team's power and toughness.
• Serra Ascendant: Her drawback's a bit annoying if we draw her in our opening hand but she's so efficiently costed it's crazy not to include her.
• Serra Paragon: A second strong recursion option, alongside Emeria Shepherd. She won't always bring creatures back as many of ours are 3+ mana value but she's great for recycling our smaller stuff.
• Serra's Emissary: Expensive to cast but worth it for such a bomb card. The card type we choose when she ETB's will be situation dependent but protection from creatures usually offers the highest upside.
• Shattered Angel: Another amazing source of lifegain, especially if we can play her in the early game.
• Starnheim Aspirant: A staple for this deck. One of our best sources of ramp. Pair her with Giada, Font of Hope to power out our higher-costed Angels with ease.
• Subjugator Angel: Play her as a game-ender when we want to soar past our opponents' creatures and kill them off in a massive alpha strike.
• Sunblast Angel: Often a one-sided boardwipe. Will catch a lot of opponents with their pants down.
• Thraben Watcher: Mainly used to bring down our mana curve for creatures but has a useful lord effect.
• Youthful Valkyrie: Absurdly costed for just {1}{W}. Can often become a pretty hefty threat, especially if either of our myriad Angels make an appearance, or if we start making lots of tokens.

Other Supporting Creatures

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Text goes here.

Win Conditions

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When playing this deck, we have three main routes to victory:

1. Angel Beatdown: Ramp into Angels as quickly as possible, using Giada, Font of Hope and other lord or tribal effects to power up the team. White has some of the best removal effects in the format, to help clear opponents' board states. Archangel of Thune is an all-star in this deck, as pairing her with all the various lifegain effects means threats can get out of control very fast. Our two myriad Angels (Battle Angels of Tyr and Herald of the Host) are explosive when paired with Giada, Font of Hope as Giada sees all the copies at the same time when they ETB (so they'll get a lot of counters).

2. Lifegain Sub-Theme: The deck has numerous lifegain cards, including three Soul Sisters (Auriok Champion, Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant) and Authority of the Consuls as early drops, to help boost our life total way above its starting level. Many of our Angels have lifelink too. Once our life points are high enough, Enlightened Tutor can then search for Aetherflux Reservoir to take out one or more opponents in a single hit. Although it’s not an Angel, we of course play Felidar Sovereign in a lifegain deck, as a cheesy way to potentially win on the spot (at instant speed if Emergence Zone is in play).

3. Heliod Combo: The infinite lifegain/damage combo of Walking Ballista and Heliod, Sun-Crowned is included for the combo kill, with Idyllic Tutor, Recruiter of the Guard and Enlightened Tutor as easy ways to reliably find them. Here’s how it works:

Prerequisites

• Heliod, Sun-Crowned on the battlefield;
• Walking Ballista on the battlefield with at least 2 +1/+1 counters on it;
• {1}{W} available.

Steps

1. Activate Heliod, Sun-Crowned's ability, giving Walking Ballista lifelink;
2. Remove a +1/+1 counter from Walking Ballista, dealing 1 damage to any target and gaining 1 life;
3. Heliod, Sun-Crowned triggers, putting a +1/+1 counter on Walking Ballista;
4. Repeat for infinite damage and infinite lifegain.

Overcoming Mono-W’s Drawbacks

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We all know the drill by now. White’s the weakest colour in EDH, it’s only good as a supporting colour, blah blah blah. But the reputation’s at least partly earned and, if we’re going to play mono-W, we’re going to have to work extra hard to overcome its shortcomings. Here’s how I’ve tried to do it:

- Mono-W Is Too Slow: Not with Giada, Font of Hope, it isn't. Having access to a guaranted source of white mana on turn 2 that ramps for other Angels is nothing short of amazing. This has mean I've been able to replace some of the ramp cards I had with creatures or other utility cards. I’ve also sacrificed the raw power of many of the higher costed Angels for smaller, more efficient creatures that help the deck generate threats and ramp more quickly. The average mana value of cards in the deck is just over 3, which means we can come out of the blocks quickly.

- Mono-W Can’t Draw Cards: White has got MUCH better at this recently. Esper Sentinel is an EDH all-star and an auto-include in most white decks. Folk Hero is fantastic in an Angels tribal deck. Smuggler's Share can be both ramp and card draw, and I'd also like to add Trouble in Pairs once they get the artwork fixed. Plus we can lean on lands like Bonders' Enclave and War Room to supplement these white card draw sources.

- Mono-W Can’t Interact On The Stack: Yes we can. Our priority is to protect our creatures as we can win without them. We have insurance against boardwipes with defensive cards like Flawless Maneuver, Teferi's Protection, Flare of Fortitude and Akroma's Will (which also doubles as a finisher). Orim's Chant stops opponents dead in their tracks if we play it at the right time. Although she's expensive, Angel of the Dire Hour can be a one-sided board wipe, as can Sunblast Angel if we have Emergence Zone in play.

Playing The Deck

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Playing on curve is really important for this deck, so I’d advise on mulliganing aggressively to ensure you have some early action and, ideally, some form of ramp. From there, we’re essentially an aggro-midrange deck, trying to stay ahead of our opponents with threats and reducing their life totals by attacking with our flyers. We have simple, strong, versatile removal (Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Generous Gift, Stroke of Midnight, Excise the Imperfect etc), which is usually best saved for either must-answer threats or other cards that prevent us from enacting our game plan. Needless to say, anything that stops us attacking with our creatures – either by locking down the board or mass removal – is a big problem, as is anything that stops us gaining life. We don’t have many ways of recovering our creatures if they’re removed – mainly Emeria Shepherd and Emeria, the Sky Ruin – so be wary of overextending.

Do what you can to hang in there as the game goes long, and sooner or later hopefully we’ll draw into some of our late game impact cards. These include Subjugator Angel, Akroma's Will, an overloaded Winds of Abandon or Serra's Emissary (naming creatures) as ways to break creature stalemates; the Heliod, Sun-Crowned // Walking Ballista infinite damage combo mentioned above; or Aetherflux Reservoir // Felidar Sovereign if you have enough life. Played correctly, Angel of the Dire Hour or Sunblast Angel can be one-sided boardwipes to also break through stalled game states.

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Talrand, Sky Summoner {U}
Blue Streak: Mono-Blue Spellslinger

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Goodstuff

{B} Syr Konrad, the Grim {B}
Black Hole: Mono-Black Sacrifice/Aristocrats

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Stax

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IV {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Hallar, the Firefletcher {R}{G}
Trailblazer: Gruul Kicker

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Heron's Grace {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Prime Speaker Zegana {U}{G}
Wicked Twister: Simic +1/+1 Counters

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Kess, Dissident Mage {U}{B}{R}
Mindbender: Grixis Discard

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Spirits Tribal

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

Date added	4 years
Last updated	1 day
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 2 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.08
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Copy Clone, Elephant 3-3 G, Emblem Serra the Benevolent, Human 1/1 W, Incubator, Phyrexian 0/0 C, Plant 0/2 G, Spirit 1/1 W, Spirit 3/2 RW, Treasure
Folders	edh