Sideboard


Maybeboard


[Updated 2/8/17]

Special thanks to Mishraharad for all of his help with his primer and answering lots of important questions! Link to his primer will be immediately below

deck:alesha-who-smiles-at-death-and-taxes-primer

If you wish to see the original list(s) for my Alesha deck, going from a combo heavy deck, to a more reanimation deck, to a Death and Taxes/Hate Bears sort of build, feel free to follow the links below, in order of presentation. Otherwise, enjoy my deck!

Dare to Oppose Alesha?

Alesha's Red Wedding V1.0

~~~

"My honored guests, be welcome within my walls and at my table. I extend to you my hospitality and protection in the light of the Seven." ―Game of Thrones - "The Red Wedding"

So Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, was my first 'unique' deck, one where no one else had made her, considered her ect. From the standpoint of more 'spiky' players in my meta, calling our 'casual' decks 'garbage', I decided to start off with a deck that really, REALLY taxes everyone, slowing the game down and doing what I want. And besides, annoying them by asking "Did you may an extra one for Thalia, Guardian of Thraben?" or "Did you pay two to Leonin Arbiter to search?"

As mentioned, my local meta is very combo and creature heavy (depending on where I play). Most of the more competitive decks here aren't creature focused, meaning I need a way to interact more so with the opponent, something neither previous iterations of the deck had a chance at doing.

As of the update of this deck (Feb 8, 2017), I have not tried out the deck. But lets delve in and see what we got!

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death focuses on a "Hate Bear" style of deck (low powered creatures bringing big effects), while using discard effects to fill our graveyard to cheat some of our own tax effects. Subtheme is "reanimation" bringing low power creatures that are "tapped and attacking", or getting back key pieces for combos.

Lets name off some of the hate bears we are running: Grand Abolisher (prevents shenanigans on our turn), Leonin Arbiter/Aven Mindcensor (LOTS of tutoring in my meta, so lets tax them for it), Stingscourger (nothing like bouncing a high mana creature back to their hand, and Unsummon in red seems broken), Eidolon of Rhetoric/Rule of Law (Great in my meta, everyone HATES playing one spell per turn. Good news is, with Alesha we can sometimes avoid using it by reanimating instead), Liliana, Heretical Healer   (has lifelink, easy to flip, hand disruption, reanimate effect and a powerful ult, but I doubt we'll ever see it), Thalia, Heretic Cathar/Avalanche Riders (while not running alot of destroy land effects, Riders is good for clearing away stuff like Maze of Ith or taking away a color they needed. Thalia 2.0 gives them the lands, but punishes nonbasic plays, and is Blind Obedience on a creature), Hokori, Dust Drinker (Winter Orb, but less punishing, since we can also sac it at EOT for our own lands to untap. Reanimate and repeat!), Silent Arbiter (meta here is usually lots of guys attacking or large guys. This helps us to attack in, since Alesha and another creature can make the 'third' ((if we reanimate)) essentially 'unblockable), Palisade Giant (after finally reading him, he protects ALL of the permanents, not just myself, better than Protector of the Crown I was originally running!)

Cards that help us get around their creatures and protect our little guys: Mother of Runes (good on offense or defense, can use it before damage on a blocked creature to inflict damage but save it from death, or to hit a player), Iroas, God of Victory (menace seems like a good mechanic to have, especially if we run Silent Arbiter out before it), Silent Arbiter (see above), Palisade Giant (see above), Key to the City (helps fill the graveyard, gives unblockable AND on untap, we can draw a card if we need to.), Eldrazi Monument (flying, indestructible, and buff? Sounds too good to be true!), Reconnaissance (with creatures with First strike, you can attack, deal damage, then untap them before Regular damage step. Or perhaps they block like you don't want, you can recall them. Trick is to use it before you end combat, so you can untap them ((which is a legal move)). Also good to attack with Alesha, reanimate and then keep both around), Behind the Scenes (a card that seems very good in a deck with lots of small guys. People like to have big dudes or a bunch of tokens, so unless they plan to block with a bunch of 1/1's or 0/1's, we are likely dealing damage).

With more recent upgrades going into the deck come stronger tutors/card draw/card selection: Viscera Seer (while not a card draw, it is card selection, not to mention a combo piece), Recruiter of the Guard (gets LOTS of the decks key pieces, or stuff we need when we need it), Tymna the Weaver (not sure how well she will be, but lifelink is good regardless, and being able to use it repeatedly seems good. Only downside is we HAVE to deal damage), Gonti, Lord of Luxury (while not draw persay, it is card advantage we can use from another source. Add this to the Karmic Guide/Reveillark combo to exile everyones library!), Solemn Simulacrum (while we don't play alot of ramp, this guy is an ETB beast, not only drawing cards but thinning the deck ever so slightly or providing a shuffle effect), Nahiri, the Harbinger (maybe a pet card I've wanted to play, but Nahiri fills the grave, draws cards, is removal attached to a permanent, and the ult isn't great, but its not bad. At its worst it gets a card like Master of Cruelties or a combo piece we couldn't otherwise find.), Skullclamp (lots of low power creatures, we can always sac with Clamp on to get value, or use it with cards like Recruiter of the Guard to later reanimate and draw more cards.), Phyrexian Arena (black staple), Entomb (usually used to get Anger in the grave, or Master of Cruelties or a combo piece), Vampiric Tutor (Black staple), Faithless Looting (red staple, dig twice and give the ability to recur things we pitched), Cathartic Reunion (same as Faithless, only a one time use though.), Demonic Tutor (black staple), Buried Alive (usually going for combo pieces, or Anger + things ect. Flexibility here)

So lets get into the "hate" cards that aren't necessarily stapled to creatures: Altar of Dementia (decks that don't have synergy with the graveyard means this can mill them of important things. Or, worse case scenario, we can mill ourselves to fill the graveyard), Blind Obedience (another Thalia 2.0 effect, only this one affects artifacts. Extort might also be useful in a bind), Aura of Silence (tax effect AND removal, seems good), Oppression (you like casting lots of spells? Wonder how many you can play when you gotta discard for each one cast), Rule of Law (another Eidolon effect, though harder to remove), Possibility Storm (by itself, it seems like a fun card. Either in casual games or in combination with other things, Storm stops players from countering spells (maybe) and sometimes gets people into trouble. The likelihood they get something better is possible, but they might also hit a dud or get a worse spell)

Let's talk removal: Fiend Hunter (combo piece as well as removal. Sac to its own ETB trigger to exile indefinately), Necrotic Sliver (a Vindicate at instant speed, attached to a creature), Murderous Redcap (combo piece, but can also be used to pick off smaller creatures or kill planeswalkers), Duplicant (exile creature on a creature, seems good), Aura of Silence (see above), Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares (white staples), Anguished Unmaking/Utter End (out catch all. first, exile effect, second, instant speed, third, anything nonland, strongest and most flexible cards in the deck), Wear / Tear (one or the other or Fused, staple in any Boros colors), Return to Dust (strong removal against the Gods, anything with indestructible, ect. Another staple in white colors), Wrath of God (white staple, no regen ect, you got it probably from the title), Merciless Eviction (an answer to all, especially with Superfriends getting a strong commander like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice at the helm, we gotta have an answer to nearly everything.)

So to round off, I'll tell you the combos of the deck. First thing to note, in MY build, I don't have cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and a way to make infinite tokens. wile Kiki with Karmic Guide and a sac outlet is an easy way to do it, it still requires the graveyard. Its not a BAD way to combo, but if there is an effect like Leyline of the Void or Rest in Peace, then we HAVE to be able to remove it. For now, Kiki is NOT included in this build, but could possibly find a home in the future upgrades. Another note is we play alot more artifact and enchantment removal, cause more and more people are running Torpor Orb effects, or graveyard hate cards as stated above. For us to combo off, we need to be able to remove them to get it out there.

Here is what we are working with:

Karmic Guide + Revillark + Sac = Sac engine/enter or leave battlefield triggers. Combine with Goblin Bombardment for damage, Blood Artist for life sucking, Altar of Dementia for milling, or Viscera Seer for scry triggers to get what you need.

Murderous Redcap + Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Sac outlet = Infinite damage

Sun Titan (on the field) + Fiend Hunter (either in hand or in graveyard + Sac = Sac engine/enter or leave battlefield triggers. Combine with Goblin Bombardment for damage, Blood Artist for life sucking, Altar of Dementia for milling, or Viscera Seer for scry triggers to get what you need.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, + Master of Cruelties (in the graveyard) = 1HKO. Much like Kaalia of the Vast, we cheat MoC's in, either attacking a player with no blockers, or we give our creatures ways to get in, and we kill them. During First Strike damage, Master will trigger and put the player to 1 Life point. Since Alesha is STILL attacking, she deals 3 damage. That player has died in first strike damage before anything has even occurred.

Rule of Law/Eidolon of Rhetoric + Possibility Storm = No more spells. A hard lock on players wanting to cast things, combo out with cards in hand ect. The way it works is Storm will exile the spell they play, they reveal cards till they hit one of the same type. Rule or Eidolon still see the first spell that triggered Storm and prevents them from playing the revealed spell. Both will now go to the bottom of the library.

Palisade Giant + Eldrazi Monument = No damage to you/permanents. As long as you can pay the upkeep cost of Monument, you can no longer take damage (Note this does NOT prevent loss of life)

~~~

And that's it! That is my personal build of Alesha's "Red Wedding". I'd like to thank everyone on r/EDH/ for the helpful suggestions and looking over the deck. Shout out once more to Mishraharad for all the helpful tips and tricks and the great primer he has written!

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Playing today (at least one game, seems odd to judge it off of just that), I have realized just how powerful tokens are in Alesha. Having played Angel of Invention with a Cathars' Crusade (playing Angel, making tokens, boosting the power of angel AND the servos till I had two 5/5's and 5/4 Flying Vigi and Lifelink)), made me wonder just how far down this "Death and Taxes" build I really need to go? I mean yeah if I have early game disruption and what not it can slow down the game or tax players into doing things differently. But now my ideas are coming towards a token subtheme. Issue is, just how many Tax effects can I keep if I got down this token route?

With tokens, I'd likely want Purphoros, God of the Forge and the ability to get more tokens out. One thing the deck had issues with, in general, was A) Survivability ((tax effects typically don't get you liked at the game. In the very least, some people just accept it)) and B) Killing people (in non-combo situations ((throwing Karmic Guide and Reveillark with sac on board or in hand immediately makes you a target to kill)).

With token generation, it means I could get more aggressive and also gum up the board. Sure Cathars' Crusade is awesome, and Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit doesn't trigger off of tokens, but making small guys to stick around to sac, send to Skullclamp ect are strong. As well, with more ETB stuff, I could replace a combo (Probably Murderous Redcap and Anafenza, though with Crusade in the deck it'd give me one additional way to trigger it...)) with things like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Felidar Guardian. By themselves they enable the deck more, but together you make infinite tokens. If I move away from Taxes entirely, I could go with a board control plan with things like Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact. I do LIKE the taxing effects ((Rule of Law effects are STRONG where I live, controlling how many cards players can cast or altering them with Possibility Storm and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben)), but again, just how far do you go to change your deck? Do I go full tokens? Some where down the line? Use tokens ONLY to gum up the board?

Strong candidates for the deck:

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Date added 7 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

10 - 5 Mythic Rares

49 - 11 Rares

28 - 7 Uncommons

4 - 4 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.25
Tokens Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Goblin 1/1 R, Servo 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Favs, Need to playtest, Favorite Decks, Alesha, Edh decks, EDH
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