Lifegain by test_account_09

Format: Commander

Commander: Betor, Ancestor's Voice

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 31

Deck overview

This Abzan deck is commanded by Betor, Ancestor's Voice, combining lifegain triggers, self-inflicted life loss, and graveyard reanimation into a grinding aristocrats engine. Early turns establish mana acceleration and graveyard setup via cards like Sol Ring, Farseek, and Entomb. Once Betor enters on Turn 4 or 5, the deck leverages life gained to grow its board with +1/+1 counters while converting life paid into free end-step creature reanimation. The deck exerts critical pressure around Turn 6 by recurring asymmetric threats like Archon of Cruelty and Gray Merchant of Asphodel, or by assembling infinite drain loops with Exquisite Blood paired with Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose or Bloodthirsty Conqueror. While vulnerable to instant-speed graveyard hate and lacking countermagic, the deck's deep functional redundancy and resilient recursion engines allow it to steadily out-value and drain the entire table.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Aerith Gainsborough
  • 1 Aerith, Last Ancient
  • 1 Ajani Resolute
  • 1 Ancient Cornucopia
  • 1 Anguished Unmaking
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Archon of Cruelty
  • 1 Assassin's Trophy
  • 1 Authority of the Consuls
  • 1 Betor, Ancestor's Voice
  • 1 Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant
  • 1 Black Market Connections
  • 1 Blood Artist
  • 1 Bloodthirsty Conqueror
  • 1 Blossoming Sands
  • 1 Bogwater Lumaret
  • 1 Bontu's Monument
  • 1 Brushland
  • 1 Cauldron of Essence
  • 1 Caves of Koilos
  • 1 City of Brass
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Dark Confidant
  • 1 Deathrite Shaman
  • 1 Dina, Soul Steeper
  • 1 Enduring Tenacity
  • 1 Entomb
  • 1 Essence Warden
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Exquisite Blood
  • 1 Exsanguinate
  • 1 Fabled Passage
  • 1 Farseek
  • 1 Fisk Tower
  • 4 Forest
  • 1 Gardenize
  • 1 Gleaming Splendor
  • 1 Godless Shrine
  • 1 Gravecrawler
  • 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
  • 1 Graypelt Refuge
  • 1 Hashep Oasis
  • 1 Heroic Intervention
  • 1 High Market
  • 1 Horizon of Progress
  • 1 Ifnir Deadlands
  • 1 Impassioned Orator
  • 1 Jungle Hollow
  • 1 Lazotep Quarry
  • 1 Liliana the Faultless
  • 1 Llanowar Wastes
  • 1 Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
  • 1 Mana Confluence
  • 1 Marsh Flats
  • 1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
  • 1 Moseo, Vein's New Dean
  • 1 Nature's Lore
  • 1 Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel
  • 1 Noxious Gearhulk
  • 1 Overgrown Tomb
  • 1 Path to Exile
  • 3 Plains
  • 1 Priest of Fell Rites
  • 1 Professor Dellian Fel
  • 1 Protean Hulk
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Reflecting Pool
  • 1 Rhox Faithmender
  • 1 Ripples of Undeath
  • 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
  • 1 Scoured Barrens
  • 1 Skullclamp
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Soul Warden
  • 1 Spore Frog
  • 1 Staff of Compleation
  • 5 Swamp
  • 1 Swords to Plowshares
  • 1 Sylvan Library
  • 1 Temple Garden
  • 1 The Wind Crystal
  • 1 Threats Undetected
  • 1 Three Visits
  • 1 Tom, Bert, and William
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Verdant Catacombs
  • 1 Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
  • 1 Warren Soultrader
  • 1 Well of Lost Dreams
  • 1 Windswept Heath
  • 1 Zulaport Cutthroat