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Alesha!

Aggro deck turned into combo deck.

Disclaimer: I mostly play in a casual playgroup, in which we house-ruled that infinite combos won't be played, since we found that these most often lead to easy wins and suck the fun out of playing for us. If we ever get around to building cEDH decks, that will be a different story, and in that case players will delight in genius and efficient combos. However, then there will be a clear and level playing field and the completely in-theme tribal decks and other wacky creations won't fall to the wayside. Also, I don't think this version of Alesha would cut it in a competitive environment: It's probably still too inconsistent, too light on the disruption needed for such a table and the ramp and tutor package should get tighter and more cost-efficient.

It was particularly difficult to build combo around Alesha without getting possible infinite combos. It turns out there are a couple. I will be listing those for anyone who wants to know and I might use them if I play with other people also using infinite combos.


With the disclaimer out of the way, the core of the deck still retains pieces from the aggro deck it used to be: which used to be built around cards like Cathars' Crusade . The deck mostly dealt damage through attacks and was centered around more tokenmakers, which took some time to build up. Until the deck could finish people off, it looked for repeated value and answers from the graveyard.

Now, the deck has been rebuilt for combos. It looks for early chip damage, while it will still use Alesha's ability for an attrition style of playing. Goblin Bombardment can still grind out wins by recurring and saccing token-makers. Some late game combat tricks are still there: Nighthowler can become or turn something else into an (unblockable) threat with the help of other enhancers.

However, most cards I used in a previous version (such as: Raving Dead , Urbis Protector and Custodi Soulbinders ) made the deck top-heavy and I found that I wanted to keep the deck lean enough for early setups and using Dark Confidant and Pain Seer to draw cards and dig/tutor for combo wins, instead of having just a Mardu version of my deck:aluren-for-roon deck in terms of endgame. (In case anyone is wondering: the deck has never included Master of Cruelties since I just find the card to be too easy and un-fun.)

The combos included in the deck involve the following:

These are harder to execute and get right then the infinite combos, hence more fun for me. Also, the combos in the list of possible infinites below would fit here when used with a sacrifice outlet that requires mana to activate.

Most of what is described down here works with free sacrifice outlets. For now I have only three, more or less on purpose, because going infinite is not really my intention: Goblin Bombardment , Viscera Seer and Altar of Dementia .
If you want to make the combos below easier I would suggest adding the following cards: Ashnod's Altar , Phyrexian Altar and Yahenni, Undying Partisan (the last two mentioned here I don't even own). If you wish the sacrifice outlets that need mana could also be swapped: Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim or Disciple of Griselbrand .

  1. Crypt Champion + Fiend Hunter + a free sacrifice outlet. This interaction is kind of tricky, so an explanation might be in order. Let Crypt Champion enter the battlefield with Fiend Hunter in the graveyard. Both triggered abilities of the Champion will be put on the stack and you can choose in which order: putting the sacrifice ability on the stack first and then the recursion ability, which will then resolve first. With the recursion ability bring back Fiend Hunter causing its ability to be put on the stack on top of Champion's sac trigger targetting the Champion. With Fiend Hunter having exiled the Champion the sac trigger of Champion will fizzle. Then sacrifice the Hunter to keep doing this. The free sac outlet involved will decide what happens:
  2. Karmic Guide + Fiend Hunter + a free sacrifice outlet: is basically an easier version of the Champion combo above, since you don't have to worry about the sacrifice timing of the Champion.

  3. The following cards have been included in the deck for their stand-alone value, but these happen to be two of the best combo cards white has to offer: Reveillark + Karmic Guide + a free sacrifice outlet. There are plenty of sites explaining the combo to unfamiliar players, so I won't rehash that. Viscera Seer will let you scry through your entire deck with just that card out. With a fourth creature like the following and keeping the Seer on the battlefield can do the following:

  4. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is (in)famous for its potential in going infinite. In this deck it works with Karmic Guide / Reveillark + a free sacrifice outlet.
    • Karmic Guide : If you copy the Guide with Kiki-Jiki and hold priority you can sac Kiki in response to the Guide token entering the battlefield. Once the Guide token does: return Kiki-Jiki to the battlefield and repeat. As mentioned above, the different sacrifice outlets give different results, but with any of them you'll end up with an arbitrary large amount of hasty 2/2 flying tokens.
    • Reveillark : copy Reveillark with Kiki, then sac Kiki and with Kiki in the grave sacrifice the Reveillark token bringing back Kiki and another 2 power creature in the graveyard to the battlefield.

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

34 - 0 Rares

34 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.48
Tokens Copy Clone, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Goblin 1/1 R, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
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