Rampant Lifegain with Mangara, The Diplomat

Commander / EDH Goodstuff Lifegain Mono-White Multiplayer Primer Ramp

mi37516

LIFEGAIN (19)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Ajani, Strength of the Pride
• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Angel of Destiny
• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Benevolent Offering
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Righteous Valkyrie
• 1x Search for Glory
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Skyclave Cleric  ^Flip
• 1x Solitude
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Sunscorch Regent
• 1x Suture Priest

DRAW (12)

• 1x Brought Back
• 1x Dawn of Hope
• 1x Endless Atlas
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Mind's Eye
• 1x Search for Glory
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams

LAND (32)

• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Flagstones of Trokair
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Isolated Watchtower
• 1x Lotus Field
• 1x Lotus Vale
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Scorched Ruins
• 18x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Terrain Generator
• 1x Urza's Saga
• 1x War Room

RAMP (13)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Archaeomancer's Map
• 1x Keeper of the Accord
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Loyal Warhound
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Monologue Tax
• 1x Pearl Medallion
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Verge Rangers
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

WINCON (7)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Angel of Destiny
• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Nykthos Paragon
• 1x Righteous Valkyrie
• 1x The Book of Exalted Deeds

Commander (1)

REMOVAL (14)

• 1x Ajani, Strength of the Pride
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Dusk / Dawn
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x On Thin Ice
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Skyclave Apparition
• 1x Solitude
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Tragic Arrogance
• 1x Winds of Abandon

PROTECTION (12)

• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Emeria's Call  ^Flip
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Guardian of Faith
• 1x Kabira Takedown  ^Flip
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Sejiri Shelter  ^Flip
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Protection

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Sideboard

REMOVAL (1)

• 1x Council's Judgment

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Maybeboard

Other (17)

• 1x Angel of the Ruins
• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 1x Crush Contraband
• 1x Darksteel Mutation
• 1x Excavation Technique
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Oblation
• 1x Promise of Loyalty
• 1x Scholarship Sponsor
• 1x Secret Rendezvous
• 1x Settle the Wreckage
• 1x Speaker of the Heavens
• 1x Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• 1x Test of Endurance

LAND (4)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Detection Tower
• 1x Radiant Fountain
• 1x Seraph Sanctuary

DRAW (1)

• 1x Steelshaper's Gift

PROTECTION (1)

• 1x Grand Abolisher

REMOVAL (1)

• 1x Citywide Bust

WINCON (1)

• 1x Felidar Sovereign

LIFEGAIN (3)

• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Rhox Faithmender
• 1x Shadowspear

RAMP (3)

• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Oath of Lieges
• 1x Sword of the Animist

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Introduction

When I first saw Mangara, the Diplomat I thought to myself white may finally have a commander that will provide enough card draw to supplement its biggest weakness as a color.

I brewed this deck to focus on lifegain to keep you in the game and allow for additional win conditions. The beauty of being ahead on life will promote players to attack you. If they do that, it triggers more card draw via Mangara, the Diplomat!.

The whole premise of this deck is to gain enough life to be able to win the game in many different win conditions, while also containing many different forms of removal to keep your adversaries at bay.

White Ramp

Who says white can't ramp? Okay it takes some ingenuity, but you can get it done. There's some tricks in this deck to allow us to ramp with some creativity.

Land sacrifice sub-themes, enchantments and removal give lands to opponents so that we can ensure we are able to trigger white based land drop restrictions of as long as an opponent has more lands

Artifact Ramp

• Arcane Signet
• Fellwar Stone
• Pearl Medallion
• Mind Stone
• Sol Ring
• Wayfarer's Bauble

White Ramp

• Land Tax
• Verge Rangers
• Knight of the White Orchid
• Smothering Tithe
• Keeper of the Accord
• Archaeomancer's Map
• Monologue Tax

Land Ramp:

• Lotus Field: Reduces land count, allowing cards like Verge Rangers to trigger more often, combos with Flagstones of Trokair
• Scorched Ruins: Reduces land count, allowing cards like Verge Rangers to trigger more often, combos with Flagstones of Trokair
• Lotus Vale: Reduces land count, allowing cards like Verge Rangers to trigger more often, combos with Flagstones of Trokair
• Flagstones of Trokair
• Isolated Watchtower
• Myriad Landscape
• Terrain Generator

Protection

I don't expect players are going to like the amount of card draw that Mangara, the Diplomat is providing during a game so we'll need to add a lot of protection to keep your commander safe

• Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• Flawless Maneuver
• Giver of Runes
• Lightning Greaves
• Mother of Runes
• Selfless Spirit
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Teferi's Protection
• Emeria's Call  : Not great, but this is in a land slot
• Sejiri Shelter  : Not great, but this is in a land slot

LifeGain

The deck has many cards that focus on life, and the goal is to keep your life above 55 so that any of these cards you draw can perform the way they want to.

• Mangara, the Diplomat
• Alhammarret's Archive
• Auriok Champion
• Authority of the Consuls
• Blind Obedience
• Serra Ascendant
• Soul Warden
• Soul's Attendant
• Sunscorch Regent
• Suture Priest
• Aetherflux Reservoir
• Archangel of Thune
• Felidar Sovereign
• Ajani, Strength of the Pride
• Solitude
• Skyclave Cleric  : Not great, but this is in a land slot

Removal

Whites strongest asset is its awesome removal package, thus this section is huge. This will keep other players at bay while we wait on win conditions

Mass Removal

• Ajani, Strength of the Pride
• Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• Austere Command
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• Tragic Arrogance
• Winds of Abandon: Great removal and helps with "more lands for opponents sub-theme" for land ramp
• Dusk / Dawn

Targeted Removal

• Swords to Plowshares
• Path to Exile
• Generous Gift
• Council's Judgment
• Heliod's Intervention
• On Thin Ice
• Skyclave Apparition
• Solitude
• Kabira Takedown  : Not great, but this is in a land slot

Card Draw

This section is light as you can imagine with a white deck. Hopefully the command sticks around long enough as your draw engine. This section contains draw, tutors and recursion in the deck.

• Brought Back
• Endless Atlas
• Enlightened Tutor
• Mangara, the Diplomat
• Steelshaper's Gift
• Sun Titan
• Well of Lost Dreams
• Mind's Eye
• Dawn of Hope
• Sevinne's Reclamation
• Search for Glory
• Esper Sentinel

Win Conditions

Most of the win conditions are through our lifegain strategy, but a few others were added to get the deck to at least six.

• Aetherflux Reservoir
• Angel of Destiny
• Archangel of Thune
• The Book of Exalted Deeds
• Righteous Valkyrie
• Nykthos Paragon
• Heliod, Sun-Crowned

Add / Removes

Cards I've removed as they were upgraded or didn't perform well

September 2021 Updates:

• Felidar Sovereign: Replaced with The Book of Exalted Deeds as it was too hard to maintain 40 life and this on the board to win. The Book of Exalted Deeds card offers value and protection.
• Seraph Sanctuary replaced with Hall of Heliod's Generosity for enchantment recursion
• Radiant Fountain replaced with War Room for desperation card draw

Modern Horizons 2:

• Urza's Saga replaces Castle Ardenvale
• Nykthos Paragon replaces Test of Endurance as Nykthos Paragon is on synergy with this deck. Test of Endurance was a dead draw too many times
• Esper Sentinel replaces Speaker of the Heavens as Speaker of the Heavens wasn't making much impact and Esper Sentinel may be the best white card draw ever
• Heliod, Sun-Crowned - Not from set, but adding it in. Replaces Settle the Wreckage as this card was cute but a dead card far too often. Heliod, Sun-Crowned may do wonders in this deck.
• Solitude replaces Scholarship Sponsor as Scholarship Sponsor was fun when it added 8 lands to the other 3 players who were not playing landfall, but I ended up losing to the others as the ramp for them was just as bad. Solitude adds back removal and is on lifegain theme

Strixhaven Updates / Commander 2021:

• Archaeomancer's Map replaces Oblation as this is card draw and ramp in favor of single target removal
• Monologue Tax replaces Grasp of Fate as this is ramp in favor of removal
• Scholarship Sponsor replaces Darksteel Mutation as ramp in favor of single target removal

Kaldheim Updates:

• On Thin Ice replaces Crush Contraband as it didn't play well as was too expensive
• Righteous Valkyrie replaces Luminarch Ascension as it is more on theme. This was a tough cut.
• Search for Glory replaces card:Idylic Tutor. Search for Glory tutors for some create legends in this deck, or a snow plains if you absolutely need it and provides lifegain.
• Snow-Covered Plains x20 added over plains to enable these cards

Commander Legends Updates:

• Oath of Lieges replaced by Keeper of the Accord for one sided ramp and free tokens. Oath of Lieges was giving other players too much advantage.

October 2020 Updates:

• Citywide Bust replaced by Dusk / Dawn for better versatility
• Sword of the Animist replace by Sevinne's Reclamation as needed more versatility over ramp. Sword of the Animist was not working well as this deck isn't creature focused
• Rhox Faithmender replaced by Speaker of the Heavens to try and lower the deck CMC. Not sold on this move.

Updates from Zendikar Rising:

Adding in an exciting new wincon in Angel of Destiny that fits with deck synergy and some modal lands to add deck versatility.

• Mass Calcify: Replaced with Tragic Arrogance for a better board wipe
• Approach of the Second Sun: Replaced with Angel of Destiny for a faster wincon
• Manascape Refractor: Replaced with Mind's Eye for more card draw
• Command Tower: Realized this was a bad card in a mono colored deck, replaced with modal land Emeria's Call  
• Shadowspear: This hasn't played well as this deck doesn't focus on creatures, replacing with Skyclave Apparition
• Grand Abolisher: This hasn't been needed to win, replacing with Dawn of Hope for additional card draw
• Arcane Lighthouse: Haven't needed this, replacing with new modal land Sejiri Shelter  
• Detection Tower: Haven't needed this, replacing with new modal land Skyclave Cleric  

August 2020 Updates:

• Darksteel Plate: Replaced with Heliod's Intervention for great removal or lifegain theme
• Wing Shards: Replaced with Winds of Abandon as better removal and helps with "more lands for opponents sub-theme"
• Return to Dust: Replaced with Crush Contraband
• Ravnica at War: Replaced with Citywide Bust as I found Ravnica at War was too random.
• Kor Cartographer: Replaced with Idyllic Tutor as I found 4 mana ramp too slow
• Sunblast Angel: Replaced with Elspeth, Sun's Champion for versatility

Top Ranked	Achieved #19 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #12 position in Commander / EDH 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Primer 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 51 - 1 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.07
Tokens	Ajani's Pridemate, Angel 3/3 W, Angel Warrior 4/4 W, Construct 0/0 C, Elephant 3/3 G, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Illusion */* U, Soldier 1/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Spirit 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders	EDH, Fun EDH Ideas, Deck Inspiration, Cool Decks, Commander, Tapped Out - User Decks, EDH busild future decks
Based on	Mangara, The Diplomat EDH Oldcrow80 EDH