How to build a Lyra Dawnbringer commander deck in MTG

Lyra Dawnbringer is one of the cards featured in Magic: The Gathering Set the foundation. The card isn't brand new, having originally released in the 2018 Dominaria set. However, it's proven to be a fantastic commander, great for those looking for something simpler.

Lyra Dawnbringer is a simple commander that focuses on the Angel creature type. It's a mono-white commander, and even if you lose access to Angels of other colors, most 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.

Decklist

The deck list
contains 37 creatures, five sorceries, three instants, 16 artifacts, and 34 lands
. Since the deck is heavily focused on combat and Angels, creatures make up the majority of the deck, with the rest being removal, ramp, or Angel support cards.

Key cards

Lyra Dawnbringer

The bridge commander, Lyra Dawnbringer it is one of the best cards in it. Its effect gives all your other angels a slight stat boost and a lifelinkthe latter of which is the most important part of the paper.

Many Angel cards worry about you gaining life or having more life than your starting life total. Since many Angel cards have high power, the lifelink provided to them by Lyra Dawnbringer allows you to quickly gain life to make your Angels even more dangerous, keeping you in the game longer.

Jade, source of hope

A great commander in her own right, Jade, Source of Hope it is one of the best periods of the Angels cards. It acts as a mana dork for angels and will quickly get your angels in with more counters the more you have on the battlefield.

Jade, Font of Hope has vigilance, so you can attack with it and then tap it to add mana in the main post-fight phase to get the most out of Jade.

Jade, source of hope he considers himself an angel for its effect. This means that if Jade is your only Angel on the battlefield, the next one to enter will enter with a +1/+1 counter on it. Jade costs just two mana, letting her hit the battlefield early and starting to grow your Angels on the first turn of the game.

Archangel Of Thune

Archangel of Thune it's the easiest way to quickly grow the stats of your Angel cards. Whenever you gain life, each creature you control gets a +1/+1 counter on it. Archangel of Thune has lifelink, so dealing damage to anything will activate its effect.

Angels can gain life very easily, causing your creatures' stats to grow quickly. Effect of the Archangel of Thune triggers with each lifegain activation. If you have more than one on the stack, you'll get +1/+1 counters on each of them.

Herald of war

Herald of war it will be one of the best ways to discount your angelic spells. Many angels have a higher casting cost, which Herald of War can dramatically reduce. Each +1/+1 counter on Warbringer gives a mana discount (so if there are four, Angels are discounted by four mana).

There are many different ways to provide counters to the Warbringer naturally. Furthermore, Warbringer may give itself a +1/+1 counter whenever it attacks. No need to connect for any damageso you just want to attack with Herald of War as often as possible.

Bishop of the Wings

Bishop of Ali It is one of the best sources of living income. Each time an angel enters, you will gain four life points. It doesn't matter how much the Angel costs or how powerful he is, as long as he is an Angel, you will gain life.

Bishop of Wings helps maintain board presence through board cleaning and removal, such as a dying Angel creates a 1/1 Spirit token with flying. If you have creatures that gain life every time another creature enters, this will keep the life gain train going and you will get life bursts constantly.

How to play the deck

A Lyra Dawnbringer deck is all about throwing angels and dealing combat damage with them. It's a deck heavily focused on combatusing the various stat-boosting and life-gaining effects of angels.

Angel spells are often more expensive, therefore the spells that serve Angels are important. Urza's Incubator and Warbringer both discount Angelswhile the Pearl Locket and Oketra Monument discount your white spells. The city of three trees you can tap into a ton of mana if you have a lot of angels on the battlefield.

Lifegain is natural in the deckand you always want to have a high life total so you are never at risk of being eliminated in combat. Soul Guardian, Suture Priest, and Soul Assistant all gain life when creatures enter the battlefield, and many angels have angel-specific lifegain triggers when other angels enter.

The main victory condition of the deck is to win through combat. Since most angels have flight, they are much harder for most of your opponents to block.

Alternatively, there are a few other ways to win. Test of Endurance and Sovereign Felidar both automatically win the game at the start of your upkeep if you have a certain amount of life. Considering the amount of life points in the deck, winning with these cards is easy, as long as they are not 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 deck's biggest flaw is its high mana curve. You will have few defenses at the beginning of the game as many Angel cards have a high casting cost. This is why permanents that discount spells are so important: they make it easier to flood the battlefield with your angels so you can interact with your opponents' board states.