Conditions Allow - Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate EDH

(Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate | Art by Ekaterina Burmak)

A Deck Full of Vampires

The Magic Core Set returns with Foundations, and with it several fan-favorite characters from across the multiverse. Among them, the mighty khan of the Mardu, Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate. While she has shed white from her color identity, Alesha still revels in the thrill of battle, inspiring her fallen comrades to fight on with her ability to revive creatures from your graveyard.

Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate is a three-mana 2/2 with first strike. More importantly, however, she has a Raid ability. As long as you've attacked this turn, you get to return a creature with mana value less than or equal to Alesha's power from your graveyard to play.

This ability doesn't require Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate, herself, to attack, but she does get a +1/+1 counter when she attacks, letting you bring back progressively bigger and bigger creatures. 

There are a lot of ways to build around this ability. You can lean into Fleshbag Marauder variants, or use Equipment to quickly boost Alesha's power. Neither of these approaches captures the feel I want from an Alesha deck though. I want a horde of smaller creatures, banding together to take down powerful foes.

Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate not only leads the charge but also picks up fallen comrades and gets them back in the fight, and when I think about aggressive creatures that sacrifice others for personal gain, I think of Vampires.

A Sacrifice I'm Willing to Make

The core of this deck will be creatures that make a sacrifice to become harder to block or otherwise grow more powerful. Each of these allows you to trigger Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate's Raid ability each turn while guaranteeing you have a creature to bring back. High-Society Hunter is perhaps the best of these, growing more powerful every turn and drawing you cards anytime you sacrifice a nontoken creature. Vampire Gourmand and Falkenrath Torturer are smaller and deal less damage but are much easier to revive with your commander after a board wipe.

Unfortunately, there aren't enough Vampires with that style of effect to reliably have one by turn three or four. I'm including a few more traditional sacrifice outlets to pad those numbers. Viscera Seer is great to help you dig for more good attackers, while Legion Vanguard can put them directly into your graveyard for Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate to put right into play. Indulgent Aristocrat's ability is more expensive, but putting a +1/+1 counter on all your Vampires is a powerful effect.

You'll also need a few more good attackers. I'm prioritizing cheaper creatures to make rebuilding with Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate easier, but don't underestimate the damage Falkenrath Forebear and Olivia, Mobilized for War can deal. Especially with a buff from Indulgent Aristocrat or an anthem in play. On the bigger end, Malakir Bloodwitch offers a win condition that doesn't rely on combat damage. 

Playing With Your Food

Of course, any sacrifice deck needs plenty of fodder to sacrifice. There are plenty of Vampires with effects that trigger when they die, but I'm mixing in a few Humans in this category as well. Falkenrath Torturer and Falkenrath Aristocrat both get extra benefits if they happen to sacrifice a Human, and these creatures won't be attacking so you're not losing out on any value from the lords and anthems in the deck.

Most of the cheap Vampires in this deck actually have enter the battlefield abilities, making full use of Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate's ability to bring them back. Bloodtithe Harvester is a repeatable removal spell, especially in combination with Anje, Maid of Dishonor and Voldaren Bloodcaster. Vampire Socialite is perhaps the best sacrifice fodder in this deck, steadily growing your team of attackers every time it's revived. 

This deck isn't a true aristocrats deck, preferring to sacrifice one or two creatures a turn throughout the game than many all at once. Blood Artist isn't at its best here, but you do make excellent use of more limited effects, like Vraan, Executioner Thane and Kalastria Highborn. And even though Blood Artist and Vein Ripper aren't reach their full potential, they'll deal an extra couple damage every turn and provide insurance against board wipes.

Vampire Lords

To round out the deck, I'm including a number of anthem effects to help your team of Vampires pack as much punch as possible. Cordial Vampire will grow your team surprisingly quickly, while Eldrazi Monument is the perfect effect for an Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate deck. These both supplement the more traditional Stromkirk Captain and Shared Animosity effects perfectly. 

I've also built a small Blood subtheme into this deck. Blood tokens are perfect for a reanimator-esque deck to discard and draw cards, digging towards key cards like Vein Ripper, Malakir Bloodwitch, and Arterial Alchemy. Arterial Alchemy is incredibly powerful for this deck, and a key part of how Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate rebuilds from a board wipe. Equipping Blood tokens either lets Alesha immediately bring back your biggest threats or turns your smaller attackers, like Vampire Gourmand, into real heavy hitters. 

Back all that up with plenty of draw and a little interaction, and here's the final deck list.

Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate is a surprisingly open-ended commander that you can take in a lot of different directions. I'm a fan of aggressive creature decks, but you could lean in many other directions. How would you build around Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate? Are there any cards or synergies I overlooked? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!