I'm an Evra player, and I like to think of us as BASE jumpers who bring a tablecloth, two golf clubs, a half used container of dental floss, and a gun with us and try to build a parachute on the descent while shooting all of the rocky outcrops that we see.
I play evra as well, though I barely consider it a lifegain deck as all you gotta do is keep your life above 21 and you're fine. There's some lifegain, but it's minimal
@androkguz it does yeah, but most players aren't letting that stay on the board. And I play evra as a one-hit kill deck though sometimes I do get to untap with my commander out against the surviving players
I made an evra deck and after being super slick with avoiding instants killing while swapping life people started bringing the big guns against her so i dont play it much now
Me too. Shoot your shot and leave a big smoking crater. Either be standing victorious in the center of it, or strewn about in charred chunks around it. Either way, I did my thing, and I don't need to sit here and watch you weenies piss around. Call me when it's time for the next shuffle.
After all the struggles, glad you finally got the video working 😮💨 Lifegain is a really cool concept and it's super silly, but I've found that more often than not it devolves into either the lifegainer being mad that you can do more damage than they can gain life or just a pinging dumpster fire where they just try and shut down everything everyone can do until they win
Yup, I’ve never really enjoyed the play patterns of going against lifegain. I tried making some to see how the other side lived and that’s not very engaging either.
@@maldhound I’ve made a few lifegain decks in my time and they’ve always been solid, but it just felt boring to play, like I was winning but not in a fun way
I do run lifegain but it’s usually secondary in most of my decks. While seeing large amounts of life is amusing, pinging people over and over again and having lots of triggers is what really makes my endorphins sing
as a beledros player who's entire plan is to sink 18 mana into a hellfire of torment or 28 mana into an exsanguinate while vito is on field this list does put a smile on my face
Beautiful, just beautiful, I’m a filthy self-damage Darien main so I can watch my enemies weep as the damage an opponent does to me is completely negated and now I have an army to beat the hell out of them.
My absolute favorite “feral barn cat” deck that I built is A Vilis Broker of blood deck. Life is a resource and by Jove I WILL win at either 2 life or 200
I once was playing against a traditional +1/+1 counter lifegain player, while I was using my Witherbloom deck. I outdrained their lifegain. ‘Twas glorious.
Dina, Soul Steeper was one of the first decks I built and I love it. I proxied Exquisite blood into the deck, played it once and realized that 2 card combos that win the game are boring.
I've avoided EB and instead stuck to a minimum of 4-card infinites at worst or none at all. Blight Mound + Phyrexian Altar + Veinwitch Coven + any 1CMC creature, and even then it requires a 5th card like Dina or Deathgreeter or Essence Warden to do anything.
It’s a special kind of feeling taking out a life gain player with infect or Sorin reducing their life to ten and swinging. Also, any plans to roast Karona, False God?
@@pencilwatchesstuff791Naw, infect is just spooky. Dead in the water after turn four (settle the wreckage), and is severely disadvantaged outside of 1v1s. While I've never played infect myself, I do respect it in commander, as you've effectively decided to strap weights to yourself and go free climbing, covered in bird food, and with a target on you back. The infect players only real hope is venerated rotpriest, or proliferate.
@@TheComicBookJoker You're right! Totally forgot about her. Haven't really kept up since eldraine/theros, outside of the grapevine and spoilers, so that's on me.
lifegain players that love to turn them into +1/+1 counters are the players that also play numbers go up. What about the Oloro players that only use lifegain to prolong the game and your suffering?
@@shiro4833I disrupted someone the other day trying to Scurry Oak/Heliod infinite, it was so satisfying watching them explode immediately after (Arena)
I am thinking about putting profane transfusion into my K'rrik deck. THe idea that I can turn 1 play a land -> jeweled lotus -> K'rrik -> blood celebrant -> Profane transfusion whereby I go back up to 40 life and get a 32/32 creature which will be hitting someone in the face turn 2 is just amazing to me. So it turns into a ritual that gets me 4 mana and a 32/32.
SAME! Got to play it today for the first time in forever after its rebuild and needless to say, the others were not familiar with the deck. After I Doomsday'd down to 10 life, the Tiamat player got really happy that he could kill me in a turn or two, until I told him "Oh sweet child, you aint getting another turn" xD
I normally don’t play too risky with my life total, but nothing else in the chaos precon mattered to me when I saw Mortarian. He’s more than a bit of a gamble to build around, but there are fewer things more satisfying than him popping off
Thank you, I seriously started my MtG journey with Arena and on release "gain life do thing" or "let's play legos" was the meta new player deck at the time, I think it heavily soured me toward white and I'm just not starting to get over it.
I must make a deck that is the top tier here, becoming a feral barn cat at the table is gonna be a delight! Also as a +1/+1 counter enjoyer, fair portrayal. I do indeed stack my little cardboard counters when not paying attention
One of my friends runs Liesa and just calls it his Massachussetts taxation deck. The guy runs a billion and a half life-taxing effects and it is disgusting how much damage it puts out over a game.
I played an abzan lifegain deck on Arena for a while, which included both Vito and Heliod. The idea was gain life as often as possible for as much advantages as possible, which often led to extremely buff creatures fairly quickly. Combine this with Fortifying Draught + Light of Hope as a combat trick and the entire motto of the deck became “Call an ambulance! *But not for me.*”
I had a Torgaar, Famine Incarnate deck what was absolutely in the "Feral Barn Cat" Tier. Pay a bunch of life to things like Greed and Necropotence for card advantage, sac Torgaar to Gisa for zombies, sac the zombies to bring Torgaar back out, bring my life back to 20. Naturally it also ran Wound Reflection and Archfiend of Despair in case there were players at the table trying to pull lifegain shenanigans.
My absolute favorite deck is my Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn. Having over 1000 +1/+1 counters on a stupid little 1/1 lifelinker is silly and I love it. Recent cards like The One Ring and Staff of Compleation have been amazing adds to the deck since I have as much life as I could ever need to spend on them.
Karlov of the Ghost Council was the first commander deck I built myself. And man, I love me some bits of all of those types of plays. Aetherflux, Exquisite Blood, pillow fort... MMMMmmmMMM! Give me all the life.
Darien, King of Kjeldor. The master of so much life gain it’s pseudo invincibility and you get an army out of it. He kinda does almost all of these things depending what you plug into the deck. I personally focus on self damage so I can generate as many tokens as possible.
For those that don’t know, Darien makes 1/1 tokens equal to the damage you take, in white there is many creatures who give 1 or 2 life whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control so with even just one of these you then gain all life lost due to damage back, if you have more it then gives even more life.
Darien is one of the few mono-white decks my playgroup has banned me from ever playing again because I was goddamn unkillable. It really is "if you're gonna swing at the king, you best not miss". You'd better kill me in one shot or all you've done is given me more life and a massive army.
@@RemUchiha they must be fans of big or many creatures. I know I’d get stomped by one of my friends life drain deck or his infect deck, Darien is also susceptible to control spells since his high mana cost means you’re putting him out later than mostly everyone else. If he sticks though, white’s protection spells and the absolutely asinine amount of combos you can pull off with him make him a kill on sight commander. A few of my favorite combos 1. Anything that gives +1/+1 counters on heal or ETB and a walking ballista for infinite tokens since you can target yourself. 2. Dingus staff, means you can sling your tokens any way you want since they’ll make 2 new ones if they die, combine with Phyrexian altar for infinite mana, tokens, and life 3. Blasting station, as long as the Hp return is greater than 1 per token it’s infinite life. 4. A lesser known interaction, Angel’s trumpet, just don’t attack and your creatures will tap and deal damage back to you making more tokens also prompt your opponents to attack since they’ll take damage too if they don’t, great against pillowfort decks. 5. Rumor gatherer, every token you make let’s you scry and the second time it activates it nets you a card, you can easily use this to stack your deck in your favor.
My favorite life gain I have ever used was the simple mix of have massive hydra, cast Predator’s Rapport. Although, as a predominantly black mana player, I have used a lot of the top two tiers in my life.
Zimone and Dina are my favorite lifegain deck I have because it does it via the best things in the game: drawing cards, slingin' spells, and sacrifiing weenies. The life gain is merely a means to an end.
I'm currently sidegrading my Willowdusk Deck into a Dina variant. Willowdusk in concept is an aweseome commander, but her sorcery speed and that your easily interrupted while building your board state ist just discouraging. I've proxied a few round with Dina and it was just fun. Since I really enjoy golgari lifegain atm, the fact that I can put Aristocrat in there is just awesome!
Love playing Karlov of the Ghost Council... I get TWO +1/+1 counters whenever I gain life lol. And they can be removed to exile enemy creatures. But then I realize why remove counters when he's a 28/28 and my lifegain deck somehow became voltron
I started running 2 copies of that in my mono black discard/Sheoldred deck just for people running Angels or Vito. Nothing more annoying than being one turn away from bringing every creature back from the dead with Sheoldred and getting hit with an infinite
Also, side note, I didn't realize that Tainted Remedy doesn't stack for the longest time lmao I had assumed they would have separate procs, I was wrong. Wasted 3 mana I could've used on a more meaningful play and actually ended up losing that match
My Licia Sanguine Tribune deck REALLY leans hard into the "2 life is enough as long as I get another turn", mostly because the absolute threat of a 2 turn clock that reverses damage and is hard to beat in combat is terrifying.
Long ago, when I played mtg, I always enjoyed black cards that had a reduced mana cost because they cost life to play. Life is absolutely a resource to be spent. You folks have fun, I can't wrap my head around fifteen activations on turn three to draw and play half the deck.
Gotta wonder where Trostani, Selesny's voice would land in this bc it's a big tokens life gain deck that uses the life gain to get more tokens through effects such as Angelic Accord and Valkyrie Harbringer
As a heliod player, I usually end up with a much bigger board that makes everything just landslide if I am on the winning side of things, though with +1+1's I end up going commander damage half the time
Willowdusk here, ive got every single card he named except bilbo in a deck. Sure, +1/+1 counters aint much. But it takes 5 turns or so before i bust out cadaverous bloom, or unspeakable symbol and go near infinite with any lifelink or draw synergy. Shits nuts
I love our Beledros witherbloom deck because it's both of the last two categories at once. Paying lots of life and gaining it back and making our opponents lose like 8 life every time we sac a pest. It's good fun
I have a Heliod package in my Shalai & Halar deck, where the point of the life gain is to enable pinging, building up to an army that can swing to finish. That feels like it ranks on the Vito tier? Also, what about the new style with food and Hobbits?
one of my favorite decks Ive fought against was a Bolas Citadel/Aetherflux Reservoir combo deck. I forget what their commander was but the combo was fake storm burning through life and then gaining it back for every spell. the 50 life kill button didnt matter so much because they got so many other threats on the board before that was even a thing to worry about
i think the most common Bolas/Aetherflux combo deck is K'rrik. Turning all black mana into Phyrexian absolutely turbo charges you towards that combo. Managed to slam mine turn 5 with a turn 4 Razaketh to tutor up my Citadel and Doomsday. Could be MUCH faster, I just need the good mana rocks (Vault/Crypt/Jeweled Lotus/Petal/etc). Ive seen a turn 2 win with the deck, its just nuts
As someone who pretty much immediately made a plan to build a Lifegain deck helmed by Bilbo as soon as I saw the decklist, I appreciate the respect. Also, I'm still requesting a roast of my main lady, Atla Palani and/or my husband's other main lady, Rashmi.
Yesterday I played against a life gain deck (with postie) and almost won several times because my commander is emrakul the turn stealer and they had multiple life loss outlets, but the other player played like 7 different combos so I couldn't finish em off
I was the first guy in our playgroup to run the Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood combo some years ago, and I do have Aetherflux Reservoir as an alternate win-con in my Jhoira deck. But infinite combos bore me now(especially in black; they're too easy to tutor for). Really, lifegain strategies are something that I WANT to love, but aren't supported the way that I want them to be.
I guess my Frodo and Sam deck would be more in-line with the bottom tier Heliod crowd. Accumulates incidental value from the life gain from sacrificing Food and eventually swing in with a wide, buffed board. Although at least when I get the fourth ring tempting I do start to spread damage around.
I play Trelasarra Lifegain, which I know puts me in your bottom tier, but I do try to play more aggressively than the usual Heliod types. Cause my favorite number to count to isn't 1, it's 21. I also have a Piru deck that gains lots of life, because Piru, but the main goal is to turn damage board wipes into kills with Stuffy Doll effects.
Well that was a very interesting way to get my K'rrik... roast? You'd be surprised at how few times people are able to do 2 damage to me btw. I've gone 5 turns playing with the critically low sound from the Pokémon games playing and still people haven't been able to take me out. It's pretty funny ngl.
I have a life gain deck I’m building based around giving pestilence demon or brigid lifelink. Currently its abzan with ikra shadiqi and ardenn as the commanders.
so I built a deck that wants to just double my life total and then swing with serra avatar or something similar. where would you rate this deck? life as a resource? (if people want more than the very general description of the deck i'll say what it does with more details)
Big tip for lifegain players: creatures matter. Seriously. I’ve gained more life off creatures with lifelink than any other passive source, and I run Oloro in the command zone. Also, creatures with deathtouch are far less boring than pillow forts, yet just as effective as a deterrant. One of my favorite inclusions is Nighthawk Scavenger. Flying, Deathtouch, Lifelink and it hits harder as graveyards fill up. Perfection. Instant speed interaction is also very important, as well as anything that gets you ahead by paying life. Reanimate, Necropotence, phyrexian mana, give me all of it. Opponent has a Sheoldred? Feel free to kill the other players while I gain all that life back and draw my cards anyway. My current wincons: Citadel/Top/Reservoir, BloodBond, creature beats, but my favorites are Angel of Destiny and using 3feri to instant speed reanimate a Felidar Sovereign.
Spending life is top tier in deck building fun too, it doesn't feel nearly as straight forward, ignoring perpetual offenders like necropotence. Also another rad shirt, Chadvoker respect
My favroite life gain deck is Orzohov but its Sry Cadian because i love him pun-ishment ans the fact that its a double trigger on life gain from an Uncard in the command zone. Plus hes beautiful
my new beledros deck is the equivalent of pulling your parachute at the last possible second after jumping from orbit. the only reason it has lifegain is to stop me from killing myself out of greed. who needs life when you have mana
"More willing to spend life than a Nike factory" is the hardest thing I've heard all week holy shit
He's not wrong, I'm more than willing to go all the way down to 1 just to undo reverse you into a crater. And this mentality applies to pioneer too!
😂 "Drier than Ben Shapiro's wife" was pretty great too 😂😂
@@mrmo4176Bout to say. And I somewhat like Ben, but damn did he clown himself.
I'm an Evra player, and I like to think of us as BASE jumpers who bring a tablecloth, two golf clubs, a half used container of dental floss, and a gun with us and try to build a parachute on the descent while shooting all of the rocky outcrops that we see.
I play evra as well, though I barely consider it a lifegain deck as all you gotta do is keep your life above 21 and you're fine. There's some lifegain, but it's minimal
First time I hear about Evra. Sounds like an awesome commander
@@dicedude1071isn't she effectively doubling your life starting from swing number 2?
@androkguz it does yeah, but most players aren't letting that stay on the board. And I play evra as a one-hit kill deck though sometimes I do get to untap with my commander out against the surviving players
I made an evra deck and after being super slick with avoiding instants killing while swapping life people started bringing the big guns against her so i dont play it much now
"As an Izzet player, we have the good grace to keel over and die, when we miss our combo" the exact reason i play izzet tbf
Me too. Shoot your shot and leave a big smoking crater. Either be standing victorious in the center of it, or strewn about in charred chunks around it. Either way, I did my thing, and I don't need to sit here and watch you weenies piss around. Call me when it's time for the next shuffle.
i was once a heliod gamer for a little while
* pulls skin off of arm, revealing enchantment sparkles *
*i know better now*
Solemnity is a bitch. And my joy.
Top Tier being "Feral Barn Cat" is perfect. It is what I aspire to be.
After all the struggles, glad you finally got the video working 😮💨
Lifegain is a really cool concept and it's super silly, but I've found that more often than not it devolves into either the lifegainer being mad that you can do more damage than they can gain life or just a pinging dumpster fire where they just try and shut down everything everyone can do until they win
Yup, I’ve never really enjoyed the play patterns of going against lifegain. I tried making some to see how the other side lived and that’s not very engaging either.
@@maldhound I’ve made a few lifegain decks in my time and they’ve always been solid, but it just felt boring to play, like I was winning but not in a fun way
I do run lifegain but it’s usually secondary in most of my decks. While seeing large amounts of life is amusing, pinging people over and over again and having lots of triggers is what really makes my endorphins sing
Lifegain players are just discord mods change my mind
+1/+1 counters should actually be a lot more engaging if they swung in more often
as a beledros player who's entire plan is to sink 18 mana into a hellfire of torment or 28 mana into an exsanguinate while vito is on field this list does put a smile on my face
Beautiful, just beautiful, I’m a filthy self-damage Darien main so I can watch my enemies weep as the damage an opponent does to me is completely negated and now I have an army to beat the hell out of them.
My man.
My absolute favorite “feral barn cat” deck that I built is A Vilis Broker of blood deck. Life is a resource and by Jove I WILL win at either 2 life or 200
Respect. 👍
Or you deck yourself because goddamn does vilis draw some cards
This was sick. 😂 Your talent for the spoken word of monologue knows no bounds.
Thanks for dunking on those goddamn toilet gamin' heliod players.
Thank you 🙏I do my best
I once was playing against a traditional +1/+1 counter lifegain player, while I was using my Witherbloom deck. I outdrained their lifegain. ‘Twas glorious.
Dina, Soul Steeper was one of the first decks I built and I love it. I proxied Exquisite blood into the deck, played it once and realized that 2 card combos that win the game are boring.
I've avoided EB and instead stuck to a minimum of 4-card infinites at worst or none at all.
Blight Mound + Phyrexian Altar + Veinwitch Coven + any 1CMC creature, and even then it requires a 5th card like Dina or Deathgreeter or Essence Warden to do anything.
The Witherbloom precon is a very solid Commander deck built around life manipulation and Dina is an excellent secondary commander in that deck.
It’s a special kind of feeling taking out a life gain player with infect or Sorin reducing their life to ten and swinging. Also, any plans to roast Karona, False God?
Pretty much the only time anyone will side with the infect player at a commander table lol
@@pencilwatchesstuff791Naw, infect is just spooky. Dead in the water after turn four (settle the wreckage), and is severely disadvantaged outside of 1v1s.
While I've never played infect myself, I do respect it in commander, as you've effectively decided to strap weights to yourself and go free climbing, covered in bird food, and with a target on you back.
The infect players only real hope is venerated rotpriest, or proliferate.
@@pencilwatchesstuff791 My wife is the infect player at the table, so I have to side with her 🤣
@@The_ArisenThe new Vraska was a huge help to the cause of poison counters in EDH.
@@TheComicBookJoker You're right! Totally forgot about her. Haven't really kept up since eldraine/theros, outside of the grapevine and spoilers, so that's on me.
lifegain players that love to turn them into +1/+1 counters are the players that also play numbers go up.
What about the Oloro players that only use lifegain to prolong the game and your suffering?
Jail for one thousand years on that one
What are your thoughts about Soul Warden and Marauding Blight-Priest comboing, especially off Restoration angel and Felidar Guardian?
Herd Baloth/Scurry Oak, Soul Warden and Heliod/Cleric Class. Infinite tokens, life and counters.
@@shiro4833I disrupted someone the other day trying to Scurry Oak/Heliod infinite, it was so satisfying watching them explode immediately after (Arena)
I am thinking about putting profane transfusion into my K'rrik deck. THe idea that I can turn 1 play a land -> jeweled lotus -> K'rrik -> blood celebrant -> Profane transfusion whereby I go back up to 40 life and get a 32/32 creature which will be hitting someone in the face turn 2 is just amazing to me. So it turns into a ritual that gets me 4 mana and a 32/32.
I just rebuilt my K'rrik deck and to see that I am at the positive of the list made me happy today.
SAME! Got to play it today for the first time in forever after its rebuild and needless to say, the others were not familiar with the deck. After I Doomsday'd down to 10 life, the Tiamat player got really happy that he could kill me in a turn or two, until I told him "Oh sweet child, you aint getting another turn" xD
I normally don’t play too risky with my life total, but nothing else in the chaos precon mattered to me when I saw Mortarian. He’s more than a bit of a gamble to build around, but there are fewer things more satisfying than him popping off
Dryer than Ben Shapiro's wife 😂
Thank you, I seriously started my MtG journey with Arena and on release "gain life do thing" or "let's play legos" was the meta new player deck at the time, I think it heavily soured me toward white and I'm just not starting to get over it.
I must make a deck that is the top tier here, becoming a feral barn cat at the table is gonna be a delight! Also as a +1/+1 counter enjoyer, fair portrayal. I do indeed stack my little cardboard counters when not paying attention
Thank you my good sir for acknowledging the madness that is feral barn K'rrik, one of my favorite decks
As a Liesa player, I operate with the philosophy and goal of me having all of the life, and my opponents having none
One of my friends runs Liesa and just calls it his Massachussetts taxation deck. The guy runs a billion and a half life-taxing effects and it is disgusting how much damage it puts out over a game.
I played an abzan lifegain deck on Arena for a while, which included both Vito and Heliod. The idea was gain life as often as possible for as much advantages as possible, which often led to extremely buff creatures fairly quickly.
Combine this with Fortifying Draught + Light of Hope as a combat trick and the entire motto of the deck became “Call an ambulance! *But not for me.*”
I had a Torgaar, Famine Incarnate deck what was absolutely in the "Feral Barn Cat" Tier. Pay a bunch of life to things like Greed and Necropotence for card advantage, sac Torgaar to Gisa for zombies, sac the zombies to bring Torgaar back out, bring my life back to 20. Naturally it also ran Wound Reflection and Archfiend of Despair in case there were players at the table trying to pull lifegain shenanigans.
Man be making videos faster than I can watch em.
As a Yawgmoth player, life is a resource it's just how you spend it and gain it that's important.
As a Krrik player being able to go to one life and then win the game in a single turn is some of the most fun you can have in magic.
My absolute favorite deck is my Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn. Having over 1000 +1/+1 counters on a stupid little 1/1 lifelinker is silly and I love it. Recent cards like The One Ring and Staff of Compleation have been amazing adds to the deck since I have as much life as I could ever need to spend on them.
I have one too and it's always a good time to suddenly beat the table to death with a birds of paradise 💚
@@onionshark Woe, 300/301 birds of paradise be upon ye.
Karlov of the Ghost Council was the first commander deck I built myself. And man, I love me some bits of all of those types of plays. Aetherflux, Exquisite Blood, pillow fort... MMMMmmmMMM! Give me all the life.
Darien, King of Kjeldor. The master of so much life gain it’s pseudo invincibility and you get an army out of it. He kinda does almost all of these things depending what you plug into the deck.
I personally focus on self damage so I can generate as many tokens as possible.
For those that don’t know, Darien makes 1/1 tokens equal to the damage you take, in white there is many creatures who give 1 or 2 life whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control so with even just one of these you then gain all life lost due to damage back, if you have more it then gives even more life.
Darien is one of the few mono-white decks my playgroup has banned me from ever playing again because I was goddamn unkillable. It really is "if you're gonna swing at the king, you best not miss". You'd better kill me in one shot or all you've done is given me more life and a massive army.
@@RemUchiha they must be fans of big or many creatures. I know I’d get stomped by one of my friends life drain deck or his infect deck, Darien is also susceptible to control spells since his high mana cost means you’re putting him out later than mostly everyone else.
If he sticks though, white’s protection spells and the absolutely asinine amount of combos you can pull off with him make him a kill on sight commander.
A few of my favorite combos
1. Anything that gives +1/+1 counters on heal or ETB and a walking ballista for infinite tokens since you can target yourself.
2. Dingus staff, means you can sling your tokens any way you want since they’ll make 2 new ones if they die, combine with Phyrexian altar for infinite mana, tokens, and life
3. Blasting station, as long as the Hp return is greater than 1 per token it’s infinite life.
4. A lesser known interaction, Angel’s trumpet, just don’t attack and your creatures will tap and deal damage back to you making more tokens also prompt your opponents to attack since they’ll take damage too if they don’t, great against pillowfort decks.
5. Rumor gatherer, every token you make let’s you scry and the second time it activates it nets you a card, you can easily use this to stack your deck in your favor.
Were does Ondu Cleric in an Ally deck fall on this list?
My favorite life gain I have ever used was the simple mix of have massive hydra, cast Predator’s Rapport. Although, as a predominantly black mana player, I have used a lot of the top two tiers in my life.
Zimone and Dina are my favorite lifegain deck I have because it does it via the best things in the game: drawing cards, slingin' spells, and sacrifiing weenies. The life gain is merely a means to an end.
I'm currently sidegrading my Willowdusk Deck into a Dina variant. Willowdusk in concept is an aweseome commander, but her sorcery speed and that your easily interrupted while building your board state ist just discouraging. I've proxied a few round with Dina and it was just fun. Since I really enjoy golgari lifegain atm, the fact that I can put Aristocrat in there is just awesome!
Mad respect for the Shadow Wizard Money Gang shirt
Missed by girls the Seedborn Muse and Wellwishers. "Your turn, my turn, your elves, my elves... does it really matter?"
Love the invoker shirt. I'm a washed up dota player and I yearn for simpler times of battery acid caffeine drinks and carpal tunnel.
I spent so much life that I had a self destruct button. One pay of necropotence, and I am dead. In response, I pay on life, and I die.
Love playing Karlov of the Ghost Council... I get TWO +1/+1 counters whenever I gain life lol. And they can be removed to exile enemy creatures.
But then I realize why remove counters when he's a 28/28 and my lifegain deck somehow became voltron
My favorite life gain players are the ones that try to gain life when i have tainted rememdy on the field
I started running 2 copies of that in my mono black discard/Sheoldred deck just for people running Angels or Vito. Nothing more annoying than being one turn away from bringing every creature back from the dead with Sheoldred and getting hit with an infinite
Also, side note, I didn't realize that Tainted Remedy doesn't stack for the longest time lmao
I had assumed they would have separate procs, I was wrong.
Wasted 3 mana I could've used on a more meaningful play and actually ended up losing that match
@@MongoTheMagnificent666 yeah that was a hard lesson.
Proud Feral Barn Cat. Life will always be a resource, YuGiOh taught me well.
My Licia Sanguine Tribune deck REALLY leans hard into the "2 life is enough as long as I get another turn", mostly because the absolute threat of a 2 turn clock that reverses damage and is hard to beat in combat is terrifying.
I think this the first video that headshot me with one of my favorite combos: Exquisite Blood + Cliffhaven Vampire.
can you do a video on Anje Falkenrath
As a Licia player, I refuse to be neatly categorised as such. I will do all this and more!
As a sanguine/exquisite player I approve this message
You're a terrible human being and I hope all of your chips and cookies are broken before you open the packages.
Me, running filidar sovereign: bruh, I just wanna gain life to gain life.
I feel personally attacked by this one.
Love it, give me more
Ah yes the 4 lifegain archetypes:
- Combo
- Combo
- Combo
- Combo
Long ago, when I played mtg, I always enjoyed black cards that had a reduced mana cost because they cost life to play. Life is absolutely a resource to be spent. You folks have fun, I can't wrap my head around fifteen activations on turn three to draw and play half the deck.
Gotta wonder where Trostani, Selesny's voice would land in this bc it's a big tokens life gain deck that uses the life gain to get more tokens through effects such as Angelic Accord and Valkyrie Harbringer
Huh... nice to know the combo I'm working on a deck for is in the top half of the tier list. :P
Some of us dont have a wincon
We just gain a never ending ocean of life.
I'm digging that Invoker shirt though xD
As a heliod player, I usually end up with a much bigger board that makes everything just landslide if I am on the winning side of things, though with +1+1's I end up going commander damage half the time
Willowdusk here, ive got every single card he named except bilbo in a deck. Sure, +1/+1 counters aint much. But it takes 5 turns or so before i bust out cadaverous bloom, or unspeakable symbol and go near infinite with any lifelink or draw synergy. Shits nuts
I love our Beledros witherbloom deck because it's both of the last two categories at once. Paying lots of life and gaining it back and making our opponents lose like 8 life every time we sac a pest. It's good fun
I have a Heliod package in my Shalai & Halar deck, where the point of the life gain is to enable pinging, building up to an army that can swing to finish. That feels like it ranks on the Vito tier?
Also, what about the new style with food and Hobbits?
one of my favorite decks Ive fought against was a Bolas Citadel/Aetherflux Reservoir combo deck. I forget what their commander was but the combo was fake storm burning through life and then gaining it back for every spell. the 50 life kill button didnt matter so much because they got so many other threats on the board before that was even a thing to worry about
Sensei's divining top is what really breaks that combo.
i think the most common Bolas/Aetherflux combo deck is K'rrik. Turning all black mana into Phyrexian absolutely turbo charges you towards that combo. Managed to slam mine turn 5 with a turn 4 Razaketh to tutor up my Citadel and Doomsday. Could be MUCH faster, I just need the good mana rocks (Vault/Crypt/Jeweled Lotus/Petal/etc). Ive seen a turn 2 win with the deck, its just nuts
love the invoker shirt, where'd you get it?
Im that guy with a Liesa deck. I like testing the idea that life is a resource, and i make everyone abide by that.
What do you think of the Bruse Tarl Boorish Herder / Ikra Shidiqi Life Gain deck?
As someone who pretty much immediately made a plan to build a Lifegain deck helmed by Bilbo as soon as I saw the decklist, I appreciate the respect.
Also, I'm still requesting a roast of my main lady, Atla Palani and/or my husband's other main lady, Rashmi.
EDH Oloro Tokens deck here. Tons of fun and very viable if left alone and viable even if not left alone. Where does the token builds get put in this?
Can you do Lathiel, The Bounteous Dawn?
Yes please, roast my favorite commander so hard my 1000 life doubling each turn does nothing.
Yesterday I played against a life gain deck (with postie) and almost won several times because my commander is emrakul the turn stealer and they had multiple life loss outlets, but the other player played like 7 different combos so I couldn't finish em off
I don’t know if I’m doing this right but boy howdy I would love a Xyris, the Writhing Storm roast
I play yidris storm and when I saw the “solitaire” I knew it was coming 😂
I was the first guy in our playgroup to run the Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood combo some years ago, and I do have Aetherflux Reservoir as an alternate win-con in my Jhoira deck. But infinite combos bore me now(especially in black; they're too easy to tutor for).
Really, lifegain strategies are something that I WANT to love, but aren't supported the way that I want them to be.
I guess my Frodo and Sam deck would be more in-line with the bottom tier Heliod crowd. Accumulates incidental value from the life gain from sacrificing Food and eventually swing in with a wide, buffed board. Although at least when I get the fourth ring tempting I do start to spread damage around.
I play Trelasarra Lifegain, which I know puts me in your bottom tier, but I do try to play more aggressively than the usual Heliod types.
Cause my favorite number to count to isn't 1, it's 21.
I also have a Piru deck that gains lots of life, because Piru, but the main goal is to turn damage board wipes into kills with Stuffy Doll effects.
Selenia, Dark Angel. I will go into the shadow realm if not to drag you with me 💀
me, with only an Elas Il-Kor deck, and am too stupid to learn how to make a second one, "I feel justifiably attacked and insulted. but fair."
Well that was a very interesting way to get my K'rrik... roast? You'd be surprised at how few times people are able to do 2 damage to me btw. I've gone 5 turns playing with the critically low sound from the Pokémon games playing and still people haven't been able to take me out. It's pretty funny ngl.
My elenda and azor deck likes to pay like 8-14 life during each players turn but still sit at arpund 50 or so life points, its crazy.
Me, who runs Shock as a pet card in their Izzet decks: "Lol, lmao"
Where does my archimandrite advisor beat down deck fall into all of this?
I have a K'rrik Aetherflux storm deck that I never play because I start to get bored during my own turn.
Can you do a MTG sins tier list? It starts with Mill.
The worst sin, playing blue
As a Liesa, shroud of Dusk player, those top two sounded very familiar. Not sure where that lands me on the scale of degeneracy.
I have a life gain deck I’m building based around giving pestilence demon or brigid lifelink. Currently its abzan with ikra shadiqi and ardenn as the commanders.
What do you think of firesong and sunspeaker?
+1/+1 counter decks are why i always run a couple blightbeetles. they scoop so fast its cathartic.
Asking for a Kokusho commander roast so that my playgroup has something to link me when they have to deal with my BS.
As a sheoldred player I agree ping decks are annoying which is why I play them
so I built a deck that wants to just double my life total and then swing with serra avatar or something similar. where would you rate this deck? life as a resource? (if people want more than the very general description of the deck i'll say what it does with more details)
K'rrik is my boi
And He gets some of that tasty Izzit shenanigans also when you put Villias on the field with him.
The good old days of suicide black when a turn 2 hatred for lethal, I lose 18 life you die was a thing, a competitive thing even.
Invoker tshirt?
I knew you had impeccable taste
So, where does an Enchantress deck looking to win with Test of Endurance or Felidar Sovereign fall on this list?
Down there with the aetherflux players
@@maldhound I can respect that.
Blood magic is one my favourites in and out of MTG. It's the best aspect of black
Big tip for lifegain players: creatures matter. Seriously. I’ve gained more life off creatures with lifelink than any other passive source, and I run Oloro in the command zone. Also, creatures with deathtouch are far less boring than pillow forts, yet just as effective as a deterrant. One of my favorite inclusions is Nighthawk Scavenger. Flying, Deathtouch, Lifelink and it hits harder as graveyards fill up. Perfection.
Instant speed interaction is also very important, as well as anything that gets you ahead by paying life. Reanimate, Necropotence, phyrexian mana, give me all of it. Opponent has a Sheoldred? Feel free to kill the other players while I gain all that life back and draw my cards anyway.
My current wincons: Citadel/Top/Reservoir, BloodBond, creature beats, but my favorites are Angel of Destiny and using 3feri to instant speed reanimate a Felidar Sovereign.
Spending life is top tier in deck building fun too, it doesn't feel nearly as straight forward, ignoring perpetual offenders like necropotence.
Also another rad shirt, Chadvoker respect
even tho I didn't do well with it the one time I played it Verrak, Warped Sengir is still my favorite lifegain commander.
I used to use Tolsimir, the great henge, and wolves for my life gain.
My favroite life gain deck is Orzohov but its Sry Cadian because i love him pun-ishment ans the fact that its a double trigger on life gain from an Uncard in the command zone.
Plus hes beautiful
ok, but where can I get that cool Invoker shirt?
I use all of these strategies in my tayam deck, and it's so powerful
Oh dear. I’m solitaire headass. Oloro as commander, pillowfort city, combo off with Aetherflux wth Bolas’s Citadel and Sensei’s Top
How do we feel about a group hug based lifegain deck, except eventually you drop cards like Tainted Remedy and Vizkopa Guildmage?
my new beledros deck is the equivalent of pulling your parachute at the last possible second after jumping from orbit. the only reason it has lifegain is to stop me from killing myself out of greed. who needs life when you have mana