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Lyra Dawnbringer is one of the cards featured inMagic: The Gathering’sFoundations set. The card isn’t brand new, having originally been released in 2018’s Dominaria set. However, it’s proven itself as a fantastic commander, and a great one for those who are looking for something on the simpler side.
Lyra Dawnbringer is a straightforward commander who focuses on the Angel creature type. It’s a mono-white commander, and while you lose access to Angels in other colors, the majority of Angel cards are white so you still have the best Angels available. If you like Angels and combat, Lyra Dawnbringer is the commander for you.
Herald of the Host
Speaker of the Heavens
Sword of the Animist
x26 Plains
War Room
Windbrisk Heights
The decklistcontains 37 creatures, five sorceries, three instants, 16 artifacts, and34 lands. Since the deck is heavily focused on combat and Angels, creatures make up the majority of the deck with the rest either being removal, ramp, or Angel support cards.
Key Cards
Lyra Dawnbringer
The commander of the deck, Lyra Dawnbringeris one of the best cards in it.Itseffect gives all your other Angels a minor stat boost as well as lifelink, the latter of which is the most important part of the card.
Many Angel cards care about you either gaining life, or having more life than your starting life total. Since many Angel cards have high power, the lifelink that Lyra Dawnbringer gives them lets you rapidly gain life to make your Angels into even more of a threat — keeping you in the game for longer.
Giada, Font Of Hope
A great commander in its own right, Giada, Font of Hopeis one of the best Angel cards period. Itacts as a mana dorkfor Angels, and will rapidly cause your Angels to enter with more countersthe more you have on the battlefield.
Giada, Font of Hope has vigilance, so you can attack with it and then tap it to add mana in the postcombat main phase to get the most out of Giada.
Giada, Font of Hopecounts itself as an Angelfor its effect. This means that if Giada is your only Angel on the battlefield,the next one to enter will enter with a +1/+1 counter on it. Giada only costs two mana, letting it hit the battlefield earlier and start growing your Angels as early as the first turn of the game.
Archangel Of Thune
Archangel of Thuneis the easiest way to rapidly grow the stats of your Angel cards.Whenever you gain life,every creature you control gets a +1/+1 counter. Archangel of Thune has lifelink, so it dealing damage to anything will trigger its effect.
Angels can very easily gain life, causing your creatures to grow in stats rapidly. Archangel of Thune’s effecttriggers off of every lifegain trigger. If you have multiple going off on a stack, you’ll gain +1/+1 counters for each one.
Herald Of War
Herald of Waris going to be one of the best ways to discount your Angel spells. Many Angels have a higher casting cost, which Herald of War can bring down drastically.Each +1/+1 counter on Herald of War gives a one mana discount(so if there are four on it, Angels are discounted by four mana).
There are many different ways to naturally give Herald of War counters. In addition,Herald of War can give itself a +1/+1 counter whenever it attacks.Itdoesn’t need to connect for damage, so you just want to attack with Herald of War as often as you’re able to.
Bishop Of Wings
Bishop of Wingsis one of the best sources for lifegain.Whenever any Angel enters, you’ll gain four life. It doesn’t matter how much the Angel costs or how powerful it is, so long as it’s an Angel, you’ll gain the life.
Bishop of Wings helps to keep a board presence through board wipes and removal, asan Angel dying creates a 1/1 Spirit token with flying. If you have creatures that gain life whenever another creature enters, this will keep the lifegain train going and you’ll gain bursts of life constantly.
How To Play The Deck
A Lyra Dawnbringer deck isall about casting Angels and dealing combat damage with them. It is aheavily combat-focused deck, utilizing the various stat-boosting and life-gaining effects of Angels.
Angel spells are often on the more costly side, sospells that discount Angels are important.Urza’s Incubator andHerald of War both discount Angels, while Pearl Medallion and Oketra’s Monument discount your white spells. Three Tree Citycan tap for a ton of mana if you have a lot of Angels on the battlefield.
Lifegain is natural in the deck, and you want to always have a high life totalso you’re never in danger of getting taken out in combat. Soul Warden, Suture Priest, and Soul’s Attendantall gain life when creatures enter the battlefield, and many Angels have Angel-specific lifegain triggers when other Angels enter.
Theprimary win condition of the deck is winning through combat.Since most Angels have flying, they are much harder to block for most of your opponents.
Alternatively, there are a few other ways to win.Test of Endurance andFelidar Sovereignboth automatically win the game at the start of your upkeepif you have a certain amount of life. With how much lifegain there is in the deck, winning with these cards is easy — so long as they don’t get removed.
Test of Endurance is the better of the two instant win cards as enchantments are much harder to remove than creatures. However, Felidar Sovereign only needs you to have 40 life (your natural starting life total in Commander) while Test of Endurance needs 50.
The biggest flaw of the deck is its high mana curve. You are going to be low on defenses early in the game as many Angel cards have a high casting cost. This is why the permanents that discount spells are so important, it makes it easier to flood the battlefield with your Angels so you’re able to interact with your opponents' board states.
