This is a package I started including since Heliod, Sun-Crowned was released in THB. I wanted to get more testing in before endorsing this, but current events still make in-person cube not a possibility here, and with M21 looking like it may have another card for the archetype, I am creating this thread now.
Payoffs
Heliod, Sun-Crowned: Heliod has some merit on his own. He goes infinite with Walking Ballista and Triskelion and can be used as an aristocrats card with Kitchen Finks. Including the lifegain package gives Heliod a bit more merit besides being a combo piece.
Archangel of Thune: This can fill the role of a Baneslayer Angel. While not as large as Baneslayer/Lyra, a lifegain package can help justify Archangel of Thune in that slot. Notably, this can also substitute for Heliod in the Kitchen Finks combo.
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose: The new card. The issue I think this archetype had, was not the lack of enablers, but lack of payoff. This looks like it may be a strong payoff. A 3cmc 1/3 body with a high-cost activated ability is not a great place to start, but 3cmc for a Sanguine Bond effect could be reasonable on it's own.
Life payment: Lifegain also works well with black's Life payment. Dark Confidant, Bitterblossom, Necropotence. You can be a bit more reckless with lifeloss when you have ways to reliably gain life back.
Daxos, Blessed by the Sun: Another Soul Warden variant. I like that this helps turn Heliod into a creature more reliably, and has a better body for attacking and defending than the soul sisters.
Charming Prince: a good blink card since it can blink something or be blinked for scry 2. A lifegain package makes all Prince's abilities relevant.
Kitchen Finks: Commonly played in most cubes, but gains extra merit here.
Umezawa's Jitte: Another commonly played card, but "gain 2 life" can become the strongest option with a lifegain payoff out.
Shadowspear: Not the greatest equipment on it's own, but this and Basilisk Collar are the cheapest equipments that grant lifelink, which is notable.
Rather than create and SCD for Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, I went with one for the archetype, since I don't think anyone is interested in Vito if not supporting the Archetype. I do think Vito looks good when paired with other lifegain support, which is becoming a well-supported archetype.
Hey, glad to see you post this. I jumped onto Lifegain at the same time, and I'm pleased others have found it an appealing archetype to build upon for cube. My goal has been to make this as deep and interesting an archetype through as much incidental lifegain on generally good cards as possible, with a handful of slots dedicated to give payoff to the drafter who really makes it all come together.
Particularly, I wanted to comment that I think the soul sisters are great enablers, and I'm even considering Ajani's Welcome as another include. I think these really support follow-ups of Ajani's Pridemate and Karlov of the Ghost Council, which I think can make lifegain operate something like a tempo deck; in fact, I find this approach can make it deliver some really explosive gameplay. Also, I know 4 card combos aren't really ever the goal, but if you haven't drawn your finks for persist combo, but you do have Heliod/Archangel and a soul sister going, that means even your putrid goblin, lesser masticore, and safehold elite will let you go off. I think this just means they can be lent to broader use, which is neat.
While I haven't been using Whip of Erebos, Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord and Sorin, Solemn Visitor are interesting enablers too (Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is also still a great choice even if he lacks this specific function), provided you a guild slot available. Among them, I prefer Vengeful Bloodlord, as it can be an easy way to recur a fallen Pridemate/Karlov, but is also nice in other aggressive decks that want more post-wrath recovery. I think each of these cards certainly make curving out into a Sanguine Bond interesting, if you're into that, and I think Vito is probably worth considering alongside it.
Finally, I agree that Green makes for a great tertiary color; I just wanted to add I think Warden of the First Tree tends to fit comfortably into these decks.
Anyway, thanks for offering your thoughts; I hope mine give folks something to consider as well. Would love to see this conversation develop into something that sees lifegain come together as a viable cube archetype for people interested in it.
I think the white - black life gain could work pretty well with the existing stax/ aristocrats package already in Black White.
Another card that is a strong payoffs for this deck is Birthing Pod.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Speaking of Aristocrats, don't sleep on Bolas's Citadel as a bridge between multiple archetypes. It's a nice payoff for the WB lifegain deck, can act as a finisher in an aristocrat deck and is awesome as a tinker/welder target as well.
Also I feel you could mention Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis which can randomly help with life and is totally fine on her own, as well as Resplendent Angel which is at worse a 3/3 flyer, but can serve as a nice mana sink in all sorts of white decks.
I actually want to reopen this thread. I don't think we need a full blown lifegain soul sister's style archetype, but I like the idea adding a few more lifegain payoffs:
Already in cube:
- Bolas Citidal
- Sylvan Library
- Dark Confidant
- Heliod, Sun Crowned
- Archangel of Thrune
- Birthing Pod
Could potentially add:
- Necropotence
- Ajani's pridemage
- Ajani, Strength of the Pride
- Lone Rider
I think the cube naturally has enough rate cards that incidentally would gain life. I don't like the soul sister's direction - that is too parasitic and could be too oppressive to burn.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
I think if you want to avoid soul sisters, it's maybe wise to avoid Ajani's Pridemate as well. This card benefits from having a steady source of triggers, and I'm not sure it's worth it if you're just running a few incidental cards in your deck like Kitchen Finks and Ajani, Strength of the Pride. I think most of the time it'll just be a weaker than average 2-drop, which I might even recommend against playing altogether for favor of like a removal spell or something.
I was recently trying to find room for Griffin Aerie but getting 3 life each turn is kinda hard. I predict Lone Rider kinda suffers from a similar situation, although some equipment will give it the opportunity to flip itself. I think most burst heal spells are just generally not great, so this guy might be annoyingly stuck as a 1/1 for a while. And, if you're investing in lots of creature pump, you're probably not going to care about lifegain as a theme anyway? I dunno.
Ajani, Strength of the Pride is pretty cool, though. At the very least he can grow his own tokens.
I lowered my Soul Sister count from 2 to 1 and also cut Vito for a more generically good 3cmc Black Creature. I am excited about Wheel of Misfortune as it can push Boros aggro into valuing some of the lifegain more. Inscription of Abundance is another card I've added recently that offers some instant speed lifegain combat trick shenanigans.
Payoffs
Heliod, Sun-Crowned: Heliod has some merit on his own. He goes infinite with Walking Ballista and Triskelion and can be used as an aristocrats card with Kitchen Finks. Including the lifegain package gives Heliod a bit more merit besides being a combo piece.
Archangel of Thune: This can fill the role of a Baneslayer Angel. While not as large as Baneslayer/Lyra, a lifegain package can help justify Archangel of Thune in that slot. Notably, this can also substitute for Heliod in the Kitchen Finks combo.
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose: The new card. The issue I think this archetype had, was not the lack of enablers, but lack of payoff. This looks like it may be a strong payoff. A 3cmc 1/3 body with a high-cost activated ability is not a great place to start, but 3cmc for a Sanguine Bond effect could be reasonable on it's own.
Life payment: Lifegain also works well with black's Life payment. Dark Confidant, Bitterblossom, Necropotence. You can be a bit more reckless with lifeloss when you have ways to reliably gain life back.
Enablers
Soul Warden/Soul's Attendant: Pairs really well with token makers like Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Hero of Bladehold
Daxos, Blessed by the Sun: Another Soul Warden variant. I like that this helps turn Heliod into a creature more reliably, and has a better body for attacking and defending than the soul sisters.
Charming Prince: a good blink card since it can blink something or be blinked for scry 2. A lifegain package makes all Prince's abilities relevant.
Kitchen Finks: Commonly played in most cubes, but gains extra merit here.
Umezawa's Jitte: Another commonly played card, but "gain 2 life" can become the strongest option with a lifegain payoff out.
Shadowspear: Not the greatest equipment on it's own, but this and Basilisk Collar are the cheapest equipments that grant lifelink, which is notable.
Whip of Erebos: Solid way to gain life in black.
Mire Triton: A good role player in black. Not the greatest, but reasonable.
Lightning Helix: A WR card, but I wanted to mention it because it's a very strong combat trick with Heliod/Archangel of Thune.
Green
While I'd say the archetype mostly lives in WB, Green has some enablers with Courser of Kruphix, Thragtusk, Knight of Autumn, and Scavenging Ooze. Green also has a payoff with Sylvan Library.
[180 classic cube]
[180 classic cube]
Particularly, I wanted to comment that I think the soul sisters are great enablers, and I'm even considering Ajani's Welcome as another include. I think these really support follow-ups of Ajani's Pridemate and Karlov of the Ghost Council, which I think can make lifegain operate something like a tempo deck; in fact, I find this approach can make it deliver some really explosive gameplay. Also, I know 4 card combos aren't really ever the goal, but if you haven't drawn your finks for persist combo, but you do have Heliod/Archangel and a soul sister going, that means even your putrid goblin, lesser masticore, and safehold elite will let you go off. I think this just means they can be lent to broader use, which is neat.
While I haven't been using Whip of Erebos, Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord and Sorin, Solemn Visitor are interesting enablers too (Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is also still a great choice even if he lacks this specific function), provided you a guild slot available. Among them, I prefer Vengeful Bloodlord, as it can be an easy way to recur a fallen Pridemate/Karlov, but is also nice in other aggressive decks that want more post-wrath recovery. I think each of these cards certainly make curving out into a Sanguine Bond interesting, if you're into that, and I think Vito is probably worth considering alongside it.
Finally, I agree that Green makes for a great tertiary color; I just wanted to add I think Warden of the First Tree tends to fit comfortably into these decks.
Anyway, thanks for offering your thoughts; I hope mine give folks something to consider as well. Would love to see this conversation develop into something that sees lifegain come together as a viable cube archetype for people interested in it.
Blood Artist
Zulaport Cutthroat
Bastion of Remembrance
Cruel Celebrant
I think the white - black life gain could work pretty well with the existing stax/ aristocrats package already in Black White.
Another card that is a strong payoffs for this deck is Birthing Pod.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
Also I feel you could mention Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis which can randomly help with life and is totally fine on her own, as well as Resplendent Angel which is at worse a 3/3 flyer, but can serve as a nice mana sink in all sorts of white decks.
My 450ish 1vs1 cube
Already in cube:
- Bolas Citidal
- Sylvan Library
- Dark Confidant
- Heliod, Sun Crowned
- Archangel of Thrune
- Birthing Pod
Could potentially add:
- Necropotence
- Ajani's pridemage
- Ajani, Strength of the Pride
- Lone Rider
I think the cube naturally has enough rate cards that incidentally would gain life. I don't like the soul sister's direction - that is too parasitic and could be too oppressive to burn.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i
I was recently trying to find room for Griffin Aerie but getting 3 life each turn is kinda hard. I predict Lone Rider kinda suffers from a similar situation, although some equipment will give it the opportunity to flip itself. I think most burst heal spells are just generally not great, so this guy might be annoyingly stuck as a 1/1 for a while. And, if you're investing in lots of creature pump, you're probably not going to care about lifegain as a theme anyway? I dunno.
Ajani, Strength of the Pride is pretty cool, though. At the very least he can grow his own tokens.
[180 classic cube]