Deck Rating: 6 out of 10
Deck Strategy: Show-and-Tell, Battlecruiser
This is a bit of a strange deck that tends to punch above its weight class. My first EDH deck, it started out with Scion of the Ur-Dragon as a commander (what was I thinking) and a lot of 'orphan cards' - strong, but not synergistic with the rest of the deck. As I began to learn the quirks of the Singleton format, I started to tweak the deck, with the first order of business a change in management. SOTUD was out, Kenrith, the Returned King was in.
So, what does this deck do? In its current iteration, these things:
- Ramping and Fixing mana, then putting it to use building a strong board. Kenrith's activated abilities mean no mana ever goes to waste.
- Show & Tell. This deck can get mana out decently quick, but the real fun happens when you get out Fist of Suns and begin playing big stuff for 5 CMC. There's also a Maelstrom Nexus for extra value, since cascade only cares about CMC...
- Recursion. Kenrith retrieves creatures that get blasted using his ability, and an Oversold Cemetery takes care of the rest. For other permanents, the deck runs Obzedat's Aid and Profound Journey to make sure anything can be recovered.
If this seems like a disjointed jumble of ideas with no clear win condition - you're (kinda) right! This is a deck that shines through incremental value; getting spells out for less mana than your opponents, getting them back efficiently if they get removed, and surviving until your foes run out of gas. This is full-on battlecruiser Magic, which in my experience has the added benefit of not drawing as much attention at the table. However, there was some thought put into its construction; versatility was the name of the game. For inclusion, a card needed to do something:
If they ticked all of these boxes, more's the better! As such, this deck rarely ends up in a situation where it runs out of answers to threats on the board.
All in all, a weird chromatic deck that people tend not to see coming until it's too late. Also a blast to play; there's nothing like coming in from behind to upend the game and create some big swings!
Key Combos
The real meat of this deck are the Bringer of the Blue Dawn and the Bringer of the Black Dawn. Kenrith keeps them on the table by recurring them at instant speed, they fetch anything you want or need. Mwonvuli Beast Tracker is in this one as a fun tutor on a stick; it'll get you the Bringer you need most, pronto. Or if you have them both already, go fish for Worldspine Wurm to close out the game.
The deck boasts one 'infinite' combo: Bringer of the Black Dawn + Beacon of Tomorrows allows you to repeatedly fetch and use the spell to gain turn after turn. Getting extra cards into your hand can be difficult though, provided you don't also have Bringer of the Blue Dawn out. If any opponent has mana up, be ready for counter magic/removal that can ruin your day.
Pet Cards
To me, Commander is a format where fun is first, and competition second. As such, almost every deck I make will have some cards that are probably not the best choice for inclusion. They're there to stay, though, for no other reason that I like their art/flavor/design.
- Bottle Gnomes
- Ride the Avalanche
- Quicksilver Elemental
- Treasure Chest
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