I brought my Junk Angel deck to Ancient Wonders on Tuesday for the usual Standard tournament. I scored 4–0, placing clear first. Hurray! This was a far cry from the 1–3 result I had on Sunday. For a moment, I allowed myself to believe the deck was consistent enough to be truly competitive. After 15 more matches however (5 at FNM and 10 on Game Days)  I can finally conclude that this deck is probably not consistent enough to stick with for the remainder of the season.

As of right now, the list looks something like this:

Creatures (21):
3 Angel of Serenity
2 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 Centaur Healer
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

Spells (16):
4 Grisly Salvage
4 Mulch
4 Unburial Rites
4 Farseek

Lands (23):
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Forest
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Seraph Sanctuary

Sideboard (15):
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Restoration Angel
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Centaur Healer
2 Ray of Revelation
3 Zealous Conscripts
2 Sever the Bloodline
1 Angel of Serenity

The deck seems pretty solid against control. My cards have decent value. I resolve Angel of Serenity exiling creatures in my graveyard, and when they cast Supreme Verdict or Terminus, I gain card advantage. Also, Thragtusk is an excellent card against control, often requiring two sweepers to completely get rid of. Unburial Rites can also provide card advantage.

 

That said, control decks run lots of planeswalkers (Jace, Tamiyo, etc.), and planeswalkers can be a problem for this deck. I do run Restoration Angel and Craterhoof Behemoth, which are fairly effective answers to planeswalkers, but they’re not as good as Dreadbore or Detention Sphere or other such cards.

This deck also has a pronounced weakness to artifacts. I have zero ways of interacting with artifacts, and it can cause problems. Case in point: on Sunday my opponent cast a Chromatic Lantern on turn 3, a Door to Nothingness on turn 4, and then just won the game several turns later. I had no way of stopping it. This deck is also weak to Grafdigger's Cage.

 

As bad as this deck is against control, it at least survives a few turns. Against aggro things could be disastrous. I've had games on the draw where I've just been crushed by turn 4. We have been constantly tweaking  the deck to try and make those matches more favorable (for example, we added Avacyn’s Pilgrims, additional Fiend Hunters, and now Centaur Healers), but I’m still not sure this deck is viable against aggro. Most of my losses have come from the GW Aggro decks that run Rancor, Loxodon Smiter, and Ajani, Caller of the Pride. If given the chance to stabilize, I can usually win, but getting there is not easy. My zombie matchup is a bit better, but still stressful at times.

One thing this deck has going for it against both aggro and control is the infinite life combo with Fiend Hunter, Fiend Hunter, Restoration Angel, and Seraph Sanctuary (There's also another combo with Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and 3 Fiend Hunters). Sometimes this combo will take an opponent completely by surprise and just win the game. Against aggro it's a near instant victory. However, against control, sometimes the combo is lackluster; it can result in this awkward situation where the opponent chooses to simply play on, comfortable with a draw because he knows you can't get enough attackers on the board to kill him. It's quite annoying. The combo happens frequently in the mirror match.

I think this deck is about 55/45 against the midrange decks in the format, like Jund. Jund runs 3-4 copies of Rakdos Keyrune, which can actually be kind of a problem when combined with Kessig Wolf Run, but for the most part I think we have a better endgame. I actually played 3-4 Jund decks this weekend and I think I came out about even, and lost one of those matches because of misplay.

Anyway, here are my results for the week:

Last Sunday: 1-3

Tuesday: 4-0

Friday: 1-2

Saturday: 3-2-1

Sunday: 3-2

With an overall record of 12-9-1, you can see this deck is hardly overwhelming. I'll only continue playing it until I find something better....See you next time.