Consultation Kess: a Primer

Commander / EDH UBR (Grixis)

Redshift_cEDH

Land (29)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Training Center
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (8)

• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Hullbreacher
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Thassa's Oracle

Instant (29)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Brain Freeze
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Delay
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Plunge into Darkness
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Snap
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Winds of Rebuke

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Underworld Breach

Commander (1)

Artifact (15)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Wheel of Misfortune
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

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Consultation Kess: a Primer

A brief primer on Consultation Kess by Redshift from the playEDH Discord. Please feel free to comment with any questions or suggestions!

This list is based off a list by Nakhla. Find it here. You can find a more flexible list with cards considered core by Nakhla, Wedge-cEDH and myself plus a sideboard full of cards you might want to fill the rest of the list with here. For budget advice and lists, check out cEDH budget brews discord here.

Introduction

• Consultation Kess is a resilient cEDH deck that ultimately aims to win with Thassa's Oracle. The cards Demonic Consultation (the namesake of the deck) and Tainted Pact have fantastic synergy with Kess. Either allow us to search for Thassa's Oracle, and then be re-cast via Kess' ability to exile the rest of the cards in our library, finally winning with the Thassa's Oracle enter-the-battlefield trigger. This deck also looks to make use of Underworld Breach and cards such as Brain Freeze, Lion's Eye Diamond and other synergies including Lotus Petal and Wheel of Fortune/Windfall to mill out and cast Thassa's Oracle from the graveyard for the win.
• These lines are considered resilient because they avoid much of the effective proactive hate pieces in the format, such as Opposition Agent and Aven Mindcensor. It is also fairly easy to play through effects such as Grafdigger's Cage and Rest in Peace. Cards such as Null Rod, Stony Silence, Collector Ouphe and some other stax pieces (most notably Rule of Law effects that prevent a forbidden tutor and Thassa's Oracle being cast the same turn) can be problematic, as the deck relies on fast mana from artifacts, but we have a comprehensive suite of interaction that should allow us to interact with these pieces on the stack or remove them if necessary.

Deck Archetype

• This deck falls into the Midrange Ad Nauseam category, although it is certainly capable of very fast wins. Although we are running a fairly high density of fast artifact mana, rituals, and tutors, it is not always the best idea to go for the first win attempt. Dockside Extortionist has changed things somewhat in this regard, enabling some truly explosive wins. Our safest and most efficient paths to victory involve having Kess, Dissident Mage on the battlefield and ideally some countermagic in hand; a situation that turns Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact into 1 card win conditions, but takes time to develop.

Deck Strengths

• As previously mentioned, our primary win condition is highly resilient to much of the hate in the format. Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation / Tainted Pact has established itself post-Flash as the format's premiere win condition. Furthermore, having access to Grixis colors (I proudly say Grixis not UBx - Red is so hot right now) as well as reliably being able to recur spells from our graveyard with Kess gives us access to some powerful lines of play. Notably;
• Notion Thief / Hullbreacher + Timetwister / Windfall / Wheel of Fortune / Wheel of Misfortune. Going for an early wheel after spraying fast artifact mana is often a solid play, and tutoring early for a wheel can be as well. Kess allows us to reuse a wheel later if we find Notion Thief, or potentially reuse the tutor and the wheel to assemble this combo.
• Intuition is amazing with Kess on the battlefield, and gives us a potentially game winning pile with Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation and Unearth/Reanimate. Be on the lookout for Opposition Agent!
• Ad Nauseam.
• We run LOTS of countermagic: the most flexible form of interaction. We still need to be very critical in our threat assessment and interact efficiently with the late game in mind.
• Being able to run Cursed Totem and recast wraths such as Toxic Deluge, Pyroclasm and Rolling Earthquake allow us to asymmetrically pressure creature-based decks and combos. We can also run Cyclonic Rift, and can run Vandalblast and Rebuild. We CAN pay overload costs for cards we are casting from our graveyard via Kess! Currently, due to Dockside Extortionist the preference is for interaction that can also bounce our own creatures, hence the inclusion of Snap and Winds of Rebuke.
• Our overall card quality is very high.
• The combo package is so lean that the core of the deck leaves a lot of slots for customisation according to your meta and playstyle.

Deck Weaknesses

• Null Rod / Stony Silence / Collector Ouphe shut down our fast artifact mana. They don't interfere with our win conditions directly but they can be problematic. Think carefully about the impact they are having on other players, not just us, before removing.
• Similarly, Rule of Law style effects, sphere effects and other stax hinder us but don't necessarily shut off our wins.
• Our opponents are likely to recognize that we are on an Ad Nauseam strategy and will put pressure our life total with incremental combat damage. Fortunately Kess blocks well as a 3/4 and her ability allows us to reuse wrath spells; however, our creature wrath spells also use our life total as a resource.
• Sometimes Thassa's Oracle, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or whatever we've had to choose will be in the top 6 when we name it with Demonic Consultation (6.66% chance of it being in the top 6 of a 90 card library), and our opponents will laugh at us, and we will feel bad when this happens.

Strategy / Gameplan

• The deck runs a comprehensive suite of stack-based interaction, wrath effects and can slot a number of synergistic proactive hate pieces in Cursed Totem, Notion Thief and Stranglehold. It also can run very quickly. Sometimes the aim is to use these resources to disrupt faster decks, playing control in the early game. Control is notoriously difficult in cEDH due to the number of opponents and threats - it is extremely difficult to go card for card against 3 opponents. Threat assessment is crucial to ensure the most efficient use of our resources and our survival until the mid to late game. Other times you will simply have an explosive hand (something like a T1-2 Ad Nauseam and you just go for it!
• To help keep resources high and support our interactive, control-based game plan the deck runs a number of draw engines in Dark Confidant, Mystic Remora, Necropotence, Rhystic Study and Ad Nauseam as well as a high density of cantrips for card selection.
• After surviving the early game (if we did not go for a turbo win), likely by disrupting an early win attempt and hopefully establishing a draw engine along the way, we want to cast Kess, Dissident Mage. From here we can grind value from our earlier spells and continue to accrue resources and disrupt opponents as we work towards a Thassa's Oracle win, often via Ad Nauseam or Notion Thief and a wheel, or perhaps a swol' Underworld Breach.

Opening Hand / Mulliganing

• The sorts of things we are looking for in our opening hand include:
• Lands. 2-3 is gravy.
• Persistent fast artifact mana. We really want to see those rocks early. Spraying a few rocks into an early wheel is one of the best starts we can have.
• Interaction. We often need to disrupt faster decks in the early game. Counterspells are the most flexible. As always we'll need to have a look at what our opponents are up to and mulligan appropriately.
• Draw Engines / Selection. Mystic Remora, Dark Confidant and Necropotence are all good cards to see early. Cantrips are good too.
• Tutors. Early tutors are often spent on Mystic Remora, Mana Crypt, Dockside Extortionist an answer, a wheel or Ad Nauseam. Intuition is an all-star in this deck.

Winning the Game

• Our win condition is Thassa's Oracle (ours or one from somebody else via Praetor's Grasp). If everything has gone to plan, we will have made it to the late game with Kess on deck, Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact and countermagic backup. Ideally we just resolved a fat Ad Nauseam or stuck Notion Thief + a wheel. We search for Thassa's Oracle, cast it withholding priority and recast the Consultation / Pact on top of the ETB trigger for something nonsensical to exile the rest of our library. The ETB resolves for the win. This increasingly occurs off the back of an Underworld Breach by recurring tutors or milling out with Brain Freeze.

Conclusion

• Consultation Kess is a great choice and only gets more so as Wizards continues to press the red agenda. Able to keep up with turbo, and with good options into metas featuring other midrange, control and stax strategies, the deck is strong and versatile. However, it can be demanding in terms of threat assessment, making it tricky to pilot.

Top Ranked	Achieved #42 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #33 position in Commander / EDH 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH UBR (Grixis) 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.80
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	cEDH, Interesting decks, EDH, Guides and Primers, Competitive Builds, EDH, Primers, cEDH Lists, primer, EDH