COMMANDER! Review: Krond the Dawn-Clad

Hey guys! Planechase 2012 is here! It's very exciting because we get a handful of new cards, phenomena, new planes, and 3 new legendary creatures to talk about. Today, we look at Krond the Dawn-Clad and the Planechase 2012 Deck, 'Savage Auras'.

If that isn't an epic archon, I don't know what is. Very reminiscent of Blazing Archon from Ravnica and Archon of Justice from Eventide, we get this new one that is White AND Green. Similar to the Sigarda article I tackled last month, it's very rare that we get Green fliers and Krond joins the ranks of unusual green creatures. Krond is a GGGWWW 6/6 with Flying, Vigilance, and a really interesting Vindicate/Beast Within ability to snipe a permanent whenever he attacks and is enchanted. Similar to Bruna, Light of Alabaster, Krond requires a full suite of Aura enchantments to support him. Click HERE if you'd like to see the possible list of Auras to use with Krond in Green and White. Also, take a look at all the deck lists for the Planechase 2012 product by clicking HERE!

Cards you'll play: Ancestral Mask, Angelic Destiny, Indrik Umbra, Pollenbright Wings, Felidar Umbra, Rancor, Armadillo Cloak, Battle Mastery, Eldrazi Conscription, Bear Umbra, Daybreak Coronet, Empyrial Armor, Shield of the Oversoul, Indestructibility, Spirit Loop, and Moldervine Cloak.

Cards you might play: Blanchwood Armor, Armored Ascension, Dragon Fangs, Dragon Scales, Druid's Call, Epic Proportions, Keen Sense, Pentarch Ward, Verdant Embrace, Wurmweaver Coil, Spirit Mantle, and Mythic Proportions.

Krond is a really interesting card to talk about. He has no colorless mana in his mana cost, which is extremely unusual, so you can expect him to be a really pushed 6 mana creature. His mana cost forces you to have really strong fixing from your lands to avoid situations like 4 Plains and 2 Forests being your available mana and unable to cast Krond on turn 6. Luckily, Krond is in Green which is a heavy fixing color, so finding the right colors and getting to 6 lands should be fairly easy. Coincidentally, Green is also a color notorious for Auras that attach to lands to fix your mana or add more mana with cards like Utopia Sprawl, Wild Growth, and even Abundant Growth from Avacyn Restored. Along with enchantment favorites like Mesa Enchantress, throwing down these Auras late game can also cycle for more cards, helping you dig through your library for cards you need to answer your opponents' threats. His 'exile a permanent' ability is extremely powerful and isn't something to overlook. Very similar to Spine of Ish Sah or Karn Liberated's -3 ability, Krond can create some serious board control. Staring down a very problematic permanent like that you can't deal with? Just exile it. This ability is extremely powerful in casual and Commander because most decks play an element of recursion, even if it's a small one. By exiling a permanent instead of destroying it, you almost completely remove it from the equation and your opponents can't bring it back with a Regrowth or a Reanimate ability. The longer Krond stays on the field and attacking, the weaker your opponents' recursion cards become and the more dead draws they're more likely to draw.

In constructed play, Krond is only legal in Vintage, Legacy, and Commander. Unfortunately, too many things would have to happen to Vintage or Legacy for this card to see any play in those formats. However, if you're thinking about building a Krond the Dawn-Clad commander deck, you can take a ton of notes from a Legacy classic, G/W Enchantress (click HERE to see an example!). Enchantress is notorious in Legacy as a soft-lock control strategy that spams Enchantments and Auras to draw tons of cards off of Argothian Enchantress and Enchantress's Presence while pumping out tons of 4/4 Angel tokens from Sigil of the Empty Throne. If you're more of a Spike player looking to build a a soft-lock control strategy around Krond, favorites like Runed Halo, Solitary Confinement, Karmic Justice, and Sterling Grove are great support for Krond as you prevent your opponents from targeting you or your permanents while using Krond to swing in for lethal, general damage to your opponents.

How good is Krond in Commander? Although his Triggered ability is the biggest piece of flavor behind the card, it's also the biggest limiting factor to his potential. The conditions to fulfill his Triggered ability are 1. He must be enchanted and 2. He must attack. Although harmless independently, fulfilling both conditions can be somewhat daunting, since Krond lacks Hexproof compared to Uril, the Mistalker, Thrun, the Last Troll, Geist of Saint Traft, or Sigarda, Host of Herons; all of whom are great at holding Auras because they evade death by card advantage. The downside to heavy Aura strategies are the lack of creatures. In order for most Aura cards to work, they need a legal target to enchant, which makes them extremely vulnerable. If you attempt to enchant one of your creatures and your opponent has the timely removal spell for your desired target, they not only destroyed your creature, but the Aura doesn't resolve because it no longer has a legal target and also hits the graveyard. It's extremely easy for opponents to 2 for 1 you with removal spells on your creatures. Furthermore, finding the balance between Auras and creatures is very difficult. Most of the creatures in the Aura strategy are very frail without any Auras to hold, so having a bunch of creatures in hand sucks. On the flip side, having a bunch of Auras and very few creatures can be very dangerous, since your opponent can easily snipe your creature and put you in a bad spot with a hand full of Auras and no legal targets.

How can I overcome these problems? One way to approach this problem is playing Auras that return back to your hand after the enchanted creature dies (Angelic Destiny, Rancor, and Spirit Loop), which allows you to enchant your weaker creatures and generate tempo while you bide your time to cast larger impact creatures to enchant. Recursion, or bringing back cards from your graveyard, is really useful for generating card advantage, which is extremely vital to the Aura strategy in Commander. For Krond, he's perfectly positioned as a 6/6 creature, so Dragon Fangs and Dragon Scales are perfect for keeping Krond enchanted when you recast him after several untimely deaths. If you want to push the Krond recursion strategy further, you could play Moldervine Cloak and use the Dredge ability to re-buy the enchantment and mill yourself a few cards; along with Sun Titan, Miraculous Recovery, Breath of Life, Saffi Eriksdotter, Monk Idealist, and Hymn of Rebirth to grab creatures and enchantments back to reuse. Heck, you can even go big and cast Open the Vaults to grab a ton of auras to enchant any number of creatures you have sitting on the board. Another way to protect Krond and all of his enchantments is to play cards that protect your permanents with Indestructibility or Hexproof like Asceticism, Priveleged Position, Sigarda, Host of Herons, and Avacyn, Angel of Hope. If your opponents can't target or destroy your permanents, you can safely enchant your creatures with auras and swing them in the red zone without fear. Finally, you could always use Krond in a simple macro strategy with ramp and tutors like Congregation at Dawn, Eldrami's Call, Worldly Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, and Academy Rector to grab your Argothian or Mesa Enchantress and draw tons of cards off of your enchantments to bury your opponents in card advantage and tempo. Although Krond's triggered ability is pretty aura-dependent, Krond simply needs to hold one enchantment to become absolutely devastating, so that opens some flexibility in how you can build the deck.

Now, let's take a look at Savage Auras from the Planechase 2012 Summer expansion! Some really sweet utility cards that come straight out of the Planechase deck are Sigil of the Empty Throne, Three Dreams, Celestial Ancient, Kor Spiritdancer, and Auratouched Mage are some of the power cards you'll be relying on when you're playing the deck against your friends. I also really like the new rares they printed just for the Savage Auras deck, Indrik Umbra and Elderwood Scion. The Scion has a really cool ability and works really well with the auras you'll be playing in the deck. He's a nice win condition that you can use to distract your opponents, while you wait to cast the mighty Krond. I really like how the precon is a great start to keep it as a casual deck or head straight into converting it into an EDH deck, including a lot of great tools you can use straight out of the box. Although this particular deck doesn't have a lot of money cards in it, the set has a relatively simple and unique play style that's perfect for beginners and interesting enough for veteran players alike.

Overall, I like the Aura theme they pushed on Krond and his 'exile a permanent' ability will catch a lot of players' eyes as players look for a semi-aura-dependent general that can play both offensively and defensively. Hopefully you'll take to the skies and start enchanting Krond the Dawn-Clad yourself. Until the next Planechase Legend!

Can't get enough Commander/EDH content? Check out the Commander Series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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