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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Wall of Essence
Creature — Wall
Defender *(This creature can't attack.) *
Whenever Wall of Essence is dealt combat damage, you gain that much life.
Capt_J on
Synthesis
2 years ago
Hmmm.... I don't see your source of green mana for putting out the birds or the noble.
I love the idea of using Urbog, and karma together.
perhaps Wall of Essence and Perimeter Captain would be good additions. They can both slow down enemies and prolong your life until Phyrexian Unlife comes out. Wall of Omens
Idoneity on
Life Drain - EDH
3 years ago
Alright, I have some suggestions. Now, never have I dipped in the complot of nocent life-gain, but I do see some follies withal the current decklist.
So, ramp and card draw are necessities of any commander strategy. I typically play decks that dump their hands aggressively, thus I have far more draw than normal. Around 34 slots grant me card advantage and 11 slots are for ramp. Here, you have four cards of ramp and five cards of draw. Granted, one of the draw engines is your commander, but that's six-mana afore it does so.
Furthermore, there are plenty of cards in here that just lack reach. Ajani's Sunstriker is horrid to draw turn 8 and onwards. It may be aggressive betime in the match, yet it is outclassed far too quickly.
So, what I'd cut due to card quality: Agent of Masks, Ajani's Sunstriker, Drana's Emissary, Fog Bank, Goldenglow Moth, Grim Guardian, Night Market Lookout, Oreskos Sun Guide, Pride Guardian, Servant of Tymaret, Wall of Essence, Elixir of Immortality, Fountain of Renewal, Narrow Escape, Spell Pierce, and Mana Leak.
Alright, same drill but I wish to offer some substantiation afore I denunciate these.
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Coastal Piracy is a very potent card in decks possessing cheap, evasive creatures. This deck does not, thence I would advise ablating it; merely too inutile.
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Sinister Possession and Stab Wound, no matter how much I love the Wound, are easily removed. A sacrifice outlet just negates this effect. The Possession in particular doesn't seem to do anything against certain creatures. Chainer, Dementia Master or Oracle of Mul Daya just don't oft attack or block. Even if, it is a mere two damage. Sure, it may stack quickly, but there are better ways to do so.
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Condescend is just outclassed so quickly. Counterspells above two mana must do something potent, and this is potentially more. Scrying 2 is fine, but that also doesn't do much.
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I have never seen Dramatic Rescue ere now, but I know not why it would be run. Just put in a Swords.
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Dismiss into Dream is sweet, but this deck cannot deem to hent much from it.
Lovely! Now upon what I would add.
Given that the curve is rather high, I'd add Pristine Talisman; Arcane Signet; the talismans of dominance, progress, and hierarchy; Orzhov, Azorius, and Dimir signet; Mind Stone; and Worn Powerstone. This should grant you later plays far earlier in any match.
Unto thee, benison in card draw. Painful Truths is one I much enjoy. Sign in Blood or Night's Whisper are cheap and efficient. Phyrexian Arena and Underworld Connections go in quite a few decks. Well of Lost Dreams is just splendid. Fact or Fiction is never bad. Dawn of Hope is slow but on-theme. Erebos, God of the Dead seems all too perfect due to its static and activated abilities. Dream Trawler is awfully enticing for gameplans such as this. Lastly, Unfulfilled Desires is a hidden gem that I play in any deck that produces blue and black mana.
Of course, just some efficient engines and finishers. Debt to the Deathless and Exsanguinate are each nocent once resolved. K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth could also be fine, but lacking depending on your hand, for it cares only if the cost is black. Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord fetches fallen utility creatures from the yard and proffers much in life-gain. Aetherflux Reservoir does much in murdering everyone, too.
I'd recommend some more wraths in this deck. Fumigate is perfect, Merciless Eviction or Austere Command deal with those pesky artifacts efficiently, Elspeth, Sun's Champion is never bad, Supreme Verdict is fine though pricey, or Kaya's Wrath is always lovely. Take your pick.
Okay, now for some other upgrades on the basics of the deck. Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Abolish, Return to Dust, Murderous Rider, Anguished Unmaking, Despark, Hero's Downfall, Reality Shift, Generous Gift, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, and Heliod's Intervention all remove permanents efficiently and at instant speed. Vindicate is fine but a sorcery.
As options for better counterspells, Absorb, Counterspell, Negate, Countersquall, and Dovin's Veto are all cheap whiles bearing value at all moments in the game.
Finally, some more life gain payoffs as consideration: Authority of the Consuls has oft shut down my strategies, Ajani's Pridemate gets far too large, Blind Obedience does something similar, Divinity of Pride and Serra Ascendant are giant threats in their own right, Bloodthirsty Aerialist does the same, Propaganda and Ghostly Prison make opponents pay to deal damage, Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant are early drops that allow for quite a bit of life to be gained, Archangel of Thune is always potent, Vona, Butcher of Magan is spicey, Angel of Vitality bolsters your engine, Boon Reflection doubles it, Twilight Prophet can get out of hand, Beacon of Immortality puts you heavensly ahead, Ajani, Strength of the Pride can win games on its own, and Felidar Sovereign demands an immediate answer.
That's all from me! Have a lovely day.
Oh, and I suppose I'll put a deck of my own here. Let the Nightmare Go On.. is a constant favourite of mine and The Lands Restored offers commensurate enjoyment.
Thank you and farewell.
Lanzo493 on
Pay-to-Play
4 years ago
Some of the cards you're running you may run into problems with as you test your deck out. Gifted Aetherborn is great in formats like standard, but in Commander it's harder to make use of a small creature that doesn't impact life totals very much. Perimeter Captain has the same issue. If someone is attacking you, it's probably because they have the advantage in the combat step so blocking once with your defenders before they die won't help a lot. Wall of Essence and Souls of the Faultless have the same issue, although out of all of them the souls of the faultless seems like the best if you were to keep one. Serra Avatar can be chump blocked and you have no way to reliable give her lifelink, so she's a big card that doesn't do much. Student of Warfare really doesn't seem to fit the lifegain theme of your deck. Axis of Mortality doesn't seem to fit your deck either. If your deck is working right, you will have the highest life total. So why change it with someone else? And there isn't much advantage to swapping opponent life totals either. Fatal Push just doesn't cut it in a format like commander with big finishers. Same with Summary Judgment. I'd take out Cradle of Vitality as well since your deck mostly about triggering small incidental pieces of lifegains and not huge swings of it.
I suggest removing these cards just so you can have more lands. A good rule of hand I use for commander is that you run 32 lands + 1 land for each color + 1 land for your commander's converted mana cost. For you, that'd be 36 lands. This is very flexible, btw. I would suggest Rogue's Passage being one of those lands because your commander can get very big. You can just kill somebody with those 21 points of commander damage if you'd like. Two other great cards are Bloodchief Ascension and Phyrexian Processor. They seem to work well with your deck. Just make sure to have another 4 mana to at least activate the processor once before it's destroyed.
ZendikariWol on
4 years ago
This is two different decks fighting each other for space.
One deck is BW Ally lifegain/rally. For that, you want to be running Bloodbond Vampire, Drana's Emissary, Kalastria Healer (which absolutely wins games), Zulaport Cutthroat, maybe Lantern Scout.
The other is Mono-White lifegain. Ajani's Welcome, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, Authority of the Consuls, Archangel of Thune, Ashes of the Abhorrent for the sideboard, maybe Linden, the Steadfast Queen, Lone Rider Flip, perhaps, as a finisher, Nyx-Fleece Ram is stunningly potent against fast creature decks, in a similar vein to the also-pioneer-legal Wall of Essence.
I think your first step in making improvements to this deck is deciding which of these your deck wants to be.
Darth_Savage on
Rider Life Gains
4 years ago
Pioneer is a fun format and the meta just received a shake up, but even so, the power level of decks can swing closer to Modern than Standard. Which I guess brings me to your deck, conventional wisdom is that life-gain for the sake of life-gain is not a good strategy. Normally a deck aiming to gain life will run Approach of the Second Sun or Felidar Sovereign a win condition based on what your deck wants to do. You're not running these though, instead you have a deck primarily made up of 2 CMC creature spells. That casting cost is relevant because, that's the cost that Fatal Push alongside others like Legion's End kill.
Don't get me wrong, Lone Rider is a cool card, but it needs better support. Healer's Hawk, is a cheap efficient enough creature, but Sacred Cat represents an easy 2-for-1. I'd swap Adanto Vanguard to Wall of Essence spending removal on a wall is a bad deal, but if your opponent doesn't it can gain you significant life. I'd run straight removal Declaration in Stone or Stasis Snare rather than Dromoka's Command. I'd also suggest you look at Blind Obedience this stalls your opponent and lets you spend extra mana. In green there is also Feed the Clan which might come in useful...
I hope this helps, good luck brewing your deck.
Apollo_Paladin on
No one can stop the wall!
4 years ago
If you're going to do a Wall (Defender) Deck, I'd recommend switching your colors from Green-Blue-Red to Green-Blue-White.
Arcades, the Strategist isn't a super-expensive card to purchase & he adds immensely to Defender builds.
Wall of Roots can help you out quite a bit with Mana Generation, especially if you need a bunch of it in a hurry. The same is true of Saruli Caretaker Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is a must-have too I'd say for when you can shed Defender abilities & attack.
If you do decide to splash White, then you have a number of other really decent (and inexpensive) Defender options such as Wall of Essence , Novice Knight , Resolute Watchdog , and many - MANY - more.
Tbology on
Gate Defender
5 years ago
Yes, I just put Axebane Guardian in last night and game testing it. It made a huge different in the deck! X any colors of mana is a super helpful on mana fixing! Totally agree with you.
Doorkeeper and Vent Sentinel can be a good one to add in for extra winning condition, I had try to put in different type of defender with color mana, but still colorless wall feels more consistent to me, if you have any idea to adjust to deck so that I can play different color defender would be great.
Currently I am thinking about going for life gain defender, which is focus on white. such as Fortified Rampart, Jeskai Barricade, Order of the Stars, Perimeter Captain, Pride Guardian, Stalwart Shield-Bearers, Wall of Essence, etc.
| Have (2) | reikitavi , oyianakis |
| Want (2) | Crashington , theyounghansolo |