The backbone of this deck is the one-drop lifelinkers Healer's Hawk and Soulmender plus the more expensive 4-drop Archon of Sun's Grace- they serve to feed the lifegainers Ajani's Pridemate and Gideon's Company and make them grow - rapidly.

4x Banishing Light are included to remove enemy fliers preventing the Healer's Hawk from attacking, there's also a Heliod's Punishment as a temporary solution to the same problem.

2x Bond of Discipline help get a good poweful attack in, once the lifegainers have reached a certain strength, since they also give your creatures temporary lifelink, they can help pave the way for...

Ajani, Strength of the Pride - once you reach 35 life, you can instantly remove all enemies while preserving your own army. There are 4 of these in the deck, which may seem like overkill, but opponents often sense the danger so tend to try removing this card. Having 4 of them means that you should get another one relatively soon. Another reason for having 4 of these is the +1 ability: gain life equal to your devotion to white - since this deck is mono white, this function can really boost your life total mid- to late game.

Other important cards include Heliod, Sun-Crowned, mainly because he lets you put counters on your Healer's Hawk, making them more effective and less vulnerable.

Since there's no such thing as too much mana, the deck also contains a Nyx Lotus - even if you're not desperate for mana, the extra supplies can always be used to create cannon fodder soldier tokens with the Castle Ardenvale

In order for this deck to work, it is vital to get a playable opening hand, in this case meaning that it absolutely MUST contain at least 1 Healer's Hawk or Soulmender - if this is not the case, it's not worth bothering. Also if the opponent plays mono red and takes out all your cornerstones (lifelinkers + lifegainers) within the first 2-3 rounds, using Shock, Lava Coil etc., it's time to concede.

Soulmender doesn't seem to be a very popular card, but in my experience often makes or breaks the match because, let's face it, a Healer's Hawk is not very powerful until boosted (by Heliod etc.) and Archon is a 4-drop so takes a while before it can be played. Since the deck is based on many tiny creatures, you need to start boosting asap... you simply can't afford to wait for several rounds. So in situations where you can't attack, Soulmender will still be able to boost your tanks, preparing them for battle. This is also vital for preventing your opponents from attacking. If you have a 8/8 Gideon's Company for example (and this is entirely possible after just a few rounds), opponents will think twice before attacking... and remember: one of the main goals is to reach 35 life points, so that Ajani, Strength of the Pride can wipe the board of enemy creatures, so if you can scare him from attacking, you'll reach the 35 life much sooner. This is also why you should try to save the Banishing Light for enemy fliers, able to bypass your boosted non-fliers.

Of course, the main weakness of mono white is, that once you lose a creature, it's gone for good, but this deck has a fairly high amount of substitutes to replace the inevitable losses... as long as it doesn't happen every round and to all your cornerstones. Losing a Hawk, for example, you can play a Soulmender and be up and running again in the following round.

This deck is called Flying Lifelink 60 because there's a related deck of 73 cards, that I sometimes use instead - it's basically the same, but with most of the sideboard cards added into the main deck. Playing the 73 card version means thare's a higher risk of not getting a playable opening hand, but it does offer a few extra defensive options and also includes some nice extra cards that lets you gain life (and thereby boost your lifegainers) whenever a card enters the battlefield.

One card from the sideboard worthy of special mention is Angelic Gift and you may consider adding not just one, but 2 or 3 of them, possibly replacing an Ajani, Heliod and/or Heliod's Punishment in order to make room in the 60 card deck. The magic of Angelic Gift is, that it will give your boosted creatures flying, making them able to bypass almost any enemy to deliver some hefty punches... imagine having an 18/18 Gideon's Company with flying AND lifelink (granted from either Heliod, Sun-Crowned or Gideon Blackblade

One card that has been relegated to the Maybeboard is Linden, the Steadfast Queen - you may want to include it? It often works really well, but I just couldn't find room for it here.

The deck has been working really well against most types of opponents. The biggest weaknesses are against mono red if the opponent is lucky enough to have several cheap removal spells right from the start (Shock, Lava Coil etc.) and also against mono green if you get off to a less than perfect start (like if you don't get any lifegainers within the first 3 rounds or so)

NOTE: Did a HyperGeo Calc on the deck and found that there's a 65% chance of getting one or more of either Healer's Hawk or Soulmender in the opening hand, meaning that - according to the guidelines mentioned above - there's a 35% risk of having to mulligan. On the mulligan, there's a 66% chance of getting one or more of the needed cards, which leaves a risk of appr. 14% of having to concede before even starting the match. Of course, you can do an extra mulligan, but since white is already at a disadvantage when it comes to card draws, I personally don't think it's worth it going lower than 6 for the opening hand.