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Eternal Life+

Commander / EDH

grays77


Maybeboard


Build yourself a fort with defensive enchantments like Ghostly Prison. Gain lots of life, and leverage the excess life to power Necropotence or Vona, Butcher of Magan. Use your life to blow away your foes with Debt to the Deathless or Aetherflux Reservoir. Steal the win with Felidar Sovereign or bash face by going big with beefy flyer lifelinkers such as Divinity of Pride and boosted threats such as Karlov of the Ghost Council. If you're patient, papercut everyone down with drain from cards like Cliffhaven Vampire. Protect yourself with loads of removal from creatures, instants, and sorceries. It's not uncommon to have a dozen cards in your hand and hundreds of life, allowing you to pick your method of disposing your foes.

This deck is aiming for the "casual but still has a good shot of winning" mark, so I excluded some of the more traditional punishing/stax cards that would otherwise really limit opponents' options, and forego Test of Endurance to limit cheese to Felidar Sovereign. I've also kept tutoring to a minimum in favor of excellent draw, but it's handy to snag a wincon piece to prevent an overly long game. Fun is the goal with this deck, not utter domination.

Notable Combos:

Necropotence + Venser's Journal : Essentially free 'draw as much as you like'.

Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond : Kills opponents. Substitute Sanguine Bond with Cliffhaven Vampire for similar insta-death.

Serra Avatar + Wall of Reverence : Double your life total each turn.

Necropotence + Solitary Confinement : Immunity unless removed or you deck yourself.

Assorted Notes:

Probably the easiest way to lose with this deck is commander damage. The taxing enchantments can make if very expensive and inconvenient for a commander to attack you, but even when you're sitting at hundreds of life, all it takes is 21 commander damage to lose. Cards like Maze of Ith can full-stop commander damage, or sub in a Delaying Shield if it's more than one.

While you can win by swinging creatures after locking down, the alternate wincons seem to be the more reliable method, so don't be afraid to use your many wrath effects. I consider the creatures part of the fort ramparts rather than a wincon, but it does feel nice to swing with a 200/200 Serra Ascendant.

There's a lot of redundancy within the various enchantments, so don't overextend too much in case you need to wipe everything with Merciless Eviction. I typically use Demonic Tutor or Zur the Enchanter to grab Necropotence once a 'no max hand size' effect is out.

Once you've got a solid board state, there's many little triggers to keep track of. If you don't like having to pay close attention, this is not the deck for you.

Politics:

I view this deck as a game of constructing a fortress faster than your opponents can overrun it. I've skewed the effects here toward "protecting myself" versus "locking down the enemies" such as in a pure stax deck. It's a tenuous line to broach since stax effects work best when going full-out. Life isn't a terribly valuable resource, but most players (perhaps rightfully so) get alarmed when you accidentally approach triple digit life a few turns in. Plays like an early Serra Ascendant is a surefire way to draw hate your way, so play conservatively with the little 'gain a single life' trigger effects until you can effectively set up the ramparts. This deck is loaded with answers. Beyond just removing scary things for you, they make excellent bargaining chips. Return to Dust an opponent's fatty struck by Imprisoned in the Moon in exchange for not attacking you with it or Maze of Ith down a scary something to protect someone. This deck can make for some long games, but my favorite part about it is doing so lets people play their decks to the fullest possible end.

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

14 - 0 Mythic Rares

48 - 0 Rares

16 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.52
Tokens Horse 5/5 W, Vampire Knight 1/1 B
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