A general that is effective against midrange and aggro matchups
Mono black control is one of your favorite archetypes
You love creating every advantage you can bit by bit
Why Not Kiku?
Hit or miss against hard control
You hate long drawn out games
Has to jump through hoops to deal with artifacts and enchantments
The Deck
The Strategy
The goal of the deck is to control the board until you can stabilize and safely play a finisher.
Kiku is there to help manage threats, but you have to wait till the mid game to get her active. There is plenty of removal in the deck to handle the early turns if your opponent comes out fast. Otherwise, your goal is to get kiku active as soon as you can so you don't have to spend cards removing their creatures. If there is something kiku can't handle, we still have plenty of removal in our deck.
If your currently playing Ravnica-Theros Standard, this deck actually plays very similar to the mono black control deck in standard. You have removal, card draw engines, and large demons that threaten to end the game quickly. You even have the occasional pack rat to kill your opponent among other things. The Origin
This deck list came about post edric banning, and was made specifically to combat the Jenara players in my area while still having a decent matchup against the multitude of the decks in the format. After Derevi came out, the top decks played were Zur and Derevi, both of which are nearly unbeatable for Kiku. With the recent changes to the banlist, I believe this deck is fully viable again as 2 of its worst matchups are out of the format.
I am using the French 1v1 duel commander banlist.
I'll go over some of the card choices in each section. If you have additional questions, feel free to ask and I'll add it in.
The Manabase
The manabase is made to be as clean as possible. You might think that the deck would be fine running a few more utility lands but they come at a heavy cost. Colorless lands make our mulligans worse, and several important cards depend on the number of swamps in play. It is incredibly important to have coffers running on time. Tower of the Magistrate- Black has trouble with artifacts and swords in particular. This land lets us fight against those cards with a small investment. Use it on a creature to make swords fall off. Also really good against opposing batterskulls. Dustbowl- A way to trade excess lands to devastate an opponents mana base. Very effective when combined with 4 drop lily. Wasteland- A fast and simple answer to a problem land.
Removal
The Removal is tailored to deal with opposing threats that kiku is unable to kill. It's meta dependant and can be changed around based on the majority of decks your up against. Edicts are good against most decks so they are in the core build. Hero's Downfall- The best removal spell in the deck, as it isn't a dead card against a hard control deck. Maze of Ith- Maze buys us a lot of time to get kiku set up on the board. Once Kiku is active you can mitigate most attacks against you and you can slowly start picking off creatures one by one. Maze is also an effective tool against enemy swords as it is colorless. Chainer's Edict- This Edict should always stay in the deck. The game will always reach the point where you can flash it back. Also, don't use the flashback until you really need to. Gatekeeper of Malakir- A built in 2 for 1. He edicts them, and then can trade with another creature
Wraths
After hundreds of games, this is what i found to be the right number for the deck. It's important to not have too many as they are at sorcery speed and will mess with the curve of the deck. Black Sun's Zenith- Very Important for this deck. It is tutorable with shred memory, and can be cast at multiple points in the game. Against reanimator decks its better to shrink their creature to a 1/1 than kill it, so they can't reanimate it again. Drown in Sorrow- Very good against decks that rely on mana elves like Gaddok Teeg. In addition, its another way to get rid of a true-name nemesis. Toxic Deluge- This card is amazing. There are times where you can wipe their board and keep one of your demons out. Oblivion Stone - Can deal with pemanents that are hard for us to answer. It is used best to force our opponents into awkward situations where they can't commit to the board while we pile fate counters onto our important permanents. They can try and force you to pop it early by playing big threats, but Kiku can buy you time to set up. Nevinyrral's Disk - Similar to O-stone, but doesn't affect our planeswalkers. Important, as opponents don't want to commit to the board, we can drop a planeswalker and force them to play into the disk.
Disruption
The discard effects are exceptional at slowing our opponent down and giving us information on what they will be doing this game. The creatures might seem strange in this section, but their purpose is to make combat difficult for creature decks while still being valuable against control decks.
Pithing Needle- Very useful against any deck. Common uses are to stop planeswalkers, swords, and the occasional general. Can also stop utility lands. Scepter of Fugue - A strange include, but getting this into play against a control deck is game winning. Still useful against midrange decks, and against aggro you can get that last card out of their hand which is usually a bomb like a planeswalker. Dystopia- An effective hate card against a large portion of the format. It can answer sylvan library, tarmogyf, oblivion ring, etc. Note that it makes them sacrifice on their upkeep. Pay the life to keep it going a few turns, its worth it. Culling Scales- This is an answer for opposing artifacts and enchantments. Be careful not to play this out when you have tokens, as it will destroy those first. You want to play this so that it starts eating away at your opponent's board. Knight of Infamy- Mostly here to deal with the white aggro in my area. Not only does it roadblock these decks, you can eventually start swinging with it to kill them after you clear their board with kiku. There are a couple other knights you can use for this spot that have pump abilities, but keeping your mana available for kiku is important. Also, Knight can swing through things like elspeth tokens and jenara. Ophiomancer- Roadblocks everything on the ground. Note that it replaces the snake on each upkeep, not just yours. Lifebane Zombie- 2 for 1 against creature decks. Against control you can pressure a planeswalker with his intimadate. Vampire Nighthawk- Roadblocks everything. The lifegain helps a lot. Royal Assassin- Stops everything without vigilance from attacking. If your opponent is using mana elves you can pick them off. Really effective in combination with kiku as you can slowly wipe their board.
Draw
The draw engines are very important to this deck. There are some out of the box choices and i'll explain them below. Read the Bones- I want more. This digs more that sign in blood. Liliana of the Dark Realms- Her +1 draws you a land, which lets you develop your mana enough to be able to use kiku and develop your board at the same time. She can kill any creature with her minus ability. She can also speed up your clock with her minus ability. Never ult her, there's nothing in the deck that needs that mana. Just keep drawing cards and killing creatures. Bloodgift Demon- Phyrexian arena on a threat. Perfect. Promise of Power- You will often be able to entwine this, which lets you close out the game immediately. Casting it earlier for the cards is fine. Sometimes you have lots of card draw already so you can make a demon. Ad Nauseam- Can draw about 5 cards on average. Don't be afraid to keep digging.
Threats
We have a small package of threats. All of them are highly efficient and hard to deal with. Bitterblossom- Good against everything. Exceptional against control as you create a massive amount of pressure with this card. Pack Rat- Surprisingly effective in this format. You can simply race most creature decks. Against control, you can discard cards that are not good in the matchup for threats. Abyssal Persecutor, Desecration Demon- Gigantic fliers that are difficult to deal with. Lashwrithe- A threat that grows bigger. You can also equip kiku and kill someone with general damage pretty easily. Bloodline Keeper- Creates problems for your opponent. Batterskull- Be careful with it, leave up mana so your opponent can't destroy it. Wurmcoil Engine- Preferred over something like grave titan because it gains you life which lets you keep drawing cards.
Utility
We have a couple cards that help smooth out the deck. Expedition Map- Get's your best lands, like cabal coffers. Grim Discovery- Doesn't seem great until you return a Dark Confidant and a Cabal Coffers back to your hand. Shred Memory- Occasionally its graveyard hate, but most of the time it's an uncounterable tutor for a few specific cards.. Praetor's grasp- Very odd. Every deck has something you can take and use, as you can take anything. Taking their maze of ith, pithing needle, jitte is usually pretty good. Also gives you valuable information about their deck. Beseech the Queen- The converted mana cost is six, so it hurts when you flip it with a bob.
Other
Matchups
Jenara, Asura of War- We are favored in this matchup. This deck is built to fight this deck. Kiku can answer all of their creatures except goyf. They want to tempo you out, so don't be afraid to use removal to buy time to get kiku active.
Karador, Ghost Chieftan- A really bad matchup. Our deck is built to slowly take out creatures and grind value. His deck is built to slowly play creatures from the graveyard and grind value. The main problem is that kiku can't kill karador, and all of his creatures are value creatures so our removal isn't that great. Only keep proactive hands in this matchup, you can't sit and wait like normal.
Animar, Soul of the Elements- Another Bad matchup. Only keep hands with sweepers and edicts. Killing him buys you enough time to get kiku active to disrupt his combos.
Nin, the Pain Artist- Being on the play is important. Having kiku out stops nin from drawing cards. It's fine using removal on nin, they usually don't have much creatures. Matchup is about 50/50 with a decent hand.
Gaddock Teeg- Decent matchup. We have lots of removal, and infest/toxic deluge usually clears his board. We can lose to a fast start from him or to a pro black sword. Knight of infamy and lifebane zombie are all-stars here.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben- A single wrath is usually enough to take the pressure off, but use removal to save some life since she pushes you back a turn. You usually don't have time to cast your general till later. Having an active kiku is good.
Purphuros, God of the Forge- Do everything you can to preserve your life total. Don't try to out value him as he runs out of cards quickly.
Marath, Will of the Wild- Not a great matchup, as marath can pick off our general unless they tap out for him. A sweeper to kill off his mana elves is good, and knight can block him indefinitely.
Maelstrom Wanderer- Ok mathcup, keep proactive hands with discard and creatures. Also culling scales is good at killing his mana rocks, as are disk and O-stone. Kiku can kill him, just hope he doesn't flip any land destruction.
Prosh, Skyraider of Kher- He can't kill you with prosh because of kiku, but his tokens will be able to. Wraths are good here. Edicts not so much. Curse of death's hold is great.
Wydwen, the Biting Gale- Really difficult for her to kill you, as you can just use kiku to force them to bounce wydwen. You are more likely to lose to Jace or a vedalken shackles, so watch out for those. They are usually force to pithing needle your general, so getting maze of ith is also good here.
Vendillion Clique- Play's similar to Wydwen, but they don't have any good removal.
Geist of St. Traft- Edicts are good here. Killing geist buys you time, so be proactive since kiku can't answer geist.
Radha, Heir to Keld- The land destruction is what hurts most in this matchup, otherwise you have plenty of ways to deal with their threats.
Thrun, the last troll- Edicts are great. Also, our threats are bigger than him until he gets a sword. Pick off his mana elves with kiku so you can use your edicts.
Playable Omissions
Here are some cards that can be switched in if your looking for different answers for different meta's or simply don't have the available cards Phyrexian Obliterator - obliterates creature decks. Decent against control. Can take bloodline keeper's slot. Tragic Slip- Effective against mana elves, and morbid isn't difficult to trigger. Curse of death's hold- Basically keeps your opponent from playing utility creatures, and takes the bite off of their larger creatures Mutilate- Another wrath if you feel like you need one more. Guul Draz Assassin- Useful to kill things that kiku can't kill. Also good against Karador, which is a bad matchup for this deck. Nihil Spellbomb- Additional Graveyard hate if have it around in your meta. Nezumi Graverobber- Also really good graveyard hate that is ok against other decks. Cabal Interrorgator- Good against a more control heavy meta. paying 2 to discard is good, and paying the full amount of mana to see their hand is great. Raven's Crime- Works well with a draw engine going or if you have Dark Lily. Good for a control meta. Sudden Death- Very good removal against control. I had it in for a bit to deal with Wydwen so that she couldn't bounce herself in response, and it couldn't be countered. Tribute to Hunger- Better when there are more midrange and control decks around. Takes the bite out of your life loss spells.
I think that with the current banning of Derevi, and Zur this deck has the potential to be a powerhouse in the current meta. I've played several hundred hours against this deck, and it's the real deal, i would think that it is on the same level as griselbrand.
I think that this is a great deck, that when looked at the other high tier decks is pretty cheap as well.
how do you find yourself using disruption in the varying matchups.
List looks pretty solid. One question I have though is what advantages does Kiku has over Drana? Kiku is an old favorite of mine, but I just feel that Drana brings a little more to the table.
Kiku come down on turn 2 and has the ability to threaten almost any creature in the meta. It only costs 4 mana to activate while drana costs more to cast and activate. I'm sure zavros himself can list more.
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Currently Playing
Modern
No clue
RIP Twin
MTGS Olde Name:
Hruen (apparently it was taken, probably by me about 10 years ago.........)
Kiku come down on turn 2 and has the ability to threaten almost any creature in the meta. It only costs 4 mana to activate while drana costs more to cast and activate. I'm sure zavros himself can list more.
Kiku can come down T2, but she can't actually go online until T4 without ramp or mana rocks. Drana is more mana intensive, but she doesn't require to tap and doubles as a threat herself since ability is removal and pump rolled together. I really would like to be convinced to switch over to Kiku though. I like her art and flavor a lot more than Drana. It would also let me fit in more control and disruption options if I switch over since I can swap out some Voltron cards for them.
Well you don't really need to keep Kiku untapped. Having her in board killing one creature a turn is far too often too much for te opponent to handle and the cost of 2 is really relevant when Kiku dies
Private Mod Note
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Currently Playing
Modern
No clue
RIP Twin
MTGS Olde Name:
Hruen (apparently it was taken, probably by me about 10 years ago.........)
how well does this deck translate to multi-player? Im trying to nail down a Kiku deck that can do both 1v1 and multiplayer, but for a casual group. doesn't have to win every game.
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I think that this is a great deck, that when looked at the other high tier decks is pretty cheap as well.
how do you find yourself using disruption in the varying matchups.
Modern
No clue
RIP Twin
MTGS Olde Name:
Hruen (apparently it was taken, probably by me about 10 years ago.........)
Modern
No clue
RIP Twin
MTGS Olde Name:
Hruen (apparently it was taken, probably by me about 10 years ago.........)
Kiku can come down T2, but she can't actually go online until T4 without ramp or mana rocks. Drana is more mana intensive, but she doesn't require to tap and doubles as a threat herself since ability is removal and pump rolled together. I really would like to be convinced to switch over to Kiku though. I like her art and flavor a lot more than Drana. It would also let me fit in more control and disruption options if I switch over since I can swap out some Voltron cards for them.
Modern
No clue
RIP Twin
MTGS Olde Name:
Hruen (apparently it was taken, probably by me about 10 years ago.........)