Koma, Serpents and Ladders *Primer*

Commander / EDH Control Counterspell GU (Simic) Primer Serpent Tokens

Wolffang988

Instant (21)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Didn't Say Please
• 1x Dissipate
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Mystic Reflection
• 1x Negate
• 1x Perplexing Test
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1x Saw it Coming
• 1x Second Harvest
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Theoretical Duplication
• 1x Thought Collapse
• 1x Whirlwind Denial
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Grow from the Ashes
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Oversimplify
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Tempt with Discovery
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Whelming Wave

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Oko, Thief of Crowns

Land (35)

• 1x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Lumbering Falls
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Quandrix Campus
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 8x Snow-Covered Forest
• 9x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Vineglimmer Snarl
• 1x Yavimaya Coast
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Defense of the Heart
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Opposition
• 1x Paradox Haze
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation

Artifact (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Curiosity
• 1x Winged Boots

Commander (1)

Creature (19)

• 1x Adrix and Nev, Twincasters
• 1x Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
• 1x Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Esix, Fractal Bloom
• 1x Guardian Augmenter
• 1x Incubation Druid
• 1x Junk Winder
• 1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1x Master Biomancer
• 1x Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
• 1x Sakashima the Impostor
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Spark Double *f-pre*
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Sphinx of the Second Sun
• 1x Timestream Navigator
• 1x Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

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Updates

9/5/21 Coil into Infinity (New combo) Show

-Removed Ravenform and Distant Melody

-Added Timestream Navigator and Heroic Intervention

Decided to include Timestream Navigator for the extra wincon of Esix, Fractal Bloom + Timestream Navigator , a fairly easy to setup infinite turns combo especially with Defense of the Heart in the deck!

8/28/21 "Shut it down, shut it all down." More utility improvements Show

Made some quick changes after acquiring Opposition to synergize with the decks theme, and added more protection for the deck's key players:

-Removed Curiosity Crafter, Plaxcaster Frogling, and Thryx, the Sudden Storm

-Added Kira, the Great Glass-Spinner,Spellskite, and Opposition

Plaxcaster Frogling served as a good option for protecting other creatures, but in most games could realistically only protect two chosen targets with its graft ability, and required keeping 2 mana open for its use. Spellskite is 1 mana cheaper to cast while also not requiring any specific combination of mana color, and its ability can be activated for less, by paying either one blue mana or two life to redirect target instant or sorcery. This provides better options for mana use as you still have access to its ability even if you need to spend all your mana to cast a larger spell, and it synergizes extremely well with Winged Boots and Kira, the Great Glass-Spinner. When paired with either card you will often establish an anti-removal wall that can very difficult to breach

Opposition fits the theme extremely well, essentially doubling our power to tap permanents as we can tap our serpents with Opposition to tap a permanent, and then also sacrifice them as needed to Koma, Cosmos Serpent to tap additional permanents. This change increases our ability to open up other players to attack and also increases our control of the board.

8/27/21 Description Created and New Cuts Show

It’s here! Officially sat down and typed out this description and guide to running the deck effectively and some fun combos to watch for. I also made a couple of changes to the deck recently which I will list below!

-Removed Curse of the Swine, Nissa's Expedition, and Replicating Ring, Strionic Resonator, Simic Signet, Propaganda, Novijen, Heart of Progress, Sylvan Library, Spawning Kraken, and Biomass Mutation

-Added Swiftfoot Boots, Winged Boots, Birds of Paradise, Spark Double, Rhystic Study, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Command Beacon, Defense of the Heart, Fierce Guardianship, and Triumph of the Hordes.

These changes were made to increase utility and ramp speed, and adding more protection for our big snake boi.

Intro

Welcome to Koma, Serpents and Ladders! I wanted to build this deck ever since I saw Koma, Cosmos Serpent when Kaldheim released because his abilities seemed really fun and I finally put it together a couple weeks ago and have it up and running! Koma, Cosmos Serpent can’t be countered, creates a 3/3 serpents at EACH player’s upkeep, and can sacrifice serpents to tap permanents or give itself indestructible until end of turn. It functions very well as a token swarm and control type deck, and so far in my playtesting it has performed fantastically. Several victories have been secured, and the deck consistently presents itself as a strong contender at the table while also being fun to play.

The Serpent Strategy Show

The primary goal of the deck is to create multitudes of serpent tokens that we can use for the dual purpose of attacking and control. The playstyle mainly focuses on Koma, Cosmos Serpent's ability to sacrifice serpents to tap target permanents, and with a good level of token production it is possible to partially or completely lock people out of their turns. It is a playstyle that will make you a target very quickly, but it is also entirely up to you on how oppressive you want to run each game as the deck is also fully capable of setting up wins with minimal interference towards other players. The main theme of the deck is token generation and control/board manipulation, and in this guide you'll see the ways we accomplish this!

"To slow the game down, just a little bit." - Monto

Key Creatures and Pieces Show

Esix, Fractal Bloom – Allows you to instead turn the first tokens you create on your turn into copies of another creature on the battlefield

Sakashima the Impostor, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, and Spark Double – utilized to become a copy of Koma, Cosmos Serpent to generate more tokens per upkeep

Junk Winder – pairs well with the large amount of token generation to let us tap a lot of permanents

Parallel Lives and Doubling Season – Each doubles the number of tokens created per turn

Defense of the Heart – Can be used to retrieve any two creatures from the deck for combos or protection

Opposition – Greatly increases our control power, allowing us to tap serpents to tap other permanents in addition to also being able to sacrifice serpents to Koma, Cosmos Serpent to tap additional permanents

A Guide to Coiling Around Prey

Ramping Up Show

The first thing you may notice about Koma, Cosmos Serpent (aside from his fun abilities and nice art), is that he is EXPENSIVE. Coming in at 7 converted mana cost means if you want to get an edge on your competition you have to move fast to get him on field as soon as possible. We accomplish this with a mix of ramp spells such as Rampant Growth or Cultivate to get more lands on field and/or to our hand from our library to increase our mana per turn, and creatures like Birds of Paradise to further boost our mana production (while also providing the option to use them as a expendable blocker late game if needed after our mana base is secure). Additionally, we have two creature that allow us to play extra lands on our turn, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. Aesi passively allows us to play an additional land on each of our turns and also awards us a card draw each time we play a land, and since it is a serpent it synergizes with our commander and can be sacrificed in an emergency to tap down a priority threat or grant indestructibility to Koma! Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is an inexpensive early method to play an extra land from your hand while also getting a bit of extra life and card draw, and then can be brought back mid-late game with its escape ability to give you a 6/6 and further be utilized for more extra land plays and life/draw.

“No Step on Snek!” Show

Now we have to address the giant serpent in the room, targeted removal. It’s no secret that Koma is a huge presence on the field, and as soon as he starts generating tokens it starts raising red flags for any player who hasn’t already assessed the threat Koma is presenting. Koma, Cosmos Serpent has some excellent built-in protection in the form of his second sacrifice option to give himself indestructible, but we help our big snake have an easier time surviving by including Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves, and Winged Boots. These three equipment pieces all perform the same role of making it harder to deal with Koma directly, providing shroud, hexproof, or ward 4. (Don’t ask me how a serpent can wear boots/greaves, we don’t question these things.)

In addition to combating single target removal with the above equipment, the deck is also packing anti-instant/sorcery counter spells such as Fierce Guardianship and Swan Song to keep our serpent safe from removal, and counter spells with full coverage such as Dissipate, Thought Collapse, and Saw It Coming to counter high threat creatures or general priority threats. It’s also always fun to tell somebody “You Didn't Say Please!”

Serpentine Shenanigans Show

This is where we get into the true machinations of the deck, token generation and board control! This deck is built around creating ridiculous amounts of serpent tokens that we can utilize for controlling the tide of battle or swinging for lethal amounts of damage, and to accomplish this we have many cards that double the amount of tokens produced, or create a copy of Koma, Cosmos Serpent himself. Doubling Season and Parallel Lives both double our token production while requiring more specific removal to deal with and can quickly create an overwhelming board state for us when paired with some of our other creatures and key pieces. Creatures that effectively create another Koma are Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, Sakashima the Impostor, and Spark Double. Having these creatures become a copy of Koma further increases our token producing power, and also makes it more difficult for any one opponent to shut down our side of the board by creating more problems.

Another method of increasing our token generation is by doubling or increases the amount of upkeeps we get per turn! This is accomplished with the inclusion of Paradox Haze which gives us an additional upkeep for each of our turns, and Sphinx of the Second Sun, which follows a similar theme but instead gives us a full extra beginning phase at the beginning of our post-combat mainphase. These two cards have a variety of benefits, with both giving us the ability to gain additional upkeep triggers and in the case of the Sphinx of the Second Sun, also giving us the extra untap and draw step in the second half of our turn, allowing us to cast additional spells with our freshly untapped mana or keep it open for counter spells and other instants to respond to the board as other players proceed with their turns.

Koma Kombos! (combo examples) Show

There is a wide variety of things you can do in this deck to lockdown the field and secure victory and there will be many games where you can use and abuse your opponents board to punish them or strike harder than you would be able to in a different situation. For example one game I struck a win by creating a token copy of one opponent’s Kalamax, the Stormsire with the ability from Esix, Fractal Bloom when Koma generated a serpent token at my upkeep, then tapped Kalamax, the Stormsire by sacrificing one serpent token to Koma, Cosmos Serpent’s ability, and at my combat I cast Return of the Wildspeaker and copied it with the tapped Kalamax’s ability, giving my creatures a total of +6/+6. This made my remaining 8 serpents 9/9’s till end of turn, and I easily swung for lethal on one player and heavily damaged another, gaining 72 life in the process as I had made a copy of another opponent’s commander, Teysa Karlov on the prior turn, giving my serpents vigilance and lifelink in addition to their big power buff. This is just an example of the plays that are possible with the deck in actual game settings, and I look forward to seeing what other combos can be accomplished with outside influence!

Of course the deck is also quite capable of standing on its own and overpowering the opposition, featuring combos for creating tokens, ways to wipe the board while minimizing the effect on yourself or avoiding it entirely, and ways to close out the game and open up opponents who are playing defense. Defense of the Heart can be used after you already have Koma, Cosmos Serpent on field in order to go search for Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, Sakashima the Impostor, or Spark Double, and have them enter as copies of Koma. This instantly triples your serpent token generation starting on the turn Defense of the Heart activates! Also featured in this deck is the Avenger of Zendikar + Mystic Reflection combo, enabling you to create an army of plant tokens if you need blockers/extra attackers, OR you could utilize it to create a fair number of copies of other key creatures you control. For example, you could those tokens instead enter as copies of Junk Winder, an excellent creature in this deck due to it being a serpent that can be utilized by Koma in a drastic situation, but also directly synergizing with token production by enabling you to tap down permanents whenever a token enters the battlefield under your control! This is a very easily abused ability considering our commander, and if you create 7 or so Junk Winder’s with Mystic Reflection off of Avenger of Zendikar’s ETB trigger when it enters the battlefield you can very quickly lock down the board as Koma, Cosmos Serpent will create a serpent token at every upkeep, and each time he does it will trigger all those Junk Winder’s and enable you to tap a permanent for each trigger! A pretty nasty combination, and only one of many that are possible with Avenger of Zendikar + Mystic Reflection . (After all, Mystic Reflection can also target your opponent’s creatures to make copies of, and there are other creatures in our own deck that can lead to interesting board states if copied).

Send them down Snake Way (Removal) Show

Did you catch that DBZ reference? In any case, now you have this big field full of serpents ready to swing for maximum damage, but your opponent has a similar wall of creatures, or perhaps they have something preventing you from being able to swing out, like Propaganda. Fortunately, we have options to snake our way around such deterrents, or in some cases just clear them away entirely. This deck features boardwipes that are geared to have minimal impact on our own board, cracking open an opponent’s defenses while leaving us primed to strike. This is managed by wipes such as Whelming Wave which returns all creatures to their owner’s hand that aren’t krakens, leviathans, octopuses, or serpents. This spell can be devastating to our opponent but does very little to our own creatures since the majority of our field will be serpents! A lesser version of this effect is also present in the deck, with the spell Perplexing Test. Perplexing Test allows us bounce all non-token creatures to their owners hands (or creature tokens, but spoiler warning, you aren’t going to be picking that one very often.). This can also open up your opponent to attack, but comes with the drawback of bouncing your own non-token creatures and missing any creature tokens your opponent has in play. Still a strong “boardwipe” in this deck considering our key strategies, just potentially less effective. Cyclonic Rift is present as a fantastic obvious inclusion, and our last resort boardwipe is Oversimplify. Oversimplify exiles all creatures and in exchange gives each player a 0/0 fractal with +1/+1 counters equivalent to the number of creatures they controlled that were exiled in this manner. This spell should only be used if you are at a clear disadvantage and you foresee yourself taking a large attack or otherwise being negatively affected by your opponents creatures in the near future, as it is also going to ravage your own board state.

After clearing away your opponent’s defenses, in most cases that do not involve Oversimplify you will potentially have a good number of serpents on the field that are ready to slither in and sink their fangs into the enemy. We can make sure our opponent really feels the venom in that bite with Triumph of the Hordes, drastically reducing the amount of damage needed to defeat each opponent by giving our creatures a slight boost in power along with trample and infect!

Reaching the Tail End

In conclusion, Koma, Cosmos Serpent is a fun and strong commander capable of setting up some interesting interactions with your deck as well as creating combos with your opponent’s pieces, and functions very well with a token and control-based playstyle. If you enjoy large token armies and being able to manipulate other players boards a bit, then you may find this deck is just what you’ve been looking for! I run this deck pretty often in play groups of multiple players, with an average of 4 players (3 opponents) per match, and I’ll be updating this decklist as I make changes and improve the deck! I have my other current decks on here as well, including my most popular deck, Korvold, the Draconic Railgun *Primer*. I hope you enjoyed this guide, and if you build the deck I hope you have some great games!

Quick Links to my other decks Show

Korvold, the Draconic Railgun *Primer* - a highly rated alternative playstyle for Korvold, Fae-Cursed King. This deck is crafted to laser opponents off the board spectacularly while ignoring the meta Korvold build

Cold War Kruphix- Eldrazi Tribal *Primer* - A battlecruiser Eldrazi experience, if you love eldrazi and playing big threats check this out!

Nicol Bolas, the Deathbringer - The deck I pull out when it's time to give the table a grim reminder of what power looks like. My most competitive deck, designed for tyrannical performance

Immortal Arahbo- Cat Tribal *Primer* - Cat tribal with equipment theme. A fast-paced armored cat deck geared toward speedy combat and massive life gain

Top Ranked	Achieved #15 position overall 2 years ago Achieved #10 position in Commander / EDH 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Control 2 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Counterspell 2 years ago
Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Avenger of Zendikar + Mystic Reflection Esix, Fractal Bloom + Timestream Navigator
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.31
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Elk 3/3 G, Food, Fractal 0/0 GU, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Koma's Coil 3/3 U, Plant 0/1 G
Folders	This looks dope., Deck ideas I want to try, EDH, My Favorites, Cool, EDH Removal and Hurt, The Five, decks I like hehe, Reap the Tides, Decks to build