Commander Overview
Hope Estheim is a very interesting commander and not your typical mill commander, originally I was quite skeptical of how good Hope would be but after playing quite a few testing games this is a very fun and interesting take on a mill deck and just a blast to play and quite strong, combining lifegain and mill has been a ton of fun. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this one and how well it worked. There are so many awesome ways to gain life in Azorius, and it is extremely easy to pull off. While Hope Estheim is in a set jam-packed with some amazing commanders, it’s not hard to see why they fell through the cracks, but they really are a hidden gem and a ton of fun.
Creature 31
Instant 15
Sorcery 5
Artifact 9
Enchantment 5
Land 35
EDH BRACKET
The average current preconstructed deck.
- No Mass Land Denial
- No Chaining Extra Turns
- No 2-Card Infinite Combos
- No Game Changers
- Few Tutors
How to Play the Deck
Playing the deck is straightforward as a deck can get, gain life, play our cheap two mana commander and make our opponents mill a ton, we also have a ton of sources to gain life cheaply like Soul Warden or Lunarch Veteran and these can be great passive source of lifegain throughout the game and even though the mill only works on our turn it is still great to have. Playing the deck is simple, and really, any player can do it. There aren’t many complicated interactions, and I would say this deck is pretty new-player-friendly. They may struggle with managing some of the triggers, but there aren’t a huge number of things to manage throughout the deck.
Synergy’s in the deck
Our two main synergy packages in the deck are lifegain and mill, as our commander would suggest. They are both entirely intertwined through our game plan, and there are constant elements of both on the board and during the game, as they are the only thing our deck really does. We are very good at passively gaining life through cards like Guide of Souls, and having a higher life total is just great because we are less susceptible to dying in combat and, more importantly, are a lot better against opponents’ combat strategies. In contrast, some of our life gains may not occur on our turn, but we don’t care; keeping our life total high is important. When we do get around to our turn, we can get a lot of value out of cards like Space-Time Anomaly or Beacon of Immortality to get a ton of life and, more importantly, mill out our opponents.
Phases of the Game
Early-Game: The early-game is pretty simple for us although we do almost always bring out Hope since they only cost two mana and can if we have some cheap lifegain creatures like Soul Warden we can start the milling pretty quickly, while it is an option it can be quite inconsistent so we often just setup for the mid-late game.
Mid-Game: The mid-game is a great time for us, we typically have a decently high life total and can start playing out some of our best creatures like Archangel of Thune which is not only a great way to make us a threat in combat but if opponents have cards that shuffle in like Blightsteel Colossus we can end the game with combat. Since our opponents are getting bigger and better, too, we can get a lot of value out of cards like Divine Congregation and force our opponents to mill a ton, so we stick to the core gameplan here.
Late-Game: By this stage of the game our opponents should have a pretty low card count left in their library so we can easily end the game with cards like White Sun's Twilight or Heliod's Intervention to finish off our opponents, if we are at a higher life total cards like Aetherflux Reservoir are another great option to end the game, by this point opponents shouldn’t have that much left. Still, we can use our life total to our advantage here.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
We don’t ramp really at all, but have a very good mana curve that allows us to play things consistently and maintain a lot of tempo on the board. While we don’t ramp, we also have the benefit of having a commander that only costs two mana, allowing us to get them out early and, more importantly, recast them quite a few times before it becomes impossible. While we don’t ramp a lot in this deck, we are still great at getting our stuff out and having a successful gameplan.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
We have quite a lot of sources of card draw in the deck, like Alhammarret's Archive, which is a great support piece to the lifegain gameplan, works perfectly with cards like Drogskol Reaver, which, while a bit pricey, is a consistent source of card draw for the deck. Haliya, Guided by Light and The Gaffer are also cheap and easy sources of card draw for us to pull off quite easily. Sphinx of the Revelation and Sphinx's Revelation are also great sources of card draw and lifegain for the deck, truly the best of both worlds.
Removal
Azorius isn’t amazing at removal but we do have some options like Fumigate which is perfect if we fall behind and need to slow the game down, we also have our few counterspells with the namesake Counterspell as well as Dovin's Veto which are great ways to stop an opponent from casting something problematic. We finish off with a true removal core in Generous Gift, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile, which are all cheap and easy ways to remove problematic stuff our opponents have. We don’t have a big removal package, but since we mill so many cards, we often deny opponents access to their best stuff.
Protection
Outside of our counterspells, we don’t have an amazing protection package, and that is by design, as long as we have our commander, who we always have access to, we aren’t super hurt by losing much else, and we can roll with the punches, and if it’s that critical, we do have counterspells to back it up
Utility / Support
Let’s go over some of the best cards in the deck, I am a huge fan of Space-Time Anomaly and Beacon of Immortality since they almost always are kill-shots to our opponents if we have our commander out and if an opponent doesn’t die we are easily able to withstand their board since our life total is so high. Riot Control and War Report are cheap and easy ways for us to gain a ton of life and make our opponents mill a ton of cards for almost no effort! Gogo, Master of Mimicry works amazingly with our commander and allows us to use Hope’s ability multiple times, and with enough lifegain and enough mana, can allow us to end the game. I also love Spark Double in this deck as it allows us to make an additional copy of Hope and have those end-of-turn triggers happen twice.
Mana Base
While our landbase isn’t super interesting, we do have some great non-basics like Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital, which is basically a Traumatize for our deck and a decent land. I’m also a huge fan of Kabira Crossroads because it works well with our commander and lets us get a +2 on our end-of-turn mill. Blighted Steppe is a little pricey to activate, but if we have a huge board, it can allow us to force our opponents to mill a ton of cards. We round out our mana base with Radiant Fountain and Adventurer's Inn, which have the same effect as Kabira Crossroads. This mana base is efficient for the deck and works well.
Win Conditions
We have a few primary win conditions, with mill being the primary one. Utilizing cards like Beacon of Immortality allows us to mill nearly our opponents’ entire deck quickly. If we have to go in this direction, Archangel of Thune is a great option if we need to transition to a beatdown gameplan. We finish up our win conditions with Aetherflux Reservoir, which is pretty easy for us to pull off and is perfect if there is only one opponent left.
Strengths of the Deck
We are great against creature decks since we often have a high life total and can take a lot of extra hits.
Because of hope and our overall mill game plan, we deny opponents access to a lot of cards in their deck.
Weaknesses of the Deck
We have a tough matchup against graveyard decks since we help them out quite a bit by filling up their graveyard.
We are extremely reliant on our commander, as they are the main way our deck works. If they die, it can be quite tough for us to win. They are cheap, so we can recast them a few times, but we do need them on the battlefield.
Deck Testing/Matchups
I tested this deck against three different decks
Game 1: Vs Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Matchup Record: 1-3
This was a rough matchup for the deck, mostly because we end up helping them more than we hurt them, Meren decks love having their graveyard full and we help them with this a lot, in the game i did win I and the other players at the table were able to keep Meren off of the field which can remove a lot of explosiveness from the deck, keeping Meren off of the field is key here.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Counterspell, Generous Gift and Honor the Fallen.
Game 2: Vs Baylen the Haymaker. Matchup Record: 3-0
This was a great matchup for our deck, a lot of our best stuff includes cards like Divine Congregation and White Sun's Twilight and just having a bigger life total than them allows us to take a lot of their hits, we do need to be pretty careful as if they drop something like City on Fire we can absolutely be in trouble but overall its not a bad matchup for our deck, stick to the core gameplan here and you should be just fine.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Divine Congregation, Angel of Destiny and Alhammarret's Archive.
Game 3: Vs Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. Matchup Record: 4-2
While we did have an advantage in the win column in this matchup overall it isn’t amazing for us but is very much winnable, the main point of contention in this matchup is that filling up Grimgrin’s graveyard can help them more than we hurt them, we can get huge benefits off of cards like Honor the Fallen which is great but can be inconsistent, watch out for Patriach's Bidding style effects and you should be just fine.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Honor the Fallen, Countespell and Riot Control.
Conclusion
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed this one. Hope Estheim is an interesting and, in my opinion, underrated option for an Azorius mill deck. Azorius mill is a lot different than Dimir mill, but overall is still strong and viable within the format.