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Angels, Spears and Swords or ASS (Swords Tribal)

Commander / EDH Angels Equip Flying RW (Boros)

MrHighscore


Maybeboard


Too many swords?

There is no such things as too many swords!


Motivation

I wanted to make a swords tribal deck! That means that swords should appear in the image or be part of the name for the majority of the cards.

Finding specific card version with swords in the image is not trivial work; You have to know what card you're looking for, and search through all cards manually, so I may have missed one or more. IF you know a good sword'ish card that I should include, speak up!

There are a lot of angels that carry swords, so I figured it would make sense to make an agel sub-theme. The issue with that is that most of the good angels (say Avacyn, Angel of Hope) does not carry a sword, but a spear. Given that I want to actually play the game and stand a chance to win, I have relaxed the sword constraint to include spears.

Swords. Angels. Spears. SAS... or Angels, Swords and Spears for the ASS acronym. Because good decks have good names, and ASS is a good name AND it opens up for so many primitive jokes.

Deck design

Given that nice red angels are also an option, and there exist a few cool Boros decks for EDH with spears and swords, I'm going for a Boros theme, even though White will be contributing the most! But for theme Assemble the Legion and Legion's Initiative are right down my alley (Legion's Initiative is a thematic replacement for Teferi's Protection, until they print a version with swords and spears).

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is a very nice finisher to have available in the command zone, but the deck should be able to hold it own without her help.

Card advantage

Since we're in Boros, card advantage is an issue, but I think there are enough solutions around these days to be satisfied:

Ramp

All decks need a bit of ramp to get to those critical plays a little bit sooner!

Control

All those pesky opponents needs to be defeated. Sometimes that means removing an artefact, exiling a creature, or getting rid of annoying combo piece. Luckily Boros is pretty good at this stuff:

Utility

A couple of cards I could not fit into the other categories

  • Assemble the Legion because I always wanted to play it and there are so many swords in that picture. Also seems pretty good, though a bit slow.
  • Faith's Reward another substitute for Teferi's Protection. It has a sword. Can be used big or small
  • Stoneforge Mystic because tutor for equipment, rebate on equipment, and uncounterable equipment. Also fit's nicely on the curve, and have a sword stone.

Equipment

It should come as no surprise that a swords tribal will be running the infamous Sword of X/Z/Z equipment. They are all good, one way or the other, and the protection from X/Y makes me happy. They should be covered by the other sections, but new information is: These are what inspired the deck in the first place!

The creatures

Well. They are the least bad angels. The tribe is kind of meh, with life link and stuff, but also they have SWORDS and SPEARS! In summary: They have wings. They fly. They have swords and spears. Some of them look kind. Some of them are angry. They're okay fighters. Some have tricks, but most are just meh. On the plus side, they can all carry equipment!

In addition I've given room for a couple of special non-agelic creatures:

  • Esper Sentinel is too good to pass up on, and have a sword'ish arm
  • Figure of Destiny is good on the curve, and have some flexibility later
  • Puresteel Paladin and Stoneforge Mystic will do good stuff with equipment, and is all sword
  • Stonehewer Giant and Serra Ascendant does not have a sword or a spear! I'm a bad person, I know it. Here you thought it was ASS and it turns out I'm the ass. I'm simply cheating, because these cards are too good to not play in this deck
  • Sun Titan checks on the sword list, so he's excused. He'll bring back more than half of my deck on play or attack, so he's a keeper!

Land suite

Not much to note here. Tried doing the Crucible of Worlds + fetches thing, but it's just more hazzle than not. I've drizzeld enough duals in there for this to be a nothing burger, and even found room for some utility. Move along. Nothing to see. It's fine!

Help wanted

  • What is good? What is bad? What would you add (and cut) to make it better? Please linger on the Maybe board. Lot's of good stuff there!
  • I can not justify a spot for any planeswalkers. Can you argue that I should?

Suggestions

Updates Add

I was browsing mountains and plains and found the ones from The Brothers' War and they are perfect for the deck!

Mountain Plains

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40% Casual

60% Competitive

Revision 15 See all

(3 months ago)

+1 Firemane Commando maybe
+1 Forge Anew maybe
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #2 position overall 7 years ago
Date added 7 years
Last updated 3 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

24 - 0 Mythic Rares

37 - 0 Rares

17 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.19
Tokens Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Soldier 1/1 RW, Soldier 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders EDH decks, Commander, Coppied decks, Stuff, Decks, Commander Decks, EDH, Commander, Deeeeeeeeeecks
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