Liesa, Forgotten Angel Commander Deck Tech

Liesa, Forgotten Angel

by Evan Cagle

I Cry, When Angels Deserve to Die (and then come back because they're awesome)

When the humans of Innistrad were at their most hopeless, they looked to the heavens. They expected to see protectors like Avacyn, Gisela, and Bruna coming to their rescue. But when they were desperate for any kind of relief, they found the very forces for justice, good, and righteousness had been turned against them, warped and perverted by forces beyond their control, or even their imagination.

But with Avacyn unmade and Bruna and Gisela melded into an inhumane monstrosity, there was one Archangel left, and, fittingly, it was one who could return creatures from the grave to the battlefield: Liesa, Forgotten Archangel

Angels

While there are different ways to build Liesa, as she doesn't care about the type of creature she returns, the most flavorful and powerful way to build her is to pack her with as many big flying bodies as possible. After all, Angels have received support in Kaldheim, Innistrad, and Streets of New Capenna, among others. Even before then, cards like Karmic Guide

With the number of bodies we have flooding the board, including making tokens from Bishop of Wings

Archangel of Thune combines our Angel theme with the slight subtheme of life gain present throughout the deck. In addition to being an Angel that brings back Angels, Liesa has lifelink, which means that we trigger our life gain synergies every time Liesa connects. The lifelink also helps to race opponents when we get into big flying creature aggro mode.

Of course, we had to include Liesa's sisters as a memorial to what she lost. While it may seem perverse, melding Brisela does give the deck a "fun" little minigame. Completing the meld is more than a little tricky, but, even if you pull it off and don't win the game, the accomplishment of finding those two pieces, getting them out together, and looking at that hauntingly amazing piece is well worth the price of admission.

Emeria Shepherd is a powerful card, and has been for a long time. If your deck is doing its job, you should be making land drops. If your opponents are doing their jobs, your stuff is going to be getting destroyed. When you have a card that rewards you for doing what you already want to be doing and punishes opponents for what they want to be doing, it makes it very difficult to do counterplay. Being a beatdown deck with resiliency is a very powerful place to be.

Serra knew what she was doing when she made her angelic flight; they are packed with potent seraphim. Serra's Emissary is one of the strongest, providing us and our board with protection from an entire card type. It is worth noting that choosing "instant" as a card type does not make our creatures uncounterable, as they are creature spells at that point, not creature permanents, and, therefore, still vulnerable to being countered. The Emissary doesn't protect the creatures until after they resolve. Additionally, choosing a type is a replacement effect, not a triggered ability, so there is no opportunity to hit the Emissary with an instant before it has protection (and revealing an instant can influence the decision).

Ramp

Unlike most kindred decks that run Herald's Horn, we actually run it alongside a Herald to blow it! Herald of War might not be the fastest ramp out there, as a five-mana flier that has to have counters on it to reduce costs, and has to attack to get counters on it, but we do have other ways to add counters, and any recourse we have to generate cost reduction will help enable multi-spelling, which is the key to turning the corner in a deck like this.

Urza's Incubator is kind of a less-powerful but less-set-up version of the Herald of War, enabling big turns and explosive plays. Our wins come from casting spells ahead of schedule and then continuing the beatdown even after opponents think the board is clear.

Card Draw/Advantage

Inspiring Overseer is the glue that holds a deck like this together. It's a cheap Angel that draws a card when it enters. We can block with it if needed, and it draws us a card every time it comes back. It can also deal some tenderizing damage, which can be the difference between using Serra's Emissary as a protection card to set up a win or as a card to make our board unblockable as a win con.

Pact of the Serpent is one of my favorite sneaky cards. We can choose Angel for ourselves and draw a bunch of cards, or, if we're facing a deck with lots of tokens or another kindred deck, we can punish overextending. Even nastier, we can swing for a lot of flying damage and then burn someone out for all they have left. The card really is "Pact" with value!

Removal

Angel of Despair has been a harbinger of destruction in a wide range of decks for a long time. Whether being reanimated in Solar Flare, cheated into play with Hypergenesis, or ramped into play with mana rocks, the Angel does its job well whenever it's called upon, and here, we want it to kill stuff, beat down in the air, and then come back from the grave to do it again.

Angel of the Ruins is a beautiful, beautiful card in a deck like this. It's an Angel. It helps hit land drops and fix our mana (with nonbasics). We can pitch it early and reanimate it late. And we can hit multiple targets. It's a magical mix of power and flexibility, doing everything we need and working well with what we're doing.

The general plan is to spend the first few turns setting up the engine to add angels to the board every turn. If the continued flying beats don't get there, we have graveyard synergies to give the deck inevitability and removal and card draw to keep moving forward and pick opposing boards apart.
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