...I am starting to get bored with Riku on the helm - simply because he provides only doubling of my threats/answers - which is strong, but little boring to me now.
I don't have Riku together right now myself. I mean he's a sleeve-swap away if I get the urge, but I've been more interested in more focused decks lately that do a specific thing, or in theme-y kind of decks that are good for laughs and general irreverence. Check out the Melek and Intet lists in my signature! My Unexpected Results deck puts me in a great mood for Magic. I don't know what I'm going to be casting until the spell resolves (except with Top and Intet or whatever) and generally I just have a great time with it. Melek is a better deck that can pull wins out of nowhere, but again, you never know how you're going to win with it until the path makes itself known. They're both a lot of fun and fit perfectly in my rotation. I don't think I'll be changing too many decks around until Theros arrives, where apparently we'll be seeing a lot of legends...
Btw, do you like black color in magic? I am missing there something, black is not exciting me much (potential has only orzhov and goglari).
Black's universal tutoring tends to make black decks excessively linear to me. You have a plan, you execute it, you win or get shut down. I prefer more diversity in the way my games go. Also, the color itself doesn't really appeal to me. Either way those are strictly personal preferences, but they're enough to keep me out of it for now. I might play some more black when our new Grixis free-spell vampire shows up in the November Commander product, but until then I'm not too motivated by the grixis generals we have already save someone awesome like Nicol Bolas.
Bored with Riku because it's unfocused... Well I think it's plenty focused. The focus is Value. (With a capital V.) Riku decks can get the most advantage, come back from little, and win on a moment's notice. I don't think another deck exists that can do more impressive and showy things as consistently.
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You're the dude who just lies a lot and makes people hate you and then magically becomes town later, right?
What do you guys think about Garruk, Caller of Beasts for Riku and where could cuts be made from the most recent decklist for him? I was also thinking about Xenagos for the same slot at two less mana.
And while I've brought up the subject of new cards: Prophet of Kruphix and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
Nykthos isn't as good for us as it is for most decks for two reasons:
1) We play three colors, so our devotion to a single one will be lesser
2) We don't play too many permanents in the early game, and those that we do play don't usually stick around for too long.
Given both of these factors, it becomes evident that we will often be unable to generate a net positive amount of mana with this.
Prophet of Kruphix is fantastic. It's not broken (in the literal definition of the word. It may be OP, but it won't do anything that they didn't intend it to do), but it is very, very good for us.
Purphoros, God of the Forge will be great in token decks.
Curse of the Swine should never have been printed, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't use it. Really, who came up with the idea to give blue MASS EXILED REMOVAL... that is also targeted, so your own dudes can live and you can save mana by not using it on the weak cards?! The card will end up giving us more problems because our opponents have it than it will benefit us.
Some cards I'll comment on so far in advance of the final set reveal:
Purphoros is pretty silly in any creature or token variant. Mostly tokens though. Same deal with his hammer. These will both see play across the format and Riku will be no exception.
Master of Waves has very strong copy potential for token situations, mostly because of the mana cost of 4 coming in at the perfect copy after Riku, but blue devotion is not going to be easy to hit.
Curse of the Swine is silly. The breakpoint for the value of copying it exceeds the value of just paying X is 6 mana (you exile 4 creatures where X is 4 or X is 2, twice). After 6 mana it's all upside, but then again how many creatures really need to become 2/2s after the first 4 are dealt with? Either way, this is EXILING removal and even at 1UU for 1 is is good, which is pretty rare with X spells! I don't know how well it fits in the deck just yet because it is less efficient than Pongify and Rapid Hybridization... it may depend on the amount of reanimation you face. Still, like Cyclonic Rift this is a card that seems powerful enough that we should take it seriously even if it turns out to be not as good as we expect.
Polukranos at 4 mana seems pretty good at first but the monstrosity on him is not at all cheap. I think there are a lot better 4-drops than this unless your plan is Brawn into fatties.
Steam Augury is my favorite spoiled card as a wacky second FoF. I love copying this! The more graveyard interactions you have with this card, the better. If you like FoF you should probably like this too as long as you realize that you're going to have to be more skilled at picking the contents of the two piles than just picking which pre-made pile is better. Again, more Body Doubles, Genesises, Squees, flashback, etc. give you the value you need here to make turn this from a good card into a great card.
Overall though I am excited for the set and the block, the devotion mechanic doesn't really do anything for Riku, the enchantment theme is questionably valuable (Bestow does not really play to Riku's strengths), the Heroic mechanic only works in the mythical Riku beatdown deck (with Wild Defiance lol), Monstrous instead of ETB doesn't do anything for us (and is overcosted), and in general the block seems to favor mono-colored decks which is not really our deal. So unfortunately I wouldn't expect a big haul for Riku here. Though with half the set still waiting to be spoiled, you never know!
As with M14 I'll be grading cards on the following unscientific and arbitrary scale relative to their usefulness in a Riku deck:
5: Format Staple- We are playing this card. 4: Very good- There is a strong case for playing this card. 3: OK- We might have a use for this. Solid role player or budget choice. 2: Questionable- A stretch at best, or perhaps a pet card. 1: Unplayable- Why are we talking about this card?
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Before I get going, let's talk mechanics for the set (for once) and explain how they can help us.
Heroic: This has things trigger when you target your own cretaures with spells. Usually this is with pump but auras work too. Typically these are quite bad with Riku as you don't want to be wasting card advantage for a few extra points of damage. I do believe that there is a fun/joke deck in here somewhere that tutors up Wild Defiance and tries to get Riku to 21 power with various copied pump spells, and some of the Heroic guys could be alternate beaters in those situations, but mostly this mechanic does not bring much to our 40-life format.
Monstrous: A little bit more exciting, creatures with Monstrous are typically overcosted at first, but let you pump more mana into them to do something awesome. Unfortunately, Riku doesn't want to copy creatures that just want more mana when they are copied, so I don't believe any of these creatures are very good for us either. A spare few will be playable in Commander (Hythonia perhaps) but we will miss most of these.
Bestow: An attempt to redeem the riskiness of casting auras, Bestow lets you enchant something, and it will turn into the essence or abilities of that enchantment if it falls off or you choose to play it as a creature. Unfortunately the bestow cost is quite high and Riku again doesn't really gain much from copying the bestow creatures in their unbestowed form (which is usually uninspiring when not an aura).
Devotion: Having a bunch of like-colored permanents gives you cool effects. Since we are by and large a deck with many different colored permanents (read: not the same), devotion of 4 or more is typically a tall order unless you're already winning hard.
Scry: Scry is back in Theros. I love a good Foresee as much as the next blue player but a lot of cards in this set have some scry stapled on to them. Scry 1 is not really anything special but repeatable scry of 2 or more, or a one-shot scry 4 can be really good with all the shuffle effects we play. We'll see if any of these cards are worth playing.
So yeah. Not much going for us here, but let's take a look at what's left:
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Artisan of Forms: We like clones here, but not clones like this. Way too annoying to get use out of this when Cryptoplasm doesn't make the cut as it is. Could be fun to switch to something indestructible at instant speed, but not in this deck. 1
Bident of Thassa: Upgraded Coastal Piracy. If you have a lot of dudes to get through for damage then I could see this as a major source of CA. Make an opponent attack with their team, then you attack with yours and draw 4, 5, 6 cards or more. Definitely worth a look if you play tokens. 3 in tokens
Breaching Hippocamp: I hate that I have to bring this card up as it is yet another Kiki-Jiki infinite. 1.5
Curse of the Swine: The BACONATOR has arrived! Turn their massive board into a bunch of 2/2s and it's merely good. Turn their Avacyn into a 2/2 with no abilities? Also merely good. Turn their 4-creature board of Gravecrawler/Blood Artist/Sheoldred/Harvester of Souls into a bunch of pigs and exile all their recursion? In blue? Now it's a GREAT card. This scales quite well into Commander and after 6 mana you can profit from copying the spell as well. It's not going to kill any players like a Comet Storm would but you get out of a lot of sticky situations with this spell, even if you just pay 1UU to stop a singular threat. It's not as efficient or reliable as Pongify but exile stops so many shenanigans that it's probaly worth the extra 1U even on that front. Reminds me of Cyclonic Rift in that it's obviously a very powerful card but it may not be right for every deck. Everyone should test it and find out though. 4.5
Master of Waves: I love the flavor built into this card. Actually not a bad copy target. Even with zero other devotion to blue, copying one for 6 mana gives you two master 2/1s and 4 3/2 elementals, and the elementals won't leave the battlefield as 1/0's unless your opponents can kill both of the Masters without red spells, including Terminate and Chaos Warp. If there's a Sower of Temptation or something in play then add 4 more 3/2s. Further cloning of these guys will make even more, larger elemental tokens. He synergizes very well with clone effects in this way as the gain on total power on board increases exponentially. Hit one with a kicked Rite of Replication? That's 30 7/6 elemental tokens! So if you are a token deck or you run a bunch of clones, consider running this guy in the all-important 4-drop spot spot. If you don't have either of those, probably just leave him for better options. This guy is better than expected when you crunch the numbers. 3
Meletis Charlatan: What a nice surprise for spellslinger decks at the end of the round of spoilers. Echo Mage gets a new friend. He is pretty much limited to copying your own spells (unless you like helping your opponents) but if you have 40 instants and sorceries this a nice second or third Riku to keep in your back pocket. Otherwise, he's not efficient enough to do a lot with. 3.5 in spellslinger, 2 otherwise
Prescient Chimera: Cute with the 40 instant/sorcery build but this is a pretty minor effect in the end for the cost of 5 mana. I would avoid this guy in general. I do want more triggers like this though! 1
Prognostic Sphinx: Repeatable scry 3? Now we're talking. Has a nifty little defensive ability that can be fueled by its own scrying (scry for card draw). Ultimately I like to actually draw the cards though and the competition is so tight at the 5-spot (including Riku himself) that this is a pet card at best to me. 1.5
Swan Song: I am normally against most counters in Riku but a 1-mana hard counter to wraths is something every creature deck has to take seriously. My biggest issue with counterspells isn't that they don't get copied well by Riku, but that you have to keep the mana open to use them well. Just 1 mana though? That's more than manageable. This does seem pretty powerful, probably more than I thought at first. I would consider testing this in all creature versions of the deck as a way to fend off wraths, protect Riku, and overextend without actually overextending. 4
Thassa, God of the Sea: Permanent Scry 1 is no joke. Your hand is always going to be looking good with her in play. The unblockable ability is not as good but if you are running a bunch of big dudes like Wolfir Silverheart and supporting them with Brawn and other trample enablers, or you run a lot of swords (watch out for pro-blue!), then she becomes actually quite good. Overall probably not nearly as good as Rhystic Study or Ceta Sanctuary but worth a shot IF the unblockable ability appeals to your deck. I don't believe Scry 1 every turn is worth the card slot by itself (since devotion 5 to blue is not an easy task here). 2.5
Anger of the Gods: This is a cool little creature wipe that stops a lot of black repeatable reanimation shenanigans. Shirei certainly shed a tear when this was revealed. Riku has the unique ability to copy this spell and effectively turn it into an exiling wrath for 1RRRU, which turns it from a questionable inclusion to an actual, real card that can be used well against tokens and repeated reanimation. Definitely worth a test if your meta has either of these strategies in it. 3
Hammer of Purphoros: Fervor now makes tokens out of your mountains? Sweet. Haste is so good in any creature deck. Being an artifact it is a little easier to knock off than Fervor but if you are in tokens you may as well run multiples of this effect anyway because Haste is just that good for you. A great card and will be played for a long time in this format. 4.5 in tokens, 3.5 otherwise
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Now THIS is a God card. Easily the best one for us. Every creature hitting play is 2 damage to all opponents? 4 damage for copied creatures? It's almost like having Warstorm Surge on an indestructible enchantment that costs 2 less. The only thing better than haste is getting in for damage without even having to attack. Throw the global pump in there too and possible 6/5 in there just for fun? This is a super-impressive card for any creature-based deck and everyone should take it seriously in the 4-drop spot as it can just win games out of nowhere with even a little setup. 5 for tokens (ABSOLUTE MUST PLAY), 4 otherwise
Stormbreath Dragon: This guy is pretty strong at 5 mana but unfortunately just doesn't scale well into Commander with the Monstrous ability costing so much mana and the 4 damage ignorable in most cases, even with haste. I think there are a lot better options for this mana cost. 2
Arbor Colossus: Perhaps the most reasonably costed Monstrous card. 5 for a 6/6 reach, 6 to nuke a flyer and become a 9/9. I still think this is too much durdling for an easily blockable guy when you could Riku, then copy a Fact or Fiction or something awesome like that. Definitely not a bad card by any means, but just nothing that great for all the mana it takes and still no trample. 2
Bow of Nylea: Giving attacking creatures deathtouch is not so bad if you have a lot of mana dorks that can get through for damage later, but the other 4 things this swiss army knife can do just don't return the investment well when Riku needs all the mana he can get. Unlike the other two weapons I'm not a fan of this one here. 2
Fade into Antiquity: This is sort of a trap card when you have access to Beast Within, Chaos Warp and other fine removal. Exiling is great and all but sorcery speed and 3 mana brings it down pretty hard over something like Krosan Grip. I wouldn't play this. 1
Mistcutter Hydra: A hell of a standard/modern card but just too easy to kill or ignore in this format. Would take a ton of mana for anyone to care about even blocking it. 1.5
Nylea, God of the Hunt: Trample for all your guys isn't bad at all, but Brawn can do it so much easier and without diluting your deck. The +2/+2 pump is too expensive to be of value if you ask me. It's a good card but it's no Purphoros. 2.5
Polukranos, World Eater: Monstrous is expensive, man! 7 mana to eat a 3/3? I'm sorry but unless you are in green hyper ramp I just don't see the payoff here. Sooo many better options at 4 mana. 1.5
URG Prophet of Kruphix: Almost had to change my pants when I found out that this card existed, assumed it was legendary, then found out it wasn't. I am normally against the usual 5-mana do-nothing creatures that add value lategame but this one is particularly interesting. It complements or replaces Teferi very well in control decks and is of use to most creature decks just because of the insane value you get out of flashing everything in at the best possible time. This card turns your deck into a reactive one, and if you have any sort of card advantage engine (Deadeye/Sphinx-type thing) the game is basically over as you can just flood the table on your opponents' turns. I would highly recommend testing this overtly powerful card in your creature decks. 5 in control decks, 4 otherwise
Spellheart Chimera: Pretty cool beater in instant/sorcery decks. He gets big fast and his power can easily hit lethal levels if you pair him with Runechanter's Pike. Worth a try if you have that critical mass. 3 for spellslinger
Steam Augury: Best draw spell printed in quite a while. This is your mirrored version of Fact or Fiction. 4 mana is a steal for instant speed draw like this. It is harder to play right than FoF as you cannot be sure you can get the card you want, but you can easily mindgame your opponents or put combos together and force them to give one to you. Like Fact or Fiction, this becomes MUCH better if you are running any reliable recursion like Body Double or Past in Flames, in which case it's like drawing four cards. My favorite card from the set. A great skilltester with a ton of outplay potential. 5 in Past in Flames spellslinger, 4 otherwise
Xenagos, the Reveler: Gaea's Cradle +1, tokens for free, and a mini-Genesis Wave ult. Seems good for 4 mana! If you run a lot of weenies in the 2 and 3-spots this guy could accelerate you super hard into an early Sylvan Primordial and just win you the game, and even if you don't you can protect reasonably. Riku is notoriously mana hungry so even though I tend to be down on walkers in this format, this is one of the few we have to take seriously. 3.5
X Burnished Heart: We have enough green creature ramp on ETB that this guy is merely OK. I wouldn't run him, but other decks certainly will. 2
Colossus of Akros: Gotta love indestructible 10/10s for 8, even if they can't attack. Going Monstrous obviously is a huge problem for your opponents if they can't come up with the Path to Exile. If you are the type to ramp extremely hard you will obviously want to consider beating for 20 trample in the future. Personally, In the face of the more powerful Eldrazi I see him as a pet card, but a hilarious one I will probably die to someday. 1.5
Pyxis of Pandemonium: At first I laughed at this card but it's actually not bad for us at all if you can get it out early. I don't like exiling my top cards if I have a toolbox situation and I may need one of those later and going off with the second ability with an active Riku is just too expensive to be reliable... but if you have a ton of permanents and your opponents don't, you can easily tip the scales with this, or at least force their removal on it. It isn't the worst card ever. 2
0 Nykthos, Shrine to Nix: Need four devotion just to gain 1 extra mana from this. It's not likely to happen much in Riku, but mono-colored decks will be thrilled with this card. 1
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Got some cool stuff for sure this time around. I expect to see a lot Curse of the Swine, Swan Song, Purphoros and his hammer, Prophet of Kruphix, Steam Augury and Xenagos rolling through here in future decks. In particular I can't wait to see smart usage of Steam Augury and plans to protect Xenagos long enough for him to +1 twice, or perhaps an influx of Riku tokens since the last few sets have given him such great tools for the job. Definitely get out to your prereleases this weekend, show your support for your LGS and for WotC, and have some fun!
Feedback is welcome and I invariably forget to RFTC in my set reviews.
I just recently started with a Riku deck, being my second EDH deck and this primer has been very helpful.
I just wanted to chime in because I noticed something mostly no one has pointed out yet.
Why no thragtusk? Even in 5cc part of primer too.
He's the lifegain solution people were looking for a couple pages back.
He was an archtype all on his own in recent standard before he rotated so its a surprise
Nobody noticed or mention him for riku, with all the blink bounce copying going on
And thrag has leaves play and enter triggers.
Sonik, adding to some op changes: since the legend rule change, I think you need to re-examine the kamigawa dragons. They are decent creatures alone, and now that you keep one after copy, they have interesting added value. Ryusei still doesn't fit in as well, but Jugan is pretty good for +1decks.
Also, Keiga's description needs to change, as it still refers to killing both off.
A few minor corrections for Theros update:
master of waves with nothing else will put in 6 tokens, not 4, when copied. The token master still has a mana cost (copyable characteristic), so 2x master + riku = 3 devotion, times 2 triggers. Obviously gets even sillier with parallel lives or doubling season out. I like him a lot, and value him highly in Riku. An Excellent copy target.
Also, curse of the swine has minor benefit at copying from 4 mana (x=2), you get the same number of added targets, but split the spell into two spells, making it harder to counter.
Also, since mana cost is a copiable charateristic, devotion things are not bad at all in riku, due to all the copied tokens adding up, especially in something like my budget version, which is heavily skewed to one color.
Hey, I've been following this Primer for a while and thought I would share my build. I've been using it as my main EDH for kitchen table multiplayer for a while and am always tweaking it. Please let me know what you think.
I see some odd things in this list. Pestermite but no Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker? You should be playing Kiki Jiki regardless, it's so good.
I'd remove Guttersnipe, it's so slow. Phyrexian Metamorph is much better than Clone, because it can copy artifacts, too. It actually does come in handy.
I'd remove Teleportal and Triumph of the Hordes. You really shouldn't need them because you can easily swarm with a token strategy. Not really sure why you're playing Propaganda, it's completely random and really won't help. Also, Vorapede doesn't have any ETB effects, so he's largely useless in Riku. You really need to add more lands. It's probably best to go to 37-38.
This is my current list I use for Riku. I am going the creature route and would like to know how to improve this list. I want to stay the creature route. Thanks for the help.
This is my semi-budget Riku creature toolbox. I don't want to pay more then $10 for a single card, but besides that I'm looking for any advice on what to change.
Vari, did you read the entire primer? I only mention this because you deviate from some of Sonik's best deckbuilding advice. The primer mentions not playing 5 drops unless they're really good, since they compete with Riku. You play Indrik Stomphowlwer, a card that is inferior to Acidic Slime and should not be in the deck when you have many ways to fetch Acidic Slime from your library and your graveyard. Errrr... upon closer inspection, you really don't. Worldly Tutor and Mystical Tutor (finds Worldly Tutor ) improve the deck's capability to find a combo piece or the solution to a problem an opponent has created immensely.
Also, I'd like to quickly point out a few issues with your mana base.
1. You only have 36 lands. Riku wants more.
2. You have Sylvan Scrying, but no land that is good enough to warrant its inclusion. I'm struggling to make cuts from my build to include some of the goodies from Theros. You can't find a better card than a second copy of a land that isn't Gaia's Cradle?
3. You play the Karoo duals. These are nothing but a crutch. When someone decides to kick that crutch out from under you by playing Acidic Slime, you fall flat on your ass while everyone else laughs. When you're in green, your mana fixing and ramp is good enough that you don't need these.
4. Rupture Spire: You're in green. You don't need it.
5. You're in green. Take advantage of it! Play more ramp! Acquire a Stomping Ground, then add Skyshroud Claim and Farseek. I'd take out Sylvan Scrying, Ancient Grudge and Ghostly Flicker for these.
A few other critiques:
Frost Titan: I don't see any reason to play the worst titan other than that you just had one sitting in your rare binder, nobody wanted to trade for it and you wanted to use it somewhere. There are so many better cards that fit into this same slot. Deadeye>>Consecrated Sphinx>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Frost Titan.
If you're playing Trinket Mage, you should give him a bit larger of a toolbox. Tormod's Crypt/Relic of Progenitus, Skullclamp and Expedition Map are all pretty common inclusions. Codex Shredder is also some pretty nice tech that counters top-of-library tutors and, to an extent, Sensei's Divining Top, although attentive opponents will often be able to play around Codex Shredder with Top by putting the card they want second from the top or activating Top again in response to the mill ability. The artifact lands also work well, though they are easier to kill due to the high amount of artifact removal that people play.
Kiki-Jiki might be better than Splinter Twin, although your mana base might not be able to support it.
Actually, Kiki is definitely better. You can't tutor or recur an enchantment. Kiki also allows you to switch targets. This is a card that, for you, is definitely worth the price tag, since you have a sizable number of cards in there that combo with him.
I think that's all I have. In general, I really like the build and the themes behind it. It's cool how you ported the exarch/twin combo deck into EDH. Seeing your list inspired me to build RUG Twin in Modern . It'll probably be worse than all the other variants, but it could be fun. I'm thinking of having a focus on mana acceleration utilzing Satyr Hedonist, Xenagos and Prophet of Kruphix. Hmm, maybe it'll be a Pod deck as well. Wait... Modern toolbox! It'll have Redcap, Acidic Slime, Phyrexian Negator...and something for aggro. Maybe Tidebinder Mage. Plasm Capture seems like a fun sideboard card to have for control. Brewing is fun!
This seems like the best place to ask this question. I play a degenerate Riku combo (turn 4 on a nut draw) (I'm okay with this it's a meta call and there are a group of us at my LGS that play stupid fast aggressive combo we like it) So Palinchron Verinclex is my main infinte mana engine at this time. I FINALLY picked up a deadeye navigator. (I know for a 50 cent common he has been IMPOSSIBLE to find) So my thinking is he fits the curve better, he abuses the other EBT creatures I do run and he pitches to force of will. Clux has a bigger body and is down right game winning in non combo situations if he is allowed to live (unlikley) and killing him always sets one person back 2 turns, first the turn dealing with him and the time stamped lands. So which one should I run, I'm leaning towards Dead Eye but the clux is so good, I do not have space for both of them due to the list being really tuned. So should I stick to the clux or let DEN take a shot at it?
I would want to see a list, but with DEN, you can still abuse Palinchron for infinite mana (although not a fast a clex), but it also allows you to turn Acidic Slime or other ETB creatures into a 2 mana engine. If copied with Riku, you now have 2 engines.
I would say as someone who plays more competitive commander as well, that DEN is close to an auto-include in any deck that I run (just tonight I turned Venser, Shaper Savant into a better remand, which is a lot of fun.)
I would want to see a list, but with DEN, you can still abuse Palinchron for infinite mana (although not a fast a clex), but it also allows you to turn Acidic Slime or other ETB creatures into a 2 mana engine. If copied with Riku, you now have 2 engines.
I would say as someone who plays more competitive commander as well, that DEN is close to an auto-include in any deck that I run (just tonight I turned Venser, Shaper Savant into a better remand, which is a lot of fun.)
I will post the list for you this weekend. The great thing about the clux is I do not have to pass priority to go infinite. With Deadeye I have pass priorty and then activate but he fits so much better in curve and can be cast from hand generally clux only off T&N, and he is a dead draw early game.
Animar may be going out for maelstrom wanderer
explosive vegetation will be replaced by skyshroud claim
seedborn muse and time warp will come in most likely.
Any suggestions would be nice though.
Just wanted to thank you for offering advice to people in the thread. I have been away from the site for a while for various personal reasons so thanks again for helping people that show up here while I've been away.
Just stopping by to say that both Purphoros and Prophet are freaking ridiculous. Both have won me several games so far in my creature-based deck.
I can't wait to play these cards when I build this deck again. I've seen enough of Purphoros to know how bananas he would be in here, tokens or not. I will update the OP with them shortly as well as with the new CMDR 2013 stuff.
I thought about to play flash in the creature-Toolbox version.
Would like to here your ideas about it.
Flash keeps getting better and better with the new ETB guys they've been printing. 2 mana and 2 cards for any ETB effect you could possibly want is pretty absurd and Riku's copy value absolutely breaks the crap out of the card by doubling the ETB and letting you keep a body. I support it in any creature version of this deck, especially if you're running Primordials, Bane of Progress, etc.
I recommend reading the primer's evaluation on most of the cards in here. Bororgymos, Lab Maniac, and a bunch of other RUG cards are sort of just thrown in here with no regard to synergy or mana cost and you want to make your fatties count when you cast them, in case you don't get to untap with them.
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Commander 2013 Review
Late but still relevant I hope! I'll be grading cards on the following unscientific and arbitrary scale relative to their usefulness in a Riku deck:
5: Format Staple- We are playing this card. 4: Very good- There is a strong case for playing this card. 3: OK- We might have a use for this. Solid role player or budget choice. 2: Questionable- A stretch at best, or perhaps a pet card. 1: Unplayable- Why are we talking about this card?
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Before I get going, let's talk mechanics for the set (for once) and explain how they can help us.
Tempting Offer: Get a cool effect, then get more of it by throwing the table a bone. This mechanic is pretty poor if you are already winning as the rest of the table will *probably* just all take something and use it to beat your face in, or otherwise do whatever helps you the least. If you are not already winning, however (and statistically this is more likely to be the case than not!), it can be a real gamechanger, helping you dogpile a more powerful player or otherwise buffing up your board state into something that must be dealt with. This mechanic works better as well if you have ways to build combos off of the offer, be it multiple reanimations to set up insta-wins like Kiki/Mite, multiple clones of a creature that shuts down the table and such. Overall it's pretty swingy and savvy opponents will play around it but never underestimate the power of individual greed in a multiplayer setting taking the place of common sense...
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Tidal Force: Nifty ability on this guy that shuts down their most aggressive creatures but 8 mana is a ton to pay for this. Compared to Magmatic Force he is lacking in general as Magmatic can simply kill a player outright with 9+ to the dome per go around the table. He could do well in a stax/stasis situation if you could somehow manage to resolve him, but Riku isn't the commander for that deck... yet. 2.5
Tempt with Reflections I'm not a fan of this one because copying it is sort of useless as the card otherwise generates multiple copies of a creature by itself. Generally I don't want my opponent to be able to use these cards as well as I can and with this one (as opposed to the black one, for instance), the best creature on the board will be used against you. I'm not really a fan but it's definitely in the category of "fun card that can do some work if you get lucky", and it DOES copy things which is what we want to be doing. 2
Order of Succession: This is a fun card but Riku can't really do anything with it as copying it and reversing the mode will just give everyone their old creatures back and copying it with the same mode will have vastly diminishing returns in almost all cases. Not for this deck. 1
Curse of Inertia: Tapping and untapping can be good with a lot of mana dorks and token producers that need to tap to make their minions but mostly this is a lot of mana and a lot of card just to give a creature vigilance, which is what it will be used for 90% of the time. This is nothing like Curse of Echoes or Curse of Exhuastion, which can just shut people down completely for one extra mana. 1
True-Name Nemesis: A financial hotspot but ultimately no one cares about 3 damage a turn in this format (or even six, really). If you are running multiple swords he does get better but that's not a good enough reason unless you are featuring tons of equipment, which you probably aren't. 1.5
Illusionist's Gambit: This is a pretty expensive fog, basically. It's nice to redirect lethal damage to another player but honestly it's pretty much a fringe case when you are going to blow someone out with this and you'll almost never want to save the mana anyway. This would be exclusively for control decks and even then Tangle is just miles better. 1
Djinn of Infinite Deceits: At least the ability on this guy grabs my attention. 6 mana and a required untap step leave a lot to be desired but if you can protect him he will take over the game. I think he's a poor fit for most Riku decks lacking an ETB ability and being so expensive but I wouldn't want to have to play against one if I could help it. 2
Diviner Spirit: With only two power, I'm sorry but this guy will get blocked all day unless you can beg someone to let him through. It's kinda cool if you want to dogpile a winning player but like the tempt mechanic you are asking for cooperation from your opponents to get value from this and the cost is just too great without a way to abuse it. 1
Witch Hunt: This deck doesn't want this effect and it's not cheap either. Decks which want to force life totals down will really like this but Riku has bigger, stompier plans in mind and doesn't want to durdle with this. 1
Widespread Panic: Green ramp has way too many shuffle effects we rely on to ever use this card. Non-green decks will just love this though and it's a very powerful card against players who rely on library search in general. 1
Terra Ravager: Sounds like a weapon from a Final Fantasy game or something. Sort of looks like a Weapon too. Anyway this is pretty efficient beats but consider he's competing with Wolfir Silverheart and I don't see how he makes the cut outside some sort of "power matters" theme. 1.5
Tempt with Vengeance: THIS is a tempting offer card. XR for X tokens is good. If you have any sort of anthem effect at all or Purphoros or Warstorm Surge or Skullclamp or whatever, you can just blow up half the table immediately even if no one else buys your offer. If you are in tokens you have to at least look at this for its sheer efficiency. 3 in tokens
Sudden Demise: I think the card most similar to this is Bonfire of the Damned. X for a potentially one-sided wipe. It's a lot cheaper than Bonfire (minus miracle of course) so it has that going for it. I love how versatile it is. Keep in mind 3 out of 5 colors will waste your commander but there's nothing cheaper that kills an army of Zombies or Saprolings that also scales well into the lategame. It's Pyroclasm and Starstorm rolled into one, and to me one of the best cards in this set for a color which sorely needs the versatility. Consider it alongside Starstorm, Blasphemous Act, Bonfire, etc in your wipe package. 3.5
Curse of Chaos: Looting is great and all but these curses are kind of weak unless you deck combos with them, which it doesnt. 1
Tempt with Discovery: Another tempting card whose original effect is very strong, although like the others copying it is pretty much useless unless you are getting a two-land combo to kill someone like Cradle/Wolf Run. Cradle is a land worth fetching for sure but otherwise you shouldn't need a specific land so badly in this deck that you're willing to pay 3G for it. Just play Sylvan Scrying. And if you're using it to ramp instead? You're better off with Explosive Vegetation or Boundless Realms or something. 2
Spawning Grounds: Costs 9 to get your first 5/5? No thank you. Way too fragile- every color but black can remove either enchantments or lands, and unless you have Earthcraft even token decks will have a had time abusing this one. 1
Naya Soulbeast: If you're looking for fun, random crap to play (see my Intet deck which this would fit perfectly in), this is your guy. He's overcosted but he gets big in 4-player games. Not a good card by any means unless you are stacking your library to give you the advantage. This is too expensive to be anything but a pet card at best, but it pretty much defines the term. 1.5
Restore: 9/10 times you'll be using someone's fetchland, perhaps your own, making it an upgraded Rampant Growth in those cases. As long as you don't draw this too early (and you play fetches!) it will be a fine addition to any ramp suite in metas where fetches are common. 3.5
Curse of Predation: I don't really like this even in token decks because Beastmaster Ascension is just miles better. It's definitely the best of the three curses from this set we have available to us, but that's not really saying a lot. My vote would be to just spend the three mana on something that improves your army more quickly or more certainly. Get haste or a persistent anthem effect or something that doesn't force you to attack. 2
Primal Vigor: It's a symmetrical Doubling Season. Between Doubling Season, Parallel Lives and now this, there are THREE of these enchantments. Normally they are quite difficult to tutor for in these colors but now that there are three of them the effect is much more viable as a build-around-me effect. It strengthens the token decks by being more prolific and by working extremely well in multiples. Have this and Doubling Season? Get 4 tokens instead of one! And the symmetrical part isn't even that big a deal since hardly any general but Riku is going to abuse the effect as much as he is. Bottom line is that this should be considered in all creature-based decks (particularly as a budget alternative to Doubling Season, though all three are probably overkill) and almost certainly run in the token deck. 5 in tokens, 3 in creature toolbox
Bane of Progress: Artifacts are kind of like drugs in this deck. If you can help it, you want to play as few as possible because even though they tend to oil up the squeaky machine, you can really abuse other players for depending on them if you can manage to live without them. This is the latest card to really incentivize going with few-to-no artifacts at all. This ETB effect is outrageous and will totally shut down any deck relying on the permanent type. If you can free yourself of critical artifacts (Equilibrium over Crystal Shard, for instance), Bane of Progress will be a hero. If you are going to be blowing up your own stuff? Probably best left on the bench. 4
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Opal Palace, Suveyor's Scope and Eye of Fate are a pretty bad for this deck so they get a collective "1" without much fanfare.
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Overall blue got the nifty bells and whistles while green got the goods and red fell somewhere in between for Riku. Your top 5 cards to consider for your decks are:
Frankly it's about time blue got shafted :D. Otherwise I'll be placing my singles order probably after Christmas like most of you guys. Have fun and buy the new sets!.
I'm thinking of building Riku where green is almost exclusively ramp and the big plays will be red/blue while utilizing seedborn muse andprophet of kruphix. Thoughts?
hey, just popped in mainly to get some fresh ideas churning. Riku has been one of my favorite edh decks since his release, but I haven't given him very much attention lately as far as updates/additions go (mostly due to me being broke and therefore somewhat out of the MtG loop for a bit, on top of the never-ending addiction to building new decks).
but I noticed a couple things in your primer that may or may not have been mentioned (i'm usually good about fully reading a thread before posting, but this thing is 107 pages, and it's way past my bed time, lol).
Firstly, Manamorphose doesn't actually ramp when copied by Riku. You are paying the initial 2 mana CC plus 2 mana to copy for a return of 4 mana and two cards, so it's really just double-cycling and fixing your colored mana if necessary.
Second, with the changes to the rulings on Clone effects, you might want to go back through and update the relevant sections, removing mention of using them as removal spells for Commanders. (They are still wonderful cards in this format despite the loss of that utility, especially in a creature-centric/etb-focused deck. LOVE me some Phyrexian Metamorph!)
other than those little nitpicks, great primer! it gave me some stuff to think about. idk how i overlooked the two copies of Plasma Capture that have been sitting in my binder since the prerelease, but i might have to try to find a slot for one of them in my Riku deck. i don't typically like to run many if any counters in mine (iirc, i think i might run a mystic snake and a spell crumple), mostly for the same reasons you mentioned (plus I try not to be a dick as much as possible- one of my first edh decks was Grand Arbiter prison, but i dismantled it after a few months because it was very unfun to play against), but it seems pretty enticing in a deck as mana-hungry as this.
Also just realized how cheap Sylvan Primordials are. might have to snag me a set. I've been wanting some Woodfall Primuses for a long time now, but they're a little bit more than i really want to pay right now, and SP seems like a decent alternative (at least in a deck that won't be abusing the Persist as much as, say, Ghave). then again, i already run Terastadon, Bramblecrush, and Beast Within; so idk if it's really necessary...although SP plus Deadeye Navigator seems like a great time. X)
anyways, again, good job. maybe if i get motivated sometime, i'll throw my current list up here and get some insight on what to cut.
I'll be grading cards on the following unscientific and arbitrary scale relative to their usefulness in a Riku deck:
5: Format Staple- We are playing this card. 4: Very good- There is a strong case for playing this card. 3: OK- We might have a use for this. Solid role player or budget choice. 2: Questionable- A stretch at best, or perhaps a pet card. 1: Unplayable- Why are we talking about this card?
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Before I get going, let's talk mechanics for the set (for once) and explain how they can help us.
Heroic: Target creatures with spells for cool stuff. Unfortunately there are almost no Riku variants that care about this with the exception of the extremely gimmicky Riku Voltron deck which may have been built by 3 people ever. Not very useful.
Tribute: Gives your opponent a choice at how strong a particular creature is. Almost always, they are going to make the worst choice for you, so only overpowered versions of these are going to be worthy of discussion. There are corner cases though where you can choose an opponent to be your ally and he will give you the better effects just to help take down a stronger player... just some food for muliplayer thought.
Inspired: Untap your creatures to do cool stuff. Unfortunately Riku has no immediate synergy wth tapping or untapping creatures so don't expect too much here.
Devotion: Back from the previous set. If you have a lot of colored permanents, you get a bonus. Unfortunately in three colored decks those colors are split up an awful lot...
Overall not too much to get excited about so far...
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Arbiter of the Ideal: EVERYONE likes free stuff on the battlefield because Riku can make two of them. Otherwise it's kind of slow but think of it as a cheaper Intet the Dreamer. A really fun card but probably not too competitive or anything. 2.5
Archetype of Imagination: It's kind of like a creature-based overrun. You cast it and your tokens all fly overhead for the win. It definitely has its uses but 6 mana, no use copied and no power boost make it inferior to the likes of Craterhoof, Overwhelming Stampede, etc. 2
Fated Infatuation: This is a worse version of Cackling Counterpart. The mana is really tough to copy it as well. It can definitely be playable though if your creature base is strong enough that you'd be happy copying at least half your deck. Still, I'd run Cackling Counterpart first because flashback >>> scry. 3
Perplexing Chimera: This is the most hilarious card I've seen in quite some time! It combos well with any repeatable steal abilty such as that of Vedalken Shackles, so if you're a fan of that sort of thing then hop on board. It's not particularly useful for Riku but I would laugh at a double-copied one and watch as you threaten to steal the next two spells. This guy may make me build my Intet deck again. 1.5
Retraction Helix: I love the design of this card. It's a cheaper bounce spell (and inspired enabler!), but you have to have a creature worth tapping to pull it off. Also it's a one-mana instant which has a special place in my heart. I feel like somewhere there's a combo that bounces everyone else's stuff but then I remembered they printed Cyclonic Rift :D. Ultimately pretty weak in Riku decks but I just wanted to talk about it I guess. 1.5
Tromokratis: Giant, generic blue fattie incoming! This one has the luxury of being immune to sorcery-speed spot removal but honestly it's not much consolation. I guess one neat thing about it is that if you copy it and attack the same player with both, one cannot be blocked. I'd almost always prefer some other giant beater in this spot but it seems like a fun card if nothing else. 2
Vortex Elemental: The third in a line of "get shuffled" creatures including Gomazoa and that void dude from M13. I actually LOVE that this is a 1-drop. It discourages early aggro from chumps like Rafiq, it can be suited up with a power increase to bait out a block from an opponent, and you can pay 6 later on to forcefully remove that Blood Artist or other annoying creature... all while starting a Birthing Pod chain from a 0 cmc token. I think this card is a lot more interesting than others like it and though I still prefer Ulvenwald Tracker as the 1-drop of choice I still like what this guy does with a pile of leftover mana. 2.5
Whelming Wave: Sea creature tribal? With that quest from Zen block? lol jk 1
Archetype of Aggression: Gives all your big dudes trample (if they don't already have it), takes it from everyone else, all for the low cost of three mana? This seems like it could actually be really good. Most creature-based victories in Commander come off the back of flying or trample and this card nearly shuts down their big, beefy guys for just 1RR, half the cost of the blue one. I don't know how good this card is yet (and nearly all enchantment creatures by extension since green has no problem blowing up enchantments) but I imagine it's actually quite playable. 3
Fated Conflagration: Quite a step back from Chaos Warp or Beast Within but if you have to kill planeswalkers or 5 toughness generals you could do worse. Not a bad copy target either with double-scry 2 getting you down as far as four cards if you need to. Aftershock is still more favorable but at least this one doesnt kill you for copying it. 3
Fellhide Spiritbinder: As much as I love copying things this guy is just not going to get to untap that often, realistically. 4 toughness is quite easy to overcome buy turn 5. If you want to get nuts and combo off with Intruder Alarm that's you're prerogative but you're better off playing Kiki-Jiki if you can get your hands on one. 2
Flame-Wreathed Phoenix: This is a standard card, which is a shame because it's kinda cool for a Tribute card. 1
Forgestoker Dragon: Too much mana for too little damage, no point in copying one either. No luck with dragons this set, guys. 1
Oracle of Bones: In this format you have to be stupid or dead not to pay the tribute. Which is a shame because the phrase "cast an instant or sorcery card [...] without paying its mana cost" is exactly how you'd otherwise get my attention. 1
Satyr Firedancer: Probably my favorite card in this set for non-Commander play. Doubling up on all your face burn for such a stupidly cheap price just seems SO much fun. If this guy was legendary we could finally see a Commander burn deck. Unforunately, he's not, and as a one-of in the 99 he really has nothing going for him except for the ability to give you more value in your damaging spells, of which you should be playing precious few that aren't Comet Storm. 1
Archetype of Endurance: That is a LOT of mana. Great effect but its hard to say if it's worth the price. 8 mana in this format buys you Craterhoof Behemoth and wins you the game. It buys you Avenger of Zendikar and wins you the game. It nearly buys you Eldrazi if you are so inclined. I wouldn't laugh at anyone for playing this but the fact that 8 mana on your doubled-down investment is undone by a simple wrath leads me to believe this card is win more for that insane cost. I think I'd probably play Spellskite/Academy Ruins before this. 2.5
Courser of Kruphix: If [c]Oracle of Mul Daya[c/] has taught us anything, it's that playing lands off the top of your deck is GOOD. It's not so bad that he can't play two, because he costs one less mana and gains you life doing it. Beefy 4 toughness at 1GG is really a nice bonus too. I expect this card to be played in green decks across the format, especially alongside Sensei's Divining Top, and I think he fits in here rather nicely alongside Yavimaya Elder and friends. 3.5
Fated Intervention: Generally inferior to Rite of Replication but this is a nice way for instant and sorcery decks to get a little bit of board presence without having to sell out and play creatures. Otherwise it's kind of a questionable play considering it's just a couple 3/3s. 2.5
Hunter's Prowess: This has the potential to draw a LOT of cards but the sorcery-speed on it makes it extremely easy to play around. Considering all the other card draw available (since you're not really playing this for the pump), I think it's probably an inferior way to get your cards but it does have some nice upside if you're rocking a lot of high-power creatures like Wolfir Silverheart. 2.5
Nessian Wilds Ravager: Speaking of high power... this a card whose tribute is not going to get paid often (because its tribute ability is REALLY good). So if your deck has room for a 6 mana 12/12 because of some kind of "power matters" theme... well here you go. Otherwise, pretty bland and easy to block. 2
Satyr Wayfinder: I nearly missed this unassuming 1/1 in my first review of the set. A doofy little 1/1 for 2 but almost certainly cantrips for a land WHILE stuffing your yard with goodies. This mana dork should actually end up being quite popular in creature decks and I would consider running it in place or alongside Coiling Oracle (note this 1G is much easier on T2 than UG). I don't think it's as good as Sakura-Tribe Elder since it can't actually ramp you but it's a very solid 2-drop. 3.5
Scourge of Skola Vale: This is a neat little sac outlet that happens to get big. It doesn't really have a way to protect itself so I wouldn't really rely on this thing for damages but being able to sac your creatures for benefit is always nice. I expect this guy to find a home in BG and Naya decks, and less so here where higher power doesn't amount to as much without building around it with stuff like Greater Good and such. Actually it's not a bad idea for a deck at all! 2.5
Unravel the Aether: Functional reprint of Deglamer and a fine little utility card. Tucking these things is usually better than destroying them since Academy Ruins and other recursion are generally worse problems for you than making your opponent cast a tutor to go find it. Very good against a combo meta and a solid role-player. 3
URG
Kiora, the Crashing Wave: A fine planeswalker for standard. In multiplayer? Her +1 is going to do fairly little to protect her. So if you're ok paying 4 mana for Explore and a fog, then go for it. Personally, I feel she falls quite a bit short in multipayer. 2.5
Xenagos, God of Revels: I'm not totally sure where I am on actually playing this guy. Haste is awesome. Free power is awesome. But for 5 mana? And the devotion is not guaranteed either (although remember that tokens created from Riku's copy ability DO copy mana costs so they will count towards the devotion count). Once again another "power matters" card where IMO Riku decks want to be grinding out card advantage, not just big guys. The haste ability is so exceptional though that I'd say I'd like to see how he performs before he gets a pass from me, especially sharing a mana cost with Riku... since at that point you have to ask yourself if he'd be the better commander for the job. 3.5
Astral Cornucopia: The love child of Everflowing Chalice and Gilded Lotus, neither of which should be played in Riku decks IMO seeing as how they can't be copied for profit (as opposed to creatures like Farhaven Elf). A great card nonetheless, just not in here. 2.5
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Not a particularly inspiring haul (see what I did there) but there's some solid role players in there and a few intriguing picks for future evaulation. I'd say the top five for most Riku decks would be:
If you've got questions about any of the new cards or anything in general, post em on in here and we'll try to get them addressed. Enjoy your local prereleases!
I don't have Riku together right now myself. I mean he's a sleeve-swap away if I get the urge, but I've been more interested in more focused decks lately that do a specific thing, or in theme-y kind of decks that are good for laughs and general irreverence. Check out the Melek and Intet lists in my signature! My Unexpected Results deck puts me in a great mood for Magic. I don't know what I'm going to be casting until the spell resolves (except with Top and Intet or whatever) and generally I just have a great time with it. Melek is a better deck that can pull wins out of nowhere, but again, you never know how you're going to win with it until the path makes itself known. They're both a lot of fun and fit perfectly in my rotation. I don't think I'll be changing too many decks around until Theros arrives, where apparently we'll be seeing a lot of legends...
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
Black's universal tutoring tends to make black decks excessively linear to me. You have a plan, you execute it, you win or get shut down. I prefer more diversity in the way my games go. Also, the color itself doesn't really appeal to me. Either way those are strictly personal preferences, but they're enough to keep me out of it for now. I might play some more black when our new Grixis free-spell vampire shows up in the November Commander product, but until then I'm not too motivated by the grixis generals we have already save someone awesome like Nicol Bolas.
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
My cube: http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/9981
And while I've brought up the subject of new cards: Prophet of Kruphix and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
1) We play three colors, so our devotion to a single one will be lesser
2) We don't play too many permanents in the early game, and those that we do play don't usually stick around for too long.
Given both of these factors, it becomes evident that we will often be unable to generate a net positive amount of mana with this.
Prophet of Kruphix is fantastic. It's not broken (in the literal definition of the word. It may be OP, but it won't do anything that they didn't intend it to do), but it is very, very good for us.
Purphoros, God of the Forge will be great in token decks.
Curse of the Swine should never have been printed, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't use it. Really, who came up with the idea to give blue MASS EXILED REMOVAL... that is also targeted, so your own dudes can live and you can save mana by not using it on the weak cards?! The card will end up giving us more problems because our opponents have it than it will benefit us.
I'm bored of Standard right now; waiting for rotation.
Modern
:symw:Soul Sisters:symw:
EDH
:symr:Krenko:symr:(1v1, with a multi-player transition)
:symu::symr::symg:Riku:symg::symr::symu:
:symg::symw:Rhys:symw::symg:
:symr:Ashling:symr: (WIP)
Purphoros is pretty silly in any creature or token variant. Mostly tokens though. Same deal with his hammer. These will both see play across the format and Riku will be no exception.
Master of Waves has very strong copy potential for token situations, mostly because of the mana cost of 4 coming in at the perfect copy after Riku, but blue devotion is not going to be easy to hit.
Curse of the Swine is silly. The breakpoint for the value of copying it exceeds the value of just paying X is 6 mana (you exile 4 creatures where X is 4 or X is 2, twice). After 6 mana it's all upside, but then again how many creatures really need to become 2/2s after the first 4 are dealt with? Either way, this is EXILING removal and even at 1UU for 1 is is good, which is pretty rare with X spells! I don't know how well it fits in the deck just yet because it is less efficient than Pongify and Rapid Hybridization... it may depend on the amount of reanimation you face. Still, like Cyclonic Rift this is a card that seems powerful enough that we should take it seriously even if it turns out to be not as good as we expect.
Polukranos at 4 mana seems pretty good at first but the monstrosity on him is not at all cheap. I think there are a lot better 4-drops than this unless your plan is Brawn into fatties.
Steam Augury is my favorite spoiled card as a wacky second FoF. I love copying this! The more graveyard interactions you have with this card, the better. If you like FoF you should probably like this too as long as you realize that you're going to have to be more skilled at picking the contents of the two piles than just picking which pre-made pile is better. Again, more Body Doubles, Genesises, Squees, flashback, etc. give you the value you need here to make turn this from a good card into a great card.
Overall though I am excited for the set and the block, the devotion mechanic doesn't really do anything for Riku, the enchantment theme is questionably valuable (Bestow does not really play to Riku's strengths), the Heroic mechanic only works in the mythical Riku beatdown deck (with Wild Defiance lol), Monstrous instead of ETB doesn't do anything for us (and is overcosted), and in general the block seems to favor mono-colored decks which is not really our deal. So unfortunately I wouldn't expect a big haul for Riku here. Though with half the set still waiting to be spoiled, you never know!
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
I also worry about the red god not being able to hit devotion, but the other effects on him are bonkers regardless.
As with M14 I'll be grading cards on the following unscientific and arbitrary scale relative to their usefulness in a Riku deck:
5: Format Staple- We are playing this card.
4: Very good- There is a strong case for playing this card.
3: OK- We might have a use for this. Solid role player or budget choice.
2: Questionable- A stretch at best, or perhaps a pet card.
1: Unplayable- Why are we talking about this card?
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Before I get going, let's talk mechanics for the set (for once) and explain how they can help us.
Heroic: This has things trigger when you target your own cretaures with spells. Usually this is with pump but auras work too. Typically these are quite bad with Riku as you don't want to be wasting card advantage for a few extra points of damage. I do believe that there is a fun/joke deck in here somewhere that tutors up Wild Defiance and tries to get Riku to 21 power with various copied pump spells, and some of the Heroic guys could be alternate beaters in those situations, but mostly this mechanic does not bring much to our 40-life format.
Monstrous: A little bit more exciting, creatures with Monstrous are typically overcosted at first, but let you pump more mana into them to do something awesome. Unfortunately, Riku doesn't want to copy creatures that just want more mana when they are copied, so I don't believe any of these creatures are very good for us either. A spare few will be playable in Commander (Hythonia perhaps) but we will miss most of these.
Bestow: An attempt to redeem the riskiness of casting auras, Bestow lets you enchant something, and it will turn into the essence or abilities of that enchantment if it falls off or you choose to play it as a creature. Unfortunately the bestow cost is quite high and Riku again doesn't really gain much from copying the bestow creatures in their unbestowed form (which is usually uninspiring when not an aura).
Devotion: Having a bunch of like-colored permanents gives you cool effects. Since we are by and large a deck with many different colored permanents (read: not the same), devotion of 4 or more is typically a tall order unless you're already winning hard.
Scry: Scry is back in Theros. I love a good Foresee as much as the next blue player but a lot of cards in this set have some scry stapled on to them. Scry 1 is not really anything special but repeatable scry of 2 or more, or a one-shot scry 4 can be really good with all the shuffle effects we play. We'll see if any of these cards are worth playing.
So yeah. Not much going for us here, but let's take a look at what's left:
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Artisan of Forms: We like clones here, but not clones like this. Way too annoying to get use out of this when Cryptoplasm doesn't make the cut as it is. Could be fun to switch to something indestructible at instant speed, but not in this deck. 1
Bident of Thassa: Upgraded Coastal Piracy. If you have a lot of dudes to get through for damage then I could see this as a major source of CA. Make an opponent attack with their team, then you attack with yours and draw 4, 5, 6 cards or more. Definitely worth a look if you play tokens. 3 in tokens
Breaching Hippocamp: I hate that I have to bring this card up as it is yet another Kiki-Jiki infinite. 1.5
Curse of the Swine: The BACONATOR has arrived! Turn their massive board into a bunch of 2/2s and it's merely good. Turn their Avacyn into a 2/2 with no abilities? Also merely good. Turn their 4-creature board of Gravecrawler/Blood Artist/Sheoldred/Harvester of Souls into a bunch of pigs and exile all their recursion? In blue? Now it's a GREAT card. This scales quite well into Commander and after 6 mana you can profit from copying the spell as well. It's not going to kill any players like a Comet Storm would but you get out of a lot of sticky situations with this spell, even if you just pay 1UU to stop a singular threat. It's not as efficient or reliable as Pongify but exile stops so many shenanigans that it's probaly worth the extra 1U even on that front. Reminds me of Cyclonic Rift in that it's obviously a very powerful card but it may not be right for every deck. Everyone should test it and find out though. 4.5
Master of Waves: I love the flavor built into this card. Actually not a bad copy target. Even with zero other devotion to blue, copying one for 6 mana gives you two master 2/1s and 4 3/2 elementals, and the elementals won't leave the battlefield as 1/0's unless your opponents can kill both of the Masters without red spells, including Terminate and Chaos Warp. If there's a Sower of Temptation or something in play then add 4 more 3/2s. Further cloning of these guys will make even more, larger elemental tokens. He synergizes very well with clone effects in this way as the gain on total power on board increases exponentially. Hit one with a kicked Rite of Replication? That's 30 7/6 elemental tokens! So if you are a token deck or you run a bunch of clones, consider running this guy in the all-important 4-drop spot spot. If you don't have either of those, probably just leave him for better options. This guy is better than expected when you crunch the numbers. 3
Meletis Charlatan: What a nice surprise for spellslinger decks at the end of the round of spoilers. Echo Mage gets a new friend. He is pretty much limited to copying your own spells (unless you like helping your opponents) but if you have 40 instants and sorceries this a nice second or third Riku to keep in your back pocket. Otherwise, he's not efficient enough to do a lot with. 3.5 in spellslinger, 2 otherwise
Prescient Chimera: Cute with the 40 instant/sorcery build but this is a pretty minor effect in the end for the cost of 5 mana. I would avoid this guy in general. I do want more triggers like this though! 1
Prognostic Sphinx: Repeatable scry 3? Now we're talking. Has a nifty little defensive ability that can be fueled by its own scrying (scry for card draw). Ultimately I like to actually draw the cards though and the competition is so tight at the 5-spot (including Riku himself) that this is a pet card at best to me. 1.5
Shipbreaker Kraken: A bad Lorthos, the Tidemaker. 1
Swan Song: I am normally against most counters in Riku but a 1-mana hard counter to wraths is something every creature deck has to take seriously. My biggest issue with counterspells isn't that they don't get copied well by Riku, but that you have to keep the mana open to use them well. Just 1 mana though? That's more than manageable. This does seem pretty powerful, probably more than I thought at first. I would consider testing this in all creature versions of the deck as a way to fend off wraths, protect Riku, and overextend without actually overextending. 4
Thassa, God of the Sea: Permanent Scry 1 is no joke. Your hand is always going to be looking good with her in play. The unblockable ability is not as good but if you are running a bunch of big dudes like Wolfir Silverheart and supporting them with Brawn and other trample enablers, or you run a lot of swords (watch out for pro-blue!), then she becomes actually quite good. Overall probably not nearly as good as Rhystic Study or Ceta Sanctuary but worth a shot IF the unblockable ability appeals to your deck. I don't believe Scry 1 every turn is worth the card slot by itself (since devotion 5 to blue is not an easy task here). 2.5
Anger of the Gods: This is a cool little creature wipe that stops a lot of black repeatable reanimation shenanigans. Shirei certainly shed a tear when this was revealed. Riku has the unique ability to copy this spell and effectively turn it into an exiling wrath for 1RRRU, which turns it from a questionable inclusion to an actual, real card that can be used well against tokens and repeated reanimation. Definitely worth a test if your meta has either of these strategies in it. 3
Hammer of Purphoros: Fervor now makes tokens out of your mountains? Sweet. Haste is so good in any creature deck. Being an artifact it is a little easier to knock off than Fervor but if you are in tokens you may as well run multiples of this effect anyway because Haste is just that good for you. A great card and will be played for a long time in this format. 4.5 in tokens, 3.5 otherwise
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Now THIS is a God card. Easily the best one for us. Every creature hitting play is 2 damage to all opponents? 4 damage for copied creatures? It's almost like having Warstorm Surge on an indestructible enchantment that costs 2 less. The only thing better than haste is getting in for damage without even having to attack. Throw the global pump in there too and possible 6/5 in there just for fun? This is a super-impressive card for any creature-based deck and everyone should take it seriously in the 4-drop spot as it can just win games out of nowhere with even a little setup. 5 for tokens (ABSOLUTE MUST PLAY), 4 otherwise
Stormbreath Dragon: This guy is pretty strong at 5 mana but unfortunately just doesn't scale well into Commander with the Monstrous ability costing so much mana and the 4 damage ignorable in most cases, even with haste. I think there are a lot better options for this mana cost. 2
Arbor Colossus: Perhaps the most reasonably costed Monstrous card. 5 for a 6/6 reach, 6 to nuke a flyer and become a 9/9. I still think this is too much durdling for an easily blockable guy when you could Riku, then copy a Fact or Fiction or something awesome like that. Definitely not a bad card by any means, but just nothing that great for all the mana it takes and still no trample. 2
Bow of Nylea: Giving attacking creatures deathtouch is not so bad if you have a lot of mana dorks that can get through for damage later, but the other 4 things this swiss army knife can do just don't return the investment well when Riku needs all the mana he can get. Unlike the other two weapons I'm not a fan of this one here. 2
Fade into Antiquity: This is sort of a trap card when you have access to Beast Within, Chaos Warp and other fine removal. Exiling is great and all but sorcery speed and 3 mana brings it down pretty hard over something like Krosan Grip. I wouldn't play this. 1
Mistcutter Hydra: A hell of a standard/modern card but just too easy to kill or ignore in this format. Would take a ton of mana for anyone to care about even blocking it. 1.5
Nylea, God of the Hunt: Trample for all your guys isn't bad at all, but Brawn can do it so much easier and without diluting your deck. The +2/+2 pump is too expensive to be of value if you ask me. It's a good card but it's no Purphoros. 2.5
Polukranos, World Eater: Monstrous is expensive, man! 7 mana to eat a 3/3? I'm sorry but unless you are in green hyper ramp I just don't see the payoff here. Sooo many better options at 4 mana. 1.5
URG
Prophet of Kruphix: Almost had to change my pants when I found out that this card existed, assumed it was legendary, then found out it wasn't. I am normally against the usual 5-mana do-nothing creatures that add value lategame but this one is particularly interesting. It complements or replaces Teferi very well in control decks and is of use to most creature decks just because of the insane value you get out of flashing everything in at the best possible time. This card turns your deck into a reactive one, and if you have any sort of card advantage engine (Deadeye/Sphinx-type thing) the game is basically over as you can just flood the table on your opponents' turns. I would highly recommend testing this overtly powerful card in your creature decks. 5 in control decks, 4 otherwise
Spellheart Chimera: Pretty cool beater in instant/sorcery decks. He gets big fast and his power can easily hit lethal levels if you pair him with Runechanter's Pike. Worth a try if you have that critical mass. 3 for spellslinger
Steam Augury: Best draw spell printed in quite a while. This is your mirrored version of Fact or Fiction. 4 mana is a steal for instant speed draw like this. It is harder to play right than FoF as you cannot be sure you can get the card you want, but you can easily mindgame your opponents or put combos together and force them to give one to you. Like Fact or Fiction, this becomes MUCH better if you are running any reliable recursion like Body Double or Past in Flames, in which case it's like drawing four cards. My favorite card from the set. A great skilltester with a ton of outplay potential. 5 in Past in Flames spellslinger, 4 otherwise
Xenagos, the Reveler: Gaea's Cradle +1, tokens for free, and a mini-Genesis Wave ult. Seems good for 4 mana! If you run a lot of weenies in the 2 and 3-spots this guy could accelerate you super hard into an early Sylvan Primordial and just win you the game, and even if you don't you can protect reasonably. Riku is notoriously mana hungry so even though I tend to be down on walkers in this format, this is one of the few we have to take seriously. 3.5
X
Burnished Heart: We have enough green creature ramp on ETB that this guy is merely OK. I wouldn't run him, but other decks certainly will. 2
Colossus of Akros: Gotta love indestructible 10/10s for 8, even if they can't attack. Going Monstrous obviously is a huge problem for your opponents if they can't come up with the Path to Exile. If you are the type to ramp extremely hard you will obviously want to consider beating for 20 trample in the future. Personally, In the face of the more powerful Eldrazi I see him as a pet card, but a hilarious one I will probably die to someday. 1.5
Pyxis of Pandemonium: At first I laughed at this card but it's actually not bad for us at all if you can get it out early. I don't like exiling my top cards if I have a toolbox situation and I may need one of those later and going off with the second ability with an active Riku is just too expensive to be reliable... but if you have a ton of permanents and your opponents don't, you can easily tip the scales with this, or at least force their removal on it. It isn't the worst card ever. 2
0
Nykthos, Shrine to Nix: Need four devotion just to gain 1 extra mana from this. It's not likely to happen much in Riku, but mono-colored decks will be thrilled with this card. 1
--------------
Got some cool stuff for sure this time around. I expect to see a lot Curse of the Swine, Swan Song, Purphoros and his hammer, Prophet of Kruphix, Steam Augury and Xenagos rolling through here in future decks. In particular I can't wait to see smart usage of Steam Augury and plans to protect Xenagos long enough for him to +1 twice, or perhaps an influx of Riku tokens since the last few sets have given him such great tools for the job. Definitely get out to your prereleases this weekend, show your support for your LGS and for WotC, and have some fun!
Feedback is welcome and I invariably forget to RFTC in my set reviews.
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
I just recently started with a Riku deck, being my second EDH deck and this primer has been very helpful.
I just wanted to chime in because I noticed something mostly no one has pointed out yet.
Why no thragtusk? Even in 5cc part of primer too.
He's the lifegain solution people were looking for a couple pages back.
He was an archtype all on his own in recent standard before he rotated so its a surprise
Nobody noticed or mention him for riku, with all the blink bounce copying going on
And thrag has leaves play and enter triggers.
Also, Keiga's description needs to change, as it still refers to killing both off.
A few minor corrections for Theros update:
master of waves with nothing else will put in 6 tokens, not 4, when copied. The token master still has a mana cost (copyable characteristic), so 2x master + riku = 3 devotion, times 2 triggers. Obviously gets even sillier with parallel lives or doubling season out. I like him a lot, and value him highly in Riku. An Excellent copy target.
Also, curse of the swine has minor benefit at copying from 4 mana (x=2), you get the same number of added targets, but split the spell into two spells, making it harder to counter.
Also, since mana cost is a copiable charateristic, devotion things are not bad at all in riku, due to all the copied tokens adding up, especially in something like my budget version, which is heavily skewed to one color.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
1 Riku of Two Reflections
Creatures 29
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Coiling Oracle
2 Gyre Sage
3 Pestermite
3 Wood Elves
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fierce Empath
3 Yavimaya Elder
3 Guttersnipe
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Elgaud Shieldmate
4 Clone
4 Archaeomancer
4 Gamekeeper
4 Mystic Snake
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Masterbiomancer
4 Purphoros, God of the Forge
5 Acidic Slime
5 Prophet of Kruphix
5 Kessig Cagebreakers
5 Mulldrifter
5 Mindclaw Shaman
5 Vorapede
6 Deadeye Navigator
7 Chancellor of the Spires
7 Phyrexian Ingestor
7 Sylvan Primordial
7 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Sol Ring
2 Strionic Resonator
2 Lightning Greaves
3 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Mimic Vat
3 Proteus Staff
3 Crystal Shard
4 Birthing Pod
5 Conjurer's Closet
Enchantments 5
3 Propaganda
3 Rhystic Study
4 Leyline of Anticipation
4 Parallel Lives
5 Doubling Season
Planeswalkers
4 Xenagos, the Reveler
Instants 7
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Signal the Clans
3 Spell Crumple
3 Krosan Grip
4 Grab the Reins
4 Plasm Capture
4 Steam Augury
Sorceries 14
1X Fireball
1X Green Sun's Zenith
2 Life from the Loam
2 Teleportal
3 Kodam's Reach
3 Far Wanderings
3 Fabricate
4 Unexpected Results
4 Triumph of the Horde
4 Rite of Replication
5 Time Warp
6 Spelltwine
Land 34
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Academy Ruins
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Homeward Path
1 Command Tower
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Tranquil Thicket
3 Mountain
9 Forest
9 Island
I'd remove Guttersnipe, it's so slow. Phyrexian Metamorph is much better than Clone, because it can copy artifacts, too. It actually does come in handy.
Gamekeeper should really be Tooth and Nail.
Honestly, you really need:
Avenger of Zendikar
Siege-Gang Commander
Hornet Queen
Chancellor of the Forge
Anger
Fauna Shaman
Farhaven Elf
Ondu Giant
Beetleback Chief
Deranged Hermit
Explosive Vegetation
I'd remove Teleportal and Triumph of the Hordes. You really shouldn't need them because you can easily swarm with a token strategy. Not really sure why you're playing Propaganda, it's completely random and really won't help. Also, Vorapede doesn't have any ETB effects, so he's largely useless in Riku. You really need to add more lands. It's probably best to go to 37-38.
Hope this helps.
1 Riku of Two Reflections
Creatures
1 Terastodon
1 Eternal Witness
1 Mulldrifter
1 Acidic Slime
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Wonder
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Frost Titan
1 Genesis
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Draining Whelk
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Magmatic Force
1 Fierce Empath
1 Animar Soul of Elements
1 Inferno Titan
1 Anger
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Yavaimaya Elder
1 Sprouting Vines
1 Comet Storm
1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Electrolyze
1 Prophetic Bolt
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Think Twice
1 Beast Within
1 Plasm Capture
Sorceries
1 Vengeful Rebirth
1 Hull Breach
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Kodama’s Reach
1 Cultivate
1 Journey of Discovery
1 Harmonize
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Urban Evolution
1 Red Sun’s Zenith
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Devil’s Play
1 Mizzium Mortars
Artifacts
1 Akroma’s Memorial
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Simic Signet
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Gruul Signet
1 Izzet Signet
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Sol Ring
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
Lands
1 Command Tower
1 Rupture Spire
1 Fungal Reaches
1 Alchemist’s Refuge
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Academy Ruins
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Steam Vents
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Temple of Abandon
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Crag
6 Island
6 Forest
5 Mountain
This is my current list I use for Riku. I am going the creature route and would like to know how to improve this list. I want to stay the creature route. Thanks for the help.
1 Riku of Two Reflections
Creatures
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Snapcaster mage
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Spellskite
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Pestermite
1 Cryptoplasm
1 Somberwald Sage
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Trinket Mage
1 Yamiya Elder
1 Manic Vandal
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Archaeomancer
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Fathom Mage
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Elgaud Shieldmate
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Acidic Slime
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Mulldrifter
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Progenitor Mimic
1 Frost Titan
1 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Palinchron
1 Phyrexian Ingester
1 Vandalblast
1 Hull Breach
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Explore
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Acquire
1 All is dust
1 Genesis Wave
Instants
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Ghostly Flicker
1 Capsize
Enchantments
1 Equilibrium
1 Splinter Twin
1 Defense of the Heart
1 Doubling Season
Artifacts
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mimic Vat
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Birthing Pod
PlanesWalkers
1 Sarkhan Vol
1 Tezzert The Seeker
Lands
1 Command Tower
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Gruul Turf
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Dyrad Arbor
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Thespian Stage
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Breeding pool
1 Homeward path
1 Rupture Spire
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Oran-Rief, The Vastwood
7 Island
8 Forest
5 Mountain
Also, I'd like to quickly point out a few issues with your mana base.
1. You only have 36 lands. Riku wants more.
2. You have Sylvan Scrying, but no land that is good enough to warrant its inclusion. I'm struggling to make cuts from my build to include some of the goodies from Theros. You can't find a better card than a second copy of a land that isn't Gaia's Cradle?
3. You play the Karoo duals. These are nothing but a crutch. When someone decides to kick that crutch out from under you by playing Acidic Slime, you fall flat on your ass while everyone else laughs. When you're in green, your mana fixing and ramp is good enough that you don't need these.
4. Rupture Spire: You're in green. You don't need it.
5. You're in green. Take advantage of it! Play more ramp! Acquire a Stomping Ground, then add Skyshroud Claim and Farseek. I'd take out Sylvan Scrying, Ancient Grudge and Ghostly Flicker for these.
A few other critiques:
Frost Titan: I don't see any reason to play the worst titan other than that you just had one sitting in your rare binder, nobody wanted to trade for it and you wanted to use it somewhere. There are so many better cards that fit into this same slot. Deadeye>>Consecrated Sphinx>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Frost Titan.
If you're playing Trinket Mage, you should give him a bit larger of a toolbox. Tormod's Crypt/Relic of Progenitus, Skullclamp and Expedition Map are all pretty common inclusions. Codex Shredder is also some pretty nice tech that counters top-of-library tutors and, to an extent, Sensei's Divining Top, although attentive opponents will often be able to play around Codex Shredder with Top by putting the card they want second from the top or activating Top again in response to the mill ability. The artifact lands also work well, though they are easier to kill due to the high amount of artifact removal that people play.
Kiki-Jiki might be better than Splinter Twin, although your mana base might not be able to support it.
Actually, Kiki is definitely better. You can't tutor or recur an enchantment. Kiki also allows you to switch targets. This is a card that, for you, is definitely worth the price tag, since you have a sizable number of cards in there that combo with him.
I think that's all I have. In general, I really like the build and the themes behind it. It's cool how you ported the exarch/twin combo deck into EDH. Seeing your list inspired me to build RUG Twin in Modern . It'll probably be worse than all the other variants, but it could be fun. I'm thinking of having a focus on mana acceleration utilzing Satyr Hedonist, Xenagos and Prophet of Kruphix. Hmm, maybe it'll be a Pod deck as well. Wait... Modern toolbox! It'll have Redcap, Acidic Slime, Phyrexian Negator...and something for aggro. Maybe Tidebinder Mage. Plasm Capture seems like a fun sideboard card to have for control. Brewing is fun!
I'm bored of Standard right now; waiting for rotation.
Modern
:symw:Soul Sisters:symw:
EDH
:symr:Krenko:symr:(1v1, with a multi-player transition)
:symu::symr::symg:Riku:symg::symr::symu:
:symg::symw:Rhys:symw::symg:
:symr:Ashling:symr: (WIP)
Second, will you be updating this primer for the new commander 2013 cards? I would love to get your opinion on the new product.
Thanks!
I would say as someone who plays more competitive commander as well, that DEN is close to an auto-include in any deck that I run (just tonight I turned Venser, Shaper Savant into a better remand, which is a lot of fun.)
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyI will post the list for you this weekend. The great thing about the clux is I do not have to pass priority to go infinite. With Deadeye I have pass priorty and then activate but he fits so much better in curve and can be cast from hand generally clux only off T&N, and he is a dead draw early game.
1 Riku of the two Reflections
Creatures
1 Animar, Soul of Elements
1 Artisan of Kozelik
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Borborygmos Enraged
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Eternal Witness
1 Greenweaver Druid
1 Intet, the Dreamer
1 Joiner Adept
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Palinchron
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Platinum Angel
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Progenitor Mimic
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Boundless Realms
1 Brainstorm
1 Counterflux
1 Counterspell
1 Cultivate
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Devil's Play
1 Enter the Infinite
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Impulse
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Pact of Negation
1 Rampant Growth
1 Spell Crumple
1 Summer Bloom
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Unexpected Results
Echantments
1 Doubling Season
1 Omniscience
1 Possibility Storm
Artifacts
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mindslaver
1 Sol Ring
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Jace, Memory Adept
Land
9 Island
9 Forest
6 Mountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Gruul Guildgate
1 Gruul Turf
1 Izzet Boilerworks
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Fungal Reaches
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Rupture Spire
1 Command Tower
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Homeward Path
1 Temple of the False God
Animar may be going out for maelstrom wanderer
explosive vegetation will be replaced by skyshroud claim
seedborn muse and time warp will come in most likely.
Any suggestions would be nice though.
Just wanted to thank you for offering advice to people in the thread. I have been away from the site for a while for various personal reasons so thanks again for helping people that show up here while I've been away.
I can't wait to play these cards when I build this deck again. I've seen enough of Purphoros to know how bananas he would be in here, tokens or not. I will update the OP with them shortly as well as with the new CMDR 2013 stuff.
It's my next priority. Sorry for the wait.
Flash keeps getting better and better with the new ETB guys they've been printing. 2 mana and 2 cards for any ETB effect you could possibly want is pretty absurd and Riku's copy value absolutely breaks the crap out of the card by doubling the ETB and letting you keep a body. I support it in any creature version of this deck, especially if you're running Primordials, Bane of Progress, etc.
I recommend reading the primer's evaluation on most of the cards in here. Bororgymos, Lab Maniac, and a bunch of other RUG cards are sort of just thrown in here with no regard to synergy or mana cost and you want to make your fatties count when you cast them, in case you don't get to untap with them.
-----
Commander 2013 Review
Late but still relevant I hope! I'll be grading cards on the following unscientific and arbitrary scale relative to their usefulness in a Riku deck:
5: Format Staple- We are playing this card.
4: Very good- There is a strong case for playing this card.
3: OK- We might have a use for this. Solid role player or budget choice.
2: Questionable- A stretch at best, or perhaps a pet card.
1: Unplayable- Why are we talking about this card?
----------
Before I get going, let's talk mechanics for the set (for once) and explain how they can help us.
Tempting Offer: Get a cool effect, then get more of it by throwing the table a bone. This mechanic is pretty poor if you are already winning as the rest of the table will *probably* just all take something and use it to beat your face in, or otherwise do whatever helps you the least. If you are not already winning, however (and statistically this is more likely to be the case than not!), it can be a real gamechanger, helping you dogpile a more powerful player or otherwise buffing up your board state into something that must be dealt with. This mechanic works better as well if you have ways to build combos off of the offer, be it multiple reanimations to set up insta-wins like Kiki/Mite, multiple clones of a creature that shuts down the table and such. Overall it's pretty swingy and savvy opponents will play around it but never underestimate the power of individual greed in a multiplayer setting taking the place of common sense...
----------
Tidal Force: Nifty ability on this guy that shuts down their most aggressive creatures but 8 mana is a ton to pay for this. Compared to Magmatic Force he is lacking in general as Magmatic can simply kill a player outright with 9+ to the dome per go around the table. He could do well in a stax/stasis situation if you could somehow manage to resolve him, but Riku isn't the commander for that deck... yet. 2.5
Tempt with Reflections I'm not a fan of this one because copying it is sort of useless as the card otherwise generates multiple copies of a creature by itself. Generally I don't want my opponent to be able to use these cards as well as I can and with this one (as opposed to the black one, for instance), the best creature on the board will be used against you. I'm not really a fan but it's definitely in the category of "fun card that can do some work if you get lucky", and it DOES copy things which is what we want to be doing. 2
Order of Succession: This is a fun card but Riku can't really do anything with it as copying it and reversing the mode will just give everyone their old creatures back and copying it with the same mode will have vastly diminishing returns in almost all cases. Not for this deck. 1
Curse of Inertia: Tapping and untapping can be good with a lot of mana dorks and token producers that need to tap to make their minions but mostly this is a lot of mana and a lot of card just to give a creature vigilance, which is what it will be used for 90% of the time. This is nothing like Curse of Echoes or Curse of Exhuastion, which can just shut people down completely for one extra mana. 1
True-Name Nemesis: A financial hotspot but ultimately no one cares about 3 damage a turn in this format (or even six, really). If you are running multiple swords he does get better but that's not a good enough reason unless you are featuring tons of equipment, which you probably aren't. 1.5
Illusionist's Gambit: This is a pretty expensive fog, basically. It's nice to redirect lethal damage to another player but honestly it's pretty much a fringe case when you are going to blow someone out with this and you'll almost never want to save the mana anyway. This would be exclusively for control decks and even then Tangle is just miles better. 1
Djinn of Infinite Deceits: At least the ability on this guy grabs my attention. 6 mana and a required untap step leave a lot to be desired but if you can protect him he will take over the game. I think he's a poor fit for most Riku decks lacking an ETB ability and being so expensive but I wouldn't want to have to play against one if I could help it. 2
Diviner Spirit: With only two power, I'm sorry but this guy will get blocked all day unless you can beg someone to let him through. It's kinda cool if you want to dogpile a winning player but like the tempt mechanic you are asking for cooperation from your opponents to get value from this and the cost is just too great without a way to abuse it. 1
Witch Hunt: This deck doesn't want this effect and it's not cheap either. Decks which want to force life totals down will really like this but Riku has bigger, stompier plans in mind and doesn't want to durdle with this. 1
Widespread Panic: Green ramp has way too many shuffle effects we rely on to ever use this card. Non-green decks will just love this though and it's a very powerful card against players who rely on library search in general. 1
Terra Ravager: Sounds like a weapon from a Final Fantasy game or something. Sort of looks like a Weapon too. Anyway this is pretty efficient beats but consider he's competing with Wolfir Silverheart and I don't see how he makes the cut outside some sort of "power matters" theme. 1.5
Tempt with Vengeance: THIS is a tempting offer card. XR for X tokens is good. If you have any sort of anthem effect at all or Purphoros or Warstorm Surge or Skullclamp or whatever, you can just blow up half the table immediately even if no one else buys your offer. If you are in tokens you have to at least look at this for its sheer efficiency. 3 in tokens
Sudden Demise: I think the card most similar to this is Bonfire of the Damned. X for a potentially one-sided wipe. It's a lot cheaper than Bonfire (minus miracle of course) so it has that going for it. I love how versatile it is. Keep in mind 3 out of 5 colors will waste your commander but there's nothing cheaper that kills an army of Zombies or Saprolings that also scales well into the lategame. It's Pyroclasm and Starstorm rolled into one, and to me one of the best cards in this set for a color which sorely needs the versatility. Consider it alongside Starstorm, Blasphemous Act, Bonfire, etc in your wipe package. 3.5
Curse of Chaos: Looting is great and all but these curses are kind of weak unless you deck combos with them, which it doesnt. 1
Tempt with Discovery: Another tempting card whose original effect is very strong, although like the others copying it is pretty much useless unless you are getting a two-land combo to kill someone like Cradle/Wolf Run. Cradle is a land worth fetching for sure but otherwise you shouldn't need a specific land so badly in this deck that you're willing to pay 3G for it. Just play Sylvan Scrying. And if you're using it to ramp instead? You're better off with Explosive Vegetation or Boundless Realms or something. 2
Spawning Grounds: Costs 9 to get your first 5/5? No thank you. Way too fragile- every color but black can remove either enchantments or lands, and unless you have Earthcraft even token decks will have a had time abusing this one. 1
Naya Soulbeast: If you're looking for fun, random crap to play (see my Intet deck which this would fit perfectly in), this is your guy. He's overcosted but he gets big in 4-player games. Not a good card by any means unless you are stacking your library to give you the advantage. This is too expensive to be anything but a pet card at best, but it pretty much defines the term. 1.5
Restore: 9/10 times you'll be using someone's fetchland, perhaps your own, making it an upgraded Rampant Growth in those cases. As long as you don't draw this too early (and you play fetches!) it will be a fine addition to any ramp suite in metas where fetches are common. 3.5
Curse of Predation: I don't really like this even in token decks because Beastmaster Ascension is just miles better. It's definitely the best of the three curses from this set we have available to us, but that's not really saying a lot. My vote would be to just spend the three mana on something that improves your army more quickly or more certainly. Get haste or a persistent anthem effect or something that doesn't force you to attack. 2
Primal Vigor: It's a symmetrical Doubling Season. Between Doubling Season, Parallel Lives and now this, there are THREE of these enchantments. Normally they are quite difficult to tutor for in these colors but now that there are three of them the effect is much more viable as a build-around-me effect. It strengthens the token decks by being more prolific and by working extremely well in multiples. Have this and Doubling Season? Get 4 tokens instead of one! And the symmetrical part isn't even that big a deal since hardly any general but Riku is going to abuse the effect as much as he is. Bottom line is that this should be considered in all creature-based decks (particularly as a budget alternative to Doubling Season, though all three are probably overkill) and almost certainly run in the token deck. 5 in tokens, 3 in creature toolbox
Bane of Progress: Artifacts are kind of like drugs in this deck. If you can help it, you want to play as few as possible because even though they tend to oil up the squeaky machine, you can really abuse other players for depending on them if you can manage to live without them. This is the latest card to really incentivize going with few-to-no artifacts at all. This ETB effect is outrageous and will totally shut down any deck relying on the permanent type. If you can free yourself of critical artifacts (Equilibrium over Crystal Shard, for instance), Bane of Progress will be a hero. If you are going to be blowing up your own stuff? Probably best left on the bench. 4
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Opal Palace, Suveyor's Scope and Eye of Fate are a pretty bad for this deck so they get a collective "1" without much fanfare.
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Overall blue got the nifty bells and whistles while green got the goods and red fell somewhere in between for Riku. Your top 5 cards to consider for your decks are:
Frankly it's about time blue got shafted :D. Otherwise I'll be placing my singles order probably after Christmas like most of you guys. Have fun and buy the new sets!.
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP
RUGRiku of Two Reflections
Constructed
UJace's ErasureMill
but I noticed a couple things in your primer that may or may not have been mentioned (i'm usually good about fully reading a thread before posting, but this thing is 107 pages, and it's way past my bed time, lol).
Firstly, Manamorphose doesn't actually ramp when copied by Riku. You are paying the initial 2 mana CC plus 2 mana to copy for a return of 4 mana and two cards, so it's really just double-cycling and fixing your colored mana if necessary.
Second, with the changes to the rulings on Clone effects, you might want to go back through and update the relevant sections, removing mention of using them as removal spells for Commanders. (They are still wonderful cards in this format despite the loss of that utility, especially in a creature-centric/etb-focused deck. LOVE me some Phyrexian Metamorph!)
other than those little nitpicks, great primer! it gave me some stuff to think about. idk how i overlooked the two copies of Plasma Capture that have been sitting in my binder since the prerelease, but i might have to try to find a slot for one of them in my Riku deck. i don't typically like to run many if any counters in mine (iirc, i think i might run a mystic snake and a spell crumple), mostly for the same reasons you mentioned (plus I try not to be a dick as much as possible- one of my first edh decks was Grand Arbiter prison, but i dismantled it after a few months because it was very unfun to play against), but it seems pretty enticing in a deck as mana-hungry as this.
Also just realized how cheap Sylvan Primordials are. might have to snag me a set. I've been wanting some Woodfall Primuses for a long time now, but they're a little bit more than i really want to pay right now, and SP seems like a decent alternative (at least in a deck that won't be abusing the Persist as much as, say, Ghave). then again, i already run Terastadon, Bramblecrush, and Beast Within; so idk if it's really necessary...although SP plus Deadeye Navigator seems like a great time. X)
anyways, again, good job. maybe if i get motivated sometime, i'll throw my current list up here and get some insight on what to cut.
peace.
I'll be grading cards on the following unscientific and arbitrary scale relative to their usefulness in a Riku deck:
5: Format Staple- We are playing this card.
4: Very good- There is a strong case for playing this card.
3: OK- We might have a use for this. Solid role player or budget choice.
2: Questionable- A stretch at best, or perhaps a pet card.
1: Unplayable- Why are we talking about this card?
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Before I get going, let's talk mechanics for the set (for once) and explain how they can help us.
Heroic: Target creatures with spells for cool stuff. Unfortunately there are almost no Riku variants that care about this with the exception of the extremely gimmicky Riku Voltron deck which may have been built by 3 people ever. Not very useful.
Tribute: Gives your opponent a choice at how strong a particular creature is. Almost always, they are going to make the worst choice for you, so only overpowered versions of these are going to be worthy of discussion. There are corner cases though where you can choose an opponent to be your ally and he will give you the better effects just to help take down a stronger player... just some food for muliplayer thought.
Inspired: Untap your creatures to do cool stuff. Unfortunately Riku has no immediate synergy wth tapping or untapping creatures so don't expect too much here.
Devotion: Back from the previous set. If you have a lot of colored permanents, you get a bonus. Unfortunately in three colored decks those colors are split up an awful lot...
Overall not too much to get excited about so far...
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Arbiter of the Ideal: EVERYONE likes free stuff on the battlefield because Riku can make two of them. Otherwise it's kind of slow but think of it as a cheaper Intet the Dreamer. A really fun card but probably not too competitive or anything. 2.5
Archetype of Imagination: It's kind of like a creature-based overrun. You cast it and your tokens all fly overhead for the win. It definitely has its uses but 6 mana, no use copied and no power boost make it inferior to the likes of Craterhoof, Overwhelming Stampede, etc. 2
Fated Infatuation: This is a worse version of Cackling Counterpart. The mana is really tough to copy it as well. It can definitely be playable though if your creature base is strong enough that you'd be happy copying at least half your deck. Still, I'd run Cackling Counterpart first because flashback >>> scry. 3
Perplexing Chimera: This is the most hilarious card I've seen in quite some time! It combos well with any repeatable steal abilty such as that of Vedalken Shackles, so if you're a fan of that sort of thing then hop on board. It's not particularly useful for Riku but I would laugh at a double-copied one and watch as you threaten to steal the next two spells. This guy may make me build my Intet deck again. 1.5
Retraction Helix: I love the design of this card. It's a cheaper bounce spell (and inspired enabler!), but you have to have a creature worth tapping to pull it off. Also it's a one-mana instant which has a special place in my heart. I feel like somewhere there's a combo that bounces everyone else's stuff but then I remembered they printed Cyclonic Rift :D. Ultimately pretty weak in Riku decks but I just wanted to talk about it I guess. 1.5
Tromokratis: Giant, generic blue fattie incoming! This one has the luxury of being immune to sorcery-speed spot removal but honestly it's not much consolation. I guess one neat thing about it is that if you copy it and attack the same player with both, one cannot be blocked. I'd almost always prefer some other giant beater in this spot but it seems like a fun card if nothing else. 2
Vortex Elemental: The third in a line of "get shuffled" creatures including Gomazoa and that void dude from M13. I actually LOVE that this is a 1-drop. It discourages early aggro from chumps like Rafiq, it can be suited up with a power increase to bait out a block from an opponent, and you can pay 6 later on to forcefully remove that Blood Artist or other annoying creature... all while starting a Birthing Pod chain from a 0 cmc token. I think this card is a lot more interesting than others like it and though I still prefer Ulvenwald Tracker as the 1-drop of choice I still like what this guy does with a pile of leftover mana. 2.5
Whelming Wave: Sea creature tribal? With that quest from Zen block? lol jk 1
Archetype of Aggression: Gives all your big dudes trample (if they don't already have it), takes it from everyone else, all for the low cost of three mana? This seems like it could actually be really good. Most creature-based victories in Commander come off the back of flying or trample and this card nearly shuts down their big, beefy guys for just 1RR, half the cost of the blue one. I don't know how good this card is yet (and nearly all enchantment creatures by extension since green has no problem blowing up enchantments) but I imagine it's actually quite playable. 3
Fated Conflagration: Quite a step back from Chaos Warp or Beast Within but if you have to kill planeswalkers or 5 toughness generals you could do worse. Not a bad copy target either with double-scry 2 getting you down as far as four cards if you need to. Aftershock is still more favorable but at least this one doesnt kill you for copying it. 3
Fellhide Spiritbinder: As much as I love copying things this guy is just not going to get to untap that often, realistically. 4 toughness is quite easy to overcome buy turn 5. If you want to get nuts and combo off with Intruder Alarm that's you're prerogative but you're better off playing Kiki-Jiki if you can get your hands on one. 2
Flame-Wreathed Phoenix: This is a standard card, which is a shame because it's kinda cool for a Tribute card. 1
Forgestoker Dragon: Too much mana for too little damage, no point in copying one either. No luck with dragons this set, guys. 1
Oracle of Bones: In this format you have to be stupid or dead not to pay the tribute. Which is a shame because the phrase "cast an instant or sorcery card [...] without paying its mana cost" is exactly how you'd otherwise get my attention. 1
Satyr Firedancer: Probably my favorite card in this set for non-Commander play. Doubling up on all your face burn for such a stupidly cheap price just seems SO much fun. If this guy was legendary we could finally see a Commander burn deck. Unforunately, he's not, and as a one-of in the 99 he really has nothing going for him except for the ability to give you more value in your damaging spells, of which you should be playing precious few that aren't Comet Storm. 1
Archetype of Endurance: That is a LOT of mana. Great effect but its hard to say if it's worth the price. 8 mana in this format buys you Craterhoof Behemoth and wins you the game. It buys you Avenger of Zendikar and wins you the game. It nearly buys you Eldrazi if you are so inclined. I wouldn't laugh at anyone for playing this but the fact that 8 mana on your doubled-down investment is undone by a simple wrath leads me to believe this card is win more for that insane cost. I think I'd probably play Spellskite/Academy Ruins before this. 2.5
Courser of Kruphix: If [c]Oracle of Mul Daya[c/] has taught us anything, it's that playing lands off the top of your deck is GOOD. It's not so bad that he can't play two, because he costs one less mana and gains you life doing it. Beefy 4 toughness at 1GG is really a nice bonus too. I expect this card to be played in green decks across the format, especially alongside Sensei's Divining Top, and I think he fits in here rather nicely alongside Yavimaya Elder and friends. 3.5
Fated Intervention: Generally inferior to Rite of Replication but this is a nice way for instant and sorcery decks to get a little bit of board presence without having to sell out and play creatures. Otherwise it's kind of a questionable play considering it's just a couple 3/3s. 2.5
Hunter's Prowess: This has the potential to draw a LOT of cards but the sorcery-speed on it makes it extremely easy to play around. Considering all the other card draw available (since you're not really playing this for the pump), I think it's probably an inferior way to get your cards but it does have some nice upside if you're rocking a lot of high-power creatures like Wolfir Silverheart. 2.5
Nessian Wilds Ravager: Speaking of high power... this a card whose tribute is not going to get paid often (because its tribute ability is REALLY good). So if your deck has room for a 6 mana 12/12 because of some kind of "power matters" theme... well here you go. Otherwise, pretty bland and easy to block. 2
Satyr Wayfinder: I nearly missed this unassuming 1/1 in my first review of the set. A doofy little 1/1 for 2 but almost certainly cantrips for a land WHILE stuffing your yard with goodies. This mana dork should actually end up being quite popular in creature decks and I would consider running it in place or alongside Coiling Oracle (note this 1G is much easier on T2 than UG). I don't think it's as good as Sakura-Tribe Elder since it can't actually ramp you but it's a very solid 2-drop. 3.5
Scourge of Skola Vale: This is a neat little sac outlet that happens to get big. It doesn't really have a way to protect itself so I wouldn't really rely on this thing for damages but being able to sac your creatures for benefit is always nice. I expect this guy to find a home in BG and Naya decks, and less so here where higher power doesn't amount to as much without building around it with stuff like Greater Good and such. Actually it's not a bad idea for a deck at all! 2.5
Unravel the Aether: Functional reprint of Deglamer and a fine little utility card. Tucking these things is usually better than destroying them since Academy Ruins and other recursion are generally worse problems for you than making your opponent cast a tutor to go find it. Very good against a combo meta and a solid role-player. 3
URG
Kiora, the Crashing Wave: A fine planeswalker for standard. In multiplayer? Her +1 is going to do fairly little to protect her. So if you're ok paying 4 mana for Explore and a fog, then go for it. Personally, I feel she falls quite a bit short in multipayer. 2.5
Xenagos, God of Revels: I'm not totally sure where I am on actually playing this guy. Haste is awesome. Free power is awesome. But for 5 mana? And the devotion is not guaranteed either (although remember that tokens created from Riku's copy ability DO copy mana costs so they will count towards the devotion count). Once again another "power matters" card where IMO Riku decks want to be grinding out card advantage, not just big guys. The haste ability is so exceptional though that I'd say I'd like to see how he performs before he gets a pass from me, especially sharing a mana cost with Riku... since at that point you have to ask yourself if he'd be the better commander for the job. 3.5
Astral Cornucopia: The love child of Everflowing Chalice and Gilded Lotus, neither of which should be played in Riku decks IMO seeing as how they can't be copied for profit (as opposed to creatures like Farhaven Elf). A great card nonetheless, just not in here. 2.5
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Not a particularly inspiring haul (see what I did there) but there's some solid role players in there and a few intriguing picks for future evaulation. I'd say the top five for most Riku decks would be:
If you've got questions about any of the new cards or anything in general, post em on in here and we'll try to get them addressed. Enjoy your local prereleases!
:symu::symr: Melek WheelStorm
:symw::symg: Trostani Enchantress (updated 6/5)
:symg::symr::symu: Unexpected Results.dec
Thada Adel Stax WIP