Alesha Smiles at Death - Budget

Commander / EDH Aggro Aristocrats Budget RBW (Mardu) Reanimator

Moosh528491

SmallGuys (18)

• 1x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
• 1x Ankle Shanker
• 1x Avalanche Riders
• 1x Bone Shredder
• 1x Bounty Agent
• 1x Duergar Hedge-Mage
• 1x Harsh Mentor
• 1x Mentor of the Meek
• 1x Militia Bugler
• 1x Murderous Redcap
• 1x Nekrataal
• 1x Noosegraf Mob
• 1x Pain Seer
• 1x Ponyback Brigade
• 1x Priest of the Blood Rite
• 1x Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1x Vulturous Aven
• 1x Wall of Blood

Removal (6)

• 1x Crackling Doom
• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Utter End

Protection (4)

• 1x Nahiri's Machinations
• 1x Palisade Giant
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

WinCons (4)

• 1x Archetype of Finality
• 1x Behind the Scenes
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Iroas, God of Victory *list*

ManaBase (34)

• 1x Akoum Refuge
• 1x Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Boros Garrison
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Nomad Outpost
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 8x Plains
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Wind-Scarred Crag

GraveyardFillers (11)

• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Spawning Pit *list*
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Vampiric Rites
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

BoardWipes (3)

• 1x Citywide Bust
• 1x Dusk / Dawn
• 1x Tragic Arrogance

Commander (1)

Ramp (12)

• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Fire Diamond
• 1x Marble Diamond
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

ETB (4)

• 1x Eerie Interlude
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Victimize

Tutors (3)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Final Parting

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What is this deck?

Alesha leads her small armies into battle! Alesha smiles in death's face, bringing her small fellows back into battle left and right. Use Alesha, combined with a large army of small warriors, a variety of ETB effects, a large amount of sacrifice outlets, and some power-conditional board wipes, and you have a recipe for an aggressive path to victory! I already own a lot of the more expensive cards for this deck already (see 'What do I already own?'). However, those cards can be cut out for cheaper ones if they fall outside your budget. Those 4 slots (Sol Ring is a must include) are really up to whatever you can afford, so play around!

Is this deck for you?

Do you like versatility? Do you like unique decks? Are Roon and Brago some of your favorite commanders? Then this deck is for you.

Do you dislike aristocrats? Do you like to close out games quickly? Has another 2 power matters commander like Ezuri or Sidar already stolen your heart? Then this deck might not be for you.

What do I already own?

List of Cards Already in my Collection:

Iroas, God of Victory

Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Sol Ring

Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit

Temple of Malice

Breakdown by Category:

SmallGuys - Cards with ETB triggers and less than 2 power. I can bring these back with Alesha to trigger their ETB again, and then also deal direct damage with them so it's a win-win.

Removal - Targeted removal to get rid of anything nasty really messing up my side of the board (added bonus that every card in this category can be tutored for with Sunforger).

GraveyardFillers - Either sac outlets, graveyard "tutors", or discard outlets. Any way, fill up the graveyard to get targets for Alesha. Then, get those cards back into the graveyard to abuse their ETB again!

Ramp - Ramp quickly so that you can not only have a great turn, but also have a target for Alesha when the time comes. Added bonus that Burnished Hart and Solemn Simulacrum both have 2 power, so you can get them back and repeat the process.

ETB - Cards that either have ETB triggers that like my large swarm of small creatures, or cards that allow me to trigger ETB on my small creatures a second time once I've gotten them back from the graveyard (Felidar Guardian's power < 2 ;))

BoardWipes - Three board wipes that only target things with big power or have a level of customizability (Tragic Arrogance) so that I come out on top. It should be noted that Citywide Bust will hit Palisade Giant, but it's worth it. It should also be noted that Dusk / Dawn hits Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, but again it's worth it.

Protection - Alesha is important to my game plan, so I want to keep her alive. These four cards will protect her from being hurt, targeted, or blocked (in addition to Rogue's Passage but it's a land so I put it in ManaBase instead).

Tutors - If I need a way to close out the game, I can grab my wincons. If I know I can't win through combat and need a way around, I can grab my combo pieces. Super versatile and cheap (money wise).

ManaBase - Lands

Best in Category:

The best cards from each category (because all my decks are a dog show, I guess?).

SmallGuys - There were two main contestants for this category - Murderous Redcap is our combo enabler, but on his own he doesn't do much, which makes me inclined to have... Vulturous Aven as our best in category for small guys? Because this whole category is full of great cards, it was a hard choice, but this card seems so powerful in this deck and provides us with so much card advantage, that it has to be my choice for best small guy. If you use it to exploit itself with Alesha, then you get 2 cards for {WB}{WB} and 2 life per turn. That is a sweet combo, and provides us with much needed card advantage, which is why it's my choice for best small guy.

Removal - Fiend Hunter hands down. With a sacrifice outlet, we can put its LTB trigger on the stack before its ETB trigger, so we can exile an opponent's creature without any chance of it coming back per turn for just two mana.

Protection - Nahiri's Machinations. Although Swiftfoot Boots does give our commander hexproof, the indestructible is more powerful because we have to attack with Alesha in order to get her triggered ability, so indestructible is more useful than hexproof.

Tutors - We're only running 3, so... Buried Alive? It costs almost nothing and we get the cards back relatively soon, so it's the best of the 3 in my opinion.

ManaBase - Like before with tutors, most of our lands aren't amazing, so the best one is Geier Reach Sanitarium - it allows us to cheat something out early, and it'll usually help us way more than our opponents.

GraveyardFillers - This is a tough one. There are a bunch of fantastic graveyard fillers, but in my opinion Key to the City is our winner here. It allows us to get a target for Alesha, it makes Alesha unblockable (so it's protection in addition to filling our graveyard) and if we have extra mana, it provides card advantage. All around a fantastic card in this deck.

BoardWipes - Dusk / Dawn. That's it.

Ramp - There's a reason it's played in almost every EDH deck. Sol Ring. Next.

ETB - There's only 4 cards here, and I'd have to say that the best one is Victimize. It allows for so many fun interactions, it fills up our graveyard, and it allows more ETB triggers to resolve. Best of all it's efficiently costed which is tough to find on a budget (Ahem, Diabolic Tutor).

The Best in Show

And our Best in Show, our #1 card out of the 99 is........

Key to the City!!!!

It's efficiently costed, we can drop it on turn 2 and immediately start filling up our graveyard. It protects Alesha when she's attacking, which is the main way our deck functions at a high power, and it can possibly provide us card advantage in the right situation. On top of that it's an artifact, so it's tough to remove, and our opponents won't think much of it compared to other artifact threats. It'll stick around, generating us value probably for the entire game. Best of all, it costs only $0.35, so it doesn't hamper anyone's budget at all.

WinCons

So, we've gone through all our fun, shiny interactions above - but how do we actually win? There are four main ways -

Iroas, God of Victory makes Alesha invincible when she attacks, allowing me to trigger her ability without worry. It also makes all my other creatures harder to block and makes them invincible as well.

Archetype of Finality isn't necessarily going to win me the game, but it'll make it much harder for my opponents to win. Giving all my small guys deathtouch is going to make everyone else at the table very reluctant to block, especially knowing I can get them right back with Alesha. The Archetype itself is also a valid target for Alesha's ability, which makes it tricky to get rid of.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion - This card is everything this deck wants and needs. Her +1 makes more small bodies, her -3 is another conditional board wipe that won't hit any of my creatures (Iroas has indestructible), and her ultimate essentially guarantees me a win.

Behind the Scenes - Similar to Archetype in that it's not really a win in itself, but it makes it harder for my opponents to win. It's best late game when most of my small guys appear kind of lame next to my opponent's significantly larger creatures.

On top of those 4 cards, there's a fifth, secret win-con. A COMBO!! Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Murderous Redcap + Viscera Seer allows you to sac the redcap infinitely, get it back with persist, put a +1/+1 counter on it due to Anafenza cancelling out the -1/-1 counter, sac it again with viscera seer, repeat the process until all your opponents are dead! Spawning Pit and Yahenni, Undying Partisan are also alternatives to Viscera Seer.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Murderous Redcap + Viscera Seer
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 20 - 0 Rares 39 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.15
Tokens	2/2 C Artifact Creature Spawn, Demon 5/5 B, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Goblin 1/1 R, Morph 2/2 C, Soldier 1/1 W, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Budget, Might Buy