First off, this is the first time I have written a primer. If you don't like the formatting, have suggestions, think I'm awesome, or think I suck at life, please leave me feedback. Additionally, this is intended to be a work in progress. I obviously haven't been able to get my hands on a Gisela yet (since the pre-release isn't yet for a few days), but I have been spending a great deal of time researching her as a general and building this decklist.
First, let’s take a look at Gisela, Blade of Goldnight.
Mana cost: :4mana::symr::symw::symw:
She is rather expensive, so we will have to find a way to circumvent her cost.
Abilities:
Flying, first strike
OK, some relevant combat abilites, but nothing too exciting.
If a source would deal damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, that source deals double that damage to that player or permanent instead.
If a source would deal damage to you or a permanent you control, prevent half that damage, rounded up.
Wow! She makes every other creature you drop significantly more powerful both offensively and defensively, increases damage done to planeswalkers, protects your life, and protects your planeswalkers. Finally, Gisela makes symmetric damage effects absolutely nuts. Earthquake and friends never sounded so good!
Power 5/ Toughness 5
So, given her other abilities, it will require a first striker with 10 power or a double striker with 6 power to take her down, and they will have to have 11 toughness to survive the encounter. She’s also a 3 turn clock for an opponent, and with any power increase she becomes a 2 turn clock.
Major Cons:
Aside from being 7 mana, I find the lack haste to be a bit disappointing. This is easily fixed with the many haste enablers we have access to in red though, so it isn’t much of a problem. More of a problem is the lack of hexproof or shroud. We do NOT want to have a 12 damage Earthquake on the stack when our opponent responds with Doomblade or Snap.
Additionally, and I believe an easily overlooked con, is that Gisela will almost certainly draw copious amounts of hate from everyone at the table. Much like Kaalia of the Vast, she is a threat that your opponents must answer before things get out of hand.
Now lets consider some different ways to build around Gisela.
Voltron- Gisela is a solid candidate for a Voltron style strategy. Making her huge and swinging for lethal should be rather easy, but her speed is again a major downfall here. I don’t think she’s as good as Uril, the Miststalker, but she can certainly dispatch an opponent quickly. I’m usually not a fan of voltron style builds so my take on Gisela won’t go this route.
Combo- There are a couple cards I have found that combo absurdly well with Gisela, the most ridiculous being Heartless Hidetsugu. That’s a two card board buster right there. Somewhat less impressive, but still very effective, is Malignus which will dispatch a single player with one swing. I’m fairly certain my playgroup would have an uncontrollable fit over these combos so I will not be including them in my build, but in more competitive groups they may be appropriate. Also, the weak selection of tutors in Boros colors makes pulling off these kinds of combos much more difficult than they would be in other decks.
Aggro- Straight beats with double damage creatures. This probably isn’t going to win a lot unless you’re in a very casual playgroup, but it would probably be quite fun. My take on Gisela will certainly have a fair number of creatures, but it won’t be straight agro.
Aggo-Control- We can sweep the board, we have access land destruction if we want it, we can tuck generals and other threats with Oblation and company, and we can swing with some super amped up creatures (if not killing opponents outright with symmetric sweepers). This is the strategy I will attempt to work towards in my Gisela deck.
“Enough Silverbullet5774, just give me the decklist!”
With this many basics I would consider adding snow lands and scrying sheets for additional card draw.
Hammerfist giant works quite well as repeatable removal with gisela. And sunhome, fortress of the legion is pretty brutal with gisela. As is true conviction if you use academy rector + sac outlets.
I thought Command Tower was on the list but I see I omitted it (even though its sitting on top of a pile of nonbasics right by my keyboard). I play a large amount of basics because there have been several people in my playgroup considering running non-basic hosers such as Tsabo's Web and Back to Basics.
I really like your suggestion of Buried Ruin. That isn't something I had considered but I think its very good, especially with Sun Titan to bring it back (letting me use Sun Titan indirectly to get back Caged Sun and such).
Even with only 3 or 4 mountains out Pyrohemia is going to be serious damage, so I don't think that pain lands and other duals will be all that necessary (though it needs to be tested).
Gauntlet of Power / Caged Sun: These two cards are extremely weak in multicolor decks. Not only do they cost a lot, but gauntlet can help opponents, they will take a turn to set up, and you most likely won't gain immediate benefit from it as it splits your mana base in two. I would MUCH rather see these be things like Sol Ring / Mana Vault / Coalition Relic / Gilded Lotus / Everflowing Chalice / Mind Stone
The first four I believe being the best of the bunch. To compare lotus to gauntlet, assuming we're on turn 5. Lotus at least allows you to play something else during your turn aside from it, and should it get blown up you were still able to do something.
I find Vessel of Endless Rest to be weak in comparison with the above cards as well.
Magmasaur: Having to wait until your upkeep to use it and only deal 4 damage to each creature without flying and each player for 3RR? Seems terribly inefficient and very susceptible to spot removal.
Mad Prophet: 5 to discard 1 and draw one? Sounds jank to me. Run skullclamp?
Dangerous Wager: Same deal, weak card draw in comparison to what else you can find. Why is faithless looting not here?
Browbeat is pretty great, especially when it's doing ten damage instead of 5.
Scroll Rack is extremely powerful with Land Tax. You should probably do your best to get both online in some games.
I don't think you run enough creatures / instants / sorceries to warrant the following, albeit great cards: Charmbreaker Devils, Reveilliark, Angelic Renewal, Recoup, Purity. If you're stuck on Angelic Renewal, there's Miraculous Recovery which works at instant speed and gets it a +1 / +1 counter.
I don't think you have enough "good" sunforger targets to warrant running it. Which means you could probably get rid of Lightning Helix
Sword of Fire and Ice generates great CA if you can get it to hit. Consider running additional card draw.
Balefire Liege and Firemane Angel both seem pretty sub par.
White Akroma would be pretty great.
I see one wrath, you want more.
You run less than 15 solid Kiki Jiki targets. Axe him, or give him more targets.
Word of Seizing is pretty neat. Stealing other peoples things and hitting them for 2x damage is cool. Grab the reins is even cooler. Heat Shimmer and similar cards will help generate CA off of peoples dumb cards like primeval titan.
You can play a ton of artifact ramp and you have land destruction to keep everyone behind you. You also have land tax, tithe, gift of estates, weathered wayfarer and knight of the white orchid to make sure you hit your landdrops.
I had never noticed gift of estates before, but I still think I prefer tithe to it. Holding one mana open and being able to do it at instant speed is just nice. That way you're not forced to discard, and people might think you have a path / condemn / swords in hand hand leave you alone.
i don't think that quietus spike works with gisela since he/she will lose half of life, not doing damage for half of his/her life
If Spike-equipped Gisela isn't blocked by a player with 40 life, they drop to 15. Personally, I like the idea of dealing 25 damage in one swing. But hey, that's just me.
First off, this is the first time I have written a primer. If you don't like the formatting, have suggestions, think I'm awesome, or think I suck at life, please leave me feedback. Additionally, this is intended to be a work in progress. I obviously haven't been able to get my hands on a Gisela yet (since the pre-release isn't yet for a few days), but I have been spending a great deal of time researching her as a general and building this decklist.
First, let’s take a look at Gisela, Blade of Goldnight.
Mana cost: :4mana::symr::symw::symw:
She is rather expensive, so we will have to find a way to circumvent her cost.
Abilities:
Flying, first strike
OK, some relevant combat abilites, but nothing too exciting.
If a source would deal damage to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls, that source deals double that damage to that player or permanent instead.
If a source would deal damage to you or a permanent you control, prevent half that damage, rounded up.
Wow! She makes every other creature you drop significantly more powerful both offensively and defensively, increases damage done to planeswalkers, protects your life, and protects your planeswalkers. Finally, Gisela makes symmetric damage effects absolutely nuts. Earthquake and friends never sounded so good!
Power 5/ Toughness 5
So, given her other abilities, it will require a first striker with 10 power or a double striker with 6 power to take her down, and they will have to have 11 toughness to survive the encounter. She’s also a 3 turn clock for an opponent, and with any power increase she becomes a 2 turn clock.
Major Cons:
Aside from being 7 mana, I find the lack haste to be a bit disappointing. This is easily fixed with the many haste enablers we have access to in red though, so it isn’t much of a problem. More of a problem is the lack of hexproof or shroud. We do NOT want to have a 12 damage Earthquake on the stack when our opponent responds with Doomblade or Snap.
Additionally, and I believe an easily overlooked con, is that Gisela will almost certainly draw copious amounts of hate from everyone at the table. Much like Kaalia of the Vast, she is a threat that your opponents must answer before things get out of hand.
Now lets consider some different ways to build around Gisela.
Combo- There are a couple cards I have found that combo absurdly well with Gisela, the most ridiculous being Heartless Hidetsugu. That’s a two card board buster right there. Somewhat less impressive, but still very effective, is Malignus which will dispatch a single player with one swing. I’m fairly certain my playgroup would have an uncontrollable fit over these combos so I will not be including them in my build, but in more competitive groups they may be appropriate. Also, the weak selection of tutors in Boros colors makes pulling off these kinds of combos much more difficult than they would be in other decks.
Aggro- Straight beats with double damage creatures. This probably isn’t going to win a lot unless you’re in a very casual playgroup, but it would probably be quite fun. My take on Gisela will certainly have a fair number of creatures, but it won’t be straight agro.
Aggo-Control- We can sweep the board, we have access land destruction if we want it, we can tuck generals and other threats with Oblation and company, and we can swing with some super amped up creatures (if not killing opponents outright with symmetric sweepers). This is the strategy I will attempt to work towards in my Gisela deck.
“Enough Silverbullet5774, just give me the decklist!”
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Mana fixing/deck thinning/ramp
2 Weathered Wayfarer
3 Tithe
4 Land Tax
5 Caged Sun
6 Boros Signet
7 Darksteel Ingot
8 Gauntlet of Power
9 Vessel of Endless Rest
10 Solemn Simulacrum
11 Eternal Dragon
Symmetric(ish) Damage
12 Earthquake
13 Fault Line
14 Molten Disaster
15 Pyrohemia
16 Magmasaur
17 Magma Phoenix
18 Mana Barbs
19 Acidic Soil
Card Draw
20 Knollspine Dragon
21 Mad Prophet
22 Dangerous Wager
23 Wheel of Fortune
24 Reforge the Soul
25 Mind’s Eye
26 Anarchist
27 Charmbreaker Devils
28 Reveillark
29 Karmic Guide
30 Sun Titan
31 Angelic Renewal
32 Recoup
Tutors
33 Hoarding Dragon
34 Stoneforge Mystic
35 Sunforger
36 Enlightened Tutor
Removal
37 Duergar Hedge Mage
38 Viashino Heretic
39 Oblation
40 Lightning Helix
41 Path to Exile
42 Swords to Plowshares
43 Return to Dust
44 Oblivion Stone
Defense
45 Lightning Greaves
46 Swiftfoot Boots
47 Whispersilk Cloak
48 Wild Ricochet
49 Lapse of Certainty
50 Ghostway
51 Darksteel Plate
52 Stranglehold
53 Purity
54 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
55 Mimic Vat
Other goodstuff
56 Balefire Liege
57 Firemane Angel
58 Razia, Boros Archangel
59 Anger
60 Double Cleave
Lands
61 Arid Mesa
62 Mistveil Plains
63 Madblind Mountain
64 Strip Mine
65 Slayer’s Stronghold
66 Cavern of Souls
Coming Soon: Explanation of card choices, additional cards worth considering, and a changelog.
Hammerfist giant works quite well as repeatable removal with gisela. And sunhome, fortress of the legion is pretty brutal with gisela. As is true conviction if you use academy rector + sac outlets.
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
True conviction is one I considered, but couldn't find much I wanted to remove for it.
Kor Haven
Mystifying Maze
Spinerock Knoll
Kher Keep and Skullclamp is a great card draw engine for boros
command tower????
rugged prairie, arid mesa, battlefield forge, boros garrison, clifftop retreat: if you dont have some dual lands, you will hate pumpable cards like pyrohemia
Homeward path: If someone is blue, they WILL steal gisela
Buried Ruin: get back your sunforger, greaves, or whispersilk cloak
check out my foil alters
http://s79.photobucket.com/user/gruffigummi/library/Foil Alters?sort=3&page=1
I thought Command Tower was on the list but I see I omitted it (even though its sitting on top of a pile of nonbasics right by my keyboard). I play a large amount of basics because there have been several people in my playgroup considering running non-basic hosers such as Tsabo's Web and Back to Basics.
I really like your suggestion of Buried Ruin. That isn't something I had considered but I think its very good, especially with Sun Titan to bring it back (letting me use Sun Titan indirectly to get back Caged Sun and such).
Even with only 3 or 4 mountains out Pyrohemia is going to be serious damage, so I don't think that pain lands and other duals will be all that necessary (though it needs to be tested).
It's kinda Voltron with 14 Equipment, but there's combo elements, too, including Gisela's interactions with Quietus Spike.
I agree that Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion and Kor Haven are good utility lands for the deck.
repercussion then starstorm or earthquake , etc for 3 dmg
all my opponents creatures take 6 dmg, each of my opponents will take 12 for EACH creature they have that took 6.
meanwhile my creatures took 1 damage, and i take none since its prevented.
repercussion is rediculous
check out my foil alters
http://s79.photobucket.com/user/gruffigummi/library/Foil Alters?sort=3&page=1
Gauntlet of Power / Caged Sun: These two cards are extremely weak in multicolor decks. Not only do they cost a lot, but gauntlet can help opponents, they will take a turn to set up, and you most likely won't gain immediate benefit from it as it splits your mana base in two. I would MUCH rather see these be things like Sol Ring / Mana Vault / Coalition Relic / Gilded Lotus / Everflowing Chalice / Mind Stone
The first four I believe being the best of the bunch. To compare lotus to gauntlet, assuming we're on turn 5. Lotus at least allows you to play something else during your turn aside from it, and should it get blown up you were still able to do something.
I find Vessel of Endless Rest to be weak in comparison with the above cards as well.
Magmasaur: Having to wait until your upkeep to use it and only deal 4 damage to each creature without flying and each player for 3RR? Seems terribly inefficient and very susceptible to spot removal.
Mad Prophet: 5 to discard 1 and draw one? Sounds jank to me. Run skullclamp?
Dangerous Wager: Same deal, weak card draw in comparison to what else you can find. Why is faithless looting not here?
Browbeat is pretty great, especially when it's doing ten damage instead of 5.
Scroll Rack is extremely powerful with Land Tax. You should probably do your best to get both online in some games.
I don't think you run enough creatures / instants / sorceries to warrant the following, albeit great cards: Charmbreaker Devils, Reveilliark, Angelic Renewal, Recoup, Purity. If you're stuck on Angelic Renewal, there's Miraculous Recovery which works at instant speed and gets it a +1 / +1 counter.
Knight of the White Orchid is as good as white ramp gets. Kor Cartographers isn't half bad either.
I don't think you have enough "good" sunforger targets to warrant running it. Which means you could probably get rid of Lightning Helix
Sword of Fire and Ice generates great CA if you can get it to hit. Consider running additional card draw.
Balefire Liege and Firemane Angel both seem pretty sub par.
White Akroma would be pretty great.
I see one wrath, you want more.
You run less than 15 solid Kiki Jiki targets. Axe him, or give him more targets.
Word of Seizing is pretty neat. Stealing other peoples things and hitting them for 2x damage is cool. Grab the reins is even cooler.
Heat Shimmer and similar cards will help generate CA off of peoples dumb cards like primeval titan.
boros can never have too much draw. I will even run well of lost dreams with some lifegain and lifelink running around.
check out my foil alters
http://s79.photobucket.com/user/gruffigummi/library/Foil Alters?sort=3&page=1
I run that in a Brion Stoutarm deck I have, and can seldomly get it to go off. The mana we have access to in boros is just awful.
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
If Spike-equipped Gisela isn't blocked by a player with 40 life, they drop to 15. Personally, I like the idea of dealing 25 damage in one swing. But hey, that's just me.
Plus, with True Conviction, Quietus Spike is just sick.