Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate Commander Deck Tech

Unsummoned Skull • January 24, 2025

Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate
by Ekaterina Burmak

Fate Shuffles the Cards, and We Play

Right now, fate has dealt Trans people a rough hand. Their existence is being politicized, their rights are under attack, their representation is being hidden, and the VML, which promotes and protects Magic players of marginalized genders, has had its official Wizards support cut.

There are Trans people and allies at Wizards, and the community features wonderful Trans membership and leadership. Characters that provide positive representation in Magic's IP include gender-neutral characters, like Xantcha, Ashiok, and Yahenni, as well as Trans characters, like Yuma and the subject of today's article, Alesha.

Repeatable Attack Triggers

Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate

triggers when we attack, so we want to capitalize on that by stacking as many triggers as we can. Karlach, Fury of Avernus
is a card that not only triggers on attack, but also enables multiple attacks, so we can run it back!


Hellrider

is sneakily one of the best aggressive cards in the format. Every attacking creature is also a pinger, so life totals drop twice as quickly. It rewards attacking, but also deals the damage ahead of the combat damage, so the creatures don't even have to connect!


Raid Bombardment

and Cavalcade of Calamity
are very similar cards, and both act as additional copies of Hellrider
, albeit more difficult to remove. The more we can stack similar effects, the more we can make opponents hurt.


Dragonrage

is a beautiful little card. It acts as a huge ritual, making red mana for each attacking creature. That mana goes away at the ends of turns and phases, though. We might not have Upwelling
, like a green deck, but the card does allow us to funnel that mana into our creatures, as it gives them Firebreathing
!


Evasive Attackers

The core synergy of the deck is the combination of attack triggers and cheap, evasive attackers. Shivan Devastator

and Stonecoil Serpent
are particularly nice, as they fill multiple slots on the curve. Even casting them for X = 1 is just fine, as they enable our attacking synergies!


Signal Pest

combines both of the things we're trying to do: it both attacks with evasion and triggers on attacking. The battle cry trigger helps push through extra damage, while its evasive ability allows us to send it somewhere safe to get that boost turn after turn.


Tormented Soul

has been lost in the mix as it has been replaced in many ways by Changeling Outcast
, a functional reprint that works with kindred strategies. A one-mana unblockable creature is right up our alley, though. We can swing over and over with impunity, triggering any number of different effects.


Blight Keeper

is a beautiful example of a draft chaff card that a deck like this brings new life. It's a one-mana flyer, so it can get through repeated damage, but it has a cute little ability that can give the deck a surprising amount of reach: it can drain a bit of extra life in a pinch!


Card Draw/Advantage

Since we are playing with low-quality, limited-impact cards that need to work together to be powerful, we need sources of repeated card draw. Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor

is a color-bent Coastal Piracy
effect, drawing us cards as our creatures connect. This can help us get to the attacking payoffs, using the early game to draw into the late game.


Another way that we can get repeated draw from our attacking is to use the monarch mechanic. The monarch rewards connecting with creatures, which we can do easily with our small, evasive bodies. Having to wait until end of turn to draw is a bit of a disadvantage, but it can also get opponents to attack each other, drawing some of the fire away from our suspect defenses.


Removal

As always, Commander decks need to be able to deal with the shenanigans that other decks can do. With this deck, we have plenty of spare bodies, so we can pretty easily use edict effects to keep the board quiet. These are particularly effective when opponents have few creatures, such as against Voltron strategies.


Archfiend of Depravity

takes the edict effects and ups the ante. It pares down the board significantly, making opponents choose their favorites. If we can follow it up with another edict effect, we can really apply the pressure, and we don't even need to devote that many slots to it.


The general plan is to attack with small, evasive creatures, triggering any of a few different effects. We can draw cards to find the attack triggers and use our removal to disrupt opponents' boards, all the while leaving behind bodies to continue applying pressure.



Teacher, judge, DM, & Twitch Affiliate. Lover of all things Unsummon. Streams EDH, Oathbreaker, D & D, & Pokemon. Even made it to a Pro Tour!