Giada, Font of HopeGiada, Font of Hope | Art by Hisashi Momose

Come to the Light

Salutations, and welcome to another edition of Commander Makeover! Here, we take old commanders and shed light on some recent cards that work with them. This week, we're taking on our second mono-color commander in the Top 200, which you can find here. Not too long ago, I made my points on why there should be more mono-color precons, but I digress. Why do I bring this up? Because our commander this week is one of the five coming out with the new Starter Decks in a couple of months (as of writing).

This four-year-old legend is popular, ranked #14 overall on EDHREC. White is not the first color we go looking for ramp, but Giada, Font of HopeGiada, Font of Hope is a mana dork itself. On top of that, it comes down very early to start the ramp going. Lastly, in the late game, it buffs our Angels, making them into enormous threats (as if they weren't already). However, what new cards could make it into a Giada deck (maybe even the precon), I wonder?

Gleaming SplendorGleaming Splendor

Kicking off our sermon is a newly printed card from The Hobbit. Here's my colder-than-Pluto cold take (minus 387 degrees, for those wondering): This will be a Commander staple, through and through. This enchantment will be pricey unless it gets reprinted into oblivion, assuming it does. If you've got the money in these trying times, get it, by all means. Otherwise, best look for an alternative (yes, you could always proxy, but I'm not going down that rabbit hole here).

Cosmic CubeCosmic Cube

Certainly a neat card, and it does shine here. Naturally, a number of our Angels will have large stats, giving the Cube more range when we trigger it. On the plus side, our commander's buffing ability broadens those horizons a little at a time. It also being hard to remove is a bonus.

The ArkenstoneThe Arkenstone

There are a lot of legendary Angels, even in mono-white, so the Adventure half of the card will have some range. When we do cast it, though, the anthem won't be the reason we're running this card. Actually, it's the card draw ability. Something another new card, The Ten RingsThe Ten Rings, can do, but that's a hefty eight mana.

The Mind StoneThe Mind Stone

Not to be confused with the even older Mind StoneMind Stone, this is more or less an indestructible Marble DiamondMarble Diamond that doesn't enter tapped, plus upside if we harness it. However, I imagine the price tag will put some people off. If you have one/can get one, it's not a bad card to run.

Exemplar of LightExemplar of Light

This is more right at home in a +1/+1 Counters deck. That said, assuming we have our commander out, we net a card from its trigger right away. In addition, Angel decks tend to have a Lifegain subtheme, while will still give us card draw in a more convoluted way. It's also four mana, and cheap Angels are hard to come by.

Dazzling AngelDazzling Angel

Speaking of life gain, here's one way to do it. It's cheaper than the above card, but that's all it's got going for it. Not bad, if a little slow for us to take advantage of that life gain.

Starfield ShepherdStarfield Shepherd

Not ramp, per se, but this does help us not miss our land drops when we need them. The fact that this can be cast early is a boon. Then, we have a five mana Angel sitting there and looking pretty until we cast it. Also, let's be real, we're using this to find lands. There aren't many one-drops worth running in this deck.

Restoration MagicRestoration Magic

While we do have a number of ways to protect our board in white, no one can fault this card's flexibility. Protect our whole board, or shield a key card from removal. The lifegain is a neat bonus, especially if we're running cards to take advantage of it. On top of that, it's also one of the few ways in mono-white (that I know of at least) that gives the protected permanents hexproof. Take that as you will, because I say this is a top contender for any white deck with lots of cards on board.

The Wind CrystalThe Wind Crystal

This artifact has a lot of uses. Firstly, it's ramp, even if it does cost four mana. We'll need all the ramping and drawing help we can get. Second, for only six mana, we can give our board lifelink (the flying's irrelevant here), and gain a boatload of life.

WinnowingWinnowing

The best comparison to this card is Tragic ArroganceTragic Arrogance, which hit more than just creatures. The balancing act here is that we won't be sacrificing our board, since we're leaning completely into one creature type. Unless our opponents are running a typal deck as well, this could be backbreaking against them.

Chronicle of VictoryChronicle of Victory

I've covered this card in the past, but we won't be getting much mileage out of the card draw. That said, +2/+2, first strike, and trample to all of our Angels is nothing to sneeze at. All for the low, low cost of six mana. Is it worth it? I'll let you be the judge here.

Gathering StoneGathering Stone

Remember Herald's HornHerald's Horn? That's exactly what this is, except it triggers on entry, and not adding the card to our hand gives us the option to send it to the graveyard instead. Like I said, we're in mono-white, which is notorious for its lack of ramp and draw. In saying that, we're likely running this for that reason, even if our commander does ramp us.

Banner of KinshipBanner of Kinship

Again, like with Chronicle of VictoryChronicle of Victory, we're not going to get much out of this. That said, if you consistently get a large board of Angels (then I'd be asking what in tarnation is wrong with your opponents), this might be worth our while. It's also five mana, so we aren't slamming this down the moment we draw it.

Lightstall InquisitorLightstall Inquisitor

Now this is a rarity! One-mana Angels are not common, so the first instinct would be to slam this in right away. Then, its trigger will either slow our opponents down, or make something in their hand harder to cast. Either way, this is not a bad card at all.

Exalted SunbornExalted Sunborn

If the deck's got a lot of token making, then this will be worth including. The warp cost being as cheap as it is means we can set up for something massive that turn. What we'll do with those tokens is another matter. To my knowledge, there aren't enough cards that make Angel tokens. That said, this could be a card to consider long-term as more ways to make Angel tokens get released.

A Blessed Ending

Hopefully we're seeing Angels instead. We do have a new Angel commander in Seluma, Light of AysenSeluma, Light of Aysen, so I'd be interested to see where she goes (if you ask me, she's what Maelstrom ArchangelMaelstrom Archangel should've been). Speaking of cards from Mystery Booster: Commander Edition, come back next week, and I'll treat you to a deck tech to one of those spicy new commander options.