This deck was inspired by other decks that are very similar to it, most notably SadisticMystic's Suicide Machine at a staggering $1500, and trashpile's Selenia, $20 killing machine. I wanted to create a deck that was fun to play in casual without having all my friends hate me but still good enough to play at some LGS events if I ever felt like it, and I feel that this is semi successful in that. While the decks that inspired me had a very low mana curve that focus's on early game wins, the curve I used is based around mid to late game. Coming in at around $300, this is a little over what I would call a budget deck, but there's a lot of value to be had here. If you wanted to make a more budgeted variant of this deck, it wouldn't be too hard to swap some of the obvious cards for cheaper ones (lands, draw engines, etc). Anyways, lets get into the deck.
P.S. Just wanted to give a special shoutout to all the people on the PlayEDH Discord channel who helped me get this deck to where it is now, especially Rex, sadcasual, MagicTheBlabbering, and Malharath.
Overall Strategy:
The basic strategy of the deck is obvious: drain life with life sinks and swap life totals with other players to get fast and unpredictable kills. The difficult part of playing this deck is to pay attention to how the board develops and to know the meta so you can decide the appropriate rate at which to drain life. Keep in mind that deck has an average CMC of 3.61, so a slow early game is okay as long as you're working to set up the kill.
Combos:
Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond = Infinite Combo Kill
Necrologia/Damnable Pact + Thought Vessel/Reliquary Tower + Phyrexian Unlife = Draw a big hand into negative, then swap for kill (Repay in Kind will kill the entire table)
Tainted Remedy + Beacon of Immortality = Instakill (if you can pull it off, using Vizkopa Guildmage can kill the entire table)
Angel's Grace + Near Death Experience = Win
Tree of Perdition + Triskaidekaphobia = Instakill (it's worth playing Triskaidekaphobia before you have the tree in play. Any time an opponent hits 13 life, they lose)
Obviously if an opponent is low enough you can just use any type of targeted life drain to finish them off without damaging yourself (Damnable Pact, Debt to the Deathless, Exsanguinate, etc)
Also, it's worth having a Vedalken Orrery out early when trying to set up combos. This let's you play your enchantments and swaps from your hand as if they were instants so your opponents don't have time to react to them, which can be advantageous.
Lich Mode: Okay, I thought this card needed to be talked about in it's own section because of how good and dangerous it is. If you play Lich at the wrong time, it will lose you the game outright, so be cautious. The best time to play Lich is in the late game when you have swaps available to use on the board or in your hand on the same turn that you play Lich and when your opponents life totals aren't too drastically high. Ideally, you'll want to have an Elixir of Immortality out so you can shuffle your graveyard into your library. Basically, this is the best card in the deck when it comes to the gimmick because you can swap and kill at will without having to worry about life totals. However, if you don't have many permanents on the board or if your library is on the smaller side, you can easily lose by running out of stuff to sacrifice or straight up decking yourself by life swapping and drawing your library. More likely then not, you can get a kill on your first turn when you Lich. Maybe two kills if you're lucky. If you have to pass the turn and take damage, make sure to sacrifice all cards that give you no maximum hand size. That way if you have too many cards in you're hand, you can filter out what you don't want into your graveyard, play Elixir of Immortality, draw 5 and shuffle your graveyard into your library (which effectively acts as your lifeline). When Lich is in play, you want to keep your library and board as full as possible while trying to win the game within 1-3 turns. After that, it's likely that you'll run out of steam or somebody will draw into a card that can answer Lich.
Contingencies: I've made sure to include a pretty good amount of removal in this deck as well as lifegain if you need to slow the bleeding. Vindicate, Disenchant and Profane Command are good single target removal, while Merciless Eviction, Damnation, Wrath of God, and Toxic Deluge will clear the board, for the most part. If you find you're dying too quickly, you can play any of the lifegain effects to heal yourself instead of using them as damage. If you're on the verge of death, don't be afraid to play a preemptive Platinum Angel or Angel's Grace to save yourself (this is especially helpful if you have a Vedalken Orrery out, as you can flash cards onto your board to save yourself during somebody else's turn).
Maybeboard: These aren't cards that didn't make the cut, but rather cards that I recommend buying and swapping in depending on your meta.
- If you find that you're getting beat down by agro decks too often, consider Venser's Journal, Tainted Sigil, and Alhammaret's Archive.
- If you're not losing life fast enough for your taste, consider Spoils of the Vault or Ad Nauseam.
- If you're having problems finding the mana or the cards for your late game combos, consider Doubling Cube, Fellwar Stone, Sculpting Steel, or Mirage Mirror.
- In a control/interupt heavy environment, consider Nevinyrral's Disc, Grand Abolisher, and Solemnity (which combos great with Phyrexian Unlife).
- If you think the deck is light on winning cards, consider Reverse the Sands or Felidar Sovereign.
- If you need another Sanguine Bond type effect, consider Defiant Bloodlord.
