Kelsien, the Plague | EDH Three Ways [Commander Strategies for Every Player]

[@ardavio5921]

Didn't think this commander was all that interesting at first but this has changed my mind.

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

That's excellent! Honestly, A rdavio, I have to admit - sometimes when I decide I want to cover a potential commander, my initial thought is "this one will be boring" - I've been surprised so many times by how getting creative with a Legend I consider boring can be rewarding. Have you ever felt the same thing?

[@ardavio5921]

@@JakeandJoelareMagic I generally go for commanders who I like as solo cards, but I'm starting to like commanders that get a big "fun" boost from the other cards in the deck. I honestly hadn't even considered the whole deathtouch/untap strategy for this guy.

[@fishermankent2417]

Fun rules interaction with reconnaissance, when a creature deals combat damage, there is a window of time where it is still considered an attacking creature even though it already did its damage. You can attack, deal the damage and THEN use reconnaissance to untap the creature

[@TangibleTravis]

Excellent video and please keep making these “Three Different Ways” videos. They’re one of my favorite ways to consider commanders and my favorite video intro 😆

[@maxbenjamin7212]

After this Kelsien is one of my favorite C20 commanders nice job man

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

Ty for watching and ty for the positive vibes!

[@TwinflameByond]

My fun way is to lean into the experience counters and run every card in color for experience counters

[@Badassest]

The strong version looks so awesome- Wow! Kelsien sure has alot of possible friends and the equipment is really nice- so glad i have a basilisk collar!

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

It's probably the best equipment to go in this deck

[@SpicyToeBeans]

Honestly feel like the orzhov Daxos is a great friend to Kelsian. Not necessarily as a way to gain more experience counters, but using Kelsian as an engine to get them, and Daxos to abuse them

[@PawzBrownMTG]

Wicked EDH tech Joel nice work on all efforts out into doing your videos

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

Pawz, thank you for watching as always. We've got to get a Commander tech going together some day

[@crossr1984]

I really love this series--best videos on the channel. Thanks dudes!

[@Darwingreen5]

Kurnos bell and yawgmath would be another thing to add to the mean way. Turn all lands into swamps, then turn all swamps into easily pingable creatures. with thornbite staff, it's basically a one sided Armageddon.

[@electricblue2920]

Grave Betrayal would be sick in this deck

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

Omg yes, that's an excellent inclusion

[@RionCaughman]

And debtors knell (cause it's from any graveyard for the same cost, with less demand on colors.

[@SpicyToeBeans]

Illusionist’s Bracers? Fire off two arrows per activation, and after untapping just once you’ll have fired off four arrows. Plus, it’s cheap to cast, equip, and buy

[@SpicyToeBeans]

Also pretty stoked to see this video after I mentioned the basilisk collar + thornbite staff combo for Kelsian in your Tier Ranking video for these commanders a month ago.

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

that was the inspiration :) keep up the suggestions, they creep in to videos!

[@TnumsProd]

I included infect in mine. Zero regrets

[@ixion567]

let‘s jump into the fun way *STRONG*

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

Lmao OMG I'm rolling right now, I totally missed that. Thanks for the laugh

[@lepew2275]

i get wanting to untap him as much as possible but when ur kelsien can always tap to kill 1 thing, then do it twice. it becomes the BIGGEST target on the field. I rather not give them the chance to fuck with it over the course of X turns. I find it best to have 1 explosive turn and kill everything on board then possibly a player afterwards. kelsien becomes the threat in any case so play to that strength. Dont add shit loads of untap once effects. its slow and dirtles. Pack as much tutors for the thornbite staff and add a fuck load of good death touch ability; Touch of Moonglove, Shriveling Rot both end games pretty fast if kelsien nukes the table. I love Land destruction as control but i dont love it when i dont have Crucible or green in the deck unless im rocking hella hard. That being said Burning Sands doesnt hurt me when everyone elses lands go away and it makes it that much more funny to watch them fuck their own land bases. It shows what is actually important to their hands too. We need to bring the shields down, Shadowspear and Sudden Spoiling will allow you to kill niche targets without a hassle. Lastly, and ive not tested this MUCH and when it happens it usually feels like a win-more situation. Giving kelsien the ability to swing more than once or doubling power has worked a lot in my favor because there isnt enough body count. Relentless assault effects or sword and aggravated assault combo work here, hatred is nice or even basic shit like assault strobe for that good low CMC. tbh tho this general widely relies on your opponents playing shit. if they are more combo and not on field presence, ur toast kid. ive considered giving my opponents creatures for such cases, dont bother with it. take the L and move on to the next game. but please, and ill say it again, PLEASE, DO NOT FILL UR DECK WITH A MILLION UNTAP ONCE EFFECTS. u will become the target cuz ur being a jackass killing everyones shit slowly, then die. if ur gonna be a target, be a REAL target and leave the table with nothing and a HUGE kelsien backhanding the scariest mother fucker out on the table.

[@RionCaughman]

Dang. Way to have respect.

[@geoiscrazy3]

Glad I read this. Touch of moonglove and shriveling rot are great. Burning sands is op and actually pretty mean.

[@geoiscrazy3]

@@RionCaughman how are they being disrespectful? Brash? Sure but the info hes giving seems pretty helpful.

[@phasingout]

I made this deck around cheap white untap spells, cheap death touch and red creature steal spells. You can use the creature steals to Untap. Noone wants to play big creatures against a sniping creature stealing deck

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

YES! that's exactly right. I'll be playing this deck on stream soon, make sure to look for the VOD after if you miss the stream

[@s7121n9s]

What would the strong deck cost on MTGO? I haven't pulled the trigger on a Commander deck on MTGO and this is right up my alley

[@JPRyan816]

Built mine with zirda as companion

[@thehumanjukebox77]

In a slightly jankier version of Kelsien, I think I want to run Deathbringer Thoctar, a 6 mana rakdos 3/3 that gets +1/+1 counters when anything else dies, and lets you take counters off of it to ping any creature or player. If you put one of Kelsien's extra deathtouch enablers onto the Thoctar, it acts as redundancy for Kelsien. I also might want to run Gift of Doom, a morph card from Commander 2019 as another deathtouch enabler for Kelsien.

[@andrewpeli9019]

I think that rather than trying to fit in a sub-theme or play cards that lock out your opponents after you have your best stuff in play that you should be running the black tutor spells and even gamble for consistency, things like teferi's protection and flawless manuever to protect your board, and things like pyroblast and red elemental blast to protect yourself from counter magic (and cyclonic rift). Also, the deck is pretty weak against hexproof (and shroud) and indestructible, so adding a shadowspear might be a good idea. It goes without saying that all the commander staples like phyrexian arena and mana tithe are great includes as well.

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

That's probably the best call. I struggled with this one, trying to decide between three ways or just make it a one-way (I've done that with this series before) Thanks for the input!

[@andrewpeli9019]

@@JakeandJoelareMagic some other cards that come to mind for your deck list Sun titan (brings basilisk collars back), stonehewer giant, sunforger (gets enlightened tutor, teferi's, removal).

[@pedroyata]

Would love one of these about Keranos, God of Storms

[@afspeellijstnaruto]

A bit late to the party haha, I thought i'd go for deathtouch mostly. But i think if you add in stuff for untapping + couple of deathtouch thingies you are already golden. Lets say 20 spots for the gameplay and the other 30-33 spots for value such as stealing creatures from yards and that kind of stuff.

[@davesimpas2046]

hi guys! i wish you could do a siona, captain of the pyleas for your 3 ways. i wanted to see more uncommon commanders.

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

I love suggestions! I don't know if we'll cover Siona in this series, as we already made a video on it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4XQdZKCg5Vkoc0 Any other uncommon commanders you would want me to cover?

[@aaronmiller7775]

I have a Xantcha sleeper Agent deck and would like to see your take on it 3 ways

[@mikhailpayson1274]

This video brought to you by Paula Abdul... Straight Up

[@JakeandJoelareMagic]

I want to like this but the joke has completely gone over my head

[@lexmtaylor]

Why didn’t you consider Minthara? It leans into the experience counters.

[@CardologyYT]

bro this was made 3 years ago

[@bobbyz5443]

I’ve caught up to videos that I watched that were recommended on KZbin auto play

[@bobbyz5443]

390th video!