Revival Experiment: Standard Witherbloom Exdeath

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

Strixhaven’s Witherbloom puts green’s lifegain properly in the spotlight and pairs it with black, forming a lifegain strategy with a different flavor from white-black. Although the trigger conditions of the two look very similar, Witherbloom cares less about how many times you gain life and more about two things: whether you have gained life, and how much. The former shows up in the new ability keyword infusion, and the latter determines an effect’s strength by the amount of life gained in a single turn. So how can we play in the new Strixhaven Standard?

Deck Analysis

First of all, let’s take a look at the decklist.

Decklist

Witherbloom got a powerful new planeswalker this time, Professor Dellian Fel, who handles lifegain, card draw, and removal, and whose emblem, a Sanguine Bond that can be reached quickly, lays a strong foundation for black-green lifegain. Add Moseo, Veins’ New Dean and the dark mage from FINAL FANTASY, Exdeath, and you have a lifegain midrange deck.

• Theme cards: Exdeath, Void Warlock, Moseo, Veins’ New Dean, and Professor Dellian Fel

Although Exdeath takes the center spot on the cover art, his biggest role in this deck is actually gaining 3 life when he enters. That may not sound like much, but a simple, clear design like this is surprisingly rare in Standard these days; the cost is either too high or the lifegain too low. Exdeath entering for three mana and gaining 3 life pairs just right with Moseo, letting you bring any creature, himself included, onto the battlefield, and in the late game you may be able to cast him, transform him into Neo Exdeath, and pull another Exdeath from the graveyard onto the battlefield. As for Professor Dellian, he is this deck’s mastermind behind the scenes (?), single-handedly covering everything from lifegain to winning the game.

• Life resources: Scheming Silvertongue, Esper Origins, Virulent Emissary

For resource engines, besides the Professor Dellian and Dean Moseo mentioned above, there is the flying Sign in Blood, Scheming Silvertongue. Gaining 2 life is enough to meet its prepare condition, and as long as your opponent doesn’t remove it, you can draw two extra cards every turn. In addition, Esper Origins can gain 2 life twice, directly meeting Scheming Silvertongue’s condition, and after flashing back and transforming into Esper Maduin it returns a card to your hand, and if it holds the battlefield it has a chance to take your opponent out in one wave. Virulent Emissary is an excellent low-cost lifegain engine. It has built-in deathtouch to trade with your opponent’s attackers, and then Moseo pulls it back onto the battlefield to keep annoying your opponent.

• Signature removal: Gumdrop Poisoner, Witherbloom Charm, Cease // Desist

Gumdrop Poisoner can be called Witherbloom’s honorary alumnus in Eldraine. When it enters it gives a target creature -X/-X based on the life you gained this turn, it can instantly make a Food through its adventure, and it comes with 3 power and lifelink, interacting nicely with Moseo’s lifegain and reanimation. For example, Gumdrop Poisoner can deliberately attack and die to gain 3, then Moseo brings it back at end of turn to kill the blocking creature or remove another one. Witherbloom Charm is a textbook “small numbers, many functions” card, a smaller Abrupt Decay. Although its range is a bit low, it can instantly remove troublesome low-cost permanents (such as all kinds of talents), and can also sacrifice a permanent at instant speed to draw cards, and gaining 5 has a special effect in certain situations, so complaining further seems a bit excessive. Cease // Desist is an excellent graveyard answer: it exiles two cards at instant speed, draws one, and gains 2 life, meeting your lifegain needs while providing graveyard hate without losing card advantage, and it also has an answer to artifact and enchantment themes.

The rest are the common Requiting Hex, Bitter Triumph, and Strategic Betrayal, which I will just mention briefly here.

Gameplay Demo

If I had to describe how this deck feels to play with one word, it would probably be “cheesy.” It seems to have no advantage, yet it quietly milks its life total past your opponent’s, the board also quietly grows back on its own, and then the opponent concedes for no apparent reason (?). Traditional lifegain decks mostly have a bit of a snowball nature, and after a sweeper they are often left half-useless, while Witherbloom’s black-green lifegain reanimator strategy really shows a different flavor and offers a pretty good play experience.

Conclusion

For some reason, the Strixhaven college decks I’ve built lately each correspond to a FINAL FANTASY uncommon legend: Prismari with Shantotto, Lorehold with Giott, and then Witherbloom with Exdeath. Will the other two colleges continue this “tradition”? Even I am a bit curious. Anyway, we’ll know once we build them~