Welcome to my personal version of / lifedrain allies. It is not a competitive deck, but routinely performs well at FNM, regularly placing in the top half. Feedback is greatly appreciated.
General Game PlanThis is a midranged deck that mainly aims to stall the board with a lot of creatures and gain life to survive long enough to achieve one of our win conditions. The deck has three main wincons, which I will list.
Lifedrain- While it ends games very slowly, cards like Kalastria Healer, Zulaport Cutthroat, Cliffhaven Vampire, and Drana's Emissary can tick down your opponent's life surprisingly quickly while also giving you life.
Boardstate- If your opponent lets you set up your board, you can start to make big swingy plays in the late game to finish off your weakened opponent.
Westvale Abbey
- While we only have one, Ormendalh can close out games by finishing our opponent 1-2 turns after flipping
The Creatures
We are running a lot of creatures to stall the board and capitalize on frequent Kalastria Healer triggers. I'll go into the specific role of each creature below.
Expedition Envoy
- A Savannah Lions that also triggers rally when you cast it. An auto-include and an ideal turn 1.
Kalastria Healer- Possibly the most vital card to making the deck work. Running 23 Ally creatures and 5 Ally token producers, we can rely on frequent triggers to drain our opponent's life.
Zulaport Cutthroat- More or less an extra Kalastria Healer playset. You'll have a lot of weak creatures out so you'll have a lot of death triggers. It also lets us capitalize on sacrifice triggers to get extra value.
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim- She may not be an Ally, but I absolutely love this card. A 2/3 deathtouch for is already a good value, but her 1st ability costs only and lets you squeeze every bit of value out of your creatures. On those rare occasions where you hit 30 life, she turns into an absolute powerhouse. Sacrifice your tokens to control your opponent's board and grab the late game win.
Drana's Emissary- A Lifedrain Engine that also works as a flying blocker. Not really that much to say, it just builds on the drain theme.
Lantern Scout- This card works incredibly in this deck. With Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, all your creatures have lifelink on your turn, allowing you to get more value out of big swings. You can gain a ton of life when you attack with your creatures.
Drana, Liberator of Malakir- The other aggressive creature. It makes big swings much, much scarier, and is an amazing card regardless.
Cliffhaven Vampire- Doubles the amount of life that your opponent loses from drain sources. A Lantern Scout Swing with a Cliffhaven Vampire out will often end the game completely.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet- A super great card that sheds aristocrats. You can side it out against decks without many creatures, but he'll usually be pretty good.
The Other Spells
Anguished Unmaking- A no-brainer. Losing 3 life is not a big cost considering we're gaining enough to counteract it. Many would run Declaration in Stone instead, but Anguished Unmaking is instant speed and has the advantage of hitting ANY NONLAND PERMANENT. That's right, we're talking about instant speed Exile target Gideon, Avacyn, Ormendahl, Always Watching, etc. the pure versatility combined with relatively low cost makes this an incredibly useful card.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar- The 0 is why you're here. A 2/2 Knight Ally every turn means rally triggers, blockers, and creatures to aggro with. His +1 can help with swings and builds up to his -4, which makes your board much, much scarier.
Read the Bones- Our one draw outlet. The loss of life doesn't really hurt that much and it refills your hand late game.
Always Watching - only played 2 games with this so far, but it truly is incredible. It allows you to be aggressive while also keeping creatures to block.
Sideboard
Duress- Helps with spell based decks like Esper Control, Esper Dragons, and Goggles. A great sideboard card.
Eerie Interlude- Boardstall's biggest weakness is boardwipe. Eerie interlude prevents Esper's turn 4 Languish from wiping our board completely, and retriggers Kalastria Healer. I'm genuinely surprised that this isn't run in more sideboards.
Hallowed Moonlight- The best sideboard card in standard. It does so much. It counters creatures, prevents Hangarback Walker from turning into thopters, and most importantly completely negates the effect of Collected Company.
Infinite Obliteration- Removes Avacyn conpletely before your opponent even has the mana to cast her. Also works on every other creature in standard. Also, being able to search your opponent's hand and library means that you know what they have and what they sideboarded in. Very useful.
Ultimate Price- swap it with Anguished Unmaking if your opponent runs a lot of 1 color creatues without indestructible. Your life total and mana pool will thank you.
Feedback is appreciated, and please upvote if you like it!
