Life / Death

Sorcery

Life:

All lands you control become 1/1 creatures until end of turn. They're still lands.

---

Death:

Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (47)

biobrush on Za-Draw Ascendancy (Hidden Commander: Zada)

1 month ago

Twizzlywizzle I'm looking over your list. It's rock solid and I'm impressed how you've outfitted it for cEDH. I have a few suggestions that you may consider testing.

Green Sun's Zenith will grab your best mana dork or the one you can afford with the mana available. It's another spell for those triggers, it opens the possibility of a creature toolbox (Collector Ouphe is fairly asymmetrical in your deck), and it could be used as a infinitely re-shuffling last-card-in-deck (if that situation were to arise, not sure how).

Life / Death is really, really good. It's all about the Life half, Death is just gravy. For 1 mana, you can usually triple the number of mana dorks you have on the field, unlocking stupidly good Jeskai Ascendancy and cantriping lines. With the quantity of mana dorks in your deck already, I can see why you might pass on the less mana efficient and versatile "lands become creatures" cards, but I would highly recommend at least testing Life / Death.

Mutavault: It's a free mana dork for the cost of a colorless producing land. Yes, we're playing 5c, but is Tarnished Citadel really worth it? (Of all the cards in cEDH -- which I don't play -- this is the one that irritates me the most.)

And Mutavault is an Ally for... Harabaz Druid. This card is so good pre-Tazri and Zada!

Lastly, Narset's Reversal. This does cheeky stuff in returning your cantrip to hand with the Zada triggers on the stack, doubling the cantrip's potential. More importantly, it's a rock solid cEDH card as a counterspell and/or the best spell on the stack!

I hope some of this helps. Truth be told, I haven't tested this deck much in the wild. But in theory, this advice is sound.

ClockworkSwordfish on Angelic Reanimator

8 months ago

Looks like a solid reanimator deck, and I appreciate that it even has a theme!

That said, having sixteen ways to reanimate a creature is a lot - maybe too much. The other thing that really stands out is that twelve of those ways are four mana apiece. Not too fast, which is what you probably are hoping for.

Even if you can't afford the real classics like Reanimate, Life / Death is an excellent budget replacement. Getting Iona into play two turns faster is worth the life loss, trust me. Animate Dead is also a solid option, since the loss of 1 power should hardly matter when your creatures are as big as they are.

SirHerpaderp on Bring out your Dead!

10 months ago

Hey KanisxKoda, huge thanks again for your time; I really appreciate it! A lot of cards you suggested werein the deck or in the maybeboard at some point but got cut as the deck got more streamlined since they felt too slow (like Burnished Hart) or simply not necessary.

Oakhame Adversary,Culling Ritual and Heroic Intervention are indeed more meta specific but provide me with an early advantage until I'm able to assemble my combo and protect the individual combopieces better than Veil of Summer (which is ofc an absurdly powerful card).

For Junji, the Midnight Sky, I'd actually consider cutting Dread Return since it feels like the weakest of the reanimation options. Life / Death can be really helpful with Razaketh! The Apprentice Necromancer is also too good with Hulk because he can give you an instant way to reanimate/sac Hulk since you can sac Necromancer at instant speed (to quote Multimedia at this place).

While I think Higeki, Jukai Visionary doesn't provide enough relevant abilities for my playstyle I think the recently spoiled Gravelighter might be a better Demon's Disciple sind he has a better body and can draw you a card. Downside here would be taht you can't always get a sac when you need it.

KanisxKoda on Bring out your Dead!

10 months ago

Lol your comment page is getting long. Had to scroll for a min.

Yeah I took a quick peak and there are a few tweaks/upgrades you can run over some others I think that wont be too overbudget.

I'd run:

Burnished Hart (under $2) or my favorite Yavimaya Elder (under $1) overDawntreader Elk/Neverwinter Dryad

So if your gonna pay to play lands you might as well get 2 for the price of one. Right? These 2 all stars allow you to pull 2 lands (deck thinning) and elder is even a static trigger which means you can sac to other outlets and still get value...soon much value lol.

Living Death(under $10) over Culling Ritual

Honestly I see the appeal in both. Culling however is more local meta based with high end, low cmc deck opponents. Living death covers a better wide meta and pairs amazingly with Dauthi Voidwalker, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or even a Scavenging Ooze

Toski, Bearer of Secrets ($10) over Oakhame Adversary

If your running a draw engine like this toski is a clear winner over adversary because he covers each attacking creature so you can draw multiple cards per turn instead of 1.

Veil of Summer (under $10) over Heroic Intervention

This is a meta call swap. I like Veil because it protects you from counters and the 2 of the most popular wipe spells colors. And draws a card. But if your group is heavy on red and white intervention is better.

For Junji, the Midnight Sky I usually replace creature for creature but in your decks case you can trim a reanimate since you have about 9 not including Meren of Clan Nel Toth

Best replacement creature for creature is taking out Apprentice Necromancer, otherwise Dread Return or Life / Death.

I say these 2 because of the exile clause and death only targets your yard un-like Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Necromancy which allow you to hit any yard.

Also you may want to add another free sac outlet. I highly recommend Altar of Dementia. It's budget friendly at around $10 ATM from mm2. Mill opponents and fills your yard fast. Great replacement for one of the extra reanimate spells you have.

cheffireball on Ultra-Budget Speed Dredge (2x 5-Card "Gold Hands")

1 year ago

I did a bit more research into PD reanimator decks to find cheap cards, copies of Life / Death are $3 and it basically a 2 mana Reanimate .

Shriekhorn is 17 cents and mills for 6, 2 per turn.

Divest can let you see if re-animating is safe from removal/countermagic and you can target yourself to get fatties in the yard. Raven's Crime also works, and these are probably better than 2 cmc discard outlets.

Sire Of Insanity dodges any sorcery speed removal.

Lastly, Nihil Spellbomb only hits enemy yards and draws you a card. Worth considering for the sideboard.

marciothehero on Ravnica Cube v12

1 year ago

changes:

Simic Charm -> Quandrix Command

Immolating Gyre -> Draconic Intervention

Lightning Helix -> Rip Apart

Launch the Fleet -> Venerable Warsinger

Shifting Ceratops -> Battle Mammoth

Shrine of Loyal Legions -> Mimic Vat

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord -> Daemogoth Woe-Eater

Polukranos, Unchained -> Daemogoth Titan

Mindwrack Demon -> Rank Officer

Winding Way -> Brawn

Abrupt Decay -> Drown in Filth

Grapple with the Past -> Llanowar Mentor

Archetype of Courage -> Selfless Squire

Unburial Rites -> Incarnation Technique

Stealth Mission -> Benthic Biomancer

Thrummingbird - > Fuel for the Cause

Assure / Assemble -> Selesnya Charm

Knight of Autumn -> Battle for Bretagard

Druid's Deliverance -> Pest Infestation

Wilt-Leaf Liege -> Glare of Subdual

Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge -> Veyran, Voice of Duality

Legion Warboss -> Laelia, the Blade Reforged

Ral, Storm Conduit -> Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

Experiment One -> Gyre Sage

Jadelight Ranger -> Managorger Hydra

Merfolk Branchwalker -> Incubation Druid

Sweet-Gum Recluse -> Forgotten Ancient

Sharktocrab -> Zegana, Utopian Speaker

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath -> Prime Speaker Zegana

Roalesk, Apex Hybrid -> Tanazir Quandrix

Herald of Secret Streams -> Deepglow Skate

Nightpack Ambusher -> Arachnogenesis

Life / Death -> Tivash, Gloom Summoner

Cry of the Carnarium -> Essence Pulse

Filter Lands -> Thriving Lands + 5 Color Lands

Falta G para balancear

Reprint:

Quandrix Command , Draconic Intervention , Rip Apart , Venerable Warsinger , Daemogoth Woe-Eater , Daemogoth Titan , Incarnation Technique , Pest Infestation , Veyran, Voice of Duality , Laelia, the Blade Reforged , Tivash, Gloom Summoner , Essence Pulse

Kylesafgt on Karador's Graveyard Harvest

1 year ago

Good idea, I might start working on a combo/how to win section.

Thanks, I think with the Razaketh combo, the quickest route to victory using it requires 6 mana, but has Razaketh, Reveillark, and Karmic Guide already in the graveyard, which I think still isn't a fast combo and requires a lot of pieces to be already set up. If you're missing Razaketh in the graveyard but the others are there then it's 7 mana because you need to use Entomb . If Reveillark or Karmic Guide are also missing from the graveyard, the route starts getting more expensive by having to tutor for Entomb with Razaketh or cast either of them from hand.

The route that costs 6 mana is as follows:

• Have Razaketh, the Foulblooded , Karmic Guide , and Reveillark in the graveyard, 1 creature on board (total: 0 mana)
• Reanimate Razaketh (total: 1 mana, 8 life)
• Razaketh for Life / Death , using the creature on board as sac fodder (total: 1 mana, 10 life)
• Float remaining 5 lands, cast Life / Death (total: 2 mana, 10 life)
• Razaketh for Animate Dead using a land as sac fodder (total: 2 mana, 12 life)
• Razaketh for Altar of Dementia using a land as sac fodder (total: 2 mana, 14 life)
• Cast Animate Dead, targeting Karmic Guide, bringing back Reveillark (total: 4 mana, 14 life)
• Cast the Altar, sacrifice Karmic Guide, targeting an opponent to mill (total: 6 mana, 14 life)
• Sac Reveillark, targeting opponent to mill, bringing back Karmic Guide with Reveillark's death trigger.
• Karmic enters, bringing back Reveillark, repeat.
• Pass turn, on each opponents draw step they fail to draw and die.

If there's a quicker route then let me know, but I think at 6 mana, 14 life, and having a graveyard favourably filled with the pieces, it's quite fair. Adding in Zulaport Cutthroat / Blood Artist adds more lifedrain and mana cost as you'll also need to used Razaketh as the sac outlet to drain, Cutthroat and Blood Artist will make you technically lose only 1 life to Razaketh each sacrifice, but be careful you have enough life to drain everyone, as you might take yourself down aswell.

I'm looking at replacing Journey to Eternity  ^Flip with Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip. I was thinking over how you mentioned that Journey wasn't performing very well for you, I think I agree the more I think of it, the flipped side is an overcosted, once a turn reanimation, and the front side allows one creature to be essentially flickered once, and that's all. Growing Rites is still a permanent fetchable with Sun Titan , gives us a weird form of card draw and should be pretty easy to flip into a Cradle with our deck having a high creature count. It'll also allow Torment of Hailfire to hit even harder, as I've seen my playgroup live through a Cabal Coffers Torment.

Kylesafgt on Karador's Graveyard Harvest

1 year ago

I think that's a similar stance I have on the deck, combo in the sense that I don't want to win on the spot out of no where and rather give my opponents an opportunity to react.

I added Death + Life to the deck today and gave it a test run in a 1v1 against my partner. Death works well as another copy of reanimate and is likely the main mode to be used. Life is usually not relevant but I might add Razaketh, the Foulblooded in over one of the big beaters. He himself is a 8/8 flying trample so does well in combat already, but the tutor effect is strong but I think is also a fair form of tutoring. And then he also goes well with the Life side of Death + Life to assemble the altar loop if the game is beginning to drag out.

I think this keeps the deck fair and gives my opponents a chance to fight back.

Let me know your thoughts. I'm interested to hear how your testing of the new additions go. I'm likely going to do some research and see if I missed anything in 2020 that's functions well within the deck list.