God's Wrath Has a Barrel Chest
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 2 | 4 COMMENTS | 180 VIEWS
You're An Angel In Disguise —April 15, 2025
So yeah, I didn't really think of this before playing, but it immediately became obvious how good this guy is as a Voltron piece, if you can give him Vigilance he's also VERY hard to block because you can just kill everything. It's also pretty easy to buff Mageta enough to matter, and again, if anything bigger shows up he just Wraths. It's very possible to manage an early one-shot, if I can sneak in more ways to protect Mageta efficiently I foresee this being an EXCELLENT Archenemy deck, I am lowkey in shock that even then people didn't see any ways people could abuse an Instant speed Wrath on a stick (that doesn't even kill itself! At least Jaya Ballard, Task Mage offs herself as well normally!).
So yeah, in the name of making this a bit less janky I wonder if should pull cards from the Angels precon? It's got lots of good stuff for sure, and I was actually thinking I might use Brisela in a Sisay list (Sisay can find both halves, and boom!), so I doubt I'll be bothered if I end up harvesting the rest of the deck for parts. I'm more likely to leave the Cat one together, I think a Sisay list is better at actually getting out the Secret Commander, so why fight it?
I think I'm also going to look hard at some 'choose a creature and keep it' Wraths, especially The Eternal Wanderer, if I just keep Mageta it's a great scenario. On the other hand I could also lean harder into card draw, that would also make it easier for Mageta to do his thing.
Edit: Well, it's early but after some testing I threw together a revision! The biggest change is more card draw, but the deck also has more generically good cards in it that were sitting around.
Edit: Should I just use my spare Walking Ballista in here? It's good with Heliod, and it can technically benefit from the limited counter synergy in the list.
Edit: So, planning to add in Brave the Sands, Tarrian's Soulcleaver, and Land Tax, maybe a Gift of Estates if I can find the stupid card (ditto for a few other White cards, tbh I skimmed through my cards VERY fast the last few times, so I might have to go through more slowly, which is tedious, but arguably less of an issue than just orangaizing my stupid cards). I'm now wondering if this list should run more bounce lands/sac lands to keep my land count down? Getting 3 Plains into hand is pretty good in this list, so even the much worse Gift of Estates might be worth sneaking in. Soulcleaver is going to be batshit in this list, and the other effect from Brave the Sands isn't bad in a Voltron list, so even if I already have Vigilance it's a decent card.
Random point, I cannot believe how low this deck's devotion is, I feel like it's almost embarrassing how hard it is to get Heliod online, let alone make Nykthos pop. I'm not sure there is a real solution, other than putting Nykthos somewhere else. When I've tested it it seems fine, mostly because the floor is a Waste in a mono-colour deck.
Edit: Well, I found some White cards, so in go a few more golden oldies, Flickering Ward, Kjeldoran Outpost, and Gift of Estates. I pulled out Brimaz (which is a good card but isn't helping my actual game plan the same way more card draw would) and Daily Regimen (good card but I would often prefer the Evasion from Ward, and I can bounce it if Mageta is going to die, so it's pretty decent arguably). The potential for a 2 mana draw 3 (even if all it finds is Basic Plains) is huge in here, especially if I can sneak in a few more Vigilance sources in Soulcleaver and Brave the Sands!
Edit: Very limited testing has found that this deck probably needs more ways to kill an Enchantment or Artifact that locks down my Commander; I do have a few answers, but for a deck this dependent on having access to Mageta's ability I should look hard at Generous Gift and Stroke of Midnight. I'm not sure what I'd pull obviously, but they seem like very key cards. I could see pulling a weakest link ramp or card draw effect, or maybe Axis of Mortality (solely because it's 6 mana, but tbh I think it's a good card in here since a lot of aggro tends to go my way if I can't politic people.
Speaking of politicking people, maybe Duelist's Heritage?