Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim

Commander / EDH Control Lifegain Tokens

neoasimov

Creature (19)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Ashen Rider
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Divinity of Pride
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Hell's Caretaker
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant  ^Flip
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Wall of Reverence
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine
• 1x Yosei, the Morning Star

Instant (8)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Beacon of Immortality
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Secure the Wastes
• 1x Slaughter Pact

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Elspeth Tirel
• 1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis
• 1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Land (40)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blighted Steppe
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Esper Panorama
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 13x Plains
• 13x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Thawing Glaciers
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Debtors' Knell
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Gift of Immortality
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Martyr's Bond
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Sanguine Bond

Commander (1)

Artifact (11)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Phyrexian Processor
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Profound Journey
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Replenish
• 1x Toxic Deluge

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Maybeboard

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin
• 1x Liliana Vess

Creature (1)

• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip

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This is an heavy control deck. The focus of this deck is Ayli's ability to sacrifice a creature to gain life or exile a non-land permanent. The sacrifice motor of the deck is Ayli. The fact she only cost makes her even more appealing as the sacrifice motor of the deck since she is really cheap to cast and can remain "cheap" even after dying numerous time. In case this happens too often, I always have the possibility to leave her in the graveyard to get her back on the battlefield.

The deck also uses a lot of cards that takes cards from the graveyard and put them directly on the battlefield. There are multiple ways to do this, but the general goal is to sacrifice meaningful creatures and to get them back on the battlefield to perform controlling events.

I find that Aily's real power is her first ability: to sacrifice a creature to gain life and not necessarily to exile permanents. It is more important for this deck to gain life to use as resource to perform actions than to exile permanents using it. It is just a plus and not the goal.

The main resource it exploits is the life of the player. There are a lot of cards to gain life and then we use that gained life to perform actions like drawing cards, exiling creatures, etc.

Token Generation

The main purpose of the deck is to generate tokens that get sacrificed to Ayli to gain life but more importantly to exile nonland permanents to control the board. A lot of cards generate tokens, some more effectively than others. If a card is not incredible to create tokens, it needs to be good at other things like Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Grave Titan, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Elspeth Tirel, Heliod, God of the Sun and Sorin, Grim Nemesis.

Other token generation motors are: Bitterblossom, Luminarch Ascension, Mimic Vat and Phyrexian Processor.

Gain Life

A lot of cards in the deck are used to gain life. However I tried to have cards that have double purposes: gaining life and doing something else like removing life to opponents, creature domain (via lifelink), drawing cards, etc.

Tree of Perdition is used to remove life to an opponent, but it's real goal is to get sacrificed by Ayli to get back that life. It is like a meta drain life. Wurmcoil Engine is used as an effective creature that let me gain life and can possibly create tokens if it dies. Exquisite Blood is used to gain life when any opponent get damage, it is the only card with a single purpose. card:Divinity of Prise is another effective creature to deal damage and give me life. Wall of Reverence is a low cost effective blocker that gives me life every turn. Blighted Steppe is used when there are a lot of tokens in play, or when it becomes critical to get 10 more life than the starting number to enable Ayli to exile permanents. Kokusho, the Evening Star is another effective creature that can get you a load of life. A good way to easily reach Ayli's threshold: Beacon of Immortality. Finally Kambal, Consul of Allocation is a low cost life drainer that is particularly effective early in the game in multiplayer games. Finally Vault of the Archangel turns all the creates into beasts with deathtouch and lifelink. Considering the size of the creatures in the deck, it can be quite an effective way to gain life.

Gaining life is not just about being harder to kill (without an infinite combo). It also has the purpose of doing different things with the life gained that way. The first insensitive is to enable Ayli's second capability to exile nonland permanent. Then you may want to pay 50 life with Aetherflux Reservoir to do 50 damage and eventually exiling a creature, or to pay 20 life to create 20/20 minion tokens with Phyrexian Processor or to keep going Bitterblossom, Phyrexian Arena and not to mention Necropotence or Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant and to get additional mana with Ancient Tomb.

A lot of gained life can be leveraged that way.

Reanimation Engines

Even if the main goal is to generate tokens to sacrifice, there are many creatures we want to sacrifice and to bring-back on the battlefield like Kokusho, the Evening Star, Sun Titan, Ashen Rider, Noxious Gearhulk and Yosei, the Morning Star.

The main reanimator engine is Debtors' Knell which works on all graveyards. Other than that we got Reanimate, Nim Deathmantle, Hell's Caretaker, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Liliana, Defiant Necromancer  .

The focus on the reanimator engines is to put the creatures back in play and not in the player's hands.

Mana Ramp, Tutors, and Card Draw

We are ramping mana with crd:Orzhov Signet, Gilded Lotus, Coalition Relic, Sol Ring and Thran Dynamo. There are also two lands that helps ramping the mana: Thawing Glaciers and Ancient Tomb. With Ancient Tomb it is nice to trade life for mana.

We are tutoring with Entomb, Diabolic Tutor and Enlightened Tutor. I also added Academy Rector particularly to search for card:Deptors' Knell and to put it directly into play.

The ways to draw additional cards are Phyrexian Arena, Skullclamp to use on small tokens with toughness and Necropotence. I also added Sensei's Divining Top to be able to manipulate the top of my library. For that reason, I also added Thawing Glaciers to be able to shuffle the deck when I want (and to get a land at the same time).

What is nice with Obzedat's Aid is that it can be used to bring back a planewalker from the graveyard. It is the only card in the deck that can do this.

Protecting the mechanics

Since this deck rely on multiple enchantments and artifacts to optimize its effectiveness, there are a few cards that helps to protect the mechanics by protecting the cards or by getting the cards from the graveyard. The creatures are taken care by the reanimation engines discussed above. For the enchantments, Replenish is the goto card. We can protect creatures using Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant. With can protect everything with Elspeth, Knight-Errant's emblem. Or we can bring back anything using Sun Titan.

Control

Most of the control need to be done by Ayli herself. However, there are different control cards that got added that will help controlling the board early in the game (when Ayli can't) and if things get uncontrollable. These are Anguished Unmaking, Dismember, Toxic Deluge Ashen Rider and Return to Dust.

Another obvious control card is Yosei, the Morning Star is one of your opponent asks for it.

Finally there is Dictate of Erebos that control all creatures on the board via sacrificing along with Sheoldred, Whispering One and Martyr's Bond.

What I am looking for are cards that play double-duty in these mechanics that may improve the overall deck while making it more interactive and fun to play.

All propositions to modify this deck are welcome!

Date added	8 years
Last updated	7 years
Exclude colors	URG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	19 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.85
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Copy Clone, Emblem Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Faerie Rogue 1/1 B, Minion X/X B, Soldier 1/1 W, Vampire 1/1 B w/ Lifelink, Vampire Knight 1/1 B, Warrior 1/1 W, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	My Decks, Decks to look at