Life is just a bunch of gains and counters (Licia)

Commander / EDH* Budget Counters Lifegain Multiplayer RBW (Mardu)

Talonisnthavingit

Creature (28)

• 1x Agent of Masks
• 1x Ajani's Pridemate
• 1x Balefire Liege
• 1x Baneslayer Angel
• 1x Bloodbond Vampire
• 1x Brutal Hordechief
• 1x Cathedral Membrane
• 1x Cathedral Sanctifier
• 1x Celestial Force
• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Crested Sunmare
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Drana's Emissary
• 1x Fiendslayer Paladin
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x God-Pharaoh's Faithful
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Lone Rider  ^Flip
• 1x Paladin of Prahv
• 1x Roiling Horror
• 1x Soulmender
• 1x Sunscorch Regent
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Wall of Essence
• 1x Wall of Limbs
• 1x Wall of Reverence

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Angelic Accord
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Boon Reflection
• 1x Curse of Opulence
• 1x Path of Bravery
• 1x Sanguine Bond

Land (38)

• 1x Akoum Refuge
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Esper Panorama
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Fountain of Cho
• 1x Grixis Panorama
• 1x Jund Panorama
• 1x Kabira Crossroads
• 1x Mage-Ring Network
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Naya Panorama
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Opal Palace
• 9x Plains
• 1x Radiant Fountain
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Wind-Scarred Crag

Instant (7)

• 1x Awe Strike
• 1x Benevolent Offering
• 1x Chastise
• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Cursebreak
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Mortify

Commander (1)

Artifact (10)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Angelheart Vial
• 1x Blade of the Bloodchief
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sun Droplet
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of the Animist

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Brightflame
• 1x Chaplain's Blessing
• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Feudkiller's Verdict
• 1x Heroes Remembered
• 1x Vandalblast

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Ajani Goldmane

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Maybeboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Baneslayer Angel
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage

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Licia is one of the alternate commanders for vampiric bloodlust, coming out august 25th. although costing eight mana, he can be cast for as little as three, making it easy to cast him unexpectedly. On turn four, if you own two plains, a mountain and a swamp, playing Chaplain's Blessing makes licia castable, giving you a turn four 4/4 first strike lifelink (Or a turn four 7/7 first strike lifelink if you pay the five life, which you gained with chaplains blessing).

Combos:

Horses and angels

With Crested Sunmare being a hot new lifegain based card, who would pass it down? The deck also has an Angelic Accord which makes 4/4 fliers, as opposed to 5/5 mostly indestructible tokens. These cards don't say "during your end step", meaning we can abuse the system a bit at times. Here is a list of cards that can help us make tokens during opponents end steps:

Sun Droplet : This one requires you to take damage. however, with Licia, Sanguine Tribune, we can get five counters on it quite frequently. This will always guarantee a 5/5 horse each turn (Unless someone counters the ability or something) if sunmare and this is on the field. To get an angel, we'd need both Alhammaret's Archive and Boon Reflection on the field so that'd it give us four life instead of one.

Authority of the Consuls: This isn't a guaranteed horse, but it can make us one if an opponent plays a creature, we make a 5/5 after their turn. They better hope that creature is worth giving an opponent 1 life and a 5/5 horse (Which can attack next turn, while theirs can't even block or attack for a turn since it'd enter tapped unless they had that one artifact). As for an angel, your opponent would need a pretty fast deck and a lot of creatures in hand. Authority isn't the best choice here, but it's a start, and a turn one "It's going to be this type of game" card.

Kambal, Consul of Allocation: Playing against niv or locust god? This card is great in some situations. Since those decks USUALLY don't have many creatures, they'll be giving you life while they're being drained slowly (Although they may be running Sphinx's Tutelage and other mill cards, but let's just ignore that for now lol). It only requires two activations to get an angelic accord trigger, plus it harms them a bit. Plus, it discourages that silly counter system some people try.

Celestial Force : Gaining 3 life each upkeep isn't alot, but it's enough for a 5/5 horse, and one away from an angel. With sun droplet, you have the four life instantly. With kambal, you have about an 80% chance to get the angel, while you have a 20% chance with authority (If we go off the five type of cards [Creature, artifact, enchantment, instant, sorcery just to be clear mates], plus it's a 7/7 for eight, although the three white mana is a slight problem).

Soulmender : If you just are one off that angelic trigger, soulmender is a nice card to have. keeping it untapped can be useful, and if it's the end step before your turn, just go ahead and tap it for the one life. It won't be much, but it may also be your only card that activates on an opponents turn at the time.

Sunscorch Regent: Probably me and my sisters favorite dragon, sunscorch punishes enemies for playing any spell. The one life is just enough for a trigger, but combine it with any of the other above cards and it's a bit better. Plus, it's one of the few fliers we have in the deck, and we can build it up quite a bit.

Wall of Essence : Sadly, it requires an attack, so if no one wants to attack you at the moment (Saving for a spell that could devastate your board for example) you can't get that angel or horse. But it's nice to have anyways. It's also just Wall of Hope but newer and one mana more to cast with an addition toughness.

Death Watch : same problem with wall essence where that creature would have to be attacked/destroyed, so not too good, but it may help still. Is Dying Wish but older and costs 1 less.

All instants: Exile and Awe Strike being my favorite, all instants here can allow you to gain life, with Decommision being less consistent than the others.

Lifelink creatures: Keeping them up for blockers and such would be pretty useful.

+1/+1 counters

Buffing creatures to hell is pretty fun. Their are multiple creatures that buffed from you gaining life, or having a certain life total, so here are all of them here in list form:

Licia, Sanguine Tribune: WOW! THE COMMANDER THAT IS SHOW IN IT'S PRIME ABOVE THE DESCRIPTION GETS +1/+1 COUNTERS! I DIDN'T KNOW THAT. IT'S LIKE THE DECK IS CALLED "Life is just a bunch of gains and counters (Lucia)". (Sorry, I won't do it again).

Ajani's Pridemate: The most common card that people use in lifegain decks, ajani's pridemate can be played early and can get big fast, making him a fan favorite of types.

Bloodbond Vampire: Wait, is that ajani's pridemate but costing 1 and B more, starting with one more power and toughness? Yes, it is. Although not as good, it can be buffed as well.

Divinity of Pride : Yes, it is a somewhat worse Serra Ascendant , but I'm on budget, so it'll have to do. It requires five mana of any two orzhov colors, making it somewhat inconvient, but you get an 8/8 flying lifelink for most of the game, so it's not too bad.

Karlov of the Ghost Council: This is a better ajani's pridemate, costing one of each of orzhovs colors, it's a tad bit harder to card. However, it gets two +1/+1 counters instead of one, and can exile creatures. It's the bit of control I added to the deck that is actually nice. Plus, if you build up enough counters, you can exile multiple things since it doesn't require tapping.

Lone Rider  : Okay, not technically being buffed, but transforming is close enough. Requires you to gain 3 life in one turn to transform it, but that can be easy in this deck at times.

Roiling Horror : The suspend ability is nice to drain your opponents, and can even make it cost 2 less and B more, which is more bad than good if you don't get enough black mana, but it can have a high life total if you have more drain cards and real good lifegian cards.

Sunscorch Regent: I already went over this, but it's really nice so It'll get a second mention.

Wall of Limbs: A crappier ajani's pridemate, this cards only good quality is it's seven mana suicide. Keep it alive long enough and you can deal a bit of damage for seven mana, which isn't bad, but it isn't going to get too big in commander, so I question how it'll perform.

Feudkiller's Verdict : Can make a 5/5 giant and get you 10 life. Pretty nice is all I can say.

Their aren't many win cons except for outlasting your opponent, but one is with Aetherflux Reservoir, which can kill your opponents quick if they aren't careful. another is Sanguine Bond. If you can get licia up enough, swinging in for attack can end the game (I.E. If you buffed her to a 19/19, which takes 5 turns, they'd take 19 damage (Maybe 38 with alhammaret's archive or boon reflection, 76 with both of them. The deck will also run Ajani Goldmane, since his +1 can help cast licia, his -1 can buff everything and give you blockers and his -6 can make a huge creature.

Thing I feel need fixing:1. Although licia has first strike (And can come out early in some games), he/she can still be killed by destroy spells and burn spells (blasphemous act more importantly, which could kill it if I haven't activated his or hers 5 life ability more than three times). Thinking of protection from black/red/hexproof/shroud to prevent this.

1. I don't have any mana rocks. The first two play tests seemed alright (I got my turn four chaplains blessing - licia combo off in one of them, then getting licia out turn nine in another. The second game I only had five lands though, so casting licia was once again with a gain life ability).

2. Lack of red spells and destroy spells. Cards like Exile and Awe Strike are the closest I got.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 28 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.61
Tokens	*/* W Creature Avatar, Angel 4/4 W, Giant Warrior 5/5 W, Gold, Horse 5/5 W, Spirit 1/1 W
Folders	Deck Ideas, EDH ideas