Hello and welcome to Commander Bites!

Today we are going to be taking a look at Kudo, King Among Bears!

Kudo is a two mana 2/2 with other creatures have base power and toughness 2/2 and are Bears in addition to their other types.

Game Plan

Now I remember when Kudo first premiered and people were talking about one of two things for the most part. One was how strong Kudo is with Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, and how Kudo had the potential of being the new head Bear Commander.

While I agree very much with that first thought, the second thought was one that I was pretty mixed about. Sure it allowed for more Bear synergies, but those synergies would work better for non-Bear creatures gaining the advantage of Bear synergies now that they became Bears.

As time has gone on there have in fact been some new Bear synergies that we can take advantage of, though we are going to be talking more about how non-Bears would be gaining these advantages as well as getting the most non-Bears into Bears as possible.

Support

First come the non-Bear cards that will be helping us either solidify a position or help us make more non-Bear creatures that can later become Bears.

Since our deck will have a heavier focus on creatures, Torens, Fist of Angels is pretty solid because whenever we cast another creature spell we create a 1/1 Human Solider creature token with training which Torens also happens to have. This means that as we get our Bears stronger, Torens and the tokens will also get bigger and bigger.

Speaking of getting our creatures bigger, Good-Fortune Unicorn also helps us in this endeavor because they add a +1/+1 counter to a creature when they enter, which is important because since it also counts token creatures, meaning the more tokens we can spam the bigger they will be.

So something like Avenger of Zendikar gets better because when it enters it makes a number of 0/1 Plant tokens for each land we control and then puts a +1/+1 token on each Plant we control whenever we play a land, but with Kudo and Good-Fortune Unicorn in play then we instead have a number of 3/3 Plant tokens instead, which become much better if we play more lands.

As we start moving into some of the typal strategies, one card I do want to highlight is Orcrist, Goblin-Cleaver, which gives the equipped creature +2/+2 and trample, but more importantly also has it so that when the creature deals combat damage to a player we choose a creature type and we create a Treasure token of each creature we control of that type, which if we’ve been playing right should be a lot of Treasure tokens.

Ayula, Queen Among Bears starts the value we get from getting a lot Bears in play because whenever another Bear we control enters we can either put two +1/+1 counters on target Bear or have target Bear we control fight a creature we don’t control, which in a tokens based deck can be a lot of counter or a lot of fights.

Dancing from Dark to Dawn is a newer piece of support where whenever we cast a creature spell we put X +1/+1 counters on a creature we control where X is the mana vale of that spell but also has a Landfall ability to make a 2/2 Bear token.

It would be remiss of me not to also mention Beorn the Fierce, who has trample and gives other Bears we control +2/+2 and at the beginning of combat on our turn we put a trample counter on target creature we control that becomes a Bear in addition to its other types and if we control three or more Bears we draw a card.

And of course there is Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite who’s simplicity in giving other creatures we control +2/+2 and creatures our opponents control -2/-2 is a strong effect that can potentially help us get through wide boards of small creatures or get rid of indestructible threats with Kudo on board.

Setbacks

Seeing as we are a go wide creature deck, you all know should know my first thought in what’s something to be mindful of with regards to board wipes, so I don’t think I need to say much else.

I will say that Kudo is in an interesting position in being a two mana Commander, which is an interesting position because they can handle being removed from the board a couple of times and be ok, but that’s actually something to be pretty mindful of.

If you have a lower mana value Commander, people may be more willing to use their early removal for it, especially with Kudo being an enabler for a typal strategy, so there is a non-zero chance that Kudo may get removed a couple of times.

We do have ways to make the sting less painful, but the more and more times Kudo gets removed, then the harder and harder it becomes to commit more resources to the board if you want to recast Kudo. Commander Tax builds up and up much more quickly than you think.

Then there is also the worry on when you cast Kudo, again since they are a two mana Commander the temptation is to cast them early to start getting value as soon as possible with the risk that they may get removed quickly. However if you do cast them later, then you can establish a board that can get benefits at the risk of losing your board before you get your Commander out, but having Kudo be something you cast as a recovery turn.

The other issue that may come about is that the deck is not very reactive because our deck is built around building a board that gets bigger and bigger. We have access to protection spells, some great ones in fact, but it does mean that we do need to be more mindful of how much we commit to the board, just in case we don’t have one of those protection spells.

Bracket Rating: High 3, Low 4

Kudo is a surprisingly resilient Commander, in terms of strategy and what the deck is able to do if built optimally.

While it may seem surprising that I am giving a typal, go wide, aggro deck a higher bracket rating than some other Commanders, I do think that there are some decent strategies present to make a Kudo deck fairly strong.

What’s more, the deck benefits from Kudo being in play, but can also function as a normal go wide tokens deck that can get bigger and bigger if left unchecked. What Kudo does is boost your chances when they are in play by making your opponents creatures smaller while your deck sets up from benefiting from what would normally be seen as a downside.

It isn’t strong enough to win through combo decks or from constant removal, but it is a lot heartier than I initially gave it credit for when I first saw Kudo spoiled.

Thank you for reading, see you all tomorrow!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual