Trimming down Avacyn's Glory deck

[Trixdee]

Hello! So my Avacyn's deck full is about 97 or 98 cards, just need some advice how I could trim it down since it's pretty heavy on creatures. I kinda started by trimming out enchants that are too similar. So, what would be the best way to trim this deck? Trim down some of the bigger more expensive flier creatures? Tips welcome. :3

Also, are there rules about how much lands u can have in the deck? Or can u have as much land as u want in the deck?

[NeoSilk]

You can have as much land as you want - it's best to run exactly 60 cards (total) with anywhere from 22-26 being land (I would suggest 24 for that deck, depending on what other cards you have). Here's a link to a good discussion on that specific deck, including some builds that others are using:
http://www.nogoblinsallowed.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=998

[unnamed]

Couple of pointers:

1) You need to get down to 60 cards. This concept is actually fairly advanced in terms of mathematical Magic deckbuilding theory, but 60 cards is strictly better than any higher number.
This means only the best ~35 cards that advance the kind of game you want to play can make the cut!

2) Avacyn has a lot of power, viable builds.
In my experience, the two best are:

a) Lots of fast, cheap humans, all the removal spells and a couple of top end angels for breaking stalemates
b) Lots of tokens generation cards. All of them, and enough removal and creatures to flesh out the rest of the deck.

The first variant is more powerful and versatile, but gets countered easily by heavy removal decks. The second is less consistent, but more resiliant and robust against decks that can kill your best attackers easily.

[135792468]

I disagree with NEEDING to get down to exactly 60 cards. My avacyn's is 70 cards and works damn well. :P

[NeoSilk]

60 cards will always be more consistent than 70. If you have 70 cards, there's 10 cards that can be cut

[unnamed]

What Silk said. AG is such a powerful deck it can function even diluted by 15%.
But that's a huge handicap you're putting yourself at.

[Velcrow]

TBH the best way to trim down a deck is to pick a direction/theme, stick with it, and take out cards that keep you from getting to your deck goal, even if it hurts. Baneslayer's great as a stand-alone card but her effects contribute nothing to a human beatdown/buff and that means another card/turn before you get to Goldknight Redeemer or Honor of the Pure, which would help a beatdown.

[unnamed]

I agree 100% in principle Exequias, and with the following caveats in mind, the general principle should be to strictly and brutally cull any card that doesn't directly forward your main game plan, no matter how interesting or cute.

However, keep in mind sometimes cards are just so overpowered and good you should play them even if they don't fit your theme. Baneslayer is on the borderline of that. If she lives even one turn she wins the game immediately...

But Angelic Overlord is the better example. I'd always run 1-2 of those even the the fastest beat-down versions, because it's effect is so overpowered and so few decks have an answer that she will win you far more games by turning up late into a board stall than you will lose by sometimes being down a card early with her in hand.

Restoration Angel is another example. She doesn't really fit with any of the pure builds of AG, but she's SUCH ridiculous card that you should always play her.

[EdwardTheMorose]

This is one of my favorite decks, its very fast. I usually run it leaner than recommended mana-wise (20 out of 60), I've won games with 2-3 mana many times. Go for all of the humans that cost one mana to play.. especially champion of the parish. Grab all the cards that pump human tokens and be sure to grab angelic overseer. One human on the board makes her beast, when you have dozens for redundancy, theres almost nothing an opponent can do to stop your win. Everything after that is frill, like if you want to have a bit of lifegain etc.

[mpbros74]

Originally posted by Exequias:

TBH the best way to trim down a deck is to pick a direction/theme, stick with it, and take out cards that keep you from getting to your deck goal, even if it hurts. Baneslayer's great as a stand-alone card but her effects contribute nothing to a human beatdown/buff and that means another card/turn before you get to Goldknight Redeemer or Honor of the Pure, which would help a beatdown.

I used this theme idea in my sliver deck and now it has sped up considerably and actually wins 90% of the time even against AG. Usually by turn 4 my creatures are too large to ignore, and have to be blocked which gets rid of the poning I take for the first 3-4 turns. And because they need blockers there's no attacking along with 3 shocks and 3 path to exiles, I can eliminate pests.