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Dolf's Magic the
Gathering Deck Garage
Angel Control Deck
January 10, 2011
I want to start
playing MTG somewhat competitively in
the Standard format. For my first deck I
want to make an angel control deck (if
that's even possible/viable? haha) but
I'm not sure where to start. Can someone
give me some help on this? - Shiawase
-------------------------------
Shiawase,
I saw your post in the forums here on Pojo and since you
were looking for help with an Angel deck for standard so I
figured I'd help you out and make my first official deck fix
at the same time! There wasn't much to go on here other than
you want angels and you want it to be standard legal but
luckily that is enough of a focus for us to look into some
possible builds. As the first reply to your post mentioned
if we're talking about Angels in standard the absolute
must-have is Baneslayer angel usually heading into a U/W
control deck featuring Frost and Sun Titan. However, I feel
like the top end of those decks really focus on the titans
more than Baneslayer and you want an angel deck so I'm
really going to make angel cards the focus here.
After looking through the cards available in standard the
most fun angel themed deck I saw would be a U/W build
focused around Luminarch Ascension. The goal here would be
to control the game until you can get enough quest counters
on the Ascension to start pumping out angels or get one of
your other large angelic beatsticks into action. Since you
didn't have a decklist to start from what I'll do is go
through the
main
things you'll need to make this deck work and provide cards
recommendations to fill these rolls. You can decide how many
of which cards go in based on playtesting.
So the first thing we need would be win conditions and since
this is an angel deck we of course want Baneslayer Angel as
she is one of the most amazing creatures in standard right
now. The main drawback here being that she's really
expensive to get so if you can't afford it good old Serra
Angel fits in at the same mana cost or even Shepard of the
Lost (purchase in that order). Keeping with the theme
at the top end of your curve is Sunblast Angel, if you're
controlling the game properly you should still be alive to
cast this, preferably after your opponent just attacked last
turn and is tapped out.
Of course the other win condition here and true them of the
deck is the Luminarch Ascension which in and of itself is
fairly explanatory, but the hard part is making sure you're
not taking damage when it's on the table so that it can
build up the quest counters. To that end I'd suggest Wall of
Omens which provides a nice early blocker that also draws
you a card, Condemn for some targeted removal, and Journey
to Nowhere for more quasi-removal. You also want some
counterspells to control the game and prevent hard to deal
with creatures getting on the board to begin with, for these
you could go with mana leak and/or cancel. Also worth
mentioning here is Spreading Seas, between Valakut and all
the man-lands in standard that can hit you out of nowhere
you want to be sure you have an answer or they'll
effectively shutdown the Ascension.
Should they already have several creatures on the board
there's a couple ways to deal with them and build up those
crucial quest counters on the Ascension. Day of judgment is
a no brainer in a standard control deck as the ability to
kill everything on the table (that's not indestructible or
able to regenerate) is just crucial to a control strategy,
Ratchet
Bomb also provides a similar effect and can be customized.
You could also go with Safe Passage and Sleep in order to
prevent incoming damage and earn yourself some quest
counters. Both of those two cards also combo well with
Sunblast Angel, especially Sleep as it also taps any
vigilance creatures and sets up the angel to devastate your
opponent's board.
Since this is control you also want a couple ways to help
set up your hand the way you want which you can get both
Preordain and Jace, the Mind Sculptor to do. Jace even
allows you to mess with your opponents library and put a big
threat on the bottom of their library. That pretty much sums
this deck up and between these cards you should be able to
assemble a fun angel-themed control deck for standard play.
The only thing you want to look into is getting some nice
dual lands out there of which there are plenty to choose
from. Worth special mention is Celestial Colonnade though as
it no only fixes your mana but also provides another flying
beater later in the game.
I hope this helps you put together a fun angel deck you can
take to your local shop and feel free to drop me any
feedback.
-Dolf
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