The Commander
Menace
Whenever you sacrifice a creature, you may pay 
. If you do, draw a card. ( can be paid with either 
or 
.)
, Sacrifice a creature: Kels gains indestructible until end of turn.
Guide
Gameplan
Kels turns your creatures into card advantage and a self-protecting attacker, sacrificing fodder to draw cards while staying indestructible. You build an aristocrats engine with token generators and free sac outlets, then grind opponents out with attrition or assemble a sacrifice-based combo. Kels can also push for commander damage thanks to menace and built-in indestructibility.
Strengths
- Built-in card advantage engine off any sacrifice, refilling your hand cheaply
- Self-protection makes Kels resilient to removal and board wipes
- Strong color pair for tutors, control, and recursion
- Synergizes with the entire aristocrats and tokens shell in Dimir
Weaknesses
- Each draw and each indestructible activation requires mana, so it's bottlenecked without ramp
- No inherent damage payoff—needs Blood Artist effects to actually close games
- Two colors limits access to the best aristocrats payoffs in white/black/red builds
- Relies on a steady supply of fodder; gets shut off by graveyard hate and Rest in Peace
Key Cards
- Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure on every creature death to pay Kels's draw and indestructible costs.
- Bontu's Monument — Reduces creature costs and pings opponents whenever a creature you control dies, adding a damage clock.
- Gravecrawler — A recursive sac fodder engine that keeps feeding Kels's draw triggers cheaply.
- Ashnod's Altar — Free sac outlet that converts creatures into mana to fuel Kels's payments while drawing cards.
- Dictate of Erebos — Punishes opponents by forcing sacrifices every time your fodder dies.
- Reanimate — Cheap recursion to rebuy big creatures and keep the sacrifice loop going.
Upgrade Path
Add free sacrifice outlets (Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Viscera Seer) and Treasure/mana producers so Kels's payments are essentially free, enabling explosive draw turns. Lock in drain payoffs—Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance—plus recursion like Gravecrawler and Reanimate to assemble a deterministic combo kill. Round out with fast mana (Dark Ritual, signets), efficient tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor), and counterspells to protect the engine.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat effects
- ▸Combo loop with a free sac outlet, a recurring creature, and a death-trigger payoff to drain the table
- ▸Commander damage from a menacing, indestructible Kels
- ▸Grinding opponents out of resources then closing with token swarms or a finished deck
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Kels rewards repeated sacrifices with cards, making him a natural sac-outlet payoff.
- Tokens — Token producers supply endless fodder for Kels's triggers and activations.
- Reanimator — Dimir recursion lets you sacrifice and rebuy threats repeatedly for value.
- Combo — Free sac outlets plus recurring creatures and death payoffs enable draw-your-deck and drain loops.
Combos
- Kels, Fight Fixer + Pitiless Plunderer + Ashnod's Altar + Nadir Kraken
→ Near-infinite colorless mana, Near-infinite ETB, Near-infinite LTB
- Kels, Fight Fixer + Nadir Kraken + Pitiless Plunderer + Phyrexian Altar
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Near-infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature
- Kels, Fight Fixer + The Watcher in the Water + Phyrexian Altar
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Near-infinite death triggers
- Kels, Fight Fixer + The Locust God + Phyrexian Altar
→ Infinite card draw, Infinite draw triggers, Near-infinite death triggers
- Kels, Fight Fixer + Mortuary + Phyrexian Altar + Ornithopter
→ Infinite ETB, Infinite death triggers, Infinite draw triggers
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BU), by popularity.
