If you’re anything like I am, you’ve spent the last couple of weeks digging through the new Commander (2015 Edition) decks. Do we sleeve them as is and try them out? Do we tear them apart and find homes for all the sweet, sweet new cards? Or do we do a hybrid, tweaking the decks with some of our favorite cards but keeping the ones we like?

It’s fun, and everyone has been talking about the five new decks. They’re worth talking about! They’re also an extraordinary value for those of us with a budget—there are always great cards to be had, well worth the price of the deck at MSRP. Wizards has also, due to the popularity of the product, very kindly made sure to print a whole bunch of them for all the runs except the very first. That means the Commander (2014 Edition) decks are often still available at a great price. And one of them has a very specific legendary creature who can make for a really powerful deck.

Kemba, Kha Regent is one of the alternate commanders in the “Forged in Stone” deck from Commander (2014 Edition), which is available over at CoolStuffInc for $29.99. If we have a $75 budget, that leaves $45 left over to make changes; plus, “Forged in Stone” gives us a great shell and some powerful stuff to work with. (The individual parts of “Forged in Stone” are worth over $80, and Containment Priest alone is $17.99.)

Nahiri, the Lithomancer was designed to be the commander for the deck. Because Nahiri makes 1/1 tokens, there is a token theme right out of the box. Kemba, of course, makes 2/2 Cat tokens, and Kemba wants more pieces of Equipment in order to power her ability. White also struggles with card-draw, and there really isn’t much. Because Kemba can refill the board so quickly, a few more ways to wipe the board would probably help. We can fix some of this, but first, we have to make some space. Here’s what we’re going to pull from the list:

• Assault Suit
• Containment Priest
• Flickerwisp
• Geist-Honored Monk
• Grand Abolisher
• Hallowed Spiritkeeper
• Serra Avatar
• Silverblade Paladin
• Skyhunter Skirmisher
• Armistice
• Mobilization
• Sacred Mesa
• Benevolent Offering
• Midnight Haunting
• Deploy to the Front
• Nomads' Assembly
• Spectral Procession

Mostly we’re cutting French-vanilla creatures (creatures with a single ability) with no evasion and token-producers. Serra Avatar can be huge, but that’s all, and attaching a Loxodon Warhammer to a Serra Avatar is a great way for it to get killed. Skyhunter Skirmisher is kind of the same. Tokens carry the Equipment just about as well, and losing a token doesn’t cost us a card. Assault Suit is a touch on the pricey side for what it does; there are better pieces of Equipment out there.

This gives us seventeen slots to work with—that may not seem like many, but what we’re adding will have a huge impact. Before we add, though, let’s talk about what we already have.

The deck comes with thirty-nine lands and four mana rocks, which seems solid. We have a Pearl Medallion, which makes many of our spells cheaper, a Commander's Sphere, which can give us a card once our mana is set up, and the all-powerful Sol Ring. We also have an Arcane Lighthouse for our targeted removal, a few cycling lands, a couple of lands that tap for 2 (including the original Karoo), and an Emeria, the Sky Ruin, which can make it difficult for our opponents to keep our creatures down for very long.

Skullclamp is the granddaddy of all Equipment-based card-draw, and it does it really well, so it’s a great inclusion here. We are making mostly 2/2s, so it won’t read, “: Draw two cards,” as it does with a bunch of 1/1 tokens, but we still have a few ways to make 1/1s, and we can often block with our Cats to draw the cards. Loreseeker's Stone is a nifty way to use excess mana. Mask of Memory certainly helps to dig through, and with Sun Titan and Emeria in the deck, we can often bring back what we pitch. Gift of Estates is especially strong in the first couple of turns but still solid later to pull lands and dump mana onto the board. Mentor of the Meek works with our kitties and can draw a bunch of cards pretty easily.

We keep every removal spell we have, including some Wrath of God effects (Martial Coup, Fell the Mighty, Sunblast Angel). We have a couple of Naturalize effects (Kor Sanctifiers, Return to Dust). Condemn is less good since tucking a commander is no longer a thing, but it still can be pretty great, especially in a world with indestructible Gods running around all the time; Oblation serves a similar purpose. Wing Shards is a funny card—it seems to show up at exactly the right time. Give it a try.

And we have the fun stuff that makes this deck tick. A few of the artifacts are bombs—Argentum Armor, Loxodon Warhammer, and Masterwork of Ingenuity are just great. Swiftfoot Boots, of course, is really powerful. Jazal Goldmane can turn our little housecats into really big, angry tigers. Comeuppance will be spectacular when it works, and True Conviction and Cathars' Crusade both win games all on their own. And we kept a few of the other token-producers, mostly ones that make Spirits that fly. Built-in evasion makes tokens much more valuable, especially when we have Equipment lying around to attach.

The deck already has plenty of threats, but a few more ways to deal with problems seemed like a good idea. We’ve added Day of Judgment, Rout, and Mass Calcify in the Wrath department and put in a copy of Swords to Plowshares.

Sometimes, we’ll need something specific, so a few ways to search up our weapons seemed in order. Steelshaper's Gift does it cheap and easy, and Stonehewer Giant does it over and over. Steelshaper Apprentice takes a while to make work but is worth it.

Finally, a few particular cards really seemed to want in. Puresteel Paladin will almost always have metalcraft in this deck—moving around pieces of Equipment for free is really fun when we have six of them and several creatures—and drawing a card every time one of them comes out will help. And Eldrazi Monument turns our entire team into a flying indestructible mess; plus, it works great with Skullclamp!

Kemba, Kha Regent ? Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Angel of the Dire Hour
• 1 Angelic Field Marshal
• 1 Celestial Crusader
• 1 Kor Sanctifiers
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Puresteel Paladin
• 1 Requiem Angel
• 1 Steelshaper Apprentice
• 1 Stonehewer Giant
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Twilight Shepherd
• 1 Whitemane Lion
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Jazal Goldmane
• 1 Adarkar Valkyrie

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer

• Spells (44)
• 1 Afterlife
• 1 Brave the Elements
• 1 Comeuppance
• 1 Condemn
• 1 Oblation
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 White Sun's Zenith
• 1 Wing Shards
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Decree of Justice
• 1 Fell the Mighty
• 1 Gift of Estates
• 1 Martial Coup
• 1 Mass Calcify
• 1 Rout
• 1 Steelshaper's Gift
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Marshal's Anthem
• 1 Sunblast Angel
• 1 True Conviction
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Bonehoard
• 1 Champion's Helm
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Eldrazi Monument
• 1 Infiltration Lens
• 1 Loreseeker's Stone
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Marble Diamond
• 1 Mask of Memory
• 1 Masterwork of Ingenuity
• 1 Moonsilver Spear
• 1 Pearl Medallion
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Sword of Vengeance
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots

• Lands (39)
• 32 Plains
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Drifting Meadow
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Karoo
• 1 Secluded Steppe
• 1 Temple of the False God

Buy This Deck

Mulligan hands that don’t have at least one piece of Equipment or a tutor for one. There are seventeen, plus three tutors, which means one in every five cards should be one of those, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a hand with one. Bring Kemba out, equip her, and start making Cats. And get used to listing a lot of things when someone says, “Wait, what does Kemba do now?” My most common answer is, “Everything.”

What do you think about using a precon as the base of a deck? Is it fun, or would you rather see something built from scratch, and why? Any other precons that are still reasonably priced you’d like to see in the column? Please let me know!

Equip Kemba, and make Cats. Bring a lot of cool tokens. Meowing sounds are optional.

Total cost: $74.96