Overall, the deck looked great, and I didn't change it too much. The main focus of the upgrades was to remove a few less synergistic cards that did similar things in a better way or worked better with Liesa. I aimed to increase the card advantage, the power of the life gain spells, the win cons, and the resiliency to removal with some reanimation cards that mesh well with everything.

These are what I swapped and why. The budget comes to about $170 USD, with most of that being one powerhouse card. So, let's get into the cards.

Upgrades And Explanation

1. -

There are a ton of board wipes in the deck, and Nevinyrral's Disk is one of the weaker ones. In its place, we'll play a powerhouse life gain card and win con - Aetherflux Reservoir. Starting at 40, life and playing so many ways to gain this can take someone out of the game outright if they don't have an answer.

2. -

Basilica Bell-Haunt is a fine card, but Angel of Vitality makes all our life-gaining cards better and comes into play as a three-mana 4/4 with flying and upside.

3. -

Discerning Financier takes a whole turn to get an activation out of, and even then, it's only if someone else has more land, which is a lot of hoops for a single treasure. And at an activation cost of three mana and one of our treasures, the card draw comes at much too high of a price to work well.

On the other hand, The Gaffer can generate value the turn it enters (and on each opponent's turn) and is much easier to activate for the deck. You'll draw much more cards with this one

4. -

Astarion, the Decadent is a powerful card but not something you'll miss at six-mana. The combo of lifelink and deathtouch is always great and both abilities are good if/when they trigger. However, neither is likely to turn the tide in your favor all alone. So, we'll swap it for something that will - Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

Shelly has better stats and still has deathtouch. Beyond that she will gain you at least two life per turn and drain your opponents out when they draw cards all for two less mana. She ate up about $75 of the budget, but it is well worth it.

5. -

Aura of Silence definitely opposes artifacts and enchantments. That said, I think you've got plenty of answers on other cards for this to be cut for something a bit more versatile. Stroke of Midnight can, of course, remove artifacts and enchantments but also hits creatures and Planeswalkers too.

6. -

Twilight Prophet has a nasty effect on paper, but in my experience, it rarely works out the way we want it to - At its best, it's good, but at its worst, it isn't good, and there is a lot that has to go right. Instead, we'll run the very powerful Bloodletter of Aclazotz, which doubles up all your damage and can win you games.

7. -

With no way to untap Soulmender, it will only ever gain you one life per rotation, which is pretty bad. Furthermore, it has to tap to achieve the one, so it isn't valuable as a blocker. We can do better for our one white mana. And we will do so with Authority of the Consuls.

It gains you a life whenever a creature enters the battlefield and makes all their creatures enter tapped. This upgrade fuels our strategy and sets the opponents back quite a bit. I give this upgrade 10/10.

8. -

The appeal of Force of Despair is the instant speed ability to possibly blow someone out and the upside of possibly being free. However, I don't think either makes the card worth a spot because it has a very narrow effect. On top of that, the deck is pretty heavy on board wipes as is, with this being the weakest one, in my opinion.

In its place, I added Damn so that you'll have more effective single-target removal and still have a high number of board wipes if you need one. I think you'll find Damn more helpful in far more situations.

9. -

Painful Quandary has a powerful ability but gives our opponents too many options. If they have disposable cards, they'll ditch them; if they don't, they'll pay the life. If they are low on life, they may hold off on casting a spell. Whichever way it goes, they will always pick the best-case scenario for themselves and mitigate damage.

Instead, we'll play Bolas's Citadel, which is a monster card advantage piece.

10. -

Erebos, God of the Dead does a lot (shuts down opposing life gain and draws cards), but the card draw comes at a pretty hefty price and doesn't have much synergy beyond that. In its place, I added Alhammarret's Archive, which doubles all of our life gain and extra card draw. You'll feel the effects of Alhammarret's Archive much more than Erebos.

11. -

Rodolf Duskbringer is a big, beefy threat that can easily become indestructible in the deck. And can reanimate other creatures directly to the battlefield. The more life we gain, the bigger threat we can get back. There are plenty of good things to reanimate with this and we have the lifegain to make it happen often.

To make room for this, we'll cut Merciless Eviction. Again, the reason is that the deck has a bit more board wipes than it needs.

12. -

In a pretty devoted deck Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a straight-up win quite often. With cards like Bolas's Citadel and Sheoldred, the Apocolypse in the deck, draining each oppoent for a nasty chunk of life is pretty easy. And we've got a few ways to reanimate him and really close out games - One of which we mentioned above (Rodolf Duskbringer) works very well alongside this card.

To make room, we'll cut Vedalken Orrery. Playing creatures at instant speed is nice when it happens but isn't as impactful to your overall game as Gray Merchant of Asphodel is going to be.

13. -

Hand disruption usually doesn't pull much weight in commander because of multiple opponents. That said, we can play Cleric Class, which gains life, buffs up our creatures, and can reanimate them as well. As mentioned, Gray Merchant of Asphodel is probably the number one choice to bring back whenever possible.

14. -

The next card I added (for just a bit more recursion) is Phyrexian Reclamation. As mentioned, the deck is already quite good, and a bit of padding and resiliency against removal can go a long way. To make space, we can cut Font of Agonies. Granted, we pay life with Liesa, but this still takes quite a while to get going, and we have plenty of other powerful removal.

15. -

I can see why Fountain of Renewal made its way into the deck. However, we've upgraded the deck's ability to gain life well, so it would mainly contribute to card drawing, which it doesn't do well. In its place, we'll add Esper Sentinel to round out the card draw for the deck and further add to the pain of opponents trying to cast spells.

16. - Talisman of Heirarchy

Overall, the card draw and removal were solid, but I wanted one more ramp spell to make sure you're well set up. So, I added one more mana rock.