I like cheating. Actually, that’s not true. I would kind of feel bad, and I’m fairly terrible at it, so I’m sure to be caught, and then who would want to stay in my Commander group, stay married to me, or let me be the banker ever again? Since I don’t cheat, what I guess I like is the next best thing: feeling as though I am cheating. Sometimes, a card comes along that feels so perfect for you that you feel as though you’re cheating.

I’m by no means an Angel aficionado, although I have advocated the odd Bruna, Light of Alabaster deck or wondered why Admonition Angel wasn’t in every list that is white and has fetch lands or Weathered Wayfarer. I may not be the exact person for this job, but I don’t care because I’m allowed to like good cards, too, and I’m certainly allowed to build with them. When I saw a sicko new Angel revealed at Grand Prix Detroit (which was two hours from my house, making it the closest ever Grand Prix I didn’t go to), I was eager to build something around her. I think I have the solution.

Isn’t that a thing of beauty? That’s an Angel with two modes, both of them pretty killer. How do we abuse this power? How do we use this to our advantage? Which side is better? Why is Avacyn attacking the literal unluckiest people on the entire planet? Let’s review: The people of Innistrad live in a Middle Ages–type plane of existence where the humans are constantly being attacked by werewolves and vampires. It’s like Twilight, only they don’t have toilets that flush. When they’re not being bitten by one of the two kinds of monsters that turn you into one of them, making the rest of your life an existential nightmare, you have to contend with your angelic protector torching your terrible thatched-roof cottage with no Wi-Fi and then you get to ponder where you’re going to take shelter from Team Jacob for like four seconds before Emrakul visits your plane and you go literally insane staring at the non-Euclidian face of your own inescapable Eldritch nightmare. Compare that to Ravnica, where, “Aww shucks, sometimes those scwewy Dimir send a spy to wook at some of my documents. Waaa.” I guess what I’m saying is, Innistrad is a bad place to visit and a terrible place to live—I don’t care how good turning into a werewolf would make me at crossfit.

While we’re at it, why not see if we can make room for another card I’m stoked to see revealed?

Nom nom nom nom nom, this card is delicious. It may not do anything extraordinarily well, but it has the added benefit of doing a bunch of things Boros is awkward at. Maybe we can punish opponents for attacking us with her -2, or maybe we can draw some extra cards. Maybe we can even have a subtheme of harassing opponents by making their stuff come into play tapped with cards like Kismet because those cards are super-harsh to begin with. Rummaging, destroying, and tutoring—I want this card on my team.

How are we going to tap into the raw, destructive power of an Angel who decides one day she likes torching peasants more than she likes answering their prayers and taps into her latent pyrokinetic ability? At least, I’m assuming that’s what happened based solely on the art. I’m going to be upset if they spoil a card like “Clumsy Lantern-Bearer,” who ends up being responsible for the blaze. We’ll need a strong cast of supporting creatures, some other Angels for good measure, and maybe some other creatures to make indestructible. I’m starting to see a plan form. How would we make a 75% deck with this new killer Angel at the helm? Can we really exploit her abilities to the fullest in the colors she’s in? Does a judge among you want to post the relevant ruling confirming she is both red and white for the purposes of color identity and therefore the commander of a red and white deck? Am I done asking rhetorical questions? How about now?

What would a deck with her at the helm look like? (Last one, I promise.)

Avacyn the Burninator ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Admonition Angel
• 1 Angel of Jubilation
• 1 Angel of the Dire Hour
• 1 Baneslayer Angel
• 1 Bogardan Hellkite
• 1 Cloudchaser Kestrel
• 1 Deathless Angel
• 1 Duergar Hedge-Mage
• 1 Eldrazi Displacer
• 1 Eternal Dragon
• 1 Flickerwisp
• 1 Galepowder Mage
• 1 Imposing Sovereign
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Ingot Chewer
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Knight of the White Orchid
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Tyrant of Discord
• 1 Weathered Wayfarer
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1 Heliod, god of the Sun

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Ajani Vengeant
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Nahiri, the Harbinger

• Spells (37)
• 1 Akroma's Blessing
• 1 Eerie Interlude
• 1 Ghostway
• 1 Oblation
• 1 Radiant's Judgment
• 1 Reiterate
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Starstorm
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Akroma's Vengeance
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Decree of Justice
• 1 Wrath of God
• 1 Assemble the Legion
• 1 Astral Slide
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 1 Fanatical Devotion
• 1 Flickerform
• 1 Gift of Immortality
• 1 Gratuitous Violence
• 1 Kismet
• 1 Mobilization
• 1 Repercussion
• 1 Skybind
• 1 Smoke
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sunforger
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (35)
• 9 Plains
• 9 Mountain
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Blasted Landscape
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Drifting Meadow
• 1 Flamekin Village
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Mistveil Plains
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Smoldering Crater
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Flagstones of Trokair

Buy This Deck

There is a lot going on here—a lot of subthemes to discuss and a lot of synergy.

There is a small Sunforger package. I couldn’t resist. I still like Oblation, and I don’t care what anyone else says.

I think I have enough non-Angels to trigger Avacyn. If testing doesn’t bear that out, there are a ton we can add. I think we’re good, though, especially with the token-producers. It’s flavorful that Avacyn murders non-Angels to become a baddy, and we’re going to play along.

That’s not to say we don’t want to jam a few Angels. A lot of them have sweet utility, and we can run stuff like Cavern of Souls. A lot of our Angels play nicely with our package of Eldrazi Displacer and Astral Slide, so let’s let them do that.

Nahiri blows up tapped stuff, and so does Sunblast Angel. How perfect is that? We included a small make-opponents’-stuff-be-tapped package with Kismet, Blind Obedience, and Imposing Sovereign to slow opponents down as well as make them more likely to have tapped stuff for Nahiri. It’s worthwhile to do when we don’t get Nahiri, so I am not too worried about including a few cards for this subtheme since they’re not dead otherwise.

We have some Flicker action going on to make sure we can transform Avacyn back and forth at will and maybe get a few other advantage engines going with cards like Solemn Simulacrum. The deck could find room for Duplicant, maybe, or other stuff, but the enablers are just as important as the creatures with effects. I included Ghostway and its new cousin Eerie Interlude. Why pick between them when they’re both great? Flickerform is a great card to draw, and I even managed to jam Eldrazi Displacer. I hope we can produce enough colorless—we can tune the mana base if needed later. What’s important is getting a base established at all in the first place, which we did.

I feel like cheating just a little, but not ruining everyone’s lives with mass land destruction is the key to making this deck 75% and workable. Making our creatures indestructible long enough to Wrath the rest of the board and then transforming Avacyn into a Firespout and then back again should clear a path to victory for us. Flickering, flashing, and flipping—this deck does it all. There are a lot of synergistic interactions I didn’t even mention, so try to find them all. As always, this is a good starting point but is by no means tested or polished. I feel this is an excellent starting point, though, and I found room for every card I wanted to run.

What do we think? Any no-no cards I slipped in that you take exception with? Is the new Avacyn better in the ninety-nine than at the helm of her own pile? Is there another plane where the people have it worse than Innistrad? Leave it in the comments section below. As they reveal more cards, I’m going to keep brewing with them, so check me out next week. I may even have a preview card of my own to talk about. Until then!