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Thought I Was Dead? [Primer]

Commander / EDH Aggro BR (Rakdos) Casual Midrange Multiplayer Primer Reanimator Sacrifice

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Creature (29)

Enchantment (4)

Land (34)

Artifact (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate

Instant (14)

Sorcery (8)

Maybeboard

Creature (33)

Artifact (18)

Sorcery (7)

Instant (12)

Enchantment (8)

"You all Thought I Was Dead?"

I'm glad that Alesha is still alive (and thriving?) in the new Tarkir timeline. My first trip into Mardu building was with my OG Alesha deck; one that was built in homage to someone in my family who is Trans. Given that homage, OG Alesha was one of the first commander decks that I put a lot of care and effort into fine-tuning and upgrading, trying out a few different iterations before settling into a combo & stax-y build.

Although I took apart my OG Alesha deck to build Isshin, almost 3 years ago, I am super excited to have our new, grizzled and wizened Alesha. Although her lack of White presents a drawback in lack of access to certain combo and removal pieces, Alesha trades that off for expanded access on who she can recur back to the battlefield, no longer limited by her prior 2 power or less clause. In some ways I am both relieved and a bit disappointed that she is now only 2 colors, but am ultimately excited to revisit a deck and commander that I loved, in a new way. I haven't felt this excited, and oddly invested, in a new commander in a while.

As I've started to brew new Alesha, I can't help but laugh at how through this new version, I am revisiting some of the building puzzles I encountered with OG Alesha, namely:

  • Enabling Alesha as an aggro commander, but trying to make sure the deck doesn't depend entirely on her to function.

  • Balancing out means of buffing and protecting Alesha, along with all the key essentials of keeping the deck functional and interactive.

  • Dialing in the right Graveyard filling components that feel "right" to me, in terms of balancing out Looting/Rummaging, Self Mill, & a pinch of Aristocrats/Sacrifice.

The deck will likely change in focus as I continue to fine-tune and hone in on what feels right for me and in the larger context of the play group I primarily play with (lots of Aggro, and plenty of Group Slug). It's exciting to revisit a new version of an old favorite with three-ish more years of experience and perspective under my belt since our last visit.

My first Alesha deck made use of combos that featured Reveillark and Karmic Guide, and other components of infinite loops. For this iteration, I currently plan on foregoing combos, unless I can find one that doesn't feel too shoehorned in. As of now, the general game plan is:

  • Get Alesha out and buffed for some early-mid game combat pokes, especially before opposing boards are gummed up.

  • Utilize discard, self mill, & sac outlets to get creatures with decent ETB or on death effects in and out of the graveyard with Alesha and other recursion effects.

  • The top end of the creature curve will go no higher than 6 cmc (for now), mostly to keep Alesha's recursion in a fairly feasible range regardless of when she hits the board. The core value of creatures in the 99 is ideally kept in the 2-4cmc range, which makes Alesha's recursion consistent without needing deep power buffing investment.

  • In the mid-late game, make use of bigger and more evasive threats to proc Alesha without sending her into combat as much.

  • When possible, reuse group drain effects like Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Kokusho, the Evening Star to wear down or finish off the table while building up a life buffer against retaliations.

  • On the occasion that Alesha gets north of 7+ power and can stick around Chandra's Ignition can act as a finisher.

  • Hope that this is all grindy and resilient enough to stay in games.

The deck is fairly low to the ground as of 11/4/24, sitting at about 2.69 (nice) average cmc. Through the various edits since, the average cmc of the deck has fluctuated in the 2.68 - 2.73 range.

The deck has a bit of early game ramp with Treasures and some ritual effects to help carry and accelerate through the mid-late game. I've recently found myself cutting back on early game ramp (1-2 cmc rocks) to make additional slots for creatures or removal. I'd rather draw into another useful body or removal piece once I start getting north of turn 4.

Rocks

Ritual

Treasure support

Not early game ramp, but still very useful for speed boosts in mid-late game. Although they're not currently in the deck, but Rev, Tithe Extractor and Goldspan Dragon are considerations as possible additions to round out this section.

In a deck like this, the Graveyard is essentially a second hand for recursion effects. Ratios of different draw and graveyard filling elements will change as a I get irl games in.

Cantrips & Drawing to hand

Impulse Draw

Effects that exile cards from the top of library, then make them available to play for a limited time window.

Looting & Rummaging

Discard a card and draw a card. Wait, or maybe draw a card, then discard a card.

Sacrifices are needed

Self Milling

Tutors

This section will for sure get some fine tuning in regards to the ratio of team-wide vs Alesha specific buffing. I think over time, the majority of the effects in this section will be team anthems, with a few valuable Alesha focused effects.

Team anthems

Effects that provide power buffs and/or keywords beyond Alesha

  • Archetype of Aggression - This is as much a play group meta pick as it is an anthem for Alesha, primarily. I tend to play in a very aggro leaning meta, so this is intended to speed bump the Trample capabilities of some of those threats.

  • Rising of the Day - Perfect for Alesha in terms of granting haste and a little +1 power boost to broaden her recursion range off the jump.

  • Anger -

  • Enduring Courage

Other power buffs

Not quite anthems, but not quite Alesha focused effects either.

  • Bitter Triumph - An excellent option since the discard requirement can also help set up Alesha for some future recursion.

  • Feed the Swarm - In color combos without Green or White, any enchantment removal is welcomed.

  • Rakdos Charm - Graveyard or artifact hate options. In the context of my meta, the damage option is typically used to punish token strats that have heavily committed to the board.

  • Chaos Warp - In color combos without Green or Wh-

  • Saw in Half - Although this is technically spot removal, the majority of the time it will be used to kill one of my own creatures with a death trigger or ETB trigger.

  • Withering Torment - In color combos wi-

  • Chandra's Ignition

  • Living Deathfoil - Kind of a board wipe, also a recursion piece. This might get supplemented with Blasphemous Edict or Blasphemous Act as an additional wipe option.

Trying to make the most of Alesha's ability to recur creatures with some of these removal options. In general, these are intended to be repeatable either through recursion, or their built in activated or triggered abilities

The cards in this section vary from dedicated group life drain to meta-ish picks for hampering other strategies I typically encounter, but without shutting them down completely. I prefer to speed bump my opponents when possible instead of preventing them from playing at all.

Miscellaneous interaction

  • Bojuka Bog - Asymmetrical graveyard hate. I typically play Scavenger Grounds in most other decks, but can't afford to lose my own graveyard.

  • Strip Mine - Every so often a Glacial Chasm or other troublesome utility land pops up and needs to be dealt with. Volatile Fault, Demolition Field, & Ghost Quarter are all decent budget alternatives.

  • Shadowspear - Politicking to assist with removal on tough targets.

  • Rakdos Charm - Depending on the game, I typically either pick graveyard hate or the damage option to punish (or outright kill) a heavily board committed token deck.

  • Archetype of Aggression - As mentioned before this is also intended to shut off Trampling threats I typically encounter in my aggro play group.

  • Kardur, Doomscourge - I frequently play against aggro decks. As of November 2024, my main playgroup has 4 different dedicated Goad commanders (including one of mine), and sprinklings of Goad in our other aggro lists. It helps to deflect aggro away whenever possible.

Life Drain

The inclusion of this subset of cards is kinda multifaceted in the context of my playgroup. This section acts as much as a life buffer against other aggro in its lifegain components, and can also weaken or finish off a table if not dealt with.

  • Mayhem Devil - I typically play against aristocrats leaning decks about half of the games I play at any given session. This will be a fairly common thread to some of the other picks in in this section.

  • Gray Merchant of Asphodel - A strong ETB to be able to recur repeatedly. The deck leans heavily Black.

  • Syr Konrad, the Grim - Another Aristocrats payoff & asymmetrical punishment piece.

  • Kokusho, the Evening Star - Similar-ish inclusion as Gary, but on a big body that blocks well, & can be an evasive aggro threat in mid-late game.

  • Massacre Wurm - A board wipe, as well as token & Aristocrats hate all bundled into one toothy package.

  • Vein Ripper - Tech in a similar vein as Mayhem Devil, Konrad, & Massacre Wurm. Also another mid-late game blocker & aggro threat like Kokusho.

The protection pieces in this section are intended to primarily keep Alesha upright and active. The recursion is intended to take some of the pressure off Alesha as the primary recursion engine in the deck, and helps maximize value out of the various death and ETB triggers in the creature base.

Protection

Recursion

Decks that utilize their graveyards and reanimation have no shortage of options for creatures, graveyard filling effects, as well as payoffs for getting their creatures in and out of the yard. This section is intended to highlight other components that brewers can use to put different emphasis on their Alesha builds, especially with consideration to their play groups and play styles.

If you plan on sacrificing your creatures a lot, why not also maximize your benefit?

Pay Offs

Pingers & Group drain

Symmetrical sacrifice

Maybe you just want to smack face with Alesha, and the recursion is just a little cherry on top to get support pieces back. Add in your favorite equipment, combat tricks, and extra combats.

Auras

By no means exhaustive, but worth looking at:

Combat Tricks

Commander focused buffs

Equipment

Absolutely not an exhaustive list, but a handful that could be worth looking at:

Extra Combat

As mentioned towards the beginning of my primer, I'm foregoing (creature) spells that are above 6 cmc, mostly to keep hard casting & Alesha's recursion in a feasible range. This mentality may shift over time as I get more games in. Here are some top end creatures that could potentially sit at the top of the curve sometime down the line:

Alesha lived

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94% Casual

Competitive

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #1 position overall 1 week ago
Date added 3 weeks
Last updated a few seconds
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

7 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

29 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.74
Tokens Copy Clone, Elemental 1/1 R, Fish 1/1 U, Treasure, Wicked
Folders Favorite Decks, Commander, Decks I like, commander
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