Angels of Fire ~ Boros Midrange

Standard Fugl

SCORE: 58 | 33 COMMENTS | 12020 VIEWS | IN 25 FOLDERS


5x FNM results 14-6 —Dec. 1, 2018

Flandag says... #1

As someone who has played Boros Aggro, Midrange, Angels, etc, a lot in this meta trying to find the best fit... The Swiftblade's are best in a more mentor/buff heavy deck, this one only really has the Aurelia and Ajani for buffs.

Also, instead of Justice Strikes, I've been running Response / Resurgence. Right now, I honestly think it's slightly better. Justice Strike doesn't hit everything you want, while Response does except for Doom Whisperer which I have been seeing less of lately. Of course that's assuming they'll attack, which if it's a threat in this current meta they will. Not many passive creatures that are threats right now. Another example is that Justice Strike kills Lyra, one of the main reasons for running Justice Strike, but lets your opponent gain 5 life. On top of that, if you even uptap once with Lyra or a decent angel board with Resurgence... oh man, it's game over or near to it!

November 11, 2018 4:51 p.m.

Fugl says... #2

Flandag Thanks for the comment :) I've tried a bunch of stuff myself including Response/Resurgence. This deck is a tuned to beat my own meta. I've had Tajic, Reponse, 1 drops etc, but this is better for my Dimir/Jeskai ridden meta. Swiftblade Vindicator is a better two drop for me than Tocatli Honor Guard since it dodges Seal Away. I would recommend it if you have troubles with control

November 11, 2018 5:33 p.m.

Fugl says... #3

One more thing - Response / Resurgence:

I've played it as a 2-4 of the last month, and now people expect me to have a combat trick or the combo kill. Like Settle the Wreckage they start to play around it which gives a bigger incentive to play without it

November 11, 2018 5:35 p.m.

Sidebrowns says... #4

Im really not seeing why the history of benalia except to just bump the price up an extra Franklin. It has no synergy in this deck and your opponent doesnt even have to have a specific answer. it can just be answered cleanly on 2nd tick of saga with clarion. Or settle on 3rd tick. Seems like a waste of slots. But thats just my bad playstyle to be fair. I get why the angels work for sure

November 11, 2018 10:43 p.m.

WiDOC says... #5

I played the deck a lot this last days. Your exact list and sometimes with other very minor changes. It is a fair deck, I really like it. But it is also kinda frustrating when you end up turn 4 or 5 with still 3 mana and/or only 2 drops minions with 0 draw to help you getting out of problem. And at some point, I think midrange deck need at least to have some. Here's what I've done.

I keeped the 2 drops. So i tried to preserve more of the aggro aspect of the deck. I removed the Lava Coil and replace them with 4 Lightning Strike. I did this for 3 major reasons.

  1. It is an instant so it permit to clean the way so you can attack with your small 2 drops.
  2. To finish most of planeswalkers like Vraska, or Tefeiri which, at this point because you've played agressive early will most likely use their 2nd ability ending up at 1 or 3 loyal points.
  3. It permits me to finish my opponents more than 50% of time (I have the feeling that it is more than 70% actually). And just that is insane. The problem with Lava Coil is that because you have no hexproof or whatsoever, a lot of time I find myself in a position where my board has been cleaned up, or is entirely blocked and my opponents only have less than 5 HP and I have no draw to kinda recreate a decent board. Golgari will Block you kinda easily, Controls will not let you finish, And it's hard to spend 4 life to keep Adantos on board vs aggro deck because you'll loose more life than him early. And in that last case, Lightning strike has way more value to deal with cards like Goblin Chainwhirler. So my strategy is, be as aggro as possible against control deck and finish him off with Lightning Strike or manage the biggest aggro threat the time I have my Angels. It really works better, at least for me.

(The only thing Lava Coil is good for is to remove Rekindling Phoenix, but since you play some, you enter sort of a status quo which you can win a bit later with Trample cards and Lifelink.)

Since I cannot be less aggressive vs control and I can take a bit few time vs Aggro, I'm only playing 3 copy or less of each 4+ drops. Aurelia, Lyra etc. to make some place to try some draw card and especially Risk Factor. I tried almost every draw card and it seems that it is this one that works better amongst all others. Why though ? Because first, it is an instant. WITH JUMP-START. And it is.. absolutely amazing to play with. Let's take my previous example. I'm playing vs control and I'm stuck with 3 land and only 1 or 2 2drops here. Well, at least I have a board that dealt some damage early game and I can manage to play this card even if it's countered. Because if he greed these 4 damages too much, you'll kill him with Lightning Strike anyway. And I'm not afraid of discarding an Aurelia, or a Lyra, I can't play them anyway and since I'm stuck at this point, It is preferable to commit into searching for that next land that will give you possibilities. I'm not saying it works 100% of time eh, but it definitely unlocks a lot more potential.

The other problem I have is that, even game I could have curved perfectly until turn 5, sometimes it just stops because, well, no more mana for Resplendent Angel , not enough control to manage opponents board so...well, you know at this point you have to tighten your butthocks until you draw an other land or something. I'm sure you've already encounter this frustrating position. Where you curved everything perfectly but you need, a slightly bit more options. It's not about power, it's about options.

Just to finish with most serious drawer I tried.

Mentor of the Meek: easily countered, easily managed. Doesn't rly works since it slow your deck more than it looks. It even sometimes prevents you to keep mana for Response / Resurgence or Justice Strike if you run it or else. The only good interaction i found is when your 0/1 phoenix token pops or Phoenix to rebirth, during the second phase of Benalia or with the -2 of Ajani. It's not THAT bad. It's just not that good.

Dismissive Pyromancer: Well, that one is not bad at all since it's only a 2 drop. But still, it's a creature that easily get shocked away by anything. So I often use his ability only once or zero. Since Adanto is most likely not targeted, the only other logic choice to kill a creature on board is this one. But maybe I'm playing it bad. I'm not sure.

Boros Locket: Nope !

Arch of Orazca: Not bad, still wondering how many to run in the deck. (1 or 2).

Dawn of Hope: Well ... if only it could apply any kind of pressure that would have been good but. Early game it's a dead card, and in midgame you most of the time have better option. 4 mana for a 1/1 lifelink is deadly expensive. It would have been a 2/2 knight vigilance that might have been better actually. Let's be honest, you prefer cast Ajani, Aurelia or anything else for 4 mana. You don't have a lot of lifelink source in the deck until end of midgame so. It's meh. I thought of pairing it with Fountain of Renewal which is a drawer I still didn't try. But I guess It's the same problem. Doesn't really help early, and doesn't help in lategame.

I'll try it a bit more in the next days, I still don't know if I should run 3 or 4 copy of Risk Factor, but maybe you should give it a shot.

Last but not least, Chance for Glory won me a lot of game. I just played 1 to test it. It seems that I very underestimated the card. It is also this kind of 'option' that unlock your board when you can't just finish your opponent.

November 13, 2018 2:51 a.m.