Alesha, Who Smiles At Death and (s)Taxes [Primer]

Commander / EDH Mishraharad

SCORE: 352 | 234 COMMENTS | 122717 VIEWS | IN 248 FOLDERS


April 1st update —April 1, 2019

It ain't no April Fools, but Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Village Bell-Ringer and Uba Mask are here, and they've started doing some real work.

Uba Mask itself has won me 2 games I usually shouldn't have won because it stopped sick draw engines for long enough to Kiki combo the table.

StopShot says... #1

If you're sick of fog-effects run Everlasting Torment as damage can't be prevented. Giving Alesha wither is also pretty good as first-strike and wither will put -1/-1 counters on their creature before they deal damage back ensuring your commander lives if blocked by a 4/X creature. Wither also does well at removing indestructible creatures through combat damage as well.

Just so you know Experimental Frenzy can easily be part of an infinite combo. All you need is Experimental Frenzy + Sensei's Divining Top + Helm of Awakening or Cloud Key naming artifacts. Basically you can keep casting Sensei's Divining Top an infinite number of times off the top of your deck which allows you to draw unlimited times which can result in drawing your entire deck for free.

After that you'll want to cast the following cards off the top of your library as you draw to them; Lotus Petal , Dark Ritual , and Elixir of Immortality . Order doesn't matter here, and your Elixir will cost 0 mana given the Helm of Awakening or Cloud Key . Dark Ritual gives you 3 black mana and Lotus Petal gives one mana of any color. You will then spend 2 black mana to activate the Exilir shuffling it along with the Ritual and Petal back in your deck to repeat this all over again. Do note you'll always need the third black mana from Dark Ritual to recast it again every loop, and thus each loop you net one extra mana of any color with Lotus Petal . Congratulations you now have infinite draw, infinite mana of any color, and infinite life from the Elixir, as well as an infinite storm count due to constantly recasting Sensei's Divining Top .

At this point you can win by activating Experimental Frenzy 's effect that destroys itself allowing you free range to assemble any of your lethal combos as every card that was in your library and graveyard will now be in your hand, or can you simply run a Grapeshot as a back-up plan with your now infinite storm count.

March 3, 2019 8:13 p.m.

Mishraharad says... #2

StopShot

It is a nice combo, but problem is adding some cards breaks the parity of my stax pieces, and some are good only with the combo, and as a Taxing deck I really need to pick my silver bullets

March 4, 2019 1:33 a.m.

StopShot says... #3

@Mishraharad, That's understandable. Reconsidering your stax pieces a better fit for your deck would be Flameshadow Conjuring + Felidar Guardian + Mountain or any land/artifact that comes untapped and can produce .

You have Flameshadow Conjuring in play and a Mountain . You then proceed to cast Felidar Guardian . Both the Felidar and the Flameshadow trigger. You'll always resolve Felidar Guardian 's ETB first targeting your Mountain to flicker and untap it. Then you can tap the Mountain to pay Flameshadow Conjuring 's triggered ability creating a hasty Felidar Guardian token. Because a token enters Flameshadow Conjuring does not trigger again, so instead you have the Felidar Guardian token's ETB target the original Felidar Guardian blinking the cat and having it re-enter the battlefield again which will also re-trigger the Flameshadow Conjuring . You then repeat, cat blinks mountain, mountain makes another haste cat token, haste cat token blinks original cat, until you have enough hasty cats to deal lethal to everyone.

Felidar Guardian is good as it can also combo off with Karmic Guide and Goblin Bombardment . Flameshadow Conjuring may not be an optimal stand alone card, but creating extra ETB's per turn will always give it something to do. Do note if your opponent kills the cat before you can go infinite you won't be able to reinitiate the combo for lethal by recurring the cat with your commander, as you'll have wasted the combat step doing so. However, if you do so with a Goblin Bombardment or Altar of Dementia you can then deal lethal as you'll have infinite tokens to sacrifice to anyways.

There are a few other lethal combos that crossed my mind that would also by-pass all your current stax pieces:

Mana Echoes + Goblin Trenches + Drownyard Temple = Infinite goblins, infinite colorless mana, and infinite landfall. Can be activated at instant speed on an opponent's end-step making the tokens safe from boardwipe.

Endless Cockroaches + Deathrender + Goblin Bombardment = The equipped roaches die going back to hand, Deathrender triggers putting the roaches back on the field equiped to be sac'd again.

Teysa, Orzhov Scion + Darkest Hour + Goblin Bombardment + any other creature = Sac the other creature, since Darkest Hour made the creature black Teysa produces a 1/1 white spirit token. Darkest Hour however makes the spirit token black, so sacrificing the spirit will produce another black spirit, and again and again for endless sac-effects.

March 4, 2019 3 a.m.

thk89 says... #4

Just curious, you don't actually run a lot of tutors. Is there a reason why?

March 10, 2019 12:39 p.m.

Mishraharad says... #5

thk89

Currently, budget.

THere was a Demonic Tutor a few months ago, but then few expenses loomed their ugly head so some sacrifices had to be made

March 10, 2019 1:34 p.m.

thk89 says... #6

Mishraharad I see. Let's say, you would be inserting Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Diabolic Intent, Mox Diamond, Mox Opal, Chrome Mox, and Mana Crypt into your deck for fast mana and consistency, what cards would you replace? Fewer creatures in the deck?

March 10, 2019 9:12 p.m.

Mishraharad says... #7

thk89 If I'm getting those cards, I+m also getting an LED, which would mean I lower one combo for Bomberman Combo, and a few situational removal creatures, like Hedge Mage and the like

March 11, 2019 1:07 a.m.