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Kess of Death

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Goodstuff Multiplayer Ramp UBR (Grixis)

BolasAgent

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Land (35)

Enchantment (4)

Sorcery (20)

Instant (12)

Creature (4)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Kess, Dissident Mage

Artifact (18)

Planeswalker (6)

Disclaimer: My playgroup doesn't play infinite mana or two card instant win combos. We have also corrected the issues with Infect. For Infect damage to be lethal, it must be half your starting life total. Only exception is Commander-Infect damage. You only need half the necessary Commander damage rounded up. Multi-player Life:40, Infect:20, Commander:21, Commander-Infect: 11; 1 on 1: Life 30, Infect 15, Commander 16, Commander-Infect 8

When this deck was built in its original form back in late 2011, it had Crosis, the Purger as its Commander. Color identity was the main motivator for that choice along with built in evasion on a decent body. The triggered ability was a nice to have, but rarely relevant. After a while it was suggested by my playgroup that Thraximundar may be a better choice. Thrax though costing 1 more, comes out with haste and has built in removal. Also if he can cause them to sac. He then becomes a 7/7 and can be a 3 hit kill in multiplayer. After a few times playing, Thrax was here to stay. Recently I've made a change to Kess, Dissident Mage she has high synergy with this deck as it is full instants and sorceries. I may still switch back, but I think she's the better choice.

This is a high powered EDH deck that is very fast and light on creatures. Its most common path to victory is to ramp out large mana rocks like: Grim Monolith , Mana Vault , or Gilded Lotus and enablers like Voltaic Key or Manifold Key and then take extra turns leveraging one or more of the planeswalkers: Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh , Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God , or Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge ) for for lethal. Preferably with a counter spell to protect them coming out or being removed. As with most decks if you can stick Omniscience it is very hard for your opponents to stop you. Kess, Dissident Mage can also be used as a win condition if need be, but mostly to reuse key cards in the graveyard to combo off. There is a good amount of disruption to slow down other decks. Since the deck is very artifact heavy using Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 's -X is very effective for taking over the board state.
This deck runs 12 tutors not counting the 9 fetch lands it runs. And in the high amount of recursion. This allows you to get the cards you want when you want them.
  1. Vampiric Tutor Tutor for any one card
  2. Mystical Tutor Tutor for any instant or sorcery
  3. Imperial Seal Tutor for any one card
  4. Demonic Tutor Tutor for any one card
  5. card:1x Merchant Scroll (8ED) *F* Tutor for any one blue instant. Usually you get Mana Drain or Force of Will or a Cyclonic Rift . There are a few more options. But these are the most likely candidates. Mission Briefing can also be found if what you need is in your graveyard. /li>
  6. Diabolic Revelation Tutor for any X cards. This is a great card for fetching up combo pieces and for fishing out counter spells. Usually if they don't counter this they miss their opportunity to stop the combo from going off. Since I will usually include a counter spell or two and a method to recur.
  7. Intuition Search for any 3 cards. Usually 2 cards you want and Yawgmoth's Will or Snapcaster Mage or Mission Briefing to recur them. Ensuring you get what you want.
  8. Grim Tutor Tutor for any one card
  9. Cruel Tutor Tutor for any one card
  10. Trinket Mage Tutor for any one artifact card with CMC one or less.
  11. Bribery Tutor for the best creature your opponent has that will advance your board state. {Usually targets: Avacyn, Angel of Hope , Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger , Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur or an large Eldrazi with annihilator usually works if you wanna go stompy. Avacyn, Angel of Hope seems to usually be the best choice on average. Just watch out for Homeward Path
  12. Tezzeret the Seeker -X lets you tutor for any artifact with CMC 4 or less. More if you've already used the +1
Drawing is essential to staying competitive in any EDH game. If you aren't drawing more cards then just your initial 7 and 1 card each of your turns you very unlikely to be relevant for the whole game. Not only is card advantage a key to success, card quality is too. Having the right card at the right time can be the difference between life or death in a game.
  1. Brainstorm Amazing cantrip. Can significantly increase the card quality in your hand
  2. Ponder Solid cantrip. Lets you pick which of the top 3 cards best fits your needs or you can shuffle and get a random card.
  3. Preordain Solid cantrip
  4. Sensei's Divining Top Amazing at improving the quality of your draws. Great when paired with fetchlands. Even better with fetchlands and Crucible of Worlds
  5. Scroll Rack Technically not draw, but it does act very similar to Brainstorm or looting effects. It can improve the card quality in your hand . You set aside X cards and then get X cards off the top of your library and get to order the cards on top your library in whatever order you want. Great to just shuffle away the cards you don't want and get a fresh group when paired with any fectchland
  6. Frantic Search Amazing spell, lets you improve the quality of cards in your hand for free and if you have a land that nets you more than 1 mana when tapped you can actually ramp off of it.
  7. Jace, the Mind Sculptor 0 Brainstorm every turn
  8. card:Bolas Citadel (WAR) though technically not card draw, it acts very similarly. You get access to another card just for the cost of life equal to the CMC. This is a great way to get more card draw by leveraging it on cheap spells to ramp out or refill your hand with mass draw spell. Also another way to surprise someone with a counter spell
Mass draw can really help you with card advantage when used correctly.
  1. Necropotence The best draw spell in the game! Don't be afraid to use your life as a resource. You can draw 1 or you can draw 10+ or anywhere in between. The choice is yours. Just be aware anything you discard gets exiled.
  2. Timetwister Amazing draw 7 spell. Also gets all the cards in your graveyard back into your library. Doesn't get exiled so easily repeatable effect.
  3. Wheel of Fortune Another draw 7 spell, great for refilling your hand and discarding away an opponents. Just be mindful they draw 7 as well.
  4. Windfall Just an amazing card. You play out all or most of your hand so your discard is minimal and then you draw equal to the largest hand and make friends since everyone draws.
  5. Time Spiral Free Spell! Draw 7 and shuffle your graveyard into your library
  6. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon Technically a draw spell since his -10 will draw you 7 cards, but rarely ever used as such.
This deck runs a ton of ramp and since there is no we are forced to relay on artifact ramp.
  1. Ancient Tomb More mana for a little bit of life
  2. Cabal Coffers Huge amounts of when used with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  3. City of Traitors More mana for the cost of not putting another land in play
  4. Mox Diamond Fast Ramp for pitching a land
  5. Chrome Mox Fast Ramp for exiling a colored card
  6. Lion's Eye Diamond Great way to negate the cost to play Yawgmoth's Will . Play Lion's Eye Diamond cast Yawgmoth's Will hold priority and activate LED in response. Now LED (and your hand) is in the graveyard and you can play it again and you have essentially cast Yawgmoth's Will for free.
  7. Mana Crypt Fast Mana for the chance to loose a bit of life. Great with Voltaic Key , Tezzeret the Seeker and Manifold Key
  8. Mana Vault Fast mana with a bit of pain. Great with Voltaic Key , Tezzeret the Seeker and card:Manifold (M20) F
  9. Candelabra of Tawnos Untap your best lands for even more mana.
  10. Dark Ritual Fast mana, that can catch opponents off guard
  11. Sol Ring Best mana rock with no down side in the format. Good with Voltaic Key , Tezzeret the Seeker and Manifold Key
  12. Voltaic Key Mana enabler use with large mana rocks
  13. Mana Drain Mana drain may seem odd to list here, but a well timed mana drain often wins games especially when it hits a spell with a large Converted Mana Cost. The ramp it provides can be overwhelming for opponents
  14. Grim Monolith Large Mana rock with limited down side. Great with Voltaic Key , Tezzeret the Seeker and Manifold Key
  15. Doubling Cube Turns good mana into crazy mana. Like the disclaimer says my group doesn't play infinite mana, but that doesn't mean we can't get to crazy amounts of mana. Great with Voltaic Key , Tezzeret the Seeker and Manifold Key
  16. Chromatic Lantern Not great ramp, but great at color fixing land bases and avoiding Blood Moon hate
  17. Frantic Search This isn't the main reason to run this card, but using its untap ability can ramp your man by pairing with Lotus Field or Lotus Vale
  18. Storm the Vault   Enchantment with a hoop we already play heavily into that turns into a better version of Tolarian Academy . Vault of Catlacan Thank you!
  19. Gilded Lotus Great source for large amounts of any color of mana. Becomes even better with Voltaic Key , Tezzeret the Seeker and Manifold Key
  20. Manifold Key A second copy of Voltaic Key with an upside if needed.
  21. Tezzeret the Seeker
    22. +1 is the main reason to run Tezzeret. Being able untap 2 mana rocks can take you from decent mana to great mana. Also his -X can help you get more mana rocks or enablers if for some reason you don't have them or need a key combo piece.
  22. Time Spiral This isn't the main reason to run this card, but using its untap ability can ramp your mana by pairing with Lotus Field or Lotus Vale .
There is a limited amount of removal in this deck since there are so many tutors and ways to recur.
  1. Strip Mine Destroy any target land
  2. Wasteland Destroy any target non-basic land
  3. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale Destroy all non-indestructible creatures that opponents don't pay for. Side benefit if they do pay for them it limits the amount of mana available to them during their turn. Great for stopping or slowing down go wide strategies.
  4. Damnation Removal all non-indestructible creatures
  5. Jace, the Mind Sculptor -1 bounce their best creature
  6. Cyclonic Rift Okay to bounce a single permanent when needed, best used overloaded to return everyone else's board state right before you start your turn. Best removal in the deck when paired with a wheel effect
  7. Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
    8. -4 Shoot target creature or player for 7 damage.
  8. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon Used for -X force them to sacrifice all colored permanents with CMC X or less. If Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is still around then I will +2 Shoot for 3 any target or player and build up for another -X forcing them to deal with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or lose
Recursion is key in every EDH decks since it is a singleton format. You need to have recursion so you can reuse those powerful spells over and over again. If you can't recur you are forced to use card slots for multiple cards that do basically the same thing. And you will be constantly trying to fit cards into your deck.
  1. Snapcaster Mage Give flashback to any target spell in your graveyard to be reused.
  2. Mission Briefing Lets you do a scry variant that mills instead of putting to bottom of library. If need you can mill 1-2 cards from the top of you library into your graveyard so you can cast them also basically gives a better version of flashback to any target instant or Sorcery in your graveyard. Allowing you to cast most alternate costs.
  3. Timetwister Shuffle graveyard and library and hand into your library and draw 7 new cards. Awesome because it doesn't exile and can be continually reused
  4. Yawgmoth's Will Pay symbol 2symbol B and you get to use your graveyard like it is your hand until end of turn
  5. Crucible of Worlds Play lands from graveyard. Great with fetchlands to ensure a land drop every turn. Also works well with looting effects since you can discard your land and then play them from the graveyard
  6. Time Spiral Free spell to Shuffle graveyard and library and hand into your library and draw 7 new cards. Awesome because it can net you mana if you have lands that produce more than 1 mana.
  7. Kess, Dissident Mage Once per turn on your turn you can reuse cards from your graveyard as needed.
Protection covers both counter spells and disruption to your opponents plan
This deck only runs 3 counter spells. With all the tutors and recursion, it is enough to keep your opponents guessing. That said. It is best to save them for when an opponent is about to go off or the "real" threats that will actually hamper your ability to win when compared against the likelihood of your opponents. Proper threat assessment is key! Countering a spell that locks down most of the board and still leaves you in the best position is not the time to counter. That is help, not hinderance.
  1. Mana Drain Best counter spell in the format. And if you counter a big spell it will ramp you out on your next main phase
  2. Force of Will Free Counter Spell, just costs a blue card and 1 life. Great for tricking opponents into trying to go off when it appears you are tapped out
  3. Disallow Solid counter spell that also hits activated and triggered abilities. As the format gets more complex this has become more relevant. Countering abilities is becoming more and more essential deck tech
You have to have an impact with your opponents board state or hand if you want to stop them from winning. Removal is technically a form of disruption as well, but this is disruption that isn't removal.
  1. Maze of Ith I've seen people say it isn't worth it in the format because so many people run equipment that give Shroud or Hexproof. However I completely disagree. Being able to negate the biggest targetable attacking creature is still well worth it if they have equipment on their best creature. Opponents don't just attack with 1 creature unless that is all they can get through. Also Opponents don't always have said equipment. Plus the added benefit that early minor attacks that normally may target you are instead sent against someone else because you will just Maze of Ith it can single handedly change the course of games. Not to mention you also have the ability to impact attacks on other players. The potential political impact can't be ignored either
  2. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale Basically taxes opponents for each non-indestructible creature they have they want to keep thus limiting the amount of mana available to them during their turn. Great for stopping or slowing down go wide strategies.
  3. Bribery It is always amazes me how many decks can't handle being bribed. Don't run creatures in your deck that your deck can't deal with somehow. If you are playing against blue expect to be bribed and counter spelled. So the plan here is to tutor for the best creature in one of your opponents decks that will advance your board state. {Usually targets: Avacyn, Angel of Hope , Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger , Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur or an large Eldrazi with annihilator usually works if you wanna go stompy. Avacyn, Angel of Hope seems to usually be the best choice on average. Just watch out for Homeward Path
  4. Expropriate Opponents have the choice to let you pick a permanent rather then an extra turn. Depending on their board state it can be questionable which is the better choice. With huge game changing spells like this one, make sure to resolve in turn order. Also remember to be mindful of a Homeward Path (it only hits creatures) if you are going to choose a creature if they let you pick a permanent.
  5. card:Nexus of Fate(M19) F inserting an extra turn out of turn order can be very disruptive in a multiplayer game as most people haven't planned for that scenario to happen. It is even more disruptive (assuming you can do something on that turn) if you insert your turn into another players combo-ing off of additional turns.
  6. Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh +1 ability is amazing!! Exiling two cards from each opponents hand is amazing assuming they still have hands. The sheer card advantage and disruption can end games if not dealt with immediately. Plus the bonus you are working towards Nicol Bolas' Ultimate. +2 is good too, but not as good unless someone just tutored and you know what the top card of their library is and you want it. It can still be disruptive to them to be playing their own threats against them.
  7. Stranglehold This card is disruptive in 2 very strong ways. 1st it will stop all opponents from tutoring. Thus if they are tutor heavy this will force them to find their cards the hard way. And 2nd it will stop any extra turns by them while still letting you take as many as you can cast. Very strong, highly disruptive. Great bait for counter spells as well.

  1. Time Warp Standard cost for an extra turn
  2. Temporal Manipulation Standard cost for an extra turn, another copy makes it more likely to happen
  3. Nexus of Fate Adding an additional turn at instant speed can be very beneficial. Plus this card will almost always be shuffled back into your library. Meaning you can continue to tutor or draw it.
  4. Expropriate The best extra turn card in the game. It will always net you 1 extra turn since you will choose that. Then each player will have to choose to give you an extra turn or let you steal their best permanent (That strengthens your board state). Just watch out for Homeward Path as it hits any creatures you take.
  5. Time Stretch Time Stretch use to be the best extra turn card in the game before Expropriate . It is still amazing for setting up and comboing off.
You have to have a plan for what you are trying to do with any deck you play. What is your most likely path to victory?
Start ramping out mana rocks and enablers and build your board state while continuing to ensure you have a way to refill your hand with cards. Your tutors should help you do this. Also be aware of any opponents who might be progressing faster than you or who might try and cast a large CMC spell who you can use a Mana Drain against. This can launch you to an even faster victory. The fact we run Mana Drain with a ton of tutors and draw means our opponents' plans need to include either playing around it or find a counter of their own to protect whatever they are trying to do. Else they risk us taking that mana and catapulting ourselves into a dominate board position. Either way slows them down. The key card you want to get into play is Omniscience . The easiest why to get it into play without having to hard cast it is Show and Tell . You need to leverage one of the planeswalkers across your multiple turns to win the game
  1. Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
  2. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God ult and an overloaded Cyclonic Rift
  3. Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
There are backup plans within the deck in case you have had all three of the main planeswalker win conditions removed. Occasionally one of these may be faster victories than the main plan based on how the game has played out. Some of these paths to victory are way faster than others.
  1. Tezzeret the Seeker Use -5 to make an army of 5/5 Artifacts and then leverage extra turns to beat down your opponents
  2. Kess, Dissident Mage Use Commander Damage and your extra turns to gain victory
  3. Expropriate Steal permanents opponents control in order or leverage those extra turns with planeswalkers you control.
  4. Bribery Steal any creature an opponent has in their library and leverage it to victory
  5. Clever Impersonator Copy any non-land permanent that is a strong board threat and leverage it to victory
  6. Phyrexian Metamorph Copy any creature or artifact that is a strong board threat and leverage it to victory
  1. Clever Impersonator Copy any non-land permanent that is a strong board threat
  2. Phyrexian Metamorph Copy any creature or artifact that is a strong board threat
  1. Crucible of Worlds + Polluted Delta (or any other fetchland) = Land drop every turn until you run out of targets in the deck
  2. Crucible of Worlds + Polluted Delta (or any other fetchland) + Sensei's Divining Top = Engine to see 3 new cards a turn if you don't like what is currently on top your library
  3. Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth = X mana where X is the number of lands you control. Note you need to activate Cabal Coffers .
  4. Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Candelabra of Tawnos = 2X- mana where X is the number of lands you control. to untap Cabal Coffers . to activate Cabal Coffers .

  5. Jace, the Mind Sculptor -1 bounce creature to their hand + Wheel of Fortune = They discard away whatever creature was bothering you
  6. Jace, the Mind Sculptor -1 bounce creature to their hand + Windfall = They discard away whatever creature was bothering you
  7. Jace, the Mind Sculptor -1 bounce creature to their hand + Timetwister = They tuck away whatever creature was bothering you backing into their library
  8. Jace, the Mind Sculptor -1 bounce creature to their hand + Time Spiral = They tuck away whatever creature was bothering you backing into their library
  9. Show and Tell + Omniscience + Demonic Tutor = You are on your way to combo-ing off! You just need some mass draw and a few extra turns to get your combo set up and executed and game over. A counter spell to back up your Show and Tell will be key to protecting this combo once your opponents know it.

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Revision 24 See all

(5 years ago)

Date added 9 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

47 - 0 Mythic Rares

35 - 0 Rares

8 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.23
Tokens Treasure
Folders EDH, Edh
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