Kess wants a deck that casts lots of instant and sorcery spells. It also suits a deck that fills its discard pile and plays cards back out of it.
Mana cost
Blue, Black, Red ()
Power / toughness3 / 4
RarityMythic
Flying
Once during each of your turns, you may cast an instant or sorcery spell from your graveyard. If a spell cast this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
Picked for what they do in Kess's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Kess's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Kess works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast14 Jun 2019
If a sorcery card is put into your graveyard during your main phase and the stack is empty, you have a chance to cast it before any player may attempt to remove that card from your graveyard.
Wizards of the Coast14 Jun 2019
If a spell cast this way is put into another zone after it resolves (perhaps because it had buyback), it's considered a new object. If that card later moves to your graveyard, it won't be exiled.
Wizards of the Coast14 Jun 2019
If you cast a card from your graveyard using another permission (such as that of flashback), Kess's effect doesn't apply. You can cast another instant or sorcery card from your graveyard.
Wizards of the Coast14 Jun 2019
If you cast one instant or sorcery card from your graveyard and then have a new Kess come under your control in the same turn, you may cast another instant or sorcery card from your graveyard that turn.
Wizards of the Coast14 Jun 2019
Once you begin to cast the card, losing control of Kess won't affect the spell. You can finish casting it as normal and it will be exiled if it would be put into your graveyard.
Wizards of the Coast14 Jun 2019
You must follow the normal timing permissions and restrictions of the card you cast from your graveyard.
Wizards of the Coast14 Jun 2019
You must pay the costs to cast that card. If it has an alternative cost, you may cast it for that cost instead.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryUBRPlayers write colors as letters: U for blue, B for black, R for red. Blue is U because B was already taken by black.SpellslingerSpellslinger decks cast lots of instants and sorceries, one-time spells, and play creatures that reward every spell you cast. Instants and sorceries take effect once and then go to your graveyard, and an instant can even be cast during another player's turn.Open the Spellslinger pageFlashback EnablerLets you cast instants and sorceries out of your graveyard, so spells you have already used become resources again. Snapcaster Mage, Past in FlamesOpen the Flashback Enabler pageCast from GraveyardLets you cast spells or play lands straight from your graveyard, so the graveyard becomes a second hand. This is different from Reanimation, which puts a creature card onto the battlefield without casting it. Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Yawgmoth's WillOpen the Cast from Graveyard pageEvasionAn ability that makes a creature hard to block, so its attacks reach the player. Flying, menace, landwalk and plain 'can't be blocked' are the common kinds.Open the Evasion pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion pageGraveyard/Self-MillGraveyard decks fill their own graveyard on purpose, then play cards from it as if it were a second hand. Moving cards from the top of your own deck straight into the graveyard is called self-mill.Open the Graveyard/Self-Mill pageReanimatorReanimator decks put big creatures into their own graveyard early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to cast it.Open the Reanimator page
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