Commander
Deck list
View this Karlov of the Ghost Council deck list
Strategy
This Karlov of the Ghost Council deck is a creature based lifegain deck with a voltron sub theme. The deck relies heavily on the Commander and aims to remove a player with a hit or two with commander damage. Karlov's exile ability is also crucial for winning as you have a strong creature removal with only two mana.
Early Game
Karlov of the Ghost Council is a 2-CMC creature, so the early game is crucial to get right. Karlov is useless without the +1/+1 counters and getting them is very important. Good starting hand allows you to play Karlov on turn 2 and entering immediately with a +1/+1 counter. This can be achieved with many ways eg. Soul's Attendant, Soul Warden, Ajani's Welcome or Vampire of the Dire Moon.
Karlov is completely useless without counters so I always build up my resources, with card draw, mana ramp or other utility permanents like Pristine Talisman, Arguel's Blood Fast, Bontu's Monument or Phyrexian Arena before casting the commander.
Mid Game
I refer to turns 3-5 with mid game. During these steps Karlov should get at least a few lifegain triggers per turn. As Karlov is prone to removals I added some protection like Whispersilk Cloak, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots and heavy focus on card draw to find them with Cosmos Elixir, Dawn of Hope, Erebos, God of the Dead, Read the Bones and Well of Lost Dreams.
The late game dictates the strength of this deck so I chose most of the card draw to be permanents to get a lot of resources from them with no hate elements to avoid point removals.
Late Game
In most of my games Karlov get removed at least once, maybe twice, which makes the casting difficult. For this reason I added some recursion elements like Sun Titan and Nigthmare Shepherd to get Karlov and the soul sisters back if needed. The decks strongest cards with Karlov are the 1CMC creatures like Soul's Attendant, Soul Warden and Thrull Parasite. Usually I get maybe one of them on the table before turn 5, but if those are missed the deck will not stand a chance so as a last resort I put Ranger of Eos to the deck for tutoring them.
Winning games
The main strategy is to kill the opponents with commander damage. Evasion spells like Gift of Orzhova and Whispersilk Cloak or trample from Shadowspear are often the most cost effective wincons. Non-combat based wincons are Aetherflux Reservoir, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Vizkopa Guildmage. The deck also contains Heliod, Sun-Crowned so Triskelion and Walking Ballista are viable instant wins, too.
Overall review
Who is this for
If you like lifegain and like activated triggers to build up your strategies I believe this kind of Karlov of the Ghost Council deck might be an interesting choice.
Maybe not for you
If your playgroup has a low power level or you don't enjoy creature based decks this version might not be for you. If you are more interested in aristocrat themed lifegain I would try Teysa Karlov or you have a tribal interest I'd suggest Licia, Sanguine Tribune with a Vampire tribal.
As Karlov of the Ghost Council is quite pricey, I would test the deck a few times in archideckt before buying.
Power level
8/10
Karlov's low mana cost and the exile a creature ability caused some discussion in our playgroup since in the very first games they didn't know how the deck worked and allowed Karlov to grow to 20+/20+ numbers. In such numbers Karlov can easily remove every creature threat on the table. For this reason we soft-banned Karlov after 5th consecutive win.
In the next games my opponents targeted Karlov with soft removals like bounce effects like unsummon to remove the +1/+1 counters. These tricks were more than enough to crush my own game style and I had to come up with alternative wincons like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Vizkopa Guildmage.
If you have similar experiences with Karlov of the Ghost Council could you share your experiences?
Overall I don't believe Karlov is close to cEDH or power level 9 unless you use infinite combos.
Upgrades
The biggest weakness in the deck is the mana ramp at the moment so first additions would be Orzhov Signet, Fellwar Stone. Secondly I would add more cheap lifegain triggers with Authority of the Consuls, Kambal, Consul of Allocation, Lifelink and Auriok Champion. For flavorful reasons I would change Triskelion and Walking ballista to Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood.
For cEDH I would include all 4 to maximize combos and definitely Lurrus of the Dream-Den for cheap recursion.
