Kethis legendary leader

Commander / EDH BGW (Abzan, Junk) Legendary Matters Reanimator

tuffcookie28

Creature (32)

• 1x Ashaya, Soul of the Wild
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
• 1x Captain Sisay
• 1x Dosan the Falling Leaf
• 1x Dragonlord Dromoka
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Gaddock Teeg
• 1x Karador, Ghost Chieftain
• 1x Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1x Kodama of the East Tree
• 1x Krav, the Unredeemed
• 1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
• 1x Nethroi, Apex of Death
• 1x Nylea, Keen-Eyed
• 1x Old Gnawbone
• 1x Ravos, Soultender
• 1x Reki, the History of Kamigawa
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Saryth, the Viper's Fang
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty *f-pre*
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier *f-pre*
• 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
• 1x The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of HungerGC
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan *f-pre*
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Kaya the Inexorable
• 1x Nissa of Shadowed Boughs *f-pre*
• 1x Nissa, Vital Force
• 1x Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

Land (35)

• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 3x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x High Market
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Isolated Chapel *f-pre*
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 4x Plains
• 1x Scattered Groves
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Instant (6)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Heroic Intervention *f-pre*
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

Commander (1)

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Eerie Ultimatum
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Kamahl's Druidic Vow
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Primevals' Glorious Rebirth *f-pre*
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Urza's Ruinous Blast

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Aura Shards
• 1x Day of Destiny
• 1x Defense of the Heart
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Smothering TitheGC

Artifact (2)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x The Great Henge *f-pre*

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I'm aware that as a commander, Kethis tends to have similar lists due to the nature that legendary tribal isn't much of an archetype. But here is my list none the less.

Re-animation/Recursion

Because Abzan commanders mostly focus on reanimation or +1+1 counters I decided to start with commanders that can help me maintain a board start even with disruption and board wipes, so a large sub-theme I wanted to go for was being able to recur threats or utility creatures because any creature based deck will have a hard time with multiple board clearing effects.

Kethis, the Hidden Hand has his own built in recursion, however it comes at a high price by exiling two other legendary cards from your graveyard to cast any other legendary card. This is generally going to be used as a last resort to get back a key piece.

Athreos, God of Passage can be a good way of recurring some of our utility creatures such as Saffi Eriksdotter + Sakura-Tribe Elder . So by choosing the same opponent for each trigger, either they start getting drained for each creature death or they are forcing into allowing us a value engine. Athreos also has the added benefit of being indestructible like the rest of the gods. So even if he is a creature, he can survive most board wipes.

Karador, Ghost Chieftain is kind of a secret commander for the build as he would be the next best option to helm the deck. But I wanted to test out how powerful the mana cost reduction Kethis provides would be. Not much explaining needed for Karador. He is a solid creature whether at the helm of a deck or in the 99 with great graveyard recursion.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth another great recursion machine that needs no introduction. Even though the deck isn't necessarily built to abuse her absurd value with experience counters, just getting a creature back to hand from the yard each turn is fantastic.

Ravos, Soultender much like Meren, ravos' ability to get our creatures back to hand can really help us stay relevant through removal. He also has the added bonus of an anthem effect, which is another sub theme of the deck as our main win condition is combat damage, so having huge legends swinging in makes this easier.

Saffi Eriksdotter as mentioned above, Saffi is amazing at making our threats seem like poor targets for removal. With her on the board our opponent's will think twice about trying to deal with our creatures because Saffi just brings them right back. Also she will be on the our main targets to bring back from the yard if we're able.

Sheoldred, Whispering One is one of the powerhouse re-animator creatures. The powerful ability of bringing a creature from the yard to play each turn, combined with the fact that she diminishes our opponent's boards on each of their turns. She's someone you never want to see on your opponent's side, but love to see it on your board.

Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle can be one of our most value recursion tools because he can help us bring back most of our utility creatures just from playing our spells. I wanted to try leaning hard into the legendary count for the deck to really utility Kethis' CMC reduction, but it also helps us to trigger Teshar.

Primevals' Glorious Rebirth is a game changer for the deck as this one spell can bring back all but 2 of our creatures, all of our artifacts, and most of our lands if they are in the graveyard! Talk about value! As someone that has seen this card used against them to great effect, let me tell you that it feels back breaking then it is across the table. But it allows us to recover from just about anything our opponents throw at us.

Volrath's Stronghold While not a cheap option for recursion, it is a great way to help our ability to recur while not taking a card slot. It also has the added benefit of allowing us some neat tricks. For example we can use this ability during our upkeep after we have untapped to get something back when we draw it for the turn, or to snatch something before we have any card draw trigger.

Sacrifice to reuse

Because my particular playgroup has a large amount of control (especially in the amount of exile for permanent removal) I wanted to be able to have some outlets to try protecting my big threats so that I might be able to redeploy them later on.

Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim As a commander I’ve had before, I know how useful Ayli can be. She gives us a decent deathtouch body for only 2 mana and that’s only the beginning. For just one mana we can sacrifice anything that is about to be removed, plus we gain life equal to the creature’s toughness which will get us closer to her other ability. Ayli pulls double duty as a sacrifice outlet and removal if the game happens to be going well.

Erebos, Bleak-Hearted Much like Ayli, Erebos can be a sacrifice outlet and a source of removal. But his removal is more suited to killing small utility creatures that we don’t with his -2-1. However he also serves as a source of card draw in the deck.

Krav, the Unredeemed like Erebos will be a sacrifice outlet that helps us with card draw. But his card draw doesn’t come at the cost of life like with Erebos. However Krav allows us to sacrifice any amount of creatures for just one black mana, so we can pitch our whole board if we need to protect them from exile effects. Plus if we have a recursion engine in place, we can turn Krav into a large threat.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan is our best bet if we need a sac outlet as she provides one for free. But by sacrificing anything to her ability, she becomes indestructible and that much harder to get rid of. So an outlet that can protect itself is fantastic.

High Market + Phyrexian Tower both give us sac outlets in our land slots. While market nets us a little extra life, the tower can help us ramp if we really need the extra black mana.

Protecting ourselves and our board

Because we are a creature based deck, it is very important that we have ways to protect our board so that we can actually use it. This is why I have included the following cards to help ensure our tools to victory can stick around.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope gives our entire board indestructible, so most of the common board wipes will do nothing against us. Generally someone needs to answer Avacyn before continuing to attack our board so she is a great include for us.

Dosan the Falling Leaf keeps everyone playing spells on their turns only. While this doesn’t protect us from everything, it does allow us to cast spells in peace on our turn and not worry about counterspells keeping us off of our threats. I am also aware that Dosan is a NONBO with Vivien, Champion of the Wilds but both Vivien and Dosan serve great purposes in the deck so I included both.

Dragonlord Dromoka is much the same as Dosan. She gives us a reprieve during our turn to cast spells freely and hopefully attack without interruption.

Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant   is a little bit of cheesy include here, but it seemed too good not to run. Plus let’s be honest, it isn’t as annoying as say Serra Ascendant or Felidar Sovereign. But Rune-Tail being a 2 drop with Kethis and being able to flip instantly to provide us an amazing enchantment is so nice. With this on the field we no longer have to worry about attacking or blocking repercussions and it stops any damage our creatures would take outside of combat as well.

Asceticism + Shalai, Voice of Plenty pair incredibly well together and make it so it is much more difficult to deal this our board. Shalai can also start slowly making our team larger with her activated ability, while Asceticism can help us bring back creatures with its regenerate.

Sigarda, Host of Herons is a strong flyer that also just says no to any effects our opponents play that would make us sacrifice anything.

Winning the game

When I put this list together my goal was to make something fun, but not so under powered that it was a joke. I know that I could have more defined win conditions or combos in the deck. However this is my attempt at branching out from my usual play style.

The main way I wanted to win games was just making a scary board state of legendary monster and turning sideways. So I went for some good anthem effects that either fit flavorfully with the legends theme of the deck, or were just good cards that happened to have anthems stapled on.

Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite has a powerful buff for our team, while killing small creatures on opponent’s boards if not outright killing them.

Ravos, Soultender as mentioned above.

Trostani Discordant buffs the team while making creature theft much less desirable. (I have a large amount of steal stuff in my playgroup, so this is some special tech to deal with such strategies)

Blackblade Reforged can make any one of our creatures huge, plus with Kethis around its only a 1 mana equipment!

Heroes' Podium give us a coat of arms for our team, along with the ability to dig for more creatures off the top of our library.

The Great Henge is everything we could want. A legendary spell so our commander can make it cheaper, it makes itself cheaper if we have creatures, it ramps us, gives us cards for playing creatures, and makes our creatures come into play larger!

Day of Destiny just a great anthem for us that can become easier to cast thanks to our commander.

Mirari's Wake an anthem effect that also doubles our mana, sign me up!

The other win condition I included is the Living Death + Syr Konrad, the Grim combo. If we have a sacrifice outlet we kill our whole board with living death on the stack. Konrad sees all of the death triggers and hits our opponents. Then our opponents have to sacrifice their boards and everything we have in the graveyard comes back and we can proceed to either abuse Syr Konrad some more, or start attacking with our huge team.

I hope this description was helpful to someone. This is my first time putting together a description with my deck list, so if I left anything out or you would like more information on anything about the deck feel free to let me know.

Cheers!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Living Death + Syr Konrad, the Grim Saffi Eriksdotter + Sakura-Tribe Elder High Market + Phyrexian Tower Asceticism + Shalai, Voice of Plenty
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	29 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 3 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.22
Tokens	Emblem Kaya the Inexorable, Emblem Nissa, Vital Force, Experience Token, Spirit 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 W, Treasure