Kess' Infinite Spells (Retired)

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Primer Spellslinger UBR (Grixis)

jkolb712

Instant (29)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Forbid
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Negate
• 1x Opt
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Snap
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Thought Scour
• 1x Winds of Rebuke

Artifact (9)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Primal Amulet  ^Flip
• 1x Sol Ring

Land (34)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Desolate Lighthouse
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 4x Island
• 1x Mirrorpool
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Zhalfirin Void

Creature (5)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Goblin Electromancer
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 1x Young Pyromancer

Commander (1)

Sorcery (19)

• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Drawn from Dreams
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Mind's Desire
• 1x Mnemonic Betrayal
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Past in Flames
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Sadistic Sacrament
• 1x Throes of Chaos
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Windfall

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Thousand-Year Storm

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

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Maybeboard

Instant (4)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Insidious Dreams
• 1x Summary Dismissal

Creature (2)

• 1x Murmuring Mystic
• 1x Young Pyromancer

Land (1)

• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Artifact (1)

• 1x The Magic Mirror

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Kess, The Dissident Storm

Introduction and Commander Explanation

When I was playing my (now retired) Niv-Mizzet, Parun deck, I found it was missing a certain oof. I did enjoy the deck, but I randomly saw Kess, Dissident Mage in my binder and started to think. Would this deck be better if it was in Grixis colors? The answer is yes. Very much so.

The amount of mana this deck can produce, the amount of spells we can cast, the amount of control this deck provides is really awesome. There are a couple of combos that we can do with this deck. Some of which is similar to a Niv-Mizzet, Parun deck, just without the restrictive mana cost of the commander and the access to black is a great addition.

Kess, Dissident Mage is a Snapcaster Mage you can use on your turns only. It's actually a strong ability that, at least in my meta, hasn't been seen in awhile. My guess is my meta likes to focus on the newer commanders.

Pros of the Deck

Okay. It feels like there is a lot to cover in terms of pros of the deck. Since this deck is Grixis colors, there are a lot of control elements. Either it is creature removal or countering, there shouldn't be any issue with removing big threats or ruining opponents tempo plays. Cards like Winds of Rebuke and Into the Roil are great cheap forms of removal that help us in different ways.

Card draw shouldn't be too much of an issue if played smartly. Of course we have those cantrips that replace themselves, but we have some dedicated forms of card draw that are cheap and efficient such as Brainstorm and Night's Whisper. Depending on the pod, you'll have enough gas to get you started in the early game to carry you into the late game where you really go off.

This deck was originally a storm deck using Mind's Desire. After a while, I wanted to switch up the deck and it was leading me towards the version seen here where we generate a lot of mana and play cards like Mizzix's Mastery and card:Mneumonic Betrayal to play a lot of stuff from other people's graveyards. We also included cards such as Bolas's Citadel because the value was way too good.

Combos

The combos listed below are sort of a small set of them in the deck. Most, if not all, spellslinging decks have a multitude of different combos of cards that win the game or manipulate the stack in a strange way. Listed below are a few of the more obvious combos that can win the game. Through playing the deck more and more, I have found all kinds of different interactions that would take way too much time to explain and detail.

1.Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter + Aetherflux Reservoir = Infinite Life to blow up our opponents.

2.Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter + Guttersnipe = Instant Win through damage

3.Cantrip cards like Ponder, Preordain, Opt, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Desperate Ritual and Impulse + Thousand-Year Storm + Mind's Desire = A lot of free spells to win the game.

4.Bolas's Citadel + Aetherflux Reservoir = Pay life to cast spells, but gain most of it back through storm counts and gaining a ton of life.

Cons of the Deck

While this deck is highly interactive with the board, you are also a little fragile. You don't have many creatures to defend yourself with and your control elements (especially instants) become sorcery speed when Kess is on the field. If your meta is control heavy, it can stand on its own well enough, but the deck can run out of steam in certain match-ups. Often times, if a player knows how powerful Kess is, they may target you down first because casting spells again from the graveyard is insanely good.

You may notice there aren't a lot of token producers. While I love token strageties, I didn't want to make it too much of a creature focused deck. Plus, this deck started all the way back as a Kykar, Wind's Fury deck and I didn't care for the token generation effect. I could add in cards like Murmuring Mystic for some extra value, but most times the token generators get discarded through normal play.

The Laboratory Maniac and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries combo to mill out your deck and win through that way. I personally don't find that combo really fun, nor do I find it interesting enough. Plus, it seems too easy and kind of cheap to me. I don't like the 'oops I win' cards.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 34 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.61
Tokens	Copy Clone, Elemental 1/1 R, Manifest 2/2 C
Based on	The Storm Gathers (Niv-Mizzet) (Retired) jkolb712 EDH