Looking for some help regarding my Galea deck

[ERMTD]

Hello everyone!

I am looking for some inspiration, tipps and recommendation regarding my Galea, Kindler of Hope deck and I hope you can help me. I am a experienced deckbuilder with more than 20 decks that I own on paper and years of experience building decks. I love some challenges and to search for some fringe uses of commanders. This time I want to build a Galea deck, but unlike most, not just focussed on Auras or equipment or both, but on three pillars:
Knights/Auras/Equipment

I know that the streamlined versions go for one of the options mostly (which is the smart thing to do), but I am here to have fun playing decks, and challenges while building them, not looking for the optimal power play. Unafortunately, I cannot find decks that focus on the three pillars. Is there someone that did this and want to share their decklist or ideas?

Here is the deck, it is just 60/70% tuned-in, still a long way to go.

https://deckstats.net/decks/187019/3497492-galea-aural-knights-ii

Let me know what you think, and I appreciate all feedback!

All best,
ERMTD

[AlltheTokens]

I have never built Galea, but I can see a few small things I would do differently.  I would drop rampant growth for three visits to have the option of grabbing an untapped forest when you just need mana.  Since I see no shocklands I am guessing budget matters, so I would work in Tangled Islet and/or Rimewood Falls to allow Nature’s Lore and Three Visits to grab blue mana when you need fixing.  You already have ways for them to get you white.  As far as equipment goes I love Behemoth Sledge and Robe of Stars, although I am not sure what I would cut for them.

[ERMTD]

Thank you very much! Yes, I forgot to say that this is indeed it is kind of a budget option. I own all decks on paper (including the cards on this one) and in my playgroup does not allow for Proxies (which I am trying to convince them otherwise).So, while I do own shocklands, they are distributed among the many decks I have… and swapping cards across 20+ decks is no so much fun. But the inclusions you stated make complete sense regarding the mana distribution

[Rose the Budget Queen]

Looking carefully through the decklist, I see that you have 2 cards that draw when enchantments ETB, and 4 that draw when enchantments are cast... and yet barely over 1/10th of your deck is enchantments.

One thing to remember is that card advantage is a secondary minor form of ramp. 1/3 of your deck is solely for ramp and/or draw, so I feel like you could easily thin that out just a small amount to potentially free up space.

All that glitters, Nettlecyst both buff from every artifact and enchantment
Danitha Capashen, Paragon is an amazing cost fixer for both auras and equipment, AND she's knight.
Halvar, God of Battle gives all enchanted or equipped creatures double strike AND a once per turn free attach.
Sigarda's Aid should be an auto add in any equip/aura deck
Silkguard is great protection with the added bonus of possibly buffing up creatures
Strong Back is a great aura that makes it easier to equip or enchant one creature, AND buffs them for every aura/equip on it
Spectral Steel is a decent aura that also doubles as recursion for an aura or equipment
Helm of the Gods buffs for every enchantment you control and is super cheap to play and equip
Knight of Autumn is both great removal or a self-buffer/small lifegain, AND a Knight

I'll have more suggestions as I review more ideas, but I really think you have a solid build, it just needs to synergize better and add more of what makes the deck work well.

[Dactylartha]

I have a Galea deck that I love. Here's some tips:

Focus on low cost auras that return from gy (rancor) or draw you a card (avarice), or can be played as an instant (eel umbra).

Have fun with equipment, but remember you only cheat the equip cost when it's cast from library or you have another card to help (brass squire, puresteel paladin).

Get cards that pull cards from gy (Bruna, Hannah, brilliant restoration).

Cards that let you put cards from hand or gy on top of your library are gold, and so are cards that let you play lands from top of library.

If you want knights, try to get one that have an etb and don't HAVE to attack (that dryad one).

Also, have 36-38 lands just so you're not having to mulligan a lot.

https://deckstats.net/decks/10564/2164424-galea-kindler-of-hope-edh-#show__stats

[ERMTD]

Thank you so much for the responses! 

First of all, thanks Rose, some of the cards you suggested are really good. Silkguard for 1 green mana to cast is actually a way to protect. I did not know Spectral Steel, and it looks like it should work wonders, actually found a copy of it in the card collection With Halvar, I actually forgot that the text says "Auras"

Dactylartha, also many thanks! I think the idea with some top deck manipulation regarding lands might be good as ramp (Courser of Kruphix and the likes), I am going to peek into your decklist to have an idea.

Regarding ramp and card draw, after building so many decks over the last 7 years, it is kind of my template at first. 30 Lands + mana cost of the commander (is 4, so 34 lands) and the rest is ramp until I get to 50 cards (51 with the commander). Then 10 card draw cards at least, and from there on, I modify it depening on how the deck behaves.

[ChipEater8000]

I like the way the deck looks and I don't have too many suggestions, but if you're going to have a bunch of equipments and enchantments I would recommend things that make your creatures fight your opponent's creatures, and some good green auras are Colossification and Hydra's Growth, which go really well together. If cost is not too much of an issue, I would also recommend counter doublers, such as Hardened Scales, Doubling Season, and Branching Evolution.

[anjinsan]

You don’t have much removal. I’d probably put in more aura-based removal like Kenrith’s Transformation, Song of the Dryads, etc, as well as at least one “real” board wipe.

The knights make this tricky, you kinda want to jam-pack your deck with auras and equipment for card advantage from Galea and they dilute it. You already have a good amount of aura- and equipment-based ramp but I might even put in more, stuff like Overgrowth, etc.

Also note that there are some odd auras and things you can consider to boost your density, like curses.

[ERMTD]

Thanks for the reply! Yes, the amount of target removal is not very high and the auras like kenriths transformation would be better, I will look to swap one or two. The number is low by many accounts, but I am not the most enthusiastic about target removal in general . Regarding mass removal, I tend nowadays to lower the count to 1 or max. 2, because I do prefer dying in a game rather than extending the game for 1 more hour. I actually think that this is the best mass removal for Aura/Enchantment builds in white though. Not the best in general, but it works here. Regarding the knights: As I stated before, I could easily go for a Galea Voltron deck, either by leaning into the equipment or auras build, but I am not really interested in that kind of deck, too streamlined and less quirky. I love the flavour and the challenge of exploring more possibilities with her.

I actually played the deck a few times now and made a few adjustments to it. The first time it was too slow, the second time it worked allright but lacked some speed in the late game. The latest version has even more card draw to accelerate the process.