Kiyomaro, First to Stand

[ISBPathfinder]

Let me start of by saying this right now is a rough draft with me adding and trimming cards yet. I am very much interested in suggestions as its kind of a different kind of commander. No themes really other than trying to make the commander shine. I currently have no idea how many cards I have and its still being updated. I just usually submit finished ideas and felt like I would for fun put this one out early while I was still doing some experimentation in case anyone else was interested.

A few of the concepts I am working with so far:

• Draw - I am working on trying to maintain a 7+ card handsize. When I can't draw actual cards I resort to tutoring lands to hand to fill the hand up some.
• Evasion - I like the size and vigilant nature of the commander but currently he seems sort of easy to just chump block. Giving evasion seems useful potentially.
• Situationally Powerful Cards - given I won't always have good draw, I kind of don't hate some situationally powerful cards. Pithing Needle for example is something that can be HUGE when you draw it against the right deck but if its not huge I can keep it in hand to keep my hand bigger.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

COMMANDER (1)

1 Kiyomaro, First to Stand

CREATURES (14)

1 Serra Ascendant

1 Weathered Wayfarer

1 Oreskos Explorer

1 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Ranger-Captain of Eos

1 Recruiter of the Guard

1 Resplendent Angel

1 Alms Collector

1 Ranger of Eos

1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk

1 Stonehewer Giant

1 Thalia's Lancers

1 Sun Titan

1 Emeria Shepherd

1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

ARTIFACT (24)

1 Expedition Map

1 Infiltration Lens

1 Pithing Needle

1 Relic of Progenitus

1 Scrabbling Claws

1 Sol Ring

1 Endless Atlas

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Mind Stone

1 Sorcerous Spyglass

1 Thaumatic Compass

1 Thought Vessel

1 Commander's Sphere

1 Darksteel Plate

1 Loxodon Warhammer

1 Oblivion Stone

1 Sword of Fire and Ice

1 Whispersilk Cloak

1 Seer's Sundial

1 Well of Lost Dreams

1 Mind's Eye

1 Book of Rass

1 Staff of Nin

1 The Immortal Sun

ENCHANTMENT (11)

1 Land Tax

1 Angelic Gift

1 Dawn of Hope

1 Aura of Silence

1 Hobble

1 Pentarch Ward

1 Unquestioned Authority

1 Angelic Accord

1 Citadel Siege

1 Endless Horizons

1 True Conviction

INSTANT (6)

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Tithe

1 Hallowed Moonlight

1 Forsake the Worldly

1 Crush Contraband

1 Return to Dust

SORCERY (7)

1 Steelshaper's Gift

1 Gift of Estates

1 Open the Armory

1 Idyllic Tutor

1 Survival Cache

1 Tragic Arrogance

1 Austere Command

PLANESWALKER (1)

1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

LAND (35)

1 Ancient Tomb

1 Arch of Orazca

1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin

1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity

1 Hall of the Bandit Lord

1 Homeward Path

1 Karoo

1 Kor Haven

1 Opal Palace

21 Plains

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Rogue's Passage

1 Strip Mine

1 Tectonic Edge

1 Thawing Glaciers

Approximate Total Cost:

[toctheyounger]

How would Sandstone Oracle look here? Or for that matter Kozilek, the Great Distortion?

I've always wanted to find a good place for Infiltration Lens, perhaps it could do things here.

[xeroxedfool]

I can only see two targets for Thalia's Lancers.

You might be a little removal light? I think you have plently to survive but you're sacrificing some of whites best cards for theme. Which is totally fine and I like the cantrip removal you have included.

[ISBPathfinder]

How would Sandstone Oracle look here? Or for that matter Kozilek, the Great Distortion?

I've always wanted to find a good place for Infiltration Lens, perhaps it could do things here.

There are pros and cons to the refill your hand tactics. Ultimately I think they work a lot better in decks that plan to deplete their hands quickly though as a tempo refill. My goal with this deck is to keep a high hand size turn after turn so I don't think they work quite as well as I would want here. Original Kozilek might be a thought though as a static draw 4 seems more useful than drawing back to 7 given if I am at 3 or less cards with this deck something probably went wrong.

Infiltration Lens - yea that might be fun to see how it goes. I would not be bummed to kill a chump blocker, draw 2, and gain 7.

I can only see two targets for Thalia's Lancers.

You might be a little removal light? I think you have plently to survive but you're sacrificing some of whites best cards for theme. Which is totally fine and I like the cantrip removal you have included.

Thalia's Lancers - I am going to leave them in for now and look closer as I get closer to finished with a list to test. I generally have a few legendary lands at the minimum that I don't mind getting and I am going to add a few more legends right now so I will look at it closer as the list gets closer to ready to run.

Removal - I am still trying to figure out where I want to be with removal. I might contemplate some things like Cataclysmic Gearhulk and or Divine Reckoning. I am not really sure where I want to be one standard sweepers but I am still trying to figure it out. I don't have that one completely figured out yet.

CHANGES:
+Rogue's Passage
+Kor Haven
+Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
+Homeward Path
+Arch of Orazca
+Strip Mine
+Tectonic Edge
+22 Plains
+Thought Vessel
+Infiltration Lens
Tower of Fortunes -> Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
+Recruiter of the Guard
EDIT: +Idyllic Tutor

The lands are getting closer. I need to look a bit deeper on the utility lands and I probably want to allow for a few more yet. It looks like I am at 94 cards right now so I still have room.

[Tryno]

GOD WHERE IS YOUR Emeria, the Sky Ruin?! (JK)

Edit:
I don't like:
Key to the City: It takes a turn to get the card back
Arcane Encyclopedia: So expensive...
Orazca Relic: This seems somewhat questionable.
Seer's Sundial: Expensive, limited, and slow
Book of Rass: More Expensive

Stuff you could add in for these
Scroll Rack: Land Tax Tatics with scroll rack sounds super cool
Enlightened Tutor: Tutor for your hardcore mana draw
Thaumatic Compass: Mana dump that also helps with lands and hand size. Eventually becomes a maze
Sunset Pyramid: 3 turns it is a Endless Atlas and then it is a slightly less good Crystal Ball

[ISBPathfinder]

GOD WHERE IS YOUR Emeria, the Sky Ruin?! (JK)

Edit:
I don't like:
Key to the City: It takes a turn to get the card back
Arcane Encyclopedia: So expensive...
Orazca Relic: This seems somewhat questionable.
Seer's Sundial: Expensive, limited, and slow
Book of Rass: More Expensive

Stuff you could add in for these
Scroll Rack: Land Tax Tatics with scroll rack sounds super cool
Enlightened Tutor: Tutor for your hardcore mana draw
Thaumatic Compass: Mana dump that also helps with lands and hand size. Eventually becomes a maze
Sunset Pyramid: 3 turns it is a Endless Atlas and then it is a slightly less good Crystal Ball

I went through and did some more updates. I got my land count up to the number I intended finally and did some more swaps. Some of them you had suggested and some of them were other things I wanted to get to.

DECK CHANGES:

• +Serra Ascendant I kind of wanted to force a second one drop into the list so I could run some of the one drop creature tutors. Ideally I would like a third option but the next best options were probably dipping into something like either Walking Atlas or Soul Warden options. I am not really sure where I stand on further one drops but I felt at two I could be ok trying out the one drop tutors so here I am adding Ascendant.
• +Ranger-Captain of Eos it replaces itself in hand and Wayfarer seems like something I want access to for this deck.
• +Ranger of Eos it potentially is a draw two effect and I decided wayfarer was something I wanted to put some importance on.
• +Sun Titan I wasn't sure at first if I wanted him or not but I decided I had a lot of good rez targets for this deck still.
• +Thaumatic Compass I can potentially fill my hand with it some early and I like its effect when it flips.
• Key to the City -> Aura of Silence I like the things the key does but I think the draw option happens a bit too late for my liking. Its card disadvantage to gain evasion with a much later payoff redraw. I really almost always like Aura of Silence and I am just now adding more things to make it better like tutors and recursion so I am happy to add it.
• Repel the Darkness -> Enlightened Tutor Repel looks really sweet for when it would matter but, I think it might be too narrow. Enlightened is card disadvantage butttttt it can tutor some of my best card advantage with it so I am fine with the versatility and loss of card advantage given that most of the things I can and will tutor cantrip at least or are powerful.
• Scout's Warning -> Crush Contraband I like scout's warning, I think its super cool and I like the idea of recasting my commander after a wrath or answer at instant speed but that said, I wanted more room for removal.
• +Return to Dust more reasonable removal
• Arcane Encyclopedia -> Steelshaper's Gift I figured tutoring for the equipment that I want is probably better than this over costed repeat draw option. The encyclopedia is the same mana to draw the first card as Seer's Sundial but is more mana the turns after that. My equipment options have some reasonable draw / evasion / indestructible options for me.
• Orazca Relic -> Open the Armory I still kind of like Orazca Relic given that it ramps me into my commander and can later cantrip, but its mostly just a worse Commander's Sphere so for now I will run without it and see how it goes. I don't really feel like ramping into my commander is huge for this deck given he lacks evasion naturally.
• Aether Shockwave -> Cataclysmic Gearhulk dang the database as it keeps linking this card in some other language. Anyways, I think that Aether Shockwave is a cool card but it might not pack enough punch for a deck that needs higher impact per card and is trying to keep a hand full of cards. Cataclysmic helps me keep the board from getting too contested and my commander is probably a stronger standalone threat than most things. I want to try it out and see how it goes.
• Shelter -> Oblivion Stone Shelter is a sweet card and from the standpoint of dropping annoying auras or spot protecting him it seems kind of sweet. It also could give me some evasion to get through but as neat as all that is, I think I want a little more removal options and O Stone seems sweet with some of my recursion options not to mention the option to pop it on someone else's turn and or protect my things with it first.
• +Ancient Tomb - Given that I have lifegain with my commander I felt like its fine to use a little of it here and there. Ramping into a faster commander sounds good.
• +Emeria, the Sky Ruin - This add brings me up to the land count I intended. I run it in essentially every mono white deck so here it is.
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx -> Hall of the Bandit Lord this was a bit of an odd one to me but I felt like I don't have that many permenants that are colored and I don't have much I am trying to cast off of big mana. Being set up with my commander and trying to cast Kozilek or something is mostly what I could come up with but for the most part I don't want to be dumping my hand with this deck. The Hall seemed good for resetting and getting in with my commander.
• 1 Plains -> Opal Palace cutting a basic to get another utility land in. The Palace can be sweet when recasting my commander. I am not sure how relivant it will be for this deck but I think if I face times where my hand isn't 7+ then this land might be helpful.

[weltkrieg]

For the kind of deck you're packing, empyrial plate seems like an interesting addition. Failing that, diviner's wand might not be bad, either. The ability to spend extra mana at the end of your opponent's turns drawing cards (or spending mana for the kill AND drawing cards) usually seems good. That said, I can see where the diviner's wand might be a tad mana intensive.

Incidentally, boreas charger seems a good addition. You're already running all of the other white ways to refill your hand with plains, and this one blocks well, too.