Kokusho, the Evening Star

Legendary Creature — Dragon Spirit

Flying

When this dies, each opponent loses 5 life. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.

Legality

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

Discussion (51)

SaberTech on Ideas for an Ayli, Eternal …

2 months ago

I kind of see Ayli as more of a control oriented commander when compared to other potential WB aristocrats style commander options, although the need to gain life and have creatures to sac to her ability does cause a lot of overlap.

The first real hurdle is getting up to 50+ life. Running Ayli means that you opponents have even more reason to default to attacking you so that they can to keep you from using Ayli's removal ability. While being able to pick up life off of Blood Artist and extort type effects is useful, I think that it's worth finding ways to get big swings in life too. Tree of Perdition is one that comes to mind since it has 13 toughness for 4 mana right off the bat and you can increase its toughness even more if it stays on the board. Unhallowed Phalanx offers another high toughness for sac fodder. Serra Ascendant, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and Exsanguinate are also ways to gain a bunch of life. Angelic Chorus, Proper Burial, Rhox Faithmender, and Cleric Class have potential as well. Heliod's Intervention could be worth running as a removal option.

There are a bunch of options for token production but I thought that I would mention God-Eternal Oketra combined with Kor Skyfisher, Whitemane Lion, and possibly Stonecloaker as well. Oketra has reasonably high toughness and comes back quick if sacrificed for life. 4/4 tokens are good for sacrificing if you need to. The white bounce creatures can be used for repeatedly triggering your extort effects and other cards like Angelic Chorus, Oketra's Monument, and Cathars' Crusade.

Prava of the Steel Legion is another token producer that can pump all your little tokens into high-toughness sac fodder to gain life.

Tsukimi on Things Betor Left Undead [Primer]

5 months ago

Hey, EchoSpice thank you! Greed was on the initial list but it feels a bit slow compared with some things I still have on the maybe list like Stinging Study or even K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth. But funny enough I have been taking a closer look at a few cards that feel too slow as is, like Kokusho, the Evening Star and one of my top two replacement choices is Gary himself.

Eloniel on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

10 months ago

I continued to dig for cards both old and news, that are not listed here but could fit:

• Gift of Immortality : This card has lot of potential, i think this card has been glanced over because if you're not careful you don't realize it's every end step and not only yours. Even if used on a one mana afterlife 1 fodder, in a turn rotation of a 4 players game it would already have payed for itself (4 recursion of 1 mana creatures for 3 mana). In this deck it's like a better version of Ophiomancer. Others awesome targets would be Market Gnome, Ranger-Captain of Eos, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, Hallowed Spiritkeeper, Kokusho, the Evening Star (for those that play it like me). Or can be used as a protection for sacrifice engine, a draw engine, a blood artist effect or Teysa. With flash or an ability to chose of make it comeback to your hand instead of attached to the creature i think it would be a no brainer.

• Crowded Crypt : both a ramp and a payoff cards, with Teysa and a one mana afterlife 1 fodder it's already 6 corpse counter on the Crowded Crypt, a few other sacrifice and it's a winning condition. I know it's a 3 mana ramps but it's very fitting in this deck and a ramp.

• Bartolome del Presidio: another free sacrifice engine for 2 manas, but personnally i would prefer using Warren Soultrader and Viscera Seer.

• Reliquary Monk: An interesting removal, i almost find it better than Cathar Commando since with Teysa it's a double removal. Of course the downside are the 3 mana cost that can't be splitted over time like Cathar and flash missing.

• Funeral Room / Awakening Hall: another blood artist effect, with a recursion ability later, but you already haven't included The Meathook Massacre. Personnally i'm almost at a point where i'm ready to remove Blood Artist since it's the last effect that target a single player instead of dealing damage to each opponents, it's only upside is that it also work with opponent creatures dying.

• Kambal, Profiteering Mayor: It's a mix of Corpse Knight and token making. I'm not a fan of "this ability triggers only once each turn" and "one or more token" instead of "a token". Although a lot of people include it in their lists, i have mixed feeling about this card.

• High-Society Hunter : a better Grim Haruspex since it also work for other players but still 5 manas, i would not include it.

YourNeighborhoodGhost on Lord Xander the Collector: Clone Mill

1 year ago

remember it triggers for each opponent you are attacking. and works well with your Dauthi Voidwalker and Kokusho, the Evening Star

fluffyeel on The apocalypse (Sheoldred)

1 year ago

Yay, darkness. Here are some thoughts that might synergize with your deck:

• With Sheoldred feeding off of card drawing, you might consider things that speed up card drawing. These can be double-edged swords, but Howling Mine, Font of Mythos, Teferi's Puzzle Box, Memory Jar, and the like might be worth considering. Reliquary Tower may also not be a bad idea.
• Rather than Infernal Darkness, why not Contamination? You can also get an engine with things like Bitterblossom, Dreadhorde Invasion, and Reassembling Skeleton (or other recurring creatures, e.g. Bloodghast) to make your opponents cry even more.
• Koskun Falls could also be another way to tax your opponents.
• You could also go with Wound Reflection to double up on the suffering. Things like Kokusho, the Evening Star and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician are must-plays in any deck I have with black, and considering Gray Merchant of Asphodel might also be worth your time.

fluffyeel on Death and Taxes

1 year ago

Apart from a spate of tutors of varying price points (Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Entomb, etc.), here are some thoughts of varying degrees of evilness/making sure your opponents "love" you forever:

• Kokusho, the Evening Star is, for me, a must-include in any black-containing EDH deck, especially with how its life-drain effect scales with the number of players. You could also add an Archfiend of Despair and/or Wound Reflection to multiply suffering, Archangel of Thune to make your board bigger with every passing turn (or life-gain occurrence), and/or Boon Reflection for more life-gain fun!
• Some additional reanimation in addition to what you already have could be handy. For this, I would suggest Karmic Guide; Junji, the Midnight Sky; Reanimate; and/or Necromancy.
• If you have access to it, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician would be super-handy: on-demand sacrifice, not to mention card draw and weakening your opponents' boards.
• Some more land fetch/land thinning tools, like Expedition Map; Urza's Cave; Prismatic Vista; and Marsh Flats, might help. Similarly, Field of Ruin and Demolition Field serve double-duty of land fetch and land destruction for problematic lands. Alternately, some more multi-lands like Reflecting Pool, Mana Confluence, and other pain lands could help you in early game stages.

fluffyeel on You draw you lose

1 year ago

Some small recommendations I can think of:

• You have a lot of drawing for all parties, but your opponents will also be discarding (quite likely, especially given the Memory Jar). I therefore recommend Megrim, which actually is the reason Memory Jar became the first emergency ban in MTG history. You could also run things like Animate Dead, Reanimate, and Necromancy to take advantage of loading up your opponents' graveyards. Of course, Rise of the Dark Realms is a nice showstopper, though it's quite pricey...
• Archfiend of Despair is a delightful combination of Wound Reflection (already recommended) as well as stopping lifegain. I love using it wherever I can. (It's also a demon, so it synergizes with one of your alternate win cons.)
• You could also consider going more of a snow-covered route, so replacing your basic swamps with the snow-covered kind and going with Extraplanar Lens to amplify your black mana. Crypt Ghast also is another mana accelerator.
• The Meathook Massacre and Massacre Wurm are also "board wipe with benefits" that I highly recommend. I also almost always play Kokusho, the Evening Star in every black deck I run. Archfiend of Despair could also be another fun option for removing things and punishing your opponents.
• Some of your artifacts and tutors could be better. Rather than Wayfarer's Bauble, I could suggest Expedition Map instead. Grim Tutor, Planar Bridge, and Beseech the Queen could also make for fun tutoring.
• I'm not sure if Gemstone Caverns and Mox Diamond are worth it here: sure, they're fast and get you more mana quickly (always a good thing), but the multicolored mana isn't so necessary. There are options I might prefer like Mox Amber, Mana Vault, Volrath's Stronghold...
• For a mono-black deck, Contamination might be a great way to lose all friends. I highly recommend it.

Nalgaeryn on EDH - Dralnu, Lord of Exile

1 year ago

Whoops, here are the most expensive cards in the deck and rough prices currently.

• Kokusho, the Evening Star $19.26
• Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger $21.63
• Tainted Pact $13.4
• Yawgmoth's Will $127.99
• Crucible of Worlds $16.69
• Academy Ruins $13.49
• Cabal Coffers $19.57
• Polluted Delta $35.49
• Sunken Ruins $22.92
• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth $35.92
• Watery Grave $10.49