Alesha, Who Smiles At Death

[CEDitor’s Note: The original version of this article ran with an incorrect Temur decklist. The decklist has since been updated.]

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is a surprisingly awesome card to build around. It’s super fun to think about the different directions she takes you in
deckbuilding, and just thinking about using in her in actual gameplay is super fun. The puzzles she asks you to solve are not like most graveyard
interaction puzzles.

A first striking 3/2 is worth about two mana, so we’re only really paying one for the ability, plus two when we actually use it. If we ever get back
anything, we’ve generally made enough value to have recouped our investment, and if the card we got back costs three or more, we actually come out ahead.

Heaven forbid we get back a Hornet Queen!

A lot of people read Alesha’s ability and think of two-drops and lower, but there are a few cards that let her get much more valuable creatures. One side
pulling us wants us to get the most out of her ability as possible, self-mill, discard, etc. The other side pulling on us points out that she is a 3/2
first striker and doesn’t need to be broken in half every time we use her to make her worthwhile. It’s possible we just want to use high quality cards and
a relatively normal strategy that happens to get modest value out of Alesha most of the time but occasionally goes big.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Color Combinations

Alesha, like the rest of the hybrid activation rares and mythics in Fate Reforged, is effectively a two-color card, with two possibilities of what that
two-color combination is. This means there are actually nine possible color combinations of three or less. That is a lot of possible places to try!

One of the most interesting elements of building with Alesha is her base color being red, though needing double of a color that is not red. Red has been
last place for use in graveyard decks most of the time, so this is a major departure from existing strategies. She only requires a single red to cast,
however, so it’s not like we actually need to make red a base color at all.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Jund

The first home that occurs to me for Alesha is a G/B Whip of Erebos deck. Whip decks are already playing Hornet Queen and ways to get creatures into your
graveyard. This makes adding Alesha very cheap. In fact, basically the only cost is what you would have gotten from the other third color options, such as
Sidisi or Siege Rhino.

Jund Reanimator

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 01-26-2015

Standard

Creatures (25)

Lands (19)

Spells (17)

Sideboard

This build tries to maximize Alesha pretty hard, employing the full playset of Hornet Queens, which means each Satyr Wayfinder has a 25% chance of hitting
one, and each Commune with the Gods, a 30% chance. Roughly 1 in 11 of those, the Hornet Queen will be the only creature, but if it’s turn 4 and we have
Alesha in play, we are allowed to just take nothing, letting us animate the Hornet Queen immediately.

Courser of Kruphix is better to Alesha than first brush may suggest. We aren’t used to Whipping Coursers to great effect, but Alesha actually loves
following up a Courser. Coursers eat Stoke the Flames and Hero’s Downfalls, but if that was your opponent’s only removal spell, Alesha completely trumps
their play.

Thoughtseize can be particularly effective at helping you sculpt the game towards a place where your opponent walks face first into this. The threat of
this play is almost better than actually doing it too. Opponents without a second removal spell are going to be very hesitant to risk killing a Courser
with one, which can benefit you even in games where you don’t draw Alesha.

Normally, we’re only about 50% to have a Courser by turn 3. This deck has about a 2/3rds chance of playing a Satyr Wayfinder or Commune with the Gods on
turn 2, which means games where we didn’t draw Courser have about a 20% chance of flipping a Courser that’s ready for Alesha to bring back.

Eidolon of Blossoms is a perfect fit, being a threat we’d be interested in anyway and being a very strong target for Alesha to reanimate. Constellation
works with Alesha’s ability, even though it’s not “cast.” Courser of Kruphix, Doomwake Giant, and Whip of Erebos give us a respectable number of
enchantments to trigger it, not to mention Commune with the Gods making it feel like even more. That said, I could imagine very easily wanting more
Doomwake Giants.

Between Hornet Queen, Eidolon of Blossoms, and Courser of Kruphix, that’s over a 60% chance of hitting a juicy Alesha target when we Satyr Wayfinder, and
even greater for Commune with the Gods. That said, Satyr Wayfinder is a deceptively good reanimation target, as it flips so many cards, so you’re very
likely to get another target for next turn.

The only truly “lame” hit is Sylvan Caryatid, but the comedy of attacking someone with a Sylvan Caryatid is pretty awesome. It can look like a joke, but we
did just spent two mana to “draw” a card and cast it.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang obviously isn’t returnable with Alesha, but he is another way of capitalizing on all of the self-mill we have going on. A turn 2
Satyr Wayfinder or Commune with the Gods ensures Tasigur is usually online on turn 3. He’s not the easiest creature to kill, and even if they have hard
spot removal like Hero’s Downfall, that’s one less Hero’s Downfall that can hit Alesha.

When Tasigur lives (which will be the majority of the time), he does a great job of locking up the ground while giving us a way to use extra mana to gain
card advantage. Remember, his hybrid ability fills the graveyard faster than he empties it, which means more looks at creatures to Whip or Alesha back.

I like the idea of sideboarding into a planeswalker-centric strategy, as opponents are going to be quick to bring Drown in Sorrow, Anger the Gods, and End
Hostilities in against us. One thing red definitely gives us is access to a lot more top tier planeswalkers.

One of the challenges of Jund Reanimator is the lack of a Jund tri-land, which has us turning to Evolving Wilds and Mana Confluence. To this point, it may
be crazy to not play more Sylvan Caryatids, even just to fix our mana. The upside is that we have access to more fetchlands than we could possibly want.
Bloodstained Mire is a bit less exciting than Wooded Foothills, as we are going to want more basic Forests than Swamps. What we actually want is two green
fetchlands, which brings us to Naya…

Alesha, Who Smiles at Naya

Green is the only color with good self-mill and Whip of Erebos is black, so any other color combination than Jund is going to be a very different kind of
deck kind of by necessity. My first thought on Naya is to build towards a tokens deck.

Alesha Naya

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 01-26-2015

Standard

Creatures (24)

Planeswalkers (6)

Lands (16)

Spells (14)

Sideboard

This build isn’t trying to Alesha nearly as hard, though I do think Tormenting Voice is at least worth a shot. It isn’t the most efficient way to spend two
mana, but it’s kind of sweet how reliably it can set up the turn 4 Hornet Queen. Remember, you’re over 50% to have drawn a Hornet Queen by turn 4 before
casting Tormenting Voice!

Xenagos, the Reveler is a fine “backup” plan for how to cast all the Hornet Queens we draw. It also plays into the tokens theme perfectly. While Hornet
Queen, Goblin Rabblemaster, and Elspeth explicitly make tokens, Alesha is a bit of a token-maker herself. Even when she’s just getting back Satyr Wayfinder
or Elvish Mystic, it’s like she just made a “token.”

The use of Dictate of Heliod here is a result of being impressed with the card out of a Naya tokens deck Craig Wescoe played at the end of last season.
There’s so much competition at the five-spot, but Wingmate Roc doesn’t really synergize with Alesha like Dictate does (which effectively makes every
reanimation much stronger).

One of my concerns with this mix is the vulnerability to an opposing Courser of Kruphix, which can brickwall your Alesha. Reclamation Sage helps a lot
here, giving you another Alesha target that can actually remove the blocking Courser before it even gets a chance to block. It’s easy to imagine wanting
more than one Sage maindeck, and if we suspected a lot of Coursers, we’d want to do just that.

I originally had more Lightning Strikes here, and it’s possible they should return, I just wanted to push the tokens theme as much as I could, and
Lightning Strike not even killing Courser is kind of a beating. That said, Lightning Strike does combine with Alesha to take one down, so the first
Lightning Strike can really put the fear into people.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Temur

Alesha doesn’t scream to be put into Temur as much as Jund or Naya, but there are some incentives. Namely:

It’s hard to really support a two or less theme and a four or more theme, but here’s an attempt, nevertheless:

Alesha Temur

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 01-26-2015

Standard

Creatures (28)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Xenagos, the Reveler

Lands (17)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

There is some real awkward tension here, but it’s cute that Force Away sets up Alesha (letting you discard a Hornet Queen) while also removing the blocker
in her way. At the end of the day though, I think it’s just asking too much of the deck to be built to support Alesha and Shaman of the Great Hunt at the
same time. It’s not like Temur is short on playables for the ferocity theme, and making room for Alesha involved us cutting such hits as Flamewake Phoenix,
Ashcloud Phoenix, and Boon Satyr. Besides, Bear’s Companion isn’t in the zip code of Stormbreath Dragon and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker.

As you can see, changing around the colors of an Alesha deck has a radical impact on the strategy of the deck. Personally, I think the most promising paths
for Alesha are Jund and Naya because of just how insane it is to Alesha back Hornet Queen, but she might be playable even when aspiring to less grand
designs.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Mardu

Given that Alesha’s hybrid ability makes her “look” Mardu to a lot of people, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the most popular starting point for people
experimenting with non-green Alesha decks.

When considering how I’d build a Mardu deck with her, the first thing that comes to mind is how many of the best red and white threats have two-power.
Instead of using self-mill to find targets, we just rely on our opponents to kill our creatures. After all, Goblin Rabblemaster and Monastery Mentor are as
close to being must-kill as 2/2s come. If they don’t? No problem, just overrun your opponent with the army you quickly assemble.

Mardu Aggro

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 01-26-2015

Standard

Creatures (17)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands (20)

Spells (21)

The rest of the deck is mostly just the usual Mardu deck, though I am experimenting with running no Butcher of the Horde because of cutting Hordeling
Outburst to make room for Alesha. It is totally possible that even without the Outbursts, we could still want a couple Butchers.

Chandra, Pyromaster is a fine card alongside Goblin Rabblemaster and Monastery Mentor anyway, but the ability to remove a potential blocker can be
invaluable for letting Alesha attack into Siege Rhinos and Coursers.

Valorous Stance is another great way to clear a path for Alesha, as it can hit any creature big enough to block her. It also gives us another
“Thoughtseize,” in terms of protecting Alesha (or Rabblemaster or Mentor).

Monastery Mentor isn’t at its most extreme; however, you don’t have to make all that many tokens to get your money’s worth. I particularly like the idea of
playing must-kills, then following up with Alesha, who becomes a must-kill by extension. If we wanted Monastery Mentor to be stronger in this list, we
could add a Read the Bones or two, which would reduce the amount of sputtering out we do.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Jeskai

Interestingly, sliding Alesha into Jeskai requires basically no structural changes out of the Jeskai deck. We’re already interested in the must-kills that
Alesha can bring back, and we even have looting to get creatures into the graveyard for her to bring back.

Jeskai Tokens

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 01-26-2015

Standard

Creatures (15)

Lands (19)

Spells (26)

There is some amount of nombo between Raise the Alarm/Hordeling Outburst and Alesha, Who Smiles At Death, since most two and three-cost alternatives would
give us more targets. As it is, we’re a little slim.

Soulfire Grand Master is an attempt to try to up our Alesha targets a bit, and if it turns out to be good enough to play more of, we could totally consider
a third Alesha. The tough thing is that the more creatures we play, the less value we’re going to get out of our Monastery Mentor, Jeskai Ascendancy, and
Seeker of the Way.

While we don’t have to change much to use Alesha here, we are also not exactly short on cards to try in Jeskai, particularly at the three-spot. Is Alesha
really better than Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest? What about returning to Mantis Rider? What about just put the missing two Hordeling Outbursts back in?

I love Jeskai Sage, but it is as far from a must-kill as they come, and going in that direction decreases the chances we’ll actually be able to hit
something when we untap with Alesha.

Looking at these Mardu and Jeskai Alesha decks, one starts to wonder, do we even need the third color? Monastery Mentor and Goblin Rabblemaster is a real
good start to presenting threats that later make Alesha good.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Boros

Trying to keep Alesha straight two-color Boros has me immediately turning to Heliod’s Pilgrim + Chained to the Rocks. This synergy is already the best
reason to play Boros, and Heliod’s Pilgrim is a fine reanimation target, as more Chained to the Rocks will help ensure Alesha continues to get through in
future turns.

R/W Aggro

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 01-26-2015

Standard

Creatures (21)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands (11)

Spells (27)

It can be very challenging to play enough spells to trigger our prowess while still making our Alesha good. The Pilgrim helps in this regard, as it is both
a body you can target and a spell to trigger your prowess.

Wingmate Roc has rarely been as good as it has been in R/W Tokens decks, so it’s probably insanity to run just two, but something has to give to make room
for these Aleshas. Of course, we can trim an Alesha for a third Roc, since the less Aleshas we play, the better each individual one is (in general). I
wouldn’t be surprised if sticking just one or two copies of Alesha into straight-up R/W Tokens is a solid upgrade.

Finally, we might as well ask the question of what Alesha might look like with neither green, nor white…

Alesha, Who Smiles at Rakdos

Once we don’t have Hornet Queen or Monastery Mentor, we kind of need to reimagine what Alesha is even doing. Even if it isn’t as flashy, maybe we can get
enough value out of the pressure she puts on people to make it worth it. Remember, her targets come back attacking, meaning she is often a five-power
threat.

R/B Aggro

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 01-26-2015

Standard

Creatures (24)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands (15)

Spells (19)

Sideboard

Get back Pain Seer and it’s already tapped, ready to Confidant you a card next turn.

Get back the Mardu Skullhunter and you necessarily trigger raid, knocking more cards from their hand.

Get back Mogis’s Marauder and you can still give your creatures intimidate before blockers are declared.

Personally, I’m starting with Jund and Naya, but many of these concepts have some potential, particularly if they just slide a couple copies of Alesha into
a deck that works without Alesha and just uses her as an added bonus.

Alright, I’m out for this week. I gotta board a plane to DC to meet up with the rest of The Pantheon…

What happened to Grixis? That’s literally the only Alesha color combination you didn’t try. What happened to you man?

I thought about Grixis, but I just didn’t see anything in blue that seemed like it could possibly be better than adding green or white. Grixis even has
worse mana! I’m definitely always on the lookout for the next Grixis deck, but I seriously doubt Alesha is that deck.

By the way, any advice on what I should try in Modern?

See you next week!