Scenes of graphic violence, blood, and gore while Kresh and his army sweep accross the countryside slaughtering his foes Harsh language from the filthy mouthed uncivilized barbarian hordes Incidental nudity as Kresh's kilt seems to have a life of it's own on the battlefield
Kresh 101
After this section I'm going to be going into a lot of specifics for this deck, but if you are like most EDH players you're going to want to build your own deck, not copy someone else's. With that in mind, I think it may be valuable to cover some of the basic strategies and cards to be looking out for with Kresh. Hopefully, this will be beneficial to some of you looking to build your own Kresh deck. There are many different ways you can take a Kresh deck and the best decks will most likely focus on one or two of these strategies below, but you should also see a lot of overlap here as well.
Kill stuff and watch Kresh grow
This core concept will be at the heart of any Kresh deck. The most obvious application of this is killing your opponents creatures. A card like Doom Blade can kill a 5/5 and give Kresh five +1/+1 counters at the same time. That's some pretty good value. Cards like Beast Within, Putrefy, and Maelstrom Pulse can do the same thing and give you a bit more flexibility on what you can target. This allows you to have spells that are both answers and enablers at the same time. It is also the beginning of a potential control shell.
You can take it a step further and kill two or more creatures or get really fancy and use Shriekmaw or Spitebellows to kill one of theirs and one of yours. Curtains' Call is a solid choice for killing a couple creatures. Or how about something that can really kill lots of creatures like Consume the Meek. Plague Wind and In Garruk's Wake are extremely expensive to cast but will usually put Kresh at lethal power in one shot. Chandra's Ignition can potentially do the same. If you manage to give Kresh indestructibility with something like Darksteel Plate or Inspiring Call, Damnation will have the same effect for a much cheaper cost. There are multiple board wipes that can be regenerated through with something like Yavimaya Hollow. Decree of Pain and Overwhelming Forces can net you a bunch of cards.
Every Kresh deck should be running some of these options.
Sacrificing
Let's face it, relying solely on your opponents having creatures may be something you can do if you have a creature heavy meta, but even then there will be situations where there aren't any opponents' creatures on the board. You can circumvent the need for opponents' creatures by having your own. There are plenty of great sacrifice cards in Jund and just like the spells that kill creatures, you're going to get the sacrifice effect and make Kresh stronger at the same time.
Voltron
With Kresh being one of the prime commanders capable of reaching 21 power, there will be opportunities to turn him into a one man wrecking machine. Protecting him will be paramount if you are going this route as he is a defenseless 3/3 when he first hits the table. It'll generally take a couple turns before he really turns into a big threat and you want to make sure he sticks around to get there. Haste is mostly irrelevant for that reason as well. That said, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are still good. Champion's Helm is better for him. Darksteel Plate can be very difficult for players to deal with and turns most board wipes into Kresh steroids. Asceticism gives all your creatures hexproof and regeneration.
You'll need evasion as well, although if you are running enough creature destruction that can be enough to clear the way for him. Whispersilk Cloak has both evasion and protection, making it just about the perfect card for a voltron build. Shizo, Death's Storehouse doesn't come into play tapped and can give him fear. Rogue's Passage is another great land for getting Kresh through. One thing green has in spades is trample enabler's and overrun effects. Thunderfoot Baloth and Brawn are both good creature options. Triumph of the Hordes is just plain mean. Loxodon Warhammer and Sword of Vengeance are both good equipment options.
There are also a few great pieces of equipment than can buff Kresh and kill creatures to increase his power even more. Umezawa's Jitte allows you to remove counters to deal damage. Sword of Fire and Ice lets you do 2 damage when you hit an opponent and lets you draw a card. The protection is also relevant and can keep Kresh alive through Blasphemous Act or Chandra's Ignition. Argentum Armor is expensive but also incredible on Kresh when used to kill a powerful creature.
There isn’t a direct synergy between tokens and Kresh, but there are a few reasons they work well together. First, there are a couple cards that can both double +1/+1 counters and tokens in Doubling Season and Primal Vigor. Tokens also tend to give you more power per CMC than a standard creature, which is good for boosting Kresh’s power. Tokens are also expendable so are a good option to pair up with a sacrifice theme. Grave Titan comes in with an immediate 10 power for 6 CMC and generates an additional 4 power with each attack. Avenger of Zendikar, with a few landfall triggers will quickly out-generate it’s CMC in power. Nacatl War-Pride can generate a ton of power with the right opponent and also essentially makes the rest of your team unblockable. Army of the Damned gives a whopping 26 power for 8 CMC. From Beyond, Dragonmaster Outcast, Mycoloth, and Dragon Broodmother are all good options for generating long term value. Wurmcoil Engine is an all-around great value and can provide some much needed lifegain in a pinch.
Of course if you are going the token route, anything that doubles tokens or works with lots of creatures is going to give you a ton of value. Parallel Lives and Second Harvest will double tokens. Gaea's Cradle can be great if you can afford it, if not Growing Rites of Itlimoc is a good substitute. Harvest Season, Black Market, Earthcraft, and Druids' Repository are all good ramp options for a token deck. Fecundity is a good option for getting some card draw and can help you recover from a board wipe. Eldrazi Monument provides some protection from potential board wipes as well and when you are generating a lot of tokens, that's a small price to pay.
Naturally, with Kresh being capable of growing very large, yet not having any innate evasion, getting through for combat damage can be an issue. Fling effects, named after the card Fling of course, allow you to do the damage directly without having to get through in combat. Some of them require sacrificing the creature and others don't.
Chandra's Ignition and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord are the cream of the crop for these abilities as they can kill all of your opponents at once. Flesh // Blood is an interesting option as you can fuse it to buff the creature before the fling if you have enough mana. Essence Harvest and Rite of Consumption give the fling effect lifesteal. Heart-Piercer Manticore gives you fling on a stick, which is always good with Kresh as he now has another creature in play that will buff him when it dies. Soul's Fire and Fling are just the generic options, but having the ability to fling at instant speed is incredibly powerful as it allows you to fling in response to a negative effect.
Power Matters
Wizards has really increased the number of cards that check for creature power recently and the one thing Kresh has going for him is his ability to get powerful. There are also some creatures that can potentially have incredibly high power for a relatively small mana investment. I'm not going to go into this too much here as this primer is for just such a deck. Continue reading if you're interested in this strategy.
There is some combo potential with Kresh and if you are trying to build a deck for a hyper-competitive meta or just want some alternate non-combat reliant win conditions you will probably want to consider having some of these as options.
If you are really interested in going this route I’d suggest reading razzliox’s Jarad primer here. He’s basically doing most of this stuff minus the red.
There are way more infinite combos available, especially if you want to start getting janky, but I think the stuff above pairs well with Kresh.
Good Stuff
A good stuff version of Kresh would essentially take the best stuff from the above strategies and Jund in general. This is a perfectly viable option as Kresh needs little to no set up and can sill be quite effective. If you are interested in this strategy your best bet is to look up commander staples and find the ones that also have synergy with Kresh.
The reason I chose Kresh over other BRG commanders was the amazing card art and flavor. He's a powerful warlord and overall bad dude that beats face, which completely fits my play style. Strategically, the great thing about Kresh is his ability. He seems like a build around general, and he sort of is, but he gets bigger when creatures die, which is something that will be happening naturally throughout the game and something we want to be doing anyway. So the deck doesn't lose much steam if he's stuck in the command zone. We still want to kill our opponents' creatures and we still want to sacrifice our dudes for big effects. If Kresh is in play, well that's even better, but if he isn't it's no big deal, the deck can still operate on all cylinders.
If the idea of making big plays like drawing 30 cards at once, bringing a dozen creatures back from your graveyard at your opponent's end step, or killing 3 unsuspecting players at once with a 40 damage Chandra's Ignition appeals to you, Kresh may be your man. If you enjoy having your deck play out differently each game, yet also having answers for any situation and ways to find those answers, this may also be the deck for you. If you want to never be out of the game as long as there is breath in your body and at least 1 life left on your D10's, by all means keep reading.
What do you mean R-Rated?
I’m talking about 80’s and 90’s action movies here. Jean Claude Van-Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Wesley Snipes, you get the idea. Well, we’re adding Kresh to that list. The acting is bad. The movies are over the top, no holds barred, and any other cliché you can think of. They’re also totally awesome. That’s this deck in a nutshell. It lacks subtlety and sophistication but makes up for it with explosions. Kresh wants to win by dropping a grenade down the opponent’s pants and saying “huntng season is over” or hitting them with a flame thrower and asking how they like their ribs. The deck can’t be counted out, no matter what the odds and it’s a lot of fun.
How does this deck work?
To put it simply: Power and Synergy.
Regarding Power: A lot of people tout the low overall Converted Mana Cost (CMC) of their decks as a selling point. There's nothing wrong with that and most of my decks are built to be very conscientious of mana cost as well. This however, is not one those decks. As a general rule, higher costed cards also have more power as a trade off for the increased investment. That's a trade off this deck is glad to make. Like Kresh himself this deck goes big and if it takes 8 or 9 mana to do that so be it. That's not to say the deck has gone so overboard on huge creatures and spells that it can't function efficiently, but the main focus is to suddenly and violently end our opponent's lives with heavy hitters.
High casting cost isn't necessarily the only thing the deck's looking for when considering power. It runs cards like Lord of Extinction, which is only 5 CMC but will often come into the game with 20+ power and toughness and Malignus who brings generally brings 20 or so power for 5 mana. I would even argue cards like Demonic Tutor, which can get any card in your deck for 2 mana, and Skullclamp, which will net a ton of cards for a small mana investment, are powerful cards.
Power Matters There are quite a few cards that care about literal creature power as well and the deck runs almost all of them. Normally frowned upon vanilla creatures like Malignus become absolute powerhouses when combined with cards like Chandra's Ignition or Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. This has become the major focus of the deck as it has evolved and is what enables the general explosiveness and the "win out of nowhere" capability. Although not running infinite combos, sudden wins are similarly difficult for opponents to stop as they are very hard to see coming and plan for.
Regarding Synergy: "So," you may be asking, "the deck plays a bunch of powerful spells? This sounds suspiciously like a good stuff deck." Well, that's not exactly the case here. Every card in the deck was chosen not only for it's power, but also for the way it interacts with the rest of the deck. Synergy is something that we as magic players are all aware of. When cards work hand in hand and compliment each other, they become even more powerful than they would be in a vacuum. That's the idea here, to combine power with synergy to create even more power.
All the synergies in the deck are designed around Kresh's ability to get bigger when creatures die. There are two main ways we can accomplish this: destroying opponent's creatures and sacrificing our own. Opponents will also be killing our creatures throughout the natural process of the game. With that in mind, any spell effect we can get on a creature's body instead, even if the creature is slightly less efficient in a vacuum, will be better in this deck in creature form. Almost all the ramp in the deck comes from creatures and the card draw comes from either creatures or sacrificing them. Using creatures for spell effects naturally leads to a lot of Enter the Battlefield (ETB) abilities. To capitalize on these effects and all the creatures in the deck there is a recursion theme utilizing cards like Mimic Vat and Sheoldred, Whispering One to keep those creatures coming back for more. I'll get into these synergies more in the Card Explanations section.
What are the decks' weaknesses?
Both Kresh and the deck are too slow to hold their weight in the most highly competitive environments. The deck is still capable of winning on occassion, but because of the battle cruiser style of building up a mana base early it needs some help from other players at the table to get to the point where it can start having an impact on the game. This is a "90%" deck that has been tweaked to be as effective as possible in an environment where the full focus is not on trying to win at all costs. My playgroup doesn't use mass land destruction and has minimal infinite combos, so the deck is built to be as good as possible in that environment. If you are looking for a deck that can compete in a competitive meta this deck and commander are not for you. Because of the high CMC and focus on lands for mana, this deck is vulnerable to mass land destruction or stax strategies and to a much lesser extent control decks that can stop you from playing one bomb each turn and it just isn't quite fast enough to hang with decks capable of going infinite on turn 3.
Competitive Update - CTRLerHead posted a competitive Kresh deck here.
2/14/17 Update: This deck has evolved quite a bit since the thread originally became a primer. It is not my most competitive deck (that honor goes to Derevi or Yidris) but it is close and the one deck I am constantly tuning. It is much faster and more explosive than the original battle cruiser deck that was posted but has sacrificed some resiliency/removal for that speed and explosiveness. A lot of the high CMC cards have been upgraded or removed to increase speed and consistency. The focus on Power and Synergy still very much apply and remain the major themes for the deck. There are very few cards that come into play without an immediate impact on the board. If anything, the number of big plays and crazy turns have increased with the changes that have been made.
I will stand by the initial assessment that Kresh cannot operate efficiently in a highly competitive meta and I think most people who play in one (not me) would agree. Of course, there is some midrange potential and shenanigans that can take advantage of his ability to get extremely big very quickly, but there are just better ways to do these things. This doesn't mean he can't hang at or win games at those tables (see the competitive deck posted above), but you are sacrificing some serious power by choosing Kresh over some of the other big hitters in the command zone.
Other Commander Options
Kresh is pretty unique among commanders and I had a hard time finding many good comparisons. No one else has an ability quite like his. Most likely if you are playing Kresh it has as much to do with flavor as it does with his power level. He's not a tier 1 general, but he's not a weakling either and his ability can still be very strong.
Jund
The other Jund commander options. They all seem to share a similar sacrifice or token theme.
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher - Prossh is the most popular and powerful Jund commander and actually one of the more comparable commanders with Kresh's ability. If you love Jund and just want to make a really strong deck this is probably your guy. Capable of an infinite loop when combined with Food Chain, a highly tuned Prossh deck can win as quickly as turn 2 or 3. Obviously there are a lot of different options for him if you aren't going all in on the hyper competitive as well. He comes into play with a token army which can be used for all kinds of shenanigans including as sac outlets, just for attacking, or to buff Prossh for some voltron action.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund - I don't have any experience with him, but he's usually built as dragon tribal and Jund does have pretty much all of the best dragon options. He's also a big voltron threat. There are actually a lot of dragons in commander as well so the ability to steal other player's dragons is more relevant than you'd think. If you are going to build this ramp will be paramount as dragons don't come cheap.
Shattergang Brothers - Can be extremely oppressive if built properly, although it is somewhat dependent on what type of deck it's up against. I have been locked down by this guy multiple times and it isn't much fun being on the wrong end of it. Shattergang Brothers are much more of a controlling, attrition style deck than Kresh, although they share some similar themes.
Some dudes that are rumored to be starring in Expendables 4 with Kresh:
You have to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Yippee Ki Yay...
You wanna be a farmer? Here's a couple of achers.
I'm going to take you to the bank, the blood bank.
Remember when I promised to kill you last? I lied.
Deck History
I still vaguely remember when I got my first starter deck 20 or so years ago. There is only one card I remember. It was probably the worst card in the deck, but for my friends and I, with no experience with Magic, it was awesome, a game winner. Here it is in all its glory! I don’t think the deck even had the means to cast it beyond some miracle occurring like getting every single island into play, but I always got excited when I drew the card, imagining how I would win if I could get the mana I needed for it. It took a long time to get over that excitement for big cards and I’m not sure I ever quite did. My buddy and I even traded away all of our dual lands for cool creatures and spells because lands suck... ugh.
"Kresh, I am your father."
As my friends and I accumulated cards, I started gravitating towards red and green, specifically big creatures like Craw Wurm and Shivan Dragon. When I got my hands on a copy of Keldon Warlord he immediately became my favorite creature. That was some pretty sick art back in the day by the way. Needless to say, the Warlord grew less and less powerful as better cards continued to come out and the fascination with big cards wore off as they proved to just be too slow in 60 cards formats. Well, until the invention of EDH that is.
When I started playing EDH Kresh the Bloodbraided was my first choice for a commander and it isn’t that surprising, he is basically an evolution of Keldon Warlord after all. I had always been drawn to Kresh but never able to fit him into a 60 card deck and have him be effective. He was just too slow to get going.
The initial version of my EDH deck was inconsistent, sometimes winning through crazy powerful plays and other times not getting off the ground. I continued to tweak the deck for the next year or so but never got past those inconsistencies. At that point I took a long hard look and determined I had too many conditional cards, cards that may be extremely powerful but only when certain circumstances were met. Cards like Grave Pact, which can be absolutely amazing, but can also be the worst card to top deck when you have no creatures and are looking for an answer. There was a brief experimental period where some awful versions of the deck were tried and failed, but I eventually cut almost all the cards that were dependent on other cards to be good and threw in as many game changers as I could.
The deck started consistently having huge impacts on games, win or lose, and the amount of game changing cards means it never plays the same way twice. In short, it was a lot of fun. Though I continue to tweak the deck as more cards are released, the philosophy has not changed. So we've come full circle. I'm back to slinging big powerful cards and playing one of the baddest commanders around and one of my favorite cards. Though I have flavor of the month decks from time to time, this is the one I always come back to and am always looking to improve.
Kresh the Bloodbraided - The first card we should probably talk about is our fearless leader. He's a 3/3 for 2BRG with the ability: Whenever another creature is put into a graveyard from play, you may put X +1/+1 counters on Kresh the Bloodbraided, where X is that creature's power.
Voltron: His ability has no effect on the board aside from buffing himself and it doesn't buff him one +1/+1 counter at a time, but buffs in potentially massive amounts depending on the power of the creature or creatures that died. This screams Voltron and getting Kresh through for that lethal 21 commander damage is going to be one of our top strategies for victory. There are two problems with the Voltron strategy: Kresh has no innate evasion and comes down with a vulnerable nonthreatening 3/3 body. We can around this by providing him with evasion, either through card abilities or just from eliminating any would be blockers. We can also provide protection for his initially frail frame through equipment and other cards. Oh, and if I didn't mention it earlier, he gets bigger when creatures die and we will make creatures die. Luckily, there are some very powerful sacrifice and removal effects in both black and green that we can take advantage of.
Other Observations: Although his ability doesn't have any outside effect on the board, we do have some cards that scale with creature power to take advantage of how big he can get. His vanilla body (no evasion or protection) will cause opponents to underestimate him and allow him to live in lieu of other targets. I have seen him underestimated many times and it is almost always a mistake. Kresh can go from 3/3 to 21/21 in a heartbeat and be swinging for lethal.
I’ve categorized the cards by their role in the deck. As stated almost every card fills multiple roles so I tried to list them under the role they are most commonly or primarily used for. Additionally, to help demonstrate how the cards work together and how each card can fill multiple roles I've included labels in each card's discussion. The various labels are listed below. RAMP: If we are going to be casting big spells we need mana and we need it as quickly as possible. Cards with the RAMP label help us get there. DRAW: We need card draw to fuel this well-oiled war machine. DRAW cards keep our calloused hand full so we can keep dropping bombs. REMOVAL: REMOVAL advances our gameplan, keeping the opponents' boards clear, buffing Kresh, and finding answers to problematic permanents. SACRIFICE: There is always a benefit to effects that SACRIFICE our creatures and we'll be playing the most powerful of these options. Sacrifices also help Kresh get strong and put our ETB creatures in the graveyard where they can be recurred for additional value. ETB: With the amount of recursion in this deck and the conscious decision to use creatures over spells whenever possible, ETB creatures have extra value. VOLTRON: Cards labeled as VOLTRON advance our plan to get Kresh through for that lethal 21 commander damage. RECURSION: This deck is intentionally creature heavy. RECURSION softens the negative impact of our sacrifices and allows us to reuse all the ETB effects we are running, often with opponent crushing results. TOKEN: Tokens provide great sacrifice options and provide good value for their mana investment. Cards in the TOKEN category either make tokens or directly advance the token theme. TUTOR: Being able to respond to threats as they develop throughout the game and find the appropriate card for any board state is critical to winning games. TUTOR cards give us that toolbox.
A card needs to have a standalone impact on any given area to get the label. For example, even though Lord of Extinction is often a great target for Momentous Fall, there is nothing about the lord himself that draws cards so he would not get the DRAW label, whereas Momentous Fall would, as it directly results in drawing cards.
Ramp
You may notice some signature commander cards missing here, specifically any mana rocks aside from Sol Ring and Mana Crypt. This is a result of our decision to use creatures over non-creatures whenever possible due to the synergy they provide with Kresh and the other themes of the deck. Honestly, I don't think the deck suffers without rocks and in some cases will actually be better with the creature based ramp as our creatures can be recurred and are pulling lands from our deck, which makes their ramp less vulnerable to removal and reduces our chances of top-decking lands in the late game.
Awakening Zone/From Beyond – RAMPSACRIFICETOKEN These are both amazing cards in the deck, especially if we get them early, as they can do serious work towards getting us to those high costed bombs and can help the deck go wide later in the game. They require a small initial mana investment and then provide increasing value as the game goes on and are often nonthreatening enough to avoid spot removal from our opponents. The tokens made with From Beyond also come in with 1 power so will be buffing Kresh when they are sacrificed.
Solemn Simulacrum - RAMPDRAWETB The exploits of Sad Robot are well-known and not much needs to be said here. He doubles as ramp and card draw here, is a great target for sacrifices and can be recurred for additional value.
Dawntreader Elk/Sakura-Tribe Elder - RAMPSACRIFICE Both of these creatures double as ramp and sacrifice options to buff Kresh. These are two of the stronger ramping creatures as they will bring a land directly into play when they are sacrificed. Even though they don't have ETB effects they can still be recurred and sacrificed for more land and extra value.
Viridian Emissary - RAMP Although he can't sacrifice himself, the emissary still gets us a land when he dies. Unlike Dawntreader Elk and Sakura-Tribe Elder he doesn't need to be sacrificed to get us a card either, so we can strap him up with Skullclamp or use him to block/attack. He's another target for a recursion effect that can get us extra value.
Wood Elves - RAMPETB Just a great all around ramping card in the deck. Can be sacrificed, recurred, and strapped up with Skullclamp. It also allows us to get a shock land for some extra mana fixing.
Garruk Wildspeaker – RAMPVOLTRONTOKEN Because of the high mana curve in the deck, this version of Garruk is most commonly going to be used as ramp. The ability to untap two lands for +1 will net at least 2 mana and maybe more if we have a bounce land in play. He can also make a 3/3 token for -1 and his ultimate is very achievable and can be used to turn a weak token army into a finisher or give Kresh the evasion (trample) he needs to get through for a kill.
Sol Ring/Mana Crypt - RAMP The best mana rocks you can buy. I caved and ended up putting these in the deck for the sake of being competitive and as part of the never ending quest for deck perfection.
Veteran Explorer - RAMP A great sacrifice target. Even though the explorer gives every player lands we expect that acceleration towards late game to benefit us the most. It's also critical to have good early sacrifice targets when we're running things like Diabolic Intent and Skullclamp. Birthing Pod loves this guy too.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - RAMPDRAW Selvala was made for this deck, I'm pretty sure. Both of her abilities just scream power matters. The card drawing is nice of course and the odds of our opponents having a creature with power greater than us are low. Where this card really shines though is the ability to tap for massive amounts of mana. Getting her on line with Malignus or Lord of Extinction with Greater Good, Sneak Attack, or the like should lead to a quick win as we should be able to draw or play a ton of cards.
Oracle of Mul Daya - RAMP Not too much synergy here aside from Oracle being a creature, so available to sacrifice in a pinch and buffing Kresh if he gets killed. This is one of the best midrange ramping cards in the game and can very quickly lead to huge land presence. Works extremely with Sylvan Library as we can set up the top of our library to get free lands into play and burn through the deck.
Draw
Just like everything else in the deck, the card draw here is of the go big or go home variety. We're looking to draw cards by the dozens whenever possible in order to find the specific cards we need to win the game in short order or get those sudden violent kills.
Disciple of Bolas – DRAWSACRIFICEETB The disciple is good in multiple ways with this deck. He can often net us a huge amount of cards and life while simultaneously buffing Kresh, but even if he only comes in and gets us 3 cards it's still a 2/1 creature 3 cards and 3 life for 4 mana. That's not bad. Since it's an ETB effect he can be recurred and reused for huge value.
Garruk, Primal Hunter – DRAWTOKEN There are a lot of big creatures in this deck, some that can get very big and make the card drawing from Garruk get crazy. Most of the time we will cast Garruk and immediately use his -3 to draw a bunch of cards. As the ability doesn't target, it's resilient to spot removal and doesn't care if our biggest creature has shroud from Lightning Greaves. In the rare case where the card draw isn't needed or we don't have a good target for it he can also make 3/3 tokens for +1 loyalty. If we're feeling greedy or relatively safe we can always make a token for +1 when he comes and try to use the -3 on the following turn to keep him in play. Getting to his ultimate won't happen very often, but because our ramp is focused on getting additional lands into play we will most often be netting a lot of 6/6 tokens when it does.
Momentous Fall/Greater Good – DRAWSACRIFICE - Two more cards that let us draw cards equal to the power of the creature we sacrifice. The instant speed on Momentous Fall is awesome and let's us leave Kresh or another creature in play unprotected as long as we have the mana available to cast it. Greater Good is one of the most broken card drawing cards ever made. The ability to reuse it, also at instant speed, makes it get out of hand very fast if not answered and the discard drawback is not nearly as bad as it seems. We will often be drawing so many cards we have to discard anyway and can discard creatures into the graveyard to use as recursion targets.
Skullclamp – DRAW There are plenty of 1 toughness creatures and tokens to throw this on to draw an easy 2 cards. We can also equip it a creature before we sacrifice it or actually just equip for the +1 power. It isn't a bad idea to equip it to a creature your opponent will need to respond to as well to get a couple cards when they inevitably destroy it. This isn’t the most broken deck to have Skullclamp in but it’s still insanely good.
Sylvan Library - DRAW A combination of Sensei's Divining Top and Brainstorm (those are two pretty good cards), the library is a great way to filter our hand and potentially draw cards. We get to draw three and put any two from our hand back on top of our library or pay 4 life per card to keep them every turn. 4 life is pretty steep but it's less relevant in a 40 life format like commander. We have quite a few ways to shuffle the deck and get rid of pesky cards we don't need at the moment as well.
Rishkar's Expertise - DRAW Just a great power matters card. This easily draws 4+ cards and can hit 20 or more. After we draw the cards we can then cast anything with CMC 5 or less for free (Chandra's Ingition anyone?). The floor on this card is great value and the ceiling can just win the game by getting the pieces we need for an explosive turn.
Recursion
We aren't all in on the recursion strategy and that's partially by design as we don't want to be too vulnerable to graveyard hate. The recursion cards we are using are very strong either for the cost or the effect we get from them. Many of them can generate quite a bit of card advantage by pulling multiple creatures from the graveyard, which gets even better when you take into account the number of ETB creatures we are running.
Victimize – SACRIFICERECURSION This card offers so much value for the deck. We have a plethora of creatures we are more than willing to and even glad to sacrifice for the cause and just as many creatures we want to pull out of our graveyard for either their ETB effects or just their sheer power. Losing one creature to pull two of your choice is already good and it is often great in this deck.
Sheoldred, Whispering One – REMOVALRECURSION Sheoldred is good in any black deck that has a decent chunk of creatures and she fits amazingly here. There will almost always be a great target to pull from our graveyard each turn and forcing our opponents to sacrifice a creature during their upkeep just makes Kresh stronger and advances our gameplan. The amount of card advantage she generates quickly gets out of hand if she isn't immediately answered. Her 6/6 body is relevant as well. Sheoldred is what we're talking about when we say we're playing powerful creatures and spells.
Feldon of the Third Path - SACRIFICERECURSIONTOKEN Similar to Mimic Vat on a creature, Feldon can pull any creature from our graveyard until end of turn. It's versatile, as the creature doesn't get exiled so you can use it over and over or choose different targets to suit the situation. He creates a token, which we can potentially double with Doubling Season and the token gets sacrificed at the end of turn, which is good for Kresh. We are running a lot of ETB creatures and some that do stuff when they attack as well making Feldon very strong.
Eternal Witness – ETBRECURSION For a measly three mana the witness can grab any card from our graveyard and return it to our hand and bring a 2/1 body to the table. She's a great target for recursion and we don't mind sacrificing her after she's come into play and done her thing. She's also another great target for Skullclamp.
Twilight's Call – RECURSION Some cards can just flat out win the game with the sheer power of what they do. This is one of those cards. The ability to cast Twilight's Call as an instant makes it possible to turn it into a total blowout. Responding to an attacking enemy is deadly and all the ETB effects and bombs in the deck ensure it will work out in our favor nearly every time. At the very least we can hold it until the end of our opponent’s turn to get the first crack with our creatures not having summoning sickness.
Mimic Vat – RECURSIONTOKEN With the right creature imprinted Mimic Vat quickly becomes a card that must be responded to by our opponents and we have a ton of creatures that meet that description like Avenger of Zendikar or Acidic Slime. The multitude of ETB effects makes it easy to get value from the vat or just quickly win the game. Opponents' creatures are also fair game and it's important to note that any creature that gets imprinted will be exiled as long it remains imprinted. We can use this as a soft counter to certain recursion strategies and infinite combos that may require a card to sit in the graveyard.
Journey to Eternity/Atzal, Cave of Eternity - RAMPRECURSION Although we run the risk of the typical blowout you can get when trying to cast an aura on a creature, if Journey sticks it'll take us on a train ride straight to value town. This protects the creature it enchants, bringing it back from death, which is particularly potent with all the ETB and on death creatures we are running, then when it flips it provides ramp and mana fixing. A bit expensive, but the land can also recur creatures from the graveyard, which can potentially come in handy as well. I think it's worth the risk.
Miscellaneous
These cards don't quite fit in the other categories, but have enough value or synergy to be worthy of inclusion anyway. Some of our best power matters cards are here as well as some haste enablers to protect us from board wipes.
Lightning Greaves - VOLTRON The greaves are a commander staple for a reason. The 0 equip cost for haste and shroud is just amazing. The haste is usually not a benefit to Kresh as he won't often get big enough to do serious damage the same turn he comes into play, but shroud provides much needed protection. We have many other creatures that appreciate the protection as well and the haste works great for some of our creatures that have whenever it attacks abilities like Nacatl War-Pride and Inferno Titan. Be aware of the shroud preventing us from targeting whatever creature is wearing the greaves. This can occasionally be problematic as we may need to target the creature for a sacrifice effect or some other ability.
Sneak Attack - SACRIFICE With all the ETB creatures and graveyard recursion in the deck this is pretty much a must include for us. Having this in play with a way to draw cards like Greater Good can just get bonkers. Also, we are running so many high CMC creatures, just being able to drop them early can be game breaking. Or course we can't ignore the +1/+1 counters Kresh will rack up as these creatures get sacrificed at end of turn. Sneak attack has major synergy with Birthing Pod, Mimic Vat, Victimize, the list goes on...
Urabrask the Hidden/Anger - Two cards that don't really fit any particular category very well, but are critical to the deck's success. We never want to wait a full turn after returning graveyards to the battlefield or playing a big creature and hope no one has a board wipe. Urabrask and Anger gives us some extra insurance against that and making opponents' creatures enter the battlefield tapped just ensures we'll be able to get through.
Xenagos, God of Revels - VOLTRON He will mostly be just an indestructible enchantment, which is fine as it makes him much harder to remove. He doubles the power and toughness of our other creatures, turning the many 5/5 and 6/6 range creatures in the deck to absolute monsters. This is great for attacking but also works extremely well with cards where power matters like Momentous Fall and Chandra's Ignition as the creature can have its power doubled before the sacrifice. The haste is also extra good with cards that have attack triggers like Inferno Titan and Nacatl War-Pride.
Berserk - VOLTRON As a rule I'm not a huge fan of one use pump spells but this one is good enough that I'll gladly make an exception. Power matters in this deck and Berserk doubles the power of a creature. It's great for attacking and getting one of our juggernauts through with trample. We've also doubled the creature's power for a measly G so can easily follow it up with something like Disciple of Bolas or Chandra's Ignition or even Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for some serious mana. We can also use it for creature removal in a pinch. It can also turn Malignus into a one-shot kill if unblocked.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - SACRIFICE Jarad is just a potential game winner with the power matters theme. Paired with juggernauts like Malignus, Lord of Extinction, and Kresh himself, he can either flat out kill the table or cripple their life totals. His sac ability doesn't require tapping either, which means with Kresh in play you can potentially do something like sacrifice a high-powered creature with him, buffing Kresh, and then throw Kresh at the table afterwards. There is also potential for him to be pretty big himself with the +1/+1 for each creature in our graveyard. His ability to recur himself is also huge, making him a threat to end the game at any time (at instant speed too), even after he's died.
Tokens
The cards in this role either produce tokens or advance the token gameplan in some way. The token generators are one shot deals, because of the high CMC in this deck we don't have extra mana to be dumping into a mana sink after our token cards are initially played. Tokens were meant to die, they provide good sacrifice fodder and buff Kresh or can potentially allow us to go wide if the game falls the right way.
Nacatl War-Pride – TOKEN This guy is absolutely devastating and great for finishing stalled out games. He makes a bunch of attacking tokens when he attacks that can be doubled with Doubling Season(which can win the game in one swoop if your opponent has enough creatures), the tokens have to be blocked which essentially gives the rest of our creatures unblockable and results in a lot of creatures hitting the graveyard after damage resolves and giving Kresh +1/+1 counters galore. The tokens are removed from the game at the end of the turn but can be sacrificed before that happens if we’re able.
Pathbreaker Ibex - VOLTRON The pathbreaker goes incredibly well with our juggernauts and can easily be better than craterhoof in many scenarios as it doesn't require a board full of creatures to end the game. Kresh, Malignus, and Lord of Extinction can easily combo with this guy and once we start doubling power with stuff like Berserk and Xenagos, God of Revels, we're easily hitting the table for lethal.
Craterhoof Behemoth – ETBVOLTRON The behemoth is a game winner. When he hits the table, more often than not at least one player is going to die and if we have enough tokens we may even be able to wipe out the whole table. He's an ETB creature and one of the best targets we have for potential recursion and Mimic Vat shenanigans. He can potentially provide a massive power and toughness boost to the team and grants evasion through trample, which may be enough to get Kresh in for a commander kill. He's another super powerful card that opponents need an immediate response to.
Avenger of Zendikar – ETBTOKEN This guy is an absolute all star in the deck and one of the best token cards in commander. Usually he'll come in with 6 or more plant tokens and carries a beefy 5/5 body himself. The plant tokens can be doubled and so can the +1/+1 counters they get when a land comes into play. The fact that this all comes in on an ETB effect makes him a great target for recursion and Mimic Vat in particular.
Removal
Just like the rest of the deck we are trying to get as much removal attached to creatures as possible to increase the number of bodies that can potentially give Kresh a boost when they die and increase our recursion targets. The removal varies from massive board wiping spells to cheap single target effects. Though these don't necessarily fit our all-in on power theme they are necessary to keep us in the game while we build up our mana base.
Chandra's Ignition – REMOVAL This card more than any other card in the deck was made for Kresh. Casting this on Kresh and wiping the board is going to result in one of our opponents being dead. The first time I played with this card I cast it on a 5/5 Kresh on turn six, killed 7 creatures and then attacked and killed an opponent with a now 23/23 Kresh and have played it on Kresh at over 40 power and eliminated three opponents at once. It's basically Fling on steroids and we don't have to sacrifice the creature we cast it on. Keep it mind it does the damage to all creatures so our own team is vulnerable as well. It's really good with Vigor but either way we should be ok with our creatures dying as long as Kresh is getting bigger. We can always recur them later.
Big Game Hunter/Acidic Slime - REMOVALETB Here's some more of our creature delivered removal that can be recurred. Nine times out of ten the most threatening creature on the board has 4 or greater power and Big Game Hunter will take it down. It's easy to forget that he has B madness as well as it doesn't get used very often, but it does come up. The slime is just a great card for getting rid of problematic noncreature permanents and comes into play with deathtouch to make opponents think twice before attacking. Either one of these strapped to Mimic Vat can do some work and are also great targets for a Birthing Pod chain.
Terastodon - REMOVALETBTOKEN When we talk about finding answers for problematic permanents this elephant answers the question 90% of the time. Whether crippling an opponent's mana base or taking out whatever overpowered artifacts or enchantments they have, there are always 3 targets. The 9/9 is about as good as it gets as well and is a great target for some of our card draw that depends on creature power. There is the drawback of giving a 3/3 beast token for each noncreature permanent destroyed, but it's rarely a problem. Destroying our own stuff to get three 3/3 tokens may be necessary at some point to either stay alive or win the game. I've never had it happen but always have it in mind. In that scenario Terastodon would be giving us 18 power for 8 CMC.
Inferno Titan - REMOVALETB Maybe the worst of the titan cycle, Inferno Titan still brings the pain. 3 damage when he comes into play or attacks and comes in on a 6/6 body with firebreathing. He's essentially swinging for 9+ each turn and can take out utility creatures with ease.
Beast Within/Maelstrom Pulse - REMOVAL Sometimes we just need an answer for any permanent on the board and for 3 CMC we can't go wrong with either of these. Beast Within is another card that ends up giving the opponent a 3/3 token but that's most likely going to be nowhere near as useful for them as the permanent that was destroyed. The instant speed on Beast Within is great as well. Maelstrom Pulse is probably not quite as good. It's a sorcery and its ability to destroy all permanents with the same name is rarely relevant in a singleton format, though you could potentially get multiple opponents with the same card. Still, destroying the permanent of our choice makes it very good.
Pernicious Deed - REMOVAL This is one of the best GB cards ever printed because of its versatility. For one, it's a great rattlesnake effect. Our opponents will think twice before attacking us when this is in play and we have mana available. It can also be used to make X a low amount and just wipe the board of mana rocks or pesky blockers. We can also make X a lot more and wipe the entire board. Essentially, it gives us a large amount of control over what it does so we can fit it to any situation. It also works great to detonate it for less than 5 with Kresh in play and watch the +1/+1 counters stack up.
Bane of Progress - REMOVALETB - A great tool to have in our toolbox. This guy can potentially blow the table out of the water and become very big in the process, which is of course relevant with all the power matters cards we are running. It will destroy our own stuff, so there are certainly times when this will not be the best to play, but we would probably already be ahead at that point. Also, with only one mana rock it isn't likely to hurt our mana base as much as other players.
Tutors
Nothing sucks works than getting locked out of a game by one or two pesky cards and not being able to draw the cards in the deck to get rid of them. Every deck needs answers and the more tutors you are running the easier it is to find those answers when you need them. We're basically running the best of the best for tutors here and one that's strapped to Sidisi, Undead Vizier. Of course if we don't need to answer something we can always grab any of the many game winners from the deck and seal the game.
Birthing Pod - SACRIFICETUTOR There's a nice numerical neatness to the creature section of the deck list going from 2-8 CMC with at least three cards in each cost. That combined with the number of ETB effects we're running makes the pod a no-brainer. Keep in mind we usually want to be pulling creatures that we don't mind sacrificing the next turn unless we are in a position to win the game. Knowledge of the deck can be critical when there are multiple potential creatures that can be targeted for the sacrifice. Pulling the correct creature from the deck can be the difference between losing and staying in the game.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - SACRIFICEETBTUTOR I recently replaced Rune-Scarred Demon with Sidisi, mainly for the reduced mana cost, but we also don't mind the ability to sacrifice a creature (she can sacrifice herself if needed) and the 4/6 body with deathtouch isn't bad either.
Demonic TutorTUTOR - Possibly the best tutor ever made, we get any card we need for 2 mana. Just like the other cheap tutors this is useful to use as ramp early as the sooner we get mana the better off we'll be.
Diabolic IntentSACRIFICETUTOR - Acts as a second Demonic Tutor in the deck as not having a sacrifice target is pretty rare and the sacrifice cost can actually be a benefit in many scenarios.
Eldritch Evolution/Natural Order - TUTORSACRIFICE Two very similar cards that allow us to sacrifice a creature and put a new one into play. Evolution is obviously the more restricted of the two as we are limited to a creature with 2 CMC more. This still works very well with our low costed ramp creatures that don't mind being sacrificed or to grab one of our many toolbox options. Natural Order is much more broken as we can just sac something like Viridian Emissary for Terastodon very early in the game.
Survival of the Fittest - TUTOR Survival is an extremely mana efficient tutor that also throws stuff into our graveyard at the same time, which is usually a good thing. Anger should normally be target number one as it really belongs in the graveyard anyway, but we can pitch all kinds of creatures for recursion later. Of course, this gives access to every creature in the deck and the entire toolbox package.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded - TUTORSACRIFICE The ability to tutor for any card at instant speed is extremely powerful. Yes, we have to pay 2 life and sacrifice another creature, but 2 life is miniscule in commander and this deck doesn't mind sacrificing stuff. The 8 mana cost is pretty steep but we have many ways to cheat stuff in and ramp that can get us there pretty quickly. With a couple sacrificial creatures in play Razaketh should be able to find a way to win the game.
Juggernauts
With all the Momentous Fall type effects we're running we just need some big dudes that don't mind sacrificing themselves for the Greater Good. Our violent leader is a juggernaut as well of course.
Lord of Extinction – The EDH version of Tarmogoyf, the lord of extinction regularly hits the field at 40+ and gets absolutely insane with 4 or more players. He's often overlooked for being a big vanilla creature, but we have quite a few ways to take advantage of his huge size. He's a target in many of our best Tooth and Nail combos, can be used in one of our many ways to draw cards equal to power spells, or can simply throw on a Whispersilk Cloak and start knocking skulls. This is by far one of the best cards in the deck.
Malignus - One of the cards that benefits from the 40 starting life in commander. It's going to be rare for Malignus to not come in as at least a 10/10 and will often be 20/20 if not more. That's pretty good for 5 mana. Throw in cards like Disciple of Bolas and Greater Good or the potential to give Kresh a ton of +1/+1 counters and it's a great fit for the deck. It can also one shot anyone when used in tandem with Xenagos, God of Revels if unblocked.
Kresh the Bloodbraided - Kresh, what is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
Lands
I'm only going to discuss some of the more relevant utility lands here. We're running the 3 in color fetch lands, shock lands, slow lands, check lands, Savage Lands, Mana Confluence, City of Brass, Command Tower. There are enough basics and tutors for basics that the check lands and slow lands will pretty much always come in untapped but not so many that we get stuck without enough of one of the colors we're running.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse – VOLTRON Doesn’t come in tapped and can give Kresh the evasion he needs to swing for a kill. I’ve won a couple games by giving Kresh fear with this and the cost for running it is very small. It can potentially cost us a needed swamp to prevent a slow or check land from coming into play tapped but it's easily worth that risk.
Yavimaya Hollow – Being able to regenerate a creature for G and tapping this is pretty good. Anyone casting a board wipe with this and Kresh in play is asking for quick 21 damage high five to the face.
Kessig Wolf Run – VOLTRON The trample makes this a great late game finisher, especially with the big creatures we're running, or just as a way to get Kresh through some blockers. It can also be used to pump a creature before using things like Greater Good, Chandra's Ignition, and Xenagos, God of Revels.
Mosswort Bridge – We will hit the needed 10 power of creatures often, the only question is what gets flipped in the top four. The dream is either In Garruk's Wake or Plague Wind but there are a ton of good cards we can hit with our high mana curve. Bouncing this back to our hand with a bounce land can be pretty effective if it wiffs the first time.
Bojuka Bog – Graveyard hate that doesn’t cost a card in our deck. This should probably be in any deck playing black and is definitely worth running despite entering the battlefield tapped.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All – Colorless, but otherwise great for backing up the big spells that will win us the game if we protect them from being countered.
Dryad Arbor - Counts as both a creature and a forest, which allows it to be tutored with a ton of different stuff and can be used as ramp, a sacrifice target, or even another creature when going wide with a big army. The trade-off is the threat of dying to a board wipe so use with caution. I think the benefits outway the downside though.
How to Play
Opening Hand
There's no super secret strategy here. We need mana early. As a bare minimum we need two lands and some form of ramp that we're fairly confident we'll be able to play. Without any form of ramp, two lands should be a mulligan. Three lands is better and four is doable. It's rarely an issue, but make sure you have all three colors or a way to get all three colors. Top opening hand cards (you shouldn't be tossing a hand with these unless you absolutely have to): Sol Ring - Greatly accelerates the deck towards mid and late game. Sylvan Library - The ability to filter your draws can't be underestimated, especially with those high CMC bombs floating around. Throw them back into the library for later in exchange for lands or early game threats/answers. Awakening Zone - Seems inconsequential, but the ramp this card provides is huge for this deck and the tokens are also great sacrifice targets and could even potentially become lethal later in the game with an overrun ability. Skullclamp - Equip to a ramping creature and let the card drawing begin.
Early Game
As you've probably guessed the first few turns will be spent ramping and hitting land drops. There is some removal to deal with must answer threats (I'm looking at you Serra Ascendant), but for the most part you should be willing to take some damage to accelerate into the mid/late game quicker. There's only a couple cards that can be played on turn 1 so this is a good time to play a shock land without paying life or any land that enters the battlefield tapped. It is normally the right play to use Green Sun's Zenith, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent,etc. for ramp at this stage. You really want to get to mid/late game as quickly as possible. You should also play most of the lower costed stuff like Mimic Vat even if you don't have something to use it with right then and there, because once you hit 5 mana you'll be tapping out almost every turn and won't have a chance to play it then. It isn't a huge deal if something gets destroyed, you'll be able to draw more cards later and reload.
Mid Game
Mid game is the point where the focus is no longer on ramping and transitions into establishing a board presence and plan for winning the game. It is often not a bad idea to throw Kresh onto the board early and just see what happens with him. He can get big really fast if things fall into place and we don’t need him to live to win the game, so eating a removal spell isn’t the worst thing. At this point in the game we need to develop a plan/line of play to either win or get a kill that is specific to the cards we have available and the current state of the board (See How to Win below for more specifics). There are quite a few different paths to victory so knowledge of the deck is absolutely paramount. We also have plenty of tutors to take our current pool of cards to an explosive level if the right choices are made. The deck is very capable of creating a sudden dominating board state or just winning out of nowhere. We are also running enough value that the deck is very capable of winning a drawn out game as well.
I can't overstate how dangerous Kresh is just being in play, even in the early stages of the game. Something like an evoked Shriekmaw gives Kresh +3/+3 plus the power of the creature it killed. An evoked Spitebellows is even better. Either one can put someone on a two turn clock. Chandra's Ignition on Kresh can just end someone's life. And all of that is not taking into account the other creatures that may be hitting the graveyard in a multiplayer game.
If someone gets off to a fast start (or maybe you missed a couple land drops) and is trying to kill us, we need to do whatever possible to stay alive and make it to late game where we can turn things around. It's ok to play defensively or start using some politics to divert their aggression somewhere else. Kresh may be angry with us, but sometimes the best strategy is to make ourselves as nonthreatening as possible and hope the big boys at the table duke it out amongst themselves while we recover.
Late Game
This is where all those evil machinations we set into motion earlier come to fruition and hopefully we find a way to win. Obviously, if the initial plan fails we need to recalibrate, assess the board and our cards, and come up with a new strategy. Philosophically, the deck has shifted from an attrition based strategy to a more explosive, "win as suddenly as possible" strategy. There's a certain level of randomness when everyone is dropping threats each turn and hoping they last. Eventually, the table will run out of answers and although if you are running value cards you can turn the odds in your favor, there is still a good chance you will not be the player whose threat finally sticks when that happens. If you are instead going directly from a non-threatening position to a must-answer, about to the win the game position, it greatly reduces the tables chance to respond.
This by no means covers every scenario, but here are some of the more common ways to victory to give you an idea of what you should be looking to do once you get to late game:
How to Win Big
I think the best way to lay this out is to list the cards that can win the game and how and what cards to be looking out for when choosing to pursue them as a strategy to win. Then based on the board state and what cards we already have in hand we can find the best line of play from there, using tutors, recursion, and enablers to get whatever cards we need to complete the puzzle.
Twilight's Call – It’s pretty easy to fill up the graveyard with creatures and this can be cast at EoT on our opponents turn. That combined with the amount of ETB effects can lead to a sudden win. Works with a full graveyard, which can often be achieved by drawing a ton of cards and discarding.
Attrition
The deck won’t always win in sudden impressive fashion. Sometimes it may kill one player or two players and have to grind out the final kill or may be getting oppressed and have to claw its way back into contention. That’s ok. We still have the ability to grind out a game. Some good cards for winning the attrition battle: Sheoldred, Whispering One, Grave and Inferno Titan, Mimic Vat, Feldon of the Third Path, Birthing Pod.
Drawing Cards - Although it won't win the game outright by itself, it is very difficult for our opponents to overcome us drawing a massive amount of cards. This is something the deck does very well. Get a big creature, preferably a juggernaut but there are other options as well, and hit them with one of the following cards: Disciple of Bolas, Rishkar's Expertise, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Greater Good, Momentous Fall.
Real Game Examples
My previous game examples were so outdated I ended up removing them altogether as they were no longer an accurate representation of how the deck operated. After playing three games with Kresh over the weekend and winning two of them I figured this was a good opportunity to bring them back to help paint a full picture of how the deck works.
6/24/17
I had taken out one opponent very early with a Malignus and Xenagos, God of Revels. The remaining three of us were basically keeping each other in check with board wipes and removal, causing the game to go over 10 turns with no one able to keep an edge. I had a pretty full graveyard and had drawn 6 cards with Rishkar's Expertise on a 6/6 Bane of Progress the previous turn. My opponent, running an Oloro, Ageless Ascetic deck had just gotten to 51 life with an Aetherflux Reservoir in play by durdling out a bunch of spells. He was feeling pretty smug as he passed the turn as he now had me and the other opponent hostage, with the option to kill either one us on the spot if we did something he didn’t like.
When it got around to me, I cast Beast Within on his Aetherflux Reservoir and he responded by paying 50 life (which would put him at 1) to deal 50 damage to me. I responded by casting Twilight's Call and paying the extra 2 to cast it as an instant. One of the creatures I returned was Inferno Titan, which I had do 3 damage to him, and put him at 48 life, killing him when his pay 50 life resolved and removing the 50 damage to me from the stack when he died. The other player and I both had quite a few creatures returning to play, but the combination of my returning Urabrask the Hidden and Nacatl War-Pride were enough to allow me to get in with my other creatures and hit him for lethal.
6/25/17
This was an unusually long game and I couldn’t seem to get anything except a Xenagos, God of Revels to stick as I was getting hit with removal seemingly as soon as I could put anything into play. To make matters worse, one of my opponents was running Anafenza, the Foremost protected by Bear Umbra and had almost completely shut down any graveyard shenanigans I would normally be able to do. He also had Sun Titan and Aura Shards in play and was looking pretty dominant.
I was mostly out of gas and in serious danger when I top-decked Survival of the Fittest. I used it to pitch a creature from my hand into exile (thanks Anafenza) and grab Sidisi, Undead Vizier. I played Sidsi, extorting herself, and got Tooth and Nail. I didn’t have enough mana to cast it yet.
We went around the table with my Survival of the Fittest getting destroyed by the Aura Shards of course and me taking a decent chunk of damage. On my turn I cast Tooth and Nail entwined, putting Lord of Extinction and Disciple of Bolas into play. I sac’d the Lord of Extinction to the Disciple’s ETB, drawing 34 cards and gaining 34 life and putting me back into the game. I still had 6 mana available and really wanted to take out Anafenza, then pitch my creatures into the graveyard on my end step to be recurred by Twilight's Call the next turn, but I just couldn’t figure out a way to get past the Bear Umbra. That is my normal line of play in that scenario and it took me a minute to realize I could essentially do the same thing by keeping the creatures in my hand with the Sneak Attack I’d been holding onto.
On my next turn I played Sneak Attack, unloading my hand of creatures which included Avenger of Zendikar getting 13 plant tokens, a Feldon of the Third Path who created a Malignus token from my meager graveyard, Nacatl War-Pride, 2 other creatures, and Craterhoof Behemoth putting it all over the top. Although the plant tokens didn’t have haste, the over 20 power and trample added to my other creatures, as well as an over 100 power trampling Malignus token (using Xenagos), was enough to swing for lethal on both players.
7/30/17
**Quick disclaimer on this one** I was playing against two of my friends with normal sixty card decks, multiple copies of cards, and we all had 20 life. They don't have any EDH decks and I don't have any non-EDH decks. They agreed to allow Command Tower to make any color mana and other than that I was completely legal and had shuffled Kresh into my deck. Their decks are pretty casual so beating them with a 100 card singleton deck isn't impressive, but this seemed like a good example as it was a turn 7 win and demonstrates a bit how familiarity with the deck is so important.
At my opponent's end of turn before turn 7, with the help of Ancient Tomb, I cast Twilight's Call paying the 2 to cast it at instant speed and brought back the above mentioned cards and Malignus. On turn 7 I still didn't have lethal, especially since the player with Soul Warden had just gained around 14 life. I cast Demonic Tutor to get Pathbreaker Ibex, the pitched the Ibex to my graveyard with Survival of the Fittest and used Feldon of the Third Path to create a hasted token copy of it. I doubled it's power with Berserk to add insult to injury and then swung with the team, giving every creature +56/+56.
1/19/18
I started with a turn one Veteran Explorer, which one of my opponents openly questioned after asking what it did, wanting to know how it helped me if everyone got the lands. It was a fair question, but the card ultimately won me the game this time. One of my opponents opened with a Deathrite Shaman, which happened to be the only relevant opponent's card in this game. Turn 2 I cast Diabolic Intent sacrificing the Veteran Explorer and tutoring for Malignus. I did not have anything to use my two extra lands on from the explorer dying so passed the turn. Turn 3 I played Malignus, who was 21/21 because of one of my opponents gaining two life. Turn 4 I played Rishkar's Expertise drawing 21 cards with the notable ones being Craterhoof Behemoth, Avenger of Zendikar, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, and Anger. I cast Sidisi, Undead Vizier, for free off the Rishkar's, exploiting herself, and tutored up Twilight's Call. I also put a Mana Crypt into play. I discarded all of my creatures at end of turn and kept some spells that would allow me to rebuild in case my recursion strategy got thwarted. Fifth turn I cast Twilight's Call and after I put all the creatures into play and seeing what was coming, the opponent with the Deathrite Shaman exiled Anger in response. They began to discuss finding a wrath to stop my inevitable attack next turn. Needing haste to end the game, I exploited Veteran Explorer with Sidisi, Undead Vizier's ETB, getting Urabrask the Hidden and the two untapped lands I needed to cast him. With haste in play, I swung for lethal on the table, with Craterhoof giving all my creatures +17/+17 and trample.
Change Log
11/29/15
Out - Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
In - Meren of Clan Nel Toth
Reasoning - As sweet as Mikaeus is he does have some downsides. First of all, there are a decent number of humans in the deck, which he does nothing for. He also costs 3 black mana which can sometimes be problematic. Lastly, he's only relevant when there are other useful creatures in play for him to protect that are being killed. Meren solves all of these issues although her effect won't usually bring the creatures right back into play. She's much easier to cast and nets a card almost immediately as her effect happens at the end of the turn. Overall, I think this will improve the consistency of the deck.
Out - Mycoloth
In - Sol Ring
Reasoning - For a long time I was set on the idea of only using creature based ramp so there would always be the potential for Kresh to get +1/+1 counters when the creature died, but playing Sol Ring in my other decks reiterated just how good it is and I realized I needed to include it here if I wanted the deck to be as strong as possible. Mycoloth was a card I had on the chopping block for a while. His potential is really high, but he can also just be a dead card in hand and doesn't have any way of protecting himself to keep the token train rolling.
Out - Rune-Scarred Demon
In - Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Reasoning - Another mostly cost based decision. By far the best part of Rune-Scarred Demon is the tutoring ability. I found the 6/6 flying body was almost never the reason I wanted to cast him. With Sidisi I can keep the tutor on a creature for 2 less mana and the cost of sacrificing a creature is not much of a drawback if any in this deck.
Out - Hamletback Goliath
In - Xenagos, God of Revels
Reasoning - This was a really difficult call to make because the goliath has won many games, whether through card draw off his huge power or just from hitting really hard. I made the decision because Xenagos brings so much to the table for this deck and it's indestructible. There are so many cards that make power on creatures relevant, usually for drawing cards, but also on Chandra's Ignition and doubling the power of Kresh can easily be what it takes to get that 21 commander damage in. The haste is good too and more so on some of the "when it attacks" creatures I'm running.
Out - Bitterblossom
In - From Beyond
Reasoning - I was really only trying out Bitterblossom because I spent $20 on it for another deck that didn't work out and was hoping it would be good in the deck. What little I played of it was underwhelming and Awakening Zone is so so good when you can play it on turn 2 or 3 I knew I needed to find a place for From Beyond as soon as it was spoiled. Bitterblossom was an obvious cut.
12/23/15
Out - Meren of Clan Nel Toth
In - Feldon of the Third Path
Reasoning - Meren just isn't that strong as one of the 99 and I may have gotten a bit smitten with her just being a new card. Feldon works really well with the rest of the deck. It makes a token, sacrifices a creature, and recurs the ETB dudes.
Out - Strionic Resonator
In - Sylvan Library
Reasoning - Nothing against Strionic Resonator, I may even find a place for it in the deck again in the future, but in terms of sheer power Sylvan Library blows it out of the water and I expect it to be the best 2 mana card in the deck. The card filtering alone is amazing and having the option to draw extra cards puts it over the top. My only concern is there are quite a few things that cost life in this deck. I don't see it being an issue, but for a deck that wants to get to the late game it will have to be something I monitor closely.
2/6/16
Out - Bloodfire Colossus
In - Malignus
Reasoning - Bloodfire was not having an impact very often. I played about 15 games where I never once played him or wanted him. As cool as the potential combo with Vigor and the synergy with Kresh are, it just isn't consistently good enough. I expect Malignus to be really good as another "power matters" creature along the lines of Lord of Extinction.
4/1/16
Out - Vigor, Primal Vigor, Garruk, Apex Predator
In - Sneak Attack, Veteran Explorer, Seedguide Ash
Reasoning - Vigor was naturally the next card on the chopping block after Bloodfire Colossus came out. The value just went way down without the potential two card "combo" with them. It's also a creature that needs other creatures around to have a big impact. Primal Vigor I never had a problem with, but seemed like a good card to remove as the chance of helping your opponents more than yourself is always out there. Garruk's power level doesn't necessarily match his mana cost. I'm looking for a bigger impact if I'm spending that much. The great thing about him is the versatility, but he will not turn the game around if you are already losing. As far as adding Veteran Explorer and Seedguide Ash, and this may have been a terrible thing to do, but I've been play testing my decks 1v1 a lot lately and this deck is a bit slow in a 1v1 matchup. I expect those two cards to speed it up a bit and gives some more great sacrifice targets. The 1 drop that can be sacrificed is especially valuable to have early. For Sneak Attack I recently picked one up as the price has dropped a bit and it's an obvious include in this deck with all the ETB creatures and cards like Kresh that like sacrifices. I've already done some incredibly broken things with it like cheating in Terastodon, destroying 3 of my opponents lands, then sneaking in Disciple of Bolas and sacrficing Terastodon for 9 more cards. It just ain't right.
Out - Grim Backwoods
In - Yavimaya Hollow
Reasoning - Grim Backwoods has been on my radar to remove for a while as I almost never have four mana laying around just to draw a card. I was seriously considering Mirrorpool before I lost to Yavimaya Hollow the other night. That got the wheels turning and I realized regenerating Kresh during a board wipe was a pretty good thing to be doing.
Out - Wurmcoil Engine
In - Urabrask the Hidden
Reasoning - The toughest call of the three. I have had multiple games recently where I recurred cards from my graveyard and would have won the game if I had haste. Going to give Urabrask a try and see what kind of results I get. I was also the fence between removing Inferno Titan or Wurmcoil Engine, but have another deck that can use Wurmcoil so that decided it.
9/15/16ish
Out - Rise of the Dark Realms, In Garruk's Wake, Plague Wind
In - Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Frontier Siege, Oracle of Mul Daya
Reasoning - Well I finally cut the three big bombs. I've been focusing on making the deck faster and replacing the three 9 cost cards with the three best ramp cards I wasn't using certainly does that. I don't think I could oversell how good Selvala is in the power matters deck. Tutoring for Malignus with an early Selvala on board allows you to do pretty much whatever you want as early as turn 4.
Out - Shriekmaw, Spitebellows
In - Anger, Berserk
Reasoning - Kresh is an angry man? Anger is another much needed haste option. I have lost a ton of games that I would have won only to lose my well established board position to a wipe before I could attack. It almost has to be included now that I'm running Survival of the Fittest too. Berserk is an obvious include as well once it got reprinted. I can use it to pump a creature before an attack, before using Chandra's Ignition, before using Greater Good, etc... With the extra toolbox/tutor cards added above I can afford to lose the somewhat restricted evoke creatures.
12/28/16
Out - Frontier Siege
In - Natural Order
Reasoning - I'm all in on the toolbox so after getting my hands on a Natural Order it seemed like an obvious include. As much as I like Frontier Siege the lack of synergy with Kresh and the rest of the deck was bothersome so I took it out. It is kind of a mid game ramp card, which I already had enough of, and I don't think the deck was hurt with it's removal. Also, first game played with Order I cast in on Viridian Emissary for Terastodon. Seemed like it might be good.
1/30/17
Out - Seedguide Ash
In - Rishkar's Expertise
Reasoning - Really Wizards, you don't need to keep printing cards just for this deck. I mean you can, but I wouldn't be upset if you didn't. Seriously though, another power matters card and really this one is just too good to not put in the deck. Draw a bunch of cards (maybe 20 plus) and then play one for free. Don't mind if I do. The 5 mana slot was a bit over-filled in the deck, not to mention Kresh being 5 as well. I like Seedguide Ash and it fits the theme of the deck very well, but it had to be the next card cut. The power level isn't really there for the investment.
4/26/17
Out - Eldrazi Monument
In - Protean Hulk
Reasoning - As the deck continues to stray from the attrition strategy that often involved tokens, Eldrazi Monument has lost some of its value. It's not an easy cut by any means, but with the unbanning of Protean Hulk yesterday something had to go. Protean Hulk gives the deck another way to access the toolbox and there are plenty of ways to cheat him in without paying the full 7. Sacrificing him to any number of cards like Chandra's Ignition, Greater Good, etc. is just great value.
5/26/17
Out - Scute Mob
In - Bane of Progress
Reasoning - Not really sure why it wasn't on my radar but Bane of Progress seems like a pretty obvious card for the deck. With all the creature tutors it can be accessed pretty easily when needed and has the potential to just be a total blowout. It also uses +1/+1 counters so there's Doubling Season... no wait, that won't work. Oh well, there's the obvious downside of killing our own stuff so will so how it goes. Scute Mob was always a bit of a throw in and as the deck has progress to a more explode all at once strategy its usefulness has gone down quite a bit. It really does nothing turn one.
7/22/17
Out - Doubling Season, Dragonmaster Outcast, Protean Hulk
In - Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Pathbreaker Ibex, Mana Crypt
Reasoning - The deck has been continually evolving away from the attrition style that the token producers support and as that has happened the number of cards that work with Doubling Season has been steadily dropping. There are still about 10 cards that work with it, including Kresh, but the impact on many of those is just not that high for the small chance of having them out with Doubling Season at the same time. Even the two Garruk ultimates are nothing to write home about. I really can't remember the last time the card had an impact on a game. The same logic applies to the removal of Dragonmaster Outcast. It isn't that the deck doesn't want tokens, it just wants quantity over quality. One 5/5 dragon per turn (the turn after he comes into play) just doesn't tend to get the job when the deck wants to go off right now. Protean Hulk just isn't worth it at 7 mana when I'm not really doing anything unfair with him. Sure, he works well with Birthing Pod, Eldritch Evolution, and the like, but the impact just wasn't there.
Razaketh I expect to be able to just win games in short order. The deck has many routes to sudden victory and he enables the best line of play every time. Not sure how relevant it is but being an 8/8 flying trampler doesn't hurt either. The deck wasn't as focused on the juggernaut strategy and also didn't have the number of haste enablers it does now when Pathbreaker Ibex was released so he sort of slipped past me and then fell off my radar. I saw him the other day and immediately realized he needed to go into the deck. I expect him to be better than craterhoof most of the time and if Malignus, Lord of Extinction, or a pumped Kresh are in play it's nighty night for the table. Not much needs to be said about Mana Crypt. I got my hands on one recently so in it goes.
8/29/17
Out - Grave Titan
In - Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Reasoning - This was a tough call as Grave Titan has been a poster child for the deck since the beginning, putting a ton of power on the battlefield for the relatively cheap mana cost. I've been trying to find a way to fit in Jarad for a long time and he is just required in a power matters deck, giving me another win condition that doesn't require combat. And he can just flat out kill the table with Malignus and a power doubler or Lord of Extinction/Kresh. Grave Titan is the card I settled on for a couple reasons. The 6 CMC slot was overfull and all the other slots were cards that were either answers or can win the game, making them much better toolbox options. Grave Titan is much more of an attrition card, which the deck continues to go away from in favor of sudden wins.
1/15/18
Out - Yavimaya Elder, Traverse the Ulvenwald
In - Wood Elves, Journey to Eternity/Atzal, Cave of Eternity
Reasoning - Yavimaya Elder was a bit of a relic from my earlier EDH days where I didn't appreciate mana cost as much as I do now. It essentially costs 5 mana to use and doesn't actually ramp you. It's still a solid card but Wood Elves has a much more immediate impact and is easier to abuse. Traverse the Ulvenwald is solid, but with 39 lands and a bunch of ramp in the deck I don't think it is all that necessary to help with hitting land drops early. Yes, it's very good once delirium is triggered, but can take a while to get there. Journey to Eternity just works great with the ETB and on death triggers in the deck, provides ramp, and potentially repeatable recursion. It just seems like a very good card for the deck.
Card Options
Ranked by Power Levels HighMediumLow - These are of course, completely subjective. I am taking mana cost, dependency on other cards, and ability to win the game into consideration.
Creatures Rune-Scarred DemonHigh - 6/6 flying so his body is already relevant and he tutors for any card in the deck. Between those two things he's worth the price, especially with so many ways to cheat him into play. Hamletback GoliathMedium - The goliath gets very big very fast. I recently took him out for Xenagos, God of Revels, but may find a way to fit him back in at some point. He did serious work. Harvester of SoulsMedium – Another card I had in the deck that just wasn’t getting it done for me. Usually I just wished I had something else in my hand when I drew him and that seemed to outweigh the times he drew me a lot of cards. MycolothMedium – With the amount of tokens and small ramp creatures in the deck it’s pretty easy to devour a couple guys when Mycoloth comes into play without putting yourself at risk of a blowout while also making him a beast at 8/8 or stronger and generating 4 or more tokens each turn. Dragon BroodmotherMedium – The best part about the broodmother is she produces a token during each upkeep, so she gets stronger with more players in the game. Devour on the tokens also works out well as a lot of creatures in the deck don’t mind dying and killing your stuff will buff Kresh. I found the three red to be a bit too steep and ended up taking this out for Bitterblossom recently. Mikaeus, the UnhallowedHigh – Giving undying to your team (minus the annoying chunk of humans) works well with the sacrifice and ETB effects in the deck. Jarad, Golgari Lich LordHigh - I ran Jarad for a while and was somewhat surprised with how rarely I was able to use him effectively. The deck has changed quite a bit since then and I really think I need to try to find a way to fit him in or at least test him out. He is capable of just winning the game in the right circumstances and there are plenty of ways to tutor him up in those scenarios. Butcher of MalakirMedium - The mana cost is just too steep for what the butcher does. You are much better off just running Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos if you want this effect. They are cheaper and less vulnerable. Bloodghast/Nether Traitor/Reassembling SkeletonLow - These cards are useful if you have some sort of engine for them, but this deck hasn't really gone that route. I had them in the deck a long time ago and realized how low impact they were. They are much better if you are running the below guy as your commander. Shattergang BrothersMedium - Can be very strong in the right circumstance and isn't absolutely bad in this deck, especially if you have a repeatable token generator in play. He's much better when the deck is tooled around him. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion/Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous ConscriptsHigh – Two infinite combos that you can tutor up with Tooth and Nail or Defense of the Heart if you are so inclined. Either of these will win you the game outright. Dragonlord AtarkaMedium - A big hitter with an ETB ability. I think there's better removal options, especially for the mana cost on this guy, but he is strong. Fauna ShamanMedium - My experience with Fauna Shaman is that it is just a bit too slow and vulnerable and never seems to work quite as well as it seems it should. Massacre WurmMedium - Another ETB creature, the wurm can just wreck token decks. The triple black can be an issue and sometimes the -2/-2 is just not relevant. Corpsejack MenaceLow - A pretty common include in Kresh decks, I don't think it has a big enough impact in this deck to be worth running. Sprouting ThrinaxLow - A somewhat cheap and resilient token maker. I don't think it has a big enough impact in a 40 life format. Smothering AbominationLow - Would essentially fill the role of Phyrexian Arena on a creature in this deck (and we're trying to get spell effects on creature bodies). I think it's too vulnerable and too conditional to be running here. There are better ways to draw cards. Varolz, the Scar-StripedMedium - We have a lot of ETB creatures that we'd rather recur than exile for this I think. That said, it could be useful to scavenge a creature before sacrificing something in play for a big effect based on it's power. Phyrexian DreadnoughtHigh - 1 mana for +12/+12 if you have Kresh in play. This could be absolutely amazing in the right circumstances. Phyrexian DevourerHigh - A one shot pump that can put Kresh at lethal or just buff itself and then get sacrificed to any instant speed effect. I may need to find room for this. Meren of Clan Nel TothMedium - The best thing about Meren is her ability takes effect at the end of turn, making sure we almost always net a card before our opponents have a chance to respond. The experience counters she creates are attached to the player so remain in the game even if she gets removed, which means she can be recurred and pick up right where she left off. We can often sacrifice some tokens right before the end of turn to get the experience counters we need to get a valuable creature right into play instead of our hand. Bloodfire ColossusLow - The colossus is a bit on the expensive side but he works great with Kresh. The sacrifice happens before he does the damage so Kresh will get six +1/+1 counters first and survive the damage. We also have a few ways to cheat the cost and tutor him through things like Defense of the Heart and Birthing Pod, which makes him useful as a creature based boardwipe. I think the mana cost is just too high. VigorMedium - Vigor grants protection from damage to the team which works great with tokens and with Kresh. Any form of mass damage can make the tokens huge. Giving Kresh +1/+1 counters is exactly what we are trying to do anyway and if Vigor dies from the damage he absorbs that's another 6 counters for Kresh as well. Vigor's 6/6 body with trample is relevant too. Imperial RecruiterHigh - Capable of getting ramp early and all kinds of goodies late. Also capable of burning a hole in your wallet. Devoted Druid and QuillspikeHigh - A two card combo that can give Quillspike infinite power. Quillspike is pretty useless without the Druid in this deck and you aren't guaranteed to win with this one, unlike the two other combos listed above so I'd rather run those. This is still powerful though. Wurmcoil EngineHigh – Wurmcoil is strong enough to go in just about any deck and it works well here. The 6/6 deathtouch and lifegain for 6 is already good, but the best thing about it is it's resistance to removal. Anyone killing the engine now has two 3/3 tokens deal with. This also makes it a good target for Birthing Pod as we are still getting some value after it's sacrificed. Master of the Wild HuntMedium – The master is great value for four mana. Not only does he make 2/2 tokens every turn, but the tokens can be used to take out creatures on the other team. Getting a steady flow of creatures that can double as removal fits our token theme and makes sure creatures hit the graveyard to buff Kresh. ShriekmawMedium - This card has a lot going for it. The worst case scenario is you get a Terror on a 3 power body that's being sacrificed as you cast, so will strengthen Kresh and can be recurred. Shriekmaw can also be hard cast to kill a creature and give us a 3/2 with fear for 5 CMC. SpitebellowsMedium - Spitebellows has strong syngergy with Kresh. If we evoke it for a measly 1RR we can do 6 damage and get 6 +1/+1 counters on Kresh. It can also be hardcast to get the 6/1 body, but keep in mind the ability does not work as an ETB like the other evoke creatures. The 6 damage only triggers when he dies. Seedguide AshLow - Although Seedguide is a bit slow, he also gets 3 lands, and not basic lands either, so we can get any of our duals with a forest type for some mana fixing. With him as the only source of ramp, assuming we hit our land drops and have a way to sacrifice him, puts us in Plague Wind range by turn six. Scute MobMedium - Scute mob isn't a monster but for 1 mana it's a steal and will become big very quickly. It can also have its +1/+1 tokens doubled with Doubling Season or Primal Vigor. It's mainly in the deck as a little something we can throw into play the same turn we play a 5+ mana spell and can provide some serious value for the small cost. Verdurous GearhulkMedium - A vanilla creature, but 8 power for 5 mana is more relevant in this power matters deck than it normally would be. Also works great with all the recursion and Doubling Season. Combustible GearhulkHigh - I really don't like giving opponents a choice, but the curve in this deck is relatively high and this can be recurred. Rhonas the IndomitableMedium - Would be super easy to get on line in this deck and trample is very relevant with some of the big boys like Malignus, Lord of Extinction, and Kresh. I also really like the indestructible deathtouch (of course). Dragonmaster OutcastHigh – The drawback of a 1/1 body or needing six lands isn’t nearly as relevant in commander as there aren’t many people doing small amounts of damage instead of just using cards that destroy targets and you are practically guaranteed to hit that six lands in every game. For a 1 mana investment the outcast makes a 5/5 dragon token every turn, which is just bonkers. It's best to hold him in hand until you have the six lands he needs to start producing and not to drop early just because there's mana open. He's one of our only three one mana targets to get with Birthing Pod after sacrificing a token. Protean HulkHigh - The hulk provides a beefy body and a good sacrifice target, which are two of the most important things in this deck. The initial cost of 7 is a bit steep, but will pay for itself and then some if we can hit him with something like Eldritch Evolution, Birthing Pod, Disciple of Bolas, and the like. Grave TitanHigh - The mere act of casting this titan nets us 10 power for only 6 CMC and the value just keeps going from there. On top of all the tokens he makes he's a 6/6 body with deathtouch and all around problem for our opponents. He's a 10 on the power level charts.
Non-Creature Permanents BitterblossomMedium - A good card early and not terrible to get late game either as there are plenty of uses for the flying tokens, whether for blocking, sacrificing, or pumping and swinging. I think you need a deck more all-in on tokens to run this. Splinter TwinMedium – Not quite as versatile as Mimic Vat, but with only a one-time cost it is still good. Had this in the deck at one time but felt it was a little too vulnerable to a two for one and didn’t have any infinite combos for it, which is where it really shines. Nim DeathmantleMedium – Benefits from both creatures that have ETB effects and "when it dies" effects, plus gives +2 +2 and intimidate. Overall, worked ok with the deck when I used it, but the 4 equip cost is a bit steep, especially when a creature gets killed unexpectedly. I often didn’t have the mana open to use it. AsceticismMedium – I ran this for a while as well. It can be good but it’s another card that does nothing on its own. Minion Reflector/Flameshadow ConjuringLow – I've played with both of these quite a bit. Best case scenario they are very good, but also vulnerable to a ton of removal and requires you to have good ETB creatures in hand to be truly worthwhile. In other words they're just too conditional. I'm still not sure which is better. Minion Reflector costs more and is an easier to destroy card type, but also sacrifices the tokens at end of turn instead of exiling. Dictate of Erebos/Grave PactMedium - Some more cards that are very strong in the right circumstances, but also can be terrible to topdeck when you are behind and looking for an answer. You can only run so many of these type of cards before you risk not having good enough proactive options. This version of Kresh isn't tuned enough around sacrificing often too make these worth it.
Mana Rocks Medium – As I mentioned before I chose to go with creatures for ramp effects just for the synergy with the rest of the deck including sacrifice effects and counters for Kresh. You really can’t go wrong with Sol Ring and the like though. Rogue's PassageHigh - A very strong land for getting Kresh through for that lethal damage. The deck is so color intensive I'm hesitant to add another colorless mana source though. It is a card I'm considering though. Death's PresenceMedium - Sort of turns every creature you control into Kresh. This is an intriguing card. I don't like the high mana cost and how reliant it is on having multiple creatures in play, but I'm still intrigued quite a bit by it. It seems pretty hit or miss, but I may try it some time. Evolutionary LeapMedium - Can use it as a reactionary sacrifice outlet when a creature is going to die anyway, or to sacrifice a token to get one of the random powerful creatures in the deck. Strionic ResonatorMedium - We can use the resonator to copy the number of +1/+1 counters Kresh gets from any creature going to the graveyard, but we'll actually use it more often to copy an ETB effect or to copy some of the other triggered abilities the deck runs like Sheoldred, Whispering One's sacrifice effect or Nacatl War-Pride's attack ability. The power of this card is directly related the power of cards we have in play. Lucky for us we have powerful cards and effects in spades. As with most of the cards we are running that have their value dependent on other cards in the deck the mana cost is low so we can quickly get a suitable return for our investment and then some. Garruk, Apex PredatorHigh - This version of Garruk is one of the most powerful planeswalkers in the game. He destroys other planeswalkers for +1 loyalty, which can be very relevant with Nicol Bolas, Planeswalkers and Karn Liberateds running around. He makes deathtouch tokens. He can kill creatures and gain life equal to their toughness. His ultimate isn't completely unreasonable to get to if we're ahead enough that we don't need to destroy any creatuures or have Doubling Season out and will ruin someone's day. He's a house. Badlands/Taiga/BayouHigh - Of course you should be running these if you have them. Mana CryptHigh - Sol Ring except it costs 0. So good and the 3 life is not as big of a deal when you start with 40. Rite of the Raging StormMedium - This is intriguing for Kresh. The tokens can't attack you. With Kresh in play and a four player game, Kresh would be 18/18 at least by the time it comes back around to your turn. I think in a more voltron focused Kresh deck this would be an include. Blade of SelvesHigh - I never bought into all the hype with this one. A lot of different things need to line up for you to get those best case scenarios everyone is drooling over. That said, this would be the deck to run it in. There are a ton of ETB creatures so you will have a lot of targets for it. Command BeaconHigh - Allows you to throw Kresh out there early a little more comfortably and still have hope of getting him back in the game late when his mana cost gets too high. Whispersilk CloakHigh - This fits exactly what we need for Kresh as it provides him with both protection and the best evasion a creature can have in unblockability. Just like Lightning Greaves the cloak grants shroud so any creature equipped can't be targeted by our own spells or abilities. Top-decking or tutoring for this can often end a stalled out game by letting one of our big creatures in for the kill. Darksteel PlateMedium - This protects Kresh or his minions from board wipes, one of the most common and hard to get around forms of removal in commander, and most other targeted removal as well. The plate itself is also indestructible and can potentially be very hard for opponents to get around if they aren't prepared for it. I actually find this is ofter harder for opponents to deal with than shroud. Eldrazi MonumentHigh - Gives indestructibility to the team, a +1/+1 boost that can be very relevant when we have a bunch of tokens on the board, evasion through flying, and provides us with a sacrifice outlet. The power level of this card is off the charts. Usually, we want to hold onto this until we establish a dominant board position and then play it as that last bit of protection we need to maintain that dominance and finish the game. Aid From the CowlHigh - With only 15 non-permanents in the deck, this will hit more often than not and with the number of sacrifice options it shouldn't be hard to trigger it every turn. There's maybe a bit too much randomness and potential low impact for my liking, especially with the amount of precision this deck needs when choosing lines of play. I'd like to have more ways to set up the top of my library if I was going to use it(really just have Sylvan Library right now). Doubling SeasonHigh – Doubles the +1/+1 counters on creatures, which is right in line with our voltron strategy for Kresh. It also doubles any tokens we generate, which is absolutely huge for the deck, and works on planeswalkers as well, allowing us to instantly ultimate any version of Garruk as soon as he comes into play.
Spells Fling/Soul's Fire/Essence HarvestHigh - With the number of big creatures being run, these can potentially just one shot kill someone. They are very conditional though and technically card disadvantage. This may not matter in the right scenario, but they can also be a dead card when you aren't already ahead. Chord of CallingHigh – Not nearly as versatile as Green Sun’s Zenith. I ran this for a while but found it to be pretty limited in that you can’t use it early when you really need to find a creature for ramp and often don’t have any creatures on the board to use towards convoke when you are in desperate need. It is still capable of grabbing whatever creature you need at the moment and at instant speed to boot. Living DeathHigh - Another solid piece of graveyard recursion. I chose to exclude this as it would kill Kresh if he was in play. I'd rather keep what I have in the field when recurring my graveyard. Black Sun's ZenithMedium - A board wipe that can potentially leave Kresh alive. This can be very effective for Kresh in the right scenario and is also able to kill those annoying indestructible creatures. DamnationHigh - It's hard to go wrong with this one. I'm not including it for budget reason and I want Kresh to stay on the battlefield when I wipe the board so I can capitalize with a kill. Vampiric TutorHigh - A one mana tutor at instant speed, this is up for debate as the best tutor in magic. The two life is hardly a downside at all. Having to put the card on top of your library makes it actually card disadvantage, which is the only issue, but getting the card you need at the time makes it worth it. Worldly TutorHigh - Yep, another tutor option and there are plenty of good targets for it. I'd rather run this over Chord of Calling as it can get a ramp creature early. Chaos WarpHigh - 3 mana instant speed removal that can be used on any permanent, but it can backfire, which means you need to hold it for when it's really really needed. Rise of the Dark RealmsHigh - Rise of the Dark Realms doesn't need much explanation. The cost is high, but pulling every dead creature into play on our side will usually result in a win if not countered or responded to with a board wipe immediately. Plague Wind/In Garruk's WakeHigh – In Garruk's Wake is essentially a reprint of Plague Wind, except it hits planeswalkers instead of stopping regeneration and they are both pretty straightforward. A one-sided board wipe is very strong. If we manage to cast either of these with Kresh in play it is almost a guaranteed kill from commander damage as he will hit 21 power from creatures dying very quickly. Even without Kresh, wiping the opponent’s board will usually make finishing them off short work. Traverse the UlvenwaldMedium - Provides cheap mana fixing early and can get any creature in the deck for extremely cheap once we reach morbid status. This can be disrupted by graveyard hate, but overall is worth it for the ability smooth out the early game and the potential for serious value later.
This reminds me very much of my own Xenagod deck in how it plays. Make things big, abuse the synergy to throw your opponents off the table.
At least you have the luxury of being able to incorporate plan Bs. Also you get to run black. I simply need to make plan A as good and resilient as possible.
I'm judging from your meta that you don't face as many artifacts and enchantments that must die on sight?
This reminds me very much of my own Xenagod deck in how it plays. Make things big, abuse the synergy to throw your opponents off the table.
At least you have the luxury of being able to incorporate plan Bs. Also you get to run black. I simply need to make plan A as good and resilient as possible.
I'm judging from your meta that you don't face as many artifacts and enchantments that must die on sight?
I have looked at your Xenagod deck and it looks explosive.
I do play in a creature heavy meta, but there are without a doubt artifacts and especially enchantments that need to be destroyed. Plan A is to hope someone else takes care of them :), but there are 5 cards in the deck that can take out artifacts and enchantments and quite a few tutors to grab them if needed.
Anythoughts on Phyrexian Dreadnought¿ 1 mana +12 has been awesome so far. I like the deck list, Kresh is alot of fun and all should be brought low before him.
Anythoughts on Phyrexian Dreadnought¿ 1 mana +12 has been awesome so far. I like the deck list, Kresh is alot of fun and all should be brought low before him.
I will add it to the card options. 1 mana for +12/+12 is pretty insane and could lead to a very quick kill. My only concern is that it only works with Kresh in play so could be a dead card quite often, especially when Kresh is getting hated out or your on your back heels trying to stave off someone.
Another couple of options to try out are Elemental Bond is a better Rhystic Study, and is laughable when you drop Nacatl War Pride. Cannot say enough great things about this littlr enchantment. One of the best cards to come out of Origins. Evolutionary Leap lets you sacrifice etb guys for more etb guys and fatties. Whereas Survivial is discard/tutor
Another couple of options to try out are Elemental Bond is a better Rhystic Study, and is laughable when you drop Nacatl War Pride. Cannot say enough great things about this littlr enchantment. One of the best cards to come out of Origins. Evolutionary Leap lets you sacrifice etb guys for more etb guys and fatties. Whereas Survivial is discard/tutor
Not sure I'm running enough 3 power creatures to make Elemental Bond worth it. It could definitely get crazy with Nacatl War-Pride. Evolutionary Leap was actually sitting in my shopping cart and I may give it a shot. The cost is cheap for what it does, especially with tokens.
Thing with Elemental Bond is it triggers off your planeswalkers, 18/28 creatures, Defense of the Heart, and most of your Sorceries. Worth giving a shot imho.
Edit: Forgot Mimic Vat as well as Kresh.
Thing with Elemental Bond is it triggers off your planeswalkers, 18/28 creatures, Defense of the Heart, and most of your Sorceries. Worth giving a shot imho.
Edit: Forgot Mimic Vat as well as Kresh.
I'm totally on board and do think it would be good. I guess the question is what would I take out. Greater good? Maybe strionic resonator? I'd have to think about that as I do enjoy having the potential to draw a massive amount of cards at once. I do think Meren of clan Nel toth needs to go and will probably add feldon of the third path in her place.
No Sylvan Library or Bloom Tender? I know they're expensive but they deserve a spot just as Survival of the Fittest does. I know you've already mentioned not including it for budget reasons but what about the other 2? Vampiric Tutor seems to be missing as well. If you had a section of cards you are missing that you would play if you had them that would be great!! Love the deck man.
No Sylvan Library or Bloom Tender? I know they're expensive but they deserve a spot just as Survival of the Fittest does. I know you've already mentioned not including it for budget reasons but what about the other 2? Vampiric Tutor seems to be missing as well. If you had a section of cards you are missing that you would play if you had them that would be great!! Love the deck man.
Thanks man. You totally called me out Sylvan Library I initially left out for budget reasons but it is definitely in my price range, it just kind of fell off my radar. I will add it. Bloom Tender I have a playset of but intentionally left it out because it doesn't synergize with any of the sacrifice stuff. I do run it in my 5 color deck and it is amazing there. Vampiric tutor... that $30 dolor price tag is a bit rough for me for what it does (puts on top of your library). If I owned one I would probably be running it though. I was totally going to do wish list for cards that were outside my budget, but realized there weren't that many cards. You talked me into it, will make it a project this weekend.
Figure I would.post this here.
Played a game recently against newer Borybigmos, Gisela and Kami of the Crescent Moon.
Had Kresh in play with lightning greaves. Dropped a Phyrexian Dreadnought and let it die for 15/15 Kresh. Then hit Blasphemous Act to wipe the rest of the board including my own dorks. Kresh was lethal and killed the Gisela player [tons of wraths].
Dropped a disciple of bolas and drew 30+.
Rest conceded
Figure I would.post this here.
Played a game recently against newer Borybigmos, Gisela and Kami of the Crescent Moon.
Had Kresh in play with lightning greaves. Dropped a Phyrexian Dreadnought and let it die for 15/15 Kresh. Then hit Blasphemous Act to wipe the rest of the board including my own dorks. Kresh was lethal and killed the Gisela player [tons of wraths].
Dropped a disciple of bolas and drew 30+.
Rest conceded
Ooh that's brutal. Have you posted your deck list anywhere?
Had a chance to get a chunk of games in over the weekend. Here are my thoughts:
Sylvan Library is as good as advertised. I played a 1v1 game where I was able to play it on turn 2. On turn 3 I was able to trade two high costed cards I wouldn’t be playing for two new cards and shuffled them off the top of my library by Green Sun's Zenithing for Sakura-Tribe Elder. Turn 4 I paid the 8 life for 2 cards and played Kresh and essentially had a 4 card advantage over him at that point. He responded with a big creature, which I killed with an evoked Spitebellows, giving Kresh a two shot clock and it was over.
Bloodfire Colossus needs to go. I can barely remember the last time I used it to any effect. The synergy with Kresh is there, but it is just too situational/hard to make use of. I think I need to give Malignus a shot as sort of a second version of the Lord of Extinction, but more relevant early and deadly when combo’d with Xenagos, God of Revels.
My playgroup is starting to fear Kresh. They take notice and point out when he is on the table at the start of the game and there is a general consensus that he need to be killed immediately whenever he’s played. I played a 5 player star game where my 3 opponents were pretty concerned with keeping me down while the guy next to me was given free rein. I may need to be a bit more conservative before throwing him on to the table going forward.
Very nice primer! I enjoyed reading every word. Congrats!
What do you think about the tutor-Seasons Past combo? I have a Kresh deck focused on reanimation and recursion and I'm currently working on how to make it better (I'll come back with a list later).
Regards!
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I actually just played a game last night where an opponent followed up a late game board wipe with seasons past and got a card in each cost from 0-7. That was basically game over. It's definitely a strong card and works great with the birthing pod even mana cost disbursement plan. Certain circumstances need to be met, but when you consider the number of cards you can be basically tutoring for 5 mana the value can be huge.
Post your list for sure when it's ready. I'd love to see it.
I didn't have much time to test it or search for better options for specific cards. My LGS is mainly focused on Standard, Modern and Limited so I'm taking my time to find all the cards I need. For sure I want to fit in Dark Petition, Seasons Past, Sheoldred, whispering one, Chandra's Ignition...(I don't own Sheoldred and Ignition at the moment).
I want it to be a really fun deck to pilot. Kresh and Meren are some of my favourite cards and I centered all the action around sacrifice and recursion.
Any suggestions would be highly apreciated!
Cheers!
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Thanks for posting it, looks like it should be a ton of fun with a lot of different stuff going on and choices to make. Based on what you said I'm kind of thinking of Meren as a second commander when I look at this and focusing on the sacrifice/recursion plan.
I really like the cards you want to add except for Dark Petition. I realize you are planning on having a lot of stuff in your graveyard, but best case scenario it is a 2 mana tutor and Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Diabolic Intent all cost that or less already if they're in your budget (not the cheapest cards out there).
Deadbridge Chant fits exactly what you are trying to do, may be a card you want to add. Helm of Possession may also be cool if you have sacrifice outlets out.
Awakening Zone and From Beyond are really good, a lot better than you'd think and may be more in theme/synergistic than something like Mina and Denn, Wildborn, which is also there for ramp. You have so much stuff that wants to sacrifice creatures and they give you sacrifice targets turn after turn. Dragon Broodmother and Creakwood Liege are a couple other cards that come to mind that do the same thing and are both pretty cheap.
On more of a big picture look, you have 8 or so cards that cheat a creature straight from your graveyard to play, but not too many really strong targets that are going to get the best bang for your buck. Will probably take some play testing to really determine, but you may be short on threats. Maybe Thromok the Insatiable??? Terastodon, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, and Rune-Scarred Demon may be some options.
Wow! Thanks a lot! There are many great cards that I didn't even know about.
Unfortunately, in my area, we have a big issue in finding older cards like Demonic Tutor...Dark Petition is basically the closest I can get to Demonic tutor, considering that in the first 3-4 turns, I use ramp and draw and after that I start tutoring stuff.
I have a Deadbridge Chant and thought about it...I think I'll give it a try and see how it works. Mina and Denn, Wildborn is there for ramp but also for the trample enabler. After playing a few times, I found out that it's possible to kill an opponent in the same turn you play Kresh, if you manage to give Kresh some sort of evasion and haste (that and the fact I have a foil Mina and Denn that looks fantastic:)))) ).
I used to play Butcher of Malakir but it felt too much...and i replaced it with Eater of hope...maybe I can cut something to give it another chance.
What do you think I should cut for Terastodon?
I'm curently searching for Vorniclex and Rune-scared and will be adding them as soon as I can.
Also, what planeswalkers could work, besides Garruk incarnations. Maybe some Chandra? Liliana?
Thanks again!
Cheers!:D
I think the new flip Liliana would work really well. It's a creature so can be recurred, makes tokens, and even brings other creatures back. A couple of the other Lilianas could be decent too. Chandra not so much.
I don't think Butcher is a must play card by any means but I do think it's better than Eater. When you play are you finding you have enough sacrifice targets? I would be worried you don't have enough.
Rakdos could probably go. He can be recurred but there are times you'll want to hard cast him and don't have sure fire ways to get damage through.
The new Liliana could be nice indeed.
Finding sacrifice targets could be problematic sometimes but I don't know what to cut to fit in more creatures...I'm thinking about adding token generators like Master of the wild hund and Avanger of zendikar. Also, I would like to test Hoarding Dragon as an sac creature and artifact tutor.
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Harsh language from the filthy mouthed uncivilized barbarian hordes
Incidental nudity as Kresh's kilt seems to have a life of it's own on the battlefield
After this section I'm going to be going into a lot of specifics for this deck, but if you are like most EDH players you're going to want to build your own deck, not copy someone else's. With that in mind, I think it may be valuable to cover some of the basic strategies and cards to be looking out for with Kresh. Hopefully, this will be beneficial to some of you looking to build your own Kresh deck. There are many different ways you can take a Kresh deck and the best decks will most likely focus on one or two of these strategies below, but you should also see a lot of overlap here as well.
Kill stuff and watch Kresh grow
This core concept will be at the heart of any Kresh deck. The most obvious application of this is killing your opponents creatures. A card like Doom Blade can kill a 5/5 and give Kresh five +1/+1 counters at the same time. That's some pretty good value. Cards like Beast Within, Putrefy, and Maelstrom Pulse can do the same thing and give you a bit more flexibility on what you can target. This allows you to have spells that are both answers and enablers at the same time. It is also the beginning of a potential control shell.
You can take it a step further and kill two or more creatures or get really fancy and use Shriekmaw or Spitebellows to kill one of theirs and one of yours. Curtains' Call is a solid choice for killing a couple creatures. Or how about something that can really kill lots of creatures like Consume the Meek. Plague Wind and In Garruk's Wake are extremely expensive to cast but will usually put Kresh at lethal power in one shot. Chandra's Ignition can potentially do the same. If you manage to give Kresh indestructibility with something like Darksteel Plate or Inspiring Call, Damnation will have the same effect for a much cheaper cost. There are multiple board wipes that can be regenerated through with something like Yavimaya Hollow. Decree of Pain and Overwhelming Forces can net you a bunch of cards.
Every Kresh deck should be running some of these options.
Sacrificing
Let's face it, relying solely on your opponents having creatures may be something you can do if you have a creature heavy meta, but even then there will be situations where there aren't any opponents' creatures on the board. You can circumvent the need for opponents' creatures by having your own. There are plenty of great sacrifice cards in Jund and just like the spells that kill creatures, you're going to get the sacrifice effect and make Kresh stronger at the same time.
I've already mentioned the best two Evoke creatures for Kresh, Shriekmaw and Spitebellows. Sidisi, Undead Vizier requires a sacrifice and let's you tutor for any card, same for Razaketh, the Foulblooded. Mycoloth and Dragon Broodmother devour creatures and makes tokens, which just so happen to be great sacrifice targets. Fleshbag Marauder and Merciless Executioner can net 4 dead creatures by themselves.
There are some non-creature spells that can really take the sacrifice theme over the top. Greater good, Attrition, Victimize, Phyrexian Altar, and Ashnod's Altar are some of the best ones. You can also run stuff like Shattergang Brothers, Dictate of Erebos, Grave Pact, and Butcher of Malakir to add a control element to those sacrifices.
Voltron
With Kresh being one of the prime commanders capable of reaching 21 power, there will be opportunities to turn him into a one man wrecking machine. Protecting him will be paramount if you are going this route as he is a defenseless 3/3 when he first hits the table. It'll generally take a couple turns before he really turns into a big threat and you want to make sure he sticks around to get there. Haste is mostly irrelevant for that reason as well. That said, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are still good. Champion's Helm is better for him. Darksteel Plate can be very difficult for players to deal with and turns most board wipes into Kresh steroids. Asceticism gives all your creatures hexproof and regeneration.
You'll need evasion as well, although if you are running enough creature destruction that can be enough to clear the way for him. Whispersilk Cloak has both evasion and protection, making it just about the perfect card for a voltron build. Shizo, Death's Storehouse doesn't come into play tapped and can give him fear. Rogue's Passage is another great land for getting Kresh through. One thing green has in spades is trample enabler's and overrun effects. Thunderfoot Baloth and Brawn are both good creature options. Triumph of the Hordes is just plain mean. Loxodon Warhammer and Sword of Vengeance are both good equipment options.
There are also a few great pieces of equipment than can buff Kresh and kill creatures to increase his power even more. Umezawa's Jitte allows you to remove counters to deal damage. Sword of Fire and Ice lets you do 2 damage when you hit an opponent and lets you draw a card. The protection is also relevant and can keep Kresh alive through Blasphemous Act or Chandra's Ignition. Argentum Armor is expensive but also incredible on Kresh when used to kill a powerful creature.
+1/+1 Counters
There has been a ton of support for +1/+1 counters in the history of Magic so it's a pretty obvious route to take a Kresh build. Some staples you should be looking at include Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, Corpsejack Menace, Winding Constrictor, Hardened Scales, and Death's Presence. Doubling Season and Primal Vigor will also double up on any counters added to creatures, as can Solidarity of Heroes. Hamletback Goliath and Primordial Hydra will get huge with counters very quickly. Mycoloth takes the counters and turns them into saproling tokens. Bane of Progress is a great removal option that also gets counters for each enchantment and artifact it destroys. Varolz, the Scar-Striped let's you scavenge creatures in your graveyard. Inspiring Call turns your counter buffed creatures into card draw. Bloodspore Thrinax requires you to devour stuff when it comes into play but can pay major dividends down the line as you cast more and more creatures. Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch gives any creature with a +1/+1 counter haste.
Tokens
There isn’t a direct synergy between tokens and Kresh, but there are a few reasons they work well together. First, there are a couple cards that can both double +1/+1 counters and tokens in Doubling Season and Primal Vigor. Tokens also tend to give you more power per CMC than a standard creature, which is good for boosting Kresh’s power. Tokens are also expendable so are a good option to pair up with a sacrifice theme. Grave Titan comes in with an immediate 10 power for 6 CMC and generates an additional 4 power with each attack. Avenger of Zendikar, with a few landfall triggers will quickly out-generate it’s CMC in power. Nacatl War-Pride can generate a ton of power with the right opponent and also essentially makes the rest of your team unblockable. Army of the Damned gives a whopping 26 power for 8 CMC. From Beyond, Dragonmaster Outcast, Mycoloth, and Dragon Broodmother are all good options for generating long term value. Wurmcoil Engine is an all-around great value and can provide some much needed lifegain in a pinch.
Of course if you are going the token route, anything that doubles tokens or works with lots of creatures is going to give you a ton of value. Parallel Lives and Second Harvest will double tokens. Gaea's Cradle can be great if you can afford it, if not Growing Rites of Itlimoc is a good substitute. Harvest Season, Black Market, Earthcraft, and Druids' Repository are all good ramp options for a token deck. Fecundity is a good option for getting some card draw and can help you recover from a board wipe. Eldrazi Monument provides some protection from potential board wipes as well and when you are generating a lot of tokens, that's a small price to pay.
Overrun effects can turn your little guys into a finishing force. Craterhoof Behemoth is the gold standard. Beastmaster Ascension, Garruk Wildspeaker, and Overwhelming Stampede can do the job as well. Not exactly an overrun effect, but Purphoros, God of the Forge can make short work of a table if left unchecked with token generators.
Fling
Naturally, with Kresh being capable of growing very large, yet not having any innate evasion, getting through for combat damage can be an issue. Fling effects, named after the card Fling of course, allow you to do the damage directly without having to get through in combat. Some of them require sacrificing the creature and others don't.
Chandra's Ignition and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord are the cream of the crop for these abilities as they can kill all of your opponents at once. Flesh // Blood is an interesting option as you can fuse it to buff the creature before the fling if you have enough mana. Essence Harvest and Rite of Consumption give the fling effect lifesteal. Heart-Piercer Manticore gives you fling on a stick, which is always good with Kresh as he now has another creature in play that will buff him when it dies. Soul's Fire and Fling are just the generic options, but having the ability to fling at instant speed is incredibly powerful as it allows you to fling in response to a negative effect.
Power Matters
Wizards has really increased the number of cards that check for creature power recently and the one thing Kresh has going for him is his ability to get powerful. There are also some creatures that can potentially have incredibly high power for a relatively small mana investment. I'm not going to go into this too much here as this primer is for just such a deck. Continue reading if you're interested in this strategy.
Some examples: Malignus, Chandra's Ignition, Rishkar's Expertise, and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.
Combo
There is some combo potential with Kresh and if you are trying to build a deck for a hyper-competitive meta or just want some alternate non-combat reliant win conditions you will probably want to consider having some of these as options.
The following can be tutored up with Tooth and Nail (or Defense of the Heart) to win on the spot if they go unanswered: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with Zealous Conscripts. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed with Triskelion. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord with Phyrexian Devourer. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Melira, Sylvok Outcast with Murderous Redcaps and a sacrifice outlet (Melira will infinitely recur any persist creature). Mikaeus, the Unhallowed or Melira, Sylvok Outcast with Woodfall Primus and a sacrifice outlet can destroy all noncreature permanents. I like most of these as they use cards that can work well in the deck by themselves and don’t need the combo to be good.
You can also run a Necrotic Ooze package. Necrotic Ooze can go infinite with different creatures in the graveyard and there are quite a few ways to throw stuff into it. Survival of the Fittest, Hermit Druid, Buried Alive, Jarad's Orders, and Entomb are all good options. The following assume you have Necrotic Ooze in play. Devoted Druid and Quillspike allow you to create an infinitely large Necrotic Ooze (infinite power pairs pretty well with Kresh). Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion allow you to ping your opponents to death (again, Phyrexian Devourer is a card that already works pretty well with Kresh). I’d suggest googling this one if you want to use it as it requires you to use the stack to stop the sacrifice clause on Phyrexian Devourer.
If you are really interested in going this route I’d suggest reading razzliox’s Jarad primer here. He’s basically doing most of this stuff minus the red.
There are way more infinite combos available, especially if you want to start getting janky, but I think the stuff above pairs well with Kresh.
Good Stuff
A good stuff version of Kresh would essentially take the best stuff from the above strategies and Jund in general. This is a perfectly viable option as Kresh needs little to no set up and can sill be quite effective. If you are interested in this strategy your best bet is to look up commander staples and find the ones that also have synergy with Kresh.
Group Hug
I have to give credit to Redguardian who first posted this idea here. The idea is to give your opponents creatures and then kill them to buff Kresh. Hunted Troll and Hunted Dragon are the poster-children. Varchild's War-Riders, Goblin Spymaster, Hungry Lynx, Rite of the Ragin Storm, Infernal Genesis, and Forbidden Orchard will all give your opponents creatures. It's just a simple Consume the Meek, Earthquake, Pestilence, or similar effect from there for major +1/+1 counters.
Why play Kresh as a commander?
The reason I chose Kresh over other BRG commanders was the amazing card art and flavor. He's a powerful warlord and overall bad dude that beats face, which completely fits my play style. Strategically, the great thing about Kresh is his ability. He seems like a build around general, and he sort of is, but he gets bigger when creatures die, which is something that will be happening naturally throughout the game and something we want to be doing anyway. So the deck doesn't lose much steam if he's stuck in the command zone. We still want to kill our opponents' creatures and we still want to sacrifice our dudes for big effects. If Kresh is in play, well that's even better, but if he isn't it's no big deal, the deck can still operate on all cylinders.
If the idea of making big plays like drawing 30 cards at once, bringing a dozen creatures back from your graveyard at your opponent's end step, or killing 3 unsuspecting players at once with a 40 damage Chandra's Ignition appeals to you, Kresh may be your man. If you enjoy having your deck play out differently each game, yet also having answers for any situation and ways to find those answers, this may also be the deck for you. If you want to never be out of the game as long as there is breath in your body and at least 1 life left on your D10's, by all means keep reading.
What do you mean R-Rated?
I’m talking about 80’s and 90’s action movies here. Jean Claude Van-Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Wesley Snipes, you get the idea. Well, we’re adding Kresh to that list. The acting is bad. The movies are over the top, no holds barred, and any other cliché you can think of. They’re also totally awesome. That’s this deck in a nutshell. It lacks subtlety and sophistication but makes up for it with explosions. Kresh wants to win by dropping a grenade down the opponent’s pants and saying “huntng season is over” or hitting them with a flame thrower and asking how they like their ribs. The deck can’t be counted out, no matter what the odds and it’s a lot of fun.
How does this deck work?
To put it simply: Power and Synergy.
Regarding Power: A lot of people tout the low overall Converted Mana Cost (CMC) of their decks as a selling point. There's nothing wrong with that and most of my decks are built to be very conscientious of mana cost as well. This however, is not one those decks. As a general rule, higher costed cards also have more power as a trade off for the increased investment. That's a trade off this deck is glad to make. Like Kresh himself this deck goes big and if it takes 8 or 9 mana to do that so be it. That's not to say the deck has gone so overboard on huge creatures and spells that it can't function efficiently, but the main focus is to suddenly and violently end our opponent's lives with heavy hitters.
High casting cost isn't necessarily the only thing the deck's looking for when considering power. It runs cards like Lord of Extinction, which is only 5 CMC but will often come into the game with 20+ power and toughness and Malignus who brings generally brings 20 or so power for 5 mana. I would even argue cards like Demonic Tutor, which can get any card in your deck for 2 mana, and Skullclamp, which will net a ton of cards for a small mana investment, are powerful cards.
Power Matters There are quite a few cards that care about literal creature power as well and the deck runs almost all of them. Normally frowned upon vanilla creatures like Malignus become absolute powerhouses when combined with cards like Chandra's Ignition or Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. This has become the major focus of the deck as it has evolved and is what enables the general explosiveness and the "win out of nowhere" capability. Although not running infinite combos, sudden wins are similarly difficult for opponents to stop as they are very hard to see coming and plan for.
Regarding Synergy: "So," you may be asking, "the deck plays a bunch of powerful spells? This sounds suspiciously like a good stuff deck." Well, that's not exactly the case here. Every card in the deck was chosen not only for it's power, but also for the way it interacts with the rest of the deck. Synergy is something that we as magic players are all aware of. When cards work hand in hand and compliment each other, they become even more powerful than they would be in a vacuum. That's the idea here, to combine power with synergy to create even more power.
All the synergies in the deck are designed around Kresh's ability to get bigger when creatures die. There are two main ways we can accomplish this: destroying opponent's creatures and sacrificing our own. Opponents will also be killing our creatures throughout the natural process of the game. With that in mind, any spell effect we can get on a creature's body instead, even if the creature is slightly less efficient in a vacuum, will be better in this deck in creature form. Almost all the ramp in the deck comes from creatures and the card draw comes from either creatures or sacrificing them. Using creatures for spell effects naturally leads to a lot of Enter the Battlefield (ETB) abilities. To capitalize on these effects and all the creatures in the deck there is a recursion theme utilizing cards like Mimic Vat and Sheoldred, Whispering One to keep those creatures coming back for more. I'll get into these synergies more in the Card Explanations section.
What are the decks' weaknesses?
Both Kresh and the deck are too slow to hold their weight in the most highly competitive environments. The deck is still capable of winning on occassion, but because of the battle cruiser style of building up a mana base early it needs some help from other players at the table to get to the point where it can start having an impact on the game. This is a "90%" deck that has been tweaked to be as effective as possible in an environment where the full focus is not on trying to win at all costs. My playgroup doesn't use mass land destruction and has minimal infinite combos, so the deck is built to be as good as possible in that environment. If you are looking for a deck that can compete in a competitive meta this deck and commander are not for you. Because of the high CMC and focus on lands for mana, this deck is vulnerable to mass land destruction or stax strategies and to a much lesser extent control decks that can stop you from playing one bomb each turn and it just isn't quite fast enough to hang with decks capable of going infinite on turn 3.
Competitive Update - CTRLerHead posted a competitive Kresh deck here.
2/14/17 Update: This deck has evolved quite a bit since the thread originally became a primer. It is not my most competitive deck (that honor goes to Derevi or Yidris) but it is close and the one deck I am constantly tuning. It is much faster and more explosive than the original battle cruiser deck that was posted but has sacrificed some resiliency/removal for that speed and explosiveness. A lot of the high CMC cards have been upgraded or removed to increase speed and consistency. The focus on Power and Synergy still very much apply and remain the major themes for the deck. There are very few cards that come into play without an immediate impact on the board. If anything, the number of big plays and crazy turns have increased with the changes that have been made.
I will stand by the initial assessment that Kresh cannot operate efficiently in a highly competitive meta and I think most people who play in one (not me) would agree. Of course, there is some midrange potential and shenanigans that can take advantage of his ability to get extremely big very quickly, but there are just better ways to do these things. This doesn't mean he can't hang at or win games at those tables (see the competitive deck posted above), but you are sacrificing some serious power by choosing Kresh over some of the other big hitters in the command zone.
Kresh is pretty unique among commanders and I had a hard time finding many good comparisons. No one else has an ability quite like his. Most likely if you are playing Kresh it has as much to do with flavor as it does with his power level. He's not a tier 1 general, but he's not a weakling either and his ability can still be very strong.
Jund
The other Jund commander options. They all seem to share a similar sacrifice or token theme.
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher - Prossh is the most popular and powerful Jund commander and actually one of the more comparable commanders with Kresh's ability. If you love Jund and just want to make a really strong deck this is probably your guy. Capable of an infinite loop when combined with Food Chain, a highly tuned Prossh deck can win as quickly as turn 2 or 3. Obviously there are a lot of different options for him if you aren't going all in on the hyper competitive as well. He comes into play with a token army which can be used for all kinds of shenanigans including as sac outlets, just for attacking, or to buff Prossh for some voltron action.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund - I don't have any experience with him, but he's usually built as dragon tribal and Jund does have pretty much all of the best dragon options. He's also a big voltron threat. There are actually a lot of dragons in commander as well so the ability to steal other player's dragons is more relevant than you'd think. If you are going to build this ramp will be paramount as dragons don't come cheap.
Shattergang Brothers - Can be extremely oppressive if built properly, although it is somewhat dependent on what type of deck it's up against. I have been locked down by this guy multiple times and it isn't much fun being on the wrong end of it. Shattergang Brothers are much more of a controlling, attrition style deck than Kresh, although they share some similar themes.
Sek'kuar, Deathkeeper - All in on the sacrifice strategy, running things like Evolutionary Leap and Reassembling Skeleton, this seems like it would be a fun deck to build.
The rest of the Jund commanders are more niche options as their abilities aren't particular powerful. Cool vintage legends: Adun Oakenshield, Vaevictis Asmadi, and Bartel Runeaxe. An insect: Xira Arien. A dragon with sweet art and an activated ability that is the definition of suck: Darigaaz, the Igniter.
R-Rated Action Movie Stars
Some dudes that are rumored to be starring in Expendables 4 with Kresh:
You have to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Yippee Ki Yay...
You wanna be a farmer? Here's a couple of achers.
I'm going to take you to the bank, the blood bank.
Remember when I promised to kill you last? I lied.
I still vaguely remember when I got my first starter deck 20 or so years ago. There is only one card I remember. It was probably the worst card in the deck, but for my friends and I, with no experience with Magic, it was awesome, a game winner. Here it is in all its glory! I don’t think the deck even had the means to cast it beyond some miracle occurring like getting every single island into play, but I always got excited when I drew the card, imagining how I would win if I could get the mana I needed for it. It took a long time to get over that excitement for big cards and I’m not sure I ever quite did. My buddy and I even traded away all of our dual lands for cool creatures and spells because lands suck... ugh.
"Kresh, I am your father."
When I started playing EDH Kresh the Bloodbraided was my first choice for a commander and it isn’t that surprising, he is basically an evolution of Keldon Warlord after all. I had always been drawn to Kresh but never able to fit him into a 60 card deck and have him be effective. He was just too slow to get going.
The initial version of my EDH deck was inconsistent, sometimes winning through crazy powerful plays and other times not getting off the ground. I continued to tweak the deck for the next year or so but never got past those inconsistencies. At that point I took a long hard look and determined I had too many conditional cards, cards that may be extremely powerful but only when certain circumstances were met. Cards like Grave Pact, which can be absolutely amazing, but can also be the worst card to top deck when you have no creatures and are looking for an answer. There was a brief experimental period where some awful versions of the deck were tried and failed, but I eventually cut almost all the cards that were dependent on other cards to be good and threw in as many game changers as I could.
The deck started consistently having huge impacts on games, win or lose, and the amount of game changing cards means it never plays the same way twice. In short, it was a lot of fun. Though I continue to tweak the deck as more cards are released, the philosophy has not changed. So we've come full circle. I'm back to slinging big powerful cards and playing one of the baddest commanders around and one of my favorite cards. Though I have flavor of the month decks from time to time, this is the one I always come back to and am always looking to improve.
5 Kresh the Bloodbraided
Creatures
1 Veteran Explorer
2 Dawntreader Elk
2 Dockside Extortionist
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Viridian Emissary
3 Big Game Hunter
3 Eternal Witness
3 Farhaven Elf
3 Feldon of the Third Path
3 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
3 Wood Elves
4 Anger
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Acidic Slime
5 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
5 Lord of Extinction
5 Malignus
5 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
5 Xenagos, God of Revels
5 Urabrask the Hidden
6 Bane of Progress
6 Nacatl War-Pride
6 Pathbreaker Ibex
7 Avenger of Zendikar
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
8 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
8 Terastodon
1x Green Sun's Zenith
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Diabolic Intent
3 Eldritch Evolution
3 Victimize
4 Natural Order
5 Chandra's Ignition
6 Rishkar's Expertise
6 Twilight's Call
7 Tooth and Nail
Instants
1 Berserk
2 Assassin's Trophy
3 Beast Within
4 Momentous Fall
Planeswalkers
5 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Artifacts
0 Mana Crypt
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
3 Mimic Vat
4 Birthing Pod
9 The Great Henge
Enchantments
2 Survival of the Fittest
2 Sylvan Library
3 Awakening Zone
3 Journey to Eternity
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Defense of the Heart
4 From Beyond
4 Greater Good
4 Sneak Attack
Land
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Castle Garenbrig
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Forest
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Gruul Turf
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Luxury Suite
1 Mana Confluence
1 Mosswort Bridge
2 Mountain
1 Nurturing Peatland
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Prismatic Vista
1 Rakdos Carnarium
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Savage Lands
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Spire Garden
1 Stomping Ground
2 Swamp
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Yavimaya Hollow
Kresh the Bloodbraided - The first card we should probably talk about is our fearless leader. He's a 3/3 for 2BRG with the ability: Whenever another creature is put into a graveyard from play, you may put X +1/+1 counters on Kresh the Bloodbraided, where X is that creature's power.
Voltron: His ability has no effect on the board aside from buffing himself and it doesn't buff him one +1/+1 counter at a time, but buffs in potentially massive amounts depending on the power of the creature or creatures that died. This screams Voltron and getting Kresh through for that lethal 21 commander damage is going to be one of our top strategies for victory. There are two problems with the Voltron strategy: Kresh has no innate evasion and comes down with a vulnerable nonthreatening 3/3 body. We can around this by providing him with evasion, either through card abilities or just from eliminating any would be blockers. We can also provide protection for his initially frail frame through equipment and other cards. Oh, and if I didn't mention it earlier, he gets bigger when creatures die and we will make creatures die. Luckily, there are some very powerful sacrifice and removal effects in both black and green that we can take advantage of.
Other Observations: Although his ability doesn't have any outside effect on the board, we do have some cards that scale with creature power to take advantage of how big he can get. His vanilla body (no evasion or protection) will cause opponents to underestimate him and allow him to live in lieu of other targets. I have seen him underestimated many times and it is almost always a mistake. Kresh can go from 3/3 to 21/21 in a heartbeat and be swinging for lethal.
RAMP 12
DRAW 9
REMOVAL 10
SACRIFICE 16
ETB 12
VOLTRON 8
RECURSION 6
TOKEN 12
TUTOR 12
RAMP: If we are going to be casting big spells we need mana and we need it as quickly as possible. Cards with the RAMP label help us get there.
DRAW: We need card draw to fuel this well-oiled war machine. DRAW cards keep our calloused hand full so we can keep dropping bombs.
REMOVAL: REMOVAL advances our gameplan, keeping the opponents' boards clear, buffing Kresh, and finding answers to problematic permanents.
SACRIFICE: There is always a benefit to effects that SACRIFICE our creatures and we'll be playing the most powerful of these options. Sacrifices also help Kresh get strong and put our ETB creatures in the graveyard where they can be recurred for additional value.
ETB: With the amount of recursion in this deck and the conscious decision to use creatures over spells whenever possible, ETB creatures have extra value.
VOLTRON: Cards labeled as VOLTRON advance our plan to get Kresh through for that lethal 21 commander damage.
RECURSION: This deck is intentionally creature heavy. RECURSION softens the negative impact of our sacrifices and allows us to reuse all the ETB effects we are running, often with opponent crushing results.
TOKEN: Tokens provide great sacrifice options and provide good value for their mana investment. Cards in the TOKEN category either make tokens or directly advance the token theme.
TUTOR: Being able to respond to threats as they develop throughout the game and find the appropriate card for any board state is critical to winning games. TUTOR cards give us that toolbox.
A card needs to have a standalone impact on any given area to get the label. For example, even though Lord of Extinction is often a great target for Momentous Fall, there is nothing about the lord himself that draws cards so he would not get the DRAW label, whereas Momentous Fall would, as it directly results in drawing cards.
Ramp
You may notice some signature commander cards missing here, specifically any mana rocks aside from Sol Ring and Mana Crypt. This is a result of our decision to use creatures over non-creatures whenever possible due to the synergy they provide with Kresh and the other themes of the deck. Honestly, I don't think the deck suffers without rocks and in some cases will actually be better with the creature based ramp as our creatures can be recurred and are pulling lands from our deck, which makes their ramp less vulnerable to removal and reduces our chances of top-decking lands in the late game.
Awakening Zone/From Beyond – RAMP SACRIFICE TOKEN These are both amazing cards in the deck, especially if we get them early, as they can do serious work towards getting us to those high costed bombs and can help the deck go wide later in the game. They require a small initial mana investment and then provide increasing value as the game goes on and are often nonthreatening enough to avoid spot removal from our opponents. The tokens made with From Beyond also come in with 1 power so will be buffing Kresh when they are sacrificed.
Solemn Simulacrum - RAMP DRAW ETB The exploits of Sad Robot are well-known and not much needs to be said here. He doubles as ramp and card draw here, is a great target for sacrifices and can be recurred for additional value.
Dawntreader Elk/Sakura-Tribe Elder - RAMP SACRIFICE Both of these creatures double as ramp and sacrifice options to buff Kresh. These are two of the stronger ramping creatures as they will bring a land directly into play when they are sacrificed. Even though they don't have ETB effects they can still be recurred and sacrificed for more land and extra value.
Viridian Emissary - RAMP Although he can't sacrifice himself, the emissary still gets us a land when he dies. Unlike Dawntreader Elk and Sakura-Tribe Elder he doesn't need to be sacrificed to get us a card either, so we can strap him up with Skullclamp or use him to block/attack. He's another target for a recursion effect that can get us extra value.
Wood Elves - RAMP ETB Just a great all around ramping card in the deck. Can be sacrificed, recurred, and strapped up with Skullclamp. It also allows us to get a shock land for some extra mana fixing.
Garruk Wildspeaker – RAMP VOLTRON TOKEN Because of the high mana curve in the deck, this version of Garruk is most commonly going to be used as ramp. The ability to untap two lands for +1 will net at least 2 mana and maybe more if we have a bounce land in play. He can also make a 3/3 token for -1 and his ultimate is very achievable and can be used to turn a weak token army into a finisher or give Kresh the evasion (trample) he needs to get through for a kill.
Sol Ring/Mana Crypt - RAMP The best mana rocks you can buy. I caved and ended up putting these in the deck for the sake of being competitive and as part of the never ending quest for deck perfection.
Veteran Explorer - RAMP A great sacrifice target. Even though the explorer gives every player lands we expect that acceleration towards late game to benefit us the most. It's also critical to have good early sacrifice targets when we're running things like Diabolic Intent and Skullclamp. Birthing Pod loves this guy too.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - RAMP DRAW Selvala was made for this deck, I'm pretty sure. Both of her abilities just scream power matters. The card drawing is nice of course and the odds of our opponents having a creature with power greater than us are low. Where this card really shines though is the ability to tap for massive amounts of mana. Getting her on line with Malignus or Lord of Extinction with Greater Good, Sneak Attack, or the like should lead to a quick win as we should be able to draw or play a ton of cards.
Oracle of Mul Daya - RAMP Not too much synergy here aside from Oracle being a creature, so available to sacrifice in a pinch and buffing Kresh if he gets killed. This is one of the best midrange ramping cards in the game and can very quickly lead to huge land presence. Works extremely with Sylvan Library as we can set up the top of our library to get free lands into play and burn through the deck.
Draw
Just like everything else in the deck, the card draw here is of the go big or go home variety. We're looking to draw cards by the dozens whenever possible in order to find the specific cards we need to win the game in short order or get those sudden violent kills.
Disciple of Bolas – DRAW SACRIFICE ETB The disciple is good in multiple ways with this deck. He can often net us a huge amount of cards and life while simultaneously buffing Kresh, but even if he only comes in and gets us 3 cards it's still a 2/1 creature 3 cards and 3 life for 4 mana. That's not bad. Since it's an ETB effect he can be recurred and reused for huge value.
Garruk, Primal Hunter – DRAW TOKEN There are a lot of big creatures in this deck, some that can get very big and make the card drawing from Garruk get crazy. Most of the time we will cast Garruk and immediately use his -3 to draw a bunch of cards. As the ability doesn't target, it's resilient to spot removal and doesn't care if our biggest creature has shroud from Lightning Greaves. In the rare case where the card draw isn't needed or we don't have a good target for it he can also make 3/3 tokens for +1 loyalty. If we're feeling greedy or relatively safe we can always make a token for +1 when he comes and try to use the -3 on the following turn to keep him in play. Getting to his ultimate won't happen very often, but because our ramp is focused on getting additional lands into play we will most often be netting a lot of 6/6 tokens when it does.
Momentous Fall/Greater Good – DRAW SACRIFICE - Two more cards that let us draw cards equal to the power of the creature we sacrifice. The instant speed on Momentous Fall is awesome and let's us leave Kresh or another creature in play unprotected as long as we have the mana available to cast it. Greater Good is one of the most broken card drawing cards ever made. The ability to reuse it, also at instant speed, makes it get out of hand very fast if not answered and the discard drawback is not nearly as bad as it seems. We will often be drawing so many cards we have to discard anyway and can discard creatures into the graveyard to use as recursion targets.
Skullclamp – DRAW There are plenty of 1 toughness creatures and tokens to throw this on to draw an easy 2 cards. We can also equip it a creature before we sacrifice it or actually just equip for the +1 power. It isn't a bad idea to equip it to a creature your opponent will need to respond to as well to get a couple cards when they inevitably destroy it. This isn’t the most broken deck to have Skullclamp in but it’s still insanely good.
Sylvan Library - DRAW A combination of Sensei's Divining Top and Brainstorm (those are two pretty good cards), the library is a great way to filter our hand and potentially draw cards. We get to draw three and put any two from our hand back on top of our library or pay 4 life per card to keep them every turn. 4 life is pretty steep but it's less relevant in a 40 life format like commander. We have quite a few ways to shuffle the deck and get rid of pesky cards we don't need at the moment as well.
Rishkar's Expertise - DRAW Just a great power matters card. This easily draws 4+ cards and can hit 20 or more. After we draw the cards we can then cast anything with CMC 5 or less for free (Chandra's Ingition anyone?). The floor on this card is great value and the ceiling can just win the game by getting the pieces we need for an explosive turn.
Recursion
We aren't all in on the recursion strategy and that's partially by design as we don't want to be too vulnerable to graveyard hate. The recursion cards we are using are very strong either for the cost or the effect we get from them. Many of them can generate quite a bit of card advantage by pulling multiple creatures from the graveyard, which gets even better when you take into account the number of ETB creatures we are running.
Victimize – SACRIFICE RECURSION This card offers so much value for the deck. We have a plethora of creatures we are more than willing to and even glad to sacrifice for the cause and just as many creatures we want to pull out of our graveyard for either their ETB effects or just their sheer power. Losing one creature to pull two of your choice is already good and it is often great in this deck.
Sheoldred, Whispering One – REMOVAL RECURSION Sheoldred is good in any black deck that has a decent chunk of creatures and she fits amazingly here. There will almost always be a great target to pull from our graveyard each turn and forcing our opponents to sacrifice a creature during their upkeep just makes Kresh stronger and advances our gameplan. The amount of card advantage she generates quickly gets out of hand if she isn't immediately answered. Her 6/6 body is relevant as well. Sheoldred is what we're talking about when we say we're playing powerful creatures and spells.
Feldon of the Third Path - SACRIFICE RECURSION TOKEN Similar to Mimic Vat on a creature, Feldon can pull any creature from our graveyard until end of turn. It's versatile, as the creature doesn't get exiled so you can use it over and over or choose different targets to suit the situation. He creates a token, which we can potentially double with Doubling Season and the token gets sacrificed at the end of turn, which is good for Kresh. We are running a lot of ETB creatures and some that do stuff when they attack as well making Feldon very strong.
Eternal Witness – ETB RECURSION For a measly three mana the witness can grab any card from our graveyard and return it to our hand and bring a 2/1 body to the table. She's a great target for recursion and we don't mind sacrificing her after she's come into play and done her thing. She's also another great target for Skullclamp.
Twilight's Call – RECURSION Some cards can just flat out win the game with the sheer power of what they do. This is one of those cards. The ability to cast Twilight's Call as an instant makes it possible to turn it into a total blowout. Responding to an attacking enemy is deadly and all the ETB effects and bombs in the deck ensure it will work out in our favor nearly every time. At the very least we can hold it until the end of our opponent’s turn to get the first crack with our creatures not having summoning sickness.
Mimic Vat – RECURSION TOKEN With the right creature imprinted Mimic Vat quickly becomes a card that must be responded to by our opponents and we have a ton of creatures that meet that description like Avenger of Zendikar or Acidic Slime. The multitude of ETB effects makes it easy to get value from the vat or just quickly win the game. Opponents' creatures are also fair game and it's important to note that any creature that gets imprinted will be exiled as long it remains imprinted. We can use this as a soft counter to certain recursion strategies and infinite combos that may require a card to sit in the graveyard.
Journey to Eternity/Atzal, Cave of Eternity - RAMP RECURSION Although we run the risk of the typical blowout you can get when trying to cast an aura on a creature, if Journey sticks it'll take us on a train ride straight to value town. This protects the creature it enchants, bringing it back from death, which is particularly potent with all the ETB and on death creatures we are running, then when it flips it provides ramp and mana fixing. A bit expensive, but the land can also recur creatures from the graveyard, which can potentially come in handy as well. I think it's worth the risk.
Miscellaneous
These cards don't quite fit in the other categories, but have enough value or synergy to be worthy of inclusion anyway. Some of our best power matters cards are here as well as some haste enablers to protect us from board wipes.
Lightning Greaves - VOLTRON The greaves are a commander staple for a reason. The 0 equip cost for haste and shroud is just amazing. The haste is usually not a benefit to Kresh as he won't often get big enough to do serious damage the same turn he comes into play, but shroud provides much needed protection. We have many other creatures that appreciate the protection as well and the haste works great for some of our creatures that have whenever it attacks abilities like Nacatl War-Pride and Inferno Titan. Be aware of the shroud preventing us from targeting whatever creature is wearing the greaves. This can occasionally be problematic as we may need to target the creature for a sacrifice effect or some other ability.
Sneak Attack - SACRIFICE With all the ETB creatures and graveyard recursion in the deck this is pretty much a must include for us. Having this in play with a way to draw cards like Greater Good can just get bonkers. Also, we are running so many high CMC creatures, just being able to drop them early can be game breaking. Or course we can't ignore the +1/+1 counters Kresh will rack up as these creatures get sacrificed at end of turn. Sneak attack has major synergy with Birthing Pod, Mimic Vat, Victimize, the list goes on...
Urabrask the Hidden/Anger - Two cards that don't really fit any particular category very well, but are critical to the deck's success. We never want to wait a full turn after returning graveyards to the battlefield or playing a big creature and hope no one has a board wipe. Urabrask and Anger gives us some extra insurance against that and making opponents' creatures enter the battlefield tapped just ensures we'll be able to get through.
Xenagos, God of Revels - VOLTRON He will mostly be just an indestructible enchantment, which is fine as it makes him much harder to remove. He doubles the power and toughness of our other creatures, turning the many 5/5 and 6/6 range creatures in the deck to absolute monsters. This is great for attacking but also works extremely well with cards where power matters like Momentous Fall and Chandra's Ignition as the creature can have its power doubled before the sacrifice. The haste is also extra good with cards that have attack triggers like Inferno Titan and Nacatl War-Pride.
Berserk - VOLTRON As a rule I'm not a huge fan of one use pump spells but this one is good enough that I'll gladly make an exception. Power matters in this deck and Berserk doubles the power of a creature. It's great for attacking and getting one of our juggernauts through with trample. We've also doubled the creature's power for a measly G so can easily follow it up with something like Disciple of Bolas or Chandra's Ignition or even Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for some serious mana. We can also use it for creature removal in a pinch. It can also turn Malignus into a one-shot kill if unblocked.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord - SACRIFICE Jarad is just a potential game winner with the power matters theme. Paired with juggernauts like Malignus, Lord of Extinction, and Kresh himself, he can either flat out kill the table or cripple their life totals. His sac ability doesn't require tapping either, which means with Kresh in play you can potentially do something like sacrifice a high-powered creature with him, buffing Kresh, and then throw Kresh at the table afterwards. There is also potential for him to be pretty big himself with the +1/+1 for each creature in our graveyard. His ability to recur himself is also huge, making him a threat to end the game at any time (at instant speed too), even after he's died.
Tokens
The cards in this role either produce tokens or advance the token gameplan in some way. The token generators are one shot deals, because of the high CMC in this deck we don't have extra mana to be dumping into a mana sink after our token cards are initially played. Tokens were meant to die, they provide good sacrifice fodder and buff Kresh or can potentially allow us to go wide if the game falls the right way.
Nacatl War-Pride – TOKEN This guy is absolutely devastating and great for finishing stalled out games. He makes a bunch of attacking tokens when he attacks that can be doubled with Doubling Season(which can win the game in one swoop if your opponent has enough creatures), the tokens have to be blocked which essentially gives the rest of our creatures unblockable and results in a lot of creatures hitting the graveyard after damage resolves and giving Kresh +1/+1 counters galore. The tokens are removed from the game at the end of the turn but can be sacrificed before that happens if we’re able.
Pathbreaker Ibex - VOLTRON The pathbreaker goes incredibly well with our juggernauts and can easily be better than craterhoof in many scenarios as it doesn't require a board full of creatures to end the game. Kresh, Malignus, and Lord of Extinction can easily combo with this guy and once we start doubling power with stuff like Berserk and Xenagos, God of Revels, we're easily hitting the table for lethal.
Craterhoof Behemoth – ETB VOLTRON The behemoth is a game winner. When he hits the table, more often than not at least one player is going to die and if we have enough tokens we may even be able to wipe out the whole table. He's an ETB creature and one of the best targets we have for potential recursion and Mimic Vat shenanigans. He can potentially provide a massive power and toughness boost to the team and grants evasion through trample, which may be enough to get Kresh in for a commander kill. He's another super powerful card that opponents need an immediate response to.
Avenger of Zendikar – ETB TOKEN This guy is an absolute all star in the deck and one of the best token cards in commander. Usually he'll come in with 6 or more plant tokens and carries a beefy 5/5 body himself. The plant tokens can be doubled and so can the +1/+1 counters they get when a land comes into play. The fact that this all comes in on an ETB effect makes him a great target for recursion and Mimic Vat in particular.
Removal
Just like the rest of the deck we are trying to get as much removal attached to creatures as possible to increase the number of bodies that can potentially give Kresh a boost when they die and increase our recursion targets. The removal varies from massive board wiping spells to cheap single target effects. Though these don't necessarily fit our all-in on power theme they are necessary to keep us in the game while we build up our mana base.
Chandra's Ignition – REMOVAL This card more than any other card in the deck was made for Kresh. Casting this on Kresh and wiping the board is going to result in one of our opponents being dead. The first time I played with this card I cast it on a 5/5 Kresh on turn six, killed 7 creatures and then attacked and killed an opponent with a now 23/23 Kresh and have played it on Kresh at over 40 power and eliminated three opponents at once. It's basically Fling on steroids and we don't have to sacrifice the creature we cast it on. Keep it mind it does the damage to all creatures so our own team is vulnerable as well. It's really good with Vigor but either way we should be ok with our creatures dying as long as Kresh is getting bigger. We can always recur them later.
Big Game Hunter/Acidic Slime - REMOVAL ETB Here's some more of our creature delivered removal that can be recurred. Nine times out of ten the most threatening creature on the board has 4 or greater power and Big Game Hunter will take it down. It's easy to forget that he has B madness as well as it doesn't get used very often, but it does come up. The slime is just a great card for getting rid of problematic noncreature permanents and comes into play with deathtouch to make opponents think twice before attacking. Either one of these strapped to Mimic Vat can do some work and are also great targets for a Birthing Pod chain.
Terastodon - REMOVAL ETB TOKEN When we talk about finding answers for problematic permanents this elephant answers the question 90% of the time. Whether crippling an opponent's mana base or taking out whatever overpowered artifacts or enchantments they have, there are always 3 targets. The 9/9 is about as good as it gets as well and is a great target for some of our card draw that depends on creature power. There is the drawback of giving a 3/3 beast token for each noncreature permanent destroyed, but it's rarely a problem. Destroying our own stuff to get three 3/3 tokens may be necessary at some point to either stay alive or win the game. I've never had it happen but always have it in mind. In that scenario Terastodon would be giving us 18 power for 8 CMC.
Inferno Titan - REMOVAL ETB Maybe the worst of the titan cycle, Inferno Titan still brings the pain. 3 damage when he comes into play or attacks and comes in on a 6/6 body with firebreathing. He's essentially swinging for 9+ each turn and can take out utility creatures with ease.
Beast Within/Maelstrom Pulse - REMOVAL Sometimes we just need an answer for any permanent on the board and for 3 CMC we can't go wrong with either of these. Beast Within is another card that ends up giving the opponent a 3/3 token but that's most likely going to be nowhere near as useful for them as the permanent that was destroyed. The instant speed on Beast Within is great as well. Maelstrom Pulse is probably not quite as good. It's a sorcery and its ability to destroy all permanents with the same name is rarely relevant in a singleton format, though you could potentially get multiple opponents with the same card. Still, destroying the permanent of our choice makes it very good.
Pernicious Deed - REMOVAL This is one of the best GB cards ever printed because of its versatility. For one, it's a great rattlesnake effect. Our opponents will think twice before attacking us when this is in play and we have mana available. It can also be used to make X a low amount and just wipe the board of mana rocks or pesky blockers. We can also make X a lot more and wipe the entire board. Essentially, it gives us a large amount of control over what it does so we can fit it to any situation. It also works great to detonate it for less than 5 with Kresh in play and watch the +1/+1 counters stack up.
Bane of Progress - REMOVAL ETB - A great tool to have in our toolbox. This guy can potentially blow the table out of the water and become very big in the process, which is of course relevant with all the power matters cards we are running. It will destroy our own stuff, so there are certainly times when this will not be the best to play, but we would probably already be ahead at that point. Also, with only one mana rock it isn't likely to hurt our mana base as much as other players.
Tutors
Nothing sucks works than getting locked out of a game by one or two pesky cards and not being able to draw the cards in the deck to get rid of them. Every deck needs answers and the more tutors you are running the easier it is to find those answers when you need them. We're basically running the best of the best for tutors here and one that's strapped to Sidisi, Undead Vizier. Of course if we don't need to answer something we can always grab any of the many game winners from the deck and seal the game.
Birthing Pod - SACRIFICE TUTOR There's a nice numerical neatness to the creature section of the deck list going from 2-8 CMC with at least three cards in each cost. That combined with the number of ETB effects we're running makes the pod a no-brainer. Keep in mind we usually want to be pulling creatures that we don't mind sacrificing the next turn unless we are in a position to win the game. Knowledge of the deck can be critical when there are multiple potential creatures that can be targeted for the sacrifice. Pulling the correct creature from the deck can be the difference between losing and staying in the game.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - SACRIFICE ETB TUTOR I recently replaced Rune-Scarred Demon with Sidisi, mainly for the reduced mana cost, but we also don't mind the ability to sacrifice a creature (she can sacrifice herself if needed) and the 4/6 body with deathtouch isn't bad either.
Demonic Tutor TUTOR - Possibly the best tutor ever made, we get any card we need for 2 mana. Just like the other cheap tutors this is useful to use as ramp early as the sooner we get mana the better off we'll be.
Diabolic Intent SACRIFICE TUTOR - Acts as a second Demonic Tutor in the deck as not having a sacrifice target is pretty rare and the sacrifice cost can actually be a benefit in many scenarios.
Green Sun's Zenith - TUTOR Getting some form of ramp early is the correct call. Because of Green Sun’s versatility we can essentially run one less ramp card yet not have a dead draw if we get it late. We’ll be shuffling it back into the library anyway. Here are some of the best targets:
Ramp – 0 Dryad Arbor, 1 Veteran Explorer (with sac outlet), 2 Sakura-Tribe Elder, 2 Viridian Emissary (with sac outlet), 3 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, 3 Wood Elves
Answers – 5 Acidic Slime, 6 Bane of Progress, 8 Terastodon
Winners – 4 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, 5 Lord of Extinction,5 Xenagos, God of Revels, 6 Nacatl War-Pride, 6 Pathbreaker Ibex, 8 Craterhoof Behemoth
Tooth and Nail/Defense of the Heart - TUTOR We aren’t running infinite combos, but most of the time successfully activating either of these should result in a win. There are many creature combinations that can be pulled, but here are some of the best options:
Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth = Huge boost to team and trample
Lord of Extinction/Malignus + Disciple of Bolas = Massive life gain and card draw
Terastodon + Disciple of Bolas = Destroy 3 noncreature permanents, gain 9 life, draw 9 cards
Lord of Extinction/Malignus + Sidisi, Undead Vizier/Eternal Witness (grab Chandra's Ignition) = Massive direct damage to opponents and creatures
Xenagos, God of Revels + Malignus/Lord of Extinction/Nacatl War-Pride = Sudden devastating attack
Pathbreaker Ibex + Malignus/Lord of Extinction with a haste enabler = Sudden devastating attack
Lord of Extinction/Malignus + Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord = Potentially game ending damage to the table.
Eldritch Evolution/Natural Order - TUTOR SACRIFICE Two very similar cards that allow us to sacrifice a creature and put a new one into play. Evolution is obviously the more restricted of the two as we are limited to a creature with 2 CMC more. This still works very well with our low costed ramp creatures that don't mind being sacrificed or to grab one of our many toolbox options. Natural Order is much more broken as we can just sac something like Viridian Emissary for Terastodon very early in the game.
Survival of the Fittest - TUTOR Survival is an extremely mana efficient tutor that also throws stuff into our graveyard at the same time, which is usually a good thing. Anger should normally be target number one as it really belongs in the graveyard anyway, but we can pitch all kinds of creatures for recursion later. Of course, this gives access to every creature in the deck and the entire toolbox package.
Razaketh, the Foulblooded - TUTOR SACRIFICE The ability to tutor for any card at instant speed is extremely powerful. Yes, we have to pay 2 life and sacrifice another creature, but 2 life is miniscule in commander and this deck doesn't mind sacrificing stuff. The 8 mana cost is pretty steep but we have many ways to cheat stuff in and ramp that can get us there pretty quickly. With a couple sacrificial creatures in play Razaketh should be able to find a way to win the game.
Juggernauts
With all the Momentous Fall type effects we're running we just need some big dudes that don't mind sacrificing themselves for the Greater Good. Our violent leader is a juggernaut as well of course.
Lord of Extinction – The EDH version of Tarmogoyf, the lord of extinction regularly hits the field at 40+ and gets absolutely insane with 4 or more players. He's often overlooked for being a big vanilla creature, but we have quite a few ways to take advantage of his huge size. He's a target in many of our best Tooth and Nail combos, can be used in one of our many ways to draw cards equal to power spells, or can simply throw on a Whispersilk Cloak and start knocking skulls. This is by far one of the best cards in the deck.
Malignus - One of the cards that benefits from the 40 starting life in commander. It's going to be rare for Malignus to not come in as at least a 10/10 and will often be 20/20 if not more. That's pretty good for 5 mana. Throw in cards like Disciple of Bolas and Greater Good or the potential to give Kresh a ton of +1/+1 counters and it's a great fit for the deck. It can also one shot anyone when used in tandem with Xenagos, God of Revels if unblocked.
Kresh the Bloodbraided - Kresh, what is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
Lands
I'm only going to discuss some of the more relevant utility lands here. We're running the 3 in color fetch lands, shock lands, slow lands, check lands, Savage Lands, Mana Confluence, City of Brass, Command Tower. There are enough basics and tutors for basics that the check lands and slow lands will pretty much always come in untapped but not so many that we get stuck without enough of one of the colors we're running.
Shizo, Death's Storehouse – VOLTRON Doesn’t come in tapped and can give Kresh the evasion he needs to swing for a kill. I’ve won a couple games by giving Kresh fear with this and the cost for running it is very small. It can potentially cost us a needed swamp to prevent a slow or check land from coming into play tapped but it's easily worth that risk.
Yavimaya Hollow – Being able to regenerate a creature for G and tapping this is pretty good. Anyone casting a board wipe with this and Kresh in play is asking for quick 21 damage high five to the face.
Kessig Wolf Run – VOLTRON The trample makes this a great late game finisher, especially with the big creatures we're running, or just as a way to get Kresh through some blockers. It can also be used to pump a creature before using things like Greater Good, Chandra's Ignition, and Xenagos, God of Revels.
Mosswort Bridge – We will hit the needed 10 power of creatures often, the only question is what gets flipped in the top four. The dream is either In Garruk's Wake or Plague Wind but there are a ton of good cards we can hit with our high mana curve. Bouncing this back to our hand with a bounce land can be pretty effective if it wiffs the first time.
Bojuka Bog – Graveyard hate that doesn’t cost a card in our deck. This should probably be in any deck playing black and is definitely worth running despite entering the battlefield tapped.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All – Colorless, but otherwise great for backing up the big spells that will win us the game if we protect them from being countered.
Dryad Arbor - Counts as both a creature and a forest, which allows it to be tutored with a ton of different stuff and can be used as ramp, a sacrifice target, or even another creature when going wide with a big army. The trade-off is the threat of dying to a board wipe so use with caution. I think the benefits outway the downside though.
Opening Hand
There's no super secret strategy here. We need mana early. As a bare minimum we need two lands and some form of ramp that we're fairly confident we'll be able to play. Without any form of ramp, two lands should be a mulligan. Three lands is better and four is doable. It's rarely an issue, but make sure you have all three colors or a way to get all three colors. Top opening hand cards (you shouldn't be tossing a hand with these unless you absolutely have to):
Sol Ring - Greatly accelerates the deck towards mid and late game.
Sylvan Library - The ability to filter your draws can't be underestimated, especially with those high CMC bombs floating around. Throw them back into the library for later in exchange for lands or early game threats/answers.
Awakening Zone - Seems inconsequential, but the ramp this card provides is huge for this deck and the tokens are also great sacrifice targets and could even potentially become lethal later in the game with an overrun ability.
Skullclamp - Equip to a ramping creature and let the card drawing begin.
Early Game
As you've probably guessed the first few turns will be spent ramping and hitting land drops. There is some removal to deal with must answer threats (I'm looking at you Serra Ascendant), but for the most part you should be willing to take some damage to accelerate into the mid/late game quicker. There's only a couple cards that can be played on turn 1 so this is a good time to play a shock land without paying life or any land that enters the battlefield tapped. It is normally the right play to use Green Sun's Zenith, Demonic Tutor, Diabolic Intent,etc. for ramp at this stage. You really want to get to mid/late game as quickly as possible. You should also play most of the lower costed stuff like Mimic Vat even if you don't have something to use it with right then and there, because once you hit 5 mana you'll be tapping out almost every turn and won't have a chance to play it then. It isn't a huge deal if something gets destroyed, you'll be able to draw more cards later and reload.
Mid Game
Mid game is the point where the focus is no longer on ramping and transitions into establishing a board presence and plan for winning the game. It is often not a bad idea to throw Kresh onto the board early and just see what happens with him. He can get big really fast if things fall into place and we don’t need him to live to win the game, so eating a removal spell isn’t the worst thing. At this point in the game we need to develop a plan/line of play to either win or get a kill that is specific to the cards we have available and the current state of the board (See How to Win below for more specifics). There are quite a few different paths to victory so knowledge of the deck is absolutely paramount. We also have plenty of tutors to take our current pool of cards to an explosive level if the right choices are made. The deck is very capable of creating a sudden dominating board state or just winning out of nowhere. We are also running enough value that the deck is very capable of winning a drawn out game as well.
I can't overstate how dangerous Kresh is just being in play, even in the early stages of the game. Something like an evoked Shriekmaw gives Kresh +3/+3 plus the power of the creature it killed. An evoked Spitebellows is even better. Either one can put someone on a two turn clock. Chandra's Ignition on Kresh can just end someone's life. And all of that is not taking into account the other creatures that may be hitting the graveyard in a multiplayer game.
If someone gets off to a fast start (or maybe you missed a couple land drops) and is trying to kill us, we need to do whatever possible to stay alive and make it to late game where we can turn things around. It's ok to play defensively or start using some politics to divert their aggression somewhere else. Kresh may be angry with us, but sometimes the best strategy is to make ourselves as nonthreatening as possible and hope the big boys at the table duke it out amongst themselves while we recover.
Late Game
This is where all those evil machinations we set into motion earlier come to fruition and hopefully we find a way to win. Obviously, if the initial plan fails we need to recalibrate, assess the board and our cards, and come up with a new strategy. Philosophically, the deck has shifted from an attrition based strategy to a more explosive, "win as suddenly as possible" strategy. There's a certain level of randomness when everyone is dropping threats each turn and hoping they last. Eventually, the table will run out of answers and although if you are running value cards you can turn the odds in your favor, there is still a good chance you will not be the player whose threat finally sticks when that happens. If you are instead going directly from a non-threatening position to a must-answer, about to the win the game position, it greatly reduces the tables chance to respond.
This by no means covers every scenario, but here are some of the more common ways to victory to give you an idea of what you should be looking to do once you get to late game:
How to Win Big
I think the best way to lay this out is to list the cards that can win the game and how and what cards to be looking out for when choosing to pursue them as a strategy to win. Then based on the board state and what cards we already have in hand we can find the best line of play from there, using tutors, recursion, and enablers to get whatever cards we need to complete the puzzle.
Chandra's Ignition/Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord – Both of these want to be paired with high-powered creatures. Chandra's Ignition can clear the board for a massive swing or just kill players outright and Jarad can repeatably fling creatures for damage to the whole table. Cards to look out for: Kresh, the Bloodbraided, Malignus, Lord of Extinction.
Craterhoof Behemoth, Pathbreaker Ibex, or Garruk Wildspeaker (ultimate) – With a decent amount of creatures, these can just flat out lead to killing every opponent in one swing. Cards to look out for: Avenger of Zendikar, Nacatl War-Pride, Awakening Zone, From Beyond, Grave Titan, Doubling Season.
Twilight's Call – It’s pretty easy to fill up the graveyard with creatures and this can be cast at EoT on our opponents turn. That combined with the amount of ETB effects can lead to a sudden win. Works with a full graveyard, which can often be achieved by drawing a ton of cards and discarding.
Sneak Attack – It’s possible to just draw a bunch of cards and dump a bunch of hasted creatures onto the board, but we need a decent amount of mana to pull this off. Cards to look out for: Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Disciple of Bolas, Greater Good, Rishkar's Expertise, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Momentous Fall.
Juggernauts (Kresh the Bloodbraided, Malignus, Lord of Extinction) – These guys can take someone out in a hit or two pretty easily. Cards to look out for: Xenagos, God of Revels, Berserk, Kessig Wolf Run, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Pathbreaker Ibex.
Attrition
The deck won’t always win in sudden impressive fashion. Sometimes it may kill one player or two players and have to grind out the final kill or may be getting oppressed and have to claw its way back into contention. That’s ok. We still have the ability to grind out a game. Some good cards for winning the attrition battle: Sheoldred, Whispering One, Grave and Inferno Titan, Mimic Vat, Feldon of the Third Path, Birthing Pod.
Drawing Cards - Although it won't win the game outright by itself, it is very difficult for our opponents to overcome us drawing a massive amount of cards. This is something the deck does very well. Get a big creature, preferably a juggernaut but there are other options as well, and hit them with one of the following cards: Disciple of Bolas, Rishkar's Expertise, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Greater Good, Momentous Fall.
Real Game Examples
My previous game examples were so outdated I ended up removing them altogether as they were no longer an accurate representation of how the deck operated. After playing three games with Kresh over the weekend and winning two of them I figured this was a good opportunity to bring them back to help paint a full picture of how the deck works.
6/24/17
I had taken out one opponent very early with a Malignus and Xenagos, God of Revels. The remaining three of us were basically keeping each other in check with board wipes and removal, causing the game to go over 10 turns with no one able to keep an edge. I had a pretty full graveyard and had drawn 6 cards with Rishkar's Expertise on a 6/6 Bane of Progress the previous turn. My opponent, running an Oloro, Ageless Ascetic deck had just gotten to 51 life with an Aetherflux Reservoir in play by durdling out a bunch of spells. He was feeling pretty smug as he passed the turn as he now had me and the other opponent hostage, with the option to kill either one us on the spot if we did something he didn’t like.
When it got around to me, I cast Beast Within on his Aetherflux Reservoir and he responded by paying 50 life (which would put him at 1) to deal 50 damage to me. I responded by casting Twilight's Call and paying the extra 2 to cast it as an instant. One of the creatures I returned was Inferno Titan, which I had do 3 damage to him, and put him at 48 life, killing him when his pay 50 life resolved and removing the 50 damage to me from the stack when he died. The other player and I both had quite a few creatures returning to play, but the combination of my returning Urabrask the Hidden and Nacatl War-Pride were enough to allow me to get in with my other creatures and hit him for lethal.
6/25/17
This was an unusually long game and I couldn’t seem to get anything except a Xenagos, God of Revels to stick as I was getting hit with removal seemingly as soon as I could put anything into play. To make matters worse, one of my opponents was running Anafenza, the Foremost protected by Bear Umbra and had almost completely shut down any graveyard shenanigans I would normally be able to do. He also had Sun Titan and Aura Shards in play and was looking pretty dominant.
I was mostly out of gas and in serious danger when I top-decked Survival of the Fittest. I used it to pitch a creature from my hand into exile (thanks Anafenza) and grab Sidisi, Undead Vizier. I played Sidsi, extorting herself, and got Tooth and Nail. I didn’t have enough mana to cast it yet.
We went around the table with my Survival of the Fittest getting destroyed by the Aura Shards of course and me taking a decent chunk of damage. On my turn I cast Tooth and Nail entwined, putting Lord of Extinction and Disciple of Bolas into play. I sac’d the Lord of Extinction to the Disciple’s ETB, drawing 34 cards and gaining 34 life and putting me back into the game. I still had 6 mana available and really wanted to take out Anafenza, then pitch my creatures into the graveyard on my end step to be recurred by Twilight's Call the next turn, but I just couldn’t figure out a way to get past the Bear Umbra. That is my normal line of play in that scenario and it took me a minute to realize I could essentially do the same thing by keeping the creatures in my hand with the Sneak Attack I’d been holding onto.
On my next turn I played Sneak Attack, unloading my hand of creatures which included Avenger of Zendikar getting 13 plant tokens, a Feldon of the Third Path who created a Malignus token from my meager graveyard, Nacatl War-Pride, 2 other creatures, and Craterhoof Behemoth putting it all over the top. Although the plant tokens didn’t have haste, the over 20 power and trample added to my other creatures, as well as an over 100 power trampling Malignus token (using Xenagos), was enough to swing for lethal on both players.
7/30/17
**Quick disclaimer on this one** I was playing against two of my friends with normal sixty card decks, multiple copies of cards, and we all had 20 life. They don't have any EDH decks and I don't have any non-EDH decks. They agreed to allow Command Tower to make any color mana and other than that I was completely legal and had shuffled Kresh into my deck. Their decks are pretty casual so beating them with a 100 card singleton deck isn't impressive, but this seemed like a good example as it was a turn 7 win and demonstrates a bit how familiarity with the deck is so important.
They were both playing life gain decks and one of them had two Ajani's Pridemates out with a Soul Warden. I had a turn 4 Malignus, which was big enough to prevent them from attacking me. Turn 5 I cast Survival of the Fittest and then Momentous Fall on the Malignus right before turn 6 for 13 cards and 13 life. Out of the cards I drew, Avenger of Zendikar, Feldon of the Third Path, Demonic Tutor, and Twilight's Call were the most relevant. I passed without casting anything and pitched seven creatures into my graveyard on my discard step.
At my opponent's end of turn before turn 7, with the help of Ancient Tomb, I cast Twilight's Call paying the 2 to cast it at instant speed and brought back the above mentioned cards and Malignus. On turn 7 I still didn't have lethal, especially since the player with Soul Warden had just gained around 14 life. I cast Demonic Tutor to get Pathbreaker Ibex, the pitched the Ibex to my graveyard with Survival of the Fittest and used Feldon of the Third Path to create a hasted token copy of it. I doubled it's power with Berserk to add insult to injury and then swung with the team, giving every creature +56/+56.
1/19/18
I started with a turn one Veteran Explorer, which one of my opponents openly questioned after asking what it did, wanting to know how it helped me if everyone got the lands. It was a fair question, but the card ultimately won me the game this time. One of my opponents opened with a Deathrite Shaman, which happened to be the only relevant opponent's card in this game. Turn 2 I cast Diabolic Intent sacrificing the Veteran Explorer and tutoring for Malignus. I did not have anything to use my two extra lands on from the explorer dying so passed the turn. Turn 3 I played Malignus, who was 21/21 because of one of my opponents gaining two life. Turn 4 I played Rishkar's Expertise drawing 21 cards with the notable ones being Craterhoof Behemoth, Avenger of Zendikar, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, and Anger. I cast Sidisi, Undead Vizier, for free off the Rishkar's, exploiting herself, and tutored up Twilight's Call. I also put a Mana Crypt into play. I discarded all of my creatures at end of turn and kept some spells that would allow me to rebuild in case my recursion strategy got thwarted. Fifth turn I cast Twilight's Call and after I put all the creatures into play and seeing what was coming, the opponent with the Deathrite Shaman exiled Anger in response. They began to discuss finding a wrath to stop my inevitable attack next turn. Needing haste to end the game, I exploited Veteran Explorer with Sidisi, Undead Vizier's ETB, getting Urabrask the Hidden and the two untapped lands I needed to cast him. With haste in play, I swung for lethal on the table, with Craterhoof giving all my creatures +17/+17 and trample.
11/29/15
Out - Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
In - Meren of Clan Nel Toth
Reasoning - As sweet as Mikaeus is he does have some downsides. First of all, there are a decent number of humans in the deck, which he does nothing for. He also costs 3 black mana which can sometimes be problematic. Lastly, he's only relevant when there are other useful creatures in play for him to protect that are being killed. Meren solves all of these issues although her effect won't usually bring the creatures right back into play. She's much easier to cast and nets a card almost immediately as her effect happens at the end of the turn. Overall, I think this will improve the consistency of the deck.
Out - Mycoloth
In - Sol Ring
Reasoning - For a long time I was set on the idea of only using creature based ramp so there would always be the potential for Kresh to get +1/+1 counters when the creature died, but playing Sol Ring in my other decks reiterated just how good it is and I realized I needed to include it here if I wanted the deck to be as strong as possible. Mycoloth was a card I had on the chopping block for a while. His potential is really high, but he can also just be a dead card in hand and doesn't have any way of protecting himself to keep the token train rolling.
Out - Rune-Scarred Demon
In - Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Reasoning - Another mostly cost based decision. By far the best part of Rune-Scarred Demon is the tutoring ability. I found the 6/6 flying body was almost never the reason I wanted to cast him. With Sidisi I can keep the tutor on a creature for 2 less mana and the cost of sacrificing a creature is not much of a drawback if any in this deck.
Out - Hamletback Goliath
In - Xenagos, God of Revels
Reasoning - This was a really difficult call to make because the goliath has won many games, whether through card draw off his huge power or just from hitting really hard. I made the decision because Xenagos brings so much to the table for this deck and it's indestructible. There are so many cards that make power on creatures relevant, usually for drawing cards, but also on Chandra's Ignition and doubling the power of Kresh can easily be what it takes to get that 21 commander damage in. The haste is good too and more so on some of the "when it attacks" creatures I'm running.
Out - Bitterblossom
In - From Beyond
Reasoning - I was really only trying out Bitterblossom because I spent $20 on it for another deck that didn't work out and was hoping it would be good in the deck. What little I played of it was underwhelming and Awakening Zone is so so good when you can play it on turn 2 or 3 I knew I needed to find a place for From Beyond as soon as it was spoiled. Bitterblossom was an obvious cut.
12/23/15
Out - Meren of Clan Nel Toth
In - Feldon of the Third Path
Reasoning - Meren just isn't that strong as one of the 99 and I may have gotten a bit smitten with her just being a new card. Feldon works really well with the rest of the deck. It makes a token, sacrifices a creature, and recurs the ETB dudes.
Out - Strionic Resonator
In - Sylvan Library
Reasoning - Nothing against Strionic Resonator, I may even find a place for it in the deck again in the future, but in terms of sheer power Sylvan Library blows it out of the water and I expect it to be the best 2 mana card in the deck. The card filtering alone is amazing and having the option to draw extra cards puts it over the top. My only concern is there are quite a few things that cost life in this deck. I don't see it being an issue, but for a deck that wants to get to the late game it will have to be something I monitor closely.
2/6/16
Out - Bloodfire Colossus
In - Malignus
Reasoning - Bloodfire was not having an impact very often. I played about 15 games where I never once played him or wanted him. As cool as the potential combo with Vigor and the synergy with Kresh are, it just isn't consistently good enough. I expect Malignus to be really good as another "power matters" creature along the lines of Lord of Extinction.
4/1/16
Out - Vigor, Primal Vigor, Garruk, Apex Predator
In - Sneak Attack, Veteran Explorer, Seedguide Ash
Reasoning - Vigor was naturally the next card on the chopping block after Bloodfire Colossus came out. The value just went way down without the potential two card "combo" with them. It's also a creature that needs other creatures around to have a big impact. Primal Vigor I never had a problem with, but seemed like a good card to remove as the chance of helping your opponents more than yourself is always out there. Garruk's power level doesn't necessarily match his mana cost. I'm looking for a bigger impact if I'm spending that much. The great thing about him is the versatility, but he will not turn the game around if you are already losing. As far as adding Veteran Explorer and Seedguide Ash, and this may have been a terrible thing to do, but I've been play testing my decks 1v1 a lot lately and this deck is a bit slow in a 1v1 matchup. I expect those two cards to speed it up a bit and gives some more great sacrifice targets. The 1 drop that can be sacrificed is especially valuable to have early. For Sneak Attack I recently picked one up as the price has dropped a bit and it's an obvious include in this deck with all the ETB creatures and cards like Kresh that like sacrifices. I've already done some incredibly broken things with it like cheating in Terastodon, destroying 3 of my opponents lands, then sneaking in Disciple of Bolas and sacrficing Terastodon for 9 more cards. It just ain't right.
5/2/16
Out - Forest
In - Dryad Arbor
Reasoning - Call me greedy, but I want to be able to Green Sun's Zenith for zero to ramp if I want to.
Out - Grim Backwoods
In - Yavimaya Hollow
Reasoning - Grim Backwoods has been on my radar to remove for a while as I almost never have four mana laying around just to draw a card. I was seriously considering Mirrorpool before I lost to Yavimaya Hollow the other night. That got the wheels turning and I realized regenerating Kresh during a board wipe was a pretty good thing to be doing.
Out - Wurmcoil Engine
In - Urabrask the Hidden
Reasoning - The toughest call of the three. I have had multiple games recently where I recurred cards from my graveyard and would have won the game if I had haste. Going to give Urabrask a try and see what kind of results I get. I was also the fence between removing Inferno Titan or Wurmcoil Engine, but have another deck that can use Wurmcoil so that decided it.
9/15/16ish
Out - Rise of the Dark Realms, In Garruk's Wake, Plague Wind
In - Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Frontier Siege, Oracle of Mul Daya
Reasoning - Well I finally cut the three big bombs. I've been focusing on making the deck faster and replacing the three 9 cost cards with the three best ramp cards I wasn't using certainly does that. I don't think I could oversell how good Selvala is in the power matters deck. Tutoring for Malignus with an early Selvala on board allows you to do pretty much whatever you want as early as turn 4.
Out - Darksteel Plate, Whispersilk Cloak, Master of the Wild Hunt
In - Survival of the Fittest, Eldritch Evolution, Traverse the Ulvenwald
Reasoning- The toolbox is legit and these three cards just give even more access to it. The idea is it's less important to protect the creatures you have when you can get the creature you need for any given situation. This deck doesn't mind creatures dying anyway.
Out - Shriekmaw, Spitebellows
In - Anger, Berserk
Reasoning - Kresh is an angry man? Anger is another much needed haste option. I have lost a ton of games that I would have won only to lose my well established board position to a wipe before I could attack. It almost has to be included now that I'm running Survival of the Fittest too. Berserk is an obvious include as well once it got reprinted. I can use it to pump a creature before an attack, before using Chandra's Ignition, before using Greater Good, etc... With the extra toolbox/tutor cards added above I can afford to lose the somewhat restricted evoke creatures.
12/28/16
Out - Frontier Siege
In - Natural Order
Reasoning - I'm all in on the toolbox so after getting my hands on a Natural Order it seemed like an obvious include. As much as I like Frontier Siege the lack of synergy with Kresh and the rest of the deck was bothersome so I took it out. It is kind of a mid game ramp card, which I already had enough of, and I don't think the deck was hurt with it's removal. Also, first game played with Order I cast in on Viridian Emissary for Terastodon. Seemed like it might be good.
1/30/17
Out - Seedguide Ash
In - Rishkar's Expertise
Reasoning - Really Wizards, you don't need to keep printing cards just for this deck. I mean you can, but I wouldn't be upset if you didn't. Seriously though, another power matters card and really this one is just too good to not put in the deck. Draw a bunch of cards (maybe 20 plus) and then play one for free. Don't mind if I do. The 5 mana slot was a bit over-filled in the deck, not to mention Kresh being 5 as well. I like Seedguide Ash and it fits the theme of the deck very well, but it had to be the next card cut. The power level isn't really there for the investment.
4/26/17
Out - Eldrazi Monument
In - Protean Hulk
Reasoning - As the deck continues to stray from the attrition strategy that often involved tokens, Eldrazi Monument has lost some of its value. It's not an easy cut by any means, but with the unbanning of Protean Hulk yesterday something had to go. Protean Hulk gives the deck another way to access the toolbox and there are plenty of ways to cheat him in without paying the full 7. Sacrificing him to any number of cards like Chandra's Ignition, Greater Good, etc. is just great value.
5/26/17
Out - Scute Mob
In - Bane of Progress
Reasoning - Not really sure why it wasn't on my radar but Bane of Progress seems like a pretty obvious card for the deck. With all the creature tutors it can be accessed pretty easily when needed and has the potential to just be a total blowout. It also uses +1/+1 counters so there's Doubling Season... no wait, that won't work. Oh well, there's the obvious downside of killing our own stuff so will so how it goes. Scute Mob was always a bit of a throw in and as the deck has progress to a more explode all at once strategy its usefulness has gone down quite a bit. It really does nothing turn one.
7/22/17
Out - Doubling Season, Dragonmaster Outcast, Protean Hulk
In - Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Pathbreaker Ibex, Mana Crypt
Reasoning - The deck has been continually evolving away from the attrition style that the token producers support and as that has happened the number of cards that work with Doubling Season has been steadily dropping. There are still about 10 cards that work with it, including Kresh, but the impact on many of those is just not that high for the small chance of having them out with Doubling Season at the same time. Even the two Garruk ultimates are nothing to write home about. I really can't remember the last time the card had an impact on a game. The same logic applies to the removal of Dragonmaster Outcast. It isn't that the deck doesn't want tokens, it just wants quantity over quality. One 5/5 dragon per turn (the turn after he comes into play) just doesn't tend to get the job when the deck wants to go off right now. Protean Hulk just isn't worth it at 7 mana when I'm not really doing anything unfair with him. Sure, he works well with Birthing Pod, Eldritch Evolution, and the like, but the impact just wasn't there.
Razaketh I expect to be able to just win games in short order. The deck has many routes to sudden victory and he enables the best line of play every time. Not sure how relevant it is but being an 8/8 flying trampler doesn't hurt either. The deck wasn't as focused on the juggernaut strategy and also didn't have the number of haste enablers it does now when Pathbreaker Ibex was released so he sort of slipped past me and then fell off my radar. I saw him the other day and immediately realized he needed to go into the deck. I expect him to be better than craterhoof most of the time and if Malignus, Lord of Extinction, or a pumped Kresh are in play it's nighty night for the table. Not much needs to be said about Mana Crypt. I got my hands on one recently so in it goes.
8/29/17
Out - Grave Titan
In - Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Reasoning - This was a tough call as Grave Titan has been a poster child for the deck since the beginning, putting a ton of power on the battlefield for the relatively cheap mana cost. I've been trying to find a way to fit in Jarad for a long time and he is just required in a power matters deck, giving me another win condition that doesn't require combat. And he can just flat out kill the table with Malignus and a power doubler or Lord of Extinction/Kresh. Grave Titan is the card I settled on for a couple reasons. The 6 CMC slot was overfull and all the other slots were cards that were either answers or can win the game, making them much better toolbox options. Grave Titan is much more of an attrition card, which the deck continues to go away from in favor of sudden wins.
1/15/18
Out - Yavimaya Elder, Traverse the Ulvenwald
In - Wood Elves, Journey to Eternity/Atzal, Cave of Eternity
Reasoning - Yavimaya Elder was a bit of a relic from my earlier EDH days where I didn't appreciate mana cost as much as I do now. It essentially costs 5 mana to use and doesn't actually ramp you. It's still a solid card but Wood Elves has a much more immediate impact and is easier to abuse. Traverse the Ulvenwald is solid, but with 39 lands and a bunch of ramp in the deck I don't think it is all that necessary to help with hitting land drops early. Yes, it's very good once delirium is triggered, but can take a while to get there. Journey to Eternity just works great with the ETB and on death triggers in the deck, provides ramp, and potentially repeatable recursion. It just seems like a very good card for the deck.
Ranked by Power Levels High Medium Low - These are of course, completely subjective. I am taking mana cost, dependency on other cards, and ability to win the game into consideration.
Creatures
Rune-Scarred Demon High - 6/6 flying so his body is already relevant and he tutors for any card in the deck. Between those two things he's worth the price, especially with so many ways to cheat him into play.
Hamletback Goliath Medium - The goliath gets very big very fast. I recently took him out for Xenagos, God of Revels, but may find a way to fit him back in at some point. He did serious work.
Harvester of Souls Medium – Another card I had in the deck that just wasn’t getting it done for me. Usually I just wished I had something else in my hand when I drew him and that seemed to outweigh the times he drew me a lot of cards.
Mycoloth Medium – With the amount of tokens and small ramp creatures in the deck it’s pretty easy to devour a couple guys when Mycoloth comes into play without putting yourself at risk of a blowout while also making him a beast at 8/8 or stronger and generating 4 or more tokens each turn.
Dragon Broodmother Medium – The best part about the broodmother is she produces a token during each upkeep, so she gets stronger with more players in the game. Devour on the tokens also works out well as a lot of creatures in the deck don’t mind dying and killing your stuff will buff Kresh. I found the three red to be a bit too steep and ended up taking this out for Bitterblossom recently.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed High – Giving undying to your team (minus the annoying chunk of humans) works well with the sacrifice and ETB effects in the deck.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord High - I ran Jarad for a while and was somewhat surprised with how rarely I was able to use him effectively. The deck has changed quite a bit since then and I really think I need to try to find a way to fit him in or at least test him out. He is capable of just winning the game in the right circumstances and there are plenty of ways to tutor him up in those scenarios.
Butcher of Malakir Medium - The mana cost is just too steep for what the butcher does. You are much better off just running Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos if you want this effect. They are cheaper and less vulnerable.
Bloodghast/Nether Traitor/Reassembling Skeleton Low - These cards are useful if you have some sort of engine for them, but this deck hasn't really gone that route. I had them in the deck a long time ago and realized how low impact they were. They are much better if you are running the below guy as your commander.
Shattergang Brothers Medium - Can be very strong in the right circumstance and isn't absolutely bad in this deck, especially if you have a repeatable token generator in play. He's much better when the deck is tooled around him.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion/Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts High – Two infinite combos that you can tutor up with Tooth and Nail or Defense of the Heart if you are so inclined. Either of these will win you the game outright.
Dragonlord Atarka Medium - A big hitter with an ETB ability. I think there's better removal options, especially for the mana cost on this guy, but he is strong.
Fauna Shaman Medium - My experience with Fauna Shaman is that it is just a bit too slow and vulnerable and never seems to work quite as well as it seems it should.
Massacre Wurm Medium - Another ETB creature, the wurm can just wreck token decks. The triple black can be an issue and sometimes the -2/-2 is just not relevant.
Corpsejack Menace Low - A pretty common include in Kresh decks, I don't think it has a big enough impact in this deck to be worth running.
Sprouting Thrinax Low - A somewhat cheap and resilient token maker. I don't think it has a big enough impact in a 40 life format.
Smothering Abomination Low - Would essentially fill the role of Phyrexian Arena on a creature in this deck (and we're trying to get spell effects on creature bodies). I think it's too vulnerable and too conditional to be running here. There are better ways to draw cards.
Varolz, the Scar-Striped Medium - We have a lot of ETB creatures that we'd rather recur than exile for this I think. That said, it could be useful to scavenge a creature before sacrificing something in play for a big effect based on it's power.
Phyrexian Dreadnought High - 1 mana for +12/+12 if you have Kresh in play. This could be absolutely amazing in the right circumstances.
Phyrexian Devourer High - A one shot pump that can put Kresh at lethal or just buff itself and then get sacrificed to any instant speed effect. I may need to find room for this.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth Medium - The best thing about Meren is her ability takes effect at the end of turn, making sure we almost always net a card before our opponents have a chance to respond. The experience counters she creates are attached to the player so remain in the game even if she gets removed, which means she can be recurred and pick up right where she left off. We can often sacrifice some tokens right before the end of turn to get the experience counters we need to get a valuable creature right into play instead of our hand.
Bloodfire Colossus Low - The colossus is a bit on the expensive side but he works great with Kresh. The sacrifice happens before he does the damage so Kresh will get six +1/+1 counters first and survive the damage. We also have a few ways to cheat the cost and tutor him through things like Defense of the Heart and Birthing Pod, which makes him useful as a creature based boardwipe. I think the mana cost is just too high.
Vigor Medium - Vigor grants protection from damage to the team which works great with tokens and with Kresh. Any form of mass damage can make the tokens huge. Giving Kresh +1/+1 counters is exactly what we are trying to do anyway and if Vigor dies from the damage he absorbs that's another 6 counters for Kresh as well. Vigor's 6/6 body with trample is relevant too.
Imperial Recruiter High - Capable of getting ramp early and all kinds of goodies late. Also capable of burning a hole in your wallet.
Devoted Druid and Quillspike High - A two card combo that can give Quillspike infinite power. Quillspike is pretty useless without the Druid in this deck and you aren't guaranteed to win with this one, unlike the two other combos listed above so I'd rather run those. This is still powerful though.
Wurmcoil Engine High – Wurmcoil is strong enough to go in just about any deck and it works well here. The 6/6 deathtouch and lifegain for 6 is already good, but the best thing about it is it's resistance to removal. Anyone killing the engine now has two 3/3 tokens deal with. This also makes it a good target for Birthing Pod as we are still getting some value after it's sacrificed.
Master of the Wild Hunt Medium – The master is great value for four mana. Not only does he make 2/2 tokens every turn, but the tokens can be used to take out creatures on the other team. Getting a steady flow of creatures that can double as removal fits our token theme and makes sure creatures hit the graveyard to buff Kresh.
Shriekmaw Medium - This card has a lot going for it. The worst case scenario is you get a Terror on a 3 power body that's being sacrificed as you cast, so will strengthen Kresh and can be recurred. Shriekmaw can also be hard cast to kill a creature and give us a 3/2 with fear for 5 CMC.
Spitebellows Medium - Spitebellows has strong syngergy with Kresh. If we evoke it for a measly 1RR we can do 6 damage and get 6 +1/+1 counters on Kresh. It can also be hardcast to get the 6/1 body, but keep in mind the ability does not work as an ETB like the other evoke creatures. The 6 damage only triggers when he dies.
Seedguide Ash Low - Although Seedguide is a bit slow, he also gets 3 lands, and not basic lands either, so we can get any of our duals with a forest type for some mana fixing. With him as the only source of ramp, assuming we hit our land drops and have a way to sacrifice him, puts us in Plague Wind range by turn six.
Scute Mob Medium - Scute mob isn't a monster but for 1 mana it's a steal and will become big very quickly. It can also have its +1/+1 tokens doubled with Doubling Season or Primal Vigor. It's mainly in the deck as a little something we can throw into play the same turn we play a 5+ mana spell and can provide some serious value for the small cost.
Verdurous Gearhulk Medium - A vanilla creature, but 8 power for 5 mana is more relevant in this power matters deck than it normally would be. Also works great with all the recursion and Doubling Season.
Combustible Gearhulk High - I really don't like giving opponents a choice, but the curve in this deck is relatively high and this can be recurred.
Rhonas the Indomitable Medium - Would be super easy to get on line in this deck and trample is very relevant with some of the big boys like Malignus, Lord of Extinction, and Kresh. I also really like the indestructible deathtouch (of course).
Dragonmaster Outcast High – The drawback of a 1/1 body or needing six lands isn’t nearly as relevant in commander as there aren’t many people doing small amounts of damage instead of just using cards that destroy targets and you are practically guaranteed to hit that six lands in every game. For a 1 mana investment the outcast makes a 5/5 dragon token every turn, which is just bonkers. It's best to hold him in hand until you have the six lands he needs to start producing and not to drop early just because there's mana open. He's one of our only three one mana targets to get with Birthing Pod after sacrificing a token.
Protean Hulk High - The hulk provides a beefy body and a good sacrifice target, which are two of the most important things in this deck. The initial cost of 7 is a bit steep, but will pay for itself and then some if we can hit him with something like Eldritch Evolution, Birthing Pod, Disciple of Bolas, and the like.
Grave Titan High - The mere act of casting this titan nets us 10 power for only 6 CMC and the value just keeps going from there. On top of all the tokens he makes he's a 6/6 body with deathtouch and all around problem for our opponents. He's a 10 on the power level charts.
Non-Creature Permanents
Bitterblossom Medium - A good card early and not terrible to get late game either as there are plenty of uses for the flying tokens, whether for blocking, sacrificing, or pumping and swinging. I think you need a deck more all-in on tokens to run this.
Splinter Twin Medium – Not quite as versatile as Mimic Vat, but with only a one-time cost it is still good. Had this in the deck at one time but felt it was a little too vulnerable to a two for one and didn’t have any infinite combos for it, which is where it really shines.
Nim Deathmantle Medium – Benefits from both creatures that have ETB effects and "when it dies" effects, plus gives +2 +2 and intimidate. Overall, worked ok with the deck when I used it, but the 4 equip cost is a bit steep, especially when a creature gets killed unexpectedly. I often didn’t have the mana open to use it.
Asceticism Medium – I ran this for a while as well. It can be good but it’s another card that does nothing on its own.
Minion Reflector/Flameshadow Conjuring Low – I've played with both of these quite a bit. Best case scenario they are very good, but also vulnerable to a ton of removal and requires you to have good ETB creatures in hand to be truly worthwhile. In other words they're just too conditional. I'm still not sure which is better. Minion Reflector costs more and is an easier to destroy card type, but also sacrifices the tokens at end of turn instead of exiling.
Dictate of Erebos/Grave Pact Medium - Some more cards that are very strong in the right circumstances, but also can be terrible to topdeck when you are behind and looking for an answer. You can only run so many of these type of cards before you risk not having good enough proactive options. This version of Kresh isn't tuned enough around sacrificing often too make these worth it.
Mana Rocks Medium – As I mentioned before I chose to go with creatures for ramp effects just for the synergy with the rest of the deck including sacrifice effects and counters for Kresh. You really can’t go wrong with Sol Ring and the like though.
Rogue's Passage High - A very strong land for getting Kresh through for that lethal damage. The deck is so color intensive I'm hesitant to add another colorless mana source though. It is a card I'm considering though.
Death's Presence Medium - Sort of turns every creature you control into Kresh. This is an intriguing card. I don't like the high mana cost and how reliant it is on having multiple creatures in play, but I'm still intrigued quite a bit by it. It seems pretty hit or miss, but I may try it some time.
Evolutionary Leap Medium - Can use it as a reactionary sacrifice outlet when a creature is going to die anyway, or to sacrifice a token to get one of the random powerful creatures in the deck.
Strionic Resonator Medium - We can use the resonator to copy the number of +1/+1 counters Kresh gets from any creature going to the graveyard, but we'll actually use it more often to copy an ETB effect or to copy some of the other triggered abilities the deck runs like Sheoldred, Whispering One's sacrifice effect or Nacatl War-Pride's attack ability. The power of this card is directly related the power of cards we have in play. Lucky for us we have powerful cards and effects in spades. As with most of the cards we are running that have their value dependent on other cards in the deck the mana cost is low so we can quickly get a suitable return for our investment and then some.
Garruk, Apex Predator High - This version of Garruk is one of the most powerful planeswalkers in the game. He destroys other planeswalkers for +1 loyalty, which can be very relevant with Nicol Bolas, Planeswalkers and Karn Liberateds running around. He makes deathtouch tokens. He can kill creatures and gain life equal to their toughness. His ultimate isn't completely unreasonable to get to if we're ahead enough that we don't need to destroy any creatuures or have Doubling Season out and will ruin someone's day. He's a house.
Badlands/Taiga/Bayou High - Of course you should be running these if you have them.
Mana Crypt High - Sol Ring except it costs 0. So good and the 3 life is not as big of a deal when you start with 40.
Rite of the Raging Storm Medium - This is intriguing for Kresh. The tokens can't attack you. With Kresh in play and a four player game, Kresh would be 18/18 at least by the time it comes back around to your turn. I think in a more voltron focused Kresh deck this would be an include.
Blade of Selves High - I never bought into all the hype with this one. A lot of different things need to line up for you to get those best case scenarios everyone is drooling over. That said, this would be the deck to run it in. There are a ton of ETB creatures so you will have a lot of targets for it.
Command Beacon High - Allows you to throw Kresh out there early a little more comfortably and still have hope of getting him back in the game late when his mana cost gets too high.
Whispersilk Cloak High - This fits exactly what we need for Kresh as it provides him with both protection and the best evasion a creature can have in unblockability. Just like Lightning Greaves the cloak grants shroud so any creature equipped can't be targeted by our own spells or abilities. Top-decking or tutoring for this can often end a stalled out game by letting one of our big creatures in for the kill.
Darksteel Plate Medium - This protects Kresh or his minions from board wipes, one of the most common and hard to get around forms of removal in commander, and most other targeted removal as well. The plate itself is also indestructible and can potentially be very hard for opponents to get around if they aren't prepared for it. I actually find this is ofter harder for opponents to deal with than shroud.
Eldrazi Monument High - Gives indestructibility to the team, a +1/+1 boost that can be very relevant when we have a bunch of tokens on the board, evasion through flying, and provides us with a sacrifice outlet. The power level of this card is off the charts. Usually, we want to hold onto this until we establish a dominant board position and then play it as that last bit of protection we need to maintain that dominance and finish the game.
Aid From the Cowl High - With only 15 non-permanents in the deck, this will hit more often than not and with the number of sacrifice options it shouldn't be hard to trigger it every turn. There's maybe a bit too much randomness and potential low impact for my liking, especially with the amount of precision this deck needs when choosing lines of play. I'd like to have more ways to set up the top of my library if I was going to use it(really just have Sylvan Library right now).
Doubling Season High – Doubles the +1/+1 counters on creatures, which is right in line with our voltron strategy for Kresh. It also doubles any tokens we generate, which is absolutely huge for the deck, and works on planeswalkers as well, allowing us to instantly ultimate any version of Garruk as soon as he comes into play.
Spells
Fling/Soul's Fire/Essence Harvest High - With the number of big creatures being run, these can potentially just one shot kill someone. They are very conditional though and technically card disadvantage. This may not matter in the right scenario, but they can also be a dead card when you aren't already ahead.
Chord of Calling High – Not nearly as versatile as Green Sun’s Zenith. I ran this for a while but found it to be pretty limited in that you can’t use it early when you really need to find a creature for ramp and often don’t have any creatures on the board to use towards convoke when you are in desperate need. It is still capable of grabbing whatever creature you need at the moment and at instant speed to boot.
Living Death High - Another solid piece of graveyard recursion. I chose to exclude this as it would kill Kresh if he was in play. I'd rather keep what I have in the field when recurring my graveyard.
Black Sun's Zenith Medium - A board wipe that can potentially leave Kresh alive. This can be very effective for Kresh in the right scenario and is also able to kill those annoying indestructible creatures.
Damnation High - It's hard to go wrong with this one. I'm not including it for budget reason and I want Kresh to stay on the battlefield when I wipe the board so I can capitalize with a kill.
Vampiric Tutor High - A one mana tutor at instant speed, this is up for debate as the best tutor in magic. The two life is hardly a downside at all. Having to put the card on top of your library makes it actually card disadvantage, which is the only issue, but getting the card you need at the time makes it worth it.
Worldly Tutor High - Yep, another tutor option and there are plenty of good targets for it. I'd rather run this over Chord of Calling as it can get a ramp creature early.
Chaos Warp High - 3 mana instant speed removal that can be used on any permanent, but it can backfire, which means you need to hold it for when it's really really needed.
Rise of the Dark Realms High - Rise of the Dark Realms doesn't need much explanation. The cost is high, but pulling every dead creature into play on our side will usually result in a win if not countered or responded to with a board wipe immediately.
Plague Wind/In Garruk's Wake High – In Garruk's Wake is essentially a reprint of Plague Wind, except it hits planeswalkers instead of stopping regeneration and they are both pretty straightforward. A one-sided board wipe is very strong. If we manage to cast either of these with Kresh in play it is almost a guaranteed kill from commander damage as he will hit 21 power from creatures dying very quickly. Even without Kresh, wiping the opponent’s board will usually make finishing them off short work.
Traverse the Ulvenwald Medium - Provides cheap mana fixing early and can get any creature in the deck for extremely cheap once we reach morbid status. This can be disrupted by graveyard hate, but overall is worth it for the ability smooth out the early game and the potential for serious value later.
At least you have the luxury of being able to incorporate plan Bs. Also you get to run black. I simply need to make plan A as good and resilient as possible.
I'm judging from your meta that you don't face as many artifacts and enchantments that must die on sight?
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
I have looked at your Xenagod deck and it looks explosive.
I do play in a creature heavy meta, but there are without a doubt artifacts and especially enchantments that need to be destroyed. Plan A is to hope someone else takes care of them :), but there are 5 cards in the deck that can take out artifacts and enchantments and quite a few tutors to grab them if needed.
I will add it to the card options. 1 mana for +12/+12 is pretty insane and could lead to a very quick kill. My only concern is that it only works with Kresh in play so could be a dead card quite often, especially when Kresh is getting hated out or your on your back heels trying to stave off someone.
Evolutionary Leap lets you sacrifice etb guys for more etb guys and fatties. Whereas Survivial is discard/tutor
Not sure I'm running enough 3 power creatures to make Elemental Bond worth it. It could definitely get crazy with Nacatl War-Pride. Evolutionary Leap was actually sitting in my shopping cart and I may give it a shot. The cost is cheap for what it does, especially with tokens.
Edit: Forgot Mimic Vat as well as Kresh.
No Sylvan Library or Bloom Tender? I know they're expensive but they deserve a spot just as Survival of the Fittest does. I know you've already mentioned not including it for budget reasons but what about the other 2? Vampiric Tutor seems to be missing as well. If you had a section of cards you are missing that you would play if you had them that would be great!! Love the deck man.
Thanks man. You totally called me out Sylvan Library I initially left out for budget reasons but it is definitely in my price range, it just kind of fell off my radar. I will add it. Bloom Tender I have a playset of but intentionally left it out because it doesn't synergize with any of the sacrifice stuff. I do run it in my 5 color deck and it is amazing there. Vampiric tutor... that $30 dolor price tag is a bit rough for me for what it does (puts on top of your library). If I owned one I would probably be running it though. I was totally going to do wish list for cards that were outside my budget, but realized there weren't that many cards. You talked me into it, will make it a project this weekend.
Played a game recently against newer Borybigmos, Gisela and Kami of the Crescent Moon.
Had Kresh in play with lightning greaves. Dropped a Phyrexian Dreadnought and let it die for 15/15 Kresh. Then hit Blasphemous Act to wipe the rest of the board including my own dorks. Kresh was lethal and killed the Gisela player [tons of wraths].
Dropped a disciple of bolas and drew 30+.
Rest conceded
Ooh that's brutal. Have you posted your deck list anywhere?
Gimme a bit and I'll have it up.
Sylvan Library is as good as advertised. I played a 1v1 game where I was able to play it on turn 2. On turn 3 I was able to trade two high costed cards I wouldn’t be playing for two new cards and shuffled them off the top of my library by Green Sun's Zenithing for Sakura-Tribe Elder. Turn 4 I paid the 8 life for 2 cards and played Kresh and essentially had a 4 card advantage over him at that point. He responded with a big creature, which I killed with an evoked Spitebellows, giving Kresh a two shot clock and it was over.
Bloodfire Colossus needs to go. I can barely remember the last time I used it to any effect. The synergy with Kresh is there, but it is just too situational/hard to make use of. I think I need to give Malignus a shot as sort of a second version of the Lord of Extinction, but more relevant early and deadly when combo’d with Xenagos, God of Revels.
My playgroup is starting to fear Kresh. They take notice and point out when he is on the table at the start of the game and there is a general consensus that he need to be killed immediately whenever he’s played. I played a 5 player star game where my 3 opponents were pretty concerned with keeping me down while the guy next to me was given free rein. I may need to be a bit more conservative before throwing him on to the table going forward.
Primer Status Achieved
Deck Changes
Other Commander Options added
Card Options rework
Added Real Game Example from last weekend
In the works:
Other Ways to Build Kresh
What do you think about the tutor-Seasons Past combo? I have a Kresh deck focused on reanimation and recursion and I'm currently working on how to make it better (I'll come back with a list later).
Regards!
I actually just played a game last night where an opponent followed up a late game board wipe with seasons past and got a card in each cost from 0-7. That was basically game over. It's definitely a strong card and works great with the birthing pod even mana cost disbursement plan. Certain circumstances need to be met, but when you consider the number of cards you can be basically tutoring for 5 mana the value can be huge.
Post your list for sure when it's ready. I'd love to see it.
Here's a rough list:
1 Kresh the Bloodbraided
38 Lands
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodfell Caves
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cinder Glade
1 Command Tower
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Foreboding Ruins
4 Forest
1 Game Trail
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Grim Backwoods
1 High Market
1 Holdout Settlement
1 Jungle Hollow
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Rugged Highlands
1 Savage Lands
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Stomping Ground
4 Swamp
1 Tainted Wood
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Anger
1 Bloodfire Colossus
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
1 Bone Shredder
1 Burnished Hart
1 Corpse Augur
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Dawntreader Elk
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Eater of Hope
1 Eternal Witness
1 Grave Titan
1 Hamletback Goliath
1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 Korozda Guildmage
1 Lotleth Troll
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
1 Mycoloth
1 Nantuko Husk
1 Nekrataal
1 Rakdos, Lord of Riot
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
1 Scourge of Nel Toth
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
1 Viridian Emissary
1 Wood Elves
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Altar's Reap
1 Fling
1 Putrefy
1 Rescue from the Underworld
1 Terminate
1 Wretched Confluence
4 Enchantment
1 Animate Dead
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Grave Pact
1 Phyrexian Arena
12 Sorcery
1 Barter in Blood
1 Ever After
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 In Garruk's Wake
1 Jarad's Orders
1 Life's Legacy
1 Living Death
1 Primal Growth
1 Reanimate
1 Torrent of Souls
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Victimize
6 Artifact
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Whispersilk Cloak
I didn't have much time to test it or search for better options for specific cards. My LGS is mainly focused on Standard, Modern and Limited so I'm taking my time to find all the cards I need. For sure I want to fit in Dark Petition, Seasons Past, Sheoldred, whispering one, Chandra's Ignition...(I don't own Sheoldred and Ignition at the moment).
I want it to be a really fun deck to pilot. Kresh and Meren are some of my favourite cards and I centered all the action around sacrifice and recursion.
Any suggestions would be highly apreciated!
Cheers!
I really like the cards you want to add except for Dark Petition. I realize you are planning on having a lot of stuff in your graveyard, but best case scenario it is a 2 mana tutor and Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Diabolic Intent all cost that or less already if they're in your budget (not the cheapest cards out there).
Deadbridge Chant fits exactly what you are trying to do, may be a card you want to add. Helm of Possession may also be cool if you have sacrifice outlets out.
I think in practice you are going to find you rarely have a good reason to use Bloodthrone Vampire or Nantuko Husk to sacrifice something. You don't have enough creatures to make the +2/+2 get scary and if you are just looking for sacrifice outlets there a ton of better options. Shattergang Brothers, Birthing Pod, Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Shivan Harvest, Attrition to name a few good ones.
Awakening Zone and From Beyond are really good, a lot better than you'd think and may be more in theme/synergistic than something like Mina and Denn, Wildborn, which is also there for ramp. You have so much stuff that wants to sacrifice creatures and they give you sacrifice targets turn after turn. Dragon Broodmother and Creakwood Liege are a couple other cards that come to mind that do the same thing and are both pretty cheap.
Dictate of Erebos and Butcher of Malakir can double down on your Gravepact effect. Entomb is expensive, but something you'd want to have if in your budget.
On more of a big picture look, you have 8 or so cards that cheat a creature straight from your graveyard to play, but not too many really strong targets that are going to get the best bang for your buck. Will probably take some play testing to really determine, but you may be short on threats. Maybe Thromok the Insatiable??? Terastodon, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, and Rune-Scarred Demon may be some options.
Unfortunately, in my area, we have a big issue in finding older cards like Demonic Tutor...Dark Petition is basically the closest I can get to Demonic tutor, considering that in the first 3-4 turns, I use ramp and draw and after that I start tutoring stuff.
I have a Deadbridge Chant and thought about it...I think I'll give it a try and see how it works.
Mina and Denn, Wildborn is there for ramp but also for the trample enabler. After playing a few times, I found out that it's possible to kill an opponent in the same turn you play Kresh, if you manage to give Kresh some sort of evasion and haste (that and the fact I have a foil Mina and Denn that looks fantastic:)))) ).
I used to play Butcher of Malakir but it felt too much...and i replaced it with Eater of hope...maybe I can cut something to give it another chance.
What do you think I should cut for Terastodon?
I'm curently searching for Vorniclex and Rune-scared and will be adding them as soon as I can.
Also, what planeswalkers could work, besides Garruk incarnations. Maybe some Chandra? Liliana?
Thanks again!
Cheers!:D
I don't think Butcher is a must play card by any means but I do think it's better than Eater. When you play are you finding you have enough sacrifice targets? I would be worried you don't have enough.
Rakdos could probably go. He can be recurred but there are times you'll want to hard cast him and don't have sure fire ways to get damage through.
Finding sacrifice targets could be problematic sometimes but I don't know what to cut to fit in more creatures...I'm thinking about adding token generators like Master of the wild hund and Avanger of zendikar. Also, I would like to test Hoarding Dragon as an sac creature and artifact tutor.