Rowan, Scion of War + Stensian Sanguinist // Exsanguinate + Lord of the Forsaken

Rowan, Scion of War

Stensian Sanguinist // Exsanguinate

Lord of the Forsaken

How it works

1. Activate Lord of the Forsaken by paying life.
2. Repeat step 1 as desired.
3. Activate Rowan by tapping it, reducing the cost of all black and/or red spells you cast this turn.
4. Cast a copy of Exsanguinate, choosing for X to equal the amount of life you've lost this turn, but paying a total of due to Rowan.
5. Resolve Exsanguinate, causing each opponent to lose X life, and you to gain life equal to the life lost this way.

This fascinating setup turns self-inflicted pain into a catastrophic drain on your opponents, leveraging Lord of the Forsaken's ability to repeatedly pay life and generate colorless mana. While Stensian Sanguinist // Exsanguinate sits patiently waiting to be cast, Rowan, Scion of War uses that massive accumulated life loss to deeply discount your black and red spells. Once the cost is sufficiently reduced, you can cast Exsanguinate for a massive value of X, draining the table dry while Lord of the Forsaken helps fuel the entire engine.