Karrrlov!! That kills people! (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Karrrlov!! That kills people!

Commander / EDH* Combo Lifegain Soul Sisters Spirits Voltron WB (Orzhov)

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Lands (31)

Protection (10)

Ramp (8)

Removal (5)

Triggers (19)

Draw (13)

Stax (10)

Recursion (4)

Commander (1)

Life (14)

Voltron (12)

Tutors (8)

Wincon (4)

Maybeboard

Life (19)

Wincon (9)

Tokens (7)

Lands (4)

Removal (12)

Draw (10)

Triggers (8)

Protection (5)

Tutors (3)

Stax (11)

Voltron (10)

Ramp (8)

Recursion (6)

Gravehate (2)

Introduction and General Strategy

Karlov of the Ghost Council is a life-matters general, similar to Oloro, Ageless Ascetic but without access to blue and built-in card draw triggers. Instead, Karlov rewards frequent lifegain by getting monstrous as well as providing cheap exile-removal of troublesome creatures (wonderful against indestructible and graveyard recursion). This means Karlov is a relatively unique general that can perform control and Voltron duties well, and the deck's lifegain shell also provides fuel for several nasty table-draining combos. This makes for a flexible deck that can adapt to many different board states by changing strategy on the fly.

For the deck to run optimally, we need two elements on the field: 1) A source of incremental lifegain, preferably one that nets multiple triggers each turn cycle. The best in the deck are:

2) And a card-advantage engine to keep our hand full, which is a difficult task with such a low average CMC.

If we have both of these elements running, we will start to ramp up Karlov quickly and draw tutors so we can assemble alternative win conditions and protect our board state.

Combo Alternative Win Conditions:

Killing three opponents with a Voltron strategy is extremely difficult, so we want alternative means to eliminate opponents. Weaponizing our life total and life gain is an excellent synergistic strategy with Karlov of the Ghost Council. Below are several cards and combinations to give our core Voltron strategy more reach.

Vizkopa Guildmage activations with Karlov and enough +1/+1 counters can clear the table in just one or two swings. The deck provides numerous means to give Karlov lifelink such as Shadowspear, Felidar Umbra, Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord, Vizkopa Guildmage herself, and Spirit Loop, the latter of which does not technically provide 'lifelink' which means the life gaining trigger can stack with true lifelink triggers.

Vizkopa Guildmage + Essence Harvest: Very similar to the combo above, but get's around Fog effects. It's unlikely that Karlov will be big enough to kill the whole table here without Karlov having some serious protection, but this should be able to eliminate one opponent and soften the remaining.

Vizkopa Guildmage + Exquisite Blood: The classic infinite drain combo with the Guildmage in place of Sanguine Bond.

Aetherflux Reservoir + Tainted Sigil: 'Death Star' our most threatening opponent, gain 90 life from the Sigil activation, and we still have enough life to activate the Reservoir at least once more. This means we can kill two opponents with this combo at instant speed, winning the game in a single turn if Karlov can swing in for a kill on our third opponent, if they aren't dead already. The Sigil can be replaced with Exquisite Blood to kill the table.

Vizkopa Guildmage + Tainted Sigil + Necropotence: Getting into three card combo territory here. Pay 40 life to Necropotence, sac the Sigil to gain it all back (or combine with combat damage), and activate the Guildmage to drain the table. Hatred could also be used instead of Necropotence, and also has the added benefit of being able to one-shot any opponent when targeting one of our lifelink creatures. Children of Korlis is a Sigil alternative as well, though not currently in my deck.

Finally, Crested Sunmare, our only 5-drop, provides an indestructible army in a can and is nuts with Sun Droplet or a Soul Warden effect in play. The tokens survive most boardwipes, allowing you to eliminate opponents before they can re-establish.

The Core Voltron Strategy

Karl provides an exceptional body for Voltron. He gets HUGE FAST if we have one of our multiple triggers per turn cycle cards in play. This leaves him wanting two more attributes in order to be truly threatening: protection, and evasion. Lifelink is also a priority ability here since our deck is life-matters and use our life total to fuel alternative win conditions.

For targeted-removal protection, we have both Giver of Runes and Mother of Runes, Lightning Greaves, and to some extent Sword of Feast and Famine and Sword of Light and Shadow. For boardwipe defense we have Teferi's Protection, Rootborn Defenses, Felidar Umbra, a well-timed Mana Tithe, and Selfless Spirit, which is a fantastic target for one of our 3 recursion engines.

For evasion, we have Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Ajani, Caller of the Pride, the two Swords, and Shadowspear, which seems designed perfectly for Karlov.

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98% Casual

Competitive

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 60 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	102
Avg. CMC	2.00
Tokens	Companion Zone, Construct 0/0 C, Inkling 2/1 WB, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Spirit 1/1 WB, Treasure, Vampire 1/1 W
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Based on	Karlov ShaperSavant EDH
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