Hello and welcome to Daily Arena! I’m Joe, and today we are going to be taking a look at deck that I’ve had some fun with: G/W Angels

This list is from user Kishtar on Aetherhub:

Kishtar's G/W Angels

I don’t have the Rare Wildcards to craft all of the Rare Dual Lands yet. Here is the version of the deck I’m on currently:

Kishtar's G/W Angels

Here’s a video of me playing the deck and breaking down the cards in it. The last game in the video ended in a DC loss, to it kind of just freezes up. 😛

This deck’s game plan is to ramp up to and survive long enough to make big Angels and smash the opponent with them, while controlling the board with white enchantment- and creature-based removal.

I’ve divided all of the cards in the deck into six categories, and will group them together by category for the discussion below (some cards fall into multiple categories).

Category 1: Angels

Angel of Sanctions was a great card from Amonkhet, and it’s still good here. It has a great enter-the-battlefield ability, it comes back from the grave, and has decent enough stats that you don’t event feel too bad when you need to cast it when there’s nothing for its enter-the-battlefield ability to target.





Shalai, Voice of Plenty is one of the best creatures in Dominaria. She’s a 3/4 flyer for four mana, which is already above the curve, she protects your other creatures by giving them hexproof, and she can pump them all permanently when you run out of things to do with your mana.





Serra Angel is an oldie, but a goodie. It used to be a popular control-deck finisher in the days when creatures this good were few and far between, and having one in this deck can help, since the fact that it has Vigilance lets it dodge Seal Away, and also allows you to use it offensively on your turn as well as defensively on your opponent’s.





Lyra Dawnbringer (also known as Baneslayer Angel 2.0) sits with Shalai, Voice of Plenty at the top of the power curve for creatures in Dominaria. She’s big, evasive, has First strike and Lifelink, and she incidentally pumps any other Angels you control while giving them Lifelink, as well. Heaven help your opponent if you manage to put a Helm of Hosts on her.





Category 2: Ramp

Channeler Initiate is probably my second-favorite ramp creature in the format. It’s relatively cheap, ramps you in the beginning of the game when you need it to, and when it’s done ramping it’s still a real creature that can attack and block.





Just when we thought one-drop mana dorks were a thing of the past, Llanowar Elves got a reprint. This is the gold standard of creature-based ramp, as it comes out on Turn One, allowing it to ramp you starting as early as Turn Two. Using two Llanowar Elves to power out a Turn Three Lyra Dawnbringer is just plain sick.











Treasure Map doesn’t actually ramp you until it transforms, and the ramp it does provide isn’t necessarily its primary function, but the Treasure tokens it generates can be used often enough to cast something big, to generate extra mana to sink, or to cast two spells in a turn you’d normally only be able to cast one in, that it deserves a place here in the Ramp category.

Oketra’s Monument only ramps your White creatures, but since most of the important creatures in this deck are big White Angels, that’s okay. Cost reduction can also be better than actual creature- or land-based ramp, as well, since it will occasionally allow you use it to help pay the cost of two separate creatures on the same turn.





Category 3: Utility

I felt a little strange putting Carnage Tyrant in the Utility category, but this actually seems to be where it fits the best. The main reason to have this card in the deck is as a foil to blue-based control decks. As someone on the forums said, “Once I see the first Island, I’m fishing for my Carnage Tyrant.”





Sunscourge Champion keeps you alive against aggressive decks long enough to start playing out your largest threats and getting enough mana for your more expensive removal. It also attacks in for incidental damage against creature-light decks, or when your opponent stumbles, and that can ultimately mean the difference between winning and losing a game.





Thrashing Brontodon is a real creature with good stats that attacks and blocks well, and doubles as enchantment removal to help get your important permanents out from under your opponent’s enchantments, kill pesky Curses and Sagas, etc.





Demystify is a sideboard card moved to the main deck since we’re playing in a format with no sideboarding. This does everything Thrashing Brontdon does (besides being a creature), for super cheap at Instant speed.





Adventurous Impulse helps you find land when you need it or spells when you have the land. It’s cheap card draw and selection in a color that generally doesn’t have many good options as far as those go, and probably the only real knock against it is that it’s not an Instant.











Treasure Map smooths out your draws, and then turns into an extra card per turn for three turns with the flexibility of ramping you into a big spell or multiple spells if you already have them in your hand to cast.

While I’d argue that the ramp ability is Oketra’s Monument‘s main feature in this deck, the fact that it also generates free blockers (and attackers, in some situations), is a real bonus. It’s very nice when your Llanowar Elves all bring a friend along.





Helm of the Host is probably not a card you want multiples of in the deck, but having one of these to stick on one of your Angels (especially Lyra Dawnbringer), or for that matter, any of your creatures, is worth using up a card slot.





Shefet Dunes is another good one-of for this deck. Its ability is not huge, but can help push through those last points of damage, and since it doesn’t slow down your mana, the cost of putting it in is relatively low. The cycling Deserts are good enough that including a few of them that can be sacrificed to Shefet Dunes is reasonable.











Desert of the Indomitable and Desert of the True get you mana early in the game when its most important, and can cycle away to get you closer to a spell in the late game when land draws aren’t as good. They also have synergy with Shefet Dunes, as described earlier. Since they slow down your mana base, I wouldn’t include too many of them, but having a few of them will do more good than harm.

Category 4: Removal

Angel of Sanctions in a nice, evasive threat that deals with any non-land permanent your opponent has until they deal with it. Its Embalm ability makes it harder to deal with, since you can often cast it again after they kill it the first time.





Ixalan’s Binding is the King of enchantment-based removal. It will take care of just about anything you need to deal with, and make sure your opponent can’t just replace it with another one.





Cast Out deals with everything Ixalan’s Binding deals with, but maybe not quite as permanently. Having both Flash and Cycle more than makes up for this, though, as you’ll often want to cycle it away on an opponent’s end step (especially when playing against a permanent-light deck), and when you do want to use it, being able to Flash it in a turn earlier than you would have been able to cast Ixalan’s Binding can sometimes be a big advantage.





Seal Away only works against creatures, and those creatures have to be tapped. These drawbacks mean that you probably don’t want more than a couple of these in the deck, but the fact that it’s cheap and can be cast at Instant speed makes it good enough to warrant inclusion.





Category 5: Gideon

Gideon of the Trials can often take pressure off of you when you need it most, and he can be a real fast clock against any opponent that stumbles before he comes out, swinging for four points of damage per turn until they deal with him.





Category 6: Mana Fixing



Sunpetal Grove helps get the colors of mana you need when you need them. It’s important and worth it to craft, even though it uses up your scarce Rare Wildcards.







Scattered Groves fixes your mana early in the game when its most important, and can cycle away to get you closer to a spell in the late game when land draws aren’t as good. It also has the Forest and Plains basic land types, meaning playing one of these tapped on Turn One will allow you to play an untapped Sunpetal Grove on Turn Two.





During my playtesting, this deck was a ton of fun, thought not nearly as competitive as some of the the other decks I’ve tried out, it’s definitely a deck for casual play, but it does win a respectable amount of games, and it’s really satisfying when it comes together.

And that’s G/W Angels! As always, if you have any questions, comments, or criticism, feel free to hit me up here, on Reddit, on Twitter at @DailyArena or on Facebook via the @DailyArenaMTG page.

Peace.

Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.