nice deck i went full storm with draw 7s and the untap land creatures (the whale and the drakes). Extra turn effects are pretty good too. You can win with those upkeep win the game
Nice deck, a fantastic include could be Approach of the Second Sun, because if you can cast something to gain 7 or 8 life you can cast Approach x1 mana next play a drawspell draw and cast Approach twise on the same turn.
I think this deck could work even better if you include more sources of burst life gain and less of the triggered ones like Soul Warden etc. Without untap, Will can only reduce the amount of mana on spells once per turn so it doesn't matter how many small instances of life you gain over a turn but how much life you get before you tap him and likewise how much mana you have to spend before his ability. With all the etb reliant sources you will have to spend quite a bit of mana on creature drops (if you happen to have them since there are only 22 in the deck and most of them expensive) to enable him. Sunbeam Spellbomb - Martyr of Sands - Sunspring Expedition - Elixir of Immortality and all of the various destroy artifact/enchantment + life gain spells will give 3 or more life immediately to get him rolling for only 1-2 mana spend. There are also a lot of spells in the deck that do gain you a lot of life but also cost a lot of mana like Sphinx Revelation or Beacon of Immortality which reduce the casting cost by a lot but leaves you with barely any colored mana left afterwards. Fumigate does give a lot of life but kills your commander in the process so you can't really profit off it. I'd definitely say this deck needs much more protection for a commander this strong. Once people get a grasp of how much he can enable your deck or similarly how much weaker this decks becomes without all the cast reduction, a lot of removal will come Will's way and for a blue deck there should be plenty of counters in it. Lastly, the mana base can be improved for this version. This deck is 70% white pips and 30% blue but the land production is almost a 50/50 split.
Awesome analysis of this deck! I agree with you on most of your points. Burst/removal life gain is a super good idea and their could definitely be was more protection for Will because he is the engine for your whole deck. Mana wise I like to keep it pretty close to 50/50. The reason for that is even though I have a lot more white in this deck I want to make sure I hit enough of both. Keeping the amount of draw you will have access to in the deck it could be balanced in a more 60/40 split but I have and never want to be missing my colors. Thank you for this comment and your awesome ideas. I really appreciate when my viewers get into detail like this. I learn a lot in this process and try to use that as I more forward. Thank you so much again and I hope you have a great day!
I agree. I think the "best" version of this deck will involve using both main phases strategically: main 1: low-cmc lifegain cantrips -> discount effect -> "lifegain shenanigans" combat: untap Will, any lifelink-related gains contribute to main #2 main 2: more "lifegain shenanigans" -> massive payoffs In my deck I am am prioritizing large life-change effects over any type of repetitive incremental lifegain. Since Will's effect is only available on your turn and there's no way to cheese it, it's important to focus on reliable lifegain that will happen on your turn, and also to lock opponents out of your turn (Tidal Barracuda and similar) so they can only watch in horror as it unfolds. And pip management will be a big deal in this deck. I have removed all but 1 3-pip spell. Big payoffs that have a high-cmc but only 1 colored pip are the dream in this deck. The big 'gain X life spells' actually aren't as good as they seem at first glance, because the lifegain is the engine, not the payoff, if that makes sense. Take something like Beacon of Immortality, where you are gaining something like 20-40 life from a single white pip. I think you can reliably gain about 4 life on average from one of the 1-2cmc cantrips in the first main, so for 1 more pip you get 20-40 additional life to REALLY get things going in the 2nd main. So I wouldn't say they're dead cards, but they're just very "win more" and inefficient ways to use your precious pips. Extort effects can be decent sources of early-game lifegain on your own turn, but start to suck in the later game. Blind Obedience is just an objectively good card so I wouldn't feel bad including it. It can help move things along if you draw dead on your cantrips. This is one of the few decks where i'd argue Sol Ring is just not helping you much at all and should be cut. Some of the larger mana rocks that *only* produce colored pips get a lot better here, though. Spells that untap lands as an ETB are also very strong, since they cash in free discount from Will's effect for more pips. One funny mana-related spell I haven't seen mentioned much is Iceberg, which would let you store up a ton of colorless mana on one of your bigger turns and use it later to help offset a slower turn. There's also a few ways to make giant, colorless cards 100% free if you're into that (Celestial Dawn being one of them). It was a bit too niche for me so I cut that line of play from my deck altogether. I agree 100% on your protection thing. Will IS the deck, so better have plenty of protection...Pemmin's Aura is a really good one here because it doubles as an untapper.
Will says activate as a sorcery I would remove all the things that gain you life based on your opponents actions like soul warden. Even tho I love it lol it just don’t work that well.
You are totally right! I read right past his last line of text and would definitely have changed some of those up. Thank you for the comment and I hope you have a great day!
That’s so cool! I didn’t think about it making all your spells a certain color but that would work perfect. Thank you so much and I hope you have great day!
Your right. I suffer from the most common magic player condition of thinking I know what ever card says and forget to just read it. I definitely would have changed some of the card I would have included in that deck then. Thank you for pointing this out and I hope you have a great day!
I think Rowan is faster, paying life is much easier to do than gaining life and red black does a lot more for ending the came asap. Will is a more "safe" variant at the cost of speed. Setting up perpetual life gain and running thinks like expropriate, omniscience, and omnipotence to end the game with.
Your in depth analysis is easy to understand and I appreciate that.
Thanks I try to make it that way. I hope you have a great day!
Love the deck! It’s just powerful enough to stand up to some stronger decks but not two strong that you are the threat right away.
Thank you, I hope you have a great day!
nice deck
i went full storm with draw 7s and the untap land creatures (the whale and the drakes). Extra turn effects are pretty good too. You can win with those upkeep win the game
Nice. I love that idea. Will and Rowan have so many easy to build them and win. I hope you have a great day!
love the deck list going to make a will deck myself but could run omniscience would work well with the discount
That’s a great idea! I should have added that to my list. Thanks for the suggestion and I hope you has a great day!
Nice deck, a fantastic include could be Approach of the Second Sun, because if you can cast something to gain 7 or 8 life you can cast Approach x1 mana next play a drawspell draw and cast Approach twise on the same turn.
Good call! That would be super cool. I hope you have a great day!
You can also add vizier of tumbling sands and kelpie guide, both let you untap will without paying mana
Awesome! I will make sure to include these as I alter the deck. I hope you have a great day!
I think this deck could work even better if you include more sources of burst life gain and less of the triggered ones like Soul Warden etc. Without untap, Will can only reduce the amount of mana on spells once per turn so it doesn't matter how many small instances of life you gain over a turn but how much life you get before you tap him and likewise how much mana you have to spend before his ability. With all the etb reliant sources you will have to spend quite a bit of mana on creature drops (if you happen to have them since there are only 22 in the deck and most of them expensive) to enable him. Sunbeam Spellbomb - Martyr of Sands - Sunspring Expedition - Elixir of Immortality and all of the various destroy artifact/enchantment + life gain spells will give 3 or more life immediately to get him rolling for only 1-2 mana spend.
There are also a lot of spells in the deck that do gain you a lot of life but also cost a lot of mana like Sphinx Revelation or Beacon of Immortality which reduce the casting cost by a lot but leaves you with barely any colored mana left afterwards. Fumigate does give a lot of life but kills your commander in the process so you can't really profit off it.
I'd definitely say this deck needs much more protection for a commander this strong. Once people get a grasp of how much he can enable your deck or similarly how much weaker this decks becomes without all the cast reduction, a lot of removal will come Will's way and for a blue deck there should be plenty of counters in it.
Lastly, the mana base can be improved for this version. This deck is 70% white pips and 30% blue but the land production is almost a 50/50 split.
Awesome analysis of this deck! I agree with you on most of your points. Burst/removal life gain is a super good idea and their could definitely be was more protection for Will because he is the engine for your whole deck. Mana wise I like to keep it pretty close to 50/50. The reason for that is even though I have a lot more white in this deck I want to make sure I hit enough of both. Keeping the amount of draw you will have access to in the deck it could be balanced in a more 60/40 split but I have and never want to be missing my colors. Thank you for this comment and your awesome ideas. I really appreciate when my viewers get into detail like this. I learn a lot in this process and try to use that as I more forward. Thank you so much again and I hope you have a great day!
I agree. I think the "best" version of this deck will involve using both main phases strategically:
main 1: low-cmc lifegain cantrips -> discount effect -> "lifegain shenanigans"
combat: untap Will, any lifelink-related gains contribute to main #2
main 2: more "lifegain shenanigans" -> massive payoffs
In my deck I am am prioritizing large life-change effects over any type of repetitive incremental lifegain. Since Will's effect is only available on your turn and there's no way to cheese it, it's important to focus on reliable lifegain that will happen on your turn, and also to lock opponents out of your turn (Tidal Barracuda and similar) so they can only watch in horror as it unfolds.
And pip management will be a big deal in this deck. I have removed all but 1 3-pip spell. Big payoffs that have a high-cmc but only 1 colored pip are the dream in this deck. The big 'gain X life spells' actually aren't as good as they seem at first glance, because the lifegain is the engine, not the payoff, if that makes sense. Take something like Beacon of Immortality, where you are gaining something like 20-40 life from a single white pip. I think you can reliably gain about 4 life on average from one of the 1-2cmc cantrips in the first main, so for 1 more pip you get 20-40 additional life to REALLY get things going in the 2nd main. So I wouldn't say they're dead cards, but they're just very "win more" and inefficient ways to use your precious pips.
Extort effects can be decent sources of early-game lifegain on your own turn, but start to suck in the later game. Blind Obedience is just an objectively good card so I wouldn't feel bad including it. It can help move things along if you draw dead on your cantrips.
This is one of the few decks where i'd argue Sol Ring is just not helping you much at all and should be cut. Some of the larger mana rocks that *only* produce colored pips get a lot better here, though. Spells that untap lands as an ETB are also very strong, since they cash in free discount from Will's effect for more pips. One funny mana-related spell I haven't seen mentioned much is Iceberg, which would let you store up a ton of colorless mana on one of your bigger turns and use it later to help offset a slower turn.
There's also a few ways to make giant, colorless cards 100% free if you're into that (Celestial Dawn being one of them). It was a bit too niche for me so I cut that line of play from my deck altogether.
I agree 100% on your protection thing. Will IS the deck, so better have plenty of protection...Pemmin's Aura is a really good one here because it doubles as an untapper.
For lands, New Benalia comes in tapped, taps for a white, but it gives 2 life when you drop it, so its a decent include.
That's a perfect idea! Thank you and I hope you have a great day!
Will says activate as a sorcery I would remove all the things that gain you life based on your opponents actions like soul warden. Even tho I love it lol it just don’t work that well.
You are totally right! I read right past his last line of text and would definitely have changed some of those up. Thank you for the comment and I hope you have a great day!
Painter's Servant is a stupid good card in this deck, makes all of your artifacts free if played correctly
That’s so cool! I didn’t think about it making all your spells a certain color but that would work perfect. Thank you so much and I hope you have great day!
I think instead of running dovins veto it would make more sense to take advantage of all your card draw by pitching to force of WILL
Both. But run things like merchants scroll and spellseeker ect.
Freed from the real or other untap effects would be good in this.
Yes it would. Thank you for the suggestion. I hope you have a great day!
Will can only use its ability when you can play a sorcery. This means you cant use it on opponents turn.
Your right. I suffer from the most common magic player condition of thinking I know what ever card says and forget to just read it. I definitely would have changed some of the card I would have included in that deck then. Thank you for pointing this out and I hope you have a great day!
I think Rowan is faster, paying life is much easier to do than gaining life and red black does a lot more for ending the came asap.
Will is a more "safe" variant at the cost of speed. Setting up perpetual life gain and running thinks like expropriate, omniscience, and omnipotence to end the game with.