Kess, Archmage of Grixis
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 1 | 2 COMMENTS | 1114 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
Focusing the Deck —Sept. 30, 2017
Turning the deck from a copy and paste of my Izzet spellslingers deck to its own thing. That means I'm not relying on comboing out to win rather than controlling the board and gaining incremental advantage until I hit a critical mass of spells in my graveyard for a big finish or delivering the final blow after weathering the storm that is an EDH game.
What's Out
Comet Storm Without infinite mana it's just sub-par removal.
Guttersnipe A good card to be sure. he may come back in but I'm swapping him out because he draws a lot of hate my way and without storm I'm not sure if he kills fast enough.
Desperate Ritual It's a very small gain of mana, without storming out it's simply sub-par.
Izzet Charm I found myself using it for the draw 4/5 times and there's other 2 cmc spells I'd rather have.
Darksteel Ingot 3 cmc for a mana rock that produces 1 mana. Yeah it's good but there's other things I'd rather have in right now.
Taigam, Sidisi's Hand Love this card but by the time he's hitting the field there are other spells I'd rather be playing in this deck.
Gitaxian Probe No longer need 'free' draw since I'm not trying to build up my storm count. I'll pay a bit more mana to dig a bit deeper.
Curse of Virbosity I loved this card on paper but it's too conditional and my deck isn't pillow forty enough to guarantee it will trigger often.
Metallurgic Summonings Like Taigam it just comes down too late for my taste.
Incendiary Command Replaced for a better Wheel effect.
Goblin Electromancer Good card, may come back in.
Mystifying Maze I haven't used the active once.
What's In
Wayfarer's Bauble Since I'm not playing Green in this deck I will have to rely on artifacts a bit more than I am used to.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer Some of my friends have said he should be this decks commander but I think Kess is more fun. But now those wheel effects are also damage.
Tormenting Voice The replacement for Izzet Charm
Runechanter's Pike I forgot about this hidden gem. With wheel effects being popular in my meta this can let Kess swing for some unexpected lethal.
Armillary Sphere Mana fixing is always welcome.
Charmbreaker Devils Anytime I make a deck with Red I will throw this card in at some point. It's fun, refills my hand, and can get ridiculously powerful at times.
Blatant Thievery I have no good reason for not having this in the deck's first iteration.
Rite of Replication See above, but this is an even more consistent way to win
Blasphemous Act There's been a couple of games where this would have saved my hide and I then realised I hadn't put it in the deck yet.
Wheel of Fate A better wheel effect and one of my friends says due to the wording on Kess this is free from the graveyard.
Reliquary Tower
Thought Vessel