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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
Rules Q&A
Pearl Medallion
Artifact
White spells you play cost (1) less to play.
Vivipotence on
[Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven: A Giada Guide
2 weeks ago
Hey Guerric, thank you for all you extensive primers, they are fun to read. I read most of them multiple times - the way they are structured really helps me to analyze the mechanics of my own decks.
A have a couple of cards that I can recommend, depending on your meta and budget. You will be familiar with them but maybe some of your readers aren't.
I had a Shadowspear lying around so I put it in. It does a good job as it gives your largest beater the important livelink feat and can be tutored with Steelshaper's Gift. In many case the swords will be higher priority targets Steelshaper but still I found Shadowspear to be beneficial to the consistency of this part of the deck's mechanic. It's low CMC and while it's activated ability is just the icing it sometimes can be tremendously helpful. I killed a voltron player the other night with it. It can even be used politically. Angel tribal wins largely by simply turning things sideways. Apart from the nice Brisela almost-wincon I'd like to add one or two additional surprises for our opponents.
Akroma's Will is amazing in this deck as it will make our heavy hitters unblockable and provide them with a bouquet of great other features. Giving all our 5/5s, 6/6s and 7/7s double strike and lifelink can often make this a real wincon and the fact that it's instant speed can even save our hides if we're being attacked by a seemingly overwhelming opponent.
Now I never got my hands on the beauty that is Avacyn, Angel of Hope. However, I drew a candidate for the 8CMC slot that I find even more fun and fitting. Legion Loyalty is absolutely bonkers with this commander. If you have a couple of angels including Giada out and maybe still two or three opponents online, this card will immediately make such an impact that the expression "explosive turn" doesn't even begin to describe it. Way over 100 damage in a single attack can easily be achieved with four angels and three opponents. Also enjoy 10 minutes of fun counting all the tokens and counters that are being generated during your attack phase. Now of course this is an enchantment and will not benefit from (tribal) cost reducing effects (apart from Pearl Medallion). It thus would be a completely meta dependent decision to include this in this deck. If most of your friends despise blue and you can be reasonably sure that you'll be able to successfully hardcast an 8CMC enchantment this will lead to some very memorable wins. Also Avacyn, Angel of Hope straight-up does nothing the round you cast it. It makes your board state more robust (not against Cyclonic Rift and Toxic Deluge, though) but mono W needs the additional aggressiveness more than another protection piece imho.
Last but not least: In one of your gameplay reports you mention being killed by a combo. In my playgroup there also is always at least one player who tries to kill you with an infinite damage combo. I regularily encounter Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Toralf, God of Fury Flip, Gray Merchant of Asphodel and so on. This is one of the reasons I put a Blessed Sanctuary in. At 5CMC it's on the more expensive side manawise, sure. However, this deck is quite robust when it comes to fending off attacking creatures and not so much when it comes to defending itself against the various forms of direct damage that red and black (combo) decks employ. Blessed Sanctuary completely shuts those wincons off. Also it steadily provides you with 2/2s you can use as additional blockers. They do not synergize with angels, sadly, but they have another amazing quality: They are frickin unicorns! When your board is filled with pompous angels and cuddly unicorns while the other decks on the table seem to take themselves too seriously with all the grim art you can't help but chuckle a bit. It just looks so over the top cheesy and dreamy
Guerric on
[Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven: A Giada Guide
1 month ago
1) Burnished Hart OUT Pearl Medallion IN
Hart is a great card, and research suggests it's one of the winningest cards in EDH, so naturally in a monowhite deck that a land ramp piece like this would seem to be great. I think the issue for it here is it just isn't fast enough for the deck. Giada doesn't need to ramp a lot to be relevant, and in testing I've found that we often have something more urgent to do cast it initially or sac it to get the lands. It's still a great card, but likely better suited to more controlling decks. What is amazing in this deck, however, are cards that discount creature spells like Herald's Horn, as we can use them to more easily put out multiple pieces in a turn at discount. Making your four drops three drops is incredible acceleration that suits our gameplan just fine. And Medallion does this not just for our creature spells, but any spell in white. It's fabulous!
2) Cosmos Elixir OUT Vanquisher's Banner IN
Elixir is theoretically a good card in this deck as it can draw cards off life-gain or gain life. The problem is it never does both, it draws one extra card per turn at most, and costs 4 mana for the privilege. It's equivalent card would be Sigarda's Splendor, but that always gains us life, and is simply based on not having lost life from the last noted turn, which is more reliable. Banner costs more, but its floor is replacing every angel we cast with a card, and its ceiling is drawing several cards in a turn, so it's better all around. The anthem is just gravy.
3) Welcoming Vampire OUT Mask of Memory IN
While a fabulous card, Giada's ability ensures that we won't draw cards with angels off of vampire. It will definitely find a home in a new deck. Mask of Memory, however, is great. It costs two and equips for one, meaning an easy early line of play would be to cast it turn three, attack it to Giada, and get an engine going. We get to draw two cards and then discard the one in our hand we need least, which allows us to be up a card while moving through the deck to what we need. Sometimes we might even discard a good card only to recur it with another later, so there are lots of nice little possibilities with this one.
4) Mirror Entity OUT Sanctuary Warden IN
So far we've replaced subpar draw with better draw, but no we are upping our count. I've never like entity, but I thought it might be better here since Giada gives it counters that make it more resilient when not being pumped. Still though, like all changelings, its an angel that doesn't fly, which is wicked annoying. Moreover, while its ability is a powerhouse with 1/1 tokens which can be turned to 4 power with 4 mana, it's not so great when the average power of an angel is already 3/3 or 4/4. It will weaken some of your angels, and where it improve them it takes a monstrous amount of mana to do so. Finally, while one might be tempted to add Reveillark to complete the combo with entity and Karmic Guide, we have to remember that Giada shuts entity off from killing the board, effectively shutting down the combo. It's just bad, trust me. This is where a lot of online deck tech's fail. They just throw it in because its an "angel" and a generically good card without thinking through the consequences! Meanwhile, while costly Sanctuary Warden is an absolute powerhouse. It immediately replaces itself, and can draw cards more cards this way for free by being blinked with Sword of Hearth and Home. It's an engine that draws us cards every turn, and we can use our plentiful supply of +1/+1 counters to power it, leaving the shield counters to protect it from most removal and board wipes. It's an all-star card.
5) Plains OUT Tome of Legends IN
I'm hoping I don't regret going down to 35 lands, but I think the deck can sustain it, especially when we are upping the draw. Tome is an amazingly good and underrated card. It can net us an extra card the turn we cast it, and can draw one every turn as long as we attack with out commmander, something that isn't too hard to do here. Keep in mind, Giada has vigilance, so even if we want to tap her to cast an angel we can always do so on our second main phase! The best part of this card is that it costs only two mana, allowing us often to ramp it out turn three with another angel or put it out early with another two drop. It's been great in other decks and I expect no less here!
6) Archaeomancer's Map OUT Eye of Vecna IN
This might be a more controversial cut, but I don't think I need the ramp map theoretically provides, and it can be a tricky card to play here. Ideally you'd want to get this down turn three, in order to ramp lands based upon your opponent's turns, but you'll have to discard if you do unless you played a one drop turn one. It's not as great late game, and the ramp is conditional based on having the extra land in hand and not missing a land drop, which can happen without enough draw. Eye immediately replaces itself and draws one card every turn for the low cost of 2 life, which we aren't worried about at all here. The only downside is that Angel of Jubilation shuts it down, but that is a narrow enough case that it isn't worth not playing a 2cmc draw spell over.
7) Disenchant OUT Together Forever IN
We have plenty of removal and I think we can afford to cut our least relevant piece. Together Forever is amazing, cheap, efficient protection for our entire board, including Giada. It can save our stuff from being destroyed by removal or damage, and has value as repeatable single-target protection and board wipe protection. I expect this to be an all-star piece.
8) Desert of the True and Drifting Meadow OUT War Room and Bonders' Enclave IN
I hated these cycling lands in early testing because they are just not worth having the lands come into play tapped. War Room and Enclave actually draw us cards, and come into play untapped. Sure, 4 mana is a lot for a single card, but there are times we will be happy for it, and in a monocolored deck the colorless nature isn't too much of a drawback.
9) 2x Plains OUT Emergence Zone and Seraph Sanctuary IN
Why not attack lifegain to a land? Sanctuary is just an obvious card for this build that I somehow missed the first time around. Zone is a deeply underrated card that allows you once in a game to get the jump on your opponents by becoming a one turn Vedalken Orrery. The element of surprise is what often wins you games in aggressive decks, and this card allows for that!
So that's the first update! I'll have updates to the primer coming later today or tomorrow. Hope this helps all of you as you build and play the deck!
aholder7 on I want them to hate …
2 months ago
how much do you want them to actually hate you? like do you want to be able to play the deck again? because in terms of hate, i am seeing zero copies of Armageddon.
also as a note you seem to have a number of etbs along side your Hushbringer effects. might want to be careful with those.
If you want a fun interaction with Oketra you can always include Whitemane Lion and have it return itself. you now have a repeatable "1W: create 4/4 with vigilance". With Oketra's Monument or Pearl Medallion it gets even more efficient.
AstroAA on
Maya Angels
2 months ago
So first things first - I see you swapped the commander to Atla Palani, Nest Tender, and I do think that she is stronger for cheating things into play as her plus her ability costs the same as a single Mayael the Anima activation, her ability triggers whenever an egg dies, and besides her you only have one egg producer in the deck - Nesting Dragon - and you aren't running any token doublers, I'd advise running something like Rings of Brighthearth or Illusionist's Bracers to copy her ability, allowing you to potentially cheat in multiple things a turn. However, her ability only triggers when something dies. I see you have Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar in the maybeboard, and they're definitely probably your best options to accomplish this as that mana can also be used to cast angels in your hand.
Also, your CMC is 4.03, which is ridiculously high. You also aren't running any mana ramp outside of artifacts, which while your commanders ability is based around cheating things into play - if you don't have access to your commander or sac outlets than you're screwed. Things like Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Migration Path, or cards like Birds of Paradise, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Fyndhorn Elves, or even cost-reducer cards like Starnheim Aspirant, Pearl Medallion all can make a big impact. Or, even just swapping some of the higher CMC angels out for lower-costed ones, like Angel of Vitality, Angel of Jubilation, Resplendent Angel and Righteous Valkyrie can go a long way towards a smoother game.
The_Fallen_Duke on
No Pain No Lifegain
2 months ago
Most of the folks in the comments above have already proposed a lot of good cards.
In terms of ramps, some that I use in my mono-white angel tribal deck that also focus on lifegain are:
- Arcane Signet (thank you, captain obvious)
- Marble Diamond is a reliable 2CMC rock producing . It enters tapped, but it still the best you can get for cheap.
- Tooth of Ramos is helpful if you need to accelerate one turn.
- Heraldic Banner I find great in decks that are focusing on attacking, which is something your commander wants.
- Mind Stone only produces , but for mono white the card draw ability is a precious plus.
- Pearl Medallion is not the cheapest card to acquire, but the discount on casting cost is incredibly useful, especially later in the game
- Wayfarer's Bauble is still land rampt that can be used in white.
Other cards I found useful in my deck and I could recommend:
- Treasure Map Flip: the card selection ability can be useful to optimize your draw, then it becomes and additional land that gives you either extra ramp or card draw with the treasures.
- Oath of Lieges is a simmetrical effect, but in mono white you'll be likely to benefit from it the most, especially if there are greedy Green and Simic players at the table.
In terms of win conditions other than combat, in my deck I used an older card called Test of Endurance, an alternative of which could be Felidar Sovereign. The big problem is that they are very much telegraphed, so you'd have to be able to protect both them and your life total until the following turn. Since you will be playing a lot of spells and gaining a lot of life, an unoriginal card that could help you close the game is of course Aetherflux Reservoir.
markbeloit on
No Pain No Lifegain
3 months ago
Pearl Medallion , Arcane Signet
Emeria, The Sky Ruin , Myriad Landscape , Sejiri Shelter Flip
True Conviction , Akroma's Memorial
You could look at other planeswalkers too, but this Ajani seems to stand out the most.
Santiago1011 on
No Pain No Lifegain
3 months ago
in terms of mana rocks, Pearl Medallion is probably good. looks like a neat deck
AnonmousAxolotl on
1 Mana Tribal - Budget Legacy
4 months ago
Using Pearl Medallion and Jet Medallion could work really well, everything is just free.
| Have (2) | Azdranax , orzhov_is_relatively_okay819 |
| Want (5) | Secretagentmjl , Ghave_Guru_of_Gonads , Auriel , popesnarkyiii , nmbernier |