Kiku, Night's Flower - Murderous Ne'er-do-wells

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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 3 years ago

Kiku, Night's Flower

Kiku, Night's Flower
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About the Deck

This is a deck that is pretty strictly themed around sneaky, underhanded, murderous, thieving, no-goodniks and ne'er-do-wells. If it appears shady and murdery, it has a good chance of being included regardless of power. This is essentially a tribal assassin/rogue deck of sorts.

This is one of my oldest decks and it is clearly a pretty casual deck. This deck can be fun when you want a break from playing super serious, more competitive stuff and just want a ridiculous themed deck. I've played it in games with decks far more powerful and it still can do okay (probably unlikely to win of course), and if you like to challenge yourself that can be fun too. This deck is all about style over power. At the moment there are no mana rocks in the deck but I've considered adding some as long as they are things that are like treasures/jewels to stay on theme (Chrome Mox, Jet Medallion, etc.,). I have tried to stay aware of the mana curve to some degree, so there are some cards that are on theme that are just a bit too expensive in mana cost that I have not included.

The amount of single target removal in this deck might seem a bit absurd, it probably is, and I don't care. This removal suite does make it so you can get opponents to have some significant commander tax or shut off a lot of people's creature based combos (it won't stop a Craterhoof Behemoth though).

While it is pretty low-powered/casual in most games, if playing an alternative format that involves teams like the Kingdom format it is actually a pretty fantastic ally for other decks, just clearing out all creatures that are a problem for your team.

Every single card in this deck that can be foil is foil, because these rogues and assassins are worth it. I've got most of the other on theme assassins and rogues set aside to filter in and out of this deck on a whim if needed, and any time a new set comes out I at least get any card that will appear to be on theme (they tend to be dirt cheap). If you build this deck and exclude the foil options and Cabal Coffers, it can be a fairly cheap deck to play around with if you need something lower powered.

Win Conditions

If this deck wins, it generally wins by skulking about and murdering anything that is a threat (or that just had the audacity to exist), while also striking with cards like Virtus the Veiled and Quietus Spike to take huge chunks of life out of an opponent, sometimes in combination with Wound Reflection.

There are a few aura enchantments that allow Kiku's ability to deal damage to players which can occasionally do some good work. Spiteful Shadows and Treacherous Link can be fun when the creature has infect. Ragged Veins can possibly kill someone by surprise if they have a creature get pumped up significantly, such as with a big Craterhoof Behemoth ETB trigger.

Vraska, Scheming Gorgon has an ultimate ability that potentially kills players instantly and there are a number of evasive creatures that can make that trivial (and you can always kill things in your way).

Revel in Riches can be a good win condition with the amount of removal this deck packs.

Vorpal Sword can assassinate a player!

It hasn't happened yet, but someday, I swear, I am going to kill someone with Stab Wound and it will be absolutely glorious.

Further Notes

I've been wanting to add Phage the Untouchable to the deck since she has deathtouch for players, it seems pretty on theme, but I haven't bothered to track down a foil copy of her yet. Black Market is another card I've considered as well.
Last edited by Ruiner 1 year ago, edited 1 time in total.

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TheAmericanSpirit
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Post by TheAmericanSpirit » 3 years ago

Oh man, I love this idea! A few ideas for your consideration:

Undercity Informer a staple cliche of shady enterprises
Cloak and Dagger literally the trade itself, in pun form
Eliminate the Competition The flavor text is fitting imo.
Larceny This card is essentially the uhaul that empties houses when people vacation out of town.
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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 3 years ago

TheAmericanSpirit wrote:
3 years ago
Oh man, I love this idea! A few ideas for your consideration:

Undercity Informer a staple cliche of shady enterprises
Cloak and Dagger literally the trade itself, in pun form
Eliminate the Competition The flavor text is fitting imo.
Larceny This card is essentially the uhaul that empties houses when people vacation out of town.
Glad you like the concept! It really is a fun deck and my playgroup likes seeing it even when everyone else is running more powerful decks. It can fly under the radar a bit too.

I actually have a Blue/Black Rogues deck that leans more heavily into theft and I think I run Larceny and Cloak and Dagger in that (currently not home with my decks to double check). I think I ran Undercity Informer in that deck at some point too.

I've never seen Eliminate the Competition. That is pretty sweet flavor. I may have to pick it up even if it won't make the cut in this deck since I don't tend to have a ton of creatures in play to sacrifice. The UB rogues deck is led by Oona, Queen of the Fae though and she totally has disposable henchmen.

I've always been a big fan of the rogue/thief archetype in games. I also have a mono-red rogues deck (with pirates for some filler) that leans more into the smash and grab mayhem bandit style.

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Ruiner
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Post by Ruiner » 1 year ago

It's been a while since I've messed with this deck and a number of sneaky deadly cards have been released, so I've made a few changes:

Added Cards
+1 Mari, the Killing Quill - Another legendary assassin, and she helps out all of the creature types I use.
+1 Vorpal Sword - It allows you to assassinate other players! Of course this is in the deck now.
+1 You Are Already Dead - With a name like this I had to include it. It's likely not super great but the name alone gives some style.

Removed Cards
-1 Hero's Demise - Swapped out for a kill card that is worse but with a better name.
-1 Lightning Greaves - It didn't quite fit the vibe of the deck anyway, so swapping for Vorpal Sword was an easy swap.
-1 Smuggler's Copter - Had to remove something, didn't want to remove this so much but I had to make room for Mari.


With three legendary assassins now in the deck, plus a legendary ninja, I might now occasionally randomize who the commander is between Kiku, Night's Flower, Virtus the Veiled, Mari, the Killing Quill, and Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni.

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