[Deck] The Eclipse - Black/White Angel Stompy

[kicks_422]

Angel Stompy is such an underrated deck because of its difficult combo MU. The blue splash has been discussed with Meddling Mages to combat this problem, but I want to take on a more aggressive route and splash black for discard.

Eclipse V.1.0

Mana
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Windswept Heath
4 Scrubland
3 Plains
3 Swamp

Creatures
4 Mother of Runes
4 Soltari Priest
4 Silver Knight
4 Black Knight
4 Exalted Angel

Spells
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Sword of Fire and Ice

Sideboard
4 True Believer
4 Armageddon
4 Disenchant
3 Tormod's Crypt


Card Choices: (I'll just go over a few questionable ones)

Soltari Priest: In regular Angel Stompy, he's earned his name as the best equipment carrier in the deck. He serves the same purpose here, though I'm contemplating switching him for Spectral Lynx.

Black Knight: The most common removal in the format is burn and StP. Decks that rely on StP for removal (UGW Thresh comes into mind) have a hard time when this resolves, especially in multiples and moreso with equipment attached.

Duress/Hymn package: A first turn Duress, second turn Hymn, third turn morph and fourth turn swing is such a great play. THis also helps in combo and control MU's, often buying you enough time to get the kill.

6 Equipment: Traditional Angel Stompy runs the same number of equipment, but with 2 Mask of Memory. A lot of people advocate it as it's a pretty resilient draw engine, but I've often found it lacking. Upping the Jitte and SoFI count speeds up the clock.

8 Fetchlands: I know, that is a LOT. But the truth is, thsi deck needs to have double white and/or double black on the second turn. I'm trying out the full 8 first, then maybe trim it down to see what works.


Card Omissions (which may find their way into the deck)

Chrome Mox: A turn 1 morph into turn 2 swing with Angel is tempting, but it's a horrible topdeck and the card loss might be too big for this version.

Savannah Lions/Isamaru: There's simply no room. I found them underperforming anyway in traditional Angel Stompy.

Spectral Lynx: Might replace Soltari Priest soon. Is also a great equipment carrier in Jitte because of the regeneration ability, and protection from green comes in handy especially against Thresh.

Dark Confidant: Is he worth running in a deck with 4 6cc's? I've often found the lifeloss to really matter. Sometimes only serves as a discard spell for removal, which might be good.


Sideboard:

True Believer: Additional combo hate. I chose this over Rule of Law because it can be protected from bounce/burn with Mother of Runes and SoFI.

Armageddon: For the classic White Weenie approach of dropping threats followed by one big boom. Could also possibly help against Solidarity.

Disenchant: Your friendly neighborhood nuker.

Tormod's Crypt: This is actually just a place holder. I couldn't think of any other match-ups to shore up, so I just filled the hole in the SB with Crypts, like everyone does.


Potential Issues:

1. As stated, the deck needs double white and.or black in turn 2 to apply pressure. I'm thinking that maybe switching Priest for Lynx might help. Is this really an issue?

2. Outside of SoFI, the deck has no draw. I know Dark Confidant will be suggested, but to replace what?


Match-up analysis to come soon, after testing. It's finals week, and I'm typing this up instead of cramming for the exams, as I'm excited about the idea. God, I'm addicted to this game.

[Iranon]

I would not want to run double black, double white AND run colourless lands. Has this been an issue?



For this reason, I would replace the Hymns with Cabal Therapy (at least 2) and run Gerrard's Verdict in any leftover slots. A 4:2 split between Duress and Cabal Therapy maximises the synergy between those cards.

The Black Knights should go for a similar reason; Spectral Lynx is a good start. The decks that will have trouble removing Knight probably care more about the other creatures you run anyway so they wouldn't StP it even if they could.

While Dark Confidant seems playable, it sounds too risky to be worth it. If you want to test it, I suggest cutting Equipment for it rather than creatures as it serves the role traditionally held by Mask of Memory.

If you remove the need for double black mana, one basic Swamp should be enough. You probably know better than me if you need more plains or whether Cities of Traitors would contribute more as additional mana acceleration. You depend heavily on double white even if you cut Soltari Priest: I suppose you will want to keep Silver Knights, and an early Angel practically requires Tomb/double plains. Remove that only if it doesn't pull its weight, not in order to fix mana issues.

**

If you try to lessen your reliance on double white instead of double black, this will probably turn into something entirely different and Deadguy Ale would be a more suitable starting point for building the deck.

[Phantom Lord]

If you worry about getting colored mana so bad then you really should run Chrome Mox. They may be a dead card late game but you don't want to go into the late game. Chrome Mox helps more in the early game where you should be applying more pressure anyways.

I'm also not really feeling the 8 fetches. You have less basics to look for than fetches to go and get them with. I could see Wastelands hurting you big time with all you double colored cards.

I don't really like the Black Knights. Sure they avoid the StP in the Thresh MU but they have counters/bigger creatures to deal with with them. First strike is the better ability on them than the Pro:White because the only white thing that hurts is StP and they would save it for an Exalted Angel.
Instead you should try out Jotun Grunt. It is more useful against Thresh and doesn't cost double black.

I have played traditional AS for a while now and I could never see running more than 2 Jittes. I think that 3 is on the side of over-kill. Decks that they hurt the most are decks that you should be able to handle without them. You need more draw than you need anything that Jitte can do with your build.

Changes I would make
-4 Bloodstained Mire
-4 Black Knight
-1/2 Jitte

+3 Chrome Mox
+3 Jotun Grunt
+3/4 Night's Whisper

[urdjur]

I agree with Iranon, and think you're trying to do too many things with this deck. When tinkering with Angel Stompy, I at one point decided to drop acceleration and Exalted Angel, switching to an Aether Vial and Serra Avenger concept instead. I've liked it alot so far, mainly because of the much improved Threshold match-up.

Going 1cc and 2cc only allows you to use Dark Confidant with ease. I also second Jötun Grunt for some huge Vial and discard synergy. Stay away from double black in costs. I'd do something quite similar to my Big Friendly Giant deck, but with discard for grunt support rather than the equipment toolbox:

LANDS (20)
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Windswept Heath
4 Scrubland
2 Plains
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Swamp
3 Wasteland
1 Rishadan Port
(13 black sources, 15 white sources)

CREATURES (22)
4 Mother of Runes
3 Weathered Wayfarer (mana fixing, wasteland engine, land resilience)
4 Dark Confidant
4 Silver Knight
4 Serra Avenger
3 Jötun Grunt

OTHER SPELLS (18)
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Mask of Memory

This is fast, powerful and has a better combo MU than my mono-white list. It might be slightly weaker against goblins and aggro in general, but there's wiggle-room to spare in those match-ups as is. Oh, and I'd loose True Believer from the sideboard. My last post in the BFG-thread presents some arguments on this. Consider CotV instead, for added synergy with Dark Confidant.

[Blair Phoenix]

I agree with Iranon, and think you're trying to do too many things with this deck. When tinkering with Angel Stompy, I at one point decided to drop acceleration and Exalted Angel, switching to an Aether Vial and Serra Avenger concept instead. I've liked it alot so far, mainly because of the much improved Threshold match-up.

Going 1cc and 2cc only allows you to use Dark Confidant with ease. I also second Jötun Grunt for some huge Vial and discard synergy. Stay away from double black in costs. I'd do something quite similar to my Big Friendly Giant deck, but with discard for grunt support rather than the equipment toolbox:

LANDS (20)
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Windswept Heath
4 Scrubland
2 Plains
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Swamp
3 Wasteland
1 Rishadan Port
(13 black sources, 15 white sources)

CREATURES (22)
4 Mother of Runes
3 Weathered Wayfarer (mana fixing, wasteland engine, land resilience)
4 Dark Confidant
4 Silver Knight
4 Serra Avenger
3 Jötun Grunt

OTHER SPELLS (18)
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Mask of Memory

This is fast, powerful and has a better combo MU than my mono-white list. It might be slightly weaker against goblins and aggro in general, but there's wiggle-room to spare in those match-ups as is. Oh, and I'd loose True Believer from the sideboard. My last post in the BFG-thread presents some arguments on this. Consider CotV instead, for added synergy with Dark Confidant.

I like this list a lot, though I'd suggest taking out the Mask of Memory And Add back In Swords of Fire and Ice. SoFI helps the Goblin Matchup, Does provide some draw power, and actually boosts power and toughness. Also, Mask of Memory draw power isn't nearly as needed with Dark Confidant in the deck.

[urdjur]

I didn't like the 3cc of SoFI with Dark Confidant, but I guess it's alright. It's just that when you think "oh, it's only one more point of damage", you can be sure it's gonna come bite you in the ass when it matters. :tongue:

[Blair Phoenix]

I didn't like the 3cc of SoFI with Dark Confidant, but I guess it's alright. It's just that when you think "oh, it's only one more point of damage", you can be sure it's gonna come bite you in the ass when it matters. :tongue:
True, but it's also only a 2 of in the deck so I think its worth it.

[Jolfer]

In order to play angel stompy you're going to need ancient tombs for acceleration and with those 4 colorless lands you really aren't going to be able to consistently support both WW and BB casting costs in spells. With this said you should really look at it as angel stompy with a splash of black. I've had this list sitting around for a very long time but have never got the chance to competively test it out but I think it's quite solid. Oh, and in terms of the last decklist posted I think it's cool to work around something like that, but it would more than a stretch to call it "Angel Stompy".

Creatures [20]:
2 Savannah Lions
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Mother of Runes
4 Silver Knight
3 Spectral Lynx
4 Exalted Angel

Spells[17]:
4 Duress
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Parallax Wave
2 Mask of Memory
2 Jitte
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

Mana[23]:
3 Chrome Mox
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
4 Scrubland
6 Plains

SB [15]
4 Glowrider
3 Armageddon
3 Perish
2 Disenchant
2 Pithing Needle
1 Jitte

[f|i[p]]

Ive been consulting Jolfer about the black white angel stompy not so long ago, and have the deck myself and am Quite impressed about how it did in the last tournament Ive attended. Although I lost to loam coz of luck,3 burning wishes in hand and he managed to draw the last one.. hah.. can't do anything about that though. bak then I only had 4 duresses main deck and I also had 2 confidants main deck... Im still tweaking the deck myself and im always looking for innovations...

Confidant doesnt belong in the deck..they killed me a couple of games drawing into exalted angel and p.wave... accompanied by tomb... thats ALOT of damage...(perhaps in the black white weenie version it would be a defenite 4 of, but W/b angel stompy.. it doesnt belong)

4 duresses just dont cut it for disruption, In my new list ive added 2 cabal therapies

Creatures [19]:

2 Soltari priest/ or whatever creature you need.. more lynx perhaps
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Mother of Runes
4 Silver Knight
2 Spectral Lynx
4 Exalted Angel

Spells[19]:
4 Duress
2 cabal therapy
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Parallax Wave
2 Mask of Memory
2 Jitte
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

Mana[22]:
2 Chrome Mox
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
4 Scrubland
6 Plains

Sideboard
4 glowriders
3 armageddons
3 perish/e.plague if you have more goblins..
3 disenchants
2 tormods crypt

you could also try jotun grunts.. or more discard.. cranial extraction .. since you have the acceleration anyway..

As for the side board, its really a metagame call..


Although ive been trying to fit in p. negators main deck..perhaps 2 would be enough or a lone negator just to add the fat threat count.. but im still not positive.. I still have to test it more which I dont really get to do anyway.

At times I also get tempted to go 21 lands, and put a single disenchant effect main board...

[urdjur]

@Jolfer: I wouldn't call it Angel Stompy either. I'm just saying that Vial + Serra Avenger makes more sense to me than Exalted Angel + acceleration if you want a white deck with a black splash, since you can abuse Dark Confidant and benefit from Vial's ability to play creatures of all colors. I'm just not very fond of making "good stuff decks", mainly because I find it boring from a deck-building perspective. Which is not at all to say that such decks won't work. I just want a more synergistic concept than splashing a good archetype like Angel Stompy with 6 black spells for a better combo match-up.