Sek'kuar, Deathkeeper is a jund colored general that has a number of reasons to be chosen over other generals in this color combonation. He is similar to Kresh the bloodbraided in general strategy (sac and kill creatures) but works on a different axis (tokens).
So Why Sek'kuar?
Reason #1: He's from coldsnap and is an ORC SHAMAN!!!
He's a flavorful guy with a lot of old school charm, orcs are cool and shamans have a lot of support if you decide to go tribal.
Reason #2: Jund and tokens
In the Jund color idenity there are a lot of abilities that deal with tokens (devour being the actual Jund mechanic) but only one general that actually produce tokens
Reason #3: Value town... and wait could it be combo potential!!
There are creatures that make tokens when they die (sprouting thrinax) as well as creatures that come back when they die (persist/undying). Sek'kuar gives you extra value out of these in the form of hasty 1 toughness guys (skullclamp anyone?) Not to mention if you somehow make an infinite creature loop you've just generated a ton of dudes
Sample Decklists: possibilites do exist
Sek'kuar straight and simple
old list but i wanted a sample up untill i updated some things.
Sek'kuar as a combo general revolves around your standard Jund combos or Persist creature+sac outlet+mikaeus, the unhallowed or Melira, Sylvok outcast. If that creature is Murderous redcap you win outright, Woodfall Primus and you destroy everyones lands. With the color combination you also have access to Mikaeus/ Mephidross vampire+triskelion as well as tooth and nail. In this Archtype Sek'kuar's main job as general is providing the colors for the combo pieces and tutors availible. He can serve as an alternate win condition if you end up looping with something like puppeteer clique
Dredge reanimator
coming soon
tribal shamans
coming soon
Card Selection
Sac outlers
Ashnod's Altar/Phyrexian Altar:These 2 are major work horses for the deck, fueling big spells and keeping loops going.
Viscera seer: There are times when this little guy will be the best card in the deck. Eat though 4 or 5 guys while setting scrying away some garbage is generally really good.
Greater Good: Draws you cards or at the very least filters your deck with no mana requied. Don't overlook the tokens 3 power as a way to draw 3 discard 3.
Jarad, Golgari Lich: Group life drain and can be pull himself back from the graveyard. He's a solid choice but his mana cost (GGBB can be rought) the activation cost on his ability (1GB adds up) and the high cost of recurring him makes him less then optimum
Combos/synergy
mikaeus, the unhallowed: If you've never played against this guy, feel lucky. He makes persist creatures unkillable, or more accurately they don't stay dead. He also goes infinite with triskelion, ping,ping, kill triskelion with it's last counter. Undying, triskelion comes back with 4 counters, ping, ping, ping kill triskelion. Rinse and repeat.
Melira, Sylvok outcast: She negates the "drawback" of persist, as in they come back without the counter and are free to keep persisting as long as she's on the field.
Mephidross Vampire: New players probably aren't to familiar with this card, it came out almost 10 years ago at this point and hasn't seen a reprint. He makes Triskelion/deathbringer thoctar into uber creature killing machines. He also makes everything a vampire so watch out for Olivia Voldaren, on the other side of that coin it's awesome synergy with coat of arms/shared animosity and cover of darkness
Murderous redcap: This little guy has a nice trick up his sleeve, he persists and can kill himself. Why is this important? With Mikaeus or Melira this creates an infinite loop of him dying (triggering Sek'kuar) and coming into play from the graveyard (Flayer of the Hatebound/warstorm surge triggers). You can also create a pseudo with him, Mephidross vampie and a sac outlet.
Triskelion: 6 mana is a little high for what triskelion does on it's lonesome. He has his combos but out side of that he's lackluster.
Tooth and Nail: this card lets you tutor for two creatures and/or put two creatures from hand into play. If you entwine for both you can grab Mikaeus or Mephidross vampire+triskelion or Melira+Murderous Redcap which is pretty much an instant win.
Make them giants and Burn the world
Outside of wining off combos your going to have to either use your creatures to attack or to burn your opponent out. Pandemonium/warstorm surge: Everytime Sek'kuar makes a dude you get a lightning bolt. I personally would cut Pandemonium over warstorm surge
if I only have room for one, one sided effects are worth the cost.
Stalking Vengeance/Vicious shadows: Your going to be sacrificing a lot of guys, which means a lot of triggers off these two. Both have pretty high mana costs so that's something to keep in mind.
Flayer of the hatebound: this guy works as another warstorm surge when creatures are coming from the graveyard. Depending on the amount of persist/undying and reanimation you have this guy can get pretty brutal. Twilight's call can be backbreaking with him.
Shared Animosity: The graveborn tokens start getting scary when they are 8/1's or larger.
Coat of arms: *use with caution* This card will either win you the game or get you blown out. Very meta dependent. I don't like it outside of tribal shamans.
Kresh the bloodbraided: While not entirely interchangable with Sek'kuar, Kresh can be a major role player in the deck, growing to enormous sizes very quickly.
Death's Presence: Much like Kresh this card is a solid piece of support. It for one allows you to bounce counters around for increasingly larger greater good activation, Mid combat you can sac blocked attackers to pump the one that got threw, and it also resets your Persist creatures (creating a loop with 2)
Sweepers:
Death Cloud: This card is generally considered rude and derpy. After resolving a Death cloud no one at the table should have cards in hand, creatures or many lands. Sek'Kuar lets you keep a board presence and if you have been playing ramp and Ravnica Karoos you should have mana left to function while cripling the table.
Decree of Pain/Plague Wind: Big,expensive, and one sided. These are solid choices, just be wary of having too many high cost spells.
Damnation: Cheap sweeper, very solid. Your tokens have haste so clearing a table can be strong.
Blasphamous act: Can cost R at times but doesn't kill pro-red creatures and creatures can regenerate.
Killing Wave: Is kind of hit or miss but can be used to clear your table while preserving Sek'kuar
Ramp:
Ramp can be devided into 2 categories, land and mana rocks. I'm going more indepts with the land ramp since this deck only uses rocks for basic reasons. If your new to 3 colored decks or commander in general check it out, if not skip it.
Land ramp
you primarly want to rely on creature based ramp spells. Sakura-tribe elder,wood elves,ondu giant ,fertilid,farhaven elf,dawntreader elk,gatekeeper vine,Sylvan ranger: All of these have there own pros and cons based on the deck your runnning. The more dedicated sac outlets you run the better the CiP effects are. Its really a broad category so based on your needs it's there.
perilous forays deserves special mention since it is both a sac outlet and has amazing synergy with Bloodghast
Mana Rocks
sol ring/mana crypt:about the only 2 colorless producers you'd run. 3 color gets tricky if you run too many colorless sources Rakdos Signet/Gruul signet/golgari signet: Low cost and helps filter your mana. if you only have 4 slots for mana rocks these shouls be 3 with sol ring as the 4th Darksteel ingot: produces any color and the indestructable is sometimes releveant Coalition Relic/chromatic lantern: These two will be debated for years, I prefer Relic with a 5cc commander. Obelisk of Jund/manalith: budget and they do what you need if you dont have better options
Living death/living end: Swaps everything on the field for everything in graveyards, as with all mass reanimation a little graveyard hate makes things very one sided. Some times that's against you.
Gamble: About the only red tutor, it's alright but when you end up pitching what you tutored for it sucks. I like it in reanimator.
Jarrad's Orders: Grabs a dude and pitches one to the yard. seems good in reanimator builds.
Entomb: I don't see much point in these outside of reanimator lists but they can set up some powerful early and combo plays
Draw:
Skullclamp: your making a ton of 1 toughness tokens... do i need to say more.
Sign in blood/night's whisper: Two mana, 2 life, 2 cards. They help fill our the low curve and if your light on tutors they aren't terrible
Skulltap/Altar's Reap: 2 mana and a creature for 2 cards. You should have things to sac but one of these getting countered is rough. Altar's Reap can be put on Isochron Septer if that's your kind of thing, skulltap has a better name.
Garruk, Primal hunter: Yes, he makes tokens. with doubling it's a dumb amount of tokens. let's be honest though, in most cases he's hitting the table and drawing you +5 cards. GGG is some times a little tough but he's versitile.
Harmanize: 4 mana for 3 cards, no requirements to draw like greater good or Garruk, Primal hunter, If you feel you need a almost never dead draw spell this is the one for you.
Darksteel Plate: indestructable and protects your general, very strong if your playing "destroy all creatures" effects, a little less effect against tuck, exile and sacrifice effects
Lightning Greaves/swiftfoot boots: Haste and protection, depends on your build if you want both or one over the other. Generally the upgrade to hexproof isn't worth the 1 equip cost.
Mortarpod: it's techniquely a sac outlet but with it being an equipment it's not a reliable one. It's sometimes removal, it's sometimes a sac outlet, it's sometimes just a 0/1 dude. I like this card but it's not a windmill slam.
Grafted Exoskeleton: it combos with godo and sometimes people durdle on infinite life, the more infect your running the stronger of a choice this card is.
I'm getting to the point where most things are either up or floating randomly around my head. Feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'm going to start building dedicated decks for each archtype to do a good deal of testing as well as updating the list i have currently posted (which is a really unrefined list from right after Dark Ascension)
hey! thanks for posting in my sek' thread and i really appreciate someone putting together a primer for him. I find tooth and nail excellent in my online build, still waiting to acquire one IRL. you REALLY REALLY need to bask in the greatness that is x1 sneak attack in combination with survival of the fittest putting out combos that win that turn is a joke and a half.
Also, many people running the melira/redcap combo tend to overlook the fact that you dont NEED a sac outlet if sek'kuar is on the field, you can have redcap come in and kill himself and create an infinite graveborn loop
Thanks for posting, since I try to avoid playing overly broken cards i tend to forget about sneak attack and Survival of the fittest. definantly adding them.
If I were doing this commander the first card that goes in is Skullclamp.
It's goes in every list, I somehow forgot it when i made the list i posted. I'm working on actually building a new list but I'm having toruble since i started this thread... I have about 500 cards sitting on the deck >_< I'm thinking I'm going to start with reanimator since it's something I generally don't play. Now to find a phyrexian ghoul lol
Sek'kuar, Deathkeeper is a jund colored general that has a number of reasons to be chosen over other generals in this color combonation. He is similar to Kresh the bloodbraided in general strategy (sac and kill creatures) but works on a different axis (tokens).
So Why Sek'kuar?
old list but i wanted a sample up untill i updated some things.
1x Young wolf
1x Hex parasite
1x Viscera seer
1x Golgari guildmage
1x bloodghast
1x vexing shusher
1x sakura-tribe elder
1x Melira, Sylvok outcast
1x Yavimaya elder
1x Nantuko husk
1x eternal witness
1x pyreheart wolf
1x murderous redcap
1x Savra, queen of the golgari
1x bloodbraid elf
1x flametongue kavu
1x Skullmulcher
1x vulturous zombie
1x shiekmaw
1x vorapede
1x indrik stomphowler
1x puppeteer clique
1x aerie ouphes
1x deathbringer thoctar
1x mikaeus, the unhallowed
1x deadwood treefolk
1x ryusei, the falling star
1x flayer of the hatebound
1x tornado elemental
1x stalking vengeance
1x woodfall primus
1x terastodon
1x sensei's diving top
1x relic of progenitus
1x sol ring
1x golgari signet
1x rakdos signet
1x gruul signet
1x lightning greaves
1x darksteel ingot
1x phyrexian altar
enchantments: 5 cards
1x pandermonium
1x greater good
1x perilous forays
1x warstorm surge
1x lurking predators
sorcery: 6 cards
1x cannibalize
1x syphon mind
1x primal command
1x rise from the grave
1x twilight's call
1x praetor's counsel
instants: 10 card
1x worldly tutor
1x undying evil
1x terminate
1x krosan grip
1x putrefy
1x chord of calling
1x wild ricochet
1x radiate
1x bituminous blast
1x trecherous urge
1x stomping grounds
1x verdant catacombs
1x bloodstained mire
1x shizo, death's storehouse
1x shika, the bloodsoaked keep
1x spinerock knoll
1x fire-lit thicket
1x graven cairns
1x twilight mire
1x command tower
1x savage lands
1x forgotten cave
1x tranquil thicket
1x barren moor
9x Forest
7x swamps
7x mountains
[/CARDS]
Archtype breakdowns
Card Selection
Viscera seer: There are times when this little guy will be the best card in the deck. Eat though 4 or 5 guys while setting scrying away some garbage is generally really good.
Bloodthrone vampire/nantuko husk/phyrexian ghoul/Carrion feeder / etc...: there are a lot of these sac a dude get a pump. these guys all make amazing sac outlets for the deck, special mention to nantuko husk/phyrexian ghoul and carrion feeder for being zombies to recure grave crawler off of.
Greater Good: Draws you cards or at the very least filters your deck with no mana requied. Don't overlook the tokens 3 power as a way to draw 3 discard 3.
Jarad, Golgari Lich: Group life drain and can be pull himself back from the graveyard. He's a solid choice but his mana cost (GGBB can be rought) the activation cost on his ability (1GB adds up) and the high cost of recurring him makes him less then optimum
Combos/synergy
Melira, Sylvok outcast: She negates the "drawback" of persist, as in they come back without the counter and are free to keep persisting as long as she's on the field.
Mephidross Vampire: New players probably aren't to familiar with this card, it came out almost 10 years ago at this point and hasn't seen a reprint. He makes Triskelion/deathbringer thoctar into uber creature killing machines. He also makes everything a vampire so watch out for Olivia Voldaren, on the other side of that coin it's awesome synergy with coat of arms/shared animosity and cover of darkness
Murderous redcap: This little guy has a nice trick up his sleeve, he persists and can kill himself. Why is this important? With Mikaeus or Melira this creates an infinite loop of him dying (triggering Sek'kuar) and coming into play from the graveyard (Flayer of the Hatebound/warstorm surge triggers). You can also create a pseudo with him, Mephidross vampie and a sac outlet.
Triskelion: 6 mana is a little high for what triskelion does on it's lonesome. He has his combos but out side of that he's lackluster.
Tooth and Nail: this card lets you tutor for two creatures and/or put two creatures from hand into play. If you entwine for both you can grab Mikaeus or Mephidross vampire+triskelion or Melira+Murderous Redcap which is pretty much an instant win.
Make them giants and Burn the world
Pandemonium/warstorm surge: Everytime Sek'kuar makes a dude you get a lightning bolt. I personally would cut Pandemonium over warstorm surge
if I only have room for one, one sided effects are worth the cost.
Stalking Vengeance/Vicious shadows: Your going to be sacrificing a lot of guys, which means a lot of triggers off these two. Both have pretty high mana costs so that's something to keep in mind.
Flayer of the hatebound: this guy works as another warstorm surge when creatures are coming from the graveyard. Depending on the amount of persist/undying and reanimation you have this guy can get pretty brutal. Twilight's call can be backbreaking with him.
Shared Animosity: The graveborn tokens start getting scary when they are 8/1's or larger.
Coat of arms: *use with caution* This card will either win you the game or get you blown out. Very meta dependent. I don't like it outside of tribal shamans.
Kresh the bloodbraided: While not entirely interchangable with Sek'kuar, Kresh can be a major role player in the deck, growing to enormous sizes very quickly.
Death's Presence: Much like Kresh this card is a solid piece of support. It for one allows you to bounce counters around for increasingly larger greater good activation, Mid combat you can sac blocked attackers to pump the one that got threw, and it also resets your Persist creatures (creating a loop with 2)
Decree of Pain/Plague Wind: Big,expensive, and one sided. These are solid choices, just be wary of having too many high cost spells.
Damnation: Cheap sweeper, very solid. Your tokens have haste so clearing a table can be strong.
Blasphamous act: Can cost R at times but doesn't kill pro-red creatures and creatures can regenerate.
Killing Wave: Is kind of hit or miss but can be used to clear your table while preserving Sek'kuar
Land ramp
Sakura-tribe elder,wood elves,ondu giant ,fertilid,farhaven elf,dawntreader elk,gatekeeper vine,Sylvan ranger: All of these have there own pros and cons based on the deck your runnning. The more dedicated sac outlets you run the better the CiP effects are. Its really a broad category so based on your needs it's there.
perilous forays deserves special mention since it is both a sac outlet and has amazing synergy with Bloodghast
Rakdos Signet/Gruul signet/golgari signet: Low cost and helps filter your mana. if you only have 4 slots for mana rocks these shouls be 3 with sol ring as the 4th
Darksteel ingot: produces any color and the indestructable is sometimes releveant
Coalition Relic/chromatic lantern: These two will be debated for years, I prefer Relic with a 5cc commander.
Obelisk of Jund/manalith: budget and they do what you need if you dont have better options
Reanimation:
Twilight's Call: brings everything back and can be instant speed, important to note that unlike Living death and living end the creatures come back from the grave and not exile so it triggers Flayer of the hatebound
Living death/living end: Swaps everything on the field for everything in graveyards, as with all mass reanimation a little graveyard hate makes things very one sided. Some times that's against you.
Tutors:
Worldly tutor: Green and instant speed. solid tutor choice
Survival of the Fittest: repeatable tutor that lets you also pitch creatures to the yard. It's a Madness engine also if that's what your wanting to do. Amazing with Gravecrawler/Bloodghast and Squee, Goblin Nabob
Godo, Bandit Warlord: He's a little pricy but He can grab things like Nim Deathmantle,SkullClamp and thornbite staff. He might have a place in combo decks but he seems a little slow. The multiple attack steps also matter with changlings.
Gamble: About the only red tutor, it's alright but when you end up pitching what you tutored for it sucks. I like it in reanimator.
Jarrad's Orders: Grabs a dude and pitches one to the yard. seems good in reanimator builds.
Entomb: I don't see much point in these outside of reanimator lists but they can set up some powerful early and combo plays
Draw:
Skullclamp: your making a ton of 1 toughness tokens... do i need to say more.
Sign in blood/night's whisper: Two mana, 2 life, 2 cards. They help fill our the low curve and if your light on tutors they aren't terrible
Skulltap/Altar's Reap: 2 mana and a creature for 2 cards. You should have things to sac but one of these getting countered is rough. Altar's Reap can be put on Isochron Septer if that's your kind of thing, skulltap has a better name.
Garruk, Primal hunter: Yes, he makes tokens. with doubling it's a dumb amount of tokens. let's be honest though, in most cases he's hitting the table and drawing you +5 cards. GGG is some times a little tough but he's versitile.
Harmanize: 4 mana for 3 cards, no requirements to draw like greater good or Garruk, Primal hunter, If you feel you need a almost never dead draw spell this is the one for you.
Equipment Package
Darksteel Plate: indestructable and protects your general, very strong if your playing "destroy all creatures" effects, a little less effect against tuck, exile and sacrifice effects
Lightning Greaves/swiftfoot boots: Haste and protection, depends on your build if you want both or one over the other. Generally the upgrade to hexproof isn't worth the 1 equip cost.
Mortarpod: it's techniquely a sac outlet but with it being an equipment it's not a reliable one. It's sometimes removal, it's sometimes a sac outlet, it's sometimes just a 0/1 dude. I like this card but it's not a windmill slam.
Grafted Exoskeleton: it combos with godo and sometimes people durdle on infinite life, the more infect your running the stronger of a choice this card is.
Also, many people running the melira/redcap combo tend to overlook the fact that you dont NEED a sac outlet if sek'kuar is on the field, you can have redcap come in and kill himself and create an infinite graveborn loop
It's goes in every list, I somehow forgot it when i made the list i posted. I'm working on actually building a new list but I'm having toruble since i started this thread... I have about 500 cards sitting on the deck >_< I'm thinking I'm going to start with reanimator since it's something I generally don't play. Now to find a phyrexian ghoul lol