Klothys' Destiny in Commander

Weeks ago, Wizards previewed the first of the new gods in the upcoming Theros Beyond Death set, Klothys, God of Destiny. The moment I laid eyes on her, my fate was sealed. I had to build her a worthy commander deck.

Before we dive in, we should do our best to evaluate the card and ask ourselves a couple of questions. What is she asking us to do? What are the payoffs of doing what she wants?

A three mana, indestructible commander with a 4/5 body is very strong. It vastly eliminates the popular removal in commander, as opponents will only be able to bounce or exile her. However, she requires a high amount of devotion at seven before she can start attacking.

Being able to target any graveyard with her ability is useful since many commander decks have synergies that rely on the graveyard. However, Klothys' ability being able to happen only once and on your turn means it must be used preemptively. Sorcery speed control isn't where I would want to be in commander, so I would suggest using this ability to build advantage for myself instead.

Putting that all together, I came up with two different Klothys builds that seek to maximize the payoff of her exile ability as much as possible. Land destruction was the first one I built, followed quickly by a double damage deck. So let's dive in!

1 Zhur-Taa Druid
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Sol Ring
1 Eternal Witness
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Cultivate
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Exploration
1 Acidic Slime
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Splendid Reclamation
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Leyline of Abundance
1 Harrow
1 Decimate
1 Sylvan Library
1 Arcane Signet
1 Burgeoning
1 Talisman of Impulse
1 Seasons Past
1 The Mending of Dominaria
1 Orcish Lumberjack
1 Life from the Loam
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Arbor Elf
1 Vandalblast
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Chaos Warp
1 Crop Rotation
1 Ruination
1 Beast Within
1 World Shaper
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Wrenn and Six
1 Outpost Siege
1 Obliterate
1 Chandra Ablaze
1 Tectonic Reformation
1 Overabundance
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Greater Good
1 Satyr Wayfinder
1 Sylvan Awakening
1 Decree of Annihilation
1 Boom / Bust
1 Creeping Renaissance
1 Impending Disaster
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Myojin of Infinite Rage
1 Omnath, Locus of Rage
1 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Zuran Orb
1 Springbloom Druid
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Zendikar's Roil
1 Grapple with the Past
1 Gruul Turf
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Scalding Tarn
1 ShelteRed Thicket
1 Arid Mesa
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Stomping Ground
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Cinder Glade
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Spire Garden
1 Fabled Passage
1 Prismatic Vista
8 Forest
6 Mountain
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Wasteland
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Blast Zone
1 Slippery Karst
1 Klothys, God of Destiny

Let me preface this by saying: this deck is mean. Like you are the Burn Book in Mean Girls mean. I would suggest you either play this deck only with a group of friends who really like you or against your worst enemies. Otherwise, people are going to be unhappy and potentially unwilling to play you again. That being said, those are my favorite kinds of decks.

Weed out the weak.

Moving on. This deck operates in careful stages. First stage, like many green focused decks, is to ramp ramp ramp. Spells like Harrow and Orcish Lumberjack shine here because they are both ramping you and fueling your graveyard for Klothys' ability. These spells, along with your many fetch lands allow Klothys to act as a mana dork as well. The heavy suite of mana dorks puts you far ahead on mana and rebuilds after a land destruction spell or Myojin of Infinite Rage hit the battlefield.

Enchantment ramp was a must include in this build. Since there are a couple of land destruction spells that also destroy creatures, you will need a way to rebuild if you didn't happen to have a Heroic Intervention in hand. Exploration and Burgeoning are both great ramping enchantments, although they do lose value the longer the game goes on. I'm also a big fan of Leyline of Abundance and Overabundance in this deck. The leyline makes your creatures double produce, and Overabundance is a cheap way to do this with your lands. While Overabundance is global and deals damage to you, between the rest of your ramp and gaining incidental life from Klothys, you aren't going to be concerned once you tap four permanents to cast Obliterate. If you aren't interested in giving your opponents any advantage, feel free to include Nissa, Who Shakes the World or an enchantment like Mana Reflection to give yourself another mana doubling option.

That leads us to the second stage of this deck, which is to let it rain. Molten Rain that is. And yes, that card was included in this build just so I could write that line. Ideally, your battlefield includes Klothys, several mana producing creatures, and a Crucible of Worlds or Ramunap Excavator before you start to mass destroy lands. The deck also includes Titania, Protector of Argoth so that when you do start casting your land destruction spells, you get immediate value in the forms of big angry elementals. Not to mention that sweet interaction with Zuran Orb. You will want to avoid casting land destruction spells that also include creatures unless you have Heroic Intervention to protect your creatures. The other reason being that once you cast an Obliterate type spell, your opponents are going to expect you to win the game very quickly.

The deck also has a lot of utility lands that you can use and bring back for other advantages. Targeting your opponents' advantageous land with Wasteland and bringing it back with Wrenn and Six is a hoot in Legacy, and I imagine it'll be useful in this format as well.

That being said, this deck also has one more stage should you need it, which is using splendid reclamation to bring back all your lands from the graveyard, and then use Sylvan Awakening to animate them and begin the beats. Omnath, Locus of Rage and Zendikar's Roil also love it when lands hit the battlefield.

The nice thing about this deck is that since you play several cards that benefit when your lands hit the graveyard and return, you don't have to play the meaner land destruction spells. Again, this will depend on your play group.

The second Klothys deck that I came up with focuses on dealing damage. This deck will probably go over much better than the land destruction theme, but will still put a target on your back, so watch out!

1 Dictate of the Twin Gods
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Immolation Shaman
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Cindervines
1 Rhythm of the Wild
1 Sunbird's Invocation
1 Harsh Mentor
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
1 Sol Ring
1 Scab-Clan Berserker
1 Cultivate
1 Eternal Witness
1 Where Ancients Tread
1 Greater Good
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Strionic Resonator
1 Angrath's Marauders
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Stalking Vengeance
1 Finale of Devastation
1 Archetype of Endurance
1 WarStorm surge
1 Etali, Primal Storm
1 Sylvan Library
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Chaos Warp
1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
1 Talisman of Impulse
1 Embermaw Hellion
1 Zhur-Taa Druid
1 Gratuitous Violence
1 Acidic Slime
1 Burgeoning
1 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
1 Curse of Bloodletting
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Omnath, Locus of Rage
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Beast Within
1 Krosan Grip
1 Leyline of Combustion
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Harrow
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Exploration
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Terastodon
1 Pathbreaker Ibex
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Zendikar Resurgent
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Burning-Tree Shaman
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Prowling Serpopard
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Rampant Growth
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Game Trail
1 Stomping Ground
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Temple of the False God
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 ShelteRed Thicket
7 Forest
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Fabled Passage
1 Cinder Glade
1 Gruul Turf
1 Spire Garden
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Command Tower
1 Castle Garenbrig
1 Windswept Heath
1 Rootbound Crag
9 Mountain
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Klothys, God of Destiny

This deck is a little closer to a traditional Gruul monsters build, but with added enchantments that increase the amount of damage being dealt to opponents with triggered abilities. Dictate of the Twin Gods, Furnace of Rath, Gratuitous Violence and Curse of Bloodletting are integral in jumping Klothys' damage capability from 2 to something more significant. Curse allows for a political tool. Slap it on the player who is the most threatening to you, and it will be very difficult for your other opponents to ignore. Torbran is a recently printed card that also slots into this deck nicely as most of the damage dealing effects are Red. Strionic Resonator will also be a handy card from duplicating not just her ability, but damage being dealt from cards likeWarStorm Surge.

Besides Klothys, you have additional punishing effects from cards like Harsh Mentorand Immolation Shaman. Normally, these cards are too weak on their own to be worth annoying your opponents, but with the enchantments in the deck, they get stronger. Vorinclex is a great inclusion because he ticks all the boxes of what this deck is tryinig to do: ramps you, punishes opponents and has a heavy-hitting body.

Since this deck is lighter on ramp, I thought it pertinent to put it in cards like Sunbird's Invocation and Etali, Primal Storm that will allow you cast spells for free. Invocation is excellent because you get to choose which spell out of X you will be casting, as opposed to being bound by whatever the cascade mechanic would give you. Etali is not guaranteed value but being able to cast multiple revealed spells is enough value for me to want to play it. Ilharg also acts as a sneak attack type effect that gets even better with a Warstorm Surge on the battlefield.

With most spells being permanents, there is the additional upside of Klothys meeting her devotion threshold and begin dealing combat damage. Four commander damage is good, but this deck will see that multiplied very quickly.

So these are the two builds that I would start with for Klothys. Of course, the Commander pool is nearly infinite, so I'm sure more synergies will be found as time goes on. She would also be a great inclusion in the 99 of many other commanders, such as Lord Windgrace,  Omnath, Locus of Rage or even Wort, the Raidmother if you're feeling really spicy. I intend to be building the latter of the two for future Magic Fests and Command Fests, so expect to see me decked out in my Klothys cosplay with her EDH deck in tow soon!