Kefka, Court Mage

[Moxnix]

How do we feel about this card? A etb and swing syphon mind like even ignoring the backside this smells a lot like Sylvan primordial could you not just have haste some ramp then clone / twinflame spam a few times gg? Like syphon mind never seemed so bad but neither would a sorc version of sylvan i feel like this cards kinda gross. So even as a removal check with no haste no backside no insta copy if the removal check kills it to prevent clone /flicker its still what a 7 for 1 value at 5 not so bad and in a way casting it again is not as real issue if commander tho it is 5 which is alot for the zone you always have. How do we feel about this guy? Grixis colors are strong too

Decklist

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1 Kefka, Court Mage

1 Kefka, Court Mage //Sideboard

[Ruiner]

I was psyched to build Kefka regardless of what he did as a fan of FFVI, so I've been playing a Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin deck lately, have about half a dozen games or so at the moment and keep tweaking the deck. I'll just post some rambling thoughts on it so far.

The triggered ability isn't quite a Syphon Mind. It's important to note that the discards all happen at the same time, and your opponents can all collude to make you get less ideal outcomes. I select my card to discard and then they all discuss "Well, I'm gonna discard this, how about you?". There have been a number of times I've "only" drawn one or two cards (which is still not terrible a result for discarding only one card myself). You can potentially get more value by discarding things like Great Furnace, that have two card types, but those also increase odds of a duplicate choice with your opponents.

He has no haste, and on the front side at least, no evasion. Unless he gets powered out with ramp super quick (which has happened), you can potentially end up having trouble attacking depending on board states. There are ways to give him haste and evasion obviously, but it takes extra effort/cards to get there.

One of the scarier set ups is probably having an online Deadeye Navigator, so that once you've stripped hands you can blink at instant speed to trigger the discard during each person's draw step. That's awfully mana intensive and you are still vulnerable to instant speed interaction, and is only going to be effective in the late game where you need to close out the game somehow. I actually removed Deadeye before having the opportunity to do this as 8 mana just to do one blink feels rough in these colors when you also need to keep up mana for interaction.

I believe Clone effects are probably less efficient than straight up blink spells, which are also good for protecting Kefka from removal and aren't "dead" when people have empty-ish hands. I am running Blade of Selves, which is going to be gross whenever I happen to draw it I'm sure but it hasn't happened yet.

Stripping everyone's hands is obviously good, but there are plenty of times people quickly end up in top deck mode themselves.

Kefka does lend himself to making you the "archenemy", at least at times, but I don't think there's anything innately wrong with that. You will be probably be using a lot of cards just to try to protect him. Commander tax on a 5 drop non-green commander isn't totally trivial. I haven't had any issues hitting my land drops due to the card draw, but if all you are doing is just replaying your commander that's not ideal either.

I do play in a group where interaction is expected and prevalent, and if people are running reasonable interaction I don't think he's going to be a major problem. His trigger is not going to happen every turn, and he's going to be removed. I could see him running away with the game in a low power "battlecruiser" environment, but there are a lot of cards that are otherwise totally fine that wreck those kinds of low power environments.

He's definitely strong and a factor whenever he's in play, but I don't feel he's really a major problem.

[Moxnix]

So kind of what I thought people try and get as many triggers as possible quickly to win but the 5 cost means if it doesn't get a fast start its not as effective. I feel like its fine in counterspell metas for sure just feels like it has that kind of etb where your incentivized you just spam it as much as possible as its can close games on its own. I don't think its anywhere close to nadu cedh problematic because of the cost but man it looks scary XD.

[onering]

Legendary Creature- Human

Sure thing knife-ear

[DirkGently]

My main feeling about him is that I think the flip ability is kind of a trap. The immediate impact is minimal, the cost is high, and he's already a good draw engine on the front side. Not to say you'll never use it, but I think I'd plan around the front side and use the back side occasionally if the situation dictates.

At least it doesn't blink itself, like the saga flips, so he can attack immediately.

[Igzex]

Legendary Creature- Human

Sure thing knife-ear

It's an anime "Make the villain look demonic" trope. He's human...For most of the game. I've yet to face him at the commander table because his text boxes may as well be a giant "Kick Me" sign. Having a commander that's a problem when it's not dealt with and still causes problems when he comes back after being dealt with is kinda a good way to make the table want to immediately remove you.

...At least he's not Vivi or Kuja though

[darksamus]

Legendary Creature- Human

Sure thing knife-ear

It's an anime "Make the villain look demonic" trope. He's human...For most of the game. I've yet to face him at the commander table because his text boxes may as well be a giant "Kick Me" sign. Having a commander that's a problem when it's not dealt with and still causes problems when he comes back after being dealt with is kinda a good way to make the table want to immediately remove you.

...At least he's not Vivi or Kuja though

Wait, is Kuja a problem too? I was thinking of building him since I have a copy of that guy who doubles wizards triggers sitting around.

[Igzex]

Wait, is Kuja a problem too? I was thinking of building him since I have a copy of that guy who doubles wizards triggers sitting around.

Wanted to build him myself because he's a husbando but I quickly found out the hard way that people die if Kuja's player gets to untap...

[Mookie]

Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin seems fine to me. Roughly comparable to Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen - you get some disruptive value on the front side, and a scary win condition on the back side. The Syphon Mind effect can certainly generate a lot of value, but a lack of evasion will make it tricky to attack with Kefka repeatedly (to say nothing of the fact that your opponents will probably try to keep Kefka off the table). Seems obnoxious if you have a way to blink it repeatedly though.

I think paying eight mana to flip means the backside is usually flavor text, but I could see it being a solid win condition in the lategame. Seems like an amusing combo alongside any way to turn cards in hand into damage, such as Seismic Assault.

[Moxnix]

Yea my worry was mostly it had that dockside slyvan p feel to it where the Strat becomes aggressively clone and flicker haste essentially spam the etb as many times as possible as fast as possible. So maybe its fine but it just has the kind of etb that when i read the card i go ah they will be flicker spamming me to death by next turn if that doesn't eat a mana drain.

[ISBPathfinder]

It might be a problem for some mid to casual groups but its slow for higher end strategies given how expensive the flip is as well as how prone to just being removed if and when you try it would seem to be. The backside is impressive but given the mana invested to get to that, I don't see how its really different from running some other 8+ mana commander. You aren't in green either so achieving the flip plus trying to protect it at the same time will be hard.

The front side of the card is fine if even a little underwhelming to me considering its a 5 drop that requires you to build specifically and it hopes opponents to discard other card types than you. The backside is gated by an expensive flip where you likely also need to protect it as you try. Having never played with or against it, I don't really think its a bigger problem than someone playing Zacama, Primal Calamity or an eldrazi legend.

[Moxnix]

In practice so far i hasn't been so bad on mtgo no one even lets it resolve the last 2 times i saw it the commander ate a counterspell on first cast and one of those times they left the game. I guess the sight in CZ kind of screams hey im gonna try and flicker this better not let me and the 5 cost lets people prepare. That being said the time before that when the guy went first and had fast mana it did run away with a game but its hard to say that wouldn't have happened anyway he opened ring signet remora its hard to lose when that's your turn 1 playing first and the next guy literally drops mox diamond just top get out a fast talisman feeding them 2 cards right out the gate before I've even dropped my land. This was a b4 game and while lumra doesnt mind binning lands i ate 3 triggers before my t2 but my assessment was not that the card was the issue as much as them being lucky goign first and on t1 getting to draw 3 cards off remora and ramp 3 mana.

[Moxnix]

Update she works well in cedh wit many good results on mtgtop8 and unsparingly its just the normal grixis storm shell with ways to chain copy the ability. Its certainly not better than rogsi but its won a few events and consistently top 4s or top 8s 120+ player cedh events so its viable.