MTG Salvation

Quote from migrena »

I would start by looking at EDHrec data for Kestia: https://edhrec.com/commanders/kestia-the-cultivator

You can generate a lot of card advantage with Kestia but you need to be able to protect her and your other creatures (some kind of evasion also counts as it allows them to attack and not die to blocks).
Stuff that you should look into:
- generating mana from attackers to play drawn cards immediately - Bear Umbra, Nature's Will, Sword of Feast and Famine, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician,
- protecting your attackers and enchantments / recursion - umbras, enchantments that return from graveyard when destroyed like Rancor and Angelic Destiny, Sterling Grove, Privileged Position, Greater Auramancy, Replenish, Open the Vaults, Crystal Chimes, Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Teferi's Protection,
- evasion - Archetype of Imagination, Champion of Lambholt, Keeper of Keys, Open into Wonder, Venser, the Sojourner,
- obvious enchantress stuff - cost reducers and draw from playing enchantments.

A bit different direction can be generating a lot of small tokens and generating value with Enchanted Evening. If you will be sure that your creatures will be small you can use Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive to make sure they will go through and double on draw with Edric, Spymaster of Trest. But this strategy hinges a lot on a few irreplaceable pieces so it will be harder to pull off.

Personally I always like to include as plan B some compact combo which pieces overlap with the rest of the deck, in that case this could be for example Sun Titan + Angelic Renewal + Altar of Dementia / Blasting Station. Sun Titan and Angelic Renewal provide recursion and protection on their own. Altar of Dementia and Blasting Station provide protection against Control Magic effects and when combined they give you win on the spot in most circumstances (note that if you will go really heavy on recursion you can mill yourself with Altar for more value). Bant colors provide multiple possibilities of recurring those pieces so you don't need to hesitate using them for value early game and still have possibility of going off later.