The Way of the One True Warrior - Kellan Equipment Toolbox

DirkGently · Post by **DirkGently** » 9 months ago

Dunadain wrote: ↑
9 months ago
How have the Goblin Motivators been? I see the appeal if they are in your opening hand, but they seem pretty bad at any other time. Obviously they can still give Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon haste after he gets removed, or hold an equipment, though they can't even do those things if a board wipe is what ended up killing Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon.

Good question - pretty meh outside T1 so far. But we do need a concentration one 1-drops to avoid max hand size. I could definitely see some of the cards that got mentioned earlier, like Weathered Wayfarer and Beamtown Beatstick. The deck feels like it can lack value engines in the middle turns.

Dunadain · Post by **Dunadain** » 9 months ago

Hear me out: Fervent Champion.

He can also get you +1 land with Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus, and if you draw it in the late game, you can just hold onto it for when Kellan inevitably gets removed, then deploy him to make sure you don't miss any equipment triggers for the turn.

Edit: Also one of the few decks where Reliquary Tower is probably good, no need to make a t1 play if you don't have to worry about handsize.

DirkGently · Post by **DirkGently** » 9 months ago

@Dunadain that is not a bad argument for fervy. Having the option to cheaply reequip sunforger is also pretty applicable even in the late-game, would make it pretty easy to start spewing off removal to dismantle significant board positions one at a time, which is a nice option to have. It does put more eggs into one basket, but at least it's harder to block profitably than a 1/1. I may have talked myself into it.

Reliquary does fit nicely T1-2 but it's pretty pointless after turn 2 so idk. We can definitely support a decent number of colorless lands with our commander only costing 1 color at a time, but maybe it'd be better to run a utility land that can recoup the card disadvantage later, and be more relevant as a late-game draw? Dirk stop playing too many utility lands challenge: difficulty level impossible.

Dunadain · Post by **Dunadain** » 9 months ago

DirkGently wrote: ↑
9 months ago
Reliquary does fit nicely T1-2 but it's pretty pointless after turn 2 so idk. We can definitely support a decent number of colorless lands with our commander only costing 1 color at a time, but maybe it'd be better to run a utility land that can recoup the card disadvantage later, and be more relevant as a late-game draw?

Reliquary Tower vs. Bonders' Enclave and co is an interesting question, but I just mean it's a better card than Goblin Motivator in the late game, and roughly equivalent in the early game.

Dirk stop playing too many utility lands challenge: difficulty level impossible.

No kidding, everytime I see a decklist of yours I think "the madman is at it again." XD

Dunadain · Post by **Dunadain** » 9 months ago

Alright, I decided to stop back-seat brewing and take a stab, I've been wanting to brew this for a couple weeks now, but I got distracted because Orca, Siege Demon turned out to be really fun and an interesting puzzle to solve.

Kellan Control, but Better Because I Made It

Approximate Total Cost:

I'm shocked Mantle of the Ancients didn't make the cut for you! It's a tutorable way to come back from a Vandalblast/Hour of Revelation that otherwise sends you back to the stone age. Honestly, the only downside is that it might provide too large of a buff to Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon, causing you to get targeted.

By my count, I've got 15 ways to avoid discarding a card after I Birthright Boon on t2 (13 0-1 drops that aren't reactive spells, and Reliquary Tower + Gemstone Caverns). That should be more than enough.

I really didn't like the Goblin Motivator for the reasons we already discussed.

I'm not a huge fan of the ramp cards either, you don't really need it, and your commander is going to set up a ramp engine starting t4. Sol Ring and Mana Crypt can stay because they are just broken, and Gemstone Caverns can just be an ordinary land. I could even be convinced to put Chrome Mox in, but Mox Diamond and Mana Vault seem awfully suspicious.

How have the damage wipes been working? While looking at your deck, I was wondering why you were playing cards like Chain Lightning when you could just run all the staple white wipes. Then I saw the Mom/Sword of Fire and Ice + damage dealing wipe combo. Decided to steal the idea since I think it's neat, but I'm also concerned it's gonna come back and bite you when you need a more reliable wipe.

I think Benevolent Bodyguard is just as good, as the other Moms. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of believeing your opponents are stupid, but realistically, your opponents aren't going to try to kill Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon with targeted removal when you have a Mom face up, unless they have two removal spells, and will cast the second one in response to you activating mom. which means you are likley only going to get one use out of moms anyways (though, of course, when you are using them to provide evasion things are different).

Since I have no qualms about going wide, I included 3 game enders as well, Decree of Justice can just be a cycling blocker/sword carrier(s), but it can give you a sizeable army in the late game, the OG Shark Typhoon!

Grand Crescendo can just be cast for x=0 as a protection spell, or a small-to-medium value to give you invincible blockers for a turn +/ bodies to carry swords, or, of course, eot mana dump, untap, swing for lethal. Honestly, you should probably consider this one, even if you vow to never cast it for more that x=2 or something.

Finally, Forth Eorlingas! is much more questionable, but I like the monarchy, so deal with it. (Release to Memory doesn't really count, but I didn't know what other section to put it in).

As crazy as it sounds, I almost cut Umezawa's Jitte. It seems like the hierarchy for equipment tutoring is usually going to be Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus, then Sword of Fire and Ice, then Sunforger, so unless you end up recasting Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon 4 times, and never need to tutor up some interaction, you're unlikely to tutor it up very often. Also, the goal is to maintain a lowish threat value in the early game, but dealing combat damage even once with Umezawa's Jitte on Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon gives you 4 charge counters, which translates to +8/+8, which translates to 20 commander damage all on its own. Additionally, 4 charge counters on Umezawa's Jitte per turn can lock out most commanders. I imagine it's going to draw a lot of Ire.

I'm still not sure whether Calamity's Wake or Release to Memory is better.

I don't think this deck can afford to play tap-lands, your planning on playing a card on turns 1 through 3, and if you don't, your have to go to discard. Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier squeaked in since it's borderline playable if you never use it as a land, but all the other taplands had to go.

Finally, Urza's Saga only has 4 tutor targets in the deck, but its a land that makes tokens, and maybe finds Shadowspear if that's what you have a hankering for, otherwise, it just upgrades into a Sol Ring/Mana Crypt.

DirkGently · Post by **DirkGently** » 9 months ago

@Dunadain I think my logic for abstaining from mantle was that I don't think it's really necessary. We're basically a control deck using Kellan as a finisher and value piece, so there are a lot of tutorables that should be a functional way to close out the game. We also shouldn't expect to have a ton of hits in the grave since we aren't playing a "20 equipment on the same dude" sort of voltron - most likely we'd only have a couple at most. It's also very telegraphed and disruptable.

Chrome mox I think is very good. Mox diamond I feel like should be good but I swear I only draw it when I have a 2-lander =/ Obviously having one card being the mox itself means you've only got 6 other cards, but still, I've got 40 lands ffs. Idk I could see cutting it, but I think it would be a pretty ROTy decision, if you know what I mean.

Vault lets you get out bitterthorn a turn early and it's decent late, so I think it's pretty good.

I have had subpar results with Solar Blaze - too many X/X+1 creatures. Haven't really drawn the other ones much yet I don't think. Obviously blasty is the best one. I think we generate enough mana for starstorm to be decent. I could see cutting blaze for some of the instant-speed X cost ones. Too bad most don't hit flyers.

Mom is better than you think. For one thing, if they want to kill kellan, and they use two removals to force your hand, sure they'll kill kellan, but then you've got another shield ready to go when you replay him so all their removal is half as effective until they burn 2 removals killing the mom. If you have a protective spell in hand, it makes it twice as powerful since they'll be burning two removal spells to get through the mom shield, only for you to counter their efforts for a single card, and now next time they want to attempt to kill Kellan they'll need two removals AGAIN. It also lets you use mom for less critical things, like preventing blocks, which I think is a big deal. You don't always want to sit on mom strictly for removal, but sacrificing your protective creature to get through damage once likely isn't as worthwhile. (Admittedly giver of runes is a significant step down from mom since it they can kill it first, but it can still get you through blocks)

Grand Crescendo would be okay except that we have several other indestructible tricks for protection so I think it's redundant.

I have considered Release to Memory (though I'm less interested post-mistveil). Being tutorable via sunforger makes it much, much better than the other options you've suggested imo. Flying is also a big add, plus it grave hates.

Jitte is the "I want to win ASAP" weapon. I think whether you go for bitterthorn first, or jitte first, depends on your read of the table. I have ended games very quickly with a T2 jitte tutor. Also depends on your own draw - if you have a mom, for example, to protect Kellan I think it's a good choice. As far as locking out enemy commanders etc, it just needs to be used unobtrusively unless necessary. I think SoFaI is worse in this regard since you have to use the damage immediately. Jitte you can camp on it, and if someone threatens scary things (or blows up jitte) you can own them. Otherwise you just bide time, build counters, and decide when to start bumping people off.

I think the taplands are worth it, but it does depend on your 1mv saturation.

Urza's saga I don't think is worthwhile. Sol ring means we get owned harder by artifact wipes, and it doesn't accelerate us to a relevant mana threshold imo. Even if you have it turn 1, getting a sol ring on 3 probably doesn't change our plays. With a strong desire for basics and limited utility slots, I don't think it justifies itself over other options.

Dunadain · Post by **Dunadain** » 9 months ago

DirkGently wrote: ↑
9 months ago
@Dunadain I think my logic for abstaining from mantle was that I don't think it's really necessary. We're basically a control deck using Kellan as a finisher and value piece, so there are a lot of tutorables that should be a functional way to close out the game. We also shouldn't expect to have a ton of hits in the grave since we aren't playing a "20 equipment on the same dude" sort of voltron - most likely we'd only have a couple at most. It's also very telegraphed and disruptable.

That's fair, I just don't like having exactly 1 equipment that provides CA, if it get's blown up, you're just drawing 1 card a turn for the rest of the game, in retrospect, maybe just having a second card-drawing equipment might be a better solution.

Chrome mox I think is very good. Mox diamond I feel like should be good but I swear I only draw it when I have a 2-lander =/ Obviously having one card being the mox itself means you've only got 6 other cards, but still, I've got 40 lands ffs. Idk I could see cutting it, but I think it would be a pretty ROTy decision, if you know what I mean.

Vault lets you get out bitterthorn a turn early and it's decent late, so I think it's pretty good.

Well yeah, all of them are bonkers in your opening hand, but how good is Mox Diamond when you draw it on turn 5? Heck, it's pretty much a dead draw even if you draw it on t2. Magic would be easy if I could always have my ramp cards in my opening hand XD.

Also, no, I don't know what you mean, what is a ROTy decision?

Mom is better than you think. For one thing, if they want to kill kellan, and they use two removals to force your hand, sure they'll kill kellan, but then you've got another shield ready to go when you replay him so all their removal is half as effective until they burn 2 removals killing the mom. If you have a protective spell in hand, it makes it twice as powerful since they'll be burning two removal spells to get through the mom shield, only for you to counter their efforts for a single card, and now next time they want to attempt to kill Kellan they'll need two removals AGAIN. It also lets you use mom for less critical things, like preventing blocks, which I think is a big deal. You don't always want to sit on mom strictly for removal, but sacrificing your protective creature to get through damage once likely isn't as worthwhile. (Admittedly giver of runes is a significant step down from mom since it they can kill it first, but it can still get you through blocks)

Yeah, I was just wrong about that, I got a couple games in, and I activated Mom several times in 2 of them. I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong =P

Jitte is the "I want to win ASAP" weapon. I think whether you go for bitterthorn first, or jitte first, depends on your read of the table. I have ended games very quickly with a T2 jitte tutor. Also depends on your own draw - if you have a mom, for example, to protect Kellan I think it's a good choice. As far as locking out enemy commanders etc, it just needs to be used unobtrusively unless necessary. I think SoFaI is worse in this regard since you have to use the damage immediately. Jitte you can camp on it, and if someone threatens scary things (or blows up jitte) you can own them. Otherwise you just bide time, build counters, and decide when to start bumping people off.

Makes sense, I'm actually considering rebuiding the deck with t4 Umezawa's Jitte being the gameplan, instead of t3 Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus

I think the taplands are worth it, but it does depend on your 1mv saturation.

Well, I always value a reliable mana base more than you do, so that's fair.

Urza's saga I don't think is worthwhile. Sol ring means we get owned harder by artifact wipes, and it doesn't accelerate us to a relevant mana threshold imo. Even if you have it turn 1, getting a sol ring on 3 probably doesn't change our plays. With a strong desire for basics and limited utility slots, I don't think it justifies itself over other options.

You don't play it t1 and get Sol Ring as fast as possible, you play it after all your other lands, get 2 constructs and Shadowspear, you can grab Sol Ring if you really need it, but you probably won't if you went the Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus route. I only played it once but it was fantastic when I did. You're playing Kher Keep and Axgard Armory, Urza's Saga is both!

Anyways here's my game(s) review:\

First game was a nailbiter!

Opponents were Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant, Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep, and Sméagol, Helpful Guide.

I had t1 Mom, and spent the next two turns tutoring + casting Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus.

Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant was gaining like 20-30 life per turn, but Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep was popping off and kept dragging Bilbo back to around ~40 life. Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant finally died to kraken beat down, then Sméagol, Helpful Guide the turn after.

I still only had Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus and Mother of Runes out, but I had a decent amount of mana (do you think we should be casting Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon ASAP? I decided to just enjoy my Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus engine, and wait for it to die to bother casting Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon in order to play around board wipes, and hold up interaction, but I can see an argument to get Kellan down earlier). opponent is at 24 I'm at 10. I've got Comeuppance in hand, so I give my germ pro blue and swing for 1, he's down to 23. on my opponents turn, he casts a Demonic Tutor. I figure he must be tutoring up Fierce Guardianship or some other counterspell, so I figure I'm screwed. When he goes to combat I fire a Fateful Absence off at Runo Stromkirk // Krothuss, Lord of the Deep, hoping he'll overreact and counter it, making room for my Comeuppance. He doesn't counter it though, unfortunately he smelled that something was up, so he only swings with 4 creatures, which is more than lethal, but only a fraction of his army. I cast Comeuppance and, to my surprise, it resolves (I still don't know what he actually tutored up, lol). On my turn I top deck Sunforger, I equip it to my germ, give it pro blue again and knock him down to 18. He swings with just enough for lethal again and i use Sunforger to cast Teferi's Protection. I'm out of fogs, in the deck, and there's nothing else for Sunforger to grab that would save me. I count and have exactly enough mana to cast Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon, equip Sunforger, equip Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus, and activate Slayers' Stronghold. giving me exactly 18 damage, unblockable because of Mother of Runes.

Damn was that fun, I'm still unsure if this deck is going to become a staple for me, I really hate playing boros and wanted a counterspell pretty much all game, but that was a pretty damn good showing for a first game.

Game 2 was Eriette of the Charmed Apple, Hazezon, Shaper of Sand, and Dakkon Blackblade. Eriette of the Charmed Apple lost everyone a bunch of life and was eventually hated out of the game. I never set up any sort of draw engine and eventually died. No one ever killed Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon so I was stuck with Mother of Runes + Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon + Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus all game. I removed stuff when my back was against the wall, but without any card advantage I couldn't keep up forever. I think I had 20+ mana when I died, but nothing to do with it. I thought about killing Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon with my own removal to get another tutor, but that seemed so bad, plus it would have left me without any blockers.

Games 1 and 2 Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon never got killed, and I never had any card advantage engine. G1 it worked out because the game went really fast, and was down to a 1v1 with very little input from me, but G2 it made it basically impossible to win. I wonder if tutor target #1 should be Sword of Fire and Ice instead of Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus, drawing cards is a form of ramp anyways, as long as you otherwise would be missing land drops.

Game 3 was only a 3 player game against Alela, Artful Provocateur and another Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon (but he was dedicated voltron, so a pretty different deck). Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon got killed in the midgame, and I naturally drew Robe of Stars + Sunforger so I got all my engines online. Killed the other Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon first, then Alela, Artful Provocateur.

There was a funny hiccup game 3. the Alela, Artful Provocateur player is fairly new to magic and didn't know that Sword of Dungeons & Dragons was an un-card, that you can't put in your deck. It's one of the more reasonable un-cards though, and we're a casual table so we let it slide. on my turn I realize I have lethal if I use Akroma's Will to give my commander protection from all colors. But then I realize Alela, Artful Provocateur's dragons from Sword of Dungeons & Dragons is not any of the 5 normal colors, they are gold. I probably could have argued that they couldn't be gold because that's not a real color in mtg, but instead I just used Sunforger to grab Enlightened Tutor to grab Shadowspear and took him out the turn after.

Ultimately, it's really rough having your commander be your value engine(s).You can't leave him back on blocking duty and you miss out on triggers whenever he get's removed or blocked. Obviously he's not gonna hold a candle to Phelddagrif, but all 3 games I would have much rather had a higher density of interactive spells + a commander with flying to fend off aggression. On the surface, it looks like Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon doesn't require many deck slots, but in reality, the deck is running a bunch of equipment that are extremely circumstantial, plus a bunch of 1 drops just to avoid going to hand size on turn 2, the 1-drops aren't exactly bad cards, but you wouldn't need them in a "real" control deck, plus your running a bunch of goofy looking board wipes/protection spells because your commander doesn't have any built-in protection (though, admittedly, that only came up once between the three games, I had a Solar Blaze, but two of the things I wanted dead had greater toughness than power). All in all, supporting Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon requires a lot more concessions than you might think at first.

On the other hand, I REALLY like the design of Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon, paying the commander tax without committing him to the board feels really good, consistent ramp every game with next to no deck space sacrificed feels awesome. As a tool box he hits a nice balance, encouraging a diversity of answers, but not being a build-around effect. And the one game where I did actually get several different kinds of equipment out, he felt great. So I still want to try and make him work.

(none of this is to yuck another's yum, I hope you are having a blast with him @DirkGently, and I'll see if there are any changes I can make to fix my issues with the deck).

It occured to me while playing the deck, that I had built it like a Wyleth, Soul of Steel or Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden deck. The whole point of playing Kellan, the Fae-Blooded // Birthright Boon is that you get a lot of value whenever he dies, so why am I trying so hard to protect him? It's like if I put Supernatural Stamina in Ebondeath, Dracolich or Mizzium Skin in Phelddagrif. The only reason I'm running most of the Moms is to avoid discarding hand, but I could just run Urza's Bauble if that's the only reason I'm running them.

I suppose protection can be handy in the late-game, but that's what Sunforger/Plaza of Heroes is for. If I end up rebuilding it, I think I'll be cutting most of the protection and running more reliable board wipes, at that point, maybe I'm just brewing a bad Ebondeath, Dracolich deck, but that's the kind of magic I like playing (let me know if you'd rather I just start a new thread, since it seems like we are brewing pretty different decks).

DirkGently · Post by **DirkGently** » 9 months ago

@Dunadain There is some funkiness on the CA front, I do agree there. If you grab bitterthorn first you have excellent mana acceleration, but if Kellan doesn't die and you don't draw and value-generating equipment then you can find yourself with a lot of mana and not a lot to do. Sanctum of Eternity has felt really strong on that front but I do think more thought could be put into it. You can ofc always just swing Kellan until someone blocks him to kill him lol. If you're considering using removal on him, suicide attacks or blocks seem preferrable.

I do think sunforger is kinda our ultimate CA engine. SoFaI is more the budget (manawise) alternative). Jitte doesn't draw cards but does amass utility. Between those three I think there's a lot of value available in equipment.

I think having a couple protective spells is valuable, though maybe equally as much for sunforger as Kellan. 4 might be too many, though, when we've already got counterspells and redirects and such. That said, I do think protecting him for the lethal swing is valuable to throw off peoples' mental math. The wincon is pretty predictable otherwise.

ROT = results oriented thinking. I.e. "this card didn't perform in 2 games, therefore it's bad". Sure, mox diamond hasn't been great in the games where I've drawn it, but that's a very small sample size. It's an acronym from the limited resources podcast (less commonly used today as it used to be - it was a term introduced by a previous co-host). Mox diamond is pretty mediocre anytime except starting hand, true, but in your starter it can functionally put you up by 2 mana since it is itself ramp, plus it gets bitterthorn down a turn earlier. Idk, that's pretty damn strong. Maybe still gets cut but the ceiling is there.

I'm not sure I like shadowspear enough to lose a land to grab it. Idk, you do get flexibility in sol ring, but I'd have to think about it. Not sure I count the tokens as much value, I haven't typically had trouble finding bodies to hold equipment in a pinch.

Dunadain · Post by **Dunadain** » 9 months ago

DirkGently wrote: ↑
9 months ago
Sanctum of Eternity has felt really strong on that front but I do think more thought could be put into it. You can ofc always just swing Kellan until someone blocks him to kill him lol. If you're considering using removal on him, suicide attacks or blocks seem preferrable.

Sanctum of Eternity is such a cool little engine for the deck, too bad I never drew it XD. I'm also considering Erratic Portal, Obviously it doesn't tuck itself neatly into the mana base, but it doesn't have a your turn only restriction, so that's neat, plus you can also %$#% with anyone that doesn't leave 1 mana open. Too bad Meticulous Excavation has that sorcery speed clause, as a 1 drop, you could use it to avoid going to hand size.

Edit: it has occurred to me that you could just send Kellan back to the cz the first time. T2 tutor Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus t3 cast Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus, t4 tutor Sword of Fire and Ice . But you're missing out on some value doing that, and committing to tapping out the first 5 turns of the game.

ROT = results oriented thinking. I.e. "this card didn't perform in 2 games therefore it's bad". Sure, mox diamond hasn't been great in the games where I've drawn it, but that's a very small sample size. It's an acronym from the limited resources podcast (less commonly used today as it used to be - it was a term introduced by a previous co-host). Mox diamond is pretty mediocre anytime except starting hand, true, but in your starter it can functionally put you up by 2 mana since it is itself ramp, plus it gets bitterthorn down a turn earlier. Idk, that's pretty damn strong. Maybe still gets cut but the ceiling is there.

OHHH, that makes sense, lol, I googled ROTy and "rookie of the year" came up XD.

Your Community

Top Sections

Deck Formats

Cards & Previews

Delve Further

Community Content

Game Tools

Site Tools

Other Resources

The Way of the One True Warrior - Kellan Equipment Toolbox

Commander

Value Tutor Targets (4)

Toolbox (8)

Creature Removal (5)

Wipe (8)

Generic Removal (10)

Counterspells (2)

Protection (5)

Moms (4)

Back-up Warriors (2)

Go-Wide (4)

Ramp (2)

Card Advantage/Quality (1)

Tutors (2)

Utility Lands (10)

Fixing Lands (15)

Basics (17)

Homunculi? No, Homuncul-US!

Artisan Brewery: Jumping the Gun, Are We?

Artisan Saloon: Doc's Our Huckleberry

Thunder Junction: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Magic Printables