Lands (24)
Angels (13)
Removal (6)
Card Draw/Filtering (8)
Mana Ramp/Fixing (7)
Swiss Army Knight (2)
Sideboard
Other (15)
Maybeboard
Hello, and welcome to my Standard version of Selesnya () midrange. Let’s get right into it.
My main strategy is to get Resplendent Angel and Lyra Dawnbringer out so I can combo my opponents off.
I have Lyra out on the field and I attack with her. Nothing happens, so I gain 5 life. I then cast a Resplendent Angel and move to endstep. Because I gained 5 or more life this turn, I get a token Serra Angel, who is a 5/5 Flying Vigilance Lifelink thanks to Lyra. I now have an infinite blocker and attacker. This is because if it dies and has gained 5 life, my Resplendent Angel will just create another token Serra Angel(who is a 5/5 Flying Vigilance Lifelink).
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Resplendent Angel is pretty key to my deck, as it helps enable the combo.
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Lyra Dawnbringer is also pretty key, as she is part two of the combo.
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Shalai, Voice of Plenty is not that key, but is good as she gives my other guys hexproof and can pump up my guys (using mana when you have nothing else to spend it on).
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Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice is a finisher if I can't get my combo up and running.
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Drover of the Mighty helps with getting my Angels out quickly.
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Conclave Tribunal and Ixalan's Binding both can get rid of what would stand in the way.
Flex Spots
My two main flex spots are Jadelight Ranger and Merfolk Branchwalker. But, I can also take out other cards depending on the matchup. I can take out Knight of Autumn if my opponent doesn't have any artifacts or enchantments worth taking or if he/she is not playing burn. This brings me up to a comforable 9 flex spots if needed. If i really need more, I can take out District Guide. Let's look at the sideboard
Sideboard
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Deafening Clarion is sided in when I am facing an aggro matchup to be able to gain some life and kill their creatures.
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Carnage Tyrant is anti-Control.
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Deathgorge Scavenger is good against burn and graveyard.
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I side in Shalai, Voice of Plenty for control-like matchups and other decks which have lots of removal.
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Make a Stand is anti boardwipe, such as Cleansing Nova
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Settle the Wreckage is extremely useful against token strategies.
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Find / Finality can pretty much be sided in against any deck that I need to out-value, such as control1 and Golgari. I can also side it in if I need a bigger board wipe than Clarion, as I have access to black mana with Drover of the Mighty.
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Vivien Reid is great for grinding long matchups such as Control and Graveyard out.
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Tocatli Honor Guard is anti Golgari, as lots of their creatures have important ETB abilities.
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Once my combo (Resplendent Angel + Lyra Dawnbringer) goes off, it's very hard to disrupt it. Once my combo has gone off, I have had a 100% win rate.
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I have a full playset and a half of removal (4x Conclave Tribunal and 2x Ixalan's Binding) allowing me to remove almost anything major.
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In case of removal, I have 2x Shalai, Voice of Plenty in mainboard and one in sideboard.
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As a combo deck, this dies to targeted removal such as Vraska's Contempt.
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This deck is also quite slow and dead if you don't find your combo pieces or Aurelia.
Stuff that I’m considering for this deck.
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Trostani Discordant is another good finisher, but the reason I don't include her yet is that she doesn't really help with the main goal of the deck.
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Adanto Vanguard is good against control, but I just don't know where to put it.
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Arch of Orazca will again be good against control, but I'm so reliant on coloured mana, it's kind of hard to find a place for it.
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Board the Weatherlight might be good as some of my key cards are historic.
Currently, I have made two other versions of this deck, an Abzan () one with Seraph of the Scales and a Mardu () version with both Seraph of the Scales and Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice. I think the Abzan one will do better in my meta as most of it is either control or Golgari and in Abzan, you have access to Green which allows you to have cards such as Vivien Reid in the sideboard.
Descend Upon the Sinful - Abzan Edition
Standard*
SCORE: 1 | 16 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
Descend upon the Sinful - Mardu Edition
Standard*
SCORE: 1 | 9 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
Thanks for having a look. Suggestions welcome.
Suggestions
Updates Add
Some pretty sweet cards have been spoiled in RNA so far, and I just want to take a minute to talk about the ones that interest me for my Standard decks.
Silhana Wayfinder could possibly be a better Merfolk Branchwalker and might replace it in this deck. I've been playtesting him in one of my new Standard brews (which I'll get onto later) and he actually provides more consistency than Branchwalker.
Rhythm of the Wild might be a very good sideboard card, as it serves two purposes.
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The first one is quite obvious. Stopping Control from countering your creatures (if it doesn't get countered itself).
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The second one, not so much. You can always use it as a way to give your Lyra Haste to have my combo going on T5 instead of T6, which is a huge difference, especially in the aggro matchups.
The only problem is, where would I put it? My current sideboard does pretty well in my local meta and I don't really want to change it.
Domri, Chaos Bringer is an interesting card, as it gives both an aggro strategy (by allowing you to ramp into creatures and give them Riot) and a slower strategy, using his -3 ability. Domri is great Planeswalker, starting out at starting-loyalty:5 for only and should be considered in any deck running Green and Red.
Seraph of the Scales is another extremely good Angel to play with and is the reason why I made my other Standard brews. It is great against control (if they let it resolve) as if they try to kill it, I get value out of that too.
Cry of the Carnarium is a great sweeper, both against aggro and Drakes. Cry not only kills the Arclight Phoenix but exiles it, which means it can't be used again. Drakes makes up about 40% of my local meta, so exiling Phoenix is very important.
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper is a great sideboard card against all graveyard decks, as well as aggro (somewhat). She also helps with gaining life, which is very important with this deck. If you exile a creature with her, then play a Swiss Army Knight(gaining 4 life from it), you'll have enough life gain in one turn to activate Resplendent Angel
Grull Spelbreaker is possibly the best card spoiled for Gruul as of time of writing. This Ogre Warrior is a 3/3 trample with Riot and a bunch of other super relevant text in an aggressive deck for only ! It might be good in my deck's sideboard as there is no way to remove it on my turn, unlike Shalai.
If it stays on the battlefield long enough, Tithe Taker can have a real impact on a control player's game by making all the spells that they cast on my turn more to cast.
Currently, I have made two other versions of this deck, an Abzan () one with Seraph of the Scales and a Mardu () version with both Seraph of the Scales and Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice. I think the Abzan one will do better in my meta as most of it is either control or Golgari and in Abzan, you have access to Green which allows you to have cards such as Vivien Reid in the sideboard.
deck-large:descend-upon-the-sinful-abzan-edition
Descend upon the Sinful - Mardu Edition
Standard*
SCORE: 2 | 75 VIEWS
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| Top Ranked |
|
| Date added | 6 years |
| Last updated | 5 years |
| Splash colors | R |
| Legality | This deck is not Standard legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 11 - 3 Mythic Rares 25 - 10 Rares 17 - 2 Uncommons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 3.31 |
| Tokens | Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Emblem Vivien Reid |
| Folders | standard beatdown, Fhd, decks of interest, Other Angel Decks, RNA |
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