The EDH Evolution Series memorializes the life of an EDH deck. It starts with the initial build, continues through gameplay in the pod, and ends when the deck is dismantled. Listening to Licia focuses on the Mardu Commander Licia, Sanguine Tribune.
If you want to check out the post on the initial deck build first, that can be found here.
I learned a great deal from building and playing Licia, the Sanguine Tribune as a commander. The holes in my initial build were immediately apparent in the first few games played. Not only did these lessons prompt build changes, but I had to adapt my play style as well. I have highlighted a few of the lessons in the game log below.
You Can't Rely on your Commander Alone (12/09/18)
I was barely able squeak out an four person free for all win and Licia wasn't even in play.
Chris on Saheeli, the Gifted.
Micah on Ezuri, Claw of Progress.
Tim on Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca.
The Kumena player made it his mission to keep me in check through the mid game. He sent a few merfolk at me each turn. Occasionally, I would be able to kill one, but he would replace it with two more. Due to his efforts, and some help from the others, I couldn't keep Licia on the table for a full turn. The incidental lifegain was barely keeping my life total above 20.
While Kumena and I went back and forth, the Saheeli deck player was building a massive board presence and picking on the Ezuri player. Trying to keep a healthy life total, I landed a mid-size Exsanguinate. Because Saheeli was picking on Ezuri, this had the incidental effect of killing the Ezuri player.
Then the game came to a sudden stand still. Kumena bounced all non-merfolk creatures. The Saheeli player recovered almost instantly and was given a choice on who to remove, Kumena or myself. He let me live.
Saheeli had one indestructible flyer and a horde of ground creatures. I was not going to be able to get through on the ground. I was at 21 life and had Sanguine Bond out. Due to the horde of ground creatures, I wasn't going to live through Saheeli's attack step. After a deep dive into the brain tank, I gave a Serra Ascendant Double Strike with a Boros Charm and sent her at Saheeli. The indestructible flyer blocked and the Lifelink trigger from Sanguine Bond took Saheeli down to 5. After combat, I Swords to Plowshares my own Serra Ascendant. The Sanguine Bond Trigger did the remaining 5 points of damage I needed.
This game - and a few others that day - really illustrated a weaknesses of the deck as built. The deck relied too much on Licia. I was using her for too many things. I needed her to attack. I needed her to defend. I needed the lifegain she generated to fuel the rest of the things the deck was trying to do. My build didn't allow her to do all these tasks at the same time.
I had completely neglected Vigilance in the equipment suite. That was a massive mistake. Whenever I attacked someone, the rest of the table was headed my way while Licia was tapped. After a few hits, I needed to keep Licia back for blocking purposes. When I couldn't swing, I couldn't gain any life. Without the lifegain, the rest of my tricks didn't work. Needless to say, the next set up updates contained several sources of Vigilance and Trample.
These games also made it clear that I was only going to get one or two kills with Licia per game. The deck needed other ways to win if it wanted to win. I started adding late game combo style win conditions to the deck.
While not as important as the two previous build corrections, during the initial deck build I had contemplated including a Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers combo for big mana. I opted not to. I wasn't including any big mana dumps at the time. I did not consider Greed as a big black mana dump. I do now. While my mana base as built was able to support casting whichever permanents I held in my hand, I found myself only having two or three black mana available at the end of a turn for use with Greed. Urborg, was immediately slotted in. This is also when I realized I had broken my own rule of including Expedition Map in all my commander decks. I also added it.
Deckbuilding Isn't Enough (02/02/19)
Sometimes you are playing the deck wrong. Just because you can get Licia out on turn four, doesn't mean you should.
For this notable game my opponents were:
Trevor on Izzet Spell. Trevor has a spell slinging deck that he rotates the Izzet Commanders on. There are four or five possibilities and you never know what you are going to get.
Micah on Arvad the Cursed. Micah was experimenting by jamming all the white and black legendary creatures he could for a Legendary Matters deck.
ChrisB on Kaalia of the Vast. (Winner)
The deck gifted me with a great start. I could have gotten Licia out on turn four and swung on turn five with a 10/10. As I looked around at the table though, I saw the other players with just mana rocks. Most importantly, they had each had a fist full of cards. I chickened out and dropped an enchantment instead. That enchantment was exiled by the Arvad player's Anguished Unmaking before it came back around to my turn. I got lucky on that table read. That would have been targeting Licia.
My take away from this game was just because you can play her on turn four, it doesn’t mean you should. It might be best to watch something else get removed first. Or let someone else be perceived as the first threat. But, even if you do wait, it still doesn't guarantee you will come out on top. The rest of the game demonstrated that fairly well.
My opponents continued to develop on turns five and six. I grew impatient and brought Licia out on turn six. By turn eight I had my choice of killing Izzet or Arvad. Like a chump, I rolled for it. (btw, I try not to do this anymore.) I swung at Izzet. He couldn't remove Licia or prevent himself from dying, but he did begin dismantling my board state by removing equipment and enchantments. What he started, Arvad finished. By the time it came back to my turn, I had a single Signet and lands. Such is commander.
Now that I was barely a bystander, Arvad and Kaalia then began to fight amongst themselves. I was low on cards and was struggling to redevelop my board. Then Iona, Shield of Emeria happened. Black was named. This was a new experience for me. Iona shut off half the cards in my hand.
When it's not my turn, I like to examine what my opponents have and contemplate what I have in my deck that responds to them. As I mentally ran down my decklist, I realized I had made a deck building mistake. In building the deck, I had reached for what I thought was the best removal. I was lured into choosing cards that said "Exile Target Permanent." I had included Anguished Unmaking, Utter End, Unmake…. All the Orzhov Exile Permanent effects. I thought they were the best of the best among the removal cards. Iona naming black made them all worthless.
After that game broke up my removal suite because it was too homogenous. I had to cut orzhov and add some red removal and other single color removal. I started checking my decks for "unconventional removal." I rebuilt my decks to include tuck removal, exile removal, and transform removal that doesn't come from a single color source.
Kaalia eventually swarmed Arvad and I both at the same time for the victory.
Better Board Wipes and Picking your Targets (03/15/19)
After a few more games, I could that the deck was getting relatively tuned. The reactions when I flipped Licia over as my commander also told me that I was about at the midpoint of the decks life cycle. I typically put a deck to pasture when I hear a collective groan from my playgroup when I flip over the commander. As I try and stray away from obnoxious strategies, this reaction is able to tell me how competitive the deck is.
Andy invited the group for a long night of commander at his place and I set out with the plan to play Licia the whole night. By this point I was fairly confident in the deck's ability to get Licia out early and start pressuring players. My next set of revisions focused on how to come back from behind. The new additions focused on adding board wipes that kept Licia on the board. NAME, NAME,
The first game of the night was a bit of an anomaly.
ChrisB was on Kruphix, God of Horizons. A god driven Simic ramp deck.
ChrisM was on Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. An upgraded version of the C17 preconstructed deck.
Andy was on Sylvia Brightspear / Khorvath Brightflame. A quick and vicious deck that will send Doublestrike Dragons at you on turn 7.
It went long, more than 16 turns. Typically, I don't see long games when I play this deck. Licia wins quickly, or I am killed first. The initial start was odd too. I didn't ramp at all. Due to the massive amounts of card draw I include, I still didn't miss a land drop. Oddly comforting. (See EDH Decks that Tap Left Here.)
Most notably, I spent the first 12 turns without Licia. The Kruphix deck came out the gate with quick ramp. Very predictable. It had two gods in play by Turn 8. That's even after we had picked on him. By this time I had even already wiped the board with a Merciless Eviction. While waiting, I quickly counted up my outs to remove indestructible creature enchantments. Not many. If they were active as creatures, maybe three? And I had already used one.
I had ran into indestructible blockers with Licia before. It's never pretty. Sure you gain lots of life, but actually getting damage through can be difficult. So I immediately started looking for a combo kill to remove the Kruphix player.
I had no creatures on the board, but I was keeping my opponents at bay with a No Mercy. The Bright Spear player was so far ahead on board state that I was able to stick a Sanguine Bond while people looked at his big dragons. The next turn I was able to double my life total using Sanguine Sacrement; I used the Sanguine bond trigger to kill the Kruphix player.
By this time the Inalla player had recovered from a bad start and was able to start poking the Brightspear player. Even with our combined efforts, the Inalla player and I weren't able to disrupt the Brightspears board. I wiped the board three more times. The Brightspear player was ready. Boros Charm. Teferi's Protection. Between the incoming double strike dragons from the Brightspear player and my repeated use of Greed, my life total was back down to 54; within range of the Brightspear player's swathe of Double Strike dragons. Then I finally stuck Licia.
She typically lands with a thud followed by a sigh from the other players. This was no exception. These two gentlemen knew what was to happen next. My unspoken alliance with the Inalla player evaporated. Inalla and Brightspear took one look at their bag of tricks and teamed up. I can't blame them; next turn one of them was dead with just the tricks I had on the board. They weren't willing to gamble that it would be the other player.
Inalla passed the turn with lots of mana up. A total blue mage move. The Brightspear player went deep into the tank. Walked through his entire hand. By my count he had 48 on board. Using the time, I started planning my own way of killing one of them without dying to the other.
When I tuned back into the conversation at the table, a deal had been made. Inalla was not to counter a Brightspear dragon cast. Half a beer later the Brightspear found the line. Through recasting his commander and a clever flicker he was able to drum up 56 damage in the air. Very nice.
After congratulating him on the kill, I went to check on the other pod. Eventually Inalla and Brightspear drew the game. Seemed Inalla had come back with something that was able to level the field after Brightspear killed me.
Same night, game 2. ChrisB and moved to the other table. New opponents were:
Dan on Brudtaclad, Telchor Engineer. Tokens, tokens everywhere.
Trevor on Inalla. An upgraded C17 Precon.
ChrisB was on Kruphix. A god driven Simic ramp deck.
So the indestructible gods were still at my table. Dan was playing a Brutaclad deck I had not seen before. Trevor was on Inalla. His deck is drastically different than Chris's.
I ramped well and had Licia out on turn 5. In the previous game Chris's Kruphix deck had ramped so well, I knew I had no chance of catching it if it got established. He also dropped another god on turn 5. No surprise there. Not much of a board presence out of the other two players at that point. So, I swung right into Chris. He chumped two rounds of attack and gave me plenty of life to work with.
Then I finally drew Divine Reckoning. It was new addition, I had had been hoping to use it all night. The previous revisions had added a few board wipes that would leave Licia on the board. I hadn't been able to test them yet. After the Diving Reckoning, Kruphix had two gods and a creature up. I counted the pips. I fired off a Path to Exile the non-god creature and rendered the two gods as solely enchantments. With no blockers, I used a Boros Charm on Licia to give her Double Strike and took Chris out through commander damage.
This did not feel good. It still doesn't. Two games in a row that I killed him first. My rationale at the time: 1) He was the biggest threat at the table, 2) the Simic Snowball is a natural predator to quick decks after mid game, Licia included, 3) Licia has a problem with indestructible creatures. I apologized. Chris took it with class and grace.
This left me with just Licia on the board and two opponents who were about to unite against me. With my newfound stack of life as fuel and drew as deep as I could into my library. I found Aetherflux Reservoir. The next turn I stuck Reservoir and one shotted the Inalla Player; his board was wider. This brought me down to 5 life. Life is a resource, right?
This left me with a single opponent; Brutaclad, a commander I was not familiar with. I think the riskiest move with this Licia deck is NOT attacking with her in order to leave her up for blocking. But in this case, without her to block, I was dead. By my math I needed to block and gain life to live. If the Brudtaclad player had any tricks I was probably dead.
Well, playing with new people cuts both directions. He had never seen me play Licia either. My opponent swung in. No tricks. With a life gain doubler in play, I actually gained life during the attack. Dan admitted that he underestimated the impact of the life gain doubler. More life meant more cards. More cards meant more blockers. I was able to attack the next turn and Dan conceded. Licia had won on turn 11.
This Licia deck seems to be weak to decks that use end game value engines. Past the midgame, it simply can't keep up. The board wipes that leave Licia alive can provide a way to level the field, but they are no guarantee.
Opportunistic Combat Tricks (03/29/2019)
After testing the board wipe additions, I moved on to making Licia's combat steps more unpredictable. Up to this point, Boros Charm had done an extreme amount of work giving Licia double strike. I wanted to add more similar effects. I wanted Licia to threaten removing a player every time she attacked.
Lost on a 5 player free for all.
Andy on Brightspear/Brightflame. (Winner)
ChrisM on The Mimeoplasm.
Micah on Roon, of the Hidden Realm.
Trevor on Shalai, Voice of Plenty.
I was able to ramp out to Licia by turn 6, but I had no protection for her. Opponents applied targeted pressure to keep Licia at bay. The Roon deck was able to bounce Licia and Archangel of Thune to keep the number of counters on both of them low. Shortly after, the Mimeoplasm deck was able to stick a tap to destroy target creature creature. Even though Licia wasn't driving the pace of the game like she normally does, this game was still a blast.
Two cards stick out. The first, Axis of Mortality. Trevor on Shaalia was having a great deal of fun moving around life totals. This had the effect of keep both of our even, but relatively high. I would gain 10-20 life and he would swap totals with me during his next upkeep. Next upkeep, he would repeat it. Since he had my life total from the last time he swapped, it was still pretty high. After a few turns the Shalai deck and I were above forty while our opponents where in their low twenties. It created an interesting dynamic. I wasn't sure who to swing at.
The second card, Hatred. I had put it into my deck a month earlier and hadn't used it yet. It was a 18 dollar addition and I was foaming at the mouth for the chance to use it. It had the potential of being even more effective than giving Licia Double Strike. For one turn, Licia could be as big as your life total! I couldn't wait to blow up one of my friends with the card.
My impatience ruined the surprise though. Instead of using it on Licia, as I was planning, I used it on one of the Shalia player's Angels to kill the Mimeoplasm deck. Worse, I had to convince the Shaalia player to send over the Angel, so the whole table new I was going to use a trick of some sort.
Overall, I like the additions of the combat tricks. Use just one during the game and it brings fear back into combat. That encourages blocking. They are scared of the combat tricking killing them outright.
Even though Shaalia was doing all that work at the table, Andy on is Brightspear dragon deck came in at the last minute to clean everybody up. That Brightspear deck is mighty effective…
Managing your Life Total and Digging for Combos (05/05/19)
With this build of Licia, there is a point in every game where you have to change your strategy from combat to combo. It took a few months playing the deck to figure out how to prepare for it. It's all about managing your life total. I set out with the plan to gain insane amounts of life at a time. The deck is largely successful in doing that.
Because the deck has to do two things, it has to separate its focus. This means you have half as many cards to accomplish the task. To overcome that, you have to sift through twice as many to find what you need. You have to start spending that life on card draw well before you need to switch to your combo strategy. If you don't start this process a few turns ahead of time, you will see a few turn lag when you switch from combat to combo. These few turns of "downtime" is when I would lose the game.
Won a four player free for all.
ChrisM on Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas.
Clark on Daretti, Scrap Savant.
Micah on Bant Super Friends.
Standard quick start for Licia. She hit the board early but was removed a turn later. I had been playing Licia for about three months by this time and she had an established reputation. I took a few turns off from the Licia-first game plan to develop my board state. Artifacts and Enchantments seemed to be sticking and I was able to land multiple a turn. I was able to build up a nice stack of triggers during each upkeep between Venser's Journal and Land Tax.
After a few turns my opponents had developed enough of a board presence that Licia wasn't going to get through any longer. Due nonexistent combat from my opponents, the Bant superfriends deck to my right had managed to get his Tamiyo Emblem. Permanents started dropping on the board as fast as the deck could draw them. A win via combat damage was out of the question. It was relatively clear that the Superfriends deck didn't have a way to win though. It was all walkers and small creatures. I was gaining at least 50 life per turn.
During my next upkeep I gained 80 more life and drew 8 more cards in an attempt to dig for answers. 8 was all could spend and still hope to cast what I drew. This brought my life total down to about 150. One of the 8 cards I drew was a Enlighten Tutor. I threw it on the table. It resolved and started searching. I knew I had a few options that would win me the game that turn if not disrupted. The Blood Bond combo was available, but someone else at the table suggested getting Aetherflux Reservoir. That sounded fun, so I tutored that to the top of my deck.
But there was plenty of points for disruption. I still needed to draw the Aetherflux. I still needed to successfully cast it. I had Alhammarret's Archive in play, so I swung with Licia. I wanted to use the lifelink trigger to draw. The player to my left burnt some point removal on Lica. So, Plan A wasn't going to work. With the removal on the stack I Swords to Plowshares her myself to gain the life. No one else had a response. I paid the 1 mana, and drew the Aetherflux Reservoir. Reservoir was not countered. With the reservoir down, I spent 50 for each remaining opponent to close the game.
Deck List Changes in Retrospect (05/13/2019)
The evolution of this deck list has made me question my own deck building process. On the outset I was focused on only a single question: How do you get Licia out faster? So many questions came up after the initial build. Things I didn't even consider while completing the first list.
These include:
How does the deck win outside of the combat step?
How does the deck keep up with Ramp and Value Decks?
How does the deck win from behind?
How does the deck quickly transition to a combo win before it loses?
I'm going to have to revisit my process and add take a more holistic approach when reviewing the initial deck list. Sure, my first list was able to gain lots of life in large amounts, but it wasn't able to do much more than that.
I expect to retire this deck fairly soon. I've been running it frequently for about 5 months. I'm excited to build its replacement.
Keep tapping left,
Benjamin