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Kathril, Nightmare of Indatha [Keyword Primer]

Commander / EDH Angels BGW (Abzan, Junk) Counters Discard Midrange Nightmare Primer Reanimator

UltimateRoxas40

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Creature (33)

Enchantment (3)

Land (34)

Instant (8)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Kathril, Aspect Warper

Sorcery (12)

Artifact (9)

Maybeboard

Creature (5)

Enchantment (3)

Artifact (2)

Sorcery (2)

Land (1)

"Kathril, a cunning insectile nightmare with powerful shapeshifting abilities, lurks in the peaty marshes of Indatha."

The general game plan is to either dump creatures into the graveyard or play them and attack/block to get them into the graveyard. Once we've got the necessary keywords, drop Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil and potentially one-shot an opponent. However, we can also spread the keywords around to other creatures and make them even more threatening.

The Keywords that matter for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil include: Flying, First Strike, Double Strike, Deathtouch, Hexproof, Indestructible, Lifelink, Menace, Reach, Trample, and Vigilance

  • Akroma, Vision of Ixidorfoil - Flying, First Strike, Vigilance, Trample - This version of Akroma has the same keywords as the original one, but this version we actually want to play on the field as she can massively boost our creatures during our combat step. If Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil and Akroma, Vision of Ixidorfoil are out together, Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil needs fewer keywords to swing for lethal damage.

  • Avacyn, Angel of Hopefoil - Flying, Vigilance, Indestructible - Giving all your permanents Indestructible is great. However, she does cost a ton of mana, so she is better off in the graveyard as either a reanimation target or as keyword fodder for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil.

  • Elder Gargarothfoil - Vigilance, Reach, Trample - 5 mana for a 6/6 beater with three relevant keywords? Awesome. And the module-ability to generate either a 3/3 Beast Token, Draw a card, or gain 3 life on attack or block is even more awesome. A great way to build up our defenses or recover some life.

  • Eradicator Valkyriefoil - Flying, Lifelink, Hexproof - Lots of good keywords on a solid body. While this has 'Hexproof from Planeswalkers', it technically still counts as Hexproof for Kathril, Aspect Warper. And it has a good Boast ability, where we can sac a creature to make our opponents sac either a creature or planeswalker. Good if we want to get something with Indestructible into the graveyard or we are up against a superfriends deck.

  • Gisela, the Broken Blade   - Flying, First Strike, Lifelink - One half of Brisela, Voice of Nightmares    , and has a ton of keywords if she ends up in the graveyard. We can basically swing with her constantly to gain life until someone finally decides to deal with her.

  • Nighthawk Scavengerfoil - Flying, Deathtouch, Lifelink - Three good keywords for only three mana. Pretty much a better upgrade to Vampire Nighthawk, as it has the same stats if an opponent has a card in the graveyard, such as a fetch land. Anything else just makes this creature bigger and better.

  • Zetalpa, Primal Dawnfoil - Flying, Double Strike, Vigilance, Trample, Indestructible - Zetalpa's place to shine is in the graveyard for Keyword fodder or as a reanimation target.

  • Archangel of Thunefoil - Flying and Lifelink - Good Keywords but also can pump the board with +1/+1 Counters whenever we gain life. With a few Lifelink creatures, we can easily build up an army of powerful creatures. And if we have The Ozolithfoil in play, if there is a board wipe, we can move all those +1/+1 Counters over to it to pump up another creature later on.

  • Bassara Tower Archerfoil - Hexproof and Reach - This is mainly a Buried Alivefoil target, as Hexproof is extremely useful, and Reach counts as one of Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil's keywords, but it can also be a good (potentially one-time) blocker if our opponents have a large Flying creature coming our way.

  • Bontu the Glorifiedfoil - Menace and Indestructible - A powerful beater on her own, but also allows us to sacrifice any creatures with Indestructible and get them into the graveyard for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil.

  • Bruna, the Fading Lightfoil   - Flying and Vigilance - While Bruna costs a lot, there are several Angel or Human reanimation targets that we can look for when playing her, notably her sister counterpart Gisela, the Broken Blade   to meld together to form Brisela, Voice of Nightmares    . Other good targets include Avacyn, Angel of Hopefoil, Archangel of Thunefoil, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Eternal Witness, and Slippery Bogbonder.

  • Carnage Tyrantfoil - Trample and Hexproof - Another powerful beater that will serve us well no matter where it is. If we play Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil and give it Indestructible or Double Strike, this dino becomes quite terrifying.

  • Doom Whispererfoil - Flying and Trample - Provides two good keywords and gives us Surveil for two life, which we can use to smooth out draws or put creatures into the graveyard for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil.

  • Glissa Sunslayerfoil - First strike and Deathtouch - The combo of First strike and Deathtouch is very powerful, enabling us to swing out basically every turn without fear of being blocked, allowing us to get one of her three possible effects almost every combat unless our opponents have a good number of chump blockers. If we do connect with an opponent, we can either draw a card, destroy an enchantment (The enchantment doesn't even have to belong to the player we attacked!), or remove up to 3 counters from target permanent (Planeswalker/Saga hate or other counters our opponents might be using).

  • Nethroi, Apex of Death - Deathtouch and Lifelink - This delightfully terrifying Cat Nightmare Beast is one of my favorite cards from the Ikoria set, and I almost built a deck around him. He is one of our alternate Win-Cons, as when we Mutate him, we can return creatures with total power or less to the battlefield. We can go get things like Carnage Tyrantfoil and Archangel of Thunefoil.

  • Oketra the Truefoil - Double Strike and Indestructible - She is another good target for Buried Alivefoil or Entomb, as she has the all-important Double Strike plus Indestructible, both of which can make Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil very difficult to deal with.

  • Sanguine Spyfoil - Menace and Lifelink - In addition to having some good keywords, she is a sacrifice outlet and source of card draw. For and sacrificing another creature, we can Surveil 1, potentially dumping two powerful keyword creatures into the graveyard for a single mana. And on our end step, if we have five or more mana values among cards in our graveyard, we can pay two life and draw a card.

  • Shadrix Silverquillfoil - Flying and Double Strike - Gives us another Double Strike, which is very important to make Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil a 1-Hit-KO, but if we play it out first, we get a variety of useful options and some political power. At the beginning of combat on your turn, we may choose two out of the following three modes (Each mode must target a different player): 1. Target player creates a 2/1 white and black Inkling creature token with flying, 2. Target player draws a card and loses 1 life, or 3. Target player puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature they control. The +1/+1 counters option would be the most beneficial for us, since those counters can be saved/stored on The Ozolithfoil, but being able to either draw a card or create a Flying blocker could also be beneficial.

  • Sigarda, Host of Herons - Flying, Hexproof - Sigarda works great in the graveyard, as she can provide Hexproof to Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil, but having her on the field eliminates one possible way to remove an Indestructible and Hexproof Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil, by an opponent forcing us to sacrifice Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil.

  • Stonecoil Serpentfoil - Reach and Trample - This artifact snake provides us with one of the rare instances of Reach in this deck. And since it costs to play, we can either pump it up with a bunch of +1/+1 counters that could then be stored on The Ozolithfoil, or we could just cast it for , effectively discarding it so we can send those two keywords to the graveyard for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil.

  • Thalia and The Gitrog Monsterfoil - First strike and Deathtouch - Another powerful keyword combination similar to Glissa Sunslayerfoil. This dynamic duo gives up a lot of benefits, starting with an additional land drop on each of our turns. They also make creatures and nonbasic lands our opponents control enter the battlefield tapped, and when they attack, we must sacrifice a creature or land, then draw a card. A great way to put some of our Indestructible creatures into the graveyard and draw a card at the same time.

  • 1x Valentin, Dean of the Vein (STX:333) f / Lisette, Dean of the Rootfoil   - Menace and Lifelink - Valentin is a cheap source of Graveyard hate in the early game, exiling our opponents creatures when they die or enter the graveyard. Once we have enough mana, we can start paying to create Pest creature tokens, which could be used as cheap blockers. On the flip side, Lissette acts like a more restrictive/pseudo Archangel of Thunefoil, as whenever we gain life, we can pay , and all our creatures get a +1/+1 counter and gain Trample until end of turn.

  • Vorinclexfoil   - Trample and Reach - A 6/6 for five mana is already nice, but add on Trample and especially Reach, along with an enter the battlefield effect to fetch two Forest lands to our hand, and we've got a sweet addition. Plus, if we have enough mana, we can pay to flip him into The Grand Evolutionfoil  , which Mills, Reanimates, Pumps, and acts as a pseudo boardwipe with Fight.

  • Faeburrow Elderfoil - Vigilance - Can tap for up to three mana if we have the right permanents in play, plus has vigilance for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil. Also, since it is a 0/0, it can be brought back by Nethroi for free.

  • Birds of Paradise - Flying - A nice 1-drop that ramps us and provides one of our best evasion keywords.

  • Slippery Bogbonder - Hexproof - This card is amazing. For and with enough counters in play, we could easily KO an opponent by instant speed by moving +1/+1 or ability counters over to Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil or another powerful creature.

  • Sylvan Caryatidfoil - Hexproof - Another mana dork that also provides Hexproof for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil if it's in the graveyard.

  • Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderfoil - Trample - Wow, I don't know why it took me this long to add this monstrous beast to the deck. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderfoil has a replacement effect of "If you would put one or more counters on a permanent or player, put twice that many of each of those kinds of counters on that permanent or player instead." So let's say we have 5 keywords in our graveyard when we cast Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderfoil is in play. We would put the 5 keyword counters on Kathril, which Vorinclex would double to 10 total counters. Then the second part of Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil's ETB ability would resolve, putting 10 +1/+1 counters on him. But Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderfoil would see this too, doubling those to 20 +1/+1 counters. With the full keyword suite of 11 Keywords in the graveyard, we would end up with 22 ability counters and 44 +1/+1 counters. Just add in something to give our God Bug Haste and we could attack for 94 damage!

As of the most recent update to this deck, the Keyword distribution is: Flying - 12, First Strike - 4, Double Strike - 3, Deathtouch - 4, Hexproof - 6, Indestructible - 4, Lifelink - 8, Menace - 4, Reach - 4, Trample - 8, and Vigilance - 7

"Many a monster hunter, seeing only a big bug, has ventured after what he thought was easy prey, only to meet his end at Kathril's mandibles"

For a One-Hit KO with Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil, we need at least 9 keywords in the graveyard, one of which has to be Double Strike so Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil can become at least an 11/11. Once it's a huge threat, we have a few ways to make sure it connects with an opponent and wipes them out.

  • Key to the Cityfoil - Provides a Discard outlet, makes a creature unblockable, and can provide Card draw if we have available mana. All great things.

  • Shizo, Death's Storehousefoil - While not true Unblockable, we can give a legendary creature Fear, which makes it only able to be blocked by Black and Artifact creatures.

  • Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderfoil/Winding Constrictorfoil - As stated above, these two creatures can mess with the counters and math a little to make it easier to swing out for lethal damage.

Tutors and getting Creatures into the Graveyard

Obviously, we want creatures in the graveyard, so we have plenty of spells and tutors to get cards into our hands and more importantly the graveyard.

  • Birthing Pod - One of the best creature tutors around, especially in a deck like this that wants creatures in the graveyard. For , or basically just , we can sacrifice one of our creatures to go find another one with CMC + 1. This can be a useful way to 'chain' together creatures and get all the keywords we need into the graveyard. One of the best chains is: Bassara Tower Archerfoil/Sylvan Caryatidfoil -> Nighthawk Scavengerfoil/Bontu the Glorifiedfoil -> Oketra the Truefoil -> Any Five Drop. This puts multiple keywords into our graveyard for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil to use.

  • Buried Alivefoil - Probably one of the best cards in this deck. You go get three creatures and put them into the graveyard for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil. Of course, this will telegraph what your game plan is to the rest of the table, so you should be careful about incoming graveyard hate. One of the best three-card combos to look for are: Zetalpa, Primal Dawnfoil + Bassara Tower Archerfoil + Nighthawk Scavengerfoil = 9 keywords with Hexproof, Double Strike, and Indestructible. If no one stops this and Kathril gains these abilities, it will become a true monster that can One-Hit KO any opponent who doesn't block.

  • Demonic Tutorfoil - Go grab any card at Sorcery Speed and put it into our hands.

  • Doom Whispererfoil and Underrealm Lich - All of these can dump cards straight into the graveyard for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil to use.

  • Entomb - Instant Speed get a card a puts it into the graveyard. Great if you are casting Kathril, Aspect Warper and still missing a keyword or two. Since it's an Instant, we can cast Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil, and if there isn't a response or counterspell, we can then in response to casting Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil, we cast Entomb to go get something like Zetalpa, Primal Dawnfoil or Akroma, Vision of Ixidorfoil.

  • Fiend Artisanfoil - A slightly more flexible but more mana-intensive tutor than Birthing Pod. For , we can sacrifice a creature and go get another one. A good way to get some of our Indestructible creatures into the graveyard.

  • Grapple with the Pastfoil - Put the top three cards into the graveyard then return a creature or land. Great if you accidentally binned something like Fauna Shaman or Nethroi, Apex of Death that you actually want to cast.

  • Grisly Salvagefoil - Look at the top five cards and take either a creature or land, then put the rest into the graveyard.

  • Jarad's Ordersfoil - Searches our deck to get one creature card into our hand and one creature card into the graveyard. Can grab or bin a variety of creatures depending on the situation.

  • Key to the Cityfoil - Provides a Discard outlet to selectively drop a creature from our hand into the Graveyard.

  • Mulchfoil - For two mana, we can look at the top four cards of our library, refill our hand with lands, and potentially dump some good keyword creatures in the graveyard.

  • Sanguine Spyfoil - For and sacrificing another creature, we can Surveil 1, potentially dumping two powerful keyword creatures into the graveyard for a single mana.

  • Surveil Lands - Lush Porticofoil, Underground Mortuaryfoil, and Shadowy Backstreetfoil are all Dual lands that, while they enter tapped, also let us Surveil 1, which is much more useful than Scrying in this deck. We can quickly and easily dump target creatures into the graveyard, without relying on Sacrifice or Discard outlets to get them where we need them to be for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil.

  • Survival of the Fittest - For just , we can discard a creature card to go find another and put it into our hand. Very useful for searching for a missing keyword before dropping Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil, or even activating at instant speed in response to us casting Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil!

  • Tortured Existence - For just , we can effectively swap a creature card in our hand with one in the graveyard. A good way to selectively add keywords to the graveyard, or get a good utility creature back like Vorinclex, Monstrous Raiderfoil or Underrealm Lich that has more value on the battlefield rather than in the graveyard. And like Survival of the Fittest, we can activate this at instant speed in response to casting Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil and adding more keywords. Thanks to KBK7101 for the recommendation!

  • Traverse the Ulvenwald *f-pre* - Go get a basic land card, but if Delirium is active, we can go get any creature or any land card. A good way to go get Shizo, Death's Storehousefoil, to help make Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil effectively unblockable.

  • Underrealm Lich + Sylvan Libraryfoil - Due to the wording between these two, it basically comes down to this process: Look at the top three, keep 1 card, put the other two into the Graveyard, pay no life to Sylvan Libraryfoil, and then repeat for a total of 3 times (Equal to the number of cards you would have drawn with Sylvan Libraryfoil). So it basically becomes you look at the top NINE cards of your library, keep three of them, and put the rest in the graveyard, and no extra life is spent. Pretty awesome in this deck to fuel Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil.

Backup Plans

Weaknesses

  • Akroma, Angel of Wrath - This is a usual staple in Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil decks, but I've found that I usually either get Zetalpa and other creatures and don't target her, or I draw her and she sits in my hand until I can cast her, then she doesn't do that much. Akroma, Vision of Ixidorfoil has the same keywords, and is so much better on the field than Akroma, Angel of Wrath.

  • Cataclysmic Gearhulk - It is a nice board wipe with a Keyword, and it could help get some of my creatures into the graveyard, but I don't currently have too many issues doing that.

  • Fanatical Devotion/Martyr's Cause - These could be useful to keep Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil around, but I usually don't even cast him until I know I've got either Indestructible or Hexproof in the graveyard, so these effects aren't as important for me. Thanks to bushido_man96 for the recommendation!

  • Luxior, Giada's Gift - Feels like a bit of a win-more type effect, and I'd rather spend some mana to equip Swiftfoot Boots to give Haste.

  • Odric, Lunarch Marshalfoil - This originally seemed like such a good back-up for a combat-based win, but more often than not it either just sat in my hand or wasn't very effective on the field.

  • Reprocess - This could be a useful way to draw cards and get some of my Indestructible creatures into the graveyard for Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil, but currently, I don't need it.

  • Resourceful Defense - Another great way to manipulate and move our counters around to either save them from a board wipe or pile them onto a creature and swing in for the win.

  • The Great Henge - It's powerful, and we have a lot of strong creatures to reduce the cost, but it also seems like a bit of a win-more type card. If I need more card draw I could sub it in for something, but right now it's a strong Maybe.

I've opted to remove some tutors like Vampiric Tutor and Grim Tutor because I feel like I can find my cards without the extra help, and this deck wants to slowly assemble its pieces to attack, so speeding things up isn't always necessary. Plus, I'd rather tutor cards to the graveyard rather than to my hand, since I'd then have to find another way to get that card to the graveyard.

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is one of my favorite places in the Multiverse, and out of all the legendary creatures introduced to us, Kathril, Aspect Warperfoil stood out above the rest to me. Such an interesting mechanic, it has some of my favorite colors, and as someone with a passion for wildlife ecology (Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths actually came out while I was working on my Master's in Wildlife Ecology), I just had to build it. Definitely a plane I'd like to visit (assuming I could survive longer than a few minutes there haha).

Thank you for taking the time to look at my deck. If you have any suggestions or feedback, I'd greatly appreciate it.

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Revision 16 See all

(2 weeks ago)

+1 Sporeweb Weaver maybe
Top Ranked
Date added 3 years
Last updated 2 weeks
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

26 - 0 Mythic Rares

52 - 0 Rares

8 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.21
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Inkling 2/1 WB, Pest 1/1 BG, Warrior 1/1 W w/ Vigilance
Folders My Deck Creations, EDH, iLike, Potential Commander Decks, Favorites, Commander Ideas, GlissA, Hippity Hoppity your deck is now my property, Commander decks, Cool EDH Decks
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