it could be played independently of other Magic products
Squeeze in a couple of inexpensive planeswalkers to help absorb ground attacks in Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor and Jace, Architect of Thought
Merlins Animal Forms Confirmed
This deck also features tons of creatures who love it when counters are put on them with Lord Jyscal Guado Guado and standing out the most
If Meilin Lee (Enchanted) shows up in top competitive decks, it's because the card's abilities are strong -- the standard-art version would perform identically
Once you internalize that, the card evaluations below become obvious: ask of every card, is this a source or a payoff, and does the rest of my deck cover the other side? Best lifegain sources (the engines) You want repeatable, incremental gain lots of small triggers beat one big lifegain spell, because payoffs like Vito or Archangel of Thune care about the number of times you gain, not just the total