You may have noticed this list isn't actually a purist tribal compilation (nor are all the cleric's from Dominaria) - and that comes down to the bare bones truth of tribal decks themselves. 1) The tribal support must be outstanding and 2) The tribe's identity itself must match our Commander's identity in terms of both our winning image and our path to achieve that winning image. In both the aforementioned guidelines, we have an acceptable number of clerics that fall into category 2, but not so much in category 1. Regardless, we'll take what we can get.
No surprise here, after all Ayli is a more flexible Starlit Sanctum on a legendary cleric body, and on top of that we can achieve redundancy with Lightning Greaves, Disciple of Griselbrand, and Miren, the Moaning Well. I'd like to establish this as our basis, Let's tackle a few points before we move on.
1) What about her second ability? Shouldn't we build around that as well?
Yes and no. I don't want to get attached to strategy of getting "50 and up" on life points. This is two-fold; the first point emphasizes traditional orzhov mentality that life is a resource. Veteran B/X players know well that short of B/U, black very likely holds our main card draw components. Necropotence, Phyrexian Arena, Greed,
Underworld Connections
, Erebos, God of the Dead, are common core and all require some measurable amount of life. If we are too focused on hitting our 50 and staying there, we invite the possibility of passing on opportunities when we should be up on card advantage rather than life totals.
The second point is simply the politics; if I set the standard of the game with the "50 and up" mindset; then surely all three of our opponents will do their absolute best to keep me as far from it as possible. In essence, convincing our opponents our main strategy is to hit our milestone life totals not only gives them an excuse to swing our way as much as they please - but will very likely grant another player the underdog status (allowing them the time to build their board state and resources while we are forced to use all our answers defensively rather than disruptively).
So instead, let us choose the more flexible route that allows us to play with an almost utmost disregard to our life totals. As long as our life total isn't zero, then in true cleric fashion, have faith that sooner or later we will go infinite. When that happens, win however you see fit (Winding Canyons + Felidar Sovereign, Vizkopa Guildmage, Test of Endurance)
Easy Auto-Includes
This kind of thinking lends itself to a certain choice of cards above others. We are not going crazy over high frequency sacrificing of small things, or in most case the low frequency high value sacrificing of on-death trigger fatties - we're just looking for the right set of cards at the right time in the right board state. Let's get the easy picks out the way
The Clerics
Here we approach the not so intuitive part of the build - choosing our tribe members, their associates, and convincing ourselves we made the right choices. Be reminded that this particular Ayli build is through and through a supremely underwhelming infinite-life-gain combo build. Interestingly enough, clerics are surprisingly combo friendly, piece protective, and if you fail once - than the tribe encourages you to try, try again.
A friend of the Combo Show
Soul's Attendant - Combo's with Leonin Relic-Warder and Animate Dead!
Soul Warden - Same as above
Auriok Champion
- Same as above
Edgewalker
- This is probably my favorite card in magic, very excited to finally be using it. Black and White symbol reduction for 3 cmc and beautiful artwork simply can not be ignored.
Withered Wretch - Keep those graveyards in their place
Master Apothecary
- Included for your consideration, but a gem in tribal cleric decks
Protector of the Combo Show
Phyrexian Processor - Pay any amount of life, and receive the processor's bountiful blessings. If you achieve infinite life before playing this, you just might have a win-con.
Preacher
- So I'm testing this, and I really want this guy to do some work...you don't have to run him.
Scroll Rack + Land Tax + Sensei's Divining Top = Typical combo searching tech.
Let's tie up some loose ends, by now we've gotten a solid foundation for what the build can and wants to do, so what remains is entirely up to the deck designers whim. Personally, I preferred to flesh the remaining slots left with a suite of flexible spot removal, flexible mass removal, mana rocks, land grab, and land fetch. You can see for yourself in the list. Feel free to deviate in whatever way you so choose (if you really like, ignore this guide in its entirety if for some reason you have not done so already but are still reading at this point). Moving on, I'll discuss my personal experience playing the deck; and thus the tips and tricks I have derived from many games.