Alright I know I said budget, and it was, I promise, but the price of certain cards on here keep going up and tcg went from 30 dollars to 94. I don't know what's changing but it is.

Felidar Sovereign and Alhammarret's Archive are your wincons, you need 4 of them.

Maybe cut Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Stone Haven Medic, and Sunscorch Regent, and put in some walls or stalls? Lifelink really doesn't seem as reliable as stalling and casting healing spells.

Retreat to Kazandu is good if you put some focus on getting land with cards like Explore and Nissa's Pilgrimage but if not then you may be better off switching it for Feed the Clan or similar.

If you're trying to cut budget, then try switching out these:

• Canopy Vista and Fortified Village for Graypelt Refuge which does the same thing, although a bit slower. Also has the bonus of more lifegain!
• Cryptolith Rite is good but maybe not needed if you don't get any real big drops and also you may need your creatures untapped to stall for more time
• Undergrowth Champion doesn't fit the deck theme, maybe switch it for something BIG like Pelakka Wurm that does?

Boy I really wasn't planning on making a big comment like this.

Here, found some solid walls for you: Pride Guardian, Perimeter Captain, Stalwart Shield-Bearers, Wall of Essence.

Bloodveld Thank you for your wall of text and... walls. I think a huge thing you missed here is the standard tag. Most of your suggestions are either not in standard or are out the door by tomorrow. I do see your commentary on wincons and useless cards, though. Thank you.

Sorry, that seems worded like an insult, useless cards on my board*.

By the way, Undergrowth Champion is a very nice wall IMO, I buy free blocks with lands.

Ah yes, I did miss the standard tag. Carry on.

You have 5-6 drops and landfall triggers you should be playing at least 25 lands in this deck, probably 26

Duskmantle A lot of the time, I see my landfall come in from Nissa's Renewal if at all, and I'm thinking of getting more than 2 copies in here. As for high drops. Cryptolith Rite seems to cover them, cause I got walls that can tap for mana n shit. Otherwise, I'm not sure what else I'd take out from this deck to fit in more lands.

Probably cut some of the worse lifegain spells so you actually have mana to cast your spells. I didn't miss your other mana producers. I am just telling you what the mathematicaly correct number of lands is in a deck like this. Without a proper number of lands you are setting yourself up for failure when you dont see cryptolyth rite on turn 2-3.

Have you decided to make or add any changes too the deck? cause im thinking about playing this for shits and giggles, but there is still high hopes for this deck if i were to bring this to FNM TBH, cause the low mana costs, copious amounts of blockers, and TONS of HP really quick is super good! Awaiting a Responce -Lunason

lunasoneverfree Hi there! Changes and suggestions are welcome, what were you thinking? I'm always interested in comments, but if you suggest something, please also suggest what you might replace. There's some obvious weak spots in the deck, so go ahead!

Hi there. I like the idea for your deck but I think you might need some more staying power. I attempted to build a Boros life gain/burn deck a few months back (aptly named lifeburn) and found that the life gain you get from spells that don't impact the board doesn't really add up. About 1/3 of your creatures have defender, and the other creatures have double colored mana costs, meaning that it is going to be really hard to pay for Cleric of the Forward Order on turn 2 then pay for Undergrowth Champion turn 3 for example. The life gain aspect is good but in order to win your opponent needs to be at 0. That is why I recommend adding black!

Adding black gives you access to Shambling Vent which is great mana fixing, gives you another life link creature, and you can toss the counters you get from Wall of Resurgence onto the vent, making it huge! Make it a 4 of!
I would -3 Undergrowth Champion because it really doesn't fit your overall theme.
Then I would -1 Alhammarret's Archive as it is legendary and you can only have 1 out at a time. If you draw multiples, you can't really cast it without destroying the other and you have no way of discarding it for value...
I would -2 Felidar Sovereign. You don't want multiples in your opening hand.
Then add 2 Defiant Bloodlord. The ability makes for some decent life swings and puts pressure on the opponent due to the flying...
Add 4 Cliffhaven Vampire. Another flier that synergizes with life gain to lower your opponent's life total...
And finally, I would probably remove Cryptolith Rite and Retreat to Kazandu to make room for 1 more copy of Pulse of Murasa and 4 Drana's Emissary. Pulse will give you the needed creature recursion due to the heavy removal floating around, especially in red and black. The Emissary giving you 1 life every turn and causing a 2 point life swing every upkeep is a huge bonus as long as it stays alive.

paulbmoore1980 What you're suggesting is changing this deck from a lifegain deck to a drain+gain deck. I don't really have to add black to get Shambling Vent, cause it's a land that gives white, but even if i did, I don't want it. Cleric of the Forward Order doesn't cost , so I could easily tempo into an Undergrowth Champion with it. Undergrowth Champion doesn't really need to fit the deck, even if it didn't. Getting him out early makes for great blocking power, what with his 1/1 counter, and if I happen not to draw on Felidar Sovereign, an easier wincon. Pulse of Murasa just brings back Evolving Wilds over and over again to keep him beefy, as well as activate Retreat to Kazandu. Alhammarret's Archive is a huge part of my wincon in itself, and I really can't afford to not draw it, so having 3 makes a huge difference (at least, in playtesting) from having 2.

Basically, my wincon is having 40 life, so adding black weakens my actual lifegain and stall properties. It instead leans into the simple damage wincon. I don't really need to be damaging the enemy at all, as long as I have 40+ life and I draw my Felidar Sovereign.

Go ahead and playtest the deck a few times. Whenever I do, I usually have much more than 40 life and sovereign on turn 8, with huge Undergrowth Champions, Wall of Resurgence, and other tiny blockers already there to stall me into turn 8.

ajstorey456...You are right, Cleric of the Forward Order does not cost , I got the mana cost confused with another card. Please don't take my suggestions as an insult about the deck archetype as it was not meant that way. I did not realize that the tactic you were trying to employ was a board state stall method.

The Boros lifeburn deck that I put together some months back ran 4 copies of Soulfire Grand Master and utilized burn spells like Stoke the Flames, Lightning Strike, and Magma Jet. I could gain life from practically every spell and essentially buy them all back late game with the second ability.

The other half of the deck were cards that gave lifelink like Hopeful Eidolon, Seeker of the Way, and Dawnbringer Charioteers that I then paired with pseudo removal cards like Fall of the Hammer and Tail Slash. Needless to say, while every game would get me upwards of 50 to 60 life, my board state didn't allow me to actually defeat my opponent. Granted, Felidar Sovereign wasn't in the format at the time.

paulbmoore1980 No worries! Sorry if I made my argument seem like an insult, it's just how arguments seem to sound.

And yes, Soulfire Grand Master decks were fun. I got into magic around the time M15 was rotating out, though, so I was a little late when my first standard mythic was SGM. Just not enough wincon to lifegain decks most of the time, sadly, but sovereign fixes that right up. I just like alternate wincons to hitting the opponent. It's more fun.

Love it! Switch healing hands with stasis snare though. Healing hands is just too bad and you need SOME interaction.

Fair, I just liked the draw along with lifegain because of alhammarret's.

ajstorey456 that's true I didn't think of that, that's pretty sweet. Maybe you could run a Bygone Bishop?

no offense to you my friend, but i hate the investigation mechanic with a burning passion, and theres no real need for the bishop anyway. i should probably look into some card draw for the deck overall, now that i think about ti.

maybe Nissa, Voice of Zendikar wouldn't hurt this deck too badly?

What's wrong with investigate? My pre-release deck was G/W humans/werewolves with investigate and I went undefeated until the final round. I modified that deck later on to create a strictly G/W humans build with an investigate sub theme and went undefeated until the last round again this past Friday at my local game store's FNM. Don't underestimate it. Card draw will definitely win games, especially with the Archive out, and the clue tokens are still considered permanents, so you can sacrifice them to something like Angelic Purge without really affecting your board state. You might hate the investigate mechanic with a burning passion, but there is still another solid reason to run with it in your deck...and that reason is Graf Mole.

See, investigate requires devoting a sub theme to it, which if you don't want to build around it specifically for one card like Graf Mole, having it will weaken your deck. In order for the mole to work efficiently in this deck, I'll need more clue genners, maybe like the bishop. But where am I putting these? I'm either taking from lifegain cards to put investigate cards to fuel one creature, or I'm taking from walls which help me stay alive until archive is out. Investigate requires me to change my whole board to keep it intact. It's not really a good splash mechanic. Let's take Thraben Inspector, for example. 1 mana 1/2 investigate. That's OK, turn 1 blocker and a clue token, neat. But there's better without investigate. Like Jaddi Offshoot. 1 mana 0/4 landfall lifegain. It works on its own to throw into any deck, cause turn 1 landfall 0/4 blocker that stays relevant, over a 1/2 that you're gonna chump and 1 card draw for an additional fee. Sure, it helps archive, but archives use with clues might be for another deck. Everyone and their mother has established Thopter Spy Network and investigation as a good combo. that's the only thing i've seen that synergizes with clues that wasn't built specifically around clues.

Seems like a fun deck to play, if you want to go even deeper with Planeswalker lifegain you could try replacing Nissa with Sorin, Grim Nemesis since he has 2 lifegain abilities so you don't necessarily have to go for Nissa's ultimate but you would have to splash

+1

Thank you ajani! And yes, we all love sorin, he's the greatest, but unfortunately hes black. and we just cannot have black mixed with our white.