Krond Sucks

[Scott]

Krond. What can I really say about this guy? He is one of the planechase legends, and probably the least exciting one, and certainly the most underrated one of the bunch.

In an effort to give my friend's a chance at winning, as they all tend to play more budget-lists than I currently do, I decided to make a new deck. At first it was going to be Sigarda, as I'd had a deck with her, but then I remembered that I had this guy. I had bought all of the planechase decks for some weird reason, and this guy had instantly gone into a box and was never seen nor heard from again. I decided that he would make a fairly decent budget commander, and wanted to give it a go.

Con's of using Krond;

Restrictive cost; even in two colors, his cost is kind of annoying. GGGWWW can, at times, leave you waiting for that last color to come in, and can slow down progress a tiny bit. Thankfully we run plenty of ramp, and this is
rarely a real issue, but it is something that shouldn't be overlooked.
Aura-focused - Auras are fun and cool, but they are also very fragile. Sometimes they require a lot of investment, and more often than not they get destroyed. What's worse is when your creature dies and you lose all of the auras that were on it. We have a number of ways to get them back, as well as a few ways to try and protect our auras, but they do not always work, and you can't always get them all back.
Vanilla without auras on him - Krond is basically a 6/6 flyer with vigilence. That isn't anything to sniff at, but it isn't exactly exciting either... that is, until he gets enchanted.

Pro's

He's a 6/6 flyer with vigilence. Seriously, he's big, he flies, and he doesn't tap when he attacks. What's more, once he gets enchanted the real fun starts. His ability allows him to exile any permanent when he attacks... Not when he connects and deals damage, but when he attacks. That is huge. No, that's massive. Take out utility
lands, equipment, artifacts, other enchantments, whatever. You can deal with combo pieces and threats simply by having Krond attack.

That said, this is a very budget deck. I haven't decided whether or not I want to invest any serious money into it, and it is largely built from the planechase deck he came in. I think over time I will probably replace some of the weaker auras with better ones, and probably work on the creature base to be more in-line with the enchantress theme of the deck.

Here's the list as it stands;


[deck]
GENERAL
1x Krond the Dawn-Clad

CREATURES:
1x Farhaven Elf
1x Wood Elf
1x Acidic Slime
1x Sylvan Primordial
1x Eternal Witness
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Karmic Guide
1x Reveillark
1x Duplicant
1x Sun Titan
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1x Auramancer
1x Auratouched Mage
1x Celestial Ancient
1x Kor Spiritdancer
1x Aura Gnarlid
1x Dowsing Shaman
1x Dreampod Druid
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Elderwood Scion
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
n1x Blazing Archon
1x Juniper Order Ranger

SORCERIES:
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Cultivate
1x Rout
1x Austere Command
1x Akroma's Vengeance
1x Three Dreams

INSTANTS:
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Beast Within
1x Krosan Grip
1x Eladamri's Call
1x Return to Dust

AURAS:
1x Cage of Hands
1x Felidar Umbra
1x Hyena Umbra
1x Mammoth Umbra
1x Spirit Mantle
1x Boar Umbra
1x Rancor
1x Quiet Disrepair
1x Snake Umbra
1x Bear Umbra
1x Indrik Umbra
1x Pollenbright Wings
1x Armadillo Cloak
1x Arrest
1x Pacifism
1x Savage Hunger
1x Shield of the Oversoul
1x Trollhide
1x Savage Silhouette

ENCHANTMENTS:
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Ascetism
1x Curse of Exhaustion
1x Nevermore
1x Cathar's Crusade

ARTIFACTS:
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sol Ring
1x Sensei's Divining Top

LANDS:
1x Temple Garden
1x Sunpetal Grove
1x Command Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Krosan Verge
14x Forest
15x Plains[/deck]

The
basic gameplan is to get Krond out, enchant him, and then start swinging like crazy, but we also have a few other options to go. We can use things like Sigil of the Empty Throne to get some decent tokens out, and Celestial Ancient to make those tokens bigger. Juniper Order Ranger can also make those guys bigger as well.

I eventually want to slot in a Sterling Grove, maybe get my hands on a few cheaper costed auras that do fun stuff, and maybe get a Priveliged Position for it. I'm not 100 percent sure what else I would want to do with it at the moment, but I thought I'd share what I had done so far. Suggestions are, as always, very welcome.

[Checkbox]

I also have a Krond deck - I'll have to post my list at some point.

[Azrael]

Like you said, there's a number of things that just don't seem to do much aside from activate Krond (spirit mantle, savage hunger, trollhide, savage silhouette), and a bunch of things that don't seem to do much at all (celestial ancient, dreampod druid, aura gnarlid, quiet disrepair). In the interim, any variety of card advantage or mana ramp is probably preferable. I'm talking Llanowar Elf, Wild Growth, Overgrowth, Fyndhorn Elf/Greenweaver Druid/Nantuko Elder, Somberwald Sage, Birds of Paradise- whatever (my Maelstrom Wanderer deck has some other ramp options you could steal). If you can choose stuff that helps you resolve that mana cost problem too, so much the better.

Some budget variety stuff that might fit the bill is Moldervine Cloak, Battle Mastery, a rebel/elf chain (Mirror Entity, Lin Sivvi, Ramosian Lieutenant, Defiant Falcon, Amrou Scout, Skyshroud Poacher/Elvish Piper/Fierce Empath/Craterhoof Behemoth).
Greater Good is more expensive than it used to be, but fits really well. Can't believe Academy Rector and Mana Reflection are where they are now, yikes. Doubling Cube is spiking a bit too, it seems. Stonehewer Giant is $5 now? Hmmph. Could be worse I guess. Argentum Armor's only .67 cents though, and those are both *pretty decent* together.

Replenish shot up too? Bleh. Everything's going up now.