Three Card Monte (Kess Consultation)

Commander / EDH UBR (Grixis)

simondiamond2012

Land (32)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Stranglehold

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

Instant (26)

• 1x Anticipate
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Extirpate
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Plunge into Darkness
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Remand
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Thought Scour
• 1x Visions of Beyond
• 1x Volcanic Fallout

Artifact (12)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Commander (1)

Sorcery (16)

• 1x Day's Undoing
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Pyroclasm
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Unearth
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall

Creature (8)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage

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Introduction.

This is the Grixis Consultation archetype, featuring Kess, Dissident Mage.

While in theory this archetype is difficult to learn, in actual practice, this is a rather simple archetype to learn over time and master.

For the purpose of this mini-primer, certain cards will be abbreviated, in order to simplify things.

D.C. = Demonic Consultation

T.P. = Tainted Pact

In the next few sections, more will be explained on how this archetype works and what you can do to defend against it. But first, let's evaluate the choice of our commander, Kess.

Why Kess, Dissident Mage? Show

Kess is used as the commander in order generate value out of the graveyard from the instant and sorcery spells that are put there through the course of the game. By virtue of her static ability, this essentially causes her to act like a legendary version of Snapcaster Mage once per turn cycle. In actual practice, this allows her to reuse instants and sorceries from out of the graveyard, essentially turning our graveyard into a second hand.

Strengths and Weakness of the Archetype.

In this next section we will be looking at the strengths and weakness of this archetype. If you've never played a Consultation deck before, then strap yourself in because you're in for a ride.

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Strengths of the Archetype:

• The deck itself is resilient and effective because the deck itself is able to evade many of the proactive hate pieces in the format. Stax pieces such as Cursed Totem, Linvala Keeper of Silence, Aven Mindcensor, Stranglehold, Grafdigger’s Cage and Leyline/R.I.P., typically see play in most cEDH stax decks, and those cards don’t per se affect the deck all that hard, just by the nature of how the deck is built, as well as how the deck plays out. Now, before you say, “But we’re playing Kess! We need our Graveyard!”, let’s stop you right there. Sure, having access to the graveyard helps Kess, but the deck can operate without a functioning graveyard, as it really only needs its game winning combo in hand in order to get the job done.

• Typically this kind of deck runs between 4 and 6 creatures total, not counting the general, and those creatures are: Snapcaster Mage, JVP, Bob (Dark Confidant), Notion Thief, Lab Man, and now, Dockside Extortionist. These creatures naturally evade most on board stax hate pieces, such as the ones listed previously. It also makes the deck resistant to Tabernacle effects, which can cripple some decks, should you choose to run it. Furthermore, of the six creatures mentioned, at most, the deck really only needs to run 2 of those creatures, specifically Laboratory Maniac and Notion Thief, in order to function, each of which evade most creature oriented stax pieces, as their abilities are static in nature.

• The nature of how this deck wins is not only compact, but modular in nature. Typically this deck wins through the A + B Combo of “Lab Man” + “Consultation” effect, and in this case, we have two different Consultation effects (DC/TP) and two Lab Man effects (Lab Man and JWM). If worse comes to worse, the deck can also run Praetor’s Grasp to steal another opponent’s Lab Man/JWM, just in case our own Lab Men get compromised. To be fair to other stax decks, cards such as Null Rod, Stony Silence, Collector Ouphe, and some other stax pieces (such as ones that hate on non-basic lands) can be problematic, as the deck relies on fast mana from artifacts and non-basics, but the archetype benefits from a comprehensive suite of interaction that would, in most cases, allow this deck to interact with those problematic cards while they’re on the stack, or remove them if necessary, once they’ve resolved.

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Weaknesses of the Archetype.

• We do not have an infinite mana outlet in the command zone, and we are not running white for Angel’s Grace, which means we can't win directly off any of the format staple A+B 2 card combos, such as ANAG (Ad Naus/Angel’s Grace) or Dramatic-Scepter. That means we’re ultimately going to be grinding our way to victory, and games are going to be long.

• Likewise, our opponents are going to eventually realize that we are an Ad Nauseam variant deck. And that means that we must be willing to expect that our opponents are going to try to pressure our life totals early and often with creature beats. This is important, not only because we’re an Ad Naus deck, but because our most effective creature wraths are going to leverage our life total as a resource (Toxic Deluge and Rolling Earthquake, especially).

• A Chance of Failure. There’s a small chance of failure inherent within the usage of DC/TP, which will be detailed in the next two paragraphs.

A. In the case of Demonic Consultation, there is a small chance of failure; if the card you’re looking for is in the top 6 cards of your library, your entire library will end up being exiled, and you’ll end up losing the game due to decking yourself. Occasionally, one of your deck’s two main wincons (or another card that could be useful), might also end up getting exiled in the process of you looking for a specific card with DC, and that’s the price you’ll have to be willing to pay in order to play this card. In a more real world sense, on average, you can expect to have roughly 70 to 80 cards left in your library before you attempt to combo off with your A + B combo. This means, based on hypergeometric distribution math, you can expect a failure rate of anywhere between 7.5% and 8.5% when using D.C., at this point. This is important to point out because, as the size of your deck shrinks, the average likelihood to brick on D.C. will go up incrementally; at 60 cards left in the library, for example, D.C.’s chance of failure increases to 10%. If and When you happen to flip into the card that you’re looking for in the top 6 cards, you will feel stupid and your opponents will laugh at you. It’ll feel about as bad as bricking on an Ad Nauseam.

B. On the other hand, with Tainted Pact, the building of the deck’s manabase requires a true singleton manabase, meaning that we’ll only be able to play one of each type of basic land, to include snow-covered basics. Naturally, this makes us potentially weak to cards that hate on non-basic lands, such as Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, Contamination, Ruination, and most especially, Back to Basics. You cannot let Back To Basics either resolve, or stay on the board. It must be dealt with on the stack or bounced immediately or else you will get crippled in the long run. Expect mono blue decks like TCV Stax and Urza Powered Scepter to run this card.

• Finally, there are people out there who do run, and will run, cards that have Split Second mechanic, such as Wipe Away and Extirpate. A well-timed Wipe Away when trying to deck yourself will kill you, and a well timed Extirpate will hinder your reanimation plans if Lab Man is in your graveyard. Expect these tactics, and prepare in advance.

The Gameplan, Part 1: How Does The Combo Work?

Very simply, the archetype/deck revolves around a modular A + B combo, consisting of the following elements:

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Column A: Laboratory Maniac and/or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries , i.e., Lab Man effect.

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Column B: Demonic Consultation and/or Tainted Pact , i.e. DC or TP.

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Column C: Any Cantrip Spell, such as Ponder , Preordain , etc.

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Any two of these four cards, one from column A and B, when combined with a cantrip, will work together such that you will be able to exile your entire deck, and win via decking yourself with a Lab Man effect.

And this is where Kess herself comes in. By the sheer nature of what she does statically, this also means that you can use her to recast either your DC or TP in order to exile the rest of your library, making your life a boatload easier. This includes recasting counterspells, where appropriate.

Bearing what has been said up to this point, however, Kess does take some set up in order to get the ball rolling for her. Therefore, this archetype can be best classified as an Adaptive Midrange Control Archetype with Stax elements. This is not explicitly a Stax deck; this is a Control deck that uses Asymmetric Stax elements in order to slow the game down to a comfortable pace so that Kess can creatively indulge in her dominance.

The Gameplan, Part 2: Your Starting 7 and The Early Game.

Ideally, your starting 7 should consist of 2 to 3 lands, 1 or 2 mana rocks, 1 or 2 interaction spells, and a cantrip or a wheel spell (i.e., wheel of fortune, windfall, etc.)

Depending on your matchup, it may be necessary to mulligan into an interaction spell or into an asymmetric stax piece like Stranglehold, in order to ensure your opponents don't run off with the game within the first 4 turns.

This brings us to your role in the early game. In the early game, typically delineated as the first 4 turn cycles of the game, your job is to Be Disruptive, and that entails stopping your opponents dead in their tracks from trying to end the game quickly. During this time period, your primary objective is to act as disruptively as possible, whether by countering spells, landing stax pieces, or even wheeling your opponent's hands away, in order to shut down their respective game-plans.

Don't be afraid to let your opponents also do some heavy lifting as well. You might be surprised how much some opponents will table-talk in order to politic their way to victory.

The Gameplan, Part 3: The Midgame and the late-game.

In the midgame and late game, after we've asserted our dominance, we will want to move toward one of two scenarios. Those scenarios are as follows:

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Scenario 1: DC/TP endgame set-up.

Scenario 2: Thief/Wheel Lockout.

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In scenario 1, assuming the coast is clear, you simply set yourself up for the win via DC/TP, a Lab Man effect, and a Cantrip, preferably with backup countermagic so that you don't get caught with your pants down around your ankles.

In scenario 2, however, this maneuver combines a Thief effect (either Notion Thief , or Narset, Parter of Veils ), and a Wheel effect ( Wheel of Fortune , Windfall , or Day's Undoing ), in order to strip your opponents of their hands, thereby rendering them completely helpless.

Of the two scenarios, Scenario 2 is the suggested pathway, as this will, at the very best, put a sizeable amount of cards in hand at best while stripping their hands, and at worst, merely strips your opponents of any potential answers that they may have to stop you.

Acknowledgements.

Credit should given to Redshift, Wedge, Nakhla/Sugandaranja, and the rest of the Grixis Mean Girls Discord Channel for cooking up a spicy dish.

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Redshift's version of Kess Consultation can be found here:

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Consultation Kess: a Primer

Commander / EDH Redshift_cEDH

SCORE: 63 | 41 COMMENTS | 34917 VIEWS | IN 44 FOLDERS

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The actual Kess Grixis Consultation Core can be found at the decklist below:

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Kess Consultation Core

Commander / EDH* Wedge-cEDH

SCORE: 18 | 9 COMMENTS | 4480 VIEWS | IN 10 FOLDERS

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Final Thoughts.

If you are a fan of control as an archetype, this deck is quite fun to play. Moreover, this archetype is very good introductory path to the Consultation archetype, as the deck's overarching focus is rather simple to understand and execute.

Intuition , as a card, can be an integral piece in forcing your opponents into a pressure cooker situation where they are left with no good choices. Used correctly, this card alone can either act as a game changing political piece, or as a back-breaking finisher. Frankly, a primer on this card could, and should, be written.

Surprisingly enough, the Consultation core package consists of only four primary cards, and cost roughly less than $30 USD total. Tainted Pact is around 20, Demonic Consultation is around 4.25, Lab Man is around 3.50, and Lab Jace is around 2.25, at the time of this posting (10/29/2019), but don't expect them to stay cheap for too long. These four cards can pretty much slot into any shell using , including individual Dimir commanders, all the way up to 5C commanders, as long as your deck is built correctly and you're willing to accept the risks that are inherent with running this archetype.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 23 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.88
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Treasure