Abzan Lifegain/Lifeloss

Standard BGW (Abzan, Junk) Lifegain Midrange Ramp

Cipher_8

Creature (16)

• 3x Briarbridge Patrol
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 2x Felidar Sovereign
• 4x Graf Mole
• 1x Thraben Inspector
• 4x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Ulvenwald Hydra

Land (22)

• 2x Canopy Vista
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 10x Forest
• 4x Plains
• 2x Swamp

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Ulvenwald Mysteries

Artifact (5)

• 2x Alhammarret's Archive
• 3x Tamiyo's Journal

Instant (8)

• 2x Collected Company
• 1x Confront the Unknown
• 3x Dazzling Reflection
• 2x Survive the Night

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Dark Petition
• 3x Nissa's Pilgrimage
• 3x Nissa's Renewal

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Sideboard

Creature (3)

• 3x Thraben Inspector

Artifact (1)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive

Instant (5)

• 1x Collected Company
• 2x Confront the Unknown
• 2x Second Harvest

Sorcery (6)

• 2x Animist's Awakening
• 1x Dark Petition
• 2x Healing Hands
• 1x Seasons Past

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Maybeboard

Creature (6)

• 1x Erdwal Illuminator
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Uninvited Geist  ^Flip
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Whirler Rogue
• 1x World Breaker

Land (1)

• 1x Hissing Quagmire

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Ongoing Investigation
• 1x Trail of Evidence
• 1x Weirding Wood

Instant (1)

• 1x Center Soul

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Damnable Pact
• 1x Fork in the Road
• 1x Gather the Pack

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Introduction

Abzan is all about Endurance. Their style is to outlast foes. Be the survivors.

With the Lifegain in this deck you can endure a lot of punishment and outlast them to victory.

This is a mashup of a bunch of different decks I've done recently.

Basically it's all about Investigate, which I originally thought was a bland new mechanic but have since grown to like proving myself and initial reactions wrong (once again).

So many ways to build around Investigate that it fits into a bunch of different archetypes and color combinations.

Show

I've built quite a few Investigate Decks.

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Blue's Clues

Standard Cipher_8

SCORE: 5 | 6 COMMENTS | 853 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

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Simic Standard

Standard Cipher_8

90 VIEWS

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Selesnya Company

Standard Cipher_8

96 VIEWS

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Selesnya Company Lifegain

Standard Cipher_8

SCORE: 1 | 316 VIEWS

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( Check them out.)

Some of the better combo's that I like in Standard involve the Clues Investigate puts out.

One of my favorites is Tireless Tracker/ Graf Mole combo. There's none better than a Tireless Tracker to flood the field with Clues.

Ulvenwald Mysteries and Graf Mole from there take full advantage as does the Tireless Tracker itself when you sac a clue.

Tamiyo's Journal is always a key card in any investigate. It tutors up anything you want. In this deck that card is Felidar Sovereign or Defiant Bloodlord.

I know Defiant Bloodlord costs a lot to get into play but trust me you have the ramp to cast him in this deck. Nissa's Renewal and Evolving Wilds lets you search for the few swamps you need to cast it.

Recently I came across a deck by Dafoose that used him in a lifegain based deck. I felt I could make a variant of my Selesnya Company Lifegain that does a better job of gaining life.

How it Plays

Lifegain

You'll notice quickly enough how much life your gaining naturally just the way the deck is built. Without even trying your going to gain so much life simply by getting clues and using clues for draws. We can sustain a longer match with more life and that's the abzan way. Extending games allows us to collect more and more Clues with more and more lands coming in. Gather your combo pieces and overwhelm them. Eventually you can outlast them long enough to get one of two wincons.

Lifegain in Standard? Show

Some of you might think, "Lifegain in Standard?" Pft. Not possible. There's not enough support for it to be good.

Can focusing around Lifegain really be achieved in Standard?

(Not really tier 1 competitive but it is possible and this deck will show you how. )

There's a lot of synergy here to be had with Lifegain and Clues via .

Moles? Show

Come on can you resist a deck that lets you re-enact this scene saying, "MOLEY MOLEY MOLEY" everytime Collected Company plucks and plays multiple Graf Mole s?

That's a worthy enough reason for playing this deck if you find no other reason.

Could this be the deck that brings back the glory of Ol' Felidar Sovereign in standard? Allowing us to win via Lifegain frequently enough.

With him or Defiant Bloodlord we can generally win via Lifegain but if not we have secondary Wincons by just beating their life down with a massive Tireless Tracker/Ulvenwald Hydra.

Get a Clue?

Clues

What makes this deck tick are the Clue generators and some of them are the same cards that go off for sacrificing Clues.

( Tireless Tracker | Ulvenwald Mysteries )

We ramp to pay for the we need to Sac multiple Clues a turn but also we specifically ramp lands into play to generate Clues with Tireless Tracker.

Tireless Tracker | Art by Eric Deschamps

It's entirely too easy to flood the field with Clues with Tireless Tracker's "whenever land(s) enter the battlefield" triggered ability.

Especially when you have more than one in play. (Collected Company helps to a great extent in getting multiples into play.) When you have 2-3 of the key Clue cards in play it really allows for some blowout games.

We got the basic land searchers that put lands into play for Tireless Tracker.

Nissa's Pilgrimage gets things going early with Forests but Nissa's Renewal puts the game away when you can bring out Forest/ Plains / or the few Swamp -- any basic lands -- plus it's gaining you a large chunk of life.

Trail of Evidence is a card we could use alongside the land searcher spells to gain even more clues.

Evolving Wilds is great alongside T.T. because it'll enter, you'll get a Clue and then you tap it to search for any of the basic lands (Forest/ Plains /Swamp) they also enter to trigger T.T. to give you another Clue, 2 in one turn.

Once you start sac'ing Clues just watch Tireless Tracker grow. Before you know it's the biggest creature in play and a threat to end the game.

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Graf Mole

Aside from Tireless Tracker the other Clue processor is this Mole.

You'll want to get them in multiples before you start sac'ing Clues left and right. Once you do though it's great lifegain.

Remember Collected Company can possibly put 2 or more into play as soon as T4. If not you might be able to Ramp and cast two from your hand as fast as T4 anyways. Hit 3 land drops and a Nissa's Pilgrimage for 6 lands and now you just need two in your hand.

You'll have a bunch of clues saved up in no matter of time at all and if they try to remove Graf Mole you can act in response, tap mana, and sacrifice the clues to gain a bunch of life before the Graf mole's go bye bye.

Often this will pump Tireless Tracker up at same time or put a bunch of 1/1 Human Soldiers into play via Ulvenwald Mysteries.

For simply sac'ing Clues this Enchantment will replace any fallen creatures and every time one of your creatures does die to removal it also gives you some payback as you get more Clues.

Plenty of cards trigger effects for sac'ing Clues. Whether it's putting counters on creatures or gaining life it's never a bad move to Sac a Clue. Plus it draw cards refilling your hand for more play potential. Card advantage is always powerful in Magic. Don't underestimate it.

If you would rather gather Clues for one big splash turn then hold onto them. Cards like Confront the Unknown make whatever goes through unblocked hit harder or allow you to surprise them with a buff to kill off a blocker that thinks it's picking off a weak creature. If you have 6+ clues in play that's a big swing in power/toughness for just one mana at instant speed.

Mostly though you'll want to Sac at least some of the Clues each turn.

It's entirely possible to sac 3 Clues; draw 6 cards, get three 1/1 Human Soldier, put 3 +1/+1 counters on Tireless Tracker, and gain 18 life all in one turn in this deck.

If you manage to have a Alhammarret's Archive in play that is.Controlling one of these at the same time as the Moles and your life gain exponentially rises to insane levels and it won't be long before you reach 40+ for Felidar Sovereign. Remember other cards can gain you life too besides the Moles. Do not overlook a Nissa's Renewal in your hand. Alongside Alhammarret's Archive it goes from 7 to 14 life gain.

Alhammarret's Archive also plays well with Clues. It lets you draw 2 for every Clue you sacrifice. Which only takes the Clue theme above and beyond what it's intended to do. Sac 3 clues draw an entire new hand and trigger all the other cards effects to go off.

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Briarbridge Patrol

Let's us put anything in for free while we're just doing our thing of sac'ing clues. Defiant Bloodlord on T5? Yeah it's possible.

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Tamiyo's Journal

The handy dandy notebook really is a key card for this deck.

This card is so important for it's ability to tutor up anything we need.

Examples of cards to target; a Felidar Sovereign when your nearing 40 life as a finisher/WinCon, or another Graf Mole , Defiant Bloodlord, Alhammarret's Archive, Dazzling Reflection , or Nissa's Renewal . All these cards work towards lifegain.

One last card the Briarbridge Patrol. Tap the Tamiyo's Journal and sac 3 Clues to go get Briarbridge Patrol, cast the Briarbridge Patrol with mana, then get the Defiant Bloodlord in your hand into play for free that turn because you sac'd 3 clues this turn. This triggers at your end step saving you 7 mana. Remember, Briarbridge Patrol doesn't need to be in play when sac happens, just at the end step of the turn you did the sac'ing.

The possibilities are endless but that's just how powerful of an ability it is to tutor ANYTHING! Dark Petitions also is pretty powerful for this.

With Tamiyo's Journal however we're using our Clues to tutor up anything and when we sac those clues we're triggering other effects to go off. Tamiyo's Journal lets us sac those 3 clues for free, without paying (saving the mana for other things but it'll still trigger all those cards who have effects for sac'ing a clue. And it will trigger them 3 times.

( Tireless Tracker | Ulvenwald Mysteries | Graf Mole )

It would be great in multiples to generate Clue(s) every turn but it's a Legendary. We still want more than a couple of them to ensure we draw one and get one in play every game though. Who knows when they might make you sacrifice an Artifact or Exile/Remove it and you need to cast another.

Dazzling Reflection

The flavor with a Felidar themed deck is here. Besides that though this is just a awesome card. It is great for when they start coming at you with some aggression - preventing some of that damage - but more than that it's even better lifegain.

Once you've pumped a Tireless Tracker up or the Ulvenwald Hydra the sky is the limit. Yes, it's versatile enough to where you can target your own creature with a lot of power and gain a lot more life -- which is only doubled through Alhammarret's Archive. Getting +10 life doubled to 20 is game changing. Basically puts it away for you.

One of my favorite combo's is Ulvenwald Hydra as a 10/10 with 10 lands in play. Then after amassing Clue after Clue you have 10 of them in play saved up. Cast Confront the Unknown on Ulvenwald Hydra. It becomes a 20/20 now cast Dazzling Reflection targeting it. You gain +20 life but wait you have a Alhammarret's Archive in play so that's +40 life! Oh you also have a Felidar Sovereign in play? Game over next turn.

Use Survive the Night or Center Soul to save your Tireless Tracker that is all countered up. Instant speed protection is important and when your over 40 life there's nothing better to be holding then one of these two cards. It ensures your WinCon Felidar Sovereign is in play at the beginning of your next upkeep.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 2 Mythic Rares 16 - 6 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 7 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.84
Tokens	Clue, Copy Clone, Human Soldier 1/1 W