SimicLegendary Creature — Merfolk ClericKenessos, Priest of Thassa
Mana value2Rank#9,351
The Commander
If you would scry a number of cards, scry that many cards plus one instead.
: Look at the top card of your library. If it's a Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent creature card, you may put it onto the battlefield. If you don't put the card onto the battlefield, you may put it on the bottom of your library.
Guide
Gameplan
Kenessos is a sea-monster cheat engine: tap out for the ability to dig and slam Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents straight onto the battlefield, paying nothing for their massive mana costs. You ramp and stock your library with huge fatties, use scry/topdeck manipulation (buffed by his +1 scry) to line up hits, then overwhelm the table with giant bodies. Win by smashing in with monsters or by leveraging their cast/ETB triggers.
Strengths
- Cheats enormous, normally-uncastable beaters into play for a fixed cost regardless of their mana value
- Repeatable activated ability that grinds card advantage and board presence every turn
- Scry-plus-one passive sharpens every scry effect and pairs with topdeck tutors to guarantee hits
- Green-blue gives access to elite ramp, card draw, and counterspell protection
Weaknesses
- Activated ability only puts the card in if it's the TOP card—whiffs without library manipulation
- Sea monsters tend to be slow, expensive to hard-cast, and easy to remove for value
- Heavily reliant on the commander; if Kenessos is removed repeatedly the engine stalls
- Limited interaction and few fast combo lines—vulnerable to faster decks and board wipes
Key Cards
- Thassa, Deep-Dwelling — Untaps Kenessos to activate his ability twice a turn and blinks creatures for repeated ETBs.
- Brainstorm — With the scry passive and topdeck control, it sets up guaranteed monster hits off Kenessos.
- Stonybrook Schoolmaster — Sylvan Library, Sensei's Divining Top, and similar effects let you stack the top card before activating.
- Koma, Cosmos Serpent — A Serpent finisher that generates blockers, taps down threats, and can be cheated in for free.
- Hullbreaker Horror — An uncounterable Kraken that bounces threats and protects your board while attacking for a ton.
- Quest for Ula's Temple — A parallel cheat engine that drops the same monster pool into play, doubling your free fatties.
Upgrade Path
Add top-of-library control—Sensei's Divining Top, Sylvan Library, Mystic Sanctuary, Brainstorm—so the activated ability never whiffs. Include untappers and flicker (Thassa, Deep-Dwelling; Seedborn Muse; Ghostly Flicker) to fire the ability multiple times per turn, plus protection like Heroic Intervention and counters to defend your engine. Trim weaker vanilla monsters for ones with relevant ETBs or evasion so each cheat advances a real game plan.
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
- ▸Beating down with multiple oversized Kraken/Leviathan bodies
- ▸Locking the board with Stormtide Leviathan or Koma and grinding out attackers
- ▸Leveraging monster ETBs (Hullbreaker Horror, Inkwell/Pearl-Eye effects) for tempo then closing
Archetypes
- Big Creatures / Ramp — His whole identity is cheating gigantic Krakens and Leviathans onto the battlefield ahead of schedule.
- Tribal (Sea Monsters) — The ability rewards loading the deck with Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, and Serpent creatures.
- Topdeck Control — The scry-plus-one passive plus library manipulation turns deck-stacking into reliable monster drops.
- Blink/Value — Flicker effects re-trigger powerful sea-monster ETBs like Stormtide Leviathan and Hullbreaker Horror.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GU), by popularity.
