I'd rather be Flying!

Standard* Angels BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo GW (Selesnya) Midrange WB (Orzhov)

Hexaflexagon

Land (23)

• 3x Godless Shrine
• 4x Isolated Chapel
• 4x Overgrown Tomb
• 2x Plains
• 4x Sunpetal Grove
• 4x Temple Garden
• 2x Woodland Cemetery

Angels (10)

• 4x Lyra Dawnbringer
• 4x Resplendent Angel
• 2x Shalai, Voice of Plenty

Card Draw and Recursion (6)

• 4x Ripjaw Raptor
• 2x Storrev, Devkarin Lich

Removal (6)

• 4x Mortify
• 2x Vraska's Contempt

Multi-Purpose (9)

• 2x Knight of Autumn
• 4x Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
• 3x Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

Ramp (6)

• 2x Incubation Druid
• 4x Paradise Druid

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Sideboard

Other (15)

• 1x Carnage Tyrant
• 1x Cry of the Carnarium
• 3x Deathgorge Scavenger
• 2x Find / Finality
• 1x Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
• 1x Ripjaw Raptor
• 2x Settle the Wreckage
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty
• 1x Tocatli Honor Guard
• 2x Vivien Reid

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Maybeboard

Other (3)

• 1x Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip
• 1x Bounty Agent
• 1x Despark

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Hello, and welcome to my Abzan version of Selesnya Standard Midrange.

Introduction

This deck is based around the old Resplendent Angel + Lyra Dawnbringer combo. It is meant for either competitive play or FNM Standard.

The general strategy for this deck is to ramp out both Resplendent Angel and Lyra Dawnbringer and protect them long enough to get my combo going. In the case where the combo does not get up and running, I can still beatdown the opponent with a variety of creatures such as the combo cards by themselves and Storrev, Devkarin Lich . Some of this deck’s goals was being able to consistently get out Lyra and Resplendent better than my previous decks ( Vivien, Champion of the Wilds , Ripjaw Raptor ) and the ability to recur Lyra and Replendent ( Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord and Storrev, Devkarin Lich ). This is so my deck can be more consistent. I also wanted the deck to try and bounce back after a board wipe.

General Strategy

The main strategy is to beatdown the opponent with the Lyra Dawnbringer and Resplendent Angel combo. I’ll explain the combo in the Combos and Synergies section for those of you who don’t know about it.

If you can’t get the combo out for any reason, there is a backup plan. You can either grind them out with Shalai, Voice of Plenty , Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord , Vivien, Champion of the Wilds , and Storrev, Devkarin Lich . You can also beatdown with any of the combo pieces by themselves or with Ripjaw Raptor and/or Storrev.

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I don’t really mulligan unless I have 1 or 0 lands, so I don’t really look for anything in my opening hand, apart from land.

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The best goldfish:

T1: Land

T2: Paradise Druid or Incubation Druid

T3: Shalai, Voice of Plenty

T4: Lyra Dawnbringer

T5: 2 Resplendent Angels

This allows me to not only ramp out my combo, it also allows me to protect it as well as enhance it with a second Resplendent.

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My sideboard is a work in progress…

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Why Abzan?

I’ll split this category into three parts, one for each colour.

White

White is my main colour because it is the colour in which Lyra and Resplendent appear in, which means that I have to have white. White also gives me Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord for reanimation, Mortify for removal, and Shalai, Voice of Plenty .

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Green

Green is my colour for (kind of) card draw with Vivien, Champion of the Wilds and Ripjaw Raptor , ramp with Paradise Druid and Incubation Druid , and recursion with Storrev, Devkarin Lich .

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Black

Black is my colour for removal and recursion. Our whole removal suite either is black or has black (2 Vraska's Contempt and 4 Mortify ) in its casting cost. Also we have what kind of is a second playset of Lyra in Soring, Vengeful Bloodlord on our turn, which can also reanimate creatures and deal one lifelinking damage, which might allow us to activate Resplendent Angel . We also get from Black Storrev, Devkarin Lich , who allows us to recur Vivien and Sorin, but most importantly, recur Lyra and Resplendent.

Strengths

• This deck has a 100% win rate if Lyra and Resplendent stay on the board.

• This deck can survive without my combo, using Storrev, Devkarin Lich and Ripjaw Raptor or even my combo pieces alone to beatdown my opponents.

Weaknesses

• This deck dies to spot removal.

Combos and Synergies

Lyra Dawnbringer and Resplendent Angel combo

You have a Lyra and Resplendent out. You attack with Lyra, and gain five life. At your endstep, you get an Angel, who is a 5/5 Flying, Lifelink, and Vigilance, who can attack or block and if it dies, it’ll get replaced with another Angel (unless Resplendent Angel or Lyra is dead by then).

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Storrev, Devkarin Lich and Vivien, Champion of the Wilds grind/dig combo

You untap with a Storevv and Vivien (with two loyalty counters). You -2 Vivien, digging 3 and taking something (note that with Vivien, she doesn’t have to be out on the battlefield for you to cast that card if it’s a creature) in your first main phase. Vivien dies, and then you attack with Storrev. If you can get through, what you can do is take back the Vivien in your graveyard and recast her, digging two, and going down to two loyalty. Next turn, rinse and repeat.

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Both of these combos can be disrupted by the usual removal and counterspells.

Card Explanations/Choices Show

This section will be split into six sections, based on the custom categories that I have put the decklist in.

Lands

The landbase is pretty standard, with a bunch of shocklands and check/buddy lands and a few basic lands on the side.

Ramp

• Paradise Druid is a great mana dork for my deck, as it has Hexproof as long as I haven’t used it.

• Incubation Druid is also great because I can spend 5 mana to make it into a better mana dork and make it into a smaller beater.

Angels

This is the main part of the deck. My combo, and protection for it.

• Lyra Dawnbringer is part one of the combo and my best beater. A 5/5 Flying, Lifelink, First Strike is probably one of the best beaters that White has in Standard right now who is also a good blocker as well. Lifelink is really helpful against Aggro decks, especially with this deck being a reletively slower deck.

• Resplendent Angel is part two of my combo. A 3/3 flyer for 3 is pretty good by itself and a good beater. It also has a really good mana sink, costing six to swing for 5 lifelink damage, which triggers her own ability.

• Shalai, Voice of Plenty is my anti-burn, anti-removal card. She gives hexproof to all my Planeswalkers and Creatures, but most importantly, myself. She protects my stuff against Aggro decks’ burn and bounce, having to go through Shalai first.

Card Draw and Recursion

In this section, I cover what I use to draw cards and get back stuff.

• Storrev, Devkarin Lich is part of my grind/dig combo with Vivien, Champion of the Wilds . He can also recur my combo or other beatdown pieces.

• Ripjaw Raptor is an extremely good card for a slower deck like mine. Although I can cast this on Turn 3 with Paradise Druid and Incubation Druid , the best thing about this is that I can block a smaller creature from a deck like Mono-Blue and White/X Aggro, survive, and get a card from it.

Removal

My removal suite is pretty standard, with Mortify , Knight of Autumn (which isn’t in the removal section, I know) and Vraska's Contempt . Not much to really say here, except that it covers pretty much everything relevant in Standard.

Multi-Purpose

This covers everything that has multiple purposes, such as Planeswalkers.

• Knight of Autumn can do a few things. The first is that it can become a 4/3 with two counters on it. The second is I can destroy any Artifact or Enchantment on the board ( Conclave Tribunal , Treasure Map  , and Ixalan's Binding are some relevant Artifacts and Enchantments in Standard that come to mind right now. The third is that I can gain life and an okay body against Aggro decks.

• Vivien, Champion of the Wilds is a part of my grind combo with Storrev, Devkarin Lich . She can also give a creature vigilance and reach, which is useful for when you want to put pressure on your opponent and defend at the same time.

• Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord is an extremely useful card, as it gives a Lyra Dawnbringer impression by giving all my creatures lifelink, allowing me to get a second playset of Lyra (kind of) and use my Storrev to activate my Resplendent Angel ! He can also Reanimate one of my creatures and consistently ping my opponent.

Building the Deck

Work in Progress

Thanks for reading my primer. I hope you like it and the deck! Is there anything you would change? What would you do in my situation?

Top Ranked	Achieved #52 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 4 Mythic Rares 42 - 10 Rares 8 - 1 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.43
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Emblem Vivien Reid
Folders	Ideas