LIFEGAIN DRAIN. two combos, one commander.

Karlov of the Ghost Council strategy guide

Karlov of the Ghost Council is a Orzhov 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 triggers stack his counters, counters become repeatable exile removal, and the same lifegain triggers that grow him also feed drain payoffs (Sanguine Bond, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose) and aristocrat pingers (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Cruel Celebrant, Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, Syr Konrad, the Grim). The deck wins three ways at once: by assembling one of two infinite combos, by storming with Aetherflux Reservoir, or by swinging a 20-counter commander over a tapped-out table. Every Soul Sister trigger is simultaneously ramp 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.

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 lifelink 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 tutorable: 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 converts your lifegain into opponent damage, Exquisite converts opponent damage into your lifegain. Any single proc, a Soul Warden trigger, a Karlov swing, a Vault of the Archangel attack, starts a loop that drains every opponent to zero in a single priority pass. 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. Citadel lets you cast off the top of your library paying life instead of mana. Top is a 1-mana artifact you replay every cast (tap Top to draw, re-cast Top off Citadel for 1 life). Each cast banks one charge on Reservoir’s count-spells-this-turn trigger. Get to 10 spells, Reservoir activates for 50 life, deal 50 to one opponent. Lifegain density (Soul Sisters, Blood Artist drains coming back as lifegain through Exquisite, Suture Priest) means you rarely die paying life into the top of the library. Tutorable in three pieces: Top off Enlightened, Reservoir off Enlightened, Citadel off Demonic or Vampiric.

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 14 power by around T5. Equip Loxodon Warhammer for +3 power, trample, and lifelink: trample pushes the commander damage through chump blockers, and 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. Vault of the Archangel adds lifelink to the alpha strike for the same effect. The Warhammer gives no haste, so Karlov swings the turn after he lands or is equipped, not the turn he is cast. Hold up Deadly Rollick or Flawless Maneuver (both FREE with Karlov as your commander) and the alpha strike actually resolves.

Wincon 5 · Test of Endurance, the inevitability win at 50 life

Test of Endurance ({2}{W}{W} enchantment) reads “At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 50 or more life, you win the game.” This deck gains life in bulk, so 50 is routine: stacked Soul Sisters on every creature ETB, lifelink attackers (Serra Ascendant, Vault of the Archangel, Umezawa’s Jitte), the Sanguine Bond plus Exquisite Blood loop pouring life into you, Aetherflux Reservoir gains, and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse on every draw. It is the inevitability line against grindy and control pods that answer the combos: resolve it, protect your life total, and win on your next upkeep. Enlightened Tutor finds it. Treat it as the patient plan, not the primary one, since when you are gaining that much life the Sanguine-Exquisite loop usually just wins faster.

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 white 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 this is not a clean-board two-card combo: 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 you have to route an outside lifegain trigger (a Soul Sister seeing a creature enter) into Heliod first to bring Ballista up to two counters before the loop starts.

Tutor paths: Demonic, Vampiric, or Grim 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 counter source is already in play, so this is a marginal recursion line.

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). The catch: both lands pull from the graveyard only. An opponent who exiles a half (Farewell, an opposing Vanishing Verse, Despark, Anguished Unmaking) puts it out of reach, so the lands 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

1. Aetherflux Reservoir already on the battlefield (4 mana, usually T4 or T5).
2. Bolas’s Citadel resolves (3BBB).
3. Sensei’s Divining Top on the battlefield.
4. Activate Top: tap to draw the top card. Top puts itself on top of your library as part of its ability, ready to replay.
5. Cast Top off Citadel by paying 1 life. Reservoir’s trigger banks +1 to your life total per cast accumulated this turn.
6. Activate Top again, repeat.

Storm count: each Top replay is one cast. Reservoir’s trigger reads “Whenever you cast a spell, you gain 1 life for each spell you’ve cast this turn.” After 10 casts the activated ability “Pay 50 life: Reservoir deals 50 damage to any target” is live and you have the life to pay because every cast triggered the gain-1-per-cast clause.

Lifegain replenishes you faster than Citadel drains: every Soul Sister on the field plus Suture Priest plus any Karlov swing means you gain 2 to 4 life per Top cast (creatures from Citadel trigger Soul Sisters). The loop is self-sustaining as long as Citadel keeps revealing nonland cards. If the top is a land, you stall; Top lets you scry it away.

Snap keep

Sol Ring plus a T2 two-drop. Karlov on T2 off Ring is the dream curve. Any hand that does this without a third land is fine because Karlov needs to be sticky, not big.

Two lands plus a Soul Sister plus a rock. Soul Warden or Soul’s Attendant on T1 starts the engine before Karlov even hits.

Esper Sentinel plus a W source. T1 Sentinel into T2 Karlov is the most threatening opener the deck has. Sentinel taxes opponents 1 or hands you cards every turn.

Serra Ascendant on T1. A one-mana lifelink body that becomes a 6/6 flyer the moment you cross 30 life, which the Soul Sisters and lifelink reach quickly. The early lifelink also banks toward Test of Endurance.

Vampiric Tutor plus two lands. Tutor on opponent’s end step finds the missing one-drop, Karlov turn coming on schedule.

Heliod plus Ballista in hand with mana to follow. A 9-mana wincon (6 mana on the kill turn once Heliod sticks) already in your seven is a snap keep almost regardless of land count.

Necropotence with at least 3 lands and a black source on T2. Necro on T3 untaps into a refilled hand by T5.

Smothering Tithe with 5+ lands or rock acceleration. Tithe needs to land by T4 to matter; if the hand gets there, keep.

Ship back

Five lands, two spells. Deck has too many engines to flood out.

Two lands, no rocks, no one-drops. Curve will miss T1 and T2 and Karlov gets stuck at 4-mana cast turn.

Combo half plus no tutors. Heliod alone or Ballista alone with no draw or tutors is a stranded combo piece.

All double-color spells on a painland-only opener. Necropotence BBB plus Liesa 2WB plus Toxic Deluge with high X eats life fast through painlands. Ship if the lifegain density is not there to offset.

No interaction, no removal. Even Karlov decks need to answer T3 opponent threats. A hand of pure engines folds to Drannith Magistrate or Opposition Agent on someone else’s board.

Tutor plus seven other cards but no W or B source. Sol Ring plus Demonic Tutor in a five-Plains hand is fine; Demonic Tutor with no swamp by T2 is not.

Bolas’s Citadel without lifegain support. Citadel alone bleeds you out. Keep only if there is a Soul Sister or Suture Priest in the same seven.

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 lifegain one-drop (Soul Warden, Soul’s Attendant, Suture Priest) already in play before that ETB. 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 Teysa Karlov cast this turn and still one Sister out: 6/6 (one prior-Sister trigger off Teysa entering, +2/+2; Teysa does not retroactively double anything 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; equip Loxodon Warhammer and every swing below gains +3 power and trample, with each lifelink connect adding another +2/+2 for the next turn. 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 damage usually closes across three connecting swings starting T3 (6 + 8 + 12 = 26), and the Warhammer’s trample means chump blockers no longer reset that clock. 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.

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 the deck’s first true sac outlet plus its fourth Blood Artist effect plus a card-draw engine in one slot.

The instant-speed sac outlets. Sephiroth and Miren, the Moaning Well are the deck’s two instant-speed sac outlets. Miren sacs for {3}, {T} 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, Cruel Celebrant, and the Grave Pact edicts, all doubled by Teysa Karlov. Westvale Abbey adds a bulk outlet that sacrifices five creatures at once to flip into a 9/7 lifelink Ormendahl. Miren taps for {C} only and 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 transform 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 plus Cruel Celebrant 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 four drain effects on board is +8/+8 to Karlov and 4 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 emblem 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 a Spirit token when a creature with counters on it dies, which Sephiroth’s chosen sac usually does not trigger (Soul Wardens have no counters). 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.

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.

1. Loxodon Warhammer. {3} equipment, equip {3}. Equipped creature gets +3/+0 and gains trample and lifelink. On Karlov it accelerates the commander-damage clock: +3 power per swing, trample to push through chump blockers, and a lifelink connect that is itself a lifegain trigger, growing him another +2/+2 (and the whole team +1/+1 if Archangel of Thune is out). No haste and no shroud, so equip it the turn before you attack and lean on the free protection spells below to keep Karlov alive. Hand it to any attacker for the same lifelink-into-drain engine.
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. 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. “Choose flying, vigilance, double strike OR lifelink, indestructible, protection from each color until end of turn. With Karlov as your commander, choose both.” 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. Targets “creatures you control,” so one cast covers Karlov and the whole team at once.
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 board wipe, saves Karlov plus the Soul Sisters plus the drain creatures in one cast. The free alt-cost is the entire reason this card is in the deck.
6. Force of Despair. 1BB instant, “destroy all creatures that entered the battlefield this turn.” Alternate cost: exile a black card from your hand instead of paying mana (this is the pitch cost, distinct from the free-with-commander alt-cost on Flawless Maneuver and Deadly Rollick). Wipes a go-wide turn from an opponent for free during their combat step. Pairs with Deadly Rollick ({3}{B} exile-a-creature, free alternative cast if you control a commander, via the same mechanic as Flawless Maneuver) as your free instant-speed removal package.
7. Shadowspear. 1 legendary artifact equipment, equip 1. Grants trample plus lifelink to equipped creature. Activated {1}: until end of turn, target opponent’s permanents lose hexproof and indestructible. 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 artifact equipment, equip 2. On combat damage by equipped creature, get two charge counters. Three modal abilities, each removes a charge: deal 2 to any target / give a creature -1/-1 until end of turn / equipped creature gets +2/+2 and lifelink until end of turn. The lifelink mode is the engine play: pop on Karlov’s swing to give him lifelink, which triggers Karlov’s growth on the damage dealt AND any drain payoffs (Sanguine, Vito). The -1/-1 mode is reusable on-curve creature removal. The 2-damage mode is reach against PWs or evasive blockers. Counters bank from any creature you equip Jitte to, not just Karlov.

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.
• Spirit tokens 1/1 white flying x6. Felisa, Fang of Silverquill produces these on death-with-counters triggers.
• Spirit tokens 1/1 white with vigilance x4. Teysa Karlov modifier on her own token-producing creatures.
• 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.
• Soldier tokens 1/1 black x4. Bastion of Remembrance produces one on enter, then per-death drains.
• A spare die or counter pile for Karlov’s +1/+1 counters. He will hit 30+ regularly.
• A second counter pile for Cleric of Life’s Bond, which also grows a +1/+1 counter the first time you gain life each turn. Two growing creatures in the same engine means two trackers.

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 Liesa, Forgotten Archangel (same 5-mana slot; trade the solo end-step grinder for a per-turn 5/5 indestructible token engine that snowballs against a wide board).

Despark (WB instant, “Exile target permanent with mana value 4 or greater”). Bring in against big-permanent pods. Cyclonic Rift, Smothering Tithe, planeswalkers, Approach of the Second Sun, anything with mana value 4 or more. 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 third hand-size protection alongside Reliquary Tower and Venser’s Journal. 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, “1, 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, Voltron 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 repeatable exile that punishes the attack itself).

Cursed Totem (1 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, so only bring it in when your kill plan can route through Sanguine plus Exquisite or Karlov commander 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. Swap out Force of Despair (Despair only hits creatures cast this turn and is narrow against a resolving commander; trade the this-turn-ETB wipe 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 answered with anything except other split-second spells. 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. Each one gains you 1 life every time a creature enters the battlefield. Stack three Sisters and a Karlov ETB is +6/+6 because three lifegain triggers fire.

Lifegain payoffs and life-total threats. 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), Cleric of Life’s Bond (+1/+1 the first time you gain life each turn), Serra Ascendant (one-mana lifelink that becomes a 6/6 flyer at 30 or more life). Karlov is the centerpiece, Archangel is the team-wide multiplier, and the others are redundant payoffs.

Drain-on-lifegain payoffs (Sanguine half). Sanguine Bond (enchantment, lifegain becomes drain), Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose (creature, same effect), 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, Zulaport Cutthroat, Cruel Celebrant, Bastion of Remembrance, Sephiroth Fabled SOLDIER, Liesa Forgotten Archangel (drain on each death). Syr Konrad, the Grim (1 damage to each opponent whenever a creature dies or a creature card leaves your graveyard, doubled by Teysa Karlov; 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).

Sac outlets. Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER (on ETB and on attack, sacrifice another creature to draw a card). Sephiroth’s sac is a triggered ability that only fires when Sephiroth enters or attacks, not an on-demand outlet. The on-demand outlet is Miren, the Moaning Well ({3}, {T}, sacrifice a creature: gain life equal to its toughness) at instant speed, and Westvale Abbey is a bulk outlet that sacrifices five creatures at once to flip into a 9/7 lifelink Ormendahl.

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), Esper Sentinel (W, opponents pay 1 or you draw), 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 (6BB 8/8 flier, draw on any life loss, the long-game bomb), Venser’s Journal (5, lifegain plus no max hand).

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 (1B instant, top of library, 2 life), Demonic Tutor (2B sorcery, straight to hand), Grim Tutor (1BB sorcery + 3 life, to hand), Imperial Seal (1B sorcery, top of library, 2 life, the cheaper Vampiric variant), Enlightened Tutor (W instant, artifact or enchantment to top). Five direct tutors. Plus Sun Titan as a recursion tutor 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 cast). Karlov commander damage (organic, 21 damage from a buffed commander). Test of Endurance (alternate win at your upkeep with 50 or more life, the inevitability line in a deck that gains life in bulk).

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 (lifelink plus trample plus strip-hexproof activation), Resurrection Orb (lifelink plus return-at-end-step), Umezawa’s Jitte (charge-counter modal: +2/+2 lifelink, -1/-1 removal, 2-damage reach), 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), Flawless Maneuver ({2}{W} instant, free alternative cast with a commander, team indestructible), Force of Despair (1B instant, pitch alt-cost, kill all ETBs this turn), Deadly Rollick ({3}{B} instant, free alternative cast with a commander, exile a creature).

Hate pieces. Drannith Magistrate (1W, opponents cannot cast commanders or spells from anywhere but hand), Opposition Agent (3B flash, steal opponent tutors), Authority of the Consuls (W, ETB tapped plus lifegain), Grand Abolisher (1W, opponents cannot cast or activate on your turn), Cursed Totem (sideboard, shuts off creature activations), Cloak and Dagger (1WB deathtouch lifelink, its ETB reveals a hand and exiles a nonland card or a creature until it leaves, the one-shot disruption the WB shell is otherwise light on).

Stax-soft. Smothering Tithe (treasures off opponent draws is mild card tax), Drannith Magistrate (commander lock), Esper Sentinel (1-mana tax).

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. Sun Titan (ETB and attack, MV 3 or less, finds Soul Sisters, signets, Top; Sephiroth at MV 3 qualifies), Liesa, Forgotten Archangel (recurs your own creatures from graveyard at end step), 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). Both lands reach the graveyard only, never exile. The reanimation grind plan leans on Sun Titan and Liesa, 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 or Vito) plus any Exquisite half (Exquisite Blood or Bloodthirsty Conqueror) wins. Enchantment halves are Enlightened-tutorable; the creature halves 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.
• 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	1B instant, pay 2 life. Cast on opp end step before your turn.
Demonic Tutor	any card to hand	2B sorcery. The cleanest tutor.
Grim Tutor	any card to hand	1BB + 3 life. Backup Demonic.
Imperial Seal	any card to top	1B sorcery, pay 2 life. Backup Vampiric variant. Sorcery speed only.
Enlightened Tutor	artifact or enchantment to top	W instant. Finds Heliod, 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 become uninteractable 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.

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) = 19 black mana on that turn cycle. Track this when sequencing Citadel turns.
• 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, though it pulls against Test of Endurance.

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.
• Force of Despair. 1BB, free by exiling a black card from hand as an alternate cost. Kill all this-turn ETBs.

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.
• 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, Opposition Agent, Teferi’s Protection, The One Ring. Disclose at rule-zero.