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Syr Konrad, the Grim: The Premiere Primer

Commander / EDH* Aristocrats Cruel Control Mono-Black Pox

Konglicker

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Creature (28)

Artifact (13)

Land (38)

Planeswalker (4)

Instant (1)

Commander (1)

Commander: Syr Konrad, the Grim

Enchantment (9)

Sorcery (6)

Top of the afternoon to ya, ladies and gents! Welcome back to Konglicker's Premiere Primers, where I take a commander that's never been played before and build a brand new deck around it, speculating its ideal strategy and playstyle.

We'll still experiencing the aftershock of Commander 2019 and witnessing those 16 new leaders shake up the format. It feels as though we're in spoiler season all the time! More fun for me, right? Anyway, spoilers for Throne of Eldraine are already out and I gotta say there's one in particular that is driving me nuts.

Uncommon commanders first came out in the Kamigawa block, and many of those were less than spectacular. It wasn't until the Dominaria set in 2018 that uncommon legends made a comeback, and come back they did! Unfortunately, the only one that saw any real impactful play outside of the 99 was Tatyova, Benthic Druid , the mayor of Simic Valuetown. Will that change with Throne of Eldraine? Part of me thinks so! Let's take a look at the first uncommon legend spoiled in the set. You saw it here first, ladies and gents, the Syr Konrad Premiere Primer!

The General

Until he debuts on this site, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder is the stand-in commander, as for the most part and with quite a few exceptions, this could be a deck for him.

Syr Konrad, the Grim is a doozie. He's a 5/4 Human Knight for with TWO abilities. The first casts a wide net and, while it may not sound too good upon first read, it gets crazier the more you think about it. "Whenever another creature dies, or a creature card is put into a graveyard from anywhere, or a creature card leaves your graveyard, Syr Konrad the Grim deals 1 damage to each opponent". You can also pay WITHOUT TAPPING Syr Grim to mill everybody 1.

Here are all of the implications of Syr Konrad's first ability. He will do 1 damage to EACH OPPONENT if ANY of the following things happen:

  1. You sacrifice any creature, including tokens.

  2. Your opponent(s) sacrifice any creature, including tokens.

  3. Your creatures, including tokens, die in combat.

  4. Your opponents' creatures, including tokens, die in combat.

  5. Anyone discards a nontoken creature card.

  6. An Eldrazi creature puts a nontoken creature anyone controls from exile back into their graveyard.

  7. You exile a nontoken creature card from your graveyard.

  8. You reanimate a nontoken creature card from your graveyard.

  9. You return a nontoken creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

  10. A damage-dealing or "destroy"ing boardwipe is cast.

  11. Any creature dies by any other means, including removal.

  12. Any player mills a creature card into their graveyard.

That is bananas. That very, very loose requirement allows you as a brewer to make any kind of deck around Syr Konrad that you wish. So, how are we going to exploit his deceptively broken ability? With INFECT, of course!!

Deck Strategy and Playstyle.

Syr Konrad, the Grim may be an uncommon legendary knight, but he breathes new life into mono-black control, an archetype that I personally believe is long overdue for a Renaissance (no pun intended). Mono-Black Storm recently got a commander with K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth and Yawgmoth himself can command an aristocrats deck, but I believe Syr Konrad is capable of helming a hybrid Aristocrat/Control deck with a much faster win condition. This black knight is ready to shed his honor in pursuit of glory, so you'd better be ready to do so as well with a deck that suits that flavor beautifully.

If we equip Syr Konrad with Grafted Exoskeleton , or cast Tainted Strike targeting him and promptly kill 10 creatures, we win the game on the spot. We can also 1-shot somebody by equipping him with Fireshrieker and using either of the aforementioned cards, then sending him unblocked at someone with Rogue's Passage . Just make sure that the player you send him at in this fashion is tapped out, especially if they're a blue player.

Unfortunately, if we don't give him infect, the pinging ability does not count as commander damage. He does have 5 power though, and can still win with commander damage in 5 hits (3-4 if you power him up with equipment) if you devote the rest of the deck to protecting him and keeping the board clear. The commander damage win condition isn't as likely to happen as just pinging everyone 40 times by killing 40 creatures. If you're playing against creature-heavy decks, and your deck is filled with token generators, that will be simple.

Outside of Infect, there are a few other ways to win on the spot with our commander in play. If we have Mikaeus, the Unhallowed , a free sac outlet like Viscera Seer and a non-human creature with persist like Lingering Tormentor , we can sacrifice the creature infinitely to win the game. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed plus Triskelion is another classic two-card instant win combo that doesn't require the commander to win.

A deck filled with cards that keep the board clear so Syr Konrad can win with commander damage will also contribute to the win condition of "death by pinging". As is the case in every good Black-based Aristocrat deck, you will want every Grave Pact clone that exists alongside free and cheap sacrifice outlets, the best of which in the context of our deck is Altar of Dementia . We sacrifice a creature to the Altar and point the mill triggers at an opponent with a creature-heavy deck. Altar of the Brood also works well with the cards that generate creature tokens we want to sacrifice; again, point the mill triggers at the creature-heavy deck.

To get further utility with the tokens against aggressive creature decks, we put in a card that grants all creatures we control deathtouch: Archetype of Finality . With that card out we can save our tokens as chump-blockers when we're behind in the game, triggering Syr Konrad both when they die and when the attackers die. It's also a valid choice to swing out with this card on board (leaving the Gorgon behind of course), as opponents will be hesitant to block and you'll get in free damage.

As a monoblack control deck whose primary objective is to kill creatures, boardwipes that do not exile can be run liberally. Damnation , Toxic Deluge , In Garruk's Wake , Bontu's Last Reckoning and Decree of Pain all serve our greater goal. Kindred Dominance lets you keep Syr Konrad on the board if you choose Knight as the surviving type and will kill just about everything else.

In certain scenarios, we don't even have to sacrifice our creatures to win. Often, it's better to just flood the board with dudes and swing out, forcing our opponents to block. Either way, they're taking damage!

Aside from killing creatures, keeping the board clean, and reanimating our own creatures with effects like Sheoldred, Whispering One and Hell's Caretaker , the other ways of triggering Syr Konrad are not as consistent or reliable as additions to this current strategy of pinging our opponents to death. If we aren't playing against creature decks, milling isn't consistent and neither is forcing opponents to discard cards. I mean, milling is a good win condition all on its own and if you devote the deck to making combos with infinite colored mana you can certainly do that, but we shouldn't rely on milling to win by pinging. You could also make an 8-Rack commander deck that's devoted to mono-black discard as a form of control, with an infinite combo as an instant-win condition, but it will not win with Syr Konrad's pinging. I believe that the most reliable build to win with his trigger is a focused Aristocrats/Edict/Reanimation deck.

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I hope you enjoy this new build as much as I surely will! Get ready to throw all of your honor out the window.

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