MTG Salvation

Kurkesh is the latest mono red general to the commander scene who is a ogre spirit for 2RR with a 4/3 body. What he brings to the table is very unique for a general outside of more typical colors like blue, white, or black. For those who cannot see the picture here is Kurkesh's ability:


Kurkesh's ability is very narrow but strong. The three conditions to be met is that of:
#1) Activated ability.
#2) Artifacts.
#3) Nonmana source.

Kurkesh is essentially a Rings of Brighthearth for each activated ability of an artifact that is also not a mana source. Which means he can duplicate nonmana artifact effects. An example of this comes from something as simple as Scrabbling Claws which when paired with Kurkesh reads the following as long as you are willing to pay an extra red mana.


Remember This: Each artifact with an activated ability (not a mana source) does twice the effect with Kurkesh out. A brittle effigy can exile two creatures upon activation, a Phyrexian Processor can now create the twice the tokens, an Acorn Catapult can make two squirrel tokens for you or your opponent and take down a X/2 creature they controlled. Even a Disrupting Scepter, often seen as casual fodder, has a place in here because it can force one person to discard two cards for 3R instead of discard one card for 3.

You may like playing this deck if:
1. You enjoy artifacts and their interactions.
2. You don't mind playing mono red.
3. You want a red deck that isn't about in your face aggro.

You may not like playing this deck if:
1. You don't enjoy playing an artifact heavy deck.
2. You feel that mono red is too limiting.
3. You want to play a deck that has in your face aggro.

Win Conditions
Hellkite Tyrant
Darksteel Reactor

General Damage, if it should come down to that.

Keep in mind that this is fairly new. The deck below has gone through many unseen changes before it has been presented to you all in its current state. So consider the decks featuring Kurkesh at the helm still within their infancy stage. However comments and suggestions are welcome to help improve it.

I'm looking forward to making a list for this guy myself.

Voltaic Key + Gilded Lotus + Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient should be infinite red mana if I understand it correctly.

Braid of Fire might be a good inclusion as well.

Hmm Braid of Fire, I forgot it existed since I was distracted by artifacts. Seems worth an inclusion.
As for Lotus, I thought it was in the deck, probably was at some point, but it seems like it is not right now. Going to need to include that as well.

Updated the deck. Changes can be found in the Change Log which is directly below the decklist.

Needs more Spine of ish sah, and phyrexia's core. Also Grim Poppet is R: put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.

Kuldotha Forgemaster I imagine would be a good tutoring inclusion to this deck? Myr Turbine could provide some good sacrificers. Serrated Arrows might be a nasty inclusion? Chalice of Life? I'm just chucking out some random contenders for the deck, but really this deck looks pretty damn fun.

Needs more Bludgeon Brawl.

Might as well have him beating people to death with a Traveler's Amulet be a win condition as well.

Looking at your list, I feel like Arcum's Whistle, Deserter's Quarters, Shell of the Last Kappa, Tower of Eons and Vexing Arcanix are all likely to underperform. Cursed Scroll and Liar's Pendulum also strike me as weak, even when doubled.

As far as cards to replace that, I feel like Salvaging Station could do a lot of good work, especially if backed up by stuff like Pyrite Spellbomb (worst case, it cycles, but it can also be a Divination for 2R or Lightning Blast for 1RR), Conjurer's Bauble and Wayfarer's Bauble. Mindless Automaton is pretty great at both setting up Welder, and also acts as a draw engine with Kurkesh out.

A couple other cards that strike me as non-optimal are Knowledge Vault and General's Kabuto. If you want shroud equipment, shouldn't you go for something like Lightning Greaves? Is the damage prevention that important to you?

Changes have been, what is IN or OUT now can be found in the changelog. The deck is still within its experimental stage which means its highly malleable to suggestions.

One small suggestion, now that Tower of Eons has been cut, you may want to change that example to Tower of Fortunes or something similar.

Other than that, I appreciate the fact that you're taking suggestions into consideration. You'll have to report back on how it ends up playing

Changed the example text to fit the removal of ToE by instead using ToF.
Will probably get more playtesting in after the weekened.
Currently the deck sits at 3.51 cmc

You have to tell me if you bludgeon people to death

I put in Bludgeon Brawl as I started laughing so hard I hurt my rib cage when I thought of the Hellkite Tyrant or Slobad picking up the Darksteel Forge and beating them on the head with it. I will defiantly try though to bludgeon people with the artifacts in here.

Or Spine of Ish Sah.

"GREAT WALL THIS, YOU COWARDS!"

You really should cut back on some artifacts for the power house instants and sorceries red has to offer.. Karn silver golem and karn, liberated are good too

Would love to know what to cut. It helps me better to see what actually needs cutting and what needs adding. I sometimes get a bit sentimental so I find often times it to be tough to cut a card of my own volition without a council/peers/friends.

Nice concept. No Codex Shredder though? It's pretty good with Salvaging Station and even on it's own.

Prototype Portal seems pretty good. It basically reads, "each turn pay 6R for two copies of Wurmcoil Engine". Get out all your Wurmcoil Engines and swing with Hoard-Smelter Dragon? Seems fun. And, it leaves you with a ton of Wurmcoil tokens to abuse with Goblin Welder, Arcbound Ravager, Kuldotha Forgemaster or whatever.

Or even something as simple as "each turn, pay 1R for two copies of Sol Ring."

Also, Burnished Hart is nice in this deck.

Updated the decklist. Changes can be found in the Change Log.

The deck has been updated one last time for today. Changes, as usual, can be found in the change log.

I would swap out Gauntlet of Power for Caged Sun, as CS only affects your creatures, unlike Power.

Or run both, either way

If you overload Vandalblast or play Shattering Spree with Lattice in play you make a bunch of friends, I highly suggest it. They are very strong for monored even outside of that combo.

Caged Sun is nice but it suffers in multiplayer in a similar way that Extraplaner Lens suffers from, it only includes you. Which means it gives people more reason to blow it up then a Gauntlet of Power. For a 1vs1 deck it would be fine. It would be more acceptable. Such is the way of things concerning politics.

I will put it on my consideration list.
Consideration List: Karn Liberated, Vandalblast

So finally getting some testing done tonight since today was quiet busy. All I have is three words... DEAR SWEET URZA!
So my lifetotal was 19 at the end of the last match and I won as everyone decided to scoop.

My hand: Magistrates Scepter, Expedition Map.
My board (lands): 5 snow-covered mountains, Tower of the Magistrate, Reliquary Tower.
My graveyard: Pyrite Spellbomb (used twice, recurred once for card draw)
My board (Everything else): Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient, Lightning Greaves, Crystal Ball, Blinkmoth Urn (Counts 7), Braid of Fire (4 age counters), Ventifact Bottle, Darksteel Forge (fetched with Portal), Mycosynth Lattice, Hellkite Tyrant (Fetched also that same turn with Portal), Disrupting Scepter, Gauntlet of Might, Elixir of Immortality, Oblivion Stone, Salvaging Station.

Total Mana Spent That Turn: 18 (Ventifact Bottle from previous turn) + 7 (Blinkmoth Urn) + 4 (age counters on Braid of Fire) + 12 (Lands, 10 of which came from amplified mountains by Gauntlet of Might) = 41 mana spent.

What Was Spent On That Turn
RR: Kurk + Crystal Ball for scry 2, scry 2.
RR: Pyrite Spellbomb (Recurred by Salvaging Station) for draw 2 (During upkeep, drew a card during draw phase).
12R: Planar Portal, Copy its ability, Search for Hellkite and Forge
9: Darksteel Forge
6: Mycosynth Lattice
4RR: Hellkite Tyrant
3: Oblivion Stone

They did a major scoop when they saw me equip my tyrant with greaves.