Double Damage, Double Strike, and Double Fun

Okay, this post is about Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and what a deck with her might look like. I have to say though, Gisela presented me with quite the quandary. Her ability is one that begs for aggressiveness but her mana cost says the complete opposite, especially when we don't have access to green for the ramp.

I wanted double strike and extra attacking phases to be a main theme in order to milk the double damage ability that she gives us; but how do I survive long enough to even get her into play? The best I could do was try to add as much of a controlling element to the deck as I could, without diluting the aggressiveness too much. So needless to say, the deck is abound with spot and mass removal in an effort to control the board while we put our own game plan together.

So, now that we know what we want to do, what cards do we include? First we're going to need a ramp package in order to get Gisela on the field as soon as we can. We're outside of green so the best cards I could put together for a ramp/land tutoring package were Armillary Sphere, Boros Signet, Expedition Map, Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, Land Tax, Tithe, Gift of Estates, Weathered Wayfarer, and of course, Sad Robot. As you would notice, most of these cards don't allow you to get ahead mana-wise by putting lands directly into play, but we can at least keep up with the rampers at the table by making sure we don't miss too many land drops.

Next up is board control, we're going to need a lot of it if we're going to stay alive long enough to get the Blade of Goldnight into play. So, like many EDH decks before this one, we'll stock up on mass removal such as Austere Command, Rout, Planar Cleansing, Earthquake, and Wrath of God; and our spot removal is covered by Flametongue Kavu, Inferno Titan, Spitebellows, Orim's Thunder, Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Return to Dust, and Chaos Warp. The latter five of those cards, led me to include Sunforger for some much appreciated toolboxing capabilities and because of Sunforger, I threw in a Wild Ricochet as well. Why not, right?

One thing I was worried about was that my removal section might actually be a bit too hefty. After some play-testing, of course, this can easily be fixed.

Next up was the creatures and my means of turning them into credible threats. Since I wanted double strike and extra attacking phases to be a main theme, I figured it would make sense if some of the creatures had some nice combat damage abilities in order to get the most out of them. Sadly, there weren't that many but the ones I did find suited the deck quite nicely. These include Blinding Angel, Akki Underminer, Falkenrath Marauders, Balefire Dragon, and Dragon Mage. I probably don't need to tell you but Falkenrath Marauders can get pretty out of hand when you throw double strike into the mix. Your opponents will be forced to either deal with them swiftly, or lose.

Since I couldn't find that many creatures with decent combat damage abilities, I decided to throw in some Swords of Stuff and Junk to grant abilities, evasion, and protection all in one convenient package. Now our equipment count is going up and while equipping our creatures isn't our main strategy, its important enough to warrant some tutors. So the usual suspects when it comes to equipment tutoring were added.

In addition to equipment, there are some powerful enchantments in these colors that would also turn our meagre creatures into something more formidable; so I couldn't resist adding True Conviction, Rage Reflection, Glory of Warfare, and Crescendo of War. Rage Reflection is redundant and less powerful than True Conviction, yes, but the latter will be a big target for removal so its good to have a backup for just such an occasion.

At this point, we'll throw in some more aggressive creatures, some card draw, a little recursion and some Relentless Assault type cards and we have something that looks like this:

Commander:
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight

Artifact: 15
Armillary Sphere
Boros Signet
Expedition Map
Fireshrieker
Mind's Eye
Scroll Rack
Sensei's Divining Top
Sol Ring
Sunforger
Swiftfoot Boots
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Light and Shadow
Sword of War and Peace
Thran Dynamo

Creature: 21
Academy Rector
Akki Underminer
Balefire Dragon
Balefire Liege
Blinding Angel
Dragon Mage
Falkenrath Marauders
Figure of Destiny
Flametongue Kavu
Hellkite Charger
Herald of War
Imperial Recruiter
Inferno Titan
Reveillark
Serra Ascendant
Solemn Simulacrum
Spitebellows
Stoneforge Mystic
Stonehewer Giant
Taj-Nar Swordsmith
Weathered Wayfarer

Enchantment: 6
Aggravated Assault
Crescendo of War
Glory of Warfare
Land Tax
Rage Reflection
True Conviction

Instant: 9
Chaos Warp
Enlightened Tutor
Orim's Thunder
Path to Exile
Return to Dust
Savage Beating
Swords to Plowshares
Tithe
Wild Ricochet

Sorcery: 10
Austere Command
Earthquake
Gift of Estates
Planar Cleansing
Rout
Steelshaper's Gift
Waves of Aggression
Wheel of Fortune
World at War
Wrath of God

+38 Lands



Once again, I'll divulge a little about my mana base. Obviously, Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion made it into the deck, as did the yet to be released Slayer's Stronghold. I decided to test if I could make Emeria, the Sky Ruin work for me outside of mono-white and it is on my watch-list of cards that will be taken out should they underperform.

On a final note, two things that worry me with this deck is the complete lack of any graveyard hate and the mana curve, I'd like to lower it a little if possible. So it could be said that I'm not truly happy with this list but we'll see how it goes for now.

Thank you for reading, next up is the Light of Alabaster, Bruna.

TIMMY!

As some of you would have noticed in the recent AVR spoilers, Wizards seems to be printing a cycle of dual colored legendary angels; all of which (spoiled so far) just seem to scream "TIMMY!" at the top of their lungs.

But by far the Timmy-est card spoiled so far is Gisela, Blade of Goldnight.

This card alone, I must admit, has awakened my inner Timmy, and much like Sigarda, Host of Herons, I find myself compelled to make a deck with her.

Lets start to break down some of the stupid things you could do with Gisela, shall we? For one thing, your going to want to make the most of abuse her double damage ability as much as possible. This would include spells or creatures that deal direct damage, creatures that have double strike, cards that grant double strike, as well as cards that grant an extra attacking phase. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Savage Beating.)

Talking about a savage beating, Gisela with her abilities basically reads as a flying 10/10 with first strike, so much like the old ball game, three strikes and your out; and thats without help from the aforementioned Savage Beating or cards like Inquisitor's Flail. Ouch!

Of course, no card is perfect and sadly Gisela's one drawback is her mana cost and without access to green for the mana ramp, we must use less reliable methods to get the 7cc required to cast her. Though, this doesn't mean its impossible to cast her early since with cards like Sol Ring and Thran Dynamo you can cast Gisela as early as your third turn. Who needs green now, right?

So, I hope all you Timmys out there are excited about AVR. I know I am.

Next up is Bruna, Light of Alabaster.  =)