(Will, Scion of Peace | Art by Ryan Pancoast)

I Will Surviiiiiive

Greetings and salutations from a cheesy country where meals are definitely too rich during Christmas time... I'm Arnaud and I'm thrilled to take you on a journey of uncanny brews, hidden gems and usage of EDHREC's filtering features.

Yule time or not, some things just can't wait and have to be done properly. This is why I'm writing this article way ahead of schedule, more than a few hours ahead of publication. That's another trait of us Frenchies: never late.

Last time, after struggling with Sidisi and its companion Gyruda, I left you with the now usual choice between three new victims. And once more, a clear winner emerged from the fray. Zaxara, the Exemplary did not spur much passion, with only 29% of the votes. Closer to the top, the infamous Pramikon, Sky Rampart reached 33%. But the clear winner this time around is a fairly new contender, well-known from the aficionados of the Eldraine plane. Let's give a hand to Will, Scion of Peace. So, my boy, what is it that you do?

Will here comes with an ability that Wizards seems to enjoy inserting more and more these days: hefty mana reduction tied to a specific condition. In this case, it's life gain we're interested in. Tap Will, and your spell will be reduced by whatever amount of life you managed to gain insofar that turn. Thankfully, this ability can only be played at sorcery speed, giving a nice window for our opponents to deal with our terrifying setup. Having brewed around the guy almost as soon as he was revealed, I can tell you: this ability is no joke.

With 1,895 decks to his name and 298 cards at hand, we're bound to find some juicy bits. Let's take a look!

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First Trim - The Cardboard Chainsaw Massacre

You know what? After the sheer ordeal from last time, It's nice and refreshing to have a large pool of cards to tinker with. As usual, let's first get rid of anything costing strictly more than $1. Unsurprisingly, more than half the cards leave the team, a good deal of which are major staples in these colors. I can't say I'm sad to see we won't have to win YET AGAIN with Approach of the Second Sun. I'm hoping for some creative stuff!

How about the cards between $1 and $2? That's where things hurt, YET AGAIN (bis). See for yourself:

• Words of Worship: This is the first spell I've thought of when I started brewing the deck. Gorgeous art and really powerful ability with our commander.
• Secure the Wastes: A classic X spell, the first of many, which we won't get to play. Drat.
• Drogskol Reaver: Do yourself a favor, pick a battered one and let it do its magic.
• Entreat the Angels: Another major win con bites the dust.
• Soul Warden: $1.4 for a Sister? Seriously?
• Finale of Glory and Invasion of New Phyrexia: I'm impressed at how low these spells have fallen. Not quite low enough, but close. And they both would have been a treat in here.
• Cleric Class: A fun trinket, although a bit feeble for what I have in mind. Still, $1.6 is an impressive price tag for this puny enchantment.
• White Sun's Twilight: This one has it all. It wraths and leaves a deadly board afterwards. Devastating when X is 20 or more.
• Solve the Equation: You know how I feel about tutors in budget brews, so for once this is a card I'm happy not to play!
• Thought Vessel and Decanter of Endless Water: We're in for some massive draw, and I was hoping these, along with Reliquary Tower, could stick around. Oh well.
• Stroke of Midnight: I really hope this glorified Generous Gift will be reprinted to oblivion, lest we see it skyrocket past the $5 mark next year.

With these preliminary cuts out of the way, we still have 131 cards left in the list. Was I too enthusiastic before?

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Second Trim - Cardward Scissorhands

If there is something that this series has taught me, is that I should never have any expectations regarding price. I never cease to be amazed at the cardboard value of some spells I would have dissed as utter junk worth pennies without a second thought. Sadly, Magic remains an expensive game. The good of it is that this forces us to be sneaky, slimy and whirling.

So, let's dive in our inevitable categories:

• Draw: 22-ish
• Ramp: 12
• Removal: 13
• Wipes: 5

Not bad a spread, not bad at all. Obviously the draw part will have to be trimmed down, as will the removals. I'll cut a few wipes, and we should be good for the fun part.

Draw

Removal

Wipes

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Cerulean Wisps	Azorius Charm	Expel the Interlopers
Dawn of Hope	Invoke the Divine	Fumigate
Daxos of Meletis	Lucky Offering
Dream Trawler	Sanctify
Emergency Powers	Snap
Faithful Mending	Solemn Offering
Kwain, Itinerant Meddler
Quick Study
Revitalize
Union of the Third Path

 

Down to 124 cards, and counting. This is shaping up nicely, time to have a look at the meat of the deck.

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Third Trim - Cutting Off the Rough Edges

So. Will. Lifegain. Lifegain a lot, make big spells cost nothing, Hulk smash. The trick is: how do we want to gain our life? Do we want a nice and regular trickle, or a massive one-off influx? I'm partial to the latter, and here's why. Your commander WILL attract attention (pun totally intended). Any commander leading to huge costs reduction is like a lightning rod on legs. Rowan, Scion of War or Heliod, the Radiant Dawn also fit into the same category: they are all kill-on-sight, else risking letting you run away with the game. So either you wait for the right time to play Will, or you manage to provide some decent protection. Given that we're lacking the booty staples, we'll have to make do with what we have.

This is why, in my book, we need to ensure the following:

• Protect our commander
• Manage to untap him once or twice to double-up on the cost reduction
• Prioritize major X spells, with as little pips in their cost as possible.
• Forego any life gain effect that's not impactful enough.

I like to see my lifegain spells as glorified Dark Rituals or Mana Geysers.

Thus, I'm mercilessly cutting the following:

• Ajani's Mantra
• Candy Trail
• Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• Elixir of Immortality
• Festival of Trokin
• Fountain of Renewal
• Knight of Dawn's Light
• Nyx-Fleece Ram
• Peach Garden Oath
• Regenerations Restored
• Renewed Faith
• Search Warrant
• Soul's Attendant
• Soulmender
• Suture Priest
• Tablet of the Guilds
• Whitesun's Passage

Painful, but necessary cuts.

Next, I'd like to address several spells that trigger once on your end step. I'm keeping only the most relevant ones, as making puny 2/2s or 3/3s will not be enough to secure the win.

Off with:

• Griffin Aerie
• Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles

The rest of the bunch will produce nice 4/4s, which will serve us nicely to hold off incoming waves while we're searching for a way to close the game.

Which brings us to our last section, counting 106 cards in the final stretch.

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Final Trim - Heart-wrenching Choices and Choice Additions

Well, this is it. Still 6 cards to cut, and maybe a couple more for some personal favorites.

First, the axe:

• Dauntless Dismantler: Cute, but honestly feels a bit out of place here.
• The Second Doctor: Feels like he will rarely give you what you're hoping for.
• Twining Twins: A nice protection spell for our commander, but I'm not 100% convinced.
• Sun Titan: A classic, but I'm not 100% sure we have that many relevant permanents to bring back to the battlefield.
• Ascend from Avernus: Superb reanimation spell, but will not bring back the X spells we crave for. And the triple white pip marks its grave.
• Speaker of the Heavens: Given that players will likely bombard you with damage to keep you in check, I'm not sure he will manage to fulfill his mission.
• Mass Manipulation: Oh how I love this card! But the four blue it requires are simply too expensive a cost to pay.
• Martyr of Sands: She looks fantastic, but with only 28 cards counting as white in the deck, I feel she will be quite unreliable sadly.

This brings us down to 98 cards, which I'll complete with:

• Kelpie Guide: I don't get why this wasn't in the original list. One of the most versatile untappers out there.
• Peace of Mind: Simply said, this turns any card in your hand into a Dark Ritual for Will.

And there you have it!

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Conclusion

I'm fairly happy with how this one turned out in the end. While I could have done with some additional life gain (Beacon of Immortality, Where art thou?), I feel like this could hold its own.

More importantly, what do you, the wonderful budget-brewing community, think about this? Anything you would have added or removed without a second thought?

Let me know in the comments, and I'll see you next year!

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