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<h6 style="text-align: right;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jenny Flint" href="#" target="_blank">Jenny Flint</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | art by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/vetyyr/?hl=en">Syd Mills</a></h6>
<p>Welcome back to <em>Bottom of the Barrel</em>! This is a series where we pick a theme from EDHREC and look at the “bottom of the barrel.” This means that we look at the least played color-combination and pick a commander in those colors to brew a spicy new deck around!</p>
<p>It’s likely that this commander has not been considered for this theme before, and that’s the point! This allows us to play around with themes that we enjoy while keeping our decks unique and interesting.</p>
<p>Our theme for today's edition is: lifegain. This theme is very common in Selesnya and Orzhov colors (green and white; black and white, respectively), but today we're going to try something new.</p>
<p>According to EDHREC, the least played color combination for the "lifegain" theme is Temur (Green, Red, and Blue), so that's where we'll start. Looking at our options, I ultimately settled on an underrated Doctor Who partner pair: Jenny Flint and Madame Vastra.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Jenny Flint"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Madame Vastra"></div></div>
<p>At first glance, this doesn't look like a "lifegain" commander, but Madame Vastra's ability to create Food tokens shouldn't be understated, and Jenny Flint's ability to pump up her partner is just a sweet bonus.</p>
<p>Madame Vastra's Food generation will be our primary source of lifegain from the command zone, but we have plenty of spicy includes for the 99 to ensure our life total remains high while crushing our opponents.</p>
<h2>Category #1: Ways to Gain Life</h2>
<p>Having access to green allows us to play well-known cards like Essence Warden, Courser of Kruphix, and Elder Gargaroth, but we also have the ability to include cards that are seldom seen in commander in 2024.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Essence Warden"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Courser of Kruphix"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Elder Gargaroth"></div></div>
<p>Cards like: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Horizon Chimera" href="#" target="_blank">Horizon Chimera</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> benefits us from drawing cards; <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lifeblood Hydra" href="#" target="_blank">Lifeblood Hydra</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> gives us a huge beater that can turn into lifegain and card advantage later on; <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Candy Trail" href="#" target="_blank">Candy Trail</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> allows us to set up our draws in the early turns while providing a way to draw a card later; <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Scavenged Brawler" href="#" target="_blank">Scavenged Brawler</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a great attacking threat that can distribute its abilities from the graveyard; and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sproutback Trudge" href="#" target="_blank">Sproutback Trudge</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a huge threat that we can cast over and over again.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Horizon Chimera"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Lifeblood Hydra"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Candy Trail"></div></div>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Scavenged Brawler"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sproutback Trudge"></div></div>
<h2>Category #2: Benefitting From Lifegain</h2>
<p>The most obvious lifegain payoff comes in the form of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aetherflux Reservoir" href="#" target="_blank">Aetherflux Reservoir</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and while that is included in this deck, there are a few other cards that are much more interesting. For example, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Trudge Garden" href="#" target="_blank">Trudge Garden</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can turn our lifegain into 4/4 trampling beasts; <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Assemble the Entmoot" href="#" target="_blank">Assemble the Entmoot</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can create 3 huge treefolk; <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fortifying Draught" href="#" target="_blank">Fortifying Draught</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> could potentially knock out an opponent out of nowhere; <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Azor&#039;s Gateway" href="#" target="_blank">Azor&#039;s Gateway</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can generate TONS of mana; and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Marina Vendrell&#039;s Grimoire" href="#" target="_blank">Marina Vendrell&#039;s Grimoire</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> acts as a "We Have Lich's Mastery At Home", drawing us cards for the amount of life we gain.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Aetherflux Reservoir"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Trudge Garden"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Assemble the Entmoot"></div></div>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fortifying Draught"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Azor&#039;s Gateway"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Marina Vendrell&#039;s Grimoire"></div></div>
<h2>Category #3: Finishers</h2>
<p>While <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Aetherflux Reservoir" href="#" target="_blank">Aetherflux Reservoir</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a great finisher in this deck, my personal favorite way to close out a game is with Blossoming Bogbeast.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Blossoming Bogbeast"></div></div>
<p>This deck also includes a spicy lifegain-centric combo: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sporeweb Weaver" href="#" target="_blank">Sporeweb Weaver</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> plus <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blazing Sunsteel" href="#" target="_blank">Blazing Sunsteel</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p>Outside of being a combo piece, Sporeweb Weaver is an amazing blocker that creates a saproling when its dealt damage, but with Blazing Sunsteel you can choose to deal damage to <em>any target.</em></p>
<p>This means we can target the Sporeweb Weaver, and if it's equipped with the Blazing Sunsteel, we rinse and repeat the process. Deal a damage to the Sporeweb Weaver, gain a life and create a saproling, deal another damage to the Sporeweb Weaver, etc.</p>
<p>The important thing to note with this combo: <em>it is not infinite unless Sporeweb Weaver has indestructible! </em></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sporeweb Weaver"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Blazing Sunsteel"></div></div>
<h2>Category #4: Our First Secret Spice = A Secret Commander?</h2>
<p>As always, we have some "secret spice" for this deck, but today's "secret spice" acts a "secret commander" of sorts. Allow me to introduce you to Soulgorger Orgg.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Soulgorger Orgg"></div></div>
<p>This card seems strange, right? Losing all but 1 life seems extremely risky, but that's what makes it fun! This card allows us to repeatedly gain a ridiculous amount of life, all while providing a sneaky way to win.</p>
<p>We can get the Orgg's "leave the battlefield "trigger in two ways:</p>
<ol>
<li>Bouncing it to our hand with Temur Sabertooth.</li>
<li>Sacrificing it with cards like Greater Good or Momentous Fall, and then recurring it with cards like Resurrection Orb or Mimic Vat.</li>
</ol>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Temur Sabertooth"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Greater Good"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Momentous Fall"></div></div>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Resurrection Orb"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mimic Vat"></div></div>
<p>While this might sound cool, we aren't <em>only</em> looking at the Orgg's ability to gain us life. When we're at 1 life, we can pull off some really sneaky things. Things like: swapping life totals with Soul Conduit or doubling our card draw and lifegain with Phial of Galadriel.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Soul Conduit"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Phial of Galadriel"></div></div>
<h2>Category #5: Our Second Secret Spice = Coin Flips?</h2>
<p>Our second "secret spice" for this deck exists in the form of a game: a Game of Chaos. This card is a little ridiculous, especially considering that if you lose a flip your "game" is over, but if you can win a few flips in a row, this could be the most efficient lifegain spell in the entire deck.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Game of Chaos"></div></div>
<p>Even though this is isn't super reliable, it will definitely create some memories at the table.</p>
<p>This brings us to the end of our second edition of <em>Bottom of the Barrel</em>! I hope you enjoyed exploring a lesser-played color-combination in the world of lifegain, and hope you’ll take my ideas to brew your own craziness in the world of Temur lifegain!</p>
<p>Check out my decklist below!</p>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Bottom of the Barrel #2 - Jenny Flint and Madame Vastra" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Jenny Flint
*1 Madame Vastra
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Accomplished Alchemist
*1 Blossoming Bogbeast
*1 Courser of Kruphix
*1 Disciple of Freyalise // Garden of Freyalise
*1 Elder Gargaroth
*1 Essence Warden
*1 Forgotten Ancient
*1 Horizon Chimera
*1 Hydroelectric Specimen // Hydroelectric Laboratory
*1 Hydroid Krasis
*1 Lifeblood Hydra
*1 Prize Pig
*1 Prosperous Innkeeper
*1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
*1 Scavenged Brawler
*1 Soulgorger Orgg
*1 Sporeweb Weaver
*1 Sproutback Trudge
*1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
*1 Temur Sabertooth
*1 Uro, Titan of Nature&#039;s Wrath
[/Creatures]
[Instants]
*1 Blunt the Assault
*1 Chaos Warp
*1 Fortifying Draught
*1 Momentous Fall
*1 Nature&#039;s Claim
*1 Pulse of Murasa
*1 Sheltering Word
*1 Worldly Tutor
[/Instants]
[Artifacts]
*1 Aetherflux Reservoir
*1 Ancient Cornucopia
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Azor&#039;s Gateway // Sanctum of the Sun
*1 Basilisk Collar
*1 Blazing Sunsteel
*1 Candy Trail
*1 Cosmos Elixir
*1 Elixir of Immortality
*1 Loxodon Warhammer
*1 Marina Vendrell&#039;s Grimoire
*1 Mimic Vat
*1 Phial of Galadriel
*1 Resurrection Orb
*1 Shadowspear
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Soul Conduit
[/Artifacts]
[Sorceries]
*1 Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary
*1 Cultivate
*1 Fabricate
*1 Farseek
*1 Game of Chaos
*1 Healing Technique
*1 Nature&#039;s Lore
*1 Pest Infestation
*1 Primal Command
*1 Rampant Growth
*1 Scale the Heights
[/Sorceries]
[Enchantments]
*1 Assemble the Entmoot
*1 Azusa&#039;s Many Journeys // Likeness of the Seeker
*1 Garruk&#039;s Uprising
*1 Greater Good
*1 Trudge Garden
*1 Well Rested
[/Enchantments]
[Lands]
*1 Alchemist&#039;s Refuge
*1 Brokers Hideout
*1 Cabaretti Courtyard
*1 Command Tower
*1 Demolition Field
*1 Emergence Zone
*10 Forest
*1 Frontier Bivouac
*1 High Market
*4 Island
*1 Kessig Wolf Run
*1 Littjara Mirrorlake
*1 Miren, the Moaning Well
*4 Mountain
*1 Rugged Highlands
*1 Spire Garden
*1 Swiftwater Cliffs
*1 Thornwood Falls
*1 Training Center
*1 Witch&#039;s Clinic
[/Lands]"></span></div>




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