Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Start Commander Deck

Combos Browse all Suggest

Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Pre-release Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Standard Legal
Standard Brawl Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim

Legendary Creature — Kor Cleric

Deathtouch (Any amount of damage this deals to a creature is enough to destroy it.)

, Sacrifice another creature: You gain life equal to the sacrificed creature's toughness.

, Sacrifice another creature: Exile target nonland permanent. Activate this ability only if you have at least 10 life more than your starting life total.

Recommendations View more recommendations

Custodi Peacekeeper
Thraben Militia
Gangrenous Goliath
Revered Elder
Daru Healer
Fallen Cleric

hyalopterouslemur on Beta Brackets Update Today

3 weeks ago

DemonDragonJ: Yeah, my loathing of five-color goodstuff mostly comes from how this is supposed to be the color-restricted format: I have a Ghave, Guru of Spores deck, but if I want to make a Rith, the Awakener or Marath, Will of the Wild *f-etch* deck, I have to lose the black cards (and probably the entire Aristocrats theme). So, no more Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos. No more Pitiless Plunderer. No more Diabolic Intent. No more Blood Artist or Bastion of Remembrance. I do gain red, though, so say hello to Purphoros, God of the Forge. Rhys the Redeemed or Nemata, Primeval Warden would be even more restricted, as token decks go.

My removal also suffers, since red removal is surprisingly bad in this format. (Seriously, I'd argue white has the best removal, followed closely by black. Green's a distant third, and red and blue are tied for fourth: Red has more removal, blue has better removal.)

And it happens between Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Betor, Ancestor's Voice, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Beledros Witherbloom, and Licia, Sanguine Tribunefoil too. All are lifegain, but only Oloro can use Absorb and Drogskol Reaver. Only Licia can use Lightning Helix and Searing Meditation. Only Betor can use Beledros Witherbloom. Ayli and Witherbloom are even more restricted, especially since Witherbloom can't use the color that's best at lifegain.

But that's the whole point. When I choose a Commander, I make a lot of choices regarding deck construction. I can't say "Cathars' Crusade would be good in my Animar, Soul of Elements deck." because, well, it wouldn't; it would be illegal. That forces me to pick, I don't know, Ivy Lane Denizen or Forgotten Ancient instead. Corpsejack Menace? You mean Branching Evolution? (Aside from the name, why is Corpsejack Menace anyway? I actually wouldn't mind if it were just because that's Simic's thing.) And so on down the line.

Five-color goodstuff opts to ignore all of this. And right now, there are more five-color decks in EDH than in Legacy.

Eh, I can always just hate them out with Primal Order.

That's my rant about how too much five-color goodstuff is bad for the game.

Anyway, I play Aura Shards and Seedborn Muse in a lot of decks too. Aura Shards is really oppressive in a token build, or even a reanimator build. Seedborn Muse is interesting because she's either overpowered (anything , token builds, Yeva, Nature's Herald) or just a fancy Village Bell-Ringer without the Splinter Twin combo. I have to go through my decks now and see which ones have four or more game changers.

Nunu312 on Beware of Spooky Spirits

8 months ago

Love a good spirit deck, and nice to see a new commander doing it!

I think you've got some great cards in there that probably don't work as well as you want them to. Luminous Angel is incredibly expensive for a 4/4 flyer that might generate 2-3 tokens. By the time you put it down that's just not a relevant amount. Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens Is in very much the same boat. Because it only happens on casting, it can at most happen 5 times, as that's the amount of spirits you have to cast (and you have no arcane spells). Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite Is a fantastic card but can occasionally create friction at the table. I don't necessarily suggest that you cut it, but do consider it. It can easily create an environment where some people are unable to play their decks at all until it is delt with.

A bit of the same but Long-Forgotten Gohei definitely fits, but you only have 6 spirit spells and no arcane spells, so you're only using half of it. Etchings of the Chosen is the same price but has an extra ability. You may just want to run both though?

The first thing for additions are the token doublers. These will really help you capitalise on your commander as they will act upon each instance. So instead of casting Triplicate Spirits and getting a rather underwhelming 3, you instead get 6. Then at the end of turn you get another 6... only this is doubled as well, instead of 3, you get 18.Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Anointed Procession are the standouts here, although they are pretty pricy in real world dollars.

Overall though, I feel your ways of generating tokens is very on theme, but not very sustainable. A key thing that you might have missed is that your commander generate spirits for each tokens you make, not spirit tokens. So Collector's Vault, makes a treasure token, free spirit. You have a huge amount of ways to make tokens but a lot of them are humans or other some such (Call the Coppercoats, Martial Coup) so they may not be on brand. Look into ways you can make those one or two treasure / clue / food tokens as you just otherwise play normally.

A conspicuous absence is any of the Teysas. Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts is expensive but fun. Teysa, Opulent Oligarch is much cheaper and synergises VERY well with your commander. Teysa, Orzhov Scion requires a bit more of the black/white spirits, but might still work very well. Teysa Karlov doesn't synergise super well, but has good abilities regardless and certainly isn't a bad pick. The Kaya planeswalkers also often deal with white black spirits as well as having a bit of control so they might be good to look at Kaya the Inexorable being the standout.

another fun card that is changed entirely by your commander Afterlife Insurance and having any method of sacrificing your spirits changes it from just saving those spirits, to doubling their amount. It would go well with Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, but that starts to lean more into aristocrats than pure spirit tokens.

Another thing is that a lot of white ramp works well with bounce or sac land, you've got the obvious one but you might be able to increase it with Lotus Fieldfoil and Lotus Vale. Things like Land Tax is a staple for white, but even when you're just running Priest of the Blessed Graf they can help you make him work.

My final point is that you don't seem to have a good way of protecting your quite expensive commander. Your group might not place that big an emphasis on commanders, but it's more fun if she sticks around. There are the old standouts of Lightning Greavesfoil and Swiftfoot Boots, but there are a lot of options.

wallisface on

1 year ago

This seems pretty decent for a budget brew - so good work!

My thoughts on things to improve are:

DemonDragonJ on Which Sacrifice Outlet(s) Should I …

1 year ago

I actually completely forgot about Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, so could she be good for this deck? Given the deck's colors, I should be able to gain sufficient life to use her second ability reliably.

legendofa on Coulfner's Urn

2 years ago

Welcome to the club, shellsh0ckn0w!

As wallisface and Caerwyn have mentioned, knowing how much money you're willing to spend and if you're aiming for a certain format are important. I'm also going to ask if there are any colors you want to use or avoid.

Looking at creatures with Evoke, there are seven with a toughness 4 or greater, and just two have an Evoke cost under 4 mana. If you include Evoke cards with a toughness of 3, there are many more useful options, but you're going to need an additional Glorious Anthem, +1/+1 counters, or similar effects to bring their toughness up to 4.

Cheap, high toughness creatures like Wall of Omens and Aegis Turtle can provide a strong defense as you build to a different win condition, or you can turn their toughness into offense with cards like Assault Formation and High Alert.

Another potential angle is to build around Righteous Valkyrie, Bishop of Wings, and Kor Celebrant, using high-toughness Angels and Clerics to build an army.

The card is definitely slow, probably too slow for any tournament-level Constructed format, but a solid control shell will mitigate that, and it can be sped up a little with sacrifice effects. Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Severed Strands, Korozda Guildmage (which is a pet card of mine), and other effects that give resources based on a creature toughness can help, as well as more general sacrifice effects like Village Rites.

Above all, have fun!

Austin_Smith_of_Cards on Deathmonicon - Teysa Karlov Aristocrats EDH

2 years ago

New changelog for the new year!

-1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim +1 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim

-1 Krav, the Unredeemed +1 Ashnod's Altar

-1 Field of Ruin +1 Vault of Champions

Ayli has always felt lukewarm in this list, the sac outlet isn’t free and the benefit is mediocre, and I never activate the second ability unless I’m already way ahead in the game (I find myself much more willing to spend life than hold onto it with stuff like Necropotence, Bitterblossom). Elas comes in to add additional drain redundancy to the list, plus I expect a low-cost deathtoucher to be an effective rattlesnake.

Krav has always been a powerful card, sacrifice outlet, beatstick, and card advantage in one, but as I’m slimming the list down, the black mana activation and 5-drop status has just been a little pricey. In comes back in Ashnod’s Altar as a free sac outlet and combo piece.

Field of Ruin for Vault of Champions is mostly just due to me moving to more multiplayer commander instead of 1v1, and bc my meta is mostly “fair” aggro decks, I find myself more often wanting color fixing over nonbasic land destruction.

Gadianten on Orah's Dirty Clergy [Retired]

3 years ago

All recommendations I am making are assuming your in a multi player meta where endurance and flexibility are useful and not a 1v1 meta where speed and reliability are the most critical.

Sorry if I mislead you on the card Yawgmoth's Bargain, it was not my intention, as it is banned for commander. I was just trying to make a comparison to it and the Yawgmoth, Thran Physician reanimation draw combo. The fact that Buried alive makes it easy to set up a mimic of Yawgmoth's Bargain, a card so terrifying, powerful and game breaking in commander that is was banned years ago is incredible and worth the effort to set up.

Edge Walker is pretty good with Yawgmoth for playing the absurd hand size he can get you once you have assembled the draw engine, but if your not assembling him or drawing ridiculous amounts of cards I can see his value limited greatly. Just to give you an idea how crazy the handsize can get imagine you have Children of Korlis out or draw into him, getting a hand size of 50 or more is pretty tame at that point and you need cards like Edge Walker and Priest of Gix to allow you to do something with that kind of hand because if you dont, the table will do its best to reenact the battle for middle earth at your expense.

Gift of Immortality is just pure synergy with your commander as it enables "free" sacrifices to fuel interesting outlets like Yawgmoth, Thran Physician or Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. Simply slapping gift on your commander will protect him from a lot of removal and make him viable sacrifice fodder to recover other fallen clerics, in short it make your commander far better at doing what he wants to do, cheat death. Also, gift works once each turn, not just your own, or if you prefer try gift with Selfless Spirit and have a mini Avacyn or place it on Remorseful Cleric and make other reanimation players cry.

Another good add for your deck would be Altar of Dementia as it provides another sac outlet or an alternative win via milling people using your reanimation loop. You can even use it to help fuel your own graveyard.

I don't know if you are aware of this funny interaction between some of your creatures, but Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician together make your non human creatures very difficult to deal with as you can remove the +1/+1 counter from undying with the -1/-1 counter granted from Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. Not everyone seems to know that the two counter types cancel each other out and are removed off the creature, making undying shenanigans possible.

Load more
Have (4) C4rnif3X , reikitavi , metalmagic , Azdranax
Want (2) Jayce_Ran , Hak86