Kess, Dissident Mage

Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

Flying

Once during each of your turns, you may cast an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard. If a spell cast this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Flarhoon13 on Kess's Kombo

5 months ago

Having completed my quest to play all 52 of my decks, I decided to try getting a win with all of my decks.

Aug 30

Now helmed by Kess, Dissident Mage: another long game. I Cyclonic RiftGCed after Tiff's Cleansing Nova killed Blaine's huge lizard army. That was enough to win the game, getting the first w for my losers' bracket decks,1-4

Trickster318 on Help building a Storm deck.

1 year ago

I'm interested in building (& possibly buying for once) a Storm deck. While combo is fun, the same monotonous combo lines bore me, so scrapping together a win sounds fun.

I've already picked out my commander, Kess, Dissident Mage. Grixis Storm sounds like fun.

So the questions are, how many storm cards should I include? Any suggestions? And any fun ideas to throw in, in these colors?

Leathable on Inalla - A New Foe Has appeared

1 year ago

Hi NV_1980,

thanks for the feedback. Yes, you are correct, I built the deck with solely those win conditions in mind - getting them somewhat low with Impact Tremors, Terror of the Peaks, Anathemancer and so on, and then finish them with Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire. I'd like to Note, that these spells are not strictly one-use, since i can get them back with Archaeomancer and Kess, Dissident Mage / copy them using Dualcaster Mage (perhaps in combination with Harmonic Prodigy and Naban, Dean of Iteration.

I've actually had Marchesa, the Black Rose (and Havengul Lich ) in a previous version of the Deck, but removed her, since i didn't actually want to build the deck around attacking, but using her effect to actively re-trigger ETBs is something I've not thought of. I've only used her as a means of "protecting" my creatures, not "sac" them for additional triggers. I'll add her back into the Deck, this idea synergises well with the theme of the Deck. Havengul Lich might also be worth re-adding.

As for "more powerful spells": I've thought about adding some more, but not necessarily token creations. More like in the Spirit of ToH and EX (preferably with CMC 2 or less so i can tutor them as well with Spellseeker)

Flarhoon13 on Kess's Kombo

1 year ago

May 3, 2024 I started a new quest. Having built 52 decks, I endeavoured to play them all, in roughly the same order as I created them. My first commander deck led by Zur the Enchanter *f-etch* blew out and demoralized my opponents. Rubinia Soulsinger gained the upper hand and all opponents conceded 2-0

Tetsuo Umezawa's Parachute Pants and Infinite Mana: lost long game to Isshin, Two Heavens as One. Possibly could have won... Tired, two opponents dead, I attacked, which killed me on a board where I was safe after having Cyclonic Rifted and kicked Rite of Replication on Champions of Minas Tirith 2-1. Kess, Dissident Mage will be the commander going forward

Unlife on Kess Combos

2 years ago

A while back I was playing around with a Kess, Dissident Mage deck using adventure spells when I had the idea to make a DnD Adventuring party, one for each class, plus a few bad guys to round everything out. I've been testing them, and haven't been happy with the Kess deck, specifically the wincons.

It's currently built around casting spells and pinging opponents, but my sorcerer deck does that better. I decided to put one or two combos in the deck as wincons, but I could use some advice for combos that are flavorful. Sure, I could put in Thassa's Oracle and Tainted Pact/Demonic Consultation, but I'm hoping for something that fits with the idea of a wizard learning and casting spells. I don't mind if its 3-4 cards either.

Advice and Recommendations are appreciated, thanks in advance. Decklist is below.

Kess the Adventurer

hootsnag on SufferFromEDHD

2 years ago

Almost all of those are super heavy on mana cost. I may make the deck Red/Blue/Black instead for better commander options. I was looking at Cormela, Glamour Thief or Kess, Dissident Mage. Thoughts?

Made_Compleat on Davros, Dragon's Approach

2 years ago

Rasaru, for the purposes of your Spellweaver Helix + Worldfire combo, have you considered Final Parting? It sets everything up perfectly by giving you Spellweaver Helix and dumping Worldfire in the graveyard.

Also, Azoth2099, that's a really cool take on a more graveyard-focused Dragon's Approach deck. I have my own version of this deck Daleks & Dragons [[Davros EDH]] and you've inspired me to add Kess, Dissident Mage. While I don't think I can maintain my deck while pivoting strategies as you've described, I really want to see how you would make a more graveyard focused Approach deck with Kess or maybe Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. If you build that deck, please show me!

Azoth2099 on Davros, Dragon's Approach

2 years ago

One more thing! You should consider either adding Kess, Dissident Mage to the 99, or running her as the commander in a revamped version of the deck should you choose to explore the aforementioned strategy.

Cheers!