Welcome to another magical Commander article from CommandBeacon.com. I hope you're as hyped as I am. With the Ikoria set comes the Commander 2020 decks and this time around they're going with the 5 Khan tri-colour combinations. We're doing it humans against monster style and there will be plenty of new toys available for Commander. Except for Lutri, the Spellchaser, chase those spells you wonderful Elemental Otter. So we're starting off with the Mardu Legendary Jirina Kudro against the Temur Legendary Kalamax, The Stormsire which by no surprise are two very different decks.
Jirina Kudro
There is a lot to say about this deck even though Jirina clearly screams that she's a Commander for a human tribal deck. While she is quite an interesting card to use as a part of the ninety-nine, her anthem effect for other humans and the ability to bring more humans as back up every time she enters the battlefield clearly leans her as an incredibly strong human tribal Commander. We can discuss what possibilities she has another time right now let's focus on the deck and its strengths.
This is a power heavy deck with plenty of bodies to keep the aggro going. There are so many humans that I couldn't even fit everything that I wanted to while balancing the utility cards. It can smash in with powerful creatures, go wide with lots of bodies, or just crush you with a combat combo. Jirina supplies so much extra power per body that the board becomes terrifying to any and all defending players.
Kalamax, The Stormsire
The Temur Elemental Dinosaur instantly catches my attention. Kalamax is a powerful 4/4 for 4 mana that copies your first instant each turn if it's tapped and puts +1/+1 counters on itself as you copy spells. This dino draws an interesting mix between a spellslinger deck and a beatdown Commander. You want to have enough instant spells to make use of his ability but it also requires Kalamax to be tapped which hints at getting him to attack. There are more than a few ways to tap him without needing to attack though but it's definitely one of the more fun options.
The strategy of this deck is instants, copies, and back up plans. There are several combos to have a spell copy a spell that copies something which gives unlimited counters and damage with Kalamax or Ral Zarek. If that falls flat there are extra turns, planeswalkers, and a couple of combos to go around. In the end you can choose to just punch in with Kalamax though after feeding multiple instants to him for extra value.
That's it for the first of many decks that will be coming out for Ikoria. If you like them make sure to check out the full breakdown of Jirina and Kalamax on Command Beacon. Let me know what you think of the Mardu Human Tribal Aggro deck and the Temur Elemental Dino Spellslinger because these were made with just the Commanders and what's currently available there's so much more to the set to come.
