Lifegain decks based around cards like Ajani's Pridemate have been a staple in Magic for a while now, but have always just fallen a little short when faced with serious interaction. Soul Warden and Ajani's Pridemate are great together, but once you kill one the other starts to look pretty lonely.

Well, we've got a brand new MTG Arena format on our hands called Alchemy, which gives us some wonderful tools to help mitigate the weaknesses that these decks usually have. Decks like this have often been quite good against non-interactive decks as they can present a really fast clock and race well by dealing big damage and gaining life, but now they've got some serious game against removal heavy decks too!

Time Stamps:

04:27 - Match 1

24:06 - Match 2

41:25 - Match 3

Scarecrow Sisters | Alchemy | Jim Davis

• Creatures (37)
• 2 Welcoming Vampire
• 3 Hallowed Priest
• 3 Skyclave Apparition
• 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 3 Traveling Minister
• 3 Trelasarra, Moon Dancer
• 4 Inquisitor Captain
• 4 Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom
• 4 Prosperous Innkeeper
• 4 Voice of the Blessed
• 4 Wickerwing Effigy

• Spells (2)
• 2 Kabira Takedown // Kabira Plateau

• Lands (21)
• 1 Forest
• 8 Plains
• 4 Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway
• 4 Forsaken Crossroads
• 4 Overgrown Farmland

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Skyclave Apparition
• 2 Snakeskin Veil
• 4 Elite Spellbinder
• 1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 3 Valorous Stance
• 2 Reidane, God of the Worthy // Valkmira, Protector's Shield
• 2 Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute

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The new Inquisitor Captain is great, as well as the somewhat overlooked Crimson Vow rare Welcoming Vampire, but the real gem here is Wickerwing Effigy.

Wickerwing Effigy is an awesome card with a pretty significant drawback; you can go nuts casting creatures off the top of your deck, but they will all be 1/1 fliers rather than their normal size. Well, this deck uses Wickerwing Effigy better than any I've ever seen. Most of our creatures are 1/1s or 2/2s anyway, with all of our Voice of the Blessed effects providing tons of +1/+1 counters to those flying bodies. Hallowed Priest is actually strictly better when cast off of a Wickerwing Effigy, as it's a 1/1 flier rather than just a 1/1 ground creature. Furthermore, you can use the scry effect from Trelasarra, Moon Dancer to help scry away lands when you cast each creature, furthering the potential of the engine.

With Wickerwing Effigy providing an amazing card advantage engine, the fast beats that come from Voice of the Blessed and Trelasarra, Moon Dancer, and a little extra help against the spells decks with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, this is an exciting early entry into the brand new Alchemy format!