LIFEGAIN DRAIN. two combos, one commander.

Opening hands

Seven cards from this build. Commanders start in the command zone. In multiplayer Commander, the first mulligan is free. For later mulligans, draw seven again; once you keep, put one card on the bottom for each mulligan beyond the free one.

KeepShow the seven

• Plains
• Swamp
• Command Tower
• Soul Warden
• Arcane Signet
• Swords to Plowshares
• Demonic Tutor

T1 Plains casts Warden. T2 Swamp plus Plains pay WB for Karlov; the Warden trigger grows him to 4/4. T3 Tower supports Signet or a tutor while you assess interaction.

BorderlineShow the seven

• Plains
• Swamp
• Sol Ring
• Mana Vault
• Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• Walking Ballista
• Vampiric Tutor

Both commander colors exist and Ring/Vault accelerate generic costs, but you still need white for Heliod and lifelink. Keep if a mana-and-protection plan fits the pod; missing land three makes colored sequencing tight.

MulliganShow the seven

• Plains
• Sol Ring
• Demonic Tutor
• Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• Walking Ballista
• Bolas's Citadel
• Exquisite Blood

Ring does not produce black for Tutor or Citadel. Holding both combo names does not repair one land, missing black and expensive follow-up.

Karlov of the Ghost Council strategy guide

Pace and examples. Turn windows below are author estimates and illustrative sequences, not measured multiplayer results or guarantees. A first opponent eliminated is not a whole-table win. In multiplayer the first mulligan is free; later mulligans follow the London procedure. The commander starts in the command zone, outside the seven-card examples.

Karlov of the Ghost Council is a OrzhovOrzhov = white plus black. The two colors this deck plays in. 2-mana commander whose text reads: “Whenever you gain life, put two +1/+1 counters on Karlov. {W}{B}, Remove six +1/+1 counters from Karlov: Exile target creature.” He is base 2/2 for WB, he grows two counters per lifegain trigger (not per point of life), and he converts six of those counters into “exile target creature” at instant speed for {W}{B} plus 6 counters off his own body.

The loop is mechanical: lifegain triggersA triggered ability firing because its condition was met. stack his counters, counters become repeatable exile removal, and the same lifegain triggers that grow him also feed drainA trigger that makes an opponent lose life and gains you that much, Blood Artist style. Life loss is not damage, so it goes through protection and prevention that only stop damage. payoffs (Sanguine Bond, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose) and aristocratStrategy of sacrificing your own creatures for value through death triggers that drain opponents and refill you. pingers (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, Syr Konrad, the Grim). The deck wins three ways at once: by assembling one of two infinite combosTwo or more cards that together create an infinite or game-ending loop., by stormingA triggered ability that functions on the stack: when you cast the spell, copy it for each other spell cast before it this turn (CR 702.40a). The copies are not cast, so they never add to the storm count themselves. with Aetherflux Reservoir, or by swinging a 20-counter commander over a tapped-out table. Every Soul SisterShorthand for the cheap white lifegain creatures: Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant (W) gain you 1 life whenever another creature enters, anyone's; Suture Priest (1W) gains only on your own creatures entering, and an opposing creature entering makes that player lose 1 life instead. trigger is simultaneously rampMana acceleration: any card that gives you extra mana production (Sol Ring, signets, treasure tokens). toward exile, beef on Karlov, and a drain proc.

You don’t pick a wincon at sleeves-on. You pick it at the point of attack, based on what’s already on board.

Win conditions

Wincon 1 · Heliod plus Ballista, 9 mana from scratch, infinite damage

Heliod, Sun-Crowned plus Walking Ballista with at least two +1/+1 counters on Ballista. Heliod’s lifelink-granting ability is activated, not static: pay {1}{W}, target Ballista, Ballista has lifelinkKeyword. Damage dealt by this creature also causes you to gain that much life. until end of turn. Then activate Ballista to ping a target for 1; removing one counter leaves Ballista a 1/1 with one counter, which survives state-based actions; the lifelink gains you 1 life; Heliod’s “whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature or enchantment you control” trigger puts the counter back, returning Ballista to a 2/2 with two counters. Lifelink lasts until end of turn, so one activation of Heliod covers as many Ballista pings as you fire. Repeat the ping-and-counter-back loop to infinity. Mana cost: 9 from scratch (Heliod {2}{W} = 3, Ballista at X=2 = 4, Heliod’s lifelink activation {1}{W} = 2). 6 on the kill turn if Heliod is already out (Ballista 4 + lifelink activation 2). Both halves are tutorableA tutor is any card that searches your library for a specific card (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor). Tutorable means a tutor can find it.: Heliod off Demonic, Vampiric, or Enlightened (he’s an enchantment creature, so Enlightened finds him); Ballista off any tutor including Enlightened (artifact). Karlov out makes this lethal even faster because every lifelink ping also adds counters to Karlov.

Wincon 2 · Sanguine plus Exquisite, one trigger and the table dies

Sanguine Bond plus Exquisite Blood. Bond turns your lifegain into opponent life loss, Exquisite turns any opponent life loss into your lifegain. Neither half deals or reads damage (CR 120.3a runs one way: damage causes life loss, not the reverse), so damage prevention does not touch the loop, and Exquisite also fires off non-damage losses such as the Athreos 3-life tax. Any single proc, a Soul Warden trigger, a Karlov swing, a Vault of the Archangel attack, starts a loop that can drain opponents to zero through repeated triggers; every trigger uses the stack and opponents retain their response windows. 10 mana to hardcast both (3BB plus 4B, 7 generic plus 3 black). Bond is tutorable off Demonic or Vampiric. Exquisite is tutorable off the same. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose plus Exquisite is the same loop at 8 mana total (2B plus 4B), the cheapest variant in the deck. Enduring Tenacity is a third Sanguine half on a 4/3 enchantment-creature body, and when it dies it returns as an enchantment that keeps draining, so it is the most removal-resilient version of the loop.

Wincon 3 · Citadel storm into Aetherflux

Bolas’s Citadel plus Sensei’s Divining Top plus Aetherflux Reservoir is a repeatable cast/draw engine. Top draws a card and puts itself on the library; Citadel recasts it for 1 life; Reservoir gains life for that cast. Top is not a creature, so Soul Sisters and Suture Priest do not trigger from it. Count life, prior spells and library cards before deciding how many Reservoir shots you can fund. Enlightened Tutor finds any of these artifact pieces.

Wincon 4 · Karlov commander damage, the honest finish

Karlov hits 21 power faster than the table expects. Each lifegain trigger is +2/+2 on Karlov, so a turn with four separate lifegain triggers (for example, two creature ETBs into a pair of Soul Sisters, each ETB firing each Sister) is +8/+8. Add Teysa Karlov doubling death triggers and a sacrifice outlet, and Karlov reaches 12 power by around T5. Equip Basilisk Collar for deathtouch and lifelink: the lifelink connect is a single lifegain trigger (regardless of how much life it gains) that grows him another +2/+2 for the next swing, plus a +1/+1 on the whole team if Archangel of Thune is out, and deathtouch means anything that blocks him dies, so the table stops chumping a lethal commander (though without trample a lone chump can still eat one swing). Vault of the Archangel adds lifelink to the alpha strike for the same effect. Basilisk Collar gives no haste, so a Karlov cast this turn still cannot attack; equip is sorcery-speed and costs no turn, so a Karlov already under your control since your upkeep can be equipped precombat and swing that same turn. Hold up Deadly Rollick or Flawless Maneuver (both FREE while Karlov is on the battlefield; the rider is “if you control a commander”, so they cost full price while he sits in the command zone) and the alpha strikeAttacking with all your creatures at once, usually for lethal damage. actually resolves.

Heliod plus Walking Ballista

1. Cast Walking Ballista for X=2, costs 4 mana total ({X}{X}). Enters as a 2/2 with two +1/+1 counters.
2. Cast Heliod, Sun-Crowned for {2}{W} (3 mana).
3. Activate Heliod’s lifelink ability: pay {1}{W} (2 mana), target Walking Ballista. “Another target creature gains lifelink until end of turn.” Ballista now has lifelink for the rest of the turn; one activation covers every subsequent ping.
4. Activate Ballista: “Remove a +1/+1 counter: deal 1 damage to any target.” Ballista is now a 1/1 with one counter and survives state-based actions. The damage with lifelink gains you 1 life.
5. Heliod’s triggered ability fires: “Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature or enchantment you control.” Target Ballista, put the counter back. Ballista is back to a 2/2 with two counters.
6. Loop steps 4 and 5 indefinitely (lifelink is still active, no need to re-pay).

Total mana: 4 (Ballista X=2) + 3 (Heliod {2}{W}) + 2 (lifelink activation {1}{W}) = 9 mana from a clean board, with WW colored across the sequence. 6 mana on the kill turn if Heliod is already in play (Ballista 4 + lifelink 2). 5 mana if Ballista is already on board with two counters (Heliod 3 + lifelink 2). You can split the cast across turns (Heliod T3 or T4, hold up Ballista plus lifelink activation T5 or T6) or jam everything on T5 with a Sol Ring plus Mana Vault opener. The Heliod-already-out path is the standard line because Heliod is indestructible and survives most wraths while you tutor or draw the Ballista half. Devotion to whiteDevotion counts colored mana symbols among the mana costs of permanents you control. Heliod himself is one W pip. matters for Heliod’s body but not for the combo: the activated lifelink fires whether he’s a creature or just an enchantment, and the on-lifegain counter trigger works the same way.

At X=1 the cast alone cannot start the loop: Ballista enters as a 1/1 with one counter, and the moment you remove its only counter to ping, Ballista becomes a 0/0 and dies to state-based actions before Heliod’s on-lifegain trigger can replace the counter. To kill from X=1, give Ballista a second counter before the loop starts, for example with its own {4} activation (6 mana for Ballista in all, against 4 at X=2) or with an outside lifegain trigger (a Soul Sister seeing a creature enter) routed into Heliod.

Tutor paths: Demonic, Vampiric, or Diabolic Intent (it needs a creature to sacrifice) for either half. Enlightened Tutor finds both (Heliod is an enchantment creature, Ballista is an artifact). Sun Titan recurs Ballista from the graveyard on ETB or attack (mana value 0 with no counters, qualifies under the 3-or-less clause), but Ballista returns at X=0 as a 0/0 and dies on arrival unless a static toughness bonus or an applicable replacement effect makes it survive on entry; a later counter trigger is too late, so this is a marginal recursion line.

Archangel of Thune is the Heliod-free second assembly. Her trigger reads “Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control,” which replaces Ballista’s counter the same way Heliod does, on every creature you control at once. Give Ballista lifelink from any of the six in-deck sources, Basilisk Collar, Shadowspear, Resurrection Orb, Vault of the Archangel, Akroma’s Will, or Vito’s {3}{B}{B} activation, and each ping returns its own counter: infinite damage with no Heliod (and, when Basilisk Collar, Shadowspear or Resurrection Orb supplies the lifelink, one equip keeps it on Ballista, so there is no per-turn lifelink activation or cast), plus a board-wide pump as a bonus. Disclose it with the other combos at rule-zero.

Sanguine Bond plus Exquisite Blood

1. Sanguine Bond on the battlefield (3BB).
2. Exquisite Blood on the battlefield (4B).
3. Any single starter trigger: a Soul Warden ETB on any creature, a Karlov swing with lifelink active (Vault of the Archangel), an Authority of the Consuls trigger on an opponent’s creature, a Suture Priest trigger, even a Blood Artist death drain feeding back through Exquisite.
4. Sanguine Bond: target opponent loses 1 life.
5. Exquisite Blood: an opponent lost life, you gain 1.
6. Sanguine Bond: you gained, opponent loses 1.
7. Mandatory triggers. The stack resolves until an opponent is at 0. Choose a new target each Sanguine trigger as opponents die.

Mana: 5 plus 5 = 10 mana total (3BB plus 4B), 7 generic plus 3 black across both spells, hardcast across two turns. Crypt Ghast plus Urborg plus Cabal Coffers makes both castable on a single T5 if you front-load Swamps.

If you have Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose instead of Sanguine Bond, Vito plus Exquisite is the same loop, Vito is 2B (3 mana). Vito plus Exquisite is the cheapest variant at 8 mana total. Enduring Tenacity (2BB, a 4/3 enchantment creature) is a third Sanguine half: when it dies it returns as an enchantment that keeps the drain, so it is the hardest half to answer permanently and a board wipe just leaves you an enchantment that still combos with Exquisite. Defiant Bloodlord plus Exquisite is the most expensive at 12 mana but Bloodlord is a real attacker; Bloodlord lives in the sideboard.

Recursion insurance. Both enchantment halves now have a graveyard escape hatch. Hall of Heliod’s Generosity taps for {1}{W} to put a destroyed Sanguine Bond or Exquisite Blood back on top of your library, and Volrath’s Stronghold taps for {1}{B} to do the same for the creature halves Vito and Bloodthirsty Conqueror (and for Heliod and Walking Ballista on the other combo). Athreos, God of Passage is the standing insurance for the creature halves: when Vito or Bloodthirsty Conqueror dies, it comes back to your hand unless an opponent pays 3 life, no mana spent and no land activation to wait on. The catch: both lands pull from the graveyard only, and Athreos only triggers on a death. An opponent who exiles a half (Farewell, an opposing Vanishing Verse, Despark, Anguished Unmaking) puts it out of reach, so the lands and Athreos answer destroy-based and sacrifice-based removal, not exile. Enduring Tenacity is the exception: it brings itself back as an enchantment when it dies, so destroy, sacrifice, and even a board wipe leave that Sanguine half intact. Against an exile-heavy pod, lean on the six redundant ways to build the loop rather than the lands.

Citadel plus Top plus Aetherflux

Start with all three permanents on the battlefield, an untapped Top, at least one library card, and more than 1 life unless a separate effect prevents losing at 0.

1. Tap Top: draw the current top card, including a land if that is what is there, then put Top on top of the library.
2. Cast Top through Citadel, paying 1 life. Reservoir triggers from the cast. Resolve that trigger before Top; it gains life equal to spells you have cast this turn when it resolves.
3. Resolve Top and repeat. Each cycle draws one card, pays 1 life, and increments the turn’s cast count. Top needs no haste while it is a noncreature artifact.
4. Stop before attempting to draw from an empty library. Neither this engine nor the Reservoir activation is unbounded by itself.

If you begin at L life with s earlier casts this turn and make n uninterrupted Top casts, the net life is L − n + ns + n(n+1)/2, before other effects or shots. At L=40 and s=0, ten casts leave 85 life, enough for one 50-life shot while surviving; this is not automatically three shots. Without loss prevention, have more than 50 life before paying 50. The separately described Pact Weapon/Conqueror route changes that calculation.

Soul Sisters gain life from actual creature entries, not Top. A land does not stop the active Top loop: Top draws it first. Outside that loop a land can stop Citadel’s casting sequence. Top’s other ability looks at and reorders three cards; it cannot scry a card to the bottom. Opponents can respond to Top, the Reservoir trigger, or the shot, and removing an engine piece can stop the next iteration.

Mulligan decisions

Keep a functional white-and-black opening, usually three lands or two lands with castable acceleration, plus an early engine and a useful follow-up. Karlov costs WB from colored sources: Sol Ring pays neither symbol. A Soul Sister is useful when the lands cast it without delaying black access.

Ship hands whose lands cannot cast their early spells, or whose only action is an expensive combo. Heliod plus Ballista is not an automatic keep: the route costs nine total mana from scratch. Necropotence requires three black sources, not merely three lands. Four lands and three expensive spells can still cast Karlov on turn two if those lands provide untapped W and B; judge the hand by its follow-up and the pod’s pace, not an invented commander delay.

Two lands plus Ring and Vault can accelerate generic costs while still missing colored pips. A Plains-only hand cannot cast Demonic Tutor. Keep Citadel hands for their castable development and life/card budget, not because a Sister supposedly refunds every artifact cast. The complete seven-card examples above show a keep, a conditional hand, and a mulligan.

Turn plan

Karlov commander damage

Karlov runs as a secondary kill in parallel to the combos. He enters as a 2/2. Each lifegain trigger is +2/+2. Modeling assumption for the timeline below: one new creature ETB per turn, and one lifegain trigger per Soul Sister already in play before that ETB (Soul Warden and Soul’s Attendant at {W}, Suture Priest at {1}{W}). This is a smooth-curve line, not the average game. T2 Karlov with one Soul Sister already out: 4/4 (one prior-Sister trigger off Karlov entering, +2/+2). T3 with Blood Artist ({1}{B}) or another two-drop creature entering and still one Sister out: 6/6 (one prior-Sister trigger off that ETB, +2/+2). Teysa Karlov costs {2}{W}{B}, so she does not fit on three lands with no rock, and whenever she does land she doubles nothing retroactively, because she only doubles death triggers and Soul Sister is an ETB trigger. Cast on T2, he is no longer summoning sick on T3 and swings for 6 commander damage. The turns below are the bare curve, with nothing equipped to him. T4 with a second Sister entering and one prior Sister in play: 8/8 (one prior-Sister trigger off the new ETB, +2/+2), swinging for 8. T5 with another creature entering and two prior Sisters in play: 12/12 (two prior-Sister triggers off the new ETB, +4/+4), swinging for 12. Twenty-one commander damageDamage dealt by a commander tracks separately. 21 commander damage from a single source kills a player regardless of life total. usually closes across three connecting swings starting T3 (6 + 8 + 12 = 26 with nothing equipped). Equip Basilisk Collar and every swing gains deathtouch and lifelink, and each lifelink connect is one more lifegain trigger worth +2/+2, so the same three turns read 6 + 10 + 16 = 32. Basilisk Collar adds no trample, so a chump can still absorb one swing, but its deathtouch kills whatever blocks Karlov, making every chump a creature the table pays to buy a single turn. Shizo, Death’s Storehouse removes even that tax: {B}, {T} gives Karlov fearKeyword. A creature with fear can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures. until end of turn, so against a board without black or artifact blockers the swing simply connects, and the land taps for black on every other turn. Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes stack with that fear: protection from black on top of it leaves only nonblack artifact creatures able to block (CR 702.16f); skip it while he wears Pact Weapon, which protection from black knocks off (see their section below). Faster Sol Ring openers that land two bodies on T2 collapse this to two swings, but the three-swing line is the smooth-curve baseline and average games run slower. Vault of the Archangel grants lifelink to the alpha-strike attacker, which both refills your life total and triggers Sanguine Bond if it’s out: double-dipping commander damage and drain in one swing.

Common mistakes

Strategic mistakes the pilot makes

Rules traps live above. These are the strategic errors that cost games even when every card is played to its oracle.

Sephiroth sac chain

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER is a triggered sac engine plus the deck’s fourth Blood Artist effect plus a card-draw engine in one slot.

The sac outlets. Diamond Valley is an instant-speed outlet that needs only a tap and one creature, with no mana cost; Sephiroth’s sac is a triggered ability that fires only when he enters or attacks, never in response to anything. Diamond Valley sacs for just {T} with no mana cost and gains you life equal to the sacrificed creature’s toughness, so every activation does double duty: the lifegain can ignite the Sanguine Bond plus Exquisite Blood drain loop, and the death feeds Syr Konrad, Blood Artist, Zulaport, and the Grave Pact edicts, all doubled by Teysa Karlov. Westvale Abbey adds a bulk outlet: {5}, {T} and five sacrificed creatures flip it into a 9/7 lifelink Ormendahl, so it is a five-mana activation, not a free one. Bolas’s Citadel is another instant-speed bulk outlet, tapping and sacrificing ten nonland permanents. Braids, Arisen Nightmare is a second triggered outlet: at the beginning of your end step she can sacrifice a creature, or an artifact, enchantment, land or planeswalker (her section follows). Diabolic Intent sacrifices one creature as part of its cost, once, at sorcery speed. Diamond Valley makes no mana of its own, though it becomes a Swamp under Urborg.

Front face mechanics. 2B legendary creature, 3/3 Human Avatar Soldier. Two abilities:

1. “Whenever Sephiroth enters or attacks, you may sacrifice another creature. If you do, draw a card.” This is the sac engine. Triggers on ETB and again every time Sephiroth attacks.
2. “Whenever another creature dies, target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. If this is the fourth time this ability has resolved this turn, transform Sephiroth.” This is the drain plus transformA double-faced card (DFC) flips from one side to the other when a transform trigger fires. trigger. Every creature death other than Sephiroth’s own death counts.

The bare chain, no Teysa. Sephiroth attacks. Sac a Soul Warden, draw a card. Soul Warden dies on the way to the graveyard. Sephiroth’s death-drain triggers: target opponent loses 1, you gain 1. Blood Artist plus Zulaport trigger off the same death, each draining 1 and gaining 1. The 1 life gained from each trigger fires Karlov’s “whenever you gain life” for +2/+2 per trigger. Single sac with three drain effects on board is +6/+6 to Karlov and 3 life drained from the chosen opponent. With Syr Konrad, the Grim also out, that same death pings every opponent for 1 more; it deals damage instead of draining, so it adds reach across the table without changing the Karlov or lifegain math.

The chain with Teysa Karlov out. Teysa reads “If a creature dying causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.” Teysa only doubles death-caused triggers. Sephiroth has two abilities. The sac-for-draw on ETB and attack is NOT death-caused, so Teysa does NOT double it. The drain-and-count-toward-transform IS death-caused, so Teysa DOES double it.

The arithmetic: one creature death with Teysa out fires Sephiroth’s death-drain TWICE. Two creature deaths fires it FOUR times. The fourth resolution transforms Sephiroth. Two deaths transforms Sephiroth with Teysa out. Four deaths without Teysa.

Post-transform: Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel. Triggers Super Nova on transform, which gives you a permanent emblemAn emblem is a permanent effect granted to you that cannot be removed by any answer in the game. reading “Whenever a creature dies, target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.” The emblem cannot be removed by Farewell or any other answer. One-Winged Angel itself is a 5/5 flier with a different attack trigger: “Whenever Sephiroth attacks, you may sacrifice any number of other creatures. If you do, draw that many cards.” No longer one-at-a-time. Crack a board of Soul Sisters into a refill on a swing.

What does not work the way you might hope. Sephiroth comes back from the graveyard as the front face, always. Resurrection Orb equipped to Sephiroth returns him to the battlefield at the next end step, but he returns as Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, not Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel. The emblem you earned earlier this game persists regardless. Reanimating Sephiroth out of the graveyard with Sun Titan also returns him as the front face. He is mana value 3, so Sun Titan finds him on attack.

Best target to sac. A Soul Sister on the way out is the best sac because it triggers Karlov’s lifegain growth on ETB earlier in the game, and its death drains an opponent through Sephiroth and the other aristocrats. Felisa, Fang of Silverquill makes X tapped 2/1 white-and-black Inkling tokens with flying when a nontoken creature you control with counters on it dies, X equal to its counters, which Sephiroth’s chosen sac usually does not trigger (Soul Wardens have no counters). The Felisa line that matters is Karlov himself: he does hit the graveyard before the state-based command-zone move (CR 903.9a), so he dies with his counters on and Felisa sees it. A removal spell on a 12-counter Karlov hands you 12 tapped 2/1 fliers, 24 with Teysa Karlov out, and you still return him to the command zone afterward. With Archangel of Thune out the rest of the board carries counters too, so every nontoken death pays Inklings. Sacrificing the token from Bastion of Remembrance is the cheapest food because it had no card-value to begin with, and with Grave Pact on the field each sac also forces every opponent to sacrifice a creature.

The Athreos tax on the chain. With Athreos, God of Passage out, every sacrifice is also a return trigger: a creature you own died, so it comes back to your hand unless a target opponent pays 3 life. Sacrifice a Soul Warden to Sephiroth and the chain reads: draw a card, the drain triggers fire, and the Warden either comes home to be recast (triggering the other Sisters all over again) or an opponent paid 3 life to keep it dead. Token deaths trigger Athreos too, but a token cannot return to your hand (it ceased to exist in the graveyard before the trigger resolved, CR 704.5d), so opponents decline those for free; the tax only has teeth on real cards. Bloodthirsty Conqueror turns the tax into a squeeze: paying the 3 is life loss, so Conqueror converts it into 3 lifegain for you, Karlov banks +2/+2, Archangel of Thune counters the team, and with any Sanguine half on the battlefield the payment is a starter trigger for the full drain loop. A sharp opponent who sees Conqueror simply declines every payment and hands the creature back. You profit on both forks, but the opponent picks the fork, so never build a line that needs one specific outcome.

Skullclamp turns every toughness-1 body into cards. It reads “Equipped creature gets +1/-1. Whenever equipped creature dies, draw two cards.” Equipped, a toughness-1 creature drops to toughness 0 and dies to state-based actions (CR 704.5f). That is a death, not a sacrifice, so Skullclamp is no sac outlet, but each such death still fires Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance, Sephiroth’s drain, Syr Konrad, The Meathook Massacre’s loss half, Grave Pact and Athreos’s return, and Teysa Karlov doubles every one of those plus Skullclamp’s own trigger: four cards per death. The one exception is Sephiroth once he flips: his drain then comes from your Super Nova emblem, which is not a permanent (CR 114.5), so Teysa does not double it. Toughness-1 creatures in the 99: Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, Suture Priest, Blood Artist (0/1), Zulaport Cutthroat, Orcish Bowmasters itself and Mother of Runes (Walking Ballista at one counter qualifies too, but it is the combo piece). Toughness-1 tokens: Bowmasters’ Orc Army at one counter, Westvale Abbey’s Cleric, Bastion’s Soldier, Castle Ardenvale’s Human and Felisa’s 2/1 Inklings. Skullclamp stays on the battlefield, and each re-equip costs {1} at sorcery speed. Archangel of Thune works against it: her lifegain counters lift these bodies out of range, so a Soul Warden with one counter is a 3/1 under Skullclamp and lives.

Chain compounds with Vilis. With Vilis, Broker of Blood on the field, the Sephiroth sac chain stacks a second loop on top. Each sac dies, Sephiroth’s death-drain fires (1 life gained, target opponent loses 1). Any Necro or Citadel life-loss this turn also draws cards via Vilis (each life lost is a card). Sephiroth-sacrificing into Necro pump into Vilis draws becomes a turn-cycle engine: sac for a card off Sephiroth, drain triggers fire, Necro activations pay life that Vilis converts to draws, top of the deck refills, repeat. M.O.D.O.K. plugs into the same engine: pay 3 life and it connivesKeyword action: draw a card, then discard a card. If the discarded card is not a land, put a +1/+1 counter on the conniving creature., only during your turn but with no activation limit. Paying life is losing life (CR 119.4), so Vilis draws 3; his trigger goes on the stack above the connive and resolves first, so you choose the discard after seeing all four cards. With Sheoldred, the Apocalypse also out, those four draws gain 8, a net +5 life per activation from 4 or more life across four separate lifegain events (Karlov +8/+8). Without her it stops at whichever runs out first, your life (3 per activation; paying your last 3 drops you to 0, which loses before the draws resolve unless Pact Weapon is attached) or your library (4 cards per activation); with her only the library bounds it, still not a loop: drawing from an empty library loses at the next state-based check (CR 704.5b). With Necropotence out, its trigger exiles the discarded card from your graveyard, so Sun Titan cannot get it back; to keep a discarded creature card, activate Volrath’s Stronghold ({1}{B}, {T}) in response to that trigger to put the card on top of your library first.

Braids, Arisen Nightmare

Braids, Arisen Nightmare ({1}{B}{B}, 3/3) triggers at the beginning of your end step: you may sacrifice an artifact, creature, enchantment, land or planeswalker, then each opponent may sacrifice a permanent of their choice that shares a card type with it. For each opponent who doesn’t, that player loses 2 life and you draw a card. Either way, every opponent loses something.

What to sacrifice. Whatever you don’t need: a spare land late, a Westvale Abbey Cleric, a creature wearing Skullclamp (draw two, four with Teysa Karlov) or a Treasure from Smothering Tithe. Opponents match any card type it had: a land asks for a land, a Treasure for any artifact, a Cleric for any creature, and an artifact creature such as Walking Ballista for either.

Lifegain ignition. Exquisite Blood or Bloodthirsty Conqueror triggers once per opponent who takes the 2 (CR 603.2c), each a separate 2-life gain worth +2/+2 on Karlov; with a Sanguine half out, the first one starts the infinite drain loop.

Creature sacrifices. The death fires Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance, Sephiroth, Syr Konrad, the Grim, the loss half of The Meathook Massacre and Grave Pact, each twice with Teysa Karlov except Sephiroth’s emblem once he flips (not a permanent, CR 114.5), and Athreos, God of Passage returns a nontoken creature to your hand unless an opponent pays 3 life. Those triggers wait until Braids’s ability has resolved (CR 603.3), so opponents make the Braids choice first and still face the edict: one who gave Braids a creature sacrifices another to Grave Pact.

The Karlov cash-out. Sacrifice a Karlov carrying N counters and Felisa, Fang of Silverquill makes N tapped 2/1 flying Inklings, 2N with Teysa Karlov: he dies before the state-based command-zone move (CR 903.9a), so every payoff above sees him, and a recast from the command zone carries commander tax (CR 903.8). Braids sacrifices on resolution, so an opponent can exile him in response; Diabolic Intent sacrifices him as a cost (CR 601.2h), leaving no such window, and tutors any card to hand.

Recursion. Sun Titan returns her (mana value 3) from the graveyard on entry or attack.

Support package

1. Basilisk Collar. {1} equipment, equip {2}. Equipped creature gains deathtouch and lifelink. On Karlov the lifelink connect is itself a lifegain trigger, growing him another +2/+2 (and the whole team +1/+1 if Archangel of Thune is out), while deathtouch makes anything that blocks him die, deterring chump blocks. On Walking Ballista it is a third route to the Heliod line: the Collar grants lifelink, Heliod’s on-lifegain trigger replaces each ping’s counter, and because the pings carry deathtouch the loop is an infinite board wipe as well as infinite damage. Even without Heliod, the Collar turns Ballista into a repeatable destroy-any-non-indestructible-creature engine. No haste and no shroud. Equip is sorcery-speed and costs no turn: a creature cast this turn still cannot attack, but a creature already on the battlefield can be equipped precombat and attack that same turn. Deathtouch does not beat indestructible, so it does not replace Umezawa’s Jitte as the answer to indestructible threats.
2. Resurrection Orb. 2 artifact equipment. Equipped creature has lifelink. When it dies, return it to the battlefield at the next end step. Equip 4. On Karlov this is two effects in one: lifelink combat keeps the +2/+2 train rolling, and the recursion clause means a removal spell costs the opponent nothing in card advantage but Karlov returns at the next end step with no command tax. The rebuild is not automatic: leave Karlov in the graveyard, declining the state-based command-zone move (CR 903.9a), until the Orb’s end-step return resolves; move him to the command zone and the trigger finds no card to return. Karlov returns naked (Orb does not re-equip itself) and the +1/+1 counters do NOT persist on the returning creature, so the rebuild is from a 2/2 baseline. The 4 equip cost is steep; usually you tutor the Orb for the rez clause and tag a different creature you can afford to re-equip. Orb on Vilis is the long-game lock. Equipped Vilis returns from death at end of turn with no command tax. An 8/8 flier draw engine that you cannot remove permanently is real. Save Orb for Vilis on grind games once Karlov has banked enough commander damage.
3. Teferi’s Protection. 2W instant, the nuclear emergency button. “Until your next turn, your life total can’t change and you gain protection from everything. All permanents you control phase out. While they’re phased out, they’re treated as though they don’t exist.” This is the strongest protection card in white: dodges any wipe (destroy, exile, bounce, -X/-X), dodges any targeted removal mid-stack, dodges a lethal attack pointed at you, dodges your own Sanguine-Exquisite loop getting fired from an opponent’s seat. Costs 3 mana so it cannot be held up alongside a Heliod-Ballista combo turn (6 mana with Heliod already out, 9 mana from scratch) unless Sol Ring or Mana Vault are active. Save it for the “I lose this turn cycle without it” moment. Game Changer, disclose at rule-zero.
4. Akroma’s Will. 3W instant. Mode one gives your creatures flying, vigilance, and double strikeKeyword. A creature with double strike deals its combat damage twice per attack, once at the first-strike step and once at the normal damage step.; mode two gives them lifelink, indestructible, and protection from each color, both until end of turn. The rider: “If you control a commander as you cast this spell, you may choose both instead.” That means Karlov on the battlefield, not in the command zone; with him uncast or just removed you get one mode only, which is exactly when a wipe hurts most, so land him before you lean on this. Doubles as wrath protection and an alpha-strike finisher: pop on a Karlov swing for evasion plus lifelink-through-indestructible to close the game in one combat step. It hits all creatures you control, so one cast covers Karlov and the whole team at once. Mode two’s protection from each color includes black, so it knocks Pact Weapon off (CR 702.16d); while Pact Weapon is what keeps you alive at 0 or less life, choose mode one only.
5. Flawless Maneuver. {2}{W} instant (3 CMC hardcast). “If you control a commander, you may cast this spell without paying its mana cost. Creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn.” This is a free alternative cast if you control a commander, not a discount. Blanks a destroy or damage-based board wipe, saving Karlov plus the Soul Sisters plus the drain creatures in one cast; against exile, -X/-X, sacrifice or bounce (Farewell, Toxic Deluge, edicts, an overloaded Cyclonic Rift) it does nothing. The free alt-cost is the entire reason this card is in the deck.
6. The Meathook Massacre. {X}{B}{B} legendary enchantment, “each creature gets -X/-X until end of turn” on entry. Two standing death triggers after that: each of your creatures that dies bleeds every opponent 1, and each opposing creature death gains you 1 life, growing Karlov. Both are death triggers, so Teysa Karlov doubles them. The deck’s own scalable wipe, and it wipes without disarming the engine: the enchantment halves, the equipment, and the drain shell survive, and your side dying into it drains the table on the way out. Late, X=0 is a real cast: a two-mana standing drain payoff.
7. Shadowspear. 1 legendary artifact equipment, equip 2. Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has trample plus lifelink. Activated {1}: until end of turn, permanents your opponents control lose hexproof and indestructible. No target and table-wide, which is exactly why it works through hexproof. Two roles: hand it to Karlov for evasive lifelink combat that feeds the +2/+2 counter loop on every connection, OR keep it ready to strip the indestructible off a problem permanent before you swing or before you fire a removal spell. Cheap, fast, legendary so don’t run a second.
8. Umezawa’s Jitte. 2 legendary artifact equipment, equip 2. Whenever the equipped creature deals combat damage, any combat damage, bank two charge counters. Three modal abilities, each removes a charge: equipped creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn / target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn / you gain 2 life. The gain-2-life mode is the engine play: instant-speed, mana-free lifegain, so every counter is a Karlov +2/+2 on demand AND a starter trigger for any Sanguine half on the table (Sanguine Bond, Vito). The -1/-1 mode is reusable on-curve creature removal. The +2/+2 mode stacks damage onto the swing that banked the counters. Counters bank from any creature you equip Jitte to, not just Karlov.

Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes

Mother of Runes ({W}, 1/1) taps to give target creature you control protection from the color of your choice until end of turn. Giver of Runes ({W}, 1/2) does the same for another target creature you control and can name colorless instead. Mother can target herself and Giver cannot, but each can target the other. Both tap at instant speed, once per turn cycle.

What they protect. Karlov first, then the creatures your combos and engines run through, such as Walking Ballista, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Bloodthirsty Conqueror, Teysa Karlov and Vilis, Broker of Blood.

What they stop. Targeted removal of the named color: granted in response, protection makes the target illegal, so single-target removal does not resolve (CR 702.16b, CR 608.2b). Damage from a source of that color is prevented as well (CR 702.16e). A multicolored spell has each of its colors, so either color stops a white-black removal spell. Colorless sources, such as an opposing Walking Ballista ping or colorless artifact removal, need Giver’s protection from colorless.

What they do not stop. Wipes that destroy, exile or give -X/-X (Toxic Deluge, Farewell, The Meathook Massacre, any destroy-all), edicts and other sacrifice effects, and anything from a source that does not have the color you named.

Evasion for commander damage. An attacking creature with protection from a color cannot be blocked by creatures of that color (CR 702.16f), so name the color of the blockers that matter before blocks. It stacks with Basilisk Collar and Shadowspear on Karlov: deathtouch means each remaining blocker needs only 1 damage assigned, and trample sends the rest through (CR 702.2c, CR 702.19b).

Deploy them a turn early. A creature’s {T} ability needs you to have controlled it continuously since your most recent turn began (CR 302.6), so each stays summoning sick until your next turn begins: it cannot tap on the turn it lands or on the opponents’ turns that follow. Cast them a turn before the piece they protect: a T1 Mother is live when Karlov lands on T2.

Tokens to bring

If you’re sleeving up before a session, throw these in the deckbox:

• Treasure tokens x10. Smothering Tithe will generate a lot. Citadel casts may add a few via incidental cards.
• Inkling tokens 2/1 white and black with flying x6. Felisa, Fang of Silverquill creates X of these, tapped, when a nontoken creature you control with counters on it dies, X equal to its counters. (Teysa Karlov makes no tokens of her own; she grants your creature tokens vigilance and lifelink.)
• Horse tokens 5/5 white x4. Crested Sunmare (sideboard, bring tokens if you side it in vs a slow token/go-wide pod).
• Human Cleric tokens 1/1 white and black x4. Westvale Abbey’s {5}, {T}, pay 1 life activation makes one each time, and you need a stack of them to reach the five-creature flip into Ormendahl.
• Human Soldier tokens 1/1 white x4. Bastion of Remembrance produces one on enter, then per-death drains.
• Orc Army token 0/0 black x1. Orcish Bowmasters amasses onto a single Army, so one token plus a die for its +1/+1 counters covers it.
• Human tokens 1/1 white x2. Castle Ardenvale’s {2}{W}{W}, {T} activation makes one at a time.
• A spare die or counter pile for Karlov’s +1/+1 counters. He will hit 30+ regularly.

Sideboard, eight cards

The sideboard is for pod-specific tuning, not pre-game preference. Scout commanders before round one, swap in the answer that the main deck does not already cover, swap out the redundant or pod-irrelevant card it directly answers. Sideboarding “more” because the table looks scary is wrong. Sideboarding a specific answer to a specific question is correct.

Defiant Bloodlord (5BB, 4/5 flier, “Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life”). Bring in against drain-heavy slow pods, or enchantment-removal-heavy metas where Sanguine Bond and Vito keep getting answered and you want a creature-bodied third Sanguine effect on a 4/5 flying body. Swap out Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose (Vito is the cheaper 3-mana mini-Sanguine; in a slow pod you upgrade the slot from 2B to 5BB and get a real threat on the board). Bloodlord is a 7-mana flier so only bring him if games go long.

Crested Sunmare (3WW, “At the beginning of each end step, if you gained life this turn, create a 5/5 white Horse creature token” plus “Other Horses you control have indestructible”). Bring in for token-go-wide pods where games stretch past T8. Swap out Athreos, God of Passage (the rebuild engine hands cards back but puts no body in front of an attack; against a wide board you want blockers, and a per-turn 5/5 indestructible Horse line outscales the recast grind once games stretch).

Despark (WB instant, “Exile target permanent with mana value 4 or greater”). Bring in against big-permanent pods. Smothering Tithe, a planeswalker with mana value at least four, or another qualifying permanent. It cannot target an instant or sorcery spell such as Cyclonic Rift or Approach of the Second Sun. Cheaper than Anguished Unmaking, instant speed, exiles. Swap out Swords to Plowshares (Plow is creature-only and dead against artifact, enchantment, or planeswalker pods; Despark answers the same big-permanent threat profile while Plow sits in hand).

Spellbook (0-mana artifact, “You have no maximum hand size”). Bring in against discard-heavy pods (Tergrid, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Megrim-style decks) for a second hand-size protection alongside Reliquary Tower. Swap out Authority of the Consuls (anti-aggro ETB tax that’s dead in a discard pod where opponents are not flooding the board with creatures; cut the matchup-irrelevant card for the matchup-relevant redundancy).

Soul Snare (W enchantment, “{W}, Sacrifice Soul Snare: exile target creature attacking you or a planeswalker you control”). Bring in against creature-aggressive pods that turn sideways every turn (Krenko, Edric, Najeela, VoltronThe strategy of stacking equipment, auras, and counters onto a single creature (usually the commander) to one-shot opponents through commander damage. commanders). Swap out Generous Gift (Gift hands the aggro pod a 3/3 attacker on top of taking your removal slot; swap it for cheap single-use exile that punishes the attack itself, one swing, one activation, Snare sacrifices itself).

Cursed Totem (2-mana artifact, “Activated abilities of creatures can’t be activated”). Bring in against creature-combo pods (Kinnan, Najeela, devoted-druid lines). It shuts off opposing combo activations but ALSO shuts off your own Walking Ballista, Karlov’s {W}{B} exile activation, Vito’s {3}{B}{B} lifelink switch, Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes, M.O.D.O.K.’s connive, Vilis’s -1/-1 activation, Syr Konrad’s {1}{B} mill, and Heliod’s {1}{W} lifelink while your devotion to white is five or more (he is a creature then), so only bring it in when your kill plan can route through Sanguine plus Exquisite or raw Karlov combat damage. Swap out Walking Ballista (Totem turns Ballista into a dead 2/2 with no activation, so the combo piece itself becomes the cut; Sanguine + Exquisite at 10 mana and Karlov commander damage are your kill plan in the Totem matchup).

Null Elemental Blast (1 colorless instant, “Counter target multicolored spell” OR “Destroy target multicolored permanent”). Bring in against meta with two or more multicolored commanders at the table. Hits opposing commanders on cast or after they resolve, hits partner-pair pieces, hits most 3-color value engines for 1 mana. This is the deck’s ONLY counterspell, since WB does not natively run counters. The cost is a true colorless {C} pip that W and B mana cannot pay: hold up Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Talisman of Hierarchy’s {C}, or a colorless land to cast it at instant speed. Swap out The Meathook Massacre (the symmetric X wipe is the removal slot you can spare when your engine board wants to stay put; trade it for a real one-mana counter that hits the commander itself).

Angel’s Grace (W instant, split second, “You can’t lose the game this turn and opponents can’t win the game this turn. Until end of turn, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead”). Bring in against storm pods (Citadel-Ad Nauseam shells, Thoracle lines), burn pods (Purphoros, Krenko, Torbran), and infinite-damage combos. ALSO: bring it in for your own Bolas’s Citadel drill turns when life is low. Split second means it cannot be responded to with spells or activated abilities at all, other split-second spells included (they are still spells); only mana abilities, special actions, and triggered abilities work while it is on the stack. Swap out Vilis, Broker of Blood (Vilis is 8 mana of long-game card draw that storm and burn pods never let you reach; trade the slow finisher you can’t cast for one-shot kill insurance you can).

Card role glossary

Quick map of which slot every card fills. Use this when sleeving up to confirm coverage by category.

Soul Sisters, lifegain triggers on creature ETB. Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, Suture Priest. Warden and Attendant gain you 1 life whenever another creature enters, yours or an opponent’s. Suture Priest is narrower: she gains only when a creature YOU control enters, and an opposing creature entering instead makes that player lose 1 life, a small standing drain. Stack all three and a Karlov cast is +6/+6 because three lifegain triggers fire on his arrival; an opponent’s creature entering is +4/+4 (Warden and Attendant only) plus the Priest’s 1-life bleed.

Lifegain payoffs. Karlov of the Ghost Council (+2/+2 per lifegain trigger), Archangel of Thune (a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control per lifegain trigger, so the same triggers that grow Karlov grow the whole board). Karlov is the centerpiece and Archangel is the team-wide multiplier.

Drain-on-lifegain payoffs (Sanguine half). Sanguine Bond (enchantment, lifegain becomes drain), Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose (creature, same effect; his {3}{B}{B} activation gives your creatures lifelink until end of turn, a black-mana Vault of the Archangel that the Urborg plus Coffers plus Crypt Ghast engine pays for, and a lifelink source for Ballista when white mana is short), Enduring Tenacity (4/3 enchantment creature, same effect, returns as an enchantment when it dies so it is the hardest Sanguine half to remove).

Lifegain-on-opponent-loss (Exquisite half). Exquisite Blood (enchantment), Bloodthirsty Conqueror (3BB 5/5 flying deathtouch creature). Pair any Sanguine half with any Exquisite half for the infinite drain loop.

Death payoffs (aristocrats and edicts). Blood Artist and Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER drain on every creature death at the table, yours or an opponent’s; Zulaport Cutthroat and Bastion of Remembrance pay only when your own creatures die. Syr Konrad, the Grim (1 damage to each opponent whenever another creature dies, which is the one mode Teysa Karlov doubles, or whenever a creature card is put into a graveyard from anywhere other than the battlefield, or whenever a creature card leaves your graveyard, neither of which she touches; it deals damage rather than draining, so it does not gain you life or pump Karlov, but it turns a board wipe or a Sephiroth sac chain into table-wide burn). Grave Pact (each of your creature deaths makes every opponent sacrifice a creature, doubled by Teysa Karlov; the Soul Sisters and Sephiroth feed it for table-wide attrition, and every creature sacrificed into it is itself a death that pays Blood Artist, Sephiroth, Syr Konrad, and the Massacre’s lifegain half). The Meathook Massacre (each of your creature deaths makes every opponent lose 1 life and each opposing death gains you 1, both doubled by Teysa Karlov; the loss half does not gain you life, the gain half grows Karlov). Against token and go-wide decks this suite is the pressure plan: every opposing body that dies, to a sized Meathook, a Grave Pact edict, M.O.D.O.K.’s -1/-1, or ordinary combat, pays you, and Teysa doubles the take. M.O.D.O.K. gives creatures your opponents control -1/-1, so an opposing X/1 dies as it enters, but it still triggers Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, Suture Priest and Authority of the Consuls on the way in; the death then pays Blood Artist, Sephiroth, Syr Konrad and the Massacre’s lifegain half, but not Zulaport, Bastion, Grave Pact or the Massacre’s loss half, which count only your own creatures.

Sac outlets. Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER (on ETB and on attack, sacrifice another creature to draw a card) and Braids, Arisen Nightmare (at the beginning of your end step, you may sacrifice an artifact, creature, enchantment, land or planeswalker) are triggered outlets: each fires only on its own trigger, not on demand. The on-demand outlet is Diamond Valley ({T}, sacrifice a creature: gain life equal to its toughness) at instant speed; Diabolic Intent sacrifices one creature as part of its cost, once, at sorcery speed; Westvale Abbey is a bulk outlet at {5}, {T} and five sacrificed creatures, which flips it into a 9/7 lifelink Ormendahl; and Bolas’s Citadel is another instant-speed bulk outlet at {T} and ten sacrificed nonland permanents.

Card draw engines. Necropotence (BBB, pay-life-for-cards), The One Ring (4-mana artifact, indestructible, draw a card per burden counter and lose that much life, protection the turn it lands), Smothering Tithe (3W, treasures off opponent draws), Braids, Arisen Nightmare (1BB 3/3, sacrifice a permanent at your end step and draw a card for each opponent who takes 2 life loss rather than sacrifice a permanent sharing a card type with it), Pact Weapon (3B equipment, draw and pump the equipped attacker for the revealed card’s mana value in life, also stops you losing at 0 life), Sensei’s Divining Top (1 artifact, tap-to-draw plus filter), Vilis, Broker of Blood (5BBB 8/8 flier, draws a card for each point of life you lose, the long-game bomb), M.O.D.O.K. (3BB 2/2 flier, pay 3 life to connive, only during your turn and with no activation limit; with Vilis out each payment also draws 3), Skullclamp (1 equipment, equip 1, +1/-1: a toughness-1 creature dies on the spot and you draw two, four with Teysa Karlov; the targets are listed under the Sephiroth sac chain).

Draw payoff and symmetric-draw tax. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (2BB 4/5 deathtouch legend). On each of your own draws you gain 2 life, which is a Karlov +2/+2 trigger and Soul Sister fuel; on each opponent draw they lose 2 life, stacking with Smothering Tithe on the same trigger. It does not draw cards itself, and it does not fire off Necropotence or Bolas’s Citadel, since neither draws.

Tutors. Vampiric Tutor (B instant, top of library, 2 life), Demonic Tutor (1B sorcery, straight to hand), Diabolic Intent (1B sorcery, sacrifice a creature, to hand; it needs a creature on board, and the sacrifice feeds the death payoffs), Imperial Seal (B sorcery, top of library, 2 life, Vampiric’s sorcery-speed twin at the identical cost), Enlightened Tutor (W instant, artifact or enchantment to top). Five direct tutors. Plus Sun Titan as a recursion engine on ETB or attack for permanents with mana value 3 or less.

Wincons. Heliod plus Walking Ballista (infinite damage, 9 mana from scratch or 6 mana on the kill turn if Heliod is already out). Sanguine Bond plus Exquisite Blood (infinite drain, 10 mana hardcast, 8 with Jet Medallion), with redundant halves (Vito for Sanguine, Bloodthirsty Conqueror for Exquisite). Aetherflux Reservoir plus Bolas’s Citadel plus Sensei’s Divining Top (storm finisher), or an Aetherflux table-kill with Pact Weapon plus Bloodthirsty Conqueror (pay 50 from a 0-life-safe board, Conqueror refunds the 50 each shot; from 51 or more life Conqueror sustains the loop without Pact Weapon, paying 50 into 1 and refunding back to 51). Karlov commander damage (organic, 21 damage from a buffed commander).

Combo enablers. Sensei’s Divining Top (tap-to-draw plus filter, Citadel partner), Bolas’s Citadel (cast from top paying life), Aetherflux Reservoir (storm count plus 50-life zap).

Protection. Shadowspear (+1/+1 plus trample plus lifelink on the equipped creature, untargeted table-wide strip-hexproof activation), Resurrection Orb (lifelink plus return-at-end-step), Umezawa’s Jitte (charge-counter modal: +2/+2 pump, -1/-1 removal, gain-2-life Karlov fuel), Teferi’s Protection (2W instant, phase out everything plus protection from everything, the nuclear save), Akroma’s Will (3W instant, full team buff plus protection from each color, which knocks off the black Pact Weapon), Flawless Maneuver ({2}{W} instant, free alternative cast with a commander, team indestructible), Deadly Rollick ({3}{B} instant, free alternative cast with a commander, exile a creature), Grand Abolisher (WW creature, during your turn opponents cannot cast spells or activate artifact, creature, or enchantment abilities; some land abilities and triggered abilities still work), Plaza of Heroes (land, {3}, {T}, exile it: target legendary creature gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn, the protect-Karlov button baked into the mana base at no spell slot), Mother of Runes (W 1/1, {T}: target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn, herself included), Giver of Runes (W 1/2, the same for another creature you control, with protection from colorless as a further choice that knocks off colorless Equipment; protection from black from either of them knocks off Pact Weapon, which is black).

Hate pieces. Drannith Magistrate (1W, opponents cannot cast commanders or spells from anywhere but hand), Orcish Bowmasters (1B flash, a ping on every opponent extra draw plus amass Orcs, punishes wheels and draw engines while feeding the death engine), Authority of the Consuls (W, ETB tapped plus lifegain), Grand Abolisher (WW, on your turn opponents cannot cast spells or activate abilities of artifacts, creatures, or enchantments), Cursed Totem (sideboard, shuts off creature activations), M.O.D.O.K. (3BB 2/2 flying lifelink, creatures your opponents control get -1/-1, so X/1 token boards die on arrival, and each lifelink hit is a lifegain trigger for Karlov). One gap to know about: no repeatable graveyard interaction in the 99; the one touch is Farewell’s exile-all-graveyards mode, a one-shot sorcery, so a dedicated reanimator or recursion deck goes mostly unpunished. If that becomes a recurring pod problem, the cheap fix is Bojuka Bog, a land slot that enters tapped and exiles a target player’s graveyard on arrival.

Stax-soft.Stax is a strategy of taxing or denying opponents' mana and actions (Drannith Magistrate, Trinisphere). Stax-soft means light, soft locks rather than hard prisons. Smothering Tithe (treasures off opponent draws is mild card tax), Drannith Magistrate (commander lock).

Ramp. Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Arcane Signet, Talisman of Hierarchy, Orzhov Signet, Jet Medallion (black spells cost 1 less), Crypt Ghast (doubles black from Swamps), Cabal Coffers plus Urborg combo, K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth (pay 2 life for each black pip in any cost, the lifelink and Soul Sisters pad the cost, grows on every black spell).

Recursion. Athreos, God of Passage (whenever another creature you own dies, it returns to your hand unless a target opponent pays 3 life; hand, not the battlefield, so every return is a recast), Sun Titan (ETB and attack, MV 3 or less, straight to the battlefield, finds Soul Sisters, signets, Top; Sephiroth at MV 3 qualifies), Agadeem’s Awakening ({X}{B}{B}{B} out of the land slot, returns any number of creature cards with different mana values X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, the mass rebuild after a wipe), Volrath’s Stronghold ({1}{B}, a creature card from your graveyard to the top of your library, reusable on Karlov, Sephiroth, Vilis, and the creature combo halves Heliod and Walking Ballista), Hall of Heliod’s Generosity ({1}{W}, an enchantment card from your graveyard to the top, including a destroyed Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, Necropotence, or Smothering Tithe). Everything here pulls from the graveyard only, never exile. Athreos is the standing engine and the rest are point recursion: he catches every death as it happens but hands back cards you must recast, while Sun Titan and Agadeem’s Awakening put bodies straight onto the battlefield. The grind plan leans on Athreos and Sun Titan, with Resurrection Orb as the targeted recursion for whichever creature you equip (Karlov early, Vilis late).

Quick reference card

Print this and slide it under the sleeve box.

Karlov oracle text. WB legendary creature (CMC 2), base 2/2. “Whenever you gain life, put two +1/+1 counters on Karlov. {W}{B}, Remove six +1/+1 counters from Karlov: Exile target creature.” Activated ability is instant-speed, costs {W}{B} AND six counters.

Combo costs at a glance.

• Heliod plus Walking Ballista: 9 mana from scratch (Heliod {2}{W} = 3, Ballista X=2 = 4, Heliod’s {1}{W} lifelink activation = 2), 6 on the kill turn if Heliod is already out. Both halves tutorable. Five tutors hit either.
• The drain loop: 10 mana (3BB + 4B), 8 with Jet Medallion. Any Sanguine half (Sanguine Bond, Vito, or Enduring Tenacity) plus any Exquisite half (Exquisite Blood or Bloodthirsty Conqueror) wins. Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, and Enduring Tenacity (an enchantment creature) are Enlightened-tutorable; only Vito and Bloodthirsty Conqueror need a black tutor.
• Vito plus Exquisite Blood (or Bloodthirsty Conqueror): 8 mana (2B + 4B), 6 with Jet Medallion. Cheapest infinite drain in the deck.
• Aetherflux storm: 4 mana for Reservoir, then 10 casts to the 50-life payoff. With Pact Weapon plus Bloodthirsty Conqueror it is a table-kill: pay 50 (survive at 0), deal 50, Conqueror refunds the 50, repeat. At 51 or more life Conqueror alone sustains the loop, no Pact Weapon needed: pay 50 into 1 life and the refund puts you back at 51. Pact Weapon’s job is the exactly-50 case (without it, paying down to 0 kills you before the damage resolves) and insurance against chip damage during the loop.
• Karlov commander damage: 21 damage from a single source. Reachable by T5 with Soul Sisters and Teysa active.

Tutor map.

Tutor	Finds	Notes
Vampiric Tutor	any card to top	B instant, lose 2 life. Cast on opp end step before your turn.
Demonic Tutor	any card to hand	1B sorcery. The cleanest tutor.
Diabolic Intent	any card to hand	1B sorcery plus a creature sacrifice, so it needs a creature on board. Backup Demonic; the sacrifice fires the death payoffs.
Imperial Seal	any card to top	B sorcery, lose 2 life. Vampiric’s twin at sorcery speed only.
Enlightened Tutor	artifact or enchantment to top	W instant. Finds Heliod, Athreos, Ballista, Aetherflux, Citadel, Top, Sanguine, Exquisite, Tithe, Necropotence, all rocks, all equipment.
Sun Titan	mana value 3 or less from graveyard	ETB and attack. Recurs Top, Soul Sisters, signets. Sephiroth at MV 3 qualifies.

Removal hierarchy, cheapest to broadest.

1. Swords to Plowshares / Path to Exile. W instant, creature only, exile. Use first against opponent engine creatures.
2. Deadly Rollick. {3}{B} instant, exile target creature, free if you control a commander. Use against an engine creature when you want a no-mana answer on someone else’s turn.
3. Teferi’s Protection. 2W instant, save your whole board. Phase out everything and keep your life total unchanged until your next turn. Use against any wipe, lethal attack, or game-ending opponent combo aimed at you. Not removal, but goes in the same slot in your decision tree. Game Changer.
4. Generous Gift. 2W instant, any permanent, opponent gets a 3/3. Use for artifacts, enchantments, lands when nothing else works.
5. Anguished Unmaking. 1WB instant, any nonland permanent, pay 3 life, exile. The universal answer. Save for game-enders or for permanents your other spells cannot hit.
6. The Meathook Massacre. {X}{B}{B} enchantment, every creature gets -X/-X on entry. The broadest answer in the deck: size X to the board you need gone, keep the drain shell standing, and your own creatures dying into it bleed each opponent on the way out.

Mana ceiling reference.

• Cabal Coffers tapped with N Swamps in play: N black mana.
• Crypt Ghast adds 1 B per Swamp tapped that turn: N additional black mana if you tap all N Swamps.
• With Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, every land is also a Swamp, so Coffers reads them all. A 7-land board with Urborg, Coffers, Ghast and 6 untapped lands taps for: 6B (lands as Swamps) + 6B (Ghast triggers) + 7B (Coffers reading 7 Swamps including Coffers itself) + 1B (Ghast triggers on the Coffers tap too, since Coffers is a Swamp under Urborg and its ability taps it for mana) = 20 black mana gross, 18 net after the {2} Coffers activation cost. Track this when sequencing Citadel turns. Every point of it is black: Coffers, Ghast, and K’rrik pay for the drain halves and Citadel, not for the WW casts (Grand Abolisher, Archangel of Thune, Sun Titan, Farewell), so count your white sources separately before planning those.
• K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth turns life into black mana: pay 2 life for each black pip in any cost. With the deck’s lifegain padding your total, that is extra black “mana” for the combo halves and Citadel turns.

Free spell triggers.

• Flawless Maneuver. {2}{W} hardcast, free alternative cast if you control a commander. Team indestructible.
• Deadly Rollick. {3}{B} hardcast, free alternative cast if you control a commander. Exile a creature.

Karlov power thresholds.

• 0 counters: 2/2. Cannot exile.
• 6 counters: 8/8 with one exile activation available. First removal window.
• 11 counters: 13/13. One Akroma’s-Will double-strike swing is 26 commander damage.
• 12 counters: 14/14. Two unblocked swings of 14 is 28 commander damage. The honest kill, and Shizo, Death’s Storehouse makes the unblocked part nearly literal for {B} and a tap.
• 20 counters: 22/22. Three exiles banked. Functionally Game Over against any tapped-out opponent.

Game Changers in the 99 (13). Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Imperial Seal, Mana Vault, Smothering Tithe, Necropotence, Farewell, Bolas’s Citadel, Drannith Magistrate, Orcish Bowmasters, Teferi’s Protection, The One Ring. Disclose at rule-zero.