Praise the sun! Specifically Heliod, God of the Sun. It's like Helios, but not quite because we're on Theros! Which is...basically Greece. Actually, it is Greece. Where was I? Oh, right! Praise the sun!
Let's see...
Baneslayer Angel? Felidar Sovereign? Serra Ascendant? Okay, so there's some life gain. That's not too bad. Felidar Sovereign even lets you win the game once you've gained enough life. That's cool. Hey, Rhox Faithmender even helps you win faster by doubling that life you're gaining. That doesn't sound too bad.
Wait a minute! That's a lot of enchantments. I...guess that makes sense since we're running
Serra's Sanctum
? We want to be able to generate a lot of mana to help us drop more enchantments right? And Heliod, God of the Sun makes tokens. Tokens that are enchantments! Enchantments that help generate more mana! So we can generate more tokens! It's beautiful!
Oh. Oh no... That's an Anointed Procession. It's going to double the tokens we create, not just from Heliod, God of the Sun but
Deploy to the Front
and...well, let's just hope we haven't gained too much life otherwise Storm Herd is going to be really crazy. Wait, dammit! Cathars' Crusade! A bunch of tokens entering the battlefield at once is one thing, is just a matter of figuring out how many tokens you're making and then putting that many counters on them. But what about the ones Heliod, God of the Sun creates? He can only create one at a time, and even if you activate his ability multiple times they resolve separately.
I guess it's a good thing we've started packing a TI-83 with our cards...
But wait, this is a mono colored deck? Why are we creating so many tokens? Besides Honor of the Pure,
Dictate of Heliod
and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite turning those weenies in muscular, steroid filled behemoths even before Cathars' Crusade looks at them and decides to buff them up to Rob Liefeld proportions, the more tokens we have on board the more effective Sphere of Safety and Archangel of Tithes are going to be. Not only will Sphere of Safety force your opponents to decide whether or not they want to attack you or cast spells, the more tokens you have the fewer creatures your opponents will be able to afford to attack you with, or defend with in terms of Archangel of Tithes. The price of combat is too damn high indeed!
And we haven't even talked about the tokens created by Heliod, God of the Sun! Not only do they let
Serra's Sanctum
generate even greater amounts of mana, but when one enters the battlefield while you control Ajani's Chosen you'll become the proud owner of a cat! You might want to use Heliod, God of the Sun's ability sparingly though. You don't want to become a crazy cat lady. Actually, scratch that. Cats are awesome. To make things even better, whenever you successfully generate a token through Heliod, God of the Sun you'll trigger
Skybind
. Since you can generate a token at instant speed, not only can you use
Skybind
's trigger on your turn to clear out some potential hazards before attacking, but use it to temporarily remove any incoming threats without fear of losing any of your creatures. Although, between all of the ways to buff them that we've previously discussed, I don't think they're going to be destroyed in combat any time soon.
Aren't enchantments really fragile though? Don't a lot of players use stuff like Krosan Grip, Beast Within or even Terastodon? Well, yes. You're completely right. That's why there's Greater Auramancy. Now, shroud's a funny thing. Wizards of the Coast decided to redesign shroud into hexproof for...I don't really know why. I'm sure it has something to do with how shroud promotes little board interaction while hexproof promotes one-sided, but otherwise more interactive interactions. Any ways, we're getting off topic. While we don't have anything to protect Greater Auramancy, the enchantment will not only protect your combat manipulating or bolstering enchantments, but it also protects your tokens from Heliod, God of the Sun. Of course, should they ever be destroyed, you can always get them back through Replenish,
Mine Excavation
or even
Silent Sentinel
.
But hey, I hope you had a fun time reading this and that it was enough to give a good overview of what to expect from this deck. Comments and suggestions are always welcome, and hey! I've even got a YouTube channel where you can see this and several other decks of mine in action. It might even be a better way to gauge how well the deck performs in certain situations, so it's definitely worth a look.
Removed:
- Karn Liberated
- Ajani's Pridemate
- Gift of Estates
- Ring of Three Wishes
- Elspeth, Knight-Errant
- Thran Dynamo
- Test of Endurance
- Disenchant
- Mana Vault
- Odric, Master Tactician
- Path of Bravery
- Temple of the False God
- Blind Obedience
- Captain of the Watch
- Council's Judgment
Added:
- Anointed Procession
- Archangel of Tithes
- Helm of the Gods
- Expedition Map
- Ghostly Prison
- Greater Auramancy
- Academy Rector
- Monk Idealist
- Skullclamp
- Devout Invocation
- Silent Sentinel
- Terrain Generator
- Terminus
- Fumigate
- Burnished Hart
