KrimsonMask

Removed Dragon Broodmother as I was continually having trouble with the three red in the management cost. Added Bitterblossom which is really just a stronger token generator.

Removed Asceticism and added a basic land for hopefully some smoother draws.

Swapped Mageslayer for Chandra's Ignition and Minion Reflector for Flameshadow Conjuring. Both just better versions of the type of effect.

Update

Removed Nim Deathmantle, Harvester of Souls, and Splinter Twin.

Added Craterhoof Behemoth, Demonic Tutor, and Defense of the Heart. Defense of the Heart allows for more Tooth and Nail Shenanigans with much lower cost. In any typical EDH game someone will have 3 creatures most of the time. I grabbed Vigor and Bloodfire Colossus the other day and sac'd the colossus to give an army of dragons from Dragon Broodmother +6 +6 and swung with them for lethal.

This deck has gone through a lot of iterations, many of them bad for various reasons. It has reached a very good point now to where I don’t see any more major changes coming down. Everything in the deck synergizes with Kresh, so it can grow very strong quickly if left unchecked and still has a lot of staying power.

I’ve broken down the significant cards by their role in the deck. Almost every card fills multiple roles so I tried to list them under the role they are most commonly or primarily used for.

P.S. I’m not a fan of instant win combos like Mikeaus, the Unhallowed plus Triskelion, as I have found them to be unfun and typically a huge disappointment for everyone involved when they end an otherwise enjoyable game. You won’t find any of those here.

The Value Add Cards

These cards do nothing on their own, but add to the value of the other cards in the deck. Because they provide no benefit themselves I needed to be careful not to have too many of them and to make sure I chose cards that interacted with a large number of other cards in the deck. Early on I had the typical Kresh sacrifice package including cards like Grave Pact, Attrition, and other sacrifice outlets and I often found myself sitting around with dead value add cards in hand and nothing to do. I realized I had too many cards that didn’t do anything relevant on their own ended up cutting nearly all the sacrifice related cards. You can occasionally gain control of the board with them but more often than not, they are just too much effort for not enough benefit in a format that is all about going big.

Minion Reflector – The deck is full of ETB creatures and when it dies effects giving Minion Reflector triggers super value when combined with the hasted token and the buff to Kresh when the token gets sacrificed at the end of the turn. For a quick example: During my last game I won when I reflected Inferno Titan to swing for a hasted 6 and deal 9 damage to my opponents creatures, clearing the way for the Titan token and my Hamletback Goliath (with 12 +1 +1 counters from the Titan and its token). Obviously, this is the high end of what you can do with Minion Reflector, but these are the types of plays this card can make and it happens more than you’d think.

Strionic Resonator – From something as simple as doubling the +1 +1 counters Kresh earns from a creature dying to doubling the tokens created by Nacatl War-Pride attacking, you quickly get back the card and mana investment for this. There are many triggered abilities in the deck to take advantage of.

Mimic Vat – With the right creature imprinted Mimic Vat quickly becomes a card that must be responded to by your opponent. The multitude of ETB effects makes it easy to get value from this if you aren’t just winning the game outright.

Doubling Season/Primal Vigor – Doubling season is the obvious inclusion for a Kresh deck and Primal Vigor serves the same purpose except it has the drawback of helping your opponents as well and it doesn’t work on your planeswalkers. There are plenty of token generating cards to make these worthwhile and doubling the +1 +1 counters on Kresh is never bad.

Splinter Twin – Not quite as versatile as Mimic Vat, but with only a one-time cost it is still good. Preferably you will have some equipment to protect the enchanted creature before you enchant it.

Card Draw

Disciple of Bolas – Good in multiple ways. Even if you only get a few cards it’s still really solid, but can net you ten or more quite often, which will be hard for the opponents to recover from. The sacrifice effect is often a benefit as well, with Kresh just getting bigger and multiple ways to bring creatures back from the dead.

Garruk, Primal Hunter – There are a lot of fat creatures in this deck, some that can get very big and make the card drawing from Garruk get crazy. Although, not the norm I have drawn 45 cards off of a beefy Lord of Extinction, discarded all the creatures at end of turn and then followed up with a Twilight’s Call to win a game. Oh yeah, this guy makes 3/3 tokens for +1 loyalty too.

Momentous Fall – The instant speed on this is really good. I don’t mind have an unprotected Kresh, Hamletback Goliath, or Lord of Extinction with this in hand and four mana untapped knowing I can always respond to a removal spell and draw a ton of cards.

Greater Good – Harder than Momentous Fall to find valid targets because of the discard effect, but there’s enough graveyard recursion that having to discard is often not a hindrance and you’ll occasionally draw so many cards that you’re going to have to discard at end of turn anyway. The fact that it’s reusable makes it a very solid way to get card advantage with this deck that has plenty of fatties.

Skullclamp – Plenty of little creatures and tokens to throw this on or just equip to a creature before sacrificing it to draw two cards. This isn’t the most broken deck to have it in but it’s still insanely good.

Harvester of Souls – Doesn’t work when tokens die. Seems like he should be good and can be huge during a Plague Wind, but I usually find myself wishing I had something else when he’s in hand. Would be one of the first cards on the cutting block.

Graveyard Recursion

Victimize – Just sacrificing a creature to pull two from the graveyard is decent value and there are plenty of ways for it to work out even better for you in this deck whether it is getting tokens on Kresh for the sacrificed creature, pulling in two creatures with ETB effects, or just sacrificing a token to get two high cost creatures.

Sheoldred, the Whispering One – Sheoldred is going to be good in any black deck that has creatures and she’s even better in this deck with Kresh getting bigger every time the opponents have to sacrifice and all the ETB creatures you can pull from your graveyard.

Eternal Witness – Can pull anything back from your graveyard and gets very good with the multitude of ways you can copy or recur it.

Nim Deathmantle – Benefits from both creatures that have ETB and when it dies effects, plus gives +2 +2 and intimidate. Overall, works well with this deck, but the 4 equip cost is a bit steep especially when a creature gets killed unexpectedly. You often won’t have the mana open to use it. If I had to cut something this would probably be one of the first cards to go but I feel like I need some more games with it to decide.

Twilight’s Call – The ability to cast this as an instant makes it possible to turn it into a total blowout. Responding to an attacking enemy is deadly and all the ETB effects and bomb’s in the deck ensure it will work out in your favor in 95% of the time. At the very least you can hold it until the end of your opponent’s turn to get the first crack with your creatures not having summoning sickness. I chose this over Living Death as it can be cast with Kresh in play without killing him and as I usually have more creatures in play than my opponents it’s just better. Also, you don’t have to be behind to benefit from it.

Rise of the Dark Realms – See Twilight’s Call and add steroids.

Creature Protection

Although Kresh can turn into a player killing monster very quickly, he starts as a piddly 3/3 and needs to survive at least a turn or two before he starts crushing people. That’s where the creature protection comes in.

Lightning Greaves, Whispersilk Cloak, Darksteel Plate, Asceticism – No need to go into these too much as these are all pretty straightforward. Greaves are obviously good for the zero equip cost and haste, cloak is good as it gives Kresh and some of the other big beaters evasion.

Eldrazi Monument – Eldrazi Monument is really strong for the deck as there are enough tokens and creatures that don’t mind dying that having to sacrifice a creature every turn is usually not a big deal. The flying and indestructible are both amazing as the evasion is much needed and the deck wins through creatures. Normally, you want to wait to play it until you either have or are about to establish a strong board position that will win you the game in a couple turns to reduce the time the opponents have to deal with it.

Token Generation

There are a lot of cards that can double your tokens and plenty of sacrifice outlets in the deck, making tokens a strong theme in the deck.

Dragon Broodmother – The best part about the broodmother is she gives you a token during each upkeep, so she gets stronger with more players in the game. Devour on the tokens also works out well as a lot of creatures in the deck don’t mind dying and killing your stuff will buff Kresh. The three red in the casting cost will occasionally be an issue as that is normally the last color you want to get your third land in.

Mycoloth – With the amount of tokens and small ramp creatures in the deck it’s pretty easy to devour a couple dudes when he comes into play (without putting yourself at risk of a blowout) while also making him a beast at 8/8 or stronger generating 4 or more tokens each turn.

Nacatl War-Pride – This guy is absolutely devastating. He makes a bunch of attacking tokens when he attacks that can be doubled with Doubling Season or Primal Vigor (which can win the game in one swoop if your opponent has enough creatures), the tokens have to be blocked which essentially gives the rest of your creatures unblockable and results in a lot of creatures hitting the graveyard after damage resolves and giving Kresh +1 +1 counters galore. The tokens are removed from the game at the end of the turn but can be sacrificed before that happens if needed.

Master of the Wild Hunt – This guy is very good value for four mana. Not only does he make 2/2 tokens every turn, but the tokens can be used to take out creatures on the other team, all of which synergizes very well with Kresh and the rest of the deck.

Grave Titan – Don’t really need an explanation for the Grave Titan. He’s a beast and can be copied, have tokens doubled, etc…

Destruction

I tend to build decks that do their own thing as opposed to control decks that try to stop other decks from doing what they do. I get more enjoyment out of having my deck just go off with some crazy plays or having enough attrition to break through the opponents’ defenses. This is definitely a deck along those lines. That said, every deck needs answers and a lot of these cards provide good synergy with Kresh as well.

Plague Wind, In Garruk’s Wake – If you manage to cast one of these with Kresh in play it is almost a guaranteed kill from commander damage as he will hit 21 power from creatures dying very quickly. Even without Kresh wiping the opponent’s board will usually make finishing them off short work.

Shriekmaw, Big Game Hunter, Acidic Slime, Spitebellows, Terastadon – All straightforward, just want to point out how much better they are with the various ways of recurring and duplicating creatures.

Beast Within, Maelstrom Pulse – Two cards that don’t necessarily synergize that well with the rest of the deck, but sometimes you just need an answer for any permanent on the board. Occasionally, you may destroy one of your own permanents out of desperation to get a beast token or two with Beast Within, but that’s not really good.

Pernicious Deed – Just a really good card for resetting the board or leaving out as a threat to scare away attacks that may have been otherwise coming your way. Also can be really good with Kresh if activated for four or less.

Garruk, Apex Predator – Kills planeswalkers, creatures, and can make 3/3 tokens with deathtouch. He’s a house.

Bloodfire Colossus – I recently added this guy and haven’t had a chance to play him yet in a game. I can see a lot of scenarios where he could be really good and a lot where he is nothing more than a big body (not completely terrible but definitely not good). He does work very well with Kresh, as he will give six +1 +1 counters before doing the six damage to each creature. I can definitely see situations where he pumps Kresh high enough to one shot someone the turn he comes into play.

Ramp

I tried to focus as much ramp on creatures as possible so it would all synergize with Kresh. For example, in a vacuum Viridian Emissary may not be as good as Harrow for getting lands, but when combined with all the creature recursion in this deck, the cards that require a creature to be sacrificed, and the counters Kresh gets when the emissary dies it ends up being a much better card here.

Awakening Zone – This is a very strong card in the deck, especially if you get it early, as there are a lot of high casting cost bombs that you will be able to cast much earlier by sacrificing the tokens. The tokens are also good fodder for the cards in the deck that require a sacrifice like Eldrazi Monument and the devour creatures.

Solemn Simulacrum, Dawntreader Elk, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Viridian Emissary, Yavimaya Elder – Not much to comment on here. These are just the cheap ramp creatures I feel are the strongest. Any of the can be recurred for more lands or to draw more cards.

Garruk Wildspeaker – I guess I’d classify Garruk as ramp as that is what he seems to be most often used for but making a 3/3 token each turn is also strong. Overrun is also really good with the number of tokens this deck can pump out.

Tutors

Rune-Scarred Demon – A reusable tutor on a big flying body. Yes please.

Diabolic Intent – A poor man’s Demonic/Vampiric Tutor. The sacrifice cost is rarely an issue in this deck and sometimes advantageous. Demonic would really be the card to go with here if cash is not an issue.

Tooth and Nail – It is impossible to not hit on this once you have the mana needed to pay the entwine cost and there are tons of great targets. Want to draw half your deck and gain a ton of life? Lord of Extinction and Disciple of Bolas will do that for you. Need to pull that plague wind from your graveyard and pull Rise of the Dark Realms from your deck to follow it up? Eternal Witness and Rune-Scarred Demon can do that for you.

Green Sun’s Zenith – Good card no matter when you draw it during the game. Can be used for ramp creatures early or to get a big body/answer later in the game.

Fatties

Big beaters without any type of protection or evasion are usually bad, but they have a lot more potential value in this deck for a few reasons. When they die they can give Kresh lethal tokens by themselves, they can be sacrificed for a massive amount of card draw (and possibly life) thanks to Garruk Primal Hunter, Greater Good, Momentous Fall, and Disciple of Bolas, and lastly can do some serious damage with Whispersilk Cloak, Mageslayer, following up after wiping the board with Plague Wind, etc… they are basically copies of Kresh himself and function in the same way.

Kresh himself – Crushes people.

Lord of Extinction – The EDH version of Tarmogoyf. Regularly hits the field at 40+ and gets ridiculous with four or more players.

Hamletback Goliath – I had a lot of reservations about adding this guy because of the above mentioned issues with big vanilla creatures, but have not been disappointed at all since adding him into the deck. He gets very big very fast.

Thanks. Yeah tezzeret n demonic didn't make the cut for budget reason . May add them down the road

I would definately put in a full playset of inkmoth, just don't want to spend the cash. I tried obliterators and it was just too clunky with the non-infect damage. Thanks for the input.