If it is destroyed but put into a zone other than a graveyard, you'll gain life
You do need to deal combat damage for their trigger, but with menace that shouldnt be an issue, and as we all know, cheating on mana costs is one of the most broken things you can do in the game
What you need to get going is a Relic of Legends, which can let you tap an untapped legendary creature to add one mana of any color, and Acererak the Archlich, a three-mana Zombie Wizard with an enter the battlefield trigger to venture into the dungeon
I also think adding replacement and redundancy commanders such as Sythis, Harvests Hand and Calix, Guided by Fate feel like a boring cop-out, especially if you already have other enchantment-matter decks
A similar phenomenon can be seen with lottery tickets