Ikoria Commander Showdown Mardu Vs Jeskai

KelsAkim1

Welcome to another Ikoria Commander Showdown from CommandBeacon.com. We have our last pairing of the secondary commanders and it's a human against monsters matchup with Kelsien, the Plague against Akim, the Soaring Wind. It's a deck of a human hunter destroying creatures and gaining experience versus a bird dinosaur with its little bird tokens friends, let's take a look.

Kelsien, the Plague

Kelsien is a low-cost Commander with utility, keywords, and a fun theme. Mark your targets and make sure they die that turn for more experience to grow his power and toughness. If you can untap Kelsien and hit the same target multiple times you'll get that the same amount of experience counters as long as it dies at the end of turn. This is probably one of the most entertaining Commanders of the 2020 set to play with in my opinion, and not just because I'm running Acorn Catapult.

It's a great theme and really suiting for the Mardu colours though, lots of aggro and answers with some big bombs. Getting to run Ruinous Ultimatum  is a big plus as well and Kelsien in conjunction with deathtouch racks up the experience counters pretty quickly. The deck has more threats than tricks and aims to keep your opponents down as you build you your board. There is a substantial amount of synergy here and I hope you can find all the neat plays.

 

Kelsien, the Plague

()
Commander (1)
Creatures (20)
Artifacts (17)
Enchantments (5)
Instants (10)
Sorceries (5)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (38)

Akim, the Soaring Wind

Our Jeskai flying bird dinosaur Commander is all about the tokens. From the triggered ability to make extra bird tokens and the activated ability to give your creature token double strike, there is no other way to go than all in with tokens. Akim doesn't even care if it's not a creature token, just make a token each turn and a bird will pop out. The double strike is pretty mana intensive but keeps a looming threat when attacking your opponents.

This build ended up going the artifact supported route for tokens. The mana intensive nature of Akim's ability and the support for artifact token creation was much higher than the enchantment or creature options. Akim synergizes with most pieces in the deck even if it's just for additional value. It's more of a mid ranged overwhelm strategy than an explosive token swarm, but constant two for one value plays can get you ahead and then keep you there.

 

Akim, the Soaring Wind

()
Commander (1)
Creatures (13)
Artifacts (22)
Enchantments (7)
Instants (7)
Sorceries (3)
Planeswalkers (11)
Lands (36)

Well, that's our Commander 2020 showdowns with humans against monsters. Who would win overall is the question? Whether between Kelsien and Akim or any of the other decks. Take a look at their respective articles on Command Beacon and let us know. Next up, we're going to see what happens when humans and beasts work together.

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