I really enjoy combo-ing off on
Exquisite Blood
. When
Dina, Soul Steeper
was spoiled for Strixhaven, I was immediately excited. I have been playing with
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
as my Historic Brawl Commander, but was interested to switch to Dina since Green gives me access to three things that the deck sorely needed: Ramp, better enchantment/artifact removal, and graveyard recursion that can target enchantments.
Is this deck Tier 1?
No. Despite running an indefinite combo, this deck is eminently fair, since tutoring or playing Exquisite Blood is a blood-red flag to the opponent. If anything, this deck isn’t fast enough to defeat Goblins or Elves unless you play at least two removal spells or one board wipe. Decks running
Tergrid, God of Fright
or
Yasharn, Implacable Earth
can frustrate the sacrifice-heavy element in the deck. Also, as always, control decks are the natural enemy of combo decks.
Comparisons with Vito Decks:
Setting a side the advantages of adding green, Dina has two advantages as a commander for Exquisite Blood Combo decks: one, since Dina reads “each opponent” it can work around your opponent somehow having Hexproof or Protection from Green or Black (e.g.
Veil of Summer
or
Leyline of Sanctity
), and, her sacrifice ability can sometimes help trigger the combo. Vito is superior to Dina in that his lifelink ability is useful in combat situations. Which one you will want to have as commander depends on your preferred play style.
Ways to Win:
Playing this deck, your first path to victory is to combo out using the indefinite life gain/life loss loop of: Exquisite Blood, one of the following: Dina, Vito, or
Marauding Blight-Priest
, and something to trigger the combo by causing you to gain life and/or your opponent to lose life. In Arena, this loop doesn’t trigger the timer, so in that respect, it really doesn’t matter how much life your opponent has when you trigger the combo, or how much life is gained or lost on each individual trigger.
The order sequence in which you play your combo pieces is going to depend on what your opponent is playing, so think about what they may have for removal.
If for some reason you aren’t able to successfully stick the combo with Exquisite Blood, your next course of action would be to try to get their life total down low enough (around 10-15) so that you can cause them bleed out using some other combo, like sacrificing a bunch of your own creatures to Dina when
Blood Artist
and/or
Bastion of Remembrance
are out, our casting
Blood on the Snow
when you have
Massacre Wurm
and/or Blood Artist, or sometimes just casting Massacre Wurm with Blood Artist out.
If you can’t use one of the lesser combos, sometimes you can win with combat, with, especially if you just have some but not all of the pieces out, For example, attacking for 10 when your opponent is at 10 and Vito has given all your creatures lifelink. Another way could be attacking an opponent who is at 4 with only one blocker with both Dina and
Deathless Knight
, it won’t matter who is blocked, since Dina’s sacrifice ability will pump her.
A Review of the other Cards:
Tutors
Grim Tutor
and
Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
. If you don’t already have Exquisite Blood in your hand,, ideally you will play one of these on turn three. In the case of Varragoth, you’ll attack on turn four and activate his boast ability during combat. Occasionally you’ll actually need to tutor for something else; in those cases sometimes I will reach for a combo trigger, removal or even a land.
Graveyard Recursion
Bala Ged Recovery
and
Golgari Findbroker
are decent pieces for getting Exquisite Blood back out of the graveyard.
Gaea's Blessing
is included partly because it at least gets it back in your deck, but I mainly play it to deal with mill decks; you won’t ever really want to draw it.
Agadeem's Awakening
grants creature recursion and flexibility.
Infuse with Vitality
and
Malakir Rebirth
are principally included to protect your combo creatures, with the former also working as a way to trigger the combo, or as a combat trick.
Triggers
This deck has a ton of cards that can trigger the combo, but the best triggers are
Jungle Hollow
and
Radiant Fountain
because as lands they cannot be countered. The next best triggers are
Cauldron Familiar
or
Erebos's Intervention
(where X= 1, you can even target your own creature with it).
Witch's Oven
generates Food Tokens which can be used as a trigger or combined with the Familiar. There’s also all of the cards that interact with death triggers mentioned above, not to mention
Lampad of Death's Vigil
, which can be sacrificed to itself. And of course, you can also trigger it by dealing damage using a creature with lifelink.
Passive Lifegain
Dogged Pursuit
and
Cosmos Elixir
have a passive lifegain effect that can win you game as early as the end of the turn that your last combo piece comes out, but the later will “only” draw you a card if you are above your starting life total.
Combat Pieces
Valentin, Dean of the Vein
almost always gets played for a one-drop, can create pests on the deaths of other creatures, and combos well with Dina, Vito and Blight-Priest.
Blood Researcher
,
Bloodthirsty Aerialist
, and
Deathless Knight
are all moderately formidable combat threats that benefit from life gain, and can draw fire from your opponent. The Knight especially shines since it has haste and can come back from the graveyard.
Ramp
I actually included relatively little ramp in this deck, but
Cultivate
is probably the best available since it ensures that you’ll get the five mana sources needed to cast Exquisite Blood.
Migration Path
is included because of cycling, but there might be a better card for this.
Gilded Goose
is the only mana dork, but it’s the best available because the food token in generates can either be mana ramp, a trigger, or synergizes with Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven.
Removal
The removal suite is straightforward and doesn’t need much explanation. The only reason that there’s snow-covered lands in the deck is so that there can be graveyard recursion with
Blood on the Snow
. Removal for artifacts or enchantments includes
Wilt
and
Maelstrom Pulse
for that and everything else.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
makes it into the deck because she’s just so good and her passive ability draws you cards when your creatures die.
