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I call this "Yardhopping" because of the way its creatures jovially hop back and forth from the graveyard. At its core this is a kind of sacrifice-based combo deck. It has a strong dose of removal for control purposes, preferring to eliminate crucial threats and avoid looking like the best target.


So why Alesha?

This began life as a Kaalia of the Vast deck that I had learned to really dislike playing. Kaalia, in my experience, tends to act like a giant sign in EDH reading "hit me! hit me! Don't worry about anybody else, hit ME!" She can't help it, even when she's doing nothing it always seems like a Master of Cruelties or Iona, Shield of Emeria is going to drop out of nowhere.

Once I had come to terms with the fact that simply trying to play Kaalia and drop free angels, dragons and demons every turn is actually not at an effective strategy in EDH (even if you do manage to kill somebody this way, you'll probably just get gangbanged by the rest of the group long before you can actually win the game), I really went to work on this deck. For nearly a year I gradually cut scary fatties in favor of various graveyard, control, and combo cards. Then one day I realized that Kaalia herself had become barely relevant to the deck, and it was time to let her go.

So Alesha, Who Smiles at Death came into the picture, graciously pointing out to me that she could repeatedly return Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Village Bell-Ringer, Karmic Guide, Solemn Simulacrum, and other key cards I was using from the graveyard. And so the deck was reborn under her leadership, and became substantially more fun to play.


Key Cards, Combos, and Synergies

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker makes infinite creatures with Village Bell-Ringer or Zealous Conscripts. Either one untaps Kiki when it enters the battlefield, letting you tap him to make hasty copies forever. The only downside here is that grabbing one of these from the graveyard with Alesha means you've already used your combat step, in which case you have to wait until your next turn to swing for infinite damage. However, Altar of the Brood or Impact Tremors will make those infinite ETB triggers lethal without the need for combat.

Thanks to persist, Murderous Redcap goes infinite with Cathars' Crusade the second you have a sac outlet like Goblin Bombardment or Blasting Station. When you sacrifice the redcap, he dies and then comes back with a -1/-1 counter, which is cancelled out by the +1/+1 counter he receives from Cathars' Crusade. Simply repeat the loop until he has pinged your opponents to death.

Karmic Guide and Reveillark will endlessly return each other to the battlefield as long as you have a sac outlet. If your sac outlet itself doesn't deal damage, you can have Reveillark grab Murderous Redcap at the same time as the Karmic Guide for infinite damage. Endless Solemn Simulacrum triggers will also do it, as will Impact Tremors, Grim Haruspex, Blood Artist, or Altar of the Brood. With Sadistic Hypnotist as your sac outlet, you won't win on the spot, but infinitely discarding your opponents' hands at instant speed should give a bit of an advantage.

Karmic Guide and Reveillark also go infinite with Mirror Entity. Simply trigger Mirror Entity's ability for zero an infinite number of times, and then bounce Reveillark and Karmic guide back and forth from the graveyard as much as you like.

Solemn Simulacrum is great by itself, but becomes an incredible engine for both ramp and card advantage when you've got Alesha and a sac outlet. Having him both enter the battlefield and die every turn can generate a huge advantage very quickly.

Similarly, reanimating and using Burnished Hart every turn is a lot of ramp.

Just like Kaalia of the Vast, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death can circumvent Master of Cruelties's fear of attacking in groups by dropping him straight into combat. Master of Cruelties will set your opponent's life total to 1, and then Alesha will go in for the kill. If they have no blockers, it might as well read "ruin target player's day."

In the right scenario, Retribution of the Meek will basically mean "destroy all (or most) creatures you don't control. For 3 mana."

Crackling Doom is an excellent way to remove your opponent's indestructible voltron with hexproof.

Honorable mention to Ankle Shanker and reconaissance for ensuring that Alesha and whatever she grabs from your graveyard can attack without fear.

A wide variety of tutors help grab combo pieces when you need them. Bonus synergy points for using Diabolic Intent to sacrifice Village Bell-Ringer and then using Cauldron Dance to put it right back on the battlefield with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.


This deck has been through an incredible number of updates and changes to arrive where it is today. The best part of this, though, is not necessarily how much better it has gotten, it's that it has become exceptionally fun to play. Considering that it was once just trying to play through a nightmarish haze of Kaalia hate, I'm quite pleased.

Comments and suggestions are welcome! Especially if you can think of anything else that would help enable this deck's combos.

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Date added 8 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

44 - 0 Rares

24 - 0 Uncommons

10 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.13
Tokens Copy Clone, Morph 2/2 C
Folders Build Eventually
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