Kithkin, to this day, remains one of my all-time favorite decks. A very powerful aggro deck that focuses on speed, consistency and potency. I'm not sure how well the deck will do I a super competitive setting, but I'd like to think it would be a viable deck to take to the weekly Modern events held at my LGS. I'll post a sample decklist to get the conversation going, and will gladly update this post once I get some proper feedback. All conversation/suggestions/criticisms are welcome, but please don't post "this deck would suck in today's environment; play something else." I realize this isn't a tier 1 deck, but it's a deck I enjoy and just want to be able to be somewhat competitive with it in local events. Thanks in advance.
Sample decklist w/red splash (placed 13th at an SCG Modern PTQ):
I'd like to try to fit a few Brave the Elements into the maindeck. If you don't run the red splash, then obviously Mutavault is a solid option, as it can act as a Kithkin. As for the sideboard, I think the Blood Moon and Combust are good reasons for a red splash, but I think Stony Silence/Rest In Peace/Grafdigger's Cage are probably better options than Kataki, and 4 Canonist is probably overkill. Maybe a couple Oblivion Ring?
This was the only slightly recent list I could find so I was just posting it for reference. If I made a list it probably would cut the Cloudgoats to 2-3, as it's still pretty insane off a a Windbrisk activation.
That's not a bad idea though it's susceptible to Path which basically renders it to a ~3/3 for 3. Plus I'd rather be dropping Spectral tokens on turn 3.
I see what you mean, but I'm trying to tailor it somewhat close to that of the deck that dominated standard. Procession tokens + Windbrisk was great. I'll definitely try Borderguard, though, as I'm planning on chopping 2 Cloudgoats and a land or two to open up some slots.
I've not really used this, but I was brewing up a kithkin list the other day. I went in a little different direction with militia's pride, ballyrush banneret, thistledown liege, zealous guardian. I was also thinking some Gaddock Teegs, as well as some of the stuff you have, wizened cenns, stalwarts, figures, paths. I wasn't doing honor, cuz I had no nonkithkin and more lords. Zealous guardian and lieges aren't huge, but you can end of turn them, liege makes guardians 3/3s. End of turn them and then make some tokens off pride (which puts tokens into play attacking).
That was just an initial rough draft, but I liked it (well, I didn't play it outside of brewing goldfish..). Banneret reduces pride cost, and getting a couple kithkin and just working off pride is pretty strong. Flash lord is neat. Caverns would be good if you had em. I also tossed a more budget version together that used cribswap over paths or something, just for banneret value...
So I finally sleeved up this deck and tested it against a good friend of mine who was running the Tier 1 Junk midrange deck. Kithkin actually performed much better than I thought it would, and the list I ended up running with could be competitive in a local setting with a few more testing and some tweaking.
I haven't thought up a sideboard yet, but I'll likely ditch the Blood Moon idea now that I'm making a bigger splash for red. I will still include Combust in the side, but I'm not sure what else to have in the board until I know what the local metagame is like. The deck is very quick and the addition of Bolt was huge.
Any discussion on the deck or general sideboard card options is much appreciated.
So I took the list in my last post to a local weekly Modern event, except I ran a second Ajani because I only had 2 Ranger of Eos. Ajani was actually amazing, and I'll probably be keeping him as a 2-of.
Round 1 - RUW control. My friend told me prior to the match that this matchup is literally unwinnable for me, as RUW runs seemingly infinite counters/removal and has Sphinx's Revelation. He won game 1 pretty handily, and seemed a bit amused at my deck. Game 2 I won off an activated Windbrisk flipping over a Vengeant and me Helixing for the win. Game 3 was a super close game, but I got there again with Ajani, this time keeping a Colonnade tapped down while my Spirit tokens flew over for the kill.
Round 2 - Jund. I won game 1 in about 4 turns, which prompted my opponent to say "WTF just happened?!?" afterwards. Game 2 was a close one, but I couldn't overcome a Thrun. Game 3 was even closer. I had him down to 5 and he had a Bob in play, but Bob kept flipping lands for about 6 straight turns. I resolved a Spectral Procession with an Honor of the Pure already in play, threatening lethal the following turn, but he flipped another land off Bob and drew an Anger of the Gods for his turn. :/ I can't recover and he takes it.
I ended up dropping after this to get food, but I was extremely pleased at how well Kithkin performed against 2 tier 1 decks. I am going to play around with my mana base a bit and incorporate the Blood Moon sideboard strategy, and that would've really helped against both decks I faced.
before i used to play another version that run 3 thistledown liege and 4 mirrorweave
the idea was pretty cute, but unfortunately a bit slow...
I've considered splashing red to include boros charm mainly as protection from wraths, but its other 2 modes are also useful. aether vial would be also a nice addition.
i've actually put the deck back together a couple of days ago, nice to see there are also other people interested in bringing this back.
i hope this thread will grow and we'll manage to put together something good!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
Hey! So glad to have another person contribute to this thread.
I've had pretty good success against top tier decks so far with limited testing/tournament play. I plan on playing in the weekly Modern event again at my LGS, so hopefully I'll have more of a report this time. Since I am splashing red I've also considered adding Boros Charm. I already run 4 Bolt, so a burn-out strategy could be viable if a bit of extra reach is needed.
How has Militia's Pride been for you? I've always thought it might be a bit too slow on paper, but haven't really tested with it. Also, you don't want 4x Honor of the Pure? I think that's pretty crucial to be honest. Just my take, though - I've played this deck with great success for years but I'm by no means an expert.
i've been tweaking it a bit already after reading this thread
i'm not sure about 4 honour of the pure, just cos it would take away space from other stuff. militia's pride is great, as it allows you to overextend but at the same time keeping creatures in your hands. I've already ditched mirrorweave for launch the fleet, and it works great.
the main problem i see at the moment is supreme verdict and the only solution i can see to that is splashing red for boros charm.
unfortunately this deck is really really weak against board wipes
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
The Honors work great in my build because of the Spectral Procession tokens. I just figure most White Weenie lists would require an auto 4-of Honor of the Pure, but whatever works for you! Verdict is a problem, yes, but in my build I have Planeswalkers, and particularly cards like Ranger of Eos that can help you in recovering from board wipes. I think Boros Charm is worth testing for sure. I'll probably add it to my sideboard for this week's tournament.
Tentative sideboard at the moment:
3x Blood Moon
2x Boros Charm
1x Brave the Elements
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Stony Silence
2x Rest in Peace
3x Combust
I think i might have made a breakthrough: Nykthos, shrine to nyx
with all the with mana symbols we have it starts producing a fair amount of mana pretty quickly, mana we can "dump" on Figure of destiny or to cast and early Cloudgoat ranger. i managed to pump figure to his 3rd stage (4/4) on turn 3 and i also had one wizened cent and 1 honour to pure down...
btw Cloudgoat is also a great way to "recover" from a boardwipe.
you convinced me with the honor of the pure, i'll cut mirrowave (too clumsy anyway) and run 4 of it.
one thing that I wasn't sure about your build was the 4 burrenton forge-tender in the main. i preferred 4 zealous guardian, but being able to avoid lightning bolt, lightning helix and electrolyze is a definite plus
Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
My current build is not what is in the opening post; it can be found in post #9. I would likely want to run 2 Forge Tenders in the side, but I'm liking Stalwarts as a 4-of in the main.
Glad you came around on Honor. I originally had Cloudgoat as a 2-of, but have since cut him. I may rethink this because Nykthos seems awesome on paper. How many are you currently testing?
I'm using 3 nykhtos. i feel 4 would be too much, we really want our wizened or our knight on turn 2, too many colourless lands are no good (i'm also running 2 mutavault).
I've decided to cut launch the fleet. it's cute but spectral procession is probably more useful/solid. also it gives 3 bodies with evasion after a sweep, launch the fleet without already at least 2/3 creatures on the board is useless.
that's what i'm trying now:
Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
Glad you decided to add Spectral. Coupled with Honor of the Pure it's amazing. I'll definitely have to try the Nykthos. Also, I've been thinking of cutting my 2 Mutavaults for Tectonic Edges as I feel they would be more effective against problem manlands (Colonnade), Valakut, etc.
I've been running a Kithkins deck since early 2014, and it happened to be quite good, since it's more aggro than the usual aggro decks, and the bombs like Eos, Procession or Cloudgoat make it against heavy control decks.
If I had to add any color, I'd go for Black in order to add some discard spells to the sideboard, and maindecking 3 or 4 copies of Zealous Persecution.
Norn's Annex is awesome against Twin strategies. They won't be able to go for infinite attackers, and they will have to wait until they can get rid of the artifact, which give us time to find a removal spell.
Thoughts on some of the choices discussed: Militia's Prideshould go hand-in-hand with Muavault. Running Mutas might make us not being able to cast a turn-three procession, so I am quite skeptic about effectively running them. investing 3 mana to sneak 1 more damage (1 to animate muta, attack, and paying W to make a token) is not the way in my opinion. The same rationale can be applied to running any mana denial in the form of lands. The deck is heavy white (taking into account double and triple costs, and Figure's activation costs), and drawing a colorless source can ruin that turn and the rest of the game if you are not able to put enough pressure on your opponent.
This is the build I've been experimenting with at my LGS. Tsuyoshi Fujita used this exact list to take 6th place out of 95 at the Japan Legacy Championship in 2009. That tells me it can definitely be a force to be reckoned with.
I am running a full playset of Cloudgoat Ranger, but I've yet to have this be a problem. It has always been a bomb when it comes down, especially via a Windbrisk Heights.
Ajani Goldmane's -2 is it's only reason for being here and can be a very powerful move, especially following a Spectral Procession. However, if you're worried about reach, you could run Elspeth, Knight-Errant instead, which would make you less dependant on tokens and Brave the Elements to close out the game. It would also provide you with board wipe protection if you reach her ultimate, which isn't so bad since she has no -1 abilities.
So far I've been able to test it against two modern format decks: GW Auras(Bogle) and UB Rogues. I stomped both twice each without any notable problems. I outpaced Auras because it's just not consistent enough without the perfect starting hand, and Rogues couldn't challenge my creature size and removal.
Anyone else been tinkering around with this deck lately? I haven't had time to play recently but am going to start attending a weekly Modern tournament at a new store near my apartment. I still like the red splash.
Well, believe it or not I won a local weekly Modern event with Kithkin. Beat Jund in the first two rounds and mono blue Ninja/Bear/Delver in round 3. Split the finals with the other 3-0. Let me know if you care to see my decklist and sideboard strategies.
The sideboard is still a work in progress, and I wasn't too thrilled with how Brave the Elements performed in the main deck. I'm thinking of swapping them out with 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender. That will provide protection against red, especially Anger of the Gods, while also acting as a beater w/Cenn and/or Honor in play.
Round 1: Jund.
I lost a very close game 1 to Thrun. He had a timely Anger of the Gods and seemed to have all the right removal at just the right time. It wasn't lopsided by any means, but he was able to close it out.
Games 2 and 3 I overwhelm him early, and Jund has a very hard time dealing with Spectral Procession tokens given that most of their removal looks to 1-for-1 (aside from Anger). Blood Moon and Rest in Peace (to shrink Goyfs) out of the board were helpful. In Game 3 he landed Thrun again but he was no match for my 2 6/6 Figures.
2-1, 1-0
Round 2: Jund.
I win game 1 in about 4 turns. Stalwart -> Knight -> Cenn -> Honor while he's playing tapped Shocks will typically always end in our favor. Not much of a game.
Out: same as round 1. In: same as round 1.
He opens with Inquisition and takes my Blood Moon. Thalia does a decent enough job acting as a pseudo-Blood Moon slowing down his removal. Spectral tokens once again come up big. This match seemed easier after having played against what was likely the same exact 75 the round prior.
2-0, 2-0
Round 3: Mono-Blue Ninja/Bear/Delver
This deck was interesting. It basically looked to have a creature (hopefully Snapcaster Mage) go unblocked so that he could Ninjitsu a Ninja and draw a card while also bouncing his Snappy back to his hand. His Delvers never flipped since he didn't have much library manipulation, so they didn't pose much of an issue. His creatures rarely went unblocked because they were all bears and my creatures were almost always larger. Game 1 I literally rode a Knight all the way to victory. It was pretty crazy.
Slow start for him, while I was out of the gates quickly. In fact, he was so desperate that he was hardcasting his Ninjas (I had Paths/Bolts waiting for them) and also countering my Stalwarts. Not good for him. This game lasted about 5 minutes tops. This felt like a very easy matchup. Cryptic tapping down the team was annoying, but it only delayed the inevitable because his clock was so slow.
2-0, 3-0.
Round 4: Intentional draw with the other 3-0 to split the prize pool.
0-0-3, 3-0-1.
All in all, I felt very confident with the deck. I've piloted Kithkin since it was Standard legal, so I'd like to think my play mistakes were few in numbers. Nobody really took the deck seriously, and it ended up costing them. Nobody really comes prepared for white weenie, so I was able to capitalize. We'll see if anyone plans accordingly for next week's tournament. Like I said, the only current change I'm considering in the main is swapping the Braves out for Forge-Tenders. In the side I may make a few changes based upon this week's meta. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Sneak in 4 Progenitus and 4 Deathrender and this is my best buddies deck. He literally stapled the Windbrisk + Deathrender + Progenitus Package to a tribal Kithkin deck. You'd be surprised.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Sample decklist w/red splash (placed 13th at an SCG Modern PTQ):
1 Goldmeadow Stalwart
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Wizened Cenn
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
9 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
2 Rustic Clachan
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Windbrisk Heights
Sideboard (featuring red splash):
Cards I suggest:
I'd like to try to fit a few Brave the Elements into the maindeck. If you don't run the red splash, then obviously Mutavault is a solid option, as it can act as a Kithkin. As for the sideboard, I think the Blood Moon and Combust are good reasons for a red splash, but I think Stony Silence/Rest In Peace/Grafdigger's Cage are probably better options than Kataki, and 4 Canonist is probably overkill. Maybe a couple Oblivion Ring?
Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
Thanks for the input!
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
4 Thistledown Liege
4 Wizened Cenn
4 Militia's Pride
4 Rustic Clachan
4 Ballyrush Banneret
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Zealous Guardian
11 Plains
4 Path to Exile
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Temple Garden
4 Wooded Bastion
2 Gaddock Teeg
That was just an initial rough draft, but I liked it (well, I didn't play it outside of brewing goldfish..). Banneret reduces pride cost, and getting a couple kithkin and just working off pride is pretty strong. Flash lord is neat. Caverns would be good if you had em. I also tossed a more budget version together that used cribswap over paths or something, just for banneret value...
This is the maindeck I went with:
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Wizened Cenn
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
3 Ranger of Eos
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Brave the Elements
4 Arid Mesa
3 Marsh Flats
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Mutavault
5 Plains
I haven't thought up a sideboard yet, but I'll likely ditch the Blood Moon idea now that I'm making a bigger splash for red. I will still include Combust in the side, but I'm not sure what else to have in the board until I know what the local metagame is like. The deck is very quick and the addition of Bolt was huge.
Any discussion on the deck or general sideboard card options is much appreciated.
Round 1 - RUW control. My friend told me prior to the match that this matchup is literally unwinnable for me, as RUW runs seemingly infinite counters/removal and has Sphinx's Revelation. He won game 1 pretty handily, and seemed a bit amused at my deck. Game 2 I won off an activated Windbrisk flipping over a Vengeant and me Helixing for the win. Game 3 was a super close game, but I got there again with Ajani, this time keeping a Colonnade tapped down while my Spirit tokens flew over for the kill.
Round 2 - Jund. I won game 1 in about 4 turns, which prompted my opponent to say "WTF just happened?!?" afterwards. Game 2 was a close one, but I couldn't overcome a Thrun. Game 3 was even closer. I had him down to 5 and he had a Bob in play, but Bob kept flipping lands for about 6 straight turns. I resolved a Spectral Procession with an Honor of the Pure already in play, threatening lethal the following turn, but he flipped another land off Bob and drew an Anger of the Gods for his turn. :/ I can't recover and he takes it.
I ended up dropping after this to get food, but I was extremely pleased at how well Kithkin performed against 2 tier 1 decks. I am going to play around with my mana base a bit and incorporate the Blood Moon sideboard strategy, and that would've really helped against both decks I faced.
my list at the moment looks like this:
4 Goldmeadow Staltwart
2 Goldmeadow harrier
4 wizened cenn
4 knight of meadowgrain
4 cenn's heir
2 kinsbaile borderguard
1 cloudgoat ranger
2 militia's pride
4 brave the elements
4 path to exile
19 plains
2 mutavault
1 rustic clachan
1 windbrisk heights
before i used to play another version that run 3 thistledown liege and 4 mirrorweave
the idea was pretty cute, but unfortunately a bit slow...
I've considered splashing red to include boros charm mainly as protection from wraths, but its other 2 modes are also useful.
aether vial would be also a nice addition.
i've actually put the deck back together a couple of days ago, nice to see there are also other people interested in bringing this back.
i hope this thread will grow and we'll manage to put together something good!
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
I've had pretty good success against top tier decks so far with limited testing/tournament play. I plan on playing in the weekly Modern event again at my LGS, so hopefully I'll have more of a report this time. Since I am splashing red I've also considered adding Boros Charm. I already run 4 Bolt, so a burn-out strategy could be viable if a bit of extra reach is needed.
How has Militia's Pride been for you? I've always thought it might be a bit too slow on paper, but haven't really tested with it. Also, you don't want 4x Honor of the Pure? I think that's pretty crucial to be honest. Just my take, though - I've played this deck with great success for years but I'm by no means an expert.
Looking forward to exchanging some ideas!
i'm not sure about 4 honour of the pure, just cos it would take away space from other stuff.
militia's pride is great, as it allows you to overextend but at the same time keeping creatures in your hands. I've already ditched mirrorweave for launch the fleet, and it works great.
the main problem i see at the moment is supreme verdict and the only solution i can see to that is splashing red for boros charm.
unfortunately this deck is really really weak against board wipes
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
Tentative sideboard at the moment:
3x Blood Moon
2x Boros Charm
1x Brave the Elements
2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Stony Silence
2x Rest in Peace
3x Combust
Something like that.
with all the with mana symbols we have it starts producing a fair amount of mana pretty quickly, mana we can "dump" on Figure of destiny or to cast and early Cloudgoat ranger. i managed to pump figure to his 3rd stage (4/4) on turn 3 and i also had one wizened cent and 1 honour to pure down...
btw Cloudgoat is also a great way to "recover" from a boardwipe.
you convinced me with the honor of the pure, i'll cut mirrowave (too clumsy anyway) and run 4 of it.
one thing that I wasn't sure about your build was the 4 burrenton forge-tender in the main. i preferred 4 zealous guardian, but being able to avoid lightning bolt, lightning helix and electrolyze is a definite plus
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
Glad you came around on Honor. I originally had Cloudgoat as a 2-of, but have since cut him. I may rethink this because Nykthos seems awesome on paper. How many are you currently testing?
I've decided to cut launch the fleet. it's cute but spectral procession is probably more useful/solid. also it gives 3 bodies with evasion after a sweep, launch the fleet without already at least 2/3 creatures on the board is useless.
that's what i'm trying now:
2 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Figure of destiny
4 Goldmeadow stalwart
4 Knight of meadowgrain
3 Thistledown Liege
4 Wizened Cenn
2 militia's pride
4 path to exile
4 spectral procession
2 mutavault
3 Nykthos, shire to nyx
16 plains
1 rustic clachan
1 windbrisk heights
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
I've been running a Kithkins deck since early 2014, and it happened to be quite good, since it's more aggro than the usual aggro decks, and the bombs like Eos, Procession or Cloudgoat make it against heavy control decks.
I'm running a monoWhite list, this is it:
4 Figure of Destiny
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Wizened Cenn
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Cloudgoat Ranger
3 Path to Exile
4 Honor of the Pure
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Windbrisk Heights
20 Plains
2 Norn's Annex
2 Rest in Peace
2 Reveillark
2 Brave the Elements
2 Sundering Growth
2 Stony Silence
3 Leyline of Sanctity
If I had to add any color, I'd go for Black in order to add some discard spells to the sideboard, and maindecking 3 or 4 copies of Zealous Persecution.
Norn's Annex is awesome against Twin strategies. They won't be able to go for infinite attackers, and they will have to wait until they can get rid of the artifact, which give us time to find a removal spell.
Thoughts on some of the choices discussed:
Militia's Prideshould go hand-in-hand with Muavault. Running Mutas might make us not being able to cast a turn-three procession, so I am quite skeptic about effectively running them. investing 3 mana to sneak 1 more damage (1 to animate muta, attack, and paying W to make a token) is not the way in my opinion. The same rationale can be applied to running any mana denial in the form of lands. The deck is heavy white (taking into account double and triple costs, and Figure's activation costs), and drawing a colorless source can ruin that turn and the rest of the game if you are not able to put enough pressure on your opponent.
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
1 Ranger of Eos
4 Wizened Cenn
4 Spectral Procession
4 Honor of the Pure
2 Ajani Goldmane
4 Rustic Clachan
4 Windbrisk Heights
2 Mutavault
This is the build I've been experimenting with at my LGS. Tsuyoshi Fujita used this exact list to take 6th place out of 95 at the Japan Legacy Championship in 2009. That tells me it can definitely be a force to be reckoned with.
For Modern you'd obviously swap out Swords to Plowshares for Path to Exile.
I am running a full playset of Cloudgoat Ranger, but I've yet to have this be a problem. It has always been a bomb when it comes down, especially via a Windbrisk Heights.
Ajani Goldmane's -2 is it's only reason for being here and can be a very powerful move, especially following a Spectral Procession. However, if you're worried about reach, you could run Elspeth, Knight-Errant instead, which would make you less dependant on tokens and Brave the Elements to close out the game. It would also provide you with board wipe protection if you reach her ultimate, which isn't so bad since she has no -1 abilities.
So far I've been able to test it against two modern format decks: GW Auras(Bogle) and UB Rogues. I stomped both twice each without any notable problems. I outpaced Auras because it's just not consistent enough without the perfect starting hand, and Rogues couldn't challenge my creature size and removal.
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Wizened Cenn
2 Ranger of Eos
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Brave the Elements
4 Arid Mesa
3 Marsh Flats
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Windbrisk Heights
2 Mutavault
5 Plains
Sideboard:
The sideboard is still a work in progress, and I wasn't too thrilled with how Brave the Elements performed in the main deck. I'm thinking of swapping them out with 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender. That will provide protection against red, especially Anger of the Gods, while also acting as a beater w/Cenn and/or Honor in play.
Round 1: Jund.
I lost a very close game 1 to Thrun. He had a timely Anger of the Gods and seemed to have all the right removal at just the right time. It wasn't lopsided by any means, but he was able to close it out.
Out: 4 Cenn, 2 Ajani, 1 Spectral, 1 Stalwart. In: 3 Thalia, 3 Blood Moon, 2 Rest in Peace.
Games 2 and 3 I overwhelm him early, and Jund has a very hard time dealing with Spectral Procession tokens given that most of their removal looks to 1-for-1 (aside from Anger). Blood Moon and Rest in Peace (to shrink Goyfs) out of the board were helpful. In Game 3 he landed Thrun again but he was no match for my 2 6/6 Figures.
2-1, 1-0
Round 2: Jund.
I win game 1 in about 4 turns. Stalwart -> Knight -> Cenn -> Honor while he's playing tapped Shocks will typically always end in our favor. Not much of a game.
Out: same as round 1. In: same as round 1.
He opens with Inquisition and takes my Blood Moon. Thalia does a decent enough job acting as a pseudo-Blood Moon slowing down his removal. Spectral tokens once again come up big. This match seemed easier after having played against what was likely the same exact 75 the round prior.
2-0, 2-0
Round 3: Mono-Blue Ninja/Bear/Delver
This deck was interesting. It basically looked to have a creature (hopefully Snapcaster Mage) go unblocked so that he could Ninjitsu a Ninja and draw a card while also bouncing his Snappy back to his hand. His Delvers never flipped since he didn't have much library manipulation, so they didn't pose much of an issue. His creatures rarely went unblocked because they were all bears and my creatures were almost always larger. Game 1 I literally rode a Knight all the way to victory. It was pretty crazy.
Out: 2 Ajani, 4 Cenn, 2 Brave. In: 3 Combust, 3 Thalia, 2 Rest in Peace.
Slow start for him, while I was out of the gates quickly. In fact, he was so desperate that he was hardcasting his Ninjas (I had Paths/Bolts waiting for them) and also countering my Stalwarts. Not good for him. This game lasted about 5 minutes tops. This felt like a very easy matchup. Cryptic tapping down the team was annoying, but it only delayed the inevitable because his clock was so slow.
2-0, 3-0.
Round 4: Intentional draw with the other 3-0 to split the prize pool.
0-0-3, 3-0-1.
All in all, I felt very confident with the deck. I've piloted Kithkin since it was Standard legal, so I'd like to think my play mistakes were few in numbers. Nobody really took the deck seriously, and it ended up costing them. Nobody really comes prepared for white weenie, so I was able to capitalize. We'll see if anyone plans accordingly for next week's tournament. Like I said, the only current change I'm considering in the main is swapping the Braves out for Forge-Tenders. In the side I may make a few changes based upon this week's meta. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Well, first of all congratz to TLK and I really enjoy the idea of splashing for Red.
Regards!