Things Betor Left Undead [Primer]

Commander / EDH* BGW (Abzan, Junk) Bracket 3 Flying Jank Lifegain Lifelink Midrange Primer Reanimator Sacrifice Soul Sisters

Tsukimi

Creature (43)

• 1x Children of Korlis
• 1x Essence Warden
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Haywire Mite
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dina, Soul Steeper
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Gala Greeters
• 1x Hermit Druid
• 1x Priest of Fell Rites
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Starscape Cleric
• 1x Darkstar Augur
• 1x Dross Harvester
• 1x Elenda's Hierophant
• 1x Marauding Blight-Priest
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Verrak, Warped Sengir
• 1x Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 1x Bronzebeak Foragers
• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Enduring Tenacity
• 1x Exemplar of Light
• 1x Odric, Lunarch Marshal
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1x Thalia and The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Cavalier of Night
• 1x Celestine, the Living Saint
• 1x Doom Whisperer
• 1x Junji, the Midnight Sky
• 1x Underrealm Lich
• 1x Angel of Indemnity
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Metamorphosis Fanatic
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Beledros Witherbloom

Land (36)

• 1x Agadeem, the Undercrypt  ^Flip
• 1x Bala Ged Sanctuary  ^Flip
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 3x Forest
• 1x Garden of Freyalise  ^Flip
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 3x Plains
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x War Room
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Commander (1)

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Promise of Loyalty

Instant (5)

• 1x Tamiyo's Safekeeping
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Flawless Maneuver

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Ripples of Undeath
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Black Market Connections

Artifact (4)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Bolas's CitadelGC
• 1x The Great Henge

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Maybeboard

Creature (7)

• 1x Leonin Elder
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Vexilus Praetor
• 1x Marshland Bloodcaster
• 1x Patron of the Kitsune
• 1x Vilis, Broker of Blood

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Delaying Shield

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Abzan has long been a favorite color combo of mine, with the perfect suite for life gain/life loss strategies, and now we have a perfect commander for this in Betor, Ancestor's Voice! Betor really does it all: Gains life, rewards gaining life, and utilizes life loss for targeted recursion. This deck is a lot of fun to pilot, especially if you enjoy grinding out value, life gain/punishment effects, or playing in your graveyard!

The Dream Abzan Life Gain Punishment Shell

• Dina, Soul Steeper
• Cliffhaven Vampire
• Enduring Tenacity
• Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• Marauding Blight-Priest
• Starscape Cleric

Abzan gives us the best spread of cards that have opponents losing life whenever you gain life. The life gain sources we work with are many smaller, recurring life gain triggers to ensure that each time we gain life from things like Soul Warden, Leonin Elder, etc. we can ping the table for one. Pieces like Enduring Tenacity also work well with our suite of lifelink creatures which continue to grow in power with Betor's first ability. These effects are the heart of the deck. While Exquisite Blood and friends will easily go infinite, we don't do infinite combos in my group so I decided to avoid them.

Recurring Sources of Life Gain

• Soul Warden
• Auriok Champion
• Essence Warden
• Soul's Attendant
• Authority of the Consuls
• Archivist of Oghma
• Blood Artist
• Dross Harvester
• Children of Korlis
• The Great Henge
• Tymna the Weaver *f-etch*
• Disciple of Bolas
• Patron of the Kitsune The GOAT, tbh.

And any of the many creatures who have lifelink. We also have cards like card:Odric Lunar Marshal and Metamorphosis Fanatic to give lifelink to creatures who don't have it already.

As mentioned above, we have many sources of life gain that can easily trigger several times a round and sometimes several times a turn. These effects work really well with our life gain triggers in general with cards like Archangel of Thune, Karlov of the Ghost Council, Exemplar of Light, etc. but they really shine with all the cards in the section above.

Blood calls to Blood

AKA Losing Life to Recur Creatures

This is one aspect of Betor that you can play around with a lot, as there are so many fun pieces in these colors, and many work very well in a life gain shell like Dross Harvester. I decided to focus on effects that can trigger life loss consistently and repeatedly if need be on my turn so that as long as you have Betor out you will always be able to return a creature from your graveyard at end of turn. Shock lands, fetch lands, pain lands, and MDFC lands all now have an additional value in our deck, and often will reward us by helping to recur a creature with a higher mana value. Do not skimp on lands that will deal you damage, they are very strong in this deck.

Verrak, Warped Sengir also doubles all of these effects for us for extra fun! Fetch lands + Verrak = A Great Time.

I'm not going to list every life loss trigger (turns out there's quite a few!) but instead I'll highlight some fun interactions.

Bolas's CitadelGC act as pseudo ramp, allowing us to lose life instead of paying mana to cast spells. There's also good ol' fashioned Beledros Witherbloom. Also, Black Market Connections is an all star here.

Sylvan Library, Tymna the Weaver *f-etch*, Darkstar Augur, Dark Confidant and friends give you a strong suite of card draw that synergize great with Betor.

Priest of Fell Rites, Junji, the Midnight Sky, and Reanimate are all examples of strong recursion that also cost life.

Really, losing life on my turn was easier than expected, and pain lands go a long way to help ensure our reanimate trigger. As I continue to play and edit the deck, I expect I may need less sources of life loss.

Betor Safe than Sorry

AKA Protection

While this deck can function without Betor, everything runs much more smoothly when your the voice of your ancestors in on the board.

• Giver of Runes
• Tamiyo's Safekeeping
• Flawless Maneuver
• Selfless Spirit

Are all here mainly for protecting Betor, but Selfless Spirit in particular is essentially recurring protection in this deck.

In addition to this you have a fair deal of recursion, so it's not unheard of to let Betor to to your graveyard to avoid commander tax.

My (Dragon) Grandma Told Me She Doesn't Like You

Aka Removal.

• Assassin's Trophy
• Anguished Unmaking Which also loses us life
• Stroke of Midnight
• Karlov of the Ghost Council
• Cavalier of Night With recursion and lifelink to boot
• Haywire Mite An all star in this deck. Gains life, self sacrifice, and exiles artifacts and enchantments.

We also have Toxic Deluge, and Promise of Loyalty for board wipes.

"Isn't there a Betor Way to Build This?"

Betor has something in common with all of my other favorite commanders and that is that there are many ways to build them! If you are looking for a more powerful list for Betor, you can easily include Exquisite Blood and the like for easy combo wins, as well as a much bigger suite of tutors. For those of you wondering, "What about X?!" I've listed some directions you can take the deck in below if my build is not your jam.

• Token Taxes/ Aristocrats: Betor is built perfectly for an aristocrat or token tax deck with the life gain and reanimate built right in. A VERY strong build would involve plent of life gain triggers, creatures that make tokens when you gain life, and then any sac outlet and blood artist type effects. Betor is perfect for these strategies, but I have played them both extensively before so I wanted to do something new with this deck

• Self Mill/Dredge: The dredge cuts to the deck were some of the hardest. The mechanic works so well with Betor, as does self mill. But when you're building Betor you have to decide very early on what your goal is, because there are so many directions you can take the deck in. I realized if I include too much self mill/graveyard interaction than than life gain shell starts to suffer. If you want to take a straight value approach you cannot go wrong with self mill, dredge, reanimation type themes, and you'll find many cards on this list that support both of these play styles.

My goal is to have a conclusive and helpful Betor Primer so if I have missed anything please don't hesitate to leave a comment. Thanks for reading!

With so many fun synergies, some cards didn't make the cut and live in the maybe board for now, but let me know if I missed any fun interactions! Also, let me know if you have any thoughts on the custom categories and whether or not they are helpful.

Top Ranked	Achieved #5 position overall 1 week ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Bracket 3 1 week ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Flying 1 week ago
Date added	3 weeks
Last updated	3 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	19 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.20
Tokens	Copy Clone, Darkstar Augur 1/1 B, Pest 1/1 BG, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Starscape Cleric 1/1 B, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W
Folders	Decks to try, Commander Decks, Decks for tabletop, Added for Deck Name