Liesa's Lust for Life 2.0 [[Primer]] (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Liesa's Lust for Life 2.0 [[Primer]]

Commander / EDH Angels Death and Taxes Flying Hatebears Lifegain Lifelink Primer Rock Stax WB (Orzhov)

BrickSkipper

Creature (26)

Instant (8)

Land (35)

Artifact (8)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Ajani, Strength of the Pride

Commander (1)

Enchantment (16)

Sorcery (5)

Maybeboard

Creature (21)

Artifact (9)

Instant (6)

Land (5)

Enchantment (8)

Sorcery (6)

Planeswalker (2)

After colluding with the forces of Darkness in the First Chapter of her saga, Liesa has assembled a force of vengeful Valkyries to take to the skies.

Retribution will be Hers

Introduction

I like to draw together a large pool of cards which synergize well together and test out a lot of different permutations of a deck. I've reached what I'd consider my second stable build for Liesa, meaning the deck feels good to play, I don't feel bad about any of the inclusions, and it sits at the power level I am targeting (mid to high). What I think are the most important cards to consider are in the maybeboard--they're all worth a slot, find the ones that suit your budget and playstyle.

Since Kaldheim gave us so many great Angels to play with, this build is focused more on board presence than my previous one. Our game plan is centered around building a force of deadly fliers while gaining life to use as a resource; helping us break parity with Liesa's passive ability. Once we smack opponents a few times in the air, the pressure from our taxing cards and extortion will be all the more effective. This deck is for you if you enjoy cascading triggers and being the problem the rest of the table struggles to answer.

Laying the Groundwork

These are the cards that smooth out our draws and enable our basic game plan of gaining life to use as a resource. Look for these (along with mana rocks and/or tutors) in your opening hand.

Authority of the Consuls - Any one mana permanent with this much text just has to be good. Hoses hasters and can gain a ton of life in the right pod.

Bloodchief Ascension - For a one mana spell, this card does a ton of work in this deck. If put down early, it drains the table quite effectively.

Land Tax - The classic card advantage engine in white, this enables us to keep hands that would otherwise stumble. If you have a Scroll Rack , these two allow for great card advantage and selection when paired together.

Mother of Runes - Enables us to blank removal spells for our other important creatures, and give creatures protection which can be used both in offense and defense.

Serra Ascendant - Don't worry ladies, the most assertive one-drop in EDH is here. All Hail the Ascendant Chad.

Weathered Wayfarer - A repeatable tutor for lands. We have a lot of great utility on our lands. Common targets are Ancient Tomb , Bojuka Bog , Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , War Room , Vault of the Archangel and High Market . I think sticking a Maze of Ith in the deck to tutor up could be nice as well.

Soul's Attendant - Soul Sister is great here, giving us many triggers and much life. I've run Soul Warden in addition, but with my current build it doesn't seem necessary.

Dark Confidant - We should have enough life to spare. Liesa hasn't forgotten black's ability to exchange life for cards.

Karlov of the Ghost Council - Paired with any repeatable source of life gain, Big Karl quickly grows to unreasonable sizes. This growth plus the removal from his activated ability makes for one of the best two drops I've ever cast.

Suture Priest - Allows us life gain triggers and begins the process of taxing our opponents' life totals.

Dawn of Hope - One of the better card draw engines. While we don't want to be paying mana into it while we're developing our board and mana, it ensures we don't run out of gas.

Phyrexian Arena - The Classic. Great when you get it down early. It's probably worth it even with our white skew to run Necropotence in here. My copy is currently living in Liesa's Brother deck, K'rrik

Tymna the Weaver - Gains life, spends life, draws cards. As long as you can get in (flying helps) she's one of the best creatures to have.

Smothering Tithe - Gets us ahead on mana by taxing opponents for the privilege of drawing cards.

Taxing and Staxing

Liesa is a great commander for a Death and Taxes strategy, and we don't shy away from that here.

Ashes of the Abhorrent - A bit of life gain, a bit of graveyard hate.

Kunoros, Hound of Athreos - See above.

Blind Obedience - Slows down other decks by making their rocks enter tapped and turning off haste; Blind Obedience also enables life gain through extortion.

Drannith Magistrate - Slows down opponents and eats a removal spell. If paired with a turn one Mother of Runes , can put the table in quite the bind until someone board wipes.

Righteous Aura - Have your opponents decided they don't enjoy being taxed and drained? This enchantment increases our survivability when they try to remove us from the table.

Ghostly Prison - Another enchantment that makes taking us out a bit more complicated.

Kambal, Consul of Allocation - Kambal is here to make sure we get paid in blood.

Archon of Emeria - Slows down the game very nicely, punishing greedy manabases and decks built to storm off. We have enough mana sinks and activated abilities to break parity fairly well on the Rule of Law effect.

Academy Rector - People will be hesitant to swing into you if they can't evade the Rector. Our enchantment package is a nice toolbox, and the threat of being able to tutor one to the board is no joke. Typical high-value targets are Exquisite Blood for drain/comboing with Vito; or Court of Grace for some draw and token production. Wound Reflections would also be a great target and is on the short list of cards to make room for. There are plenty of more budget friendly cards that can be run in this slot. I'd try Linvala, Keeper of Silence , but this is a flex slot for those who don't do reserve list.

Erebos, God of the Dead - Card draw engine that incidentally shuts down enemy life gain. Occasionally an indestructible blocker.

Mangara, the Diplomat - Mangara can provide us with some nice card draw or incentivize our opponents to slow down and send their attacks elsewhere. He does have a bit of tension with the Archon of Emeria, but his 2/4 lifelink body and the attack clause remain relevant.

Rampage of the Valkyries - Forces opponents to sacrifice creatures if our Angels die, while coming with a Serra Angel stapled on.

Keeping the Board in Check

Being in Orzhov, Liesa has access to much of the best removal in the format and a variety of ways to wipe up if things get out of hand:

Path to Exile / Swords to Plowshares - One mana exile effects are playable. Who would have guessed?

Despark - Another low cost exile effect that can target a variety of permanent types.

Heliod's Intervention - Lets us deal with pesky enchantments or artifacts, or gain life in a pinch.

Karlov of the Ghost Council - Don't forget his activated ability.

Anguished Unmaking - Versatility is the name of the game here. Sometimes the 3 life stings--Especially when Liesa is on the board--but the spell is worth it in my opinion.

Grasp of Fate - If you haven't noticed, we have answers for nonland permanents. Grasp lets us exile one from each opponent until it leaves the battlefield. I could see replacing this with Generous Gift to tax our lives a bit less, and be able to deal with lands.

Kaya's Guile - I love the versatility on this card. Choosing two from an edict, graveyard hate, a token body or life gain--all at instant speed for 3 mana--feels great every time I cast it. The entwine text is just gravy.

Ajani, Strength of the Pride - Ajani suits a number of roles for us, one of which is a one-sided boardwipe that exiles artifacts and creatures your opponents control if you are up 15 life from your starting total. While not a small task in this deck, getting to 55 is not too hard.

Fumigate - Wipe Board, Get Triggers, ???, Profit.

Austere Command - My favorite boardwipe in the format for its versatility.

There are some alternatives to the interaction suite listed above in the maybeboard. Use what you've got.

Flight of the Valkyries

Building a force of synergistic Angels and fliers is our primary win condition. Here are some inclusions that feel essential to me:

Serra Ascendant - Hail!

Resplendent Angel - Enabled by our commander. This 3 drop is board presence in a box.

Righteous Valkyrie - Even though our count of Angels isn't that high in this deck, I've found Righteous Valkyrie to gain a ton of life for me. The +2/+2 anthem is also very nice.

Court of Grace - We have plenty of cards which help us hold on to the Monarchy, from beefy fliers to efficient removal. Court of Grace draws us some cards while enabling our flying payoffs (and puts Liesa on the Throne she deserves).

Firja's Retribution - This saga provides a lot for us. First we get a Serra Angel. OK, nice start right? Then our Angels get to pick off some pesky creatures. The third chapter providing double strike lines up perfectly when we curve Retribution into Liesa, untap and attack for 18 in the air.

Gisella, The Broken Blade- There are probably stronger cards, but not sweeter ones. Everyone should get to flip into Brisella, Voice of Nightmares at least once in their magic career.

Archangel of Thune - Pumps our board up quite quickly. A must answer threat.

Liesa, Shroud of Dusk - Don't underestimate Liesa's ability to end a game. The incidental life loss from her ability will add up for the table quicker than you may think. Since she always has a mana cost of 5, the proposition of removing her isn't too appealing for our foes. Oh, and she's also a 5/5 flying lifelinker, which has never been an easy archetype to race.

Sunscorch Regent - A threat that triggers life gain many times in a trip around the table.

Emeria's Call - The opportunity cost of this MDFC is laughably low. Run it.

The short list of cards to squeeze in: Twilight Prophet , Angel of Destiny , Witch of the Moors

Here are some enablers for our Valkyries:

Duelist's Heritage - Pairs excellently with lifelink and flying (see: Liesa).

Heliod, Sun-Crowned - With a little bit of setup Heliod can make even the most modest of creatures into a real problem for our foes.

Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose - Vito's passive ability drains opponents quite efficiently. He pairs with lifelinkers or big life gain spells such as Revival / Revenge , Exsanguinate , Debt to the Debtless, Heliod's Intervention or Gray Merchant of Asphodel . The activated ability can also gain a lot of life if we've built up a force of Valkyries, while providing nice insurance that his passive will be relevant. Vito also goes infinite with Exquisite Blood (see below). I've eschewed Sanguine Bond as I can only stand to run so many enchantments that don't impact the board. If you want more redundancy and consistency for this effect I recommend slotting in Vizkopa Guildmage , with a not-too-distant third being Marauding Blight-Priest .

Well of Lost Dreams - Most trips around the table have us gaining a fair bit of life. The Well ensures we always have a place to use our mana.

Tymna the Weaver - An excellent card draw engine, turns out Tymna and Liesa are two great flavors that go great together.

My first enabler to bring in off the bench would be Sorin, Venegeful Bloodlord--He's been very impressive, giving us nice grindy recursion and gaining us life.

Closing Accounts

These are the cards we look for once we're in a position to close the game.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel - We all know Gary has the ability to pick a game up and carry it across the finish line on his shoulders.

Debt to the Debtless-(or Exsanguinate )- Call in the blood debt the table owes you.

Vilis, Broker of Blood - Yeah, he's 8 mana... and worth every pip. If he's out with Liesa every spell you cast draws two cards. I can see running a reanimation package with entomb/reanimate/animate dead just to try and cheat Vilis out. We may want to take a look at the symmetrical Graveyard Hate cards we're playing and shuffle some things around in order to try this. Reanimate and Animate Dead are such efficient spells that they would probably be fine without much support (and in spite of our guard dog Kuronos.)

Bruna, the Fading Light + Gisella the Broken Blade- If I were going to optimize this list, these two would probably be the first to go... but dammit I just want to live the dream and untap with Brisela, Voice of Nightmares one time...

Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose - We are choosing to play Exquisite Blood. It's such a stellar card paired with Liesa's passive ability that avoiding it feels a bit silly. That being said, I don't like to win with the same infinite combo every game, so I'm not running any of the more clunky combo pieces. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose stands on his own just fine when we're not comboing off, which is more my style. Having this combo in the deck gives us reach we wouldn't otherwise have.

The maybeboard once again has some different top end cards I think could carry their weight here. Feel like trying out Heliod, Sun-Crowned with Walking Ballista ? Seems reasonable to me. Or perhaps (like me) you're a fan of Bolas's Citadel ? If so, consider putting in Sensei's Divining Top + Aetherflux Reservoir , as well as Necropotence , which all combo together in nutty ways. Perhaps you're not a fan of having infinite combos in your EDH decks? No problem. Just go deeper on Angel synergies and slot in cards like Lyra Dawnbringer , Starnheim Unleashed , and Akroma's Will -or find another direction to move in- experiment! There are many sweet permutations of this basic shell.

I hope this deck sparks something for you like it has for me. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I'd love to hear them below. I'd especially appreciate advice about the manabase. I'd love to be running a few more untapped white sources. How would you manage that?

I'm also brushing up on my CSS and HTML to try and spruce things up. If anyone a bit more experienced is willing to collaborate I'd be ever grateful.

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Revision 15 See all

(3 years ago)

+1	Elite Spellbinder	maybe
+1	Selfless Glyphweaver ^Flip	maybe
+1	Silverquill Silencer	maybe
+1	Wurmcoil Engine	maybe

Top Ranked	Achieved #2 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Angels 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Lifelink 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Primer 3 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.02
Tokens	Ajani's Pridemate, Angel 4/4 W, Angel 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Angel Warrior 4/4 W, Angel Warrior 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Soldier 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Spirit 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 WB, The Monarch, Treasure
Folders	Favorite Decks, Cool Beans, Favorite, EDH Decks, References
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