{"ops":[{"insert":"September's prompt was to \"B"},{"attributes":{"color":"#dfe3e7"},"insert":"rew a creative and interesting Commander-legal Typal/Kindred deck where the commander supports the creature type in an interesting and creative way despite not being of that type, nor using that creature type in its text box.\""},{"insert":"\n\nSo, with that in mind, I decided to go with Angels, now for the fun part, how to do that in a way that is both innovative and unusual enough. For this, we are going to be using "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Noctis, Prince of Lucis"}},{"insert":", who on paper wants to be a voltron commander, but we are exploiting the fact that he only specifies “artifacts”. Enter: "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Encroaching Mycosynth"}},{"insert":", with this, we can start using Noctis to bring in our Angels that hit the graveyard, and this is where our plan comes in.\n\nNow for how this helps Angels as a kindred, a few other angel-centric commanders (e.g. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Seluma, Light of Aysen"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kaalia of the Vast"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sigarda, Font of Blessings"}},{"insert":") want to be built in a similar way, focusing on recursing angels or enter based effects. With a bit of strong-arming, we are taking Noctis and combining the recursion and enter strategies that these types of commanders can use. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Errant and Giada"}},{"insert":" help further in the mission of turning what may seem to be a \"Noctis Artifact Reanimator\" into a \"Noctis Angels\" deck, by giving us better access to our angelic host. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Majestic Metamorphosis"}},{"insert":" can take our mana rocks or equipment (or other permanents with Encroaching Mycosynth) and turn them into Angels (A slightly better "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ascent of the Worthy"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Call to Serve"}},{"insert":".)\n\nWe also are touching on the life-gain (important to help offset the life paying that Noctis requires) and tokens strategies that are fairly common with angel kindred, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Seraphic Greatsword"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Moonsilver Spear"}},{"insert":" especially for the angel tokens, and we have repeatable "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Congregate"}},{"insert":"s at home to scratch that lifegain itch. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ethereal Valkyrie"}},{"insert":" is an interesting thing we can use for the main enters strategy, since we can use it to help cheat other cards like Filigree Angel out. The same goes for "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Belbe's Portal"}},{"insert":" which lets us completely circumvent the casting cost of our angels.\n\nOur cost reducers also help, well two cycles specifically help more than just reducing. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Water Crystal"}},{"insert":" gives us some mill options and bolster "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Countermand"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Induce Paranoia"}},{"insert":". "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Darkness Crystal"}},{"insert":" serves as some theft and more lifegain/counter options. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bontu's Monument"}},{"insert":" is really big in this deck, as we get multiple creature casts to trigger its passive drain. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Oketra's Monument"}},{"insert":" gives us more tokens that we can either sac to Sephiroth or use as more bodies to enable our Angel tokens. Lastly, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kefnet's Monument"}},{"insert":" helps to deal with any pesky fliers that opponents may have.\n\nSince Noctis lets things enter from the yard, we will be using a lot of enters effects, and to aid in this, we also have a few counter removal effects to deal with the Finality Counters that Noctis puts on our Angels. Firstly, we have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Clockspinning"}},{"insert":", while we can use its buyback to keep it in our hand, which is preferable until we can get Isochron, but what we really want to do is imprint it onto "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Isochron Scepter"}},{"insert":". Once we've done this, we can use "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Aegis Angel"}},{"insert":" to protect the scepter, though we also can blink the angel to protect what we need on the fly using "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wispweaver Angel"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Guardian of Ghirapur"}},{"insert":". "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Perfect Intimidation"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Power Conduit"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Heartless Act"}},{"insert":", and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Price of Betrayal"}},{"insert":" all serve as redundancies to Clockspinning.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Power Conduit"}},{"insert":" is pulling more than its weight, as it can be used to exchange Finality counters for +1/+1 counters. Also, we are able to have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Death Match"}},{"insert":" serve as repeated removal with our ability to get multiple entrances with Noctis. In addition to giving us more "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Weeping Angel"}},{"insert":"s, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Blink"}},{"insert":" serves as another way to remove Finality Counters from our creatures, and gives us draw off of clue tokens. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Book of Exalted Deeds"}},{"insert":" serves as a way to turn any of our support angels ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Metropolis Angel"}},{"insert":", etc.) into a "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Platinum Angel"}},{"insert":", or if we are feeling especially daring, we could turn Noctis into an angel with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Angelic Armaments"}},{"insert":" and give him the enlightened counter.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER // Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel"}},{"insert":" serves as a sac outlet for "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bastion of Remembrance"}},{"insert":" instead of solely relying on combat related deaths. We can wash and repeat using "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Cleaving Reaper"}},{"insert":" so long as we have the mana to cast it (minimum BB with all three of our generic reducers for black creatures). We have the FIN crystal cycle, medallions and monuments to reduce generic costs for our creatures, and the "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Wind Crystal"}},{"insert":" is also especially helpful for our lifegain-based alternate win condition. While its lifegain effect is mediocre unless we can get multiple triggers per turn, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Shattered Seraph"}},{"insert":" is one of my favorite angels in this deck, as it serves as a pseudo "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Raffine's Tower"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dromar's Cavern"}},{"insert":", or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Arcane Sanctum"}},{"insert":", so while it is hard to get out, it is pretty good for mana fixing in esper.\n\nWhile I am on the landbase, I chose to go with filterlands, gainlands, fastlands, and some utility. Mostly because this is a design choice that I usually go with for lower power/budget builds. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Seraph Sanctuary"}},{"insert":" is really helpful to our secondary lifegain plan as it is yet another enter trigger we can abuse with Noctis. Obviously, the gainlands serve as a small help for keeping our life high or mitigating the self-drain of Noctis.\n\n We do have a few equipment for our primary finisher, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Heavenly Blademaster"}},{"insert":", and due to the amount of life we can potentially gain from the etb spam ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Goldnight Redeemer"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Filigree Angel"}},{"insert":"), we are also running "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Test of Endurance"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Celestial Convergence"}},{"insert":" as alternate win conditions. Next, we have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"An Unexpected Party // At the Door"}},{"insert":" which is our primary kindred anthem, although we have other ways to boost the power of our attackers. Lastly, we have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Champions from Beyond"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Copy Enchantment"}},{"insert":" to give attackers +8/+8 for a go-wide win. "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Copy Artifact"}},{"insert":" is basically a second copy of whatever we need, provided we control Encroaching Mycosynth, notably, we could make a third Champions to give everything +12/+12. We do have a rather cheeky two card synergy, which requires us to be 8 or more life higher than the highest life total among opponents, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Eventide's Shadow"}},{"insert":" and Celestial Convergence which can be a one turn win, or draw if we have seven more life than the highest opponent's life total.\n"}]}