Bruna, the Fading Light - Mono-W Moat Control

[ISBPathfinder]

Nine Lives - This card is interesting. It makes me think of things like using Hex Parasite, Dueling Grounds, Delaying Shield and others as a really interesting and odd enchantment defense plan. I think its interesting and it makes me wonder about these concepts but I also think that it would be a very narrow and specific build rather than a useful card in general for commander. It doesn't belong here but it's cool.

It's worth noting that Nine Lives works well with Solemnity. It's all no match for Questing Beast, or a well-timed Stomp, though.

I think most of this set's white offerings are geared around low-to-the-ground creatures or lifegain, which is the exact intersection of stuff we're not especially interested in. The only stand out is Mangara, who might matter, or Mazemind Tome. When you put it as you have, it sounds like it might be worthwhile.

I'm sure there's a lifegain version of Bruna, but, I think we'd need to push it in that direction with Batterskull (if it got cut), Loxodon Warhammer, etc., Angelic Skirmisher, etc. and, I think that might be a good version of the deck; Resplendent Angel and Archangel of Thune become more reliable/powerful.

However, I don't believe that the payouts (in human/angels) are high enough. Even with Crested Sunmare I think we might be let down.

Nine Lives - I still think I would really want to be building heavily around enchantments or this card itself to really try it out. The fact that you die when it leaves is also very awkward when you get into enchantment sweepers. Its cool, but I also get the very real impression that its totally going to kill you.

Lifegain - I already do run somewhat of a lifegain concept in my build. I still see a number of things like Purpheros or Exsanguinate where gaining life is one of the better ways to combat them. Gaining life is also a control effect against a lot of aggressive decks and sometimes it helps vs token concepts as well. I do run a few lifegain payoffs like Resplendent Angel and Archangel of Thune but to be honest I think those cards are totally fine as angels that can make their own payoff trigger themselves. For me, gaining life is a way to stay relevant later into the game and push back gradual life loss over the coarse of a game. I wouldn't call my deck a lifegain focused concept by any means but having a buffer of extra life makes it harder to take me out in one shot too. IF I were to add Speaker of the Heavens to my list, it would bring my one drop targets up to three. I would likely also add Ranger of Eos and Soul Warden to my list at that point for testing purposes. Ranger of Eos for Speaker of the Heavens + Soul Warden would be an easy way to turn the speaker on and I could see Soul Warden being possibly close in lifegain to Angelic Skirmisher in some situations. My one drop package already feels REALLY good having Serra Ascendant and Weathered Wayfarer as it stands so giving me an incentive to run Ranger of Eos is something I am kind of on board with. I just couldn't justify him with only two one drops previously but when looking at 3-4 I think I would probably give in and do it. Keep in mind what a six mana play having Ranger of Eos + Serra Ascendant + Speaker of the Heavens would be. I don't really plan to reanimate Ranger but having sufficient targets to always have positive outcomes when you draw him is kind of important.

Sorry for that wall of text. I agree that we probably don't want to go all in on lifegain but I do think that there are enough cards with value added that care about having some lifegain that its something I have already been digging into. Lots of control decks use their life as a resource and I agree with that too. This deck is just so robust that as long as I can keep myself from dying suddenly out of nowhere I tend to do REALLY well with an over time attrition battle. Keeping my life total high is one way that I keep myself from dying suddenly with this deck. Some of this is also coming from the fact that I see a lot of strategies that don't use combat that do rely on zeroing hp totals.

[Sinis]

Sorry for that wall of text. I agree that we probably don't want to go all in on lifegain but I do think that there are enough cards with value added that care about having some lifegain that its something I have already been digging into.

I think we're pretty much in agreement.

We agree that Resplendent Angel and Archangel of Thune are worth playing, but we definitely stop short of things like Angelic Accord or Cradle of Vitality. I've advocated for Heliod's Intervention previously as a help-us-not-lose card, but only because it has a second mode that will probably be relevant. Just having life gain in decks is something I'm fond of (a lot of my black decks play Crypt Incursion because it's sometimes relevant hate, and sometimes relevant life gain).

I'm torn on Speaker. I find when I gain life, it's a lot of life, but I don't find I gain a ton every game, and I think it'd be a dead draw in the latter because we realistically have only a few token life gain cards that tend to have high impact. Your Ranger of Eos engine package seems nice, but I'm not sure I want to devote the slot to both Ranger and Speaker.

[toctheyounger]

Core Set 2021 Review

Despite ISB beating me to it, it's probably still worth going through the picks of the litter (pun intended with this set) and seeing what strikes me.

Artifacts/Colorless/Lands

• Chromatic Orrery - ISB says - I think this is a reasonable card as like, a super big mana Gilded Lotus. I don't think that this is the deck for that sort of thing but for decks that just need a lot of mana throughput I can see this being a cool card. I don't think its here, but its nice.
  I say - Pretty much agree. This is not the deck for this card. Seems tailor made for Golos, Tireless Pilgrim or Sisay, Weatherlight Captain.
• Mazemind Tome - ISB says - So....... I don't really know where I stand on this one but really look at it and compare it to Endless Atlas. If you were to draw 4 cards from Endless would you be happy? How often to you get to and or beyond drawing four cards from Endless Atlas? Do people normally target Endless Atlas when you play it and would they target Mazemind Tome in the same case when they see that it will eventually kill itself? I think.......... it has potential.
  I say - I dunno, I'm less convinced. It's fine, I guess. Generally when I've had Endless Atlas in play I've had more than 4 cards from it, so the idea of it vanishing forever after that is a little disappointing to me. There's probably ways to make it work here, but I'm less than enthused about making that happen personally.

White

• Angelic Ascension - ISB says - I think this is still far from the best mono white removal but I do actually think that it might be similar or close behind Path to Exile. Giving opponents a land is probably better for your opponent than giving them a 4/4 but the difference in paying two mana instead of one mana probably puts it a little behind it. I often have a hard time including a bunch of cheap spot removal like Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares in mono white builds due to often not having sufficient draw so...... I think its cool but I also think it isn't the first few pieces of spot removal you would use which leads me to think you will see more of it in budget lists or a list with a LOT of spot removal.
  I say - I think it's fine, and I think it's nice to see Wizards pushing new and reasonable removal for white again. Recently Orzhov has had some fairly nice additions, so this isn't unwelcome. Still, it doesn't really stack up against Swords or Path. Generous Gift maybe, but you play that because it hits anything, which this doesn't. Obviously not overly concerned with the token in this build, so that's neither here nor there, but at the least it's a nice addition to white's arsenal even if it doesn't cut the mustard here.
• Basri Ket - ISB says - This new walker looks like he was built for 60 card 1v1 to pump up weenies. I don't think he will work in multiplayer commander very well. He isn't going to have enough immediate impact and it looks like he was built to curve in with an aggro strategy which tends to not be something that works in commander.
  I say - Hard agree. This guy is designed with limited formats in mind.
• Basri's Lieutenant - ISB says - It looks like he was sort of built to maybe be a vanilla stat beater, combat some multicolored walkers (3 mana teferi in standard), and maybe do some counters / sac things. I don't think its going to fit most commander decks but maybe some counter or sac builds might use him.
  I say - I just don't think it does enough to compete in this format. Maybe in a Tayam, Luminous Enigma build, but even then, I'm building that at present and it doesn't really get a look in.
• Griffin Aerie - ISB says - I love seeing more of these lifegain matters effects. I don't think that this deck fits that but it makes me think about building more lifegain type decks. Its great to see more of these effects as it adds the consistency that the lifegain decks have been needing for a while now.
  I say - It doesn't fit this deck. I'm less into the lifegain thing, but it definitely fits more into that category than anything I'm trying to do.
• Idol of Endurance - ISB says - It doesn't fit what this deck does. Its a cool new recursion effect though for sure. I would love to see that in a Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle deck potentially. Its too bad that Teshar is so dang combo tastic as I love the things he does.
  I say - What a strange card. I'm looking for a way to abuse it, but you'd need a lot of mana to do so, and a way to untap it (Clock of Omens? I love that card); it's neat, that's for sure. Again, not really my cup of tea for this deck, but a quirky take on reanimation.
• Mangara, the Diplomat - ISB says - I think, that the expected outcome of this card is something that I can't really say I know. I think that every meta will have different expectations out of this card and I think its probably too soon to give a verdict for it. For now, I guess my plan is to get my hands on a copy or two and do some testing. I think that it could fit here and I think it could be really sweet as a commander but until I get a chance to see more, I just can't give a final verdict on how this card is going to be.
  I say - I think we've all more or less come to the conclusion that the utility of this card is going to vary wildly and that makes us all hesitant. If you're in a meta that hates Rhystic Study, it won't last long before eating removal. If your meta doesn't care how much you draw, it might be fine. The ceiling is high for how good it can be, but the basement is very low too, which makes it much less than a sure thing. The only way we know is to test it.
• Nine Lives - ISB says - This card is interesting. It makes me think of things like using Hex Parasite, Dueling Grounds, Delaying Shield and others as a really interesting and odd enchantment defense plan. I think its interesting and it makes me wonder about these concepts but I also think that it would be a very narrow and specific build rather than a useful card in general for commander. It doesn't belong here but it's cool.
  I say - As a cat owner and enthusiast, I LOVE the flavour of this card. There's plenty of ways it could be used, (Tayam, Luminous Enigma again), but it isn't for this list. I think the real risk of running this is going up against someone like Niv-Mizzet, Parun and getting shot to bits in less than a turn, but it's a struggle I'll save for other players.
• Speaker of the Heavens - ISB says - I think that the amount of lifegain that is run in this deck varies from build to build. I also think that the number of tutors such as the two rangers and recruiter vary a bit between us. I do think that the potential to add this guy and at least one of the Soul Wardens to the list could open the list up to Ranger of Eos in a big way. Expanding the one drop count and tutors for them could also expand some of the equipment potentials of the list. I think I might look into this more but I also think that it requires a little building for this.
  I say - I agree. I'd want Soul Sisters and more before I put this fella in the list, and that's an interesting avenue the deck could explore. It's not really something I want to do - what can I say, I'm a sadist, I like control cards so this doesn't really speak to me.

So in all, there really isn't much for this list for me. It's a damn cool set, and probably one of the best core sets we've ever seen, at the least for reprints. But the new prints just don't go in a direction I want to take this deck in.

[ISBPathfinder]

Really an odd thought but what do people think of Luminarch Ascension? I normally don't like it but as my card draw keeps going up and my ability to defend monarch feels great I feel like it would spin up fast and be a low mana investment. I normally don't resort to it but this deck is defensive in a lot of ways and the investment is low to spin it up. The only real concern is that if it just gets removed then it does nothing but my draw keeps feeling better and better for me.

@toctheyounger do you have anything you plan to test out of the new cards?

[toctheyounger]

Really an odd thought but what do people think of Luminarch Ascension? I normally don't like it but as my card draw keeps going up and my ability to defend monarch feels great I feel like it would spin up fast and be a low mana investment. I normally don't resort to it but this deck is defensive in a lot of ways and the investment is low to spin it up. The only real concern is that if it just gets removed then it does nothing but my draw keeps feeling better and better for me.

toctheyounger do you have anything you plan to test out of the new cards?

Luminarch Ascension is a funny card, to me. It's similar to walkers, which are similar to the ball guy at the driving range. You see them and you GOTTA take a swing at them. In that sense, Ascension is worse because your defenses have to be airtight for it to function at all. I think it's a great early drop that drops off in value the further you get into the game. It's on theme, I just don't know if it's going to always provide the value you want it to. I've seen a lot of people drop it, and very few of them manage to turn it on. I'm happy to be wrong though, it's possible it could be great here.

In terms of new cards, I will try and pick up Mangara, the Diplomat for trialing here. I think there's a fair chance it could be good, but there's an equal chance it's a dead duck too. It's a funny card in that because it relies SO much on the way the table perceives it it has a really variable impact on the table. Other than that, nothing really jumps out at me as worth a punt.

I saw you've taken your deck in a lower to the ground lifegain direction - let us know how that works out for you.

[ISBPathfinder]

Luminarch Ascension is a funny card, to me. It's similar to walkers, which are similar to the ball guy at the driving range. You see them and you GOTTA take a swing at them. In that sense, Ascension is worse because your defenses have to be airtight for it to function at all. I think it's a great early drop that drops off in value the further you get into the game. It's on theme, I just don't know if it's going to always provide the value you want it to. I've seen a lot of people drop it, and very few of them manage to turn it on. I'm happy to be wrong though, it's possible it could be great here.

In terms of new cards, I will try and pick up Mangara, the Diplomat for trialing here. I think there's a fair chance it could be good, but there's an equal chance it's a dead duck too. It's a funny card in that because it relies SO much on the way the table perceives it it has a really variable impact on the table. Other than that, nothing really jumps out at me as worth a punt.

I saw you've taken your deck in a lower to the ground lifegain direction - let us know how that works out for you.

Luminarch Ascension - yea thats sort of been what I saw too. My current meta which I haven't been able to play in for several months somehow doesn't run nearly enough answers and tends to play haymaker which tends to be poor at getting in for small numbers so maybe I am being a little heavy meta sighted in considering it.

Lower Curve - Its really just that the draw has been really good lately for me. We will see if I can get in some testing because I would love to see how things go.

[toctheyounger]

Yeah, that sounds like the perfect meta for Ascension. You'd assume diminishing returns, if they're worth their salt as brewers. Like the more they get spanked by it the more removal they'd run. But you never know. In any other case, if there were suitable walkers for the deck I would generally prefer to run those. At least you get immediate value from them, and it takes (usually) a few hits to get rid of them altogether. There's really not many that fit well in this build though. Maybe Ugin, the Spirit Dragon if you have a copy.

[ISBPathfinder]

I did manage to play a three player game where I curved Mangara, the Diplomat and she stuck like all game. In said three player game I would say I drew 1-2 cards a turn. One of the decks was tempo swarm deck and the other a voltron deck. I got a few cards off of said swarm deck attacking me with more than two attackers but mostly I saw people playing cards out.

It was far from conclusive but I just wanted to say I did see her in a game and I did force them to answer some other things instead of her each time. I might have curved a Magus of the Disk in behind her and freaked them both out as I proceeded to curve Bruna into a backup disk lol. Magus of the Disk was actually kind of great as just a removal magnet. If I do get to keep it its super hard to continue playing into it so I was actually kind of liking it.

It was a super rough game where the end of the game came down to me Moating vs my opponent Strip Mining me repeatedly to keep me off of Avacyn. We ended said game both under 10 hp and finally he caved to Avacyn.

[Sinis]

Really an odd thought but what do people think of Luminarch Ascension? I normally don't like it but as my card draw keeps going up and my ability to defend monarch feels great I feel like it would spin up fast and be a low mana investment

IMO, it's a one-card wincon for prison (or heavy control) decks, or is for decks that want to be attacked (like O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami, or some weird deck involving Sengir Vampire, Seraph or similar).

IME, the attitude on the table will shift so far against you that it's not really worth the slot; if you're not able to keep players out, people will even hold their removal because it just paints a target on you, and if you can, it gets destroyed because it's a lose-the-game kind of effect.

It's a good card, just, perhaps, not for Bruna. At least, I don't think so. If you take the idea that some of our conversation has been centered around lifegain because we take a lot of damage sometimes, that would mean that LA is probably not all that great; we would have never had conversations around lifegain/Heliod's Intervention if we were so very secure that we wouldn't lose life on our opponent's turns.

By all means, test, though.

[toctheyounger]

Haha, yeah ISB, be our lab rat!

Jk, I honestly am not super interested in Ascension, for some of the reasons previously mentioned - it's a huge target that screams 'fight me', but also it represents a mana sink in a deck that for me doesn't necessarily always have that resource to spare.

Aside from that it's recurrable by Emeria Shepherd and a couple other cards, but even if you can you still need to tick up your counters again. It just seems slow and not that well suited, to me. Happy to be proved wrong though.

Good to hear some feedback about Mangara, the Diplomat though; I think the key to getting value from it is going to be playing it out with bigger threats on board and making it flies under the radar. That's probably not always possible, but we do have a few decent beaters, so it's not out of the question either.

Have you had a chance to try out Angel's Grace yet ISB?

[ISBPathfinder]

Angel's Grace - I drew it early once and I think I discarded it to max hand size. Its the sort of card I want to draw in the mid or late game rather than early usually. It also depends on what decks I am facing as to how much relevance I am going to put into it. When I drew it, it wasn't against decks that were using noncombat damage wincons and they were less likely to haymaker me so I tossed it. I need to test more to really say more though. My paper meta is where I was intending to test it but the few online guys I play with play a bit differently.

[ISBPathfinder]

It seems kind of crazy but I have been enjoying some of the "must answer" angel / humans in the deck of late. The ones that oppress the heck out of my opponents and force them to have interaction for me have really been helping me against some of the faster proactive decks. It has been getting me thinking more about some of the higher profile things like say Angel of Deliverance potentially. Somehow I feel like my own list is slowly turning a bit mono white hatebears lol.

Generally speaking I tend to have more of an issue with decks that have a proactive non interaction style of gameplan than I do with control decks. Bruna's rez is such a huge recovery tool and a lot of the equipment stuff I do gives me a lot of incremental value so I often find myself asking more how do I stop pesky decks that don't try interacting with me.

So........ I guess what are the thoughts on Angel of Deliverance? Obviously its expensive and has its flaws. The board control of if it stuck as well as how spicy of a Bruna rez target it would be make me give it considerations on occasion. Its true that Admonition Angel would have faster effect and be better assuming they couldn't interact with me but I think how negative it would be if I eat a wrath kind of turns me off on that one.

[toctheyounger]

Hmmm....Angel of Deliverance. I've considered it before.

Being absolutely honest, I think it's (fairly) close, but no cigar for me. Delirium is easy enough to hit in this deck with things like Wayfarer's Bauble, Return to Dust, Tithe, Lotus Field and Mask of Memory so that isn't a major concern. For me, it's more that 6ww is a LOT to pay for it. Especially with some of our other beaters coming in with a lot more on offer in combat right off the bat.

The damage trigger itself is fine, but I feel like if you run it you'd really want to play into damage with it. Run it with Blade of Selves, Thornbite Staff, Arcbond, Aurelia, the Warleader, Warstorm Surge, Pandemonium - ways to really ham up the impact it has. Here, we shell out 8 and still need to wait for it to attack in a lot of cases, or for someone to foolishly swing into us. You'd have to be mad or stupid. Of course we still have reanimation, so it's not easy to get rid of, but personally, when I look for hatebears to reanimate(and if I'm honest I love having a suite of them available) I'm almost always going to prefer something that has an immediate impact - Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Magus of the Moat, Magus of the Tabernacle - they paint a target, but there's a really good reason for it too; they can relatively lock down a table in the right circumstance and allow us to pull ahead pretty much right away. That first stumbling block really hurts Angel of Deliverance, and just leaves up open to wasting 8 or a rez trigger on something that just doesn't do anything without having to wait for it and pray no one is holding up removal. Or Maze of Ith/fog effects.

Its a cool effect, and a super strong one - personally I just think this is better suited to a Boros/Mardu burn deck of some description.

[ISBPathfinder]

Yea, thats kind of where I keep going to on it. Even after posting that and looking at my list for a few hours I just couldn't justify pulling the trigger on it.

Random side note, I realized that Magus of the Balance is gross with Lotus Field / Flagstones of Trokair. I got to looking at it again after having some good results with Magus of the Disk. I still don't know if I want to go there but its still a two drop that could carry equipment early and is spooky to just let go for opponents to ignore. I happen to run Winding Canyons and Hall of the Bandit Lord which also could help him out.

[toctheyounger]

Yea, thats kind of where I keep going to on it. Even after posting that and looking at my list for a few hours I just couldn't justify pulling the trigger on it.

Random side note, I realized that Magus of the Balance is gross with Lotus Field / Flagstones of Trokair. I got to looking at it again after having some good results with Magus of the Disk. I still don't know if I want to go there but its still a two drop that could carry equipment early and is spooky to just let go for opponents to ignore. I happen to run Winding Canyons and Hall of the Bandit Lord which also could help him out.

Yeah, like I say if you can make it ping things it'd be really worthwhile, I just think it's a stretch here.

Magus of the Balance though, that's nasty. I kinda like that. If anything I almost prefer it to Magus of the Disk because with a pair of shoes we can pop it right away. If we need to. Being easily recurrable is great, too. In a way it sort of occupies the same kind of space I want Magus of the Tabernacle to; I don't want it to tax people, I want it in play to make it hard to maintain, or establish upon, an already expansive board state. That could be a really great addition.

[weltkrieg]

I can vouch for all of the white magi. I run them in my mageta list and they usually make a huge impact. Magus of the balance is by far the best of them, too. It keeps blue and green decks under control (land ramp/card draw). It's really my only answer to spell based combo, but I don't run lotus field/flagstones of trokair and pretty routinely pitch cards from my hand so my hand size isn't huge regardess of the giant amount of draw and removal I run.

[Sinis]

So........ I guess what are the thoughts on Angel of Deliverance?

While the cost I don't think is much of an object the way the deck ramps and reanimates, I think (at least for my build), I'd have trouble meeting delirium. Its usually creatures/lands in the graveyard, and getting another two types might be a tall order, and then, it's vulnerable to graveyard hate (but, so is our whole deck, I suppose).

Magus of the Balance... I wonder if it's any good without building around it (i.e. requires enchantments and artifacts). The land-hate is nice in the Lotus Field scenario, but I think I would frequently be ahead on lands (just the way deck operates). Maybe I'm just playing too much ramp.

I finally have a copy of Magus of the Disk, and I'm deffo going to try that out.

[toctheyounger]

Magus of the Balance... I wonder if it's any good without building around it (i.e. requires enchantments and artifacts). The land-hate is nice in the Lotus Field scenario, but I think I would frequently be ahead on lands (just the way deck operates). Maybe I'm just playing too much ramp.

I finally have a copy of Magus of the Disk, and I'm deffo going to try that out.

I think I'm a little more excited about the Balance than the Disk personally. Like the namesake I think entering tapped hurts a lot there. There's a few things we can do to get around it (popping a Fabled Passage outside of turn with Emeria Shepherd in play or Emergence Zoneing him in), but otherwise I personally think it's a bit slow to be really valuable. I guess it baits removal, but otherwise it seems tough to work around. By comparison, a pair of Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves will sort your Balance out.

That being said I do often find myself in the same situation, well ahead of the rest of the table for lands, so the number of times Balance comes in handy could be varied.

[ISBPathfinder]

For Disk so far, I like playing it WAY before I need it. Its really spooky and its hard to keep playing to the board without answering him. Its true that so far I seem to just be baiting removal with it but the fact that I can recur it I feel is in my favor. Rebuilding is one of the things that this deck does well given Emeria (angel and land) and Bruna.

I need to test it more but so far in my experience slowing things down and forcing opponents to play through sweepers seems to be one of the strengths of this deck. I agree it is slow and if you need a right now wrath it sucks. I will keep playing it for now and see how things go over time with it. Its really nice against proactive strategies though and once it untaps its incredible board control.

I got a few more games in digitally. Mangara, the Diplomat gave me a draw target from Thalia's Lancers when my hand was burning out with no draw. That was kind of nice as an option there. Man, Linvala, Keeper of Silence continues to be amazing every time I draw her. I don't think I have yet seen her not completely dumpster at least one player at a table. I managed to fight through a Kozilek, the Great Distortion deck thanks to her stopping the counter magic. The game ended up being a fight over her but I managed to barely squeak it out.

[Sinis]

Like the namesake I think entering tapped hurts a lot there.

I don't disagree. I think what I like about it is that we can recur it easily, unlike Disk, or other wipes. Sometimes you just gotta go nuclear several times.

[not-a-cube]

Hey, I was looking to make a mono-white deck and this deck looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for making a comprehensive primer!

I was wondering if Geier Reach Sanitarium would be a good include? discard something to recur with bruna the turn before you want to cast her? I also found a copy of Loyal Retainers that i'll try out in this.

You run 38 lands, I mostly run 37, so 38 feels like much, did you find that number to be the sweet spot?

[ISBPathfinder]

@not-a-cube

Geier Reach Sanitarium - Its... fine. I personally run Bazaar of Baghdad just given that I own one and its amazing. Geier Reach is fine, it just not amazing from the standpoint that it lets everyone do it and its still not that cheap to activate. There are actually a lot of amazing utility lands so its always a question of what you think gives you the best utility and how often you plan to activate them. If this land seems interesting you might also consider Conqueror's Galleon as Conqueror's Foothold can handle some similar functions.

Loyal Retainers - Keep in mind that often the value in Bruna is somewhere between a third and half in her rez on cast so its a little questionable how much we want to rez her directly. I personally only have like.... 5ish other legends in my list so.... I don't really know how good this is going to be. It doesn't hurt to run and check if you already have one but I don't know that it quite fits this list.

Land Count - I don't think its a huge deal if you want 37 vs 38. You probably won't see that big of a difference but especially in mono white where our draw tends to be a little less than other colors not to mention having some expensive angels and wanting to be able to repeatedly cast our commander into late game it can be nice to hit your land drops. As I shift to a more control strategy I do tend to shift my land count up a little. I think its fine either way though. I run 38 myself but again one of those lands is my Bazaar of Baghdad which I don't really count as a land from the standpoint that it doesn't tap for mana.

[toctheyounger]

Hey, I was looking to make a mono-white deck and this deck looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for making a comprehensive primer!

I was wondering if Geier Reach Sanitarium would be a good include? discard something to recur with bruna the turn before you want to cast her? I also found a copy of Loyal Retainers that i'll try out in this.

You run 38 lands, I mostly run 37, so 38 feels like much, did you find that number to be the sweet spot?

Geier Reach Sanitarium - Its... fine. I personally run Bazaar of Baghdad just given that I own one and its amazing. Geier Reach is fine, it just not amazing from the standpoint that it lets everyone do it and its still not that cheap to activate. There are actually a lot of amazing utility lands so its always a question of what you think gives you the best utility and how often you plan to activate them. If this land seems interesting you might also consider Conqueror's Galleon as Conqueror's Foothold can handle some similar functions.

Loyal Retainers - Keep in mind that often the value in Bruna is somewhere between a third and half in her rez on cast so its a little questionable how much we want to rez her directly. I personally only have like.... 5ish other legends in my list so.... I don't really know how good this is going to be. It doesn't hurt to run and check if you already have one but I don't know that it quite fits this list.

Land Count - I don't think its a huge deal if you want 37 vs 38. You probably won't see that big of a difference but especially in mono white where our draw tends to be a little less than other colors not to mention having some expensive angels and wanting to be able to repeatedly cast our commander into late game it can be nice to hit your land drops. As I shift to a more control strategy I do tend to shift my land count up a little. I think its fine either way though. I run 38 myself but again one of those lands is my Bazaar of Baghdad which I don't really count as a land from the standpoint that it doesn't tap for mana.

Thanks to be honest, it's a real team effort these days, and I feel like for all the effort I put into the first page and making it pretty (and as comprehensive as I could) the real value in this primer is just trawling through the comments. There's a lot we've covered.

Geier Reach Sanitarium is decent in my experience. It's not perfect in terms of sharing the draw, but we take what we can get. Bazaar of Baghdad seems a LOT better, but I don't have a copy (and probably never will to be honest). If you're hesitant about giving out draw there's always stuff like Arch of Orazca or Throne of the High City. I personally found Arch to be too expensive though. The upside of producing mana is, I guess, a point for Geier Reach Sanitarium. Plus I like the flavour. Lands from the home plane is a pet thing I do.

Loyal Retainers - Looking at my version of the list, there's 6 creatures I could use this for. Some are pretty worth it, like Linvala, Keeper of Silence or Gisela, the Broken Blade, but I no longer know if that's really enough to justify the inclusion. Especially when we bypass the real payoff of casting Bruna, the Fading Light by using this to grab her back. I'd be keen to hear feedback though if you have a copy to try out.

Lands - Personally, I don't have access to some of the stronger rocks in the format, things like Mana Crypt, and I don't have a copy of Tithe either. So that's maybe what has my count skewed up slightly higher, but nonetheless, it's worked very well as is for me. Part of this is that the strength in my resource is being able to reliably get a solid land count on board with things like Sword of the Animist, Solemn Simulacrum, Flagstones of Trokair and such. The other side of this is there's some really, really strong synergy in landfall triggers with Emeria Shepherd and Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Both of these are MVP's in the list, and the more frequently I can trigger them the better of I am, usually. One land isn't likely to make a huge difference, but you never know.

[toctheyounger]

So I managed a game online today.

Really, really grindy. Was up against Balthor the Defiled, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell and Rin and Seri, Inseparable. I hit plenty of land drops and had ample resource to keep Bruna in play, as well as eventually running into Angelic Skirmisher. Ultimately I really didn't run into enough draw options and struggled to keep up with Balthor the Defiled who had Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and just wrecked board with mass reanimation whenever he could, but otherwise did fine, if not spectacular.

I guess the one thing I got from the game was that Angelic Skirmisher is alright. It's really only as good as the other creatures you have in play, at least when you're facing down beaters. I had trouble keeping it in play against Grave Titan which kept coming my way, but it did well enough at keeping my life total at a reasonable level and making sure I had blockers - although that last is a bit redundant with Bruna, the Fading Light in play. I wouldn't say it was a resounding success to have Angelic Skirmisher in the mix, but I think at the same time in a different matchup it would've been a lot more versatile; likewise if I'd been able to keep more board presence it would've been incrementally more valuable. On it's own though, it's maybe a 6-7/10 - slightly above a vanilla beater.

I guess an interesting comparison would be Baneslayer Angel, which probably does quite well on its own, but doesn't really add anything incrementally when you have more board presence. Two opposite sides of the same coin in that respect. Which fits better here? I dunno, neither are perfect, but I think I'll try Angelic Skirmisher out a little longer and if it doesn't compete possibly look for something to replace it - probably not with Baneslayer Angel though. I've got spare copies of Angel of Finality and Akroma, Angel of Wrath kicking about, and on reflection Angel of Finality would've closed out that last game for me definitively. Plus it comes down earlier which is nice for carrying equipment into combat.

[ISBPathfinder]

Keep in mind that you can give mass first strike on defense. Angelic Skirmisher triggers on opponents combat steps too and mass first strike easily cuts down a Grave Titan with no losses. Bruna gives you 5/6 of the power you need to make him go away so really any other body on defense easily persuades mr titan to go away.