Test of Endurance, inspired mostly by the Luxa River Shrine from Amonkhet, tries to stall a game long enough to secure a win with either the titular Test of Endurance or else an Approach of the Second Sun. In keeping with the themes of endurance and sustainability, all the life-gain here is reusable every turn; I've sprinkled some control targeted control, and a couple of saving graces to prevent board wipes.
Creatures:
Pride Guardian
won out over
Soulmender
by being a better blocker, and thereby better able to block early rushes. Nyx-Fleece Ram is like a Soulmender, but has even better blocking potential than
Pride Guardian
.
Rhox Faithmender
is just an outstanding complement to everything else here, and at 4 mana, comes into play quite economically after some early life-gain is already on the table, I only added two because it fills the same role is
Boon Reflection
, I didn't want to put all my eggs on this effect in the Creature Basket, and the doubling isn't essential to the deck so it's okay if I don't see very many of these.
Artifacts: Pristine Talisman is a no-brainer in any deck doing what this one does, it combines life-gain with a little bit of mana acceleration, which will help me to save mana for the important insurance card Faith's Reward; and Luxa River Shrine, with some investment, becomes a solid source of turn-to-turn gain by making 2 life per turn rather than 1 (as most other kinds of this type do); last but not least of Artifacts, Chalice of Life
is another steady life engine, that turns into the Chalice of Death
win condition, hopefully relatively quickly, considering the deck surrounding it. Elixir of Immortality was an afterthought that got shoved in as a defense against mill, which would otherwise totally circumvent the deck's staying power.
Enchantments:
Ajani's Mantra
is just on-point in this deck, it won out over
Soulmender
again - despite being a smidge more expensive, by being an enchantment, I erred on the side of diversity in this case, partly because Enchantments are harder to zap.
Boon Reflection
teams up with
Rhox Faithmender
to form a gestalt playset of life-gain doubling effects, again, splitting the set was a diversity choice, despite Boon Reflection being slightly more expensive, I've sacrificed some efficiency for some flexibility here. Oblivion Ring is basically the best targeted removal of all time - it suffers (in what is probably a text-book case of poetic justice) from susceptibility to enchantment removal, but the sheer flexibility of the O-Ring makes it one of my all-time White staples, and it seems like a gimme here, where it allows me to remove any permanent that threatens either the functioning of my core mechanic, or threatens to circumvent it (poison counters, I'm looking at you). Test of Endurance is one of my win conditions, and plays right into the life-gain mechanic; it's also the Titular Card, so good on it. Finally,
Sunbond
presents another, alternate win condition by turning one of my otherwise innocuous creatures into an absurdly hard hitter, alternately, it simply gives one of my blockers the ability to go toe to toe with the biggest creatures in the game and live, neutralizing non-flying threats like Blightsteel Colossus,
Managorger Hydra
, or anything wearing the raiment of Eldrazi Conscription.
Sorceries: Disenchant is a nice, diverse control spell that isn't susceptible to counter-control like O-Ring is, it's also an instant, which means I can use it to interrupt things like a Sanguine Blood/Exquisite Bond or Myr Retriever loop; at two mana it's also very economical. Like many of my decks, this one is heavy on board status (I have a problem, okay?), and therefore vulnerable to board-wiping shenanigans like Wrath of God, Planar Cleansing, or All Is Dust (ugh!), Faith's Reward is an insurance card to prevent such nastiness from totally ruining my day, it also serves the duel purpose of, perhaps, stopping key removal spells targeting my game-winning cards, or my O-Rings - it's a tad expensive, and I considered going with
Second Sunrise
instead, but I like that Faith's Reward targets only my own permanents, while Second Sunrise benefits all players; this deck will have to see playtesting before I can decide for sure which is better for it.
Sorceries: Approach of the Second Sun the deck's most expensive card, but a game winner in most cases if it goes off, comes with some life-gain; might be too big to have two of them, but having them definitely puts the game on a timer, and it represents a third win condition, this one hinging only on being able to successfully cast a sorcery.
Notes: Currently, this deck is at 64 cards, obviously, I need to shave 4 cards, maybe even 6 so I can add in 2 more lands, though I think I'm fine with the 4 Pristine Talisman in there; but I can't come to a concrete decision on where the nips and tucks should be right now. It would also surely be served by putting some thought into special lands, a playset of
Sunscorched Desert
wouldn't hurt at all, for instance, but wouldn't particularly service the core operations of the deck, either; Emeria, The Sky Ruin would provide more utility; but that's a rather large conversation, so for now, basic Plains will do well enough.
As always, constructive commentary and criticism are welcome.
