Alesha Who Smiles at Death | Upping the Average 

That tormenting voice could definitely be a merchant of the vale. It has always served me well in my red reanimatition lists

Yeeeees! EDHREC finally covered my personal favorite & probably best deck, haha. Couple pro tips...1) cut the Crackling Doom for something better...its tri cost makes it dead a lot, 2) Sun Titan isn't actually in there for GY value per se (although that's a nice bonus)... it's in there because it goes infinite with Fiend Hunter, 3) my deck is about as tight & fully upgraded as I can reasonably get it...but one pet card I've kept that was cut here is Nahiri. Everytime I almost cut her, she ends up saving a game for me. She's everything (all 3 abilities) this deck wants to do, and the 4 cmc really isn't that bad. Her floor is Utter End, which really isn't that bad, and if she sticks around a bit, she's value city. Lastly...Sevinne's Reclamation & Dualcaster Mage. It's yet another infinite combo in my deck that is often unexpected and super easy to slot in, as both cards, independent of the combo, are amazing in Alesha anyway. Sorry for the TL:DR, but upping the average finally covered one of my favs (even though I watcy them all anyway) so I got overly excited, lol

As someone with an Alesha deck that I've been slowly tuning for years, seeing this video I couldn't help but well, smile. Keep up the amazing work

Ankle Shanker not working with Alesha has consistently broken my heart for YEARS now.

Kathari Bomber is a creature I played back when I had an Alesha deck. It was fantastic. 2/2 flyer for 1BR when it hits an opponent, it makes 2 1/1 goblins and it dies. A nice card you can bring back with Alesha to get more bodies and it's only 25 cents.

I don’t play all the decks you showcase on Upping the Average, but I love watching them. Keep up the great work.

I really appreciate the fact that you respected Alesha being a combo deck.

Love the 'Budget' and 'Honorable Mentions' added to your series! Not just because... you know... net-decking, but also providing inspiration when looking at a deck and going 'Nah, I'm gonna' go THAT route instead!" Keep up the great work! Loyal Patreon BTW.

I really appreciate that they added a budget friendly and non budget options. Would love to see that in all of them going forward

Dimir houseguard is a great piece for alesha. It works as a tutor, sac outlet and can be reanimated

Alesha was the first commander deck I ever built from scratch, so I’ll always have a soft spot for her. Great video

Wonderful! Please do some old commanders. So many sets have came out that it would be good to revisit some older commanders!

I really like fanatical devotion in any deck that plays with sacrefice and have white in it. It's a free sac outlet and protect your key pieces. Highly recommend putting it in this Alesha deck since it's partly a combo deck !

Your content is the highlight of my week. Thanks for keeping me going through the pandemic.

I love this series! Thank you so much for the work and the information. I’m putting together an Arcades build after the last episode. Thanks for all that you do for the commander and MTG community!!

Awesome video. My vote is for Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. That would be rad. I've been struggling with it for years. Keep up the great vids! :)

No joke I was just looking at making a deck with this commander last night

Awesome video! Great timing, since I've recently revisited my Alesha deck to tune it up. Sun Titan is one of those cards I've been on the fence to cut for a while now because of its combo with Fiend Hunter.

This is the next deck I planned on making, perfect timing! I pulled an Alesha with the old frame in my TSR box and I love how it looks

My favorite day of the week! Up the average uploads!

I like that you are honing the older commanders lately. keep it up.

I love Upping the Average! It’s given me so many ideas.

Love the big highlight on feelings about the combos in this deck. Also really good note on the difference between declaring an attack with a creature and cheating it into play attacking. Would love to see Syr Gwyn next!!!

Just got my copy of Alesha today, let's go

Hey Joey, great vid as usual! Can we get an Anje Falkenrath "non-Worldgorger Dragon-combo" episode since you also love graveyards so much 😁

Awesome series! I would love to see some of my personal favorites on it, is there a way to vote for future videos?

I would definitely play Chittering Witch or Sengir Autocrat over Ponyback Brigade. They each provide the 4 bodies for only 4 mana and with way easier color requirements!

I was thinking of making an Alesha deck, but mostly focusing on humans, putting in cards like Tajic, Blade of the Legion. I also believe that the Mentor and Spectacle mechanics could really work well in the deck, too.

A pet card of mine that may work here is Bone Shredder as some extra interaction on a creature.

Waiting for a Yasharn video... Or a one on Vaevictus Asmadi, the Dire... Perhaps an Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit? Hahaha great content.

Nahiri's Machinations please. It gives alesha some much needed repeatable protection

High Priest of Penance is my fav spot removal in this deck. Easily repeatable, any nonland target, and lends to some great politicking/teamwork.

The beauty of Alesha is how many different ways you can play it. I prefer Slash the Ranks-style board wipes, plus beefy bois, vs go-wide. Goblin Ignition Team is good here.

I really like seeing this commander as I just switched over my Teysa Karlov aristocrats deck to Alesha aristocrats(not focused on using her ability) and looking forward to playtest once Pandemic is over. I like how my deck turned out with keeping the main core but with some of the cards I see in this deck, I am beginning to second guess my build as some of my cards are high CMC and not easy to find ways to cast them. :(

Alesha is by far my favorite commander of all time. I personally think that some cards (like the totem armor cards, or spirit mantle) should see play since they provide alesha ways to attack and not need to worry about surviving combat, which is important in my meta. Additionally, Dire tactics is 2 mana exile target creature, which is really good.

Was looking through my long box to add things to this deck and Necrologia is a great card to help you dig though your deck, refuel your hand with playables, and get what you need in the yard because necrologia resolves before the discard step.

Great video on an interesting commander :) How about The Scarab God for another one?

She's great for a warrior tribal deck, since you're going to get a lot of spells that will buff the small creatures you'll be bringing in.

I'm going to violently resist the removal of Bastion. Yeah, you want those effects on creatures so you can get them back, but the Bastion is so much harder to remove that it's worth it. Aristocrats is my main archetype and I run it in literally every crats deck I have because it is so damn sticky.

This video made me realise I want to build Alesha!

I really like Ankle Shanker honestly, as it lets enemies be less likely to block Alesha and anything else you may have turning sideways, since with First Strike/Deathtouch you're likely to come ahead in any combat situation. That Shrieking Mogg is spicy though.

My favorite of all time!

I made a $50 budget Alesha deck before the pandemic hit, and it was surprisingly powerful.. I'll likely upgrade it a tad bit, but keep it under $100 so it still counts as budget (yikes those price spikes..)

In my alesha deck i also play a palisade giant, that "combo" With mother of runes

Can we see videos with all new timeshifted commanders?

I think the Sun Titan might be something to consider leaving in there if you want to combo with Fiend Hunter. I'm pretty sure you can get a similar combo to Karmic Guide/Reveillark going with those two and a sac outlet. Hunter can exile Titan, sac Hunter-return Titan, Titan gets back Hunter which exiles Titan again, repeat as necessary. Just remember to let all the triggers actually resolve so you don't accidentally exile the Titan permanently...

i started building this deck today and knew the "when ___ attacks" triggers wouldn't work, but i was gonna put in varragoth, bc i thought boast might still work with the reminder text not saying anything specifically about declaring and only vaguely saying "only if this creature attacked this turn". but nope i got double heart broken when i checked oracle rulings :(

Some ideas most Alesha decks don't always play. Is false prophet. A returnable mass exile effect and anarchist. A way to get back an important sorcery to your hand.

You should do all of the khans

Alesha is one of my most optimized decks and one ill probably never take apart

i found that as the format got faster and faster, hatebears reanimator combo is my go to playstyle. In a more casual environment i can see graveyard good stuff alesha being more viable, but i had to do what i had to do in order to keep playing alesha in my groups.

Is there a way to sort combos by price yet?

why all the Upping videos makes me want to build a new deck....thanks! Waiting a Grenzo deck

Do Otrimi next!

Heirloom Blade, try it out. esp if you play teysa.

I'm running human tribal with Alesha atm

i would maybe swap recruiter of the guard with imperial recruiter

While I agree with cutting Varragoth, I disagree with cutting Ankle Shanker. Alesha is frankly too easy to kill - Ankle Shanker gives Alesha first strike and deathtouch, which will often keep her (as well as Ankle Shanker and the rest of your board) alive. Sure, you don't get it if Ankle Shanker is reanimated, but it's still worth it.

Damn I’m early.

no Anger?

I would love to see Lecia Sanquine Tribute. she is mardu so it stays on theme and she needs some works as her lifegain effects currently are not good enough for the list to work

VALKI GOD OF LIES. It’s soo funny in this deck

Hey y'all I run an Alesha Discord. We have a few players love Alesha with Teshar

I can attest to people not liking combos last night i pulled off a persist combo and people just sat their in silence dumbfounded

Master of cruelties would also not trigger if cheated into play with Alesha, since it was never declared as an attacker, at least by my understanding.

I would love to see an older commander on this, like Dakkon Blackblade or Phelldigriff.

No peacekeeper was really suprising!

Who smiles At deeeaath

I find it odd that people would "dislike playing against combo", what, would you rather face a Voltron deck and get taken out of the game early and just sit around twiddling your thumbs while everyone else keeps playing? At least vs combo everyone loses or wins at the same time, then you can ALL start a new game. That's how I see it at least, and why I've taken apart all of my Voltron/"player deletion" decks for being unfun (like Okaun/Zndrsplt, that if you get a lucky flip, you can just take someone out out of nowhere.)

who here was also screaming at the screen every time he mispronounced Alesha…

Master of Cruelties does NOT work the way you describe it. A players life total becomes 1 when Master of Cruelties ATTACKS a player and isn't block. In Magic a creature attacks when it is declared as an attacker during the Declare Attacker step. Alesha puts a creature into play tapped and attacking an opponent. The creature that Alesha puts into the battlefield is being declared as an attacker at all and thus doesn't attack. The same game mechanics that bypasses Master of Cruelties attack alone clause is the same exact game mechanic that will cause it not to set a players life total to 1. You can't have it both ways. You have to realize that "attacks" in an action and "attacking" is the state the action grants. It is an issue with the English language really in English if you take he action of attacks then you achieve the state of attacking there is no other way of achieving the state of attacking without first taking the action of attacks. In Magic something else is granting the state of attacking here then you don't need to take the action of attacks to do so. I like to compare it to someone standing on the edge of a building and taking the action of Jump and another person standing on the edge and someone else pushing them off. Both the pushed one and the jumper are now in a state of falling one gained that state by taking the jump action while the other did not.