Deck Idea: Kardur forces all opponents to fight each other, giving us time to set up without putting up much of a defense. Our defense should largely consist of reanimation for Kardur, protecting it with cheap reanimation when we can.
A lot of people tend to try for a classic goad strategy with Kardur, but there are a few problems with this strategy. First, although Kardur's first ability is functionally identical to goad, nowhere on the card does it say this keyword, meaning that any ability that benefits from goad doesn't actually get any benefit from our commander. Instead, I believe that it is more beneficial see Kardur as a key tool in a larger strategy rather than a build around.
With this perspective, let's ask ourselves a key question: What effect do both of Kardur's abilities provide in a vacuum that we can take advantage of?
Our commander's first ability has two important effects: it ensures that we are free from being attacked for a whole turn cycle, and it means that we are very likely to be able to attack into someone with minimal threat of being blocked. Not being able to be attacked gives us an incredible amount of time to set up powerful effects and, if we're in a rough spot, find answers to catch up. Being able to attack freely is also powerful and may be a potential way for us to close out the game if the first effect gives us the time to set up a devastating haymaker.
Our commander's second ability feeds off of the first, draining each opponent for 1 and gaining us 1. Although this deals far more damage than the amount of life it nets us, being in black means that we have a lot of ways to take advantage of incremental life gain. The damage restricts what our opponents can do, making it easier for us to threaten a big attack, and the life gain opens up some paths for us to take depending on the board state.
We can see that both of Kardur's effects heavily restrict our opponents' actions against us, in a way holding them at arm's reach while we do whatever we need to do to win the game. By selectively choosing when to activate Kardur, we can buy ourselves enough time to build a board that can sustain itself even without the demon berserker. Getting ahead on mana, setting up a card draw engine, and then slowly constricting our opponents with effects like Kardur until we can win is our game plan.
But first, we need to figure out how to keep activating Kardur.
Reanimation: Instant speed reanimation is the name of the game in our deck. While it is true that ideally we can trigger Kardur once on each of our turns, essentially making a Kardur reanimated on our opponent's turn a wasted trigger, this won't always happen. In the case that we aren't able to trigger Kardur on our own, we can just block a creature that will kill Kardur, cast a reanimation spell, then have the trigger occur for our other opponents. The effect that this has on a game is very interesting. Your opponents will certainly want to take advantage of any turn cycle that they're able to attack you, but if you block with Kardur, you'll get the trigger again. This means that opponents don't want to attack you, which is basically half of the trigger itself! In addition, we will run the best of the sorcery speed reanimation spells, although keeping Kardur in the graveyard for too long is very risky.
Copy Effects: There aren't that many of these effects, which is fine for us, as we just need a few. These cards get a lot of value if Kardur isn't dealt with which, in combination with our reanimator package, makes him very sticky. If he gets removed, we can choose to use an instant reanimation spell on him if we need another turn cycle. If he isn't removed, these effects can come in and trigger his ability once again. Remember that we don't necessarily need his ability to trigger each turn, so evaluate the board state and see if it's alright to just let him go into the command zone.
Bounce: Being in Rakdos colors, there are only so many of these that have ever been printed that are available to us, but the ones that we include are quite good.
Now that we have Kardur entering the battlefield at the perfect moments, let's take advantage of this!
Free Attacks: We don't have to just sit on the sidelines as everyone else has all of the fun, we can take advantage of Kardur to crack in, too!
Now that we have our commander specific game plan, let's add our staples.
Targeted Removal: Due to our commander taking care of much of the threat coming from the board, we can build the rest of our deck to be relatively removal-light.
Planeswalkers: Normally, Planeswalkers are a very vulnerable creature type in EDH, having to be defended from about 3 times the number of players they normally face. However, with a lot of this deck centered around having Kardur's triggers occurring in the background, we can safely utilize this powerful card type!
-
Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter: The backside of Valki, God of Lies is a terrifying 7-drop that can generate absurd amounts of value if you take advantage of Kardur's ability. Entering the battlefield and immediately pseudo-drawing 4 cards, it demands an answer if your opponents don't want to see you run away with the game, which is a tall ask when we're constricting their resources.
-
Chandra, Awakened Inferno: Honestly, just try to get this thing to a low loyalty even without Kardur protecting her. Entering and immediately ticking up to 8, Chandra puts even more pressure on your opponents with emblems that nobody can interact with, and doubles as a pretty large removal spell or wrath if it's needed.
-
Liliana, Dreadhorde General:
Upgrades:
Abrade: Supernatural Stamina
Ambition's Cost: Demonic Tutor
Archfiend of Depravity: Urabrask the Hidden
Brash Taunter: Karlach, Fury of Avernus
Breath of Malfegor: Undying Evil
Burnished Hart: Hedron Archive
Cinder Barrens: Sulfurous Springs
Combustible Gearhulk: Steel Hellkite
Commander's Sphere:
Coveted Jewel:
Deadly Tempest:
Dictate of the Twin Gods: Court of Ire
Dredge the Mire: Snuff Out
Explosion of Riches: Wheel of Misfortune
Fiery Confluence:
Foreboding Ruins
Geode Rager: Hellkite Tyrant
Hate Mirage: Animate Dead
Indulgent Tormentor: Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Guttersnipe: Defiler of Instinct
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs: Moraug, Fury of Akoum
Magmatic Force: Gamble
Mana Geyser: Expedition Map
6x Mountain: Arid Mesa; Scalding Tarn; Wooded Foothills; Forgotten Cave; Reliquary Tower; Thought Vessel
Myriad Landscape: Throne of the High City
Nihil Spellbomb: Swiftfoot Boots
Ob Nixilis Reignited:
Profane Command: Vampiric Tutor
Rakshasa Debaser:
Read the Bones: Undying Malice
Reign of the Pit:
Sangromancer: Blood Artist
Scythe Specter: K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
Sepulchral Primordial:
Sign in Blood: Feign Death
Stensia Bloodhall: Bloodstained Mire
Soul Shatter:
Spiteful Visions: Phyrexian Arena
Stormfist Crusader: Morbid Opportunist
Sunbird's Invocation: Splinter Twin
9x Swamp: Marsh Flats; Polluted Delta; Verdant Catacombs; Barren Moor; Malakir Rebirth; Hagra Mauling; Sanctum of Eternity; Bojuka Bog; Coalition Relic
Syphon Mind: Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Tectonic Giant:
Terminate:
Thermo-Alchemist: Valki, God of Lies
Titan Hunter: Gisa, Glorious Resurrector
Unlicensed Disintegration: Kolaghan's Command
Urborg Volcano: Blood Crypt
Vampire Nighthawk: Kaya's Ghostform
Wild Ricochet:
Wildfire Devils: Urabrask, Heretic Praetor
Worn Powerstone:
