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Castiel Lost Messiah Tempo
Castiel Lost Messiah Tempo
Thomas Neilson
If there's any archetype I could wax poetic about endless, it's this one, and with two Castiel lists making top 8 in the recent War Of Attrition #2, I thought it'd be helpful to compile a shorter list of tips on playing this divine powerhouse of an archetype. Lost Messiah Tempo is at it's base a burn deck, looking to turn an early board advantage into a quick burn kill on veil pierce thanks to Castiel's Special Ability: Oblation. In terms of surviving early, you're looking for a few key cards to help you start drawing cards, especially Chaos Divine Reconnaissance, Help From The Chaos Divine, and Kabshiel's Favours For The Seraphim. If you don't have some of these pieces, Acceleration Into The Chaos Divine and your card draw Warriors can help to find them.
Early Tips & Playlines
With your Guardians post-mulligan ability, Sigrid, Avenger Of The Lost Messiah, you'll be looking for the same line 99% of the time. Eradicating Oath To The Lost Messiah allows you to tutor up Empyrean Empire Of The Lost Messiah as a strong Holy Counter generator. If Oath is in your opening hand, you can eradicate Acceleration Into The Chaos Divine to eradicate the Oath in your hand.
Speaking of Empire, it's one of your strongest tools for card selection, putting Warriors in play, removing problematic cards, and keeping your boardstate safe. That being said, sometimes it's better to save the AP for other important cards like Bow Of The Archangel and Radiant Orb Of Divine Light.
Bow Of The Archangel is one of the strongest cards to have set going into your turn 3 kill, being able to knock out 3 cards at the end of your opponent's turn. In combination with Freelia, this can completely shut down a backline.
Late Tips & Playlines
Lost Messiah Corrupt-Sword, Freelia is a key piece for the deck with the (Rift) ability to destroy opposing player's fortified cards, especially off of Veil Pierce. If you get the chance, this is easily the best card to shuffle back into your deck with Mists From The Fata Morgana or any other effect.
Your best way to build up Holy Counters for your Oblation kill is with Halo Of The Lost Messiah, each one you eradicate lets you dump up to 15 Holy Counters onto your Warriors, so it's worth saving them for your turn 3.
Michael Seraphim Control/Midrange
Michael Seraphim Control/Midrange
Thomas Neilson
One of the longest lasting and strongest control lists in the metagame, Michael Seraphim Midrange/Control is a Divinity Realm powerhouse, with a swath of powerful negate effects, lock down pieces and value generation. Use Holy Counters to keep your ACTs stuck to the board, and drown your opponents in a relentless wave of your Holy Warriors!
Mulligan Tips:
To be able to control out your opponent early, you'll want some of your powerful early card-advantage generators. Chaos Divine Reconnaissance is the strongest of these, letting you draw a card every time you conscript 1 or more Angel Warriors, and Help From The Chaos Divine is a key way to fuel it, letting you get 2 Warriors into play.
Bartholomew, The Seraphim Curator and Qaphsiel, Great Seraphim Faithful are some of your most important Warriors in the deck to find. Both let you start digging through your deck with Wisdom, while Bartholomew gives you a way to conscript extra Warriors, and Qaphsiel lets you constantly pick back up your powerful Seraphim Control tools.
Sanctum Of The Seraphim is notable here too, giving you the ability to find any Seraphim Angel card in your deck.
Early Tips & Playlines
Setting up Ascension To The Seraphim is great for getting more value out of your Holy Counters, being able to both double your Seraphim bestow effects, while also picking up the counters you take off of other cards, making it a fantastic piece to work with Kabshiel's Favours For The Seraphim and Bow Of The Archangel.
Your revival pieces, including Essence Of Ancient Purity, Bastion Of Divine Light, and Gone But Never Forgotten all offer tons of value and utility with any of your Warriors, whether you use Qaphsiel for card advantage, Helios & Luna for healing or Cerebral for shutting down Keywords and Cool-downs.
Speaking of, Cerebral, The Bound Seraphim Mind is one of the best control tools available to Michael. Shutting down specific keywords is fantastic against almost every single deck, while the ability to put Cool-down onto left-side cards can be incredibly powerful against certain decks, like Castiel and Gaia.
Late Tips & Playlines
Your main Synergy, Hall Of The Heavens offers the ability to find any two Angel cards with Bestow, which can find a surprisingly large range of powerful pieces. If you're trying to finish the game, Sacred Seraphim Blade and Citrine Amulet both offer big Atk buffs, while Kabshiel's Favours For The Seraphim and Divine Denial Of The Seraphim both give some strong defensive options. Just keep in mind two things: 1. You need to have atleast 2 targets in your deck, or you won't be able to activate Hall, and 2. Your Warriors can't be grabbed with Hall, since they only have (Bestow) in their Reminder text.
In games where it can be difficult to push in battle damage through walls of Warriors, Mastema, The Divine Prosecutor and Archon, Avenger Of Light are both solid options for the deck for their Superiority and Condemn keywords to hit in for some effect Damage, while Bastion Of Divine Light can just let 1-2 of your Warriors directly attack in to close out games in grindy matchups.
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