MTG - A Guide to Experiment Kraj Commander / EDH for Magic: The Gathering
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2024
- Also be sure to check out a guide to Scion of the Ur-Dragon here: • MTG - A Guide To Scion...
and how to build Kaseto, Orochi Archmage Snake EDH: • MTG - A Guide To Kaset...
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Very special thanks to Douglas Rapp for his original decklist and consultation on the script.
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Experiment Kraj is the most Simic of Simic commanders. He's not the strongest, but he's definitely the cheekiest: leading a deck that generates combos on the fly and requires complex but fun board states to actually win. If you manage a win with Kraj you've definitely earned it, which makes him more palatable in playgroups that don't go for degenerate combos. It's also a very tunable deck that can go wild with ramp and +1/+1 counters if the infinite combo plan doesn't work out. This deck can be built on a budget; it uses a lot of bulk cards with no other home, and very few of the cards I'll be mentioning cost more than a dollar.
So what does Kraj actually do? For 2 of anything, 2 green, and 2 blue you get a 4/6 Ooze Mutant with two abilities. Kraj has all activated abilities of each other creature with a +1/+1 counter on it. An activated ability, as opposed to other sorts of abilities, is anything you pay a cost to activate at a time of your choosing. Activated abilities always have a colon in them separating the cost from the effect, and they never start with "Whenever" or "On your upkeep". Kraj's second ability is an example, you can tap him to put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Note that Kraj's abilities work on all creatures on the battlefield, not just yours. This means that your arsenal changes from game to game, and recognizing opportunities as they crop up is key.
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Best thing about Kraj? Your creatures *look* infinitely more interesting than the usual onslaught of elves, dudes with swords, zombies with swords and dudes with wings. You have a 6/6 angel and a 7/7 demon? Pfft! Gaze upon the majesty of my mutant army - complete with crabs, fish, snakes and elementals!
One might even say that Kraj decks *ooze* with personality.
For those asking,t he 2 Color Manabase Guide is not yet published. It will be very shortly. Stay tuned!
Professor you did it again! Remember me from the werewolf deck? Well, guess who was just making a deck with experiment kraj?
Hey proff, won't the kraj using morphlings ability only untap it.
can you do the bird wizard commander 2013 bant deck
+mikhail leybelman
yeah I would love to see him make a video about derevi
+Ryan Perry it is a good commder
I love the style of the videos. The use of MTG images as background really makes the video more fun to watch, and I like that you don't just read off a list of cards but rather list off general suggestions, posit alternative options to conventional cards and explain concepts in depth. Plus I just like the in-character blurb you have at the beginning. Keep up the good work!
As a Kraj player in a competitive area, I found that Kraj needs to be as fast as possible. One boardwipe and it's extremely tough if not impossible to recover from. Here's a few suggestions based on my games:
-Vigor
Shields your creatures from damaged based wraths, allows creatures to block without losing combo pieces, and you can ping your creatures with triskelion to get a nice multiplier of counters if you have Vorel & Gilder Bairn on the field.
-Eldritch Evolution
Turns a 1 drop into a combo piece, turns a combo piece into a Hydra or a Seedborne Muse
-Give // Take
Any graft creature (or anything that has counters) can become a Tidings or Jace's Ingenuity. Since it's modal, you can use whatever is needed in that situation. It's a shame that it's sorcery speed.
-Inspiring Call
Indestructible granting and card draw? sounds good to me.
-Savage Summoning
Gets around counterspells, give a creature a Counter, and gets it out at the end of the opponents turn while you bluff countermagic.
-Thousand-year elixir
Haste is something that a Kraj deck sorely needs. This gives it pseudo haste and lets things like Arcanis untap twice in a turn to refill the hand.
-Pemmin's Aura
Slap it on an Elder or Restorer and you get instant infinite mana, with the right lands.
-Mana Drain & Plasm Capture
Counters which give you mana in a mana hungry deck are fantastic.
-Coalition Relic
If you go the Proliferate route, you can easily get an extra 2 or 3 mana to use on one of your turns.
-Mind's Eye
Profit from Black and Blue players for drawing cards by drawing some for yourself.
For some other changes to the list:
-Green Sun is nice but it doesn't always hit pieces you need for the combo (Vigean Graftmage, Morphling, Quicksilver Elemental, Horseshoe Crab). Primal Command will definitely get your combo piece and can give you some graveyard disruption, put a piece back ontop of your library, or just give you 7 life.
-Cryptolith Rite turns every one of your creatures into a mana dork, which can be very helpful early game to ramp into Kraj or late game to dump into all the activated abilities. It also creates a tapping engine for all your creatures that have untap in their costs.
-Biomass Mutation can allow for your combo pieces to become big bodies for an expected attack or defense if you've got the mana available.
-Throne of Geth is an interesting tech piece for Kraj. If you're ramping early with Sol Ring or mana rocks, you can trade them in during the mid to late game for counters. same thing for artifact lands.
-Solidarity of Heroes + Gilder Bairn + Vorel can really, REALLY do some damage. 2 +1/+1 counters becomes 16 +1/+1 counters.
I'd love to see more Kraj gameplay since they changed the mana generation rules. Every game I played I felt that I needed to provide the abilities for Kraj, rather than to look and see if other players had useful abilities.
Kraj is great! It was my first EDH deck I ever built. The deck definitely plays out different each time, fun. If you love shenanigans, then Kraj is a superb blank slate for that.
Keep on rockin' with these commander deck techs prof!
Quicksilver Elemental is really great because you can use it on Kraj, essentially doubling your abilities.
For me Gilder Bairn has always been an auto-include in Kraj decks, it's often your best card when you draw it.
Viral Drake is a card I was always happy with as well.
I'm not a big fan of your commander deck videos but I'm really glad you do them.
A new MTG player, a new commander player or just someone who's looking to have a deck that feels different from his other decks can look at your video and get some really good informations on the commander and the feeling you get when you play them.
Keep up the good work !
It has taking me a few years of wanting to but I am finally putting a Kraj deck together to play this weekend.
with all the elves you mentioned, I'm impressed you didn't mention wirewood channeler as one of your infinite mana pieces
I love the way you put your video's together Professor. TY for the work you do :)
I hope I get to see more EDH videos; I built Sen Triplets (through suggestions, not netdecking) and it has rekindled my love for MTG. MORE COMMANDER!
Than you, professor. I've veen trying to build a Kraj deck for a while now. This is soooo helpful
Thank you, this has been sitting in my binder because I was struggling to build it.
These commander deck techs are the best, great job again professor!
I was struggling to find that I would enjoi playing as much as Ghave so thank you I've bought the deck just need to bid it and test it :)
So much yes! It's nice to see fun Commanders like Kraj that aren't the usual Simic go-to. :)
Thanks for the video! Kraj has been my pet Commander for some time now, so it's great to see him spotlighted :)
I've just updated my Kraj deck to 2024 cards! I created a ruleset to specifically prevent infinite combos just to see if I could make things unique in their own way.
The new Lord of the Rings cards are great for this deck - Legolas' Quick Reflexes is a pseudo-boardwipe that's super fun (but expensive, so I only use it online), and there are many more ways to have creatures enter with +1/+1 counters now.
In terms of infinites though, there are now many more ways to generate blue mana through tapping, Incubation Druid and Kami of Whispered Hopes being the biggest ones.
Super fun commander and it was so cool to find this video again! Kraj was the second deck I made when I was in High School, now it's been a few years since graduating university and it's fun to revisit things!
Hey Professor, can you try your hands at making a Phelddagrif Deck? Or even a Group Hug Deck in general?
Love it! Kraj was my first and still my favorite commander.
Awesome guide! All of your guides are always a treat to watch. I'd really love to see a video on Riku of Two Reflections though! I have a deck for him that i've been struggling with and would love to see your take on the deck.
Good to see Experiment Kraj getting some love.
In future EDH guides could we please see your take on Leovold, Emissary of Trest?
Play in Simic colors in EDH for about an year. Love this colors - because every game I play in a new way.
Thx for the video - will try to build this deck!
Waiting for izzet edh videos)
Would love to see a video on Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient. He deserves more love.
It's always good to see more commander
i love commanders with wacky abbilities thanks prof for adding another unique wacky commander to my gaint collection of them
This is going to be my next MTGO commander deck
These are my favorite videos that TCC does. Make more.
Love this Strategy and would love to see a commander based on the more recent lore... Especially Daxos of Meletis
Experiment Kraj looks like a giant purple people eater.
Is it one eyed?
Thanks Professor! I've been stuck on making my Kraj deck for a while. This was really helpful. :-)
A couple of things. First off, I love the fact that you gave this guy justice. He's such a weird card to rank due to it's extremely open nature as a card. It's both a huge threat as a passby to so many players. He's personally one of my favorite cards of all time, but to be honest, when I saw the video in my sub box I was a little worried. There has been times where (in other games too) people have done videos on the character / card and just trashed the thing or the way you play with said card or character.
Lovely video though, and to the rest of you out there, I have a few more suggestions for deck building that you might not have thought of: Polukranos (yes, mostrosity IS an activated ability), Prime Speaker Zegana, Spike weaver, Vigor, Renegade Krasis, Sphinx of Magosi, Scavenging Ooze, AEtherling / Thornling, Momir Vig (your welcome vorthos players), Sage of Hours, Spike Tiller (to combine with cytoplast manipulator (use only in scubbag playgroups)), and Gilder Bairn. I know they're not all budget, but they're miracle workers, trust me.
For suggestions for more commanders, might I suggest Ixidor, Thromok, or Phelddagrif?
I’m glad I watched this video Professor🙌🏽 thank you
Dude, I love your commander deck techs.
I would love to see a Seton, Krosan Protector or Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero commander deck tech.
Hmm. This definitely seems like a fun commander. My friend was going to build a deck with him but never got around to doing so. I'll be sure to send this video his way.
As for other suggestions for future commander videos, maybe you could tackle Mayael the Anima. She's my go to commander and I would like to see your take on her. Varolz the Scar-Striped, Kruphix God of Horizons, and Wort Boggart Auntie are other commanders that could be interesting for you to look into.
I'd love a Kolaghan deck tech !
Dragons galore !
Good stuff. I think a special shout-out to Devoted Dryad is in order for non-infinite but potent possibilities.
Thank you so much professor, another great video about card interactions and value!
This deck is really cool, Prof! Thanks for the video.
Very well made, I really like your style.
Thanks!
When I say I love Simic, I mean I LOVE Simic. I dont mean your cringe "look at me I'm special" Blue-Green deck, I mean the actual guild of Simic Combine. This deck speaks to me. Thank you Prof, I will use this as a template! I've been curious about how I can abuse this ability for a long while
Mist Dragon and Spike Weaver look like fun additions for this deck.
Good stuff. I love Simic colour decks and Kraj is a very fun card.
Great video, Professor! Gotta love the biomancy. Can you do a deck tech for Gahiji, Honored One?
I would like to see more edh/commander deck techs from you :D they're fun to watch
So here's the thing: I really want to get into Commander and seeing as how I like Simic colours despite never having gotten a chance to properly play the combination I would like to make up this deck, but as I was looking at Commander rules I read that any mana generate outside of your commander's colour is generated as colourless mana, so wouldn't that mean that a card like Chromatic Lantern would generate colourless mana if I generated the black for say Olivia Voldaren's ability?
While I would like a clarification on this I was also wondering if the Professor could also make a video about a basic introduction into Commander as well.
Jakar Umbra I think technically because the ability goes onto Kraj it makes it part of his color combo, so once you have the ability you can tap for that mana. also I think they changed the rule pseudo-recently so you can produce any mana now, but I'm not sure
If the rule hadn't changed back then, it is now able to happen. If you can produce mana of any color than that is that...
I would love to see a video on Vorel of the Hull Clade, my favorite commander deck I have and would be interesting to see your take on it
An underrated and extremely powerful commander.
One interesting card you could run is Ensoul Artifact, which turns any artifact on the board into a creature and can this give Kraj access to artifact activated abilities
not sure if anyone mentioned yet but if you put down any arcbound creature kraj gains modular in case something kills him you at least throw more counters on stuff for when he comes back. just a small thought. hmm he may also reenter the field with some counters... may need to check the rules on that
Hey Professor, would love to see your take on Mayael, the Anima or even an Elesh Norn deck for some mono-white budget fun.
How about a colorless edh
I would pressume that would be HIGHLY expensive. Did I mention HIGHLY expensive?
I put together my own Geist of Saint Traft EDH deck, but I'd love to see how the professor would do it.
This truly is an amazing commander edh deck and video u made a very nice high quality video !
This video inspired me to start playing commander
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in commander you can't produce mana of a color not in your commander's color identity. So, you can't use Olivia's ability at all, because you can only make blue, green, and colorless.
A sweet casual deck I saw : Karador + Relentless Rats + Nantuko Shrine... yes Nantuko Shrine. Swarmyard goes nuts XD !
Just a suggestion, Professor, but if you were to list the card without the "X" next to the number, we would be able to cut & paste the entire deck list and upload it in TCGplayer's Mass Entry to see cost of the entire deck or to order. As is now, all of the X's have to be removed to do so. Again, just a suggestion. I appreciate ALL of the videos you do!
fun fact: Kraj - means "The end" in Serbian language xD
Its full name means "final experiment"
I would love to see your take on a Sidisi, Brood Tyrant EDH.
Love the channel and love the deck techs! Keep it up Prof!
Concern: For the cards that read "Tap (this creature name) to do ability" etc. would that work? Case in point, horseshoe crab. It reads "B: Untap Horseshoe crab" How would that work if Kraj has the ability? Whereas, if Kraj had River Boa's "G: Regenerate" which doesn't have a creature name there. Just curious if this is all Kosher. Thank you.
Hopefully you have an answer by now, but if not:
201.4b If an ability of an object refers to that object by name, and an object with a different name gains that ability, each instance of the first name in the gained ability that refers to the first object by name should be treated as the second name.
hey you read my mind on this one prof. I was thinking of making a kraj deck now I am definitely going to do it :)
i know shes not as popular but one that would be cool to see would be Mereki Ri Brite. Esper Stealy things is fun and never plays the same twice!
also prossh is quite popular as a jund token strategy, possibly a tech for him would be cool
Phyrexian Colossus and Tree of Redemption is a pretty funny thing. Also, Soliton is another Horseshoe Crab effect.
I'm looking to make a Queen Marchesa deck, I think introducing a Monarchy into Commander could provide for a lot of fun. Budget friendly, preferably.
Hmm, how about a deck tech on Memnarch next? Stellar work on all of your deck-tech videos, by the way!
a very good addition to this is the new Selvala card. for one G, tap her; she adds X mana in ANY COLOR COMBO where X is your strongest power. Kraj himself is 4 so that's G, Tap: get (at least) 4 mana in any combo. add in one of the untappers and you now have infinite mana of all colors with only 3 cards. perfect for playing abilities not in simic colors or ramping into your game winning strategy
Professor, do you run Thrive? I used it in a 60 card deck with cytoplast manipulator to steal things
This looks really fun. Maybe I'll strip down Ezuri for parts.
A Nath of the Gilt-Leaf brew would be great.
sadistic hypnotist, gg
+Tyler Carias yes please
+Tyler Carias mind slash is funny too, it's not a good card but combiened with nath... :D
I would like to see an edh tech for Kresh. I already have a deck built but I'm always looking to improve it.
I like it when the dice fly everywhere. :)
Please update this to include Kaladesh block!! Fabricate and energy counters would make this deck even cooler!
1:11 So, Ulvenwald Tracker has no other home?
It's good in Human Tribal EDH though :(
So one question. In edh if im playing muldrotha as a commander and get the kraj out somewhat early, would it be possible to put a +1 on muldrotha and take her ability to use it twice in one turn of mana is not depleted?
Given that the Ravnica vocabulary is heavily based on Slavic culture, I assume "Kraj" should be read as "Krai".
Well, if we insist on proper pronunication of Slavic names, "Ravnica" itself should be pronounced differently as well. Most notably, the "c" should be pronounced /ts/, not /k/.
Michal Forišek That's true too, as I believe it's a word taken from the Croatian language. That said, Wizards have already established "Ravnika" as an official name.
It is? That's neat, I never knew that.
+Koza Singami It can be takrn by any balkan country. The majority of words in their languages are the same
As a Slav, I see the references. Ravnica as "ravnitsa" means "a place of equality" or a "place of equal footing" which can signify the existence of 10 different guilds in one city. Kraj as "krai" would mean "the end" or "finality", pehaps signalling the final experiment, or the end of experimentation's potential. This fits well with the idea that EK can adapt from other creatures and thus the final evolution is essentially a creature with unlimited potential. Boros sounds similar to "Bogatyr", a word for warrior, fitting for the WR soldier achetypes. There's a lot more.
I love the lore behind Ravnica Block and Return to Ravnica Block. Two of my favorite blocks lore wise, my favorite guild is Boros. Everyone else comment theirs below.
I like Orzhov
1. Golgari
2. Dimir
3. Simic
thedoctor559 same
colton ellis GRUUUUUUUUUUUL!!
Nice video. You could also add one of the Spike creatures from Stronghold to shuffle around counters. i would probably play with Thopter Squadron as well, just cause I love that card. :P
Definitely putting this together later.
Would you recommend running a doubling season over hardened scales if you have one?
or is the hardened scales more for low mana cost?
You asked us to comment on what Commander we would like to see. I think a Jhoira of the Gitu would be a fun one.
Karn, the silver golem. I don't think you've done this one yet, and I've seen variants of it, but I'd like to see your take on the deck.
I'd love to see more commander videos in general (Pun intended), but how about a commander like Yasova Dragonclaw or Teneb the Harvester?
If we're tapping/untapping lands with Kraj or another untapper ability, would enchantments like Utopia Sprawl work well in this deck?
Would you be able to post a link to a high resolution image of experiment kraj, as you use one as the backdrop to your video? I'd really like to use it for my wallpaper on a laptop :D
ya know prof, Kraj was one of my first commanders, the deck was terrible, but I enjoyed it. With your tips I might go ahead and rebuild it. I mean there is someone here who does have ab Olivia deck, so that little idea of taking her powers and making her MY toy is just delicious. Might even take apart my fun Vorel Arcbound deck just to rebuild Kraj.
Hey if you have planeswalkers and turn them into creatures by turning them into artifacts then march of the machines then kraj can put +1 counters on them and then activate planeswalkers abilities
you also need to mycosynth lattice to make combo work
Jesus. How are loyalty abilities worded? Does it say "A planeswalker can't activate more than one loyalty ability per turn"?
Wait, actually, wouldn't 306.5 interfere with that interaction? You can't put loyalty counters on as a cost because only Planeswalkers can have loyalty.
I would love to see a rapper king deck, with the inclusion of pila-pala on this list, it brought up the idea of scarecrows. That and, some new scarecrows were printed.
I would really like to see a Horobi, Death's Wail Decktech. It's a really entertaining commander that doesn't get a lot of love, and can be fairly cheap and effective without combos.
this deck looks like a ton of fun
I would like to see the professor take on a spell based deck and see what his choice of commander would be. It would be a nice change from the mostly permanent aggro/tribal he does more often than not
I like it. I might adapt my Ezuri claw of progress.
If you take suggestions? You like Niv Mizzet so much, why not a commander deck for him?
I know you just did a standard deck with them, but with Ulrich being printed, giving werewolves a legendary, I'd love to see a werewolf(/wolf?) EDH deck.
for those who want more Simic Spot Removal: Pongify, Reality Shift, Song of the Dryads and the soon to be reprinted Beast Within are also good options
Imprison in the moon...
KuyuThe Dragon it was mentioned in the video, so i assumed people have good enough memory to not mention it.
One of my favorite edh decks is Grimgrin, with the resurgence of zombies in the Amonkhet set, I think it's due for a new deck tech.
Hey professor,
As always great job, nice video. Wouldn't be nice to see a Sultai color EDH ? At least thats my thought