Tops down//Bottoms up: Campfire stories

Death, the state we fight but inevitably find. One man nay, one King found himself in the grip of death. Try as he might, the reaper came and brought him to the realm of the dead, and his village wept. The funeral was somber, for the collective thought they would never see him again, let alone find a Chieftain as strong, charismatic, and fearless as the one they mourned.

Then one night the forest whispered with echoes of the familiar, voices of the past hallowed through the camp. Villagers slowly appeared out of the forest in a ghastly blue, which startled the tribesmen. Yet before panic could set in making the living villagers flee, Karador, the Ghost Chieftain returned as king of a greater realm.

Welcome back to "Tops down, Bottoms up!" We've got Karador, Ghost Chieftain on tap, and I can't wait. This a general that I've been playing for a while now, so I'm excited to talk about him and share some of my favorite tech.

Karador hails from the "Commander" set and was the main focus of his Black/Green/White "Necra" Wedge, or Enemy-colored shard. Though Karador's flavor resembles mostly a Black commander, his creature type and value added bonuses provide the Green and White support so he can embody all three.  

His abilities allow us look at Wraths and Doom Blades in the face and chuckle. The first one gives us a discount on his CMC, which provides decent value, and includes the General re-casting cost, which is great value and unique flexibility among Commanders of every color. Karador's second one then allows us to dig these creatures out, which provides an even stronger flexibility, fueling the graveyard with all kinds of Toolbox power and putting you closer to victory.

The bin is both Karador's strength and his weakness. While the graveyard can supply great resources, our opponents are hoping to shut us down. "Exile target graveyard" effects, especially "free" ones like Bojuka Bog and other Grafdigger's Cage style ones can prove to be pretty formidable hosers. Fortunately, in my playgroup no has played Grafdigger's or Ground Seal so they are low on my worry list, but Bog is great utility in Black decks, and is the primary culprit for taking my graveyard and giving me nightmares. 

However, all is surprisingly not lost! Although exile is harsh in most formats, all is not lost in EDH. There are a couple of cards that can save us, but the best one for Karador is Riftsweeper. Riftsweeper exists and thank the gods it does. Hailing from FutureSight, this card was originally meant for owning Suspend cards (and eventually Haunt effects), but now we can abuse it over and over again for (1G) and recycle the relevant cards we need back into our library.

Riftsweeper being a creature, he is by far a better option for Karador solely because he's a creature, and can therefore be abused as card advantage several times over, which is why I'm not playing Pull from Eternity or the risky Mirror of Fate.

Creature spells is one of the main focal points of this deck and we owe it to ourselves to put the most fun utility creatures while maximizing any situation in a semi-toolbox way. Artifacts  Enchantments and other permanents make up a good chunk of utility plays in Edh by providing effects not native to you color scheme or manipulation game play. Players like us are no stranger to Sensei's Divining Top's scry plays or the turn one Sol Ring artifacts along with Enchantments that maintain your tempo or hinder opponents. Two of my favorite tools for dealing with them are my "Sliver twins": Harmonic Sliver and Necrotic Sliver. Recurrable artifact/enchantment ETB destruction with "Instant speed" Vindicate's help make solid board positions or add to intimidation factor. And both are approved by your friendly neighborhood Sun Titan! 

The use of this duo are an odd addition to my deck, I know. Usually, slivers like to stick with their own kind, providing buffs and abilities for total synergy. The way they benefit Karador is by gaining the effects of Aura Shards and Vindicate as creatures that trigger off one another, then add to the sacrifice outlet for (3) providing the bonus effect of permanent destruction. Three cmc cards like this go a long way in terms of mid and late game play while still being able to stop something early game if the need arises and they have never been dead-draws. Part of what makes Karador good is finding a balance between utility and performance to always have an answer to something else. 

Sun Titan is Karador's  main engine that doesn't rely on the Chieftain. What do I mean by this? It's the Recursion aspect and some key spells that are three and under like my enchantment trio: Dance of the Dead, Animate Dead, and Necromancy that keep this deck pumping out field presence. Karador's second ability allows us to cast a creature out of our graveyard but its just slow cause you have to pay the full cost of them, which usually is Karmic Guide to Sun Titan to "Animate" Enchantment, Three creatures for the price of one. I've dubbed it Hyper-Reanimation with added help from Hell's Caretaker, Doomed Necromancer, and Mimic Vat to make my field swarm with creatures.

So how do we get there? How do I get creatures into my graveyard to make the general cheaper and have answers without giving my opponents reason to remove them? The answer is to play stuff, but don't pull out everything all at once. Amazing things happen with this deck left alone but even the most well rounded decks can't do everything so it's important with a deck like this to let the game progress as it normally would then take advantage of a perfect situation. Think of our color combination, Black, Green, and White; we want to win but were playing semi-slow colors.

The semi-slow pace is welcomed by this deck. While I used to try to close the game a bit faster I noticed that late game has so much more potential than trying to "beat the clock" as a combo deck would be more focused to do. While we have our Tempo cards in here I also tuck in some disruption cards in here like my good friend Mindslicer. While he barely misses the 3 and under Sun Titan love he provides perhaps one of the most disruptive effect in Karador by eliminating the hands of you and your opponents. The downside to this guy is that it's mutual in the games hand disruption and it brings a halt to the game if he makes it to the field. I counteract his ability by pairing him with Disciple of Bolas so I will remain with 4 cards in hand but that only happens if I have them both or if Disciple is worth tutoring for at the moment. Mindslicer helps out our general while also maintaining his preferred pace so to me he's never a bad option to play. Most players are terrified to lose their hand almost as much as they don't want to let you draw the card off of Solemn Simulacrum so you can use this guy as a beater and hopefully remove some smaller utility creatures. Hand disruption along with my Instant/Sorcery hate cards like Dryad Militant and the new Sin Collector can be devastating to my opponents while only the former effecting me. 

Creatures die all the time in EDH so we don't have to wait too long to start reviving creatures but sometimes you get a combo player that doesn't care about removal or creatures and that's where Karador's Secondary engine kicks in. Sacrifice with a sprinkle of discard to amass our plays and fill our graveyard. We start with a creature tutor package of Birthing Pod and Fauna Shaman to get what we need when we need it, or set up a play. Birthing pod is usually one of the first things I tutor for if I don't have an engine. Black/Green draws cards for a price so it's no surprise I look to a sacrificial route for cards. These include Disciple of Bolas, Greater Good, Phyrexian Arena and Ancient Craving for this to complement my land ramp spells thinning out my deck. Another good resource is what I call self-sustaining creatures. These creatures die without any interaction while providing essential functions to the deck to which the Echo mechanic makes for a useful resource. Karmic Guide and Bone Shredder destroy and revive, then return to where I may use them again or return them to Mimic Vat. 

The "ideal" hand for Karador looks something like this:

• Karador engine
• Tutor spell
• Early game answer

So you can adapt to most situations and that's good. You can revive just about anything from your or others graveyard, and you can abuse your creatures. One question remains is the biggest of them all.

HOW DOES KARADOR WIN?!?

Simple my friend, by being persistent and unrelenting in a fun and interesting way. Three main win cons of this deck include: Using key or strong effect creatures your opponents lost with animate effects then bring the game to a close with Avacyn, Angel of Hope and swing hard. Mirari's Wake into Genesis Wave usually puts a huge damper on things for my opponents and ends it there. Sorin's second ability will reduce one life total to 10 and usually it's a quick utilization of Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord's ability or beat down. Jarad has been known to get a moderate buff off of my graveyard but I never felt the need to attack with him. Simply using his ability to Fling and tidal wave each opponent provides an extra win con if I can't get by with my creatures.

Those are plenty examples of strengths in the deck, but what always marks a hero is their weaknesses, and yes Karador is my hero. Since the deck works well mid to late game, strong combo decks that can pull off early game shenanigans prevent this deck from being able to perform. Having some answers to common combo's are already in the deck but are not specifically used in that way. Karador also can have trouble against faster graveyard decks like Chainer, Dementia master and The Mimeoplasm because they can steal and Exile your creatures that are needed for your win. Both of these are weaknesses but by far this deck has the most trouble against Control decks. Opponents that have answers for your answers and prevent your field from even happening are the worst for Karador. I have placed a Gaea's Herald to prevent my creatures from being countered and the previously mentioned Riftsweeper to get back my exiled utility and creatures. The benefit of these are equally useless due to being a weak creature (Herald) or being slow to recur (Riftsweeper). No deck is without weakness, and I take that in to consideration in every deck built with three big questions asked; Can it win? Is it fun to lose to? and does it have fun and interesting outcomes?

The Link to my deck is Here. 

Until next time my friends, keep your games fun and your graveyard full of answers!

- Johnny Confidant