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Willowdusk, Dryad of Life and Death [PRIMER]

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Counters Flying Lifegain Lifelink

Rune0809

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Creature (30)

Enchantment (7)

Land (34)

Artifact (8)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Willowdusk, Essence Seer

Instant (11)

Sorcery (9)

Maybeboard

Creature (7)

Artifact (3)

Enchantment (2)

I'm constantly testing out newer and more efficient ways to run this deck so any comment/tip/critique is more than welcome!

Legend says Willowdusk is the oldest creature--older than time itself. Her legacy goes back to the time of the Blood Age. You disagree? Many other students refute this exaggerated claim, but let me ask you--were they around thousands of years ago to refute it? Knowledge that has existed this long will finally be given back.

So sit down in that chair over there, and listen, to the professor giving her lecture about the gains and losses of life.

Willowdusk faced a lot of salt when the Strixhaven precons were leaked to the public. The reason for this is all thanks to the last piece of her card text which states “Activate only as a sorcery” (grumble grumble). However, let’s be honest though and agree this card would be extremely broken if she didn’t have the last piece. Willowdusk is so unique because she is the only card that does what she does. Of course there are cards in here that put +1/+1 counters on creatures, but not as effective or as efficient as she does. Now, I hate decks that run solely by the commander. I believe this is a very weak way to build a deck. What happens if the commander dies? What then? Willowdusk is the exception to this rule because she is the only card that does what she does and I find her art and ability intreguing. For this reason, I put a nice little protection package in the deck with Heroic Intervention, Swiftfoot Boots, Golgari Charm, and Soul Channeling. Some notable possibilities I could fit in later include Allosaurus Shepherd (thank God for the reprint), Gaea's Herald and/or Destiny Spinner.
What I found is that the deck runs terrific with the ebb and flow of life and death. Most of the effects in this deck pay life. The reason for this is because there are better and greater ways to lose life than to gain life. The power of this deck is actually in my small 1/1 flying creatures like Daggerdrome Imp (my favorite creature in this deck) or Ghastly Gloomhunter. How? Well, let’s say we just played Necropotence and paid twenty life and drew twenty cards. We (thanks to Willowdusk) can tap her to put twenty +1/+1 counters on one of those little 1/1 life linking bats and gain all that life back!
I’m a control player at heart and control players stay in control of the game at all times. In this deck, I wanted to control the life I was loosing. No one wants to “loose” anything. This is why no card in this deck makes me “loose” life. I will only “pay” life. Thank you very much! This goes well with cards like Font of Agonies which can go off in this deck thanks to K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, Necropotence, Sylvan Library, etc.. (This is a personal restriction of mine).
Willowdusk taps to put +1/+1 counters on a single creature based on the amount of life lost (Paid! It was Paid!) or the amount of life gained this turn. There are some ways around this including cards that can Untap a creature like Thousand-Year Elixir and Staff of Domination (not yet in the deck). This allows her to tap twice, allowing her to pour the counters on two creatures, not including her unless there was a way to move them around, but let’s be honest, Willowdusk is an engine, not a fighter.
This deck has life linkers in abundance. Little cute 1/1 imps and 1/1 bats can quickly become powerhouses in this deck with the amount of life paid. I plan on reaping what I paid for. The largest I’ve ever gotten Daggerdrome Imp was as a 86/86, making him my pet card in this deck. My meta knows once this little 1/1 imp hits the table it’s all counter and kill spell time! Who would have thought that a cute little 1/1 imp with lifelink could be so threatening?? He’s just a cute little guy! Lifelink is how I get all the life I paid back and most of my creatures have it.
Like I said before, I don’t lose life, I pay life. Cards like Minion of the Wastes, Unspeakable Symbol, and Necropotence allow me to pay a lot of life to put counters on creatures. K’rrik, Son-but-not-the-actual-son-of-Yawgmoth, allows me to pay 2 life for each black mana in a card’s cmc cost. Like WHAT? Marshland Bloodcaster allows me to pay 1 colorless and 1 black mana to pay life equal to the spells mana value rather than tap any mana. Nurturing Peatland is just pay 1 life to use either 1 green or 1 black mana. One of my favorite cards by the name of Hatred (also drawn by my favorite artist) lets me pay life to make a creature more powerful! And guess what? Willowdusk taps to transform all that life loss into pure power. Let your mind go with that one for a bit! Another important include I put in this deck is Aetherflux Reservoir. AR isn’t a card I usually play all that often but it fits in beautifully with this deck! Let’s not forget how WELL Sylvan Library fits. Pay 4 life for each card I drew with it? YES PLEASE!! All this pay life sinks perfectly into one of my favorite cards in this deck—Font of Agonies. For each amount of life paid, you put that many blood counters on Font of Agonies. So did you just pay 12 life to cast several spells with K’rrik? Place 12 blood counters on Font of Agonies. Pay 1 colorless mana and 1 black mana to remove 4 blood counters from Font of Agonies and destroy target creature! (If K'rrik is on the board he feeds into Font of Agonies, too). This card can go off! I’ve used this as a board wipe several times. Just be careful and use it as quickly as seems fit because it will be targeted. That’s a promise!
If Willowdusk is eliminated from the board either by a board wipe or target removal, there is always some means to place counters on your creatures until Willowdusk comes back out. I placed Forgotten Ancient, Bloodtracker (also card draw), and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider in the deck to make sure the counters keep flowing (even if down to a trickle).
Sometimes you need a little bit of help getting through. Thanks Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Triumph of the Hordes, Kalonian Hydra and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider! Could I use more cards like this? Probably, but since most of my creatures are flying with lifelink and deathtouch I’m not really worried.
Well, this deck is a very “beat your face” kind of deck. If you don’t win with huge fliers you can always win with Triumph of the Hordes, a huge trampling Ghalta, a huge Daggerdrome Imp, or even with Aetherflux Reservoir. This deck has no problem with finding ways to win.

So that’s it! That’s my deck. Each piece is part of the puzzle. Each piece is key to what the deck wants to do. If you have any thoughts or critiques, please let me know below!!

Thank you!

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Top Ranked
Date added 3 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

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

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

44 - 0 Rares

25 - 0 Uncommons

15 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.26
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Minion X/X B
Folders Precon Upgrades
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