Karmic Guide
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Penny Dreadful Legal
Premodern Legal
Vintage Legal

Karmic Guide

Creature — Angel Spirit

Flying, protection from black ((Remember the acronym debt.) This can't be damaged, enchanted, equipped, blocked or targeted by anything black. Anything black attached to this immediately falls off.)

Echo (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this came under your control since the beginning of your last upkeep, sacrifice it unless you pay its echo cost.)

When this enters the battlefield, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

CrystalQuarry on Liesa, Forgotten Archangel (Budget EDH, Combo)

1 month ago

Hey, thank you so much for commenting and taking the time to read through the deck description!

While this is intended to be a budget deck, I personally just really like foils and original printings of cards. The versions of each card listed in the deck here are what I actually have for it in paper.

Activated Sleeper is a card I have been looking at and considering adding to the deck, but it seems highly conditional given that it can only copy a creature that left the battlefield the same turn. I agree it can go infinite with Karmic Guide and Karmic Guide even helps set it up given that Echo would often force you to sacrifice it on your upkeep anyway. That said, I'm a bit worried about how effective the card is when you DON'T have access to Karmic Guide. I guess depending on the pod it could still be quite good at stealing an opponent's creature. I will have to test it a bit and see how it performs in practice.

Kaya's Ghostform is a card I've considered as well but what concerns me with it is the Sorcery speed nature of it and that it is a bit more telegraphed what the intention is. That said, the ability to bring back the creature even if it gets targeted with something like Swords to Plowshares is very cool! In the pods I've played this deck and where people have gotten to learn more or less how it works, they tend to try and remove Liesa, Forgotten Archangel very quickly, so I've found cards like Undying Evil to be essential for keeping Liesa in play. I've found the instant speed to be extremely relevant in many situations as well. That said, Legion's Landing  Flip is a particularly weak card in the deck and I could definitely see cutting that for testing Kaya's Ghostform.

Thran Vigil is a cool new card that I must have missed in the BRO spoilers. However, this deck isn't really all in on persist type effects. Twilight Shepherd is pretty much the only card it would strongly interact with. I would say it's pretty rare for this deck to win through combat and as such the value of the +1/+1 counters in it (even an arbitrarily large number of them) is a bit questionable. If the deck has assembled one of the infinite death engines, then it should be winning outright without the need to even go to combat. I like the interaction with Tortured Existence but it's such a shame that it only works on your turn! If you could suddenly pump up Liesa on an opponent's turn after they've already declared attackers at you, then that would make it a lot better.

Profane Tutor is a great budget tutor, but having to wait two entire turns is a major detriment to how useful of a card it is, especially as a mid to late game draw. The decks I've seen take the biggest advantage of Profane Tutor are the ones that somehow exile and cast a copy from exile or copy it from graveyard and cast the copy immediately, rather than having to wait the two turns. Mid to late game I would much rather pay a little extra mana to guarantee getting a card immediately rather than having to wait. If you get Profane Tutor in the early game, then yes it's definitely better than Diabolic Tutor or Mastermind's Acquisition for the lower mana cost. If I had a means of cheating on the suspend part of the card in Orzhov then it would warrant an inclusion over one of the other tutors in my opinion.

Vile Entomber is another card I considered and even in an earlier iteration of the deck I ran for a while. The issue I often found with it was that it only grabbed ONE card to put to the graveyard. Burning-Rune Demon and Final Parting are in the deck because they find TWO cards. With Vile Entomber I could find Karmic Guide but not another card to combo with it. With Burning-Rune Demon I can find Karmic Guide and another card to combo with it and often times whichever piece the opponent gives me is irrelevant. Blinking or reanimating Burning-Rune Demon is also significantly more value and helps assemble combos much faster than Vile Entomber can.

Bolas's Citadel is extremely powerful, but it is at least right now (12/17/2022) more than $5 which is where the line in the sand has been drawn for whether or not a card can be added to the deck. That said, even if it was a bit cheaper Bolas's Citadel would require leaning much harder into a life gain theme. While life gain is another very popular and powerful strategy, I feel it is a bit orthogonal to the direction of this deck which is more heavily focused on creature ETB/LTB triggers and the graveyard.

I've been working on a Liesa, Shroud of Dusk deck which leans very heavily into life gain/life loss shenanigans and in that deck I do run stuff like Children of Korlis. That's not to say that Children of Korlis isn't a good card in Liesa, Forgotten Archangel, but I feel like you have to already be on the life gain game plan to get the most out of it.

Plumb the Forbidden is a great card, but you need sufficiently many throw away bodies and a sufficiently high life total to manage it. Without sufficient life gain or creature token generators it runs the risk of being a dead draw. Body Count can also be a completely dead draw at times, but it has a much higher ceiling in this deck specifically than Plumb the Forbidden does. Body Count can literally draw the entire deck for 1 black mana with a death engine assembled. Plumb the Forbidden could never draw more than the greatest number of creatures in play at one moment and I must have the life available to pay for it plus 2 mana. If the deck was more of an aristocrats style build spewing creature tokens left and right and running things like Soul Warden then Plumb the Forbidden would be a much more natural inclusion I feel.

Fanatical Devotion is a really cool sacrifice outlet that can do relevant things like protect Liesa which is very important. That said, thanks to BRO another arguably much better sacrifice outlet just became budget (<$5). And that's Ashnod's Altar. I will be adding this to the deck shortly as a third sacrifice outlet.

Thanks again for reading the long description and commenting!

multimedia on Liesa, Forgotten Archangel (Budget EDH, Combo)

1 month ago

Hey, this is one of the better budget Commander decks I've seen and great description. Really good job with the card choices keeping within the price restriction. If you're on card price restriction, why all foils and alternative card arts?

Activated Sleeper and Kaya's Ghostform are good budget cards when you want your creatures to die. Sleeper is another creature who infinite die combos with Karmic Guide and Ghostform infinite die combos with Sun Titan.

Thran Vigil is the new budget infinite persist enabler, it infinite combos with Twilight Shepherd or another persist creature such as Lesser Masticore. If a creature dies on your turn and you control Liesa then Vigil will trigger to put a counter on a creature for each creature who died. Tortured Existence interacts with Vigil if you activate it on your turn equal to the amount of black mana you have available as long as you have a creature in your graveyard and a creature in your hand to repeatedly swap them. Put the counters from Vigil on Liesa making her huge to threaten lethal Commander damage.

Profane Tutor is the budget lesser Demonic, it's still powerful for it's price. Because you have lots of reanimation and recursion than Vile Entomber can be great support especially to get and bin Leonin Relic-Warder. Entomber getting any card of your choice is nice with Sun Titan.

Bolas's Citadel, is less than $6, the card is amazing when your Commander can gain life, you have a lower avg. CMC and even if you don't have top of library manipulation. Children of Korlis goes well with Citadel, to sac to gain all the life back you lost casting spells. Greed interacts well with Citadel and Children, it's budget repeatable draw when you can gain life. It can help to draw land that's revealed on top of your library so that you can keep Citadel going.

Plumb the Forbidden can instant sac all creatures you control to draw for each one for 2 mana. I'm a big fan of Fanatical Devotion for a budget sac outlet that can protect your Commander from many types of removal and also protect creatures in combo while being the sac outlet in the combo.

Some changes to consider:

Good luck with your deck.

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 month ago

The reason I think Luminarch Ascension may be better in multiplayer is if we have a decent sized blocker or enough opponents playing battlecruiser then it’ll get 3 quest counters by the time it gets back to our turn. Then we leave another 2 up and just need one more counter to start pumping out Angels. Drawing threats like a lightning rod is an obvious issue but I’ll just need to test it out to see with my playgroup. Either way the cmc and purpose of both cards are the same.

I definitely want to slot in Breathkeeper Seraph now that I see the power of Pyre of Heroes, I’m just not sure who else to cut now. Maybe the Karmic Guide that I put back in. The games that Pyre of Heroes popped off I never got to chain it into the 6-7 cmc angels but that’ll definitely change in a 4-man.

I think part of the reason I want to like The Ozolith is that it also combos well with Pyre of Heroes. I just never got them both out at the same time. If I had it out when I sacced Inspiring Overseer then I could dump the 2 counters onto another Angel then do it again on the next turn. Also, not that Battle Angels of Tyr needs to be any more broken but you can drop all the counters from the exiled tokens onto it.

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 month ago

Guerric

I wasn't able to play a multiplayer game this weekend but ran 9 games of 1v1. I won 7/9 games as unblocked angels seems to be consistently good. 6 games were against Necron Precron, 2 games against Faldorn Exiles & 1 game against Aesi Landfall. Made a couple swaps to give Pyre of Heroes a shot. Didn't touch the lifegain package but messed with the protection one. Since all 9 games were duels, some of the changes weren't great.

Eye of Vecna for Pyre of Heroes

Cosmic Intervention for The Ozolith

Angel of Condemnation for Karmic Guide

Angel of Jubilation for Inspiring Overseer

Starnheim Unleashed for Luminarch Ascension

Search for Glory for Enlightened Tutor

I notably left in Together Forever and didn't put in Breathkeeper Seraph because I wanted to see if there were synergies between Together Forever and Pyre of Heroes.

Lost 1 game against Necron Precon due to a combination of things. I missed 2 land drops early in the game and was forced to use Enlightened Tutor for a Sol Ring so I could play my hand. Later in the game Ioverplayed the hand and got hit by Shard of the Nightbringer followed by Their Name is Death on the next turn. I was definitely kicking myself at the end because I had Emeria Shepherd and played it when I should've held it. Necrons actually did pretty well against this deck overall as they had fliers which stopped some early attacks. In the end though, as with most precons, they ran out of gas while Angels could keep chugging along and beefing up.

Lost 1 game against Faldorn Exiles due to Food Chain & Eternal Scourge with Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald producing a million wolves on turn 4. With no answers in hand, it was a quick and clear loss.

I was able to get Pyre of Heroes out in several games. One of my favorite combinations was using it on Inspiring Overseer to drop in Serra Paragon and then recasting Inspiring Overseer for the extra life and draw. On the following turn I sacrificed it again to grab Battle Angels of Tyr and hit for even more draw.

During the final game against Aesi Landfall I wanted to see how much value I could get out of Pyre of Heroes so I kept an obviously risky hand. My starting hand consisted of Arid Mesa, Plains, Fabled Passage, Emergence Zone, Mutavault, Pyre of Heroes, and Path to Exile. Aesi had a pretty slow start without much ramp but dropped Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait turn 5 which I promptly pathed. The only Angel I drew was Angelic Curator which I pyred into Inspiring Overseer. I also had Together Forever on the board so when I pyred Inspiring Overseer into Serra Paragon I was able to bounce it back to hand and recast Angelic Curator on the same turn. Next turn I cast Inspiring Overseer and pyred that into Thraben Watcher and started swinging for lots of damage.

In a multiplayer game other players would've had more answers for our board and Pyre of Heroes may not stick around. However, I don't think it seems threatening on its own and most times it's just a value engine. I think there may be a case for swapping it out for Eye of Vecna. They cost the same for 2 colorless. Their activations are also the same at 2 colorless. The differences are the 2 damage we take for Vecna and also that the draw occurs on upkeep before our draw phase and we have to pay the 2 and life if we want the card. If we drop Vecna early game and we're looking for something key, usually a land or a low cost angel and there's no guarantee that we'll get it. So if we're on turn 4, we've expended 2/3 available mana on drawing either a land or a 2cmc angel because we can't play anyting else. If we aren't dropping Vecna early and instead on turn 6-7 then it's pretty slow compared to its counterparts. Yes it replaces itself but nothing else we do will give us cards the turn we need it. All the other draw cards play into our strategy of either playing angels, attacking or gaining life. Also, the ones we pay into can be done on opponents turn when we're holding up answers, so there's no "wasted mana".

Out of the current swaps The Ozolith and Luminarch Ascension were very mediocre. This is likely due to the duel format and will need more testplaying in a 4-man setting. I was able to get The Ozolith up to 18 counters one game but it didn't matter since I was dead the next turn.

I think just based on this trial run that Pyre of Heroes deserves a strong consideration especially with Inspiring Overseer. Let me know your thoughts!

Guerric on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 month ago
Here are my most recent updates, with some brief justifications. I've telegraphed most of my thoughts on these before, so I'll try to go for a briefer treatment.

1) Harsh Mercy OUT Darksteel Mutation IN

Harsh Mercy seemed like it would be amazing, but I find I don't often need to wipe the board in this deck, and usually when I considered using Mercy it was to deal with one or two problematic creatures. Unfortunately, they get to pick what they keep and can always keep something, so this turns out to be not as good as we'd think, particularly as we don't really need it to clear blockers since we fly. More targeted removal seems to be what the doctor ordered, and Darksteel Mutation can sideline problematic combo commanders. I may switch this to Fateful Absence eventually, but for now we'll go for the more durable if less flexible answer.

2) Serra Paragon IN Baneslayer Angel OUT

It should be fairly clear why this card belongs in, as it is amazing and adds on the recursion in the deck for the low cost of 4 mana. We can get her going as early as turn three! Baneslayer is iconic and fun to play, but it is higher on our curve and has never been too synergistic, so it gets the axe.

3) Karmic Guide OUT Emeria Angel IN

I was always nervous about the cmc on the latter, but others have assured me it works great, and this update is lowering my curve across the board so I can afford to raise it two for a far superior version of Guide. Emeria Angel lets us get back whatever we want turn after turn, and is a must answer value piece that can do work in the late game.

4) Angel of Invention OUT Steel Seraph IN

This change is more experimental, but the latter costs three when we cast it here, which lowers our curve by two. Its ability is really relevant and synergistic, and allows us to have lifelink the turn we cast this. I do like what I can cutting though as anthems are good here, so there is a chance I go back or re-add it down the road, but for now we are cutting the curve.

5) Sigarda's Splendor OUT Smuggler's Share IN

Smuggler's Share will no doubt be good in this deck and we need to cut a draw piece for it. I agonized on what to cut as Splendor is better in the early game and less likely to be removed, but is bad late game when it won't give us value. Vanquisher's Banner is amazing in the late game but is a bit more of a high risk, high reward sort of card here. I opted to keep banner because I feel like we need more of the latter category than the former. We'll see how it goes, though others have assured me that banner works well in the late game, and it has indeed done that where I've used it in other decks.

6) Ghost Quarter OUT Mutavault IN

While I like having the extra answer to lands, we can't afford too many colorless lands in this deck and I think this is the least needed as we also have Generous Gift. Mutavault is great obviously for the combo with The Book of Exalted Deeds, but it is also a great way to upper our counters with spare mana. If we activate it on our turn before casting any angels we'll get extra counters on said angels when they ETB. This utility can definitely make a difference over the course of the game even without making it into a Platinum Angel land, and the latter is amazing.

7) Eerie Interlude OUT Guardian of Faith IN

Interlude was always bad because you lose all of your counters on the blink since Giada would re-enter at the same time as them. Guardian is awesome because by phasing out they never leave the battlefield and thus keep all of their counters. Of course if you have Teferi's Protection do feel free to play that in place of either this or Cosmic Intervention

Guerric on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 month ago

kirbysan

I just haven't decided which one to pull for it. It will probably be Sigarda's Splendor, I am just pondering it a bit, and I knew I wanted Harsh Mercy out and Smuggler's Share in so it was just a temporary measure. I am also going to put Emeria Shepherd in for Karmic Guide, I just haven't physically moved the cards yet. I try not to change anything here until I do it in the physical deck otherwise I lose track of things. I'll probably post a full update once changes are finalized.

Guerric on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 month ago

kirbysan

Thanks so much for this! It is incredibly helpful. I am glad to hear the deck is performing better, and seven out of ten is a good rate and consistent with what I've seen. It's also super cool that you got off the combo with The Book of Exalted Deeds and Mutavault. While not the sort of thing that likely happens often it is super powerful when it does! I especially appreciate the insight on Emeria Shepherd since I have it and have pondered putting it in, and it certainly is better than Karmic Guide for only two more. My recent update (which I need to post) cut two five drops for a three and a four drop, so raising it 2 on one card definitely seems worth it. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is also one that belongs in the deck- my only copy is in my elf deck and I don't like proxying, but there is no reason not to put that in. Crucible of Worlds with fetches is also a solid choice in any non-green deck. Teferi's Protection is also great and I only don't have it because as with Nykthos, my copy is in a different deck, but that can easily replace Guardian of Faith or Cosmic Intervention.

I do like that this deck plays pretty differently than my other decks and is a true, "fair" aggro deck. Among my other decks three of the more aggressive decks, Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, and Ezuri, Renegade Leader are much more tool-boxy and tutors are huge. Really only this deck and my Trynn, Champion of Freedom/Silvar, Devourer of the Free deck play a classic aggro game. It's fun to play aggro, be powerful, and be resilient.

Thanks again for all of your playtesting and feedback, it is super appreciated!

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 month ago

Guerric

My typical decks are Muldrotha, the Gravetide recursion, Teysa Karlov aristocrats and a Shorikai, Genesis Engine mechs. Those three usually have big flashy plays for instant wins so this deck definitely plays different. I looked over your whole primer and took your advice to heart to reduce the number of changes and focus only on your new additions and lands. I ran a few games using your methodology for mid-range aggro decks and listed how the deck performed. Let me know if this helps helm the host!

Opponents: Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain & Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Starting hand was very strong, I held a Youthful Valkyrie, Bishop of Wings, Righteous Valkyrie, Vanquisher's Banner as my draw card and 3 lands which included a fetch and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.

T1 - Fetch to Plains

T2 - Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx + Giada, Font of Hope

T3 - Plains + Bishop of Wings + Youthful Valkyrie

T4 - Plains + Using Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to cast Pearl Medallion & Mangara, the Diplomat which I had drawn into.

T5 - I drew 1 off Mangara, the Diplomat. Jhoira had played a Words of Wind forcing us to bounce Pearl Medallion. Yuriko saw our scary board state and hit us with a few unblockables but we still remained above 40 life.

Land + Pearl Medallion + Smuggler's Share (drew) + Starnheim Aspirant (drew) + Righteous Valkyrie.

T6 - I drew 1 off Smuggler's Share and 2 off Mangara, the Diplomat. Jhoira started building their boardstate with their commander out and a bunch of rocks. Yuriko had a few creatures out and was chipping away at our life totals.

At this point I could've slow played it further but with 2 draw engines out I felt comfortable in restocking my hand.

I played Vanquisher's Banner + Archangel of Thune + Valkyrie Harbinger drawing 2 and swung in for a bunch bringing both of them to their low 20's while I shot up to 60+ life.

I drew 1 off Smuggler's Share and 1 off Mangara, the Diplomat but Yuriko played a Toxic Deluge for 11 wiping our creatures and bringing their life total into the low 10s.

T7+ - At this point my memory is foggy, I replayed Giada and a few low cost angels with Vanquisher's Banner which refilled my hand a bit. But Yuriko miracled a Devastation Tide and played an overloaded Damn. Eventually Jhoira got knocked out by Yuriko after trying to rebuild their board state twice. By the end I had whittled Yuriko down to lethal and played Bruna, the Fading Light  Meld reanimating Gisela, the Broken Blade  Meld from the graveyard but never got to swing with it as Yuriko conceded.

Opponents: Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain & Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Starting hand was decent but I don't remember much of it since it got wheeled away with a turn 3 Windfall.

T1 - Fetch to Plains + Soul Warden

T2 - Seraph Sanctuary + Giada, Font of Hope

T3 - Plains + Crucible of Worlds

Lost 5 cards in hand to Windfall and drew a new 5. Jhoira played a Winter Orb and Yuriko played a Null Rod to shut down Jhoira's mana rocks. It also shut down my equipment in hand which was a Sword of the Animist and Mask of Memory. I stopped keeping track of the turns and cards played since the whole game slowed to a crawl. The one saving grace was that I never missed a land drop with the fetch land in the graveyard.

Yuriko kept playing Thieves' Guild Enforcer and changelings to try an alternate mill win strategy. I was hit with a board wipe and Giada was targeted twice. I overloaded Winds of Abandon which left the Jhoira open to be killed. I attempted to cast Emeria Shepherd which would've been perfect with my fetch land and 20+ cards in the graveyard but it was removed after it hit the board. Yuriko played 4 extra turns spells to try and whittle me down from high 30's to 8 but they ran out of answers and were dead on the crackback.

Opponents: Marneus Calgar, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger & Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald

I should've mulliganed this hand as it didn't have a draw spell but I didn't want to hold up the table and the curve looked good.

2x Plains, Teferi's Protection, Angel of Condemnation, Starnheim Unleashed, Resplendent Angel, Herald of War

I was able to build up a decent board state and there were no wipes all game. However, Faldron played a Wand of Wonder and began using my removal spells against my angels. Marneus dropped a Divine Visitation mid-game and started pumping out 4/4 Angels w/ Vigilance which stalled my attacks towards him signifcantly.

Towards the end of the game I was able to tap Starnheim Unleashed for 9 creating 4 Angels with Giada on the board pumping them to double digit beasts. Marneus had the scariest board state but only 4 Angels at the time so I figured I could swing wide and knock them out.

Unfortunately the Ulamog player attacked with a single unblockable voltroned Wurmcoil Engine against Marneus who cast an Entrapment Maneuver netting 10 4/4 Angels.

In the end Marneus had 16 Angels attacking me and I tried to buy time with a Teferi's Protection which got countered with a Dovin's Veto.

Opponents: Shorikai, Genesis Engine, Muldrotha, the Gravetide & Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait

Starting hand was great against these commanders:

4x Plains, Dowsing Dagger  Flip, Battle Angels of Tyr, Smuggler's Share

T1 - Plains

T2 - Plains + Giada, Font of Hope

T3 - Plains + Smuggler's Share

T4 - Plains + Dowsing Dagger  Flip & equipped, swing and flip to Lost Vale, cast Battle Angels of Tyr with Giada and Vale.

Mid-game Shorikai played an Organic Extinction doing a one-sided board wipe and started hitting for double digits with vehicles. I tried to rebuild with Emeria Shepherd but she was countered by Aesi. Fortunately, Shorikai ended up scooping to play Warhammer making it a 3-man pod and all our board states were pretty even. I had drawn a card on each of his turns due to their Shorikai ability. Aesi had provided me a couple treasures but wised up and started dropping lands on opponents turns with Burgeoning.

This game lasted quite awhile so there was plenty of back and forth and a lot of answers were used on my board. Both Muldrotha and Aesi had an Unnatural Growth and were staring down each other. I patiently waited until they were both tapped out and had no answers to pull off this sweet combo:

I had Bishop of Wings & Giada, Font of Hope on the battlefield and tons of mana. I cast Bruna, the Fading Light  Meld into Emeria Shepherd. Cracked a Myriad Landscape for 2 Plains bringing back Righteous Valkyrie & Gisela, the Broken Blade  Meld. Since they had no responses I was able to merge to Brisela, Voice of Nightmares  Meld  Meld. Due to all the Giada triggers and lifegain I shot up from 20 life to 62.

Aesi was hamstrung due to Brisela's static ability and their creatures weren't big enough to swing into my massive angels. Muldrotha on the other hand attempted to swing in for a massive 59 damage due to Unnatural Growth but I used Teferi's Protection and won the game on my turn.

Opponents: Isshin, Two Heavens as One, The Scarab God & Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait

Starting hand had no draw again but did have lifegain synergies so I decided to keep.

2x Plains, Cavern of Souls, Windswept Heath, The Book of Exalted Deeds, Archangel of Thune, Angelic Field Marshal.

I was only able to get one use out of The Book of Exalted Deeds trigger before Archangel of Thune was blown up and The Scarab God exiled it and copied it for their board. I actually drew a Mutavault and decided to do the combo of putting the Enlightened Counter on it. However when we got to the mid-game I felt like that was the wrong move to do so early.

Late game I had the following:

Giada, Font of Hope

Soul Warden

Seraph Sanctuary & a bunch of other lands

Angel of Vitality w/ 3 +1/+1 counters

Angelic Field Marshal w/ 4 +1/+1 Counters

Thorough Investigation

4x Clue Tokens

Between the Soul Warden, Angel of Vitality and Seraph Sanctuary I was gaining 2 life whenever they cast a creature and 3 whenever I cast an angel. If I'd let the book stay on the battlefield longer I could've had a free 3/3 angel on each of my turns. Instead I cracked clues rather than play out my hand to draw into more answers and win the game. The Enlightened Counter never came into play, but I reminded the table at the end that without any land destruction, I could've gone to negative life and still not lose.

Opponents: Lazav, the Multifarious, Delina, Wild Mage & Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald

Forgot to take a picture of my hand this game but I kept Smuggler's Share as my draw card which ended up doing nothing. The Faldron player had already played a few games against the Giada deck so purposely missed double land drops to not give me a treasure.

Faldron cast an Etali, Primal Storm turn 6 with no haste enablers so I blew it up my turn. However, Lazav decided to copy it and the board had no answers. Lazav began swinging and got 2 rounds of Etali triggers which was pretty brutal. Since Lazav became archenemy, we teamed up to take him down bringing his life total to 4.

Perhaps the most memorable moment this game was that Faldron had suspended a Wheel of Fate so the whole table was playing out their hands for 4 turns, completely expecting to draw 7. When he went to removing the last suspend counter, Lazav cast Notion Thief so instead of us each drawing 7, he drew 28 cards. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have any way to use those cards to stop the flood of salt from the table and was killed shortly after by a pissed angel.

I was able to clean up the table after a few rounds with this final board state:

Giada, Font of Hope

Angel of Jubilation - just an anthem and would've shut down my fetches but I played it late game

Serra Avenger

Angelic Skirmisher

Angelic Sleuth

Linvala, Keeper of Silence - didn't stop anything on my opponent's board because they were all triggered abilities

Smuggler's Share

Thorough Investigation

Opponents: Lazav, the Multifarious, Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder & Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait

Starting hand was top heavy but decided to keep:

Plains, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Pearl Medallion, Sword of Hearth and Home, Well of Lost Dreams, Sword of the Animist, Archangel of Thune

I figured with 2 ramp equipments and lifegain comboed with the well I'd be setup for mid-game pretty nicely. What I didn't plan for was missing land drops for 2 turns and having Giada blown up twice. By this time, the Aesi/Faldron player had figured out that Giada was consistently winning and decided to put a stop to it.

However, that let Ydris really take the game away. By the end I only had 4 lands, Archangel of Thune equipped with Sword of Hearth and Home and a Pearl Medallion. Aesi died to a single 30+ swing from Ydris leaving myself and Lazav to deal with the massive board state.

I thought I slowed him down by playing Darksteel Mutation on Ydris when he had no cards in hand but he topdecked Sakashima's Protege to copy Ydris and start the pain all over again. With Ydris having lethal on board next turn the only way to stop it would be to top deck the one board-wipe in the deck. But Lazav shot himself in the foot by playing Gyruda, Doom of Depths tossing my top 4 cards into the graveyard. The top card was Winds of Abandon and Lazav whiffed on the Gyruda trigger much to his chagrin.

Opponents: Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph & Roon of the Hidden Realm

Starting hand was decent: Plains, Plains, Thorough Investigation, Thraben Watcher, Search for Glory, Dowsing Dagger  Flip, Sword of Fire and Ice

T1 - Plains

T2 - Plains + Giada, Font of Hope

T3 - Plains + Thorough Investigation

T4 - Plains + Thraben Watcher

T5 - Nykthos + Dowsing Dagger  Flip & equipped, flipped to Lost Vale, Sword of Fire and Ice

On turn 6 I was able to knock out Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph with the sword setting him back a turn. He responded the next turn by blowing up my sword. After a 2 board wipes Ghyrson was back in a threatening position. I cast Darksteel Mutation on Ghyrson which completely shut down his strategy.

Closed out the game with an overloaded Winds of Abandon and swung lethal at Roon. I was also able to hardcast Sephara, Sky's Blade which would've stopped any board wipe coming from Ghyrson. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx was amazing yet again this game. I was able to tap it for 10 white using 8 to pay for the Winds and God-Pharaoh's Statue tax.

Opponents: Jared Carthalion & Isshin, Two Heavens as One

Starting hand was strong if a little slow: Fabled Passage, Windbrisk Heights, Eye of Vecna, Sanctuary Warden, Pearl Medallion, Battle Angels of Tyr, Serra Avenger

Ramp wasn't ideal and I saw the limitations of having too much colorless sources. The Plains, Windbrisk Heights and Giada, Font of Hope were the only 3 sources of white most of the game.

There were some pretty wild swings this game as Jared got all 5 colors turn 4 with some ramp and started dropping Kavu's. He played Knight of New Alara turning them into 8/8 tramplers and started swinging in for 24 damage each turn. Isshin dropped a Tectonic Giant, Fervent Charge & Aurelia, the Warleader to swing in with 21 damage each combat & an additional 6 to the face. With so much damage flying around, the loss life from Eye of Vecna was actually pretty annoying. I used it 4 times during the course of the game when I probably should've played the bigger threats since a board wipe seemed unlikely.

Battle Angels of Tyr was blown up immediately but I was able to drop a Angelic Skirmisher & Righteous Valkyrie mid-game. If I had attacked more early game with Skirmisher out I could've had this one but I made a huge misplay. Jared swung in with everything at me after pumping 2 Kavu's up to 13/13's. As I was only at 46 life, I didn't get the anthem off Righteous Valkyrie so I had to take 26 bringing me down to 20. Isshin swung in everything at Jared knocking them out and on second combat came at me when I was at 8. As Righteous Valkyrie was only a 6/7 blocking into their 7/8's I figured I could survive the turn with one unblocked and just gain the life back next turn. Isshin was tapped out but had 2 treasures that I forgot and used a Boros Charm to get lethal.

Opponents: Jared Carthalion, Isshin, Two Heavens as One & Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools partnered w/ Armix, Filigree Thrasher

Starting hand was ok, no draw engine but great lifegain:

Flooded Strand, Secluded Steppe, Emergence Zone, Soul Warden, Starnheim Aspirant, Angelic Skirmisher, Segovian Angel

T1 Soul Warden netted me a ton of life over the course of the game as Jared & Isshin did not play any board wipes. After playing Angelic Skirmisher as well and a couple angels, I was developing an oppressive board state.

Tevesh/Arminx drew a lot of hate early game because they played a strong ramp turn with a bunch of expensive mana rocks but then durdled for most of the game. Jared played a Two-Headed Hellkite that they pumped to 10/10 and just started swinging. Isshin tried going wide with Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and a few combat tricks but with Soul Warden on the field I ended up always being net positive after thier attacks.

Eventually the board grew massive and any one of us could've knocked out Tevesh/Arminx as they were wide open. I was sitting comfortably at 60+ life due to Soul Warden and Angelic Skirmisher. Tevesh/Arminx ended up playing Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and wiping all our creatures.

We all rebuilt our boards pretty quickly with Tevesh only having Armix, Filigree Thrasher and a couple equipments. Isshin tried going for the combo and knock out 2 of us with Godo, Bandit Warlord & Helm of the Host but misplayed and couldn't equip Godo.

Jared and I knocked out the Isshin player because of the obvious combo but Tevesh/Arminx equipped their commander with Commander's Plate, Cranial Plating, Skullclamp and swung 17 commander damage at Jared. I blew up their Cranial Plating with a Generous Gift and brought them down to lethal. The game ended next turn like dominoes, Arminx killed Jared and I killed Arminx.

Out of the 10 games played, I won 7 so those odds are pretty good and I'm happy with the result.

Game 3 loss was due to Marneus just having the better plays here. Even if I were able to prevent some of their bigger combos, they could've won off straight value. Removal and threat assessment by the other 2 were pretty light towards Marneus which definitely helped them win.

Game 7 loss was due to 2 players getting mana screwed. After not being able to curve out with Giada it was almost impossible to come back. Top-decking that Winds of Abandon may have helped but they were so far ahead it's doubtful.

Game 9 was a misplay. Playing against the Isshin deck I should've known that there would be combat tricks but I was used to slow battlecruiser decks and not 2 mid-range aggro decks.

Smuggler's Share has been hit or miss. If I'm playing against blue, I'll typically get the draw, if I'm playing against green, I'll get the treasures. However, if the opponents aren't playing either of those colors and/or play smart, they can often get around it and it's a dead enchantment on board. I'm still leaving it in because when it does work, it works very well.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx has been great overall. Early game it may not do much but mid to late game it really shines. I usually leave 2 lands and Nykthos up after T5/6 fully expecting a board wipe and using it to activate abilities or crack clues. I'd highly recommend this land over a basic plains.

Crucible of Worlds was a powerhouse in Game 2. Unfortunately I only ever drew it in 1 other game and it was immediately blown up after I used it once. I think it's worth it because if left unchecked provides you tons of ramp and if it draws out a threat then our draw artifacts or equipments live.

Emeria Shepherd is a bomb. 2 games it was instantly blown up because of how big a threat it was. When it was left unanswered, it absolutely carried the game. I think it's a definite swap for Karmic Guide to get that last push end game.

Darksteel Mutation was great the 2 times I used it. I think there's a need for another one-sided board wipe against decks that go wide and have flyers. In game 3 Marneus out angeled the angel deck and we simply didn't have enough token generation to get through.

Folk Hero wasn't mentioned in the gameplay reviews but I did draw and play it a few games. Unfortunately it was played later in the game when I already had other draw engines on board so its impact was minimal. However, it's definitely an improvement over Dawn of Hope as I didn't have to pay mana for the few cards I did draw.

You've mentioned that Avacyn, Angel of Hope deserves a place in this deck and I wholeheartedly agree, mostly because I bought the new borderless version from double masters specifically for this deck. However, her close cousin Sephara, Sky's Blade almost accomplishes the same thing except she only protects creatures. I think the only reason to end up running Avacyn is to lean into the land destruction that she's known for.

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