Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel turns every lifegain event into card draw by paying that much life, so this Orzhov deck gains life constantly and converts it into a huge hand. Its own tap ability drains and gains each turn. Lifegain doublers and repeatable triggers make each event bigger, and drain-on-gain enchantments and creatures turn the same life into damage against every opponent. Exquisite Blood and Bloodthirsty Conqueror close the loop: each drain feeds more gains, and the gains feed more drains. How it wins: It drains opponents out through looped lifegain-to-life-loss engines like Sanguine Bond or Exquisite Blood with Vito or Enduring Tenacity, or kills with Aetherflux Reservoir, Gray Merchant, Exsanguinate, or Beacon of Immortality doubling a huge life total into a Sanguine Bond trigger. Key roles: - Lifegain triggers: Small, repeatable sources gain life whenever creatures enter, spells are cast or opponents act, and each one feeds Niv-Mizzet's draw and every payoff in the deck (Soul Warden, Authority of the Consuls, Kambal, Consul of Allocation). - Lifegain amplifiers: Doublers and bonus-life effects inflate each gain, so Niv-Mizzet draws far more cards and every drain payoff hits harder (Alhammarret's Archive, Rhox Faithmender, Cleric Class). - Drain conversion and loops: Payoffs turn gained life into opponent life loss. Paired with effects that gain life whenever opponents lose it, they create self-sustaining kill loops (Sanguine Bond, Exquisite Blood, Bloodthirsty Conqueror). - Life as a resource: The deck spends its swollen life total on cards and mana, refilling and digging for engine pieces (Bolas's Citadel, The One Ring, Well of Lost Dreams). - Burst finishers: Big drains and the Reservoir end games outright, and Beacon of Immortality doubles life into lethal through a drain payoff (Aetherflux Reservoir, Exsanguinate, Beacon of Immortality). - Draw punishment and alternate wins: Opponents' draws are taxed or drained while the deck's own heavy draws ping the table, with library-out and Approach wins as backups (Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Psychosis Crawler, Doctor Doom, Unrivaled).

Niv-Mizzet, Ghost Counsel decklist

• Aetherflux Reservoir
• Ajani Resolute
• Alhammarret's Archive
• Anguished Unmaking
• Approach of the Second Sun
• Arcane Signet
• Authority of the Consuls
• Beacon of Immortality
• Black Market Connections
• Bleachbone Verge
• Blind Obedience
• Blood Artist
• Bloodthirsty Conqueror
• Bojuka Bog
• Bolas's Citadel
• Brightclimb Pathway
• Cabal Coffers
• Caves of Koilos
• Children of Korlis
• Cleric Class
• Command Tower
• Damn
• Dark Ritual
• Dawn's Truce
• Debt to the Deathless
• Despark
• Doctor Doom, Unrivaled
• Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• Enduring Tenacity
• Esper Sentinel
• Exquisite Blood
• Exsanguinate
• Fetid Heath
• Flawless Maneuver
• Geier Reach Sanitarium
• Godless Shrine
• Grand Abolisher
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• Haliya, Guided by Light
• Inkshield
• Insatiable Avarice
• Isolated Chapel
• Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• Karlov of the Ghost Council
• Lightning Greaves
• Liliana the Faultless
• Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
• Marauding Blight-Priest
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• Orzhov Signet
• Path to Exile
• Phyrexian Arena
• 10× Plains
• Pristine Talisman
• Psychosis Crawler
• Reanimate
• Reliquary Tower
• Restoration Magic
• Rhox Faithmender
• Sanguine Bond
• Shattered Sanctum
• Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• Silence
• Smothering Tithe
• Sol Ring
• Sorin of House Markov
• Soul Warden
• Soul's Attendant
• Starscape Cleric
• Suture Priest
• 8× Swamp
• Swords to Plowshares
• Tainted Field
• Talisman of Hierarchy
• The One Ring
• The Wind Crystal
• Thought Vessel
• Toxic Deluge
• Vampiric Tutor
• Vault of Champions
• Vault of the Archangel
• Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• Windbrisk Heights
• Ajani, Strength of the Pride
• Archangel of Thune
• Creeping Bloodsucker
• Crypt Ghast
• Emeritus of Woe
• Erode
• Gleaming Splendor
• Ivory Tower
• Mother of Runes
• Parting Gust
• Tainted Pact
• Well of Lost Dreams
• Words of Worship