Bruse and Kraum's Boorish Opus - Jeskai Beast Mode

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MeowZeDung
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Bruse and Kraum's Boorish Opus

Image


boor·ish, adjective — rough and bad-mannered; coarse.

NucklaveePhyrexian IngesterSanctum Plowbeast

"It lives … IT LIVES!" —Ludevic, necro-alchemist


Aether ChargeLumbering BattlementCryptic Annelid


Beast Mode, noun — Mode that you switch into when doing hardcore activities; having beast-like characteristics.


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Table of Contents


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Introduction

This deck is the ill-advised brainchild of my love for the Jeskai color wedge, my desire to make tribes work against the grain of the color-pie, and the concept of running a large number of "bad" 4+ card combos in a deck without tutoring for the pieces, but rather relying on sheer volume of card draw to assemble a combo and win in one fell swoop. The third of these is not an original idea, but one that I encountered in @tstorm823's Zedruu primer here and will be quoting extensively. Props to tstorm for inspiring more mad science!

More specifically, this deck is a Beast tribal deck that does not contain a single green mana symbol and looks to abuse Enters the Battlefield triggers. The name of the game here is synergy, and raw power on individual cards is most definitely compromised in the name of making the pieces of the puzzle come together and do something downright silly.

The selection of fun, powerful, and zany ETB Beasts in Jeskai is surprising, and the tribe and colors grant access to some other fun synergies with Deserts and Cycling. The former is neat because it contributes to some of the game winning combos in the deck without functionally taking up much space since it consists of lands, and the latter powers a card draw engine and additional ETB synergy with Astral Slide and Astral Drift.

Enjoy!



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Commander Analysis

Now aren't these two an. . . interesting pair. The reality of this deck is that it is not commander centric, but rather mostly centered on Jeskai colored creatures with the type "Beast" triggering upon ETB and finding ways to abuse that. This means it must be a creature heavy list and those creatures must mostly be Beasts, to state the obvious. Among Jeskai commanders, most options explicitly focus on noncreature spells (Kykar, Wind's Fury, Elsha of the Infinite, Narset, Enlightened Master, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest) and are nowhere near directing the deckbuilder to build Beast tribal. All of this is to say that a Jeskai Beast tribal deck will need to be led by a commander or commanders that will not be the centerpiece(s) of the deck, but rather supplemental pieces that smooth out the overall strategy being pursued. So, why Bruse and Kraum?


Apart from the noble Beast in the background of the card's art behind Bruse, what does such a boorish fellow have to offer ETB Beasts?

for a 3/3 Human Ally

The 3/3 body and creature types are clearly not the appeal for this particular Bruse deck. The relatively low cost and access to white, however, are just what the doctor ordered. There is no need to ramp Bruse out early, but when it is his time to shine, it's nice to know he will be quite affordable.

Whenever Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder enters the battlefield or attacks, target creature you control gains double strike and lifelink until end of turn.

Apart from having Partner and a white mana symbol, Herein lies the real reason Bruse gets to be in the command zone for this deck. His ETB trigger is quite powerful, and with the abundance of ETB enablers in the list, will likely trigger multiple times. Ideally, turning several Beasts into double strikers will close out the game if a combo isn't on board or in hand, but even if that's not the case, Bruse's ETB can lead to a lot of life gained and thus some serious resiliency.


I would say that Horrors are related to Beasts, perhaps as second cousins thrice removed or something, so there's not too much of a flavor clash here. . . right? Sigh. . . Anyway. . . Kraum is the more vital of the two commanders for a couple of reasons.

for a 4/4 Zombie Horror with Flying and Haste

The access to blue is essential, and Kraum's cost is low enough that he can reasonably be cast on turn 3 or 4 consistently. This is all important since getting Kraum's triggered ability on board ASAP is a key milestone for the deck's early game strategy.

Haste on a decent sized flying body shouldn't be overlooked either. It plays particularly well with Bruse's double strike and lifelink clause in a pinch. While Kraum is certainly a beater, that is not his primary function in this list, but it is good to keep in mind as a tertiary win condition

Whenever an opponent casts their second spell each turn, draw a card.

Kraum provides passive card draw while not being overly threatening. Unlike Rhystic Study or Smothering Tithe, opponents won't need to constantly decide whether or not they will pay a tax and thus be annoyed into pointing removal at it. The effect just happens whenever they cast their second spell for the turn. ANY turn. In a typical game of commander, it is entirely possible that this nets 2-3 cards on the turn cycle immediately after Kraum is played. It is not an absolute certainty, but it is very difficult for Kraum to not be a source of card advantage, however slight. In a deck stuffed full of 4+ card combos, card draw is king.


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Deck History

If you are at all familiar with my activity on MTGNexus, then you know I am a fan of the Jeskai colors and play them almost exclusively. It's no surprise that I would build yet another deck in these colors. The main inspiration for this restriction, aside from personal preference, is budget. If you have experienced the desire to build every deck ever like I have, you know that it can really strain the wallet. By limiting myself to my favorite color wedge, I don't need to invest in nearly as many lands, staples, and bombs. This explains, in part, why on earth I would try to build a Beast tribal deck without forests. The other part is the challenge and inherent restriction, which breeds creativity. I like working hard for any success with a deck rather than just plugging in well established powerful cards. I'm looking at you Cyclonic Rift.

As mentioned earlier, this deck is largely inspired by @tstorm823's philosophy of saturating a deck with "bad" combos as exemplified in his Zedruu build. "Bad" is in quotes because the reality is the combos are quite strong, they are only "bad" in the sense that they involve 4 or more cards which are not being tutored up. Thus, they are inefficient, slower, and what many may refer to as "bad". I was really taken by this idea and wanted to build my own deck that functioned like tstorm's Zedruu, at least in the combo capacity. I just wasn't sure where to begin, but thought I'd start by looking at some tribes.

"Image""Image""Image"


Jeskai features some obvious tribes like Wizards, Dragons, Goblins, Angels, etc., but some really sweet overlooked tribes too, like Weirds, Homunculus (Homunculi?), Cyclops, Horrors, Devils, Noggles, Elementals, Kithkin, etc. (In fact I fairly recently posted my thought process while brewing Jeskai Zombies with Bruse and Kraum here, and that will probably be an alternate list here eventually.) I started perusing the neglected tribes for cards that would lend themselves to combo and found some cool ideas to work with. One path I brainstormed was leveraging creatures that can grow quickly, such as Okaun, Eye of Chaos, Nivix Cyclops, Erratic Cyclops, Mercurial Geists, Wee Dragonauts, and Chandra's Spitfire, and combining them with Fling, Brion Stoutarm, Bloodshot Cyclops and the like.

While researching cards down this path I bumped into Kiln Fiend, a cube favorite of mine, and Ferrovore, which made me want to look further into Beasts in Jeskai colors. Felidar Guardian seemed an obvious combo option, and I was reminded that Lumbering Battlement existed and is hilarious. Nucklavee is a card I've always like that gets edged out in favor of Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall more often than not. As I kept digging through cards I was frankly quite surprised at the potential and depth of Beast tribal around an ETB theme. I scrapped all my other deck blueprints and went full Beast mode, resulting in the decklist below.



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Current Decklist


Bruse and Kraum's Boorish Opus
Approximate Total Cost:



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Deck Philosophy


Coming soon! Link and quotes put here as source material I will inject into my own content when I get around to it.

How Bad is a 4-card Combo?
tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
So like, step one in not letting your combo pieces be dead cards is to just play good cards...Step two is making the cards more relevant yourself by including lighter weight synergies...Step 3 is not getting into topdeck mode. If you draw multiple cards a turn, one dead card doesn't hurt. If you have scry or loot effects, you can convert dead cards into live ones. If you have practical discard outlets, you have uses for a card even if its rules text is effectively blank. And in this format, there's no reason not to have access to these things, because you have a command zone to work with. In a deck full of bad combos, you don't need a commander as a combo piece, you want a commander that helps assemble other pieces or makes bad draws worth something...And as far as dodging 2-3 card combos, you just have to be committed to it. You'll definitely run into accidents occasionally, but then it's off to gatherer again to find something more specific that fits as a 4-piece combo but not less. And the more specific card doesn't have to be worse.
tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
Mind you, I'm not often going to get 42 cards deep by playing a Howling Mine and then letting the game go for 17 more turns. I could draw with Jeskai Ascendancy, or Mindmoil. Or Vanish Into Memory or Mindmoil. Dig 5 deeper with Azor's Gateway or Mindmoil. Play Chance to rummage 10 cards, or Mindmoil. Draw 7 with Time Spiral, or Temporal Cascade, or Mindmoil. Play Bonus Round before those draw spells, or Mindmoil. Chain damage onto Swans of Brynn Argoll, or Mindmoil. Make 5 copies of Knowledge Pool, or Mindmoil. Put Mind's Desire into Eye of the Storm, that empties the deck real fast. Or also, I could play Mindmoil. There are tons of ways around like turn 6-10 to just sift through half the deck all at once. My primary win condition here is drawing cards.
toctheyounger wrote:
4 years ago
you don't really need tutors per se for this deck. At some point a critical mass of card draw happens and you just see enough of the deck to cobble something together. So long are you're doing something, something will happen. Vaguest sentence of all time, but it's true, especially when everything you cast happens under Mindmoil. That card will show you your whole damn library if you give it enough fuel.


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Card Choices


Coming soon!



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Deck Strategy


Coming Soon!
Early Game Strategy
Coming Soon!
Mid-Game Strategy
Coming Soon!
Late-Game
Coming soon!
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Credit & Thanks

Coming Soon! But for a start, @tstorm823 deserves a great deal of credit if it wasn't already abundantly obvious. His Zedruu deck was a huge inspiration, and the discussion in that thread is worth its weight in gold for me.


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Change Log

Last edited by MeowZeDung 3 years ago, edited 27 times in total.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Normally I wouldn't post a primer templated decklist like this without it being closer to finished, but this one is going to take a long time of testing and tweaking until I'm even close to satisfied with it, and I thought it would be fun to post this one as is and play a little game:

How many of the 4 + card combos can you find? I'm genuinely curious if y'all see some that I missed entirely. See if you can also find some of the many "lighter weight synergies" sprinkled throughout. I'll bet there are some I'm unaware of :crazy:

Do you see any 2-3 card combos that I missed? Hopefully not. I stumbled into some when I was brainstorming the list. For instance, I had to choose between Portcullis and Leonin Relic-Warder. Warder won out because it turns out Portcullis + Felidar Guardian presents the same issue.

The three monuments are just placeholders for Herald's Horn, Kindred Discovery, and Urza's Incubator until my budget catches up to my deckbuilding. I'm sure there are other obvious upgrades that could be made and I'd love to hear feedback to that effect. Obviously I'm trying to stay true to a tribal theme, so there's no need to inform me that Fiend Hunter + Sun Titan + a sac outlet is a thing, or that Archaeomancer is probably better than Nucklavee.
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Post by tstorm823 » 4 years ago

Taking a quick lookover, I see 1 4-card combo right away, and then get distracted by all those creatures I had never realized were beasts. I'll come back later and give this a deeper dive, but Jeskai beast tribal etb flicker combo is fantastically unexpected, and I hope it works out.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

I'm hoping to get some more takers on my little 4-card-combo guessing game, but I'll tease a little by sharing the combos I won with tonight:

I got off to a rough start, but managed a turn 5 Kraum. Between my zombie friend, Vanish Into Memory, Leave // Chance, and Rhystic Study, I drew all the cards I needed to set up the win with Panharmonicon + Felidar Guardian + Lumbering Battlement + Expansion // Explosion. If you aren't quite seeing how it works, here's a rough and hopefully not too confusing breakdown:
Combo explanation
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With Panharmonicon and Lumbering Battlement in play, I cast Felidar Guardian, which triggers twice on ETB thanks to Panharmonicon. I allow the first Guardian trigger to resolve, targeting Battlement, which flickers and puts its own 2 triggers on the stack (the second is irrelevant in battlement's case since it hits all the creatures I want it to anyhow). I allow them to resolve with one targeting Guardian, which goes under the Battlement. Now I allow the 2nd Guardian trigger to resolve, targeting the Battlement which flickers, returning Guardian from exile and creating 2 new Guardian triggers and 2 new Battlement triggers. I stack them so that Guardian goes under the Battlement first, thereby going up to 3 Guardian triggers on the stack when the Battlement flickers. Once I've reached 3 Guardian triggers I'm ahead of the loop and can start targeting an additional permanent each cycle, and any land or rock will do to net infinite mana. I can then stop the loop anytime since Guardian's trigger is a "may" ability. With infinite mana, I nuke another player and draw my deck with Explosion. From here I win however I want, but I'll go ahead and tease more combo goodness and let you know that I did so by casting Aether Charge and then restarting the Guardian/Battlement loop with Phyrexian Metamorph.
Vanish into Memory was stupid good, hitting a 9/9 Yahenni, Undying Partisan on an end step, which returned as a 2/2 on my upkeep. Leonin Relic-Warder + Panharmonicon + Leave // Chance is one of the "lighter weight synergies" that really pulled its weight this game, and Phyrexian Ingester was a rockstar as well.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

One other note from last night's game that occurs to me: I had River Kelpie in hand at one point and it didn't feel great. Currently its only real synergies are with Brought Back and Chance. When I first put the list together there was a couple of sac outlets, but they got pulled for various reasons while River Kelpie stuck around as an oversight. Still, I want to keep the Beast count as high as I reasonably can, so I'll probably find room for a sac outlet. Ashnod's Altar seems too likely to end up creating a 2-3 card combo somewhere. Goblin Bombardment maybe? It's great with Kelpie if nothing else: sac for damage → persist/draw → flicker → sac for damage → persist/draw etc. etc. and there's very likely a way to slot it into some 4 card infinites. Finding a cut is the tough part, as always. Urza's Blueprints is probably my most conditional draw engine and might be the right pick.

Alternatives to Kelpie are Felidar Sovereign, Intrusive Packbeast, and Highcliff Felidar. Sovereign is a bit too 1-card-combo for my taste I think, and Packbeast probably doesn't do enough. Highcliff will probably make it into the deck eventually as a source of board control, but I think I'd rather make Kelpie work for now.

I made this deck with no thought to future set releases, but the more I think about it, I'm likely to get some wee Beasties in this years Ikoria and Zendikar sets. Exciting!
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Post by tstorm823 » 4 years ago

1 success below, 2 not successes.
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Ghostly Flicker both Nucklavee and Gilded Lotus, return Ghostly Flicker to hand, trigger Aether Charge/Jeskai Ascendancy each time around.

I spent a long time staring trying to make Nucklavee recur Expansion // Explosion copying Brought Back to bring back a Nucklavee, but you'd need to both keep manking mana and get Nucklavee in the graveyard for that to work. I see while I was typing this, you actually mentioned adding a sac outlet.

I think the clones might be too dangerous, as copying Felidar Guardian lets them flicker back and forth indefinitely, triggering something like Aether Charge. I was considering suggesting something like Flameshadow Conjuring, but that actually 2-card combos with Felidar Guardian. Man, they really messed up with that card.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
Ghostly Flicker both Nucklavee and Gilded Lotus, return Ghostly Flicker to hand, trigger Aether Charge/Jeskai Ascendancy each time around.
Yup. One of the more straight forward combos in the deck. Ghostly Flicker + Nucklavee + Gilded Lotus is the 3-card foundation to quite a few variations on a 4-card-combo win. Aether Charge burning out the table or Jeskai Ascendancy drawing your deck and pumping the team are two great outlets as the 4th card in the combo.

If you have another way to flicker Nucklavee, you could get your infinite mana set up then start chaining together Stitch in Time. Lumbering Battlement in the mix allows you to repeatedly trigger ETBs for another creature in addition to Nucklavee for a 5+-card-combo, so you could be really mean with Glowing Anemone, or just moderately mean with Sand Strangler, Leonin Relic-Warder, Phyrexian Ingester, or Oxidda Scrapmelter.

tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
I think the clones might be too dangerous, as copying Felidar Guardian lets them flicker back and forth indefinitely, triggering something like Aether Charge.
Dang, you're right. I knew I was playing with fire with the clones, but somehow I overlooked this. Well, this means either the clones, Felidar Guardian, or Aether Charge will have to go.

If I get rid of Felidar Guardian I'll be straying from the Beast theme a bit, but I could also take out Leonin Relic-Warder and add Portcullis and another Beast like Intrusive Packbeast until I have a better option. I love the idea of Portcullis as basically a second Lumbering Battlement, but I don't have many ways to flicker it, especially without Warder/Guardian. Warder is really good though. . . and WOTC's creature types can go pound sand, it's basically a Beast. Just look at it!

="Image"


Anyhow. . . I could get rid of the clones and replace them with Goblin Bombardment and Intrusive Packbeast, but that leaves Guardian in which might prove to be the source of more uber efficient 2-3 card combos, busted card that it is.

If I take out Aether Charge to avoid the issue of Guardian + a clone, I lose out on some other game winning combos, and I'm willing to bet that Guardian + a clone will be problematic elsewhere. However, everything I can think of right now is fine: Guardian + Clone + Panharmonicon + Goretusk Firebeast for example, or Guardian + Clone + Kindred Discovery (once I pick up a copy) to draw into Panharmonicon and Goretusk Firebeast or what have you.

Tough choice, but something has to go. I'll be mulling it over. Feedback appreciated.
tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
I spent a long time staring trying to make Nucklavee recur Expansion // Explosion copying Brought Back to bring back a Nucklavee, but you'd need to both keep manking mana and get Nucklavee in the graveyard for that to work. I see while I was typing this, you actually mentioned adding a sac outlet.
I think this would require exactly Phyrexian Altar, and that's probably too big a risk. I think it would look something like Nucklavee + any other creature + Phyrexian Altar + Brought Back + Expansion. With the right second creature, like Wormfang Newt it would net infinite mana for a win with Explosion.
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Post by tstorm823 » 4 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
4 years ago
If I take out Aether Charge to avoid the issue of Guardian + a clone, I lose out on some other game winning combos, and I'm willing to bet that Guardian + a clone will be problematic elsewhere. However, everything I can think of right now is fine: Guardian + Clone + Panharmonicon + Goretusk Firebeast for example, or Guardian + Clone + Kindred Discovery (once I pick up a copy) to draw into Panharmonicon and Goretusk Firebeast or what have you.
I'd personally be super sad if Aether Charge got dropped. That feels like the Barren Glory win condition of this deck.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
I'd personally be super sad if Aether Charge got dropped.
Likewise. I was mulling it over as I went through my day and it just seems wrong to remove the only explicit Beast payoff card from a Beast tribal deck, and Shaleskin Bruiser or Spurred Wolverine aren't the droids Beasts I'm looking for. Thunder of Hooves could conceivably be worthwhile. . .

I'll probably drop the clones and slot in Goblin Bombardment and Intrusive Packbeast. Unfortunate since clones are so dang versatile and generically good, but probably the right call if I'm trying to keep with the Beast theme since I get to keep both Felidar Guardian and Aether Charge.
tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
That feels like the Barren Glory win condition of this deck.
Really? I'm curious why you think that. I kind of thought Felidar Sovereign would be the closest analogue, being an alt wincon and all. I'm still not sure if I'll ever include it though.

It's intriguing to consider that I could probably find a way to make Barren Glory work. I could loop Wormfang Newt or Wormfang Turtle ETBs, stacking triggers in such a way that the lands don't return, then sac all creatures with a free sac outlet.

The trick would be getting rid of the sac outlet and emptying my hand without something like Nahiri's Wrath, but I'm sure a well targeted Vanish into Memory and stack manipulation with a Batterhorn or Oxidda Scrapmelter could get it done somehow. I'd almost surely need flash or some sort of instant speed way to initiate such a loop though, and I imagine a card like Barren Glory is probably not worth including with only one highly specific way to set it up. I'll think on it more :hmm:
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Post by tstorm823 » 4 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
4 years ago
tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
That feels like the Barren Glory win condition of this deck.
Really? I'm curious why you think that. I kind of thought Felidar Sovereign would be the closest analogue, being an alt wincon and all. I'm still not sure if I'll ever include it though.
I think that because all Aether Charge does is win the game. I guess that's not technically true because it's the future and it's probably pretty solid planeswalker removal, but for the most part its only job is payoff, it kills players. The rest of the things you're playing can generate value when they aren't winning the game. To me, Barren Glory is that card: It doesn't advance my resources or interact with other players, all it does is win the game. It's the one dedicated payoff card meant for winning with style. Aether Charge isn't going to ramp or draw you into other win conditions, and it's not going to do much to stop anyone else's win conditions, it just wins with style.

Sidenote: have you considered Changeling Berserker or Changeling Hero as beasts?
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
Sidenote: have you considered Changeling Berserker or Changeling Hero as beasts?
I briefly considered Taurean Mauler, but dismissed the idea of changelings as a cop out. However, champion, which is usually garbage, is actually amazing here. Either of those allow for an infinite felidar guardianlumbering battlement → changeling loop while also upping the Beast count and other ETB value synergies. Also, with panharmonicon in play they do a mediocre lumbering battlement impersonation. Great catch! I'll pick up a copy of each.

Also, good points on aether charge and barren glory. They are basically win buttons.

Edit: TIL that goretusk firebeast is errata'd as a "elemental boar beast", which means with the addition of the two changelings nova chaser and supreme exemplar could merit consideration. Mistbind clique and wanderwine prophets too, to a lesser extent. Or that could all be too much of a reach.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

I got a fun 3 player game in tonight with the wee beasties!

My opening hand was Sunbaked Canyon, Desert of the Fervent, Painted Bluffs, Mountain, Reflecting Pool, Cloud of Faeries, and Essence Flux, which I kept because it had plenty of land and two cards with cycling. I'm not sure if that was correct since there was no card draw or other action in it, but I knew it was more likely than not to get me to Kraum on turn 4 or 5.

Unfortunately land got a little clunky because I didn't cycle or draw into a etb untapped blue source, only Painted Bluffs and Survivors' Encampment but no creatures in play. It was on turn 4 that I realized Reflecting Pool + either of those two lands in play gave me access to blue :crazy: Once I realized this, I had fortunately just drawn Vanish into Memory, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite magic cards. My wife's Drana deck was going off with Urborg + Cabal Coffers already, so Vanish hit a 14/13 Necropolis Regent just before my turn, which returned as a 6/5, netting me 8 cards for 4 mana. Is that good? I don't know. :hmm: :nerd:

Wouldn't you know it, in that pile of cards I drew from Vanish into Memory +1 more for turn there happened to be a Gilded Lotus, Ghostly Flicker, and Nucklavee. I didn't yet have enough mana to get the loop going or a payoff for it though, and I was dead on board if I didn't do something substantive, so I had to spend my available mana casting Astral Slide and Fluctuator with Irrigated Farmland and Sanctum Plowbeast in hand. Both were cycled for free on Drana's turn to flicker the Drana and Necropolis Regent that were attacking me for lethal after a Blood Tribute was pointed my direction, and unfortunately the landcycle wasn't going to be helpful and the normal cycle didn't land me anything useful.

In an attempt to both survive and set up for the combo win the following turn, I ran Gilded Lotus out, tapped everything for mana, Ghostly Flickered Lotus and Command Tower, and played Kraum to block a flyer and hopefully draw some cards.

Dat Exsanguinate though. . .

So, lessons learned are that Vanish into Memory consistently overperforms, cycling is great, and 4 card combos aren't overpowered, which is also great. If the mono black deck hadn't started the game with exactly Urborg + Coffers in hand, I think I would have had it.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

A quick update to the list, then some brief thoughts:








The Changelings preserve Beast tribal and ETB/combo integrity while getting rid of the less-than-4-card-combo levels of efficiency the clones gave. Bombardment gives me a little bit more play with River Kelpie, and with likely future includes such as Cauldron of Souls. I had high hopes for Urza's Blueprints with Unbender Tine, Brought Back, Ghostly Flicker, etc., but it's really crappy without some combo.

Which brings me to my next point: I think I have some real liability cards currently. I'm about 8 test games deep with this deck, and about half of those were losses when I was on the verge of an infinite combo with any one of a number of cards, but instead had something like Petravark or Makindi Sliderunner in hand (the other half were either not-so-close losses, and 2 wins). Those cards have their own game-winning combos in the deck, but are crap apart from the combos, so I really think they've got to go. The problem is this is a shallow tribe of playables in Jeskai, so I can either upgrade with something with combo potential like Mischievous Quanar and Chromeshell Crab, or just lower the Beast count and jam in more card draw to more reliably get to combo pieces #3 & #4 with whatever I've got going on. I'll keep testing with the list as is for now, because I expect some Beasts to get printed in "Ikoria" and "Zendikar Again. . . Again" this year, but some tweaking is certainly in store.

Also likely on the chopping block is Cloud of Faeries, which can be part of an infinite mana combo and also cycles, but doesn't add to Beast tribal goodness and has led me to run stuff like the Ravnica bouncelands, which were a liability at least once. With the manabase already being a little sketchy to enable stuff like Sunscorched Desert, Safe Haven, and Crumbling Vestige and others, I'm not sure running bouncelands for a single combo is what I want to be doing.

I enjoy the puzzle like nature of a deck like this, and I think I'm going to really enjoy molding it into a masterpiece over time.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

One advantage of having a fairly insular family meta is that I still get to play often even when social events are being cancelled left and right! So, I was able to get another game in with Bruse & Kraum tonight, and won!

I don't remember every detail, so not much of a play by play. Just an overview and some notes about over/under performing cards.

The lineup was Rishkar, Peema Renegade vs Bruse/Kraum vs Alela, Artful Provocateur.
Game Notes
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Rishkar had the most explosive start with Joraga Treespeaker into Rishkar into Elvish Visionary + Wood Elves.

Just to avoid wasting mana I ran out Goblin Bombardment early into Icon of Ancestry into Thran Dynamo.

Alela went t3 Monastery Siege into t4 Alela into t5 Sigil of the Empty Throne.

Rishkar had all the mana at that point and brought out the big guns with a Steel Hellkite and suited up with a Haunted Cloak, smacked me, and blew up my Thran Dynamo. Next turn it would blow up my Kraum, Ludevic's Opus. Boo. (Kraum did not have a good game. . . more on that later)

I was getting a little choked on mana, but didn't want to get too far behind so I blew up the Sigil of the Empty Throne with a Felidar Cub.

After another turn cycle or two, Alela saved both of our butts from Rishkar -- who probably overextended a bit much -- with a clutch Winds of Abandon. Honestly, with the number of critters with +1/+1 counters he had out, the lands he got were a wash after the wipe.

Shortly thereafter I played Kraum for the 2nd. . . and 3rd time in the game. . . ugh. Eventually Alela stuck a Martyr's Bond, but it didn't really detract Rishkar who was once again flooding the board with cheap creatures from attacking her with a sizable Scourge of Skola Vale wearing a Haunted Cloak and carrying a Loxodon Warhammer. Three faeries chumped causing Rishkar to sac down to just the Scourge, and me down to nothing. So, on my turn I played Sand Strangler targeting Alela, Artful Provacateur, which forced Rishkar to sac the huge suited up hydra :cool: The only thing slowing him down really was cards. He had more than enough mana all game.

Long story short(ish), the Loxodon Warhammer had shot Rishkar's life total way up while Alela and I were in the 15-20 range. We were able to stabilize for one turn cycle and Rishkar couldn't profitably attack either of us even with his commander being rather large courtesy of Opal Palace and the warhammer. This bought me just enough time to cycle and dig a bit more for my winning combo!

At first I thought I was a mana shy, but it turns out Felidar Guardian says "target permanent", not "target creature", so I was able to run it out first and flicker the Sol Ring that helped cast it and get the last bit of mana I needed. Aether Charge was in play from the previous turn, so I played Felidar GuardianChangeling HeroLumbering Battlement for infinite Beast ETB triggers and infinite "4 damage to target opponent" triggers :cool:
Some card notes:

Kraum, Ludevic's Opus - When he's a card draw stud, he's fantastic. He wasn't tonight. . . I'll chalk it up largely to variance since my opponent's happened to have lots of single spell turns with huge haymakers or utility stuff + holding up mana, but it's worth noting that Kraum's stock REAAAALLY goes up the more players there are. In a fairly recent 4 player game he netted me something like 10-12 cards, but tonight it was 2-3. Even when he's not drawing cards though, the 4/4 flying body pairs well with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder's ETB, but I just didn't have the extra mana to make that happen. Rough game for poor Kraum.

Icon of Ancestry - I had my doubts about whether this card would last in the deck, but now that I've played with it I'm impressed. Again, I have to consider variance since I didn't whiff on a single activation, so I certainly got lucky. I think I drew 5 off of this thing, but more importantly that means I dug 15 cards deeper than I would have without it! That, ladies and germs, is how you make 4-card-combo without tutors work.

New Perspectives - Another one I had, and still have, doubts about keeping in the deck indefinitely, but I was impressed tonight. It costs more than Icon up front, but it draws 3 right away, and I have enough cycling cards in the deck that I was able to draw I think 3 more off of it. Whenever I hit close to or better than 1 card drawn per mana spent, I'm very happy. Add these six onto the 15 deeper I got due to Icon, and you can see that 2 cards were able to churn through 25% of the deck.
Magnificent.

River Kelpie - One of the reasons I put Goblin Bombardment in the deck, and I got to see it do it's thing tonight, but only once. It's really not impressive when all it's doing is replacing itself. Before I saw the 4th piece of the combo I was close to targeting it's Persisted version with Felidar Guardian to flicker it, sac it again and draw another card, but had a better option. Had I not had Aether Charge, however, I could have gotten the Guardian + Changeling + Battlement loop going and stuck a persisted Kelpie under Battlement each time to draw my deck. That only works with Goblin Bombardment or Sand Strangler in the mix though, and even then what good would it have been to draw my deck if I had no mana to spend? I suppose I could have stopped the loop by having Felidar Guardian target Sol Ring and proceed from there somehow. tl;dr I don't know if Kelpie is good enough in the deck as is. It really has me wanting to find room for Cauldron of Souls, more sac outlets, or both.

Fledgling Mawcor and Mawcor - Yeah, these cards are jank. I really thought I was going to be able to find some sweet synergy and combo with Unbender Tine and/or Ghostly Flicker with tappers like these and Urza's Blueprints, but it's just not there without something more added in the mix. I'm going to go deep on these in scryfall soon and see if I can't figure something out, but if not they are on the chopping block.

I'm really digging the deck. It occupies this cool space of not really threatening the table and even appearing weak or dysfunctional until the turn it wins. In an established playgroup it will lose the surprise factor, but I like the idea of consistently flying under the radar in new pods and pulling off surprise wins.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Flourishing Fox!!! Y U No CaN Be BeAsT?!?!?

Based on the previews so far, it doesn't look like the beast creature type is going to find its way onto any jeskai colored cards that don't also have green in their mana cost. Oh well. Raugrin Crystal is a thing. Gavi, Nest Warden is probably not juicy enough given that I'm already running Fluctuator and she wouldn't contribute to any combos that I can see straight away.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Well, I spoke too soon. Pouncing Shoreshark gives me hope that we will see some more beasts in the Jeskai wedge!

Edit: I should also mention that given Gavi, Nest Warden is one of the 5 headliners of C20, it seems incredibly likely that we will get more powerful cycling enablers/payoffs. I don't want to get myself excited for something of Astral Slide/Astral Drift, New Perspectives, or Fluctuator power level, but who knows? Even just more cycling lands would be great.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Pardon the double post, but HOLY CRAP look at Fluctuator's price spike!!! I'm glad I picked one up for $5 in February. It jumped to $35 since the C20 previews. That's RIDICULOUS!
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Ok, last post in this thread until the spoilers are complete or someone else comments (pinky promise)!

- Footfall Crater and Boon of the Wish-giver seem worth consideration.

- Reconnaissance Mission seems like a slam dunk at first glance! Especially since my dude Kraum is evasive. It's just harder to remove Bident of Thassa with cycling, so maybe just outright better?

- Neutralize might just be better than Miscalculation, but the double U could be a problem. I don't know if it's worth running both. Hmmm...

- Pouncing Shoreshark can set me up to blow a combat centric deck out with a flash mutation while also being a beastie. Does anyone know if bounce and flicker effects that target a mutated creature will return both cards to hand/battlefield, or just the "base" creature? Or, let's say I mutate shoreshark onto a creature, then put the mutated creature underneath Lumbering Battlement, when the battlement leaves the battlefield does the mutated creature return still mutated, or as two separate cards? Weird rules stuff with mutate for sure. Whether baby shark makes the deck or not, I'm hoping this is a glimpse of beasts to come in iko/c20.

- Channeled Force is interesting. Unfortunately a nonbo with Mindmoil since the discarding is an additional cost, but it could be quite good at digging for combo pieces if it is cast at just the right time. Right after a big Vanish into Memory or leave for example.

- Molten Echoes!!! I was soooo excited when I saw this. My fear was that it's too good and there would be a way to go infinite with less than 4 cards, and sure enough there is. It was literally hurting my head to think about how it would work, but I realized that I'd be able to arrange the stack to make infinite hasty critters with Felidar Guardian + Lumbering Battlement + Molten Echoes, which disqualifies it for the deck unfortunately (unless I'm in error about some targeting rules, but I don't think I am).
SPOILER
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With Molten Echoes and one of either Lumbering Battlement or Felidar Guardian in play, cast the other (we'll say guardian for the sake of the example). When guardian ETBs, stack the triggers so that guardian's trigger resolves before echoes'. Guardian flickers Lumbering Battlement, putting a battlement and echoes trigger on the stack. Resolve the battlement trigger targeting guardian, and resolve the echoes trigger making a copy of battlement which targets either nothing. Now you have the original battlement with guardian underneath, a hasted copy of battlement with nothing underneath, and a molten echoes trigger on the stack. Let the echoes trigger resolve, creating a copy of guardian that targets battlement. Battlement flickers, and here I get really confused since two things happen: the original guardian etb and the original battlement etb, but I don't think you can order it how you want. If I'm not mistaken, you have to resolve the guardian trigger first, but I don't think it matters much. The end result is: guardian hits the field targeting nothing, the echoes copy of guardian etbs targeting nothing, battlement hits the field targeting the hard copy of guardian, and the echoes copy of battlement hits the field targetting the hard copy of battlement. This sets the loop in motion so you can just keep going and net a hasted copy of Felidar Guardian each time through the loop. Am I missing something or getting the rules wrong here?
Well, poo. If it wasn't for that 3 card infinite Molten Echoes was going to be sweet. It would have made Mawcor and Fledgling Mawcor win cons in a 4 card loop.

Fingers crossed for beasties and cycling goodies galore y'all! EDIT: Exercising a lot of self-control and editing this older post instead of bumping the thread, but. . . cha-ching! Herald of the Forgotten, not in the database yet but here's the details:
6WW
6/6 Flying
Cat Beast
When Herald of the Forgotten enters the battlefield, if you cast it, return any number of target permanent cards with cycling abilities from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Ohhhhh yeeeeeeeah!
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Ok, so this has been quite the spoiler season for this deck! We got a new cycling commander deck in exactly these colors, and Ikoria featured some playable beasts in the Jeskai wedge. The deck was in need of some major work even without the new cards, but now even more so. Given all the moving pieces this post will be long, but here's my review of all the relevant new cards for the deck, and what I will be taking out and putting in -- both new and "old".





The Beasts!




There were a handful of creatures this spoiler season that flavor-wise really could have been beasts and may have been good enough to include if they had been, but there's really only one I'm bummed didn't get that beloved creature type: Surly Badgersaur! Just look at that beastly appearance! Oh, what could have been! It's at its best in a discard/wheel deck, but it would have put in some serious work in our cycling deck. Sigh. Farewell Surly! We hardly knew you!

On to the beasties we DO get!

  • Herald of the Forgotten - 8 mana is an awful lot and we won't be getting flicker value from this since the trigger requires that Herald specifically be cast. However, since Herald returns "any number of target permanent cards with cycling" the effect is worth it I think. We only have Sanctum Plowbeast as far as cycling beasts go, and a good number of our cycling cards are instants/sorceries. A 6/6 flyer that brings Astral Drift/ Tectonic Reformation/ Unpredictable Cyclone/ Reconnaissance Mission back to play is great and all, but I see this guy bringing a handful of lands with him most of the time and that's fantastic. Normally I would say that such an expensive form of ramp is not great, but it comes with a good body and this is a mana hungry derpy combo deck that will surely use the mana on the following turn.

    Herald is going to replace Felidar Guardian, which is bittersweet. Bitter, because Guardian is so efficient and hit more than just creatures, but sweet because cutting guardian will allow me to run Phyrexian Metamorph, Flameshadow Conjuring, and Molten Echoes without creating any less-than-4-card combos. The primary 4-card combos that Guardian won with are doable with the changelings/battlement/conjuring/echoes too!

  • Lore Drakkis - A cheap Nucklavee effect that unfortunately risks the blowout that comes with mutate. The fact that it triggers only on mutate and not on ETB is a major bummer. Since re-mutating requires another mutate effect or bounce -- not flicker -- this can't do anything near the Nucklavee/Gilded Lotus/Ghostly Flicker loop in the deck as is. It can get infinite ETBs with infinite mana and Leave // Chance + Flameshadow Conjuring/Molten Echoes, but if I've already made infinite mana then I've already gotten infinite ETBs as it is, so there's no point in adding it for that reason.

    I also thought about doing something with Drakkis, an Ornithopter, and Leave // Chance, but as far as I can tell it's just spinning wheels for nothing. Even with the creature I can't reduce costs enough to make it do anything. So, as things stand, I'm still going to put Lore Drakkis in and swap out Cloud of Faeries since Drakkis still gives some great, cheap utility, and Faeries are off the beast tribal theme and only contribute a cycle and one combo.

    I see the current ideal play pattern for Drakkis being: mutate a Felidar Cub to buyback Leave, cast leave, re-deploy cub with a Flameshadow Conjuring/Molten Echoes in play. Repeat as many times as you can afford or until you've made enough cubs to blow up all the enchantments you'd like.

Unfortunately the other beasts in our colors this set weren't quite good enough. Porcuparrot is just worse than Mawcor/Fledgling Mawcor due to the nature of mutate. If Pouncing Shoreshark could bounce our creatures it would be worth it for sure. Lastly, Sanctuary Smasher joins the pantheon of "beasts with cycling that are just big and dumb without doing enough else" since the first strike counter is redundant with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder, and this is not primarily a combat based deck.





Cycling



  • Crystalline Resonance - I haven't thought of any combos with it just yet, but I'll bet anything that there's something there with doubling up on Panharmonicon or Molten Echoes. Combos notwithstanding, this is just an incredible goodstuff card in a cycling deck. Key words include "whenever", "may", "target permanent", "until your next turn". All of that works out to our benefit. Cycle when we're being attacked and copy the biggest creature on the battlefield for an advantageous block, and if it's targeted by removal after declaring blocks, cycle again and turn it into an illegal target. We can copy lands too! And whatever we copy, it stays for a whole turn cycle unless we cycle again, and even then it's our choice!

    Essence Flux is great for looping with Lumbering Battlement + Nucklavee + any number of other ETB bests, but it's not infinite whereas I'm positive this thing will be, so out goes Flux.

  • Dismantling Wave - I'm still not sure what to make of this card, but I know it's good. "Destroy" at sorcery speed isn't exciting, but this is reliably going to be a 3-for-1 for 3 mana, which is exciting. The cycling cost is expensive, but we're running New Perspectives and Fluctuator, so I'm sure we'll do the quasi wrath occasionally.

    Scroll of Fate is out to make room. Scroll was there to "flash" out ETB beasts as manifests that could be flipped via a flicker enabler, and while it's essentially cost reduction for my creatures, it doesn't combo and it's not as explosive as I'd like. Plus, Unbender Tine is out with this update as well, so scroll would lose some of its edge anyhow.

  • Escape Protocol - Being able to Astral Drift a creature right away for only is a big deal. It makes blocking easy. It's worth noting that unlike with slide/drift, protocol can only target our own creatures and artifacts.

    New Perspectives/Tectonic Reformation + Glowing Anemone/Petravark + Protocol is going to be sick and end friendships. It's actually got me a little worried that it can be too oppressive! At least with the infinite loops bouncing lands I'm essentially winning the game and we can shuffle up for a new game, but with this I can only afford to bounce a handful of lands and be "that player". :?

    Voyager Staff was in the deck to provide a little flicker utility that could be repeated with stuff like Panharmonicon + Trusty Packbeast, but Protocol is way better and will take its slot over.

  • Neutralize - Not much to say here. I'll take the hard counter for one more over Miscalculation.

  • Raugrin Crystal - If it didn't have cycling I wouldn't even bother, but it does, so we'll take a colored rock and dump Thran Dynamo. Dynamo could have generated some extra mana with Escape Protocol, but we've already got Gilded Lotus doing the same AND comboing. I'll take the color fixing/ramp and cycling over big dumb rock.

  • Raugrin Triome - Well, hello tricycles. Now all we need are the enemy bicycles :mad: :mad: :mad:

    Get out of here Survivors' Encampment! It was only in to give us more deserts, but I think we're fine.

  • Reconnaissance Mission - I like better Bident of Thassa for a lot of reasons. First, it cycles when you aren't in any position to attack or would prefer the cycle for whatever reason. Second, it triggers whenever a creature hits, not whenever "one or more" creatures hit. Third, the trigger is combat damage to a player, so Bruse Tarl in a flicker combo deck is very happy with his new toy. This will be another card draw engine that should pull some heavy weight in terms of cards per mana invested.

    Aether Spellbomb comes out to make room. It's just not doing enough, and I never could find a way to loop it with Trusty Packbeast that wasn't limited by mana or within the context of a situation that was already game-winning.

  • Unpredictable Cyclone - I think this card will be. . . unpredictable. We only have one beast that cycles, so that won't get us much, but it could. We could absolutely see nonsense like: cycle Akroma's Vengeance and hit a Flood of Tears or Stitch in Time, or cycle Astral Drift and hit Mindmoil. We really aren't doing anything to abuse this effect by manipulating the top of our deck or anything like that, so it may just be bad. I'm willing to try it out for a bit though. I'll take out Brought Back for it for now. BB is cute with River Kelpie or right after a board wipe, but it hasn't been as combotastic as I was hoping and is pretty often a dead card in hand.




Goodstuff



  • Arcane Signet - I didn't buy a pre-con last year, but I'm glad I waited and didn't pick this up as a single :cool:
    Easy include in *checks notes* all of my decks. Unbender Tine is out for the time being since I just couldn't get it to do the nonsense I was hoping it would.

  • Flameshadow Conjuring - Oh. Yeah. Shedding Felidar Guardian allows for this since it can't go infinite with only a single changeling or battlement like it could with guardian.

    Any two out of: either of the changelings, battlement, or Phyrexian Metamorph + Conjuring lets us set up a chain of ETBs for as long we have red mana for some extra value. Best with battlement since he can cart some other ETB triggers around on his back.

    The best conjuring combo (I think) is with Nucklavee, Gilded Lotus, and Ghostly Flicker for infinite Nucklavee hasty tokens. The short version is you make a Nucks token every time the hardcopy enters and return ghostly flicker with each trigger. Flicker lotus + a red or blue source the first time, and the gilded lotus + the hardcopy of Nucks the second time. Rinse and repeat.

    Makindi Sliderunner was in the deck to one shot a player by looping Wormfang Newt, Wormfang Turtle, or Petravark pre-combat and stacking up landfall triggers. Turns out that's all it's good for, and a significant amount of the time setting up such a loop can win in another way rather than just stomp on one player, ex: Sunscorched Desert. So sliderunner's out for conjuring.

  • Manascape Refractor - The ETBT is unfortunate since that would almost inevitably open up infinite mana combos. As it is, this is still just good value. It will be a Worn Powerstone for on-color mana more often than not, or at least a filter/signet. At times it will be a Cabal Coffers/Urborg/Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or what have you, and I'm cool with that.

    Akroma's Blessing is an overcosted version of a good effect that I included since it had cycling tacked on, but now I have enough cycling and some extra protection from Escape Protocol, so it can leave the deck to open up a slot.

  • Molten Echoes - This might be the best card of the batch for Bruse/Kraum -- it's close with some of the cycle goodies. I think it was well worth ditching Felidar Guardian to allow for this, which is a better Flameshadow Conjuring. There are probably more combos with this in the deck than I've been able to spot so far. The most obvious are those listed with Flameshadow Conjuring above, only better.

    Batterhorn is just a more expensive Oxidda Scrapmelter, and since I've upped the beast count this update I'm ok with shedding it for Echoes.

  • Phyrexian Metamorph - Doesn't need much said about it. Generically awesome card in commander, and doubly so for us since it slots in several combos. I decided to get rid of Leonin Relic-Warder in exchange for metamorph. That's both a thematic decision and because Warder seems to me the card most able to be busted after Felidar Guardian.

  • Skycloud Expanse - Signet lands seem good, I just couldn't justify it in my card budget with so much other good stuff to get. Having it come in a precon is a nice little perk. Safe Haven will come out since it compromises the manabase a bit and doesn't do enough. I found that most of the time the best play with haven was to exile a Petravark with the trigger on the stack, then maybe something else the next turn, then crack it the following turn. The problem with that is that it's slow, and I'm setting myself behind a beat on mana development. . . so I can pay to do the same to one opponent. . . It just wasn't well thought out when I first included it. I guess I thought it could combo with Unbender Tine somehow, but never got there.
I'll update the changelog and decklist when I actually physically get the cards and sleeve them up. Awesome update!
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Well, of course this would occur to me just minutes after I post a huge set update, but I'm really re-thinking Mawcor and Fledgling Mawcor. I've already admitted they're jank, but they're jank that can combo. I THOUGHT that the addition of Flameshadow Conjuring and Molten Echoes would make them shoe-ins, but (and this part makes me feel really REALLY dumb for not seeing it right away) all the combos that make infinite hasty 'cor tokens could win just by attacking and the ping is just getting cute about it. With that in mind, it makes sense to cut these two for better beasts.

Candidates:
  • Highcliff Felidar, Felidar Sovereign - I don't know if I can avoid them forever. Highcliff is really expensive, but flickering even just a couple of times is devastating. Sovereign is less expensive, and I do have ways to protect it or pull it out from under a changeling/battlement just before my turn, I'm just not sure I like such a cheaty feeling wincon since it clearly wasn't designed for commander.

  • Chromeshell Crab - I like the effect, but I doubt I'll flip it up more than once a game, making it a very expensive Role Reversal

  • Book Devourer - A beast that gives me a way to draw a lot of cards on a "may" ability, so I don't have to pitch combo pieces that I want, and since it's a combat damage trigger it goes great with Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder. Very tempting.

  • Galvanoth, Mischievous Quanar - I don't think I'm running enough instants/sorceries to justify it, although Quanar can hit opponents' spells. It's a big time mana sink though. . .

  • Pouncing Shoreshark - Gives some mild synergy to Lore Drakkis and allows for some blowouts in combat or protection from target Blightsteel Colossus.

Thoughts?
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Post by tstorm823 » 4 years ago

Book Devourer says draw cards and has comedy flavor text. And you have two more graveyard recursion beasts in that post that would go well with hyperaggressive wheeling. I'd give that a whirl.

For number two, I'm inclined toward Highcliff or Shoreshark. Removal is nice.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

tstorm823 wrote:
4 years ago
Book Devourer says draw cards and has comedy flavor text. And you have two more graveyard recursion beasts in that post that would go well with hyperaggressive wheeling. I'd give that a whirl.

For number two, I'm inclined toward Highcliff or Shoreshark. Removal is nice.
Yup. I was definitely leaning towards Book Devourer as #1. If it had even been close to a tie, then the flavor text would have come into play. We can't have a boring deck, now can we?

I'll probably roll with Pouncing Shoreshark as #2 to start with, just because I'm already going to be spending gobs of money on IKO/C20 and don't feel like dropping $5 for Highcliff Felidar when I could get shoreshark from draft chaff or for a dime.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

So, I was considering swapping Sweltering Suns out for Starstorm, because it should never have been otherwise, but just now I recommended Paradoxical Outcome for someone else's deck and thought, "Why exactly am I running Leave // Chance and not this as well?" So, I'll add Sweltering SunsParadoxical Outcome to the upcoming changes.
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Post by MeowZeDung » 3 years ago

I am woefully behind on an update for the wee beasties!




The deck hasn't gotten much love since IKO/C20 released and these sweeping changes happened. The little bit I have played it since the above switches took place nothing too remarkable happened in-game, but I will note that Paradoxical Outcome and Lore Drakkis have performed great, especially together or with Leave // Chance. Moreover, Kraum, Ludevic's Opus is just a stud of a zombie card draw engine. Tonight he drew me around 5 extra cards and kept a couple flyers at bay early on.

Alas, Exsanguinate + ALL the black mana continues to be the combo that has been responsible for more of my commander losses than anything else. Tonight it was Caged Sun + Nirkana Revenant + Jet Medallion allowing for an =26 Exsanguinate. It never seems to happen when I have Neutralize or any other counter in hand, of course.

Anywho, I'll update the OP decklist and changelog tomorrow while bored at work most likely. Methinks there is a lot more to be done as far as tuning this baby up. Fingers still crossed for more wee beasties in "Zendikar Again. . . Again" since it won't be about Eldrazi (in theory).
Kykar primer and other active decks (click!)

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