Devotion to Angels? Modern Mono White Devotion. Let's put some 8 Drop Angels into Play!

Devotion to Angels? Modern Mono White Devotion. Let's put some 8 Drop Angels into Play!

In this Magic: the Gathering Online Modern league, Phil attempts to put some over-costed Magic cards into play using Nykthos, Shrine of Nyx. We've got some lifegain and Heliod combo elements, but also scary angels ranging from Restoration Angell all the way up to Avacyn herself!

0:00 Deck Tech
7:19 Round 1
17:28 Round 2
38:23 Round 3
44:51 Round 4
56:37 Round 5
1:04:15 Conclusion

#modern #angel #modernmtg

[Kiyokoghurt]

Oh hey thats the deck I commissioned! Glad to see it on the channel finally! :)

[MaxMckayful]

This just in - Phil, who named his channel THRABEN University, enjoyed some of the themes, ideas, and characters from Innistrad block ;)

That said, these rogue brew videos are some of my absolute favorites. Love hearing the ideas on offer and the tweaking / deck building process. Also serves as a pleasant reminder that it's okay to sometimes have fun, and that fun for some of us is things like casting big dumb angel idiots :)

[kurtgrgelwrx]

oh my god I only realised when the opponent was playing Living End that this was, in fact, not Legacy but Modern.

[realperson]

Thanks for the content, Phil!

Those sure were some rough matchups, but I also think this might be a case of trying to do too many things and ending up doing nothing well enough. With the obvious and predictable exception of the Burn match, the life-gain package didn't seem to do much to serve its primary role of keeping you alive long enough to cast your angels. Furthermore, Restoration Angel was unexciting - albeit functional - given that the only smaller blink target was Skyclave Apparition (and it's a primo removal target already, making timing awkward). Weathered Wayfarer was decent, but seeing it pull basic Plains most of the time suggests we're not actually built to properly (ab)use Nykthos.

Furthermore, this is perhaps the worst time in the whole history of MTG to be playing enchantment-based removal, with Prismatic Ending, Brazen Borrower, and 3feri sitting in plenty of maindecks, ready to handle cards that once resisted all but GB decks. On top of that, the best "removal" to play in white devotion specifically - Runed Halo - currently has huge gaps due to the existence (and prominence) of Batterskull, Kaldra Compleat, Crashing Footfalls, Colossus Hammer (which just attaches to whatever you haven't named), Urza's Saga, Primeval Titan, and apparently Archon of Cruelty in the present metagame.

I see two different routes for revising this kind of deck. One is to add Yorion into the companion zone and add blink synergies, taking a page from Historic and Pioneer for Bishop of Wings and Righteous Valkyrie to crank the life-gain up to eleven while also leaning into Restoration Angel blink shenanigans (like pitch-casting Solitude to increase devotion for zero mana, then using the extra Nykthos mana to help cast Restoration Angel in response to the sac trigger). The other is to change your early game from life-gain to something more likely to produce free wins, like Stoneforge Mystic and Sanctifier en-Vec (graveyard hate probably produces more free wins than incidental life gain) or possibly prison/taxation elements like Paladin Class, Thalia, Thorn, Suppression Field, Chalice, Ghostly Prison, and/or other various cards. Technically there's also a third strategy: YOLO turbo devotion with maindeck Leyline of Sanctity and Force of Virtue - the former of which prevents you from getting ripped apart by discard after going all-in on mana production, and the latter of which conveniently buffs Gisela out of Bolt range. It might be possible to mix a few different early-game strategies with Stoneforge Mystic, Force of Virtue, and Suppression Field; Force of Virtue pitches Suppression Field when it's late to the party or irrelevant, and Stoneforge Mystic produces card advantage to offset Force and/or Solitude (especially if we can fetch white equipment like Godsend or Maul of the Skyclaves to pitch). Suppression Field + Stoneforge Mystic is a bit of a nonbo, but I guess there's always Squadron Hawk. XD Knight of the Holy Nimbus is also very cute with Suppression Field.

I'll spare you all the prototype concept decklists, you poor souls reading this comment.

[Kiyokoghurt]

One thing I noted was a lack of card draw and just running out of value, maybe wall of omens could be neat? Has combo with resto for more draw as well, knight of the reliquary exists too to help ramp if need be

[Jhinjubei]

Just a fun "um actually". Around 13:30 you say you can't name tokens with runed Halo and then said "illusion or germ" as examples. You can name illusion and it will do what you want. Illusion is the name of the token and the card illusion//reality.

Love the videos and the podcast.

[the_enamelator]

Just at deck list right now. Gotta say, I'm intrigued.

[gewinner]

What about Seraph Sanctuary as a cool tribal angel and lifegain card?

[TotallyTribal]

I think it's hilarious how Phil is simultaneously very smart and also very ignorant of the modern metagame.

[Isaac-pghm]

No iona? Seems very much what you want in this shell

[SnowyGrass]

why didn't he block with avacynn when she's an 8/8 with indestructible in game 1?

[shhhvcnear]

The program that cuts out dead air cuts out so much stuff that shouldn't be. We miss card draws for turns, we miss cards being played, it's awful. There are turns where literally everything that happened was skipped. I seriously dislike it compared to just having a slightly longer video. I'd rather watch at 1.25 speed and catch everything that happens.

[lloydlineske]

You don't need to do a doomsday video. That's not modern do not worth it.