Magic: The Gathering Commander Focus: Rohgahh, Kher Keep Overlord

Kobolds were first introduced way back in Legends, the set that brought the first multicolor cards. The set had some of the worst multicolor cards ever printed and a bunch of really weird cards that persist to this day, cards like Chains of Mephistopheles and Presence of the Master (which clearly has a picture of Albert Einstein on it, which doesn't really fit even in the expanded Universes Beyond, yet), and a few other strangely good cards. The rest of the set is basically lost to time as unplayable old stuff. But it introduced a new creature type in Kobolds, with several varieties of 0 cost 0/1 red creatures, the OG Rohgahh of Kher Keep, and several new lords. Originally there were only three "lords"; the eponymous Lord of Atlantis, Goblin King, and Zombie Master. The idea of real kindred decks was a long way away; there were several Elves, several Goblins, several Orcs, Giants, and various other things, but not the sort of overwhelming variety we have now with 600+ Elves, 500 Goblins, 500 Knights, 1100 Wizards, and so on.

However, even 31 years later there's still only 13 Kobolds. There's even 54 Changelings, that means there's more Kobolds that aren't Kobolds than Kobolds that are Kobolds. Sad. It's only about a Kobold every 2 years. Except it's really worse, since 7 of the Kobolds came out in Legends, which means it's more like we get a new Kobold every 5 years or so. Sad but not that surprising that Kobolds aren't one of the more commonly constructed kindred decks. There's a weird footnote in that Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh is somewhat popular in cEDH since having a 0 cost creature in the Command Zone enables you to run certain cards that are not very useful otherwise.

Given the Kobold imbalance towards Changelings we're going to have to run some non-Kobold-Kobolds to realize our shared universal dream of a kindred Kobold deck. Sadly there's really only one Kobold commander if you're a purist, the second version of Rohgahh, Kher Keep Overlord. Rohgahh makes Dragons when you cast Kobolds which is fairly straightforward. He also makes 0/1 Kobolds when you cast Dragon spells, but I don't really see how that's all that beneficial, unless you just want them, for reasons. It's a real non-bo. It'd be pretty neat if the Dragon tokens he created had devour or something like that, or he gave Dragons devour. Or anything really. Well, I guess Kobold beggars can't be choosers.

So the game plan ends up looking something like this:

1. Get Roghah out.
2. Cast Kobold.
3. Pay 2 mana to get a Dragon.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as many times as you can afford.
5. Slam your Dragons into your opponents.

Because Roghahh costs 5, and because you need to be able to pay 2 mana to get Dragons off Kobold casts, and because there's not enough 0 cost Kobolds to really support this playstyle, you need a fair amount of mana. And black and red aren't amazing at ramping, so it ends up being with a lot of mana rocks.

On top of that, once you've got that Kobold out, you really don't care about it. Its whole purpose was to let you get a Dragon token, but thankfully black is quite good at sacrificing it's own creatures for more cards, so this is your method for not stalling out. Simply sacrifice those kobolds you've got hanging around for value.

You want to cast Kobolds though, so there are several ways to get them back out of your graveyard so you can recast:

• Raise the Draugr
• Agadeem's Awakening
• Phyrexian Reclamation
• The Soul Stone
• Oversold Cemetery
• Skullclamp

There's also some backup ways to sacrifice your excess Kobolds in Phyrexian Tower and Goblin Bombardment.

Probably your best recursion option is finding your Cloudstone Curio, once you have that you can just recast two of your 0-cost Kobolds infinitely. There is an Impact Tremors in the deck, so technically this functions as an infinite combo that you could get as early as turn 3, but if even one of your opponents has a bit of creature control it can put an end to it. I think it seems fine to have a random 3 card infinite combo in a deck with no tutors.

Additionally you've got a few utility Dragons:

• Thunderbreak Regent deals 3 damage when a player targets one of your Dragons.
• Scourge of Valkas makes Dragons deal X damage to any target whenever a Dragon enters, where X is equal to the number of Dragons you control.
• Terror of the Peaks lets you deal damage to any target whenever another creature (not just Dragon) enters under your control, equal to that creatures power.
• Wrathful Red Dragon lets you deal damage to any non-Dragon target whenever a Dragon you control deals damage.
• Dragon Tempest gives your flying creatures haste, and whenever a Dragon enters, it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Dragons you control.

They all care about Dragons and buff or trigger of all your Dragons, just to give your 4/4 flyers a bit more bite. They're really there to speed up the game, without them it's going to take a long time even generating 1-3 4/4 flyers per turn to deal 120 damage. These will also let you clean out any pesky defenders or troublesome utility creatures, or else let you just ping someone out of the game if they are pillow forting or stacking up attack tax Propaganda cards.

Other than that it's a bit of utility cards, some random good stuff like Black Market Connections which can be cut for pet cards or deck tweaking, what there is of enchantment removal for red and black, and a bit of creature control. Most of your board control comes from your triggers so don't be afraid to use it to kill off small creatures and value cards rather than just going face with a Terror of the Peaks or Wrathful Red Dragon trigger.

You need to be disciplined and not just drop Kobolds and sacrifice them on early turns because you have nothing to do. You really won't draw into anything "good" just more Kobolds and sacrifice spells. Hold up the Kobolds until you have Rohgahh and can pay for his trigger. Then start summoning Dragons.

This deck solidly slots into bracket 2. Yes, it can in a crazy game end up combo-ing off on turn 3, but that's highly unlikely. Other than that, in a good game it will ramp on turns 2 and 3 and drop Rohgahh on turn 4, though more likely 5. Then on turns 4 or 5 it finally starts generating Dragon tokens. It will then take several turns to start really generating damage. A true best case scenario involves something like Cabal Coffers, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Sol Ring, Cloudstone Curio, a 0-cost Kobold, Worn Powerstone, several swamps, Blood Crypt, and the Dragon Tempest. In this scenario you are dishing out a fair amount of ramping damage starting on turn 5 and accelerating from there, but even then you're not really killing anyone from full till turns 8 or 9, and the rest another couple turns later.



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