Lemme guess... Love the idea of Kelsien but can't seem to find something that's not "pingers" and "voltron"?
Ya me too, thought I'd finally take it into my own hands and build something that can roll with higher power decks.
Firstly, we need to address the main problem with most Kelsien decks.
They're all ENTIRELY based around Kelsien or just pinging stuff, which means the decks explode or completely durdle. Even if they explode, voltrons plateau super hard.
SO! We're going to use Kelsien as the centerpiece for a control & lifegain strategy!
Kelsien himself is slow, he's cheap to get out sure. However, he doesn't offer much in the way of things that are strong like ramp or card draw. That being said he's a great option for control. The best I've seen Kelsien decks run is basically "control tribal" and no not just creatures. The best I've had this deck run is when I'm basically running as many of the "one sided board wipes" that I can. Plague Wind, Ruinous Ultimatum, and In Garruk's Wake type of cards, are the best. Be warry, this really pisses people off. You're constantly resetting the board.
For Wincons: We're going to be using Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose as a secret commander, infect: Tainted Strike or Grafted Exoskeleton, straight up commander damage with Kelsien himself, and "army in a can cards" like Storm Herd
We're running a few extra "cheeky" wincons like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose + Blood Tribute for an insta kill before moving to combat or a Vorpal Sword
We have several backup infect sources like Necropede and Ichorclaw Myr.
Most of the creatures are 3 cmc or less and that's because it allows tons of recur able options for Sun Titan and Venerable Warsinger
Since Experience counters are on the PLAYER not the creature, Kelsien will ALWAYS be buffed when we get him out. We've got great synergy with Daxos the Returned for a "go wide strategy" if we need too and Minthara, Merciless Soul makes it so every creature on our board grows in size with Kelsien.
We also need some Haymakers so we do run Deathbringer Thoctar and Nykthos Paragon. Both compliment each strategy of the deck.
I tried to avoid any targeted removal unless it targets any permanent like Chaos Warp. We'll have control of the creatures but having a problematic God-Pharaoh's Statue or Winter Orb can really put us behind.
We're in Mardu so we don't have the strongest card draw. Black is going to be the best we have. Since we're going to be focusing a lot on lifegain we can use our life as a resource to dump into several cards like Necropotence, Cut of the Profits, and Damnable Pact
Kusari-Gama can be pumped at any time before damage to be a suedo boardwipe. We can also put this on our infect creatures to get around indestructible if our opponent chooses to block with another creature. This forces players into losing their creatures or getting killed by Infect. Here's a fun piece of rulings tech! Kusari-Gama specifically says "damage to a blocking creature" which means, you can tap Kelsien to deal one damage to anything that's blocking and it'll ping ALL of their creatures for 1 damage! Absolutely nobody will expect this and when you do this they're going to say "let me read the card" it's actually hilarious.
Lion Sash is an all-star piece of equipment. Cheap to get out. Instant speed activation. Can activate as much as you have white mana and pumps itself or equipped creature. Completely shuts out Reanimator decks.
We are going to be using several cards that generate tokens FOR our opponents like Slaughter Specialist and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor. I chose these over cards like Akroan Horse because Akroan Horse just gives our opponents creatures for 4 mana. Varchild's wording doesn't say goad and that's good because, if it's just down to you and them, goads rulings let them attack you. Varchild specifically words that they can't attack you and can't block.
People don't mind you shooting tokens that YOU gave them. It pulls less aggro and allows you to develop without making enemies when you don't need too.
Getting Bolas's Citadel out is almost a wincon itself. Almost everything in the deck is something worth casting off the top. The only "eh" ones are the x spell card draw. Otherwise drain your life down to sub 10 and then use Chandra's Ignition on something with Lifelink and go back to casting your whole deck.
BE CAREFUL OF:
You're going to have a pop off turn and get the deck to really come online. You WILL become arch enemy. Ya ya, I know. "Every deck can say that when it comes online". Well this is different. Your deck is based around blowing up everyones board BUT YOURS, and now you've got the board basically locked out from having creatures. Even spellslingers usually need their commanders to hit critical mass.
It's all too common to have the table realize what you've set up and someone say "ok, so everyone knows we have to deal with that right?" and congrats, now you're arch enemy for the rest of the game.
HOW TO PILOT:
This is a Mid-range deck.
If you don't know that means we're going to be doing our best to control the board and wait until mid game before executing a win.
Every now and again you will get an amazing opening hand and I'll be honest, RESIST the urge to just toss your hand onto the table. I've been playing Kelsien for awhile now, and having too explosive of a start will have people blowing up your artifacts and using removal on Kelsien way to much.
Don't put a Basilisk Collar on him and just start popping commanders every turn. You're going to piss off the table and they'll target you out of spite, trust me.
You can have a game that's been going terribly for 8 turns, everyone's got crazy board states, and someone's about to combo off.. but.. you've gotten a few counters on Kelsien and cast Chandra's Ignition + Tainted Strike. That's a win with 6 mana and just casually pinging mana dorks.
Let's say Kelsien has been killed too many times and we don't wanna recast him. Well, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose is our secret commander. Put him on the table and use that Black Market or Smothering Tithe to dump into an Exsanguinate and you've easily removed the biggest threat at the table. Now imagine if your Nykthos Paragon is out when doing this?? Yep. Now you've got huge creatures and Vito gives lifelink himself at instant speed, now nobody can attack you.
Sometimes leaving Kelsien in the command zone will be the best option. For being a lifegain deck we actually don't have a ton of creatures, and that's because we're very removal heavy. You can and SHOULD be using this as a politics piece. Someone wants to swing at you? Remove a key piece? well a very confident "You do that and I will 100% blow up the board on my turn" can be very deterring. Especially if you're really not causing problems. Remember, people will hesitate to affect your board if they think they'll lose theirs.
Keep you're head low, play patiently, board wipe strategically, use politics to gain favor, and shoot'em in the face.
This was built within a short period, so chances of me taking this to my LGS and adjusting is very likely. Save the page and keep visiting!
Edits: Few things to note.
I found myself low on cards too often. I was able to cast a lot of the spells but with our avg deck cmc being 3 it showed. I've added Night's Whisper and Wheel of Fortune. I also felt like I need a few more pieces of Deathtouch to put on Kelsien. Could've just been my playgroup for the day but we had very few 1 toughness creatures and I almost struggled to get counters on him.
Great pop off turns and with how much fetching we have with Imperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard + all the tutors.
Any lifelink with Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose + Chandra's Ignition worked perfectly. I never play infinite combos but I did realize that Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Deathbringer Thoctar goes infinite if you put lifelink on it. So there's that if you need a backup wincon? It's also instant speed too so there's that I guess.
Other than just a bit of tuning for more card draw I'm extremely satisfied with how the deck had performed for the day. Played slower and was able to wipe the table out numerous times. It did become obvious that our worst match up is going to be blue counter spells. Keep this in mind. Someone tries to counter/control you, just bully them down. I found this didn't upset the table when I started harassing the one guy preventing others from playing. Use those politics powers!
