Kess, Graveyard Farm Mage - JJG

Commander / EDH Counterspell Flashback UBR (Grixis)

jerdude1234

Land (30)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mount Doom
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Riverglide Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Training Center
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Xander's Lounge

Creature (10)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Faerie Mastermind
• 1x Opposition Agent
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Thassa's Oracle

Instant (29)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Brain Freeze
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Consider
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Thought Scour
• 1x Tolarian Winds
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Dress Down
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Underworld Breach

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x The One Ring
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Burning Inquiry
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall

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Sideboard

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

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Maybeboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph

Instant (1)

• 1x Filter Out

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

Artifact (1)

• 1x Defense Grid

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V2.0 of my Kess Deck. Aiming at a fairly high power level, I have this optimized about where I want it, but always open to suggestions. This follows the typical "Blue Farm" strategy seen across various CEDH decks with an end goal being a Thoracle or brainfreeze mill out.

Primary Strategy and Win Cons
Kess' ability to pull spells from the graveyard means we are aiming to cycle through cards as quickly as possible. Make the opponents turns difficult with the suite of counters and wheels, and target certain spells to instantly win the game. While her ability is a strong force in the deck to cycle through even more draws, it is not required to win the game.

The primary win con is a common one, using demonic consultation in combination with Thassa's Oracle. Exile our library and win on Thassa's ETB. Intuition provides a single card setup to win the game when selecting Thass, Reanimate, and Demonic Consultation. As no matter which 2 are put into the graveyard, Kess' ability (or snapcaster mage as a backup) still allows the win at any point.

Tainted Pact provides a backup for demonic consultation with Thass as all lands have been optimized to prevent any duplicates.

Additionally, there is the Lion's Eye Diamond/ Brain Freeze/ Underworld breach combo to either mill myself out for thoracle and/or mill my opponents out via brainfreeze storm count.

I keep Jace on the sideboard pending opponent line ups.

"Pet Cards"
Oppression - Filling my graveyard does not slow down my gameplan, but can be devastating to others, especially at the speed and low CMC of CEDH games. This slows potential interaction and and puts opponents at a hand disadvantage immediately.

Burning Inquiry - Sees some play in the grixis decks like this, and offers both the benefits of draw, with none of the draw backs of discard for me, while also potentially hurting my opponents. Its a fun turn 1 play.

Continued Optimizations or Adjustments
Mana/Lands can be optimized with dual lands, which for now I use the pathway lands until I feel like coughing up the $$ for them. Unless other suitable replacements get added, like how mount doom was a more suitable rakdos land over the pathway. Mox Diamond will be added in the coming months
Ancient Tomb needs to be picked up
Chopping Block - cards that would be moved around first
Dark Deal - a third wheel option may be a bit excessive and is under review

Date added	9 months
Last updated	3 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 1 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.74
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Orc Army, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	CEDH