I gotta thank you for showcasing the Pulsemage Advocate. I've heard Tomer also proclaiming it's greatness but was completely skeptical until i watched this video. I had just finished my retro border mono-white Reya Dawnbringer deck and was about to leave for commander night and threw this card in at the last second. Turns out it was the MVP of my game and came in clutch allowing me to out grind the black graveyard deck after the second Cataclysm. So thanks!
Yeah its one of those cards you just need to see in action a time or 2 to understand how powerful it is relative to the cost of giving back usually the 3 worst cards for opponents. Because I didnt think much of it either when I first saw it. But permanent instant speed reanimation is something that there just isnt a lot of in this game.
Yeah I had been thinking about something like this for a while too. Really in the last year or so theyve given us a number of good lower CMC angels that have helped this strat along.
I personaly prefer True Conviction over Akroma's Will in my Giada deck. If you need evasion it means you are not making a strong enough board, and building an overwhelming force is the whole fun about using Giada angels.
Nice game. Yup that 4-color tryhard needed to be taken down. Do you prefer Lyra or Giada for angel tribal. I assume they are built for different strats. I have a Lyra angel deck that I think could use some reworking.
Oh yeah 3+ color decks are still very scary for mono white. Just a lot of ways you can get beat, and its tough to have answers for all of them. I think they are both solid commanders, but yeah they want different things. Lyra is going to have more of a life gain focus, and you can really get a lot of cool things going with the enchantments and life gain payoffs. Giada is a little more consistent because of it coming down on turn 2, and works for this lower curve strategy, you can work some ETB tricks into it, and also some +/1+1 counter and proliferate strategies just depending on what you feel like doing. I also dont mind Bruna, which is just straight angel reanimator.
Yeah tahts disgusting too, but it only happens once. Its sooooo easy to blink it repeatedly. You can probably survive a draw 5. Its real hard to survive drawing 30.
As good as SkullClamp is, Heirloom Blade makes more sense in this deck as it would trigger with the same frequency, but also good for a tribal deck that cares about stats.
Have Pulsemage Advocate in a B/W discard reanimator deck would be nasty! You cast spells that cause everyone to discard. But then you're the one getting creatures back. Then you just make them discard those cards again to abuse the Advocate
@@CommanderReplay It came to mind when you were bemoaning Atraxa and general OP green powercreep. slows them down and still does work for your gameplan (provided you're running protection ofc :) )
I know what full angel tribal for that woudl look like, but I am not sure what it woudl look like trying to mix the convoke portion in. Sadly I dont think I am going to have time to look at it. Ive got a series of about 10 videos I want to start working on when I get back from vacation.
Interesting point though, you could put a minds eye in that spot. THe deck does have solid ramp, and if you ramp like we did in this game, Minds eye will be really good.
@@CommanderReplay I think every white deck should just pack a couple tutors for trouble in pairs, in the mid to late game that card will draw you 5 extra cards a turn cycle on its own
@@EchoChrisX For power reasons absolutely. In general, im in this weird place where ive been trying not to run the enlgightned tutors, feast and famines and other similar staples in order to get a few more interesting cards in. But yes, I can see how tutoring for that would generate a ton of cards.
I made a Giada deck where I had only 2 angels over 4 mana, and my friends bullied me. They were complaining when it was super optimized, so I tuned her down and they still ran me over. So now I’m playing Aurelia the Law and I’m loving it.
Yeah curving out with Giada can really put a lot of flying power on the board quickly. Thats what i was trying to do here but really hit a dead spot with the creatures in the deck. Yeah I find that Law Above has lot of really subtle things that I find interesting about it.
I know you're trying to minimize the amount of non Angels in the deck, but it's at least worth trying out Moonshaker Cavalry and seeing how it performs.
Getting tired of how dominant you are on all of your games. The game you played in this video had you with 2 players yourself included that were oppressively dominant with 2 that aren't doing anything. This is true for your patreon games, where your patreons bring jank and you bring high power. Definitely makes for uninteresting content.
As much as I can I try to get well balanced games, but there also arent unlimited hours in the day to film. Generally speaking I will also show a video where the deck does at least something, it doesnt necessarily need to win. The problem is, commander has gotten so strong that doing something often means winning. The other problem is that, unless everyone is going as hard as they can, most games of commander are imbalanced powerwise, and i think the rift between highly tuned decks and casual decks is much bigger. So yeah I would have to have more balanced games of commander also, but its legitimately hard to orchestrate. Also note that this was an open game of magic online, so I was trying to get a different experience than patreon games, and as you point out it was 2 stronger decks and 2 weaker decks....it is a hard problem to solve.
@@CommanderReplay that's fair enough, I wish the power disparity these days wasn't so bad but the powercreep of commander and MTG in general is hard to solve
Oh the number of games that don't make it to video where I over run pj at the table. He does show games he loses as.well. not all the patrons bring jank. They just build new decks ever other week or something so they aren't fully tested and tuned. So not jank just unfocused.
I will second the notion that all too often these days, "doing the thing" is roughly equivalent to "winning the game" because the format is so power crept. It definitely biases the games that are worth making into videos towards the games you win. But that's a problem with the Format, not with PJ.
In a recent game my deck was better than my opponents so I held back a few turns. This allowed them to lock me out of the game, and it went right into unfun time. Balance is so hard to find. @sgtflintlock6904
I gotta thank you for showcasing the Pulsemage Advocate. I've heard Tomer also proclaiming it's greatness but was completely skeptical until i watched this video. I had just finished my retro border mono-white Reya Dawnbringer deck and was about to leave for commander night and threw this card in at the last second. Turns out it was the MVP of my game and came in clutch allowing me to out grind the black graveyard deck after the second Cataclysm. So thanks!
Yeah its one of those cards you just need to see in action a time or 2 to understand how powerful it is relative to the cost of giving back usually the 3 worst cards for opponents. Because I didnt think much of it either when I first saw it. But permanent instant speed reanimation is something that there just isnt a lot of in this game.
Bond of Discipline has gotten me more times than I care to admit.
Lol yeah me too. Its suprisingly good.
Always enjoy some angel action! Great rebuilding moments.
I was wondering about a deck like this. Thx for the upload
Yeah I had been thinking about something like this for a while too. Really in the last year or so theyve given us a number of good lower CMC angels that have helped this strat along.
I personaly prefer True Conviction over Akroma's Will in my Giada deck. If you need evasion it means you are not making a strong enough board, and building an overwhelming force is the whole fun about using Giada angels.
Archangel of Tithes was the first single I ever bought and a pet card, always good to see it in action
Yeah its a super sweet card. I am pretty sure i have foild that isnt being used that is quite beautiful.
Nice game. Yup that 4-color tryhard needed to be taken down.
Do you prefer Lyra or Giada for angel tribal. I assume they are built for different strats. I have a Lyra angel deck that I think could use some reworking.
Oh yeah 3+ color decks are still very scary for mono white. Just a lot of ways you can get beat, and its tough to have answers for all of them. I think they are both solid commanders, but yeah they want different things. Lyra is going to have more of a life gain focus, and you can really get a lot of cool things going with the enchantments and life gain payoffs. Giada is a little more consistent because of it coming down on turn 2, and works for this lower curve strategy, you can work some ETB tricks into it, and also some +/1+1 counter and proliferate strategies just depending on what you feel like doing. I also dont mind Bruna, which is just straight angel reanimator.
I mean imagine having your atraxa countered and still filling your hand though. It'd be like maelstrom wander all over again.
Yeah tahts disgusting too, but it only happens once. Its sooooo easy to blink it repeatedly. You can probably survive a draw 5. Its real hard to survive drawing 30.
As good as SkullClamp is, Heirloom Blade makes more sense in this deck as it would trigger with the same frequency, but also good for a tribal deck that cares about stats.
Thats probably a both situation. They sort of do different things. Clamp gets you lands and other non creatures which is important at certain times.
Have Pulsemage Advocate in a B/W discard reanimator deck would be nasty! You cast spells that cause everyone to discard. But then you're the one getting creatures back. Then you just make them discard those cards again to abuse the Advocate
Pulsemage has overperformed in basically every situation ive put it in. Its so good.
Any reason you didn't use the Pulsemage right before you hit the atraxa player?
Wasnt thinking about it, just wanted to make sure the hit got through.
does Elesh Norn, mother of Machines look good for this deck? feel like it would do a lot of work.....
Oh yeah that probably would be pretty ridiculous. Overall just a strong card anyway.
@@CommanderReplay Giada's ability is static, not a triggered ability so Elesh Norn, MOM doesn't work with her, unfortunately
@@CommanderReplay It came to mind when you were bemoaning Atraxa and general OP green powercreep. slows them down and still does work for your gameplan (provided you're running protection ofc :) )
i wanna see you build kasla so badly part angel,/part convoke value
I know what full angel tribal for that woudl look like, but I am not sure what it woudl look like trying to mix the convoke portion in. Sadly I dont think I am going to have time to look at it. Ive got a series of about 10 videos I want to start working on when I get back from vacation.
@CommanderReplay the new gitrog is absurd value I do know that, idk what happened to Thalia though, I fear she may have been a snack
I would probably cut vanquishers banner for flowering of the white tree, white has enough draw now in my opinion
Theres 3 big angels missing on MTGO, the double strike one would be my first add. Then there are the 2 card draw ones, Tyr and Firemane.
Interesting point though, you could put a minds eye in that spot. THe deck does have solid ramp, and if you ramp like we did in this game, Minds eye will be really good.
@@CommanderReplay I think every white deck should just pack a couple tutors for trouble in pairs, in the mid to late game that card will draw you 5 extra cards a turn cycle on its own
@@EchoChrisX For power reasons absolutely. In general, im in this weird place where ive been trying not to run the enlgightned tutors, feast and famines and other similar staples in order to get a few more interesting cards in. But yes, I can see how tutoring for that would generate a ton of cards.
@@CommanderReplay By Double Strike angel, do you mean Sigarda's Vanguard?
Comment for the algorithm!
Beep Boop.
I made a Giada deck where I had only 2 angels over 4 mana, and my friends bullied me.
They were complaining when it was super optimized, so I tuned her down and they still ran me over.
So now I’m playing Aurelia the Law and I’m loving it.
Yeah curving out with Giada can really put a lot of flying power on the board quickly. Thats what i was trying to do here but really hit a dead spot with the creatures in the deck. Yeah I find that Law Above has lot of really subtle things that I find interesting about it.
I know you're trying to minimize the amount of non Angels in the deck, but it's at least worth trying out Moonshaker Cavalry and seeing how it performs.
Theres better decks for it I think. Any white go wide non angel deck :)
@@CommanderReplay Those decks are better for it, but there aren't (many) better finishers for an Angel deck.
Getting tired of how dominant you are on all of your games. The game you played in this video had you with 2 players yourself included that were oppressively dominant with 2 that aren't doing anything. This is true for your patreon games, where your patreons bring jank and you bring high power. Definitely makes for uninteresting content.
As much as I can I try to get well balanced games, but there also arent unlimited hours in the day to film. Generally speaking I will also show a video where the deck does at least something, it doesnt necessarily need to win. The problem is, commander has gotten so strong that doing something often means winning. The other problem is that, unless everyone is going as hard as they can, most games of commander are imbalanced powerwise, and i think the rift between highly tuned decks and casual decks is much bigger. So yeah I would have to have more balanced games of commander also, but its legitimately hard to orchestrate. Also note that this was an open game of magic online, so I was trying to get a different experience than patreon games, and as you point out it was 2 stronger decks and 2 weaker decks....it is a hard problem to solve.
@@CommanderReplay that's fair enough, I wish the power disparity these days wasn't so bad but the powercreep of commander and MTG in general is hard to solve
Oh the number of games that don't make it to video where I over run pj at the table. He does show games he loses as.well. not all the patrons bring jank. They just build new decks ever other week or something so they aren't fully tested and tuned. So not jank just unfocused.
I will second the notion that all too often these days, "doing the thing" is roughly equivalent to "winning the game" because the format is so power crept. It definitely biases the games that are worth making into videos towards the games you win. But that's a problem with the Format, not with PJ.
In a recent game my deck was better than my opponents so I held back a few turns. This allowed them to lock me out of the game, and it went right into unfun time. Balance is so hard to find. @sgtflintlock6904