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edh-a-to-z · 8 years ago

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10 - Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNN!

I’ve been waiting for this one for a while. Oh yea.

After Akuta, we need a good commander to wash out the ashy taste. And Alesha, boy does she deliver.

Our Alesha will be a budget reanimator deck. As always, budget is a relative term, but most of our cards will be draft fodder and bulk rares. Mixed in are some reanimation that costs a couple of bucks. I’ll list the cards for each section (purpose, price, and other factors).

Budget includes bulk rares (usually under $0.75). Modest priced cards are $0.75 to $2.50. Pricey is from $2.50 to $7.50, and above that is expensive. (Again, looking at you Sword of Body and Mind). You’ll only need the budget and modest cards to make the core of the deck, but more expensive options should be considered for upgrades later on, or to include if you already have them.

ALSO!

This looks like my longest post yet, so I’m hoping I did okay. Hope it’s a decent primer for getting to know Alesha.

LORE:

(special thanks to @alesha-who-smiles-at-memes for helping me with this)

Alesha was the last Khan of Mardu, before Sarkhan the A*hole ruined a perfectly nice plane with a bunch of damn flying lizards. That’s about it. Kolaghan was chill at the time, and said “Yo Alesha, lets work together.” And they did.

Later Kolaghan would turn out to be a huge jerk and go crazy over her brood. They lost their Mardu name, became cannibals, etc. And worst of all, Dragonlord Kolaghan is awful in EDH.

But back to Alesha.

The Mardu Horde was heavily based off the Mongol Hordes, with effective raiding strategies and usage of horse archers (and lightning magic. Slight advantage over the Mongols). When a Mardu warrior made their first kill in battle, they chose a new name emblematic of what they do (see Zurgo Helmsmasher) Raid and Dash rewarded aggressive plays.

Alesha is the only khan to not submit/die to the dragons (as mentioned above). Notably, she’s a human transgender woman, who chose her name after her grandmother. The Mardu care less for traditional gender roles/identities, and are more of the mind “we judge you based on what you do.”

THE CARD:

The lady, the legend. On her own, a 3/2 first striker for 2R is solid.

Then you look at her ability. Phew. Now that is some text.

We get Mardu color identity and Power =< 2 resurrection and quasi haste for 2*(W/B). Now that’s power.

She’s also human and warrior. Not sure what tribal stuff would justify being put in, but there’s gotta be someone out there.

BUILDS:

Alesha enables a lot of builds, but usually revolves around the graveyard. Death and taxes, good old aristocrats, and self-mill and recur. Alesha is just so versatile, with such fun colors, you gotta get a copy.

This build is neapolitan. It doesn’t really run any combos, but has multiple ways to fill the ‘yard - sac outlets, discards, self-milling - some aristocrat stuff to take advantage. Basically an Alesha value build that can be taken to more combo-oriented wins, or combat-oriented.

Heck, there’s Alesha Voltron builds. Skies the limit. Here we go.

BATTLE PLAN:

Resurrection, resurrection for days.

Every Alesha deck wants to play with recursion, so I’ll just go with that, leaving spicier builds to those most familiar with her (I myself use her solely as a budget commander).

We need things that are generally CMC >= 3 (to make Alesha’s ability a discount) and Power <= 2 (to work with the ability).

To help, we want discard engines, sac effects, Entomb - style effects, and recursion independent of Alesha (like Reanimate).

(1) Reanimation Targets

I’m going to do an itemized list here. Gonna be long. Here we go.

White

Angel of Invention - Modest price; comes in as a anthem at 4/3 spread over one or three bodies.

Karmic Guide - Modest price; recursion, and it kills itself to be used again.

Knight-Captain of Eos - Modest; and gives you a Fog on command, and some bodies for sac’ing. Also a sac outlet for soldiers.

Sensor Splicer - Budget; brings a token to the field with it.

Blade Splicer - Modest; token generator, Sensor’s big sister

Urbis Protector - budget; token generator

Azorius Justicar - budget, pacifies potential defenders that’ll block your team

Custodi Soulbinders - budget; The first of our 0/0 creatures that enters with a swarm of +1/+1 tokens. This guy also makes extra spirits as a mana dump.

Aven Cloudchaser - budget; toolbox for enchantment destruction (replaceable with any creature that ETB destroys enchantment, like Soltari Visionary)

Palace Jailer, Fiend Hunter, Fairgrounds Warden, Banisher Priest - all budget; all act as Oblivion Ring for creatures. You can do sacrifice shenanigans with the Fiend Hunter to permanently exile things.

Defender en-Vec - Budget; an old oddball that can play with it’s fading counters to do up to 8 damage prevention, and kill itself doing so (and thus be available for recursion)

Lowland Tracker - Budget; another old oddball. This guy lets you kill the Noble Hierarch that’s been chilling on the other side of the field, or pull an important defender away. Or diplomatically, to let a opponents big creature be available to block.

Mentor of the Meek - Modest, allows you to draw off of most of the creatures in your deck and Alesha’s ability

Palisade Giant and Protector of the Crown - both budget; good meat shields for you

Radiant’s Dragoons - budget; decent lifegain, echo lets it die and be used again

Recruiter of the Guard - Expensive; our first expensive card, and for a good reason - she can tutor most of our deck, and works with Alesha

Stonehorn Dignitary - Budget; use it like it’s in a Brago deck, abuse and shut people down.

(Anything that worked in Brago and is 2<= power is a good choice)

Black

Archetype of Finality - Budget; Deathtouch for the team and take it away from your opponents? Fun toy.

Big Game Hunter - Modest; does a repeatable Smite the Monstrous impression, and has Madness (we do like discarding!)

Bone Shredder - Budget; It kills stuff, and dies easy for using it again next turn

Disciple of Bolas - Modest; sac something, then draw and LG. You’ll probably want to recurr whatever you sac’d, so win-win

Entomber Exarch - Budget; retrieve a creature in the ‘yard, or better Duress an opponent

Gonti - edge of Budget; steal your opponents toys over and over

Marionette Master - Budget; niche artifact usage, token maker

Nekrataal - Budget; backup Bone Shredder

Noosegraf Mob - Budget; solid beater and token creator. 0/0 creatures are a great reason to play Alesha.

Pontiff of Blight - Budget; Bottom heavy mass Extort. Lets you pretend to be an Orzhov deck and play with some life.

Priest of the Blood Rite - Budget; Get it in the yard, pull it out, sac, repeat. 5/5 demon flyers are nothing to scoff at.

Thief of Blood - Budget; Kills ‘Walkers, and weakens or kills +1/+1 reliant creatures. Pulls -1/-1 counters off your team (take that Hapatra!), and while we don’t play with other counters (loyalty, ki, etc), we mess with others who do

Thorn of the Black Rose - Budget; Card draw, deathtouch

Wei Night Raiders - Expensive; Portal 3 card, so super pricey, but it’s basically an unblockable Hypnotic Specter

Hypnotic Specter - Budget; as above, but cheaper and blockable

Raving Dead - Modest; Basically half a kill if it gets through, and Alesha’s ressurection lets you pick the target.

RED

Anarchist - Budget; lets your reuse sorceries like Sieze the Day, or Buried Alive. Alesha’s recursion means not paying the 5 CMC.

Beetleback Chief - Budget; 4/4 over 3 bodies for 2 mana is attractive for sac outlets

Goblin Settler - Obscene; Proxy it, and revel in repeated land destruction

Ignition Team - Budget; Another Conspiracy 0/0, it can come in for cheap and be pretty big midgame. It also makes solid beaters out of lands

Imperial Recruiter - Obscene; Proxy it, and tutor any card you want

Manic Vandal - Budget; toolkit for artifact destruction

Mindclaw Shaman - Budget; steal your opponents spells

Savage Firecat - Budget; enters as a 7/7 trample beater, and you can kill it and bring it back as needed.

Siege-Gang Commander - Modest; better Beetleback Chief with a sac outlet

Yuan-Shao, the Indecisive - Obscene; Proxy it, and have an unblockable creature, and force your creatures to be blocked one on one.

Artifacts

Arcbound X - Budget - Obscene; Pick any of the bigger ones (skip Arcbound Ravager), and you get a good deal. Underpriced (with Alesha’s ability) and nice abilities on death.

Burnished Hart - Budget; good ramp is good, recurrable good ramp is better

Clockwork Dragon - Budget; the biggest clockwork creatures comes in as a 6/6 flyer for 2.

Filigree Familiar - Budget; smaller Solemn Simulacrum that’ll probably be a budget EDH staple.

Solemn Simulacrum - Modest; repeatable value is always good.

Silent Arbiter - Modest; Good defensive option, forces your opponents to block your incoming team with one declared defender. Sac at the end of the turn before yours and repeat.

Triskelion - Budget; Because Walking Ballista doesn’t work in this deck

Workhorse - Budget; Weird ramp? Recur it turn 4 and you have X+2 mana, where X is the amount of normal land drops and getting Alesha T3.

Multicolor

Ankle Shanker - Budget; A brutal combat trick, even played from the hand. Also, the alt art is equally cheap, so check it out.

Ponyback Brigade - Budget; You probably have this lying at the bottom of a box somewhere. 4 bodies with 5/5 power. Makes great fodder for sac effects and Ashnod’s Altar

Sin Collector - Budget; tech against spellslinger decks

Duergar Hedge-Mage - Budget; tech removal against artifacts and enchantments

Flame-Kin Zealot and Resolute Blademaster- Budget; selected combat tricks, to support Ankle Shanker. Compare to the Archetype of X creatures from Theros block for fun combat.

Fulminator Mage - Expensive; Modern staple, and really useful - sac before combat damage for land removal

Master of Cruelties - Pricey; Almost a game win if it gets through.

Lim-Dul’s Paladin - Budget; Does it all - kills itself, can draw a card, is a trampling 6/6 or a 4 life drainer.

(2) Filling the ‘Yard

We want a couple options for filling the yard - discard, self milling, sac’ing enchantments, artifacts, and creatures (and some things that benefit from all the dying.

(A) Entomb & Co.

Corpse Connoisseur does it twice (but doesn’t combo with Alesha), Buried Alive and Entomb are classics. Morality Shift says “screw it, I’ll make my deck my ‘yard.” There are some others, but these are my favorites.

(B) Sac Engines

(Lots of sac engines here)

We like things that sac for free. We want Goblin Bombardment, not Barrage of Expendables.

Free sac effects let us sac things in response to things dying worthlessly in combat, or before a board wipe, or because we want Alesha to recur them. It’s better for something getting Path’d to be in the ‘yard than exiled.

Spawning Pit makes tokens, Viscera Seer scrys, Dimir House-Guard transmutes, recurs, and is a sac outlet, Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod’s Altar are mana makers, Sadistic Hypnotist is just plain mean discard, Martyr’s Cause is a fun for protection and diplomacy,

Attrition is a sac outlet I’m willing to pay B for to use, and is double good with a Grave Pact package, and Shivan Harvest for land removal.

(3) Discard and Milling

Sometimes we wanna self mill, or rummage(Red’s in our colors). Cathartic Reunion is okay, because we get 2 things in the yard. Body Snatcher likes helping entomb and recur stuff. Escalating Collective Brutality, especially early game, fills the ‘yard. Cryptbreaker makes bodies, draws cards, and can come back with Alesha (but will probably die). Wheel of Fortune and co. discard your hand (and everyone elses) and gets you refilled. Cards with Retrace are great, like World at War.

There’s plenty of Discard stuff out there (self milling in Mardu isn’t my forte), use them well

(3) Reanimation Effects

(extra stuff here)

Reveillark loves Alesha’s creatures, and makes the best target for reanimating and sac’ing. Resurrection, False Defeat, and Breath of Life are very similar white sorceries, and Miraculous Recovery is an instant version. Death or Glory does the whole yard, but takes away the toolbox functionality of your ‘yard. And Marshal’s Anthem is a anthem plus kickable recursion.

Unburial Rites is fiscally cheap, and goes twice. Reanimate, Animate Dead, Beacon of Unrest, Diabolic Servitude - there’s so many black options

Cauldron Dance is an odd trick, getting 2 more creatures on the field, plus whatever Alesha pulls. Crypt Champion always dies when pulled by Alesha, but has a decent effect, and always dying is fine in Grave Pact decks.

THE REST:

For a 3 color manabase I always suggest the Professor. We value mana rocks and dual/tri lands more than a dual or mono deck, so business as usual. We plan on ramping from artifacts, and if needed, white has some “Balance” style Plains ramping, and Black has some Swamp ramping. Feel free to dip into one color more than normal based on the makeup of your deck - more black creatures, add more black mana.

Grave Pack, Butcher of Malakir, Blood Artist & co, make a nice package. If your running sac outlets, you can focus more on token effects to sac your way to victory.

Combat help is nice too - extra combat phases plus things that protect Alesha are good - extra phases like Aurelia and her like, and Iroas, God of Victory, Reconnaissance (also good for saving things Alesha recurs), Boots and Greaves, indestructibility effects like Nahiri’s Mechanizations and Gift of Immortality.

WEAKNESSES:

GY hate. This deck is Meren-level of GY hate weakness. We can always restock the ‘yard, but it hurts a lot.

Stax/Pillowfort decks hurt a lot - things Voltron decks do well (like hitting for Commander Damage) won’t work for us.

Alesha is also small for a commander that wades into combat. 2 toughness gets killed by Shock, or any effect worse than -0/-2. Some protection is seriously needed - protection equipment package works fine since Alesha has access to White, as well as Reconnaissance is good for triggering Alesha’s ability and retreating out of bad blocking situations.

RATINGS:

Control: 5/10 - Alesha doesn’t favor a control set up, nor does she have abilities that help, but her colors are great for answering anything, as well as board wipes.

Diplomacy: 6/10 - not really equipped for it past “stop attacking me with your resurrected Raving Dead”

Aggro: 9/10 - she not only likes attacking, she recurs things attacking too.

Overall Power: 10/10 - She’s a Tier 1.5 commander, and one of the easiest to learn and abuse.

Versatility: 10/10 - While she does one thing, she has a lot of options stemming from it.

Affordability: 10/10 - She can go super budget, or uber expensive, scaling for your wallet and group power level. She also got reprinted in C16, while already being cheap, so she goes for like a quarter.

Overall Score: 50/60 best commander thus far. She does a lot in a 3 CMC body.

One of the 99: Decent. In most decks not built around her, she’s mostly for recurring utility creatures or things for sac outlets, as well as a lot of Aggro decks.

FINAL VERDICT: Get this card. Even if you can’t build with her right now, or the next 3 years, just get her and put her in your box of bulk rares.

You can build a deck out of an LGS’s draft rejects and go toe to toe with an average pre-con group. She is one well endowed lady.

#MtG #edh #edhatoz #commander #alesha who smiles at death #atoz commander

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