This deck works with few but letal combo that makes you remove a player or win the game, the rest of the list are cards that makes the deck faster or your opponents slower. The commander's ability of dealing damage as you gain life is powerful, but not enough to conclude a match with a normal lifegain deck, so I changed the idea of the deck. There are lots of cards that make ridiculous things with the commander's ability in one turn, not throught the whole match, so I decided to fill my deck with combos with Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. I think this kind of deck takes full advantage of the commander's passive ability.
Deadly Combos
- (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose) + (Exquisite Blood)
You need to deal 1 damage to a player or gain 1 life with these pieces on the battlefield to win the game.
- (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose) + (Blood Tribute)
Casting Blood Tribute with the commander in ther battlefield and tapping a vampire as Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose just remove a player, no matter how much life he or she has and gives you half of the target player's life which can sustain you through the match.
- (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose) + (Gray Merchant of Asphodel)
This is an easy way to gain a great amount of life, based on your devotion. A devotion of 5 and 3 opponents means that you gain 15 life and can deal 20 damage to one player.
- (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose) + (Exsanguinate)
Exsanguinate is another easy way to gain a lot of life, the more mana you spend on it, the more effective it will be. Some cards that double your mana potential like Bubbling Muck can be used to deal a lot of damage.
- (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose) + (Sangromancer) + (Make an Example or Vona's Hunger)
Removing a bunch of creatures with Sangromancer can have you gain a great amount of life. Moreover, playing Make an Example or Vona's Hunger surely gives you board advantage.
- (Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose) + (Wall of Blood) + (Miren, the Moaning Well)
If you sacrifice Wall of Blood you can pay life and gain that life back, thus triggering Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. Provided that you have more life than an opponent, this process results in dealing a killing blow to that player.
- (Bolas's Citadel) + (Sensei's Divining Top) + (Aetherflux Reservoir)
The first two pieces works togheter and makes you draw a card paying 1 life as long as you have life and make you easier to find the last combo piece or other cards. With Aetherflux Reservoir you can cast Sensei's Divining Top as long as you have cards in your grimoire each time gaining more and more life until you can pay 50 life to kill players doing 50 damage each or until your opponents die for the commander triggered ability.
Life gained can be doubled by Alhammarret's Archive as well as the damage output from Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose's triggered ability.
Lifelink sources are Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose's activated ability, Shadowspear and Whip of Erebos.
Other synergies
There are other cards that make the deck work better and do other little combos such as:
- (K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth) + (Crypt Ghast or Basilica Screecher)
K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth makes possible to use the extort ability without paying mana, but life. Against 2 opponents at least this is still convenient because you regain the life spent while other players suffer 1 damage. This way you can benefit from the extort ability for each spell you cast. This synergy become deadly if you have Bolas's Citadel and Sensei's Divining Top as you can cast and extort it repeatedly by paying 3 life instead of mana to draw a card and gain back 3 life each time.
- (Doom Whisperer) + (Bolas's Citadel)
Doom Whisperer's activated ability can let you get more value from Bolas's Citadel by milling cards that couldn't be played in that moment with the same efficiency of Sensei's Divining Top in terms of life
- (Shadowspear or Whip of Erebos) + (Wall of Blood)
With Wall of Blood provided with Lifelink you can just block any creature by paying any amount of life and gaining it back, eventually triggering Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose for a big amount of damage. The Lifelink ability can be granted also by Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose's activated ability. It is deadly, but it is difficult to realize since there would be no reason for a player attacking you while this creature is on the battlefield. However this is a great way to protect you from big creatures.
- (Sangromancer) + (Plaguecrafter or Henrika Domnathi)
Playing Plaguecrafter triggers Sangromancer one time for each opponent for a total of 9 life gained. Henrika Domnathi has similar effect.
- (K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth) + (Chainer, Dementia Master)
With these two creature it is possible to return a creature from a graveyard into the battlefield at instant speed for free mana by paying 9 life. It can be deadly if used to resurrect Gray, Merchant of Asphodel to gain the life paid back and a sac-outlet from an opponent's graveyard so that you can repeatedly return Gray, Merchant of Asphodel from your graveyard.
- (Peer into the Abyss) + (Skirge Familiar)
Skirge Familiar let you gain full advantage of the cards drawn in the same turn you cast Peer into the Abyss by discarding cards you don't need to ramp mana and cast the right cards to end the game.
Enhancing mana pool
The number of Swamps you control affect the power of other cards like Cabal Coffers and Cabal Stronghold, Crypt Ghast and Bubbling Muck.
Mana doublers
Artifacts
Other
Draw cards
Alhammarreth's Archive doubles the number of cards drawn.
Tutors
Removals
Playing with graveyard
Protecting commander
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