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Building Kolvori, God of Kinship

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Hello folks! I hope that you are having an awesome day today! Today I want to create another Commander deck built around a leader from Ye Olde Kaldheim.

Over the last few weeks, I have dedicated this column to a few leaders from the latest set.

Here they are!

  1. A few weeks ago, I built a tokens style Boros equipment deck around Koll, the Forgemaster, which is very different than your normal build. Wanna check it out? It's here!
  2. Next, I built a deck around the snow-loving Svella, Ice Shaper who makes Icy Manaliths and grabs stuff from your library for free. I built a Snowy Gruul Ramp deck which you can check out here!
  3. Then I built a cool Orzhov deck around Firja, Judge of Valor, which had some fun cards, some reanimation, and some serious card flow in order to get two casts a turn. You can see this fun deck here!
  4. After that, I moved to Birgi, God of Storytelling and her combo-licious self! I built a fast spell engine with cards from storm and triggers for effects like Guttersnipe to win the game. Want to check her out? She's here!
  5. Then I turned to the midrangiest Elf leader Harald, King of Skemfar, which led to me creating a very different take on Golgari Elves with a look to midrange rather than going wide or pumping the team. You can check it out here!

What's my sixth option?

It's Kolvori God of Friends...er...I mean Kolvori, God of Kinship! And don't sleep on The Ringhart Crest either. You can drop the Crest earlier and then use it to cast any legendary dork or anything in a tribe. Kolvori has two cool abilities. While our God is just a 2/4 for 4 mana (which is a bit behind the curve), it'll be a nasty 6/6 under the right conditions and will kill in just four Commander hits. Kolvori will also gain vigilance when the right number of legendary dorks are running around. Then her second ability is pretty sweet. You can tap her and 2 mana and dig six cards deep and you can get a free legendary dork and then put the rest under your library rather than in the cool graveyard for fuel. Note that her abilities don't count other legendary permanents like planeswalkers, just creatures.

How am I going to build around Kolvori?

  • Legendary Creatures Matter. The first place we'll dig is deeply into legendary dorks. According to Gatherer, there are 116 mono-Green dorks that are legendary for us to consider. Expect a lot!
  • Historic. There are some cards out there that support legendary dorks or just have historic that I want to dig into this to support our legendary team!
  • Other Support. We'll need other support from things in mono-Green like removal and ramp that will need to be added in.

Lady Caleria
Kolvari reminds me of one of my favorite decks of all time I've built for the format: Lady Caleria's Adventuring Party. I was doing a random Commander challenge and I got the Legends rare Lady Caleria in the Selesnya party. I chose to create a legendary adventuring party based around women that had folks that would travel from place-to-place smiting evil. It had planeswalkers like Elspeth in there as well as folks like Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile and Captain Sisay. I even included places like Temple of the False God to adventure to! This is one of my favorite Commander articles I've ever written and I could not recommend this 2018 piece more. I hope you check it out!

This is going to be a mono-Green edition of Lady Caleria's Adventuring Party. Lots of legendary stuff! Just not (many) planeswalkers.

Want the good news or the bad? Over on EDHREC.com only six decks have been registered by fans. That's one of the lowest numbers of Kaldheim Commanders over there as it hasn't even hit double digits. The good news? That means there really isn't an established canon of support cards for the leader that I can talk into with clever cards as well as talk against with great support that's missing. However, it also means that I am doing this solo. Which is fine as there are just over 100 options for the creature slots.

Now, who is the second-in-command of the group?

Yeva, Nature's Herald

This was the first card I thought of when I looked at Kolvori! Isn't Yeva, Nature's Herald awesome? And she brings it all day long! She gives most of my 40+ dorks flash and she'll do it in style! She brings the flash-tastic ness to my build and I love her here! Yeva rules the mono-Green world!

Reki, the History of Kamigawa

He's my XO of the unit and the one that goes the distance with the card selection, and you can see how awesome Reki is in this build. All legendary stuff? Draw that card (except for lands). Everything else works! It's works a lot a lot. Reki is a key card in a dense legendary go wide deck like this one.

Renata, Called to the Hunt
Nylea, God of the Hunt
Nylea, Keen-Eyed

In my Lady Caleria deck, Nylea served as the patron God. She showed up, lent the team the use of her Bow of Nylea, and more. The God of the Hunt with the bow was a perfect patron for the Archer Caleria. I also like Nylea for Kolvori as well here, although we'll have an appearance by a certain Rhonas as well; they are God buddies. Again, Nylea respects Kolvori enough to loan the Bow and show up in two ways as well as loaning Renata. All three of these cards do great work in a permanents-matter mono-Green build with their easy devotion to Green as well as key other abilities. Nylea, Keen-Eyed will drop your creature cost, which is key in a build like this one, and her activated ability can net those sweet sweet cards! It's the best one, but don't sleep on Renata or the God of the Hunt here either.

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Omnath, Locus of Mana

Look at this pair! They could not be different, I know! The Bard can put a verse counter on himself and then fetch up a creature from your deck to your battlefield, which is pretty nifty. Note that it's not "or less" so you must get that CMC. He sings nicely as the fetched card doesn't go to your hand but to your battlefield! Omnath, Locus of Mana has been probably outpaced by other Omnaths, but is still great in a Mono-Green build like this one! As you can see, our fun Elemental doesn't lose Green mana so you tap it at the end of your foes' turn and then keep on and you can save up for bigger things or just making a bigger Omnath over time. It's pretty! Right now on EDHREC.com there are 966 decks that run it as a Commander and 2,167 as a card, which is a pretty high number.

Kaysa
Meng Huo, Barbarian King

After reviewing the Gatherer list of Mono-Green legends, I spied this duo and I tossed them both in. We have more than 40 dorks, most of which are Green, so they were obvious additions to my plans! I love me some Kaysa pumping herself, as well as Meng Huo. Just beware. I loved Kaysa so much that I thought about other older classic legendary stuff in the color like Autumn Willow, but the color and options were dense, so I didn't need to.

Arashi, the Sky Asunder
Ashaya, Soul of the Wild

Hello duo that begins with "A"! Arashi, the Sky Asunder is almost better if you don't cast it! Other than Jugan, the Rising Star, there are no flyers in this build, so you can Channel this bad boy at instant speed all day long and sweep the sky clear of stuff. Arashi is also a 5/5 for 5 mana and is just much on curve for the win. I like the Spirit's ability to tap and Blaze a flyer and do so over and over and over again as long as you have the targets and the interest. Arashi is strong, and don't sleep on Ashaya either! We have 35 lands in this build and several ways to get two or more in the deck. You'll have enough lands in most mono-Green shells. And then all your dorks (we have no tokens) are suddenly Forests (which you'll want to tap and float for Omnath if you control it). That also counts for Ashaya's first ability. Good synergy for the build!

Baru, Fist of Krosa
Kamahl, Heart of Krosa

Hello Krosa Fans! I tossed in the Mono-Green loving Baru, Fist of Krosa, who has landfall for Forests only (we have 25 in the build). Consider some of your ramps will also do the same and net you two triggers in one turn - or three if it was Skyshroud Claim and your land drop. Good stuff to help push your team into a winning proposition!

Meanwhile, I have another Kamahl, who is the Heart of Krosa and the most recently printed of the Kamahls. This one will +3/+3 and trample-ify your whole team prior to combat including himself. And you can make a land a dork and might I suggest doing so prior to combat so you can swing with the now 4/4 trample, vigilance, indestructible, haste land. I also tossed in the throwback Kamahl, Fist of Krosa as well for a similar vein.

Dosan the Falling Leaf
Glissa Sunseeker

Consider Dosan the Falling Leaf - no one can cast stuff save on their turn! Sure, it'll shut down your Yeva and Winding Canyons, but it's worth it to remove the ability for your foes to answer your stuff. No one can counter your cool toys or kill them until their own turn. Note that it doesn't say, "Spells can only be played as sorceries," so that they can still cast instants in response to stuff. For example, if someone were to pop their Nevinyrral's Disk on my turn, I could still cast Heroic Intervention in response and save my team. It's good stuff here! The latter card can tap and destroy an opposing artifact, you just need to have that amount of mana in your pool. You can pop a Lightning Greaves by tapping two mana, and then you and everyone else can target what it was saving. Note that she doesn't read, "or less" either, so that you cannot tap and destroy a Lightning Greaves if you have five mana in your pool making her a non-combo, or non-bo, with Omnath.

Halana, Kessig Ranger
Kodama of the East Tree

Next, say hello to a pair of partners in Halana, Kessig Ranger and Kodama of the East Tree! The Archer is a great option in any brew that seeks to go wide. She's a 3/4 reach on curve at four mana and then as other dorks arrive to the party you can spend mana each time to deal damage to another dork equal to its power.

Take Kolvori as a good example. If Kolvori is a 6/6 on arrival then you can deal 6 damage to a dork, likely killing it. It's great creature control! Then the Spirit provides card advantage that's repeatable but of a different sort. When a (different) permanent arrives to the party you'll be able to drop another permanent with an equal or less cost to the party. Did you drop a land? Then you can drop another. Did you cast Kolvori? Then you could drop anything with a cost of four or less like Halana. It's great value in this build!

Toski, Bearer of Secrets
Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig

Toski, Bearer of Secrets is okay with me. Toski is a hard-to-answer, four-mana, mono-Green, Coastal Piracy on legs. Which is really good for a creature-dense build like this one. It's going to draw an epic amount of cards from Okay Toski. Then take a gander at Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig. He's a 4/4 for just 3 mana and loves devotion with that triple-Green cost. As other Green boys come to the battlefield, he'll get bigger and then get more bigger if said creature featured a bigger power. He's fun for the win and keeps pace with the deck.

Cathedral of War
Forge of Heroes

Llanowar Reborn
Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers

Can you see why these lands are in my build? Let me help you out! Your leader is often a 6/6 when you have enough legendary dorks on the battlefield, and four times six is 24 damage, so you need four turns to win with Commander damage. However, if you have a 7/7, then three times seven is 21 and you kill in three hits, which makes Forge of Heroes and similar effects a virtual Time Walk in this build and I love to toss them into builds where I have a six-power leader. Enjoy this tech!

Tyrite Sanctum
War Room

There's another pair of lands that were printed in back-to-back sets and should not be dismissed. Tyrite Sanctum is awesome in this build! Can you see why? You can tap to make most of your dorks a God and net them a +1/+1 counter for the fun times. Then you can sacrifice this to make you God Commander indestructible. Or something like Nylea, Rhonas, or what you en-Godded with your first activation. Awesome, right? Right! War Room is an amazing recently printed land that loves a mono-colored brew like this one. Three mana? One life? Drawn card? Awesome possum!

Heroes' Podium

Where else can you tell the tales of Kolvori's Fellowship but at the Heroes' Podium!? It's awesome in this build, n'est-pas? Like I mentioned before, we love the legendary support that goes wide and this goes really wide growing your team for each legendary creature you control! If you have three for Kolvori, then they are all getting +3/+3 and Kolvori is a nasty 9/9 without a land helping it out and if you have more legendaries or land pumps and can get to at least 11/11 then Kolvori is a two-hit win! Nasty!

Jhoira's Familiar
Mishra's Self-Replicator

Who likes Historic? This guy! I know, it's amazingly awesome in this build! We have 11 non-creature artifacts that includes mana rocks, and legendary matters cards and a few legendary cards here for flavor even though they won't help out Kolvori. They are loved by this duo that loves both the legendary dorks, planeswalkers, spell, and any artifact you may have! The Familiar of Jhoira will drop your cost which helps you drop those historic cards, and the Replicator of Mishra can net you a trigger for a mana that will make you another Assembly-Worker which will net you two triggers next time, and that will explode quickly. Enjoy!

Thran Temporal Gateway
Weatherlight

But this duo is what I thought about when I discussed historic above! Take a gander at the strength of Thran Temporal Gateway here! Drop a legendary dork for free for four mana! Drop an artifact for free for the same cost! It's pretty strong here! And then we have the Weatherlight, which has the great combat damage trigger. Did you smash someone for combat damage? Great! Now you dig six and can put a historic card into your hand for mad card flow! Mad card flow! Use these together to drop what you dug for!

Kamahl's Druidic Vow

I have one legendary sorcery in my brew: Kamahl's Druidic Vow, although there is just one that's been printed for my colors. It's a great mana sink for your stuff and hey, I have two Kamahls in here so it's on flavor as well. You can dig and net lands and legendaries that have your X that you invested. Just four mana? You dig four and grab all lands and legendary things that cost four or fewer. It's got mad synergy with the build and it counts as legendary, historic, and more!

Rhonas's Monument
The Great Henge

Don't forget some more legendary artifacts. Rhonas's Monument will drop the cost for almost all your 40+ dorks. It's great in here! You also can +2/+2 and en-trample a dork as you cast those creatures, which is a cast trigger and will occur even if someone counters your spell. The Henge? Nasty here! If your Kolvori is 6/6 it'll just cost 3 mana. You can tap it for double mana and gain two life. As stuff heads to your battlefield, you en-counter it and draw that precious card. And both are legendary with synergies that come with it like the Druidic Vow mentioned above.

Predator, Flagship
Skyship Weatherlight

Flavor wins. This duo does not play into mechanical synergy with the build, but both are great legendary options for the brew! You can load up your team onto the Predator, Flagship and fly over your foes. You can also pull and tap it and five mana for a Wing Snare as repeatable removal. It works either way! The Skyship can grab key stuff from your library, and then, when you have the mana you can tap it and get a free card from your selection like a better Jayemdae Tome. At worst, it's an eight-mana Demonic Tutor as you can get just the card you need. I like to get a class of cards like creatures that serve as removal or big fat beaters. You won't mind what you get. You can't use it to pull all your lands out of your deck after you have enough, it's just creatures and artifacts, which number more than 50 cards in this brew!

Vivien Reid
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
Vivien's Arkbow

Vivien Reid is Elspeth (not literally). In my deck Lady Caleria's Adventuring Party, Elspeth was the key planeswalker ally, helping the group out with their shared views on evil's need for butt-kicking. Elspeth even loaned the party her weapon, Godsend. In this case, Vivien is our Elspeth replacement. She shares a similar outlook as Kolvori, and loans the use of the use of her Arkbow to the party as well. Note that Vivien's cards work synergistically from mechanics as well as from flavor. The Arkbow can discard something like an extra land or a cheap dork and dig very deep for a creature with the right mana cost onto the battlefield straight from your library. Vivien, Champion of the Wilds can bump up the flash-ery of your 40+ creature count and her Reid version can destroy stuff or dig four and draw you a land or creature you find there. Vivien is great here!

Ready for my build? Let's do it to it!

Best Friends Forever | Commander | Abe Sargent


100 cards later!

And there we are! I hope you enjoyed our deck today! Anything in here that I missed or that you want to build around yourself? Are you inspired to head down your own Kolvori path? I hope so!


Commander HQ: Decklists and Strategy for Kaldheim's Legendary Creatures!

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