Kresh The Bloodbraided Primer

"Each of his twenty-two braids is bound with bone and leather from a foe."  

Introduction

Um...Mr. Brendan...I just started playing EDH and I was wondering if you could help me build my Kresh deck...

Why hello there Jimmy! So you want to play Kresh you say Jimmy?

Yes, he seems awesome! I just don't know how to build him!

Awesome. Well first thing I like to do before building around a general is to look at the card in extensive details so that you may get an idea of how you want to build him. First things first is lets look at his mana cost. He has a CMC of 5 so he's pretty fair in that regard. Typically it's when a commander gets in the 7-8 CMC range you have to be a bit iffy unless if it is an amazing effect. Also let's look at his colors. He is a black, green, and red creature or as some more Magic savvy folk will recognize as "Jund". Jund color decks in competitive formats are known for a few things. Hand disruption, creatures that give a 2 for one effect, and winning wars of attrition. That's not so different here either.

Wow this Jund sure sounds like it can be quite good!

It sure does Jimmy. It sure does. The next thing I like to do after I looked over his mana cost is to look at the creature type Jimmy. He is a Human Warrior. There are a couple of tricks you can do with this and synergies you can do with these creature types.

  

               

Lovisa gives your Kresh haste and is perfect for a quick strike once you play Kresh. Sosuke's secondary ability has nice synergy with Kresh's ability but maybe too weak depending on your meta. Bramblewood Paragon gives your Kresh trample and starts off with a lovely +1/+1 counter. As we all know you get bonus points for the full art version Jimmy. The battle axe let's you get a swing on things when Kresh enters the battlefield. Boldwyr Intimidator is a way you can make your Kresh pseudo unblockable. It's really quite intimidating. There are also a couple other cards such as Brighthearth Banneret that you may want to play but I find them to be a bit too weak personally.

Finally, Jimmy let's look at Kresh's ability...

"Whenever another creature dies, you may put X +1/+1 counters on Kresh, the Bloodbraided where X is that creature's power"

Gee wilikers that sounds powerful mister Brendan!

Indeeed Jimmy, this is a pretty powerful ability. Now it is apparently obvious that Kresh loves the death of creatures.

But how do I kill enough creatures for it to be super big?

Good question Jimmy. Answering that question is going to be the focus of most Kresh decks. There are a couple of ways to go about it. But we'll get into it later.

Hey Mister Brendan, before we get into building Kresh, why should I run him over these other generals I have been looking at?

Another good question Jimmy!

There is a few reasons to run Kresh. First he is a nice change from traditional combo decks in EDH. Trust me Jimmy, a few of those decks can be real asshats. If you also love swinging in with giant Timmy creatures, this is the perfect general for you! Also if you enjoy making your opponent's sacrifice creatures this is the perfect deck for you!

That sounds too good Mister Brendan.

Well Kresh does have a few downsides to him. It is a lot harder with him to control the board than with other decks. There also isn't really too much of a way to win early game. Also though there are a couple of combos in Kresh it's going to pretty rare for you to do them every game. Plus people tend to be afraid of large creatures so they may try to attack your ass Jimmy.

That's okay Mister Brendan. I'm not scared of nuthin! Except building decks on my own. And the dark. And the creepy doll in my room. And...

Alright Jimmy! Then let's go ahead and start building him!

Building Him

Now that we know what Kresh is capable of it's time to build him. There are a few things you need when you are building Kresh, Jim. The first major thing is you need creatures that don't mind being sacrificed to buff Kresh. So let's start with some of these creatures.

These creatures seem pretty cool. You mean I can get them back and back every time they die?

Indeed Jimmy. These are all creatures that can cause recursion by either recurring themselves. It's really quite ghastly. But you also want to have a way to kill both your creatures and opponent's. Your creatures are a tad easier to kill so let's look at some sac outlets Jimmy. I promise you...they are quite killer.

What's a sac outlet?

It's a way that you can repeatably kill your own creature, over and over again to gain some sort of benefit. Here are a few of them.

                                 

Wow these seem awesome and powerful!

Ho ho ho yes they are Jimmy. Now these may be a bit more expensive than you have the budget for. Luckily there are also creature based sac out lets you can also use. Now that you have a couple of sac outlets and ways to kill your own creatures Jimmy there's quite a few ways to go with building the rest of your deck.

Really?!!! How?!!!!

From the Kresh decks I have seen/played there are 3 basic ways to build the rest of your deck there Jim.

Way One: Dredge

What's a dredge?

Dredge involves using your graveyard as a resource to gain card advantage and power advantage. It is also a mechanic that allows you to "mill" creatures off the top of your library instead of drawing.  A typical dredge deck would play dredge spells such as:

Trolololol

These spells allow a player to fill up their graveyard quickly. Then a player can either cast Kessig Cagebreakers, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, or Lord of Extinction for food for Kresh. With Jarad you can keep recurring him to make a huge Kresh and then sac Kresh to him to make your opponent's weep!

Also good for nuking all your opponent's with a sac'd Kresh

                         

This method also provides you with utility from your graveyard such as:

Draw...I mean dredge some more

                        

For a sample list check out: Portalportal's Kresh Dredge List   

     

Way Two: Token Fodder

That was really cool Mr. Brendan but I'm worried it might be a bit too complicated for me. Is there another way to build him.

You bet there is Jim! Another strategy is using a token based strategy. A token is a creature that spawned by another card. Usually you can produce a lot of them and when they die, they make Kresh much bigger!

I thought tokens were only for green white decks.

Oh ho ho Jimmy that is totally wrong. Jund has very aggressive token producing skills. With them they can use the tokens to either attack or to buff Kresh utilizing a sac outlet. Here's an example of the awesome token producing Kresh has access too: 

 

I really like this strategy! Where can I find more token stuff Brendan?!!

For more token producers and a good start on a token Kresh deck check out: Stefan's Kresh Deck. He was kind enough to even show you how to play it!

Way 3: "Good Stuff"

That was a really cool deck Brendan. But you mentioned there were a few ways to build it. Is there another?

You could always build a Kresh "Good Stuff" deck Jimmy.

Good stuff? That sounds dirty.

Oh Jimmy it's not dirty...it's good! Good stuff is usually a combination of both of the previous strategies as well as making use of some of the beefier creatures Jund has. For a good example check out: muffun's Kresh EDH deck! His deck even utilizes a few combos with Kresh such as:

Aggravated Assault + Sword of Feast and Famine allows you infinite combat steps provided you can hit everyone with Sword of Feast and Famine.

    

These two cards combined with a sac outlet will allow you to create a very large Kresh, while blowing up all of your opponent's noncreature permanents. A very nasty combo indeed. It also works with Puppeteer Clique to pull all the creatures in your opponent's graveyard to your side. 

Wow thanks a lot Mr. Brendan. I think I'm ready to build my own Kresh deck now!

Oh you bet Jimmy! Check back tomorrow and I'll have a link to my very own Kresh EDH deck so you can take a look at how I'd build it Jim. And Jimmy, if you ever want to help you build a deck again just send me a message on GatheringMagic, under Jude of Awesometon!

Deck Link!