Kaho, Minamo Historian, the best all purpose tutor not in black. Why not give a bold, argument inducing title to stir up conversation?
However, I do really want to bring the focus back to a long, not quite forgotten, but certainly underused and underrated magic card that is primed for anyone who wants access to the rest of their deck.
This is NOT a post about Kaho, Minamo Historian being your commander, but mostly about her being a really great card to have in your 99, especially if you play a multicolor commander.
I’ve played against her a few times as a commander, and also played her as my commander, but rarely, very rarely have I seen other people included her as part of their 99. I looked at all the primers that contain blue, and none of the lists have her included as far as I can see.
I however in recent times add her to almost any deck that can abuse her power. My argument to all commander players is that she is a very powerful card to have your deck. Very overlooked, probably because mostly misunderstood. *queue the violin*
I searched the forums for “Kaho” in the title and got two pages of worth. She is not a secret by any means. Most of those posts are about her being the commander. Probably the most common thing about the commander lists is just how different they are. With so many blue instants to choose from, people come up with completely different ideas. The other common thing about the previous posts is a general lack of mass interest and often negativity about her use.
Here is where I am going to try and change the consensus as much as I can. One thing that I think that has happened, is that because most of the discussions/posts are about her being the General, that being mono-blue, is that the focus when discussing her are on blue instants, obviously.
Again if you do a look up on EDHREC you get an exclusive list of blue spells associated with her. It always assumes it as your commander general.
However she can fetch ANY instants and this is where she shines in multicolored decks.
I searched for “instant” on Gatherer and got back 1997 results that are useful to her particular way of casting (as of Kaladesh), so I don’t think I really need to argue how much of a potential toolbox she is. Instants do a set of many things, but disruption, combat tricks and card draw are some of the more popular uses. However I’m going to focus on a smaller set of instants, and that is those of the “search your library” cards, the tutors.
--== The power of tutoring ==--
Nobody can argue that tutoring in decks that are made up of one offs in 99 are extremely powerful. Many argue that tutoring is not in the spirit of commander, that’s it was meant to be designed for more randomly distributed sets of plays.
I for one am very guilty of having an overuse of tutoring in commander. I am also guilty of building focused decks to get a particular set of cards for a win.
So I think I’m going to be appealing to a particular set of people; those that like to play 75%-competitive and are large on combos, or having the cards you specifically put in the deck for synergies, to play parts more frequently. This is not just for on the spot game winning combos, but also those that really get value from particular combinations of cards.
Black is the premium color to include when you want to tutor for ANY card. But what happens when your colors are not in black? Suddenly you have to get a bit/lot more creative with how you can find these cards.
They do exist, and they get used a lot. Blue is famous for getting instants, sorceries and artifacts. White for enchantments, artifacts and lands. Green for creatures and lands. Red not really known for tutoring other than more specific subtypes.
But wait Kaho can only get instants? How can she be the best “search your library for a card” not in black?
Here is where I think most of the community has really failed to utilize her. By proxying through instants that search through your library for card types, you can get the specific cards you want.
Let’s break down the most relevant instant tutors by color:
So for example a common sequence for me in a Bant (UWG) deck is to get; Enlightened Tutor, Eladamri's Call and probably a countering spell or spot removal as my three instants. Often using her in my upkeep if I’m wanting to use the Enlightened Tutor to get me my artifact/enchantment combo/value piece the following turn I cast her.
Need an artifact in a Simic deck? Mystical Tutor for Fabricate. You can always use Long Term Plans and say Brainstorm to get any card in your deck. This is a two turn strategy, but obviously gets you anything you want.
With green having so many creature tutors, she is incredible to include in your 99, if you run blue/green, as she can fetch up any specific card by filtering through her. Your Worldly Tutor can be turned into a tutor for almost any card depending what card types your instant tutors allow you to search for. In particular decks, she is often my first target for a Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman/Worldly Tutor. She provides protection and extra tutoring in one package.
I do post every so often to show combinations that I use to give examples of how much of a utility creature she can be. I'll keep adding to this list for quick reference:
There are other cards outside of black that allow you to search for any card, like Planar Portal, Ring of Five Wishes, Wild Research, even sequencing some cards in a particular way can fetch you cards you want. I certainly have abused Planar Portal in the past, it’s great in some decks. But when it comes to mana efficiency Kaho is the winner. Four to cast, with a likely 1-3 mana to get your fetch.
High Risk, High Reward
So the magical question, why is she not an instant (pun not intended) insert into decks? The common answer that people have said is that “she is weak to removal”. People imagine the most frequent case will be that you tutor for three of your best/relevant blue instants and that she is removed before you get to use her, and that you will never get to draw those cards.
Well why play any creature if it can be removed right?
“Fortune sides with him who dares.”― Virgil
The argument almost becomes that because she is such a powerful card that she must be answered before you get to use her. This is a hallmark for any great card. She certainly joins those ranks.
But only three uses and she’s done! Trust me if you get to use her three times then you’re very satisfied and as Charlie Sheen would say “Winning!” A 4-for-1 where you get to choose the exact three by proxy is exactly the value and power level you like in a deck.
Haste is the number one thing that makes her more viable in your deck.
With haste you CAN provide protection for her (and everything) with a countering spell.
So she is better in decks that already have a penchant for giving haste to creatures.
Maybe you already play a combination of these cards? If so then you'll find that she is an amazing fit into your potential strategy.
She just get more powerful as time goes by as new sets come out. She is more relevant now, than at any time, and this will always be the case.
For a while now I’ve felt that I’ve been at an advantage over others players, and almost reluctant to share my experience with her in my decks, the inner child not wanting to share.
The reason that she came to my attention is because I did make a deck with her as my general. I made a straight up combo deck. I won’t delve into the mechanics of the deck, I’ll do that in another post, but suffice to say that she is a basically self-contained win condition on her own if you decided to go down that track. Simply put if you’re not disrupted, you win the game. But because it was so linear I didn’t actually play it much. It wasn’t until I started adding her to multicolor decks outside of black that I really found her as a powerful strategy get me my combos.
Obviously I would not have written this article about her, if she did not prove to be a perennial all-star in my decks.
I’m happy for people to argue that she is not good. Too be honest any discussion that brings her to a bigger audience, good or bad, means that at least she has some focus for the future.
Looking forward to people posting some instants they love in their decks and would be interested in having double up access to?
Also important to the relevance of the thread, is what creatures, what artifacts, what sorceries, what enchantments and what lands you have always wanted more tutors for? Especially if you’re not in black, those colors that struggle to search for cards that you want more consistently.
~She is the ultimate Shapeshifter, being almost anything you want her to be.
I klike your enthousiasm, but the problem is: it dies to removal. She has no inherent protection of herself and she is only 2/2. Every other round, someone wraths or somethign equivalent. It's the same reason I never play Mangara's Tome. People pop it on sight to deny you what you tutored.
but the problem is: it dies to removal. She has no inherent protection of herself and she is only 2/2. Every other round, someone wraths or somethign equivalent.
The thing is that we can't speak for others people play group experiences, but I do play Magic Online and exclusively Commander. I wrote this post because of the positive experience through hundreds of games with playing her in that domain. Will you get to use her every time? No. Do the number of times you do get to use her be more than you don't? Yes. Thats my experience, and because of the way in which I use her, she becomes a very powerful card.
I understand your and lots of peoples reasoning. But to simply say that there is a wrath every round, why you just wouldn't play creature decks at all, and this is not the case. For me its like a Consecrated sphinx, when its unanswered it simply takes over the game. What I'm suggesting is that her power level is far higher than she is given credit for.
If you want to tutor to your heart's delight, get a Ring of Three Wishes and search for a Contagion Clasp with your first search.
Its a matter of costs, Ring of Three Wishes will cost 10 mana, where doing the equivalent with Kaho might be more like 5 mana. The trade off being that artifacts are more resilient in general than creatures.
I played her as a commander once. It was one of my first decks, and if unanswered, she was a powerhouse. Unanswered though, that was often a stretch.
As others have said, she dies to removal. Normally, I kind of hate that argument, but, I think it kind of matters for Kaho. Basically, she will remove 1-3 'outs' from your deck if she dies to removal, which makes it much worse than some garden-variety tutor. She also telegraphs your play in a way other tutors don't: They get to see it, and may have a full turn to respond. Compared to Diabolic Tutor (which has the same CMC), your pick is hidden, and you can cast it immediately.
I like Kaho, but, I don't think she's a great card, and pretty far from an auto-include. That said, I should probably sleeve up my copy in some of my decks (maybe Maelstrom Wanderer will like it because mass haste makes Kaho more exciting, or Sakashima Clones, because there's lots of instants in there).
Compared to Diabolic Tutor (which has the same CMC), your pick is hidden, and you can cast it immediately.
My post was basically trying to allude to the fact that she is an all round tutorer when you don't have access to black in your commander colors. Is Diabolic Tutor more effective and less risky? Of course it is, black is always going to get you what you want in the cheapest and quickest fashion.
Basically, she will remove 1-3 'outs' from your deck if she dies to removal, which makes it much worse than some garden-variety tutor.
I think its important to note that people shouldn't put too much weight on not having access to certain cards post Kaho removal. You'll find "pros" write articles on why exiling cards from opponents libraries is not a winning strategy. Same with milling, as long as your deck has a reasonable amount of redundancy then cards going to graveyard are not actually making your deck weaker. Having said that however, I am careful with card selection at times. Do I get Cyclonic Rift with her, when I know that its one of my few outs or answers to what my opponents are likely to do? Quite often I don't. Do I get 3 counter spells when it seems like disruption is key to a long term plan and I only run 5 counters in the whole deck? Probably not. But putting one counterspell is certainly going to give you utility with her and not really diminish your ability for answers later on in the game.
I remember in my deck with her as the general I'd quite often do a bait with my first selection. A bunch of good stuff, but never my best three instants.
She also telegraphs your play in a way other tutors don't: They get to see it, and may have a full turn to respond.
This is absolutely one of the cons of using her as a utility base for sure. But all the tutors outside of black are revealed to opponent, that can't be helped due to needing to go for card type specifics. But same rules still apply, you can do the tutor just before your turn, or even your upkeep, so that opponents don;t have to time to plan for what you're doing. They know that you CAN tutor, but they don't know what you're going for.
I like Kaho, but, I don't think she's a great card, and pretty far from an auto-include. That said, I should probably sleeve up my copy in some of my decks (maybe Maelstrom Wanderer will like it because mass haste makes Kaho more exciting, or Sakashima Clones, because there's lots of instants in there).
I should probably add in the OP about how haste does make her a whole lot better and probably because of the inclusion of certain haste cards in my decks, I've had more success with her than maybe others have had or perceived in the past. For example Lightning Greeves and Hall of the Bandit Lord will feature in these decks. But on top of that if running white, I have Stoneforge Mystic which doubles the chances of a Lightning Greeves. If for example you are running Xenagos, God of War in a Temur build then she'll become more reliably effective. Actually this has inspired me to write up potential haste combinations with her in general.
She's definitely a card that requires some free counters to back her up, like Force of Will, but blue decks with smaller color pool already has it. I've seen a deck using both Darksteel Plate and the boots to keep her alive, but in most cases counters are sufficient in keeping her alive, you just need to cast her later than earlier, so you have enough mana to protect her.
And it is possible to include a bounce spell in her arsenal so in case you can't counter the spell (like with Supreme Verdict) you can at least keep her around for cheap, although with Command Beacon's release it's probably more efficient. In Simic, you can use land like Yavimaya Hollow to regenerate her, but it'd tap her in the process. Mono-blue is probably still the best way to go.
I had considered building with Kaho in the command zone a while back. I think the best route to using her is to tutor for 2x generically good counter-spells and 1x generically good enabler (mystical tutor for example).
Compared to Diabolic Tutor (which has the same CMC), your pick is hidden, and you can cast it immediately.
My post was basically trying to allude to the fact that she is an all round tutorer when you don't have access to black in your commander colors. Is Diabolic Tutor more effective and less risky? Of course it is, black is always going to get you what you want in the cheapest and quickest fashion.
Certainly. There are some other tutors I use; Muddle the Mixture finds a great variety of good cards, including boots, Curse of the Swine, a few varieties of Counterspell, Cyclonic Rift, etc. 'Converted mana cost must equal 2' is probably as restrictive as 'must be an instant'.
She also telegraphs your play in a way other tutors don't: They get to see it, and may have a full turn to respond.
This is absolutely one of the cons of using her as a utility base for sure. But all the tutors outside of black are revealed to opponent, that can't be helped due to needing to go for card type specifics. But same rules still apply, you can do the tutor just before your turn, or even your upkeep, so that opponents don;t have to time to plan for what you're doing. They know that you CAN tutor, but they don't know what you're going for.
I'll be honest, this is the part that bothers me the most. If you Kaho for a Mystical Tutor, your opponent is just as likely to off her because she might use the Mystical Tutor for something devastating, or an answer. Just bad news all around.
It's the combination of sorcery speed, delay, and reveal. If it's instant and reveal but delayed, you can do it EOT to avoid the delay. If it's sorcery speed, delayed, and hidden, no one is the wiser what you're doing or what you've fetched. If it's sorcery and reveal but no delay (like Muddle the Mixture), they won't have time to act on the information.
It's the confluence of all three, (sorcery speed, delay, revealed) that makes Kaho not so great. Even if you Kaho an open-ended tutor like Mystical Tutor, making it sorcery speed and delayed but not revealed, opponents will assume the worst and handle it.
Thanks for the great write up. This is a card that hadn't been on my radar before but I will be purchasing one with my next order after reading this. There is obviously a huge risk of losing your instants, which I think is what everyone seems to have a problem with, but as long as you aren't grabbing a crucial combo piece it shouldn't be that concerning. As you said she can be used as a toolbox and you can even pull a counterspell to protect herself after she makes it around the table once. I don't think she's great as there is no immediate value when casting her but she is good due to the tutoring and long term card advantage.
It's the combination of sorcery speed, delay, and reveal. If it's instant and reveal but delayed, you can do it EOT to avoid the delay. If it's sorcery speed, delayed, and hidden, no one is the wiser what you're doing or what you've fetched. If it's sorcery and reveal but no delay (like Muddle the Mixture), they won't have time to act on the information.
Yeah fair enough, sometimes I'm putting a Mana Drain, Mystical Tutor and Enlightened Tutor and then holding my breath. But there can be the aspect of what can been seen also influences how your opponents play in a way that progresses you further while holding them back. The classic if you have a counterspell on tap then opponents tend not to want to play their big spells into it. You get this cascade effect that each opponent doesn't try to do anything too big and its becomes a bit of a time walk card. Also knowing that you could get a board wipe card, they hold off on committing too much, so again buys you time that you might not have had. So although there are negatives as you say, some games play in a positive spin for you because she represents threats they CAN see.
Thanks for the great write up. This is a card that hadn't been on my radar before but I will be purchasing one with my next order after reading this.
I'm going to post little combinations of cards every so often to keep her relevant, and show how she can be used.
Here is a powerful combination that I use in Blue/White/Green (Bant): *note this can be done with a minimum of 5 mana available, very efficient and quick. =
In your turn activate Kaho (0 mana) to cast Summoners Pact getting Seedborn Muse = .
There are a number of different ways you can stack these cards, really depends on your mana needs. Got 8 mana available in your turn? Probably just by-passing the Summoners Pact and use Congregation at Dawn during your upkeep to stack Seedborn Muse and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir to the top. Using Brainstorm, etc to draw the others, and allows for an extra slot within Kaho three instants for a countering spell for protection.
I'd pick up a Cryptic Command and other multi-function cards just so Kaho could have some versatility.
Rememeber Kaho requires two blue mana in her cost, it may become a hindrance at times in a multi-color deck.
The cool thing is that you can use any colored/colorless mana to cast the spells she has exiled. Even your Sol Ring can help to cast your Cryptic Command. This does actually come up quite often, when you are wanting to use your precious blue mana to cast proactive spells, rather than leave it up for disruption. If you have her online with a counter then you can tap out with your blue and leave up the off colors.
Ring of Three Wishes will cost 10 mana, where doing the equivalent with Kaho might be more like 5 mana. The trade off being that artifacts are more resilient in general than creatures.
And you have to wait a turn to cast one of the cards tutored with Kaho, making her no faster than one of the Mirage/Visions tutors. And you have to cast her as a sorcery, revealing what you look for before waiting a round before you can get it, as bad as Personal Tutor or Sylvan Tutor. And if you want something other than an instant, you need to tutor for a tutor, and most instant tutors don't put the card in your hand so you need to either wait another turn, or activate Kaho during your upkeep. (Of course, you could cast the Mirage/Vision tutor EOT before your turn or during your upkeep in the first place, and not wait at all.)
She's also useless for X-cost instants and instants with alternate costs (like, oh, say... Cyclonic Rift), unlike other tutors that can fetch instants.
All of your solutions to the problems Kaho has involve adding more cards to assemble before you can tutor for a card (or tutor for a tutor), when simply playing another actual tutor would require no hoops to jump through.
Also: unless you can provide a source, I call bull on your Jefferson quote.
And if you want something other than an instant, you need to tutor for a tutor, and most instant tutors don't put the card in your hand so you need to either wait another turn, or activate Kaho during your upkeep. (Of course, you could cast the Mirage/Vision tutor EOT before your turn or during your upkeep in the first place, and not wait at all.)
As you say the trick is to activate her during your upkeep, and as the tutors are cheap, you'll find you're able to cast the card you got as well. So not like Personal Tutor or Sylvan Tutor at all. If you didn't have the mana, yes you'd have to wait another full round until last opponents EOT. Of course opponents are aware that you can for example Mystical Tutor, so no surprises about what you are capable of doing, but its not until your actual upkeep that you use it.
All of your solutions to the problems Kaho has involve adding more cards to assemble before you can tutor for a card (or tutor for a tutor), when simply playing another actual tutor would require no hoops to jump through.
So which tutors are you suggesting? Name them please, and not in black, as my post is suggesting she as an alternative when you really wanting to search for cards. If you're saying that just simply casting the Mystical Tutors, Enlightened Tutors by themselves is better? Well of course if you naturally draw them. But we are talking about 99 card decks, and what I'm saying is that Kaho allows for an extra card in your deck to not only be the proxy to those tutor, but she can also be sequenced in ways that provide multiple uses.
She's also useless for X-cost instants and instants with alternate costs (like, oh, say... Cyclonic Rift), unlike other tutors that can fetch instants.
I just looked up X-cost instants and there are 82 of them. With a further 9 instants with overload. The overload cards can still be played, obviously just not for the overload cost. So only 1997 instants to choose from! Unplayable...lol. BTW you can "Buyback" with her, so getting a Forbid or a Capsize can get you permanent answers if you can afford to keep paying the costs.
Also: unless you can provide a source, I call bull on your Jefferson quote.
Lol, the interwebs told me, and we know the interwebs does not lie! I'll find another quote "Its better to have been incorrectly quoted, than not to have been quoted at all" -Anon
She's also useless for X-cost instants and instants with alternate costs (like, oh, say... Cyclonic Rift), unlike other tutors that can fetch instants.
I just looked up X-cost instants and there are 82 of them.
The number of cards available over the course of the long life of the game is irrelevant. What's important is what you actually want to tutor up. Spellslinger lists will commonly win off the back of something like Comet Storm, for example, and Starstorm is a great scalable red sweeper.
would she allow you to use the wishes, and then keep adding random junk into your game, so then you can win with a battle of wits? that'd be epic
Whenever you cast a spell off Kaho, it resolves normally and (under normal circumstances, for most cards) go to your graveyard. You can't keep casting the same spell off Kaho over and over. Otherwise, something as simple as Illusionist's Bracers, Kaho, Land, and Twiddle would give you an infinite storm count. (Or swap the Bracers for Rings of Brighthearth and the land for a mana rock/mana dork/land that taps for 3+.)
would she allow you to use the wishes, and then keep adding random junk into your game, so then you can win with a battle of wits? that'd be epic
Hehe. I will clarify that you can't just keep recasting the cards you get with her. When you cast them they physically go onto the stack and once resolved to the graveyard.
I like your style ;-) You'd need to have an engine to keep recasting her (infinite mana probably) and also getting the Wish back into your library. But in theory its possible
We have infinite mana by sacrificing Ornithopter to Phyrexian Altar and instead of going to the graveyard it goes to the bottom of library with Wheel of Sun and Moon. Remembrance allows you to search your library for the Ornithopter. So you can recast it and rinse-and-repeat for infinite colored mana.
We can sacrifice Kaho via the Phyrexian Altar and we will get her back with Remembrance and recast her to get Research // Development. Cast Research with Kaho using the Lightning Greaves for haste. The Research // Development goes into library via the Wheel of Sun and Moon.
You can rinse and repeat this process to fetch as many cards outside the game as we want, of course one of them being Battle of Wits. We can tutor this via Kaho and Grim Reminder
*I will point out that we can actually cast our entire collection via the infinite mana, so the Battle of Wits probably becomes a bit redundant .. but that's not our goal!
She has a ton of upside, but she is mana intensive and slow (compare that to ridiculous legendary creature tutors/engines that often don't require additional mana to do their thing, like Brago, Zur, Arcum, etc). I'm not convinced that you can stuff her into your average deck and have her succeed, but you can make her strong if you build around her a bit.
Decks can't have too many cards like Kaho who are slow and mana intensive just like how most decks can't function if you have 20 8-drops in it. Treat her as a top end card that you can just so happen to play early on for 4 mana if you have nothing else to do.
She has a ton of upside, but she is mana intensive and slow (compare that to ridiculous legendary creature tutors/engines that often don't require additional mana to do their thing, like Brago, Zur, Arcum, etc).
She is slower compared to say Zur the Enchanter and Arcum Dagsson, but she doesn't come with the same limitations. Both these cards require that they fit in exactly to what the rest of the deck is doing. Zur is only going to get you less than 4 enchantments and Arcum requires that you play a certain threshold of artifact creatures and that he can only get artifacts.
Kaho on the other hand is much more self contained. You can just play her out, and know exactly that she can get what you want in your 99, given you are in the right colors. Her cons are that she can only do a particular tutor ONCE. Also is that well you want to be playing some of these tutors naturally, which lets be honest good decks are. The ones I'm talking about are Mystical Tutor, Long-Term Plans, Intuition, Enlightened Tutor, Eladamri's Call, Congregation at Dawn, Worldy Tutor, Summoner's Pact, Crop Rotation, etc
So another other con is that you need to be in those colors obviously to contain them in your deck. Arcum for example doesn't require you be in another color.
Its not so much about speed in my opinion, but the color restrictions of your deck and card disadvantage, mainly because the good tutors outside of black like Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, etc are putting cards on top of your library. Eladamri's Call, Intuition, Summoner's Pact being the exceptions.
I'm not convinced that you can stuff her into your average deck and have her succeed, but you can make her strong if you build around her a bit.
This is 100% true. You're only putting her into particular decks, that you really value getting to some cards earlier. Also she also leans towards particular color combinations being able to utilize her more. I would like to do a color breakdown in the OP, just a matter of time.
Treat her as a top end card that you can just so happen to play early on for 4 mana if you have nothing else to do.
I completely disagree with this. You make it sound like its a bad thing to have her in your opener. My whole argument is that if you have a focused deck around some cards you want to get online early, then spending the mana to cast her early is a powerful strategy. As I say in some decks she'll be the first thing I Survival of the Fittest for because she can give me access to other cards and even offer protection to them.
This all comes from better than expected experience with using her. I'm a competitive player on Magic online and have literally played hundreds of games with her in my 99. At first I didn't have her in my decks. Then I added her to a Birthing Pod focused deck. She was becoming as good as that if I drew her, she was becoming a great means to getting my Pod online. So I starting adding her to some of my other combination style decks, tweaking them slightly to make her better, but again always surprised at just how much value she adds to the games that I play with her.
She has a ton of upside, but she is mana intensive and slow (compare that to ridiculous legendary creature tutors/engines that often don't require additional mana to do their thing, like Brago, Zur, Arcum, etc).
She is slower compared to say Zur the Enchanter and Arcum Dagsson, but she doesn't come with the same limitations. Both these cards require that they fit in exactly to what the rest of the deck is doing. Zur is only going to get you less than 4 enchantments and Arcum requires that you play a certain threshold of artifact creatures and that he can only get artifacts.
Kaho on the other hand is much more self contained. You can just play her out, and know exactly that she can get what you want in your 99, given you are in the right colors. Her cons are that she can only do a particular tutor ONCE. Also is that well you want to be playing some of these tutors naturally, which lets be honest good decks are. The ones I'm talking about are Mystical Tutor, Long-Term Plans, Intuition, Enlightened Tutor, Eladamri's Call, Congregation at Dawn, Worldy Tutor, Summoner's Pact, Crop Rotation, etc
So another other con is that you need to be in those colors obviously to contain them in your deck. Arcum for example doesn't require you be in another color.
Its not so much about speed in my opinion, but the color restrictions of your deck and card disadvantage, mainly because the good tutors outside of black like Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, etc are putting cards on top of your library. Eladamri's Call, Intuition, Summoner's Pact being the exceptions.
They're not limiting to the point where you can't build around them, and the strength comes from the fact that you don't have to spend mana for their effect. It really has very little to do with what kind of cards they are tutoring for, and has more to do with the fact that many of the broken legendary creature tutors/engines don't require additional mana. If you're wodnering why Kaho doesn't seem to get the love she deserves in your eyes, that's a massive reason why.
Treat her as a top end card that you can just so happen to play early on for 4 mana if you have nothing else to do.
I completely disagree with this. You make it sound like its a bad thing to have her in your opener. My whole argument is that if you have a focused deck around some cards you want to get online early, then spending the mana to cast her early is a powerful strategy. As I say in some decks she'll be the first thing I Survival of the Fittest for because she can give me access to other cards and even offer protection to them.
How does "Treat her as a top end card that you can just so happen to play early on for 4 mana if you have nothing else to do." translate into "She sucks if you play her early on"?
Kaho, Minamo Historian, the best all purpose tutor not in black. Why not give a bold, argument inducing title to stir up conversation?
However, I do really want to bring the focus back to a long, not quite forgotten, but certainly underused and underrated magic card that is primed for anyone who wants access to the rest of their deck.
This is NOT a post about Kaho, Minamo Historian being your commander, but mostly about her being a really great card to have in your 99, especially if you play a multicolor commander.
I however in recent times add her to almost any deck that can abuse her power. My argument to all commander players is that she is a very powerful card to have your deck. Very overlooked, probably because mostly misunderstood. *queue the violin*
I searched the forums for “Kaho” in the title and got two pages of worth. She is not a secret by any means. Most of those posts are about her being the commander. Probably the most common thing about the commander lists is just how different they are. With so many blue instants to choose from, people come up with completely different ideas. The other common thing about the previous posts is a general lack of mass interest and often negativity about her use.
Here is where I am going to try and change the consensus as much as I can. One thing that I think that has happened, is that because most of the discussions/posts are about her being the General, that being mono-blue, is that the focus when discussing her are on blue instants, obviously.
Again if you do a look up on EDHREC you get an exclusive list of blue spells associated with her. It always assumes it as your commander general.
However she can fetch ANY instants and this is where she shines in multicolored decks.
I searched for “instant” on Gatherer and got back 1997 results that are useful to her particular way of casting (as of Kaladesh), so I don’t think I really need to argue how much of a potential toolbox she is. Instants do a set of many things, but disruption, combat tricks and card draw are some of the more popular uses. However I’m going to focus on a smaller set of instants, and that is those of the “search your library” cards, the tutors.
--== The power of tutoring ==--
Nobody can argue that tutoring in decks that are made up of one offs in 99 are extremely powerful. Many argue that tutoring is not in the spirit of commander, that’s it was meant to be designed for more randomly distributed sets of plays.
I for one am very guilty of having an overuse of tutoring in commander. I am also guilty of building focused decks to get a particular set of cards for a win.
So I think I’m going to be appealing to a particular set of people; those that like to play 75%-competitive and are large on combos, or having the cards you specifically put in the deck for synergies, to play parts more frequently. This is not just for on the spot game winning combos, but also those that really get value from particular combinations of cards.
Black is the premium color to include when you want to tutor for ANY card. But what happens when your colors are not in black? Suddenly you have to get a bit/lot more creative with how you can find these cards.
They do exist, and they get used a lot. Blue is famous for getting instants, sorceries and artifacts. White for enchantments, artifacts and lands. Green for creatures and lands. Red not really known for tutoring other than more specific subtypes.
But wait Kaho can only get instants? How can she be the best “search your library for a card” not in black?
Here is where I think most of the community has really failed to utilize her. By proxying through instants that search through your library for card types, you can get the specific cards you want.
Let’s break down the most relevant instant tutors by color:
Blue: Mystical Tutor, Long-Term Plans, Intuition, Trapmaker's Snare
White: Enlightened Tutor, Tithe, Argivian Find
*I’ve included some of the graveyard return cards as these can be pseudo tutors deeper into the game as well.
Green/White: Eladamri's Call, Congregation at Dawn
Green: Worldy Tutor, Summoner's Pact, Crop Rotation, Realms Uncharted, Reclaim, Noxious Revival
*I’ve included some of the graveyard return cards as these can be pseudo tutors deeper into the game as well.
Green/Red: Signal the Clans
Red/Blue: Firemind's Foresight
Black: Vampiric Tutor, Entomb, Insidious Dreams
Blue/Black: Mystical Teachings
Need an artifact in a Simic deck? Mystical Tutor for Fabricate. You can always use Long Term Plans and say Brainstorm to get any card in your deck. This is a two turn strategy, but obviously gets you anything you want.
With green having so many creature tutors, she is incredible to include in your 99, if you run blue/green, as she can fetch up any specific card by filtering through her. Your Worldly Tutor can be turned into a tutor for almost any card depending what card types your instant tutors allow you to search for. In particular decks, she is often my first target for a Survival of the Fittest/Fauna Shaman/Worldly Tutor. She provides protection and extra tutoring in one package.
I do post every so often to show combinations that I use to give examples of how much of a utility creature she can be. I'll keep adding to this list for quick reference:
Setting up a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Seedborn Muse for a pseudo Prophet of Kruphix board presence
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/760752-kaho-minamo-historian-the-best-all-purpose-tutor#c14
Tutoring for Birthing Pod
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/760752-kaho-minamo-historian-the-best-all-purpose-tutor?page=2#c37
High Risk, High Reward
Well why play any creature if it can be removed right?
“Fortune sides with him who dares.”― Virgil
The argument almost becomes that because she is such a powerful card that she must be answered before you get to use her. This is a hallmark for any great card. She certainly joins those ranks.
But only three uses and she’s done! Trust me if you get to use her three times then you’re very satisfied and as Charlie Sheen would say “Winning!” A 4-for-1 where you get to choose the exact three by proxy is exactly the value and power level you like in a deck.
With haste you CAN provide protection for her (and everything) with a countering spell.
So she is better in decks that already have a penchant for giving haste to creatures.
Cards that give creatures haste:
Artifacts
Lightning Greeves, Swiftfoot boots, Akroma's Memorial, Thousand-Year Exlir
White
Stoneforge Mystic, Stonehewer Gaint (*helps to double up on getting the haste equipment).
Red
Anger, Fervor, Hammer of Purphoros, Cyclops of Eternal Fury, Mass Hysteria, Urabrask the Hidden, Emblem of the Warmind
Red/Black
Dragonlord Kolaghan
Green/Red
Fires of Yavimaya, Xenagos, God of War
Green
Concordant Crossroads, Surrak, the Hunt Caller
Temur (Green/Red/Blue)
Temur Ascendancy, Maelstrom Wanderer
Lands
Hall of the Bandit Lord, Flamekin Village
Maybe you already play a combination of these cards? If so then you'll find that she is an amazing fit into your potential strategy.
For a while now I’ve felt that I’ve been at an advantage over others players, and almost reluctant to share my experience with her in my decks, the inner child not wanting to share.
The reason that she came to my attention is because I did make a deck with her as my general. I made a straight up combo deck. I won’t delve into the mechanics of the deck, I’ll do that in another post, but suffice to say that she is a basically self-contained win condition on her own if you decided to go down that track. Simply put if you’re not disrupted, you win the game. But because it was so linear I didn’t actually play it much. It wasn’t until I started adding her to multicolor decks outside of black that I really found her as a powerful strategy get me my combos.
Obviously I would not have written this article about her, if she did not prove to be a perennial all-star in my decks.
Looking forward to people posting some instants they love in their decks and would be interested in having double up access to?
Also important to the relevance of the thread, is what creatures, what artifacts, what sorceries, what enchantments and what lands you have always wanted more tutors for? Especially if you’re not in black, those colors that struggle to search for cards that you want more consistently.
~She is the ultimate Shapeshifter, being almost anything you want her to be.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
EDIT: thx for picture. Hmm, never saw her before, but she sure looks strong. SShe can be interesting in Mizzix storm.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
If you want to tutor to your heart's delight, get a Ring of Three Wishes and search for a Contagion Clasp with your first search.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
The thing is that we can't speak for others people play group experiences, but I do play Magic Online and exclusively Commander. I wrote this post because of the positive experience through hundreds of games with playing her in that domain. Will you get to use her every time? No. Do the number of times you do get to use her be more than you don't? Yes. Thats my experience, and because of the way in which I use her, she becomes a very powerful card.
I understand your and lots of peoples reasoning. But to simply say that there is a wrath every round, why you just wouldn't play creature decks at all, and this is not the case. For me its like a Consecrated sphinx, when its unanswered it simply takes over the game. What I'm suggesting is that her power level is far higher than she is given credit for.
Its a matter of costs, Ring of Three Wishes will cost 10 mana, where doing the equivalent with Kaho might be more like 5 mana. The trade off being that artifacts are more resilient in general than creatures.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
As others have said, she dies to removal. Normally, I kind of hate that argument, but, I think it kind of matters for Kaho. Basically, she will remove 1-3 'outs' from your deck if she dies to removal, which makes it much worse than some garden-variety tutor. She also telegraphs your play in a way other tutors don't: They get to see it, and may have a full turn to respond. Compared to Diabolic Tutor (which has the same CMC), your pick is hidden, and you can cast it immediately.
I like Kaho, but, I don't think she's a great card, and pretty far from an auto-include. That said, I should probably sleeve up my copy in some of my decks (maybe Maelstrom Wanderer will like it because mass haste makes Kaho more exciting, or Sakashima Clones, because there's lots of instants in there).
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
Follow me on Twitter: @generalspeak
I think its important to note that people shouldn't put too much weight on not having access to certain cards post Kaho removal. You'll find "pros" write articles on why exiling cards from opponents libraries is not a winning strategy. Same with milling, as long as your deck has a reasonable amount of redundancy then cards going to graveyard are not actually making your deck weaker. Having said that however, I am careful with card selection at times. Do I get Cyclonic Rift with her, when I know that its one of my few outs or answers to what my opponents are likely to do? Quite often I don't. Do I get 3 counter spells when it seems like disruption is key to a long term plan and I only run 5 counters in the whole deck? Probably not. But putting one counterspell is certainly going to give you utility with her and not really diminish your ability for answers later on in the game.
I remember in my deck with her as the general I'd quite often do a bait with my first selection. A bunch of good stuff, but never my best three instants.
This is absolutely one of the cons of using her as a utility base for sure. But all the tutors outside of black are revealed to opponent, that can't be helped due to needing to go for card type specifics. But same rules still apply, you can do the tutor just before your turn, or even your upkeep, so that opponents don;t have to time to plan for what you're doing. They know that you CAN tutor, but they don't know what you're going for.
I should probably add in the OP about how haste does make her a whole lot better and probably because of the inclusion of certain haste cards in my decks, I've had more success with her than maybe others have had or perceived in the past. For example Lightning Greeves and Hall of the Bandit Lord will feature in these decks. But on top of that if running white, I have Stoneforge Mystic which doubles the chances of a Lightning Greeves. If for example you are running Xenagos, God of War in a Temur build then she'll become more reliably effective. Actually this has inspired me to write up potential haste combinations with her in general.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
And it is possible to include a bounce spell in her arsenal so in case you can't counter the spell (like with Supreme Verdict) you can at least keep her around for cheap, although with Command Beacon's release it's probably more efficient. In Simic, you can use land like Yavimaya Hollow to regenerate her, but it'd tap her in the process. Mono-blue is probably still the best way to go.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Kind of like the card distant memories - you always tutor for an enabler like merchant scroll/fabricate/mystical tutor instead of the critical must-have card.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
I'll be honest, this is the part that bothers me the most. If you Kaho for a Mystical Tutor, your opponent is just as likely to off her because she might use the Mystical Tutor for something devastating, or an answer. Just bad news all around.
It's the combination of sorcery speed, delay, and reveal. If it's instant and reveal but delayed, you can do it EOT to avoid the delay. If it's sorcery speed, delayed, and hidden, no one is the wiser what you're doing or what you've fetched. If it's sorcery and reveal but no delay (like Muddle the Mixture), they won't have time to act on the information.
It's the confluence of all three, (sorcery speed, delay, revealed) that makes Kaho not so great. Even if you Kaho an open-ended tutor like Mystical Tutor, making it sorcery speed and delayed but not revealed, opponents will assume the worst and handle it.
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
Follow me on Twitter: @generalspeak
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Sweet, she doesn't exactly break the bank.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Here is a powerful combination that I use in Blue/White/Green (Bant): *note this can be done with a minimum of 5 mana available, very efficient and quick.
=
In your turn activate Kaho (0 mana) to cast Summoners Pact getting Seedborn Muse
= .
In next opponents turn activate Kaho (3 mana) to cast Congregation at Dawn getting either Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or Yeva, Nature's Herald, plus whatever other two creatures are central to what you want to do?
= or
Then in next opponents turn activate Kaho (1 mana) to cast Brainstorm
Drawing Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or Yeva, Nature's Herald so you can start casting out creatures at will during opponents turns.
There are a number of different ways you can stack these cards, really depends on your mana needs. Got 8 mana available in your turn? Probably just by-passing the Summoners Pact and use Congregation at Dawn during your upkeep to stack Seedborn Muse and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir to the top. Using Brainstorm, etc to draw the others, and allows for an extra slot within Kaho three instants for a countering spell for protection.
Also Eladamri's Call instead of/and Congregation at Dawn, just getting the needed Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or Yeva, Nature's Herald instantly. You're just not going deeper with further creature tutoring, but frees up a further slot for disruption, like a countering spell. Protecting the Seedborn Muse and Teferi.
You can do a similar strategy in Simic colors by getting: Summoner's Pact, Worldly Tutor, Brainstorm.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Rememeber Kaho requires two blue mana in her cost, it may become a hindrance at times in a multi-color deck.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
She's also useless for X-cost instants and instants with alternate costs (like, oh, say... Cyclonic Rift), unlike other tutors that can fetch instants.
All of your solutions to the problems Kaho has involve adding more cards to assemble before you can tutor for a card (or tutor for a tutor), when simply playing another actual tutor would require no hoops to jump through.
Also: unless you can provide a source, I call bull on your Jefferson quote.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
So which tutors are you suggesting? Name them please, and not in black, as my post is suggesting she as an alternative when you really wanting to search for cards. If you're saying that just simply casting the Mystical Tutors, Enlightened Tutors by themselves is better? Well of course if you naturally draw them. But we are talking about 99 card decks, and what I'm saying is that Kaho allows for an extra card in your deck to not only be the proxy to those tutor, but she can also be sequenced in ways that provide multiple uses.
I just looked up X-cost instants and there are 82 of them. With a further 9 instants with overload. The overload cards can still be played, obviously just not for the overload cost. So only 1997 instants to choose from! Unplayable...lol. BTW you can "Buyback" with her, so getting a Forbid or a Capsize can get you permanent answers if you can afford to keep paying the costs.
Lol, the interwebs told me, and we know the interwebs does not lie! I'll find another quote "Its better to have been incorrectly quoted, than not to have been quoted at all" -Anon
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
I like your style ;-) You'd need to have an engine to keep recasting her (infinite mana probably) and also getting the Wish back into your library. But in theory its possible
I like a good puzzle, lets do it.
Lets say we are restricted by mana as well.
Turn 4
Cast Kaho getting Insidious Dreams, Mystic Confluence, Turnabout
Turn 5
Cast Insidious Dreams putting Phyrexian Altar, Lightning Greaves, Ornithopter, Wheel of Sun and Moon, Remembrance on top of library.
Turn 6
Cast Mystic Confluence drawing 3 cards.
Turn 7
Cast Turnabout just to get a little bit of extra mana, so that you can play out your cards.
Play Wheel of Sun and Moon targeting yourself, Remembrance, Phyrexian Altar, Ornithopter
We have infinite mana by sacrificing Ornithopter to Phyrexian Altar and instead of going to the graveyard it goes to the bottom of library with Wheel of Sun and Moon. Remembrance allows you to search your library for the Ornithopter. So you can recast it and rinse-and-repeat for infinite colored mana.
We can sacrifice Kaho via the Phyrexian Altar and we will get her back with Remembrance and recast her to get Research // Development. Cast Research with Kaho using the Lightning Greaves for haste. The Research // Development goes into library via the Wheel of Sun and Moon.
You can rinse and repeat this process to fetch as many cards outside the game as we want, of course one of them being Battle of Wits. We can tutor this via Kaho and Grim Reminder
*I will point out that we can actually cast our entire collection via the infinite mana, so the Battle of Wits probably becomes a bit redundant .. but that's not our goal!
Turn 8
Win the game with Battle of Wits!
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Decks can't have too many cards like Kaho who are slow and mana intensive just like how most decks can't function if you have 20 8-drops in it. Treat her as a top end card that you can just so happen to play early on for 4 mana if you have nothing else to do.
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
Kaho on the other hand is much more self contained. You can just play her out, and know exactly that she can get what you want in your 99, given you are in the right colors. Her cons are that she can only do a particular tutor ONCE. Also is that well you want to be playing some of these tutors naturally, which lets be honest good decks are. The ones I'm talking about are Mystical Tutor, Long-Term Plans, Intuition, Enlightened Tutor, Eladamri's Call, Congregation at Dawn, Worldy Tutor, Summoner's Pact, Crop Rotation, etc
So another other con is that you need to be in those colors obviously to contain them in your deck. Arcum for example doesn't require you be in another color.
Its not so much about speed in my opinion, but the color restrictions of your deck and card disadvantage, mainly because the good tutors outside of black like Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, etc are putting cards on top of your library. Eladamri's Call, Intuition, Summoner's Pact being the exceptions.
This is 100% true. You're only putting her into particular decks, that you really value getting to some cards earlier. Also she also leans towards particular color combinations being able to utilize her more. I would like to do a color breakdown in the OP, just a matter of time.
I completely disagree with this. You make it sound like its a bad thing to have her in your opener. My whole argument is that if you have a focused deck around some cards you want to get online early, then spending the mana to cast her early is a powerful strategy. As I say in some decks she'll be the first thing I Survival of the Fittest for because she can give me access to other cards and even offer protection to them.
This all comes from better than expected experience with using her. I'm a competitive player on Magic online and have literally played hundreds of games with her in my 99. At first I didn't have her in my decks. Then I added her to a Birthing Pod focused deck. She was becoming as good as that if I drew her, she was becoming a great means to getting my Pod online. So I starting adding her to some of my other combination style decks, tweaking them slightly to make her better, but again always surprised at just how much value she adds to the games that I play with her.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
They're not limiting to the point where you can't build around them, and the strength comes from the fact that you don't have to spend mana for their effect. It really has very little to do with what kind of cards they are tutoring for, and has more to do with the fact that many of the broken legendary creature tutors/engines don't require additional mana. If you're wodnering why Kaho doesn't seem to get the love she deserves in your eyes, that's a massive reason why.
How does "Treat her as a top end card that you can just so happen to play early on for 4 mana if you have nothing else to do." translate into "She sucks if you play her early on"?
WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)