Watch out, we've got a badass over here
Commander / EDH* Aggro Combo Multiplayer RBW (Mardu) Reanimator Tokens
Creature (30)
- 1x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
- 1x Angel of Invention
- 1x Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
- 1x Big Game Hunter
-
1x
Blood Artist
- 1x Brutal Hordechief
- 1x Burnished Hart
-
1x
Duergar Hedge-Mage
- 1x Falkenrath Noble
- 1x Feldon of the Third Path
-
1x
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
- 1x Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
- 1x Iroas, God of Victory *list*
- 1x Karmic Guide
- 1x Leonin Relic-Warder
- 1x Master of Cruelties
- 1x Mentor of the Meek
- 1x Mirror Entity
- 1x Mother of Runes
- 1x Murderous Redcap
- 1x Nekrataal
- 1x Protector of the Crown
- 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
- 1x Reveillark
- 1x Siege-Gang Commander
- 1x Solemn Simulacrum
- 1x Sun Titan
- 1x Viscera Seer
- 1x War Priest of Thune
- 1x Zulaport Cutthroat
Instant (5)
Land (36)
-
1x
Bloodfell Caves
- 1x Bojuka Bog
- 1x Boros Garrison
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Concealed Courtyard
- 1x Evolving Wilds
- 1x High Market
- 1x Inspiring Vantage
- 4x Mountain
- 1x Nomad Outpost
- 1x Opal Palace
- 1x Orzhov Basilica
- 5x Plains
- 1x Rakdos Carnarium
- 1x Rogue's Passage
- 1x Rupture Spire
- 1x Shambling Vent
- 6x Swamp
- 1x Temple of the False God
- 1x Terrain Generator
- 1x Vault of the Archangel
- 1x Vivid Crag
- 1x Vivid Marsh
- 1x Vivid Meadow
Sorcery (8)
Commander (1)
Enchantment (9)
- 1x Animate Dead
- 1x Attrition
- 1x Behind the Scenes
- 1x Cathars' Crusade
- 1x Dictate of Erebos
- 1x Goblin Bombardment
- 1x Grave Pact
- 1x Mardu Ascendancy
- 1x Reconnaissance
Artifact (9)
- 1x Altar of Dementia
- 1x Ashnod's Altar
- 1x Boros Signet
- 1x Chromatic Lantern
- 1x Key to the City
- 1x Lightning Greaves
- 1x Orzhov Signet
- 1x Rakdos Signet
- 1x Sol Ring
Planeswalker (2)
We're quoting already. And it makes a lot of sense to do so, because the deck pretty much functions as announced. Alesha is here to rumble and she'll bring friends. Very angry friends, ready to face death in battle.
That's it, Alesha isn't huge, but she brings much more to the table than her offensive prowess. Those who already checked some of my decks or comments would know I play also Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Brago, King Eternal. Alesha functions as a crossover between both. She likes to bring things from the grave, and abuses ETB triggers while at it. Not at Brago speed, but she brings things back much less conditionally than Meren does.
The core of the deck is made of 2 power creatures because of course that's how we make the most of Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, and the deck is pretty much creature based. I tried to focus most effects in creatures so the deck can be kind of a toolbox that I can keep recycling for value, but of course, some non creature spells help round up the numbers and even though mostly I won't be able to use them over and over again, these are much needed effects in a deck like this.
This is an aggressive reanimator deck, alright, but running such small creatures, usually we won't win most of our games just straight out attacking. These colors, and that useful reanimation ability, allow us to run a very synergistic combo package that will be our main win condition in most matches.
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit / Cathars' Crusade + Murderous Redcap + Any free sac outlet
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit bolstering, or Cathars' Crusade growing our whole board as we sack Murderous Redcap essentially counter it's Persist counter, allowing it to persist infinitely and kill the table based on its ETB ability.
Karmic Guide + Reveillark + Any free sac outlet or Mirror Entity
This is hard to put into words or even a picture. You need to kill Reveillark and bring 2 creatures back, one will be Karmic Guide, and then you need to keep sacking those creatures looping Reveillark and Karmic Guide with something else. The reason why this is hard to explain is because the ammount of enablers for you to win with this loop is insane. You can mill everyone bringing Gonti, Lord of Luxury, or straight away win with ETB triggers on your Purphoros, God of the Forge, you might not even need any of those if you are using Goblin Bombardment as your sac outlet. Picture this loop as your loaded cannon, you just need to light it up somehow and you are playing a deck that is essentially half box of matches.
Your opponents will have trouble identifying it in advance if you don't expose Karmic Guide or Reveillark long enough for them to exile one of them, due to its heavy interchangeability, so it is probably your most consistent win condition.
Animate Dead + Leonin Relic-Warder + Anything that damages based on ETB or dying creatures
Animate Dead brings back Leonin Relic-Warder from the graveyard, then it targets Animate Dead exilling it, forcing you to sac the Leonin, bringing Animate Dead back: rinse and repeat. ETB triggers from Purphoros, God of the Forge, or dying triggers from Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat or Falkenrath Noble will ammount to infinite damage to everyone around you.
(If you feel playful, do that loop with Cathars' Crusade and make your board immensely big.)
Of course this is a deck, it would look bad if I didn't plan to turn creatures sideways, and despite the combo package and our small creatures, this is probably the deck I play where I attack the most. Alesha is meant to be aggro, so I am counting on being the aggressor every time.
We run all kinds of removal, on both creature and non-creature spells, we want to keep the board clear enough for our attacks, especially because that's how we abuse our reanimator plan and grow our board even further. Since most of our creatures have relevant ETB triggers, even if they die in combat they will bring us additional value over the next turns so attacking is always a valuable option with this deck. If we manage to stick a Cathars' Crusade in, then we're in business and games don't usually last long from that point, but we also have cards like Reconnaissance, Behind the Scenes , Iroas, God of Victory and Brutal Hordechief to grant us even more forms of protection, evasion and general advantage while going on the offensive.
Below you can follow all changes I've made to the deck ever since I started playing it, as well as my reasonings. This can be helpful to you if you are also looking to change your own Alesha deck, or if you are trying to build this particular deck to play in a different meta. I also keep all of your suggestions below, in the maybeboard, so if you can think of some card I should include, be sure to leave it down in the comments and we'll talk about it.
OUT > Duplicant, Smoldering Marsh
As for actual changes in the actual list, I've added in a Swords to Plowshares which I picked up on a cheap thanks to the latest commander product. I also felt the need for more ways to get cards into my graveyard, so I decided to include a fairly recent card and see how it goes. Took out Anger which doesn't really do as much in the deck, I wouldn't want it back into play and sometimes I'd rather get something else in the grave given the choice. Also Master of Cruelties is a bit pricy and I still didn't own a copy - people don't really like that play and I get that. That's not a card I love, it was just an inclusion that made sense with the general game plan. Since this is a deck meant to be fun and reflect my style of play, I decided to cut Master of Cruelties.
OUT > Anger and Master of Cruelties
IN > Key to the City and Swords to Plowshares
Amongst the more underwhelming was Gray Merchant of Asphodel. In theory he looks sweet, and he his. But outside an infinite combo, he's just a splashy name that makes people jump out of their chairs to kill the guy recurring Gary. In a 3 colour deck the merchant is never going to be as impactful as what made him acquainted to the format in mono black or two coloured decks.
Living Death hasn't yet played a role in the deck, since the deck has few discard sources and not a lot of different ways to gain card advantage while filling the graveyard while Alesha keeps thining it - that's what she's supposed to do. On top of that, my playgroup is made of quick aggressors and reanimator decks mostly, so creatures die, graves get filled, and I almost never get a situation where Living Death turns the tables. For this reasons, I'm tempted to cut the sorcery and get something else, at least until I have a grave filling engine well set.
Cutting Living Death I'm automatically turning Purphoros, God of the Forge into less of a win condition, but hear me out: I've fiddled with Siege-Gang Commander and Angel of Invention a lot in the deck, I've also considered Mardu Ascendancy , and these not only give Purphoros the fodder He-Almighty needs as they help me establish a more favorable board position, while qualifying for fodder for sac outlets later. I'm not huge on the token approach, never been, but with Purphoros, and benefiting of Alesha's ability to use ETB triggers over and over, I tend to find it more and more appealing. This also happens to work wonders with by far the best performer of the deck so far: Cathars' Crusade. In a fair game with no combos running everywhere in the table, Cathars' Crusade wins the game by itself, with tokens, even faster.
I know I just said I'm not discarding as much as I'd like, and Nahiri's Wrath isn't helping. Whenever I draw it or want to use it, I almost never have a hand to discard or most of it is made of answers that would better help me. To make Nahiri's Wrath work, I need a way to draw more cards, which in these colours isn't always an easy task.
Finally, small creatures can't win a game very quickly, usually and so, people tend to keep my deck in check by lowering my life total just enough so that one small step against them is easilly contained by killing me quicker than I can kill them without comboing off. This made me aware of the importance of being able to gain back some like to keep Alesha in the fight for longer. Cards like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat already do that, same with Vault of the Archangel, but I needed something more massive. In a more go-wide strategy, Sorin, Solemn Visitor rises as the perfect choice.
Also, I decided to bring back Master of Cruelties (and I finally found a fair priced one) for a few reasons: first and foremost Oloro, Ageless Ascetic which is a regular presence and frequent winner in my playgroup. Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond , Celestial Mantle, Beacon of Immortality, Felidar Sovereign, Ashen Rider + Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim + Phyrexian Reclamation , and the list goes on. All these pesky cards usually end up taking the game to the helplessness of most of the table, so Master of Cruelties is fair game for that matter. On a smaller scale, Atraxa, Voice of the Praetors is a thing. Also gaining tons of life and stalling the game like a boss pretty much as a precon with no upgrades she is a huge menace that I can't easily get around and win with my 2/2 creatures, so the demon is going to be more of an answer than a go-to win con. In these situations I usually found myself recurring Avalanche Riders to cripple those decks and that was much more annoying and didn't accomplish anything at all. LD is okay in some playgroups, but it's definitely not my style.
Since I'm still testing the deck and trying to figure the best fits, these cuts might end up coming in again later in time:
OUT > Grey Merchant of Asphodel, Living Death , Nahiri's Wrath, Avalanche Riders, Butcher of the Horde
IN > Master of Cruelties, Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Merciless Eviction, Angel of Invention, Mardu Ascendancy
Regarding the cards I haven't covered previously, here's some quick notes. Merciless Eviction fits right in as a way to remove almost anything and is a versatile alternative to Nahiri's Wrath, it exiles, which is a bummer, but I'm almost never using this at a time where it would cripple me. Butcher of Malakir is only good in a wide token strategy, and this deck is not it (at least so far). Most importantly, it isn't hit by Alesha Reanimator, and most times not even Grenzo, Dungeon Warden's. I'm reducing these +2 power cards to a bare minimum and I think Reveillark , Brutal Hordechief and Sun Titan are it.
Being so low to the ground, the deck really needs a lot of card advantage sources to ensure we keep putting threats on the board. Due to the previously spoken Atraxa, Praetors' Voice cards like Palisade Giant and Protector of the Crown are often killed in one shot, and are both too expensive to hard cast and awful when I draw or pitch both. For this reason I'm cutting one of them. Because of deathtouch, 2 additional toughness are not anything to write home about so I favor Protector of the Crown, which incidentally also kind of draws us cards with Monarch.
OUT > Palisade Giant
I know I should be running Wheel of Fortune effects as well so I fill the graveyard quicker, but I want to keep the deck in budget and favour more creatures. This way if Alesha gets targeted a lot, or if I fail to find (which is not that easy every single time), I still keep putting pressure on the board.
I'd really love to bring myself up to include Goblin Rabblemaster as well as some other goodies from the maybeboard, but I want to keep the deck as focused in winning as possible, so I need your help! If you think something should be in the deck, tell me what you'd take out for it ;)
Hit me with all suggestions, my goal is to keep the deck as fun and competitive as possible under a reasonable budget. My playgroup is pretty casual, but creeping up in power level, so I need to keep my decks (and thoughts) fresh. Feel free to send me links to your lists and suggest cards you think should make the cut, even the expensive ones. I favour budget, but if the investment is really worth it I'll either make it, or consider it for future upgrades! Of course, if you like the deck, all upvotes are heavily appreciated!
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| Top Ranked |
|
| Date added | 8 years |
| Last updated | 7 years |
| Key combos | |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 10 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 36 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 3.14 |
| Tokens | Copy Clone, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Goblin 1/1 R, Servo 1/1 C, The Monarch, Vampire 2/2 B |
| Folders | Ideas, Actual EDH Decks |
| Votes | |
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