INTRODUCTION
This is my Kamahl, Fist of Krosa EDH deck. I hope it provides inspiration to all of you multiplayer EDH fellas, especially to the green lovers.
I chose him as a Commander for several reasons.
1) When I was twelve, I went to a store and bought some Onslaught boosters (it was 2002). Since I was young, I didn't know the value of some cards like fetchlands or Goblin Piledriver; hell, I don't even recall ever finding them. But the one thing I do remember is when I found Kamahl.
"Hey, what's this rare? Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, a druid LEGEND??!! AWESOME!". It was my first legend ever. Love at first sight. Thus, when I had the chance to build an entire deck around a legendary creature, how could I not use him?
2) Perfect monocolored EDH deck are way easier to build than multicolored ones. That's because it takes you far less time to go through every single card of the commander's color identity, and going through all cards is the only way to be sure you chose the best cards that suit your legendary creature (and your playstyle as well).
3) It's very strong. Despite commanders like Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Titania, Protector of Argoth and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard being definitely more powerful, Kamahl is not a weak commander:
-
His second ability lets you win a lot of games (it also gives your mana dorks a reason to live past the first turns).
-
The first ability is far more useful than you'd think. If you have some untapped lands, it prevents opponents from casting a mass removal (since in that case you'll transform his/her lands into creatures, Armageddoning the son of a wurm who played the spell); furthermore, if you're sure nobody got Terminus or other instant-speed swipes stuck in their sleeves, transforming your land (and possibly buffing them with Kamahl) can be a sure way to victory.
-
Last, but not least, you could use it to animate your Gaea's Cradle/Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and then untap it with Quirion Ranger/Wirewood Symbiote, thus generating a tremendous quantity of mana per turn.
BRIEF STRATEGY
This deck is kinda of a "controlish" one, meaning that it doesn't go straight for an early turn kill: you must first stabilize your board while trying also to disrupt your opponents' lands/resources. I can assure you that there will be games where you'll draw tons of card, and thanks to that by turn 6 you should on average be ready to play a lethal Craterhoof Behemoth. Start with playing mana dorks and prepare the board for the advent of Kamahl. Be sure to play the commander only if you can leave some mana open in case any opponent has in mind to throw a board swipe. If he'll do it, make him feel the "Fisting of Krosa" (that's when you animate the lands of the party pooper who just Wrath of Godded your creatures). With Kamahl's protection, you should be able to play more creatures withouth fearing the majority of mass removals.
LANDS
Finding the right lands was pretty simple, since the choices are not so many after all. One note: I play Snow-Covered Forests because earlier I used to play Scrying Sheets; in addition to that, I wanna make the most out of Extraplanar Lens, so snow-covered forests are an auto-include. Feel free to use your unhinged foil forests instead if you do not like the lens.
I've been using fetchlands since I added Titania, Protector of Argoth, Sensei's Divining Top and Mirri's Guile. I don't think they're necessary otherwise. If you decide not to run fetches, I strongly suggest you include Scrying Sheets and more snow lands for additional card drawing and for having another mana sink source.
-
Deserted Temple, Gaea's Cradle and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx are obviously there for ramping. What's the point in playing mono G if you can't produce tons and tons of mana?
-
I play Strip Mine because in multiplayer (and with this deck) land destruction cards are needed for a number of reasons, such as building tempo, removing dangerous utility lands (The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Maze of Ith and the like) and mana denial vs multi-colored decks.
-
Mouth of Ronom, while not as efficient as Swords to Plowshares, is one of the best removal we can use, due to the fact that it can be easily tutored in green.
-
Turntimber Symbiosis
is a forest at worst, but can turn itself in a good value engine if you are late in the game. No reason not to play it.
-
I've seen a few mono G decks that don't run Dryad Arbor. Let me say that it's a big mistake. The things you can do with that cards are endless. Here are some examples:
-
- As Legacy elves players will know, you can block with Dryad Arbor and then bounce her in your hand using Quirion Ranger so that she won't die and the damage will be blocked (beware of creatures with trample, though). This tactic also prevent the opponent's Umezawa's Jitte, a really strong card against our mana dorks, from charging.
-
- You can tutor her with Wood Elves and both land and creature tutors (if for some reason you'll need it).
-
-
- If you play her, this card allows your Gaea's Cradle to produce at least one mana (in case your opponent destroyed all creatures with a swipe or something).
-
Homeward Path is a way to prevent people from stealing you commander or key creatures via means such as Bribery or Gilded Drake sometimes it is also useful in EDH politics, helping an opponent whose creature has been stolen to get their revenge (thus making an ally).
-
Cavern of Souls is an auto-include at least in every EDH deck that has a commander that can be countered, and I don't see why it shouldn't be include also in the "can't be countered" ones.
-
Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is a forest with an upside. It lets you do pretty good stuff with Quirion Ranger, too, like bouncing back in hand Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Gaea's Cradle to play them again in the same turn, doubling the mana they provide!
INSTANTS
It took me a long time to find the right instants for this deck. Since there are some cards that MUST be included in a mono G deck, the slots left for the other stuff were very few. I'd like to give an honorable mention to Tribute to the Wild: it almost made it to the deck, due to its potential of being an X-for-1 card.
-
Nature's Claim is one of the best spot removal we could run. Spot removals aren't usually great in multiplayer games, but this is so useful and so valuable that it seems to me wrong not to use it. The 1 cmc cost is the reason why it's so strong: you won't be needing to stay open with more than one green mana, while in the meantime you will be able to progress your board state.
-
Worldly Tutor, Chord of Calling, Summoner's Pact and Crop Rotation are our instant-speed tutor. I cannot stress enough how important tutors are in this format. Drawing a tutor gives you the certainity to have the card you need the moment you want it. Every EDH deck should run as many tutors as it can fit in.
P.S: be careful when you play Crop Rotation. Make sure nobody will counter it or you'll just lose a land.
PLANESWALKERS
Currently I'm not playing any PW in this deck. A lot of them are very good, but here's the reason why I don't use even the strongest among them:
-
Garruk, Primal Hunter was one of my favourites. Its second effect is very strong, but the fact that he'll die if you -3 him right away, and that the effect is too situational, made me cut it from the list.
-
Garruk, Caller of Beasts has always been considered great by me. However, I decided that it was better to take him out of the deck due to his high cost and because I found that it was pretty slow. You should use this card only if you have a big amount of fatties to Aether Vial with him or if you're able to keep him alive until the finisher is ready.
-
Garruk Wildspeaker is the best green PW currently available, hands down. It can let you ramp amazingly, its Overrun ability can be of paramaunt importance, and its CMC is only 4. I had to take it out of the 99s because slots are limited and I chose other powerful cards over it. But if you can find a place for it, I suggest you do it.
-
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
/ Nissa, Sage Animist
is a very good PW in 1vs1 formats as well as multi, but it's not so good in this particular multiplayer strategy, when creating Ashaya usually won't be enough to protect her. If find her to be a strong card either as a commander or in the 99 of a deck that exploits creature reanimation/recursion.
-
Karn Liberated. Now that was a dilemma indeed. It is really really strong. I decided to cut it out just because with 7 mana usually there are times when I can just play much more stuff. It's more of a personal choice then an objective reason. If you feel lost without him, you should find a place in the list.
-
Nissa, Worldwaker is another great PW. She's a rampwalker, and has a good sinergy with Extraplanar Lens. At the moment she's out of the 99; however, in the future she might come back instead of some less performing card.
-
Nissa, Who Shakes the World is useful only for its static ability (it is a bad habit to evaluate a PW from its finisher, so I'm going to ignore it), which makes it a 5 mana ramp effect with lifepoint.
-
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds has a great static ability, but Yeva, Nature's Herald does it better: it's a creature, has a great body, and has flash itself. The -2 is also good but doesn't justify the inclusion in the 99s.
SORCERIES
The same consideration I made for instants can be also made for sorceries.
-
Green Sun's Zenith, Primal Command, Tooth and Nail, Traverse the Ulvenwald, Eldritch Evolution, Finale of Devastation and Natural Order are the sorcery-speed tutors of this deck. They compensate their slow speed by each having great upsides:
-
- The first can be used over and over again (and if you get it in in your opening hand, you've just earned a Dryad Arbor).
-
- Primal Command can slow an opponent's draw, make you recycle your bombs and gain life (when things are desperate).
-
-
- Eldritch Evolution is one of the best tutor we could ever get. It's basically a worse version of Natural Order, as it tutors only CMC+2 creatures and, sadly, it will exile itself (design had to include this condition, otherwise this card would have been seriously broken). To see how effectively use it, check my deep analysis on Order, just below.
-
-
- Here's my thorough analysis on the ways you could use Natural Order. They're endless, you understand? No more things to say.
-
Genesis Wave is a source of both board and card advantage; true, Wave requires a lot of mana, but once you have it, basically it give you so much board advantage that it'll be impossible for any opponent to keep up with you. I reccomend to cast it at least for X=8, to avoid loosing our 8 cmc creatures to it.
ENCHANTMENTS
These ones are the best of the best of the best enchantments you could ever get into a mono G EDH legal deck (sorry Fastbond, you're banned). IMO you should include all of these in your green deck, whoever the commander might be.
-
After having used a lot of ramp spells like Kodama's Reach, Cultivate and Nissa's Pilgrimage, I decided to switch to more extreme ramp methods. So I included in my list Carpet of Flowers. Useless to say that this little awesome card improved my ramp in a ridiculous way, even though opponents might not run a lot of islands.
-
Defense of the Heart is an incredibly strong tutoring effect. It makes your opponent worry about playing creatures, and can win you games without much of an effort. When you're playing against less aggro decks it may be harder to trigger it, but nonetheless it's insanely powerful.
-
Exploration gives you the chance to start the game extremely fast, and that's a huge advantage. Snow-Covered Forest, Exploration, Snow-Covered Forest, Llanowar Elves is a start that can let you play a turn 2 Natural Order. But that's just one of the marvellous thing you could be able to do with this enchantment in play.
-
Earthcraft is the card who took the place of my ramp spell: why ramping one when you can just have all of your creatures give you mana? It's also very useful since you can play Kamahl and, if the opponents try to use a mass removal, you'll always have the mana for turning lands into soon to be dead 1/1s.
P.S: I chose not to include the combo with Squirrel Nest since this deck can't have tutors for enchantments, and hoping to draw both is a little too optimistic. I tried it several times and it just doesn't work for me. However, if you'd love to overrun your opponent with squirrels, nobody will stop you from including this card.
-
Mirri's Guile works as a free Sensei's Divining Top each turn. If you have a fetchland on the ground during your upkeep then congrats: you just made a green Ponder!
-
Survival of the Fittest is maybe the best tutor in this deck. Here's a general rule I follow when building a commander for me or my friends: "If a card is banned in Legacy, it means it's OP and must be included". It seems to be usually true.
-
Sylvan Library is the strictly better version of the (in)famous Sensei's Divining Top. The more ways to ever draw the card you want, the better.
ARTIFACTS
I just included the ones that MUST be included in every EDH deck and the ones that have the strongest synergies with other cards.
-
Sol Ring is basically a must in every commander. Heck it is even restricted in Vintage! That should give you a hint of its power.
-
Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox are here to help raise the chances of explosive opening hands.
-
I added also Mana Crypt and Mana Vault since those cards are simply BOMBS. Try it if you don't believe me. I was skeptical at first, but there's a pretty good reason they're banned everywhere (and restricted in Vintage).
-
Birthing Pod is another tutor I decided to put in the deck. Be sure to use Pod only if you have a perfect or pretty efficient creature curve like the one in this deck: having just one 5-drop or 4-drop is very risky.
CREATURES
This deck has a mix of mana dorks, utility creatures and wincons. Some creatures are here for personal choices, others should be always included in a green deck (this is my personal opinion, but trust me, I tested each one of this cards a lot).
-
Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves and Elvish Mystic and Priest of Titania are the mana dorks I chose and the reasons why they're here it's pretty obvious. Priest of Titania, counting ALL elves in play, it basically runs on steroids in a 4+ players game.
-
Circle of Dreams Druid and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds are our Gaea's Cradle on a stick. They can provide huuuuuuge amount of mana thanks to our beloved commander's help
-
Elvish Reclaimer is here more for the tutoring effect than for the body. Being able to fetch any land is amazing, especially because this deck run a fair amount of utility ones. Also, great synergy with Seedborn Muse
-
Quirion Ranger and Wirewood Symbiote are utility creatures that have strong synergies with a lot of other creatures (basically the same used in the Legacy elves deck): Elvish Visionary + Wirewood Symbiote
for card draw, Reclamation Sage + Wirewood Symbiote
for artifact/enchantment hate recursion, Wirewood Symbiote + Wood Elves
for ramping, Quirion Ranger + Dryad Arbor for chump blocking (apart from creatures with trample), Quirion Ranger or Wirewood Symbiote + any elf or a forest for mana acceleration (by untapping a mana dork). You can also animate Gaea's Cradle with Kamahl's first ability and untap it using Quirion's/Wirewood's ability.
-
Scryb Ranger is here for redundancy, which I found to be absolutely important. Its ability is both extremely useful and unique, and being able to untap an animated Gaea's Cradle is insanely powerful.
-
Allosaurus Shepherd is simply insane. I remember when I had to decide whether to include Gaea's Herald or Prowling Serpopard in my deck based on the former being an elf and the latter being asymmetrical. Guess what? Shepherd solves all the problems! Making everything uncounterable and providing a mana sink? Sign me in!
-
Lotus Cobra and Tireless Provisioner can give you a lot of mana in a single turn, by using fetchlands of with either Exploration, Wood Elves or Oracle of Mul Daya. It is a great ramp card to be run and I suggest you do so.
-
Scavenging Ooze is my graveyard toolkit and I came to think that it is a must in almost every mono G deck (and quite a few of the multicolored ones).
It lets you gain life, remove some threats for good and, most of all, it gets big in multi. Really big.
-
Elvish Visionary is here since she basically cicles herself and has a good synergy with Wirewood Symbiote; you won't mourn her if it gets sacked to Birthing Pod or Skullclamp and will happily die for you chump blocking a big monster.
-
Skyshroud Poacher is an elves-only tutor ride that can help us get key pieces during the game. Putting them into play prevents people from Counterspelling them.
-
Fauna Shaman is Survival of the Fittest on a stick. That's reason enough to include her in almost every mono G EDH.
-
Wood Elves is my ramp creaturee. Very strong and very efficient, it provides you net card advantage.
-
Silverback Elder is a great creature source of artifact destruction and land ramp.
-
Reclamation Sage is Naturalize on a stick and can be played over and over again thanks to our lovely Wirewood parasite.
-
Fierce Empath is a great tutor and the perfect card to feed to Natural Order or Birthing Pod. if you want to use it instead to get both Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth, just use the Symbiote and bounce it in your hand.
-
Ramunap Excavator is a Crucible of Worlds on a stick. It helps giving the deck redundancy and it can be tutored since it is a creature. It is a very powerful utility card.
-
Oracle of Mul Daya is the advanced version of Exploration; it's amazing the speed at which she'll let you go through your deck, putting lands in play and dramatically reducing dead draws.
-
Collector Ouphe is our fetchable Null Rod on a stick. While it is a nonbo with cards like Birthing Pod, the advantage that it brings to the table against certain strategies is too high to pass by.
-
Yeva, Nature's Herald is a creature that allows you to play nice tricks to your opponents, such as playing an instant-speed commander or an instant speed fatty; plus, she's a 4/4 and an elf.
-
Kogla, the Titan Ape does it all: it is the closest thing we can have to an hard-removal, it Naturalizes stuff when attcking and, furthermore, it help.
-
Seedborn Muse is a close friend of Kamahl, since she allows you to always have the required mana for turning your opponents' lands into creatures or Overrunning yours (protecting them from effects like small casted Black Sun's Zenith or Toxic Deluge. Furthermore, its third ability makes us recurring Eternal Witness multiple times and helps us saving Kamahl itself from spot removal and sweepers.
-
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild is truly amazing. it makes your Quirion Ranger go infinite by itself, meaning infinite untapping or infinite land etb triggers (Lotus Cobra and Tireless Tracker anyone?) and, even better. infinite Gaea's Cradle mana if you animated it with Kamahl.
-
Beast Whisperer serves a single purpouse here: never letting you out of fuel. Its low mana cost makes this card really powerful and perfectly on curve.
-
You know what is better than a Gaea's Cradle? Three Gaea's Cradles! That is exactly why Nyxbloom Ancient does. I don't even know how to describe the power this card has. It is even better than Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger: since it doesn't hinder your opponents' manabases, they are less inclined to remove it. and do not properly evaluate the threat. What a terrible, terrible mistake.
-
Bane of Progress is an extremely powerful creature that can ruin most of your enemies plans. Try it yourself and see how good it is.
-
Greenwarden of Murasa is a great card, since it has a big body and a double Eternal Witness effect. It can be tutored in many ways and it provides card advantage. I think that's enough to prove its value.
-
Woodland Bellower is another card that gives you card advantage. It can tutor a ton of things and is a threat per se. Definitely good.
-
Regal Force is a card that in the absolute worst case scenario gives you a 5/5 creature that cycles herself. Best case scenarios? You played Avenger of Zendikar just before.
-
Avenger of Zendikar is one of this deck's wincons. It is
a very strong card that makes you win most games, alone or with Craterhoof Behemoth.
-
Craterhoof Behemoth is the utimate finisher. If you have 6 creatures in play, you basically just killed an opponent. More than 6 creatures usually means GG.
-
Terastodon is the perfect target for an early Natural Order.
-
Rootpath Purifier lets you fetch cards like Gaea's Cradle with Prismatic Vista, seems definetly strong here!
Hope you enjoyed this long and thorough deck analysis.
Vote this deck if you liked the Krosan way +1
