Amass With Kenrith

Commander / EDH* Five Color Pillow Fort Voltron Zombie

Epicurus

Land (34)

• 1x Badlands
• 1x Bayou
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 3x Forest
• 1x Grand Coliseum
• 4x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scrubland
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Windswept Heath

Pillow Fort (7)

• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Mudslide
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Shalai, Voice of Plenty

Army (23)

• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Callous Dismissal
• 1x Contentious Plan
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Lazotep Plating
• 1x Lazotep Reaver
• 1x Bleeding Edge
• 1x Flux Channeler
• 1x Gleaming Overseer
• 1x Honor the God-Pharaoh
• 1x Hydra's Growth
• 1x Invade the City
• 1x Invigorating Surge
• 1x Toll of the Invasion
• 1x Vizier of the Scorpion
• 1x Angrath, Captain of Chaos
• 1x Crush Dissent
• 1x Dreadhorde Twins
• 1x Relentless Advance
• 1x Widespread Brutality
• 1x Enter the God-Eternals
• 1x Eternal Skylord
• 1x Commence the Endgame

Evasion (7)

• 1x Aqueous Form
• 1x Graf Harvest
• 1x Aether Tunnel
• 1x Canopy Cover
• 1x Familiar Ground
• 1x Goblin War Drums
• 1x Stealth Mission

Ramp/mana (7)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Urborg Elf
• 1x Faeburrow Elder

Commander (1)

Utility (10)

• 1x Argothian Enchantress
• 1x Celestial Flare
• 1x Frenzied Rage
• 1x Life's Legacy
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Whirlwind of Thought
• 1x Bituminous Blast
• 1x Maelstrom Nexus
• 1x Time Spiral

Exalted (9)

• 1x Cathedral of War
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 1x Ethercaste Knight
• 1x Qasali Pridemage
• 1x Ardent Plea
• 1x Giltspire Avenger
• 1x Rafiq of the Many
• 1x Sublime Archangel
• 1x Finest Hour

Arbiter (2)

• 1x Dueling Grounds
• 1x Silent Arbiter

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Maybeboard

Other (7)

• 1x Rancor
• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Fling
• 1x Paradise Druid
• 1x Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager
• 1x Reyhan, Last of the Abzan
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

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At some point a while back, user:Funkydiscogod had commented on my Modern amass deck (Gleaming Arbiter Army), suggesting that I add some cards with exalted. I never replied to that comment, because it conflicted me. On the one hand, they had a good point. However, there's nothing in that deck to cut to make room for enough exalted to be worth it, and most of the best exalted cards are White or Green, and that deck is Grixis. But it did get me thinking about exalted.

So I built another deck that still played with the effectiveness of Silent Arbiter, this one (Exalted Arbiter) maximizing the effectiveness of the exalted mechanic. It is similar in a lot of ways to the aforementioned amass deck, but with a very different deck list. And still no green.

Meanwhile, I've really wanted to build an EDH amass deck, but couldn't decide on a commander. Kess, Dissident Mage was certainly the frontrunner, but when I try to build it, there always seems like there's something missing. Then I remembered the comment about exalted, and then I looked at Kenrith, the Returned King, and the monstrosity you see here was conceived.

Kenrith Amass, What??

As I mentioned in the introduction, I created this deck as a combination of my desire to build a viable Amass EDH deck, and my desire to pair Amass with Exalted. So the obvious reason to run Kenrith, the Returned King is that he facilitates a five-color deck, since Amass is strictly Grixis, and Exalted is fundamentally Selesnya. However, there are many commanders for five-color EDH.

So why Kenrith? Look at that 2nd activated ability. That beautiful, green, reusable, +1/+1 counter ability. He's a voltron deck dream come true! All of his other activated abilities are just icing on the cake.

One red mana to give the army trample definitely has its place here. 2+W to gain 5 life has its benefits, especially if Dreadhorde Invasion sits out too long without a 6 power army to replenish itself. The blue draw ability is maybe too costly, but serves its purpose, and ditto for the black recursion ability. I truly believe that this deck would not work with a different commander!

Shhhhh!

Silent Arbiter: Voltron's bestie.

I really think that this effect - made even cheaper in the form of Dueling Grounds, with the added benefit of triggering Argothian Enchantress and Whirlwind of Thought - is a mainstay, no-brainer, absolute must for voltron decks. Nevermind how well it makes sense for Exalted, just think about what defines the voltron archetype; making one massive creature, then stomping face with it. Silent Arbiter and company force your opponents to play by your rules.

Not to mention that if you couple it with Menace, your attacker is unblockable. And if you couple it with Maze of Ith, you can't be attacked.

My only consternation is that there are only two cards that do this. It definitely works best in 60-card formats. I've thought about including some tutors to help raise the percentage of getting one during the course of the game, but as of now I feel happy about the mix of spells that I have and don't want to muck with it too much.

Don't @ Me, Bro

The biggest pitfall of voltron, in my opinion, is its susceptiblity to decks that go wide. Oh, pillow-fort. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

- Authority of the Consuls; cheap, quick, completely nullifies Haste, and slows down most creature heavy decks. Plus, life gain, because... why the hell not?

- Ghostly Prison and Propaganda; Classic pillow-fort. Stops go-wide decks cold, especially if both are on the field.

- Mudslide; Generally something you only see in flying tribal, but considering that I'm only planning to attack with one creature at a time, regardless of if I control an Arbiter or not, it doesn't backfire a whole lot.

- No Mercy; Because F your attackers, that's why (see also Celestial Flare).

- Shalai, Voice of Plenty; the utmost in creature protection, and possibly even buffs the army if I don't have anything better to spend the mana on.

Don't Block Me, Bro

Voltron gotta get through. Even if he's big enough for Dreadhorde Invasion to give him lifelink, there's still not much to gain from a blocked army. Menace is the main evasion technique for this deck (I mentioned above that mechanic's synergy with Silent Arbiter), and I also briefly mentioned the usefulness of Kenrith's trample ability. But wait, there's more!

Aether Tunnel and Aqueous Form just make the army straight-up unblockable, as does Stealth Mission (albeit for a limited time, but at least it adds two more counters to the army). Then there's Canopy Cover, which makes it conditionally blockable, but also grants hexproof, and Familiar Ground, which has the same kind of synergy with all the Menace granters as do the Arbiter effects (i.e. you can't block my army).

In The Army Now

I sure hope Pauly Shore doesn't sue me for the name of this panel. I would think that he probably could use the money.

Obviously the Amass mechanic is the driving force behind building an army. Playing the theme in Modern really took me by surprise as to how quickly and efficiently it can work. You'd think that the mana curve of an Amass deck would make it way too slow, but it really, seriously does not. That's because most of the Amass spells have that mechanic as an additional ability to spells with another, primary effect. Essentially, what that means is that you're casting a spell that bounces a creature, or giving a creature -2/-2, or dealing direct damage, and getting an army as a freebie. Kind of like cantrips, albeit obviously a different category. So, unlike a lot of token decks, where most of the spells only have the effect of creating tokens, Amass spells create a token (or, subsequently, make it ever bigger) in addition to whatever else the spell does.

However, this deck doesn't stop there. This Army has GREEN! Hardened Scales, Invigorating Surge and Hydra's Growth, oh my! And a Flux Channeler for good measure, because there's a whole lot of noncreature going on up in here. This deck breeds fattys that would put Snoop's blunts to shame.

Ramps

There's plenty of ramp and draw in the deck, but I won't spend time and space listing them off. You all, I'm sure, already know the usefulness of these categories. They're universal for EDH decks, and require no description. It is worth mentioning that Whirlwind of Thought and Argothian Enchantress are absolute monsters in this deck, as way more than half of the spells are noncreature - over 40 noncreature spells total - and over 20 of them are enchantments. Furthermore, I have a deep love for the benefits of Cascade, and really like what Maelstrom Nexus and Bituminous Blast do for this deck.

Finite Only, Please

I like to mention in my deck descriptions that I choose not to employ infinite loops or combos. When I look at decks that do, all I see is "99 ways to set up the combo." I'm exaggerating, of course, but that's really what I see. I honestly can't even build that way. So, for instance, if this panel was titled "Wincons," the text of the panel would simply read "see above." I try really hard to build decks where "how it wins" is just it being what it is. In this case, what it is, is a voltron pillow-fort. Amass an army, make it gigantic, protect it, make it unblockable, then smash face. No tricks, no hidden motives, and absolutely no infinite.

Comments, suggestions, critiques are all welcomed and encouraged.

Cheers!

Top Ranked	Achieved #21 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #14 position in Commander / EDH 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Five Color 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Pillow Fort 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.94
Tokens	Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	Commander, Unique Decks