In the
IKO/C20 update, I made some beatstick math graphs that I'm likely to call upon often in the future. In the left-hand plot, the highest value for the first turn swing goes to
Pathbreaker Ibex at around 80. Where would I put a point with "kills two opponents" on it?
So here's the thing. Each
Angel of Destiny plinks for 4 damage. Get the triple dip going and you've got 12 damage, which translates to 36 points of healing. You can be half dead and that brings you up to enough health to kill with Angel triggers! If mauled below 19, tossing an additional Rhino or two at some poor chump's face should do the trick. Angel immediately becomes one of the list's premier beatsticks, and is only slightly kept in check by the fact the populated copy technically doesn't know it attacked. The same mechanism that enables the
Aurelia combo now stops a different card from being beyond busted in the shell. Nevertheless, Angel has a good home here. It's a super narrow card, outclassed by stuff like
Felidar Sovereign or
Test of Endurance in dedicated lifegain shells. I live for that sort of hyper specialised jank though. Taking out
Archangel of Thune, as per the IKO/C20 math post it's the lowest impact of the beatsticks and I like my current ratios. Plus, Archangel needs to be copied to do anything meaningful.
Thunderfoot Baloth, the next in line, idly offers immediate pump which can be quite nice for getting populating going without a full setup online, and accidentally synergises with
Quartzwood Crasher. It's actually quite nice that some of the dedicated beatsticks are not dead weight without copying. Angel doesn't do a ton without cloning, but can be used goofily in silly games to just harmlessly heal up. Or are you being harmless? Maybe the Angel will go into the red zone next time and someone will go down!
I had high hopes for
Moraug, Fury of Akoum, as it's one of those cards that you read and your jaw just drops. Unfortunately, it playtested a lot worse than it read. Turns out that being a six drop with landfall actually secretly makes you a seven drop. Being a seven drop is a lot different than costing six. Is this
Avacyn/
Gisela tier? Not even close, as evidenced by me prioritising those in sequencing in test games. Sure, every now and then you get a god setup where you draw heavily and have enough ramp/fetches to get combats as far as the eye can see. But there are also those games where you stall on ~8 mana, as mentioned in the
Genesis Wave spitballing post. Variance is not a trait I'm looking for in high drops.
Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary is probably the best of the land/spell hybrids, but I'm already a bit low on basics and unwilling to carve out a slot for this.
Lithoform Engine is interesting, but too costly.
Bramble Sovereign demonstrates that adding a tax of two to copy a body is already enough to get some scoffing directed at you, costing four for the privilege is not going to cut it, not even if you moonlight as a
Strionic Resonator. The card does a lot, but I just don't think the list would be able to reliably cough up mana to make good use of the options in the crucial turns.
Skyclave Apparition would make for a nice potentially copiable source of removal if it weren't CMC constrained.
I'm actually wondering if I dismissed
Flawless Maneuver too quickly. Aggro likes to curve out, and being able to do whatever deployment while holding a freebie get out of wrath free could be nice for tempo. Might be worth giving up
Chord of Calling surprise anti-wrath uses and scratch off
Selfless Spirit for this? Need to think about this a bit more.