Life gain is strategy that always seems to remain beloved within the MTG player base at large. No matter the Standard environment, there’s a decent chance you’ll play against life gain at least a few times while grinding the ladder on Arena.
Unfortunately, more often than not, life gain strategies fall short of being in the top tier of competitive archetypes. Cards like Ajani’s Pridemate, while fun, aren’t the most powerful nowadays. In order for a life gain deck to thrive, there needs to be a ton of support.
Well, it seems this archetype will soon have a real opportunity to thrive thanks to MTG Foundations. There are already some decent tools in Standard, but MTG Foundations may have what it takes to elevate the archetype to the next level.
MTG Foundations Additions
In order for a strong life gain deck to exist, you need a decent mix of both enablers and payoffs that fill out a decent mana curve. This is where MTG Foundations serves as a big upgrade.
In the enabler category, one of the most underrated additions is none other than Hinterland Sanctifier. Hinterland Sanctifier isn’t quite as strong as Soul Warden would be since it doesn’t trigger off opposing creatures entering the battlefield. Nonetheless, Hinterland Sanctifier serves an important purpose: triggering life gain triggers from creatures like Ajani’s Pridemate and Essence Channeler.
Hinterland Sanctifier can come down turn one. Then, you can follow up with one of the two-drops mentioned above and immediately get a +1/+1 counter. These threats will continue to grow over time, demanding answers from the opponent.
Moving to the payoffs, beyond the inclusion of Ajani’s Pridemate, perhaps the most devastating threat you can play is Elenda, Saint of Dusk. Elenda is an extremely powerful card that actually does a solid job fueling itself.
As a 4/4 with Lifelink, Elenda hits hard and works well in conjunction with all your other life gain stuff. As long as you can keep your life total high, Elenda can close games incredibly fast, much like Blood Baron of Vizkopa from back in the day.
The kicker, though, is that Elenda dodges the majority of the top removal spells in the format. Go for the Throat from various black midrange decks, Get Lost from token control shells, and Witchstalker Frenzy all whiff against this card. If you can dodge board wipes like Sunfall, Elenda can win games singlehandedly.
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the reprint of Linden, the Steadfast Queen. Linden has the upside of being able to provide a bunch of life gain triggers at once if you’ve built out a solid board of attackers. If you choose to stay mono-white, Linden can make for a decent piece of top-end.
Old Tools
These MTG Foundations cards will be legal in Standard for quite a while, so players will always have a base to build around. In the immediate term, though, there’s a decent chunk of cards already in Standard that can fill out the core of the life gain deck.
Life gain is a fringe archetype in Standard at the moment and is primarily Bat-focused. This allows you to fully maximize the power of Zoraline, Cosmos Caller, which is a very strong card in its own right. You can always rebuy copies of Deep-Cavern Bat or Essence Channeler that died, which is a big deal.
Meanwhile, Darkstar Augur and Lunar Convocation help you convert some of the life you’ve gained into extra resources. Between these cards and Zoraline, you’re relatively well set up to grind through removal.
Once you factor in the additions of Hinterland Sanctifier, Elenda, and more, you’ve got a reasonable group of cards to work with. Elenda pairs exceptionally well with Case of the Uneaten Feast, since Elenda has the ability to attack as a 5/5 with Menace and Lifelink to immediately Solve the Case. Then, if Elenda gets dealt with, you can sacrifice the Case to recast Elenda and any other threats you want.
Should you choose to go down the mono-white path, either for budget concerns or for consistency purposes, Leyline of Hope is a neat card to keep track of. Ruin-Lurker Bat and Healer’s Hawk get a lot more threatening when your whole squad is getting a big buff. Without access to Deep-Cavern Bat or Duress, this version would likely be much more vulnerable to board wipes, so just keep that in mind.
Beating the New Boogeyman
Overall, part of what makes this deck rather appealing soon after MTG Foundations debuts is the fact that it lines up well versus red burn strategies. Thanks to the addition of Boltwave to Standard, there’s a good chance assertive red decks will be all the rage in Standard.
Mono-red has already proven to be a dominant force prior to MTG Foundations, too. Luckily, life gain decks have all the tools necessary to win the matchup.
Obviously, gaining life incrementally helps the cause. On top of that, though, Elenda is the type of card that can be unbeatable if the opponent doesn’t have something like Scorching Shot at the ready. Given how much mono-red relies on Hasty threats to get an edge, the Authority of the Consuls reprint could serve as an excellent sideboard card.
Throw in some removal spells for Screaming Nemesis and you’re golden. So, if you’re tired of getting bullied by mono-red, MTG Foundations has the power to help you combat it. Don’t sleep on life gain as a cool archetype, as it may finally be the deck’s time to shine.
