commander · Bruna, the Fading Light
Angels: They're Just Like Us but Cooler ... (SLD).
A mono-white angel tribal deck from Secret Lair, led by Bruna, the Fading Light, return angels and humans from your graveyard, meld with Gisela to form the indestructible Brisela, and close with a soaring angel army.
The Commanders
Angels: They're Just Like Us is Secret Lair's mono-white angel tribal Commander deck, and it puts the Innistrad meld pair right at the center. Bruna, the Fading Light returns any Angel or Human from your graveyard when you cast her, a free reanimation stapled to a 5/7 with flying and vigilance. Gisela, the Broken Blade is a 4/3 with flying, lifelink, and first strike, and she triggers the meld at upkeep: with both on the battlefield, they meld into Brisela, Voice of Nightmares.
Brisela, Voice of Nightmares is a 9/10 with flying, vigilance, lifelink, first strike, and trample who stops opponents from casting spells with mana value three or less. Most interaction in Commander costs three or fewer, so Brisela locks out spot removal, counterspells, and ramp all at once. The plan is to set up the angel base, assemble the meld, and let Brisela's lockout shut down any real answer.
Key Cards
Archangel of Thune
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Gisela has lifelink, Bruna has lifelink as she enters, and the deck runs several other lifelinkers, so every point of combat damage turns into a +1/+1 counter on every angel out. With eight angels all taking counters off each lifelink trigger, the board balloons in a hurry. Archangel of Thune turns an angel deck's natural lifegain into permanent, board-wide pressure.
Court of Grace
When Court of Grace enters, you become the monarch. At the beginning of your upkeep, make a 1/1 white Spirit with flying, or a 4/4 Angel with flying if you're the monarch. The monarch mechanic feeds itself in an angel deck, since your flying board makes it hard for anyone to attack you for the crown. A 4/4 Angel every upkeep while you hold the crown builds the board faster than opponents can keep up.
Angel of Finality
When Angel of Finality enters, exile target opponent's graveyard. A 3/4 with flying that permanently removes the most important graveyard in play on entry. Against reanimation strategies, graveyard-dependent combo decks, or any deck leveraging death triggers, Angel of Finality's ETB disrupts the strategy while adding a flying body to the angel army. In a deck with Bruna recurring angels from its own graveyard, disrupting opponents' graveyard plans while maintaining your own recursion is a significant asymmetric advantage.
Breathkeeper Seraph
When Breathkeeper Seraph enters, you may pay life equal to a creature card's mana value in any graveyard to put it onto the battlefield under your control. At the beginning of each end step, if a creature you control died this turn, she comes back from your graveyard. She recurs herself off any creature death, so ordinary combat attrition keeps returning her. Each return fires the life-payment reanimation again, which gives you an unlimited reanimation engine that costs only life.
Angel of Ruins
An eight-mana 5/6 flying angel with haunt that exiles up to three target artifacts, creatures, or enchantments when it enters. Three permanent exile effects on one creature. In a mono-white deck without access to black's removal or blue's counterspells, Angel of Ruins provides the sweeping answer to three problem permanents simultaneously. With Bruna's recursion returning it from the graveyard in subsequent casts, the exile trigger fires repeatedly.
How to Play
Build the angel base with early ramp and white's mana acceleration. Bruna and Gisela both need to be in play to meld, and Bruna's entry reanimates Gisela from the graveyard, so the sequence falls into place on its own. Cast Bruna, return Gisela, wait for your next upkeep with both out, and meld into Brisela. Once she's on the battlefield, opponents can't cast anything costing three or less, which cuts off most interaction, targeted removal, and ramp. Win with Brisela's 9/10 lifelink first strike trample body while Archangel of Thune pumps the whole team on every lifelink trigger.