Indulging Patrician pEDH

Click here to view the deck on Moxfield

Indulging Patrician has a great global ability which causes each opponent to lose three life on your end step, so long as you’ve gained three life that turn. The deck we’re looking at today revolves around gaining at least three life per turn to ensure we’re ending each turn with a bang (or in this case, a bolt). It’s worth noting that while Indulging Patrician must be on the board before your end step begins to trigger, but doesn’t have to be present when gaining life since her ability merely checks that the required three life has been gained.

Patricia is great since she’s nice and beefy. At four toughness she’s got a butt that can withstand a bolt, but at only one power she’s unable to trigger her own ability even though she does have lifelink and evasion to get around most blockers. This is why we’re including a several ways to help our commander “do the thing” all on her own. Spells like Bonesplitter, Edge of Divinity, and Molting Snakeskin get us the magic number which makes things nice and simple.

Even if Patricia is only able to swing in for one, we’ve got some support in the form of Kabira Crossroads and Radiant Fountain which gain two each. Orzhov Basilica and Kor Skyfisher can get some extra value from them by bouncing them back to hand. God-Pharaoh’s Faithful turns our black spells into a consistent source of life gain.

We’ve got Soul Warden / Attendant, Suture Priest, and Lunarch Veteran to trigger on our creatures entering the battlefield. Since we’re going to be gaining life, we’re not too worried about blocking, so our creatures all have a combination of lifelink and/or are pseudo-unblockable like Guardian of the Guildpact. Cathedral Sanctifier and Lone Missionary can get us to our goal all on their own with Ephemerate there to give us an encore or two.

Scholar of Athreos give us a nice mana dump late game and can enable our commander on a stalled board state. If you’ve the likes Marauding Blight-Priest and Epicure of Blood you’re going to close out games quickly.

Parasitic Impetus is a fun card that can keep an enemy commander off our back for a bit while also gaining us some life, though it can actually be played on our own commander in a pinch if you want to get Patricia’s toughness to three since the second ability simply offsets to zero. Remember, those two life gained still count toward the three we need per turn even if we’re losing them immediately.

Speaking of getting to three, one main drawback is that Patricia’s ability only triggers on our end step, meaning that even if we get to three life gained our commander must be on the board to trigger. We’re including a number of protection spells like Adamant Will, Beaming Defiance (which also gives plus two power), and Prismatic Strands to name a few, though there are several.

Since we’re in black the usual staples like Sign in Blood, Cast Down, and Deadly Dispute are all here. Unmake is handy and an auto-include in our colors. We’re running a few card that create food tokens like Baked into a Pie and Late to Dinner. Since we’re gaining so much life a card like Final Payment and Feed the Swarm aren’t really all that painful to pay life to cast.

This is a great deck for those who enjoy large board states and lots of combat, while simultaneously threatening the board with life gain shenanigans. Always being highest in life will probably mean you’re going to be the target when damage is up for grabs, but with the consistency you’ll be gaining life this isn’t such a big deal. Games can be won simply through (P)attrition – see what we did there? Kind of proud of that one.

Pros:

• Having a high life total tends to be pretty good.
• Commander’s ability is global and since it’s “lose life” it dodges spells that prevent damage.
• High life means you can play a little more aggressively using your evasive / unblockable creatures and not worry about the clap back too much.

Cons:

• Patricia is going to be the target of a lot of removal from multiple players.
• Not really a deck you’re able to make deals with since you’re forced to bolt each opponent. Might put a target on your back.

Click here to view the deck on Moxfield

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