Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate!

Alesha is three mana 2/2 with first strike and whenever she attacks you put a +1/+1 counter on her and if you triggered Raid, meaning that if you attacked this turn, then at the beginning of your end step you return a creature with mana value less than or equal to Alesha’s power from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Combat based graveyard recursion is the name of the game, and Alesha can be really helpful in getting this online. Since she comes in as a 2/2, she can bring cheap creatures that may have been killed in the early game back, and she just gets bigger and bigger when she attacks.

The goal of the deck is to get Alesha bigger so we can reanimate bigger and bigger things, all the while getting stuff into the graveyard that we want to reanimate.

The first thing we want are cheap creatures that have a decent value that can do one of the major things we are looking for: getting Alesha bigger, getting cards into the graveyard, and are cheap enough to be reanimated in the early game.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun does all three of these things, since whenever we attack we may discard a card and put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature while also giving it trample while being two mana, and also gives us more ways to get access to cards by exiling a card from the top of our library whenever we discard a card and letting us play it until our next end step.

Charming Scoundrel is also a good cheap value creature that has haste, and can either let us discard a card to draw a card, make a Treasure token, or give a creature a Wicked Role token, which is an Aura that gives a creature +1/+1 and when it dies each opponent loses one life.

Fear of Missing Out is very helpful since we can discard a card to draw a card when it enters, and whenever it attacks the first time each turn, if we have delirium, then we can untap a creature and get an additional combat step, which can help Alesha become bigger.

Stitcher’s Supplier mills three cards when it enters or dies, Accursed Marauder has each player sacrifice a nontoken creature when it enters, and Judith, the Scourge Diva gives other creatures we control +1/+0 and whenever a nontoken creature we control dies, Judith deals 1 damage to any target.

Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger is an interesting creature that we can continuously reanimate because unless it escaped, it sacrifices itself, but not before having each opponent discard a card and if they didn’t discard a nonland card then they lose 3 life. When we do manage to stick a Kroxa, then it can still trigger this when it attacks.

We can also use cards like Cathartic Reunion to discard two cards to draw three cards, Big Score and Unexpected Windfall to discard a card to draw two cards and make two Treasure tokens, and even Buried Alive to get three creatures into the graveyard to get more things into the graveyard that we want to reanimate.

Since we are primarily a combat matters deck, we should take advantage of cards that give us benefits from attacking, or having attacked.

Perforating Artist is a value piece in that at the beginning or our end step if we attacked this turn then each opponent loses 3 life unless they sacrifice a nonland permanent of their choice or discard a card, which can be very helpful if we combine that with Kroxa to just rip our opponents field and hands while potentially dealing a massive amount of damage.

As far as cards that just have Raid that we can use to our advantage, Searslicer Goblin can make a 1/1 Goblin token, Brazen Cannonade can make attacking creatures you control deal 2 damage to any target if they die and you can exile a card from the top of your library and can play it until the end of your next combat step if you attacked, and Gutless Plunderer let’s us look at the top three cards of our library and put one back on top of our library and put the other two in the graveyard.

Angel’s Trumpet is an interesting control piece for aggro decks because it gives all creature vigilance, but at the beginning of each player’s end step it taps all creatures they control that didn’t attack this turn and it deals damage to that player for each creature tapped this way, meaning we get benefits from attacking, and force our opponents to attack as well.

Drana, Liberator of Malakir is also a great creature that benefits attacking creatures that we control, more specifically Alesha because when Drana deals combat damage to a player we put a +1/+1 counter on each attacking creature we control. While Alesha won’t get more damage in because she has first strike like Drana, she will instead get bigger so at the end step we can get a bigger creature from the graveyard.

For us to win we need ways to bring in big creatures that have major effects that push us into being able to press damage or control the board in order to supplement our aggro plan.

Syr Konrad, the Grim is excellent in this regard because whenever another creature dies, or a creature is put into the graveyard from anywhere other than the battlefield, or more relevant to Alesha if a creature leaves our graveyard, Syr Konrad deals 1 damage to each opponent, while also able to mill everyone for one card.

Massacre Wurm also helps us by giving creatures our opponents control -2/-2 until end of turn and whenever a creature our opponent controls dies, that player loses 2 life, which if we happen to use it to clear off the board from creatures that just survived combat, can help get more damage through.

If we are looking for a creature that helps provide pure value, then Etali, Primal Storm is great for this because whenever they attack we exile the top card of each player’s library and may cast any number of spells from among them without paying their mana costs.

Speaking of value, Combustible Gearhulk can have an opponent either have us draw three cards or if they don’t we mill three cards and Gearhulk deals damage to that player equal to the total mana value of those cards. If we want more bodies in play, we can also have Grave Titan to give us two Zombie tokens when it enters and attacks.

While we won’t realistically be able to get Alesha to a massive power because of the variety of removal spells that will be aimed at her when we start getting massive creatures in play, we can still dream and play something like an Archon of Cruelty, which when it enters or attacks an opponent sacrifices a creature or Planeswalker of their choice, discards a card and loses 3 life all while we draw a card and gain 3 life.

Alesha is a value Commander in the sense that with her getting things back from the graveyard after we attacked, while also being able to get bigger things from the graveyard after she attacks because she makes herself bigger, she becomes a proactive threat on the board that must be dealt with.

That’s one of the downsides of Alesha as a Commander, in that she will be targeted once we start getting more and more threats into the graveyard and graveyard interaction will also be the bane of our existence, but we can still manage to get a solid aggro deck with Alesha at the helm.

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

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual