How to Make Keruga, the Macrosage Work in This Format

User avatar
UnfulfilledDesires
Posts: 128
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: they / them
Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA

Post by UnfulfilledDesires » 4 years ago

I'm fascinated by companions & trying to figure out a way to incorporate as many of them as possible in my EDH decks. Keruga, the Macrosage vexes me because of how awful it seems: a brutal restriction for a mediocre payoff.

Aluren was the first trick to come to mind. Dump a bunch of three-cost creatures on the battle & then cast Keruga to keep going. There are obviously better things one could be doing with Aluren, but this route seems potentially decent.

Dream Halls was the second. Cast a bunch of big things & then Keruga to refuel. Show and Tell could cheat it in. (This is of course suboptimal again as you could simply use Halls to cast Enter the Infinite & win.)

What other options exist? How can we cheat out a bunch of 3+-CMC permanents in order to draw some serious cards with Keruga?

I'm planning to use Phelddagrif as commander for flavor & because I was already planning to build a Phelddagrif deck as a part of an Ice Age block tricolor triumvirate. I imagine there are better choices for a general. Red in the color identity for Simian Spirit Guide seems ideal. Oh, perhaps Animar, Soul of Elements is the way to go. Hmm.

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6279
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 4 years ago

I mean you can make a pretty nice ramp suite of just 3 cmc stuff.
etc. etc. So i think you can play a fair game, you just need to come up with some ways to really go nuts in a moderately fair deck.

The nice part about that whole thing is you will have a pretty big hit ratio with stuff like genesis wave and such.

User avatar
Mookie
Posts: 3460
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 47
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: the æthereal plane

Post by Mookie » 4 years ago

Two things I'll call out are split cards (ex: Beck // Call, Expansion // Explosion) and Adventure cards (ex: Brazen Borrower, Bonecrusher Giant), which may be cast for cheaper than their CMC would suggest. Some Suspend cards (especially Search for Tomorrow) may also be worth consideration.

Beyond that, I'd recommend lots of ramp. 2 mana ramp is usually at its best for hitting 4 mana on turn 3, but a Keruga deck would want to be hitting 6 mana as fast as possible instead. One upside of running Keruga as a Companion is that it partially solves the classic ramp problem of drawing a ton of ramp and running out of gas - if you have a big card draw spell available to refuel after dumping your hand, that mitigates things somewhat. Just imagine Keruga as a very fancy Harmonize that always starts in your opening hand.

As a corollary, permanent-based ramp like Wood Elves may be slightly preferred, since it turns into an extra card off Keruga. Something to consider.

User avatar
darrenhabib
Posts: 1812
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by darrenhabib » 4 years ago

Well my Niv-Mizzet Reborn deck only has two cards less than 3 mana, but then its also built around those two cards, Living End and Hypergenesis .. so that doesn't help.

Aluren and Dream Halls are solid options that you mentioned.
You could look at Academy Rector into Omniscience.

The problem is that even with these online, sure you get to put like 5 cards into play. Draw 5 cards is not exactly amazing given the setup and having to construct your entire deck around that.

It is possible to just build a fair but consistent deck that centers around really good 3 cmc permanents. Just playing a normal game and eventually casting Keruga, the Macrosage to refill your hand.
I feel like you'd need a blink/return to hand/reanimation strategy to get multiple uses out of Keruga if going down this route.

But if you wanted to go deep and try and get busted plays, then you could look at copying effects.

Ways to keep multiplying are, Spawnwrithe, Mist-Syndicate Naga, Mishra's Self-Replicator, Myr Propagator, Prototype Portal, Mechanized Production, Followed Footsteps, Mirror-Sigil Sergeant, Polyraptor, Progenitor Mimic, Sprouting Phytohydra, Stolen Identity

Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer in your 99 could be used to copy a token that has a converted mana cost of 3 or greater.
So imagine you've created a token off Bramble Sovereign and you've also created a bunch of tokens from Xyris, the Writhing Storm (for example). Those token will get the converted mana cost of whatever you've copied with Bramble Sovereign and now you can cast Keruga, the Macrosage getting tons of cards.

Mirrorweave and Masterful Replication can do this type of thing as well.

These are cards that can make tokens of cards.
Arcane Artisan, Mimic Vat, Bramble Sovereign, Dual Nature, Back from the Brink,
Riku of Two Reflections, Faerie Artisans, God-Pharaoh's Gift, Helm of the Host, Mirrorworks, Prototype Portal, Soul Foundry

Temporary tokens; Feldon of the Third Path, Flameshadow Conjuring, Felhide Spiritbinder, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Mirror March, Saheeli Rai, Séance, Splinter Twin

Once off; Rite of Replication, Clone Legion, Echo Storm, Cackling Counterpart, Fractured Identity, Kindred Charge, Quasiduplicate, Repudiate // Replicate, Saheeli's Artistry, Spitting Image, Supplant Form, Tempt with Reflections,


You could look at Wildfield Borderpost, Mistvein Borderpost, Fieldmist Borderpost, Veinfire Borderpost, Firewild Borderpost, as a way to get more permanents into play earlier.

User avatar
Stapler
is a liar
Posts: 133
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by Stapler » 4 years ago

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath seems like one of the better potential Generals for the deck. Keruga's weakness is skipping the first two turns, so having a card that consistently and repeatedly ramps you to big mana and filters your draws lets you play a higher land count and focus on getting your high-cost permanents into play to help you catch up as fast as possible. Crystal Shard, Erratic Portal, and Portal of Sanctuary have decent synergy with Uro, and double as permanents for Keruga + a way to reuse his ETB. Uro also rewards you for spending the first couple turns cycling lands and other cards, fueling his Escape.

In whatever version of Keruga you make, you're almost undoubtedly going to be using some of the various "free" spells WotC has printed over the years. Force of Will, Force of Negation, Force of Vigor, Foil, Mindbreak Trap, the new commander-cast card Fierce Guardianship, maybe even Misdirection or Commandeer; all of these cards let you "cheat" the restriction of playing no cheap spells and allow you to interact with your opponents without needing to hold up 3+ mana every turn.

Gemstone Caverns and Ancient Tomb are both lands that let you skip only 1 turn instead of 2, and are probably also auto-includes in most builds. The depletion counter lands like Saprazzan Skerry also do this, but you'll probably need a plan for the eventual card/mana loss.
"Image"

User avatar
pokken
Posts: 6279
Joined: 4 years ago
Answers: 2
Pronoun: he / him

Post by pokken » 4 years ago

Mono green golos is another great commander for this. Nykthos or cradle on turn 4 and playing power untappers like krosan restorer and argothian elder and so on. Just always ramp on 3 and golos on 4 and you can go pretty nuts.

My build doesn't actually play that much under 3 iirc.

https://deckbox.org/sets/2598546

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Commander”