When I was younger, I played with quite a bit of early Magic. My first packs were from the Urza Block but I was gifted older cards from cousins and would buy cool older singles that would catch my eye from the local shops. During this era of my time with the game, I was playing very casually with large 150 card stacks of five color madness at the kitchen table with siblings and friends.

This was how it went for a number of years. As Masques Block came out I'd buy packs to boost my decks (or what I thought was boosting as a 10 year old kid anyways). When Invasion came out I was kind of on a little hiatus. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the game, but other games were taking up more of my time. I was playing Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and more, so my time with Magic was at a low for about a year or so. I picked up a handful of boosters here and there, but generally wasn't playing the game all too much.

That all started to change a little bit with Odyssey block. Around this time, I started picking up more packs, reading the books, and more. I knew about lots of characters from the earlier blocks and stories, but only in bits and pieces from the art and flavor texts. But with these books and stories combined with some wild sets and flavor, I quickly fell in love with the continent of Otaria and the characters on it. This would especially continue into Onslaught block where I'd take my first steps into the competitive world with Magic Online and Friday Night Magic. On this plane there was one character I loved: Kamahl.

Kamahl was the main overarching character of the Otaria stories of these two blocks. I loved following him and his journey through the stories in the books from his journey for glory to the Mirari driving him to the brink of madness to his transformation from barbarian to druid. I loved seeing his character grow and evolve and have an especially iconic look to him. I was always sad that his card from Odyssey isn't that great but I felt redeemed seeing his Green iteration from Onslaught.

I've talked about Kamahl before when discussing both him and his sister Jeska in a piece from around the release of Commander Legends. While that one is arguably quite better, I absolutely couldn't resist talking about one of my favorite classic characters for a Classic Commander article. So, let's check out the big badass and see what list I've got for you today!

Kamahl's Swarm | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Arbor Elf
• 1 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Brawn
• 1 Devoted Druid
• 1 Elvish Archdruid
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Frontier Guide
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Joraga Treespeaker
• 1 Krosan Tusker
• 1 Llanowar Elves
• 1 Lotus Cobra
• 1 Masked Admirers
• 1 Nullmage Shepherd
• 1 Ohran Viper
• 1 Omnath, Locus of Mana
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Priest of Titania
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
• 1 Sylvan Ranger
• 1 Vigor
• 1 Wall of Blossoms
• 1 Wall of Roots
• 1 Wood Elves
• 1 Verdeloth the Ancient
• 1 Yavimaya Elder

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Garruk WIldspeaker

• Instants (4)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Early Harvest
• 1 Harrow
• 1 Krosan Grip

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Deep Reconnaissance
• 1 Green Sun's Zenith
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Rude Awakening
• 1 Search for Tomorrow
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Triumph of the Hordes

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Awakening Zone
• 1 Bear Umbra
• 1 Exploration
• 1 Khalni Heart Expedition
• 1 Rowen
• 1 Sylvan Library

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Eldrazi Monument
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Journeyer's Kite
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow

• Lands (38)
• 26 Forest
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Terrain Generator
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Treetop Village
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills

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Kamahl, Fist of Krosa is clearly a card made to swarm. Heck, his second activated ability is actually just Overrun - down to the cost and everything. So, I wanted to try and make this a sort of swarm deck, but with a little bit of a twist. It's often super easy to build swarm decks with lots of token generators and such. I definitely wanted a little of that while making room for other things; so, while there's still an Avenger of Zendikar, there's not a Myr Battlesphere or anything to go super crazy.

Rather, I wanted to focus a little more on Kamahl's first ability. Make lands into creatures and then buff them up? Let's do it! This almost led me to turn this into a ramp deck utilizing several ways to draw lands out of your deck. This includes the typical ways you might expect like Cultivate and Nature's Lore, there's also cards that allow you to repeatedly grab lands like Journeyer's Kite and a personal classic fave of mine in Frontier Guide. I'm doing so, we're able to get many lands out of the deck and get to swinging all the faster. If you've got the money, I did include Crucible of Worlds and some fetch lands, but they're also far from what I'd consider essential.

There aren't a ton of additional things you need to know about the deck beyond play your stuff, make a bunch of critters, and swing for huge damage. You can do it vanilla but you can also make use of cards like Early Harvest and Rude Awakening to get in for tons of extra damage. There're also some great support cards such as Mind's Eye to provide solid card draw for an era where Green had little card advantage, and also Eldrazi Monument to make sure your lands-turned-creature don't get easily blown up. That and, you know, making them bigger and more evasive at the same time as well.

It's simple, but sometimes simple is fun. In truth, I always wanted to build a deck like this when I was first introduced to Commander, but I never did. I love Kamahl and I've loved this card for years, so running it as a Commander seemed like a natural fit. For one reason or another, I never got to make an actual list featuring my favorite Magic beefcake - until now that is. And that's one of my favorite things with Classic Commander: it allows me to make the decks I always wanted to but never did when I was younger.

Whatever the case, Kamahl remains an excellent choice if you love a good swarm deck, a good ramp deck, or, more importantly, both. He lets you get tons of mana, fill up your board, and go off to slam right into your opponent's life total. And he does so looking like one of the game's coolest characters - in my opinion at least. No matter what, he should easily make for a great time at your next Commander night, classic or not. Do what you must and may the land provide all that you need to win you some games.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

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