I am The Black Wizards by nicelookingowl

Format: Commander

Commander: Kess, Dissident Mage

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 63

Deck overview

This deck is a high-power Grixis reanimator strategy helmed by Kess, Dissident Mage. It focuses on discarding massive, game-warping creatures into the graveyard early and reanimating them on turns two through four. Key targets like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Archon of Cruelty, and Valgavoth, Terror Eater establish devastating asymmetric resource denial, stripping opponents of hands and board presence. Kess, Dissident Mage acts as an engine multiplier, providing seamless flashback access to tutors, reanimation spells, and removal. Supported by efficient interaction and sweepers such as Toxic Deluge and Deflecting Swat, the deck transitions from an oppressive early lock into a decisive finish through overwhelming aerial combat damage.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Ancient Brass Dragon
  • 1 Anger
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Archfiend of Ifnir
  • 1 Archon of Cruelty
  • 1 Avacyn, Angel of Horror
  • 1 Blasphemous Act
  • 1 Blazemire Verge
  • 1 Blood Crypt
  • 1 Bloodstained Mire
  • 1 Buried Alive
  • 1 Careful Study
  • 1 Cascade Bluffs
  • 1 City of Brass
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Consecrated Sphinx
  • 1 Dance of the Dead
  • 1 Deadly Rollick
  • 1 Deflecting Swat
  • 1 Dimir Signet
  • 1 Dragonskull Summit
  • 1 Drown in the Loch
  • 1 Drowned Catacomb
  • 1 Entomb
  • 1 Exhume
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Faithless Looting
  • 1 Fell the Profane // Fell Mire
  • 1 Fellwar Stone
  • 1 Firbolg Flutist
  • 1 Flayer of the Hatebound
  • 1 Forbidden Alchemy
  • 1 Frantic Search
  • 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
  • 1 Gloomlake Verge
  • 1 Grave Researcher // Reanimate
  • 1 Graven Cairns
  • 1 Ill-Timed Explosion
  • 1 Incarnation Technique
  • 2 Island
  • 1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
  • 1 Kess, Dissident Mage
  • 1 Laboratory Maniac
  • 1 Ledger Shredder
  • 1 Luxury Suite
  • 1 Mana Confluence
  • 1 Metamorphosis Fanatic
  • 1 Morphic Pool
  • 1 Mountain
  • 1 Necromancy
  • 1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
  • 1 Otawara, Soaring City
  • 1 Overlord of the Floodpits
  • 1 Palantír of Orthanc
  • 1 Perpetual Timepiece
  • 1 Persist
  • 1 Pinnacle Monk // Mystic Peak
  • 1 Polluted Delta
  • 1 Pongify
  • 1 Prismari Command
  • 1 Psychic Frog
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Relic of Sauron
  • 1 Saw in Half
  • 1 Scalding Tarn
  • 1 Sepulchral Primordial
  • 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
  • 1 Singularity Rupture
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Steam Vents
  • 1 Stitch Together
  • 1 Stormcarved Coast
  • 1 Sulfur Falls
  • 1 Summon: Bahamut
  • 1 Sunken Ruins
  • 3 Swamp
  • 1 Swan Song
  • 1 Tainted Isle
  • 1 Tainted Peak
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
  • 1 Talisman of Dominance
  • 1 The Balrog of Moria
  • 1 Thrill of Possibility
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Training Center
  • 1 Undercity Sewers
  • 1 Unmarked Grave
  • 1 Untimely Malfunction
  • 1 Valgavoth, Terror Eater
  • 1 Vandalblast
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Wake the Dead
  • 1 Watery Grave
  • 1 Windfall
  • 1 Winternight Stories
  • 1 Xander's Lounge