In my weekly Thursday night Tabletop Simulator EDH games we've seen a recent trend of decks winning on the back of some hefty lifegain. It's a lower powered meta, so it's no surprise that cards like Fog and strategies like lifegain would have a bigger impact than they might in a high powered meta. Decks that rely more heavily on combat damage are best dealt with by making combat damage less impactful.

Today's column is going to be another dive into Edge of Eternities with a look at a mono-White Human Soldier who should be able to gain me some life and maybe draw a few cards along the way.

Haliya, Guided by Light is a 3 mana 3/3 in White who will have me gain 1 life whenever another creature or artifact I control enters the battlefield. At the beginning of my end step I'll draw a card if I gained 3 or more life this turn. It's also got a warp cost of one White mana, but that only applies to casting her from my hand. As my commander Haliya will start the game in the command zone, so that's unlikely to happen.

Soul Sisters is the term used for decks that play a lot of creatures that gain you life when other creatures enter the battlefield. The name comes from cards like Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant, and was originally developed by Conley Woods in 2010 for Standard. What works in Standard doesn't always work in Commander, but with card draw stapled onto Haliya, Guided by Light, I'm optimistic that this deck can compete in mid-powered commander pods. Adding in a few combo wincons might even push this deck up to high power, but the limit of drawing 1 extra card per turn cycle is a concern.

Hey Soul Sister

My first goal is to set up a board where I can reliably gain 3 or more life on my turn. With Haliya, Guided by Light in play, that can be accomplished by casting three creatures and/or artifacts. With the addition of one more "Soul Sister" I can gain 4 life with two creatures entering. In the unlikely event that I've got three in play, I can have one creature enter and gain me the requisite 3 life.

Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant are both 1/1s for 1 White mana that have you gain 1 life whenever another creature enters play. They don't even have to be your creatures! I'm also running Lunarch Veteran, a Soul Sister that only cares about your own creatures. Suture Priest is a soul sister with a twist. This 2 mana Phyrexian Cleric only gives you lifegain when another creature enters play under your control, but when a creature enters under an opponent's control you may have that player lose 1 life.

Reliable lifegain on your own turn can also be achieved by dealing combat damage with a creature that has lifelink. Serra Ascendant might be the best mono-White turn 1 play this side of Esper Sentinel. It's a 1 mana 1/1 Human Monk with Lifelink, but if you have 30 or more life, it gets +5/+5 and gains flying. This turn 1 play can usually push your life total up well past 50 if it sticks around and gets to attack every turn. Angel of Invention, Leonin Warleader, Ocelot Pride, and Felidar Sovereign are also in the list as potential attackers with lifelink. Linden, the Steadfast Queen, is also in the list, and will have me gain a life whenever a White creature I control attacks. If I can keep my life over 40 and control Felidar Sovereign on my upkeep, it outright wins me the game.

Creatures that either create creature tokens when they enter or when they attack will also help me gain my 3 life. Angel of Invention has Fabricate 2, so it just needs Haliya, Guided by Light in play to get me that end of turn card draw. Leonin Warleader creates two tapped and attacking 1/1 White Cat creature tokens with lifelink when it attacks. Ocelot Pride has an end step trigger that lets me create a 1/1 White Cat creature token, and if I have the city's blessing I'll create a token copy of each token I control that entered the battlefield that turn.

I'm also running Ainok Strike Leader, Hero of Bladehold, Voice of Victory, God-Eternal Oketra, Beza, the Bounding Spring, and Battle Angels of Tyr as additional token generators. Battle Angels of Tyr is particularly good in this deck, as it's a reliable source of token creatures and it can also give me card draw, Treasure tokens and lifegain. It has Myriad, which means that when it attacks I'll make a token copy attacking each other player. When it (or a token copy of it) deals combat damage to a player, I'll draw a card if that player has the most cards in hand, I'll create a Treasure token if they control the most lands, and I'll gain 3 life if they have the highest life total.

Odds and Ends

A robust lifegain strategy and a range of bodies to throw onto the battlefield is enough to put a target on my back, but is it enough to win me the game?

I'll probably get a few wins by just being able to outpace everyone else, but I've got a few tricks up my sleeve to try to nail down a victory.

Cathars' Crusade and Akroma's Will are among the best ways in White to amplify your damage output. The former will grow your creatures with +1/+1 counters every time a creature enters play under your control. It can be a headache to keep track of all those counters, but this five mana enchantment can absolutely win games. Akroma's Will is similarly dangerous, giving your creatures flying, vigilance, double-strike, lifelink, indestructible, and protection from all colors until end of turn if you control your commander when you cast it.

Dawn Charm might seem out of place next to those other cards, but being able to dodge a game-winning alpha strike is sometimes just what you need to nail down a win. Among its other modes, Dawn Charm can prevent combat damage for a turn. Settle the Wreckage and Teferi's Protection are also in the list and can save your bacon when it's looking like you're about to get knocked out.

Dodging boardwipes can be as impactful as dodging an alpha strike, so Flawless Maneuver and Unbreakable Formation are also in the list. They won't help against an overloaded Cyclonic Rift or a card that exiles your creatures, but making them indestructible will sometimes set you up to swing out on an empty board on your next turn. You can even pair them with your own Austere Command, Vanquish the Horde, or Wrath of God.

I am running one combo in this list in Resplendent Mentor and Famished Paladin. The former will let my White creatures tap to gain me life. The latter will untap every time I gain life. I'll just tap my Vampire Knight, gain 1 life, it will untap and I'll do it again and again and again. I'll still just draw 1 card on my end step with Haliya's ability, but having an arbitrarily high life total means I probably don't have to worry about regular combat damage. Infect, combo, and commander damage are still threats, but a lot of decks will struggle to deal with this kind of huge lifegain.

Blinded by the Light

While I am running a couple of game changers in this list, it's only because they are so very, very good. Smothering Tithe will give me Treasure tokens when my opponents draw cards if they can't pay a 2 mana tax. Each of those Treasure tokens will gain me 1 life if Haliya is in play, so it was impossible for me to resist running it in the list. Adding 1 game changer put me into bracket 3, so I figured I might as well throw in Teferi's Protection. I would probably consider running The One Ring if I wanted to max out at 3 game changers, but I don't like the fact that the bracket system has me making that kind of calculation.

I think this list should play well in mid-power games and might even play in higher powered pods. I generally don't think of mono-White as being particularly strong, but I do think this list will be fun and the sheer quantity of lifegain will keep you afloat in a lot of games. There will also be pods where you get targeted because of all that lifegain, but chances are decent you won't really be the biggest threat unless you're putting Cathars' Crusade to good use or you're at a high life total and sitting on a Felidar Sovereign hoping to make it to your next turn.

Haliya, Guided by Light | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Haliya, Guided by Light

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Ainok Strike Leader
• 1 Alms Collector
• 1 Angel of Invention
• 1 Battle Angels of Tyr
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 1 Digsite Engineer
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Famished Paladin
• 1 Felidar Sovereign
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 God-Eternal Oketra
• 1 Gold Myr
• 1 Hero of Bladehold
• 1 Leonin Warleader
• 1 Linden, the Steadfast Queen
• 1 Losheel, Clockwork Scholar
• 1 Lunarch Veteran
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Ocelot Pride
• 1 Ornithopter of Paradise
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Resplendent Mentor
• 1 Rumor Gatherer
• 1 Serra Ascendant
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Soul Warden
• 1 Soul's Attendant
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Suture Priest
• 1 Voice of Victory
• 1 Windborn Muse

• Spells (16)
• 1 Akroma's Will
• 1 Dawn Charm
• 1 Dispatch
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Reprieve
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Settle the Wreckage
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Unbreakable Formation
• 1 Austere Command
• 1 Farewell
• 1 Vanquish the Horde
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Dawn of Hope
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Monologue Tax
• 1 Smothering Tithe
• 1 Trouble in Pairs

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 Parhelion II
• 1 Pearl Medallion
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 The Wind Crystal
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (37)
• 33 Plains
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage

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If you wanted to tune this list down, I think it's relatively easy to drop out the two game changers, remove the Famished Paladin combo, and probably lose Felidar Sovereign as well. From there I would lean into a creature type to make the build a little more fun and less focused on winning at all costs. A Soldiers or Humans build might be entertaining, and an Angels or Cats deck might give you enough additional lifelink support to make for a fun bracket 2 list.

If you wanted to tune this list up, I think you'd start by adding that third game changer along with Aetherflux Reservoir, which arguably should have been included in today's first draft. Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista would give you another combo finisher. When you start pushing up into bracket 4 it becomes a real question of why you might not just change commanders. I'm not exploring a Heliod deck today, I'm exploring a Haliya, Guided by Light deck, but if you were really trying to optimize a mono-White EDH list, Haliya might not be your best choice to be your commander.

Early Results

I was able to get this list into a Thursday night TTS game and while it was a 3 player pod, I got some decent results. I was up against a mono-red chaos deck and a Ragost, Deft Gastronaut deck. Both were aiming towards lower powered play, so the Ragost deck wasn't planning to ding us all for 12 every turn or anything crazy like that.

While I started with a lot of lands in hand, the deck pretty much gave me everything I could ask for. A turn one soul sister followed by Haliya and a Battle Angels of Tyr had me set up to draw regularly on my end step for most of the game. An early The Wind Crystal got a laugh out of the table, but my turn 3 Ghostly Prison kept attackers at bay. I was lucky to not be faced up against decks with a lot of flyers, so Battle Angels of Tyr put in some real work in the first half of the game.

Ragost got stuck on lands despite having 36 in their list, and spent most of the game stuck on four lands and unable to really see what the deck could do. I removed Ragost early on when a lifelink aura was on their shrimpy commander, and I know the red player also removed Ragost at least once. I know Ragost has a decently high ceiling, but it was nice to eventually get ahead of them in lifegain and be able to race my life total up towards 80 while they kept hovering around 40.

The poor mono-Red player, whose commander eludes me, was really stuck between two lifegain decks with no ability to keep up. They took it well, but I felt a little bad for their predicament. At one point they used a Wild Magic Surge on my Ghostly Prison only for me to flop into Cathar's Crusade, effectively setting me up for the end game.

I ended up winning on the back of Akroma's Will after responding to a removal spell targeting my Resplendent Mentor with a Generous Gift to kill it, give me an Elephant Token, and put an extra counter on all of my creatures. That extra counter ended up being the difference, as I was able to swing a double-striking 4/4 at the red player, who was at 5 life, and 44 damage at the Ragost player, who was at 43 life.

After the game the Red player confirmed that they don't love chaos decks and probably won't play that list again. Playing online in Tabletop Simulator lets you experiment with lists and try new stuff without having to build the list in paper. I also came away from the game feeling like I'm not really into lifegain decks. They can extend games into multiple hours if nobody has a way to close the game out, especially at lower power levels. Unless I'm rocking an Aetherflux Reservoir, I'd rather focus on killing my tablemates than pushing my life total into the stratosphere.

Final Thoughts

This was an entertaining deck to play and while I probably won't build Haliya in paper, I do think it's a fun and sneakily powerful commander to build around. I probably gained at least 40 life over the course of the game, if not more, and I wasn't even running lifegain staples like Boon Reflection and Rhox Faithmender, which double your lifegain.

I'm not sure there was an ideal commander for a mono-White soul sisters deck before Haliya, Guided by Light, but it's hard to argue that this isn't an excellent choice for building that archetype in Commander. You are guaranteed to have a soul sister in the early game, you gain life from both creatures and artifacts, and you get a little card draw if you do it well enough.

Lifegain doesn't win games on its own, and it can make you a bit of a punching bag if decks aren't prepared to win by other means, so be prepared to take a few lumps as players try to keep your life total from getting too high. Smart players will keep that focus on you, or will plan to kill you with commander damage or in some other way. Players that prefer to spread damage around will be helping you more than they realize, as you'll keep gaining that life back and everyone else will start realizing they're not able to deal with your life total.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!