Resplendent Angel

Creature — Angel

Flying

At the beginning of each end step, if you gained 5 or more life this turn, create a 4/4 white Angel creature token with flying and vigilance.

: Until end of turn, Resplendent Angel gets +2/+2 and gains lifelink.

Discussion (49)

KBK7101 on No, the OTHER Unicorn

4 days ago

As someone who started playing the game with a Core Set 19 Ajani planeswalker deck, lifegain is a theme that always appeals to me. Lathiel definitely has some potential to be a great lifegain commander! There are some cards I'd definitely recommend, though.

• The Ozolith to help you retain some counters if some creatures get killed. It can dump them on a creature right before combat as well.
• Inspiring Call, Abzan Falconer, Pridemalkin and Tuskguard Captain are all cards that synergize well with +1/+1 counters. Pridemalkin and Tuskguard Captain do the same thing as Crowned Ceratok but for one mana less.
• Ajani's Welcome, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, Impassioned Orator and Lunarch Veteran  ^Flip for more soul sister-like effects
• Angelic Accord, Griffin Aerie, Resplendent Angel or any other "If you gained X life this turn make a token" cards.
• Some more removal. Whichever ones you prefer, really.
• Sigarda's Splendor, Well of Lost Dreams and Alhammarret's Archive for some more lifegain card draw.

amicdeep on Angels ♡ That need some help

1 month ago

Personally I'd go for two extra secound subthemes, Legendary and devotion. Both of these together give you tutors and the mana needed to use them effectively. The angles and life gain are pretty solid at stalling stuff themselves.

I'd go for a core of 4 bishop, youthful and speaker. I'd also add 3 Weathered Wayfarer. 4 Search for Glory, Valkyrie, 3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. All basics become snow. 3 on thin ice. 1 Winds of Abandon, 2 paths. One each of the legendary angles (as you already have) 2-3 frija retribution. 4 w/g boarder posts (gives you a way to activate shalie)

I'd also take a very good look at Resplendent Angel as it's probably an important include.

Emeria's Call is also probably worth running.

Also 4 Giver of Runes. (Devotion, a cleric and is much needed protection for your angels)

I'd also add in 1 sigada and Linvala in the sb

darkmus on Serra's Descendants, competitive Angel Tribal

2 months ago

FisterMantastic I don't know your build (I'll be happy to check it out if you want to share it), but this works quite well for me overall as long as I have good sideboarding plan. Is not like I am winning everything but overall I win more than I lose and I rarely get "completely destroyed".

I don't really know what to tell you about vial either, It makes God's work for me as long as I play it T1 or T2. Like in every deck, makes wonders against control, ensures I stay on curve, ramps, allows instant speed blocks etc. but also allowing some shenanigans like activating Resplendent Angel on opponents turns, explosive instant speed blocks and attacks with Righteous Valkyrie or Archangel of Thune, using Shalai, Voice of Plenty as some kind of counter spell... So there is not a chance in the world I am cutting that in my build, but if you don't feel like it works for you, cut it out.

Once again, I don't know your list and your local meta so I might be wrong, but assuming both are similar to mine, I've tried Soul Warden in the past and it adds very little value overall. I feel like both Giver of Runes and in a lesser extent Speaker of the Heavens add much more. We don't really go very wide to activate her multiple times per turn, and there aren't many meta decks that really go wide other than maybe affinity (which is not really strong anyway) ATM so you are not getting that much value from the opponents either. As a creature is too weak, she can't even block 1/1s. Having a T1 play to support your T5 play is not the best idea either if she's so weak, because she's rarely going to survive to that point, and adds barely nothing while in play meanwhile. She for sure will net activate Thune from time to time, but it is going to be rare and not as explosive as you might think. The most positive thing about her is not Thune activation but that she gives another extra play that leads to T3 Resplendent Angel activation (Soul Warden into Bishop of Wings into resplendent) and that she makes it quicker to reach 27 life for righteous. This decks makes really good use of Thunes ability but it's not build around maximizing it. If you want something to push in a big way Thune's ability you might want to check Linden, the Steadfast Queen but at that point you'll rather be playing souls sisters with thune as a wincon than Angel tribal.

I've never tried Windbrisk Heights because I never felt like it was really good enough here. First and most important, it might be a me thing, but tapped lands are a huge no no in modern IMO, don't ever let them get near me, xD. Also with my build I don't really attack with 3 creatures that often, many times I don't do it in the whole game (and not because I had a bad game, I might have easily won) so I feel that it will be very inconsistent. I think it's like Emeria's Call  ^Flip seems pretty good enough effect to take a small price to play the land, but in the end you get to use the "not land part" so rarely and of those times is so few of them decisive that any price on the land regardless of how small it is ends up not being worth it. Once again, it might not be true in your build, or even in mine because I haven't tried it and might be wrong, so if you try it let us know how it went!.

Good luck in the next FNM!

darkmus on Serra's Descendants, competitive Angel Tribal

2 months ago

amicdeepThis deck already does all the thing you think it doesn't.

I have 23 angels in the deck. Is at least an angel each turn constant enough for you? because that's basically how it goes. With vial also during their turns actually. So yeah, both youthful and righteous get more than enough triggers. BTW righteous also triggers with clerics so all my creatures trigger her, if that not constant I don't know what it is, xD. Her passive is normally online by turn 3 or 4, so she is already a wincon. And Youthful is a powerhouse, she can grow to be a big trouble if let unchecked.

I do create tokens. Flicker effects are only good if you have cards with good ETB effects, but angels don't really have those (not the playable ones at least). So ephemeral isn't really good here, I've tried it and you end up using it more to save your stuff from kill spells than to trigger things. And to play flicker wisp I'll rather play another 3cmc angel that will also trigger my stuff, no need for flickering.

Thune has all the life gain she needs, there are 16 cards with repeatable free life gain triggers, she rarely enters and doesn't put at least 2 or 3 counters on all my creatures.

This is clearly going all tribal, and yeah, gaining life and putting flyers in play is what angel tribal does, xD. Going all life gain wouldn't be angel tribal, I already have in here all the free life gain effects for angel tribal of the game so I would have to branch out for that, and going all in mass flyers simply can't be done with angels, there is only one 1cmc angel and four 2cmc angels in the whole game. So I would also have to branch out for that. And for the record, I stomp flying go width decks with this, like is not even a match.

Bishop of Wings is a cleric but the text can't be more angel tribal and Giver of Runes well...Do you suggest I should play Segovian Angel instead? because is the only 1cmc angel option... Other than that all of them are angels. The best cards for this spot are Speaker of the Heavens and giver, and in modern she adds way more (even if admittedly speaker is a bit more "angel tribal"). I'll say it's as tribal as it can get. Believe me, I am the first one in line asking for a good 1cmc angel, xD.

I've tried Firja's retribution. Probably the best one of your suggestion. It doesn't either add or subtract much, it can be totally played in this deck. If I had more space I would totally add a couple, but for the moment ill rather have the 4cmc spells I have.

Kaalia zenith seeker is borderline unplayable in modern, in this deck totally unplayable. It dies to bolt and I would have to add a full 3rd color just to net 1 card from her? Not good at all. Legion ends up doing the same thing and nets me 2 cards.

Lyra is a worse Archangel of Thune in this deck, by far. I used to have 2 and 2 and gradually changed it. I rarely cared about life gain to every angel because I already gain a ton of life. And archangel's "anthem effect" is repeatable, stackable,it goes off for free in the deck and stays even if they kill the angel. Also archangel is not legendary, which matters.

I've used Nykthos in mono white and its tap for colorless substrated more than its devotion ability added many times. We don't play many 8cmc "you win the game" type angels here. We are more low to the ground, playing things every turn. By the time the devotion is online we already can play all our stuff normally. It helped Resplendent Angel trigger its second ability from time to time, but other than that not much. Archangel of tithes is another good card that doesn't add much either to this deck, with all the life gain we don't care about letting some damage through if we can't/don't want to block, and will almost all our stuff flying we don't care much about blockers.

Archangel Avacyn is also a pretty good card...if only she didn't transform (with us not being really able to control when she does it) and could potentially kill many of our own stuff...and we care a lot about our stuff living. In the other hand maybe killing their stuff doesn't help us really, if they can be killed by 3dmg we can handle them no problem on the block. There is no place for more 5cmc spells anyway so I'll rather have wincons in that slot.

janederscore on Orzhov Valkyries

2 months ago

darkmus no worries haha, you don't talk too much don't worry about it. I was thinking about the lack of artifact/enchantment/planeswalker removal, and that does seem like a good solution.

With regards to Resplendent Angel , getting 2 now is the plan. I'll definitely aim for getting 4 Resplendents in the long run, they're very very solid cards. Archangel of Tithes is also on my wishlist for the future, that card also looks super strong. Having thought it over more, if I add in Seraph it'll probably be as a sideboard card.

I'm a bit nervous about running anything less than 24 lands, I have historically pretty bad draw luck and I find myself getting mana screwed way more often than I like haha. I do think I will swap out one Great Hall of Starnheim for a standard Plains, though. It's a card that I find (in my experience) to be pretty situational but, when it does pay out, it pays out really really well. Something I think is worth having around, but I agree probably only as a one-off.

darkmus on Orzhov Valkyries

2 months ago

janederscore. Resplendent is worth totally the price. If I were you I would pick 2 and later when I can afford it (and I see how good it is)I'll invest in another 2. Bear in mind that with your new build you can reliably activate it in turn 3 via few different plays:

-T1 white source + anything. T2 white source+ Bishop of Wings . T3 Seraph Sanctuary + Resplendent Angel . If you were lucky enough to play Speaker of the Heavens T1 you could trigger it T4 (maybe even T3 if Speaker attacked T2 and T3)which will trigger resplendent etc... -T1 white source+ Cleric Class .T2 white source+bishop. T3 any land +Resplendent.

And so many ways of activating Resplendent on T4 than I am not even going to give you examples, xD.

And all of those plays leave to scenarios where you would be triggering her for every angel that ETBs and you would have both Speaker of the Heavens and Righteous Valkyrie online T4. The best scenarios you can hope for in your deck. It's rare but you can even get T4 wins out of that.

I haven't tried Seraph of the Scales it can be good. You clearly care about letting things behind when things die, so it fits that quite well, xD. I was going to suggest you Archangel of Tithes but I am seeing that its like 20 bucks in USD (wtf, its about 5 in here...) so forget about it, haha.

I haven't played the great hall so I don't know, modern is very fast so tapped lands are a no no for my liking. In the other hand you play 24 lands so a land that like Emeria's Call  ^Flip is somewhat a "spell" is a good thing, I wish you could activate it not only as a sorcery though...maybe only 1 copy since it gives you only black mana, which only 1 card in your deck requires, so 90% its basically a colorless land? I don't know what to thing about the card, I suppose that's what playtesting is for, xD.

janederscore on Orzhov Valkyries

2 months ago

darkmus, yeah I've been going back and forth in my head about Resplendent Angel , but I do agree that its probably worth the price of admission to have a card that efficient in play.

I do think I'll probably swap in Legion Angel , I guess I'm just a bit anxious about how efficient removal is in modern compared to standard haha. It does make more sense to run generally than 4 Serra Avenger .

Ideally I think I'm going to keep this in B/W if for no other reason than to keep the identity of the deck in-tact (and so when I'm playing super casually I can slip in some of my favorite black valkyries just for fun). I think hitting about $200 usd is the spot I'd like this deck to sit in, that's about the max I'd be willing to shell out for this sort of thing and right now this is hovering right around that point.

I'm thinking about adding a couple Seraph of the Scales for the additional token payout, and I am definitely going to add 2 Great Hall of Starnheim ; both because its a cheap land, and because in my experience having the token conversion is actually extremely useful (and, with Resplendent Angel and one other lifegain source in play, its a 2-for-1 deal).

I definitely think I'll have a lot of fun with this when I get it put together, and thank you again for the help!

janederscore on Orzhov Valkyries

2 months ago

Hi darkmus! Thank you for the suggestions, I really appreciate it.

I was looking at your Serra's Descendants, competitive Angel Tribal deck last night actually, and I agree on the Bishop of Wings call for sure, I actually completely forgot about that card when I was building this. Speaker of the Heavens I originally wasn't considering because of the aggressive stance I was taking with the low mana cost creatures, but as nice as Resplendent Angel is its definitely less justifiable without more lifegain payoff (and is the most expensive card here by far), so I think that's a switch I'm comfortable with making.

I was concerned about the payoff for Cleric Class being less reliable than Paladin Class , but with an extra couple of lifegain cards like Bishop that's definitely more viable feeling.

Legion Angel is one of my favorite cards in standard right now, but I'm worried about having a 4 mana drop sitting in bolt range. The card advantage is very helpful, but I feel like it generates more value for an opponent than it does for me if it immediately dies to a 1 mana spell. I think I might value the opportunity to drop 2 Serra Avenger on turn 4 a bit more instead.

I have the same issues with Emeria's Call  ^Flip as you noted here and in your conversations about it in your Serra's Descendants deck, its something that just doesn't generate enough value consistently enough that its worth spending the extra 6 bucks to me.

I definitely am considering swapping to a monowhite deck here, especially since unfortunately as much as I love them the black (and most b/w) valkyrie cards just aren't very viable in modern (rest in peace Eradicator Valkyrie and Hailstorm Valkyrie , I wish you two were better ;_;).

I worry about Starnheim Unleashed a bit since getting efficient payouts with it requires having at least 5 mana on the board, and I've found that Firja's Retribution is actually quite nice in a lot of instances; the "free" removal on stage 2 is nice for killing flying blockers without taking a hit on my tokens (since you can activate it after declaring), and the double strike ends up being a wincon in most games where I get it out on the field. That said, the dual lands are pretty pricey, so the switch is definitely still on the table for me.

Anyway, thank you again! I'll be making a few changes here to update things and see how it shapes up.