Divine Combo in Standard

Posted on March 10, 2020

There will always be Magic players looking for infinite loops. Felidar Guardian / Saheeli Rai was in Standard for a brief period of time, and it warped the format. Wizards of the Coast has done a better job at making loops take at least three cards, thus making them much more difficult to pull off. And yet... the need to Enter the Infinite still calls to us. Today I will discuss a creature combo deck in Standard that can go infinite but can also play a reasonable fair game as well.

The combo is Divine Visitation, Woe Strider, and Bishop of Wings. You also need any way to make a token or an Angel to start the loop. Bishop of Wings makes your token an Angel, and Bishop of Wings says that whenever an Angel enters the battlefield you gain 4 life. Whenever an Angel dies, you make a 1/1 Spirit creature token. Divine Visitation makes it so that any creature token that is created is an Angel instead of its other types. When the Angel token dies, Bishop of Wings creates an Angel token and gains 4 life. Add an open-ended sacrifice machine like Woe Strider to the team and you can do this as many times as you want and gain a huge amount of life (on MTG Arena you usually gain about 200 life before the timer runs out, and you can do it again every turn).

Building up a deck to support these cards wasn't too difficult. The Afterlife mechanic offers a lot of ways to make tokens, and Black and White have lots of options that work with tokens, angels, or both. In my opinion the key here is to play a deck that can get aggressive and make the opponent respond to the board. Divine Visitation is an expensive enchantment that may not affect the battlefield the turn you play it, and if your deck is too reactive the opponent can sit back and plan to wreck you when you tap out. Attacking creatures force action! Here is the list:

Black/White Angel Combo | THB Standard | CovertGoBlue, March 8th 2020

Instants (3)
3 Final Payment

Sorceries (1)
1 Command the Dreadhorde

Check out the deck in action here:

Let's go over the cards in the deck.

The question I have received the most is "why is there only one copy of Cruel Celebrant?". The combo doesn't win the game on its own, and not every deck will concede to endless lifegain. Cruel Celebrant makes it so the opponent gets drained for 1 with every loop, so you can deal endless damage. Cruel Celebrant is great with the combo, but it is a weak and vulnerable card on its own. Since the combo allows you to scry through your entire deck, it isn't hard to set this card on top of your deck and win a turn later. Since you gained a silly amount of life, staying alive shouldn't be difficult.

Nightmare Shepherd does a great job of protecting the creatures in your combo while synergizing nicely with the rest of the deck. The Demon also puts a ton of airborne pressure on the opponent and forces them to react.

Side Tangent

I can't stress enough how important it is to force the opponent to spend their resources on your non-combo elements by being aggressive. If you try to spike your combo as fast as possible, the opponent will probably break it up as creatures aren't hard to stop and enchantments are often hated on because of the popularity of Theros Beyond Death. Force your opponent to remove your creatures that are not part of the combo, and then go off.

The 1/4 body is really strong against Red decks, but this card isn't impressive against the rest of the format. Don't be afraid to make this the last card you play in the combo, prioritize aggressive cards instead.

Hunted Witness is one of the important glue cards in the deck. He is a great blocker against Red, and he can start attacking on turn two against control. Strive to let him die when you have a Midnight Reaper or Divine Visitation on the field so you get more than a 1/1 lifelinker when the expires.

Speaking of Midnight Reaper, this is another key non-combo element to the deck. His ability to turn your dorky Afterlife creatures into value is not to be underestimated. Make an effort to resolve this card the turn before you expect a sweeper. Combined with Woe Strider you can draw cards off your Afterlife dorks at instant speed, so try to set up boards that make this possible.

Seraph of the Scales is another solid glue card that attacks and blocks well, forcing the opponent to respect it. If you control a Bishop of Wings you gain 4 life when you play this Mythic Angel. If you control a Divine Visitation, you get two 4/4 Angel tokens when she dies. If you have a Nightmare Shepherd, you can get your two Afterlife tokens, and make a copy with Shepherd's ability, and you will get two more tokens when that copy dies. That can create a lot of scrys for your Woe Strider to put the combo together.

Tithe Taker gives the deck some much-needed help against counterspell decks and Flash decks. The card is a reasonable attacker and blocker against aggressive decks as well, and we need to do something on turn two besides Bishop of Wings. Originally I had Priest of Forgotten Gods in this deck, but it was hard to get all the fodder that I wanted to sacrifice onto one battlefield at the right time. I have been much happier with Tithe Taker.

Woe Strider enables the combo but it is a solid card on its own. I often play Divine Visitation, chump block with Woe Strider and its Goat, and then Escape the Horror to make a 5/4 and a 4/4 Angel token. The card plays well with nearly every card in the deck, even when the combo isn't running! Woe Strider's scrys also help you find the final pieces of the combo puzzle in a long game. This card made the deck possible and should be respected as the MVP of the 60.

Sometimes the deck runs out of gas if Midnight Reaper gets exiled or doesn't show up. Treacherous Blessing is a good reload, but you don't want too many of them. Final Payment can get it off the battlefield, but if you don't draw one you don't want to help your opponent kill you.

It's tempting to run four of these, but we don't have a good use for extra copies and it is the deck's weakest point. When you tap out for a five mana enchantment, you better not die for it. Try to set your board up well. Elspeth Conquers Death is a disaster if you aren't prepared. If your opponent can't remove Divine Visitation, you often don't need the combo to win. Castle Ardenvale making an end step Angel token each turn can usually get the job done.

I've been falling in love with Final Payment. The card is unconditional two-mana removal, and if you have something to sacrifice you don't have to cut off your arm for it. This deck has plenty of Afterlife creatures to pitch, and Treacherous Blessing is the cat's pajamas if you have it. This card should see play in decks like this as well as Doom Foretold lists that max out on Treacherous Blessing. This card's most crucial role in this deck is keeping you from dying to Embercleave.

Since you normally have to give your opponent a turn to break up your combo, a wrath/sweeper is one of the nastiest things they can do to you. If your opponent casts something like Shatter the Sky, use the combo to scry Command the Dreadhorde to the top of your library in response and go off again next turn.

Sideboard thoughts for FNM

I play this deck for fun on MTG Arena in best-of-one, but if you want to jam it at the local game store you may need a sideboard. Black and White have access to some great cards. Here is what I would be looking at.

Devout Decree: For Rakdos and Mono-Red

Disenchant: For Fires of Invention and Temur Adventures

Elspeth Conquers Death: The best answer to your opponent's Elspeth Conquers Death

Noxious Grasp: For Nissa decks and Mono-White

Duress: For control decks

If your opponent loads up with removal for Divine Visitation, you may want to sideboard it out entirely and go for the beatdowns. Having a card like Rankle, Master of Pranks in your sideboard may be a nice swerve, and you can cut slow combo-related cards like Bishop of Wings for Duress.

I hope you try and enjoy this quirky combo deck. Good luck this weekend and I will see you next week!