Angelic Host of Ravnos

Commander / EDH Angels Aristocrats Combo Tokens WB (Orzhov)

syterth

Creature (32)

• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Banisher Priest
• 1x Bishop of Binding
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Children of Korlis
• 1x Drana's Emissary
• 1x Edgewalker
• 1x Epicure of Blood
• 1x Erebos, Bleak-Hearted
• 1x Extricator of Sin  ^Flip
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x God-Eternal Bontu
• 1x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Hanweir Militia Captain  ^Flip
• 1x Impassioned Orator
• 1x Imperious Oligarch
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Lampad of Death's Vigil
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Nyx-Fleece Ram
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Pious Evangel  ^Flip
• 1x Shaman en-Kor
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Skirsdag High Priest
• 1x Skittering Surveyor
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soulmender
• 1x Vindictive Vampire
• 1x Whisper, Blood Liturgist
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Land (35)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Forsaken Sanctuary
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 13x Plains
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 11x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Ashes of the Abhorrent
• 1x Banishing Light
• 1x Cast Out
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Divine Visitation
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Hidden Stockpile
• 1x Oblivion Ring
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Vampiric Rites

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Exhume
• 1x Hoarder's Greed
• 1x Hour of Revelation
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord

Commanders (2)

Artifact (7)

• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Oketra's Monument
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Tainted Sigil
• 1x Traveler's Amulet
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Instant (4)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Harsh Sustenance
• 1x Nightmare's Thirst
• 1x Utter End

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Athreos, Shroud-Veiled
• 1x Daxos, Blessed by the Sun

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Ravnos, as it is fondly called, is the blend of Tymna the Weaver and Ravos, Soultender. I came into Magic around Scourge, so I entered during a time of profuse clerical activity, and plenty of tribal affinities. The conception of this deck began as a purely cleric tribal deck, but it has since morphed into an Aristocrats style deck. Tymna is typically one of my first casts. If I can land an attack on someone with something, and she's out, then that's some card draw. Ravos is more useful mid to late game. He is great at getting the dead back to your hand.

At a fundamental level, Tribal Affinity is a core function of the deck, especially given that both commanders are clerics. That's where Edgewalker is an amazing card. It makes the commanders significantly cheaper, and it's nice for the various clerics woven into the deck. Sometimes Edgewalker makes creatures free or nearly free.

The fundamental goal of the deck is to utilize Sacrificial Value to get an engine going. Grim Haruspex, Vampiric Rites, Erebos, Bleak-Hearted, and God-Eternal Bontu all deal with card draw. Dictate of Erebos helps level the field as the engine comes online. Or, if a deck is being really aggressive, it makes them really consider the trade off between your disposable minions and their big baddies. Finally Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim offers life gain and repeat removal.

In order to feed the engine, we must summon The Hordes. Anointed Procession and Oketra's Monument are primary generation points for the deck. Sifter of Skulls and Skirsdag High Priest help us to create more tokens. Hanweir Militia Captain  , once it gets flipped, is also a fine token creator. It also becomes a nice threat if we have plenty of creatures on the field. Divine Visitation is very important as well, as all of our random minions become much more noteworthy flying angels. Additionally, given enough fodder, Westvale Abbey   is a fantastic surprise to flip and throw around.

With our Hordes, we can also begin to spin the Aristocrats engine and begin Life Manipulation. Bontu's Monument is great early on to reduce our creature costs and to life drain from their casting. Kambal, Consul of Allocation is also great early, as it drains our opponents each time they cast a noncreature spell. Then, when our engine begins to whir, we have cards like Blood Artist and Vindictive Vampire to really suck the life from our opponents. If we've drawn enough life from those around us or if we've been hit hard, we have Tainted Sigil and Children of Korlis to bring us higher or back to where we were prior to the big hit. Both cards are fantastic in a pinch.

The engine requires bodies and Graveyard Recursion gets us those bodies. Whisper, Blood Liturgist trades in our tokens for the nontoken minions that are necessary for the engine to function effectively. Sword of Light and Shadow and Exhume are additional routes for graveyard retrieval. And do not forget about Ravos. If we aren't finding the other cards, then he's always chilling in the command zone. With that in mind, I tried Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim as the commander for a time, but I missed the utility that Tymna and Ravos offer.

Throughout the process we need ways to Control what our opponents are doing. Be that active threat removal or simply defensive uses, these cards are quite useful. Banisher Priest is quite nice because it can be recurred. Cast Out has flash, which makes it particularly effective. Then we have Merciless Eviction or Anguished Unmaking to fill in the gaps.

This leaves us with a subtheme of the deck: Liliana. As it happens, her various iterations slot into this type of deck quite nicely. Liliana, Dreadhorde General gives us fantastic card draw. The other two, Liliana, Heretical Healer   and Liliana, Death's Majesty give us graveyard recursion and token generation. Each planeswalker fills one of the major categories of the deck.

This deck likely needs a bit more utility to further smooth out its consistency. I had initially relied on sacrificial card draw, but opted for using life loss, instead, in the spells category. This proved to be more consistent, especially given that I want to use my creatures specifically for the life draining. If you notice any cards I should consider, please do not hesitate to send them my way!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	URG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 24 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 23 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.03
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Demon 5/5 B, Eldrazi Horror 3/2 C, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Morph 2/2 C, Servo 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 WB, Warrior 1/1 W w/ Vigilance, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B