Kess by Payshmer

Format: Commander

Commander: Kess, Dissident Mage

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 38

Deck overview

This deck is a Grixis Spellslinger Reanimator build led by Kess, Dissident Mage. It focuses on filling the graveyard with high-impact creatures such as Vilis, Broker of Blood, Grave Titan, and Sepulchral Primordial using efficient looting and surveil spells. It then cheats these threats onto the battlefield with cheap reanimation spells like Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Persist. Kess, Dissident Mage provides built-in card advantage and resilience by recasting spells directly from the graveyard, effectively doubling the value of cantrips, tutors, and removal. The deck controls opposing boards through flexible spot removal and sweepers like Blasphemous Act and Massacre Wurm, ultimately winning through sustained combat damage and token generation across several combat turns.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Archmage Emeritus
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Cascade Bluffs
• 1 Chain Reaction
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Choked Estuary
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Consider
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Darkwater Catacombs
• 1 Desolate Lighthouse
• 1 Diluvian Primordial
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Expressive Iteration
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Feed the Swarm
• 1 Final Parting
• 1 Forbidden Alchemy
• 1 Foreboding Ruins
• 1 Frantic Search
• 1 Frostboil Snarl
• 1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Hostage Taker
• 7 Island
• 1 Izzet Charm
• 1 Kess, Dissident Mage
• 1 Maddening Cacophony
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Mind Stone
• 4 Mountain
• 1 Negate
• 1 Notion Rain
• 1 Overseer of the Damned
• 1 Persist
• 1 Phyrexian Delver
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Port of Karfell
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Prismari Charm
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Redirect Lightning
• 1 Restart Sequence
• 1 Riverchurn Monument
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sauron, Lord of the Rings
• 1 Sepulchral Primordial
• 1 Shadowblood Ridge
• 1 Shredder's Technique
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sphinx of the Second Sun
• 1 Spire of Industry
• 1 Storm-Kiln Artist
• 1 Stormcarved Coast
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Summons of Saruman
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Suspend
• 6 Swamp
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Talisman of Dominance
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1 The Balrog of Moria
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Undead Butler
• 1 Vengeful Bloodwitch
• 1 Victimize
• 1 Vile Entomber
• 1 Vilis, Broker of Blood
• 1 Vizier of Many Faces
• 1 Worn Powerstone
• 1 Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist