Prepare to get the spooks and lose all of your friends as we go Trick or Treating with Kess, Dissident Mage.
“Trick or Treat” (Grixis Sadness)
Originally I wanted this deck to be a strictly choices only deck inspired by my love of Browbeat, sadly it ended up getting cut as I admit it was a weak choice over all, as were many of the choice style/Punisher cards which ended up getting cut very early on. The deck started to take shape with a sacrifice theme with plenty of spells to force the opponents to sac creatures then cards which steal them for ourselves, It That Betrays, Kaervek the Merciless, Prince of Thralls, The Scarab God and then Thraximundar who benefits from the sacrifices.
A secondary theme is Enchantments, these guys will hopefully just bounce around killing your opponents whilst you sit back with Orbs of Warding; Custody Battle, Measure of Wickedness and Nettlevine Blight. The rest of the decks enchantments either slowly kill them or make it harder for them to do anything. There is the spicy addition of Assault Suit to help with the “Bouncing around killing each other plan.” Strap it to Phyrexian Obliterator or Thraximundar and let everyone else do the hard work.
Some of what didn’t make the cut; Browbeat, Pain’s Reward, Lava Blister, Show and Tell, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Counterspell, Abysmal Persecutor, Molten Influence, Disallow, Blackmail, Appetite for Brains, Mind Bomb, Shrouded Lore, Everlasting Torment, Breaking Point, Ashling, the Extinguisher, Blood Clock, Desertion, Dire Fleet Ravager, Stuffy Doll, Boneyard Parley, Goblin Game, Vexing Scuttler, Void Winnower, Thoughtsieze, Duress, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Jace, Architect of thought, Confusion in the Ranks, Emrakul, the Promised End, Keranos, God of Storms, Diabolic Tutor, Ob Nixilis Reignited, Breaking Point, Temporal Extortion, Distended Mindbender, Endless Whispers, Do or Die and Sin Prodder as well as a huge number of other oppressive/punishing/choice based cards.
Other “un-fun” cards we wished we could use but are banned in Commander; Gifts Ungiven, Trade Secrets, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Braids, Cabal Minion, Panoptic Mirror, Chaos Orb, Worldfire and Griselbrand.
