Black White Focused Life Gain (Standard)

This deck focuses on cards like Gideon's Company, Shadowspear, Heliod, Sun-Crowned, and Linden, the Steadfast Queen in order to counter damage as a kill condition. While there is no artifact removal in the current build, murderous rider and mortify should handle planeswalkers and threatening creatures long enough for you to widen the gap with incredible life-gain. Full board-wipes and artifact control is a strong counter to this deck - however, with so many small components that can synergize, like a simple Healer's Hawk, Daxos, Blessed by the Sun and Heliod, Sun-Crowned, life-gain and increasing damage is always a possibility. Shadowspear and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose are great win conditions. Once you get a creature swinging with decent damage and life gain, throw Vito down and give Gideon's Company life gain with Shadowspear, Vito, or Heliod. Luminous Broodmoth as a recent addition has also proved to be extremely helpful against flying dominant builds and against aggro decks. Luminous Broodmoth is just a stronger late-game Healer's Hawk that can switch the ground game to a flying battle.

Cards like Smothering Tithe, Revenge of Ravens, and Mangara, the Diplomat are in the sideboard to counter specific kinds of builds. Smothering Tithe is just a great way to annoy any player, but capitalizes on decks that focus on card Draw. It's also a great card to get out early, choking out an opponent's mana pool or forcing them to boost yours. Revenge of Ravens is a great counter to any deck running tokens, low power creatures, and aggro decks. If the opponent is playing 1/1's and swinging, slap a Raven down. If they are growing to 2/2's, slap another Raven down. Revenge of Ravens will also proc Gideon's Company, Vito, and Heliod. Mangara, the Diplomat is a versatile card that has lifelink, strong toughness, and great defensive card draw. Mangara is a good sideboard card to put in when facing aggro decks and can always be pumped by Heliod, the Sun-Crowned.