This is my take at a
Krond the Dawn-Clad
commander deck. The deck focuses on pumping a creature to a lethal range through aura spells and winning through combat damage.To start out, I'd like to say that this deck is not usually incredibly fast or interactive with opposing players, so you should not play this deck if you want to combo off quickly or respond to other players actions outside of your own turns. Also, do not play this deck if your meta contains a ton of Bane of Progress unless you like a good beating.
Krond, as one of the most obvious enchantment based commanders, easily makes one of the best voltron based commanders that include green. He fills this role alongside
Uril, the Miststalker
. His role as an enchantment-focused commander also puts him in competition with Bruna, Light of Alabaster and Zur the Enchanter which each give access to blue and have much greater combo potential. Where Krond exceeds is in the form of the enchantress cards, allowing you to gain huge value in green and white where other decks in those colors may fail, in the form of ramp, and in the form of the many sweet multicolored spells including green. He also appears less threatening players in many playgroups, as his triggered ability not going to win you the game along like Bruna's and Zur's can. Krond's other color-shared competitor, Uril allows you to pick up some interesting red enchantments like
Crown of Flames
and
Winter's Night
, but it is already hard to make cuts to cards in this deck, and finding room for another 8 to 10 red cards would be a huge pain. It is possible to run nearly the same list with some red duals splashed in to cast Uril however, making that another feasible and equally powerful option.Despite these other great options, I think Krond's unique ability and limiting colors make him fun to play and a decent competitor for commander games. And besides, he definitely makes a better lord than a some freaky floating guy, a trumpet girl and a yeti.
The Cards: Note that some of these cards easily have places in multiple categories, but for the purpose of this guide I'm only mentioning them once. Not every card in the deck is going to be described, but many of the major players are. Most of the non-mentioned cards are redundant effects, provide utility that doesn't fit any specific category or just plain got left out.
Courtly Ladies: These ladies are vital to the deck, as they allow you to quickly churn out tons of value.
Argothian Enchantress- The cheapest to play and most expensive to buy of the enchantresses. The lower colored mana requirement makes her a must have.
Mesa Enchantress/Verduran Enchantress- These two ladies are functionally the same and act as easier to remove and marginally more difficult to cast versions of the Argothian girl. They can also act as enchantment boosted powerhouses whenever other, more suitable targets are unavailable.
Enchantress's Presence- Where this card loses out versus Argothian Enchantress due to additional mana cost, it makes up for it due to being an enchantment! This means that it acts as additional power for many your cards, making lethal easier to obtain.
Kor Spiritdancer
- One of the MVPs of the entire deck, she is an absolute bruiser. You lose some benefit by only drawing cards from aura casts, but it is easily more than made up for by giving an extra +2/+2 per aura attached to her. This makes her easily the best target to make into an over-enchanted player slayer except perhaps Krond himself.
Eidolon of Blossoms- The most expensive of the enchantresses and not easily distinguishable as a lady, it proves itself as the odd one out of the set. Rather than granting cards on enchantment cast, it gives one per enchantment entry due to its constellation ability and even replaces itself in your hand. This is initially not as great as its effect is vulnerable to counters, but with
Flickerform
, this creature can be the best card for grinding out card value in the entire deck provided you can leave the four mana up to fuel it.
Banking in the Court: While the Courtly Ladies usually rake in most of the Court's funds, they get a little bit of extra help from these cards.
Mirri's Guile- This card is basically Sensei's Divining Top free each turn, but without the ability to draw or do it multiple times. The added enchantment synergy makes this a must have.
Harmonize- In Green and White, pure card value is at a premium and this card certainly gets the job done.
Sylvan Library- Another enchantment that can get you hefty card value and acts similar to Mirri's Guile, allowing you to dig deeper if needed.
The Castle Tailors: To ensure your victory over the non-enchanted peasants, use these cards to make sure your troops are amply clothed.
Heliod's Pilgrim- This card is the most simple of the tutor cards in the deck and is quite comparable to Trinket Mage in utility. This is quite enough however, as it allows you to procure either a nice aura for to suit up your creatures or some ugly garb like Darksteel Mutation that you can force your rude guests to don.
Enlightened Tutor- The only instant spell in the deck and an essential tutor. It can grab any type of enchantment and put it on top of your deck, easily enabling comboing or allowing you to find removal and other answers.
Idyllic Tutor- A basic tutor of any enchantment to hand, it acts as a strong reactionary card.Plea for Guidance/Three Dreams- These are both large mana sinks that give huge returns. Three Dreams gives more card value but only grabs auras and Plea for Guidance has greater versatility but gives you one less card to suit up your creatures or board state.
Boonweaver Giant/
Auratouched Mage
- These creatures arrive at court fully dressed in whatever the most popular attire of the day is, making them easily worth the investment (especially if they come toting the tentacle-coated Eldrazi Conscription).
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
- Ajani mentors your Court staff and turns them into heroes the best way possible, by decking them out in sweet clothes! He also recruits additional creatures if auras aren't available or can give 3 additional power to secure lethal. His ultimate is fairly irrelevant in my meta due to either him dying before it is popped, players winning through commander damage or through combo, but it could can be pretty sweet.
Honorable Mentions:
Totem-Guide Hartebeest
- This card functions exactly as Heliod's Pilgrim does but costs more mana for some not so useful toughness.
Academy Rector- This card is extremely powerful in a deck like this, and I would likely make a slot for it if I owned one. The only difficulty surrounding it is getting the poor cleric killed, which some players may not let happen.
Arms to Secure Victory: Now that your tailors and ladies have filled the coffers with resources, choose the best weapons and armor you can to take the win!
Ethereal Armor- This card is an absolute powerhouse. It regularly gives a huge boost to the enchanted creature and costs a single white, making it a premium choice of aura.
Rancor- The other best one drop creature-aura, this card repeatedly comes back to threaten the enemy or provide draw.
Eldrazi Conscription- Like bringing a fully armed aircraft carrier to a fist fight, this is sure to make people turn tail and run. This is best used with Boonweaver and Auratouched, but feel free to hard cast it if you can swing with the enchanted creature the same turn.
Bear Umbra and other umbras- Some of the best armor mana can buy! Hyena and Spider umbra are cheap auras that offer protection and Bear Umbra is a way to accumulate huge value during your second main phase.
Sage's Reverie- It is almost like the courtly ladies personally designed this aura... While it may not always be the most effective, it can regularly give a decent P/T boost as well as drawing you a few cards.
Armadillo Cloak/Unflinching Courage- These act as more reliable forms of lifegain than Ajani and in (sometimes) less absurd amounts as well as giving you further slaying potential through trample.
Battle Mastery/Daybreak Coronet- While not similar, these are two of the biggest value you can stack onto one creature in an individual card for their costs. Battle Mastery regularly ends games due to the huge amount of extra reach provided from it and the Coronet just gives a crap ton of stats and abilities.
Flickerform
- This enchantment is fantastic. While it does noting on its own, the ability it provides is a way to protect your voltron'd creature from board wipe as well as protecting its clothing from that nasty Bane of Progress. It also makes huge amounts of value with Eidolon of Blossoms.
Honorable Mentions:
Angelic Destiny- This card is really good, but I've tried to minimize auras that cost more than three in the deck unless can give tons of synergy. The stats on this card are really good, so it is still a viable choice.
Ancestral Mask- This gives any creature a double ethereal armor effect. It is extremely powerful under the right conditions, but it often tends to be overkill. In my meta lifegain is not a huge concern so the additional damage could easily be wasted.
Guys with Bestow- Bestow can be a cool mechanic, allowing you to double up on auras and creatures, but most of the aura sides are heavily overpriced and the creature sides are generally not very powerful either. This is not to say that all of them are bad, but that they would be better placed in a very slow paced or removal heavy meta.
Fuel to Rule: Every kingdom needs resources to maintain control. Krond does this through a suite of synergistic and clunky cards.
Birds of Paradise- While this card is not an enchantment, it is an extremely common ramp card in any green deck. In this deck it also serves as a pretty solid target for mass aura stacking because it already features flying.Wild Growth- This card is an easy choice, it ramps you, counts as an enchantment cast for your enchantresses, and as an enchantment in play for your huge pump auras. The only issue is that it only adds G.
Fertile Ground Similar to Wild Growth, this aura adds one mana to a tapping land, but where the growth only adds G, Fertile Ground can add any color but makes up for this utility by costing an extra colorless. In many cases this is irrelevant due to cost reduction.
Overgrowth- A double Wild Growth, what's not to love?
Dawn's Reflection/Market Festival- These two cards function similarly to Kodama's Reach or other ramp effects in other green decks by providing you with two mana. In this case, you pay an extra colorless in exchange for additional aura and enchantment based synergy.
Mirari's Wake- Easily one of the best G/W enchantments, this card is an easy add in due to the mana doubler. The +1/+1 is just an added bonus.
Honorable Mentions:
Carpet of Flowers- To be honest, I should be running this card but do not own a copy. It is extremely effective in any meta which contains a fair amount of blue players, especially if you face one or more per game.
Sol Ring- Pyrology, you must be crazy, no Sol Ring? Normally, I would agree with you. Sol Ring is one of the most busted non-banned cards in commander, allowing for absolutely busted early ramp. I ran it for a long time but finally removed it after noticing these things in my current list: It does not accelerate the casting of my commander and it has no synergy with the deck.
Frontier Siege
- I have never tested with this card, but when set in Khans mode, it seems like it could be a powerful contender with Reflection and Festival by providing two more mana per turn.Other ramp spells and mana dorks- You can easily run other acceleration artifacts, ramp spells, or mana dorks if you want extra ramp or lack the enchantments present. I would tend to side with mana dorks above the other two because having additional aura targets is great. This also makes you more vulnerable to removal however, so if your meta features heavy board wipes mana rocks are likely better.
Interrupting the Enemy Forces: Sometimes you need to stomp out those nasty insurgents, not that there's anything wrong with your rule though! There is no way better to do this than good old fashioned enchantment removal and defense. Sadly much of our removal does not last forever.
Darksteel Mutation- These clothes are great for humiliating rude court guests like Krenko, Mob Boss or Blightsteel Colossus. It is easily tutorable, cheap to cast, and can be recurred by all of the recursion spells available.
Song of the Dryads- Similar to the mutation, it can also act as a can of spraypaint to deface your opponents possessions if creatures are not your biggest issue.
Oblivion Ring/Binding Light/Quarantine Field/Journey to Nowhere/Stasis Snare- Send your foes to the dungeons or confiscate their favored things! These are all quite similar non-aura enchantment based removal. All of them hit non-lands except for Journey, which hits solely creatures. In your meta, Journey may be no better than the others, but mine features multiple Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper decks so being able to hit lands is a sweet option. Stasis Snare also only hits creatures, but acts as one of the TWO spells in the deck castable during opponents' turns.
Aura Shards- It counts as an enchantment and gives a sweet trigger whenever a creature enters. This would only be better if the deck was more creature heavy.
Divine Reckoning/
Winds of Rath
- These are the court's best ways of crushing opposing armies. As the deck's only board wipes, they function as to make the best of the deck's voltron win condition by either leaving each player with a creature or getting rid of almost everything that isn't suited up with an aura. Divine reckoning may seem a little risky, but usually after it goes off you are left with a large creature, or better yet a Krond ready to swing and exile the other biggest threat!
Honorable Mentions:
Tragic Arrogance- This card acts like Divine Reckoning but for all nonland permanents and you get to choose the things that stay. This is pretty good but unlike Reckoning is not very good unless you are in a very poor position because it wipes out most of our own ramp and can disrupt a large aura stack.
Swords to Plowshares and other instants- If you wish to have more interactive gameplay, these are very viable options. I would just rather maximize my enchantment synergy as best possible.
Protecting the Throne: These cards will back you up and provide the utility needed to take control of the game.
Sphere of Safety- This card is fairly slow to ramp up and goes against the main theme of the deck, making a huge creature to stomp the opposition. I feel that the insane effect that it has makes up for this easily though. Taxing enemies to attack you makes this card either a serious removal target, protecting your other important cards, or completely halts attacks from hoards of creatures. Players will often waste an entire turn just to swing one or two creatures at you, well worth the value.
Privileged Position/Sterling Grove- These cards protect your enchantments from targeted removal which opponents have a tendency to throw our way once they realize what's up. The Grove is also a tutor if you are in dire need be or you are comboing with Starfield each turn for stacked draws.
Starfield of Nyx- This card is similar to Opalescence, but activates that effect conditionally. The recursion effect of this card is extremely powerful, and so becomes a target quickly. It often will change the way you play unless you have out a Sterling Grove or Avacyn, because making your non-aura enchantments into creatures can be a detriment.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope- Speaking of Avacyn, this card is insane. Combined with either Grove or Position, your board becomes /very/ hard to deal with.
Replenish/Retether- Two enormous value recursion cards, one being better than the other in most cases. Being able to recover your whole aura stack plus your removal for only four mana is an extremely powerful ability, so you should save them for when you want to make a huge play.
Honorable Mentions:Rest in Peace,
Wheel of Sun and Moon
, Primordial Seal, and every other deck-targeting enchantment- These all have a place in the deck, depending on the meta. If you regularly deal with graveyard combo, the first two listed along with
Ground Seal
are super good. Other cards similar to Sphere of Safety can also be good in aggro and token heavy metas.
The Kingdom: What better to defend than the land you own? Not many lands are of note in this deck, as most are just the typical most efficient green and white duals minus some of the more expensive options.
Serra's Sanctum- The ultimate resource for an enchanter-king! This card is huge, often giving enough mana on tap to play multiple extra enchantments in a single turn. If your meta runs cards like wasteland, you may want to save it until you try and make a big play.
Kor Haven- This land makes very good situational protection. While it may not be useful in all metas, playing against Blightsteel, Xenagos-buffed creatures, other voltron decks, or large commanders can make this card a life saver. It can also obviously be used to save smaller creatures or make first-strike a non-factor in fights.
Honorable Mentions:
Savannah- If you have the bills, this the dual for you.
Horizon Canopy- Same as above, a super good dual land with a minor price to pay for some sweet replacement utility.
Gaea's Cradle- While not always the hugest mana producer in this deck, it almost always will yield more than one green. It can play well with the sanctum as well by providing a scapegoat for land destruction too. You can also do some cheesy stuff with Starfield.
Fetches- Like the other lands mentioned here, they are all a matter of money for many. If you have the copies or your playgroup doesn't mind proxies for these cards, go all out as they will thin your deck at a minimal cost which is easily recovered.
The Gameplay:As the deck only runs two cards that can be played outside of your turn, you are fairly safe to tap out turn after turn and boosting your board as best possible.The low average converted mana cost of the deck allows it to contain few ramp cards, all of which provide additional utility by being either auras or Birds of Paradise which makes a decent target to stack auras. While Krond makes an exceptional target place auras on, as his triggered ability is quite powerful, it is often better to buff up other creatures such as
Kor Spiritdancer
, Birds of Paradise, or even whatever random creatures you have in play when you start to chain cards.Usually around turn six or seven, the deck will reach a critical mass, because by this point it will likely have accumulated an enchantress or two, tutored for appropriate situational cards, and ramped using one or more of the ramp cards in the deck which often double dip by being enchantments. After this point the deck will usually chain aura cards through the card draw provided by enchantresses. After you draw cards and suit up one of your soldiers, it's time to kick butt and go for some huge swings.
