Alena, Kessig Trapper

Legendary Creature — Human Scout

First strike

: Gain an amount of equal to the greatest power among creatures you control that entered the battlefield this turn.

Partner (You can have two commanders if both have parner.)

Discussion (16)

Savage1988 on Perv”R”Us, the Fat Sling (EDH)

1 week ago

Saamok

The deck is built pretty budget - so i think several upgrades are possible. This is mostly in the ramp department though. For example Dockside Extortionist and Mana Crypt would both be good includes. Another card could be Deflecting Swat , though you don’t need it for your commander very often it can help protecting something important. The only payoff i’m sure i’d include if i had it is Fiendish Duo . Other than that i feel there’s a lot of options that come down to preference. (See also the maybeboard)

I considered Golden Guardian  ^Flip and Alena, Kessig Trapper . I did not end up trying them because the setup cost seems too high.

Guardian: needs another creature and 2 mana to fight before its effect goes off and the ramp is nice, but spending your turn making a 4/4 isn’t that great

Alena: is either 5 mana and hope she lives to then give you a lot of mana next turn, or sneak her in for 3, sneak something else in and then sneak 2 other things in.

Writing this i could be wrong about alena. She’s mana positive when sneaked (because purph gives haste she taps for RRRR immediately). And a sequence where you sneak her in in the endstep of the player to your right, use her to sneak something else, then untap with her and all your mana can be pretty strong.

If you end up trying her let me know how she works out

castor661

Awesome! And stay safe, i hear it’s all pretty bad right now in brazil. Any cool plays worth sharing?

abby315 on MAD FARM Hatebearer

3 weeks ago

Have you found Jeska to be useful for setting up? I almost feel like Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar or Alena, Kessig Trapper would be more useful on average. Kediss draws you more cards off of Tymna, and Alena is just a mana dork in the command zone in case you need help powering out Kiki. I know Jeska is good at clearing out mana dorks and some hatebears but she seems a little slow. Otherwise I love the list!

jakeyuki12 on It All Adds Up

1 month ago

Hiya! Long time Boros player here. Got a few observations about this kind of deck. 1) This Boros pairing of Akroma and Rograhk favors lots of aggresively costed (low cmc) creatures with keywords. If you want to focus on equipment, I would recommend going Rograhk + Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist . If you want to focus on big boros (lots of high cmc creatures) I would recommdn Akroma + Alena, Kessig Trapper . If you want to stick with Akroma + Rograhk, then I recommend cutting most (if not all) of the equipment and HEAVILY trimming on the mana curve, cutting a lot of the high drop creatures and playing more low drop creatures. 2) You have a 0 cmc commander. I recommend you take full advantage of it. Mox Amber is Mox Ruby in this deck. Jeska's Will is a huge ritual plus a draw 3. Deflecting Swat and Flawless Maneuver are free protection spells. 3) Your current land count is going to lead to a lot of missed land drops. I recommend upping it so that you can consistently draw lands and make all of your land drops. 4) You have next to no interaction in your deck. White is a great color for both single-target removal and board wipes. I would look into playing a higher number of those, otherwise a big threat from an opponent (which you have 3 of) is going to ruin your day. 5) If you want to stick with Akroma + Rograhk, then like I mentioned, you want to lower your curve by a LOT and fill it with more low cmc keyword soup creatures. Once you've done that, impulsive draw becomes really good in the deck, and red (and Boros) has gotten tons of great impulsive draw options in recent years. On top of that, Akroma synergizes really well with extra combats (since she triggers every combat), so running one or two of those would be good finishers.

Osbert on Morophon Eldrazi balanced

2 months ago

For the Stompy version I would start by cutting Ruination Guide, Pitiless Plunderer, Sifter of Skulls, Blight Herder, Brood Butcher, Emrakrul’s Hatcher, Catacomb Sifter, Drowner of Hope, Awakening Zone, Etchings of the Chosen, Eyeless Watcher.

If you put in Rings of Brighthearth it combos with Basalt Monolith to make infinite mna. Both Monolith and Rings are 3 CmC and artifacts so they are tutorable with the same tutors you have in here for Fist of Suns. With infinite colourless mana Dimensional Infiltrator will be able to exile your opponents libraries, Essence Depleter can drain out the table, and Prophet of Distortion will let you draw your library. Rings doesn't have a lot of synergy with other cards in your list BUT if Golos was your commander it has a seriously powerful ability that would be awesome to copy.

Eternal Scourge + Food Chain is another combo you can consider which will make infinite COLOURED mana for creature spells and have infinite EtB and LtB triggers so this will end a game with Flayer Drone or Vela the Night-Clad in play. If you wanted to abuse the mana you would need Cloudstone Curio or a non-eldrazi bouncing creature as all the eldrazi bouncers are processors and it is unlikely your opponents will have an infinite pile of exiled cards.

I suggest adding in Pathrazer of Ulamog , Barrage Tyrant , World Breaker , Dread Defiler , Endless One , Not of This World , Rapacious One , Reality Smasher , Thought-Knot Seer , Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre , Ulamog's Crusher , & Vile Redeemer as suitable eldrazi stompy options. Barrage Tyrant and Dread Defiler get a special mention because Fling is an amazing effect that can give you the reach you need to close out a game or off a player hiding behind a pillowfort.

Here is a list of support cards off the top of my head: Sarkhan's Unsealing , Temur Ascendancy , Commander's Plate , Mana Maze , Cultivate , Kodama's Reach , Rampant Growth , Ugin, the Spirit Dragon , Everflowing Chalice , Thran Dynamo , Rishkar's Expertise , Return of the Wildspeaker , Garruk's Uprising , Hunting Grounds , Sneak Attack , Animar, Soul of Elements , Mana Geyser , Mirari's Wake , Ugin, the Ineffable , Show and Tell , Terror of the Peaks , Warstorm Surge , Alena, Kessig Trapper , Ilysian Caryatid , Momentous Fall , Greater Good , Sacellum Godspeaker , Selvala, Heart of the Wilds , The Great Henge , Eldritch Evolution , Energy Tap .

bryanedds on Ziki-Jiki

2 months ago

Alena, Kessig Trapper might be worth experimenting with here.

1empyrean on None can rustle the Triumvirate

2 months ago

I've got an Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist/Alena, Kessig Trapper deck that has a similar gameplan to this one, but without having to build around Zirda.

Props to you for putting up with the pesky companion restriction.

sub780lime on Scouts for the Empyrean Squadron

3 months ago

1empyrean, It depends on your build, but it sounds like you are aiming to use Alena, Kessig Trapper as much as possible. You have quite a few 4+ power creatures in the deck, so it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility to at 7 or likely more to use with Doubling Cube. Just my 2 cents; you'll definitely know better how that plays out in the deck.

As far as what to remove, how often is Elixir of Immortality's shuffle back in really helping your strategy? Maybe I am just not seeing it, but I'm wondering how often it's a whiff.

1empyrean on Scouts for the Empyrean Squadron

3 months ago

The infinite combos in this deck mostly have to do with untapping Alena, Kessig Trapper after playing a creature or making a token. This gives me infinite red mana (assuming the creature's power is high enough, but that's what the auras and equipment help with), and depending on what I am using to achieve this, other things as well. The most potent is Staff of Domination, which lets me draw my deck.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is in the deck to make a creature token more than as a central combo piece, and that's why I'm not running the expected combos. Kiki/Bellringer also gives me infinite red mana with Alena.

Should I list the things that untap Alena?