Longtime readers of my columns will know I have a soft spot for big, Trampling Creatures. The first card I truly fell in love with was the Unlimited Force of Nature I still have framed in my house. One of my favorite decks to play is Xenagos, God of Revels, which focuses on making a big Creature even bigger (and sometimes even bigger than that). But I also love playing my old-school Maelstrom Wanderer deck, which just spits huge Creatures out all over the 'field and attacks with them.

So, it seems only right at least one of these 50/50 decks, in its experimental phase, should be exactly that - huge, Trample Creatures, swinging into the red zone, doing big ol' damage to our opponents the old-fashioned way. And I think I found the perfect pair of partners.

Kamahl, Heart of Krosa is, reasonably, most often used in Land decks. Turning Lands into Indestructible Creatures is strong, and might be something we use. But honestly, we're here for the first half, which is where he is an Overrun every single turn he's on the 'field. A 2/2 with Menace which suddenly becomes a 5/5 and gains Trample becomes dangerous. A 7/7 with Flying being a 10/10 with Flying and Trample seems even better.

Jeska, Thrice Reborn is a bit fragile, but she's cheap so she's recastable... and that 0-Loyalty ability! That 2/2 we were talking about? Now it's a 5/5 with Menace and Trample... that does 15 damage. That 7/7? Now a 10/10 that does 30. We can work with this.

50/50 Krosa & Jeska | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Kamahl, Heart of Krosa
• 1 Jeska, Thrice Reborn

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Drumhunter
• 1 Farhaven Elf
• 1 Garruk's Horde
• 1 Garruk's Packleader
• 1 Keeper of Fables
• 1 Ohran Frostfang
• 1 Ondu Giant
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Soul of the Harvest
• 1 Thunderfoot Baloth
• 1 Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus
• 1 Broadside Bombardiers
• 1 Burnout Bashtronaut
• 1 Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest
• 1 Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1 Fearful Villager
• 1 Fire Shrine Keeper
• 1 Flameblade Adept
• 1 Furnace Punisher
• 1 Generous Plunderer
• 1 Incinerator of the Guilty
• 1 Insolent Neonate
• 1 Komainu Battle Armor
• 1 Krenko's Buzzcrusher
• 1 Leyline Tyrant
• 1 Professional Face-Breaker
• 1 Stormblood Berserker
• 1 Twinflame Tyrant

• Instants (10)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Kamahl's Will
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Big Score
• 1 Brute Force
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Thrill of Possibility
• 1 Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Migration Path
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Traverse the Outlands
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Cathartic Reunion
• 1 Magmatic Insight

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Garruk's Uprising
• 1 Song of the Dryads

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Bow of Nylea
• 1 Cursed Mirror
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Ruby Medallion

• Lands (40)
• 19 Forest
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 19 Mountain
• 1 Castle Embereth

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A quick reminder on how this works, in case you've missed the process: a 50/50 deck is a Commander deck with two legal Commanders (Partners). The deck is designed to play as a regular Commander deck, but it can also be split into two 50 card decks with each Commander helming half. Those two 50 card decks can then be played against each other, either as mini-Commander (Brawl-style, but not legal Brawl decks because they're not Standard-legal) or as regular casual decks with the Commander shuffled in.

The rules are every card must be clear from a simple glance which half it goes into - that means no colorless spells (I don't want anyone to have to remember which deck Arcane Signet goes into, and I want a beginner who may only know to look at mana symbols to be able to separate the deck out) and no multicolored spells that mix the two Commanders' color identities. In this case, that means no spells or Lands which contain both Red and Green in any way.

(In case you're wondering, yes, this means the deck won't be as strong as it could be, but it's not meant to be. The idea here is this is the perfect deck to keep with you all the time, even when you're not playing Magic necessarily. That way you have a Commander deck to join a pod, or you can split it in two and play with a friend or teach someone even when you weren't expecting to!)

When I think about building one of these 50/50 decks, I look for complementary styles which work together well enough to help each other while being different enough to make for an interesting heads-up experience. My notes for these two say "slippery Red and huge Green Creatures". And... that's what we've got.

Jeska's half is going to put out smaller Red Creatures with the ability to slip by defenses, mostly using Menace. The idea is to start building a board state early, then dropping Jeska and pumping those Creatures for three times damage, getting in early and fast, before your opponent can stabilize.

Kamahl's half is going to ramp and ramp hard, attempting to get to big mana to drop a massive, game-winning Creature that Kamahl proceeds to buff up for us. Rather than pinging for 3 or hitting for 6, it'll clobber for 10 or more with each Creature.

Putting the two together is when the magic really happens, though. Early game sees little Creatures, poking at defenses, slipping in damage (x3!), or just sitting there and blocking to keep Jeska alive. Additionally, extra Lands start hitting, ramping us up to Kamahl and our much larger Creatures. Eventually, Kamahl hits and those little dudes get +3/+3, becoming much more dangerous, and we've now landed something huge which will win with the next hit. In play-testing, I was often choosing who would die by turn eight.

I didn't want Jeska to be left out of the ramp game entirely, so Fire Diamond, Ruby Medallion, and Cursed Mirror (which is really here more for its cloning ability than anything else) are included. These serve to speed Jeska up slightly, though when in its 50 card mode, it doesn't really need it; the curve is decently low on this one, so feel free to discard them to your draw spells.

Kamahl, on the other hand, ramps quite hard, and does so by dragging Lands out of the deck. Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Migration Path, Traverse the Outlands... the list goes on and on. Creatures, too, like Ondu Giant and Farhaven Elf. Lots of Lands come out of the deck, and quickly, getting us to a critical mass in a hurry. This is important in both modes - we want Kamahl out supporting Jeska in Commander to make our threats even more threatening, and Kamahl needs to deploy a board rather quickly when facing Jeska in order to not get run over by her much fleeter (but much smaller) army. Aside from basic Lands, we have Castle Embereth and Castle Garenbrig, both of which are fine utility Lands. (I do, once again, find myself mourning the loss of Rogue's Passage!)

Both halves also need to be able to draw, so both sides can. Red draws the way it normally does, with spells like Cathartic Reunion and Thrill of Possibility. I'm a particular fan of Big Score; it's expensive, but those Treasures are really useful and ease some of the sting of the cost. Green, on the other hand, mostly ties to Creatures with spells like Ohran Frostfang and Beast Whisperer. Return of the Wildspeaker is here and can be useful in both modes, and of course Garruk's Uprising. The draw is helpful in both modes, making sure the Lands are getting hit and the ramp is being found each turn, driving us toward our payoffs.

In Commander, the goal is tempo. We want to be deploying threats and doing damage as soon as possible, scaling the damage as our abilities increase. Play a threat, ramp, play Jeska, ramp, play a threat, rinse, repeat. Keep pinging at your opponents. Don't be wildly worried about trading off, because you'll draw plenty of cards and be able to improve your board state as you go. Menace Creatures are particularly good and force unusual blocks, so make sure to think through your choices when you get to pick which blocker dies.

Individually, Jeska attempts to flood the board early with evasive Creatures and slip through defenses, landing enough damage to win before Kamahl can set up. Kamahl attempts to ramp and ramp hard, pulling as many Lands out as possible before sticking big threats and Kamahl, punching through massive damage. In play-testing, I'd give the edge to Jeska, but unlike the previous two decks, a beginner could likely pilot either of these decks well and win. If Jeska curves out beautifully and Kamahl misses ramp, Jeska will win easily. If Jeska stumbles and Kamahl hits ramp, Kamahl will stomp the table. If both fire or both miss, it's anyone's game, coming down to the draw and careful play.

Both decks have answers to problems. I don't normally put Lightning Bolt in Commander decks, but here it seems useful, as does Song of the Dryads. Blasphemous Act is our reset, and Kamahl's Will and Beast Within can both handle massive threats otherwise difficult to kill. That said, in no version does this deck want to be on its back feet. Our minimal interaction is there to handle something we can't otherwise push through; we want to be attacking and attacking a lot, from early until the rest of the table is dead. If pitted against each other, the goal isn't to slow the other players down, it's to kill them before they kill you.

The last card I added to Jeska was Brute Force, and the last one I added to Kamahl was Nylea's Bow. In both cases, they are sort of bonus cards, helping each half individually (Brute Force, along with Jeska, equals 9 additional damage, and Nylea's Bow makes multiple blockers - or a larger blocker - to a big Trampling Creature even harder to justify). They also serve the Commander deck, making Jeska's early attackers even harder to block with Deathtouch and Kamahl's monsters even more threatening (that 7/7? 10/10 with Kamahl. 13/13 with Brute Force. That's 39 damage with Jeska's +0!).

This deck plays a straightforward game in all its iterations: play threats, attack, win. Sometimes those threats are small and slippery, sometimes huge and Tramply, but in all cases the goal is to hit early and hit hard. The deck would certainly be improved with a mana base which offered both colors, but that makes dividing it much harder, and all of Kamahl's ramp really wants Basic Lands anyway. It also smashes, coming out quite quickly for a casual game. I'd consider keeping this deck in my bag to loan to new players even without being a 50/50 deck, simply because nothing is wildly complicated and the deck does what Magic expects you to do: deploy Creatures and attack with them.

Thanks for reading.