MTG Salvation

I've been on a mono-colored deck kick lately and I decided to build one around Ajani's Pridemate. A friend of mine has a life gain deck with the mantras and such, but I thought there had to be ways to get counters on it much faster. It's not a life gain deck per se, it's just that life gain happens to be the card's trigger. I know there are better creatures in Magic, but I wanted to push the card to see what it could do. I've built the deck around getting as many instances of life gain as I can, not really caring about how much. The rest is there to support and protect the Pridemate (maybe to a fault but hey, I get weird motivations at this point in my playing career.)



The Sun Droplets are definitely an all-star in the deck. On top of giving you resilience, they give a life back each upkeep, not just each turn so they build counters fast on the Pridemates. They are sweet in multiples, giving you back more life than the damage you took. The Ancient Tombs are there for that purpose as well. Other than the obvious ramp, they deal me metered damage to get back with the Sun Droplets. Suture Priest, Blind Obedience, and the walkers all have recurring life gain (well, the one doesn't, but she's sweeeet .) The moms are self-explanatory I hope and the other creatures are there to boost the Pridemage as well as being great by themselves.

What I need help on is card draw. The New Benalias are mediocre at best. I don't want to play Skullclamp because of the Null Rods. Also, I'm not clamping a mom or a priest and nothing else dies to it. There are tokens available I suppose, but I purposely kept away from Stoneforge Mystics and an equipment package because Null Rod does serious work in my play group.

Well of Lost Dreams goes in any of my heavy life gain decks that need card draw. It wont get turned off by Null Rod either since it's a triggered ability.

Quote from Decay57 »

Well of Lost Dreams goes in any of my heavy life gain decks that need card draw. It wont get turned off by Null Rod either since it's a triggered ability.

Ah, excellent card. I'll probably pull the Reveillark for it since it's just kind of flapping in the breeze there. It'll give me another solid Tutor target. It's only .40 too!

You could also try 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin to help with recursion if your games run long.

Indeed it would, thanks again. That makes me feel better about taking out the Reveillark as well. I'll probably take out a New Benalia for it to keep my plains count from going any lower. I don't expect I'll miss it.

Is there a reason that Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, and Auriok Champion have been excluded?

Squadron Hawks are great at triggering them.

Felidar Sovereign, Serra Ascendant, and Archangel of Thune are solid finishers along with the Pridemates. Sometimes you just need some evasion. Thune has added synergy here for what it's worth.

Yah, I wouldn't attempt this without Well of Lost Dreams. The card draw it gives you is that important.
Probably also want Rogue's Passage in the landbase, I suspect - might as well give those huge Pridemates an opportunity to have some face time.
Wall of Reverence might be worth a though, too... as much as it's a somewhat negative defensive card, it's going to provide solid flying defense and keep the Pridemates ticking over.

The soul sisters aren't in because I feel like I have enough sources of life gain to trigger the Pridemages already. I don't have the Archangels in simply because I don't have them and they're out of budget at the mo. Same with the Serra Ascendant. They are both definitely awesome though. If those were in, I would be tempted to put the sisters in too since I'd have more reasons to ramp my life, but that would change the deck pretty drastically at that point. If I just had a set of Archangels, I'd probably take out the walkers for them. I'll see if I can find some for trade.

I made a conscious decision to not play with the I win cards Felidar Sovereign and Test of Endurance. If I did, I'd wind up playing Martyr of Sands, soul sisters, and some of the Cheerios combo because those are the ticket to mega life. That just ends up being a totally different deck and I want to keep this one aggro for fun's sake.