A new Hope by RockWallaby

Format: Commander

Commander: Hope Estheim

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 35

Deck overview

This Azorius deck converts lifegain triggers directly into table-wide mill via Hope Estheim. In the opening turns, the deck deploys low-cost lifegain permanents like Soul Warden, Auriok Champion, and Guide of Souls alongside the commander to start chipping away at opposing libraries. As the game transitions into the midgame, the deck leverages large lifegain bursts such as Beacon of Immortality, Congregate, and War Report, or doubling engines like Alhammarret's Archive and Bruvac the Grandiloquent, to mill out entire tables in massive chunks. The deck supplements this strategy with robust reactive counterspells, board wipes like Cyclonic Rift, and targeted graveyard exile to neutralize opposing reanimation or Eldrazi shuffle effects. While lacking fast mana and nonland tutors, the deck compensates with dense functional redundancy and steady card flow.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Aang, Swift Savior // Aang and La, Ocean's Fury
  • 1 Absorb
  • 1 Academy Ruins
  • 1 Adarkar Wastes
  • 1 Aerith Gainsborough
  • 1 Ajani, Strength of the Pride
  • 1 Alhammarret's Archive
  • 1 Arcane Denial
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Archangel of Thune
  • 1 Auriok Champion
  • 1 Avatar's Wrath
  • 1 Beacon of Immortality
  • 1 Bruvac the Grandiloquent
  • 1 Case of the Uneaten Feast
  • 1 Castle Ardenvale
  • 1 Celestial Colonnade
  • 1 Celestine, the Living Saint
  • 1 Cleric Class
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Congregate
  • 1 Cyclonic Rift
  • 1 Dauntless Scrapbot
  • 1 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
  • 1 Deep Gnome Terramancer
  • 1 Deserted Beach
  • 1 Distinguished Conjurer
  • 1 Exemplar of Light
  • 1 Fierce Guardianship
  • 1 Flooded Strand
  • 1 Floodfarm Verge
  • 1 Folio of Fancies
  • 1 Fountainport
  • 1 Ghost Vacuum
  • 1 Glacial Fortress
  • 1 Gold-Forged Thopteryx
  • 1 Guide of Souls
  • 1 Haliya, Guided by Light
  • 1 Hallowed Fountain
  • 1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned
  • 1 Hope Estheim
  • 1 Ishgard, the Holy See // Faith & Grief
  • 3 Island
  • 1 Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital // Overture
  • 1 Kitsune's Technique
  • 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
  • 1 Kwain, Itinerant Meddler
  • 1 Loran of the Third Path
  • 1 Machine God's Effigy
  • 1 Mana Drain
  • 1 Maze of Ith
  • 1 Mesmeric Orb
  • 1 Meticulous Archive
  • 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
  • 1 Monk Gyatso
  • 1 Mystic Gate
  • 1 Ocelot Pride
  • 1 Otawara, Soaring City
  • 6 Plains
  • 1 Prairie Stream
  • 1 Profane Memento
  • 1 Reliquary Tower
  • 1 Restless Anchorage
  • 1 Restoration Magic
  • 1 Rhox Faithmender
  • 1 Rhystic Study
  • 1 Riverchurn Monument
  • 1 Scavenger Grounds
  • 1 Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn
  • 1 Sea of Clouds
  • 1 See Double
  • 1 Sink into Stupor // Soporific Springs
  • 1 Skyclave Relic
  • 1 Soul Warden
  • 1 Soul's Attendant
  • 1 Space-Time Anomaly
  • 1 Sphinx of the Revelation
  • 1 Sphinx's Revelation
  • 1 Talon Gates of Madara
  • 1 The Book of Exalted Deeds
  • 1 The Gaffer
  • 1 The Queen of Dale
  • 1 The Water Crystal
  • 1 Three Steps Ahead
  • 1 Trouble in Pairs
  • 1 Vesuva
  • 1 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
  • 1 War Report
  • 1 Well of Lost Dreams
  • 1 White Sun's Twilight
  • 1 Will, Scion of Peace
  • 1 Y'shtola Rhul
  • 1 Zellix, Sanity Flayer