Thanks to Boombox_smk for the idea he posted on Rumor forum, I want to start a thread focusing on actualizing the approach. In short, using green land shenanigans to discard/fetch/sac lands, perhaps legendary ones, to fuel reanimation strategy. Now, reanimation is a narrow way to describe Kethis's ability, because you also get to play some legendary spells repeatedly.
Note: You only need to exile two legendary cards in your GY to earn an ENTIRE turn of opportunity to play other legendary cards, so it's more about how to maximize your turn rather than how many times you could do it over several turns (although that's important too).
While lands will be the major theme here, other legendary cards could be put to use as well, I will form a list here to get started, feel free to contribute ideas and I will add along.
So it's important to define a strategy realistically that separates it from Karador, Ghost Chieftain which is kind of the same.
The difference is that Kethis, the Hidden Hand can get legendary lands, planeswalkers, artifacts and enchantments back.
But you have to look at this realistically and exiling specifically legends from your graveyard at two a pop, means that the deck has to almost be entirely comprised of legends otherwise you'll only get a few activation's out of Kethis, the Hidden Hand, and you'll wonder where it all went wrong in your build.
I'm thinking between a dredge theme with some stax elements.
The way to win is probably through working on tight mana margins, rather than going over the top. Armageddon, Ravages of War, Cataclysm.
If you can imagine casting Cataclysm and sacrificing a bunch of legendary lands, and then your follow up is casting Thalia, Guardian of Thraben from your graveyard by exiling some legends, and it only costing you W because of Kethis, the Hidden Hand cost reduction. Also by exiling legends you can play legendary lands from your graveyard to bounce back from the mass land destruction.
I figure having a bomb like Bolas's Citadel is going to help in situations where the stax has been denied and you can always look to recast it from your graveyard if removed from play, so could be a constant presence for games.
Some very real win-conditions is aiming for ultimating some planeswalkers; Liliana Vess [-8]: Put all creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control. Liliana, Dreadhorde General [-9]: Each opponent chooses a permanent they control of each permanent type and sacrifices the rest. Nissa, Sage Animist [-7]: Untap up to six target lands. They become 6/6 Elemental creatures. They're still lands. Nissa, Vital Force [-6]: You get an emblem with "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card." Nissa, Who Shakes the World [-8]: You get an emblem with "Lands you control have indestructible." Search your library for any number of Forest cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. Vivien Reid [-8]: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have vigilance, trample, and indestructible." Elspeth, Knight-Errant [-8]: You get an emblem with "Artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands you control have indestructible."
I'm pretty sure I have a full deck here. Haven't done a card count, but would need to have slots for things like Nature's Claim, Force of Vigor, Sword to Plowshares, and some other staples.
It is also worth pointing out that the 2 cards that get things out of exile easily are in these colors and Pull from Eternity even just puts it right back in the graveyard.
I don't feel like it matters if you can get your cards back from exile or not. That being said, karn, the great creator can get your exiled artifacts back.
I am trying to think of a good win con. Karador's win conditions are not Legendary, excepting maybe recursion loops of Yosei or Kokusho.
Paradox Engine is promising but then you need a lot of non-legendary mana dorks and mana rocks.. unless you focus on legendary dorks which typically cost 3+ mana.
I think that Kethis is great for recursion of Urza's Ruinous blast. I would probably play a control deck with a bit of stax and some dredge. You can probably pretty reliably get Brisela, Voice of Nightmares into play. Praetors are strong, and Sheoldred notably lets you loop Yosei. Emrakul, the promised End should not cost a lot.
Yeah..
I think I would just try to play some control while filling my graveyard, and lean on Ruinous blast to keep my opponents back while deploying 1-2 big threats.
You can use Iname, Death Aspect to fill your graveyards with legendary spirits (there are many, some of them are even good!).
Then you can either reanimate those spirits or use them as fuel for Kethis abilities
Dump in your graveyard many game-winning legends like Elesh Norn and the new demon guy and win with Primeval Glorious Rebirth
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How i feel about competitive players and casual players in EDH: The competitive are german tourists, the casual are italian tourists, both in a italian beach. The italians asking themselves "why are the germans here?" make a legitimate question, the answer is because the beach is beautiful, no matter the country you came from. The italians wanting to ban the germans are dumb, because if the germans pay for their stay and follow the rules like everyone else, they have the right to be in the beach. Hovewer, if the germans started to ask themselves "why are the italians here?"... they would be dumb as hell.
You can use Iname, Death Aspect to fill your graveyards with legendary spirits (there are many, some of them are even good!).
Then you can either reanimate those spirits or use them as fuel for Kethis abilities
Dump in your graveyard many game-winning legends like Elesh Norn and the new demon guy and win with Primeval Glorious Rebirth
I had a Karador spirit deck and that too was one of the strategies. It's nice to turn cards in your deck into fuels like that.
Thanks to Boombox_smk for the idea he posted on Rumor forum, I want to start a thread focusing on actualizing the approach. In short, using green land shenanigans to discard/fetch/sac lands, perhaps legendary ones, to fuel reanimation strategy. Now, reanimation is a narrow way to describe Kethis's ability, because you also get to play some legendary spells repeatedly.
Note: You only need to exile two legendary cards in your GY to earn an ENTIRE turn of opportunity to play other legendary cards, so it's more about how to maximize your turn rather than how many times you could do it over several turns (although that's important too).
While lands will be the major theme here, other legendary cards could be put to use as well, I will form a list here to get started, feel free to contribute ideas and I will add along.
1 Dark Depth
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Flagstone of Trokair
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai
1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Kor Haven
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1 Pendelhaven
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Rath's Edge
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Tomb of Urami
1 Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper
1 Urborg
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Karametra, God of Harvests
1 The Gitrog Monster
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
See More Lands
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Hermit Druid
Play More Lands
1 Exploration
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Wayword Swordtooth
Land from Grave
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Splendid Reclamation
1 World Shaper
Retrace
1 Raven's Crime
1 Worm Harvest
Land Sac
1 Crop Rotation
1 Elvish Reclaimer
1 Harrow
1 Scapeshift
1 Squandered Resources
1 Crop Rotation
1 Elvish Reclaimer
1 Reap and Sow
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Scapeshift
1 Weathered Wayfarer
Land Dump
1 Realms Uncharted
Mass LD
1 Armageddon
1 Cataclysm
1 Catastrophe
1 Death Cloud
1 Ravages of War
1 Honden of Cleansing Fire
1 Honden of Life's Web
1 Honden of Night's Reach
1 Oath of Nissa
1 Oath of Gideon
1 Oath of Ajani
1 Oath of Kaya
1 Oath of Liliana
Legendary Sorcery
1 Kamahl's Druidic Vow
1 Primevals' Glorious Rebirth
1 Urza's Ruinous Blast
1 Yawgmoth's Vile Offering (could be dumped into GY)
Legendary Mana
1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter
1 Mox Amber
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Nissa, Vital Force
1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
1 Selvala, Explorer Returned
1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
1 Seton, Krosan Protector
Legendary Stax
1 Baird, Steward of Argive
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 God-Pharaoh's Statue
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker
1 Hope of Ghirapur
1 Karn, the Great Creator
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Regna, the Redeemer
Legendary Creature Sac
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Krav, the Unredeemed
1 Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Legendary Draw/Search
1 Arguel's Blood Fast
1 Bolas's Citadel
1 Captain Sisay
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Krav, the Unredeemed
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
1 Liliana Vess
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Tymna the Weaver
1 Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Legendary Protection
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
Legendary Removal
1 Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Lieutenant Kirtar
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
1 Massacre Girl
1 Profane Procession
1 Vivien Reid
1 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Greel, Mind Raker
1 Grimoire of the Dead
1 Hazoret's Monument
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, Defiant Necromancer
1 Mageta the Lion
1 Vivien's Arkbow
1 Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Legendary Reanimation
1 Grimoire of the Dead
1 Karador, Ghost Chieftain
1 Journey to Eternity
1 Storrev, Devkarin Lich
1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
Legendary Utilities
1 Gideon Blackblade
1 Iname, Death Aspect
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Kaya, Ghost Assassin
1 Mindslaver
1 Pir, Imaginative Rascal
1 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
Legendary Spanking
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
1 Brisela, Voice of Nightmares
1 Emrakul, the promised End
1 Gisela, the Broken Blade
1 Buried Alive
1 Jarad's Orders
1 Life's Finale
1 Dread Return
1 Loyal Retainers
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Pull from Eternity
1 Riftsweeper
1 Time of Need
Discard
1 Bloodsoaked Altar
1 Mindslicer
1 Zombie Infestation
Library Dump
1 Entomb
1 Final Parting
1 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Golgari Thug
1 Hermit Druid
1 Life from the Loam
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Underrealm Lich
1 World Shaper
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Bloodsoaked Altar
1 Claws of Gix
1 Phyrexian Altar
Stax
1 Collector Ouphe
1 Null Rod
1 Static Orb
1 Stony Silence
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
1 Winter Orb
1 Paradox Engine
Let's Brew!
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
WiJ
Peasant 540 Cube
Both Thalia's, Gaddock, Saffi, Anafenza, Kalitas etc etc.
As for land stuff Journey To Eternity usually does work, Kaya, Ghost Assassin seems good for 3 mana, all the Oaths are Legendary too.
Also Fastbond is way banned in this format.
The difference is that Kethis, the Hidden Hand can get legendary lands, planeswalkers, artifacts and enchantments back.
But you have to look at this realistically and exiling specifically legends from your graveyard at two a pop, means that the deck has to almost be entirely comprised of legends otherwise you'll only get a few activation's out of Kethis, the Hidden Hand, and you'll wonder where it all went wrong in your build.
I'm thinking between a dredge theme with some stax elements.
Dredge:
Life from the Loam
Golgari Grave-Troll
Golgari Thug
Stinkweed Imp
Now the plan is to keep dredging whenever you can as your graveyard then basically becomes your hand. Golgari Grave-Troll being the best of them, and you don't really want to cast it if possible. Therefore a discard outlets would be nice:
Vivien's Arkbow
Geier Reach Sanitarium
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Liliana of the Veil
Liliana, Defiant Necromancer
Hazoret's Monument
Greel, Mind Raker
Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
Mageta the Lion
Eiganjo Castle, Flagstones of Trokair, Gaea's Cradle, Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers, Pendelhaven, Gemstone Caverns, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Phyrexian Tower, Serra's Sanctum, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Tomb of Urami, Urborg, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Volrath's Stronghold, Yavimaya Hollow.
There are a lot of colorless legendary lands as well, so you could support these with other cards like Prismatic Omen and Chromatic Lantern.
Geier Reach Sanitarium, Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai, Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Inventors' Fair, Kor Haven, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, Miren, the Moaning Well, Rath's Edge, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper,
With a high non-basic density Hermit Druid becomes an all-star graveyard filler.
Legends with stax-elements;
Gaddock Teeg - probably need to remove him due to planeswalkers >= 4 in deck.
Kataki, War's Wage
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Hokori, Dust Drinker
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Baird, Steward of Argive
The way to win is probably through working on tight mana margins, rather than going over the top.
Armageddon, Ravages of War, Cataclysm.
If you can imagine casting Cataclysm and sacrificing a bunch of legendary lands, and then your follow up is casting Thalia, Guardian of Thraben from your graveyard by exiling some legends, and it only costing you W because of Kethis, the Hidden Hand cost reduction. Also by exiling legends you can play legendary lands from your graveyard to bounce back from the mass land destruction.
Then you also play stax cards:
Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, Null Rod, Stony Silence, Karn, the Great Creator, Winter Orb, Static Orb, God-Pharaoh's Statue.
Play legends that help with mana
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Selvala, Explorer Returned
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
Seton, Krosan Protector
Azusa, Lost but Seeking
Titania, Protector of Argoth
The Gitrog Monster
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter
Garruk Wildspeaker
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Nissa, Vital Force
Nissa, Who Shakes the World
Nissa, Worldwaker
Mox Amber
The great thing about the planeswalkers is that the function under the Orb effects (Winter Orb, Static Orb).
Then card advantage, so that you can draw/dredge into mana sources, get ahead, etc.
Reki, the History of Kamigawa
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Tymna the Weaver
Captain Sisay
Arguel's Blood Fast
Erebos, God of the Dead
Bolas's Citadel
I figure having a bomb like Bolas's Citadel is going to help in situations where the stax has been denied and you can always look to recast it from your graveyard if removed from play, so could be a constant presence for games.
Tutors:
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
Liliana Vess
Protection:
Saffi Eriksdotter
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
Journey to Eternity
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Removal:
Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim
Lieutenant Kirtar
Profane Procession
Vivien Reid
Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Massacre Girl
Liliana, Dreadhorde General
Back up graveyard recursion:
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
Storrev, Devkarin Lich
Karador, Ghost Chieftain
The Oaths seem worth it with the planeswalkers. Remember you need almost an entirely legendary deck in order to really get value from Kethis, the Hidden Hand.
Oath of Nissa
Oath of Gideon
Oath of Ajani
Oath of Kaya
Oath of Liliana
Pir, Imaginative Rascal - helps with loyalty
Some very real win-conditions is aiming for ultimating some planeswalkers;
Liliana Vess [-8]: Put all creature cards from all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General [-9]: Each opponent chooses a permanent they control of each permanent type and sacrifices the rest.
Nissa, Sage Animist [-7]: Untap up to six target lands. They become 6/6 Elemental creatures. They're still lands.
Nissa, Vital Force [-6]: You get an emblem with "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card."
Nissa, Who Shakes the World [-8]: You get an emblem with "Lands you control have indestructible." Search your library for any number of Forest cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
Vivien Reid [-8]: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have vigilance, trample, and indestructible."
Elspeth, Knight-Errant [-8]: You get an emblem with "Artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands you control have indestructible."
What I like is that you can aim for the Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Nissa, Who Shakes the World emblems and then your Armageddon and Ravages of War won't effect you.
On that note, some amount of board removal would be good, because Kethis, the Hidden Hand allows you to claw your way back with recasting from graveyard.
Toxic Deluge, Bontu's Last Reckoning, Wrath of God, Damnation, Hour of Revelation, Catastrophe, Urza's Ruinous Blast.
With the stax element want to keep sorcery and instants fairly low and of the cheaper variety. Catastrophe is expensive but exactly waht we are looking for.
Note that the Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Vivien Reid emblem will give you protection from your own destroy removal.
These are other legeneds of note that could possible be played:
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Kambal, Consul of Allocation
Krav, the Unredeemed Regna, the Redeemer
Karametra, God of Harvests
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Gideon Blackblade
Kaya, Ghost Assassin
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
Ob Nixilis Reignited
Garruk Relentless
Hope of Ghirapur
Paradox Engine
Key to getting dredgers;
Entomb
Buried Alive
Jarad's Orders
Realms Uncharted
Elvish Reclaimer
Weathered Wayfarer
Deathrite Shaman
Ramunap Excavator
Crop Rotation
Splendid Reclamation
World Shaper
Underrealm Lich
Squandered Resources
Collector Ouphe
Scapeshift
I'm pretty sure I have a full deck here. Haven't done a card count, but would need to have slots for things like Nature's Claim, Force of Vigor, Sword to Plowshares, and some other staples.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I am trying to think of a good win con. Karador's win conditions are not Legendary, excepting maybe recursion loops of Yosei or Kokusho.
Paradox Engine is promising but then you need a lot of non-legendary mana dorks and mana rocks.. unless you focus on legendary dorks which typically cost 3+ mana.
I think that Kethis is great for recursion of Urza's Ruinous blast. I would probably play a control deck with a bit of stax and some dredge. You can probably pretty reliably get Brisela, Voice of Nightmares into play. Praetors are strong, and Sheoldred notably lets you loop Yosei. Emrakul, the promised End should not cost a lot.
Yeah..
I think I would just try to play some control while filling my graveyard, and lean on Ruinous blast to keep my opponents back while deploying 1-2 big threats.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Then you can either reanimate those spirits or use them as fuel for Kethis abilities
Dump in your graveyard many game-winning legends like Elesh Norn and the new demon guy and win with Primeval Glorious Rebirth
I had a Karador spirit deck and that too was one of the strategies. It's nice to turn cards in your deck into fuels like that.
And speak of spirits and legendarys, we also have Hondens like Honden of Night's Reach.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Mindslaver could be an evil thing to do each turn given enough mana.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Evil is acceptable when you use a non-cliche commander. :3
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs