Commander Collection: Mindbender

Commander / EDH UBR (Grixis)

Jurrane

Land (35)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Haunted Ridge
• 1x Island
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shipwreck Marsh
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Sorcery (22)

• 1x Arterial Flow
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Burning Inquiry
• 1x Chain Reaction
• 1x Chain of Smog
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Delirium Skeins
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Earthquake
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Fraying Omnipotence
• 1x Hymn to Tourach
• 1x Insatiable Avarice
• 1x Mind Rake
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vicious Rumors
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Liliana's Caress
• 1x Megrim
• 1x Necrogen Mists
• 1x Painful Quandary
• 1x Raiders' Wake
• 1x Shrieking Affliction
• 1x Waste Not

Instant (5)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Withering Torment

Commander (1)

Creature (20)

• 1x Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal  ^Flip
• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 1x Chainer, Nightmare Adept
• 1x Containment Construct
• 1x Cunning Lethemancer
• 1x Elderfang Disciple
• 1x Fell Specter
• 1x Goblin Electromancer
• 1x Hellfire Mongrel
• 1x Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
• 1x Murmuring Mystic
• 1x Necrogoyf
• 1x Pack Rat
• 1x Rielle, the Everwise
• 1x Sedgemoor Witch
• 1x Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip
• 1x The Haunt of Hightower
• 1x Tinybones, Trinket Thief
• 1x Young Pyromancer

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Professor Onyx

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{U}{B}{R} Introduction: Control the Hand, Control the Game {U}{B}{R}

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"Loss has no meaning here. You cannot take from those who have nothing."

Welcome to my primer for a discard-focused spellslinger Kess, Dissident Mage deck in EDH, which is the build in my collection for the Grixis colour combination. The goal of this primer is to outline the choices I've made when buidling the deck and offer some ideas about how to get the best out of it during gameplay.

By way of introduction, back before I discovered Commander I was a filthy discard player in Modern. There was nothing I liked more than ripping apart a hapless opponent's hand while they got punished by The Rack effects. I was a horrible human being.

"Mindbender" is a homage to the 8-Rack decks of old. A discard strategy is a great way to abuse Kess, Dissident Mage's ability as she allows us to recast our discard spells from the graveyard, thus doubling their efficacy. Our game plan is relatively straightforward: force your opponents to discard all their cards, preferably taking damage for doing so, and then punish them with Rack effects for having no cards in hand. Wheel effects like Windfall can be backbreaking if you have Liliana's Caress, Megrim, Raiders' Wake etc in play. It doesn't matter if our discard effects hit us too (some of them will), as we can prioritise instants and sorceries to send to the graveyard, where we can cast them using Kess.

Is Discard Viable in EDH?

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There was an elegant simplicity to 8-Rack decks in Modern that I used to love. Pick apart your opponent's hand with Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, Smallpox away all their creatures (or hide behind an Ensnaring Bridge to stop them attacking) and watch their life total quickly dwindle with incremental damage from the deck's namesake cards (4x The Rack and 4 x Shrieking Affliction).

Unfortunately this strategy doesn't really work well in Commander. Why not? For a number of reasons:

• First, discard is much more effective in 1-1 games than it is in group settings. At its most basic level, it's far harder to keep three opponents' hands empty than it is for one.
• Second, the Commander format's higher life totals mean The Rack effects have far less impact. Chipping away for 1-3 damage per turn simply doesn't cut it when you have 120 life points worth of damage you need to deal in the average EDH game.
• There are also lots of ways to draw cards in EDH so it's much easier for opponents to fill (or re-fill) their hands to avoid taking Rack damage.
• Finally - and this might be the most serious hurdle - discard is one of those strategies that tends to annoy players. Play a discard deck and you become the archenemy pretty quickly. Trust me, I've been there with this list.

Deck Strategy

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Because of this, our discard strategy has to adapt to be viable in Commander. That generally means three things:

• With a couple of exceptions (Hymn to Tourach is still amazing), discard spells that target just a single opponent are out. We want to run as many mass discard effects as possible. Many of these are listed in the "Other Key Cards" section below.
• We need to rely on fewer Rack effects. Instead, we focus on sources that deal damage to opponents when they discard cards, as they scale much better and have a much higher ceiling. These include Bloodchief Ascension, Raiders' Wake, Megrim, Fell Specter and Liliana's Caress.
• To be effective, we need to control the board as well as minimising the number of cards in opponents' hands. We are a control deck with a discard game plan. Fortunately our three colours present us with a wealth of different board control options, many of which are instants or sorceries that can be re-cast from the graveyard with Kess, Dissident Mage.

Putting these elements together, our strategy is therefore to control both the board state and using mass discard effects to remove cards from our opponents’ hands as much as possible, forcing them to take damage for doing so. Kess, Dissident Mage is our value engine, enabling our instants and sorceries to pull double duty, and using the graveyard as an extension of our own hand. Wheel effects like Windfall can deal pretty substantial amounts of damage, especially if we have enchantments like Bloodchief Ascension or Megrim in play, and even more so if Bloodletter of Aclazotz is on the board.

Playing the Deck

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I've learned from bitter experience not to come out of the blocks too fast with a discard deck. Start stripping away people's hands right from the off and you paint a giant target on your back. It's far better to play a slower, more controlling style to begin with, ramping when you can, building up resources and dealing with threats on the board with removal and boardwipes. Then, when the time is right, start using your discard spells carefully and strategically, ideally supported by sources that deal damage (or generate value) for discarding cards. That often means playing Kess, Dissident Mage relatively late as (a) she's a removal magnet; and (b) it's usually best to save her until she has some decent instants or sorceries in the graveyard to be played for the second time (or the first time if we've had to discard them to our own effects).

One of the traditional weaknesses of discard decks is their inability to close out games. We remedy this by having access to the Professor Onyx // Chain of Smog infinite combo which can win the game on the spot if unanswered. For the uninitiated, the combo relies on having Professor Onyx in play and then targetting ourselves over and over again with Chain of Smog (we can do this with an empty hand), doing 2 damage from Professor Onyx's triggered abiility to any target an infinite number of times until all our opponents are dead. This is our most effective way to win the game. We can reliably find our combo pieces with Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Insatiable Avarice, all of which can be re-cast from the graveyard if needed with Kess, Dissident Mage.

However, we won't always have access to the combo as we won't always draw into the necessary cards or tutors, or our key combo pieces will be countered or removed. The following section sets out the other ways we can win.

Finishers & Win Conditions

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Broadly speaking, we have three ways we're likely to win the game: (1) through our infinite combo; (2) with discard damage effects; and (3) through creature damage. Each of these are outlined below.

Infinite Combo
This is the Professor Onyx // Chain of Smog infinite damage combo mentioned above. It's a little fragile as it relies on successfully casting Professor Onyx and that she manages to stay on the board. One of the challenges we face is that we don't run many creatures so it can be difficult to defend her. It's usually best to only cast her when we have a critical mass of creatures to use as blockers (or Ensnaring Bridge in play), otherwise opponents will often try to remove her quickly. Chain of Smog is also liable to disruption as wise players will wait until we've cast it for the first two or three times (thereby emptying our hand) and then counter it when we have no cards to defend ourselves. But if both pieces resolve, then we've almost certainly won the game.

Discard Damage Effects
These are our enchantments, artifacts and creatures that deal damage to opponents as a result of them discarding cards. Our gold standards are Bloodchief Ascension, Raiders' Wake, Megrim, Fell Specter and Liliana's Caress as they deal damage for each card discarded. Used in combination with wheel effects like Dark Deal, Whispering Madness and Windfall, they can sometimes win the game, especially if Bloodletter of Aclazotz is on the board. We also have damage sources that punish players for having few or no cards in their hand, such as Shrieking Affliction, Hellfire Mongrel and Tinybones, Trinket Thief, but these are usually less effective (although Tinybones, Trinket Thief can pack quite a punch).

Creature Damage
One of the weaknesses of this deck is we don't run many creatures, so it can be difficult to build a board presence. However, we have access to some nasty critters that, if unanswered, can cause big problems for our opponents. Tergrid, God of Fright   is an absolute house - I'd run her as the Commander if we were a mono black deck as she can take over games on her own. Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal   are dangerous flying threats that demand answers. Same goes for Archfiend of Ifnir which often works as a one-sided boardwipe if we get our opponents discarding enough cards. A late game Necrogoyf also packs some serious power.

Additionally we have a small subset of cards that generate creature tokens when we cast instants or sorceries, or when we force opponents to discard cards. These include Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal  , Pack Rat, Sedgemoor Witch, Murmuring Mystic, Young Pyromancer and Waste Not. We mainly use these tokens as chump blockers but they can occasionally get through for a handful of extra points of damage.

Other Key Cards

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I've grouped many of our other key cards into categories so you can see how the deck fits together as a whole.

Discard Abilities
As mentioned earlier, we prioritise mass discard sources in this deck as single-target discards spells are less efficient. There's too many to list them all here but Arterial Flow, Burning Inquiry, Dark Deal, Delirium Skeins, Fraying Omnipotence, Mind Rake, Syphon Mind, Vicious Rumors, Whispering Madness and Windfall are our favourite one-shot effects to then re-cast with Kess, Dissident Mage. Repeatable discard sources like Necrogen Mists, Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal  , Cunning Lethemancer, Necrogoyf and The Haunt of Hightower mean we have recurring outlets to help empty our opponents' hands. While it's a single-target spell, good old Hymn to Tourach is too good not to include.

Card Draw
We try to force card advantage by making our opponents discard cards from their hand, while breaking parity by accessing card draw sources of our own and leveraging the graveyard with Kess, Dissident Mage. While card draw can sometimes be a drawback for us (ie. if Ensnaring Bridge is in play, we rely on a steady stream of gas to fuel our discard effects. Cards chosen for this purpose include Painful Truths, Waste Not, Syphon Mind, Whispering Madness, Windfall, Bandit's Talent and Rielle, the Everwise. Some of these pull double duty as we can re-cast them from the graveyard with Kess.

Removal & Boardwipes
We are a control deck so we want to keep the board as clear of opposing threats as possible. Blasphemous Act, Chain Reaction, Damnation, Toxic Deluge and Earthquake are our boardwipes of choice. Earthquake is particularly useful as it doesn't affect Kess, Dissident Mage if she's in play. Alongside our boardwipes, we run spot removal options including Fell, Terminate, Victim of Night, Feed the Swarm and Chaos Warp. We're particularly weak to enchantments and artifacts as we rely on Chaos Warp to answer these (or our discard as a pre-emptive solution).

Mana Base
We're very nearly a mono black deck so 80% of our lands are capable of generating black mana. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is particularly useful as it turns everything into Swamps. However we also need blue and red sources to cast Kess, Dissident Mage, along with the handful of non-black spells in the list. Our lands are accompanied by a a bunch of mana rocks, all of which can also generate black mana. It's not a land but Goblin Electromanceris a useful way of reducing the casting cost of our instants and sorceries.

Other Cards
Ensnaring Bridge is a must for discard decks as it shuts down combat strategies by rewarding us for emptying our hand. Torment of Hailfire can be a useful finisher but only when we have a lot of mana available (and might be replaced by Breach the Multiverse as it's arguably more effective). Chainer, Nightmare Adept is a recent addition but synergises well with self-discard strategies and acts like Kess, Dissident Mage but for creatures. This can be very useful as we run a low density of creatures and effectively doubles the number available to us.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

Despite a lot of development - and a fair bit of investment - this is still one of my Tier 4 decks. Winning games has been a problem as we're rarely more than an annoyance to even mid-power casual decks. Faster decks can often outrace us and, so far, discard hasn't been a successful strategy at the tables I've played. I haven't yet tested the newer version of the deck with our Professor Onyx // Chain of Smog combo and the tutors to find them, so I'm hoping it will be more successful in its new iteration, along with some more efficient card choices. But, as things stand, this is a deck for lower powered pods only.

Budget

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The investment mentioned in the previous section has come at a cost. The average value of this deck on Card Kingdom is around $600. That's obviously very expensive for a casual deck and takes into account its three colour mana base with shocks and fetches; and premium card choices in some categories, such as Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Torment of Hailfire, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Bloodletter of Aclazotz etc. Most of the discard pieces themselves are relatively cheap so it's entirely possible to build a discard deck on a lower budget. In fact it's arguable that a mono black version fronted by Tergrid, God of Fright   might be more effective.

Upcoming Changes

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After seemingly endless rounds of iteration, I've got this list to a stage where I'm happy although more playtesting is needed. I'd like to find room for Breach the Multiverse as another potential finisher.

Thanks for reading this primer. I hope you found it useful :)

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Talrand, Sky Summoner {U}
Blue Streak: Mono-Blue Spellslinger

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Goodstuff

{B} Syr Konrad, the Grim {B}
Black Hole: Mono-Black Sacrifice/Aristocrats

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Stax

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IV {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Hallar, the Firefletcher {R}{G}
Trailblazer: Gruul Kicker

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Heron's Grace {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Prime Speaker Zegana {U}{G}
Wicked Twister: Simic +1/+1 Counters

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Kess, Dissident Mage {U}{B}{R}
Mindbender: Grixis Discard

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Spirits Tribal

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 days
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.98
Tokens	Bat 1/1 B, Bird Illusion 1/1 U, Copy Clone, Elemental 1/1 R, Pest 1/1 BG, Zombie 2/2 B