cEDH Deck Guide: Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper & Kraum, Ludevic's Opus

This list was created by me and is a turbo deck. However, it has tools to stay relevant in the late game, generating value, and can be faster or slower depending on the table you are at.

Both commanders are relevant and even though white is an extremely powerful and relevant color in cEDH, unless you intend to use stax pieces, you end up not losing much by not running this color.

Ikra & Kraum

Commander, FELIPE

17 commons, 18 uncommons, 61 rares and 4 mythics

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Land29

1

Rejuvenating Springs

79.77

1

Training Center

205.41

1

Undergrowth Stadium

179.99

1

Morphic Pool

264.05

1

Luxury Suite

243.25

1

Badlands

5350.24

1

Forbidden Orchard

121.18

1

Ancient Tomb

1820.39

1

Taiga

3401.04

1

Underground Sea

5474.2

1

Tropical Island

3711.34

1

City of Brass

341.99

1

Bayou

2934.92

1

Volcanic Island

5866.4

1

Exotic Orchard

2.58

1

Marsh Flats

441.85

1

Bloodstained Mire

235.1

1

Blood Crypt

288.71

1

Watery Grave

264.05

1

Polluted Delta

287.8

1

Mana Confluence

797.75

1

Steam Vents

261.27

1

Command Tower

3.34

1

Flooded Strand

238.24

1

Wooded Foothills

243.25

1

Gemstone Caverns

920.01

1

Verdant Catacombs

361.91

1

Misty Rainforest

435.7

1

Scalding Tarn

424.35

Creature10

1

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

704.95

1

Birds of Paradise

123.21

1

Dauthi Voidwalker

92.4

1

Thassa's Oracle

463.73

1

Dockside Extortionist

378.17

1

Dark Confidant

87.56

1

Opposition Agent

444.04

1

Elvish Spirit Guide

24.47

1

Simian Spirit Guide

22.63

1

Grim Hireling

246.42

Artifact17

1

Jeweled Lotus

926.71

1

Lion's Eye Diamond

11133.82

1

Chrome Mox

1582.44

1

Lotus Petal

439.4

1

Mana Crypt

1484.35

1

Mox Diamond

14845.16

1

Mox Opal

2668.45

1

Sol Ring

19.66

1

Mana Vault

1278.91

1

Wishclaw Talisman

38.76

1

Arcane Signet

3.34

1

Grim Monolith

7051.35

1

Talisman of Indulgence

29.86

1

Talisman of Dominance

13.7

1

Grinding Station

257.22

1

Fellwar Stone

9.06

1

Bolas's Citadel

166.81

Enchantment5

1

Carpet of Flowers

46.38

1

Mystic Remora

149.18

1

Underworld Breach

131.19

1

Sylvan Library

457.26

1

Rhystic Study

1066.25

Sorcery11

1

Gamble

116.73

1

Imperial Seal

1857.32

1

Gitaxian Probe

102.41

1

Demonic Tutor

791.79

1

Diabolic Intent

194.29

1

Jeska's Will

463.73

1

Wheel of Fortune

4205.3

1

Timetwister

16546.14

1

Windfall

51.94

1

Culling Ritual

12.79

1

Peer into the Abyss

58.61

Instant26

1

Miscast

20.97

1

Vampiric Tutor

899.8

1

Flusterstorm

100.94

1

Demonic Consultation

315.27

1

Dark Ritual

72.15

1

Pyroblast

93.87

1

Mystical Tutor

193.89

1

Red Elemental Blast

74.05

1

Nature's Claim

36.93

1

Chain of Vapor

138.85

1

Swan Song

189.08

1

Spell Pierce

2.78

1

Mental Misstep

138.98

1

Noxious Revival

115.59

1

Assassin's Trophy

91.75

1

Cabal Ritual

312.36

1

Abrupt Decay

15.77

1

Brain Freeze

203.93

1

Tainted Pact

323.06

1

Fierce Guardianship

761.18

1

Deflecting Swat

763.96

1

Force of Negation

951.57

1

Fire Covenant

92.6

1

Deadly Rollick

250.51

1

Force of Will

1008.06

1

Ad Nauseam

312.3

98 cards maindeck

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Kraum, Ludevic's Opus

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Certainly, one of the most beloved commanders of cEDH, its card advantage potential is insane, and so that it doesn't happen, your opponents can only cast one spell per turn. If Kraum is respected, you should get 0-3 cards per turn, if not at most it should reach 5, with the amount of ramps in the deck, it's not difficult to play him kn turn one and start filling the hand since early game.

Ikra is a controversial commander in cEDH, some like her, some hate her, I, personally, love her. She plays a key role in longer tables, granting you extra life for Ad Nauseam, even if losing life to opponents' attacks, card effects, having an Ikra on the field helps keep Ad Nauseam a possibility.

The fact that we have a commander who gains life when you attack with any creature and damages a player, in addition to being able to attack with a big flying threat, gives the possibility to pressure your opponents' life totals, while yours gets bigger.

This deck has two different combo lines, which are Thassa Consult and Breach.

Thassa Consult

Combo Condition: Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact in hand, and enough mana to cast them.

1. Cast Thassa's Oracle

2. Respond to her ETB by casting the other spell from your hand, naming a card you don't have in your library, exiling all cards from your library.

At Oracle's ETB resolution, you win the game.

Breach

Here, we have two ways to proceed with the usual one which is Breach + Freeze + LED, and we can also go to Breach + Station + Rock.

Breach Freeze

Combo Condition: Underworld Breach in hand, Brain Freeze, and Lion's Eye Diamond in hand or graveyard, and at least 4 mana available, one blue and one red, the others two do not need to be colored.

1. Cast Underworld Breach;

2. Cast Brain Freeze, targeting you and milling at least 6 cards;

3. Cast Lion's Eye Diamond, discarding your hand and generating 3 blue mana;

4. Repeat step 3 until you have only 3 cards in the graveyard, in addition to the cards you intend to cast, then repeat from step 2 to this step;

5. When the Storm Count is high enough, target your opponents until they have no cards in their deck and pass the turn, so they lose the game.

Breach Station

Combo condition: Underworld Breach and Grinding Station + one mana rock from the ones below, all on the battlefield and untapped + at least 3 cards in the graveyard.

All of the above mana rocks generate enough mana to be cast and tapped repeatedly.

1. Tap the mana rock to generate mana;

2. Sacrifice the mana rock using Grinding Station and mill 3 cards from your own library;

3. Cast the mana rock for the escape cost, putting it into play, and untap Grinding Station.

Repeat the process until you have no cards in your deck, switching the mana rock to one that generates colored mana, then cast Thassa's Oracle and win the game.

Ramps

Speeding up available mana is indispensable: the more mana, the easier it is to cast multiple spells in the same turn.

For this, the deck has all the positive mana stones, the mox that make sense to be in the deck, rocks that generate colored mana, in addition to cards that generate mana only once like Elvish Spirit Guide. In addition to rituals like Culling the Weak, it also includes Grim Hireling, which generates treasures as you deal combat damage to your opponents.

Tutors

Tutors are the foundation of a deck's consistency, together with a good density of working copies, being able to find the card you need for a situation.

As we have black mana, which helps a lot with one or two mana tutors like Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal, Demonic Tutor and Diabolic Intent, in addition to Wishclaw Talisman, which is a reusable tutor if you have bounces to respond to its effect before it resolves.

It is critical to comment that even though red is not the color of tutors, it gives us a great one mana tutor, Gamble Red Entomb, being an optimized tutor good enough to be included in the list, mainly due to its low cost.

Card Draw

In addition to owning Kraum, this list also has other tools to guarantee you additional cards every turn, such as Dark Confidant, which is falling into disuse, but is still a very efficient card, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, which steals cards from the top of the opponent's deck and generates treasures (I promise this is the last time I speak well of this monkey), and that good old set present in basically every deck that can use them: Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora.

Windfall, Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister are simple ways for you to draw many cards after using up everything important in your hand.

Bolas's Citadel, Ad Nauseam and Peer Into the Abyss serve to gain access to a massive number of cards, losing life for it.

Interactions

Free counterspells, optimized removals, ways to stop an opponent even if he resolves a spell and serious hate: everything , or almost everything, that a deck needs to interact with its opponents.

We also have Fire Covenant which removes exactly the creatures that need to be eliminated, for a small amount of mana and life, Culling Ritual which, in addition to taking away every nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less, also gives you mana equal to the number of permanents it destroyed.

The counterspell package of this deck is a bit greater than the standard farm decks, just to be used in other occasions than protecting your game.

Strengths

- It's an extremely adaptive deck, being able to respond and deal with different deck types.

- It is possible to cast Kraum on turn 1.

- The deck can handle opponents attacking you well, not to mention that the commanders are tough enough to kill or withstand many creatures.

Weaknesses

- It's not as fast as other farm decks.

- At tables where your game plan will be faster, Ikra loses its usefulness on the battlefield.

I close this article here, stay tuned as we will soon have another cEDH deck guide!

Thanks for reading!