Recross the Paths - Kess, Dissident Mage
January 3, 2024 by
Jonathan Zucchetti 
(Kess, Dissident Mage | Art by Izzy)
The New Team is (Gobl)In
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Recross the Paths, the series that gives commanders a typal twist.
Today's guest is an all-time great commander that has fallen out of favor these last few years due to power creep: Kess, Dissident Mage. Let's see if leading armies of little sneaky goons can help her regain her previous status as a threat to be reckoned with.
Stage One: The Deck
Step One: The New Guys in Town
In an attempt to regain her former splendor, Kess befriended a bunch of pretty aggressive Goblin pals. Nonetheless, magic is still her vocation and, for this reason, we're going to summon most of them through instants and sorceries to later Flashback from the graveyard through our commander's ability. Hence, we can count on some evergreen spells like Dragon Fodder, Krenko's Command and Hordeling Outburst to propel our early game aggression.
Also, we can count on some more sophisticated tools, such as You See a Pair of Goblins, which can be used either to spawn two creatures at instant speed or to pump our attackers and threaten our opponents. Then we have Goblin Wizardry, which balances its higher casting cost by granting the tokens it generates Prowess, which means that they'll get a boost to their stats whenever we cast noncreature spells. Lastly, we can rely on Goblin Scouts to punish every other red player at the table, as they won't be able to block the three Goblins with Mountainwalk we'll be producing.
All in all, we can count also on a number of permanents to generate more tokens to attack our opponents with. For example, Goblinslide synergizes well with the noncreature spells we're casting, as they will produce a creature if we pay 1 more mana as we're casting them. Then, we can't forget about the strongest token generator for this typal strategy: Krenko, Mob Boss, which will produce hordes of creatures if left unchecked even for just a turn. Lastly, Ovika, Enigma Goliath is another extremely powerful tool, as it will produce hasty Goblins whenever we cast a noncreature spell which will happen pretty often with this deck.
Step Two: Some Pretty Familiar Faces
The creature type of our army allows us to include some very famous and threatening Lords: Goblin Chieftain, Goblin King and Goblin Warchief are the traditional ones, while cards such as Rundvelt Hordemaster and Hobgoblin Bandit Lord are newer additions that fit perfectly with this hyper aggressive strategy.
The innovation doesn't stop here though, as Saruman, the White Hand will add a layer of protection to all of our creatures (and also create some Orcs while doing so, but we really don't care about them) and Warg Rider will make it more difficult for our opponents to block all the damage coming their way (and also create Orcs, but we're still going to ignore them). Lastly, the addition of blue mana in this traditionally mono-red or black-red strategy allows us to include pretty relevant effects, such as Kindred Discovery, which will make sure we can keep the aggression going even in the later stages of the game.
Lastly, we can count on some extremely powerful cards to pump all of our team and swing for high quantities of damage during every combat step. In particular, Shared Animosity rewards us for going wide and having lots of attackers, so that every player not able or not willing to block them will have a pretty bad time with their life total. Then, Coat of Arms (which I admit is a pet card of mine) makes it so that all of our Goblins grow more and more menacing whenever a new one hits the battlefield. If everything goes wrong, Sling-Gang Lieutenant and Pashalik Mons are here to make sure that we're still able to deal damage to our opponents.
Step Three: A Token of This New Friendship
Another relevant point regarding our creatures is that most of them will be tokens. We can take advantage of this. For example, Nadier's Nightblade represents another threat that could get out of hand if it sticks on the battlefield for many turns, while Curiosity Crafter is another way we can rely on to get rewarded for our aggressive game plan. Another interesting card to play around is Poppet Stitcher. Once it flips, it'll grant our creatures improved stats but will also take away any current or gained abilities. For this reason, we have to be cautious with our timing and switch between the two faces of the card according to our board state and needs.
Furthermore, there are some pretty fun tricks we can pull off, starting by surprising everyone with Mystic Reflection. In fact, we can either use it to transform all the tokens we will create during a turn into whatever (nonlegendary) creature is already present on the battlefield, or we can fire it off in response to the cast of a menacing threat from our opponents to make sure it will be just a simple little Goblin. Then, Perplexing Test and Junk Winder will help us control the game state, as the first one will most likely be a one sided board wipe, while the second is aiming at immobilizing our opponent's nonland permanents. The cherry on top of this cake is Thousand-Year Storm, which may be a bit of a stretch as an inclusion, but could also be extremely powerful if we manage to build our turns around it.
Step Four: The Complete Decklist
Kess Goblins
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Stage Two: The Data Room
We’re now on to the last part of this deck tech: the data room. Was this deck idea actually unique? Let's compare the list against both the average Kess deck and the average Goblin deck to see what we gained (and lost) in the process.
Step One: The Average Kess Deck
Even though Kess's popularity has been dropping in the last few years, she's still holding up to the test of time: She's the 4th most-built Grixis commander, with 7,315 registered decks on EDHREC, which places her 85th overall.
Sadly, there isn't really much to compare between our build of Kess and the decks other players have been building over the years. In fact, first of all, it's really easy to highlight the influence of cEDH builds on this commander's page, as cards such as Vampiric Tutor, Force of Will and Demonic Consultation aren't really synonymous with casual builds.
Then, it's also worth noting that not only are Goblins not typically paired with this commander, but also the token subtheme isn't something that Kess players show interest in. This is clearly represented by the inclusion rate of cards such as Perplexing Test (present in 18 decks out of 7,315, 0,25%), Junk Winder (present in 5 decks out of 7,315, 0,07%) and Curiosity Crafter (present in 10 decks out of 7,315, 0,14%).
Hence, we could say we aren't really innovating how this commander is built, as we're not starting from the same core as the other decks do, but rather trailblazing, trying to understand whether it's possible to give Kess a complete makeover or not. So, while we can't really get to a solid conclusion, we can say that the starting point is pretty good, as Goblins are a very strong typal strategy. But we'll talk about that in a second.
Step Two: The Average Goblin Deck
Krenko, Mob Boss is by far the most popular Goblin commander, with 15,518 decks built on EDHREC, which also means it's the 11th most popular general of all time. Let's see how popular the creatures we included in our list are:
It's pretty easy to see how we're playing the cream of the crop in terms of creatures, with almost all of them seeing play in at least half of the decks with this commander, which is a pretty remarkable feature, considering how many options are available nowadays in terms of Goblins. The only ones present in less than 50% of the lists are either more valuable to us due to the tokens they generate (Beetleback Chief, Battle Cry Goblin, Legion Warboss and Squee, Dubious Monarch) or are new-ish cards that are very similar to already existing ones and, therefore, not so easy to make room for in already established decks (Rundvelt Hordemaster)
Therefore, we can be pretty happy with the choice we took. In fact, this build resulted from an experiment, as these cards weren't present in previous iterations of this commander, but it's also backed up by cards that are considered the best in typal-dedicated decks. To better explain, while we're playing a completely new deck, the fact that the creature we chose to support it are the best ones available in this archetype means that this build can be a starting point for a new take on Kess.
Takeaways from Today's Article
- Kess is an extremely powerful commander that really needs some innovation. In fact, with time, more and more options in her same color combination have been printed and, as a consequence, she's seen less and less play. Hence, a complete renovation of the cards included in her list could help boost her popularity once more.
- For this mission, we chose a very fitting typal strategy: Goblins. In fact, in order to build a whole new deck, it's necessary to start from a consolidated strategy, and Goblins cover this role perfectly. We can count on a number of powerful tools that see consistent play in dedicated decks: this is to say, if a card sees play in 95% of the decks lead by the most popular Goblin commander, it's extremely powerful for sure.
- Lastly, it's important to remember that this is just a starting point. In fact, as we're discovering a new way to play this commander, it's important to keep on tweaking this list to find the optimal configuration. Should there be more creatures? Is the number of instant and sorceries fine or should it be higher? Or perhaps lower? Is this strategy playable or is it too slow? There are plenty of questions that can be formulated on this list and I'm pretty excited to see if this strategy can become a real thing
That’s all from me for the moment. I hope you enjoyed this deck tech, but now it’s on to you! What do you think of it? Would you have changed anything? Is there something you particularly liked? Most importantly, do you believe this was a true innovation? Let me know in the comments below!
Read more:
The Trinket Mage - A Guide to Spellslinger in EDH | How to Build a Spellslinger Commander Deck #mtg
Jonathan Zucchetti
Jonathan is an Italy-based Magic enjoyer that has been playing, although with some pauses, ever since Mirrodin released. His passion for EDH bloomed in 2018 and, with it, the love for exotic and underrepresented builds. When he is not complaining about an “unfair” removal, you can find him fiercely defending his Delver of Secrets at a pauper table.
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