An Introduction To Kenrith in cEDH

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." - William Shakespeare

Every time I talk about the cEDH metagame, Kenrith is a deck that is always included as a primary player, but he's never really the top dog. You can point to a host of reasons why that may be the case, but given how slow the cEDH metagame is becoming, it would not surprise me to see Kenrith make a comeback in a big way in upcoming events, so what better time to write up a formal introduction to Kenrith, the Returned King

Why Play Kenrith in cEDH?

The "at a glance" pitch for Kenrith is that you are the best Dockside Extortionist

Any time you discuss the reasons to play Kenrith, the natural comparison point is Najeela, the Blade-Blossom

Ultimately, the reality of the deck is that you get the best of both decks, leveraging a large, impactful commander that can rule the battlefield in longer, grindy games while still offering the best cards in the format thanks to the five-color identity of Kenrith himself.

The Gameplan

The game plan for Kenrith can vary slightly whether you are playing a more control-slanted archetype over the more midrange-slanted versions. The primary differences in the midrange builds are the inclusion of the Underworld Breach

Much of the focus is on tutoring and resolving Dockside Extortionist for big amounts of mana, and while that happens quickly in cEDH the mana generation you're looking for usually doesn't occur until turn 2-3 at the earliest. As the format becomes more creature-focused, thanks to the rise of Kinnan, and Clone effects become more prevalent, it's become increasingly a liability to play Dockside Extortionist and not immediately win the game, which pushes Kenrith players to be even more conservative about their win attempts, and it's not uncommon for the game to go five or six turns before Dockside is put on the stack at all.

This push to play a long game leads to slower starts, higher creature counts, sometimes as high as more than a quarter of your deck, and more interactive keeps. Staple cards for grindy decks for the format, like The One Ring

Tricks with Kenrith himself play well here as well, as his black-costed activated ability can bring Ranger Captain of Eos

Variant 1: Kenrith Midrange

Before we dive into the staples of Kenrith, which will be discussed as a combination of the midrange and control builds, I want to highlight some differences in the builds of the deck that represent ends of a spectrum of how the deck can be built and customized to the pilot's playstyle. The midrange configuration for Kenrith appears on paper as containing more "turbo" cards.

Despite Ad Nauseam

Variant 2: Kenrith Control

The control builds are looking to have a much more overwhelming and total dominance of the game prior to making their win attempt. Some lists go as far as to exclude Grand Abolisher

The most notable inclusions I've seen to signpost the plan is Fierce Guardianship

Other notable inclusions are Talion, the Kindly Lord

The Best Kenrith Cards

While there are more or less two distinct Kenrith archetypes, the reality of most Kenrith builds is a player-preferential blend of the two, so the breakdown of the staple cards for Kenrith is going to highlight the best cards from both builds.

Win Conditions

Emiel the Blessed

A big recent pickup for Kenrith decks is the Displacer Kitten

Interaction

The ability for Kenrith to be so win condition light allows for it to have what is almost certainly the most expansive interaction suite of any of the best cEDH decks. While this list includes many commonly seen options, it is far from comprehensive, and there are usually four to five flex interaction slots beyond this list for Kenrith decks to play with and tailor to whatever metagame you may expect.

Protection

This list is fairly standard. As mentioned previously some Kenrith decks on the extreme side of the control spectrum pass on Grand Abolisher

Value Engines

Kenrith is the biggest highlight on this list, and there are a host of cards, like Seedborn Muse

Broken Mana

This list may be the shortest of any cEDH deck. Because Kenrith looks to play a longer game, the broken mana you play is only the most powerful stuff in the format. Dockside Extortionist

Tutors

The tutor staples are where you see the resemblance to Najeela decks the most. Because, like Najeela, Kenrith seeks to find a single creature from its library to enable its command zone combo, the deck maxes out on the best tutors in the format and even gets to leverage creature tutors like Eldritch Evolution

Filling Out The Decklist

The staples list above is long, but because of variations in the gameplans for Kenrith it's possible for some decks to pass on cards considered to be staples and not actively harm the core gameplan of the Kenrith deck. Additionally, there are a few staples that exist solely to function as Dockside Extortionist doublers, like Snap

Package this whole deck up with your favorite mana creatures, interaction flex slots, and five-color mana base, and you have a powerful cEDH deck!

Here is an example of a Kenrith Midrange deck list:

Here is an example of a Kenrith Control deck list:

Both of these decks share a similar gameplan but only share two-thirds of the same cards! 

There is a lot of room for customization with Kenrith and the ability to adapt the deck to interact with the various metagame snapshots cEDH can present while adjusting the speed to fit your personal playstyle is the aspect of the deck I personally find to be the most appealing.

While I personally always reach for Najeela over Kenrith when playing cEDH tournaments, I have immense respect for the power and flexibility of Kenrith decks, especially if you are willing to lean harder on politics to keep games going, and consider Kenrith to be a powerful choice for any cEDH event of any size. Provided of course you have done the work to optimize your list and know the combo lines. Thanks for reading!

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