Care for the Little Ones

Commander / EDH Aristocrats Lifegain WB (Orzhov)

jakeelephant006

Creature (30)

• 1x Bartolome del Presidio
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Carrier Thrall
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cathar Commando
• 1x Corpse Knight
• 1x Cruel Celebrant
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1x Fleshtaker
• 1x Kami of False Hope
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Lampad of Death's Vigil
• 1x Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1x Manakin
• 1x Millikin
• 1x Morbid Opportunist
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Priest of Fell Rites
• 1x Priest of Forgotten Gods
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Skyclave Cleric  ^Flip
• 1x Spirited Companion
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Tithe Taker
• 1x Triarch Praetorian
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Wall of Omens
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Land (34)

• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Castle Ardenvale
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 9x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 1x Shadowy Backstreet
• 10x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Vault of the Archangel

Artifact (12)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Executioner's Capsule
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of the Animist
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Instant (1)

• 1x Rally the Ancestors

Commander (1)

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Ascend from Avernus
• 1x Bankrupt in Blood
• 1x Citywide Bust
• 1x Command the Dreadhorde
• 1x Damn
• 1x Dusk / Dawn
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Immortal Servitude
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Return to the Ranks
• 1x Rite of Oblivion
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Zof Consumption  ^Flip

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Angelic Renewal
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Darksteel Mutation
• 1x Hidden Stockpile
• 1x Kaya's Ghostform
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Seal of Cleansing
• 1x Vampiric Rites

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Maybeboard

Creature (11)

• 1x Athreos, God of Passage
• 1x Bloodthrone Vampire
• 1x Bounty Agent
• 1x Doomed Traveler
• 1x Dusk Legion Zealot
• 1x Hunted Witness
• 1x Magus of the Balance
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Pack Rat
• 1x Putrid Goblin
• 1x Skirsdag High Priest

Artifact (3)

• 1x Genesis Chamber
• 1x Star Compass
• 1x Witch's Oven

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x Revival / Revenge

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Background

This deck began with the thesis statement that companions were just as overpowered in commander as they can be in 60 card constructed formats in the effort to prove that the companion mechanic should be banned in commander. After a year or so of testing, I was not able to use this deck to prove that statement (although my 5-color Sisay, Weatherlight Captain/Jegantha, the Wellspring deck does a decent job). Originally, I had paired Lurrus of the Dream-Den with Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim but the deck never felt like it was generating any sort of advantage and the two "leaders" of the deck didn't get along as harmoniously as I had imagined they would. Ayli is really a life-gain deck with a sacrificial sub-theme and I always wanted this to be more of a Lurrus aristocrats deck. In the end, I decided to ditch the companion mechanic and focus only on Lurrus's recursion ability lending itself to the aristocrats archetype.

One of the reasons I so love playing aristocrats decks is that they typically solve the puzzle of winning a game in multiple different ways and are very recursive, meaning that once they establish an engine it's hard to slow aristocrats down. Lurrus especially lends itself to the second hallmark of aristocrats. The ability to cast a cheap permanent from the graveyard once a turn may not sound like it can be very impactful in edh, but the value accrued truly adds up once you start repeatedly replaying small effects like drawing a card, ramping, creating tokens, and add on other synergies taking advantage of all the death that accompanies the previous actions.

Deck Tech

One of the sweetest products of playing Orzhov aristocrats is that you have access to nearly all of the Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat effects which drain your opponents while you cycle your creatures in and out of the graveyard. The slow sapping of our opponents' life helps the deck inch towards victory while maintaining a healthy buffer of life.

The most common ways this deck will close out the game is through two different means. Both of which capitalize on the previously mentioned engine. The first operates by combining life drain and sacrifice effects with one or more mass reanimation spells like the classic Living Death or the more unique Return to the Ranks. The second is through and infinite combo like the Karmic Guide + Reveillark in addition to a free sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer or the Animate Dead + Leonin Relic-Warder combo and one of the Blood Artist type cards will infinitely drain all other players and reanimate most anything else in the graveyard to boot. It is especially easy to achieve these combos using the cards Buried Alive or Final Parting.

All in all, this is a very value-based and recursive deck that rewards you for being patient and acquiring leverage by repeatedly playing the same cards within a given game to inch your way towards victory.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	10 months
Key combos	Karmic Guide + Reveillark Animate Dead + Leonin Relic-Warder
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 26 - 0 Rares 35 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.45
Tokens	Companion Zone, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Human 1/1 W, Servo 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 WB, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Decks I have, Casual Commander, EDH-ocrats