Excellent start. You've defined a general theme (life gain) and you've set a major goal in generating tokens.
Now you have other focuses in the deck and this is where you need to be careful that you don't dilute what your actual goal is.
So let's look at your "Life Synergy" section.
Now certainly
Archangel of Thune synergies with your tokens theme..tick.
However do you feel that single big creatures would not be enough of an impact when you have no evasion that I can see?
Maybe a
Sword of Light and Shadow can push through damage on an Orzhov deck, but otherwise there is a general sense that the are pretty limited in their ability to effect the game in a major way.
Cradle of Vitality is interesting in that it allows creatures to get very big and I see the combos with putting those counters on
Hangarback Walker,
Mindless Automaton,
Etched Oracle.
Similar you could put
Sunbond/
Light of Promise on these, but Auras can lead to a 2-for-1 blowouts with removal.
Angel of Vitality is a life gain amplifier and I highlight this later on.
The others don't actually fit your major goal or really provide
much synergy.
So let's focus back on the token generating. What I like to do is break down what is actually required during a game in order for cards to work.
Griffin Aerie needs 3 life.
Angelic Accord needs 4 life.
Crested Sunmare needs any life gain.
Regna, the Redeemer needs any life gain.
Resplendent Angel needs 5 life gain.
All except the
Griffin Aerie trigger on every players end step. Now its easy to gain life during your own turn, lets just say that's a given.
So a big focus will be on how to you achieve gaining the X life during each of your opponents turns to get the best possible results from these cards?
Here are the cards I've identified that can gain you life during opponents turns.
Ashes of the Abhorrent,
Auriok Champion,
Authority of the Consuls,
Shattered Angel,
Soul Warden,
Soul's Attendant,
Sun Droplet,
Sunscorch Regent,
Aetherflux Reservoir,
Heliod's Intervention,
Blind Obedience.
These are ones that might trigger life gain;
Noble Purpose,
Righteous Cause.
So these will trigger
Crested Sunmare and
Regna, the Redeemer individually.
But in order to gain the 4 and 5 life for
Angelic Accord and
Resplendent Angel you need a combination of these cards.
You've added some amplifiers in
Alhammarret's Archive,
Rhox Faithmender,
Angel of Vitality.
But if I'm being honest I don't really like these cards in general because they don't really synergies with anything else. The life gain
triggers are the most important part to the deck.
An example board could be the Souls sisters in
Soul Warden and
Soul's Attendant. If an opponents casts 2 creatures then you'll gain 4 life triggering the
Angelic Accord, but still fail on the
Resplendent Angel.
The thing is that its actually pretty hard to get them to trigger. My point being that you just want to make sure you focus on the math when thinking about card inclusions.
What other cards make it possible to achieve this 4 or 5 life each players turn?
Celestial Force,
Drogskol Cavalry,
Mastery of the Unseen,
Planeswalker's Mirth.
All pretty expensive, not really too enticing unfortunately.
Mastery of the Unseen is interesting however as card advantage and life-gain, but you need to invest the mana and this deck is very hungry on mana needs.
So I'll pose the question, what is the easiest way to gain life during an opponents turn?
Well it would be if they actually were
forced to attack into you.
Blocking with your creatures that have lifelink and triggering cards like
Noble Purpose and
Righteous Cause.
What would force your opponents to attack you?
Gideon Jura and
Gideon, Battle-Forged can do it.
However any planeswalker can really put the pressure on your opponents to attack. If they don't then you can look to ultimate them which of course is winning, otherwise they are forced to eventually send creatures your way.
You already have
Ajani, Strength of the Pride and
Elspeth, Sun's Champion so no harm looking at some more.
Ajani, Caller of the Pride ultimate goes with the theme of creating tokens, albeit it be a little excessive. If you've put 6x +1/+1 counters on Heliod the [-3] is actually threatening lethal damage.
Elspeth Tirel creates tokens, gains life and the ultimate is a board sweeper, while potentially keeping your token army and Heliod intact.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant ultimate is hard to beat, and does create a token each turn.
Gideon of the Trials is actually a really dominate card if opponents are not prepared to deal with it. I've lost games due to opponents playing it and I have a combo deck that doesn't play many creatures, and had very few ways of targeted removal. It surprisingly does a lot of work in stopping combo decks.
Karn, the Great Creator can be a good hoser to some decks for sure.
Anointed Procession is a way to double your token generation.
What else? Another thing I like to do is focus on the synergy of card types themselves.
You have a lot of
creature triggers, whether that is entering the battlefield or attacking/blocking. Equipment requires creatures.
I mention this because when you might prepare for cuts, you prioritize often based on card type.
Ajani's Welcome,
Ashes of the Abhorrent,
Authority of the Consuls are not quite as good as their creature counterparts as far as creating triggers themselves.
Skullclamp is a must with all the token generating, to the point where
Stoneforge Mystic is good.
On that note your maybeboard has lots of tutoring effects.
I like to figure out how versatile they are and also whether that effects other card selections.
When I build a deck I'll often want my tutors to be able to handle anything at that given time.
Lets look at
Recruiter of the Guard. It can get some Soul Sisters life gainers,
Cartographer's Hawk,
Shinewend,
Mentor of the Meek,
Etched Oracle,
Mindless Automaton. Lets also say it can get
Stoneforge Mystic.
So essential smallball life-gain, card draw, land ramp, enchantment removal, equipment.
Often I want tutors to have silver bullets for a variety of situations.
Can it get creature removal? Can it get artifact removal? Graveyard hate, etc.
So looks at some sliver bullets in white that
Recruiter of the Guard could get;
Banisher Priest,
False Prophet,
Leonin Relic-Warder,
Mangara of Corondor,
Palace Jailer,
Remorseful Cleric,
Samurai of the Pale Curtain,
Stonecloaker.
One of these stands out as a cross synergy card to me and that's
Palace Jailer. Becoming the monarch is another way to entice forcing attacks on you and its also card draw. With your token army you'll always be able to get it back as well.
Ranger of Eos and
Ranger-Captain of Eos can get your one or less drops;
Hangarback Walker,
Soul Warden,
Soul's Attendant.
They are pretty limited in versatility at this stage. Of course they could get
Walking Ballista..hehe.
I like to do the research and again see what sliver bullets/unique cards that these
could search for;
Hope of Ghirapur,
Planar Guide,
Sacred Guide,
Serra Ascendant,
Soldier of the Pantheon,
Spurnmage Advocate,
Tragic Poet,
Vigilant Martyr,
Weathered Wayfarer,
Mother of Runes.
Interestingly in your maybeboard you've put
Expedition Map and
Mother of Runes.
Weathered Wayfarer would be an alternative to
Expedition Map.
Is searching for lands good in your deck? Really only
Hall of Heliod's Generosity and
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx seem good to me.
Emeria, the Sky Ruin takes ages before that triggers, so its not often that you would actually search it up.
Bonders' Enclave,
Castle Ardenvale,
High Market,
Miren, the Moaning Well are fine but pretty unexciting specifically for card slot for searching.
Is
Mother of Runes and/or
Selfless Spirit good in this deck? You don't really need to protect Heliod so lets list creatures really worth protecting;
Archangel of Thune,
Shattered Angel,
Sunscorch Regent,
Crested Sunmare,
Regna, the Redeemer,
Resplendent Angel,
Felidar Sovereign,
Emeria Shepherd,
Sun Titan. Of course with
Selfless Spirit you can also save your very wide token board.
These creatures are pretty important to your game plan, so it does seem worth while.
Note that
Recruiter of the Guard could get
Ranger of Eos as a way to proxy search to get more value.
Another element I want to touch upon is that your "Resilience" cards are very reliant on what opponents do. That is you don't actually have a proactive game plan for them.
Emeria Shepherd,
Sun Titan,
Sword of Light and Shadow,
Together Forever all can get back cards, mainly creatures from graveyard, but unless opponents have specifically killed them, they won't have targets.
This is where cards that sacrifice can be used for advantages.
Examples of this is
Ranger-Captain of Eos and
Selfless Spirit. You can sacrifice
Ranger-Captain of Eos say in your turn to make sure opponents can't can't counter your stuff, and then return it immediately with graveyard recursion.
Same with
Selfless Spirit you can use it to save creatures more often when you know you have more access to recursion.
ETB creatures are also much better with graveyard recursion. Currently you only have
Cavalier of Dawn and
Sun Titan as ETB creatures that are not just life-gain triggers.
Now
Recruiter of the Guard,
Ranger of Eos,
Ranger-Captain of Eos all have ETB...ahhh you see where I'm going with all this, cross synergy my good man.
You have one last tutor in the deck with
Enlightened Tutor. Same rules apply, figure out what it can do for you and whether you can slot cards in that can be a silver bullet for a given situation.
So there are all the life-gain enchantments. Some win cons in
Aetherflux Reservoir and
Test of Endurance. Lots of card draw artifacts and enchantments. Lots of mana fixing. Token generators. Equipment.
How about if you desperately needed removal? This is where it pays to look at artifacts or enchantments that provide removal.
There are plenty of options like
Grasp of Fate,
Quarantine Field,
Conclave Tribunal for example.
The one I like for this particular deck however is
Elspeth Conquers Death. The reason being that it also doubles up as a reanimation card.
So here is an example where you can get more out of your deck by replacing a good card like
Crush Contraband with
Elspeth Conquers Death and you can squeeze out more consistency with having access to answers.
Plus you can keep recurring it with
Hall of Heliod's Generosity for continuous answers and reanimation.
Alright so lets get to the real crux of this deck, mana and casting all these beefy spells. The mana curve of the deck is pretty heafty, and so card draw is completely ineffective if you can't cast even half the cards in your hand.
Heliod, Sun-Crowned requires
1w to give lifelink.
Dawn of Hope,
Mentor of the Meek,
Well of Lost Dreams all require investing mana into drawing.
Blind Obedience and
Cradle of Vitality wants to leave up a mana as well.
Then we are casting tons of 5 cmc or more spells;
True Conviction,
Sunscorch Regent,
Felidar Sovereign,
Shattered Angel,
Righteous Cause,
Archangel of Thune,
Crested Sunmare,
Elspeth, Sun's Champion,
Regna, the Redeemer,
Cavalier of Dawn,
Crovax, Ascendant Hero,
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite,
Emeria Shepherd,
Sun Titan.
Its fair to say that you are never going to be able to cast all the spells you draw in this deck as its just not setup enough to do it.
So at least one of three things needs to happen;
- Lower the mana curve of the deck by cutting some of the more expensive cards.
- Figure out a way for more mana sources either by land ramp or artifact sources.
- Find ways to cheat them into play.
Currently
Emeria Shepherd is the only way to cheat them into play, and you don't have any discard outlets, so its pretty limited in that respect to a proactive plan.
One of the better plans you do have is to use
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx along with quite a few cards that give you devotion to white.
That's where cards like
Linden, the Steadfast Queen,
Daxos, Blessed by the Sun,
Cavalier of Dawn,
Resplendent Angel look nice in this deck.
Then I'm liking the
Weathered Wayfarer more as it can be searched by
Recruiter of the Guard,
Ranger of Eos,
Ranger-Captain of Eos. This gives you a lot of access to
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
Some cheap artifact mana will help,
Sol Ring for starters. That's why I get paid the big bucks for finding niche cards, lol.
Let's look at some additional land ramp options.
Burnished Hart can be a little slow, but it
is another sacrifice creature, meaning it has synergy with your graveyard recursion package.
It combos with
Emeria Shepherd in that you can bring it straight back into play with the triggers with the Plains you searched.
Walking Atlas is another card that I often use in non-green decks for the land ramp potential. Certainly with enough card draw you can always make use of it.
Another really spicy option is
Settle the Wreckage. With your tokens you can use it to actually do a massive land ramp. You are happy to trade off tokens for land, its always the more successful long term goal and Wreckage also can double up as creature removal on opponents if they get frisky, and remember we are setting up the deck to force more attacks from opponents.
Other options are mana doublers in
Extraplanar Lens,
Gauntlet of Power,
Caged Sun.
Extraplanar Lens and
Gauntlet of Power suggest the sort of maximum number of basic lands for the build.
Another thing is that when you play
Sun Titan you really want to play as many fetch-lands as possible so that it can specifically provide you land ramp as an option. Sorry its very expensive but you really want
Arid Mesa,
Flooded Strand,
Marsh Flats,
Windswept Heath,
Prismatic Vista and maybe
Fabled Passage.
So to sum this up these are the cards that I'm not that keen on;
Ajani's Pridemate,
Angel of Vitality,
Light of Promise,
Sunbond,
Sun Droplet,
Ajani's Welcome,
Ashes of the Abhorrent,
Authority of the Consuls,
Noble Purpose,
Rhox Faithmender,
True Conviction,
Gift of Estates,
Crush Contraband,
Return to Dust,
Endless Atlas.
These are the cards I like;
Anointed Procession,
Elspeth Tirel,
Elspeth, Knight-Errant,
Gideon of the Trials,
Skullclamp,
Stoneforge Mystic,
Recruiter of the Guard,
Ranger of Eos,
Ranger-Captain of Eos,
Weathered Wayfarer,
Mother of Runes,
Selfless Spirit,
Palace Jailer,
Burnished Hart,
Walking Atlas,
Settle the Wreckage,
Sol Ring,
Elspeth Conquers Death.
There is a 3 cards difference, and because its a more streamlined game plan I feel confident that you can run 35 lands,
At this stage I'm not sure what the other 2 cuts would be, I'd need to think about it more
Note that adding small-ball creatures like
Stoneforge Mystic,
Weathered Wayfarer,
Mother of Runes,
Selfless Spirit,
Walking Atlas makes equipping
Sword of the Animist,
Dowsing Dagger // Lost Vale,
Sword of Light and Shadow a much more consistent plan.
Just some small edges you can get out of lands perhaps is
Mirrorpool.
The reason is that you can copy your token generators in
Crested Sunmare or
Resplendent Angel.
Interestingly if you copy
Crested Sunmare then they'll both give each other indestructible.
But unfortunately your deck doesn't have many colorless sources (
Bonders' Enclave,
High Market,
Miren, the Moaning Well,
Petrified Field,
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx,
Sol Ring) but that might be enough.
Also
Winding Canyons is an option with
Felidar Sovereign as a win condition. I've tried to win with
Felidar Sovereign in the past, and oh boy is it hard to get it to survive or retain your life total over 40 when opponents have a full turn each to deal with it! To be honest never pulled it off. So if you can do the surprise factor of flashing it in just before your turn you might have more success there.