Angels We Have Heard On High [PRIMER]

Commander / EDH Angels Budget Lifegain Mono-White

orcopollo

Creature (24)

• 1x Akroma, Vision of Ixidor
• 1x Angel of Destiny
• 1x Angel of Invention
• 1x Angel of Vitality
• 1x Bishop of Wings
• 1x Cartographer's Hawk
• 1x Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• 1x Firemane Commando
• 1x Herald of War
• 1x Inspiring Overseer
• 1x Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 1x Odric, Lunarch Marshal
• 1x Resplendent Angel
• 1x Righteous Valkyrie
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Sephara, Sky's Blade
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Speaker of the Heavens
• 1x Starnheim Aspirant
• 1x Valkyrie Harbinger
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Wojek Investigator

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Devout Invocation
• 1x Entreat the Angels
• 1x Finale of Glory
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x Gift of Estates
• 1x Requisition Raid
• 1x Starnheim Unleashed

Artifact (13)

• 1x Angel's Feather
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Cosmos Elixir
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Lavaspur Boots
• 1x Marble Diamond
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Scroll of Avacyn
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Surveyor's Scope
• 1x The Book of Exalted Deeds
• 1x Tome of Legends
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams

Instant (10)

• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Angelic Intervention
• 1x Cosmic Intervention
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Revitalize
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Unbreakable Formation
• 1x Valorous Stance
• 1x Your Temple is Under Attack

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Angelic Accord
• 1x Answered Prayers
• 1x Court of Grace
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Path of Bravery
• 1x Sigarda's Splendor

Commander (1)

Land (35)

• 1x Blighted Steppe
• 1x Idyllic Grange
• 1x Kabira Crossroads
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 24x Plains
• 1x Radiant Fountain
• 1x Seraph Sanctuary
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x War Room
• 1x Windbrisk Heights

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Elspeth Resplendent
• 1x Elspeth Tirel
• 1x Serra the Benevolent

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Metropolis Reformer
• 1x Platinum Angel

Instant (1)

• 1x Riot Control

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Monologue Tax

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From What They Are, Spirit. From What They Do, Angel

It was the end. The war was over. The people were broken. The heroes had lost and lay dead under the dirt. The darkness was looming over the Plane and all hope had disappeared from the heart of men.

A few ingenuous priests and a few wretched soldiers gathered for yet another prayer, one last, useless plea for salvation to the deaf heavens. A starving woman in rags approached the circle, softly wailing from hunger and despair, about to fall over. Two soldiers supported her and a priest offered her water and a piece of bread, the last he had. An act of benevolence in a cursed land. A single tear fell from her haggard cheeks and watered the cold, dry earth.

As soon as the teardrop touched the ground, a ray of white light pierced the dark clouds, blinding the group of people, so accustomed to that eternal night. A terrible, frightening, yet beautiful voice resounded through the plain, singing a message of hope: 'You are not alone'. Then the Angels descended from the Heavens like a celestial storm of candid wings and bright swords, and they did not stop until the Dawn shone again across the entire land.

The Deck

This deck is all about one of the most iconic and fascinating creatures in MTG: Angels. They represent everything White stands for and is good at as a colour: protection, teamwork, equality, fairness, inevitability. The objective of this deck is to build a board full of Angels that are made stronger by their commander, Giada, Font of Hope. The more you have, the stronger the next one you cast gets.

However, what perhaps differentiates it from others based on Giada is that this deck does not only want you to cast Angels, which are usually as expensive as they are powerful. Most of all, it wants you to create lots of cheapear yet just as strong Angel tokens. How? Through an act of benevolence: lifegain!

Lifegain

The deck is filled with cards that give you life. They are the first necessary element to start the Angel creation engine.

The most important and synergistic ones are probably Angel's Feather, Elspeth Tirel, Righteous Valkyrie, Bishop of Wings, Sigarda's Splendor, Path of Bravery, and Answered Prayers.

These cards will usually allow you to gain the 3, 4, or 5 life you need to create Angels. If they are not enough, creatures with lifelink will do the rest.

Creating Angels

Once you have set out your lifegain engine, you are ready to create Angels.

This is done through cards that turn the life gained into Angel tokens, on the condition that you have gained 3, 4, or 5 life on your turn or, sometimes, on any player's turn. These include Resplendent Angel, Valkyrie Harbinger, The Book of Exalted Deeds, and Angelic Accord.

Other cards create Angels on other conditions, all related to your life, such as having at least 7 life more than your starting total, (Speaker of the Heavens), not losing life for a few turns (Luminarch Ascension), or being the monarch (Court of Grace).

Additionally, planeswalkers Serra the Benevolent and Elspeth Resplendent are able to create other Angels in a relatively easy way, especially if your board had already a few blockers.

Finally, there a few more traditional token generator cards, such as Starnheim Unleashed, Finale of Glory, Entreat the Angels, and Devout Invocation. This last one has the potential of effectively doubling your Angel tokens.

Other Angels

While the focus of the deck is on making a lot of Angel tokens, non-token Angels also play a fundamental role.

They help with the lifegain engine, for instance increasing the amount of life that is gained (Angel of Vitality) or by giving lifelink to all other angels (Lyra Dawnbringer).

They provide card-draw (Firemane Commando, Inspiring Overseer, Wojek Investigator).

They make other Angels cheaper to cast (Herald of War).

And they buff other Angels and/or provide them with valuable abilities like indestructible (Akroma, Vision of Ixidor, Angel of Invention, Sephara, Sky's Blade).

Other Creatures

The deck features also a few non-angel creatures. These are also vital to the engine, providing support to the Angel cards or covering aspects of the game that Angels do not address. Moreover, most of these are Clerics or Soldiers, so they are also in flavour.

For instance, Cartographer's Hawk and Weathered Wayfarer provide ramp or secure land drops. Similarly, Starnheim Aspirant makes Angels cheaper to cast.

Daxos, Blessed by the Sun and Soul's Attendant contribute to the lifegain engine.

Mangara, the Diplomat provides card-draw, while Selfless Spirit protects the board.

Finally, Odric, Lunarch Marshal helps providing abilities to all your creatures, and Mondrak, Glory Dominus doubles your tokens.

Protection and Removal

White is perhaps the best colour for protection and removal, and this deck needs all the time those cards can get it to build its engine and become an inevitable threat.

Among the best protection cards in the deck, it is worth mentioning Cosmic Intervention, Flawless Maneuver, and Unbreakable Formation. These cards are great at protecting your board when it starts becoming scary, so that you do not have to restart from scratch. Angel's Grace is useful as a last resort and can buy you one last turn.

Regarding removal, probably the best cards in the deck are Generous Gift, Swords to Plowshares, and Grasp of Fate. Valorous Stance is also particularly good because it provides both targeted removal and targeted protection. These cards can slow your opponents down while you are building your board or eliminate unwanted threats.

Fumigate and Elspeth Tirel provide very synergistic board-wipes, giving you life, and so a chance to create Angels, or destroying everything but your tokens.

Wincons

There are a few ways you can win with this deck.

The first, most common, and most obvious one is through good old combat damage. You create a big board with very powerful fliers and you swing at your opponents. Fair and square.

Another wincon is provided by Angel of Destiny, who will take out your opponents one by one once you have at least 55 life (which should not be very hard to get to). Lavaspur Boots gives her haste, so that she can bring death as soon as she enters the battlefield.

Finally, Finale of Glory can provide a late game, last resort wincon, especially after a boardwipe, whether this was cast by an opponent or caused by your Elspeth Tirel. It will give you a wide strong board which could bring you a late unhoped-for victory.

Final Words

This is not a fast deck. It is not a competitive deck either. You cannot win by turn 5, it does not have any infinite combos, and it is slow at building a board and even slower at ruibilding it after a board-wipe. But it is fun, steady, and extremely satisfying to play. It requires patience, hard work, and a bit of skill to get it going. But, if you play it well, it will allow you to build something beautiful and terrible at the same time, just like Angels, that will make your victory inevitable. As such, I think it perfectly embodies mono-White as a colour identity.

I would be very happy to read what you think of this deck and, if you liked what you saw, please do not forget to upvote it!

Top Ranked	Achieved #13 position overall 5 months ago Achieved #12 position in Commander / EDH 5 months ago Achieved #3 position in Commander / EDH Budget 5 months ago
Date added	6 months
Last updated	1 day
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.09
Tokens	Angel 3/3 W, Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Angel Warrior 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Clue, Elephant 3/3 G, Emblem Serra the Benevolent, Servo 1/1 C, Soldier 1/1 W, Soldier 2/2 W, Spirit 1/1 W, The Monarch
Folders	Mono-W