Experiment Kraj WITHOUT Infinite Combos

Commander / EDH

Sillynx

Creature (40)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x AEtherling
• 1x Aquastrand Spider
• 1x Arcanis the Omnipotent
• 1x Archetype of Endurance
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Cytoplast Manipulator
• 1x Dawntreader Elk
• 1x Elvish Piper
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Fertilid
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Gilder Bairn
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Helium Squirter
• 1x Horseshoe Crab
• 1x Jodah's Avenger
• 1x Joiner Adept
• 1x Jugan, the Rising Star
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Master Biomancer
• 1x Murkfiend Liege
• 1x Novijen Sages
• 1x Orochi Leafcaller
• 1x Plaxcaster Frogling
• 1x Quicksilver Elemental
• 1x Renegade Krasis
• 1x Scrounging Bandar
• 1x Silkwing Scout
• 1x Simic Guildmage
• 1x Temporal Adept
• 1x Thornling
• 1x Triskelion
• 1x Trygon Predator
• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1x Vigean Graftmage
• 1x Vorel of the Hull Clade
• 1x Willbreaker
• 1x Woodfall Primus
• 1x Zameck Guildmage

Land (36)

• 1x Bant Panorama
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 10x Forest
• 7x Island
• 1x Llanowar Reborn
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Novijen, Heart of Progress
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Rupture Spire
• 1x Shimmering Grotto
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 1x Simic Guildgate
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Grove
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Nissa's Judgment
• 1x Search for Tomorrow
• 1x Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1x Urban Evolution

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Kiora, Master of the Depths

Commander (1)

Artifact (7)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Contagion Clasp
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Pentad Prism
• 1x Simic Cluestone
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Instant (6)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Inspiring Call
• 1x Simic Charm
• 1x Unity of Purpose
• 1x Voidslime

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Favor of the Overbeing
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Inexorable Tide

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Experiment Kraj is, in theory, a very interesting commander, giving you access to your opponent's abilities if they're not careful. However, most Kraj decks simply abuse his effect to go infinite, using creatures like Horseshoe Crab and a Argothian Elder for infinite untaps, allowing them to, at the very least, put infinite counters on everything. I am personally not a big fan of infinite combos and my playgroup doesn't really appreciate them either. My goal is to make a fun and interesting Kraj deck that is still powerful, but without having immediate access to infinite combos.

The deck still works in a similar way, however it is missing some of the combo pieces like Argothian Elder, Bloom Tender etc. to make him go infinite. If one of your opponents are running these, by all means, abuse them. The deck's goal is to focus more on stealing your opponent's abilities, rather than just focusing on your own.

That's not to say that your creatures don't offer any interesting abilities to steal. Thornling, AEtherling and Jodah's Avenger can lend Kraj some interesting abilities for combat. Of course, the deck still features untappers such as Horseshoe Crab and Vigean Graftmage. These let Kraj use stolen tap abilities multiple times (without going overboard). Some notable tap abilities would be Arcanis the Omnipotent, Elvish Piper, Ulvenwald Tracker and Temporal Adept.

Creaturees with Persist such as Glen Elendra Archmage and Woodfall Primus work great with this deck, as it is very easy to place +1/+1-counters on them and remove their -1/-1 counters, making them reusable.

Hardened Scales is an amazing card for this deck. Especially your Graft creatures are going to benefit from this, since not only do they come into play with an additional counter, but moving counters to another creature will now give them 2 counters instead. This also leads to some fun shenanigans with Simic Guildmage, as he allows you to move counters back and forth to multiply them. If you were to put Doubling Season in this deck, it would get even more crazy!

As stated before, the aim of the deck is to also play with your opponent's abilities. Placing a counter on them is easy, but they might require colored mana to activate their abilities. Darksteel Ingot, Shimmering Grotto, Orochi Leafcaller, Birds of Paradise, Joiner Adept and your Vivid lands (Vivid Creek, Vivid Grove) can help you produce the mana you need. I'm usually not a big fan of using Vivid lands in 2 color decks, since they're technically straight up worse than Guild gates. However in a deck like this, they fit perfectly well, since you're gonna need the colored mana and can also Prolifirate them to get more counters.

As always, you can easily make the deck more budget by cutting some of the more expensive cards, such as the filter and fetchlands. These are cards I simply had at my disposal but are not necessary to run and can easily be replaced by budget alternatives.

Suggestions are always welcome, however remember that I do not want to have any infinite combos in the deck. If you spot one that I might've missed, please tell me.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 23 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.49
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Boar 2/2 G, Emblem Kiora, Master of the Depths, Octopus 8/8 U