Orzhov Lifegain Tokens (Standard)

I want to play a midrange deck in Orzhov colors that maximizes the best elements of each, while also having synergy. Basically, I want to abuse whites best creatures while playing blacks best removal and card draw.

One of the keys to the deck is that I intend on not playing cards that are weak on their own, but instead I am playing very powerful cards that have the bonus of being synergistic with the main theme.

So, what is the theme? I'm playing powerful cards that either gain life or have a bonus effect when a player gains life. Abusing life gain.

Subthemes:
a) Angels.
b) Energy.

There are many upsides to this strategy:
1) Great against aggro since we are gaining a ton of life gain and playing cards that do well against aggro in general.
2) Midrange decks tend to be slow getting going, however with the bonus of gaining life throughout the game we have a longer clock.
3) Playing tokens makes it hard for control decks to battle us 1 for 1, since their spot removal is killing creatures we get as a bonus.
4) We get to play with some very powerful cards. If the game comes to a top deck battle late, our weapons will usually be well above our opponents.
5) The deck is fun and full of synergies.

The decks core:

1) Crested Sunmare. (3 copies)
-Every time we gain life we get a 5/5 Horse. That's a lot of large tokens in a deck designed to gain life naturally.

2) Resplendent Angel. (4 copies)
-she is a little more work to generate tokens as she needs a gain of 5 life to generate tokens. It is possible, but not always guaranteed.
-She is just a strong MTG card, even without the token ability, and if she is on the board late game there is a good chance that she will generate at least one token.

The decks enablers:

1) Lyra Dawnbringer. (3 copies)
-enables both token generators.
-is simply the most powerful card in the deck on its own.

2) Vraska's Contempt. (4 copies)
-best removal in the format.
-the life gain is often just an add on effect or seen as effective against aggro, however here it helps trigger the creation of our big tokens.

3) Essence Extraction. (2 copies)
-dealing 3 damage for 3cmc is not usually where you want to be, however in this build paying 3cmc is a little less painful.

4) Noxious Gearhulk. (2 copies)
-decent sized curve topper with menace.
-not only will you get to remove your opponents biggest threat, but you will also have a great chance of gaining a token as well.

5) Aethersphere Harvester. (2 copies)
-a fantastic blocker and overall great card with life gain option.

6) Gifted Aetherborn. (4 copies)
-is it too taxing to play this and Resplendent Angel in the same deck? First off I'm playing 25 lands, which helps greatly. Also, the deck is only two colors. It will be a push, but it is by far our best option as a 2cmc lifelink creature.

Cards that can abuse having extra life:

1) Arguel's Blood Fast. (2 copies)
-I want to be able to draw cards, this is a slow midrange deck. paying the life should not be a big issue in this deck.

2) Live Fast. (1 copy)
-life loss means nothing.
-energy serves a few different purposes.

Utility Cards:

1) Fatal Push (3 copies)
-need cheap removal to help the deck make it to the late game

2) Glint-Sleeve Siphoner (3 copies)
-card draw on a creature.
-we care very little about the life loss most the time.
-the deck has a mild energy subtheme that help to enable GSS.

3)Shalai, Voice of Plenty (2 copies)
-Protects our token generators and our tokens.
-Settloe the Wreckage is the deck worst card to see, this helps take care of that.
-Great synergy with Lyra.

Lands:
-Pretty straight foward. Play x4 Concealed Courtyard, x4 Isolated Chapel, and then a ton of Swamps and Plains.

-Well, I'm going to toss in a x2 ifnir Dreadlands as some bonus removal (life loss not as painful) and a x2 Aether Hub since we play Gifted Aetherborn and Resplendent Angel.

Sideboard:

1) Duress

2) Cast Out

3) Kambal, Consul of Allocation

4) Lich's Mastery

5) Authority of the Consuls

6) Knight of Malice

7) Knight of Grace