Killian/Lurrus companion

BHC · Post by **BHC** » 3 years ago

I've liked Killian since he was spoiled so I thought I'd take a shot at throwing together a list. Most people are going with voltron enchantments and there's definitely some of that here but I decided to go with a Lurrus of the Dream-Den companion deck. It limits the amount of auras I can run to buff Killian so I've had to get creative. So far I've only goldfished this deck and I'm ordering the cards I need to complete it but it so I'm very much open to suggestions.

I built a lifegain shell with the Soul Sisters and other similar cards to refill my lifepool along with Killian's life style along with some mild stax creatures like Leonin Arbiter and Drannith Magistrate.

Effects like Dark Confidant and Ad Nauseam as the average CMC in the deck is 1.5 so you can refill your hand with them along with your other card draw. I would love more Dark Confidant style cards and I initially thought Keen Duelist did that because I misread it. Sad. Phyrexian Arena wouldn't work with Lurrus.

In my testing I still wanted more lands so I added Land Tax and Sword of the Animist which have both helped a lot. I would like to add the new Archaeomancer's Map but it's a 3 drop.

Slaughter seems super good with this setup. Repeatable killing of most creatures for 2 mana along with a life fee you can normally pay. In a normal EDH game Curtains' Call with Killian out is pay one black - destroy two creatures, worst case scenario with Killian it costs 3. This deck runs a ton of removal so my goal with it is to get rid of opponent's value creatures and protect Killian to get him through with Blackblade Reforged or Inquisitor's Flail along with some value auras for lethal. Hatred seems really good, can wipe 1 player turn 3 but it's not particular to my build, just overall good with Killian.

I considered some flicker or return from the graveyard all creatures that died effects like Acrobatic Maneuver and Brought Back but ultimately decided the value I got from those would be worse because I'd lose a lot of auras. I considered Faith's Reward but I'm not sure how often I'll have 4 mana sitting open since I will want to be setting tempo I think, same for Flickerform but I would love a cheaper targetable instant that did this and saved auras as well, not sure if it exists. For creatures that I cut I considered Thalia, Guardian of Thraben since Killian's passive would make her tax effect worse on my enemies than me but once again cut her for tempo reasons.

Decklist

Approximate Total Cost:

I considered a more equipment-y build for him with low cost, high equip value like Colossus Hammer to get around Lurrus but ultimately discarded it though this may be good and I just am not valuing it enough. https://www.moxfield.com/decks/M9VqJz57LE2ohqjyg2MGUg

Any comments or suggestions would definitely be welcome.

BHC · Post by **BHC** » 3 years ago

Another option is dropping all the lifegain creatures and filling those slots with white hatebears and maybe a few more ways to protect Killian.

darrenhabib · Post by **darrenhabib** » 3 years ago

I've been eyeing up Lurrus as a companion for awhile now and Killian kickstarted me to look into this combination the same as you. So I have a reasonable amount of thought already gone into this pairing.

You have 8 auras that specifically target your own creatures for Daybreak Coronet, so I think it's going to be hard to make work.
Having only 11 auras to go with Sram and Kor Spiritdancer they will be bit inconsistent for value.
The souls sisters theme doesn't have too many payoffs either unfortunately.
The auras and life gain themes don't actually have synergy together.

Entomb and Buried Alive with Lurrus makes sure you have better access to your better payoff cards.
Buried Alive to get say Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim and Karlov of the Ghost Council means that your souls sisters theme has real end goals.

I would add Dance of the Dead as another aura and way to get back Lurrus (or other).
With Leonin Relic-Warder you can get infinite ETB triggers with Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead. With soul sisters this is infinite life and a kill with Blood Artist and Corpse Knight.

Kaya's Ghostform is nice to put on Lurrus as it gives insurance against exile effects. Swords to Plowshares to take you off Lurrus sucks.

If you do stick with life gain then it's important to make sure you get a few more payoffs.
Command the Dreadhorde costs 2bb with Killian and very powerful if you can grab opponents stuff as well.
Necrologia is a pseudo Ad Nauseam in your deck as you can go hard to draw as many cards as possible with the plan of discarding heaps of creatures and then drawing into Immortal Servitude, Return to the Ranks, Command the Dreadhorde for massive tempo.
Arguel's Blood Fast for card draw.

Stoneforge Mystic is perfect. Skullclamp is a must as well...hi Bitterblossom.

For Lurrus I'd have more reusable targets with Mishra's Bauble, Urza's Bauble, Wayfarer's Bauble, Nihil Spellbomb, Mind Stone, Bounty Agent, Seal of Cleansing.

Sevinne's Reclamation only cost w if you target a creature or 2w for the flashback cost.

Heliod's Intervention has been an awesome card for me as removal and it can cost 2 less if an artifact creature is on the board with Killian.
Price of Fame only cost 1b or b and helps with setting up graveyard. Play over Deadly Rollick.

Mother of Runes over Giver of Runes.

Priest of Forgotten Gods is worth thinking about with Lurrus and Bitterblossom.

Shaile, Dean of Radiance could be a fun card as you can put it in the deck and still cast Embrose, Dean of Shadow and this does give you draw with a lot of your creatures with 1 toughness.

I do think not playing Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a mistake. Ethersworn Canonist would also be great with my suggested cards.

Agadeem's Awakening is a freebie in your deck.

Eerie Interlude seems a bit weak in the deck considering there are very few ETB effects (except life gain) and you are pretty well set up for recovering from board wipes with Immortal Servitude and Return to the Ranks and Lurrus and the other components to this plan.
I'd play something like Phyrexian Reclamation instead as you can make use of it throughout the entire game.

This is obviously a lot of suggestions so requires major cuts but I'm pretty interested in getting your deck right as it reflects on how I'd build my own version on Killian/Lurrus and always nice to have somebody else play test first

Personally I'd cut the aura package, the cost reduction of only 1 as a consequence of having Lurrus means you are not really getting that much benefit out of Killian. The quantity of them you have is pretty low to really make use of Sram and Spiritdancer.
I've got other suggested changes you could possible make as well, but no point until I see if you are receptive to the general suggestions I've made.

BHC · Post by **BHC** » 3 years ago

A lot of good advice here. I've definitely been feeling like I could improve the deck, esp re: the lifegain. In my testing so far I can make Killian pretty tough with the equip/auras I have, if I cut the auras what do you suggest as the wincon?

darrenhabib · Post by **darrenhabib** » 3 years ago

BHC wrote: ↑
3 years ago
A lot of good advice here. I've definitely been feeling like I could improve the deck, esp re: the lifegain. In my testing so far I can make Killian pretty tough with the equip/auras I have, if I cut the auras what do you suggest as the wincon?

Actually I don't want to take you off your voltron plan as it can definitely be a fun way to win, even if opponents get salty

Take my post as what I'm going to do to your deck for my own build as you have many of the same cards I had hallmarked.
I'm going to probably do some combo elements like the Leonin Relic-Warder/Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead combo and I'll play Painter's Servant/Grindstone. I haven't thought of any other 2cmc less combos yet but if any do come to mind then I'll contemplate them.
So I'm envisioning quite a control deck with hard to remove combo elements because of Lurrus and the many ways to recur him in the face of removal.
Now I think "technically" the best build would be a stax and hatebear deck. But I'm a sucker for soul sisters so I like this idea of trying to make use of life as a resource even though you're cut off from Necropotence. I really enjoy it when there are restrictions, which is why I've built around all the companions except for Lurrus just because there was only Karlov of the Ghost Council and Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim at the time and I had already made and played decks around them.
What I'll do is post my deck list in your thread when I've thought about it more.

DirkGently · Post by **DirkGently** » 3 years ago

1) I love this. Just realized we got not one, but TWO new Lurrus options in this set. Amazin.

2) I think Mire's Grasp must be mandatory here, right? repeatable creature-targeting lightning bolt, basically. Even triggers Hateful Eidolon.

BHC · Post by **BHC** » 3 years ago

Holy %$#% Mire's Grasp that really is awesome. I'm gonna tinker with this deck and I'll post the update version. As an aside I don't think Sevinne's Reclamation works with killian. A card in the graveyard is not a creature even if it's a creature card so you would pay full price.

darrenhabib · Post by **darrenhabib** » 3 years ago

This is the config of the deck I'm playing, it's more of a control deck that just grinds people out of resources.

What I found is that targeted one-for-one removal isn't very good at controlling the game by itself.
The deck is much better supplemented with some board removal so that you can use your targeted removal much more effectively in the later game, rather than get overwhelmed by too many good targets. Hour of Revelation, Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins, Dusk // Dawn are for that.
Dusk // Dawn is nice in that if it's creature battles then you tend to get out done by bigger monsters, but this card equalizes or blows people out and also use it as a way to claw back creatures after a board wipe.

You're right about targeting from graveyard doesn't work with cards like Sevinne's Reclamation for cost reduction. However Sevinne's Reclamation is still a great card as it can reanimate Lurrus, but often I'm using it as land ramp with fetchlands in graveyard.

There are a few nonbos like Spirit of the Labyrinth with Peer into the Abyss and Necrologia in the deck, but because you are putting opponents to the test with some of the hate-bears you are happy just to grind out value with Lurrus in the mean time until opponents find an answer for Spirit of the Labyrinth and then you can punish them with a follow up big draw card.

One thing I've noticed is that often I prefer the destroy effects rather than the exile, as it's nice to remove a big creature and then follow it up with a Animate Dead type card.
But on the same note Erebos, God of the Dead is a card that shuts down the life gain element so is good to pack a few exile cards.
I could easily see myself replacing

Confessor is a old tech of mine with Necrologia and this extends to Peer into the Abyss and Ad Nauseam in that you discard your creatures cards and reanimate them.
Children of Korlis is also for these big draw cards to get the life back.

Revival // Revenge is another way to put Lurrus back into play and Revenge is very relevant to the whole life gain plan.

An opponent had Courser of Kruphix (also an enchantment) in play so my Heliod's Intervention cost 2 less to target and so I just got a couple of extra targets for free which was satisfying.

If you want to know my Buried Alive targets, often it's something like Dark Confidant, Selfless Spirit, Stoneforge Mystic (for Skullclamp). These just give you great card advantages over time.

Decklist