When they print a creature that has 2 or less power and "No mana cost, sacrifice a creature: Win con" in Mardu I will go -1 Helm -1 RIP +1 Reveillark +1 new card.

If you'll pardon my ignorance, doesn't Containment Priest shut down your own commander?

It does, but it also hoses dedicated reanimation decks. Which we're not - we're a resource denial deck that just happens to have Reanimate in the command zone.

Maybe it should be Yixlid Jailer...

But Priest doesn't even hit one of the scariest reanimator builds: Karador.

I could see it being Hushwing Gryff. It hoses some of the same strategies (Brago blink, Kaalia, etc) while additionally hurting Sharuum, Karador Boonweaver, and several other strategies that Containment Priest can't touch. I think that's what I ended up replacing Priest with in my Alesha mana denial build.

is Lightning Bolt really worth its slot?

hey angelforge, I was looking at your deck to see if there were any cards I could possibly include in my own Alesha build and found a few, namely Loxodon Gatekeeper and Village Bell-Ringer. However, I'm having trouble choosing what to cut. I also noticed that you run 32 lands compared to my 36, but you offset this with a few extra mana rocks. I'm thinking of maybe cutting 2 lands for these cards, but I'm not sure if this will hurt my mana base. Can you offer any advice on cuts? The deck is designed around winning through one of many combos, but has some utility creatures and hatebears thrown in to slow down opponents or deal with their answers. It's not meant to be stax like yours, though. I think you actually saw it on reddit a little while ago. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/lets-put-a-smile-on-that-face-1/

I was also thinking of adding Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip. Any thoughts on her about if she'd be a good inclusion for me? I'm new to Alesha and just looking for more input.

PlattBonnay Yeah. Consider what it kills: Birds of Paradise, Laboratory Maniac, Hermit Druid, Dark Confidant, Derevi, Jeleva, Zur and Brago on block, greedy Ad Nauseam players, lots of FCP fodder... And it does it all without a drawback, at instant speed for one mana. Path to Exile is a nonbo with our land hate and is terrible in the early game.

AngryChewie I actually run 30 lands - Tabernacle and Bazaar are both "spell slot" cards. So I think you could safely cut two lands from your list. I like Liliana, Heretical Healer, but I don't really have any sac outlets to reliably flip her. It looks like you do, so she should be a solid addition. I like Liliana of the Veil more, though.

@ angelforge - If you were to put in a Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead / Necromancy combo what would you take out? Stax pieces, kill spells, or utility?

Also are you planning on running Thalia, Heretic Cathar?

What do think about the new Marchesa? I think a Phyrexian Arena/Bitterblossom hybrid in your command zone might be good for stax.

kengiczar I would cut Kiki Jiki and Village Bell-Ringer. If you want to keep those then hate that's either not relevant or overly redundant (You may not need 4 Sphere of Resistance effects, for example).

Thalia 2 is cool and I'll probably pick one up for my sideboard but I don't really see her being played here - just not big enough of an effect compared to Kismet and Loxodon Gatekeeper. She is a piece of hate so there could be metagames where you want her - probably somewhere heavy multicolor with lots of creatures. But that's why she'll go to the board.

Magicofire2Initial impressions are not great but I'll be thinking about her over the next few days. Both commanders aren't plan A to the deck but I feel that Alesha just gives you a lot more options then the extra card/bodies (along with opening up some sweet power lines via reanimation).

What do you think about adding in Worldgorger Dragon?

It's really easy to enable the dragon/ Animate Dead combo with the way you've got your deck running. If you have something like Bazaar of Baghdad in play you can mill out your whole deck then break the loop by targeting Karmic Guide with animate dead, target kiki jiki with the guide, then copy the guide and reanimate Village Bell-Ringer for the win.

Sure the combo can back fire on you if your opponent has removal, but because you're running stax you're in a good position to protect it.

angelforge - Have you considered Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast? He might be to slow for your deck but being able to destroy multiple creatures and artifacts is very nice.

Splashy Wordgorger Dragon does not seem worth the slot, because we'd be adding a 3rd "Dead" card - we're already playing two do-nothings in Kiki Jiki and Village Bell-Ringer.

That Said WGD + Animate Dead = arbitrary mana and reanimating any target creature, and that's a pretty good value play. That gets absolutely hosed by removal...

Initially I didn't like the idea but I'm going to keep thinking about it.

kengiczar I had thought about it a bit when Conspiracy first came out but haven't tried the card yet. I can't help but feel Liliana of the Veil is better in the first Planeswalker slot, but this guy is pretty solid too.

Oh man if you're willing to pay for Liliana or own one she's better for sure.

Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast is probably your 2nd or 3rd best P-Walker to be honest but he's just $10.00 if you want to save money.

I am curious about Reveillark inclusion in the deck. He seems a slow way to get back your lock creatures, if that is his main purpose. I normally see him in combo with Karmic Guide + Sac Outlet + ETB effect, but I dont see all the pieces in this deck?

With the release of Aether Revolt I really think Hope of Ghirapur would be a great addition to this deck. It can lock an opponent out of the majority of their deck turn after turn with Alesha.

Is there a reason for the inclusion of Chalice of the Void over Sanctum Prelate ? It seems like the latter would be stronger, given they can be recurred by the commander, found by either recruiter, and can act as another beater on the ground. It doesn't hit creature spells, but generally those aren't the problem in EDH.

Just a thought!

Harsh Mentor, newly spoiled from Amonkhet, can help with the problem your using Linvala for.

Russjass Overcosted reanimation that should have been cut a while ago. Good value card, but without a sac outlet it's not doing enough.

HarroHunter Hope is good but it doesn't do enough to multiple storm players. I could see it still being playable, but I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet to test it.

Cycada When I made that change, my area was infested with Storm and Elf players. Now they have died down a bit, so Sanctum Prelate will very likely be going out in the next update.

Silverf1sh I don't think Shock per ability is enough to stop the combo decks but I intend to try it.

The user Garta has an Alesha stax deck that is very good. Check out his list Melt Pineapple if you want some more ideas. I'll be trying the Bomberman combo once I can get in a good playtest session. I like the flexibility of having two rather different routes to end the game. I'll be dropping my Tormod's Crypt for Nihil Spellbomb when that happens (amongst other things).

Apologies to everyone for my slow response time. I really prefer testing things to theory, but I haven't been able to focus (or even play) nearly as much on MTG nowadays.

Have you ever considerd Nether Void?

Does Judith not make the cut?

Daransil I've played a little bit with Judith and though she isn't too bad, I find that unless you are constantly recurring and sacrificing creatures, you aren't able to cash in on her value.

I know you haven't updated your list in a while, but I would like to recommend Smothering Tithe for the deck. If you intend to play cards such as Hokori, Dust Drinker or Magus of the Moon , it would do you some good to have extra mana sources from the treasure tokens.

Thoughts on Yawgmoth, Thran Physician?