Blood-Braided Beatdown (Primer)

Commander / EDH Budget Burn Combo Jank Primer Tokens

landofMordor

Creature (34)

• 1x Ainok Survivalist
• 1x Archetype of Endurance
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Bloodhall Ooze
• 1x Corpsejack Menace
• 1x Deathbringer Thoctar
• 1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Flesh Carver
• 1x Golgari Guildmage
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 1x Korozda Guildmage
• 1x Maulfist Revolutionary
• 1x Mycoloth
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Scarland Thrinax
• 1x Scourge of Skola Vale
• 1x Scuttling Doom Engine
• 1x Shattergang Brothers
• 1x Sifter of Skulls
• 1x Skirsdag Cultist
• 1x Skirsdag High Priest
• 1x Smothering Abomination
• 1x Sprouting Thrinax
• 1x Stalking Vengeance
• 1x Varolz, the Scar-Striped
• 1x Vein Drinker
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Winding Constrictor
• 1x Xathrid Demon
• 1x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Land (38)

• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 9x Forest
• 1x Golgari Guildgate
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Gruul Guildgate
• 1x Gruul Turf
• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 1x Jund Panorama
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rakdos Guildgate
• 1x Savage Lands
• 9x Swamp

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Essence Harvest
• 1x Flesh / Blood
• 1x Fungal Sprouting
• 1x Insult / Injury
• 1x Lavalanche
• 1x Mob Rule
• 1x Violent Ultimatum

Artifact (4)

• 1x Mage Slayer
• 1x Rakdos Riteknife
• 1x Surestrike Trident
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Commander (1)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Alpha Authority
• 1x Burning Anger
• 1x Curse of Stalked Prey
• 1x Deathreap Ritual
• 1x Death's Presence
• 1x Dying Wish
• 1x Feed the Pack
• 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1x Vicious Shadows

Instant (6)

• 1x Fatal Frenzy
• 1x Fling
• 1x Inspiring Call
• 1x Solidarity of Heroes
• 1x Soulblast
• 1x Soul's Fire

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Monstrous Onslaught
• 1x Rite of Consumption
• 1x Thud

Creature (2)

• 1x Bloodspore Thrinax
• 1x Heart-Piercer Manticore

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"I hope to have such a death -- lying in triumph upon the broken bodies of those who slew me."

- Radha, and more recently Kresh

You stand in the presence of Kresh, legend of Jund, the Bloodbraided. I am landofMordor, mouth of the Bloodbraided, and I have been sent to introduce you, esteemed guest, to the finest army of Jund. Unlike his lesser imitators, He of the Many Braids does not condescend to winning battles through combat -- instead, he extracts submission from his foes by dealing damage directly to any rogue Planeswalker who dares stand in his way. As Kresh's guest, you should feel free to leave any suggestions, comments, or feedback -- enjoy the primer! (Kresh may or may not harvest a finger or two from you in exchange for this privilege.)

Thanks to all your votes, comments, and your oaths of fealty to the Bloodbraided, this is the NUMBER FOUR Kresh build on TappedOut! It's also the number one Kresh army that uses direct damage as the primary win condition and disregards all Voltron strategy. Kresh thanks you sincerely for your support and your braids...

The Bloodbraided Himself (Commander Choice)

So, I chose to build around Kresh the Bloodbraided because that is the sweetest epithet. Also, I got tired of playing games to deal combat damage, so I rejoiced when I saw that Kresh is a great aristocrats/burn commander. I do not intend for this deck to win through combat damage. Instead, I use beefy creatures to deter opposing attacks, then I Fling them to win.

I am very much a casual player, so I've imposed a budget on myself to limit the power level of this deck (to make games more fun in my meta) and also to test the limits of my deckbuilding. However, regardless of your budget, I find that Kresh is indeed a terrifyingly powerful master to serve if his vassals give him due attention -- enjoy what follows!

The Vistas of Jund (Land base)

Jund seems like an attractive shard to visit -- the ribcages of skeletal dragons look like cathedrals, don't you think? And the sky is always so orange (I can't tell if that's because of the blood misting the air or not).

Not much to talk about here. I've chosen to make this deck casual in part by imposing a strict budget, so I've got all the cheap lands and not much else. A lot of "enters tapped". Players who want to spend more money can find ways to do it here. However, for casual players like me, the mana base is pretty sufficient.

Kresh's Aristocrats

These are the effects that benefit from sacrifice. They're mostly creatures, so that I can sacrifice them too, if they outlive their purpose... Jund is all about survival of the fittest, yo. I've divided these into "active" sacrifice outlets and "passive" aristocrats who just like to sit around and trigger beneficial effects on the death of creatures.

Active Sacrifice Outlets:

Feed the Pack is excellent conversion lategame, when you're ready to trade up on that Bloodhall Ooze. If you've got a repeatable sacrifice outlet on your board, this can also be a win condition when Kresh is swinging in (or if you've got a Fling up your sleeve).

Flesh Carver's 1B ability cost isn't awesome, but he can sure trade up when sacrificing tokens, because his rate of counters is fixed. He's also got intimidate, which is a relevant keyword in case Kresh has to condescend through winning in combat. And the on-death trigger is awesome. Ol' Fleshy is our number one guy to sacrifice tokens for this reason.

Golgari Guildmage: nothing like some old-fashioned recursion. The second ability is also relevant to get that extra counter to make a weenie survive Radiant Flames or whatever.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is another great sac outlet. Make your opponents think twice about removing your fatty.

Korozda Guildmage's sacrifice ability is admittedly less awesome, but it's great if you've got Curse of Stalked Prey out to capitalize or if you want to dodge removal.

Mycoloth is useful for three reasons: it produces Saprolings, it's great sacrifice outlet, and it's cheaper than Bloodspore Thrinax...

Prossh, Skyraider of Kher...aren't you glad we're not running Voltron? Or Food Chain, for that matter?

Rakdos Riteknife is pretty sweet because it sticks around if your creatures get targeted by removal. Also sweet for totally nuking an opponent.

Scarland Thrinax is another instant speed, with the permanent bonus of counters on the trigger.

Shattergang Brothers is notable because we can sacrifice our artifacts and enchantments to get rid of pesky Orbs of Warding or whatever. Also functions like a budget Grave Pact.

Skirsdag Cultist can also burn creatures, hooray!

Smothering Abomination: who doesn't love cards? And if he outlives his purpose, we can just sacrifice him at upkeep.

Tymaret, the Murder King has two relevant sacrifice abilities, and he's also got flavor sweeter than a blood-braided beefsteak. He's in the maybeboard just in case.

Varolz, the Scar-Striped is the perfect insta-sacrifice chump blocker who can get really big in a hurry. Bring it on, Serra Avatar. Bring it on.

Viscera Seer is my fav one-drop sacrifice outlet. Who else provides so much value, all with a smile on his face and an organ in his hand?

Xathrid Demon is the apotheosis of Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord + Smothering Abomination in a single card. Pure value. Just make sure you have an exit strategy (read: Fling) if you happen to lose all your tokens before your upkeep.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan is great. Not only does she grow to absurd levels after a Lavalanche or something, but she will stick around due to her aristocrat ability. Perfect board wipe exploit. (She also has the dubious distinction of being the most protagonistic B legendary in years.)

Passive Aristocrats:

Deathbringer Thoctar brings some serious beef to the table, in addition to instant-speed burn. Only drawback is that it needs a sacrifice outlet to function at its best.

Deathreap Ritual is the cool cousin of Smothering Abomination, because it works on opponents' turns too. Go ahead, attack us all you please.

Death's Presence is Scavenge without the exile or the activation cost. So awesome, especially when you can Fling Kresh with the Deathbringer on the battlefield.

Pawn of Ulamog/Sifter of Skulls both provide crazy good ramp when we don't mind killing creatures.

Skirsdag High Priest provides awesome conversion on deaths -- sacrifice a Saproling, get a Demon, rinse and repeat. If Kresh lived on Innistrad, he'd run a quaint homey little Gothic B&B for the Skirsdag.

Stalking Vengeance is a major win-con. Yes, it does trigger for tokens, too. Fling away, friends.

Vicious Shadows loves to hate on mono blue. Especially Jin-Gitaxis. Also triggers for tokens, and ALSO triggers with opponent's creatures. This is a huge win condition.

Vein Drinker functions as a removal-aristocrat. I like it because it's reusable. Kresh likes it because he likes drinking veins, too.

Kresh's Minions (Expendables)

These fellas love to die serving Kresh. I include token production here, too, since most of the aristocratic abilities of the above section work whenever any creature dies.

Maulfist Revolutionary is ridiculous in this deck. If Kresh has 7 counters on him (a 10/10), you can double once, double twice with a sac outlet, then win with Fling. It's that easy.

Ainok Survivalist serves his useful morph purpose, gets a respectable P/T due to megamorph, then happily dies to give the Seer some more Viscera, and Kresh some more braids.

Bane of Progress is a ridiculous fatty who can take care of that annoying Zur the Enchanter player, and then be sacrificed to make the most of his huge P/T. Don't be afraid to lose a few enchantments when casting Bane, if it'll swing momentum your way.

Bloodhall Ooze loves to sit on the field from T1, steadily growing bigger. It's a slow enough effect to ooooooze under the radar of some multiplayer tables.

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is preposterously good with a free sacrifice outlet. There's only one creature in the deck who will force a sacrifice as we cast it (Stalking Vengeance), so we're usually even good to leave some Thrulls alive for a turn or two. These guys are the Italian marble to Michelangelo.

Farhaven Elf is excellent ramp, especially for 3C, and it's great sacrifice fodder after it ETBs.

Sakura-Tribe Elder can be used as early-game ramp or late-game death trigger.

Scuttling Doom Engine can be used to get in some extra damage against that Alesha deck we all hate, but mostly he's in here for the great P/T and on-death trigger.

Sprouting Thrinax talk about trading up!

Fungal Sprouting loves Bloodhall Ooze, Curse of Stalked Prey, Impact Tremors, and especially Soulblast (I dare you to beat your friends with nothing but Saprolings). But in general, it's just a killer late-game card.

Mob Rule I'll include here because you can practically wipe somebody's board if you have a repeatable sacrifice outlet. It's pretty awesome.

Golgari Germination gives plenty of tokens, but it only triggers on non-token creatures I control. I'm thinking of replacing it with Necrogenesis, Verdant Embrace, or Gutter Grime...let me know what you think, dear reader.

Rite of the Raging Storm is the first 5-drop I play unless my opponent also likes to sacrifice creatures. Solid 5-power creature and sacrifice fodder.

Servants of Kresh (Ramp & Utility)

It's obvious that not every creature needs to serve Kresh by dying. Some things just help out where they can. Generally, these servants of Kresh are either ramp, +1/+1 counter shenanigans, or removal.

Archetype of Endurance is an auto-include for me. Beefy in case he dies, and he hates on the blue control decks I usually love to build.

Corpsejack Menace is absurd. Simply absurd.

Curse of Stalked Prey is like choosing between ice cream and cookies. When we swing in with Saprolings, they'll either die or get bigger, both of which are just fine by Kresh.

Winding Constrictor is a recent addition that provides serious value, unless I'm playing against infect (but then again, Kresh doesn't deign to play against decks that don't want to have fun, which is what most infect decks are).

Gyre Sage is just bonkers ramp in this kind of deck. Hopefully, you'll be able to give her multiple counters even if she doesn't hit the field T2. The only drawback is that most of our creatures are intended to grow big, but aren't big enough to consistently trigger Evolve during later turns.

Vigor Mortis is solid reanimation for key combo pieces.

Violent Ultimatum is awesome for removing a pillowfort in one blow. They had it coming.

Inspiring Call in case you're not ready to lose that combo piece just yet...

Solidarity of Heroes is somewhat absurd in this deck, even if you only target one or two creatures.

Swiftfoot Boots is obvious. Right?

So is Alpha Authority. We like Kresh to stay alive.

Hardened Scales might as well be another Corpsejack. Serious value.

Impact Tremors abuses our many tokens. I might put in Outpost Siege though -- what do you think?

Kresh's Fury (Win-Cons!)

Here's my preface: these might be my favorite win conditions ever. Extremely wacky and fun to play, totally different than the oh-so-vanilla competitive combat damage deck, and best of all, it's not so gimmicky or "unfair" that you'll lose friends if you play Kresh. In fact, you'll probably get mad props for being that crazy player who sacrifices his best creature...in order to kill an opponent with direct damage.

Chandra's Ignition is maybe the best multiplayer win con. Sure, it's not as flashy as some other ones, and it's sorcery speed, but the "each opponent" phrase really makes this card good.

Essence Harvest is great to gain 20 or 30 life a pop. Best of all, it gets around those pesky "prevent damage" type decks.

Flesh / Blood I'm pretty sure Blood is the better half, but Flesh could be good to get those extra counters on Kresh.

Lavalanche is included here because it can totally nuke an opponent. Also gets around hexproof.

Mob Rule will probably knock out at least one opponent if you use their creatures during combat and for a sacrifice-fest afterwards.

Soul's Fire is notable for instant speed, and you don't have to sacrifice the creature in case you're not quite ready to go down fighting.

Fling is good because it's instant-speed.

Soulblast is the most stylish way to finish off the last opponent standing.

Burning Anger is repeatable, so it's AWESOME...but it'll also probably get you targeted, so only play it if you have control of the board or protection for Kresh.

Mage Slayer is also repeatable, and therefore awesome.

Surestrike Trident for the same reason.

Dying Wish is excellent deterrent on Kresh (really, you want to Go for the Throat my Kresh when I have the Wish up?), and effectively halves the time-to-kill if we Fling with the Wish up.

Fatal Frenzy's flavor text pretty much epitomizes the ideal conclusion of a game. This plus Fling gets crazy.

The Braids (Odds & Ends)

Sometimes Kresh is picky. After all, if you've only got 22 braids, you've gotta be a little discriminating when you're choosing who to sacrifice. So there are some good cards that I didn't choose to put in -- here's why:

Butcher of Malakir and other edicts. I have a Karador deck that does some of this, and I didn't feel the need to have two of those type decks. However, I could see myself putting in a Kuon, Ogre Ascendant or a Archfiend of Depravity, if you give me a good reason and a good card to replace (;

Infect. I generally restrict the power level of my decks for my casual meta. For me, the challenge of building cool and functional decks is more valuable than the deck's viability in top-tier metas. Same reason I don't play infinite combos -- I figure any player can win with combos like that, so I'd rather just take a few more losses for the chance to have fun and win with Soulblast.

Black/Red control. I left out cards like Avatar of Woe or Bogardan Hellkite because I felt it diluted the +1/+1 counter theme. Also, my creatures will usually be big enough to kill opposing beaters in combat if needed. If I wanted to kill my opponents' boards, I'd use Curse of the Nightly Hunt or similar effects. Should I include effects like that? Let me know in the comment section!

I'm considering Rishkar, Peema Renegade, who is perfect ramp for this deck. Simply perfect. Just hoping he drops in price so that I won't be lying through my teeth calling this deck "budget"...

Finally, I've left out some of the premier token generators, mostly for budget reasons. Again, budget limits solve two of my problems: it keeps the power level of my decks about the same, and it also means I can afford to build more decks, which is what I love anyways.

Many thanks to all who have commented and helped make this deck better! I appreciate it sincerely.

Cheers,

--landofMordor

Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	WU
Key combos	Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord + Smothering Abomination
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.89
Tokens	Demon 5/5 B, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Horror */* B, Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R, Lightning Rager, Morph 2/2 C, Saproling 1/1 G, Thrull 1/1 B, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	budget decks, Commanders, +1 Non-Budget, Casual/Budget EDH, Zakass Approved, edh, Deck's to get Idea's from, Black and Deathtouch focus, Commanders, Budget