Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Kresh the Bloodbraided!

Kresh is a five mana 3/3 with whenever another creature dies, you may put X +1/+1 counters on Kresh where X is that creature’s power.

Pure and simple, Kresh is an aggro Commander that wants creatures dead, and there are ways we can facilitate that play style from creatures that we control as well as creatures our opponents control, because all Kresh cares about is whenever another creature dies, not just ours or our opponents.

The goal of the deck is to have our creatures die for value, all the while making our opponents lose their creatures while we build up Kresh for a massive swing of Commander Damage to win the game.

One of the first things we need are ways to get our creatures to dies for some sort of value.

Blitz was a mechanic that allows us to cast a creature for cheaper and gives it haste, but that creature is sacrificed at the end of the turn and we draw a card when it dies. Pugnacious Pugilist is a big body that can come in with a tapped and attacking Devil that deals a damage to a target when it dies, so we potentially have at minimum four +1/+1 counters going on Kresh when it dies.

We can use Tenacious Underdog as a continuous source of Blitz casting since it can cast itself from the graveyard for its Blitz cost, Riveteers Decoy can be a guaranteed creature to die since it needs to be blocked whenever it attacks, and Caldaia Strongarm can put counters on either Kresh or itself or another creature.

Host of the Hereafter is also a solid include since not only does it enter with some +1/+1 counters, but whenever it or another creature we control dies, if it had counters we can put its counters onto another creature we control. This means that if it dies we put four counters onto Kresh and an additional two because of it dying, making Kresh a massive threat.

In addition we can play cards like Deadly Dispute or Momentous Fall to sacrifice creatures we control in order to draw cards and make Treasure with Deadly Dispute or draw a number of cards equal to the sacrificed creature’s power and gain life equal to that creature’s toughness.

The next thing we need are ways to get our opponents creatures to die, especially if we can impose additional restrictions along with it.

Rot-Curse Rakshasa is an interesting card that we can play early on at the cost of it having decayed, but we can also take advantage of the fact that we can exile it with its Renew ability to put decayed counters on X creatures, meaning that we can force our opponents to be unable to block with their massive creatures and if they do attack with them, they are sacrificed to make Kresh bigger.

Another card to consider is Rite of the Raging Storm, which prevents creatures named Lightning Rager from attacking us or Planeswalkers we control, and at the beginning of each player’s upkeep that player makes a 5/1 Elemental named Lightning Rager that has trample, haste, and sacrifices itself at the beginning of the end step, meaning that we get fifteen +1/+1 counters on Kresh before it gets to our turn.

Plaguecrafter has every player sacrifice a creature or discard a card if they can’t when it enters, as does Accursed Marauder, Merciless Executioner, and Demon’s Disciple. We can also force our opponents to sacrifice creatures when we sacrifice creatures or creatures we control die with Butcher of Malakir.

If we have access to them, Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos are also ways we can force our opponents to sacrifice creatures since they both have whenever a creature we control dies, each other player/opponent sacrifices a creature.

Now all we need to do to win the game is to make sure that we get damage through with Kresh.

Berserk is a great way to not only get Kresh to massive amounts of power, but it also makes Kresh bigger if we happen to be just shy of having enough damage to win the game. We can also be a bit tricky by playing a card like Tyvar’s Stand to give Kresh indestructible so he doesn’t die at the beginning of the end step if we still need to continue the game.

We can play combat tricks like Monstrous Rage in order to give Kresh a Monster Role token along with a power boost, an enchantment like Garruk’s Uprising to give all of our creatures trample, or Brawn in our graveyard and a Forest in play to give our creatures trample.

Now there may be cases where our opponents have a lot of creatures on board and we don’t have a way to get damage through, but this is where board wipes like Mandate of Abaddon, which allows us to destroy all creatures with power less than a target creature we controls, which with Kresh can be literally most creatures as well as making Kresh enormous.

Kresh is a simple enough Commander to understand and encourages you to play ways to kill not only your creatures, but also your opponents creatures in order to make Kresh big enough that Commander Damage can have you win the game. He is susceptible to removal and requires other cards in order to make sure that damage can get through, but there are plenty of spells that allow you to protect Kresh or get the damage through.

Worst case scenario in that you are unable to get damage through or have no way to protect Kresh, you can use Fling to get a massive amount of damage to an opponent, and potentially winning you the game. While Kresh is one of the more fragile Commanders I’ve talked about, there are ways to still take advantage of his abilities.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual