is Lightning Bolt really worth its slot?

hey angelforge, I was looking at your deck to see if there were any cards I could possibly include in my own Alesha build and found a few, namely Loxodon Gatekeeper and Village Bell-Ringer. However, I'm having trouble choosing what to cut. I also noticed that you run 32 lands compared to my 36, but you offset this with a few extra mana rocks. I'm thinking of maybe cutting 2 lands for these cards, but I'm not sure if this will hurt my mana base. Can you offer any advice on cuts? The deck is designed around winning through one of many combos, but has some utility creatures and hatebears thrown in to slow down opponents or deal with their answers. It's not meant to be stax like yours, though. I think you actually saw it on reddit a little while ago. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/lets-put-a-smile-on-that-face-1/

I was also thinking of adding Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip. Any thoughts on her about if she'd be a good inclusion for me? I'm new to Alesha and just looking for more input.

PlattBonnay Yeah. Consider what it kills: Birds of Paradise, Laboratory Maniac, Hermit Druid, Dark Confidant, Derevi, Jeleva, Zur and Brago on block, greedy Ad Nauseam players, lots of FCP fodder... And it does it all without a drawback, at instant speed for one mana. Path to Exile is a nonbo with our land hate and is terrible in the early game.

AngryChewie I actually run 30 lands - Tabernacle and Bazaar are both "spell slot" cards. So I think you could safely cut two lands from your list. I like Liliana, Heretical Healer, but I don't really have any sac outlets to reliably flip her. It looks like you do, so she should be a solid addition. I like Liliana of the Veil more, though.

@ angelforge - If you were to put in a Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead / Necromancy combo what would you take out? Stax pieces, kill spells, or utility?

Also are you planning on running Thalia, Heretic Cathar?

What do think about the new Marchesa? I think a Phyrexian Arena/Bitterblossom hybrid in your command zone might be good for stax.

kengiczar I would cut Kiki Jiki and Village Bell-Ringer. If you want to keep those then hate that's either not relevant or overly redundant (You may not need 4 Sphere of Resistance effects, for example).

Thalia 2 is cool and I'll probably pick one up for my sideboard but I don't really see her being played here - just not big enough of an effect compared to Kismet and Loxodon Gatekeeper. She is a piece of hate so there could be metagames where you want her - probably somewhere heavy multicolor with lots of creatures. But that's why she'll go to the board.

Magicofire2Initial impressions are not great but I'll be thinking about her over the next few days. Both commanders aren't plan A to the deck but I feel that Alesha just gives you a lot more options then the extra card/bodies (along with opening up some sweet power lines via reanimation).