Your Life or Your Life! *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Casual Lifegain Multiplayer WB (Orzhov)

NV_1980

Creature (26)

• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Athreos, God of Passage
• 1x Basilica Screecher
• 1x Bloodthirsty Conqueror
• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Divinity of Pride
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Kambal, Profiteering Mayor
• 1x Karlov of the Ghost Council
• 1x Kingpin's Pet
• 1x Liesa, Shroud of Dusk
• 1x Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
• 1x Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sunscorch Regent
• 1x Tithe Drinker
• 1x Tymna the Weaver *f-etch*
• 1x Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Instant (8)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Beacon of Immortality
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 6x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Shambling Vent
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x War Room
• 1x Windswept Heath

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Commander (1)

Enchantment (13)

• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Polluted Bonds
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Tainted Remedy
• 1x Underworld Connections

Artifact (11)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Cosmos Elixir
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

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Welcome to Your Life or Your Life! {W}{B}!

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this Orzhov, lifegain deck; commanded by Kambal, Consul of Allocation. So opponent, welcome to Kaladesh! Want to summon some creatures? Powerful ones? Then here comes this guy, who has what you need. Aether; lots of it. The best quality you could possibly find. He’ll let it go to you, for the right price of course. However, while in his presence, you’d better mean business. You’d better not think about casting instants, sorceries, enchantments, artifacts or even conjuring a planeswalker or two. Because that’s when he gets angry and lays down the pain. Lots of it. This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hope you will enjoy it!

Why Kambal?

In essence, Kambal drains opponents for casting non-creature spells. This is a superbly powerful ability, as at least half of most decks’ arsenals are comprised of such spells. When deployed in a playgroup of three or more, this ability becomes incredible powerful because of the quick life-point advantage it can create. Especially considering his relatively mild casting cost. For CMC3, he also has very decent power and toughness scores. His only major downside is that because of his overall power, he draws a lot of aggression.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The following parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck.

• Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
• Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
• Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
• Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
• Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
• Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
• Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
• Resilience: indicates the measure in which the deck can prevent and take punches.
• Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

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Mana: 2

Though the average CMC of this deck is usually not that high (below 3), it can still be handy to have a reserve at hand for the use of Extort abilities. To fulfill this need, the deck contains four rocks, an instant mana boost, a mana-doubler and an enchantment that relinquish treasure tokens whenever my opponents attempt to gain the upper hand.

Ramp: 2

Two white ramp options and an artifact creature have been included to ensure more consistent land-drops during games. It’s not much but in most games, it’s been proven to be enough.

Card Advantage: 5

As the deck contains a number of interesting combos and synergies, it’s beneficial for its controller to have options for additional draw. No less than eleven direct-draw and top-deck cards have been added, along with three high-powered tutors and one filtering mechanism. The options that only require a cost in life-points are especially synergetic and have therefore often been deciders in games.

Overall speed: 4

The deck’s composition in terms of low average CMC combined with enough card-advantage and mana-resources, allows it to pick up steam quickly during most games. Usually as early as turn three will it be able to use highly impactful spells.

Combo: 2

There’s more synergy than actual (infinite) combos in this deck. The deck’s creatures have many ways to take advantage of its life-gain abilities, though there are a few other permanents that grant even stronger boons because of it.

Army: 3

Relatively strong fliers, some gods and some extremely useful utility creatures form the army of this deck. There aren’t any battlecruisers as such, though creatures can certainly attain such status through the boosting abilities of their peers.

Commander: 5

The cumulative effect of Kambal’s ability is terrifying; so much so that he is expected to die a number of times during games. This can of course by circumvented, but it was decided to not spend deck slots just for his protection. Instead, plenty of redundancy in terms of other strong drainers have been included to pick up the slack. So Kambal’s presence on the battlefield can be considered gravy, but not essential.

Resilience: 5

Let’s talk defense. First and foremost amongst measures taken, are the deck’s life-gain abilities. Twenty-eight cards have been added to help in this regard. Five inhibitive options to slow down opponents by having permanents enter the battlefield tapped, preventing attacks or even spell-casting have also been included. Lastly, seven cards were added for outright removal.

Spellpower: 4

This deck is great at affecting all opponents with a number of very nasty drain spells and permanents. Amongst them are ten cards that can be considered truly high-impact spells.

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Total power score: 33

This deck is well-balanced. Definitely not the fastest, but still very decent and above all an absolute blast to play. It allows for so much life-gain, that only through tremendous effort opposing players will be able to drain its controller fast enough to win. It’s got a nice mix of creatures and spells and has some truly horrific end-game surprises for opponents.

General strategy

The intention is to win through the gaining of life, while simultaneously draining opponents’ life and/or making their lives difficult through other life-gain-related boons received. Obviously, Kambal, Consul of Allocation is spectacularly well suited in helping to realize wins through such means, so if possible he should be on the field early. Similarly, other drain options should be used from early on if possible to maximize their use; especially those of the Extort variety. Aside from draining, use cards that attach other boons to gaining life. Boosts to the deck’s creatures for example. It can also act as fuel for drawing cards or for applying some pain to opponents. Games can be finished off by completing drains, applying combat damage and/or executing a nasty combo.

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock/mana-spell like Arcane Signet, Dark Ritual, Fellwar Stone, Orzhov Signet or Sol Ring. This is a must; it’s recommended not to start a game without this hand (even if one has to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp like Land Tax or Weathered Wayfarer. An early Sensei's Divining Top can also prove very helpful.

Early game

Obviously, focus on resources (see cards mentioned in previous section) first. Secondary importance goes to mechanisms that slow down the opposition (Authority of the Consuls, Blind Obedience and Grand Abolisher) and/or cards that provide other significant advantages during the early game (Bloodchief Ascension, Esper Sentinel and Serra Ascendant). Cards of tertiary importance involve cards that allow draining from an early stage, like Basilica Screecher, Kingpin's Pet, Syndic of Tithes and Tithe Drinker. Kambal should also appear in this stage. Yup, he’s definitely going to be killed a few times, but might as well start using him early since opponents usually start out games by casting (non-creature) mana resources first. With luck, he can be equipped with Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots to help him evade enemy attention.

Mid-game

During this stage, the goal is to increase drain capabilities while simultaneously bringing forth some items that increase strength as a result of said drains. Cards like Cliffhaven Vampire, Crypt Ghast, Exquisite Blood, Liesa, Shroud of Dusk, Polluted Bonds, Sanguine Bond and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse should appear. The life gained through these means can be used to empower creatures, with options like Archangel of Thune, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, card:Kharlov of the Ghost Council and Sunscorch Regent. The gained life can also be used to draw more cards, with resources like Erebos, God of the Dead, Necropotence or Underworld Connections.

End-game

A couple of fun combos can be used to close out games in the deck’s favor (please see below section for that). Then there’s Aetherflux Reservoir to zap opponents off the field, use (boosted) creatures to storm into the opposing ranks, have Sorin, Grim Nemesis generate a shit-ton of tokens based on the deck controller’s lifepoint-total and/or cast a very large Exsanguinate/Torment of Hailfire.

Combos

The following combos can be found within this deck:

• Bloodthirsty Conqueror/Cliffhaven Vampire/Exquisite Blood/Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose + Sanguine Bond/Vizkopa Guildmage: whenever life is gained, an opponent loses life which allows yet more life-gain. Etc, etc. Combo ends until last opponent cannot be drained any further. Combo works the other way around as well. Whenever an opponent loses life, this deck gain it. Etc, Etc.
• Beacon of Immortality + Sanguine Bond/Vizkopa Guildmage: apply the Beacon to oneself, and thereby probably kill an opponent.
• Beacon of Immortality + Tainted Remedy: cast Beacon onto on opponent to kill him/her. Nice!
• Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank: stuff going into opposing graveyards causes pain, pain causes mill, mill causes pain, etc.

Card Choices

Lands

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

• Ancient Tomb: major colorless mana for a small price in life-points; excellent land to start games with, especially in a deck that recoups the lost life without issues.
• Arid Mesa/Bloodstained Mire/Flooded Strand/Marsh Flats/Polluted Delta/Verdant Catacombs/Windswept Heath: the lands used to filter through the deck, which enables the finding of cards that matter to the strategy quicker.
• Command Tower/Exotic Orchard/Mana Confluence/Reflecting Pool: great all-color mana lands that have very few disadvantages in their use.
• Caves of Koilos, Fetid Heath/Godless Shrine/Isolated Chapel/Shambling Vent/Tainted Field/Temple of Silence: lands that provide Orzhov mana, that depending in circumstances enter the battlefield tapped or untapped. The best MTG has to offer on this front has been incorporated, except for the original dual lands which are outside most players’ price-range.
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: very useful mana battery in a permanent-rich deck; especially when said permanents are hard to get rid of.
• Reliquary Tower: because discarding sucks.
• Vault of the Archangel: very powerful, though temporary, bonuses for the deck’s creatures.

Mana and ramp

The cards used to accelerate mana-availability:

• Arcane Signet: cheap-to-cast, doesn’t come into play tapped and grants any Orzhov mana whenever tapped.
• Crypt Ghast: doubles the deck’s swamp mana-output and allows Extort!
• Dark Ritual: a quick boost of {B} that’s always useful.
• Fellwar Stone: useful mana source that in 4-person play groups almost always allows to generate white or black mana.
• Land Tax: many of the successes in games featuring white, are owed to the presence of this card. Arguably the best non-green land-fetching device that was ever created and it’s a staple in all decks featuring white.
• Orzhov Signet: can’t have two Arcane Signets, so let’s include this instead.
• Smothering Tithe: pay taxes for drawing! You don’t want to? Thank you for the mana!
• Sol Ring: are there EDH decks without this card?
• Solemn Simulacrum: grabs a basic land upon ETB, and allows a draw in case he dies.
• Weathered Wayfarer: fetches lands, and not just basics, provided someone else currently controls more lands.

Card Advantage

The mechanisms that provide card advantage:

• Alhammarret's Archive: twice the lifegain and some more draw.
• Cosmos Elixir: draw or lifegain, both good!
• Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor: the perfect cards to find whatever is needed.
• Enlightened Tutor/Idyllic Tutor: some enchantments and artifacts are just too good not to tutor for.
• Erebos, God of the Dead: life for draw; a nice trade-off.
• Esper Sentinel: this deck gets to draw unless you pay tax; most decide not to pay.
• Mangara, the Diplomat: attacks (against this deck) and multiple spell-castings per turn are now taxed, in card-draw form.
• Necropotence: pay 1 life, exile and draw a card. Repeat an unlimited amount of times per turn (as long as one has enough life that is).
• Phyrexian Arena: one of the standard black enchantments used for additional draw.
• Sensei's Divining Top: awesome filter- and draw mechanisms for hardly any cost.
• Tymna the Weaver *f-etch*: life-link coupled with a lot of draw potential.
• Underworld Connections: a bit of life, for a bit of draw.

Life-gain

These are the sources that bring in more life.

• Aetherflux Reservoir: every spell-casting this deck does equals life, and once that battery has been filled to the brim … ZAP! You’re gone.
• Archangel of Thune: an incredible angel that boosts everything upon any gaining of life.
• Basilica Screecher/Kingpin's Pet: flying extortionists.
• Beacon of Immortality: one hell of a spell that doubles life AND it’s actually reusable.
• Bloodchief Ascension: any opposing card ending up in the graveyard, will drain 2 life and help this deck gain 2.
• Bloodthirsty Conqueror: so much to be gained, life-wise, by deploying him.
• Divinity of Pride: very strong life-linking flyer.
• Exquisite Blood: the ultimate drain enchantment.
• Exsanguinate: mega-ultra super drain spell!
• Heliod, Sun-Crowned: powerful by himself and has the potential to give life-link to all the deck’s critters.
• Liesa, Shroud of Dusk: excellent life-linking combatant and causes players to lose life for every spell they cast.
• Polluted Bonds: opposing lands coming into play will result in opponents being drained.
• Serra Ascendant: one of the most powerful early-game creatures.
• Sheoldred, the Apocalypse: a devastating new drainer; absolutely horrifying against decks featuring blue.
• Sunscorch Regent: opponents are going to cast spells, and this beautiful dragon is going to get stronger with each one cast.
• Syndic of Tithes: just a nice extortionist.
• Tithe Drinker: a life-linking extortionist.
• Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose/Vizkopa Guildmage: can give the deck’s dudes life-link, and strip life from others once it’s gained.

Destruction, Protection and Recursion

Not everything you have is worth keeping around.

• Anguished Unmaking: some life in exchange for any permanent’s exile.
• Athreos, God of Passage: this creature will not die, unless you want to get pinged!
• Authority of the Consuls/Blind Obedience: slows down some opponents’ permanents and helps to gain life in some circumstances.
• Grand Abolisher: you’re responding with a counterspell? Now? Hell no!
• Karlov of the Ghost Council: life-gain can help to remove, permanently!
• No Mercy: ok, you did some damage. Your reward: death!
• Heliod's Intervention: destroys multiple artifacts/enchantments or provides life.
• Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots: let’s hear it for magical footwear!
• Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares: the best, cheap exile spells in existence.
• Sanguine Bond: with so much life-link in here, this is just a mandatory piece of spell-casting.
• Tainted Remedy: you’re not allowed to gain life!
• Torment of Hailfire: very versatile spell that has the potential to hurt opponents in different ways.
• Toxic Deluge: in a deck with this much life-gain, this spell is just about the craziest, coolest wipe to use.

Benefits, Bonuses and Pain

Life-gain translates into unpleasantness for others and pleasantness for me!

• Cliffhaven Vampire: every life-gain instance this deck benefits from, means you lose some life.
• Kambal, Profiteering Mayor: puts a measure of control on token decks and drains a lot of life from them.
• Mindcrank: while your life is being drained, might as well drain your library.
• Sorin, Grim Nemesis: card advantage, creature/planeswalker-removal and let’s not forget his ultimate epic finisher that destroys everything on the table with a swarm of draining vampire knights!

Notable exclusions

• Dawn of Hope: great for additional draw, but it costs a bit too much mana to be effective in this deck.
• Soul's Attendant/Soul Warden/Suture Priest: not that many creature ETB’s in this deck, so didn’t feel it was worth including these.
• Vona, Butcher of Magan: nice way to kill off opposing permanents, but a bit inefficient.

Thank you for reading!

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	2 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.86
Tokens	Copy Clone, Treasure, Vampire Knight 1/1 B
Folders	comander stuff, Other Peoples decks to use for ideas