Krond. What can I really say about this guy? He is one of the planechase legends, and probably the least exciting one, and certainly the most underrated one of the bunch.
In an effort to give my friend's a chance at winning, as they all tend to play more budget-lists than I currently do, I decided to make a new deck. At first it was going to be Sigarda, as I'd had a deck with her, but then I remembered that I had this guy. I had bought all of the planechase decks for some weird reason, and this guy had instantly gone into a box and was never seen nor heard from again. I decided that he would make a fairly decent budget commander, and wanted to give it a go.
Con's of using Krond;
Restrictive cost; even in two colors, his cost is kind of annoying. GGGWWW can, at times, leave you waiting for that last color to come in, and can slow down progress a tiny bit. Thankfully we run plenty of ramp, and this is rarely a real issue, but it is something that shouldn't be overlooked.
Aura-focused - Auras are fun and cool, but they are also very fragile. Sometimes they require a lot of investment, and more often than not they get destroyed. What's worse is when your creature dies and you lose all of the auras that were on it. We have a number of ways to get them back, as well as a few ways to try and protect our auras, but they do not always work, and you can't always get them all back.
Vanilla without auras on him - Krond is basically a 6/6 flyer with vigilence. That isn't anything to sniff at, but it isn't exactly exciting either... that is, until he gets enchanted.
Pro's
He's a 6/6 flyer with vigilence. Seriously, he's big, he flies, and he doesn't tap when he attacks. What's more, once he gets enchanted the real fun starts. His ability allows him to exile any permanent when he attacks... Not when he connects and deals damage, but when he attacks. That is huge. No, that's massive. Take out utility lands, equipment, artifacts, other enchantments, whatever. You can deal with combo pieces and threats simply by having Krond attack.
That said, this is a very budget deck. I haven't decided whether or not I want to invest any serious money into it, and it is largely built from the planechase deck he came in. I think over time I will probably replace some of the weaker auras with better ones, and probably work on the creature base to be more in-line with the enchantress theme of the deck.
The basic gameplan is to get Krond out, enchant him, and then start swinging like crazy, but we also have a few other options to go. We can use things like Sigil of the Empty Throne to get some decent tokens out, and Celestial Ancient to make those tokens bigger. Juniper Order Ranger can also make those guys bigger as well.
I eventually want to slot in a Sterling Grove, maybe get my hands on a few cheaper costed auras that do fun stuff, and maybe get a Priveliged Position for it. I'm not 100 percent sure what else I would want to do with it at the moment, but I thought I'd share what I had done so far. Suggestions are, as always, very welcome.
-Elesh Norn - I love her, but she doesn't fit any specific purpose in this deck other than pump and maybe token denial. She was more relevant in Jenara where clone effects are present and she can be used as a quick board-wipe.
+Rampant Growth - Just adding a little more ramp here.
How quickly do you want to get Krond out? If you want him out by turn 5 or 6, you definitely need some more ramp. Right now you're only running Wood Elves, Oracle of Mul Daya, Farhaven Elf, Cultivate and Krosan Verge (not counting Sol Ring due to Krond's mana cost). Assuming you want him out by turn 5 or 6 I would add about 3 more methods of ramping that get basics. You don't want to be restricted to just getting Forests either. I would try and cram a combination of Kodama's Reach, Rampant Growth, Sakrua-Tribe Elder and/or Explosive Vegetation in there. Krond's mana cost can be pretty rough.
I'm wondering how Aura Gnarlid will work out, and whether he's better than Yavimaya Enchantress. That's just some playtesting though.
Looks like fun.
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True, and I will probably buff the ramp a bit. I know I am going to end up adding Rampant Growth, I think I just forgot about that one last night as I was constructing it. His cost does suck, which is why he sucks, but we can probably get around it decently enough.
Yavimaya Enchantress is a card I would like to have, but don't right now. Not an expensive card by any means, I just haven't ever needed it before, and haven't gone out to get one yet. I would say the Enchantress is overall better, simply because she also counts things like Sigil and Ascetism, whereas the Gnarlid only counts the auras*. What I do like about both of them is that I don't have to necessarily attach the aura to them for them to get the buff.
*reading the cards closer is tech. So both Aura Gnarlid and Yavimaya Enchantress are pretty rad since they count all auras/and or/enchantments in play. Very rad.
No, I think you were right about Aura Gnarlid the first time. His text says he gets +1/+1 "for each Aura on the battlefield." So he doesn't get the bonus for Asceticism, but he does if Krond is enchanted. However he does get harder to block the bigger he gets. I dunno, that's just one that needs to be tried out before deciding.
No, I think you were right about Aura Gnarlid the first time. His text says he gets +1/+1 "for each Aura on the battlefield." So he doesn't get the bonus for Asceticism, but he does if Krond is enchanted. However he does get harder to block the bigger he gets. I dunno, that's just one that needs to be tried out before deciding.
No, that's what I was saying. Sorry, maybe it wasn't clear; what I was talking about was how Aura Gnarlid gets a bonus for my enemies auras as well, and the Yavimaya Enchantress gets bonuses for all enchantments; be they auras or not, including my enemies.
At the very least the Gnarlid can be used as a blocker, or even as another attacker, much in the same way that the Kor Spiritdancer could be (though the dancer is there more for the card draw than anything.)
I will take a peek at your list. While I did list this as a budget deck, it isn't really. I mean, I run a lot of non-budget cards, but most of those are pilfered from my Jenara deck, which is not, and has never been, a budget deck. The thing is the new stuff is all budget, as I am not sure I want to pump money into it just yet. I like Krond, despite making fun of him a little, so I want the deck to work well though. I do like some of what is in your list, so I may have to seriously consider some of those options in place of my less useful ones.
Yeah, once you get him online you'll find that Krond is pretty powerful, and people start crapping their pants when you begin exiling their permanents. I'm interested to see how your list ends up.
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Most of these don't offer much besides self-recursion and having really low CMC, but I don't think it should matter. Krond is already fairly hefty being a 6/6 flying, vigilance. All he cares about is just slapping anything onto him so that he can go wild exiling things.
Most of these don't offer much besides self-recursion and having really low CMC, but I don't think it should matter. Krond is already fairly hefty being a 6/6 flying, vigilance. All he cares about is just slapping anything onto him so that he can go wild exiling things.
I run Rancor presently, and Angelic Destiny is definitely a want, but for five bucks? Meh. Some of those others are pretty good choices as well though, and I will have to give them some consideration, thanks.
Have you thought about including Auras that can recur themselves?
This.
You shouldn't be running stuff like Arrest and Pacifism when you've got recurring pacifiers like Cage of Hands and Forced Worship. Draws you lots of cards from Enchantresses, gets lots of angels with Sigil of the Empty Throne.
You shouldn't be running stuff like Arrest and Pacifism when you've got recurring pacifiers like Cage of Hands and Forced Worship. Draws you lots of cards from Enchantresses, gets lots of angels with Sigil of the Empty Throne.
I'm beginning to think I wanna build a Krond deck...
All valid suggestions, and all were stuff I had initially looked at and considered. That said, I own none of those cards, or else they would be in here. Well, that's not true. I might own a Forced Worship, I just hadn't taken the time to look for it yet, it was something I wanted to run however.
Autumn-Tail is a want, for sure. Don't own a copy presently, but it is on my list!
This was a tough one for me. I considered a few of those cards, as well as things like Fertile Ground and its ilk, the thing is... I just didn't see the value there. For things like Fertile Ground... I am running two colors, and I just couldn't see myself using it.
Elemental Resonance is nice, though. So is Mana Bloom. I may have to look at those two harder than I had initially. I like Mana Bloom especially, but Resonance is equally as slick, because it can also enchant Krond himself. Good find.
I like Mana Bloom especially, but Resonance is equally as slick, because it can also enchant Krond himself. Good find.
Cheers. Yeah Mana Bloom's great here cause it also recurs. And again it's budget.
Definitely if Krond isn't already enchanted, Resonance is a great backup to exile things. If not, though, good ways to use Resonance are
A) choose opponents' things, so an opponent's permanent dies if they find Resonance annoying,
B) put it on permanents that are hard to kill, like enchantments or indestructible things.
Speaking of indestructibility, Indestructibility is pretty budget, and good anti-wrath.
I would run Retether, but probably not Open the Vaults. Vaults is both expensive and possibly equally as beneficial to my opponents as they are to me. Retether is fantastic.
Indestructibility is on a short list of auras I want, and a definite good one, especially with Krond. I want to get some of the other named auras as well, like Lifelink.
As much as I would love to kill someone with a Rabid Wombat and be able to say "I swing for lethal with my wombat" - Gnarlid is a 3 drop and the Druid is a 2 drop, the Wombat is a 0/1 vigilence for four. Hilarious, no doubt, but the thing about Gnarlid is he counts auras in play, not attached to him. The wombat is like an overcosted and less useful Spiritdancer.
That said, I may throw it in from time to time just for the wombat kill.
Norn leaves a lot to be desired here; with blue in the mix there are some great ways to clone her and get some serious value out of her as a boardwipe or something, but here she is just more of a buff with some token and utility creature denial. I may end up regret cutting her, but I just don't feel like she is enough on point to stay. Rampant Growth was needed as another ramp option.
Still working on getting some of the other suggestions people have put out.
There are a lot of crap-duals and mana fixing available, basically.
Grasslands is actually a bit better than Evolving and Terramorphic in one sense; it fetches non-basic forests and plains, which is nice.
I own Graypelt, Elfhame, Selesnya, and initially considered running them. I run them in my Jenara, so that may have just been an oversight on my part.
I don't have a Kodama's that isn't being used, but I it is on a short list of things to get.
The problem with Boreal Shelf is that I can't run it. You may have meant to post something else? but the shelf is white/blue color aligned, not white/green. I'm sure you meant Arctic Flats.
That is a good catch though, Into the North to fetch Arctic Flats, or, if Flats is in play, another basic snow land.
In an effort to give my friend's a chance at winning, as they all tend to play more budget-lists than I currently do, I decided to make a new deck. At first it was going to be Sigarda, as I'd had a deck with her, but then I remembered that I had this guy. I had bought all of the planechase decks for some weird reason, and this guy had instantly gone into a box and was never seen nor heard from again. I decided that he would make a fairly decent budget commander, and wanted to give it a go.
Con's of using Krond;
Restrictive cost; even in two colors, his cost is kind of annoying. GGGWWW can, at times, leave you waiting for that last color to come in, and can slow down progress a tiny bit. Thankfully we run plenty of ramp, and this is rarely a real issue, but it is something that shouldn't be overlooked.
Aura-focused - Auras are fun and cool, but they are also very fragile. Sometimes they require a lot of investment, and more often than not they get destroyed. What's worse is when your creature dies and you lose all of the auras that were on it. We have a number of ways to get them back, as well as a few ways to try and protect our auras, but they do not always work, and you can't always get them all back.
Vanilla without auras on him - Krond is basically a 6/6 flyer with vigilence. That isn't anything to sniff at, but it isn't exactly exciting either... that is, until he gets enchanted.
Pro's
He's a 6/6 flyer with vigilence. Seriously, he's big, he flies, and he doesn't tap when he attacks. What's more, once he gets enchanted the real fun starts. His ability allows him to exile any permanent when he attacks... Not when he connects and deals damage, but when he attacks. That is huge. No, that's massive. Take out utility lands, equipment, artifacts, other enchantments, whatever. You can deal with combo pieces and threats simply by having Krond attack.
That said, this is a very budget deck. I haven't decided whether or not I want to invest any serious money into it, and it is largely built from the planechase deck he came in. I think over time I will probably replace some of the weaker auras with better ones, and probably work on the creature base to be more in-line with the enchantress theme of the deck.
Here's the list as it stands;
1x Krond the Dawn-Clad
CREATURES:
1x Farhaven Elf
1x Wood Elf
1x Acidic Slime
1x Sylvan Primordial
1x Eternal Witness
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Karmic Guide
1x Reveillark
1x Duplicant
1x Sun Titan
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1x Auramancer
1x Auratouched Mage
1x Celestial Ancient
1x Kor Spiritdancer
1x Aura Gnarlid
1x Dowsing Shaman
1x Dreampod Druid
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Elderwood Scion
1x Blazing Archon
1x Juniper Order Ranger
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Cultivate
1x Rampant Growth
1x Rout
1x Austere Command
1x Akroma's Vengeance
1x Three Dreams
INSTANTS:
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Beast Within
1x Krosan Grip
1x Eladamri's Call
1x Return to Dust
AURAS:
1x Cage of Hands
1x Felidar Umbra
1x Hyena Umbra
1x Mammoth Umbra
1x Spirit Mantle
1x Boar Umbra
1x Rancor
1x Quiet Disrepair
1x Snake Umbra
1x Bear Umbra
1x Indrik Umbra
1x Pollenbright Wings
1x Armadillo Cloak
1x Arrest
1x Pacifism
1x Savage Hunger
1x Shield of the Oversoul
1x Trollhide
1x Savage Silhouette
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Ascetism
1x Curse of Exhaustion
1x Nevermore
1x Cathar's Crusade
ARTIFACTS:
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sol Ring
1x Sensei's Divining Top
LANDS:
1x Temple Garden
1x Sunpetal Grove
1x Command Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Krosan Verge
14x Forest
15x Plains
The basic gameplan is to get Krond out, enchant him, and then start swinging like crazy, but we also have a few other options to go. We can use things like Sigil of the Empty Throne to get some decent tokens out, and Celestial Ancient to make those tokens bigger. Juniper Order Ranger can also make those guys bigger as well.
I eventually want to slot in a Sterling Grove, maybe get my hands on a few cheaper costed auras that do fun stuff, and maybe get a Priveliged Position for it. I'm not 100 percent sure what else I would want to do with it at the moment, but I thought I'd share what I had done so far. Suggestions are, as always, very welcome.
-Elesh Norn - I love her, but she doesn't fit any specific purpose in this deck other than pump and maybe token denial. She was more relevant in Jenara where clone effects are present and she can be used as a quick board-wipe.
+Rampant Growth - Just adding a little more ramp here.
I'm wondering how Aura Gnarlid will work out, and whether he's better than Yavimaya Enchantress. That's just some playtesting though.
Looks like fun.
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
Yavimaya Enchantress is a card I would like to have, but don't right now. Not an expensive card by any means, I just haven't ever needed it before, and haven't gone out to get one yet. I would say the Enchantress is overall better, simply because she also counts things like Sigil and Ascetism, whereas the Gnarlid only counts the auras*. What I do like about both of them is that I don't have to necessarily attach the aura to them for them to get the buff.
*reading the cards closer is tech. So both Aura Gnarlid and Yavimaya Enchantress are pretty rad since they count all auras/and or/enchantments in play. Very rad.
Dunno if you saw my Krond list. Not budget, but may give you ideas: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=493251
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
No, that's what I was saying. Sorry, maybe it wasn't clear; what I was talking about was how Aura Gnarlid gets a bonus for my enemies auras as well, and the Yavimaya Enchantress gets bonuses for all enchantments; be they auras or not, including my enemies.
At the very least the Gnarlid can be used as a blocker, or even as another attacker, much in the same way that the Kor Spiritdancer could be (though the dancer is there more for the card draw than anything.)
I will take a peek at your list. While I did list this as a budget deck, it isn't really. I mean, I run a lot of non-budget cards, but most of those are pilfered from my Jenara deck, which is not, and has never been, a budget deck. The thing is the new stuff is all budget, as I am not sure I want to pump money into it just yet. I like Krond, despite making fun of him a little, so I want the deck to work well though. I do like some of what is in your list, so I may have to seriously consider some of those options in place of my less useful ones.
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
Most of these don't offer much besides self-recursion and having really low CMC, but I don't think it should matter. Krond is already fairly hefty being a 6/6 flying, vigilance. All he cares about is just slapping anything onto him so that he can go wild exiling things.
I run Rancor presently, and Angelic Destiny is definitely a want, but for five bucks? Meh. Some of those others are pretty good choices as well though, and I will have to give them some consideration, thanks.
This.
You shouldn't be running stuff like Arrest and Pacifism when you've got recurring pacifiers like Cage of Hands and Forced Worship. Draws you lots of cards from Enchantresses, gets lots of angels with Sigil of the Empty Throne.
I'd go
Pacifism -> Forced Worship
Arrest -> Faith's Fetters (enchant permanent, yo!)
Also, Flickering Ward and Gossamer Chains.
Fists of Ironwood > Savage Hunger if you want tokens.
Daybreak Coronet.
Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage is both fun and criminally underrated in aura decks. Moves pacifiers/buffs around at instant speed and steals your opponent's Eldrazi Conscription.
I'm beginning to think I wanna build a Krond deck...
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
All valid suggestions, and all were stuff I had initially looked at and considered. That said, I own none of those cards, or else they would be in here. Well, that's not true. I might own a Forced Worship, I just hadn't taken the time to look for it yet, it was something I wanted to run however.
Autumn-Tail is a want, for sure. Don't own a copy presently, but it is on my list!
Thanks for the suggestions!
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
You're welcome. All of these are Common/Uncommon or junk Rare, so they shouldn't hurt the wallet.
No.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
This was a tough one for me. I considered a few of those cards, as well as things like Fertile Ground and its ilk, the thing is... I just didn't see the value there. For things like Fertile Ground... I am running two colors, and I just couldn't see myself using it.
Elemental Resonance is nice, though. So is Mana Bloom. I may have to look at those two harder than I had initially. I like Mana Bloom especially, but Resonance is equally as slick, because it can also enchant Krond himself. Good find.
Cheers. Yeah Mana Bloom's great here cause it also recurs. And again it's budget.
Definitely if Krond isn't already enchanted, Resonance is a great backup to exile things. If not, though, good ways to use Resonance are
A) choose opponents' things, so an opponent's permanent dies if they find Resonance annoying,
B) put it on permanents that are hard to kill, like enchantments or indestructible things.
Speaking of indestructibility, Indestructibility is pretty budget, and good anti-wrath.
Also, Open the Vaults and Retether are good budget alternatives to Replenish.
Playtesting | Karador, Ghost Chieftain | Narset, Enlightened Master | Ephara, God of the Polis
Established | Gahiji, Honored One | Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker | Opal-Eye, Konda's Yojimbo | Rubinia Soulsinger
Retired | Medomai the Ageless | Diaochan, Artful Beauty
Indestructibility is on a short list of auras I want, and a definite good one, especially with Krond. I want to get some of the other named auras as well, like Lifelink.
As much as I would love to kill someone with a Rabid Wombat and be able to say "I swing for lethal with my wombat" - Gnarlid is a 3 drop and the Druid is a 2 drop, the Wombat is a 0/1 vigilence for four. Hilarious, no doubt, but the thing about Gnarlid is he counts auras in play, not attached to him. The wombat is like an overcosted and less useful Spiritdancer.
That said, I may throw it in from time to time just for the wombat kill.
I've pulled off the Wombat kill a couple times with my list. He's awesome.
Most recently looking at Morinfen!
-Elesh Norn
+Rampant Growth
Norn leaves a lot to be desired here; with blue in the mix there are some great ways to clone her and get some serious value out of her as a boardwipe or something, but here she is just more of a buff with some token and utility creature denial. I may end up regret cutting her, but I just don't feel like she is enough on point to stay. Rampant Growth was needed as another ramp option.
Still working on getting some of the other suggestions people have put out.
Have you considered Boreal Shelf, a handful each (like up to two) of Snow-Covered Forest and Snow-Covered Plains and Into the North? It's like rampant growth, but you could get a dual.
Also, Graypelt Refuge, Elfhame Palace, Selesnya Guildgate, Saltcrusted Steppe are all pretty budget-y, and the tap factor isn't so awful.
Kodama's Reach can help you mana fix also.
There are a lot of crap-duals and mana fixing available, basically.
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
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Grasslands is actually a bit better than Evolving and Terramorphic in one sense; it fetches non-basic forests and plains, which is nice.
I own Graypelt, Elfhame, Selesnya, and initially considered running them. I run them in my Jenara, so that may have just been an oversight on my part.
I don't have a Kodama's that isn't being used, but I it is on a short list of things to get.
The problem with Boreal Shelf is that I can't run it. You may have meant to post something else? but the shelf is white/blue color aligned, not white/green. I'm sure you meant Arctic Flats.
That is a good catch though, Into the North to fetch Arctic Flats, or, if Flats is in play, another basic snow land.