Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Kess, Dissident Mage

Kess, Dissident Mage

Kess, Dissident Mage

Legendary Creature — Human Wizard · {1}{U}{B}{R} · Black/Red/Blue commander

Flying Once during each of your turns, you may cast an instant or sorcery spell from your graveyard. If a spell cast this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
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What Kess, Dissident Mage actually does

Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.

What a Kess, Dissident Mage deck needs

Plays as spellslinger. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.

The Kess, Dissident Mage deck plan

The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.

Best cards for Kess, Dissident Mage

Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.

Instants and sorceries — for a magecraft/prowess commander the spell COUNT is the engine

  1. Pact of Negation0 mana
  2. An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
  3. Brainstorm1 mana
  4. Dark Ritual1 mana
  5. Faithless Looting1 mana
  6. Gamble1 mana
  7. Lightning Bolt1 mana
  8. Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire1 mana

Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource

  1. Takenuma, Abandoned Mire0 mana
  2. Stitcher's Supplier1 mana
  3. Ripples of Undeath2 mana
  4. Emry, Lurker of the Loch3 mana
  5. Eden, Seat of the Sanctum0 mana
  6. Port of Karfell0 mana
  7. Tomb Fortress0 mana
  8. Millikin2 mana

Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it

  1. Reality Shift2 mana
  2. Wild Magic Surge2 mana
  3. Pongify1 mana
  4. Rapid Hybridization1 mana
  5. Resculpt2 mana
  6. Defile1 mana
  7. Tragic Slip1 mana
  8. Infernal Grasp2 mana

Find the exact card the plan needs

  1. Entomb1 mana
  2. Demonic Tutor2 mana
  3. Diabolic Intent2 mana
  4. Vampiric Tutor1 mana
  5. Imperial Seal1 mana
  6. Demonic Consultation1 mana
  7. Grim Tutor3 mana
  8. Tainted Pact2 mana

Answer a spell or ability before it resolves

  1. Mindbreak Trap4 mana
  2. Fierce Guardianship3 mana
  3. Force of Negation3 mana
  4. Force of Will5 mana
  5. Flare of Denial3 mana
  6. Pact of Negation0 mana
  7. An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
  8. Arcane Denial2 mana

Answer a whole board at once

  1. Toxic Deluge3 mana
  2. Damnation4 mana
  3. Blasphemous Act9 mana
  4. Chain Reaction4 mana
  5. Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
  6. Street Spasm1 mana
  7. Sickening Dreams2 mana
  8. Crypt Rats3 mana

Refill your hand

  1. Mystic Remora1 mana
  2. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer1 mana
  3. Skullclamp1 mana
  4. Curiosity1 mana
  5. Wizard Class1 mana
  6. Black Market Connections3 mana
  7. Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
  8. Morbid Opportunist3 mana

Keep a permanent you control alive through removal

  1. Hexing Squelcher2 mana
  2. Lost in the Maze2 mana
  3. Lightning Greaves2 mana
  4. Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
  5. Eldrazi Monument5 mana
  6. Commander's Plate1 mana
  7. Mithril Coat3 mana
  8. Akroma's Memorial7 mana

Get ahead on mana

  1. Sol Ring1 mana
  2. Dimir Signet2 mana
  3. Izzet Signet2 mana
  4. Rakdos Signet2 mana
  5. Palladium Myr3 mana
  6. Worn Powerstone3 mana
  7. Chrome Mox0 mana
  8. Everflowing Chalice0 mana

Combos with Kess, Dissident Mage

Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Kess, Dissident Mage is a piece of, and how many decks list them.

Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →

Arcane Foundry is free to join and every tool is included: the Arcane Forge deck builder, the ARCANE Analyzer that scores a deck by simulating games rather than counting staples, a card scanner, a collection vault, and live webcam Commander tables. Read the guide · Browse all commanders · Pricing