(Saskia the Unyielding | Art by Greg Opalinski)

Flying Into Battle

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Recross the Paths, the series that gives commanders a typal twist.

Today's commander is Saskia the Unyielding, which was first printed in Commander 2016, one of the most iconic and impactful commander products ever. Nonetheless, this general suffers from a problem that afflicts many other commanders out there: Being too generic. First of all, it's a 4-color card, which means that there are basically no restriction for what commander identity is concerned. Then, it doesn't really push builders in one precise direction. It's textbox just hints at an aggressive strategy, but nothing more. Hence, we need something ultra specific to make this commander stand out.

For these reasons, I decided to pair it with a creature type that is afflicted by basically the same problem: Angels. In fact, even though it's one of the first creature types to ever appear in the history of Magic, there isn't a lot going for them. There aren't many typal synergies, nor that many creatures that positively interact with them. This leads Angel decks to being just a bunch of flying creatures with no real glue keeping them together. So, in an attempt to fix their problems as well, I decided to limit myself to legendary Angels only. In this way, we'll be able to unlock some further synergies that will come in handy in the aggressive shell.

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Stage One: The Deck

Part One: The Angelic Army

While it's true that we can't count on many synergies between our creatures, it doesn't mean we don't get access to some goodies.

For example, Aurelia, the Law Above is a sweet new inclusion that rewards us for swinging with a lot of creatures. Even more so, even if just one of our opponents is looking to make a huge swing in combat, we'll benefit from it drawing cards and/or dealing damage.

Aurelia, the Warleader is a staple in Angel decks. Still, in this context it can shine even more, as additional combat steps become even more scary when there is an army of Angels involved.

On the same note, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is another good one that has long been an excellent inclusion in aggressive decks. Yet, just imagine the quantity of damage it would deal when paired with Saskia.

On the other side of the spectrum, we also get access to some creatures that are extremely good at stopping what our opponents are doing.

For example, Drana and Linvala surely isn't as good offensively as the cards mentioned above, but they can be extremely annoying to deal with nonetheless. Basically stealing opposing creatures' activated abilities is good at the very least, but could be backbreaking for many decks.

Then, Shalai, Voice of Plenty is a key piece of our strategy. In fact, while it doesn't really pack a punch, making sure that our (extremely) expensive creatures don't get blown out by removal spells is priceless.

Lastly, while we all love (or hate) Avacyn, Angel of Hope, I can't help but to mention Archangel Avacyn. Even though it may be tricky to flip, the sheer value of the effect on its frontside is enough for me to consider it one of the best defensive cards in this list.

Part Two: Building the Synergies

As I said before, there aren't really a lot of obvious synergies between angels. Of course, we can count on cards such as Giada, Font of Hope, but this in particular shines way more in cheaper (mana value-wise) decks. The same goes for Lyra Dawnbringer, which buffs our other creatures but that is way better in less expensive lists. On the other hand, Sigarda, Font of Blessings is very good in this shell as well, as it pairs a good static ability with somewhat of a card draw effect.

Yet, we can take advantage of other characteristics as well. For example, obviously all of our Angels are creatures with flying. As a consequence, Rally of Wings is an interesting combat trick. It can be either used to present some surprise blockers or to deal some unexpected amount of damage.

Similarly, Steel-Plume Marshal has a fragile body but, as long the coast is clear on one opponent's side, it will grant all other creatures a really sweet buff.

Last but not least, Sephara, Sky's Blade functions both as a very cheap 7/7 (which is pretty good) but also as a huge protection piece for flying creatures.

Also, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, the vast majority of creatures present in this deck are legendary. Hence, we can really make use of Flowering of the White Tree, Day of Destiny and Arvad the Cursed to gran them some additional stats.

Then, One Ring to Rule Them All, Urza's Ruinous Blast and Invasion of Fiora are all different takes on the same topic: Destroying everything but legendary creatures.

Lastly, in the later stages of the game, Primevals' Glorious Rebirth can call back all of our fallen Angels from the graveyard to make them fight once more.

Also, along these lines, The Night of the Doctor manages to put together these last two points; firstly destroying all creatures and then getting the best one back (and better) from the graveyard.

Part Three: The Angelic Legion

Taking a moment to look at Angel-typal dedicated cards, we can count on some good ones. For example, Starnheim Aspirant is an extremely powerful piece of ramp, that will get us access to our big creatures much earlier. Then, we can rely on the ol' faithful Kaalia of the Vast, which can easily cheat 7 mana worth of creatures into play as if nothing happened. Lastly, Firja's Retribution is everything we could ask for; it's an Angel, removal spell and gives all our Angels double strike.

Moreover, if we take a look at more generic typal-matters cards, And They Shall Know No Fear still amazes me, as it's a really cheap, really powerful way to preserve your board from removals. Then, we can also get our hands on some usual suspects, such as the mana discounters Herald's Horn and Urza's Incubator. Both grant us some really needed speed, provided that we don't really get access to a green ramp spell in the final decklist. In fact, this is basically a Mardu deck splashing green for just a few cards (and an especially powerful commander). So, as absurd as it seems, running more ramp spells would end up hurting our manabase rather than improving it.

Step Four: The Complete Decklist

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Stage Two: The Data Room

We're on to the last part of this deck tech: the data room. Was this deck idea actually unique? Let's compare this list against both the average Saskia deck and the average Angel deck to see what we gained (and lost) in the process.

Step One: The Average Saskia Deck

Saskia the Unyielding is currently the most popular Dune-Brood commander, with 5373 decks registered on EDHREC. This also means it is the 187^th most popular commander overall.

As a matter of fact, Saskia is a pretty popular commander for Legends strategies, so let's see if our inclusions were already present in other players' thoughts.

Clearly, basically no one is interested in these effects. In fact, looking at Saskia's page on EDHREC, it's clear how the vast majority of those building this deck rely heavily on another strategy, Humans. As a consequence, and considering how well Human creatures synergize with one another, there would then be no need to include many legends-matter cards.

Nonetheless, we can also use other players as an inspiration. In particular, Heroes' Podium might be a very sweet inclusion in today's list as well. The buff to the creatures' stats grows very quickly and it would also add some very appreciated card draw. The same goes for Mirror of Galadriel, although it needs some setup to get going. Once it's online, it'd make the game way smoother for us. On the other hand, I wouldn't include a card such as Rising of the Day, as it grants a nearly neglectable attack buff, becoming just a slightly better Fervor (a card I would never consider including).

Step Two: The Average Angel Deck

Giada, Font of Hope is by far the most popular Angel commander, with 15228 decks registered on EDHREC. Let's see how popular our mono-white Angels are in this highly-competitive environment.

As we can see, 6 out of 8 are extremely popular in Giada decks as well. In particular, players seem to like some good ol' reliable cards, such as Lyra Dawnbringer, Sephara, Sky's Blade and Avacyn, Angel of Hope.

On the other hand, people don't like including cards such as Akroma, Vision of Ixidor and Reya Dawnbringer. In fact, both of them are a bit heavier on the mana curve and, most of all, need other cards to get them going. Anyhow, considering that our deck wants to go big anyways, these cards are more than welcome to find a new home in today's build.

Also, as a sidenote, I find quite interesting that 4% of the players are including Bruna, the Fading Light but don't play Gisela, the Broken Blade. After thinking about it for a bit, I really cannot wrap my head around why could that be. I mean, I get that the first one is a reanimation tool on a stick, but is it really worth playing without its counterpart?

Yet, we also run a certain number of multicolored angels, so it might be interesting to see how much they are played as well. In particular, Kaalia of the Vast is the most popular Angel commander including more colors than just white in its color identity. Let's see how well our multicolored creatures perform.

Once more, players seem to like older cards, which have been tested many times and have proved reliable. In this case, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Aurelia, the Warleader are two of the original hard-hitting angels, which more than justify their high inclusion rates. Also, it is worth mentioning how a much more recent card, Liesa, Forgotten Archangel, has been climbing the ranks. Having access to unconditional recursion is a key feature of every big deck, so I'm not surprised to see it up there.

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Some Takeaways from Today's Article

• Angels are still an extremely interesting typal strategy! There are plenty of cards to play around with and it's certain that it'll keep on getting more and more tools to experiment with with every set. Nonetheless, the synergies between said tools are still lackluster. More than relying on multiple cards working together, Angel decks resemble a pile of very good cards that don't intereact with one another whatsoever. Giada, Font of Hope is a very good starting point for future designs, but it really doesn't fit with the go-big theme that many other fellow Angels would fit so well in. Thankfully, cards such as Starnheim Aspirant give us hope that some big Angel commander is somewhat in the making;
• Moreover, legendary Angels are very cool! There's a solid core of aggressive Boros creatures such as Aurelia, the Warleader and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. There are disruptive Orzhov pieces such as Drana and Linvala and Liesa, Forgotten Archangel. Lastly, the green splash gives access to other very interesting cards, such as Rienne, Angel of Rebirth and Sigarda, Font of Blessings. Obviously, all of this is built on the extremely solid core of mono-white Angels like Giada, Font of Hope, Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Sephara, Sky's Blade. And while all of these names exemplify the problem mentioned above, there is no way to deny how interesting, powerful and all in all cool these cards are!;
• Saskia the Unyielding remains a threat to be reckoned with. Its ability to transform a generic aggressive deck into a double-hitting force is extremely powerful and dangerous for its opponents. Yet, having access to 4 colors in its identity hurts it as a commander. In fact, it's very easy to just mash together a bunch of powerful cards, place Saskia the Unyielding as a commander and call it a day. The aim of today's deck tech was exactly that of preventing such an interesting card from becoming just a filler in aggressive non-blue strategies. To do so, it is important to dig a bit deeper, adding a clause (legends-only) to an already pre-existing clause (Angel typal). Nonetheless, I think such a cool and well-designed card really is worth such a struggle.

That’s all from me for the moment. I hope you enjoyed this deck tech, but now it’s on to you - what do you think of it? Would you have changed anything? Or there’s something you particularly liked? Most importantly, do you believe this was a true innovation? Let me know in the comments below!

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