MTG Salvation

Edit: Thanks to Kedvesem for talking me out of buying the precon. I actually sat down and slammed out a first draft for the deck and could use some help tooling it up. The general idea behind it is to play low powered creatures with big ETB effects or effects that trigger when they deal combat damage, then throw them to the wolves so they can get recurred with Alesha. I think it might need some more 'oomph' to it in some way, like anthem effects and such but I'm not sure how/if I should work those in.

Heavenly Inferno is actually not a good base for Alesha, and it is one of the more expensive pre-cons to get. I would say this, "buy a pre-con to start" advice really only works with a new and therefore cheap pre-con. Also, Alesha is very particular about her creatures, and Heavenly Inferno does not really have the same game plan.

Yeah looking into it, I agree. Plus after looking at the price it's insane. I'll be building this one from scratch, much to my dismay ha ha.

If you can, grab a Corpse Connoisseur . Puts what you need in the Grave for Alesha to go grab. Twice. Nice budget entomb option. Dolmen's Gate and Iroas, God of Victory keeps Alesha alive and kicking with her fragile body. Really useful. I'd add a few more equipment as well to aid in that. Sword of the Animist is a good idea, but try and also find room for Darksteel Plate, Sword of Vengeance and Haunted Cloak. None are all that impressive compared to the swords or what have you, but all provide great boosts and abilities for Alesha and help her deal some more damage and stick around a bit more. If you can afford them, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Buried Alive and Entomb will make the deck's reanimation engine purr like a kitten. If you're going for a little more long game in mind, try throwing in a few extra combat step effects to really get milage out of Alesha. Cathars' Crusade starts to add up as well in a really fun way if you keep Alesha out. Goblin Bombardment and Altar of Dementia help things out on the field find there way to the yard as well.

Most of all, enjoy Alesha. She is really fun and can lead to a lot of fun games provided you don't just go for the Master of cruelties kill each game. You can, but she's a toolbox deck. Have a little fun and variance. Hope you enjoy her as much as I have.

Those are some really awesome suggestions, and actually inspired me to try and shove in a few other cards I remembered existed. Only problem is, I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what can be cut. I did realize I have a bit too much land considering how many mana rocks I've also got, but past that I'm stumped. I went ahead and added Swiftfoot Boots and Nahiri, The Lithomancer as well.

I found the 3 signets, sol ring and a 5th rock of your choice worked fine for me. Here's how I built her last year. Had a few updates, but still really fun. 37 lands tended to play consistently. Wasn't wanting for land or mana often.

http://www.gatheringmagic.com/cmdrdecks-061615-alesha-who-smiles-at-death/

Quote from a7xjoker33 »

I found the 3 signets, sol ring and a 5th rock of your choice worked fine for me. Here's how I built her last year. Had a few updates, but still really fun. 37 lands tended to play consistently. Wasn't wanting for land or mana often.

http://www.gatheringmagic.com/cmdrdecks-061615-alesha-who-smiles-at-death/

Oh, awesome list! I updated my list and stole a few cards from yours. Namely Ambuscade Shaman and Murderous Redcap

Glad it helped. Anafenza goes infinite with a persistent Redcap, FYI.

this might seem weird, but don't you run wheel effects?

man, if only magus of the wheel was 2power..

I know most people enjoy focusing on the graveyard antics that Alesha, Who Smiles at Death can offer, but a 3cmc 3/2 first strike body is very potent when considering a voltron general.

Her mana-cost means she can come out incredibly fast.

The first-strike means she will take down most early creatures, and when paired with equipment she scales well. Past the obvious swords of x+y + jitte + batterskull, there is inquisitor's flail that works wonders with first-strike creatures, loxodon warhammer / sword of vengeance / o-naginata and tenza, godo's maul to help trample over, and champion's helm to give a great protective boost.

Her colors open you up to all the tutors you could ever need (from vampiric tutor/demonic tutor to open the armory +steelshaper's gift to godo, bandit warlord+stonehewer giant+stoneforge mystic, as well as fairly scary compliment of early creatures from prophetic flamespeaker to hypnotic specter to mirran crusader, and the most cost efficient spot-removal for issues in path to exile/swords to plowshares, dismember, and lightning bolt.



Just a thought. You don't want to lock yourself on to one specific path for constructing a deck just because it is the most commonly seen.

If you play against 3+ opponents although then you may want to stick to the slower reanimator grind.

Most Alesha decks use a lot of "ETB with N +1/+1 counters" cards and things that can be sacrificed or have good ETB triggers, in my experience.

Reconnaissance is a stupidly broken enchantment that belongs in any creature based white deck, due to a number of rules changes since the card was printed, you are able to activate the ability during the end of combat step, which occurs after damage has been dealt, giving all of your stuff psuedo-vigiliance that also protects them from a lot of combat tricks and bad blocks.

Panharmonicon is also good with a lot of etb triggers that tend to be favored due to the low power of the actual creatures in the deck.

Mindless Automaton is both draw and discard that can get rid of itself as well as be brought back by Alesha.

Mistveil Plains and Sunforger make an awesome interaction that allows you to constantly reuse your R or W instants, and Sunforger can even use Tithe to find the other half.

Thanks for the suggestions all! I'm definitely going to be trying to fit some wheel/discard effects in there. Mindless Automaton is definitely going in for sure. I was thinking about Reconnaissance anyway, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. At the very least it's a good way to safely use her mechanics when there's big scary things on the field. I also really like Champion's Helm, but I don't want to make her a Voltron commander. It's just not a playstyle that's ever been for me, but I am a big fan of making her harder to kill. I'm also going to try to refrain from a ton of tutors, at least for now. This is definitely a much more casual deck. I have two decks that are performing pretty well in my group of friends, I wouldn't mind having one that's at least a little weaker.

That said, I do have a specific problem. It absolutely, positively cannot beat my girlfriend's Olivia, Mobilized for War Vampire tribal/madness deck. It's faster than mine, and a good 2/3 of her creatures are flyers so I can't even defend properly against it, so I need flyers, or better spot removal. Over the weekend I did add a bunch of Fiend Hunter esque cards to try to help, but it hasn't been enough so far. I was thinking of adding Aerial Responder as a decent flying defender that can be recurred and slow down her rushdown just a tad. I'm also going to be picking up Angel of Invention at some point.

I like Crypt Champion, Driver of the Dead, Aligned Hedron Network, Austere Command, Raid Bombardment, etc. with Alesha. Those kinds of cards break parity really well against most decks in EDH.

Something to consider if you can't beat the flyers is to run more sweepers so you don't over tax your spot removal. Besides, you have recursion in the deck so getting back your dead things should be easier. Otherwise you could try running cards that prevent flyers from blocking so you could punish her for that.

Could look into Rally the Ancestors (if you have a reliable sac outlet, Impact Tremors, and/or Blood Artist), Return to the Ranks, and Immortal Servitude as well.

Alesha also works pretty well with small creatures that make tokens, and this is a very good color set for a token deck. Here are some of my favorite (spoiled, in case the list is longer than I expect.


A good sac outlet for the creatures above, and a good way to value off the tokens, and you're in good shape.

I also really like multiple combat steps with Alesha (Aurelia, the Warleader; Aggravated Assault; Waves of Aggression; etc.) - just more and more value.

And, while you're attacking with her multiple times, it's fun to use that trigger (Anthem of Rakdos, Cathedral of War, Fervent Charge) to make her bigger and bigger each time she swings.