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With Sword in Hand: An Alesha Combo Primer

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Multiplayer Primer RBW (Mardu)

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Creature (30)

Enchantment (4)

Planeswalker (1)

Land (32)

Instant (7)

Commander (1)

Commander: Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

Artifact (14)

Sorcery (11)

Alesha

"You think every Mardu must be a Backbreaker or Helmsmasher. You think your deeds are not as glorious as theirs. And you are wrong. When you learn what your place among the Mardu is, you may choose a name." ~Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

Alesha walks a fine line between flexible and build-around, lending herself to a number of possible strategies all confined within a relatively large class of creatures, those with power two or less. With the exception of a few format staples and haymakers, Alesha decks tend to be fairly unique. She can be built for tokens, to abuse ETBs, as hatebears, stax, or combo, as casual, or as this deck aims to be, competitive.

This deck aims to slow the game down with stax and tax effects, powering out creatures in the early game. The deck packs a rather large suite of cheap, single-target removal to interact with faster decks and prevent our opponents from developing their boardstate.

You will like this deck if you enjoy interaction heavy, creature-based decks with many lines of play. You will not like this if you enjoy a more traditional type of control deck, or if you prefer decks which rely on large threats rather than small ones.

This is not a casual deck. It is designed as a well tuned machine which aims to produce the same outputs, the same combos and win conditions, every game, and resorts to mass land destruction and heavy taxes when it falls behind.

It is not a tier one competitive deck either. She lacks meaningful stack interaction and is not herself a combo piece, like Tazri or Prossh. I would place her solidly as a tier two deck. Furthermore, most competitive builds I've seen for Alesha have been entirely stax builds (here is Angelforge's list if you'd like to see a build like that). This build is really a combo deck with some stax elements to keep down fast combo. However, it is highly interactive, challenging deck with a bunch of moving parts that has been incredibly rewarding to pilot.

"I am Alesha, like my grandmother before me." ~Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

The Mardu wedge is often considered one of the weakest, if not the weakest, three-color combination in EDH. It lacks access to some of the fundamental resources that allow decks to thrive in a longer format, namely green's access to ramp and late game creatures and blue's access to card draw, selection, and on-the-stack interaction. Alesha helps alleviate some of these issues by allowing us to generate value from our graveyard.

Alesha herself represents a threatening creature that is difficult to block, comes down early, and can feasibly knock players out with commander damage due to the suite of equipment we run. She's the absolute cheapest Mardu commander in the format, allowing us to set our game plan in motion early. She draws the most immediate comparison to other Mardu commanders meant to cheat things into play, such as Kaalia and Tariel. Unlike Kaalia, Alesha keeps a low profile with her seemingly limited ability, and unlike Tariel, Alesha is cheap and allows us to access a suite of creatures with precision.

However, Alesha is not necessary for the deck to run. While the deck is designed to work around her ability, it has enough support to run perfectly without her.

Chrome Mox- The card disadvantage necessary to run Chrome Mox makes it one of the worse cards in our ramp suite. However, the ability to power out a two-drop, particularly something like Thalia or Sphere of Resistance on turn one, is worth losing the extra card.

Mana Crypt- The loss of life can actually become an issue in a longer game. That being said, it is one of the most powerful cards in our entire deck.

Mox Diamond- Extremely powerful ramp, especially in a deck that often wants double colors on turn two. Though the deck is relatively light on lands, its rare that this is a dead card in hand.

Signets (Boros Signet, Orzhov Signet, Rakdos Signet)- These rocks help both by ramping and fixing our colors.

Sol Ring- Second only to Mana Crypt, Sol Ring accelerates us by two turns. With a curve of about 2.5, having Sol Ring allows us to break parity on our taxers and have mana each turn for our threats and our answers.

Sword of Feast and Famine- Doubles our land-generated mana, assuming we have a target, and has the added benefit of stripping our opponents of their cards. Swords are especially useful in this deck, beefing up our creatures.

Talisman of Indulgence- A slight cut above the signets, this has the added benefit of generating mana on turn two.

ad nauseum- Although absurdly powerful, it doesn't allow us to draw our decks like in some cEDH builds. That being said, this card wins us the game more often than not. Drawing ~20 cards at instant speed puts us at an almost insurmountable advantage.

Cathartic Reunion- Almost always better than Tormenting Voice, Reunion digs us three cards down and allows us to pitch our creatures into the yard.

Dark Confidant- Bob typically sees less play in EDH than other formats due to the relatively high cmc of most decks. Our deck, however, is built to play well with Confidant's draw, capping out at six cmc. Landing this guy on curve is probably my favorite turn two play.

Faithless Looting- This card digs for cheap. Its one of the most efficient ways to get creatures into the graveyard and helps dig our way towards our win conditions.

Insolent Neonate- Pulls double-duty as card draw and a discard outlet, and comes out on turn one to boot. As a small utility cycler, we could do worse.

Nahiri, the Harbinger- Every single mode on this walker is relevant; her plus both draws and feeds our graveyard, her minus is versatile removal, and her ult can fetch that last combo piece should we need it. Fantastic walker.

Necropotence- The most powerful draw engine in the game, bar none. Its only real drawback in this deck is that its exile clause makes our discard effects a little bit clunky.

Palace Jailer - There's a reason this card sees play in Legacy; as a creature-based deck, its extremely rare that we will lose the monarch. In this deck, it basically becomes a better Fiend Hunter, as flickering and reanimating it lets us deal with our opponent's creatures almost permanently.

Skullclamp- One of the benefits of having small creatures is that most of them are clampable. Its my number one target for Stoneforge Mystic, turning creatures into cards with incredible efficiency.

Sword of Fire and Ice - We primarily run this sword for its card draw, but having two damage to toss around incidentally deals will many smaller utility creatures.

Wheel of Fortune- As an aggressive deck, its very easy to become hellbent after turn four or five. This card that throw a wrench in our opponents' plans while refilling our hand for cheap.

Buried Alive- With a toolbox full of value creatures, roleplayers, and silver bullets, Buried Alive gets us what we need, when we need it. Furthermore, Alesha can easily reanimate all three targets in one swing if we choose well.

Demonic Tutor- Two mana for any card in our deck, Demonic Tutor grabs what we need, when we need it.

Entomb- Can be used to fetch a utility creature, or bin a combo piece before swinging with Alesha. Very powerful tutor.

Gamble- Its the cheapest unconditional tutor in the game, and most of the time, we can treat the random discard as a potential benefit.

Recruiter of the Guard- Its our cheap Imperial Recruiter, and it hits twenty-six possible targets. It can set up combos and search for removal, but our most common target is Stoneforge into Skullclamp.

Stoneforge Mystic- Grabs our Skullclamp first and foremost, allowing us to get gas well into the mid to late game. After that, it can fetch Lightning Greaves or either of our swords.

Vampiric Tutor- Flexible, powerful tutor that takes up a draw step. Often used turn one to set up explosive turn two plays.

Weathered Wayfarer- Fetches any land provided that an opponent has more land than us, which should almost always be the case. Fantastic one-drop.

Grand Abolisher- Well-timed instant speed removal can really ruin our day, and so its important to have some protection against it. Abolisher stops almost everything that might interfere when we make our big plays.

Lightning Greaves- As well as being a haste enabler, the Greaves protects our general and our combo pieces from targeted removal, all for an equip cost of zero.

Mother of Runes- For just one mana, lets us protect our most important creatures from single-target removal. Occasionally useful for helping Alesha swing in safely.

Altar of Dementia- Two mana sac outlet that can either fill up our own graveyard or, if we establish an infinite loop, act as a win condition.

Carrion Feeder- Its a free sacrifice outlet on a recurrable creature. Its ability to grow larger is mostly irrelevant, but occasionally it can swing in for a big chunk of damage.

Goblin Bombardment- This free sacrifice outlet actually has a pretty strong ability, allowing us to cash in our creatures for burn or removal as is needed. Some of our combos can utilize this card to win.

Viscera Seer- Similar to Carrion Feeder, but with a slightly more useful ability.

Anguished Unmaking- Stops otherwise insurmountable, game-winning threats dead in their tracks for a cheap cost and a little bit of life. Great for getting out of tough situations.

Duergar Hedge-Mage- Though it takes a little bit of effort to get working, the ability to destroy both artifacts and enchantments makes this a potent card in the deck.

Fiend Hunter- This guy temporarily removes opposing threats or, provided we have a sacrifice outlet, permanently exiles creatures. In a pinch, we can also exile our own creatures to get value off of etb and ltb effects. Combos with Karmic Guide and Sun Titan.

Leonin Relic-Warder- Similar to Fiend Hunter, Relic-Warder temporarily deals with artifacts and enchantments on the cheap. This effect becomes permanent if we can sac it in response to its etb trigger.

Olivia Voldaren- Spot removal is especially important in this deck, as our resource denial means that opponents will be producing fewer threats and can therefore be dealt with fewer answers. Olivia offers repeatable spot removal, both through direct damage and her mind control ability. Although her power precludes her from being targeted by Alesha, her ceiling is high enough to warrant inclusion.

Path to Exile- Gets rid of a creatures permanently for only one mana. The downside is actually fairly significant, giving our opponents free mana with which to pay for our taxes or play out threats underneath us.

Swords to Plowshares- In a format where a little bit of life gain is mostly negligible, this is the best removal spell in the format. Deals with just about any creature.

Toxic Deluge- Our deck runs this as our one board wipe because of its low mana cost and flexibility. Its extremely powerful, and although its difficult to be precise in a deck with low toughness creatures, it still serves as an unconditional answer to most threats.

Animate Dead- Animate Dead is cheap recursion with virtually no drawback. However, most people don't expect it to be a combo piece as well. With a sac outlet and Sun Titan, we can yield infinite death triggers

Karmic Guide- Besides its combo potential, this card is just about the best reanimation engine in the deck. One of the first things for which we might tutor.

Reanimate- The life loss is a small price to pay for such a powerful recursion spell. In addition, it can target creatures in opponents' graveyards, which is occasionally useful. Especially good with Entomb or Buried Alive.

Restoration Specialist- Its a cheap little way to recur artifacts and enchantments, permanents which we would have a fairly difficult time recurring otherwise.

Reveillark- While it's a little too large for Alesha's ability, its own effect is extremely powerful in this deck. Goes infinite pretty easily too.

Sun Titan- Its our most expensive creature and cannot be recurred by Alesha, but it earns its slot simply because of how powerful its recursion ability is. Grab back any of our permanents at three CMC or less on every entry and swing.

Unearth- In a deck where most of the creatures fall below four CMC, this is basically another copy of Reanimate. When its a dead card, it can easily be cycled.

Ethersworn Canonist- Prevents storm, elfball, and other swarm strategies from getting off the ground. It doesn't affect artifact spells, however, which can often be advantageous given our ramp strategy.

Hokori, Dust Drinker- Hokori is Winter Orb on a creature that can be recurred by Alesha. Being able to sac and recur it at will is extremely powerful, placing a soft lock on the board.

Kataki, War's Wage- Hate that is devastating to any decks too reliant on artifacts. Similarly to Hokori, we can dodge the symmetrical effect very easily.

Phyrexian Revoker- Revoker is our silver bullet for dealing with problematic generals, hosers, and powerful creatures. Alesha can easily change its role as well.

Sire Of Insanity- When our graveyard is essentially an extension of our hand, Sire can be considered one of our deck's most powerful card advantage engines. Prevents our opponents from forming a cohesive strategy against us.

Sphere of Resistance- Tax effects can be absolutely backbreaking when played on curve. People keep hands with a specific set of plays in mind; preventing them from playing on curve is a massive setback that we can play around.

Stony Silence- Slows down our opponents and, more significantly, shuts down a ton of different artifact-based decks. Since our ramp is centered on artifacts, this can hurt us too; don't be afraid to bin it to a loot effect or imprint it on Chrome Mox should the opportunity arise.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben- Her tax effect is incredible, and the fact that it doesn't hit creatures makes it easier for us to break parity on it. Taxes when we need it, is clampable, and holds a sword well- does everything our deck wants to do.

Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit- Bolstering can increase the size of our army pretty quickly, but Anafenza's main role in the deck is comboing out with Murderous Redcap. Its a combo that is cheap, and falls within Alesha's power limit.

Armageddon- After playing a few creatures and removing our opponents', Armageddon is a good way to clinch the win. Though most players would prefer it played proactively, to finish off a table, feel free to play it reactively as well.

Blood Artist- This deck creates a lot of death triggers, making it feasible to drain opponents out over time. Additionally, this allows us to win with Kiki without going to combat as long as we have a sacrifice outlet, avoiding getting blown out by fog effects or Radkos Charm.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker- Gets twice as much value out of all of our creatures. Combos out with Karmic Guide and with Restoration Angel. Gets cheated out with Alesha. This card does everything we need.

Murderous Redcap- Fills a sort of utility slot by sniping our opponents' smaller creatures, but is primarily used to combo out with Anafenza.

Zulaport Cutthroat- Another copy of Blood Artist that trades the ability to trigger off of opponents' creatures for efficiency.

We are not playing the late game colors. We are not playing blue or green. We are playing Mardu, and we need to play to our strengths. That means playing largely on curve. Having a turn one play is extremely important in this deck. Its fine to use tutors early in order to grab ramp, a draw engine, or an answer.

Be extra conscience of your colors. Many of our early drops are fairly color intensive, and having the wrong colors on hand can cripple our early game. We need to develop a lead quickly, or get washed out by decks with higher curves or more aggressive ramp.

Finally, Alesha is not neccesarily our go-to three drop. She is most effective when we have targets in the graveyard, so don't be afraid to wait on playing her. Rather, prioritize pushing out a stax piece to start to restrict the board early.

We have a curve low enough to be playing out our entire hand within the first few turns. As a result, we really want to resolve a card advantage engine as fast as possible. This can mean landing a draw engine, a recurrable tutor, or a huge draw spell such as Wheel of Fortune. Don't be afraid to overextend in this initial phase; its not a huge deal if our creatures get binned, and many of our creature limit our opponents' ability to interact with us anyways. Feel free to burn removal on developmental cards as well; burning a Wear on a Sylvan Library or Vandalblast on a Sol Ring is usually going to be the correct play. Creature-based removal is especially useful due to its reusability.
At this point, we will want to play our commander. Our creatures tend to be cheap and high impact, and we will hopefully have enough mana to cast lots of spells and activate lots of abilities each turn. We should never have a turn where we do nothing. We need to consistently be netting value and applying pressure, or we won't be able to close the game out before our opponents' creatures start to outclass ours.

Tutor aggressively, remove threats as they come, and prepare to assemble a combo. This stage of the game is where our deck really shines through; assuming we were able to land a stax piece to prevent fast combo from running away with the game, we can start to take over the game. Alesha's ability should ensure that we always have something to do and diminish the usefulness of our opponent's non-exiling removal and counterspells.

Should we draw a good hand and power through our opponents' interaction, we will usually win at this phase. Regardless, its important to close out the game at this point, as other decks will start to outclass ours.

Necropotence and Ad Nauseum are extremely powerful at this point, since we have enough mana to win the game in a single turn should we draw the right cards. Alternatively, our board state should be significant enough to pull off a win by wiping or locking down our opponents' lands. Having six or seven power worth of creatures over our opponents can often clinch a game in our favor.

If we are unable to win at this point, our contingency plan is to layer stax effects in hopes of delaying the late game. To this end, don't hesitate to play Armageddon or Hokori into a sub-optimal board (though do be sure to sandbag lands, and don't play our your MLD if your opponents have a significantly greater board presence or lots of alternative sources of ramp).

If the game has progressed to this point, we need to be severely hindering our opponents or we are going to lose. Sire Of Insanity is one of our curve toppers precisely for this reason, but having two or three smaller hatebears or Hokori, Dust Drinker out can accomplish the same goal. Our combo has many built-in redundancies, so it will be difficult for our opponents to permanently shut us off. Should they somehow manage to do so, we will be relying on combat damage to win (a position we do not want to be in).

Many cards which excel in other formats, such as Olivia Voldaren or Sword of Fire and Ice can accrue enough of an advantage to win if left unchecked. Combined with removal, we can eventually force through a win. Understanding the sorts of combos common to the format can help us decide who to focus and what permanents to remove. However, do be aware that our deck is strongest immediately after the development phase, and unless we have a soft lock on the game, every passing will significantly affect our chances of winning.

How do we eventually win the game? We have three primary win conditions:

Murderous Redcap + Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit + Any Sac Outlet: This is our least resilient but most mana efficient combo. It requires very little set-up, and both pieces can be recurred by our general. However, we have no redundancies set in place.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Karmic Guide + A Sac Outlet

Create infinite tokens and swing. The combo happens as follows:

  1. Tap Kiki-Jiki targeting Karmic Guide
  2. Sacrifice Kiki-Jiki with his ability still on the stack.
  3. Kiki-Jiki's ability resolves, creating a copy of Karmic Guide targeting Kiki-Jiki.
  4. Rinse and Repeat.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker OR Sun Titan OR Karmic Guide + Fiend Hunter + A Sac Outlet

Have Fiend Hunter essentially flicker our combo piece, getting infinite death triggers. The greatest advantage with Sun Titan and Karmic Guide is that it recurs Fiend Hunter out of our graveyard. The Kiki-Jiki loop is a little more complicated.

  1. Cast Fiend Hunter, which exiles any creature on ETB BESIDES Kiki.
  2. Have Kiki copy Fiend Hunter. The copy will exile Kiki.
  3. Sacrifice the Fiend Hunter copy, returning Kiki.
    In Progress!

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Revision 14 See all

(6 years ago)

-1 Olivia Voldaren main
+1 Tymna the Weaver main
Date added 7 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

12 - 0 Mythic Rares

52 - 0 Rares

21 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.32
Tokens Copy Clone, Monarch Emblem
Folders Current EDH Decks
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