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EDH Ayli AllStars

Commander / EDH Lifegain Multiplayer Reanimator Tokens WB (Orzhov)

Nordlys

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Lifegain (26)

Recursion (13)

Spot-removal (8)

Land-white (12)

Land-colorless (4)

Enhancement (3)

To-sacrifice-and-reanimate (21)

2power-or-less (13)

Wincon (10)

Utility (8)

Board-wipe (5)

Land-black (5)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim

Ramp (14)

Land-dual (13)

Token-generation (9)

Card-draw (7)

Sacc-outlet (4)

Extort (1)

If you enjoy creative, synergic, versatile, you'll love this deck!

This is the evolution of Ayli the Eternal Biatch.

The deck evolved into a more powerful, more versatile and less wincon dependant version. Some cards were replaced by better performance cards with the same role. Others, simply taken out for being easily disrupted

This deck has the intention to be as best as it can while mantaining it's versatility and fun (because that's what the commander format is all about, right?). I intentionally avoided the use of tutors and infinite combos so that every match played means different cards and outcomes while keeping the overall escence of the deck.

Why playing a singleton 100 cards format if I would tutor for the same wincon cards every match? A good deck doesn't need tutors; a good deck is great by it's own calculations of probability and designated ammount of cards to each specific roles needed.

That said, let's step into the deck!

Why Ayli?

The first time I came across Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim I was building a casual 60-cards BW Cleric deck for a friend and I instantly fell in love with her. "She has an amazing potential to build around" —I thought, but I didn't do it until my playgroup started to play commander instead of 60-cards decks.

I knew she was the one for me I would dedicate the remaining 99 cards of the deck to make her happy. Wanna kill your buddies, girl? Here you go, grab some and have fun!

  • Her abilities are pure awesomeness. Ayli is a walking spot removal spell. She can also grab some value from all the creatures you control that are about to be destroyed, exiled or taken control of, by sacrificing them in response.

  • Above it all, she's in the best colors of Magic, the light and dark ; angels and demons; the sacred and the profane;the good and evil; the yin and the yang.

Core strategy

This deck consists of: playing creatures with cool Enter The Battlefield or Leaves The Battlefield abilities, gaining life, exiling naughty permanents, reanimating creatures to trigger their abilities again, and sacrificing creatures according to the circumstances.

It almost doesn't need to be attacking, it doesn't care too much about summoning sickness and it doesn't need to have more than 2 or 3 creatures on the battlefield. It's all about value and timing; about planning strategy a few turns ahead with what've got in battlefield and hand, making decisions, adapting throughout the rounds.

How does it win?

Though the deck has got a few "wincon" tagged cards, they are not actually needed to win, so they are no longer considered win conditions. This version of the deck is so solid it has the consistency and versatility to survive, adapt and respond to whatever circumstances are given at the moment and keep playing.

How come it doesn't play removal spells?

Because I'm very good at building synergy decks (Just joking, though it's true and it's the reason behind it). I know Anguished Unmaking , Utter End , Vindicate and Mortify are BW staples, but I have solid reasons to explain why I don't play them:

  1. Because Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim is a Vindicate with legs. Why would I waste a slot in the deck to do something that my commander can do by activating an ability? Yes, I know I need to have 50 or more life in order to do that (the deck is built around, so that's not a problem); and yes, I know I need a creature to sacrifice in order to do that (the deck is built around, so that's not a problem either). This translates as: every creature I play is potentially a Vindicate and even better! Because if I play a freaking Filigree Familiar and sacrifice it to Ayli's removal ability, I'd be exiling target permanent, drawing a card and gaining 2 lifepoints... leaving open the possibility to bring it back again from the graveyard and extract even more value. So, in this deck: Filigree Familiar > Vindicate.

  2. Because this deck needs creatures to be sacrificed, why would I play a Go for the Throat over a Archon of Justice ? Nonsense!

  3. Because those sorcery/instant cards are used only once, they are not easily reanimated... but creatures are. Which means plenty of spot-removal abilities without using a single spot-removal spell.

  4. Because in a multiplayer game, casting a spot-removal card means card disadvantage for both you and the controller of the permanent you took care of. It's pretty evident that the way to go is to play board-wipe cards or repeatable spot-removal abilities.

I do play board-wipe cards, but only the ones I found synergy with:

  • Obviously Fumigate since the deck benefits from lifegain.

  • Tragic Arrogance fits perfectly in this deck since it doesn't need to have many creatures on the board or many enchantments or many artifacts. Tragic arrogance lets you choose who keeps what, that is quality advantage by itself, and the other advantage is that this deck can easily wombo-combo with one of each; for example keeping Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim , Dawn of the Dead and Nim Deathmantle .

  • Why would I play goofie Wrath of God ? It's so mainstream it makes me sick. I rather use my brains and play a False Prophet which will exile -upgraded version of destroying- all creatures except mine, because i'll sacrifice them in response so I can count on them to be reanimated later on. Oh, speaking of which, hello again False Prophet . And again.

  • Also, why should I play more board-wipe spells if it's meant to be a multiplayer game? Let my opponents waste 10 slots of their decks to benefit the players that don't have many creatures on the battlefield... or don't really need to (like this deck for example! Damn, this is genious!). Kill'em all, I don't care! My creatures fulfill their duty at the moment they enter or leave the battlefield, don't even need to attack. What's that? Who needs it??

How to play the deck?

- You can behave like a coward psychopath that plays the fool and suddenly makes a magestic move that ends the match as well as playing your best creatures early on, comfortably knowing for sure that even if they have a premature death they've already done their job and that you'll probably be able to bring them back anyways.

  • My favourite playstyle is through politics: lots of chatting, offering help to the one who needs it in exchange for favors, demanding something in return of getting rid of some annoying permanent an opponent controls (even though you would have deal with it anyways), and always keep your word.

  • The longer the match, the weakier all your opponents will be, and therefor, the easier it will be to make your final and fatal move. As the match progresses, all graveyards will be fattening up, offering you plenty of choices like, for example, casting a Puppeteer Clique , sacc it twice, reanimating it and saccing it twice again, creating an haste army of the best creatures available.

  • This deck has no hurry at all. You'll be slowly gaining life, defending yourself from lethal threats and taking care of things that might be a win for an opponent or things that could really tear appart your strategy (like, for example Anafenza, the Foremost who will completely disrupt your reanimation engine and your "when this creature dies" mechanics).

Ayli's abilities - how and when to activate them

Ayli's abilities are great, fun and frustrating for your opponents. Thought, they obviously need a built around deck in order to be efficient.

  • First requirement: So, the first requirement in order to exile a permanent with Ayli (being beyond 50 lifepoints) is pretty easy to achive as 30% of this deck contains lifegain. But that's not even the main source of lifegain, the main source is Ayli herself activating her first ability, which you'll be using A LOT. Though this deck is not 100% lifegain oriented, it can (and will) easily go above 80 lifepoints if left unfocused. Even while every other player is trying to keep you below 50 life so that you cannot activate Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim abilities, you'll get there eventually.

  • Second requirment: Let's dive into the second requirement: to have creatures you are willing to sacrifice. Some creatures in the deck are not mean to be sacrificed, like for example Rhox Faithmender , though you will gladly do it in response to a Terminate targeting him or to a Decree of Pain while gaining some ammount of life in the process. But the mayority of the creatures in this deck are meant to be sacrificed while doing something else in addition to exiling a permanent or gaining life, like for example Reveillark or a meaningless creature like Filigree Familiar . 20% of the deck are sacrificeable creatures like those and 10% of the cards in the deck are token generators, so you'll find your victim without regrets. Also, 15% of the deck are recursion or reanimation cards, which means that you can bring back to action that Sepulchral Primordial and do it all again.

Sacrificing a creature to exile a permanent is a one for one trade which is not that good when playing multiplayer, since only two of the total number of players will be in card disadvantage by doing so (one of them being yourself playing this deck). This is why the deck is meant to take advantage of the mechanics exploiting ETB (Enter the Battlefield) or Dies triggers with reanimaton interactions: 1. Creatures that create tokens when dying or ETB 2. Creatures that kill opponent's creatures when dying or ETB 3. Creatures that reanimate another creature when dying or ETB

  • Third requirment: Let's continue with the third requirment for Ayli's second ability: mana. Leaving open mana is crucial to this deck's strategy, that's why it doesn't contain more than 2 cards with extort. I've tried an extort based version (which I'll explain later in the I've already tried section) but it was too mana-consumming. Most permanents with activated or triggered abilities that require mana were cut out, with the exception of those which excel at their duties, like Vizkopa Guildmage , Trading Post , Skullclamp and Spirit Bonds .

  • The wisest way to play cards in this deck is by doing so leaving some mana open in order to be able to use Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim abilities if needed.

  • It's usually better to wait for the right circumstances before using one of her abilities to sacrifice your Ashen Rider or your Archon of Justice since their presence in the battlefield is already a defensive shield. "Don't attack me or else I'll be forced to..." is what your opponents will understand. Many creatures in the deck are there to fulfill that very objective: avoiding to get attacked. Many will attack you either way and you'll be more than ready to chump-block and sacrifice the blocker mitigating any possible damage, gaining life and exiling target permanents in the process.

  • As I mentioned before, this deck doesn't need to be attacking in order to win. And thus, all your sacrificeable creatures will be available to block and die at will; inviting your opponents to harm eachother while your False Prophet simply stares eating pop-corn, patiently waiting for it's time.

  • Another reason to leave your mana open in order to sacrifice your creatures is the fact that any opponent might attempt to exile one of your beloved creatures, not to destroy it; this would mean that you won't be able to reanimate it anymore until the game ends. Avoid getting your most valuable creatures exiled. Mainly Ashen Rider , Sepulchral Primordial , Puppeteer Clique , Gray Merchant of Asphodel , Kokusho, the Evening Star , Noxious Gearhulk , Karmic Guide and Reveillark .

Weak points and solutions

- After some games with your playgroup in which all your opponents keeps attacking you hoping to stop your life total from increasing, they'll eventually understand that you'll get to 100 lifepoints and above either way. Then, they'll realise that instead of controlling your life total to prevent Ayli's second ability, they need to get rid of her as many times as they can along the match until her cost is beyond 10 mana. By that time, you'll most likely have all the heavy arsenal at your disposal but won't have all the mana you need to cast both Ayli and your combo creature to sacrifice.

  • To solve the problem, I added cards that will reinforce the sacc-outlet so that if you can't count on Ayli, you'll probably count on at least one of these: High Market , Ashnod's Altar , Trading Post , Phyrexian Tower . You don't need more because it would be redundant.

  • I also recommend to send Ayli to the graveyard from time to time if you've got any reanimation engine going on. At later stages of a long match, if she costs 10 or more, I'd suggest to send her straight to the graveyard even if at that moment you don't have a way to reanimate her; you'll probably draw some soon. And if you don't, work around your shenanigans; you won't depend on her at that stage of the game.

Combos

There's plenty of synergy in the deck and many different cards that fulfill the same role. So keep in mind that if I choose Ashen Rider in a combo, it also works as intended for any other creature with ETB or Die ability.

  • Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim + Tree of Perdition means massive lifeloss to one of your opponents and massive lifegain to you. It's not a wincon, but it certainly pushes you away from defeat while pulling someone towards defeat. The tree can be easily reanimated to repeat the process against another foe.

  • Ashen Rider + Gift of Immortality enchanted creature can be sacrificed once per player's turn, it means that in a match of five people, you can activate Ayli's first ability to sacc Ashen Rider 5 times until your next turn. Leading to exile 10 target permanents and gaining 25 lifepoints.

  • Angelic Accord + Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim works similar to the previous one, creating an angel token in each of your opponent's turn and sacrificing it to gain 4 life and keep the wheel in motion. In a match of five people, you'll gain 20 lives per round. Now imagine if you've got Crested Sunmare on the battlefield, yeah, you'd also get five 5/5 indestructible tokens per round.

  • Noxious Gearhulk + Trading Post since the deck contains some artifact creatures, you can either sacrifice them to the third Trading Post ability or to the fourth, returning an artifact to your hand or drawing a card respectively, whichever you need in that specific moment. You can also sacc a shitty token spirit to return your Noxious Gearhulk to your hand or maybe something even more deadly, like Aetherflux Reservoir .

  • Debt to the Deathless + Sanguine Bond maybe the life drained by Debt to the Deathless won't kill your opponents, but the lifeloss due to Sanguine Bond will probably handle one of them (since the ammount you gain is exponentially higher than the life they lose, and then Sanguine Bond triggers for ridiculous ammounts).

  • Ashnod's Altar + Debt to the Deathless to drain tons of lifepoints.

  • Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim + Fiend Hunter you can cast Fiend Hunter and sacrifice it to any of Ayli's abilities in response to it's ETB trigger so that when Fiend Hunter exiles target creature he won't be in the battlefield by then and the creature will remain exiled for the rest of the game.

  • Karmic Guide + Reveillark Karmic Guide will bring back Reveillark and Reveillark will bring back Karmic Guide and another creature. Yes, I know this could eventually go infinite lifegain combo if Ashnod's Altar and Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim are on the battlefield though it's was not intented, so don't be a combo pussy and expect it to happen.

  • Duplicant + Reveillark ...or any other with power 2 or less, of which you've got many, including your commander. Need more lands? Go fetch that Solemn Simulacrum and that Knight of the White Orchid , voilá! Don't worry, Reveillark will be back soon too, so don't be greedy, use the resources at your disposal to get what you need.

  • Kabira Crossroads + Orzhov Basilica is no brainner, but hey, every lifepoint gained will be useful while triggering Crested Sunmare ...or at the end of the match when you need to pay 100 life to headshot two opponents at the same time using Aetherflux Reservoir !! Roar!

  • Angelic Accord + Seraph Sanctuary the land gains 1 life which is not bad and has the potential of gaining way more along the match. It's not much, but it's a land we're talking about and it triggers all lifegain triggers. You've got some cool angel cards and angel token creators.

  • Springjack Pasture + Trading Post i've actually never used Springjack Pasture third ability, but don't understimate the power of gaining some extra lives or generating some extra mana, it could mean the difference between almost winning and winning with a Debt to the Deathless or Exsanguinate .

  • Dawn of the Dead + Trading Post (or any other reanimation card) let's say you don't have enough mana to cast the Ashen Rider from your hand. You can easily discard a card and gain 4 life using Trading Post's first ability before your turn's up and boom! This is yet another use for Trading Post , which works like a charm in this deck.

  • Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim + Illusionist's Bracers means you'd have to pay the cost only once and cash twice the benefits, gaining twice the toughness of the sacrificed creature in life or exiling two permanents per each one sacrificed.

You'll find out more ways to combine the cards while testing it with your friends. It's lots of fun, I can guarantee that!

Tips and advices to keep in mind

As obvious as it might seem, there are some useful advices to make the most out your playstile:

  • Cards like Puppeteer Clique exiles the reanimated creatures at the end of the turn. To make the most out of it, sacrifice those creatures to Ayli before they are exiled, so that you gain some extra life or exile a permanent "for free"; and also in order to put them into their proper graveyard again instead of exile, being able to reanimate them again later.

  • As already mentioned, leave yourself some mana open to be able to activate Ayli's ability. A reliable choice is to leave at least 3 or 4 open mana, so that you can either use it to:

  • sacrifice a creature to gain some life (also triggering it's Dies effects if any)
  • sacrifice a creature to exile a permanent (also triggering it's Dies effects if any)
  • let your opponents think you are willing to exile a permanent if needed
  • cast Teferi's Protection in case of board wipe or near-death experience
  • let your opponents think you have an answer to their threat in your hand

  • Activating some artifact crazy hability (like Nim Deathmantle , Mimic Vat , Phyrexian Processor )

  • Ashnod's Altar can generate emergency colorless mana if you're tapped out, wich can seem obvious but many people doesn't realise that colorless mana is the only thing you need to sacrifice all your staff and gain a bunch of life in case of a lethal blow.

  • Vizkopa Guildmage second ability is stackable. This means that if you spend 6 mana to activate it twice and then you sacrifice Kokusho, the Evening Star in order to gain a bunch of life, your opponents will lose twice that much life (and you've most likely won the match).

  • Illusionist's Bracers copy the effect of activated abilities, not it's cost. So if you activate the first ability of your equipped Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim by paying and sacrificing a creature to gain life equal to it's toughness, you'd gain the double of it's toughness; and if you pay and sacrifice a creature to activate her second ability, you'd be exiling two target permanents. Same goes for an equipped Vizkopa Guildmage .

  • Also remember you can activate Ayli's abilities in response to ETB triggered abilities like the one from Fiend Hunter so that you can "cheat" it's cons. Leaving the exiled creature forever exiled. The same applies to Angel of Serenity and Mangara of Corondor (which you can sacrifice in response to activating her ability, so that you can reanimate it later). You can also sacrifice Karmic Guide in response to her Echo cost triggering at the beggining of your unkeep, how cool is that? Note that every evoke creature which you can cast for it's evoke cost you can sacc it to Ayli's ability in response, for example if you happen to play Wispmare or Offalsnout .

  • Creatures like Fiend Hunter not only work as spot removal here, they're more versatile than they look: playing a Fiend Hunter targeting your Reveillark will reanimate 2 creatures in the act and 2 creatures later, after your Fiend Hunter is gone and your Reveillarks back again. You can accomplish nasty results while targeting your Sepulchral Primordial or even a Gray Merchant of Asphodel , which might claim you victorious or put you back on track in times of need.

  • Only losers pay echo. You can sacrifice Karmic Guide in response to it's echo ability triggering. Do it, use it as fuel! DO IT!

I've already tried section - discarded strategies and cards

  • Extort oriented:

I've tried an extort based version, playing Tithe Drinker , Basilica Screecher , Basilica Guards , Kingpin's Pet , Kight of Obligation , Scholar of Athreos and Pontiff of Blight along with Cliffhaven Vampire to increase it's draining efficiency, Genju of the Fields and Spirit Loop to cast them as many times as possible triggering extort. This is an under-powered (probably budget) version that relies more on playing the fool and not presenting any real threats while slowly draining the life out your foes until the late stage of the match and then making your move. It's pretty efficient, but it consumes lots of mana -which you need to make use of your commander or activating other shenanigans like Trading Post or Spirit Bonds -. Also, this version is less fun because it means a lower power level avarage of cards in the deck, and less versatile because the slots taken to play this cards means less interaction / reanimable cards.

  • Playing Soul Warden , Soul's Attendant and Suture Priest . Those are lovely creatures which will grant you from 10 to 20 lifepoints gained per match if you played them early on. But that's it, a Soul Warden can be translated into gaining 15 life. I do play cards with the only function of gaining life, like for example Proper Burial or Boon Reflection but those are enchantments, that means they are way less likely to be destroyed than a 1/1 creature that dies to someone who spoke too loud.

  • Playing Whip of Erebos or Seanse. Both of this cards might be useful during two or three turns, but they'll slowly dig your own grave if the match continues. As a "reanimator" deck, you don't want your creatures to be exiled for the rest of the match.

  • Playing removal spells like Vindicate , Unguished Unmaking, Utter End and Swords to Plowshares . This deck plays around Ayli, who exiles permanents. That said, let's assume you'll have a rought time getting the pieces together before making the Ayli's engine run... this deck contains creatures with ETB abilities that can take care of the issue. Spot-removal in the form of creature cards works better here because they are sacrificeable and reanimatable.

  • Playing cycle lands. This deck loves having mana open, that's why you'll never want to cycle a land. Plus, you'll rarely be hellbent (with no cards in hand).

On the bench

Cards that can be substitutes according to your own preferences or playgroup.

Upvote the deck if you enjoy stabbing your own creatures in the back!!

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 5 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

50 - 0 Rares

17 - 0 Uncommons

15 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.97
Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Copy Clone, Demon 5/5 B, Goat 0/1 W, Horse 5/5 W, Minion X/X B, Spirit 1/1 W, Warrior 1/1 W w/ Vigilance
Folders edh
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EDH Ayli the Eternal Bitch
Nordlys EDH
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