“Again and again, I see you reach… for me.”
Art:Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
by Vincent Proce
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Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Kroxa is a very weird and cool commander who has been in the format for a while and has pretty much always been fringe. Even though they have always maintained a fringe status, I have been having a blast with this adaptive Rakdos combo deck, and I love the whole loop of Entomb
and Worldgorger Dragon
. The discard subtheme in the deck allows us to draw a ton of cards and control what our opponents have and in deck not playing blue that is huge. There’s nothing I love more than unconventional and a little bit different decks for CEDH, and Kroxa absolutely scratched that itch. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Why Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger?
Kroxa is a huge part of our deck and the main reason we use almost all of our removal on cards like Drannith Magistrate
because Kroxa is one of our main damage outlets when we combo off, it can be right if an opponent has one or two cards to cast Kroxa solely for his ETB trigger since when we combo it doesn’t matter how much commander tax Kroxa has. Kroxa is a huge part of our deck but pretty much only at the end, having this infinite damage outlet in the command zone is very strong for the deck.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
We are quite light on creatures, but we are a combo deck, so no surprise there; we have Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
, who provides nice card draw early game for the deck. But my favorite early-game creature is Dragon's Rage Channeler
since we can surveil a ton and hopefully put a Worldgorger in our graveyard ASAP. We also have two staples of Rakdos in Orcish Bowmasters
and Opposition Agent
, which control the board and our opponents and are very strong and impactful the moment they hit the field, also great way to draw a counter from an opponent. Blood Pet
is just cheap additional mana for the deck and can be perfect if we are trying to go off early.
Instants:
We are in Rakdos, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a few ways to counter our opponents, we have Withering Boon
and Tibalt's Trickery
and Pyroblast
/Red Elemental Blast
as well as Burnout
which also gives us a little card advantage. Since we only have five ways to stop opponents, we must use these wisely and typically to stop an opponent from winning or allowing us to go off. We also have some big mana cards like Dark Ritual
, Cabal Ritual
, and Culling the Weak
which on an early turn can help us set up a combo win, especially if we have arguably the most important card in the deck Entomb in our hand. Combine this with an Animate Dead
or Dance of the Dead
and we can straight up go for it early. If opponents have strong dorks or early game stax creatures, we do have some removal in Snuff Out
, Terminate
, and Fire Covenant
, which can all pretty much kill anything.
Sorceries:
Massacre
is certainly a meta-dependent tech card, but in my meta, there are quite a few Winota’s, and this card can be an absolute powerhouse against them. We also have Toxic Deluge
, which is also very strong if we fall behind or are against any other creature decks. We have a ton of draw that allows us to discard, which is perfect if we draw Worldgorger Dragon; some of the best are Burning Inquiry
and Cathartic Reunion
. Collective Brutality
is a great discard outlet for us and provides a ton of utility for the deck, grabbing a spell from an opponent, killing a key dork or creature, even though it is an option we almost never make an opponent lose life unless we want to discard an additional card. We have some strong sorcery speed tutors in Dark Deal
, which can be quite one-sided depending on how much discarding has been happening, and the legendary Wheel of Fortune
.
Artifacts:
We of course have a ton of strong mana rocks like Mox Diamond
, Mana Crypt
and Mana Vault
which are all great ways to get ahead on mana and keep on casting, we also have some strong rocks that help us establish our colors like Talisman of Indulgence
and Rakdos Signet
which I like in the deck as additional outlets for Rakdos colors. Defense Grid
is one of the few cards in the deck that stops our opponents from messing with us and makes our combo at least on our turn easier. We do also have Void Mirror
which is perfect for all of the Fierce Guardianship
s that are floating around in the format. Geth's Grimoire
can come out on the first or second turn and is nothing more than a strong draw engine for the deck since we force our opponents to discard a ton.
Enchantments:
Most of our enchantment package is nothing but combo pieces, so there is not a ton to say about all of those, but I love Oppression
and Necrogen Mists
because they weaken opponents hands and work marvelously with Chains of Mephistopheles
which is arguably the most important enchantment in our deck. Chains is a great way to slow down opponents who are trying to draw a bunch of cards which is perfect against strong format staples like Rhystic Study
.
Land Base:
Two of the most important lands in the deck are Shivan Gorge
and Sunscorched Desert
because these can be infinite damage outlets if we are facing a Drannith Magistrate that we can’t remove. Emergence Zone
is another very strong card for the deck since it allows us to go off at instant speed when our opponents may be tapped down or focused on stopping the other player. Beyond that, we have staple lands like Ancient Tomb
, Badlands
, and Bloodstained Mire
as well as additional utility lands like Cabal Pit
, Threshold is very easy to achieve in this deck. I have found 28 is a very strong number for the deck and have had no issues with the land base; this,, of course,, is helped by all of our supplemental mana rock mana.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We need very little to go off with any of our combos and we can often go off within the first couple of turns.
- We have some Stax elements of our own, like Defense Grid
and Void Mirror, which can help us go off with a little more peace of mind. - One of our main outlets for our infinite mana combos is in the command zone and is always available to us.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Very weak to graveyard hate, the Worldgorger Dragon is the primary combo in the deck; we do have some additional combos, but losing the main combo line can slow us down.
- We are quite weak to stax strategies; we struggle to fight through effects like Rule of Law.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We have our primary win condition, which is the various combos with Worldgorger Dragon, but because of the prevalence of hate like Praetor's Grasp
in the format, we are also running Dualcaster Mage
combos as a backup. We do have a few additional combo sources within the deck. Below are all of the combos in the deck explained:
Animate Dead + Worldgorger Dragon
Requires:
Animate Dead must be in hand. Worldgorger Dragon must be in the graveyard. Mana needed: 1B
Steps:
- Cast Animate Dead by paying 1B.
- Animate Dead enters the battlefield, returning Worldgorger Dragon from your graveyard to the battlefield attached with Animate Dead.
- Worldgorger Dragon enters the battlefield, exiling all other permanents you control.
- Animate Dead triggers, sacrificing Worldgorger Dragon.
- Worldgorger Dragon leaves the battlefield, returning all permanents exiled by it to the battlefield.
- Animate Dead enters the battlefield, returning Worldgorger Dragon from your graveyard to the battlefield attached with Animate Dead.
- Holding priority, activate all lands you control by tapping those, adding manas of any colors those lands can produce.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colored mana. Infinite colorless mana. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite sacrifice triggers.
Dance of the Dead + Worldgorger Dragon
Requires:
Dance of the Dead must be in hand. Worldgorger Dragon must be in the graveyard. Mana needed: 1B
Steps:
- Cast Dance of the Dead by paying 1B.
- Animate Dead enters the battlefield, returning Worldgorger Dragon from your graveyard to the battlefield attached with Dance of the Dead.
- Worldgorger Dragon enters the battlefield, exiling all other permanents you control.
- Dance of the Dead triggers, sacrificing Worldgorger Dragon.
- Worldgorger Dragon leaves the battlefield, returning all permanents exiled by it to the battlefield.
- Dance of the Dead enters the battlefield, returning Worldgorger Dragon from your graveyard to the battlefield attached with Dance of the Dead.
- Holding priority, activate all lands you control by tapping those, adding manas of any colors those lands can produce.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colored mana. Infinite colorless mana. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite sacrifice triggers.
Necromancy
+ Worldgorger Dragon
Requires:
Necromancy must be in hand. Worldgorger Dragon must be in the graveyard. Mana needed: 2B
Steps:
- Cast Necromancy by paying 2B.
- Animate Dead enters the battlefield, returning Worldgorger Dragon from your graveyard to the battlefield attached with Necromancy.
- Worldgorger Dragon enters the battlefield, exiling all other permanents you control.
- Necromancy triggers, sacrificing Worldgorger Dragon.
- Worldgorger Dragon leaves the battlefield, returning all permanents exiled by it to the battlefield.
- Necromancy enters the battlefield, returning Worldgorger Dragon from your graveyard to the battlefield attached with Necromancy.
- Holding priority, activate all lands you control by tapping those, adding manas of any colors those lands can produce.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colored mana. Infinite colorless mana. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite sacrifice triggers.
Requires:
Dualcaster Mage must be in hand. Twinflame must be in hand. At least one creature on the battlefield. Mana needed: 2RRR
Steps:
- Cast Twinflame by paying 1R.
- Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage by paying 1RR.
- Dualcaster Mage enters the battlefield, copying Twinflame.
- Resolve the Twinflame copy, creating a token copy of Dualcaster Mage.
- Repeat from step 3.
Results:
Infinite creature tokens with haste. Infinite ETB. Infinite magecraft triggers.
Dualcaster Mage + Heat Shimmer
Requires:
Dualcaster Mage must be in hand. Heat Shimmer must be in hand. You control at least one creature. Mana needed: 3RRR
Steps:
- Cast Heat Shimmer by paying 2R.
- Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage by paying 1RR.
- Dualcaster Mage enters the battlefield, copying Heat Shimmer.
- Resolve the copied Heat Shimmer, creating a token copy of Dualcaster Mage.
- Repeat from step 3.
Results:
Infinite creature tokens with haste. Infinite ETB. Infinite magecraft triggers.
Storm-Kiln Artist
+ Chain of Smog
Requires:
Storm-Kiln Artist must be on the battlefield. Chain of Smog must be in hand. Mana needed: 1B
Steps:
- Cast Chain of Smog by paying 1B, targeting yourself.
- Storm-Kiln Artist triggers, causing you to create a Treasure token.
- Resolve Chain of Smog, discarding two cards and choosing to copy it, targeting yourself with the copy.
- Repeat from step 2.
Results:
Infinite colored mana. Infinitely powerful Storm-Kiln Artist. Infinite magecraft triggers. Infinite Treasure tokens.
Conclusion:
Kroxa is a very cool commander that no one plays anymore; for what it’s worth, I don’t blame them. There are certainly better options, and the format has changed a ton since Kroxa was popular; even at its most popular, Kroxa was still a fringe CEDH commander, but in my forever quest to find different and quirky commanders for the format, I am very happy to have featured this very cool deck on the site. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!