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"Lich! You... You messed Billy up! You just wanna mess me all up! Mess everyone up!" - Finn ( from the show "Adventure Time" in epsiode "The Lich")

Don't be fooled by the commander; This is a Lich EDH deck. Essentially the idea is to become immortal by setting up ways to work around Lich's negative effect of sacrificing permanents and force opponents to try and remove it on its own... if they can ;). Because you're also giving Lich shroud, Indestructibility, or bringing it right back after they think its gone for certain! Once that's done, Lich turns your life total into your instrument to gain insane draw advantage (Healing Salve becomes an Ancestral Recall for example). Its not uncommon for you to have your whole library in your hand with this deck. You also get to ignore supposed "disadvantages" of cards that cause you to lose life. Here's a nice lichy-list for you so you can see what kind of crazy shenanigans you can get into with this card:

Survival: (in case something goes wrong with your invulnerability mentioned above)

  • Lich + Pariah + Inviolability (Several options here that can keep you from taking any damage almost indefinitely or at least until you make it harder to kill Lich . My favorite is to use your opponents' creatures though.)
  • Transcendence and maybe Platinum Angel too.. (If Lich goes down, these will keep you alive while having below 0 health (Transcendence also turns your loss of life into draw)
  • Fountain Watch / Greater Auramancy (shroud for Lich... nuff said)
  • Avacyn, Angel of Hope (again... nuff said)
  • Cryptic Command - Counters are great, but also the second ability can save you from losing if someone targets your Lich by keeping it from going to the graveyard.

Offensive:

Other Important Mentions:

  • Dimir House Guard + Volrath's Stronghold (one of my favorite ways to tutor)
  • Penance - this card is very underrated and is very important to the deck. What you really want is the cost. Essentially you pick any black permanent on the board (whether it can deal damage to you or not) and you can legally pay the cost which is putting cards back on top of your library. This is the greatest assurance that you will not draw yourself out and also helps you negotiate your hand-size problems or even accidentally drawing yourself out (sometimes, a new Lich will explode in the excitement of his newfound power). (Also note: it also is great for setting up miracle cards, though I don't use any).- Illusions of Grandeur + Lich = Draw 20! who cares about losing the life?! Remember Death's Shadow? Pepperidge Farm remembers...
  • Skirge Familiar - Proven to be the best possible mana engine in the deck (until you play Omniscience). It opens up so much for you to be able to make the turn you play Lich as potent as possible. One example: you discard Avacyn, Angel of Hope, then use the B you got to Reanimate her and secure your immortality. Feeling bad about discarding cards? No problem! Just chuck Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre in your graveyard and get ready to draw it all again with your countless draw engines. Its a wonderful lich-life!

What Didn't Make The Cut: (but would consider them again in the future)

Suggestions are encouraged and VERY much appreciated. And, of course, don't forget to +1 if you've got an itch for the Lich!

Suggestions

Updates Add

Lots of changes to Ye olde Lich commander deck. I've been playing with the idea of adding blue to the deck with a new commander, and the more I use Zur the Enchanter to get Necropotence and Solitary Confinement out at the start of the game the more I'm convinced he's the right guy for the commander job.

The olde deck has been moved to a different site: The Lich: Prime so that it's beauty can be enshrined there and also so I can reference back to it if I ever want to shed the blue away again.

Until then, I'm going to try to make the most of blue as a means to more Lich madness. Much of the land-hate (Armageddon and Sunder) has been taken out along with Crucible of Worlds in favor of some counter magic. I am not sure how much to keep in the deck, and I'd like it if the counters went well with the mechanics.

All suggestions are welcome again to make blue work. Before I sign off, here are some notable reasons why blue is awesome with Lich.

+1 if you're ichin' for some Lich

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Top Ranked
  • Achieved #38 position overall 10 years ago
Date added 10 years
Last updated 8 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 0 Mythic Rares

52 - 0 Rares

18 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.35
Folders Bills commander, cool decks, EDH ideas, EDH, likes, The Lich, Polished Decks, Favorites, new, wd
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