Ajani's Pridemate

Creature — Cat Soldier

Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on Ajani's Pridemate. (For example, if an effect causes you to gain 3 life, put one +1/+1 counter on this creature.)

Discussion (51)

Silverdrake on mixed greens and vanilla shake

1 week ago

+1 for the name alone, love it!
First thing I'd suggest is you up the number of lands you're running to somewhere in the 21-23 range. 16 lands makes it EXTREMELY unlikely that you'll be able to consistently hit your land drops - the only decks that run that few are burn decks with their most expensive spells costing 2 mana. If you want to even think about playing 4+ mana spells, you're going to want more lands.

Moving on to more targetted feedback - if you want to upgrade it, I think you'll need to pick a direction to move the deck in. Right now it's less of a deck and more of a pile of green and white cards (not meant to be a slam on you, that's how most people enter/re-enter the game). You've got some solid +1/+1 counters cards like Gyre Sage and Hardened Scaled, and you've got some solid lifegain-matters cards like Heliod, Glorybound Initiate, and Lone Rider. I'd recommend on honing in on one or both of those strategies, and replacing cards that don't work toward one or both of them (like Primal Druid and Moss Viper, just at a glance).
If you want to hone in on lifegain, you could look at Ajani's Pridemate and more Lone Rider  ^Flip. For a bit more money you could look at Dawn of Hope. Another step up in price gets you stuff like Ajani, Strength of the Pride and Archangel of Thune. And at the very top you could look at more Heliod, Sun-Crowned. To gain life you could look at Healer's Hawk, Ajani's Welcome, Revitalize, or Daxos, Blessed by the Sun.
If you want to hone in on counters, you could look at (I don't know this arhcetype quite as well so I can't give you price brackets, you'll have to check yourself) Animation Module, Stonecoil Serpent, Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Tireless Tracker, Jadelight Ranger, Experiment One, Huatli's Raptor, Mowu, Loyal Companion, or Knight of Autumn. There's probably more excellent cards in that category as well, but like I said I don't know that archetype as well (I'm better versed in BLUE green counters).
You also don't really have much in the way of creature removal, which could prove dangerous. Selesnya Charm and Banishing Light are alright, but I'd up how many you're running if that's going to be your only removal. Declaration in Stone is a premium white removals spell you could look into if you're looking for upgrades in that department.

These are all just suggestions though - you should build and play the deck however you find it most fun. It is your deck, after all! Whatever you decide to do, good luck and have fun!

Boza on Pridemate counters - with Daxos ...

1 week ago

Daxos, Blessed by the Sun, Ajani's Pridemate, Linden, the Steadfast Queen

1/ Almost correct - you do not gain the counter immediately, but only after both the Daxos and the Pridemate abilities resolves. There are a few opportunities where the opponent can cast Shock on your pridemate prior to it receiving the counter.

2/ Yes, that is correct.

Silverdrake on White Healing Devotion

1 week ago

Welcome to the game!
To build off of what Cypher said, consistency is key in building a powerful deck. Having a ton of cool different cards is fun, but if you want to win you want to maximize your chances of drawing the cards you need at any given time. The easiest way to do that is to determine what the "best" cards for you to play on any given turn are and maximize the number of copies you run of them.
To start with your 1 drops: You definitely want to play a creature on turn 1 to start the beatdown and the lifegain. Beloved Princess is a great choice, and Healer's Hawk could work too. Lone Pegasus is fine but not great if you want to lean into the lifegain strategy. Chaplain's Blessing and Outflank should probably come out.
Daxos and Birth of Meletis are great in your 2 drops slot, everything else I think could be reconsidered. Ajani's Pridemate is a MUST for this deck - it's arguably the strongest lifegain-matters card in the game. I'd pick up a playset right away! Declaration in Stone is decent removal you could run in this slot, or Seal Away if you're on a budget. 2-3 copies of Dawn of Hope could do wonders for you as well. You could consider Bishop of Wings if you wanted to go the angels route.
Banishing Light is pretty good at 3 mana, as is Linden. Other cards I'd consider in that slot are Angel of Vitality as Cypher mentioned, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, and Resplendent Angel.
Angelic Accord is great at 4 cmc, I'd definitely up the number of copies you're running to 2 or 3. Ajani, Strength of the Pride is also an incredible fit for this deck. Cast Out or Conclave Tribunal could be a nice replacement for Banishing Light if your 3 drop slot gets too full. Gisela, the Broken Blade could be a fun include.
Lyra Dawnbreaker feels like a no-brainer include in this deck.
Maybe Sephara, Sky's Blade as a top-end, seeing how many fliers you are and could be running. Or if you wind up running Gisela, then you could run Bruna, the Fading Light as your top end. You'd probably want to up your land count by 1 or 2 if you plan on that though.

Those are all just suggestions - feel free to play the deck however you find it most fun! If you want more detailed suggestions about what I'd cut or what numbers I'd add, feel free to let me know!

Whatever you decide to do, good luck and have fun!

Joe_Ken_ on life gain orzhob

1 week ago

You can probably tone down on the lands and go to 36-37 for the deck. 43 is just way too high since that is half of your deck when you want it to be more around 1/3 of the deck.

Some stuff you can put in to swap for those lands are Mind Stone , Wayfarer's Bauble , Worn Powerstone , and Hedron Archive for ramp.

Some other good cards would be Ajani, Strength of the Pride although he is a little pricy so some budget options could be Ajani's Pridemate and Regal Bloodlord

musicman3310 on What Versions of Cards Are ...

2 weeks ago

So, I know that having much more expensive or rare versions of cards, such as alt-art/promos, are typically the best.

However, I like to have as many different versions as I can, even if it's only the set symbol. I have a casual Standard lifegain deck, and I have Ajani's Pridemate from M11, M15, M19, and War of the Spark (however, I'd say that War of the Spark is my fav version).

What do you guys think about there being a "best version" of a card? What are the rules of thumb to determine it? Is it just value and rarity? Also, do any of you have any particular preferences like mine when it comes to card versions?

Epicurus on Card creation challenge

2 weeks ago

Torin, Spirit Guide

Legendary planeswalker - Torin

0 Until your next draw step, if a creature would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return it to play under its owner's control at the beginning of the following end step

-2 Exile target creature with power 4 or less. You lose 2 life

-4 Spirits you control get +3/+0 until end of turn

5

---

Next challenge, create a companion creature for this planeswalker; something that embodies this planeswalker's loyalty abilities (a la Ajani's Pridemate, or Jace's Archivist).

stupidmagikarp147 on The Cooler Heliod Devotion

3 weeks ago

Try to play Dawn of Hope, the card draw is needed in mono-white. Also try Ajani's Pridemate instead of Hero of the Pride and Linden, the Steadfast Queen for more offensive power with Heliod, and you could look for room for Healer's Hawk for more evasive lifegain.

Iamdune on OMG KITTIES!

4 weeks ago

Jarebear97 I've got that in my sideboard, and I'm still playing with things to see the fit, but the reason it is currently on the side is that typically the game is over before I can get to the point of having that much mana to throw at Raksha Golden Cub, which also confirms your suspicions about the inclusion of Ajani's Pridemate. The emeinence works well with low cost creatures. However the deck does seem to lack finishing power if it is controlled. It is still on the sideboard while I determine if that might be an strong enough reason to include it.

Zendikar Resurgent will see play in a lot of decks. I put this together before it was released. However, again, I'm hesitant about putting anything over a 4-5 drop in the deck at all.