What is life

Commander / EDH* Lifegain WUB (Esper)

SlycerX

Land (37)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x High Market
• 1x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 7x Plains
• 1x Radiant Fountain
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 1x Seraph Sanctuary
• 1x Shambling Vent
• 1x Strip Mine
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (9)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Beacon of Immortality
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Hatred
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Creature (17)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Crested Sunmare
• 1x Daxos of Meletis
• 1x Drogskol Reaver
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Rhox Faithmender
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Shattered Angel
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Sunscorch Regent
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Vona, Butcher of Magan
• 1x Wall of Reverence

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Ashes of the Abhorrent
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Cradle of Vitality
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Righteous Cause
• 1x Sanguine Bond

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Pristine Talisman
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sun Droplet
• 1x Tainted Sigil
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Toxic Deluge

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Maybeboard

Creature (25)

• 1x Augury Adept
• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Children of Korlis
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Deathgreeter
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Divinity of Pride
• 1x Elenda, the Dusk Rose
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Ethersworn Adjudicator
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
• 1x Leonin Elder
• 1x Patron of the Kitsune
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Sangromancer
• 1x Serra Avatar
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Artifact (14)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Batterskull
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Orzhov Keyrune
• 1x Paradise Plume
• 1x Phyrexian Processor
• 1x Profane Memento
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Instant (6)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x False Cure
• 1x Necrologia
• 1x Plunge into Darkness

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
• 1x Sorin Markov

Enchantment (13)

• 1x Angelic Accord
• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Celestial Mantle
• 1x Dark Tutelage
• 1x Greed
• 1x Near-Death Experience
• 1x Polluted Bonds
• 1x Sunbond
• 1x Sunspring Expedition
• 1x Test of Endurance
• 1x True Conviction
• 1x Vampiric Link
• 1x Yawgmoth's Bargain

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Plea for Guidance
• 1x Righteous Confluence

Land (3)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Seachrome Coast

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So the original game plan was to gain so much life that people don't even want to attack you anymore. But after a few games, people quickly realised that they had to keep you below 50 life, due to cards like Test of Endurance or Aetherflux Reservoir. Hence the nickname "the 50 life deck".

Just a disclaimer this isn't a competitive 1v1 deck. This is more at the midpoint of casual and competitive where the purpose is really to just gain a bunch of life and then use that as a resource to kill them, but I tried to tune it to the best I could.

An issue with my first cut of the deck I faced was not enough ramp and I was often stuck on not enough Mana to cast my good stuff (Drogskol Reaver or Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood).

Also this is a trigger-heavy based deck, which comes with a dependence on synergy since cards like Soul Warden or Karlov don't do much without cards lile each other to trigger off. This means you need a solid balance between cards that gain life and cards that trigger from life

Because of the above two points I cut a lot of cards into the maybe pile.

Since you're gaining so much life, you can start expending your life as a resource through cards that other decks ordinarily won't play like Hatred or Aetherflux Reservoir. There are a lot of cards that hurt your opponent every time you gain life like Vizkopa Guildmage or Sanguine Bond. These cards combo beautifully off Exquisite Blood or Beacon of Immortality. Add in a ton of cards that would give you several life gain triggers during opponent's turns, and cards that trigger off life gain, you get beautiful interactions like Sunscorch Regent, Archangel of Thune and Karlov as an example.

I tried to choose the life interaction cards that can win you the game and left out life gain cards that didn't have enough impact like Ajani's Mantle or even Sphinx of the Steel Wind (too expensive). Once the core "life cards" were set in the deck, I threw in some good stuff and some searches to make it more consistent, and also to improve the curve.

Please leave comments because I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.03
Tokens	Horse 5/5 W