Dr. Beverly CrusherDr. Beverly Crusher | Art by Mattia Rangoni

Dr. Beverly CrusherDr. Beverly Crusher gets out of hand quickly.

Her replacement effect doubles all of our abilities that trigger from gaining life, including her own, so she will grow by +2/+2 whenever we gain life. That by itself will threaten a ton of commander damage in no time at all, in addition to any other juice we can squeeze out of that static ability with the other cards we play in the deck.

Dr. Crusher enables and multiplies some of the sweetest Lifegain synergies, while also providing a clear path away from the strategy's biggest weakness: gaining life is great and all, but how do we win?

She certainly isn't the first commander to provide an assertive force to the definitionally passive Lifegain strategy. Trelasarra, Moon DancerTrelasarra, Moon Dancer, Lathiel, the Bounteous DawnLathiel, the Bounteous Dawn, and Amalia Benavides AguirreAmalia Benavides Aguirre, among others, also act as efficient threats that can go on the offensive, trusting that a padded life total will serve as all the defense required.

Even in mono-white, Aerith GainsboroughAerith Gainsborough and Qala, Ajani's PridemateQala, Ajani's Pridemate have walked this walk before, and we would be remiss to ignore all the great synergies that other players have found within this same strategy. But Dr. Crusher is a step above the other options.

Her doubling ability supercharges the rest of our deck and will only get better as time goes on and more cards are printed, and her efficiency is unmatched, making her a must-kill threat that can leave behind tons of value. Because her strengths are incremental and board-based, Dr. Crusher will likely fit best into Bracket 2, but she can certainly compete above her weight class as well.

Key Cards for Dr. Beverly CrusherDr. Beverly Crusher

The first thing I did to build this deck was to head over to Scryfall and enter the text "whenever gain life." This brings up two groups of cards that will form the core of this deck: those that say "whenever [insert condition], gain [some amount of] life," and those that read "whenever you gain life, [reward]." The former will let us stack up the different instances of gaining life so that our payoffs are always triggering, and the latter are the triggers that our commander lets us double.

By far, the most common ability that triggers from gaining life puts a +1/+1 counter on the creature, the same as our commander's second ability. We have access to a whopping eighteen redundant versions of Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate, all of which will get twice as many +1/+1 counters with our commander on the battlefield. They all serve a similar function in our deck, and the most important part about them is the density of interchangeable pieces they give us access to, but some still do stand out.

Gideon's CompanyGideon's Company gets two +1/+1 counters whenever we gain life (four if we control Dr. Crusher), meaning it can quickly threaten to take out players in one or two swings. Minwu, White MageMinwu, White Mage always grows itself, but will often also buff up some of our other creatures, since we're incidentally running more than twenty Clerics. And Leonardo, Cutting EdgeLeonardo, Cutting Edge is just a great rate, giving us lifelink and opening up tricks with sneaking him in for only one or two mana.

Of the non-Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate-style cards that trigger off of gaining life, a couple give us the much-needed card advantage that a low-curve mono-white deck craves. Well of Lost DreamsWell of Lost Dreams and Dawn of HopeDawn of Hope still make us pay the cost on the copied version of their abilities, but that does give us more opportunities to turn mana into cards, letting us keep the train rolling if we're ahead or rebuild if we're behind.

Another gem that combines perfectly with Dr. Crusher is the newly-spoiled Ajani ResoluteAjani Resolute, who will gain so much loyalty that he'll be almost impervious to combat damage. Once our opponents give up on attacking him, he loses the typical downside of planeswalkers in Commander, and we'll be able to use him to pump out Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate tokens every turn.

Now that we have the payoffs established, we need a strong cast of enablers. Soul WardenSoul Warden and Soul's AttendantSoul's Attendant remain the strongest Lifegain engines in a multiplayer format defined by creatures, and in mono-white we can also easily cast Auriok ChampionAuriok Champion. We want our engines to give us many instances of gaining life, more than we care about how much life we gain each time.

Profane MementoProfane Memento, Spectrum SentinelSpectrum Sentinel, and Leonin ElderLeonin Elder all trigger off of surprisingly common conditions, and exploit the fact that we have multiple opponents to be well worth their one-mana costs. Archivist of OghmaArchivist of Oghma and Haliya, Guided by LightHaliya, Guided by Light gain us life, but more importantly draw us cards along with it.

Since we're planning on attacking, we get to play a few more powerful cards that can make our board absolutely massive. Linden, the Steadfast QueenLinden, the Steadfast Queen gains us one life whenever one of our creatures attacks, meaning if we send in three or four Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate lookalikes, they'll be quite a bit bigger by the time the declare blockers step rolls around.

Further up the curve, Righteous CauseRighteous Cause and Patron of the KitsunePatron of the Kitsune take that effect and run with it, triggering whenever anyone's creature attacks anywhere. Not only will we be able to stack up dice on our creatures, these cards also effectively stymie any sort of go-wide aggression, while still putting us ahead if an opponent tries to ignore us and attack someone else.

To diversify our assets, we're supplementing our plan of going tall by also including several engines that generate multiple tokens to go wide.

One of the most important combos in Modern right now is the synergy of Guide of SoulsGuide of Souls and Ocelot PrideOcelot Pride. Guide of Souls gains life when creatures enter, and Ocelot Pride creates tokens if we've gained life. Guide-Pride combo is ridiculous because of how efficient and pushed its constituent parts are, but we can find enough pieces to mimic the engine to turn it into a pretty consistent engine.

Soul WardenSoul Warden and friends are the most efficient Lifegain engines in Commander, and there are enough efficient versions at this point that we're playing nine of them without even stretching past the best ones. Ocelot PrideOcelot Pride has fewer lookalikes, but we can still find a handful. Cat CollectorCat Collector and Attended HealerAttended Healer can pump out 1/1s, and Resplendent AngelResplendent Angel, while it requires more setup, gives us truly threatening 4/4s with flying.

These triggers do not get copied by Dr. Crusher, since the life gain doesn't immediately and directly cause them to trigger, but they help us spread out our threats while creating a positive feedback loop that no Modern player will scoff at.

Finally, one of my favorite aspects of building highly synergistic decks in a single color is the amount of value we can cram into the mana base. Kabira CrossroadsKabira Crossroads, Adventurer's InnAdventurer's Inn, and Radiant FountainRadiant Fountain all help us keep the triggers coming at very little cost. Karn's BastionKarn's Bastion and Abandoned Air TempleAbandoned Air Temple can threaten to mess with combat math or turn mana into tons of extra counters.

And Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage is insane in a deck that can often threaten lethal damage from a single creature, giving us a "you lose" button to point at our scariest opponent.

Winning the Game with Dr. Beverly CrusherDr. Beverly Crusher

It's refreshing to find a Lifegain deck where this isn't a particularly difficult question. To win the game, this deck will usually attack with several creatures the size of mega-yachts, over and over, until our opponents' defenses stumble. Because of all the life we can gain, we won't be too worried about a racing situation either. As long as we can set up just enough defense to not die to commander damage, we're golden.

All this means that the most vulnerable part of our plan is our board presence, and protection spells become even higher leverage than usual. Clever ConcealmentClever Concealment can come as a huge surprise thanks to convoke, and can blank anything from single-target removal to board wipes.

Dawn's TruceDawn's Truce can protect us in two ways, by saving our board and by handing out a gift to build alliances. The OzolithThe Ozolith and The OozeThe Ooze let us keep our counters even if our creatures die, ensuring that anything left behind will quickly re-establish us as the threat.

Commander is increasingly about tempo rather than inevitability, and if we can survive the critical piece of interaction, we can try to prevent our opponents from getting a second chance at stopping us. I like building commander decks where everything could be threatening, and this opens up slots for "gotcha"-style tricks rather than dedicated win conditions.

The Deck List

Dr. Crusher is a powerhouse. Some of the most powerful commanders in the format are those that double effects, and she deserves her spot in the pantheon among Yarok, the DesecratedYarok, the Desecrated and Isshin, Two Heavens as OneIsshin, Two Heavens as One. She's just so efficient and focused, as are the cards that she amplifies. We don't need any frills to get the job done, just huge creatures that we can cast for two or three mana and turn sideways.

An assertive Lifegain deck feels like a comfort meal that's actually good for you, like squash soup or a summer stir fry. All of the triggers make sure that we're present and paying attention to the game, and we constantly get to fiddle with dice on our creatures to keep from getting antsy.

There's something about incrementing our life total upward that appeals to the beginner in every player, and this deck lets us embrace that warm fuzzy feeling without fearing that we're not affecting the board.