These Two Ranking Budget Standard Decks Cost Less than $70

Ah yes, Lifegain. It's always good cheap-o' lifegain, 'nuff said. But seriously, Lifegain archetypes have been Magic's equivalent of comfort food when it comes to budget decks since forever. Somehow the brews works just well enough to be annoying for everyone.

And that is precisely why they are worth mentioning as an eternal reminder. Ladies and gentlemen, the underrated(?) and super value meal duo in MTG Standard Bo1, as of May 2025: Good ol’ Mono White Lifegain at $55, and the (mostly) top 8 mainstay Orzhov Lifegain at $67.

Why Play Lifegain in Bo1 Standard?

Bo1 Standard is a weird animal, right? The absence of sideboards creates this bizarre ecosystem where decks would either fold in turns 2 to 3, or survive enough that by turn 4 those that are supposed to win in turns 2 to 3 would most likely scoop.

This is why it’s intuitive to stabilize quickly against the parade of aggro nonsense. When 40% of your matches are against some flavor of "turn creatures sideways and pray," starting at 20 life feels like a genuine handicap. These lifegain decks can at least extend the number of required hits, which basically tides us over those crucial first turns.

^{Has your fight or flight response kicked in yet?} 

Another pretty straightforward result of the Bo1 meta is the relative predictability of matchups, and therefore, ways to exploit it. The ladder basically has the variety of a chain restaurant menu. You know exactly what you're facing most of the time, which means you can maindeck answers that would be sideboard fodder in Bo3.

Resiliency is second nature to some decks, which is the aforementioned second requirement in Bo1. Some decks still need a bit of timing to get the right answer at the right time. But Lifegain builds can generally juggle a better variety of opening hands, which also intrinsically makes them more resilient to disruption.

Many people argue that current Control and Midrange decks with their atmospheric bombardment options are now the more threatening of the bunch. But aggro still remains as the simpler go-to build for Bo1, so Lifegain as a cheap-o' contingent as a budget deck still stands. 

 

Orzhov Lifegain: The In-and-out Budget Deck

Current Rank: 9th in Bo1
Deck Price: $67 or $55+
Key Cards:

Orzhov

This particular flavor of Orzhov Lifegain first started resurfacing when The Lost Caverns of Ixalan revitalized some of the classic effects this type of deck needs, including meta pieces that also happen to be lifelinkers (such as Deep-Cavern Bat), as well as some newer, quirkier gimmicks in the form of Amalia Benavides Aguirre. It then accelerated further with Bloomburrow with the likes of Essence Channeler and Lifecreed Duo, with MTG Foundations solidifying its most explosive plays in the current meta.

The strategy remains eternally the same: weaponize the lifegain triggers, put upfront as much lifedrain effects as much as possible, and win the race by tipping both scales to their respective directions at once. The latest build even adds a makeshift glass cannon mode, though it requires at least three cards (Raise the Past, Starscape Cleric, plus any ETB lifegainer) to work.

This deck generally pushes way beyond the seemingly FNM-esque style of its build, continually slipping in and out of the top 8 in Bo1 Standard ever since its first core pieces became available. And for the last few months since MTG Foundations was released, it has been consistently within the top 8, even if it almost always falls off the ledge every once in a while (like, right now as I publish this post).

As for its rarity composition, the rarest card in the deck, Moonshaker Cavalry, isn’t even a strict necessity, allowing the cost of the deck to go even as low as Mono White Lifegain’s price, at just $55+. There's not really that much rares either variety-wise, with at least one of them just a single copy (that emergency The End for eliminating wincons), making it very easy to build on paper.

 

Mono White Lifegain: The Bargain Classic

Current Rank: 18th in Bo1
Deck Price: $55
Key Cards:

Mono White

Alright, fine. Mono White Lifegain isn’t exactly the exceptional entry at 18th at the moment. But for a few weird months here and there over the past year, it did manage to get in and out of the top 8, which is a testament to its timeless popularity.

As all of you already know, it plays like any layman’s familiar playbook. Take advantage of the lifegain triggers, and use the lifegain itself to hold the line just long enough for your value pieces to snowball into an overwhelming board presence. Rinse, repeat, collect ladder points.

Hinterland Sanctifier became the immediate successor of Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom, which itself was the latest incarnation for the token “ETB-gain-one-life-one-drop” in Standard prior to the latest rotation last 2024. MTG Foundations then proceeded to bolster the archetype with even more lifegain trigger goodies, even giving us almost all of the necessary classics such as Ajani's Pridemate. Lastly, Duskmourn’s introduction of Leyline of Hope gave the deck its own ticking time bomb, so that in certain matchups it can also close games in turn 2 or 3. Oh, and speaking of Duskmourn, the ever-versatile super staple Sheltered by Ghosts works wonders here, even more of an absolute must since every single one of its effects is infinitely valuable to the deck’s main objectives.

The problem with this universality, of course, is that like Mono Red, this strategy is about as subtle as a brick to the face. Screaming Nemesis plus targeted burn? Bam. Deck is effectively dead. Since it is not as resource-abundant as other more meta Mono White builds, you essentially need to race against Control and Tempo builds, the matchups of which can easily turn against you with multiple turns of removing your “build-up” pieces.

Everyone knows exactly what you're trying to do, so countering it is only a matter of picking off critical targets, and crippling its field until the player eventually loses.

 

Budget Breakdown

Here are the plain numbers for your consideration:

 

Orzhov Lifegain	Mono White Lifegain
Total Cost: $67 (or $55+) Wildcards (non-lands): 2 Mythic, 11 Rare, 12 Uncommon Key budget tech: Dewdrop Cure ($0.24) Most expensive card:  Moonshaker Cavalry ($12.87) OR Virtue of Loyalty ($7.56)	Total Cost: $55 Wildcards (non-lands): 16 Rare, 12 Uncommon Key budget tech: Leyline of Hope ($0.39) Most expensive card:  Authority of the Consuls ($5.75)

Technically speaking, Mono Red is still on the lower end, averaging at about $100+/-, and can be technically considered as a budget Standard deck. So, competitively, you have a stronger option if you simply want the best bang for your buck. Then again, these two Lifegain builds still stand out, especially Orzhov, since they cost almost half and can still be just about as effective about 40% of the time against the aggro builds that are made against (theoretically).

For slightly added context, Domain Overlords, the multi-color daddy of current Standard meta, costs upwards of $200 just for the lands (and currently sits well outside the top 8 Bo1 right now at 10th). I mean, it is freaking four-color, so that is expected, but still, the investment comparison is huge when it comes to simply wanting a nice-tier deck that you can use with relatively reliable win rates. They punch above its weight class, power doesn’t come from raw card quality, and I dare even say (at least for Orzhov Lifegain), that its synergies can kinda-sorta exploit current meta weaknesses in immediate board presence and future threat analysis.

 

But Can They Beat Izzet Prowess?

Nope. Not really.

But to elaborate, between Monastery Swiftspear putting on early pressure, Stormchaser's Talent providing an endless stream of gas, Cori-Steel Cutter creating infinite value at haste, and plotted cards, this deck just pushes the “unexpected comeback kill” strategy at every turn, instead of the usual “play big, win early” mombo-wombo move that any aggro deck is designed to do.

^{Pretty good counter... if you can time it well.}

If we optimistically think of how the two Lifegain decks would play the match out in a one-off Bo1 scenario:

One and two-drop gainers can help offset early aggression. For Orzhov, Raise the Past requires a bit of setup, either surviving long enough to recycle lost critters, or heaving relying on a turn-one Snarling Gorehound. If you can pull it off, though, the match evens out. Other than that, Deep-Cavern Bat can provide early warning, plus a bit of a disruption.

Mono White ironically has more tricks up its sleeve, despite its predictability. First off, Screaming Nemesis and Sunspine Lynx are rarely used by Izzet Prowess in Bo1 matchups, even if your deck is still a sitting duck to strategic removal (of trigger options). Much like in a Control setup, you would have to play more of a mind-game, deliberately playing cards you want to be zapped to make way for the combos that will allow you to survive. In this context Linden, the Steadfast Queen becomes far less useful, although Leyline of Hope and Authority of the Consuls can also instantly make or break games given that Izzet Prowess cannot directly deal with it.

Despite these ideal scenarios, both decks will still be mostly fighting an uphill battle here. Izzet's speed and consistency can still overwhelm your slower engines at the tiniest opportunity it can get. Sheltered by Ghosts ain't no Temporary Lockdown, and even the latter requires near perfect timing to just to delay a surprise kill from Izzet Prowess.

To Buy Singles or Not to Buy Singles for Lifegain?

Should you craft or purchase singles for Orzhov Lifegain? If you're on a budget, why the heck not? The deck offers that perfect intersection of power and affordability that many chill folks want. Just be warned; its success may eventually lead to more hate-specific strats finding its way into main decks.

For those still eyeing a Mono White Lifegain build, it’s… fine. In MTG Arena, at least, you probably have more than half of the cards already without realizing it. Devoid of significant innovation or new tools in upcoming sets, expect it to keep outside the limbo of being somewhat close to the top 8 but never really getting popular again to occasionally slip through. Players will eventually get tired of losing to the same strategy they've seen for years, anyway.