Gisela, Heirloom Blade

Commander / EDH Combo Eldrazi Mono-White Multiplayer

Tawheaton

Artifact (22)

• 1x Argentum Armor
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Fireshrieker
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Hammer of Nazahn
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Heirloom Blade
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mind's Eye
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Staff of Nin
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Tamiyo's Journal
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Trading Post
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Land (36)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Eiganjo Castle
• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x High Market
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 27x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower

Creature (22)

• 1x Armory Automaton
• 1x Artisan of Kozilek
• 1x Auriok Windwalker
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Balan, Wandering Knight
• 1x Brass Squire
• 1x Bruna, the Fading Light  ^Meld
• 1x Cataclysmic Gearhulk
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Leonin Shikari
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Puresteel Paladin
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Stonehewer Giant
• 1x Taj-Nar Swordsmith
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1x Thalia's Lancers
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Land Tax

Commander (1)

 ^Meld

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Cataclysm
• 1x Council's Judgment
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Hour of Revelation
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Tragic Arrogance
• 1x Wrath of God

Instant (7)

• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Pull from Eternity
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection

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So I struggle enjoying white decks. It's just my least favorite color in the pie and it tends to be the most boring, typically, as a mono color. However, I wanted to try and build a deck that could reliably assemble the Eldrazi Angel and I had a previous iteration that did a decent job but just didn't reach the consistency I was looking for. Then C17 gave us Heirloom Blade! I saw the potential and understood that if I wanted my focus to be on reliably building Brisela, Voice of Nightmares that I needed to all in on the strategy and see how it worked. This has become one of my favorite mono color decks with a power level surprisingly higher than I had anticipated. This is by no means oppressive but it explodes faster than your opponents will expect. The deck has a lot of redundancy which is great as we're not actually looking to win through commander damage, although that is viable if your opponents focus down our Brisela options.

So the combo should be obvious. Play Gisela, equip Heirloom Blade, sac her and let her die in some way (send her to your graveyard, not the command zone). The deck has multiple sac outlets and board wipes so this isn't difficult. The mana rocks in the deck should allow you to keep up with the mana greedy plays we want to make. Here's where we had to make sacrifices, the only angel in the deck is Bruna, the Fading Light. No Avacyn, Linvala and most notably, no Karmic Guide, which in my opinion was the biggest sacrifice. Technically you could play Karmic Guide and if you hit her instead of Bruna off the Heirloom Blade trigger then you equip the Blade to Guide and don't pay the echo the following turn. This could lead to some slightly more explosive plays if no one messes you up in that time period but I don't like it cuz it's like running at someone with a haymaker from 50 feet away. Gives your opponents WAYYYYY too much time to answer what's coming. I wanted to make sure this had resiliency though so here's where the consistency comes in. Once you cast Bruna and res Gisela off your ETB trigger you get your sisterly love in the form of Brisela at the end of turn. Re-equip Heirloom Blade to Brisela at your earliest opportunity (if you have Brass Squire or Leonin Shikari you can do it in response to an opponent doing something before it comes back to your turn). If Brisela dies then Heirloom Blade will trigger again and look for any creature that is either Eldrazi or Angel (still send Gisela to the graveyard and not the command zone). There are no more angels in the deck but there is one eldrazi in the form of Artisan of Kozilek. This means that you can res Bruna off the Artisan cast trigger and res Gisela off of Bruna's ETB trigger. I also threw in a Pull from Eternity in case an opponent exiles one of these pieces.

If your opponent's mess up your game plan after that don't worry. You've probably picked up some other toys along the way that can slide in and close out the game just fine. The deck has a cute little equipment package. You could easily change out several of the pieces if you wanted and I don't think it'd matter too much. The important thing are the cards that play well with the equipment. Stonehewer Giant not only tutors up our equipment but slaps it on at the same time meaning he can actually be a threat on his own. More importantly though are two cards that want all the equipment. Armory Automaton just equips everything on ETB or Attack, even your opponents equipment. This can make for a terrifying quick swing as soon as he hits the ground if you have your Swiftfoot Boots out or someone has Lightning Greaves in play. We run boots and not greaves because Hexproof vs Shroud matters to us since we're not creature heavy and we can't afford to worry about having a second creature out to juggle greaves with while activating Equips. The other powerhouse is Balan, Wandering Knight. This dude is a powerhouse and can remove players that underestimate him very quickly. The great thing about these guys as backup win-cons is they play real well with our multiple Cataclysm effects in the deck. The whole idea is to force players to deal with Brisela early game or die and let them waste their resources removing her and then close it with one of our other dudes that simply come along and pick up the weapons Brisela dropped on her way out.

Let me know what you guys think and feedback is always appreciated!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	UBRG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 1 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.47
Tokens	Clue, Goat 0/1 W
Folders	References