Sigil of the Empty Throne

[lem0nhead]

This is a surprisingly effective deck that people overlook but most opponent really struggle to beat.

4x Sigil of the Empty Throne
4x Luminarch Ascension
3x Honour of the Pure
4x Journey to Nowhere
4x Oblivion Ring
2x Day of Judgment
4x Mesa Enchantress
3x Mark of Asylum
4x Silence
4x Guard Duty
2x Lightmine Field

24 x Plains

Ideally drop luminarch on turn 2 and hopefully take no damage for 4 turns by using silence/oblivion ring etc Or drop sigil on turn 5. You need to stall til you can start activating these cards. Fortunately white rock at this and all your cards either exile or destroy the board.

Getting a mesa enchantress out massively helps as you're card drawing becomes mental, allowing you to get plenty of control cards in hand for when you need them. Once sigil is down each enchantment you drop gets you a 4/4 flier and usually at least 1 honour of the pure is out so you're swinging with 5/5 fliers for free. Alternatively by turn 6 if luminarch is ready you can be packing 3 angels a turn with mana available.

The control is so heavy that you should cope with anything. Journey to nowhere and is cheap guaranteed creature kill, and oblivion ring takes out anything including planeswalkers. If all else fails and youre getting swarmed, Day of Judgment sees to that. Silence is amazing control of course, so you should have no trouble surviving til you're army of angelic destruction arrives, and they should all be protected by mark of asylum from lightning bolts, tendrils of corruption etc.

[lem0nhead]

Wow its hard to get deck reviews these days!

[sharkey]

Seems a little slow to me, that is all I have to say. Maybe Anglesong, and/or Safe Passage? And some walls?

[lem0nhead]

Of course its slow! It doesnt get going til turn 6! The entire deck is set up to stall and control, until its time to leisurely create an army of angels for free. I was using safe passage/angelsong but decided that these cards have  negate a turn instead of having an effect. So i dropped them in favour of path to exiles and day of judgments. Why prevent the combat damage when you can destroy everything that tries to deal the damage?

[Witchkingx5]

If there were MtG Autolinks (same as LotR TCG), I could write some reviews, but like that, it takes me about half an hour+ to write a review...

[Thranduil]

What is Honour of the Pure doing for you? Yeah it's a enchantment, but you can do a lot better when you're just making 4/4 angels. If you need more time, I would recommend Angelsong or Safe Passage, or Archon of Redemption gain gain stupid life from the Empty Throne and the Ascension.

Or you could play extended and play Enchanted Evening with Demistify as a instant for "destroy target permanent". :hey: Or Tempest of Light for MEGA WRATH!...

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

As i say about safe passage and angel song, id rather the card I played had an effect on the game, whereas that just stalls the game, the control is often heavy enough to mitigate damage anyway by removing the offending creature. I can see your point though, Honor of the pure doesnt seem to have very much of an effect, but I need all the cheap GOOD enchantments I can get. And besides when youve stalled for 6 rounds to start playing angels they need to swing for a lot because of summoning sickness and the fact your control is running thin at this point. Swinging for 5/5 takes 4 angels not 5 at 4/4.

I used to use archon of redemption (you clearly know your cards Mr .Tabick!) but dropped him as the odd creature here and there isnt much use and to top it off day of judgment b4 turn 5 screws that over.

I dont play legacy. WAAAAAY to much money, time and effort lol plus its insanely broken and I hate brokenness.

If you had a better suggestion for the honors to swap for thats an enchantment I'm all ears but I cant see a better one in standard legal?

[Thranduil]

The fogs are there to help get your Luminarch Ascension online. Why don't you just play more Luminarch instead of HotP? Or Sunspring Expedition gives you a bit more time. Most enchantments are auras which don't help you that much, but Indestructibility might not be the worst card (it protects your Sigil of the Empty Throne from Naturalize effects, but unfortunately not from Oblivion Ring).

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

Hmmm some very good thoughts there Thran. You see i never rated luminarch ascension, preferring Sigil, but eventually added it as i realised there was no reason not to. But at that point had already removed angelsong. Now it makes sense to add back possibly to, as you say, help luminarch. As it happens, I have another luminarch coming in the post which I intend to add.

I did use sunspring but found it had no benefit to my deck at all. It always nice to gain 8 life but there were better cards.

Im thinking of dropping 2 path to exile for a luminarch and something else. (Mainly cos i need the paths for another deck!) But I could drop the Honors and then drop 3 angelsong I suppose. But i do wish they were enchantments.

[sharkey]

Safe passage doesn't stall the game. It gets luminarch asencion online, and that is huge. What if you play RDW? You will lose, horribly, because you will not have enough fast removal to take them down.

So yes, Anglesong and Safe Passage do stall your opponent's game, but that is exactly what your decks needs.

Also, yes, Luminarch ascenscion is better than empty throne.

[lem0nhead]

Whats RDW?

And Sigil >>> Luminarch, works loads better, have never come across anyone who naturalises, so they both stay on the table, whereas sigil comes in turn 5 and starts working right away, luminarch comes in at 2 at best and doesnt work til 6 if you meet its more demanding criteria.

[sharkey]

Whats RDW?

And Sigil >>> Luminarch, works loads better, have never come across anyone who naturalises, so they both stay on the table, whereas sigil comes in turn 5 and starts working right away, luminarch comes in at 2 at best and doesnt work til 6 if you meet its more demanding criteria.

Okay, here is what you do:

4x Luminarch Ascension
4x Path to Exile
4x Day of Judegment
4x Angelsong
4x Safe Passage
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Journey to Nowhere
4x Sigil of the Empty Throne

24 Plains

Stall til you get preferably Luminarch online, or possible Sigil, then pump out 4/4s and exile their creatures. In a slower meta, Admonition Angel is a possibility. There is a lot of removal and prevention in this deck, you will have no trouble getting one of your two win-cons online. I would like to see another win-con, preferably admonition angel or BSA, but the deck should work fine anyways. Possible additions are Lifelink, Holy Strength, and Celestial Mantle.



Red Deck Wins = RDW. Here's a sample deck list.

Creatures:
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 #$&*@!'s Thunder
4 Ball Lightning
4 Goblin Guide
4 Plated Geopede

Spells:
3 Earthquake
3 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
2 Quenchable Fire   Lands:
12 Mountain
4 Teetering Peaks
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn   

Sideboard:
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Unstable Footing
3 Mark of Mutiny
2 Manabarbs
2 Quenchable Fire

Lots of creatures with haste and unearth, so you need instant speed exile and general safety. Day of Judgement can't touch these guys, and neither can Journey to Nowhere or Oblivion Ring. Path to Exile, Safe Passage, and Angelsong are your only protection.

It hits hard and fast. Your deck wouldn't stand a chance. My version is much more suited to that match up, and in general the faster aggro (Jund, Naya, Boros, Vamps) rampant in the format.

And yes, Luminarch Ascension is better than Sigil. You just have to use it right, which is not too hard. Your deck fails at using it well, no offense, since you centered your deck around using the weaker one (Sigil), so Sigil seems more effective.