(Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate | Art by Svetlin Velinov)

Got Pride, Mate?

Hello, and welcome back to Singleton Shmingleton, where I bend the singleton rules of Commander by building decks with as many functional reprints of a certain card as possible. This week, I'm talking about a kitty that loves a healthy lifestyle. Dude gets hyped when you eat your spinach, because when you gain health, he gets swole. Of course I am talking about Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate, a fan favorite since Magic 2011. For more than a decade, this card is the go-to answer whenever some killjoy asks, "But how does your lifegain deck win?"

And at this point in the game, there are enough nearly-identical cards that get bigger whenever we gain life that we can rely on them as our only win conditions. Here is a list of cards that gain counters whenever we gain life.

Since when are there twenty-five of these cards? This is an example of a phenomenon that has been happening more and more often lately; critical mass redundancy sneaks up on me through supplemental releases. In this case, there's Gideon's CompanyGideon's Company from a planeswalker deck, Treebeard, Gracious HostTreebeard, Gracious Host from a Commander release stapled to a Universes Beyond release, Nykthos ParagonNykthos Paragon from Modern Masters 2, and some other cards that have just slipped under my radar. But this mass is critical!

The most-played Pridemate is Archangel of ThuneArchangel of Thune with 40,552 decks. What a classic feel-good card. I remember when this Angel dominated Standard, and it hasn't gotten any worse since. Buffing our whole team is just real good. Cleric ClassCleric Class comes in a close second with 40,504 decks, and it sure offers a whole lot of good things if you have mana. The OG catThe OG cat is our triumphant third finisher with 21,572 decks, showing that despite being outclassed by a decade of power creep, simplicity and name recognition are still powerful.

The least-played Pridemate is Treebeard, Gracious HostTreebeard, Gracious Host with 529 decks. I know he's new, but show him some love! He is one of the more powerful Pridemates, growing in proportion to the amount of life we gain, not just the frequency, and that can get out of hand fast. All the others see play in over a thousand decks, so these are all definitely cards with a place in the world. There aren't the usual stinkers like EndureEndure or Frankenstein's MonsterFrankenstein's Monster.

How To Swole-Up Your Kitties

While a couple Pridemates like Cleric of Life's BondCleric of Life's Bond and Nykthos ParagonNykthos Paragon only trigger once per turn, most of our creatures get a counter whenever we gain life. This means that to maximize them, we should find effects that generate a lot of instances of lifegain as opposed to cards that just gain a large amount of life. SoulSoul SistersSisters, creatures that gain life whenever a creature comes into play, are classic pieces to fill this niche, and they work perfectly. Sun DropletSun Droplet, a personal favorite of mine, keeps our life total from ever going too low and can generate a point of life on every player's upkeep. It even has a cat in the art! Sunscorch RegentSunscorch Regent goes absolutely nuts, gaining life (and getting huge) whenever our opponents do anything at all.

All of the Pridemates fall into the Abzan (white, black, green) color combination, so we have a lot of support for +1/+1 counter synergies as well. Hardened ScalesHardened Scales can double up our counters, and Conclave MentorConclave Mentor can even gain us life if it gets killed! And while we're talking counters synergies, there's a perfect Abzan commander for this deck in Tayam, Luminous EnigmaTayam, Luminous Enigma. We run a whole bunch of creatures with mana value three or less, so TayamTayam lets us grind for value, trading counters for extra creatures, many of which will get their own counters. In a deck that relies on synergies between individually small creatures, the ability to rebuild our pieces after removal gives us a deadly resilience.

And since we have repeatable recursion on our commander, we can put include some wonderful utility creatures. Haywire MiteHaywire Mite acts both as removal and as lifegain, Sakura-Tribe ElderSakura-Tribe Elder can help us ramp, Knight of AutumnKnight of Autumn is also removal while intersecting both of our themes. In addition, cards like Spore FrogSpore Frog and Martyr of SandsMartyr of Sands are infamous for their power alongside repeatable recursion, and they can make us virtually invincible while our Pridemates grow larger and larger.

Kami of Whispered HopesKami of Whispered Hopes is exactly the same as Spore FrogSpore Frog but in white, but a lot of people don't seem to know about it. It's played in less than a third the number of decks as Spore FrogSpore Frog, in spite of white having plentiful ways to recur small creatures. In this package, Ranger-Captain of EosRanger-Captain of Eos pulls double duty as both a tutor for our annoying creatures and a repeatable way to stop our opponents from casting spells.

Card Spotlights

Tenured InkcasterTenured Inkcaster: I love finding the exact niche a card needs to thrive. This card can get out of hand. For each Pridemate we attack with, Tenured InkcasterTenured Inkcaster drains our opponents and puts a ton of counters on our Pridemates. It's a must-kill threat.

Disciple of BolasDisciple of Bolas/Momentous FallMomentous Fall: Card advantage and lifegain? It must be Christmas! These cards are classics and still pull their weight in any deck looking to make big beaters. Having recursion in the command zone only helps.

Heliod, Sun-CrownedHeliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking BallistaWalking Ballista: Just a sneaky little infinite combo. Heliod'sHeliod's ability can target Walking BallistaWalking Ballista and then every counter removed will gain us a life, do a damage, and put a counter back. Rinse and repeat. HeliodHeliod was on-theme anyways, and Walking BallistaWalking Ballista can get tutored up with Ranger-Captain of EosRanger-Captain of Eos, so the combo is basically free value.

The Decklist

This is a deck for people who love dice and keeping track of triggers. I like this kind of deck because it makes me pay attention to the board state and keeps me engaged in the game. Lifegain decks also just activate a feel-good part of my brain, making me feel invincible when everyone else is at fifteen life and I'm at fifty. I had worried this deck would feel too similar to the Modular deck I built this spring, but the lifegain theme and reanimation package give it its own flavor, and Ajani's PridemateAjani's Pridemate and friends truly are the stars of the show. No opponent will ever underestimate Gideon's CompanyGideon's Company again.

Until Next Time

Who loves AttritionAttrition? This card is just asking to be broken. It's a powerful but symmetrical ability on a cheap body: endless potential. Come back next time to figure out how a deck can profit from running nine functional reprints of this disgustingly-named card.

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Jesse Barker Plotkin

Jesse Barker Plotkin started playing Magic with Innistrad. He was disqualified from his first Commander game after he played his second copy of Goblins of the Flarg, and it's all been uphill from there. Outside of Magic, he enjoys writing and running.