Drcfan . I've got two of those bad boys in my sideboard.

Testlist:

• Tithe Taker
• Knight of the Holy Nimbus
• Spirit of the Labyrinth
• Angel of Jubilation fetch land deny but after turn 4 which is really late

Modern Horizons Testlist:

• Serra the Benevolent only for flying creature heavy decks: Serra Ascendant and Resplendent Angel for lifelink plan only, Serra would require another gameplan
• Giver of Runes
• Ranger-Captain of Eos tutor for Giver of Runes , Weathered Wayfarer , Kytheon, Hero of Akros  ^Flip would require some restructure of the deck
• Winds of Abandon Expensive Path of Exile with overload (Could remove Wrath of God to free up cardslots
• Force of Virtue only for an active devotion gameplan

Drcfan, what are your thoughts on Silence and Rule of Law ? I'm building a similar deck and thinking of adding these cards.. have you tested them before?

Deck list update! Woop woop!

What would be some good cards to add/switch out that would be more beneficial against aggro decks? Idk if I just get unlucky (or just suck lol) or if aggro decks can just hit harder faster on this deck so I was just wondering. My friend has taken to using an aggro deck and it seems a bit harder to go up against than the one he used previously lol.

@DemonicExecuter

Depends on how many times you face aggro decks. You can construct your angels deck very different on the lower end. For Aggro you only need to survive 5 turns and then you are good. You can adjust your Angels setup deck for aggro with: (Keep in mind when you bring Sorceries and instants in your maindeck, you kill more and more any devotion plan)

What to put in:

• Mass removals: 4x Settle the Wreckage and 4x Terminus and 4x Sunscour (That one is actually only for retarted turn 2 boardswarm decks)
• Creatures: 4x Auriok Champion (Mono red aggro option, keep in sideboard), 4x Archangel of Tithes, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Linvala, the Preserver
• Enchantments: 4x Ghostly Prison, 4x Norn's Annex

What to take out:

• General permanent removal like: Banishing Light, Oblivion Ring, Quarantine Field (You only need creature removal and not permanent removal. Make the mana curve lower with specific removal)
• Slow cards: Godsend, Avacyn, Angel of Hope etc

retarded* omg that spelling error

What are your thoughts on Grand Abolisher or Luminous Broodmoth? GA to give protection from U, which I seem to struggle with the most, and Broodmoth could be fun to activate the ETB abilities for the Orchid, Thalia, Eos, etc. Would going more creature heavy ruin the deck?

Also, if I wanted to build a second deck by adding color (or colorless) to this one, do you have a color or tribe that you feel synergizes well with white or angels? It would be cool to have some variety in playing while keeping cost down by utilizing cards I already own from this deck.

@ DrCinnamon

• Grand Abolisher can help a lot against control decks and suits the devotion plan as well. If you face control often, you can also include other anti control cards. Fell free to experiment with Eight-and-a-Half-Tails, Favor of the Mighty, 4x Cavern of Souls, Giver of Runes, Greater Auramancy, Ranger-Captain of Eos, Pristine Angel, Voice of All, Pentarch Ward, Spectra Ward. Control has always the upper hand over you, this helps to bind their hands.

• Luminous Broodmoth it's not an Angel and you control not enough non flyers that are worth to keep alive. You can run a creature only strategy. I suggest you look at death and taxes decks and draw inspiration from there.

• Angels do not synergize with anything. You play Angels only because you like Angels not for competitive reasons. There is an option for a lifegain Angels deck (I'm working on it right now) but it uses very different kind of Angels Angel of Vitality, Resplendent Angel, Archangel of Thune, Lyra Dawnbringer and a lot of 1 life passive trigger cards.

• If you add another color or colorless, you destroy the devotion plan. Therefore you need another strategy to get Angels out. See "Other strategies" in description

Question about double sided cards:

Emeria's Call  ^Flip is a double sided card. Can i fetch with Weathered Wayfarer for the land side of it?

Plans for updating the mana base to a alternative mana base version:

New Mana base:

• 2x Cavern of Souls
• 3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 16x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Emeria, Shattered Skyclave
• 1x Ondu Skyruins
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Mistveil Plains

Old Mana Base

• 2x Cavern of Souls
• 3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 17x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Emeria, The Sky Ruin

What changes:

• Emeria, The Sky Ruin is removed because it requires an average over 10 turns to activate while there could be more utility lands to use.
• Mistveil Plains is the engine that allows to put used sorceries like Emeria's Call  ^Flip or Ondu Inversion  ^Flip back into the library where they act as lands which can get fetched into the hand by Weathered Wayfarer
• Secluded Steppe can act as a draw a card together with weathered wayfarer (I will playtest to see if that brings any more advantages besides Mangara, the Diplomat)
• Eiganjo Castle is on the watchlist
• Flagstones of Trokair is on the watchlist, depends how On Thin Ice requires snow lands

I can not consider any more lands that come into play tapped, i have 3 now which is already brutal

"Question about double sided cards:

Emeria's Call Flip is a double sided card. Can i fetch with Weathered Wayfarer for the land side of it?"

it cannot, mana base stays the same

Hi Drcfan! I have a few questions/remarks for you :)

• What happened to Gideon of the Trials? He has been tougher and tougher for me to play, the amount of threats being too high in aggro decks at the moment and him only being able to deal only with one per turn and coming at turn 3/4 (and being unprotected by Runed Halo).
• What's your opinion on Skyclave Apparition? Greater devotion than an Oblivion Ring, and they never get the card back, but on a creature which can be worse than an enchant.
• What's your opinion on Linvala over Lyra?

• What's your opinion (again haha) on the inclusion of 2xGiver of Runes and 2xRanger-Captain of Eos, since you've removed the Wrath of God for Settle the Wreckage?

• I also believe that you can't fetch Emeria's Call  ^Flip or Ondu Inversion  ^Flip with your Weathered Wayfarer after putting it back inside your deck via Mistveil Plains (or even before), as per the rules from Zendikar Rising, as the front face of these two double-faced cards aren't the land face:

• You could theoretically do a draw once per turn with Secluded Steppe and with your Wayfarer and Mistveil. It's less than Arch of Orazca (which you've told me in the past was too expensive to your taste, and too situational with the ascend mechanic), albeit colored mana and disruptable via destroying the Wayfarer. What do you think?

I love the Settle the Wreckage suggestion, have copied it in my deck! Works very well with the instant speed, with the lands fetched by the opponent and our Wayfarer, it keeps our board, and it exiles which prevents graveyard shenanigans. Only issue over a Wrath of God is having to target our opponent (and the lands given, indeed), but I prefer it this way.

I'm also glad you've lowered your average CMC, deck looks much smoother like this. I will try Mistveil Plains and Secluded Steppe in my deck, will keep it if it's good! :)

Thank you for your time!

@Gloglok

• Gideon of the Trials is a very versatile card on its own but i had to swap it out because Runed Halo has no synergy with any planeswalkers. Runed Halo showed to be just too good to be swapped out. (It only struggles if you always play against new brew decks)

• Skyclave Apparition is an option i'm testing at the moment (Works quite good). It would fit way better if it were an Angel or Human though (for Caverns and Deck flavor). You would have to swap out Wall of Omens for Charming Prince then for the additional interaction.

• Linvala, Keeper of Silence I keep her in here because i have someone who plays Slivers in my playgroup with a value combo Dormant Sliver and later Necrotic Sliver. If she enters the battlefield, it's game. Lyra Dawnbringer is really nice but its ability need a lot of Angels on the battlefield. She works way better if the Angels are cheap, like 2 - 3 mana drops. I've not seen a non lifegain Angel that low except maybe Serra Avenger

• Giver of Runes is insane and would be a great addition, because i cannot deal with Path to Exile myself. I tried it with Ranger-Captain of Eos a while ago but somehow the deck got slow i lost one match after the other. Not sure how i could include Giver of Runes at the moment. I have a Eight-and-a-Half-Tails Sideboard against control which you can fetch.

• Emeria, Shattered Skyclave is a must include for this deck even if you cannot fetch it. Every white deck i own has it now. Ondu Skyruins is not really needed, i included it because i play a lot of multiplayer at the moment.

• Secluded Steppe + Mistveil Plains gives Weathered Wayfarer the ability to tap and draw a card for 4 mana (Activating Mistveil Plains cost 1 mana. At least some card draw engine, you can try Arch of Orazca if you like it more. I like the land fetch ability more XD).

What i really need for this deck is 3 drop removal better than Oblivion Ring. Grasp of Fate is strictly better but not modern. Banisher Priest and Fiend Hunter die easily to removal. I hope some day a set will bring something printed on an Angel

Kind Regards -Drcfan

Hey there, Kaldheim has recieved a metric ton of angel support and I wanted to know your thoughts on them, specifically, Doomskar, Starnheim Unleashed, and Reidane, God of the Worthy. I feel Doomskar could be a great sideboard for aggro, or even main deckable, and Starnheim could be a fun 1 of, especially if you can get it foretold.

@ Hipoisthabest

I was hyped for probably 10 years to get a celtic mythology set and here Kaldheim came. There are some pretty neat card mechanics definitely worth to play. I was especially hyped for new Angel cards for this deck, but was utterly disappointed. And here is why:

• Doomskar playable card in standard, could compete with Wrath of God. I like the ability to exile stuff rather than destroy because there are so many graveyard creature decks that don't give a two shites if they get hit by a boardwipe. I prefer instant speed exile Settle the Wreckage. I see that a 3 mana boardwipe is really good but you give up your Turn 2 to foretell. If you need a fast wipe try Sunscour or Terminus for modern.

• Starnheim Unleashed Really cool Artwork and does basically the same like Entreat the Angels did 8 years ago but worse. So i could only see that in standard or pioneer. Does not usually work well with devotion mechanics.

• Reidane, God of the Worthy  ^Flip what a cool card for the 3 mana slot. Legendary Angel... wait what? It's only an Angel artwork but it's no Angel at all :( Maybe with all the Snow permanent could be a sideboard option but the development team had Angels as an aggro deck strategy in mind while designing Kaldheim. See Resplendent Marshal, Shepherd of the Cosmos, Valkyrie's Sword, Stalwart Valkyrie, Youthful Valkyrie.

• Hero of Bretagard had potential, if you play only cards like Path to Exile, Sunscour but the requirement of 5 and 10 cards in exile makes this card power probably a "Common". It would be playable with protection from instants, but it's just not playable

• Righteous Valkyrie, Valkyrie Harbinger is for a lifegain Angels deck

• Sigrid, God-Favored am i missing something or is it a lot worse than Skyclave Apparition?

• Glorious Protector maybe somehow playable, but i dont see it yet.

• Starnheim Aspirant with 1/4 instead of 2/2 and would be playable

• Divine Gambit who ever designed this card need to be fired asap

Final thought for Kaldheim: My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

Drcfan My impression of Kaldheim has been different, especially for tribal decks like yours.

Take a look at the shapeshifters! They bring some pretty glorious value albeit maybe not in white. Playing around with creature types has become a lot more interesting as well with Maskwood Nexus . Double damage angels? Just get a splash of red and think of them as Giants with Calamity Bearer . There are a lot more of those synergies to be found, also within the existing modern catalogue. Rally / Ally might even become feasible.

Some other suggestions that pop up in my mind - sorry if I'm being random, I just like mono white myself a lot too :D

• Sephara, Sky's Blade could be a cheap cast and can be fetched with Lancers.

• Some flickering might be a powerful alternative to protections and allow you to retrigger ETBs, and you can pseudo block with it too. Ephemerate and Flicker of Fate come to mind.

• 1 drop creatures with Ranger of Eos are a great way to add pressure for your first 3-4 turns and ramp out fast in turn 5-6 by dropping multiple things. Big cards make you vulnerable to counters. In this case, Proclamation of Rebirth is an insane value card.

On that last point, if this triggers you, check out my https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/aggro-ascendants/

Cool deck, I love the theme!

One additional point. I may have missed it, but have you considered Bishop of Wings ? This could feed you with flyers to place Sephara, Sky's Blade at one white after some tragic event.

@ VayraTheGatherer

• I understand your point but it is unfortunately not valid for this deck. Shapeshifters and creature types have a strong appearance in Kaldheim but i would not call it an Angels Deck anymore if you just fill it up with 20 different creature types and putting a playset of Maskwood Nexus in it and call it a day (Technically the truth, but it misses the flavour of an Angels deck).

• The whole point of "Devotion to white Angels" is to be a mono white devotion deck that features only one creature type if possible (modern contains too few angels for that, so humans as a subtheme do the rest of the job). I still miss an Angels that is Skyclave Apparition and an Angel that is Gadwick, the Wizened in mono white

• Sephara, Sky's Blade is an Angel only suitable for a flyers/token-deck that can spam creatures. Lingering Souls , Spectral Procession , Midnight Haunting etc. This deck simply has no possibility to cast it for

• Flickering effects need a lot of ETB creatures to work with. Except 4x Wall of Omens and 2x Thalia's Lancers there is none. If you really need the protection, i don't think there is any other viable option at the moment than Giver of Runes

• Ranger of Eos is no option because it's only 1 devotion to white. Ranger-Captain of Eos would be the better fit but i still would need a third 1 drop option besides Weathered Wayfarer , Giver of Runes

• Bishop of Wings belongs to a lifegain Angels deck that features a complete different set of Angels like Angel of Vitality , Resplendent Angel , Archangel of Thune , Lyra Dawnbringer . This is a non lifegain version. To be honest, i'm no fan of lifegain or tokens strategies in white. White can be so much more than that

Drcfan So Bishop of Wings for two white isn't devotion-styled to you? It would add a ton of power to your build with only a tiny little bit of support. Add Divine Visitation and you're right back to your Angel theme with a sweet little cycle, and with a sac engine like Ashnod's Altar you'd also have mana. I don't quite understand the idea that 'a lifegain angels deck would have a set of other Angels', nobody is forcing you to, or am I missing something? I'm not telling you 'make a lifegain deck ;)' but is it a sin to have an effect (off Angels!) that can recoup some life to lengthen your play?

Just some thoughts. In the end it is your deck and definition of theming ;)

• bad example obviously to bring Ashnod's in the mix in terms of legality, but I think I am kind of missing that follow-through in your choice of cards and theme. Yes, we stack devotion, but what follows up on it?

Hey Drcfan,

Just checking in to say that your suggestions from our last discussion have proven to be very interesting!

• Skyclave Apparition + Charming Prince is huge! The Prince replaces the Wall and is a human, the life gain/flicker options which are nice to have to complement the scry 2/draw of the Wall, plus its attack of 2 can sometimes dissuade some attackers. And the Apparition is a good replacement of the Oblivion Ring , with added devotion and the fact that they never get the card back (and the flicking with the Prince is just yummy!)

• Emeria's Call  ^Flip is great, always a positive as a one-of/two-of, and the small synergy with Lyra Dawnbringer and the fact that she is legendary has made me prefer her to Baneslayer Angel (or Linvala , as I don't have too many creature-based combos in my meta).

• Mistveil Plains + Secluded Steppe are doing a lot more than I expected! Like you said, with the Wayfarer you can pay to draw a card, or to do it every turn, which in practice has been more interesting than the Arch for me. And finally, the Mistveil Plains are not only great with the Steppe, but also with any legendary angel an opponent would have destroyed/made you discard as you can bounce the Lancers with the Prince to get your angel back! It can really make the difference, and my angels have come back to play this way infinitely more in a few games than Emeria, The Sky Ruin has ever done.

• I have taken out the Giver of Runes + Ranger-Captain of Eos as I find them kinda clunky to play or at least I don't like them as much.

Deck is very smooth now, a joy to play again! I won't pretend it's competitive in 2021's Modern state but I'm having a great time and you still get a fair amount of wins against non-control decks! Cheers :)

@ VayraTheGatherer

• Haha you are a tough one. Bishop of Wings is indeed probably best in slot for an Angels deck. But in this case here i have simply not enough Angels that would justify playing it. If there is a 3 drop Angel with ETB removal, i will definitely consider it.

• Divine Visitation is indeed an Angel wincon but it is not the idea i was going for. So the base idea is to play big legendary Angels like Akroma, Angel of Wrath , Avacyn, Angel of Hope , Iona, Shield of Emeria , Brisela, Voice of Nightmares (These are the devotion payoffs. You can add 1x Entreat the Angels if you feel like it). There is a tutor in place Thalia's Lancers to fetch the situational needed wincons. It is a lot more fun to play with different wincons and tutor effects during game than just token spam and pray.

@ Gloglok

• Yeah Charming Prince + Skyclave Apparition combo is really nice and i'm planning as well to replace the Wall of Omens and Oblivion Ring set very soon.

• I'm testing a second Emeria's Call  ^Flip at the moment since there are no huge drawbacks over a basic land. Could be worth it. Maybe i remove the Ondu Skyruins since it's too casual for my playgroup

You are absolutely right with the competitive level in 2021. With more and more powercreep over the last years, white decks in particular got worse and worse. Here is an nice explanation of whats happening atm. White is not the color of removal. It was way more competitive in 2016-2018 but today it holds up pretty well and i think its the most fun deck i own to play.

@ Gloglok

• Mistveil Plains + Secluded Steppe is nice but i hope for real card draw in white like