This deck is built entirely around lifegain. While it is not a fast-paced aggro deck, it can still win as early as turn 5 when played correctly. It performs well against rush and aggressive decks thanks to Archangel of Tithes, which slows attackers, and Metropolis Reformer, which prevents opponents from directly targeting you with spells and abilities.
The main goal of the deck is to win either through brute force with Angels or by gaining enough life to safely attack with Angel of Destiny. While Angel of Destiny is not the primary focus of the deck, it presents opponents with an ultimatum: remove it immediately or lose the game. Your primary focus should be maintaining a high life total—ideally above 27 or at least above 20.
Righteous Valkyrie works exceptionally well with nearly every card in the deck and will often be your main source of lifegain. Steel Seraph provides flexible lifegain or vigilance when needed, and Metropolis Reformer can be used to block effectively and gain life after combat damage is dealt (note that the lifegain occurs only after combat damage resolves).
To accelerate your game plan, use Giada, Font of Hope and Pearl Medallion to deploy creatures more quickly. Avoid playing tapped lands unless absolutely necessary to maintain tempo. Renewed Faith should be cast for its 3-mana mode whenever possible to gain 6 life, but if that isn’t an option, you can discard it to gain 2 life and draw a card (always choose Accept).
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx can generate large amounts of mana once you have several creatures on the battlefield, so there’s no need to prioritize it in your opening hand. Ideally, you should have Giada or Pearl Medallion in your opening hand whenever possible.
For Steel Seraph (or any other creature), you can use Metropolis Reformer or Parting Gust to exile it and return it to the battlefield, triggering additional lifegain if Righteous Valkyrie is in play or removing it from play temporarily to not be destroyed or exiled. If Steel Seraph was originally cast for its 3-mana prototype cost, blinking it will return it as the full 6-mana version. Parting Gust can also be used on opposing creatures—just be sure to gift a Fish token when exiling an opponent’s creature, and do not gift when targeting your own.
Finally, A-Cosmos Elixir and Exemplar of Light provide card draw when you gain life or maintain a life total above 20, helping the deck stay consistent and close out longer games.
