Locations
There's nothing like spoiler season to get the creative deckbuilding juices flowing! Lots of new Legendary Creatures means lots more opportunities for new decks. One I'm particularly interested in building around is this guy: Betor, Ancestor's Voice.
This is clever design. For five mana, we get a 3/5 Flying Creature with Lifelink. That's an okay deal, and Betor puts us in three colors, so we have lots of options for what to do. We also have an additional set of abilities, none of which is tied to its identity as a Dragon - in other words, it's not trying to force us into Dragon Kindred without {R}.
When our turn ends, we're going to put +1/+1 counters on something other than Betor equal to the amount of life we gained this turn.
Then we get to return something from the Graveyard to the Battlefield with a mana value less than or equal to the amount of life we lost this turn.
Some general thoughts: Nothing says we have to play both sides. This is a prime target for either a lifegain deck (run a bunch of Lifelinking Creatures, buff 'em up like crazy and gain a ton of life, buffing 'em up even more) or a Reanimator deck (mill a ton, do some self life-loss and lean into Enters effects). Here are ten cards (and a couple of Game Changers) I'd like to consider as I think about a build with Betor.
Game Changers
The One Ring
The One Ring is a Game Changer for good reason - games warp around it. But the card advantage it provides as an Indestructible Artifact is astonishing, and the life loss is normally not a big deal. However, with Betor that life loss becomes a benefit; tap the One Ring, draw a bunch of cards, then reanimate something huge. That could be quite strong.
Bolas's Citadel
Another strong way to lose a lot of life in a hurry. Make sure your 'yard is full when you start casting off the top, and remember you're not limited - you can cast as many spells as you like before you run out of life. That means if you really want to reanimate that, I dunno, Blightsteel Colossus, you can just cast spells till you've spent 12 life!
No. 1. The Speed Demon
This is similar to the Ring for a Betor deck. In addition to a five mana 5/5 (with two evasive abilities), every turn we'll get to draw up to four extra cards and lose four life for our reanimating pleasure. This is nothing but value for Betor.
No. 2. Beledros Witherbloom
Big ol' honkin' Dragon? Check. Life gain? Check. Life loss? Check. The Pests will be great, functioning as blockers, sacrifice fodder, and life gain to add counters to things. And 10 life to make a ton of extra mana should be enough to get back almost anything we'd want. Consider putting those +1/+1 counters on Beledros to buff up those anemic stats, though - 7 mana for a 4/4 is a rough price. Worth it for what we get, though!
No. 3. Doom Whisperer
Another example of a well-priced Demon with no downside. First of all, 6/6 Flying Trample for five mana is awesome all the time. But in this case, we get to pay life and dump cards into our Graveyard, and we can do it as many times as we want. So we Surveil 2 for 2 life, and come across, I don't know, Beledros, whom we drop in the 'yard. So we Surveil three more times for 8 life total, then return Beledros to the 'field for free. Seems good.
No. 4. Children of Korlis
This is going to have a hard time not being in a Betor list. It's great in any build - the lifegain one, the reanimator one, or the one that tries to do both. Take the previous example: we sacrifice the Children after paying 8 life, gaining 8 life and putting 8 +1/+1 counters on Doom Whisperer (14/14 Flying Trample, anyone?). Then we get Beledros for free. Then next turn, we can return Children of Korlis!
No. 5. Celestine, the Living Saint
Of course, we could always just get back the Children of Korlis at the same time with Celestine. This is a shoo-in for a lifegain version of Betor, adding his second ability without the life loss clause. Or we can just double up on the reanimation. Stats aren't as good as the Demon stats, but a 3/4 with Flying and Lifelink isn't nothing.
No. 6. Dark Confidant
It's no Speed Demon, but Dark Confidant is a great way to keep cards flowing to our Hand and to lose life. Also, Dark Confidant is a
No. 7. Toxic Deluge
Another great way to lose a bunch of life and put things in the 'yard. We can make X = 4 so Betor doesn't die, or we can just plan a turn where we recast Betor after the Deluge, then return something else wonderful we killed, wiping the board in the meantime. A great spell.
No. 8. Siege Rhino and Restoration Angel
 |  |
Okay, technically this is two cards, but the combo was a powerful one in Modern for a reason, and this pair can stand in as a proxy for lots of spells with Enters abilities. In this case, we play the Rhino, then the Angel, bouncing the Rhino. We then get the Angel to the 'yard somehow, and once we've lost four life (Speed Demon, anyone?) we can return the Angel... bouncing the Rhino again. Seems pretty solid.
No. 9. Willowdusk, Essence Seer
This nice thing about this is it again slots into any version of the deck. Whether we're gaining life or losing it (or both!), we get the best of whichever is larger and forward our game plan either way. Even if we're not leaning into putting counters on things, they're not unwelcome, and if we are... well, we just doubled that number.
No. 10. Disciple of Freyalise and Disciple of Bolas
 |  |
These two cards are awesome. I mean that - they're great, no matter what deck they're in. But they're both great here. We get more from Disciple of Freyalise, but the mana cost is much harder. Any card which can also be a Land is worth considering, though. In both cases, we put something in the 'yard, we draw cards, and we gain life, all of which we're likely to want to do.
I hope some of these cards inspired you to think about how you might build Betor. Remember to dig around past recent sets - often times cards (like Children of Korlis) from sets a long time ago will interact in really powerful ways with new Commanders.
Thanks for reading.
