Hello Everyone! This is my first post on MTGSalvation and I'm very excited to bring my own personal primer on my favorite commander and pet deck for the better part of the last year, Kefnet the Mindful!
I chose this commander over the other mono blue options mostly in the hopes of establishing a win-condition that didn't revolve around comboing out and having an early game threat that could also blunt the assault of aggro decks when they inevitably target the person playing counterspells.
In addition to offering utility as an indestructible flying creature for 3, Kefnet also forces the pilot to think ahead in terms of balancing plays to cards in hand (knowing that sometimes it's better not to play a land on turn 3-4, taking a turn off to refill your hand to make a splashier play a turn later, etc). The varying lines of play coupled with this imbued difficulty give Kefnet an immense amount of replay-ability.
-As a general rule, most cards you play with Kefnet should be able to replace themselves in order to keep your hand size high. That's why cards like Trinket Mage and Dismiss are especially good. The majority of the deck are mono blue staples, but there are cards that do require some individual explanation.
Wraths: Oblivion Stone, Nevinyrral's Disk, Devastation Tide, Cyclonic Rift, and Coercive Portal- It's important to keep some amount of board wipes in the deck, as often you won't have a board that can defend against multiple attackers at once. Colorless and mono blue wraths are hard to come by, and these are the best. Coercive Portal has the active benefit of drawing you extra cards or wiping the board, both of which are good. Kefnet's indestructibility makes wraths extra, EXTRA good. So it's important to run all of these cards.
Equipment Empyrial Plate, Inquisitor's Flail, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of War and Peace, Runechanter's Pike- You need these to win with attacking. The swords all buff Kefnet to 7 power, which turns the commander damage clock down from 5 to 3. Empyrial Plate is by far your best option,a s it's always a 2 turn clock with Kefnet. Add in Inquisitor's Flail, and the clocks become 2 (swords) and 1 (plate) respectively.
Why We're Running the PaliNavigator Combo:
Sometimes people find ways to deal with Kefnet, or you've found yourself with depleted resources after dealing with unruly opponents. In these cases, attacking with Kefnet simply isn't a viable option to win. In these cases, running the infinite mana combos of Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator/High Tide allows us to steal a game out of nowhere. Kefnet himself is a repeatable draw engine, and so you always have the ability to get to LabMan once you've got infinite mana. This combo is also much more reliable in more competitive metas where attacking upwards of 6 times with Kefnet to kill everyone isn't a viable option either. I don't like playing it as much because of the feelbads, but I find it to be a necessary evil
This I feel is a good place to end the primer in its initial structure. As time goes along I will add more in terms of matchup preferences and general strategy in individual circumstances, and will answer any questions as they come up.
I hope you've enjoyed and thank you for reading! Any comments or feedback about ideas you have are welcomed and appreciated
Great ideas! I've been running a Kefnet deck for a little while now with limited success. I'm using many of the same cards, but the fact that you're running Sunder along with some extra turn spells, both of which my friend recommended for my deck, drew me to your list. I do have a few questions for you, though.
First of all, while I wanted to avoid a Palinchron combo since I use it in my Vela the Night-Clad deck, I'm wondering how exactly you win with it. You mentioned Labman in the primer, but he's not in your list.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the only thing Trinket Mage seems to grab is Sol Ring. I've been running Trophy Mage instead since she can grab a wider variety of things, including equipment, ramp, and even Oblivion Stone.
I wanted to get your thoughts on something else as well. I recently added Vedalken Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation to my deck because I found that I often didn't have enough mana on my turn to both play and equip my equipment while leaving enough mana open for countermagic. I thought flashing out the equipment at the end of the previous player's turn might work better--especially if the equipment is something costly like Worldslayer.
Speaking of Worldslayer, I don't see it in your list. Any particular reason for this?
I think the hardest part of playing Kefnet for me is keeping a full hand. I'm almost exclusively running counterspells that replace themselves and a lot of card draw like Blue Sun's Zenith in addition to some of the cards in your list, but even so I tend to run out of cards quickly--especially if I'm the one tasked with stopping other players from winning the game. Any advice on playing that aspect of this commander?
Again, great primer! I'm considering using some of your ideas in my own deck.
Well, without LabMan there still isn't exactly a problem. I see 3 turns spells, and empyrial plate. So, with infinite mana, draw until he has those, and with 16 cards in hand, kill 1 opponent with Kefnet, cast a turns spell, repeat. Or, bounce all enemy boards with capsize, and kill everyone with Kefnet, which also works.
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Hello Everyone! This is my first post on MTGSalvation and I'm very excited to bring my own personal primer on my favorite commander and pet deck for the better part of the last year, Kefnet the Mindful!
I chose this commander over the other mono blue options mostly in the hopes of establishing a win-condition that didn't revolve around comboing out and having an early game threat that could also blunt the assault of aggro decks when they inevitably target the person playing counterspells.
In addition to offering utility as an indestructible flying creature for 3, Kefnet also forces the pilot to think ahead in terms of balancing plays to cards in hand (knowing that sometimes it's better not to play a land on turn 3-4, taking a turn off to refill your hand to make a splashier play a turn later, etc). The varying lines of play coupled with this imbued difficulty give Kefnet an immense amount of replay-ability.
Without further ado, let's get to the list
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Burnished Hart
3 Trinket Mage
4 Solemn Simulacrum
6 Consecrated Sphinx
6 Deadeye Navigator
6 Torrential Gearhulk
7 Palinchron
Instants (18)
0 Pact of Negation
1 High Tide
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Swan Song
2 Counterspell
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Mana Drain
3 Capsize
3 Disallow
4 Cryptic Command
4 Dismiss
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Rewind
5 Gush
5 Mystic Confluence
5 Sunder
8 Dig Through Time
2 Curse of the Swine
4 Plea for Power
5 Baral's Expertise
5 Devastation Tide
5 Time Warp
6 Recurring Insight
7 Temporal Mastery
9 Expropriate
Artifact (19)
1 Sol Ring
2 Empyrial Plate
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Inquisitor's Flail
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Mind Stone
2 Runechanter's Pike
2 Sapphire Medallion
2 Thought Vessel
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Sword of War and Peace
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Fireshrieker
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Coercive Portal
4 Hedron Archive
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
5 Venser's Journal
6 The Immortal Sun
1 Mystic Remora
1 Training Grounds
1 Search for Azcanta
2 Standstill
3 Rhystic Study
3 Imprisoned in the Moon
3 Propaganda
Planeswalker (2)
3 Jace Beleren
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Land (37)
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Halimar Depths
32x Island
1x Lonely Sandbar
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Reliquary Tower
Okay, so for individual card choices:
-As a general rule, most cards you play with Kefnet should be able to replace themselves in order to keep your hand size high. That's why cards like Trinket Mage and Dismiss are especially good. The majority of the deck are mono blue staples, but there are cards that do require some individual explanation.
Wraths:
Oblivion Stone, Nevinyrral's Disk, Devastation Tide, Cyclonic Rift, and Coercive Portal- It's important to keep some amount of board wipes in the deck, as often you won't have a board that can defend against multiple attackers at once. Colorless and mono blue wraths are hard to come by, and these are the best. Coercive Portal has the active benefit of drawing you extra cards or wiping the board, both of which are good. Kefnet's indestructibility makes wraths extra, EXTRA good. So it's important to run all of these cards.
Card-Advantage Generators:
Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Jace Beleren, Consecrated Sphinx, Recurring Insight, The Immortal Sun, Future Sight, Plea for Power, Sword of Fire and Ice - You need to run cards that draw you extra cards, these here are probably your best bets. Future Sight might stand out as a outlier, but it allows you to keep playing spells off the top of your deck while maintaining a critical mass of cards in your hand. Especially coupled with Jace, the Mind Sculptor's brainstorm ability, you can actively choose what cards you want to play without sacrificing hand size for Kefnet.
Equipment
Empyrial Plate, Inquisitor's Flail, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of War and Peace, Runechanter's Pike- You need these to win with attacking. The swords all buff Kefnet to 7 power, which turns the commander damage clock down from 5 to 3. Empyrial Plate is by far your best option,a s it's always a 2 turn clock with Kefnet. Add in Inquisitor's Flail, and the clocks become 2 (swords) and 1 (plate) respectively.
Why We're Running the PaliNavigator Combo:
Sometimes people find ways to deal with Kefnet, or you've found yourself with depleted resources after dealing with unruly opponents. In these cases, attacking with Kefnet simply isn't a viable option to win. In these cases, running the infinite mana combos of Palinchron and Deadeye Navigator/High Tide allows us to steal a game out of nowhere. Kefnet himself is a repeatable draw engine, and so you always have the ability to get to LabMan once you've got infinite mana. This combo is also much more reliable in more competitive metas where attacking upwards of 6 times with Kefnet to kill everyone isn't a viable option either. I don't like playing it as much because of the feelbads, but I find it to be a necessary evil
This I feel is a good place to end the primer in its initial structure. As time goes along I will add more in terms of matchup preferences and general strategy in individual circumstances, and will answer any questions as they come up.
I hope you've enjoyed and thank you for reading! Any comments or feedback about ideas you have are welcomed and appreciated
First of all, while I wanted to avoid a Palinchron combo since I use it in my Vela the Night-Clad deck, I'm wondering how exactly you win with it. You mentioned Labman in the primer, but he's not in your list.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but the only thing Trinket Mage seems to grab is Sol Ring. I've been running Trophy Mage instead since she can grab a wider variety of things, including equipment, ramp, and even Oblivion Stone.
I wanted to get your thoughts on something else as well. I recently added Vedalken Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation to my deck because I found that I often didn't have enough mana on my turn to both play and equip my equipment while leaving enough mana open for countermagic. I thought flashing out the equipment at the end of the previous player's turn might work better--especially if the equipment is something costly like Worldslayer.
Speaking of Worldslayer, I don't see it in your list. Any particular reason for this?
I think the hardest part of playing Kefnet for me is keeping a full hand. I'm almost exclusively running counterspells that replace themselves and a lot of card draw like Blue Sun's Zenith in addition to some of the cards in your list, but even so I tend to run out of cards quickly--especially if I'm the one tasked with stopping other players from winning the game. Any advice on playing that aspect of this commander?
Again, great primer! I'm considering using some of your ideas in my own deck.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR