Kruphix: The Maximal Amount of A Good Thing

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kenbaumann
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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

I gave this primer a decent-sized update! Quite a few revisions (though none alter substantially the goal or lines of the deck).

Core 2021 has two promising cards for Kruphix so far: Teferi's Ageless Insight and Chromatic Orrery!

The former does have two blue pips which I'm not thrilled about; it also doesn't have the lifegain upside of Alhammarret's Archive. And "must" effects like these are dangerous. But I'm curious to see how often Teferi's Ageless Insight might feel like an Unbound Flourishing that can come down 2 turns before the first Kruphix-banked draw spell: will the tempo advantage be worth the risks?

The latter is a good filter. Without infinite mana, it nearly pays for itself the turn it comes down. If it resolves when you have infinite colorless mana banked, you're immediately filtered. It also could be a decent mana rock with untap effects like Seedborn's. I suspect it will permanently replace Gemstone Array. (Plus it says "draw cards" on it! Though that effect is otherwise inefficient in this deck.)

I'm also going to order a copy of Turbulent Dreams next month. It's a mid- to- late-game way to turn all those lands into your hand into something useful; I see it as a riskier though more mana-efficient Cyclonic Rift. Though the fact that it's Sorcery-speed isn't ideal. I'll test it and report back.

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jaishivajai
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Post by jaishivajai » 3 years ago

I semi-recently built a Kruphix deck so I'm excited to see this primer!

I'm confused as to how this deck actually wins. Is your only win con infinite combos (or a ton of banked mana) plus Abundance and draw everyone out? Is it that your deck is so reliable that you can just draw into all of these cards easily?

Also, why not just play Laboratory Maniac and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries for a much easier, more one sided wincon? With those 2 cards in the deck you can cut the group hug cards and just draw cards for yourself. That's how my deck is built right now.

Maybe it's just that you want to embrace the group hug aspect vs. competitiveness of the deck?

My Kruphix deck has been the slowest of any deck to gain it's identity. I started with the premise of "ramp a lot and draw a ton of cards" without knowing how to win really. Looking forward to coming back to your deck when I have more time to read through the entire thing.

I'll share my list one of these days. Should I post it here to encourage the Kruphix players to gather together or in a completely new thread?

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kenbaumann
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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

@jaishivajai Hello!

This deck wins by decking its opponents. More often than not, I don't have Abundance on the field when I have enough mana to kill my opponents with a targeted draw spell like Braingeyser. Also, Library of Leng and Windfall in the mid- to late-game is a sneaky winning play. And I'd say that 80% of the time, I'll win with infinite mana in my mana pool.

I prefer not to run any Lab Man effects in this deck—that would be too easy, and would change my meta's attitude towards this deck. I'd like to fight to win through hugging my opponents; I have more fun that way.

Please do share your list in this thread! I'd love to see this thread become a hub for Kruphix builds.

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kenbaumann
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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

I posted a quick edit including some new swaps (noted in the body of the primer)!

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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

Made a little update to the changelog.

Of note: I've been very, very impressed by Chromatic Orrery in this deck. If it comes down early, it nearly pays for itself. It's drawn me two cards in a pinch. It's absurdly good with Mirage Mirror as a way of banking more mana fast. A much better and more versatile card than Gemstone Array!

I've also been pleasantly surprised by Teferi's Ageless Insight. If it sticks around for just one -costed draw spell, it essentially pays for itself re: value.

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Post by benjameenbear » 3 years ago

Since you actually have some gameplay with Chromatic Orrery, is it worth the 7 CMC? I've been contemplating adding it into my Breya list to test it out as a mana rock that wins the game with Dramatic Scepter. I'm more interested in your experience in non-combo situations.

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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

@benjameenbear In my experience, 7 in Kruphix isn't much of a demand. So yes, it's definitely been worth it in my experience, but Kruphix is uniquely good at generating double-digits worth of banked mana each game. So in a leaner, more efficient deck, I'm not sure Orrery would be worth it.

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Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

I struggled quite a bit with Chromatic Orrery as a potential include in my Daxos deck, to the point of it getting a dedicated one-card ramble post prior to the set update. Ultimately the heuristic I landed on is quite simple - does the deck actually want to have 12 mana, and will be able to make good use of it? If so, jam Trap Rock in. I've had the more competitive members of my EDH brainstorm circle groan in dismay at this revelation, as at seven you're supposed to be dropping haymakers and ending the game. But what if you're not actually done ramping at 7? Then honestly this fits right in. I'm running it in two mana sink'y decks and it's great there. I do tend to operate on a lot lower power level than you (Ben) though.

I guess Trap Rock makes sense in here. I tend to avoid non-Sol Ring tier rocks in Gx decks, but you (Ken) actually get to potentially plop this thing down and use it as a filter for banked Kruphix mana. I expected the filtering to be largely irrelevant in Daxos, where if I do choke on colours I do so relatively minimally, but there I was suddenly doing intense things and milking every last drop of Serra's Sanctum. As such, I imagine that it's also potentially quite a nice perk here. You ever done the effectively ten mana Divination yet? :P
 
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kenbaumann
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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

Rumpy5897 wrote:
3 years ago
You ever done the effectively ten mana Divination yet? :P
Hah! I have indeed! But never out of an actual need to; I only drew a couple cards looking for an "out" in a game in Hug mode where I wasn't playing to win.

This Kruphix build is strange because it can accrue value and protect itself indefinitely, and then deploy all its threats when it's most advantageous. It needn't really keep pace in terms of tempo with its opponents. That said, it's also a deck with a decent amount of interaction and slightly-aggressive-for-casual average CMC (2.77). So Trap Rock (lol!) both fits and doesn't fit.

My local playgroup recently started tracking data for our games. Out of 19 games, Kruphix has a 63.16% win percentage and typically wins on turn 8. And this includes a few games which I "threw away" (re: win %) since I was playing in Hug mode. Not bad!

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kenbaumann
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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

Hi folks!

I've made a bunch of changes to Kruphix, and more importantly: I've made a huge revision to this primer!

What prompted these changes? Well, I dismantled 4 out of 6 of my EDH decks, leaving myself just this list and my Jodah deck (which has a primer on Nexus right over here). So a lot of pieces got cannibalized from those other decks and thrown into Kruphix.

I hope your Kruphix or Kruphix-adjacent decks have been delightful lately. Thanks for reading!

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Post by SaintForthigan » 3 years ago

I'd build your original Kruphix deck ages ago, and often loaned it out at my LGS to people who generally enjoyed group-hug/combo/unorthodox strategies, only to note that without exception, even after describing it as a hug deck which could pivot to pernicious fun, everyone tried playing it as a right-to-the-throat big mana combo deck (to considerable success, I should note), so I just put in an order for the changes you've implemented, and I look forward to seeing both how the deck plays and evolves in the future :)

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kenbaumann
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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

@SaintForthigan That's lovely to hear! I'm not surprised that folks went for the straight-up combo lines—I now present this deck as "tutorless big mana combo—or hug." But it takes a very real discipline to stick with hug. :)

I'm excited to see how the deck adapts for ya! Thanks so much for letting me know.

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Post by snowfox54119 » 3 years ago

Love to see this deck get updated! Are there any cards from Commander Legends that you've got your eye on for the list?

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kenbaumann
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Post by kenbaumann » 3 years ago

@snowfox54119 Hullbreacher made it in. What a punishing ritual!

Folks: thanks so much for the conversation, criticism, and enthusiasm about this deck and my modular Jodah list. I've decided to stop updating these primers here in order to centralize all my decklists and primers at Moxfield. You can find them all here, including my recent popular competitive primer on Siskel & Ebert, a.k.a. Krark and Sakashima.

Thanks again!

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Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

I implore you to reconsider - your Moxfield write-up is like the back of a cereal box in comparison to the depth you went into here :P Hoping this doesn't mean that you're phasing out from the forum, I've been liking your YouTube content and got an extra kick out of it by virtue of frequenting the same board.
 
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