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Atraxa, Descent of Angels | Angel Tribal

Commander / EDH Angels Flying GWUB Lifegain Tokens

Sly985

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Commander: foil Atraxa, Grand Unifier

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An Angel Tribal deck that plays around counters, life gain, and using the strong card options available in Atraxa's color palette!

Side Note: So I just want to start off by saying apologies for this primer being all over the place, I do have plans on cleaning it up and better organizing my thoughts (especially for older versions vs what's current), but this originally started as a way to document the changes to this deck and I didn't really foresee or have any plans on taking it any further than just that.. That being said! I do want to sit down at some point and do a proper primer, though I just haven't had the time lately (but I do intend to eventually!).

Again, apologies for the chaotic'ness!, and hopefully you're able to find some usefulness hidden in here somewhere!

Thanks again! <3

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My personal favorite among the EDH decks I own. I spent a lot of time working on this deck and trying to get it to be decent while also holding a specific theme I was going for (which definitely was not easy and you could make a 10,000,000% better deck by just being not "angel tribal", Atraxa proliferate-play potential is just nuts and I get that).

Also, I want to make it abundantly clear: this deck is not trying to be CEDH, so don't assume it'll perform 100% of the time.

That being said, it still works pretty well most of the time but definitely could be tweaked to work better (read below for more info on that).

I've always loved the idea of an Angel-based deck and when I first started magic I always thought it would be neat to have 2 decks, 1 a dragon deck (though that didn't get far), and 2 an angel/demon deck. Unfortunately though, the "+ demons" didn't really work very well so I just focused on making the angel deck separately (yes this means I attempted a demon tribal deck, but honestly that flopped.... that's been shelved for now and maybe revisited later).
This is a pretty fun deck and in a pod works fairly well. I've had many games where I've only had a handful of creatures out and the table ignored me thinking I wasn't or wouldn't ever be a threat then proceeded to pump out damage while healing too. It definitely struggles in some aspects and if I really wanted to push the deck, there definitely would be some creatures and other cards I'd swap out. But for now, it's ok. Some stuff I would change is I'd probably look into getting more ramp and maybe also more instants to utilize (most likely stuff like counters), maybe even play off of infect or something (but then you may end up with a deck that isn't trying to be angel tribal so there's that...), also in 1v1s it struggles depending on the match up.

At some point, I do plan on coming back to this deck and doing an update on it, and will most likely post all that here when I do, but again, for now, I'm content. :)

EDIT: Check out updates/edits below!

EDIT Jan 2023: So A LOTS changed with this deck. We've moved away from the heavy use of counters and started diving into the token generation route and gaining life. This is primarily because a lot of angels synergize with life gain and some result in creating angel tokens when doing so. Because of this the plan of this deck is to use powerhouse cards like Sylvan Library and Necropotence to draw us cards while hopefully being able to gain an abundant amount of life with cards like Soul's Attendant and Soul Warden, pair that with token generators like The Book of Exalted Deeds, you start to be able to balance the flow of paying for life and gaining it. Throw in really good ramp like Smothering Tithe or just cost reduction like Starnheim Aspirant or Defiler of Faith, and while we're playing off of life gain/paying life, we should be able to get really large hitters like our commander Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Avacyn, Angel of Hope fairly easily. Really, given our color options, there are tons of REALLY good staple cards we could throw in, especially if the budget is seemingly none, but for now, stay tuned for more updates to come!

Anyway, if you made it this far thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy. :)

I also have other decks on here (so go check those out too!), but I wanted to share this one because I'm honestly pretty proud of it! Thanks again! :) :) :)

Old Info Using Atraxa, Praetors' Voice: For people trying to do angel tribal in EDH, here's my advice + experiences from building this (also please keep in mind this was built around double masters release time frame); Angel tribal is a really neat tribe and idea, but it naturally has inherent problems that seem to just come with the tribe. Things like CMC problems, individual card power but not tribal, honestly lacking a proper commander that can make them shine (especially since even with Atraxa you leave out some awesome red angels) and other things that stem from trying to maintain the theme. But, if you don't mind the challenge, it can be really fun to get something and see it start to come together. My game plan with this deck is pumping +1/+1 counters on my creatures and smacking face, that and tribal synergy, cheating out creatures, and a wombo-combo with Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Shalai, Voice of Plenty with Lightning Greaves on Shalai, which makes you pretty much unkillable (and you can do this pretty easily with Defense of the Heart), but I definitely feel like people could take the tribe a different route for sure.

So I think this deck is finally in a state where I'm happy with the performance (maybe, we'll see), going forward though, I'm going to shift my focus to making sure that it meets the goal of feeling like an angel-heavy tribal deck. The dream/goal here is to consistently have anywhere between 3-6 angels out on the field at any time, and possibly even 8-10+ out at endgame. My dream is for this to feel like the Zombie/Elf/Gishath decks out there but for angels. Though tempering my expectations here, those tribes do have commander options that are much better at setting that up, but still, I like the challenge.

In terms of specifics, these changes have happened over the course of a VERY long time (probably since the new Atraxa came out, so January), but, the TL;DR is I revisited my mana base and really streamlined/pushed it. On top of that I revisited my creature choices and really pushed for what I felt were the best angels I could or at the least were the best to achieve what my goals were. I've also shifted much heavier into life gain and payoffs for that life gain opting for cards like Necropotence and Sylvan Library and since I already had a lot of creates with lifelink. For safety, I did go ahead and add a few cards like Soul's Attendant and others to try and ensure consistent life gain, the primary reason for this, is the inclusion of (I'm pretty sure) every card that generates angel tokens which trigger off a life gain amount (cards like Angelic Accord and The Book of Exalted Deeds).

Wanted to give a quick update: This is my personal pet deck, I've spent a lot of time working on it and trying to make it work (I don't like mono-color angels, and I like the colors Atraxa provides) but I'm not very happy with where it's at right now. I'm trying in the background to make improvements where I can but look for changes to come (not sure when I'll have time to actually sit down and fix it, but for anyone wanting to take on the challenge themselves, the deck has a color-fix problem and a ramp problem).
With a new Atraxa, Grand Unifier out in her full glory, I want to give her a go as the new (and maybe temporary) head of this deck and will post my thoughts on how she plays compared to her previous, lower CMC version! My current thought process here is that Atraxa, Praetors' Voice was primarily the head choice for this deck because of the color options she provided for the tribe. Mix that with a solid 4 CMC for a 4/4 filled with amazing keywords (and four of them too!), she was just honestly a solid card. That being said, she didn't really offer any support to the tribe like say if we chose something like Giada, Font of Hope. Now, don't get me wrong, proliferation at the end step is a powerful tool, but that's not really a tribe synergy.... That being said, with recent attempts to drive this deck to a more tribe-focused point, my thoughts here were that Atraxa, Grand Unifier provided at least a bit more value in terms of at least providing card draw on ETB while also just being a higher power/toughness version at 7/7 instead of 4/4, this might actually make her a more appealing choice to play over other cards in hand. Now I know what you're thinking, but 7 CMC... Ya, that's true, but angels are already pretty hefty in cost, and the deck has already been molded with that in mind. Pair that with the fact that the previous commander choice was never really a priority for me to play anyway, I just see this as a net positive for giving a better option that's actually worth the mana investment. NOW I COULD BE WRONG, but that's why I want to give it a try. Regardless, I'll post my thoughts and feelings at some point and we'll see where it goes!
So big changes are finally done! Decided to try out the route of going much more tribal heavy, dipping out of counters play and more into angel tokens. I'll be sure to add how it feels and any future changes, thanks!
Oh boy, 2022 and this deck is still going strong! As I mentioned previously, BIG changes are in the works! I know I talked about some changes back in 2021, though the changes I did make were minor or I didn't think they worked well. Still, stay tuned for some major changes coming that should potentially round out some of the issues this deck faced before... With some really solid tribal additions in Kaldheim (as touched on before), and some spicy things that were added between then and now (such as Innistrad revisit, AFR, Neo, etc), and now a really nice and spicy Angel mana-dork that also provides some +1/+1 synergy coming with New Capenna (Giada, Font of Hope, also not a horrible commander option for a mono-white version of this deck by the way), we're going full speed towards a True angel tribal deck. At first, this deck started as more of an off-tribal, with more of a focus on +1/+1 counters, but as time goes on I've been looking more into really getting the true tribal experience going. Look for updates like Vanquisher's Banner, Herald's Horn, and more (...and before you ask, "what about Urza's Incubator?" I mean, maybe, but honestly incubator is a bit overrated in my opinion, and also not needed in our colors... Though feel free to add it, it definitely is a solid card!). Regardless, once the changes are finalized I'll update them here and try to write about them and the thought process behind the swaps. See you then!
Changes are in the works; looking over angels/cards added in Kaldheim and AFR, lots of really great cards and additions were given to us but I've been working on other things so I haven't had a chance to update this deck, just know it's in the works! :) Some minor points are I'm looking to take Belbe's Portal out, maybe even Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and like Astral Cornucopia/Everflowing Chalice, they just feel clunky or don't get used often... Not sure yet, also Nissa, Steward of Elements might go, although I've been playing her more lately and it doesn't feel awful, though still sorta meh... Regardless, I'll post any updates here :D thanks!

EDIT: So I updated some stuff and added some cost reduction/other angel cards that were pretty nice and swapped out a few cards that I felt were underperforming or just didn't feel like they fit. All-in-all I like all the changes and will post here if I feel like they work well or not, I need to play with it more to know. Thanks!

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24% Casual

76% Competitive

Date added 3 years
Last updated 6 months
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

33 - 0 Mythic Rares

50 - 0 Rares

6 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.39
Tokens Angel 3/3 W, Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Spirit 1/1 W, The Monarch, Treasure
Folders EDH Decks
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