as far as being its own commander, I think its great that mono-red has another decent "build around me" type of general that interacts well with artifacts. This thing can get quite out of hand when you combine it with cards like Staff of Domination, Contagion Engine, or Phyrexian Processor...
I think people have been overlooking his simple cantrip options. Poping a Relic of Progenitus / Scrabbling Claws / Phyrexian Furnace and just drawing a few cards for little mana seems good. Chromatic Sphere will cost 2R, gives you RR and 2 cards. That simple sort of stuff seems fun and cool to abuse.
This. I'm much more interested in the small, incremental stuff.
Outside from some small incremental advantage, this guy requires that you play some pretty bad cards in order to make him god. Why would you run Chromatic Sphere in a mono-r deck by itself? I'd rather not run a meager cantrip.
Chromatic Sphere, as pointed out previously, does not work with Kurkesh. He's got a good interaction with Conjurer's Bauble, or Pyrite Spellbomb, and Salvaging Station. With the Spellbomb and some mana available, everything with four toughness dies, which isn't too bad.
Outside from some small incremental advantage, this guy requires that you play some pretty bad cards in order to make him god. Why would you run Chromatic Sphere in a mono-r deck by itself? I'd rather not run a meager cantrip.
Because this is the format designed for these kinds of stupid things.
I envision this deck as having tons of mana rocks and casting big colorless spells (eg eldrazi) and some red sorceries with X in the cost. It'd be nice to use some of my old favorite cards like gauntlet of might and goblin welder but I don't know if the deck would be competitive enough for my playgroup.
I envision this deck as having tons of mana rocks and casting big colorless spells (eg eldrazi) and some red sorceries with X in the cost. It'd be nice to use some of my old favorite cards like gauntlet of might and goblin welder but I don't know if the deck would be competitive enough for my playgroup.
It seems very general dependent which is an issue for "competitive" play. Moreso in a color without any kind of protection.
Yep that is the boat red is in... and?
Red suffers from over extension syndrome.
Red has terrible card draw and frequently relies on artifacts in EDH anyway to make up for that weakness.
Same with tutoring up key cards.
Red is not the top dog of the color pie, that honor belongs to blue and green. As those two have plenty of ways to do what red cannot. I personally hope that changes with the coming block in fall. I am however thankful that WOTC has been printing more red cards for edh that help slowly solve many of reds inherit weaknesses. I am thankful 2015 has been shaking up the color pie a bit to give red an actual edge instead of Burn+ Haste+ LD (Terribly overcosted)
The best thing you can do for your general if you are that concerned is to turn to equipment that makes him indestructible or have shroud/hexproof. Along with running lands that can act as sacrifice outlets. If you are worried about your stuff: run Darksteel Forge, Soul of New Phyrexia, and Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer.
As when life gives you lemons, you make lemon pie. As you got make do with what you currently got.
Helvault is essentially Tawnos' Coffin, but most decks don't run that either.
@rockondon that's about every mono r deck.
Too situational.
We get it, you don't like him. You don't have to spend every post arguing why someone's idea is bad.
I'm super excited to play him with hellvault and tawnos' coffin, scarecrone and grim poppet will be a lot of fun too as someone pointed out. Getting R: put a -1-1 counter on target creature, is pretty ballin for red
HardCasting is right in that Kurkesh probably won't be a "competitive" commander because he relies too much on synergies and effects that aren't "worth much" without him. If he gets tucked or killed too often, a Kurkesh deck will probably have a pretty hard time. Also, mass artifact removal like Austere Command will hit the deck really hard, as all options for returning artifacts from the graveyard are in W. He's not a spike card.
That being said, I really like Kurkesh. Johnnies who like assembling rather difficult combos or small synergies rather than just playing some kind of goodstuff deck will have fun playing with him as their commander.
I hope red gets more artifact love in the future. I think R fits the flavor just as good as U when it comes to the main color to care about artifacts, since it has the whole furnace/forge/fire theme going for it. I could imagine a lot of blue cards that care about artifacts colorshifted into red: Argivian Restoration, Trinket Mage, Treasure Mage, Sage of Lat-Nam, Vedalken Engineer, Reshape, ...
Although I don't run it in my deck, a hilarious thought came to me when I was thinking about voltron generals. Liquimetal Coating + Kurk + Manriki-Gusari = R, T: "Destroy two target equipments."
I'm really surprised by a lot of the content of this thread. Many people here seem to be severly underestimating this guy. Copying things is good. Kurkesh (like everything else) doesn't have to win the game on the spot to be a worthwhile general or one of 99. Consider this: there's another thread right now that's something to the effect of "Prossh, Skyraider of Kher synergises with most of the things Jund wants to be doing and goes infinite with several of them so he's too good." This thread reads (in part) "Kurkesh synergises with a lot of the things mono-R wants to be doing but only goes infinite with a few of them so he's not good."
...what?
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
I'm really surprised by a lot of the content of this thread. Many people here seem to be severly underestimating this guy. Copying things is good. Kurkesh (like everything else) doesn't have to win the game on the spot to be a worthwhile general or one of 99. Consider this: there's another thread right now that's something to the effect of "Prossh, Skyraider of Kher synergises with most of the things Jund wants to be doing and goes infinite with several of them so he's too good." This thread reads (in part) "Kurkesh synergises with a lot of the things mono-R wants to be doing but only goes infinite with a few of them so he's not good."
...what?
It's the "It's beating me, it's OP" effect.
I'm still researching a cure.
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Oath of the Gatewatch; the set that caused the competitive community to freak out over Basic Lands.
I heard its chronic. Happens at least once every three months.
Its fairly typical to hear this downer talk about a new general who cannot or is hard to be abused right out of the gate. Since Kurk is a bit of an odd ball to build around or include as 1 of the 99 in a similar vein to Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer... which suits me just fine.
It is not my intention to derail this thread with talk of Prossh. My point was that Kurkesh doesn't need to go infinite with everything to be a really good card. Yes, some of the cards you'll want to put in a Kurkesh deck otherwise wouldn't make the cut, but what's wrong with that? In particular I'm thinking of
Cheap cantripping graveyard hate is nearly good enough without the potential to turn into Divination. Azami, Lady of Scrolls decks run a bunch of cheap wizards that are OK but not great without the general in play. Does that make Azami too situational?
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You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
It is not my intention to derail this thread with talk of Prossh. My point was that Kurkesh doesn't need to go infinite with everything to be a really good card. Yes, some of the cards you'll want to put in a Kurkesh deck otherwise wouldn't make the cut, but what's wrong with that? In particular I'm thinking of
Cheap cantripping graveyard hate is nearly good enough without the potential to turn into Divination. Azami, Lady of Scrolls decks run a bunch of cheap wizards that are OK but not great without the general in play. Does that make Azami too situational?
I will admit this guy looks like he can abuse a Salvaging Station engine very very well.
Even without it, mono red should run expedition map, skullclamp assuming you run dudes, sol ring etc. Adding Traveler's Amulet, Wanderer's Twig, and Wayfarer's Bauble in place of a couple of lands seems good. The grave hate listed earlier works well too. Codex Shredder has become a staple in mono red for me. I have used Avarice Totem to great effect when paying ten mana to play tricks and six with kurk seems great.
The first thing my mind went to is Lattice being in play with a bunch of really really fun other RED effects that are now artifacts thanks to that backed up with other cool artifact effects too.
Acorn Catapult - Cute with Kurkesh, however will not apply much to do anything to 'comboing out' or has anyway of really helping you out. You're pretty much giving your opponent two squirrels to deal two instances of one damage.
Arcbound Ravanger - Nifty if for some reason you get an unblocked attack with Kurkesh. For one red mana for each artifact, you can at instead speed give him two +1/+1 counters for every artifact you sac plus the one Ravager comes in with already.
Arcbound Reclaimer - Can be used as a good recursion maybe. With appropriate draw power you can 'reclaim' artifacts from the graveyard if you can keep the counters on the Reclaimer. I wouldn't really recommend it as Red has very weak consist draw power even with artifacts. If you actually get this fully online to do this, then you should already have your win con out and won already.
Armillary Sphere - R2, Sacrifice: Tutor for four Mountains. Decent to get your land drops.
Avarice Totem - First activation targeting a permanent you control that you're willing to trade. R Copy the effect and target permanent you want that your opponent controls. Stack resolves. Copied effect resolves first. Opponent gets Totem and you get {insert opponent's card here}. Original effect resolves. You gain control of Totem again and you're opponent gets (probably your 1/1 flying thopter). Be warned. Your opponent can disrupt this is they have 5+ mana. After Copied effect resolves, they can gain priority and they have the totem. They pay 5 and target either the permanent you just took from them or something else of yours.
Bargaining Table - Really only becomes worth it if they have 3 or less cards in hand. 3: Draw 1 card; R: Draw 1 card = (2 mana/1 card) Lower than that then you gain in the 'cards drawn per mana spent'. Common ratio is 2/1. If they have 0 cards in hand, then you're paying R to draw 2 cards. However, I find it to be a rare case that my EDH opponent has zero cards in hand unless they're playing mono red beatdown really bad. I'm looking at you Lovisa Coldeyes. Anything above them having 3 cards in hand, you're really desperate to draw cards.
Basalt Monolith - From what I figure, you pay a start up fee, and then you're free to convert every R into 2. I think this is a must add to the deck. But hey, that's just my opinion.
Brittle Effigy - Honestly, best if you just put it on a Prototype Portal. However, decent one shot effect for 4R to instantly exile two creatures.
Burnished Hart - 3R: Search for four basic lands and put them into play tapped. (shuffle library)
Candelabra of Tawnos - Warning. $359 card at average price. Anyways. Game plan. Seven Mountains. Tap out. Pay 6: target six lands. Copy for R. Copied effect resolves, six untapped Mountains. Tap six Mountains and float 6 R. Original effect resolves, six untapped Mountains. Tap those. Now you have 12 R. Does this warrant running this expensive card? Up to you.
Candles of Leng - Filter through your mountains as long as you have one in your graveyard. If you've achieve the infinite mana combos that involve Voltaic Key, then you can draw through your deck. If not, then you're paying 4R to draw two cards at max that your opponents get to see. Or ditch one or two Mountains to the graveyard. However unlike the Bargaining Table, this draw power does not scale and stays consistent with its cost.
Citanul Flute - Tutor effect. Can be copied, but it just depends on what you're looking for. Although pay 5R: Tutor for two creatures with converted mana cost of 5 or less and put them in your hand. That isn't too bad. Tutor for Kuldotha Forgemaster and another creature and then you can start sacrificing artifacts to tutor for more artifacts. Not bad.
Clock of Omens - Trade two tapped artifacts to untap two other artifacts for R isn't bad in my books depending on what artifacts are being untapped.
Coalition Relic - Store extra mana for R and then get said extra stored mana on next turn. Turns an already good mana rock into a better one.
Codex Shredder - Should read "6R, sacrifice; Put target card in your graveyard into your hand". Yeah, Artifacts that retrieve stuff from the graveyard is always good. Expensive though.
Copper Gnomes - Reads, "4R, sacrifice: Put two artifacts from your hand onto the battlefield."
Deal Broker - Because going "Draw, discard, draw, discard" for R is pretty good filtering.
Decimator Web - Left unchecked, your opponent is going to be in a world of hurt. Also forces them to answer. If they let themselves build up to eight poison counters, then tutor for your proliferating artifacts (see above) to get those last two counters for win. If you win with poison this way, your opponent deserved it for not respecting your Web.
Druidic Satchel - Various modes available from this. Although, debatable if you'd want to run this unless you combine with the Lodestone Bauble to put basic lands on top of your library to put them instantly into play two at a time and then draw two cards. The saprolings could be used to keep a Thraximundar in check, or similar cards. Life gain is life gain.
Emmessi Tome - "5R, t: Draw two, discard one, draw two, discard one" To each their own if they wish to run this.
Fool's Tome - If you have no cards in hand then, this is okay, but very situational. Unless you just barf your whole hand out every time you play the deck, there are better draw options.
Gallows at Willow Hill - Artifact requires 3 humans. Gives opponent a 1/1 flying spirit token. I don't ever see a Kurkesh deck running a massive amount of humans to make this even remotely viable.
Galvanic Key - Instead Voltaic Key for the higher price for drop and activation. Run both because it'll make the deck more consistent.
Gemstone Array - 2R = two stored mana. That's a "Buy one, get one half off!" deal. Not bad.
Goblin Charbelcher - Can be removal. Can damage an opponent real hard. I'm sold.
Golem Foundry - I feel a slight Golem theme with this deck. Get two 3/3 Golems for every three artifacts and R spent.
Conversion Chamber - I'm just going to list the rest of the Golem things that will work. So basically, you can exile your opponent's artifacts in their graveyard or any old Bauble you don't need anymore to get to charge counters. Two charge counters equals four 3/3 Golems. That's a pretty good deal in my books. Good against another Artifact based EDH deck.
Hammer of Purphoros - One land equals two 3/3 enchantment Golems. Also... Haste. Sweet.
Karn, Silver Golem - Okay, there's already tons of nifty things you can do with this guy. I'm not going to write them all here. He's fun to have. Really doesn't have an interaction with Kurkesh though because you might as well just activate Karn's ability again. But, Golem theme!
Titan Forge - Giant golems faster. Need I say more?
Golem Artisan - Pump for 2R to get +2/+2 or get two abilities. Also Golem.
Sadly there is no red splicer from the New Phyrexia set to add to the Golem theme.
Grim Poppet - If he could target himself with his ability, this would be a great ability, however, still good. -1/-1 counters get around indestructibility.
Grindclock - You can I guess run this, but it's going to be a slow grinding game if you clock them to death. But it works.
Grimoire of the Dead - Doesn't work with second ability obvious unless you want to do something like:
There's a Bloodfire Colossus in the graveyard. Activate the Grimoire and pay R. Let the copied effect resolves. Bloodfire enters. Activate him in response to the original activation and deal 6 damage to all creatures and player. Bloodfire Colossus and other creatures are in the graveyard now and the original ability resolves bringing everyone Bloodfire Colossus killed and himself back to the field again. So.. That's neat. Kurkesh dies to this, but comes back again. So, props for Bloodfire Colosses and Kurkesh being good buds and reading a book together.
Grinning Totem - Because stealing one card from your opponent's deck isn't bad enough. Kurkesh has to take two cards. You can play lands with this so, you can take utility lands like Cabal Coffers. Also, if you have Mycosynth Lattice out, you can then cast pretty much whatever you want with it. If you don't have the Lattice, then you're going to be stuck cast their red spells and artifact spells.
Helm of Obedience - One helm, two creatures... or a lot of milled cards. But probably two creatures.
Helavut - Save Kurkesh and another one of your creatures from a board wipe, and then sac? Or start Exiling your opponent's creatures at 7R for two pops and then either return the Helavut back to your hand or just straight out exile it to permanently get rid of the creatures.
Isochron Scepter - Whatever red instant you want that is 2 or less that you just want to use even more. Battle Hymn will let you turn this into a mana producer that Kurkesh can copy. Fury Charm is another good option. Price of Progress can rack up some damage pretty quickly, although you'll be taking damage as well too. Reroute.
Jar of Eyeballs - With enough free sacrifice outlets, this becomes a pseudo-tutor card on a stick for two cards.
Journeyer's Kite - "3Rt: Search for two basics and put them in your hand."
Keening Stone - Mill their library for x3 the cards in their graveyard.
Kulthoda Forgemaster - Okay, so normally, three in, one out. With Kurkesh, Three in, Two out. That's a deal.
Lux Cannon - I'm going to get Kurkesh a cannon. Kurkesh loves cannons. Charges up faster and deals twice the punishment.
Magistrate's Scepter - As with the Cannon, Charges faster and get twice the power. You don't take infinite turns, but you take three for every one your opponent gets and eventually five, then three again. Kurkesh doesn't know how to tell time. Despite have a Clock of Omens.
Mimic Vat - This will make you have fun with many many creatures. Twice the power!
Phyrexian Processor - Every general needs minions. Kurkesh needs twice as many though.
Planar Portal, Rind of Three Wishes - Get these online, tutor for whatever win con you need to finish the game. Don't be an ass and stall the game.
Power Conduit - Kind of self explanatory. However, I'd suggest putting a charge counter on itself with the first activation you do so that it because a self producing engine with Kurkesh out.
Scarecrone - Activate second ability targeting an artifact creature in your graveyard. Kurkesh ability on the stack, in response to the trigger, sacrifice Scarecrone to itself and Kurkesh triggers again. Pay the R to the first ability. Copied and original first effects resolve. Draw two cards. Kurkesh's triggered ability on the stack after the second effect, pay the R to copy the effect and target the Scarecrone that is now in the graveyard. Copied effect resolves. Scarecrone enters the battlefield and then original effect resolves putting the targeted artifact creature back to the field. TL;DR "5RR,t, sacrifice Scarecrone: Draw two cards, then return Scarecrone and target artifact creature from your graveyard back onto the battlefield."
Okay, so that's a good amount of interactions. I'd write more, but honestly, writing all of that was pretty exhausting. A lot of the interactions are self explanatory.
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as far as being its own commander, I think its great that mono-red has another decent "build around me" type of general that interacts well with artifacts. This thing can get quite out of hand when you combine it with cards like Staff of Domination, Contagion Engine, or Phyrexian Processor...
Jalira, Master Polymorphist | Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder | Bosh, Iron Golem | Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Brago, King Eternal | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Wort, Boggart Auntie | Wort, the Raidmother
Captain Sisay | Rhys, the Redeemed | Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight | Obzedat, Ghost Council | Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind | Vorel of the Hull Clade
Uril, the Miststalker | Prossh, Skyraider of Kher | Nicol Bolas | Progenitus
Ghave, Guru of Spores | Zedruu the Greathearted | Damia, Sage of Stone | Riku of Two Reflections
This. I'm much more interested in the small, incremental stuff.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
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Because this is the format designed for these kinds of stupid things.
I envision this deck as having tons of mana rocks and casting big colorless spells (eg eldrazi) and some red sorceries with X in the cost. It'd be nice to use some of my old favorite cards like gauntlet of might and goblin welder but I don't know if the deck would be competitive enough for my playgroup.
My G Yisan, the Bard of Death G deck.
My BUGWR Hermit druid BUGWR deck.
It seems very general dependent which is an issue for "competitive" play. Moreso in a color without any kind of protection.
@rockondon that's about every mono r deck.
Too situational.
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Red suffers from over extension syndrome.
Red has terrible card draw and frequently relies on artifacts in EDH anyway to make up for that weakness.
Same with tutoring up key cards.
Red is not the top dog of the color pie, that honor belongs to blue and green. As those two have plenty of ways to do what red cannot. I personally hope that changes with the coming block in fall. I am however thankful that WOTC has been printing more red cards for edh that help slowly solve many of reds inherit weaknesses. I am thankful 2015 has been shaking up the color pie a bit to give red an actual edge instead of Burn+ Haste+ LD (Terribly overcosted)
The best thing you can do for your general if you are that concerned is to turn to equipment that makes him indestructible or have shroud/hexproof. Along with running lands that can act as sacrifice outlets. If you are worried about your stuff: run Darksteel Forge, Soul of New Phyrexia, and Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer.
As when life gives you lemons, you make lemon pie. As you got make do with what you currently got.
We get it, you don't like him. You don't have to spend every post arguing why someone's idea is bad.
I'm super excited to play him with hellvault and tawnos' coffin, scarecrone and grim poppet will be a lot of fun too as someone pointed out. Getting R: put a -1-1 counter on target creature, is pretty ballin for red
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I can't wait to hear the story of Captain Kurk winning a Bludgeon Brawl.
I'd rather run staff of nin, seeing as it's now a shock long as you pay a R. That kills a lot of really strong generals in this game.
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That being said, I really like Kurkesh. Johnnies who like assembling rather difficult combos or small synergies rather than just playing some kind of goodstuff deck will have fun playing with him as their commander.
I hope red gets more artifact love in the future. I think R fits the flavor just as good as U when it comes to the main color to care about artifacts, since it has the whole furnace/forge/fire theme going for it. I could imagine a lot of blue cards that care about artifacts colorshifted into red: Argivian Restoration, Trinket Mage, Treasure Mage, Sage of Lat-Nam, Vedalken Engineer, Reshape, ...
'Fraid not, as his is a Triggered ability, and his ability doubles Activated Abilities.
...what?
It's the "It's beating me, it's OP" effect.
I'm still researching a cure.
Its fairly typical to hear this downer talk about a new general who cannot or is hard to be abused right out of the gate. Since Kurk is a bit of an odd ball to build around or include as 1 of the 99 in a similar vein to Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer... which suits me just fine.
Cheap cantripping graveyard hate is nearly good enough without the potential to turn into Divination. Azami, Lady of Scrolls decks run a bunch of cheap wizards that are OK but not great without the general in play. Does that make Azami too situational?
I will admit this guy looks like he can abuse a Salvaging Station engine very very well.
Just acquired my candelabra this afternoon (for a smidge over 200, not bad imo), so it's brewing time!
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Arcbound Ravanger - Nifty if for some reason you get an unblocked attack with Kurkesh. For one red mana for each artifact, you can at instead speed give him two +1/+1 counters for every artifact you sac plus the one Ravager comes in with already.
Arcbound Reclaimer - Can be used as a good recursion maybe. With appropriate draw power you can 'reclaim' artifacts from the graveyard if you can keep the counters on the Reclaimer. I wouldn't really recommend it as Red has very weak consist draw power even with artifacts. If you actually get this fully online to do this, then you should already have your win con out and won already.
Armillary Sphere - R2, Sacrifice: Tutor for four Mountains. Decent to get your land drops.
Avarice Totem - First activation targeting a permanent you control that you're willing to trade. R Copy the effect and target permanent you want that your opponent controls. Stack resolves. Copied effect resolves first. Opponent gets Totem and you get {insert opponent's card here}. Original effect resolves. You gain control of Totem again and you're opponent gets (probably your 1/1 flying thopter). Be warned. Your opponent can disrupt this is they have 5+ mana. After Copied effect resolves, they can gain priority and they have the totem. They pay 5 and target either the permanent you just took from them or something else of yours.
Bargaining Table - Really only becomes worth it if they have 3 or less cards in hand. 3: Draw 1 card; R: Draw 1 card = (2 mana/1 card) Lower than that then you gain in the 'cards drawn per mana spent'. Common ratio is 2/1. If they have 0 cards in hand, then you're paying R to draw 2 cards. However, I find it to be a rare case that my EDH opponent has zero cards in hand unless they're playing mono red beatdown really bad. I'm looking at you Lovisa Coldeyes. Anything above them having 3 cards in hand, you're really desperate to draw cards.
Basalt Monolith - From what I figure, you pay a start up fee, and then you're free to convert every R into 2. I think this is a must add to the deck. But hey, that's just my opinion.
Brittle Effigy - Honestly, best if you just put it on a Prototype Portal. However, decent one shot effect for 4R to instantly exile two creatures.
Burnished Hart - 3R: Search for four basic lands and put them into play tapped. (shuffle library)
Candelabra of Tawnos - Warning. $359 card at average price. Anyways. Game plan. Seven Mountains. Tap out. Pay 6: target six lands. Copy for R. Copied effect resolves, six untapped Mountains. Tap six Mountains and float 6 R. Original effect resolves, six untapped Mountains. Tap those. Now you have 12 R. Does this warrant running this expensive card? Up to you.
Candles of Leng - Filter through your mountains as long as you have one in your graveyard. If you've achieve the infinite mana combos that involve Voltaic Key, then you can draw through your deck. If not, then you're paying 4R to draw two cards at max that your opponents get to see. Or ditch one or two Mountains to the graveyard. However unlike the Bargaining Table, this draw power does not scale and stays consistent with its cost.
Citanul Flute - Tutor effect. Can be copied, but it just depends on what you're looking for. Although pay 5R: Tutor for two creatures with converted mana cost of 5 or less and put them in your hand. That isn't too bad. Tutor for Kuldotha Forgemaster and another creature and then you can start sacrificing artifacts to tutor for more artifacts. Not bad.
Clock of Omens - Trade two tapped artifacts to untap two other artifacts for R isn't bad in my books depending on what artifacts are being untapped.
Coalition Relic - Store extra mana for R and then get said extra stored mana on next turn. Turns an already good mana rock into a better one.
Codex Shredder - Should read "6R, sacrifice; Put target card in your graveyard into your hand". Yeah, Artifacts that retrieve stuff from the graveyard is always good. Expensive though.
Conjurer's Bauble, Lodestone Bauble, Mishra's Bauble, Urza's Bauble, Wayfarer's Bauble - Incremental effects that build little card advantage for very little cost.
Contagion Clasp, Contagion Engine - Because who doesn't like -1/-1 counters and proliferating x2 or x4?
Copper Gnomes - Reads, "4R, sacrifice: Put two artifacts from your hand onto the battlefield."
Deal Broker - Because going "Draw, discard, draw, discard" for R is pretty good filtering.
Decimator Web - Left unchecked, your opponent is going to be in a world of hurt. Also forces them to answer. If they let themselves build up to eight poison counters, then tutor for your proliferating artifacts (see above) to get those last two counters for win. If you win with poison this way, your opponent deserved it for not respecting your Web.
Dreamstone Hedron - "3R, sacrifice: Draw six cards"
Druidic Satchel - Various modes available from this. Although, debatable if you'd want to run this unless you combine with the Lodestone Bauble to put basic lands on top of your library to put them instantly into play two at a time and then draw two cards. The saprolings could be used to keep a Thraximundar in check, or similar cards. Life gain is life gain.
Emmessi Tome - "5R, t: Draw two, discard one, draw two, discard one" To each their own if they wish to run this.
Fool's Tome - If you have no cards in hand then, this is okay, but very situational. Unless you just barf your whole hand out every time you play the deck, there are better draw options.
Gallows at Willow Hill - Artifact requires 3 humans. Gives opponent a 1/1 flying spirit token. I don't ever see a Kurkesh deck running a massive amount of humans to make this even remotely viable.
Galvanic Key - Instead Voltaic Key for the higher price for drop and activation. Run both because it'll make the deck more consistent.
Gemstone Array - 2R = two stored mana. That's a "Buy one, get one half off!" deal. Not bad.
Goblin Charbelcher - Can be removal. Can damage an opponent real hard. I'm sold.
Golem Foundry - I feel a slight Golem theme with this deck. Get two 3/3 Golems for every three artifacts and R spent.
Conversion Chamber - I'm just going to list the rest of the Golem things that will work. So basically, you can exile your opponent's artifacts in their graveyard or any old Bauble you don't need anymore to get to charge counters. Two charge counters equals four 3/3 Golems. That's a pretty good deal in my books. Good against another Artifact based EDH deck.
Hammer of Purphoros - One land equals two 3/3 enchantment Golems. Also... Haste. Sweet.
Hematite Golem - "1RR: +4/+0"
Karn, Silver Golem - Okay, there's already tons of nifty things you can do with this guy. I'm not going to write them all here. He's fun to have. Really doesn't have an interaction with Kurkesh though because you might as well just activate Karn's ability again. But, Golem theme!
Titan Forge - Giant golems faster. Need I say more?
Golem Artisan - Pump for 2R to get +2/+2 or get two abilities. Also Golem.
Sadly there is no red splicer from the New Phyrexia set to add to the Golem theme.
Grim Poppet - If he could target himself with his ability, this would be a great ability, however, still good. -1/-1 counters get around indestructibility.
Grindclock - You can I guess run this, but it's going to be a slow grinding game if you clock them to death. But it works.
Grimoire of the Dead - Doesn't work with second ability obvious unless you want to do something like:
There's a Bloodfire Colossus in the graveyard. Activate the Grimoire and pay R. Let the copied effect resolves. Bloodfire enters. Activate him in response to the original activation and deal 6 damage to all creatures and player. Bloodfire Colossus and other creatures are in the graveyard now and the original ability resolves bringing everyone Bloodfire Colossus killed and himself back to the field again. So.. That's neat. Kurkesh dies to this, but comes back again. So, props for Bloodfire Colosses and Kurkesh being good buds and reading a book together.
Grinning Totem - Because stealing one card from your opponent's deck isn't bad enough. Kurkesh has to take two cards. You can play lands with this so, you can take utility lands like Cabal Coffers. Also, if you have Mycosynth Lattice out, you can then cast pretty much whatever you want with it. If you don't have the Lattice, then you're going to be stuck cast their red spells and artifact spells.
Helm of Obedience - One helm, two creatures... or a lot of milled cards. But probably two creatures.
Helm of Possession - (Read above... minus the milling part)
Helavut - Save Kurkesh and another one of your creatures from a board wipe, and then sac? Or start Exiling your opponent's creatures at 7R for two pops and then either return the Helavut back to your hand or just straight out exile it to permanently get rid of the creatures.
Isochron Scepter - Whatever red instant you want that is 2 or less that you just want to use even more. Battle Hymn will let you turn this into a mana producer that Kurkesh can copy. Fury Charm is another good option. Price of Progress can rack up some damage pretty quickly, although you'll be taking damage as well too. Reroute.
Jar of Eyeballs - With enough free sacrifice outlets, this becomes a pseudo-tutor card on a stick for two cards.
Jayemdae Tome - "4Rt: Draw two cards"
Journeyer's Kite - "3Rt: Search for two basics and put them in your hand."
Keening Stone - Mill their library for x3 the cards in their graveyard.
Kulthoda Forgemaster - Okay, so normally, three in, one out. With Kurkesh, Three in, Two out. That's a deal.
Lux Cannon - I'm going to get Kurkesh a cannon. Kurkesh loves cannons. Charges up faster and deals twice the punishment.
Magistrate's Scepter - As with the Cannon, Charges faster and get twice the power. You don't take infinite turns, but you take three for every one your opponent gets and eventually five, then three again. Kurkesh doesn't know how to tell time. Despite have a Clock of Omens.
Mimic Vat - This will make you have fun with many many creatures. Twice the power!
Mind Stone - First mana rock, then, two cards.
Mindless Automaton - "1RR, discard a card: Draw two cards"
Mishra's Helix - Like locking your opponent out of his lands for less mana? So do I.
Muse Vessel - Kind of like the Grinning Totem but for your opponent's hand. Eats their hand like crazy. On top of that, you can then play their cards.
Oblivion Stone - More fate counters. Same explosion.
Pentavus - Self building flying army. Adds fodder for stuff like Avarice Totem
Phyrexian Furnace - Graveyard hate and cantrip.
Phyrexian Processor - Every general needs minions. Kurkesh needs twice as many though.
Planar Portal, Rind of Three Wishes - Get these online, tutor for whatever win con you need to finish the game. Don't be an ass and stall the game.
Power Conduit - Kind of self explanatory. However, I'd suggest putting a charge counter on itself with the first activation you do so that it because a self producing engine with Kurkesh out.
Salvaging Station - Return your Baubles back for more use.
Sands of Delirium - more mill
Scarecrone - Activate second ability targeting an artifact creature in your graveyard. Kurkesh ability on the stack, in response to the trigger, sacrifice Scarecrone to itself and Kurkesh triggers again. Pay the R to the first ability. Copied and original first effects resolve. Draw two cards. Kurkesh's triggered ability on the stack after the second effect, pay the R to copy the effect and target the Scarecrone that is now in the graveyard. Copied effect resolves. Scarecrone enters the battlefield and then original effect resolves putting the targeted artifact creature back to the field. TL;DR "5RR,t, sacrifice Scarecrone: Draw two cards, then return Scarecrone and target artifact creature from your graveyard back onto the battlefield."
Okay, so that's a good amount of interactions. I'd write more, but honestly, writing all of that was pretty exhausting. A lot of the interactions are self explanatory.