However, every Liesa list I've played and/or seen is brimming with head-scratchers. In particular, they're all chock full of low impact punisher effects: Ankh of Mishra, Underworld Dreams, Fate Unraveler, Polluted Bonds, the list goes on.
Now, there's not actually a right or wrong way to build a commander deck, I just chose an antagonizing title for %$#% and giggles, however, I realy don't think these effects belong in Liesa.
Their are a number of reasons to run these effects in a deck, in particular aggro decks and decks that can break parity on the effects. However, Liesa is not an aggro commander, her mana cost alone pretty much excludes her. Liesa DOES break parity on symetrical punisher cards simply by having lifelink, but, to be honest, her lifelink is usually only enough to negate her own effect + the cost of recasting her, she's nothing like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell who just gets better and better the more punisher effects you have out.
I specifically want to call out Blood Artist as a powerful card that has no business being in these lists.
I've played against Liesa at least a dozen times, and I don't think I've ever seen it win. Liesa usually throws out a bunch of hateful permanents, putting her tenuously ahead since she's gaining 5 life a turn, which just forces the table to gang up on her, and she quickly dies because she's fighting off the rest of the table and her own cards. to be honest, I suspect she's still trying to follow in Kambal, Consul of Allocation's footsteps. They do share a lot of surface-level similarities, but I think they're just that: surface level, Kambal is asymetrical and much cheaper, lending itself more to an aggro-punisher style deck.
Liesa is slow, she costs 5 mana, her punisher effect will take 20 triggers to kill the table, and her mana discount ability is only usefull if games are going long enough for you to recast your commander multiple times in a game. So let's slow the game down, let's run a bunch of wipes to make sure we're getting our money's worth out of her tax evasion, let's find ways to give Liesa haste and vigilance so that we can hunker down and outlive any hate we might incur, and let's wait until Liesa's punisher ability has whittled down the table enough and we've developed mana enough to finish the table off with a Torment of Hailfire.
We can still run group slug effects, but let's only run asymetrical effects, and let's only run high impact effects, something tells me Revenge of Ravens is never going to drain enough life to justify a card in our hand, Painful Quandary, on the other hand, is a groan-inducing card for a reason.
Is this all an excuse for me to brew another slow grindy control deck? Probably, but I bet it's going to be better than every Liesa deck I've played against.
(Also, the iconic Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond combo is actually pretty decent in this deck, as both halves are decent, but infinite combos are cringe, so I'm not running either of them).
Orzhov Control
Approximate Total Cost:
You'll note their is only 3 group-slug cards (and Wound Reflection arguably belongs in the finisher category) but that's kind of the point: most group slug cards are pretty awful stand-alone cards, so I can just run the select few stellar options.
Considering the deck is hoping to go long and hoping to cast lethal Exsanguinates, 1 mana ramp like Arcane Signet are pretty anemic, instead I want to set up ramp engines, like Sword of the Animist so that I can really pull ahead on mana.
In a similar vein, I realize the swamp count is suspiciously low for Cabal Coffers, but when you look at it as a late-game combo with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Exsanguinate, it makes a lot more sense.
I'm irrationally happy that I've finally found a home for Silversmote Ghoul, that card is so cool, but hasn't really been a good fit in any other deck I've built.
Every single wipe in this list costs 4 mana to play. Against faster decks, minimally committing to the board in the early game, and only developing once you've cast a board wipe is a pretty great way to make sure you get set up before they run you over. Unfortunately, in most decks, you can't really build around this play pattern, because your commander probably costs <=4 and you probably don't have too many wipes to choose from anyways. However, in an Orzhov deck, planning to go long with a 5 MV commander,it makes a lot of sense to make sure t4 board wipe t5 commander is on the table as often as possible, doesn't mean you have to cast a board wipe just because you can, but having the option is pretty powerful.
I'm not too sure about the Liesa buffs package I came up with though. As I identified earlier, Haste and Vigilance are very desirable keywords, so I gave a lot of weight to effects that provide both, however, it also means that a lot of them are redundant effects. Imagine drawing Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves, and Haunted Cloak in one game. It might have been wiser to look for effects that also provide a stat bonus, even if that means we can't get vigilance and haste from the same card. We do have a couple of tutors to help you find any keyword you need. Sparring Regimen in particular stood out as a pretty sweet card if I want to go that route.
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