Usually, effects that pay life are worse then you’d expect in this deck, since we quickly don’t have life to pay left. We still play a single copy for the games where it shines. Paying two mana and life to draw a card can easily grind out control decks but creates heavy life and tempo disadvantage in aggressive matchups. This card is super synergistic in this deck but suffers from the fact that best of one historic is full of aggro decks. The opponent still has a draw step to find an answer, but at least we can make sure they don’t have it in their hand. Since we are basically a combo deck, we can make great use of holding on to a Thoughtseize until the turn we execute (ourselves) our gameplan and play the Axis. While we do have some planeswalker removal, anything that can deal with our Axis of Mortality or Gideon of the Trials is scary. Things that can deal with permanents like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Void Rend, or Kaya the Inexorable are especially brutal against us. Make sure to make them discard cards that are specifically good against our gameplan. One of the most powerful turn one spells in the format. Naturally, a unique deck like this has a lot of tricks up its sleeves. That’s basically the gameplan of the deck. Instants like Dire Tactics or lands like Ifnir Deadlands or Castle Locthwain are easy ways to lose life in response to the life total switch trigger going on the stack To leave the window of interaction on your Gideon as small as possible, try to lover your life to 0 in your upkeep. Keep in mind that the trigger goes on the stack. Now six mana is expensive and you have to wait for the next upkeep to trigger it but switching life totals with the opponent while we have 0 or less is about as game winning as it gets. What does win us the game is Axis of Mortality. But while having a 13/13 for one mana is cool, it really wouldn’t win us the game. Now why go though all this trouble to get to 0 life? Usually, decks that reduce their own life total on purpose play Death's Shadow as a payoff. You’re constantly living on the edge once you rely on the Gideon emblem. ![]() Besides our few secondary methods of cheating death, that’s just a fact we have to accept. Removal spells will easily deal with Gideon, though. Gideon’s (+1) ability will encourage opponents to overextend on the board to push through damage, making these board wipes very punishing for aggro matchups. Doomskar, Wrath of God and Blood on the Snow keep the board clear from attackers. Now that our life is gone, we just have to make sure our Gideon of the Trials stays alive at any cost. ![]() ![]() While the Blood Fast “pays” life and doesn’t work after we depleted our life total, the Connections “loses” life and can quickly bring us below zero and further while accumulating immense value along the way. Arguel's Blood Fast and Black Market Connections grant us value in exchange for life. Infernal Grasp, Dire Tactics, and Murderous Rider are premium removal spells that incidentally hurt us. But we’ve got a bunch more in store to make sure our life total is nice and low. Cards like Thoughtseize and shock lands like Godless Shrine are popular even in decks that don’t want to reduce their own life. Paying or losing life with your own spell is generally a bad thing and will be rewarded with efficiency and value. In Magic, the goal is usually to preserve your own life total and reduce that of the opponents. ![]() There are multiple other ways to prevent us from losing the game at zero, but let’s first go over how we lose all that life. His emblem says “As long as you control a Gideon planeswalker, you can’t lose the game and your opponents can’t win the game.” Exactly what we need for our daring gameplan. Gideon of the Trials not only prevents aggro from attackers, it also literally saves our life. The first thing to make sure is to prevent this from killing us. As mentioned, the goal of the deck is to win by lowering our own life total to zero and below.
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