Commander
Deck list
View this Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck list in Archidekt!
About Karador, Ghost Chieftain
Karador allows you to cast a single creature card from your graveyard during your turns. It is worth to mention, the amount of creatures you are allowed to cast from the graveyard is tied to the specific Karador you have on the battlefield as you cast the spell. This means, if you blink Karador, you get to cast a new creature!
Karador, Ghost Chieftain in EDHREC
Karador is very popular due to the multitude of ways creature decks can be built with the extra creature recursion. In EDHREC Karador has over 2200+ decks and is the third most popular abzan commander. High popularity is explained with the great colors and also with the clear graveyard synergy with creatures.
Possible themes for Karador, Ghost Chieftain
This Karador build is a mix of dredge, creatures only and value theme. The mix of multiple themes allows for more flexible gameplay and less of a glass-cannon, but does hinder the power level greatly due to the dependancy of the graveyard and heavy usage of sorcery speed creatures.
Dredge theme
Dredge is a very strong mechanic available in Golgari colours. With dredge the aim is to get dredge cards to the graveyard as fast as possible with discard or sacrifice effects and then mill the library quickly to get an advantage with Karador.
What is Dredge mechanic?
Dredge is a replacement effect on a card. Dredge ability may be activated when a card with dredge is in your graveyard and a draw effect is on the stack. Dredge replaces the card draw and return the dredge card to your hand and you mill the specified amount of cards from your library to the graveyard. Worth mentioning: replacement effects do not use the stack so dredgeing can't be prevented by other players when the draw effect goes to the stack.
Creatures only
With a creatures only deck, every nonland card in the deck can be used with Karador. Creatures only decks are great and can answer multitude of threats with abzan colors with strong ETB removal effects like Plaguecrafter or Ravenous Chupacabra and having strong wincons like Craterhoof Behemoth or Blood Artist. Even boardwipes are doable with Massacre Girl or Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite example.
Aristocrat decks
As Abzan has Orzhov colors the aristocrat theme is a clear and viable high powered strategy for Karador decks. The main down side of aristocrat decks is easily countered with extra recursion with Karador and you will never run out of sacrificiable creatures or sac outlets. Great aristocrat creatures are: Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat and Priest of Forgotten Gods.
Any other kind of creature theme or tribal
Karador provides a great shell for any tribal deck in Abzan colors, and great tribal ideas in Abzan include: Spirits, Elfs, Humans, Warriors, Shamans or even enchantment creatures. Karadors ability to provide easy, extra recursion can be turned in to a powerful tool with blink effects and some broken ETB and death/sac effects using Sun Titan and Fiend Hunter with a sac outlet with infinite combo for value, card draw, tokens and what not.
Wraths theme
Wraths are a strong strategy in lower powered pods as most of the wincons are combat based. With no creatures, opponents run out of ways to win. Karador synergizes well with wraths, as the graveyards are filled with creatures, and you will get them back easily.
With wraths, be prepared for salty players as a wrath every turn. causes. very. long. games.
Strategy
This Karador build is a dredge deck with a mix of value, aristocrats, value decks and overall control. Main wincons are aristocrat effects as pure combat is often too weak without strong overrun effects.
The main idea is to get dredge cards to the graveyard as fast as possible, mill roughly a 5 creatures, get Karador out and starting to control the board with sac effects and getting value or damage from the death and sac triggers.
I wanted to build a graveyard heavy deck, and I've been interested in the dredge mechanic for some time now. My first dredge decks were golgari deck with [[Tormod, the Desecrator]], but somehow I felt they were lacking a lot of the speed and explosive turns I was looking for.
Early game and mulligans
As we want to abuse the dredge mechanic we need at least one dredge card in the opening hand to make sure we can get the engine running. With a three colored deck the ability to get all the colors quickly can be tricky so look out for any dual lands in the opening hand. Black and green are the main colors, but we can't cast Karadow without white mana, so be advised.
Great opening hand contains 3 lands, mana dork and a 2- or 3-drop creature and a dredge card to start the engine. Great opening hand cards are: Darkblast, any 1-drop mana dorks like Elvish Mystic, Avacyn's Pilgrim or Elves of Deep Shadow. Greenseeker, Esper Sentinel and Llanowar Mentor are amazing T1 drops for getting value quickly!
Mid game
T4 to T6 are the mid game. In the mid game our dredge engine is running and we are filling the graveyard with creatures for Karador. Keep in mind Karador is expensive, so we really want to pay the minimum of three mana for him. Also keep oin mind, Karador is quite bad as a creature if we can't cast anything from the graveyard the same turn, so cast him only if you can use the recursion.
Casting a creature once a turn form the graveyard is great card advantage, but to make it a viable strategy to get actual advantage, we want more value out of those creatures. Great synergy pieces are: God-Eternal Oketra creates strong 4/4 zombies with vigilance, Karametra, God of Harvests ramps you, Champion of Lambholt is pending wincon, Disciple of Bolas provides great card draw and Azusa, Lost but Seeking with Ramunap Excavator allows you to empty your graveyard from the useless land cards.
Late game
Late game is after T6. The end game is where we reap the benefits from the graveyard using Karador, and most likely, we've lost him to the command zone once, or twice even. Due to this unpleasant, but highly expected removal, we've prepared with other recursion like Doomed Necromancer or Undertaker.
I've noticed the Spellshapers (Undertaker, Greenseeker, Llanowar Mentor etc) synergizes extremely well with Karador, as they fill the graveyard and while doing so, provide great value and synergy! Other great Spellshapers are: Avenger en-Dal, Dawnstrider, Instigator, Silverglade Pathfinder, Skirk Ridge Exhumer, Bog Witch, Devout Witness, Rushwood Herbalist and Mageta the Lion. Spellshaper tribal seems like an interesting, and powerful tribal deck with Karador.
Winning the game
With the dredge deck our graveyard will most likely have the wincons already in there, but if the unpleasant situation has happened, and our graveyard has been targeted with the Bojuka Bog we are prepared with Vile Entomber. Some of the wincons are so expensive, we don't mind discarding them in the early game, like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Gray Merchant of Asphodel, as we know we'll get them back with Karador.
Other clear wincons are: Blood Artist, Death Tyrant, Grist the Hunger Tide (which is actually a creature in the graveyard, so we can cast it multiple times!). Aside Grist, the Dauthi Voidwalker is amazing in the deck, as what ever wincons are put into your opponents graveyards, you can cast them yourself, if Dauthi has exiled the card at some point.
Who is the deck for
If you enjoy explosive rounds, building up the board state and removing threats from your opponents and love abusing the graveyard, Karador is a great commander for you! Abzan colors and the ability to use your graveyard as a second hand brings massive value for you as long as your opponents are not running multiple graveyard hate cards.
I feel the deck is close to power level 6, as the deck itself has clear goals, has sufficient card draw and interactibility. Great power level reduction comes from the mana base and the low amount of noncreature removal spells and the low amount of protection against graveyard hate. I'm confident Karador can be built in a very janky way or highly competitive, even for cEDH levels with infinite combos, abusing Karadors ability to recast creatures from the graveyard.
This specific dredge build feels fun, and you have many choices to make as you need to evaluate what you need next and which choice gives you the most value in terms of resources. If you enjoy playing tempo decks, I'm sure you'll love a certain build with Karador!
Karador is very versatile commander with a clear value provisioning. Using your graveyard as a tool, and even as a wincon is amazing!
Cosideration list for Karador
Gravebreaker Lamia
Gravebreaker Lamia has great synergies with Karador, making your spells 1 cheaper when casting from the graveyard and working as a tutor!
Nylea, Keen-Eyed
Nylea, Keen-Eyed is also a creature, indestructible, big beater and a cost reductioner!
Cemetery Prowler
Cemetery Prowler is a newer cost reducer with a clear upside: graveyard hate against your opponents and possibly making enchantment creatures up to 2 cheaper to cast!
Lord of the Forsaken
Lord of the Forsaken is amazing addition, if you are looking for lifegain synergies or x-spell creatures, like artifacts or hydras.
Aegis of the Gods
Aegis of the Gods gives you hexproof, and therefore great cover from the usual graveyard hate cards like Bojuka Bog.
Keen-Eared Sentry
Keen-Eared Sentry as the Aegis, gives you hexproof, and protection from some of the graveyard hate.
