Lifegain in Tasigur Control
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 8, 2019, 11:07 a.m. by Dango
Hi guys!
Lately my meta has become fairly creature heavy, and I've been taking the brunt of the combat step as a result. My Tasigur control deck is considerably creature light, and I tend to take a lot of damage early game from attacks coupled with pain from a lot of my cards in which I have to pay life as well. I was wondering if anyone knew of any incidental, preferably noncreature forms of lifegain I can bring to the table in Sultai colors because it would greatly benefit me late game. I'll plug my deck below for reference too.
Thanks in advance, I look forward to this discussion!
Banana Seasons Past
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 9 | 3 COMMENTS | 724 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
MichaelAYoung91 says... #3
Additional note to my original comment: Angelheart Vial is my number one because it often feels like more of an Elephant Grass to your opponents- inconvenient. Your opponents will need to decide whether or not it's a good idea to give you that additional card each turn, or put their focus elsewhere. It feels like losing something to attack the player with the Angelheart Vial just to get an attack in when it gives them card draw and you negate two of that damage anyway.
February 8, 2019 2:29 p.m.
MichaelAYoung91 I was thinking about Grim Feast for a while, but then I realized it doesn't work with stuff like Toxic Deluge .
Lifegift and Druidic Satchel seem like cute pet cards that could be useful. I only find somewhat of an issue with Satchel because I don't like to reveal too much information to my opponents and let them know what I have in hand.
The other things you mentioned feel a bit too conditional for me or they're too mana intensive. I have 32 lands and Glacial Chasm doesn't actually produce mana, so some things can be a little too high on my mana curve for my liking especially if they don't actively help with my strategy the turn they enter play.
February 8, 2019 4:12 p.m.
multimedia says... #5
If creatures are a problem then consider adding more board wipes? These then put your opponent's creatures into graveyards which you can then exile with Deathrite and Ooze to gain life.
You say you don't want to play creatures who gain life, but Thragtusk is quite good to gain life, two bodies to defend and recur. If you're having problems taking combat damage then he can help. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is another option, he doesn't interact well with Grim Feast (exiles ceatures), but he has lifelink and can create Zombies who can defend or be sac fodder to pump him.
The toughness that Grim Feast sees is the original toughness of the creature. If you reduce the toughness of an opponent's creature on the battlefield to zero and it dies this doesn't effect Feast's ability for you to gain life equal to that creature's toughness. You'll still gain life even from tokens because they do enter the graveyard.
February 8, 2019 8:34 p.m.
multimedia I was told otherwise on this thread regarding the interaction between the Grim Feast and Toxic Deluge . Perhaps there is a bit of a discrepancy in that regard. I believe the ruling comes down to state-based actions, in which the card in the graveyard is considered a different entity from that of when the card was on the battlefield, and Feast actually sees that creature the moment it dies rather than when it goes into the graveyard. If you think otherwise and would like to revive that thread for more discussion, it might be helpful because I haven't actually seen a definitive ruling on this interaction quite yet so I'm not sure what to believe.
The only other boardwipe I can justify running in my deck is Damnation , and I honestly might run it over Yahenni's Expertise because it hits more targets with the obvious trade-off that it kills Tasigur. What are your thoughts on that? If I were to run Damnation in addition to Yahenni's Expertise what would you recommend cutting?
February 8, 2019 9:28 p.m.
I updated the list a bit, adding in Damnation as well as Bloom Tender and Freed from the Real for an alternate two-card infinite mana combo. It also works with Arbor Elf to an extent if you also have Utopia Sprawl and can produce blue mana, but that is a little more telegraphed and not as condensed.
With the inclusion of these cards, I had to cut Wild Growth , Chain of Vapor , and Into the Roil . Wild Growth was cut because even though it could be a combo piece with Freed from the Real and Arbor Elf , it can only work on Breeding Pool (or Tropical Island , but I can't afford that at the moment). All of those conditions make that combo incredibly undesirable at the moment. Chain of Vapor and Into the Roil were cut simply because bounce spells just aren't as great as permanent removal that can destroy or exile cards.
I hope these updates help. I think an additional boardwipe is going to do a lot for me, and another infinite mana outlet should make the deck faster and more consistent. I have been doing okay with operating at low life because at that point, someone else's board can start to look scary so all of the people who attacked me early on turn to me and keep me around because they need me to keep someone else at bay haha. However, it just makes me really uncomfortable playing at low life because I can't effectively Ad Nauseam to find a combo piece that I need, and if I stop the threatening player from comboing off, nothing's stopping the next person in the turn order from turning on me again which puts more pressure on me to have answers for them too. Regardless, I think another boardwipe might be good enough to answer a heavy creature presence. I tend to run a lot of cards that hand out 3/3 tokens and a Gilded Drake, so that's why I've favored Yahenni's Expertise as means of crowd control for those primarily, but a wipe that hits everything that isn't indestructible is too good to pass up even though it kills Tasigur.
Thank you guys for your suggestions. I'm gonna try out these updates and see how they perform next time I play. :)
MichaelAYoung91 says... #2
My favorites are Lifegift and Druidic Satchel . Looking at your deck I'm unsure what would be the best option but the odds are in your favor to ramp or gain life with Druidic Satchel
February 8, 2019 12:05 p.m.