The Casual Planeswalker

Tag: Wrath of God

Commander Deck Review – “Heavenly Inferno”

To check out the full decklist for “Heavenly Inferno” look here.

Overview – Of all of the Commander decks that we’ve been previewing over the past few weeks, none are generating more buzz (or Google traffic) than “Heavenly Inferno”. Angels, dragons, and demons are three of the most beloved creature types, especially among casual players. “Heavenly Inferno” is a W/B/R deck that focuses on heavy-hitting aerial assaults with many creatures whose abilities will increase the strength of your assault or destroy your opponents defenses.

There are few players who won’t be excited about “Heavenly Inferno”, and it’s a great option for players who are more or less new to the game. The strategy is straightforward – no counters or tokens – just destruction to clear the way and gigantic creatures to deal the killing blow. Many creatures, such as Malfegor and Angel of Despair
Angel of Despair, will both clear the way and be able to deal some serious damage, especially if Anger
Anger, Boros Guildmage
Boros Guildmage, or Lightning Greaves
Lightning Greaves is available to give them haste.

Shattered Angel
Shattered Angel, Congregate
Congregate, and Lightkeep of Emeria
Lightkeep of Emeria provide a bit of life gain if you’re in a fix, but in general you should be able to eliminate threats before they become dangerous with a plentiful removal suite including Terminate
Terminate, Mortify
Mortify, Path to Exile
Path to Exile and board-wipers like Akroma’s Vengeance
Akroma’s Vengeance, or the more advantageous Earthquake
Earthquake and Cleansing Beam
Cleansing Beam.

Commanders – “Heavenly Inferno’s” representative dragon is Oros, the Avenger, whose conditional combat ability deals 3 damage to each non-white creature. Unlike some of the other dragons, his ability jives really well with the overall focus of “Heavenly Inferno” which is basically “Go big or go home”. Oros is one of several ways to clear the battlefield of your opponents creatures, but he’s also heavy damage in the air and a dragon and therefore works well with Kaalia of the Vast and Bladewing the Risen
Bladewing the Risen.

Kaalia, the primary commander of “Heavenly Inferno”, is cheap enough to hit the board early in the game and her ability, like Preeminent Captain
Preeminent Captain, brings one of her friends out to play every time she attacks. This means that as early as turn four or five you can swing with Kaalia and Malfegor, or another fatty of your choosing. The problem with Kaalia is two-fold. First of all, she isn’t an angel (or demon). Secondly, she’s only a 2/2 which makes her vulnerable to almost every elimination spell your opponent might have, as well as a few of your board-clearers.

While Kaalia’s ability is pretty straightforward, Tariel, the secondary commander, is a little more interesting. Tariel, Reckoner of Souls has a significantly larger body (4/7) and his vigilance allows him to swing and still use his ability during your second main phase, or even during your opponents turn to bring out a surprise blocker. I think I prefer Tariel to Kaalia on account of the flavor of the card. Tariel has a traditional angel name (Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel), though I’ll need someone to help me with the Hebrew. He also combines his component colors really well. From white he takes flying and vigilance (and of course his subtype), from black he takes a reanimator ability, and red throws in the chaos factor by making his reanimation of a creature random.

I think that, in the end, Kaalia is the best choice for a commander on account of her casting cost and ability, but if you’re going to search out a companion for her using Diabolic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor, I recommend finding Tariel.

Old Favorites – Where to begin? “Heavenly Inferno” has a lot of oldies but goodies. I think the creature that most people will be excited about is Akroma, Angel of Fury. Her catalog of abilities is almost laughable, though not nearly so much so as Akroma, Angel of Wrath, which is a card that I will say right now NEEDS to be in your first “souped up” version of “Heavenly Inferno”. Of course, we would have liked to see her in the stock version, but you can’t have everything…

Bladewing the Risen
Bladewing the Risen is another blast from the past that is guaranteed to please. No only does he bring a dragon from the graveyard back into play when he enters the battlefield, but his secondary ability will give you the ability to use mana in the late game to pump up every dragon you have on the field.

While the dragons, angels, and demons are fun they also have some great support from their more mundane companions. Duergar Hedge-Mage
Duergar Hedge-Mage eliminates an artifact, enchantment, or both when he enters play. Mother of Runes
Mother of Runes hands out protection to keep your threats on the board, forcing your opponent to use two spells to eliminate one fatty. Orzhov Guildmage
Orzhov Guildmage, which probably warrants replacement, provides a way to chip away at your opponents’ life totals if your creatures have somehow been locked down and is a decent mana-outlet in the late game.

Boros
Boros Signet, Orzhov
Orzhov Signet, and Rakdos
Rakdos Signet Signets will provide you with a bit of mana acceleration, as will Darksteel Ingot
Darksteel Ingot, Sol Ring
Sol Ring, and Armillary Sphere
Armillary Sphere, and if your creatures still aren’t hitting the board fast enough there is plenty of creature elimination in this deck as well.

New Hotness – In addition to the Commander standards (Vow of Malice
Vow of Malice, Vow of Lightning
Vow of Lightning, Vow of Duty
Vow of Duty), there are a couple of powerful new spells that appear in “Heavenly Inferno”. Soul Snare
Soul Snare is Swords to Plowshares
Swords to Plowshares in enchantment form, with no additional drawback beyond the fact that your opponent can see it coming. Stranglehold is a red enchantment that curtails your opponents from taking part in the funny business that “Heavenly Inferno” shuns, that is, it prevents them from searching their libraries or taking extra turns.

Of course where “Heavenly Inferno” really shines is in its high-power creatures and the new additions are no exception. Archangel of Strife forces players to choose between “war or peace”, meaning they must choose to receive the angel’s universal offensive or defensive bonus. While this may not seem like a great aid to give your opponents, it is easily nullified by the fact that the greater part of your forces are airborne. Another good way to mitigate your opponents use of Archangel of Strife’s ability is to hardcast a Dread Cacodemon
Dread Cacodemon which will destroy all of your opponents creatures. Alternatively, an Avatar of Slaughter, which gives all creatures double strike, will greatly benefit any player aggressive enough to choose war over peace.

Finally, the new two-color legend in “Heavenly Inferno” is Basandra, Battle Seraph
Basandra, Battle Seraph, who prevents all players from playing spells during combat. This ability will ensure that your opponent “play it honest” and cast any instants during their first main phase if they want to pump their creatures in preparation for combat. For one red mana Basandra can also provoke one of your opponents creatures into attacking.

Suggested Alterations – “Heavenly Inferno” is built to please, but will allow you to switch up any angels, dragons, or demons for your personal favorites. Since Worldgorger Dragon is newly legal, he might be a fun one to experiment with. Also, there are certainly cheaper or more effective ways to clear a board than the options you’re given in “Inferno”, such as… Inferno
Inferno… Adding a Wrath
Wrath of God or Day of Judgment
Day of Judgment plus a reanimator spell or two wouldn’t hurt either.

Verdict – This has probably been the most popular Commander deck during the spoiler season and for good reason. It’s a great deck for a beginner to play and it’s got a great nostalgia factor for the veteran players. To me it seems like “Heavenly Inferno” might have some problems if games go long and you are unable to topdeck a threat. However, the odds of a game going long with such an aggressive bunch of creatures is unlikely.

I’ll be interested to see how “Heavenly Inferno”‘s speed compares with the other decks and how well cards like Pyrohemia
Pyrohemia will be able to stop token-driven assaults from “Counterpunch”.

Even if this deck doesn’t quite live up to its hype, it’s surely going to be a lot of fun to play, and it’ll provide new players with a lot of fun cards they may never have been able to experience before.

**Update**

Enjoy a great review of this deck from the MTG Commander Anthology Series by Heroes & Legends:

June 15, 2011
Mass Removal by Colors

Wrath of God
is a very intimidating card. Its text box contains few words but it is one of the strongest effects in Magic: “destroy all creatures”. They can’t even be regenerated! The effect is quite appropriate for white, clearing the battlefield and starting fresh. But there is more than one way to end the world and the concept of clearing the board has been altered by many cards in white as well as all other colors.

White

White usually wants to balance the odds with its mass removal. Cards like Day of Judgment
Day of Judgment, or even Final Judgment
Final Judgment, are similar to Wrath of God in that they destroy all creatures indiscriminately. There are no special rules in place that protect your creatures, they all suffer equally. The newest white piece of mass removal, Phyrexian Rebirth, seems a little unfair for your opponents. It may look odd, but I think it fits the Phyrexian ideology in white perfectly. The idea behind this bit of flavor is that it has not only a “Wrath” effect, but it takes the corpses of your opponents creatures for your own monstrosity, re-purposing them into a more perfect being. In this case it is equally destroying all creatures yours being, in the Phyrexian orthodoxy, also unfit to live. White allows you to totally clear the board and sometimes, if you’ve got the extra mana for it, get yourself a pretty big creature as well.

Blue

Blue is very different from many of the other colors with regard to mass removal. It isn’t a color that will destroy much of anything but instead uses trickery and deceit to outwit and outmaneuver threats. Frequently Blue uses spells which clear the way by returing creatures to their owners’ hands, the simplest example being Evacuation. Sure, opponents can try to recast those spells, but that’s no problem for blue. With Evacuation at instant speed, it can be played at the end of their turn when your opponent is tapped out and has turned play over to you, leaving them no chance to play anything new. Then you have the chance to recharge your mana for some handy counterspells against the most dangerous creatures you know are hiding in your opponents newly full hand – unless he has discarded them. You could have some of your own creatures reappear with handy abilities that trigger upon entering the battlefield like Mnemonic Wall
Mnemonic Wall which, incidentally, can bring back Evacuation to your hand, if you’d like. While blue doesn’t outright kill everything on the board, it makes your opponent re-cast spells, giving blue mages a chance to do what they do best – employ counter-magic.

Black

Black was the lucky recipient of a planeshifted Wrath of God, Damnation
Damnation. Black is the other color (along with white) that has a plethora of removal hardware, sporting a wide array of cards able to destroy, or at least permanently cripple, everything on the board. The thing is, however, black doesn’t like making the board equal again. It’s best when the mass removal ends up in the black mage’s favor. They are willing to pay a lot for this effect whether it is extra mana to destroy everybody else’s creatures with a Plague Wind
Plague Wind or extra life to destroy all the creatures one opponent controls through a Rain of Daggers
Rain of Daggers. The latest in these kinds of cards is Life’s Finale, which unfortunately destroys all creatures. However, this card isn’t content with leveling the playing field as white spells often do, it takes things a step further by ripping out the best cards your opponent was hoping to play from their library, perhaps the next victim of some of black’s many cards that tamper with the graveyard.

Red

Red is probably the first place many would look if they want a quick, cheap way to clear the board. It seems the perfect color to go on a rampage, destroying everything in it’s path – and, at times, it certainly can do that. The best way to destroy creatures with red is through damage. There are cards starting from Pyroclasm
Pyroclasm that can deal damage to each creature on the board. If you were looking to destroy more than creatures, red is definitely the best color for targeting lands, and one of the best for dealing with artifacts. If a red card says it destroys creatures outright, it probably also does the same for artifacts and creatures, like in Jokulhaups. Red, being unpredictable and impulsive in flavor, also has a number of mass removal spells that just ruin everyone’s plans without any clear advantage for the caster. Warp World
Warp World is a favorite of mine because after the mass removal it completely randomizes the board. It usually doesn’t end in my favor, but the shortsighted and random nature of cards like this make red’s mass removal a whole lot of fun.

Green

Green is the color that can produce the biggest, baddest creatures in the game with huge mana ramp. It is appropriate that green doesn’t have very many mass removal spells for creatures. What it does very well though is destroy artifacts and enchantments. Green has these in their most basic forms in Tranquility
Tranquilityand Creeping Corrosion, which simply destroys all enchantments or artifacts. While green excels in its ability to fill the board with hulking creatures, subtlety isn’t its strong suit, so artifacts and enchantments draw a lot of hate from this color. Green also has some trouble with flying creatures. While green is usually rich in creatures with reach, there are times when they can’t possibly block an attack by an entire swarm of birds or angels. To handle situations such as these there are cards like Whirlwind
Whirlwindor Corrosive GaleCorrosive Gale to destroy or deal damage to all flying creatures.

Colorless

Colorless cards have come to fill a unique role in Magic, as they are able to be used in any deck. There are a few mass removal artifacts like Nevinyrral’s Disk
Nevinyrral’s Disk that can be used in any deck, but recently colorless cards have emerged as a distinct category with a unique flavor and often the ability to do things no other color can. All is Dust
All is Dust was given to us in the last block and forces players to sacrifice their colored permanents. This is a strong card that can be put in any deck but it really only shines in a deck that is mostly colorless. It also can shut down the battlefield of an opponent without having to worry about regeneration or indestructability. In the latest set we received Karn as a planeswalker who is more friendly to decks that use colors. His is a very different form of mass removal that even removes the game you’re playing! These are some especially cool effects given to cards that have transcended the 5 colors of mana.

May 27, 2011
Replace or Double? – Considering Close Resemblances

There are many cards in Magic: The Gathering that are equivalents of cards that were printed in earlier sets or editions. These are typically called “functional reprints”, but I think that term falls short on account of the small (but significant) differences between the variations. There is also a long list of cards that are frequently updated/parodied/powered down to assure that as cards leave Standard there remains balance in your local Multiverse.

With the announcement today that Giant Spider beat out Giant Growth for the sole “Giant” spot in M12, I started thinking about how decks would change without GG and two other prominent, long-lasting spells in the Alpha “pay 1 for 3 _________” series: Dark Ritual and Lightning Bolt. As far as my decks are concerned, I think I could find a suitable substitute in Standard for Giant Growth, but what about Lightning Bolt? Surely we’re not going back to the days of Shock?

Take a look at the four cards below and let’s talk this out. Perhaps with some examples we can define our terms a little more exactly, and, if you’re willing to do some lateral thinking here, I’m sure that you can find some easy ways to improve your decks!

Now, let’s concentrate on Soul Warden and Soul’s Attendant first. Same exact card, right? Both are 1/1 creatures for one white mana, both are human clerics, both gain you one life every time a creature comes into play. Basically the same two cards, right? Wrong. There is one key difference between the two and it is the word “may”.

Soul Warden vs. Soul’s Attendant

“May” is something that is going to trip a lot of casual players up and it is something your play group should strive to call each other on if you really desire to improve as players. “May” means that this gaining of life is voluntary. It is something choose or choose not to do in response to a creature entering play. This means that if you forget to add the life when the creature pops and remember at the end of your turn, your opponent can point to that seemingly meaningless little word on Soul’s Attendant and say “sorry Charlie, I assumed you had a reason for choosing not to gain life”. Whereas, with Soul Warden the choice isn’t even there, it happens automatically.

So, Soul’s Attendant and Soul Warden are NEARLY equivalent, but to the forgetful player, or the person with a Transcendence
Transcendence in play that tiny, insignificant word could make a different. In the pure life-gain deck do you do a 2SA/2SW mix or go all out with four of each? The great thing about Magic is that there are circumstance in which every permutation would be the right thing to do, but the player who knows all their options will be able to build the better deck.

Soul Warden vs. Essence Warden

Like many other cards from the Planar Chaos expansion, Essence Warden is a word-for-word reprint of and earlier card, but transposed into a different color. Probably the coolest instance of such a reprinting was the black Wrath of God, Damnation.

I love the slight flavor-variation involved in porting a spell from one color to another. Wrath of God destroyed all creatures on account of righteous indignation – a characteristically white idea – while Damnation did the same thing, but to bring darkness rather than expunge it.

The slight difference between “soul” and “essence” indicates the similar, but not identical philosophies of green and white mages. “Soul” is a dogmatic, assertive statement about the metaphysical, whereas “Essence” is a more abstract, organic variation of the term. The righteous white mage rejoices in the addition of new persons to the world, while the mystic green mage sees their coming as the organic growth of the whole of nature.

Of course, this clever twisting of Soul Warden’s flavor isn’t what makes Essence Warden great – it’s the ability for her to do for your Saproling deck, what SW did for your Soldier deck. Also, she’s an Elf Shaman, rather than a Human Cleric, which should also provide some additional synergy in tribal decks.

Suture Priest vs. EVERYONE

With the introduction of Suture Priest in New Phyrexia the decision about which life-gaining woman-of-the-cloth to include in your latest Weenie deck becomes MUCH more complicated – as things tend to do when Phyrexians show up.

Suture Priest, though still a cleric, is no longer a human and has an additional cost of one generic mana. She also will only gain you life for creatures entering the battlefield under YOUR control. However, she has the additional ability to damage your opponent every time a creature pops on his side of the board. (NOTE: Here’s that pesky word “May” again. Know that your opponent certainly won’t be reminding you to chose whether or not he loses life.)

The Phyrexian’s nearly “compleat” domination of Mirrodin has had some interesting results, not the least of which is the twisting of Soul Warden’s classic ability.

For an extra mana, Suture Priest gives you some variety, but is a less reliable source of life and a totally unpredictable source of damage. Is she the right addition to your deck? Perhaps a worthy sideboard card? That’s what we’ll leave you to decide.

Meanwhile, I’ll be dreading the loss of Giant Growth and plotting what to do if (God forbid) Lightning Bolt leaves Standard…

This could go on for quite some time. Oh, and don’t even get me started on Counterspell(s)…

May 25, 2011