Krark, the ThumblessKrark, the Thumbless and Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces| Art by Mathias Kollros and Jason A. Engle

Heads up! It's time for another cEDH edition of Fire and Ice!

Welcome back to Fire and Ice! This is the data-driven series where I go over cards that are becoming more or less popular for different Commander decks, and talk about why they may be gaining or losing popularity. I'm Julia, EDHREC's Duchess of Data, and I'm super excited to jump into today's article! For some information on the math that supports this series, check out this article.

EDHREC, of course, has a ton of data. We'll draw conclusions from that data about how certain commanders' decks have changed over time, give insight into how the format's players are thinking about new cards, and hopefully provide some tech for your favorite commander's list. And, once a month, we take a closer look at a commander that's got a bit more of a competitive streak. Today, that's brought us to the partner pairing of Krark, the ThumblessKrark, the Thumbless and Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces (AKA Krarkashima)!

Krark, the ThumblessKrark, the Thumbless and Sakashima of a Thousand FacesSakashima of a Thousand Faces

What's Hot and What's Not for Krarkashima?

This Bracket 5 deck seeks to both storm off and control the board. With both of our commanders on the field, we have a 50% chance to be able to cast a spell from our hand and have it resolve, while also putting it back in our hand for later use. This boils down to giving our spells "buyback " half the time!

It's important to note that this deck can be built in multiple different ways, with as many as 30 cards changing between strategies. Some players will focus more on cards and accelerating to a win quickly, while others will instead try to control the pace of play, leverage turn order, and use the stack to win "on top of" other players' interaction.

That aside, though, among this partner pairing's most popular cards are Tavern ScoundrelTavern Scoundrel (90% inclusion rate), Gitaxian ProbeGitaxian Probe (72% inclusion rate), and GrapeshotGrapeshot (69% inclusion rate).

What's Fiery for Krarkashima Decks?

Irma, Part-Time MutantIrma, Part-Time Mutant - Fire Score of 9.75

Irma is another clone that ignores the legend rule, which allows us to get another copy of Krark onto the field. It's important to note that Irma maintains her name when she becomes a copy of another creature, letting us have multiple Krarks on board whether we've got Sakashima out there or not. Irma also costs less than most clones, which is super valuable.

If we've got a third copy of our fingerless friend on the field, we can all but guarantee that we'll be able to buyback our instants and sorceries. Irma makes our strategy a lot more consistent, letting us combo off and/or interact with opponents very easily.

Hexing SquelcherHexing Squelcher - Fire Score of 8.59

This Goblin is a powerful card, no denying that. It protects our spells very well, and we typically need to resolve a few specific cards to win the game. But for faster builds of Krarkashima that seek to win the game in the early turns, this creature may not be as fantastic as it seems.

Instead of spending on Hexing Squelcher, we could spend that mana on rituals (Rite of FlameRite of Flame), burst card draw (Jeska's WillJeska's Will), or our commander! Hexing Squelcher is a great creature, one of the strongest in recent memory. But, it's not right for every build of Krarkashima.

Impolite EntranceImpolite Entrance - Fire Score of 5.20

Krarkashima decks have several qualities that they look for in cantrips. Chief among these is color: cantrips should be . Other important qualities include whether the spell is an instant or sorcery, and whether it provides any card selection (instead of just letting us draw without scrying / surveiling / similar).

But, despite these other factors mattering, a cantrip costing just is often enough to land it in faster decklists. This is due to the fact that it's much easier to generate than it is to generate , given the rituals that exist in Commander's card pool. While Impolite Entrance providing trample and haste is largely irrelevant to our game plan, it does let us draw a card for just one red mana.

That's not to say that non-red cantrips don't see play in these lists, though. Spells like PeekPeek have a home in some 99s!

Seething SongSeething Song - Fire Score of 2.37

Speaking of rituals, Seething Song is among the best. While we often won't be able to cast this spell until turn two or three, it provides us with more than we spent to cast it. This "+2 ritual" can enable us to accelerate to play patterns that shouldn't be available until much later in the game.

Whether we're using that to cast other rituals and cantrips, or dumping it all into a Treasonous OgreTreasonous Ogre, the mana boost this spell provides is hard to beat.

UrabraskUrabrask and Electro, Assaulting BatteryElectro, Assaulting Battery - Fire Scores of 2.38 and 2.23

These two cards make -heavy builds of Krark and Sakashima much more viable. Both of these cards, Birgi, God of StorytellingBirgi, God of Storytelling, and the recently released The Vision and Scarlet WitchThe Vision and Scarlet Witch provide redundant access to this mana-chaining effect. By allowing us to create even more as we move through storm turns, these creatures can let us reach absurdly high storm counts.

While we won't always flip Urabrask onto his back-side Saga, it's still nice to have. It can provide us with a much-needed sweeper in a pinch, and even let us recast our used spells if the game goes long. Despite this upside, some players may prefer to use Electro over Urabrask, given Electro's cheaper mana cost.

What's Icy for Krarkashima Decks?

The One RingThe One Ring - Ice Score of -2.64

The One Ring may be the most powerful colorless card in all of Commander. It protects us from many opposing win attempts and draws us progressively more cards every turn. Most cEDH decks need to justify not running this artifact!

Krarkashima has a pretty good justification: this artifact costs four mana, and we'd rather spend that mana to either cast Sakashima or start a chain of cantrips. We'll be trying to win the game quite quickly, and The One Ring's mana cost of is a big ask with that context in mind.

Swan SongSwan Song - Ice Score of -2.39

One Krarkashima player that I spoke to mentioned that "Disruption in a 1v3 format should always be tuned to a 'minimum effective dose.'" While Swan Song does effectively stop a lot of what our opponents will do to win the game (or affect our attempt to win the game), it doesn't hit everything. Plus, crucially, it costs mana.

With free spells like Mindbreak TrapMindbreak Trap and Deflecting SwatDeflecting Swat, we can use Krark's ability to interact with our opponents repeatedly. If we need to spend every time we want to counter a spell, we won't be able to interact much at all. It may sound silly, but a spell costing even one mana can be a big ask for a deck that seeks to win the game as quickly as this one.

PonderPonder and BrainstormBrainstorm - Ice Scores of -2.28 and -2.21

Slower, more controlling versions of Krarkashima love these cantrips. They're fine when we get one copy of them, and can help us sculpt a perfect hand if we use our commanders to create multiples of them on the stack.

Their drop in popularity isn't because these cards are bad, it's because they cost instead of . Decks are leaning increasingly hard into red mana, so blue cantrips are falling out of favor.

SnapSnap - Ice Score of -2.24

Much of what I said about Swan Song applies here. But, because Snap is mana neutral (and can even generate mana if we copy the spell a few times) it's harder to evaluate cleanly.

In a perfect world, we could use Snap to generate a high storm count before ending the turn in style with GrapeshotGrapeshot or Brain FreezeBrain Freeze. But, there's interaction out there that has a similar effect for . Sure, Snap is mana neutral if it resolves, but that's a big "if" in some pods. Into the Flood MawInto the Flood Maw will always cost just one mana.

What's in a Krark and Sakashima Deck?

Here's a decklist with all of these commanders' Fiery cards included and all of their Icy cards excluded. This list is based heavily on Ken Baumann's list from the cEDH Decklist Database.

Conclusion

As always, this article wouldn't have been possible without the help of the fine folks over at "The Thumbless" Discord server. They were super knowledgeable about these commanders and eager to help me understand the complexities inherent in piloting Krarkashima effectively. Huge thanks to them for making this edition of Fire and Ice possible!

Be sure to check out that server if this article sparked your interest in flipping coins, and leave a comment to let me know which cEDH commander you'd like to see spotlighted next.