Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Licia, Sanguine Tribune!

Licia is an eight mana 4/4 that costs 1 less for each 1 life you gained this turn, has first strike, lifelink, and we can pay 5 life to put three +1/+1 counters on Licia once each turn and only on our turns.

Licia is pretty restrictive in how often we can put counters on them, but the fact that we can get them into play for so cheap is actually really good, especially if we want to evade overpaying for Commander Tax.

The plan of the deck is to have ways to gain a bunch of life so we can cast Licia cheaply, pay life on our turns in order to get Licia big, and win via Commander Damage because by the time Licia can attack normally we can get them to be a 10/10 for only 10 life, which then gets bigger and bigger the more life we put in, as well as getting that life back and other pay offs included in that mix.

Since our goal is to gain a bunch of life, the best starting point is to start looking at ways we can start gaining a bunch of life.

Tithe Drinker is a simple enough starting point in that it is a two mana creature with 2 power and lifelink, which is good, but it also happens to have Extort, which means that whenever we cast a spell we can pay a black or a white in order to drain our opponents of 1 life while we gain one life, meaning that we have and active and passive way to gain life.

Gifted Aetherborn is also a simple creature on the surface, being a two mana creature with deathtouch and lifelink, but that serves as a really good early blocker, especially if an opponent manages to get their Commander out early and we need a bit of a wall that can block it while also placing pressure against attacking us.

If we want to focus on just pure life gain then Revitalize is good since we just gain 3 life and draw a card, Invoke the Divine destroys an artifact or enchantment while gaining us 4 life, and Crypt Incursion exiles all creatures from a graveyard while gaining us 3 life for each card exiled this way.

We can also put in a bit of pressure by using Exsanguinate as a way to have each opponent lose X life while we gain life equal to the total amount of life lost this way, which can easily make Licia be able to be cast for three mana, regardless of where we are in the game state and how many times they have died.

There is also a bit of cheeky life gain in using Chandra’s Ignition, which has target creature deal damage equal to each other creature and each opponent, which when combined with a creature with lifelink and/or deathtouch can gain us a ton of life while also killing a bunch of creatures since the creature is the source of damage, not the spell.

Since we are already going to be playing around with our life total by making it go up, we can also play around by using our life a resource.

Treasonous Ogre is great for this because we can pay 3 life in order to get one red mana, which we can use for a plethora of things, especially if we have a decent amount of ways to get a whole bunch of life. While having Dethrone isn’t the biggest aspect, it can still come in useful if we happen to be lower on life than we like.

If our life total manages to stay pretty high, then cards like Stinging Study become better because we draw cards and lose life equal to the mana value of our Commander, which while we can get Licia onto the battlefield for cheap, Licia is still an eight mana Commander, and we can cast it at instant speed to get a ton of cards for our upcoming turn or to refuel our hand when we need it.

Dark Confidant also becomes an interesting consideration since we get an additional card in hand at the cost of life equal to the mana value of the card, which could be a decent amount but if we happen to be gaining a ton of life then it should be able to balance itself out.

Phyrexian Purge is a very interesting removal spell since we can pay 3 life for each target to destroy those creatures, Anguished Unmaking to exile a permanent while losing 3 life , and Bond of Agony has us pay an additional X life in order to have our opponents lose that much life as well.

To look for a quirky way for us to use our life there is Mages’ Contest, which is a red counter spell but you and the owner of the spell bid on how much life to spend where if you win you counter that spell, but if you lose then the spell continues after your opponent pays the life. It’s an interesting win-win scenario where you can counter a spell or have your opponent lose a ton of life if they want their spell to be cast.

The last thing we need is a bit of extra damage to help us get through to a win, and a bit of protection to keep Licia around as well.

in terms of getting a ton of damage, Aettir and Priwen is perfect for the deck since it gives the equipped creature base power and toughness equal to our life total, which should ideally be pretty high so that Licia can deal an absurd amount of damage.

Don’t forget that Licia has lifelink, meaning that any additional life gain payoffs can be used like Nykthos Paragon, which we may put a number of +1/+1 counters on each creature we control once each turn equal to the amount of life we gained, which we can choose to save after a big swing to make an absurdly huge Licia.

Combine that with something like an Enduring Tenacity which has an opponent lose life equal to the amount of life we gained then that can we can drain our opponents to zero after a couple of attacks.

Since we are in red we can also make use of cards similar to the previously mention Chandra’s Ignition like the new Pain for All, which enchants a creature we control which deals damage equal to its power to any other target and whenever our creature is dealt damage it deals that much damage to each opponent.

Again, combining this with a lifelink creature and a way to drain our opponents can have us gain a metric ton of life, and if we have access to the infinite life drain combo of Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond, then we can win the game fairly consistently.

If you don’t have access to that combo or don’t want to use it, then having Licia being a Voltron Commander is not that hard, especially if we back it with protection spells like Loran’s Escape which gives hexproof and indestructible to a creature as well as a scry 1, or a Dawn’s Truce which can give us and creatures we control hexproof or if we gift a card to an opponent then it also gives them indestructible, or even Flare of Fortitude in case of an absolute emergency to not have our life total change, and give our permanents hexproof and indestructible.

Licia is an interesting blend of a life gain Commander and a Voltron Commander, which can really dictate how you can build the deck. You can lean in more on the life gain strategies to make it hard for you to lose while gaining a ton of life, or the Voltron strategy which uses you life as a resource to get Licia bigger and snowball from there.

The most difficult aspect is making sure Licia stays on the battlefield, because while we do have numerous ways to get Licia in play if we need to keep casting them, those ways only go so deep so we have to make sure we have the right set up for the win or at the very least be in a dominant position when we get Licia in play.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual