EBrock wrote: ↑3 years ago
All of the players are familiar with my kykar deck and the ertai player was keeping me in check the whole game. He would remove kykar and I had no protection out ( I'm thinking about adding some boots).
Ertai, the Corrupted eh? Cool in the sense that it's old school, but also... grossssss. As far as protection, if your meta is hating on Kykar a lot you could look at
Release to the Wind,
Lazotep Plating,
Snap,
Riptide Laboratory,
Command Beacon,
Eerie Interlude, etc., but I would only do that if the meta was really gunning for big bird and I was already running protection that helped the whole team a la
Boros Charm and
Flawless Maneuver.
Things I noticed: Card draw was lacking. Once locust god was pathed, I was considerably slowed down. I really want to add
Kindred Discovery, but, its just too pricy right now. I'm thinking about putting in a
Stoneforge Mystic to tutor in either
Skullclamp or
Sunforger.
In lieu of
Kindred Discovery you could take a look at a host of other draw options that I've run in the past prior to KD:
Reconnaissance Mission,
Keep Watch,
Dig Through Time, etc.
Stoneforge is one I've considered before, and for the same
2 reasons, but I think she wants to be in a deck with more than two targets tbh. Although, the more equips you add the more you trend toward a voltron or equipment goodstuff deck, which is fine - just be aware of it and perhaps shift your strategy.
That said, I think mystic for clamp, forger,
Swiftfoot Boots/
Lightning Greaves, and maybe a good sword or beatstick a la
Blackblade Reforged or
Runechanter's Pike is probably fine. I'd bias toward the equips that keep the cards flowing like clamp/forger or big mana plays like
Sword of Feast and Famine with my first/only tutor with her though.
If you go deeper down an equipment route, consider running
Trinket Mage as well since he can grab your Sol Ring, clamp, something like
Expedition Map for
Mystic Sanctuary/
Buried Ruin or some such, and good stuff like
Bloodforged Battle-Axe,
Masterwork of Ingenuity,
Shadowspear,
Colossus Hammer,
Basilisk Collar, etc.
If you want me to post my current deck list let me know.
No need to ever hesitate to post a list in this thread if you want to discuss it! If there's one thing I'm willing to do with my spare time, it's discuss magic cards and particularly the ones that synergize with big bird. The only thing I'd say in this regard is to put the list in a spoiler tag for the sake of anyone scrolling through the thread, but even if you forget it's not a big deal imo.
I have only one copy of
Fierce Guardianship and I really want to add it to Kykar, but, I kind of need it in the other deck as well.
That's why I keep a singleton collection and keep everything in the same color sleeves
It's more inconvenient the more decks you have since you have to prep before a game session, but it saves SO much money.
I'm also considering
Body of Knowledge and
Hullbreacher from Legends since I have multiple copies of breacher.
I feel like hullbreacher is kind of mean, but, it definitely helps us slow others down, like conundrum. Plus the potential ramp is nice.
Like with the equips, just be mindful of how many creatures you add and adjust your strategy accordingly. With my spellslinger build, each creature needs to REALLY pull weight to be worthwhile.
That said,
Hullbreacher is pretty dumb, for sure. By all means give it a try if you want. I just think it's going to be an absolute lightning rod for removal and draw hate your way. You could go for a happy medium and run something like
Alms Collector and/or
Smothering Tithe. As for
Body of Knowledge, I think
Illusory Ambusher is a bit sweeter because of the surprise factor. I don't think you'll get much from Body since your opponents see it.
Snap, Soulfire, and Careful study all look fun though. I feel like soulfire's ability is a little pricy, but, can do work.
Glad you think so!
Soulfire Grand Master's activation is indeed pricy, but I think the secret sauce for it in Kykar is spirit mana. I think the default "value" activation is going to be sac two spirits to pay half of the cost, cast my
Ponder or whatever with "buyback", then cast it again with no activation. With that play pattern I will have spent a gross of six mana to dig quite far in the library and shuffle away chaff multiple times if I want to, gotten two cast triggers for my various engines, and recouped two of my mana in the form of spirits. That's a good chunk of value for a net four mana, especially if the ponder is one of the last cards in my hand and I really need some CA. It ends up being like the world's best
Glimmer of Genius I think, and that kind of solves a lot of the internal debate I was having about how many, if any, of the worse
Fact or Fictions to run since this gal can turn any of my derpy cantrips into CA.
All of that is really the floor for Grand Master though. I think the ceiling is ridiculous shenanigans and/or some nasty locks. I also like anything that can recoup some value in response to a board wipe, and a couple activations plus a cheap instant or two seems like a fine place to sink a bunch of spirit mana.
I love the conversations we have in here about Kykar, its definitely becoming my favorite deck and Jeskai is my favorite wedge.
Anyways, I cant wait to hear everyone's thoughts, I hope you all had a nice holiday.
I'm up for a Kykar discussion anytime! I'm glad you're enjoying the deck. It's my favorite too