MTG Salvation

Intro
You may as well call yourself a zombie.

I have come back to life so many times its unreal.

All with the help of an angel.


Some of her compatriots include:

So what does the deck do?

Luckily, we have an easy answer to that.

Which makes this....

One of the riskiest decks you've ever played.

Will you like this deck?
You'll like this deck if:
- You live more than once.
- You love sitting on the edge of your seat.
- You love using wacky cards.
- You love combos.
- You like having opponents read your cards.

You won't like this deck if:
- Interaction? What's that?
- You like to play things safe. We are playing around five cards that lose you the game outright when they leave the battlefield. Watch out!
- You don't lich.
- You like a grind.

Deck List:


Synergies/Combos
Playing with some of the most dangerous and self-destructive cards in the biz can be a little scary, especially if you've never had the pleasure of being a zombie before. Here, I hope to go over some of the complicated interactions that litter this deck.

First: The Ad Nauseam win.
If you have any of your "zombie cards" as we'll call them (Lich, Phyrexian Unlife, Angel's Grace, Platinum Angel and Soul Echo in play and the mana to cast Ad Nauseam, you win as long as you haven't played a land or you have one mana open.
**Note on Soul Echo: Many times, you have to play it the turn you plan to drop to 0.

Using Ad Nauseam, you can draw your whole library because you're not paying life, just losing life as the result of a function of a card, thus avoiding the whole ruling about not being able to pay life that would make you lose the game in normal circumstances.

Once you resolve Ad Nauseam, then draw your whole deck as you plummet your life total into the -100's range. This happens because life lost from Nauseam is not damage, and most of the enchantments only stop damage from reducing your life total to less than 1.

With your whole deck in hand, either play a land or tap one mana. If:
- The mana is a black mana, cast Rain of Filth and sacrifice all of your lands (up to 5, possibly 7) and if you then have less than 7 mana, cast Skirge Familiar and discard to get to 7 or cast a few 1-mana mana rocks. Then cast Repay in Kind. If that gets countered, discard more cards for a large Exsanguinate/Debt to the Deathless.
** This also works with Spoils of the Vault naming a card not in your library and then casting Repay in Kind from your hand.

No Damage:
Glacial Chasm/Delaying Shield + Lich/Phyrexian Unlife
This is particularly great for Lich, since you will never take combat damage. With these two cards, you never take damage negating both of their drawbacks.

Draw Engine:
Ivory Tower/Venser's Journal/Words of Worship + Lich/Nefarious Lich
This leads to some serious draw. Gaining life-->Drawing cards-->Gaining more life-->Drawing more cards

Tons of Cards/Big X/X's:
Children of Korlis/Tainted Sigil + Phyrexian Processor/Minion of the Wastes/Necropotence/Necrologia
Gain X/X's or draw tons of cards by regaining the life you just paid.

No Damage AND Draw:
Lich/Nefarious Lich + Transcendence
For each point of damage you would take, draw two cards. With Selenia/Necro/[practically antything that makes you lose life] in play, draw your library.

How to Machine Gun; Door to Nothingness:
Soul Conduit + Zombie Cards
Destroy target player. [6 mana Door to Nothingness]

5 Mana Exsanguinate and Draw
Psychosis Crawler + Necrologia
Destroy all the players.

Voltron Kill:
Selenia, Dark Angel + Hatred
One shot kill a player.

Bigger X/X:
Death's Shadow + Negative Life
X/X Death's Shadow. Yes, it can be bigger that a 13/13. My biggest was a 77/77. What's yours?

Repeatable Recalling:
Peace of Mind/Zuran Orb + Lich/Nefarious Lich
W: Ancestral Recall. Yes please!!! Or, sacrifice a land: draw two cards. Also yes please!!

The only infinite Combo that wins:
Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond
You gain 1 life, Sanguine Bond triggers making an opponent lose 1 life which triggers Exquisite Blood to gain you 1 life which triggers Sanguine Bond.....

Some Cards on the Edge:
Plunge into Darkness- The truth is, paying 39 life to dig through 39 cards is pretty powerful. Just consider it a bad Necro.
Spoils of the Vault- This is one of the few ways to put yourself at negative. You just have to win that turn. For that alone, it is useful. In addition, it can be used as a tutor, but that is not its best job. I admit, however, that it is in here for its versatility.
Rain of Filth- This card, in addition to being a minor combo piece, is also able to fuel cards for Nefarious Lich and also makes tons and tons of mana.
Congregate- This is one I could see with taking out. Maybe like a Ghostly Prison or something?


Let me know if there's anything I'm missing! I hope to turn this into a primer eventually.

Check out my other work:
Wort, the Raidmother Goblin Combo
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/557109-wort-the-raidmother-goblin-combo-with-videos
I'm Seton destroying you. Seton, Krosan Protector
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/566204-im-seton-destroying-you-seton-krosan-protector#c2
#ShamelessPlug
(I hope to turn both of those into a primer too)

Reserved for future posting.

No, but you can pay down to 1 then drop Lich to go from 1 to 0. In truth they have no synergy, and are almost an anti synergy, but think of cards like Necropotence and Necrologia as separate draw engines. Besides, once you have out Lich, it is very easy to draw almost your entire deck, nearly rendering cards like Necropotence useless. In a way, Necro and Necro are to help you find Lich or a Lich-alike. In this sense, they are powerful draw engines that synergize well with other parts of the deck.

In addition, most of those pay-life cards are to get you to zero life, something which Lich bypasses, allowing you to go from 60 to 0 in 3.5.

I love this deck idea. have you ever thought about the Fateful Hour cards? I mean the only good ones are the Thraben Doomsayer and Faith's Shield if you ask me. I have a feeling that with a deck like this you get the fateful hour trigger a lot

Those cards are what inspired me to build the deck. I saw a streamer (stealthpants) whom was testing out this modern deck with arbitrarily large X/X Death Shadows backed up by the Avatarmogoyf himself (Avatar of Hope). I continued with that theme by adding Fateful Hour cards. Sure it was fun, but it never really did anything. Looking to keep that theme, I looked to Commander. But the Fateful Hour cards proved to be underwhelming because by the time those cards began to impact the game, I had already lost or I was very far ahead due to other reasons, thus rendering them (*gulp*) rather unhelpful. I begrudgingly cut them in favor of other cards.

If I uploaded some gameplay, would you all find that helpful?

I actually play a deck quite similar. I have tryed lich and i personally really dislike it. Its really clunky and lacks the flair that i like in my deck. If you want to see my list its in my sig.

Lich is one of the most powerful draw engines for a deck like this.

I will regularly find myself with my deck in hand due to the fact life gain comes in large amounts because it usually has a minor effect on the game. But Lich turns those into cards, which presents one with the opportunity to draw their entire deck by doing some negligible game actions.

Why don't you play Phyrexian Processor or Ad Nauseam in your list? The Processor can take over games and AD should win you the game every time you cast it.

For Phyrexian processor I originally hadn't thought about. I'll be testing it soon so we'll see.

and I am testing Ad Nauseam again. In the past it was too unpredictable and with how many draw engines I run, it always was a card I never was overly happy about seeing. I average a hand size of 11 in almost every game so drawing more isn't a huge deal.

but the biggest thing i can see in differences in our decks is you are playing a lot more life gain than I am and I am trying to kill myself and have never cared too much about gaining life. It might be the fact Im playing a more stall till combo than run head long for the combo as your deck seem to be.

Lich and Nefarious Lich require life gain. That's why I run more.

Originally I was adverse to it, but the deck felt like it was missing something. Then I added Ivory Tower, Venser's Journal, and Convalescent Care. Now it feels complete.

Fair enough. I might try lich again with more lifegain this time. But one card I saw you aren't Playing that I have loved in my deck is Aether Vial. It can be a pain to get up to 5 but becomes really nice when you can drop Selenia for free once a turn.

I also have a Selenia, Dark Angel deck similar to yours. I have so much fun playing it as it can be super powerful but also risky at the same time. One of the win cons you might be interested in is Near-Death Experience which I almost see as a necessity for Selenia.

The other strategy I have a lot of is switching life totals with cards similar to Soul Conduit such as: Reverse the Sands, Magus of the Mirror and if i had the bill$, Mirror Universe. And I try to mix all these cards with Vedalken Orrery so I can actually win a game or two.

I thought that Platinum Angel would be a sweet card for the deck as this deck needs to have more cards that stop you from losing. From my experience though, it usually gets me killed. People don't like the fact that they can't win the game for some weird reason... I know, I don't understand it either. Instead I swapped it out for Eternity Vessel though I might just take it out for a more interactive card like Hero's Downfall or something, I don't know.

I didn't even know Soul Echo was a card, so thanks for that! I might have to try that out with all my "swamps matter" manna effects.

As for Near Death Experience and the two mirrors, they feel too slow and give you opponent too long for action.
Platinum Angel is too good. But that means you shouldn't include it- because it can be absolutely backbreaking.
I don't know how good AEther Vial is because I don't cast Selenia too often. I'll put it on my watchlist. Eternity Vessel seems a little counter-intuitive however, it would be amazing with the Lichs. Play a land, draw 40 cards......

Check out this article on Selenia and Liching

"Called Ain't Life a Lich" - similar deck ideas.

http://www.gatheringmagic.com/julesrobins-selenia-dark-angel-commander-03252013-aint-life-a-lich/

I am not necessarily a fan of posting links to other MTG websites but this one is very pertinent to what you are doing.

this is one of the coolest deck idea ive seen in a long time! Ive start building one last night after seeing your post, but decide to splash blue and use Oloro as commander. And Illusion of Grandeur is just a perfect match.

thx for sharing

No Wall of Blood as another way to drain your life. Its also a great blocker.

@Brait- My list is more a combo list. His list seems to be better built for the long game. I read the game report he wrote and it seems that his playgroup also play grindy games. But it was well worth a read for anyone who doesn't want to play as risky a game as my Selenia deck does.

@burnhill- Your welcome! That always makes me happy

@gibbousm- While that is pretty cool, I often do not need more help reducing my life total since Selenia serves the same purpose.

FIRST UPDATE:
Greed, a card which I never activated or used, is coming out for Resolute Archangel.

Update #1:
OUT:
Greed
IN:
Resolute Archangel

Really love the decklist. Selenia is my favorite (and really only) general, and this is a whole new angle on her for me.

Thanks! Always glad to hear someone say that!

Just a general gameplay question: how does Resolute Archangel interact with Lich/Nefarious Lich? Would you actually draw 40 or however many cards, or does it not count since it doesn't directly increase your life, just change it?

You draw 40 cards. When an effect says "your life total is" or "your life total becomes" it actually means you gain life equal to or lose life equal to.

I like drawing 40 cards.

As do I. Stealing this and attempting to make it my own

Kidding aside, this is an awesome decklist.

You are the honest conman....