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Kenrith the Infinite Mana King - cEDH Primer

Commander / EDH Bracket 5 Competitive Enchant Infinite Combo Primer Ramp Tap/Untap Tempo Toolbox

artcwolf22

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LANDS (side one out for counter in cEDH) (32)

REMOVAL/BOARDWIPES (5)

RAMP (5 COMBOS) (18)

PROTECTION/COUNTERSPELLS (10)

Kenrith value + valakut + 1 maybe add mindbreak trap (6)

INFINITE MANA WINCONS (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Kenrith, the Returned King

TUTORS/DRAW (15)

SYNERGY/STAX/GOOD OPENERS (6)

TAINTED THORACLE WINCON please ban (4)

Sideboard

Najeela Hotswaps for Kenrith stax (remove 1 lair land) (9)

Replacements for broken cards if they gets banned (rhystic study, tainted pact, demonic consulation, Thassa's Oracle, etc.) (5)

Anti counterspell (3)

Warriors worth adding (4)

Maybeboard

Omnath / garth hotswaps for kenrith stax (15)

Kenrith synergy (2)

Outdated (10)

Stifles (4)

Lands? (2)

CEDH worth adding (7)

Warriors (6)

Outdated meta calls worth fitting in cabbage merchant (1)

KENRITH THE INFINITE MANA KING (cEDH)

My personal take on the Kenrith cEDH deck is a mid-range 5 color goodstuff stax deck that aims to win via infinite mana or a Thassa's oracle Empty Deck.

Kenrith is a resilient Midrange cEDH Deck that can win by sinking infinite mana into Kenrith using Freed From the Real, Pemnin's Aura, or Vigean Graftmage on a creature producing 2+ mana. You can also use Tainted Pact/Demonic Consultation with Jace/Thassa's Oracle but that's to be expected of most 4+ color cEDH decks.

To preface this primer, this deck is deceptively become easy to learn but hard to master, as there are multiple different lines the deck goes off of and notably more nonbos than combos. This was built mid 2021 and reached its zenith around 2023.

The main infinite untap combo is a budget build and can be built on a budget of at least $100.

Kenrith is easily one of the most versatile commanders with vanilla effects that benefit every color combination. Kenrith can easily be a deck’s commander so long as it uses white. Every vanilla effect is in Kenrith: hasty red creatures, proliferating green counters, white lifegain, blue draw engines, and black reanimation. Kenrith is purely value, and I can see how everyone on Eldraine loved him as king.

The 2022 cEDH community found Kenrith so versatile that he has headed famous mid-range win lines such as reanimation, stax, underworld breech lines, Hermit Druid, Dockside bounces with Skirk Prospector, and in this deck's case, infinite mana.

cEDH Kenrith decks are usually criticized (and rightly so) for being extremely reliant on Kenrith on the board. His abilities often need him to be able to trigger for the aforementioned lines, and losing him is gamebreaking. This particular deck wants to leave Kenrith in the command zone until he can be used as an infinite mana sink or if no other card choices are prominent.

The ideal hand ramp at least 4 mana by turn 3, such as by using a hierarch, or by landing a solid stax piece and interaction by then.

This Kenrith deck is a mid range combo deck. Your ultimate goal is to find an infinite mana combination and sink the infinite mana into Kenrith, E.g. Give your creatures 100 +1/+1 Counters and Haste to win or just force all your opponents to draw 1000 cards.

What makes this deck weird to pilot is that it wants to maintain control rather than react to control. That means maintaining momentum with stax or control to bait out removal and counterspells.

Bolas's Citadel tops off the mana curve and is built for a solid citadel turn. I usually win or build an impregnable board within 2 turns of it landing. I tested this against ad nauseum and peer into the abyss but found citadel gets more value as the spells are cast rather than in hand. Necropotence wins the game with it too.

The infinite mana combo uses a mana dork that can tap for two+ mana and untaps it, often with an aura.

  • The mana dorks: Elite Heronblade/ Faeburrow Elder/ Bloom Tender/ Incubation Druid/ Sanctum Weaver/ With honorable mentions to Ilysian Caryatid

  • Combo with Freed from the Real/ Pemmin’s Aura/ Vigean Graftmage. Vigean Graftmage only works with 3 or more mana, however, it combos with Kenrith’s mana abilities that allow it. It’s great enough in the early/mid game and with creatures tutors that I’ve always found it worth slotting into the deck. In addition, Kenrith can recur Vigean Graftmage, unlike the other aura enchantments.

  • Thassa's Oracle/Jace Wielder of Secrets + Tainted Pact/Demonic Consultation/ Divining Witch These should be run run in any 3+ color cEDH deck because they happen to fit. Entire decks that run Black and Blue hinge exclusively on Thoracle because it's just that good and it somehow evaded a ban since it became problematic around 2021. Worst case scenario, Tainted Pact is a Tutor, Demonic Consultation and Divining Witch are just risky tutors.

Bolas's Citadel tops off the mana curve and is built for a solid citadel turn. I usually win or build an impregnable board within 2 turns of it landing.

However, exact probability has always been something I've been thinking of and working towards since I added it in 2022, so this is just to run some numbers.

I'm not making spreadsheets like some crazy people, but it was my mind to enough to warrant some writing.

Let's take the scenario of, bolas's Citadel in opening hand so you build to it. 2 lands, 1 elf, and a tutor. guestimate Citadel enters t4 or t5. 3 lands are out and 2 ramp.

27/91 or 28/91 chance you hit something you hit something don't need (23 of the lands + 5-6 of the Stax or counterspells that stop you)

4/91 chance you hit something that can win the game within 1 turn

win the game assuming you have 20+ life

1x Vampiric Tutor 1x Necropotence 1x Enlightened Tutor 1x Brainstorm f 1x Lim-Dul's Vault

LANDS you don't want to see (23)

fetchlands (gets extra Citadel turn)

1x Polluted Delta f 1x Flooded Strand f 1x Marsh Flats f 1x Misty Rainforest f 1x Verdant Catacombs f 1x Windswept Heath

non lands you don't want to hit (4-5)

1x Archon of Emeria f 1x Deafening Silence (ELD:10) f 1x Demonic Consultation 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse f 1x Mana Leak f 1x Vexing Bauble

I built a Najeela deck built off the base of this Kenrith cEDH. I realized that I could hotswap around 10 cards from Kenrith Stax for a functional Najeela stax deck. So I'm devoting a brief section to Najeela as I played and played against Najeela variants for a few years.

Some notes:

1) Najeela was not fun to play at lower power pods as she is poorly designed and too overpowered as a commander. I had to play Najeela with handicaps such as amending her not be a warrior. But even then, if I could get a warrior in my opening hand, the warriors would still get out of control.

2) To fix Najeela, the warriors should get 1/1 Spirits or something. Something that doesn't trigger itself. Making Najeela not a warrior does not nerf Najeela enough.

3) Najeela was not fun to play in cEDH as she often got bullied off the table in my pods. Her stats are low enough to be susceptible from common disruption from abrupt decay to lightning bolt, and she's fast enough to draw out removal. Moreover, tactical opponents seem to target a lot of Najeela's choke points. Playing Najeela felt like opponents were trying to draw the out, and it just got annoying to have to tank at least 3 disruption in over half my games.

4) The 2024-9-26 banlist hit Najeela hard, at least in my high power pods. The time of getting the Mana crypt and Jeweled lotus and getting the hits is gone.

I frankly find Najeela more fun in the deck rather than in the command zone. Otherwise, it can be quite linear or prone to removal.

Najeela is relatively easy to pilot and has seen representation in cEDH and EDH tournaments since her inception in 2018-6. She has runs 3-4 linear 1 card combo win lines, the threat of Thassa's oracle, great recovery, and an amazing play in cEDH where the density of creatures and boardwipes is much lower than high power/casual decks. She's also an impressive 5 color shell that has historically hosted Protean Hulk / Cephalid Illusionist combo and Underworld Breech sub-optimally in a pseudo blue farm deck. Any hand that can get Najeela out turn 2 can be kept. Her best matchup is against midrange decks and stax, and her weakest matchup are creature heavy decks or decks where she is immediately targeted and cannot build up resources.

Najeela is so potent that Najeela is often the only warrior a deck needs and is particularly good in cEDH As such, she’s gained popularity in high power and cEDH. All types of EDH players love/hate her.

I originally had a 3-page long document written years ago but I'm summarizing it here as I'm not going to go in depth with what hasn't been said already on the near endless guides and hype for her.

What I will add to the knowledge pool is that she is a respectable tempo commander that recovers well but not impossible or egregious enough to need multiple targets. No matter how much you upgrade her, she plays the same way and by this point in time, people are well aware of her shenanigans. She's always threatening some 5 color combo or 1 card combo at some point. She also almost never threatens a win by t3, leading to fairer cEDH matches. She struggles with maintaining resources especially from boardwipes and card advantage, and that's something to be reckoned with than built towards. Build najeela based more for your meta's power level over your budget or preferences any day.

Staples I add:

One Card Combos

  1. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

  2. Druids' Repository

Free Cast because Najeela is used so often (replace counterspells)

  1. Fierce Guardianship -> Offer you can't refuse

  2. Deflecting Swat -> Mana Leak

Card Advantage (DECK NEEDS MORE)

  1. Samut

  2. Raiders' Spoils

Hit Harder

  1. Champion of Lambholt

  2. Chatterfang, Squirrel General

  3. Esika, God of the Tree   + Reconnaissance + 5 mana , which esika can provide. I don't run this but some decks can.

For deck building for each power level (i think this was 2020):

  • For cEDH (9-10) Go fast. Add tons or ramp and disruption. Play risky tutors.

  • For high power (6-9?) Add a few warriors. General Marhault Elsdragon and Champion of Lambholt and Chatterfang do a lot. There has not been a single game where those have not been dead cards. I do not understand how there are cEDH matchups with warrior beatdown combo that manage to not run at least one.

  • For mid power (4-7) Go crazy with five color warrior tribal.

• Value Engines: Edric, Spymaster of Trest; Raider’s Spoils. Ohran Frostfang; Mindblade Render; Oakhame Adversary, Samut

• Stonehewer Giant (if including Swords), Yasova Dragonclaw (steal mana dorks);

• Creature Pumps/Warrior Protection: Marisi, Breaker of the Coil; Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist; Ruhan of the Fomori; Ezuri, Claw of Progress; Eldrazi Monument; Jazal Goldmane, Chatterfang, Aven Wind Guide, Seshiro, General Marhault Elsdragon, Ogre Battledriver, Dolman Gate

• Najeela protection: Giver of Runes, Lightning Greaves, other Swords, Weaver of Harmony

  • For low power (1-3) There is no low power najeela. She's busted as long as you make the minimum effort to produce a base.

One Card Combo List, in order of best to worst: Include at least two, one of which should be Derevi. I personally use 1 and 2.

You can also expedite Derevi with a Bloom Tender and Faeburrow Elder or just make infinite mana elsewhere.

  1. Derevi (needs 5 colors on board somehow. 5 combat damange triggers)

  2. Druid Repository (Only 3 warriors need to survive)

  3. Nature’s Will (Just need to deal 1-2 players combat damage)

  4. Sword of Feast and Famine (needs 5 lands of all 5 colors)

  5. Professional Face-Breaker (really good just by itself) (can't go infinite, but threatens life totals enough)

  6. Grim Hireling (best in cEDH: needs 3 opponent to be damaged to go infinite in a vacuum, but once you have mana you can keep pumping Najeela for extra combats to do the trick. the 4cmc is the problem). I have also seen this chosen for 5 color shell decks that run stuff like Protean Hulk packages to attain value.

  7. Bear Umbra (needs 5 lands of all five colors)(budget option)

Kenrith is not the fastest deck in the cEDH Landscape. Red/black can go at a breakneck speed, Turbo ad nauseum decks like rograkh / silas or korvold warrant mulligans, and k'riik are some suspects. To make up for its faults , this deck must run a few stax pieces, especially since it lacks inherent card advantage.

Note these are mostly cards that are only good turn 1-3 and other cards that just don't scale well in lower power levels.

There's also quite a few nonbos in this deck, but they often hurt your opponent more than they'll hurt you.

Archon of Emeria

This deck is hindered by rule of law, but it usually hurts opponents more than you if you time it out and can slow down fancy lands. High Noon was even cut because wasting 5 mana to blow of rule of law isn't really optimal in cEDH. That ability is really good in pioneer control though. Notably, if you get infinite mana, you can't combo off immediately unless Kenrith is out on the field.

Essentially, Archon of Emeria exists as a lightning rod for one less removal to get rid of.

Collector Ouphe

helpful in more cEDH with greedy players who run so much fast mana or treasures. Like archon of emeria, this hurts opponents more than you and is a target for removal.

Containment Priest

Meta call. I have a lot of cheat creature outs and Reanimator decks in my area: Everything from Winota to Yuriko to Lurking Predators to Flicker decks. Replace Containment Priest with Drannith Magistrate in a blind matchup.

Chromatic Lantern fixes colors and deals with Blood Moon, which is prevelant in my playgroup, and to get the colors for Necropotence or Bolas's Citadel. Good 4+ color decks just don't play lots of basic lands.

EXCLUSIONS: colorless staples

  • Mana Vault / Grim Monolith

  • Gemstone Caverns a lot of cEDH Players like it as despite the 5% chance of opening and not going 1st, it puts you a turn ahead. Auto include in 3 or less colors or decks that have enough color consistency. This deck has two problems : you cannot afford to ever get colorless Mana , especially with the necropotence and Bolas Citadel, and the deck is getting so concise 2/3 of the time, there is rarely anything to exile from hand.

Here's some cards to consider in higher levels.

High Impact t1-3

(Cards that cost less than 10usd work better after t2). Stax is used in place of these. - Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer - Ancient Tomb - Mox Diamond - Mana Vault

Gotta play it b/c the EDH committee doesn't ban cards

Drannith Magistrate Orcish Bowmasters (In my experience in a good cEDH match, it's really explosive when cast but then ends up just playing politics afterwards, like letting someone draw off rhystic study to destroy a different creature)

For future reference. In case someone asks about 5 color commanders

Cedh possible

  • Najeela tempo deck. The best variants run 20-30 pieces of interaction, plenty of fast mana, and a small subset of warriors. Very fast solid t2 plays or 5 color combo shell. Can be a target on sight though, and is difficult to recover from a fast turn removal if your opponents mulligan to removal. The stax heavy variant isn't as good imo as it's off tempo; it's tough to guage if the first thing to come out should be the stax piece or Najeela, each of which is delayed by one turn.

  • Sisay weatherlight captain midrange toolbox. Does little first few turns but once you get wubrg mana and siaay on board, you're good. Can run through rule of law.

  • Kenrith mid/late game. So many versions. Graveyard pile with hermit druid, combo stax like this etc. Don't go for turbo is my only recommendation.

  • codie. These decks usually do one thing and keep doing that. The cheap way is to play ramp approach of the second sun and narset's reveral. It's usually a weird deck that can consistently get ad nauseum by cheating out profane tutor. Note this deck is not fun to play nor play against.

Fringe cedh 5 color goodstuff.

  • Garth One-Eye. The competitive version runs infinite combos or this weird combo using garth, Displacer Kitten or Deadeye Navigator and a haste enabler to make infinite mana. The problem is that so much time and cars slots are devoted to setup it's not optimal with the current speed of cEDH. And lots of things Garth can do Kenrith does better.

  • the following are just all the good 5 color stuff (e.g. mystic remora, grand abolisher), underworld breech brain freeze combo, Thassa's Oracle combo, and some other small engine. Be warned they sometimes do nothing or are fragile, with the inability to run or tank stax or boardwipes.

  • lurrus (Jensen carthalion or ezio). Very weird deck that benefits from the low curve for a solid ad nauseum and Lurrus for a win with Hermit Druid.

  • First sliver. The best 5 color food chain commamder. Pray it doesn't get removed. Or just run all the best slivers because they're equal in power once you max out both decks.

  • cedh battlecruisers. These decks don't do much until the commander come out but when they come they will destroy the game.

  • first sliver tribal. Very potent interaction and forward momentum

  • go-shintai shrine tribal. Secretly oppressive and evades boardwipes as they're enchantments

  • ur dragon / tiamat. Note this deck will be very expensive.

  • jodah the unifier legendary cascade. Note that every combo jodah does sisay does better. But this goes wide.

High power. Pure combat rarely wins in cEDH though.

  • urtet myr tribal. Very strong. Has combo potential.

  • Esika. Cheat out legends or gods like most people do. There's a fun way to stack jodah or Najeela or kenrith into your flips. But if you're doing that, just build those commanders.

  • omnath. Stockpiles a lot of mana. Value deck.

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Casual

93% Competitive

Revision 11 See all

(1 day ago)

+1 General Marhault Elsdragon side
+1 Gornog, the Red Reaper maybe
+1 Reconnaissance side