I am, generally, a fan of challenges. It's why I like games and puzzles, and why I enjoy deck-building and playing Magic. I have no problems with preconstructed decks, and I often will play them and play against them and have a great time, but to me there is something about playing a deck I've built myself. More importantly, I often want that deck to be different, not just to build itself. It's why I build Partner Commanders with no Partner, or ask a Commander to do something they don't obviously do.

That's one of the fun parts of building decks around cards which just win the game. All of them require a challenge - you have to work to meet the requirements, and it's quite likely the rest of the table will have no interest in letting you just do what you want! Today's deck is a great example of just such a challenge, and believe me, this one is a serious one.

What a card! We have an Enchantment with three White pips in its cost, which means we have to play it at Sorcery speed on our Main Phase. Then it has to survive until our next Upkeep, and we have to be at exactly one life in order for it to trigger. Of course, if it does... well, we win the game, full stop.

Because of the deck I built a couple of weeks ago on Liliana's Contract, I already had Academy Rector in mind. We can play her out and sneak Near-Death Experience onto the Battlefield at Instant speed, avoiding much of the removal which is likely to come at a card which says "you win the game." But then it's just being tricky like that deck was in the same way, and assembling effectively the same group of cards - a thing which gets the Enchantment, then get the Enchantment once the stage is set: last time with four different Demons, this time with a specific life total. I didn't want to do the same thing.

So, we're going to go a more challenging route, and we're going to ask how good we can be at distracting a table for as long as we need them to remain distracted in order to achieve our goal. We're still going to combo, and it's going to come out of nowhere, but it's not going to be because we sneak Near-Death Experience into play. Instead, we're going to gum up the board and gain a ton of life, all in service of staying alive until we can pull off our tricky little endgame maneuver.

Ayli is super cool. She's cheap, she's in a great pair of colors, and she gives our deck some direction while also allowing us - assuming we have a life total of 50 or higher - to remove whatever nasty permanents we need to from the board, keeping our opponents in check. She also can be a bit of a rattlesnake, because she's so cheap we can recast her if she dies, but she'll kill most things she blocks.

But she can also be a player for us. We're going to do two primary things: make tokens and gain life. We're not going to be wildly threatening, sending our tokens in to attack all the time. Nope, we're going to make them so we keep gaining life, and we're never going to play an Aristocrats piece like Zulaport Cutthroat. Instead, we're going to just play Soul Sisters, gaining life every turn. Then we're going to use those tokens to block damage coming our way, or sacrifice them to draw cards or gain more life. It's unlikely we'll be perceived as a threat, and if someone starts to get nervous, just point out we're not really doing anything.

Eventually, hopefully, if things work out, we'll play out Near-Death Experience. It'll probably get some funny looks, but shrug them off. "It's another rattlesnake, really," you'll say. "If someone does some big attack, I can probably use my tokens so I wind up at one. This way you won't do that!"

Then comes the really fun part. With Near-Death Experience out, and the player before us ending our turn, before our Untap phase, we're going to tap 5 mana and cast an old card I used to use in my Mono-Black Aggro Legacy deck.

We're going to pay all of our life except for one, and for fun we should target someone else's Creature. That will leave us at one life. Then we'll Untap, go to our Upkeep, and win the game.

Ayli's Near-Death Experience | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Anointer Priest
• 1 Auriok Champion
• 1 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• 1 Distinguished Conjurer
• 1 Fleshtaker
• 1 Glint-Sleeve Artisan
• 1 Guide of Souls
• 1 Impassioned Orator
• 1 Jacked Rabbit
• 1 Kor Celebrant
• 1 Lifecreed Duo
• 1 Lunarch Veteran
• 1 Marionette Apprentice
• 1 Marsh Flitter
• 1 Mausoleum Guard
• 1 Nearheath Chaplain
• 1 Pious Evangel
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Sling-Gang Lieutenant
• 1 Soul Warden
• 1 Soul's Attendant
• 1 Twilight Drover
• 1 Visionary Augmenter
• 1 Weaponcraft Enthusiast

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools

• Instants (20)
• 1 Altar's Reap
• 1 Anguished Unmaking
• 1 Benevolent Offering
• 1 Corrupted Conviction
• 1 Costly Plunder
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Despark
• 1 Eviscerator's Insight
• 1 Fanatical Offering
• 1 Fell the Profane
• 1 Hatred
• 1 Inkshield
• 1 Merciless Resolve
• 1 Midnight Haunting
• 1 Mortify
• 1 Nasty End
• 1 Reckoner's Bargain
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Utter End
• 1 Village Rites

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Blot Out the Sky
• 1 Lingering Souls
• 1 Razaketh's Rite
• 1 Shadow Summoning
• 1 Skulltap
• 1 Spectral Procession
• 1 Spectral Reserves

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Ajani's Welcome
• 1 Answered Prayers
• 1 Caretaker's Talent
• 1 Dramatic Finale
• 1 Near-Death Experience
• 1 Oath of the Grey Host

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 Skullclamp

• Lands (40)
• 10 Plains
• 9 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Foundry of the Consuls
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Radiant Fountain
• 1 Restless Fortress
• 1 Scoured Barrens
• 1 Shadowy Backstreet
• 1 Shambling Vent
• 1 Shineshadow Snarl
• 1 Springjack Pasture
• 1 Spymaster's Vault
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 1 War Room

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We know the gist, but let's go through a few things to make sure we've got it all covered.

We've got 40 Lands and no ramp. That's unusual, but we don't really need it here; the deck runs at a low mana value and the occasional expensive spell isn't going to be wildly important to cast on time. We need, eventually, to get to five mana so we can cast our titular Enchantment and then Hatred, but that's about it. One thing I did learn from play-testing, though, is it's worth it to mulligan for a White and Black source in our opening Hand. We want to be able to cast Ayli right away, if for no reason other than to show the table we want Ayli around to do... whatever it is we're doing (we don't, actually).

Foundry of the Consuls is a nifty way to make a few extra tokens. Springjack Pasture is expensive but sometimes that may be what we want to do, especially if we have a few Soul Sisters out. Hall of Heliod's Generosity is a way to get Near-Death Experience back in the event it gets killed in a random Bane of Progress or something (or if someone just doesn't believe us). Vault of the Archangel will probably sit unused, but there could be a situation where we end up with a sheer ton of tokens and an actual alpha strike makes sense. Unlikely, but hey, why not have the backup plan? It can also make someone think twice about attacking us, since we can use it to kill whatever we block, no matter the size. Spymaster's Vault is a cute way to dig for a combo piece in the event that becomes necessary.

Most of our draw comes in the form of spells like Village Rites and Altar's Reap, where we sac a Creature and draw two. There are a lot of these, and they do good work here. Use them often, and whenever possible at the last possible moment. Skullclamp is an absolute all-star in this deck, of course, and Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools does two things we really want to do all the time. I suppose if he gets over 10 people might start worrying, but just keep making Thrulls and drawing cards and point out you have no interest in everyone else's Commanders. (If you do decide to use his ultimate, though, don't lie about it beforehand. If you commit to not using it, don't use it. That's not cool [says the man playing Hatred to win the game. Ed.]).

We have a few of 's wonderful removal spells like Despark and Anguished Unmaking. Combined with Ayli's ability to remove just about everything, we should be able to deal with a seriously problematic permanent. If you play in a meta with a lot of Hexproof, though, you might want to consider a Detection Tower or Shadowspear, something to break through the Hexproof to get at the problems.

Inkshield is an obnoxiously expensive awesome card here. I wish it weren't so pricey, and the deck will work without it, but wow does it do work here. Blot Out the Sky is really more to make the Inklings, but it serves as a Wrath if we need it.

The goal is to play out a Soul Sister - something which gains us life when we make Creatures - early in the game. We can stack these happily, but at least one is key. Once it starts rolling, we'll make tokens as often as we can using spells, Creatures with Fabricate, whatever we've got. Gain the life, then sacrifice them for cards whenever possible. Notice a number of the tokens we make fly. This is by design, so they can block more things. Sacrifice your non-flying tokens first, of course. Don't be afraid to sacrifice your non-token (non-Soul Sister) Creatures if you have Dramatic Finale out, either.

We are running two tutors. The hope is to draw into one part of the combo, then have the tutors as back up in case we don't see the other one as the game is winding down. Both should seem rather innocuous. Sidisi, Undead Vizier is there to Exploit something (we're sacrificing stuff all the time anyway), and Razaketh's Rite is expensive and only gets one card. If we were using Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor, or tutoring all the time, people might know what we were up to, but hopefully we can make it look like we're just finding a solution to a problem. Don't lie - again, not cool - but saying "I'm just trying to solve a problem" isn't a lie and hopefully will distract from what you're actually up to.

The deck is basically trying to turtle up and survive until it gets its pieces together. It would be perfectly reasonable to build in some Overrun-style effects to try to make the tokens the game plan and have the combo in reserve, but I think it's more fun to go all-in for the combo and see how long I can hold out. It's also been suggested something like Caduceus, Staff of Hermes could be great on a Token to act as a blocker, but I think it'll look too threatening and lead to unwanted attention. Up to you, really.

This deck will be a challenge in a number of ways. It's designed to not always function, so sometimes it'll be frustrating, but the answer you need could be in the next card you draw, so it's worth it to play it out and see if you can get there. When you pull off the combo, it'll be really fun and exciting, and I bet at least one person at the table will have never seen Hatred. If you like a challenge when you play, this deck will do it.

Thanks for reading.