Is Jenara the most efficient way to use Keruga as companion?

[3drinks]

Keruga, the Macrosage
Jenara, Asura of War|ncc

Keruga is tough to build around because starting your curve at three puts you so far behind. In addition, you lose access to the best ramp options, the most efficient removal and counterspell|ice suite, and are instead playing for value with overcosted removal w/ benefits.

But Jenara offers a mana sink from the 'zone, and you can still get sneaky with early ways to play her, a la spirit guide and gemstone caverns. You lose mana drain|leg, but you gain it's younger slightly overweight cousin Plasm Capture. You're in the colours of blink so you can at least rely on Keruga to draw you into the late game with a huge snowball, a snowball that only gets better the longer the game goes.

But as a competitive deck, this clearly isn't it for the listed weaknesses. What about the the opposite end of the spectrum? Just the right level of casual while still feeling strong enough to endure the worst? Like simic bullcrap but without half the crap that makes simic the tryhard colours we know it to be. What do you think? Just an idea I've had tossing around my head since I saw Jenara had a reprint with the new legendary crown.

[Serenade]

Hi. I don't have any Jenara input, but I did a Tatsunari build with Keruga for a long evening. Tatsunari and his toad pal can generate decent pressure, and lots of good enchantments in those colors start at 3cmc. I ended up dumping a lot of mana into my enchantments, cycling, channeling, suspending, or using T's unblockable ability more often than Keruga…and ended up getting wiped before I ever could play the hippo.

If that casual meta is not prone to wiping, I think you could find some success. The big problem is everyone sees Keruga coming and should wrath accordingly. What is the rest of the gameplan of the deck with Jenara at the helm?

[DirkGently]

If I wanted to do bant with Keruga, something like Roon of the Hidden Realm comes to mind. Blinking Keruga seems good, and roon plays nicely with all the 3cmc etb ramp elf dudes so you can curve out decently.

[duducrash]

I think Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty is great with Keruga, maybe the best paring

[3drinks]

I realized after typing this that Omnath, Locus of Creation would fit the bill even more. I'd guess this would signal more of a red flag and defeat the purpose of trying to keep a lower profile, however.

[illakunsaa]

Why not derevi? You can try to puke out your hand faster and use keruga to refill. There are bunch of creatures that etb with extra bodies.

[3drinks]

Why not derevi? You can try to puke out your hand faster and use keruga to refill. There are bunch of creatures that etb with extra bodies.

Because we're trying not to draw overt attention. Derevi is busted beyond belief.

[illakunsaa]

Why not derevi? You can try to puke out your hand faster and use keruga to refill. There are bunch of creatures that etb with extra bodies.

Because we're trying not to draw overt attention. Derevi is busted beyond belief.

You do also reveal Keruga. That pretty much cuts you off playing normal stax cards you see with derevi.. Lot of bustedness of derevi is also nerfed by having a complete nonsense curve. Personally I'd be more threatened by Jenara because you can pressure opponents. On turn 4 you could be hitting 5 dmg in the air.

[Sinis]

I did a midrange version with Surrak Dragonclaw.

I think there are enough suspend/channel/other dorky options that the drawback, while significant, isn't crippling.

[Vertierer]

And don't forget to play the borderposts as a way to ramp before turn 3

[3drinks]

So I'm starting with Omnath + Keruga. I can't really look away from all that Omnath offers me, especially if I'm gonna start my curve at three.

[Okolicious]

I built Omnath Hippo several months ago. It's quite good. Here's the Moxfield link. I wrote a pretty detailed primer, as well (although it's constantly evolving when new sets come out. Still the current version is only a couple cards different). Basically, you're trying to leverage Omnath's mana generation to offset the very real cost of doing nothing the first 2 turns.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/xLVfEuAo9Ei13QLC4hACbQ

[PrimevalCommander]

I built Omnath Hippo several months ago. It's quite good. Here's the Moxfield link. I wrote a pretty detailed primer, as well (although it's constantly evolving when new sets come out. Still the current version is only a couple cards different). Basically, you're trying to leverage Omnath's mana generation to offset the very real cost of doing nothing the first 2 turns.

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/xLVfEuAo9Ei13QLC4hACbQ

Interesting build. You are only playing 30 non-land permenents. That just sounds low to be building around a companion that cares about them. With only 3 creatures it looks like a control/combo shell that is stuck playing slow ramp for a clunky draw engine.