Main Idea
I'm pretty new to commander, but have spent a lot of time fiddling with decklists on Archidekt. I own a copy of Kresh the Bloodbraided, but haven't yet built a deck around him, and recently had the idea of using him in a forced combat deck with something like Fumiko the Lowblood or Agitator Ant and similar effects. I like the idea that it would create a fast paced, frenetic, and sometimes suicidal game. However, I'm not sure how to reliably get Kresh's ability to trigger on my own while maintaining that same kind of fast paced, high risk feel. I know that Jund colors have access to Thantis the Warweaver, but most strategies with her seem to focus on being a kind of pillow fort which just seems wildly out of character for Jund, and I haven't seen any games where she really produces that kind of effect.
Issues
I see three main problems with this approach:
This 'strategy' relies on everyone having creatures with which to spread around the damage, which is kind of at odds with Kresh wanting everything to die. Maybe things will just die through combat, and people will be motivated to keep playing creatures by the continual threat of being attacked. Or maybe they'll just board wipe, which brings me to point 2.
It's vulnerable to board wipes. I may be able to get around this by holding back a few aggressive creatures in hand and having adequate draw on death triggers, plus some instant speed bounce back effects like Supernatural Stamina.
I suspect that everyone would be eager to concentrate their attacks on me, as I'm the person who is forcing them to stuff that may put them in a disadvantaged position. I certainly don't mind being attacked since that's part of the feel, but if there's a natural way to spread the attacks around more evenly, I'd be very interested to hear it.
If Kresh isn't the right commander for this kind of deck, I'd be interested to know of a good alternative with a similar feel.
If I wasn't asking enough...
Maybe this is trying to stuff in too many ideas, I realized that Kresh and Massacre Girl make for a mean combo to kill everything and boost Kresh at the same time. I'd be glad to If there's a way to combine all three of these ideas in a reasonably consistent way, and on a budget. I suspect that these things work too much at cross purposes to really function well, but I'd like to see if anyone has any inspiration.
This is my first post here, so if you have any tips on formatting, card grouping, etiquette, or other things, let me know.
I'm really interested in beginning commander, but don't currently have a playgroup (small town and virus ensures that there are none) and would like to enlist your help with building a casual commander deck with Kresh the Bloodbraided as the commander. I've whittled down the card pool to about 120 cards (not including basic lands).
I know that a fair amount of the deck needs to change depending on the playgroup, but I just need a decent starting configuration. Effectiveness is great, fun is better.
Here are the current aims of the deck, which I think work well together
1: play a lot of fatties - when they die, they will give substantial boosts to Kresh
2: kill lots of opponents' creaturs - boost Kresh, and remove opportunities and blockers
3: sacrifice outlets - I want to be sure that my stuff goes to graveyards for Kresh, nowhere else
4: value from dying things - I want lots of stuff to die, extra value
5: steal creatuers from graveyards - more power and for me, more stuff to die for kresh (also, Threaten)
6: fling - kresh is gonna get big, and this might let me kill two opponents in one turn. Also works on other fatties
support stuff:
reanimation from graveyard
ramp
card draw (particularly weak)
board wipes (also pretty weak)
targeted removal
graveyard hate
haste
evasion
power boosting
artifact/enchantment removal
Plenty of cards fit into multiple roles. I'm looking for possible decklists. Really try to stick to the cards listed, but if there's a card that would be beneficial not in the pool, suggest it as a replacement to something else from the pool (if possible). I don't think this next thing will be an issue, but it may also be helpful to have some substitution suggestions in the event that I'm playing against weaker decks, I'd be glad to have those too.
I do have other cards that might fit into this, but thought that they didn't really apply. So if some aims need some more alternatives, I can look.
I'm pretty new to commander, but have spent a lot of time fiddling with decklists on Archidekt. I own a copy of Kresh the Bloodbraided, but haven't yet built a deck around him, and recently had the idea of using him in a forced combat deck with something like Fumiko the Lowblood or Agitator Ant and similar effects. I like the idea that it would create a fast paced, frenetic, and sometimes suicidal game. However, I'm not sure how to reliably get Kresh's ability to trigger on my own while maintaining that same kind of fast paced, high risk feel. I know that Jund colors have access to Thantis the Warweaver, but most strategies with her seem to focus on being a kind of pillow fort which just seems wildly out of character for Jund, and I haven't seen any games where she really produces that kind of effect.
Issues
I see three main problems with this approach:
If I wasn't asking enough...
Maybe this is trying to stuff in too many ideas, I realized that Kresh and Massacre Girl make for a mean combo to kill everything and boost Kresh at the same time. I'd be glad to If there's a way to combine all three of these ideas in a reasonably consistent way, and on a budget. I suspect that these things work too much at cross purposes to really function well, but I'd like to see if anyone has any inspiration.
I'm really interested in beginning commander, but don't currently have a playgroup (small town and virus ensures that there are none) and would like to enlist your help with building a casual commander deck with Kresh the Bloodbraided as the commander. I've whittled down the card pool to about 120 cards (not including basic lands).
I know that a fair amount of the deck needs to change depending on the playgroup, but I just need a decent starting configuration. Effectiveness is great, fun is better.
Here are the current aims of the deck, which I think work well together
1: play a lot of fatties - when they die, they will give substantial boosts to Kresh
2: kill lots of opponents' creaturs - boost Kresh, and remove opportunities and blockers
3: sacrifice outlets - I want to be sure that my stuff goes to graveyards for Kresh, nowhere else
4: value from dying things - I want lots of stuff to die, extra value
5: steal creatuers from graveyards - more power and for me, more stuff to die for kresh (also, Threaten)
6: fling - kresh is gonna get big, and this might let me kill two opponents in one turn. Also works on other fatties
support stuff:
reanimation from graveyard
ramp
card draw (particularly weak)
board wipes (also pretty weak)
targeted removal
graveyard hate
haste
evasion
power boosting
artifact/enchantment removal
Plenty of cards fit into multiple roles. I'm looking for possible decklists. Really try to stick to the cards listed, but if there's a card that would be beneficial not in the pool, suggest it as a replacement to something else from the pool (if possible). I don't think this next thing will be an issue, but it may also be helpful to have some substitution suggestions in the event that I'm playing against weaker decks, I'd be glad to have those too.
I do have other cards that might fit into this, but thought that they didn't really apply. So if some aims need some more alternatives, I can look.