Kess’ Mills on Wheels

Commander / EDH Mill UBR (Grixis)

The2odiak

Land (32)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crosis's Catacombs
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 5x Island
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (8)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Chasm Skulker
• 1x Docent of Perfection  ^Flip
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x The Locust God
• 1x Trinket Mage

Instant (19)

• 1x Ancient Excavation *list*
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC
• 1x Whir of Invention

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Molten Psyche
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Stolen Identity
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Trading Post

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Sphinx's Tutelage
• 1x Waste Not

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

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Sideboard

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic TutorGC

Land (1)

• 1x Riptide Laboratory

Instant (1)

• 1x Psychic Spiral

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Maybeboard

Artifact (3)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Mana Crypt

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Past in Flames
• 1x Traumatize

Instant (1)

• 1x Cryptic Command *list*

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Hello! This is my Spell slinging, wheeling deck that I've been working on since I started commander in 2014. Enjoy! Comment any questions or advice on cards, I'm always looking for more ideas. Sideboard are cards that I plan to add to the deck and Maybeboard are cards I'm looking to try out or can't buy due to money constraints.

General Idea of the Deck

Just keep. Casting. Wheels. Everything else will work out I swear.

In all seriousness, the deck is built around casting as many wheels as you can. The other cards of the deck are there to either ramp, draw me into wheels, tutor for wheels, or work well with wheels. The deck wins mostly with a copied Molten Pysche or decking out the other decks. Yes, mill is a really easy way of winning when you can have 10 castings of wheels without cipher or reshuffling your deck. This deck does have other ways of winning through an Exsanguinate or token beats with Docent of Perfection   or my favorite Izzet legendary locust god.

History

WARNING: IF YOU DON'T LIKE READING BACKSTORY, THEN JUST SKIP THIS PART. IT'S JUST ME RANTING ABOUT MYSELF AND THE PAST ITERATIONS OF THE DECK.

This deck has gone through many iterations of spell slinging and wheeling type of decks. It started off as a Melek, Izzet Paragon deck that focused on casting the biggest Fireball I could. That deck was the start of my love for spell slinging decks. From there, it went through a lot of different changes a I tried to find something else that tickled my fancy, from Riku of Two Reflections to Wort, the Raidmother to Jeleva, Nephilia's Scourge. It got put aside though when I bought the 2013 Grixis precon with Nekusar in the deck. I loved the idea of killing people by making them draw cards. So I tried making the best deck possible with that, but I just could not find a good way to not be targeted turn 1 and also win.

Then, Commander 2015 came out.

I fell in love with Mizzix of the Izmagus. She did everything I wanted in a spellslinging deck. Not only did she allow me to play more spells per turn, she also ramped my X spells to even higher limits. Without even trying, I made a deck that became the bane of my playgroup. I felt unstoppable. I couldn't lose.

I got bored. I got bored with winning, I got bored with playing a deck everyone groaned at. So I started looking for other decks to play, but I never could find anything I liked. When Commander 2016 came out with 4 color decks, I was excited to try out decks with Partners. I rebuilt my Nekusar deck, but splashing white in for stax effects and board control. It quickly came apart because turns out I hate playing with and against stax.

This honestly became the low of my magic career. I didn't want to play. I didn't like any deck I built. I could easily predict how certain decks would play based on the commanders I saw. Magic wasn't fun to me anymore. Then God himself descended out of the heavens in Hour of Devastation in the form of locust god. Yes!!! A new Izzet (favorite 2 color combo if you didn't notice) legendary that was mostly different from the others AND IT WAS GOOD?? That deck became the base for this deck you see now. When Kess, Dissident Mage was spoiled, I felt that this year was so good to me. Two legendaries that were straight up my alley in one year?? Unheard of.

So I started to build Kess. Honestly, the first iteration of the deck looked more like my Mizzix deck than it does now. And that made my play group hate my deck yet again. So I took it apart in about a week. I wanted a deck that my group liked while also being able to do everything I wanted, which was (and still is) cast a ton of instants and sorceries. I thought about it for weeks on end, trying to find a balance between "fun" and good. Finaly, as I was watching my favorite commander Twitch streamer MTG Lexicon (Shouts Out!!!) I saw one of the players playing a Kess zombie tribal deck. He used wheels to get his Zombies into the graveyard, then reanimated them through various means. And that deck was the starting point of my deck. My brain went through hundreds of ideas at once when I saw that deck. Wheeling my instants and sorceries to the graveyard, then casting them all from the graveyard, meaning that my wheels had almost no downside??

And so, the deck came into fruition as you see today.

Cards and Combos

There's only one infinite combo in this deck, and that's the Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank combo. The only reason its in the deck at all is because both of the cards by themselves work great with the rest of the deck. Plus, I think every deck should have one as a backup when someone's life is just too high for you to deal with.

The rest of this part will be talking about awesome synergies in the deck as well as some of the cards that stand out

CIPHER

Cipher cards are fantastic in this deck. You can cast them from hand, then from the graveyard and cipher them onto Kess, Dissident Mage , who then attacks a player with FLYING and casts them again. That's 3 castings of 1 card with only the commander as the other part of this "combo". Fantastic. Favorite cipher card would obviously be Whispering Madness . 3 wheels on 1 card is just too good.

Sun's Zeniths

The zenith cycle works awesomely with Kess as well. You can use them as discard fodder then cast them out of the graveyard and shuffle them back into the deck. This only works with Kess though, since the card never actually hits the graveyard because of it's shuffle effect. I personally only run Blue Sun's Zenith , but I could easily see the other ones in this color combo being played with Kess.

Increasing Cycle

The Increasing X Cycle of cards work well with Kess as well, letting you get the benefit of casting from the graveyard with only the smaller mana cost. My favorite is Increasing Vengeance , which might eventually get a spot in the deck.

Cycling

Any instant or sorcery that has Cycling is going to work well with Kess. Getting to discard cards you don't need for card draw then casting them later out of the graveyard when you really need them gives you a crazy amount of card selection that not a lot of decks have. I could see whole decks built around this idea. I only run Ancient Excavation though. This most of the time gets land cycled then casted later when I have more cards i hand.

Buyback

Buyback cards also works well with Kess, allowing you to cast the card without buyback early game, then late game recast them out of the graveyard WITH buyback to bring it back to your hand for more castings. I only run Capsize , but I could see the others being used as well

The Enchantments

The enchantments in this deck are what push this deck to higher levels of wheeling. I'm mostly talking about Waste Not and Sphinx's Tutelage . If you have not seen how much Waste Not put work into a Wheels deck, then you have not had the chance to see the epitome of a Wheels turn. This card can bring your deck above and beyond, and will win you games if unanswered. Be warned though, only play this card if you're about to wheel. Usually doesn't last a whole turn cycle. Sphinx's Tutelage goes so well with wheels. Most of the time when this is out, you're milling at least 14 cards at a time. That's only if they don't have any cards that match in color too.

Bloodchief Ascension is so awesome once it turns on. With wheels, it can be the thing that drains your opponents 14 life at a time (7 cards usually because wheels). This with wheels and Sphinx's Tutelage is usually just gg.

Rhystic Study and As Foretold are just super good enchantments. Rhystic Study is just a staple in most, if not, all blue decks. As Foretold is super good when you tapped out on your turn to cast more tasty wheels and wanted to cast more stuff on your opponents turns (like the few counter spells in this deck). As Foretold also works well with Kess because the enchantment lets you cast out of the graveyard for free.

Jace's Sanctum and Search for Azcanta   are there for card selection, and work really well with Sensei's Divining Top and Brainstorm with the ealier allowing topdeck manipulation out the *ss and the latter letting you put cards you don't want from your hand into your graveyard or scry them to the bottom.

Mindcrank

Mindcrank gets it's own shout out because it works super well with the rest of the deck and is one of the few artifacts that isn't just ramp. It makes the tons of tokens we usually make with Waste Not or locust god into great ways to mill, it makes even a small Molten Psyche into a fantastic milling source, and it even combos with Bloodchief Ascension . Just great overall

Creatures

locust god and Docent of Perfection   are what makes this deck into a potential beats deck. locust god just poops out locusts when played with wheels. Docent of Perfection   is just awesome. Makes tokens when we cast an instant or sorcery, buffs not only them but also our commander, and only gets better when we cipher on a Stolen Identity to buff our tokens and commander EVEN MOAR. Good stuff all around.

Notion Thief . Ah yes. The one card in this deck that does something I don't particularly want but is also just too good not to have. This plus any wheel empties your opponents hands while skyrocketing your own. But with this, you're usually losing library faster than your opponents are, which usually isn't good. This plus Dack Fayden is pretty hilarious though, making your opponents discard cards while you draw them. Notion Thief also works well with Sphinx's Tutelage , letting you mill your opponents a crazy amount.

Matchups

This deck honestly works pretty well against most decks, as it's built to be flexible. I can only think of 3 possibly bad matchups. Stax, hatebears (are hatebear decks stax decks???), and any deck that wants cards in the graveyard, from dredge to reanimate. I personally play against a GW Stax deck and a Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck. The timely use of your counter spells will be key in these matchups. Don't worry too much about cards that limit the amount of spells we cast or lands we untap. We play with enough artifact mana to get around land disruption and our wheels can be played turn after turn with only our strategy slowing down instead of stopping. The cards that you should be worried about are cards that limit card draw (our main way of winning), and Rest in Peace effects. This is a graveyard deck. Don't let your graveyard RIP.

When playing against graveyard decks, just be mindful about what's in their graveyard. A timely exiling effect from one of your cards will ruin their deck, so just be aware.

Other decks we may worry about are super aggro decks. We usually play with enough board wipes that we can usually survive long enough until they stall, but try to limit the amount of damage early on as much as possible through politics or with Kess, Dissident Mage (she makes an excellent blocker against early pokers).

It's hard talking about matchups as you the player are the only one that knows what your meta is like. Change the decklist to fit your own meta. Add more removal spells if there's a lot of stax or aggro decks in your meta, run more graveyard hate spells if there's a lot of graveyard decks in your meta, etc.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Bloodchief Ascension + Mindcrank
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 3 Rares 22 - 1 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.99
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Dack Fayden, Goat 0/1 W, Human Wizard 1/1 U, Insect 1/1 UR, Squid 1/1 U, Zombie 2/2 B