Hi there. This is a Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient deck. It is not a good deck. If you're looking for a good deck, you have not come to the right place. This deck is built to try to have those "epic" Commander games. It's not trying to force out crazy situations or artificially engineer crazy boardstates, just simply place the right things, in the right places, so that at the right time something happens.
Why Kurkesh?
Rings of Brighthearth is one of my favorite cards in magic. I enjoy getting increased value through synergy with other cards, and rings is one such tool that is able to capitalize on this. It turns fetch lands into ramp, and cantrip effects into pure draw. Another card that I fits that mentality that I like is Salvaging Station, which is an incredible card draw engine when paired with all of the baubles. When Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient was spoiled, I was immediately in love. He's a Rings for your artifacts, which red was going to be running anyways, and synergized well with the Salvaging Station, which I was building several decks around at that time. It's not even about copying the big effects for closing out the game that got me excited - those effects can close out the game without help - it's that he had the capability to smooth out the entire game to get there; something that no other red Commander does nearly as well. Daretti can be a great value engine, but is limited in scope and timing.
The second thing I noted when I first started thinking about how to build him was his name. He's a red creature, named Kurk. Captain Kurk. While not the biggest Star Trek fan, I immediately wanted to play on the slight joke and make a deck that was capable of making an army of token 'red shirts.' Bonus points if the tokens were actually red. Initial cards, other than the wand, included Hammer of Purphoros, golem foundry and Titan Forge. The second thought was that I liked using Rings with fetch lands, so I brainstormed how to turn my lands into artifacts, which included the obvious Liquimetal Coating, but also the less often seen Myr Landshaper. From there, I started brainstorming ways to turn my non-artifact creatures into artifacts so I could copy their abilities, and Ashnod's Transmogrant came to the top of the list, since I was considering a salvaging station package (it eventually got cut) - Thran Forge was another option.
Of course, that's when I realized that since Rings of Brighthearth are easily broken and go infinite, that putting one in your command zone makes it very easy to build a deck that accidentally breaks itself, and this caused a... short... delay in the construction of the deck.
Eventually, I decided to rebuild a deck that would embrace the 'fun' side of Commander. Crazy effects, crazy interactions, unpredictable results. I thought back to my initial idea of 'Captain Kurk and his redshirt,' and I realized that idea had the very soul that I was looking for. This deck would even allow me to run older cards that had less inherent value, and Kurkesh's copy ability would be able to put them into an acceptable value range.
Not breaking Captain Kurk
Captain Kurk is unfortunately very easy to break; on top of that, he can generate such value chains that his play can be somewhat oppressive and unfun for players at times. This deck was built on the goal of interacting more, and running the engine less. It aims to interact on as many turns as possible, rather than assembling an engine that you revv up, and then explode into win mode in one turn.
The deck aims to cut back on two things:
No broken shenanigans: No untapping stuff with kurkesh, no super combos. Voltaic Key is cheating.
No Durdle for the sake of Durdling: Kurkesh will Durdle. That's what he does. But Durdling in order to trigger something else so you can durdle that is a no-go.
This has cut out a number of good cards from the list, which is a risk in itself: cutting out too many cards makes the deck slower to react to opponents, and thus makes it harder to break a lock. This ends up leading toward that critical build up of suddenly winning on a certain turn, which we want to avoid. Thus, a careful line has to be found between effective, and useless.
CREATURES
1 Goblin Welder - Kurkesh interacts with artifacts. This means that artifacts will make up a large part of the deck. Goblin Welder is then an excellent card to generate value and remain resilient as the game goes on.
2 Goblin Kaboomist - He makes bombs. Kurkesh like bombs.
2 Myr Retriever - More resilience for the artifact build.
2 Stigma Lasher - This guy screams out for some early aggression, and the anti-lifegain ruins more peoples plans than they care to admit. He also adds a bit of tension to the table as to who will get hit by him, and he's not a bad blocker in a pinch either.
3 Burnished Hart - Mana acceleration.
3 Junk Diver - Resilience
3 Myr Landshaper - This guy allows us to use our fetch lands and utility lands and copy them.
3 Myr Propagator - They just keep propagating...
4 Anger - He's taking management courses, but not the right kind.
4 Lord of Shatterskull Pass - Agression. Also a real estate agent in his spare time, but he's not very good at it.
4 Mindless Automaton - While a decent card on its own, it turns into an interesting draw/loot ability with Kurkesh. For 1 you can discard a card to put a +1/+1 counter on it, but then copy that with Kurkesh for R to get 2 counters instead. This is conveniently enough counters to eat to replace the card you discarded, but you can copy this ability as well with Kurkesh (R) for two cards. This makes him a 1RR discard 1, draw 2, which is pretty acceptable repeatable draw. Also, you can simply use it to fuel him up and make a large beater as well, which you can eat to replenish your hand at any time, short of a Krosan Grip. He fits a draw engine, and aggro, all at the same time.
4 Obsidian Fireheart - Fireheart remains one of the most fun creatures in my mind. He's got decently aggressive stats, and the ability will add damage that adds up over a game. But the reminder text is what clenches it - The lands continue to burn.
4 Solemn Simulacrum - I like my ramp.
5 Golem Artisan - Gives any artifact good abilities, including haste, and firebreathing. Seems good and agressive.
5 Thopter Squadron - the sorcery speed limitation is an annoyance, but this is a decent flyer, that makes extra flyer tokens, and can get pretty crazy with Captain Kurk.
6 Homura, Human Ascendant - Aggression, that people don't want to block. Makes all tokens scarier.
6 Steel Hellkite - Hit people, killl stuff. Or just hit people.
7 Pentavus - A better Thopter Squadron.
SPELLS
5 Scrap Mastery - still testing, in case it ends up being too back breaking, but the though is that if a well-timed Bane of Progress is allowed to kill all my stuff, then I get to have the option to play a well-timed spell to bring it all back.
7 All is Dust - Mass Removal is sometimes needed.
9 Blasphemous Act - Likewise
ENCHANTMENTS
2 Raging River - Helps combat. Also it's hilarious.
3 Bludgeon Brawl - I've been looking for a good place to play Bludgeon Brawl for a while. I decided to add it into this deck so that Captain Kurk could more easily get into the red zone, plus the idea that Kirk would just pick up random pieces of the enterprise and hit people with them in the least dignified brawl possible. Seemed like a flavor win-win-win. I added it to the deck with high expectations, and they were all surpassed.
3 Glacial Crevasses - Sometimes you do need a little bit of protection. Also, this is just one of those cards that screams "wtf?" in red.
PLANESWALKER
4 Daretti, Scrap Savant - Goblin Welder in planeswalker form. I'd say that he discards stuff and has an awesome ultimate, but lets face it, he's going to weld, and then probably die. Why not replace him with Trash for Treasure for a mana cheaper? Because I can't turn Trash into an artifact with Liquimetal Coating and then copy it with Kurkesh. That's why.
ARTIFACT
0 Lodestone Bauble - Part of the initial Salvaging Station package, the initial plan of the deck was to fuel Hammer of Purphoros and Wand of the Elements, so recovering the lands seemed like a good idea. A secondary thought was to use Aggressive Mining for draw (turning it into an artifact to copy it), and use Walking atlas and Terrain Generator to get the lands back out.
0 Welding Jar - If there's ever a deck where this would have the capability to make an awesome play, or ruin someone's day, this would be it. It almost got cut when the salvaging station got cut, but I decided to keep it in for the time being.
1 Phyrexian Furnace - grave hate, +cards
1 Pyrite Spellbomb - Kurk's got grenades. or cards.
1 Scrabbling Claws - grave hate, +cards
1 Skullclamp - cards
2 Conch Horn - Filtration, and awesome art.
2 Liquimetal Coating - This card makes this deck happy. It lets Kurk do so much more than he usually can. Fun fact: turning a Bane of Progress into an artifact in response to its own ETB effect dulls some of the pain. Fun fact #2: Try turning someone elses thing into an artifact, and then Goblin Welder it to give them back their sol ring (They'll love you for it!).
2 Spawning pit - You need a creature to start it, but then it turns into 1RR make a 2/2 dude, which isn't bad. There are a couple of extra dies and ETB triggers, plus the whole tapped vs untapped thing, but it turns into a decent token maker. Which it already was, but now ends up even more!
2 Sun Droplet - So innocuous, so innocent, and it keeps you holding on.
3 Crucible of Worlds - gets back those lands you keep killing off.
3 Eye of Yawgmoth - Card draw/filtration. Since there aren't really any combos in the deck, we don't really mind the exile. You only need to put a 2/2 or 3/3 into it, and then copy it with Kurkesh. Decent value. Can replace with Serum Tank or Jar of Eyeballs if you prefer 'safer' ways of drawing cards, but so far, so fun.
3 Mimic Vat - High likelyhood of something crazy about to happen/
3 Oblivion Stone - boom
3 Sculpting Steel - This could be an extra mana doubler - I do like my mana. It could be a rings - I do like my rings. It could be a Burnished Hart - I do like my harts. It could be a Mirror Works and a Mirror Works, - Because I like having my mirror works, with a mirror works, with a mirror works, with a ...
3 Titan Forge - It is slow? yes. Is it klunky? yes. Does it do something impressive? Put it in.
4 Lux Cannon - see titan forge.
4 Power Matrix - For something that is essentially an equipment, this seems to annoy people a fair amount...
4 Prototype Portal - If this hits, something is going to happen in the game. I still dream of putting a mirrorworks on one of these.
4 Wand of the Elements - RED SHIRTS! That is enough reasons to play this card right there!
5 Mirror Works - This turns any position into a crazy position.
5 Predator, Flagship - Easily gives anything flying, easily takes things out of the sky.
5 Tamiyo's Journal - A repeatable source of Clues, which can each be double broken with Kurkesh! He takes his investigations seriously...
6 Serpent Generator - If there were ever a poison counter win that would qualify as epic, it would have to be death from Serpent Generator. You can't even be mad... It's a serpent Generator. This is one of the few cards I remember having a strong attachment to from when I started playing Magic. I had the Serpent Generator, my sister had The Hive. The battle was on.
7 Spine of Ish-Sah - It booms a thing, and then plays well with welder. Or it could just die. I'm not trying to force the issue, but if it happens, I won't be sad.
0X Orochi Hatchery - There seem to be a fair number of snakes in the deck, isn't there? That wasn't even planned, but ok.
I've copied over a few of my reports from the first three weeks into this post here, including such things as a Wasp equipped with its own the hive, copying Vesuvas, and some hot Radiate on Radiate action. There have been a few bumps, but I think it's gone generally well.
Since then, I've regularly copied over brief play reports into this very thread! Here are a few of them:
This post here! (again) as the first of many recorded games! Game report 1/13/2016 - In which I brutally take out a Jenara player with an Avenger of Zendikar army, but then brutally fall before the onslaught of Konda Commander damage. Game report 1/17/2016 - In which Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle does some serious, serious work, and an army of redshirts threatens domination, but a massive misplay costs me the game 6 turns after it happened. Game report 1/27/2016 - In which I died to a horde of angry omnath army, but do manage to annoy him by killing omnath no less that 5 times, preventing at least 7 more firends of his from landfalling into battle. Game Report 2/4/2016 - In which everyone gets to play with my Marit Lage, except for me. Game Report 2/11/2016 - In which a Konda deck outramps everyone. Game Report 2/25/2016 - In which I conspire with a Mogis player, and then am brutally betrayed! Game Report 4/7/2016 - In which, late to the party, I keep a bad hand, and everyone else plays with my Marit Lage again (except me, again). Game Report 4/14/2016 - In which some werewolves can't get past a Glacial Crevasses, and a second game in which our heroic Captain gets all the mana and finds himself in a brawl.
4 Snake Basket - Just hope someone is playing white, that way you can make a bad joke.
3 Sunstone - There is a red enchantment of this... oh yeah, it's in the deck.
5 Radiate - I don't know what this is going to hit, but I'll know it when I see it.
3 Rings of Brighthearth - Because one Kurkesh is not enough Kurkesh.
A thought during lunch - perhaps token hordes are not terribly Epic and amazing - even bad token Hordes. I think Tokens will still be an important factor of the deck, but perhaps I should add other cool and interesting Artifact Creatures with nifty combat-focused abilities for a bit of variety in the plan. Or simply creatures with nifty abilities, and I can add Thran Forge back in with it.
I like Kurkesh, and I really like the mindset of self-limiting and forcing dumb cards to do work, so I'm getting a comment in this thread early to be on the ground floor of this one.
Extraplanar Lens wouldn't be too try-hard if it wasn't for the snow-basics, and I really had to hunt to find the reason for those and then laughed. I was like "it's not the lens, it's not scrying sheets, it's not skred, it's not rimescale dragon, why the hell is he playing those? Oh... I did not know that exists, lol." I'd say keep that the way it is and leave Lens out.
I feel like it's a missed opportunity to play Radiate without a single proactive counterpart. Chaos Warp would probably be durdling for the sake of it (although that led my mind to the other versatile red removal, Aftershock, which would undoubtedly be the most regrettable Radiate ever. "I'll just cast this Jokulhaups that also kills me, it's a very strong play"). But a cantrip is fun with Radiate, or Volt Charge can be pretty strong. "3 damage to all creatures and 17 counters on Titan Forge, please" seems good enough without being slow or game breaking. Having no plan at all for Radiate seems like a fun miss since your opponents are going to see you play Radiate and know you were just sitting there with 5 mana open waiting for an opportunity to screw with the game. I feel like having some proactive plan for every card justifies the good intentions of their inclusion and makes people feel better about it when Radiating someone else's Capsize just happens to be the right play.
Private Mod Note
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
That's a good point on the Radiate - the thought was that I'd often leave mana open anyways for reactive stuff like Mimic Vat, Power Matrix, Blinkmoth Nexus shenanigans, etc, and that there's always something fun to radiate, but you hold a good point. Chaos Warp or Scour for Existence seem too boring, but Volt Charge might actually be what is called for... In the first cut of the deck there was a minor proliferate theme (as well as Inkmoth Nexus), but I ended up cutting it because charge counters were too inconsistently out there, and poison counters are boring to proliferate. Volt Charge is a single shot though, and is also a Lightning bolt, which also is on the side just barely trying to cut into the deck. More people in my group need to have their day ruined by a lightning bolt. I don't think you can even get mad at that.
Since Inkmoth is gone (and only Serpent Generator remains for poison) Contagion Engine could make an entrance, especially if I add some more charge counter stuff, or +1 counter creatures... or Grim Poppet...
Glacial Crevasses is the enchantment I was thinking of, which will go in with the other reason for snow covered's. =) Or replace it.
I kind of also want to put Flaring Pain in a deck, but I don't think this is the one for that...
I was starting to doubt Homura. I just goldfished a game, and between the end of one turn (welder-ing out a gauntlet of power, copying it (Mirrorworks)), saccing Homura, Human Ascendant to Eye of Yawgmoth, untapping, dropping Elemental Mastery on Walking Atlas, Firebreathing 15 times, tapping for 18 elementals, copying that ability with Kurkesh, for 36 elementals.
The elementals are all 5/5 flyers's thanks to Homura and 2 Gauntlets.
Debating whether that counts as epic, or out-of-nowhere combo wombo. It may point the finger at Elemental Mastery for being too much of a board-state-ignoring/invalidate-the-game finisher (it doesn't really serve any other purpose). Hm. =/ I was feeling very smart on finding that card for the deck. Now I wonder.
I love that Walking Atlas was your creature to make big in that situation. And I think Elemental Mastery is perfectly justified by Bludgeon Brawl. Cause that's cool.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
It was the creature on hand, it's an artifact, and when I realized what the buff, the firebreathing, and the tripled mana added up to, it didn't take long to add them up. Then it dawned on me that all the tokens were 5/5's, and that they flew, and it blew my mind.
Trying it out. I'll be shifting my Trostani deck as well (bringing in Grasslands), but I need to find the cards first =P.
I figure, this is the deck I'm playing most right now, since it's newest, and I'm still tweaking it; plus it's supposed to be the more 'fun' deck, so fetches might be a bit over the top.
Thran Forge, while still on the radar for the list, got put in because it remains a potential, and I had just swapped out a card. I now realized that I only have 2 targets for it, which seems bad. Back onto the maybe list for when I get more non-artifact creatures in the list. Who knows, maybe some new OGW eldrazi will be interesting.
Expedition Map was more important when there was the thought for a heavier land sac/recur theme, as I would need the Terrain Generator to compensate. This is no longer the case (although glaciers would be a nice grab), and I am trying to do 'less tutor' style, so cut it.
Walking Atlas gets cut on the same reasons. I've take to showing opponents a selection of cards after the game, and choosing something to come in. Goblin Kaboomist got selected, and I decided that Atlas was an acceptable cut for him. Atlas may return depending on future land drop needs.
Golem Artisan has been wanting to come in for a short while now, but he adds a nice host of abilities to artifacts.
Raging River is a cool, iconic older card that many people will need to read again. It should also help with combat, by separating people from their blockers. Technically Goblin War Drums may be 'better,' but nowhere near as fun. Let's see how it goes.
Sun stone may get cut. It was unimpressive last night, and the option of red fogs was not as impressive to anyone as it should have. In truth, it's the activation cost that was the most annoying, so Glacial Crevasses may stay in, even after sun stone goes (I mean, we gotta keep at least 1); although, I did find it amusing that I could sac Dark Depths to sun stone, but not crevasses.
I've been on the fence about Bosh, Iron Golem and Karn, Silver Golem. I think Bosh is still too much out of nowhere, but karn may be a good aggressive add to the deck. Attacking people with Prototype Portals and Hedron Archives sounds fun. Hopefully he isn't too strong, but if he is, I can always try Toymaker instead.
Last night, I got super excited by an awesome play that appeared to me. Early in the game I had Vesuva'd my Mishra's Factory to hit a land drop. At the end of a player's turn, I animated my Vesuva Factory, sacced it to my Goblin Welder to return a Mindstone. Since it was a creature when it died, I exiled my Vesuva onto my Mimic Vat. I activated the vat to put 2 tapped Vesuvas (Kurkesh copied the ability) onto the battlefield, which each copied a Myriad Landscape that another player had just played (Since it was already in the End of Turn, the copies would stay until the next EoT). On my turn, I untapped, played Liquimetal Coating, turned 1 of the lands into an artifact, sacced it and copied it with Kurkesh, and sacced the other normally - I was sadly 1 mana short of copying the liquimetal ability onto the second land, and copying that activation as well... 10 mana, accross 2 turns, for 6 lands... I'll take it. (shame it wasn't 12 for 8). (I did end up losing this game)
In a later game, I killed a person's planeswalker by dropping Bludgeon Brawl, then attacking it with a 1/1 Wasp token wielding its own The Hive.
Played Kurkesh again last week. 5 player game that I lost, (one player got too far ahead, and I got hit by 3 Bane of Progress in a mostly artifact deck).
All I can say, is that for having no hand, and no artifacts on board for most of the game, Marit Lage killed off 3 players. No Thespian cheats either.
Kurkesh, it was a 3 player game, vs. Shu Yun and Phage.
I ended up winning by killing Shu Yun with his own Commander (Helm of Possession) and killing Phage with tokens (Elemental Mastery, though it was thwarted, and Summoning Station) over a few turns. Power Matrix played a strong role in giving trample, and Sun Droplet played a role in making me not die to flyers (Since my power Matrix was often tapped, and I need more ways to make flying tokens in the deck).
Overall, I've been working hard to eliminate cards that have a net negative 'fun' impact (helm may go, it's good, but has feel-bads, and killing someone with their own Commander simply isn't as epic of a thing these days, I just need another removal slot in its place). Another interaction that may need to go is the Salvaging Station/Summoning Station together. One alone is ok, but both is a bit much, and overshadows what I'm trying to do with the deck.
I also don't want the deck to durdle too much. Some durdling is going to happen (it is Kurkesh), but I want to eliminate the durdle to durdle more. This is also a power-level nerf, since Kurkesh can break very easily. No untapping things, no super-broken synergies. Trading Post got cut on the durdle rule. Sensei's top is currently in the deck to fix some card draw (1r: draw card in Kurkesh, happy times), but I think I'm going to axe that on OP and durdle reasons, and replace it with Eye of Yawgmoth, because I showed the card tonight, and everyone had to stop to read it.
When I first saw Kurkesh, my thought process went "I love rings of brighthearth! Kurkesh is half a rings in the Command zone! I can make a Rings Deck! How can I make my fetch lands intoartifacts? I can play Dark Depths! (without cheats!) It's Kurkesh, so he's Captain Kurk, I can make the deck with expendable red tokens and have expendable 'red shirts'! I can sac lands and bring them back in *****ty way! I can run Salvaging Station, I can run Clock of Omens- wait no, thats broken... I can run- wait no, that's broken too, how about-nope, broken with kurkesh... Aw *****, Kurkesh is a rings of brighthearth and breaks easily."
Last week I managed to put a Vesuva on a Mimic Vat so I could double activate it EOT to get 2 myriad landscapes, in order to turn them into artifacts and copy-sac them. Then I killed a planeswalker by dropping a Bludgeon Brawl and hitting it with a Wasp token equipped with its own The Hive. Then I killed someone with their own commander wielding the very helm of Possession that was controlling it, a liquimetal coating, and the bludgeon brawl itself, turned into an artifact with the liquimetal coating. Then I finally won a long-ish stalemate (because I had no hand and nothing to really do) in which I amassed 11 Gauntlet of Mights on my side of the field (Prototype Portal). I almost was going to kill a player with their own Sliver Queen which would have been buffed to lethal soley by gauntlets of might, power, and caged suns, but that plan got interfered with. This week, I killed two people in the first game with a Marit Lage token. I removed all 10 counters. Some 2 at a time with kurkesh. Most, simply normally, because apparently 2 Bane of Progress kinda kills the deck. I eventually still lost, since, you know, I had nothing... but Marit Lage. Darn banes... Although last week I got to turn a bane of progress into an artifact with my Liquimetal Coating in response to its own trigger, because seriously, **** that.
I do worry a bit about making the deck too crappy, but I maintain that a good balance can be found, and that good cards can be removed it they create a negative feeling, and that there are enough other cards in magic that can serve similar function to replace them.
This week, I'm going to add a Golem Artisan. Someone suggested Avarice Totem to me, but in retrospect, that's even more evil than Helm. I may also add Raging River, because that card is boss mode.
The most epic was sitting at 11 life with an Ashling with 16ish counters sitting across from me. I am dead any time he decides it to happen, barring some juicy misplay. I have essentially no board, but I do have a Radiate in hand. Also, there's 2 Gauntlet of Power in play on red, and a Extraplanar Lens on snow-covered mountains (which we both have). And then it happens, the greedy game ender! He taps his lands wrong, leaving only 1 mountain and a colorless land untapped to cast a spell, which means he can't detonate Ashling, and for what? A Red Sun's Zenith aimed at my face! Radiate ahoy, which will kill ashling, and kill him! His response? Tap for the 5 mana... Radiate right back.
Different situation, everyone's dropping spiffy T1 plays, so I feel left out. I drop a Mishra's Factory, and a Welding Jar. Game continues, and T3 sees me with a Junk Diver, and I claim that now I can block those annoying flyers, and regenerate my diver, and when the diver dies, I get back my welding jar. Sure enough, Jenara attacks me... so I chump, and regen off of the welding jar. Next turn I get attacked by a dragon, so the diver chumps again, and I get my Welding jar back. Later in the game, someone forgets about my Welding Jar, and tries to kill my Mirror Works... Welding Jar to the rescue. This lets me double copy a spine, and then eventually drop Daretti, I need to sac my spine, but to do that I need something in the graveyard to target for the ability. I guess that Welding Jar is coming back again. Then some fool tries to kill my Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient. Liquimetal Coating -> Kurkesh -> Welding Jar. Two turns later, Daretti brings back the Welding Jar again (nothing else for it, still). I get attacked by two dragons. Serpent Generator makes 2 snakes, that fly thanks to a flipped Homura, Human Ascendant, chump block... you guessed it. Welding Jar, Kurkesh copy, regen both snakes. BECAUSE YES, THIS STUFF IS LEGIT.
I eventually lost, as someone decided that I'd had enough fun with Welding Jar, apparently. Do not doubt the power within the jar.
I think I am on a good path with the deck.
I also like the asking people to select cards to make it into the deck. I worry that I'll end up in a weird corner of 'flex' slots where I keep replacing the same things over and over again, but that hasn't happened yet, and maybe I'll just need to implement a 'don't cut a card until you've played with it' self rule.
I'm overplaying the deck right now though, and people are getting a bit tired of seeing it constantly back-to-back, so I'm probably only going to play one game with it next week. Maybe make another new deck, or fix up some existing decks in the meantime.
Sunstone did not impress me much when I cast it, though partially due to mana problems. Not only could I not really afford to lose a land in that game, but the 2 cost to activate was actually steep. Lets drop down to just Glacial Crevasses, and keep Sun Stone on the sides in case it needs to come back in.
I could imagine that this would be fun on a wurmcloil engine or Triskelion since the enchantment say "Enchanted creature has:".. so the effect is on an Artifact and can be copied.
Am I right?
Private Mod Note
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"If you search me, I am near insanity, more exactly on the thin line between insanity and panic, round the coner of agony, not far from absurdity and idiocy."
I could imagine that this would be fun on a wurmcloil engine or Triskelion since the enchantment say "Enchanted creature has:".. so the effect is on an Artifact and can be copied.
Am I right?
There's not a lot that's off budget, and everything is easily replaceable. The only thing that really has any value is Gauntlet of Might, which you could run Mana Flare or Exraplanar Lens as a straight replacement, or simply just cut it. It's not that crucial to the gameplan. I just had one, and wanted to put it somewhere.
You are entirely right about Splinter Twin, and that's exactly why Elemental Mastery was in here previously. The elementals proved a bit scary, but since there's no twin combo, Splinter Twin could be a lot of fun... I may still avoid it due to how it has the perception of being solely a combo piece, but I actually really like the idea of it...
Only played one game with Kurkesh this night, but it was a bit wonky, including a couple of O-stone activations resetting the board and changing our strategy. Our favorite Captain vs. Jenara, Kaseto, and Konda.
I started with an opening hand of Myr Propagator, 3 lands, and some stuff, so then plan seemed like a turn 3 propagator into Kurkesh, into propagation. Drawing a Myriad Landscape with a Rings of Brighthearth changed the plan though, so we went T3 rings, T4 Kurkesh, T5 double landscape activation. The rings then got destroyed by a Trygon Predator. Oh well. Drop the Propagator and a Power Matrix to ward off the predator. The power matrix remains untapped for pretty much most of the game in order to ward off the predator. I propagate a few propagators, but this actually doesn't feel as good as I had hoped. While it's only 2 mana per 1/1 overall, the fact that I can't attack with them if I want to propagate is actually really bugging me - much more than I had assumed it would. Eventually I also drop a Spawning Pit, to use up any excess mana. Spawning pit gets broken when I blasphemous act (clearing out Jenara's army with a Champion of Lambholdt, while he has Cathars' Crusade in play, and an Avenger of Zendikar in hand). I follow up with an Orochi Hatchery on 6. Jenara follows up with the expected AoZ for 10 plant tokens, so everything has 11 +1/+1 counters. Konda get periodic pokes in on me throughout the game, since he has a Helm of Kaldra on, so blocking actually involves taking more damage. Konda drops an Oblivion Stone, with mana up, to deflect the hordes. I drop Kurkesh, and pass, such that I will have the needed blockers. Kaseto dies to plants. I make snakes, drop a Bludgeon Brawl and take out Jenara with a flying Kurkesh (Power Matrix!) with stuff (Power Matrix, Sun droplet, etc) equipped to him, I also hit Konda with some snakes. Konda kills my snake machine (Ostone), hits me, and assembles the Kaldra-tron. I drop liquimetal coating, turn Konda into an artifact, and Scrap Mastery to get rid of the kaldra pieces and buy a turn on Konda (this gets Konda back some ostone). Konda plays Konda. I drop Kurkesh, drop a scrabbling claws. Konda explodes the O-stone, so I eat the Kaldra set and something. Konda enlightened tutors for an Argentum Armor, which is lethal, since I'm at 12 Commander already.
Kurkesh starts, and starts with an amazingly powerful turn 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. This proceeds into a turn 2 Myriad Landscape, a turn 3 Burnished Hart, and a turn 4 Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient. Kurkesh and the Burnished Hart go around the table doing a few points here and there, and the Burnished Hart gets surprised by a surprise Surrak blocker. So it quickly dies, fetches up some mountains and kills Surrak. Thrax tries to jump out, but eats hot lead from Valakut+Myriad Landscape. Surrak is mana screwed, and Thrax summons an Army of the Damned. Athreos wipes the board. During this time I've gotten power matrix, so I re-drop Kurkesh, and a Wand of the Elements. Thrax drops a Crypt Ghast, so I mountain it. I drop a Spawning Pit, and begin applying pressure. An army of the damned had been flashed back on Thraxes side, so I return a Burnished Hart with my Buried Ruin. Surrak drops a Rurik Thar, which I completely forget to remove, and makes the game sad for me for the rest of the game. Reason I forgot to remove it was that a lot of zombies were attacking me. So I blocked a big Zombie with the Hart, Made two 3/3 elementals for 2 more, made 2 2/2 pinchers for 2 more (given +1/+1 and first strike with Power Matrix), and broke the Hart to bolt 4 of them. Oh yeah, Thrax has a Whip of Erebos, which may have prompted some stuff. Anyways, I kill a lot of zombies, and blank a lot of damage, but then realize I forgot Rurik (oops). Oh well. Athreos breaks My Titan Forge with 2 charge counters (le sigh), so I take my last potshot at Surrak with Kurkesh (12 commander damage!); he almost blocks with Rurik, and then realizes last second that I can double power matrix for the kill. Oh well. Things go a bit downhill from here. I eventually kill Athreos, but sadly my Power Matrix gets killed in the process. I'm holding on with a more than small army of 3/3 and 2/2's, but take 3 blasts from Rurik for a Scrabbling Claws, a Glacial Crevasses, and a Gauntlet of Might. My hope is to hold on with the glacial Crevasses to blank Thrax's life gain, and kill him with my not-small army, saccing anything he blocks to the pit in order to prevent life gain. Solid plan. My Gauntlet of Might enables a Primal Surge from surrak, which nets him a 60+/60+ Hamletback, but he can't win due to Glacial Crevasses. I then eat a lethal Exsanguinate to the face from Thrax. Oops.
Played a quick game in which I brutally died to an angry omnath rampy-mc.ramperson deck. I didn't find a way to deal with his Where ancients Tread, although I did royally annoy him with the Predator, Flagship which he killed off twice, and tried to kill a third time. I prevented at least 7 elementals from landfalling into existence through the simple means of throwing an Omnath into the air. That part was fun.
So, last night had a crazy game that I'm not even sure where to begin with.
It's Kurkesh vs Oona mill, Roon etb, and Jenara lands.
An early Aura of Silence slows me down considerably, and being stuck on 5 lands doesn't help much. I manage to cheat in a Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun, so that keeps me afloat in the midst of insane mana on all sides. I drop a Dark Depths as one of my land drops, and ever so slowly start peeling off counters. Jenara drops a Thespian Stage. Huh. That's not good. Jenara has a Marit Lage. Oona Clones the Marit Lage. Roon doesn't have much, except the biggest boardstate around due to abusing Cloudstone Curio and Reveillark. Fun.
Oona saves me from Marit Lage, but Jenara regrows the Thespian Stage for round 2. Roon takes care of that Marit Lage, and some Roon, Lark, Curio, Acidic Slime action starts popping off all of everyone's enchantments and artifacts (how is that thing still alive?). Including my Glacial Crevasses, which upsets me seeing as I'm at 9 life, and everyone else is at 35+, or even 40+. Darin Marit Lage. Jenara finally clears stuff up with a nice Austere Command. This primes me for an epic Scrap Mastery, which actually kills Roon, since it returns Oona's Mesmeric Orb, which, hilariously, is enough to mill Roon out.
I was impressed that Jenara hadn't countered the mastery, or exiled choice parts of my graveyard, but I quickly learned why as a Fracturing Gust takes it all back out and gains him many lifes. I die to several quite large animated lands, as my 3/3 red elemental Wand of the Elements token I crafted in response is not nearly enough to save me.
I believe Oona then milled out Jenara as well, which I felt partly responsible for. I'll take it.
I managed to drop a Raging River, which made me happy, but then Karlov exiled it. Why would anyone ever exile a Raging River? The rest of the game was mostly unexciting on my end, as a low land count vs two large armies had Kurkesh pretty much tied down. Then Konda managed to Elspeth Ult to destroy non-token things, but had flashed gotten an Avacyn out, and then followed it up with an oblivion stone for sealing the deal as neither I nor Karlov cound recover.
Between Thawing Glaciers, Deserted Temple and Sword of Feast and Famine (with an early Weathered Wayfarer, Konda managed to pull out an impressive number of lands, and was easily doubling both of us put together, if not more. Easily 20-30 lands (plus sofaf untap), compared to my 6 at the end of the game (+ Dark Depths, but that doesn't tap for mana).
An amusing 5 player game vs Mogis (Punisher), Karlov (lifegain/beats), Konda (equipment/survival), and Grandmother Sengir (3.1 or lower gatherer rating)
Mogis comes out early, so people are pinging for two rather than sacrificing a creature. Both Karlov and Konda get scary early boardpresences, kept only moderately not in check by my Goblin Welder + Spine of Ish Sah combo, while I myself am protected by a Power Matrix. Of course, the artifact that keeps returning during this combo is a Wayfarer's Bauble, which get s more relevant once I draw a Valakut, the molten Pinnacle, and helps keep the scary decks a bit more down.
Mogis had started off early with that dude that sets people's life to 1 when unblocked, and then also followed up with a Sire of Insanity. This was amusing, as at least 3 other players actually wanted the Sire to stick around. I was happy to site on Goblin Welder + Spine.
Finally, I make a bargain with the Mogis player, and collude to eliminate flying blockers (Valakut+Wayfarer's // Pyrite spellbomb+copy), as well as give his guy flying (Power Matrix, and he eliminates both of them after each other. Grandma doesn't like where this is going, and hits me with enough stuff that I die shortly after, and Mogis eventually wraps up the game.
I liked the collusion eliminations though, even though I didn't get to capitalize on it.
Will debate on potential cuts. Conch Horn, Lodestone Bauble, and Crucible of Worlds have been under-performing (since most of my land self-sacrifice isn't in the deck). They may be the cuts.
Goblin Charbelcher is still on the maybes as well. Possibly cut Sun droplet for it? If I cut sun droplet, I'd like to have a Loxodon Warhammer back in though. I need some life recovery somewhere. Perhaps Radiate. It's had its moment, and been lackluster outside of that.
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StaffWhy Kurkesh?
Rings of Brighthearth is one of my favorite cards in magic. I enjoy getting increased value through synergy with other cards, and rings is one such tool that is able to capitalize on this. It turns fetch lands into ramp, and cantrip effects into pure draw. Another card that I fits that mentality that I like is Salvaging Station, which is an incredible card draw engine when paired with all of the baubles. When Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient was spoiled, I was immediately in love. He's a Rings for your artifacts, which red was going to be running anyways, and synergized well with the Salvaging Station, which I was building several decks around at that time. It's not even about copying the big effects for closing out the game that got me excited - those effects can close out the game without help - it's that he had the capability to smooth out the entire game to get there; something that no other red Commander does nearly as well. Daretti can be a great value engine, but is limited in scope and timing.
The second thing I noted when I first started thinking about how to build him was his name. He's a red creature, named Kurk. Captain Kurk. While not the biggest Star Trek fan, I immediately wanted to play on the slight joke and make a deck that was capable of making an army of token 'red shirts.' Bonus points if the tokens were actually red. Initial cards, other than the wand, included Hammer of Purphoros, golem foundry and Titan Forge. The second thought was that I liked using Rings with fetch lands, so I brainstormed how to turn my lands into artifacts, which included the obvious Liquimetal Coating, but also the less often seen Myr Landshaper. From there, I started brainstorming ways to turn my non-artifact creatures into artifacts so I could copy their abilities, and Ashnod's Transmogrant came to the top of the list, since I was considering a salvaging station package (it eventually got cut) - Thran Forge was another option.
Of course, that's when I realized that since Rings of Brighthearth are easily broken and go infinite, that putting one in your command zone makes it very easy to build a deck that accidentally breaks itself, and this caused a... short... delay in the construction of the deck.
Eventually, I decided to rebuild a deck that would embrace the 'fun' side of Commander. Crazy effects, crazy interactions, unpredictable results. I thought back to my initial idea of 'Captain Kurk and his redshirt,' and I realized that idea had the very soul that I was looking for. This deck would even allow me to run older cards that had less inherent value, and Kurkesh's copy ability would be able to put them into an acceptable value range.
Not breaking Captain Kurk
Captain Kurk is unfortunately very easy to break; on top of that, he can generate such value chains that his play can be somewhat oppressive and unfun for players at times. This deck was built on the goal of interacting more, and running the engine less. It aims to interact on as many turns as possible, rather than assembling an engine that you revv up, and then explode into win mode in one turn.
The deck aims to cut back on two things:
This has cut out a number of good cards from the list, which is a risk in itself: cutting out too many cards makes the deck slower to react to opponents, and thus makes it harder to break a lock. This ends up leading toward that critical build up of suddenly winning on a certain turn, which we want to avoid. Thus, a careful line has to be found between effective, and useless.
CREATURES
1 Goblin Welder
2 Goblin Kaboomist
2 Myr Retriever
2 Stigma Lasher
3 Burnished Hart
3 Junk Diver
3 Myr Landshaper
3 Myr Propagator
4 Anger
4 Lord of Shatterskull Pass
4 Mindless Automaton
4 Obsidian Fireheart
4 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Golem Artisan
5 Thopter Squadron
6 Homura, Human Ascendant
6 Steel Hellkite
7 Pentavus
SPELLS
5 Scrap Mastery
7 All is Dust
9 Blasphemous Act
ENCHANTMENTS
2 Raging River
3 Bludgeon Brawl
3 Glacial Crevasses
PLANESWALKER
4 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
2 Mind Stone
3 Magnifying Glass
3 Unstable Obelisk
4 Hedron Archive
4 Gauntlet of Might
5 Gauntlet of Power
6 Caged Sun
ARTIFACT
0 Lodestone Bauble
0 Welding Jar
1 Phyrexian Furnace
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Skullclamp
2 Conch Horn
2 Liquimetal Coating
2 Spawning pit - OP synnergy?
2 Sun Droplet
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Eye of Yawgmoth
3 Mimic Vat
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Sculpting Steel
3 Titan Forge
4 Lux Cannon
4 Power Matrix
4 Prototype Portal
4 Wand of the Elements
5 MirrorWorks
5 Predator, Flagship
5 Tamiyo's Journal
6 Serpent Generator
7 Spine of Ish Sah
20 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terminal Moraine
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Terrain Generator
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Buried Ruin
1 Haunted Fengraf
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Mirrorpool
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Kher Keep
1 Springjack Pasture
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Dark Depths
CREATURES
1 Goblin Welder - Kurkesh interacts with artifacts. This means that artifacts will make up a large part of the deck. Goblin Welder is then an excellent card to generate value and remain resilient as the game goes on.
2 Goblin Kaboomist - He makes bombs. Kurkesh like bombs.
2 Myr Retriever - More resilience for the artifact build.
2 Stigma Lasher - This guy screams out for some early aggression, and the anti-lifegain ruins more peoples plans than they care to admit. He also adds a bit of tension to the table as to who will get hit by him, and he's not a bad blocker in a pinch either.
3 Burnished Hart - Mana acceleration.
3 Junk Diver - Resilience
3 Myr Landshaper - This guy allows us to use our fetch lands and utility lands and copy them.
3 Myr Propagator - They just keep propagating...
4 Anger - He's taking management courses, but not the right kind.
4 Lord of Shatterskull Pass - Agression. Also a real estate agent in his spare time, but he's not very good at it.
4 Mindless Automaton - While a decent card on its own, it turns into an interesting draw/loot ability with Kurkesh. For 1 you can discard a card to put a +1/+1 counter on it, but then copy that with Kurkesh for R to get 2 counters instead. This is conveniently enough counters to eat to replace the card you discarded, but you can copy this ability as well with Kurkesh (R) for two cards. This makes him a 1RR discard 1, draw 2, which is pretty acceptable repeatable draw. Also, you can simply use it to fuel him up and make a large beater as well, which you can eat to replenish your hand at any time, short of a Krosan Grip. He fits a draw engine, and aggro, all at the same time.
4 Obsidian Fireheart - Fireheart remains one of the most fun creatures in my mind. He's got decently aggressive stats, and the ability will add damage that adds up over a game. But the reminder text is what clenches it - The lands continue to burn.
4 Solemn Simulacrum - I like my ramp.
5 Golem Artisan - Gives any artifact good abilities, including haste, and firebreathing. Seems good and agressive.
5 Thopter Squadron - the sorcery speed limitation is an annoyance, but this is a decent flyer, that makes extra flyer tokens, and can get pretty crazy with Captain Kurk.
6 Homura, Human Ascendant - Aggression, that people don't want to block. Makes all tokens scarier.
6 Steel Hellkite - Hit people, killl stuff. Or just hit people.
7 Pentavus - A better Thopter Squadron.
SPELLS
5 Scrap Mastery - still testing, in case it ends up being too back breaking, but the though is that if a well-timed Bane of Progress is allowed to kill all my stuff, then I get to have the option to play a well-timed spell to bring it all back.
7 All is Dust - Mass Removal is sometimes needed.
9 Blasphemous Act - Likewise
ENCHANTMENTS
2 Raging River - Helps combat. Also it's hilarious.
3 Bludgeon Brawl - I've been looking for a good place to play Bludgeon Brawl for a while. I decided to add it into this deck so that Captain Kurk could more easily get into the red zone, plus the idea that Kirk would just pick up random pieces of the enterprise and hit people with them in the least dignified brawl possible. Seemed like a flavor win-win-win. I added it to the deck with high expectations, and they were all surpassed.
3 Glacial Crevasses - Sometimes you do need a little bit of protection. Also, this is just one of those cards that screams "wtf?" in red.
PLANESWALKER
4 Daretti, Scrap Savant - Goblin Welder in planeswalker form. I'd say that he discards stuff and has an awesome ultimate, but lets face it, he's going to weld, and then probably die. Why not replace him with Trash for Treasure for a mana cheaper? Because I can't turn Trash into an artifact with Liquimetal Coating and then copy it with Kurkesh. That's why.
ARTIFACT MANA
1 Sol Ring
1 Wayfarer's Bauble - lands
2 Mind Stone - cards
3 Magnifying Glass - Cards. Copy the investigate, and then copy the clues! Look at the value!
3 Unstable Obelisk - more boom
4 Hedron Archive - more cards
4 Gauntlet of Might
5 Gauntlet of Power
6 Caged Sun
ARTIFACT
0 Lodestone Bauble - Part of the initial Salvaging Station package, the initial plan of the deck was to fuel Hammer of Purphoros and Wand of the Elements, so recovering the lands seemed like a good idea. A secondary thought was to use Aggressive Mining for draw (turning it into an artifact to copy it), and use Walking atlas and Terrain Generator to get the lands back out.
0 Welding Jar - If there's ever a deck where this would have the capability to make an awesome play, or ruin someone's day, this would be it. It almost got cut when the salvaging station got cut, but I decided to keep it in for the time being.
1 Phyrexian Furnace - grave hate, +cards
1 Pyrite Spellbomb - Kurk's got grenades. or cards.
1 Scrabbling Claws - grave hate, +cards
1 Skullclamp - cards
2 Conch Horn - Filtration, and awesome art.
2 Liquimetal Coating - This card makes this deck happy. It lets Kurk do so much more than he usually can. Fun fact: turning a Bane of Progress into an artifact in response to its own ETB effect dulls some of the pain. Fun fact #2: Try turning someone elses thing into an artifact, and then Goblin Welder it to give them back their sol ring (They'll love you for it!).
2 Spawning pit - You need a creature to start it, but then it turns into 1RR make a 2/2 dude, which isn't bad. There are a couple of extra dies and ETB triggers, plus the whole tapped vs untapped thing, but it turns into a decent token maker. Which it already was, but now ends up even more!
2 Sun Droplet - So innocuous, so innocent, and it keeps you holding on.
3 Crucible of Worlds - gets back those lands you keep killing off.
3 Eye of Yawgmoth - Card draw/filtration. Since there aren't really any combos in the deck, we don't really mind the exile. You only need to put a 2/2 or 3/3 into it, and then copy it with Kurkesh. Decent value. Can replace with Serum Tank or Jar of Eyeballs if you prefer 'safer' ways of drawing cards, but so far, so fun.
3 Mimic Vat - High likelyhood of something crazy about to happen/
3 Oblivion Stone - boom
3 Sculpting Steel - This could be an extra mana doubler - I do like my mana. It could be a rings - I do like my rings. It could be a Burnished Hart - I do like my harts. It could be a Mirror Works and a Mirror Works, - Because I like having my mirror works, with a mirror works, with a mirror works, with a ...
3 Titan Forge - It is slow? yes. Is it klunky? yes. Does it do something impressive? Put it in.
4 Lux Cannon - see titan forge.
4 Power Matrix - For something that is essentially an equipment, this seems to annoy people a fair amount...
4 Prototype Portal - If this hits, something is going to happen in the game. I still dream of putting a mirrorworks on one of these.
4 Wand of the Elements - RED SHIRTS! That is enough reasons to play this card right there!
5 Mirror Works - This turns any position into a crazy position.
5 Predator, Flagship - Easily gives anything flying, easily takes things out of the sky.
5 Tamiyo's Journal - A repeatable source of Clues, which can each be double broken with Kurkesh! He takes his investigations seriously...
6 Serpent Generator - If there were ever a poison counter win that would qualify as epic, it would have to be death from Serpent Generator. You can't even be mad... It's a serpent Generator. This is one of the few cards I remember having a strong attachment to from when I started playing Magic. I had the Serpent Generator, my sister had The Hive. The battle was on.
7 Spine of Ish-Sah - It booms a thing, and then plays well with welder. Or it could just die. I'm not trying to force the issue, but if it happens, I won't be sad.
0X Orochi Hatchery - There seem to be a fair number of snakes in the deck, isn't there? That wasn't even planned, but ok.
LANDS
20 Snow-Covered Mountain - Nope, it's not for extraplanar lens. And nope, it's not for scrying sheets. It's for awesome.
1 Thawing Glaciers - fetch.
1 Terramorphic Expanse - fetch
1 Evolving Wilds - fetch
1 Terminal Moraine - bad fetch
1 Myriad Landscape - fetch fetch
1 Terrain Generator - lands
1 Mouth of Ronom - fine, another use for snow-lands. It's pretty cool for what it is though.
1 Tectonic Edge - I can't have a coffers, you can't have a coffers. deal with it.
1 Ghost Quarter - ditto
1 Buried Ruin - I like my artifacts
1 Haunted Fengraf - Brings back my welder. So I can bring back more artifacts. Simple.
1 Rogue's Passage - make TWO things unblockable. Bet you didn't see that coming! Oooh... you could make unblockable snakes! Kaseto has got nothing on that!
1 Vesuva - It's a...
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle - We are playing red...
1 Kher Keep - remember those Caged Suns and Gauntlets? These guys have a bite... (and they're RED shirts! wheee!)
1 Springjack Pasture - Just wait till I name 'white' with my gauntlets. That's when you know the doom is upon you.
1 Mishra's Factory - great blocker, can be vesuva'd for offense.
1 Blinkmoth Nexus - Flying factory.
1 Dark Depths - Because nothing screams fun like a a 20/20 indestructible flyer that you didn't cheat to get.
CARDS THAT WANT IN
If you can help me find space for them, I would appreciate it!
1 spikeshot elder
3 Feldon of the third path
6 Wurmcoil Engine
6 Rapacious One
5 the hive
1 Lightning Bolt
5 Volcanic Offering
5 Fiery Confluence
How epic are the games, really?
You tell me!
I've copied over a few of my reports from the first three weeks into this post here, including such things as a Wasp equipped with its own the hive, copying Vesuvas, and some hot Radiate on Radiate action. There have been a few bumps, but I think it's gone generally well.
Since then, I've regularly copied over brief play reports into this very thread! Here are a few of them:
This post here! (again) as the first of many recorded games!
Game report 1/13/2016 - In which I brutally take out a Jenara player with an Avenger of Zendikar army, but then brutally fall before the onslaught of Konda Commander damage.
Game report 1/17/2016 - In which Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle does some serious, serious work, and an army of redshirts threatens domination, but a massive misplay costs me the game 6 turns after it happened.
Game report 1/27/2016 - In which I died to a horde of angry omnath army, but do manage to annoy him by killing omnath no less that 5 times, preventing at least 7 more firends of his from landfalling into battle.
Game Report 2/4/2016 - In which everyone gets to play with my Marit Lage, except for me.
Game Report 2/11/2016 - In which a Konda deck outramps everyone.
Game Report 2/25/2016 - In which I conspire with a Mogis player, and then am brutally betrayed!
Game Report 4/7/2016 - In which, late to the party, I keep a bad hand, and everyone else plays with my Marit Lage again (except me, again).
Game Report 4/14/2016 - In which some werewolves can't get past a Glacial Crevasses, and a second game in which our heroic Captain gets all the mana and finds himself in a brawl.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
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StaffPossibly Extraplanar Lens, but that seems try-hard status.
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kidnapping part of this post
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4 Snake Basket - Just hope someone is playing white, that way you can make a bad joke.
3 Sunstone - There is a red enchantment of this... oh yeah, it's in the deck.
5 Radiate - I don't know what this is going to hit, but I'll know it when I see it.
3 Rings of Brighthearth - Because one Kurkesh is not enough Kurkesh.
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
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StaffRetired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
Extraplanar Lens wouldn't be too try-hard if it wasn't for the snow-basics, and I really had to hunt to find the reason for those and then laughed. I was like "it's not the lens, it's not scrying sheets, it's not skred, it's not rimescale dragon, why the hell is he playing those? Oh... I did not know that exists, lol." I'd say keep that the way it is and leave Lens out.
I feel like it's a missed opportunity to play Radiate without a single proactive counterpart. Chaos Warp would probably be durdling for the sake of it (although that led my mind to the other versatile red removal, Aftershock, which would undoubtedly be the most regrettable Radiate ever. "I'll just cast this Jokulhaups that also kills me, it's a very strong play"). But a cantrip is fun with Radiate, or Volt Charge can be pretty strong. "3 damage to all creatures and 17 counters on Titan Forge, please" seems good enough without being slow or game breaking. Having no plan at all for Radiate seems like a fun miss since your opponents are going to see you play Radiate and know you were just sitting there with 5 mana open waiting for an opportunity to screw with the game. I feel like having some proactive plan for every card justifies the good intentions of their inclusion and makes people feel better about it when Radiating someone else's Capsize just happens to be the right play.
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StaffSince Inkmoth is gone (and only Serpent Generator remains for poison) Contagion Engine could make an entrance, especially if I add some more charge counter stuff, or +1 counter creatures... or Grim Poppet...
Glacial Crevasses is the enchantment I was thinking of, which will go in with the other reason for snow covered's. =) Or replace it.
I kind of also want to put Flaring Pain in a deck, but I don't think this is the one for that...
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Gonna put down Myr Propagator just so I don't forget about it.
Puffer Extract... hm
Conch Horn...
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3 Glacial Crevasses
5 Predator, Flagship
4 Snake Basket
0 Lodestone Bauble
6 Steel Hellkite
3 Eye of Yawgmoth
4 Wand of the Elements
4 Helm of Possesion
7 Summoning Station
4 Echo Chamber
1 Conjurer's Bauble
6 Salvaging Station
1 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Hammer of Purphoros
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
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StaffThe elementals are all 5/5 flyers's thanks to Homura and 2 Gauntlets.
Debating whether that counts as epic, or out-of-nowhere combo wombo. It may point the finger at Elemental Mastery for being too much of a board-state-ignoring/invalidate-the-game finisher (it doesn't really serve any other purpose). Hm. =/ I was feeling very smart on finding that card for the deck. Now I wonder.
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StaffRetired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
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Staff1 fetch
1 fetch
1 fetch
1 fetch
1 Darksteel citadel
1 opal palace
4 elemental mastery
1 terramorphic expanse
1 evolving wilds
1 terminal moraine
1 thawing glaciers
1 mouth of ronom
1 rogue's passage
3 Thran Forge
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Trying to make a point here about the fetches, bob?
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StaffI figure, this is the deck I'm playing most right now, since it's newest, and I'm still tweaking it; plus it's supposed to be the more 'fun' deck, so fetches might be a bit over the top.
Let's just see where it goes.
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Goblin Charbelcher.
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Staff3 Thran Forge
1 Expedition Map
2 walking Atlas
5 Golem Artisan
2 Raging River
2 Goblin Kaboomist
Thran Forge, while still on the radar for the list, got put in because it remains a potential, and I had just swapped out a card. I now realized that I only have 2 targets for it, which seems bad. Back onto the maybe list for when I get more non-artifact creatures in the list. Who knows, maybe some new OGW eldrazi will be interesting.
Expedition Map was more important when there was the thought for a heavier land sac/recur theme, as I would need the Terrain Generator to compensate. This is no longer the case (although glaciers would be a nice grab), and I am trying to do 'less tutor' style, so cut it.
Walking Atlas gets cut on the same reasons. I've take to showing opponents a selection of cards after the game, and choosing something to come in. Goblin Kaboomist got selected, and I decided that Atlas was an acceptable cut for him. Atlas may return depending on future land drop needs.
Golem Artisan has been wanting to come in for a short while now, but he adds a nice host of abilities to artifacts.
Raging River is a cool, iconic older card that many people will need to read again. It should also help with combat, by separating people from their blockers. Technically Goblin War Drums may be 'better,' but nowhere near as fun. Let's see how it goes.
Goblin Kaboomist is explained above with walking atlas.
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Sun stone may get cut. It was unimpressive last night, and the option of red fogs was not as impressive to anyone as it should have. In truth, it's the activation cost that was the most annoying, so Glacial Crevasses may stay in, even after sun stone goes (I mean, we gotta keep at least 1); although, I did find it amusing that I could sac Dark Depths to sun stone, but not crevasses.
I've been on the fence about Bosh, Iron Golem and Karn, Silver Golem. I think Bosh is still too much out of nowhere, but karn may be a good aggressive add to the deck. Attacking people with Prototype Portals and Hedron Archives sounds fun. Hopefully he isn't too strong, but if he is, I can always try Toymaker instead.
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Also, for completeness:
WEEK 1:
WEEK 2:
WEEK 3:
I think I am on a good path with the deck.
I also like the asking people to select cards to make it into the deck. I worry that I'll end up in a weird corner of 'flex' slots where I keep replacing the same things over and over again, but that hasn't happened yet, and maybe I'll just need to implement a 'don't cut a card until you've played with it' self rule.
I'm overplaying the deck right now though, and people are getting a bit tired of seeing it constantly back-to-back, so I'm probably only going to play one game with it next week. Maybe make another new deck, or fix up some existing decks in the meantime.
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Staff3 Sunstone
4 Snake Basket
3 Myr Propagator
2 Conch Horn
-Snake Basket +Myr Propagator
Snake Basket looks explosively 1 shot game ending, the myr looks amusing.
-Sunstone +Conch Horn
Sunstone did not impress me much when I cast it, though partially due to mana problems. Not only could I not really afford to lose a land in that game, but the 2 cost to activate was actually steep. Lets drop down to just Glacial Crevasses, and keep Sun Stone on the sides in case it needs to come back in.
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How about adding splinter twin?
I could imagine that this would be fun on a wurmcloil engine or Triskelion since the enchantment say "Enchanted creature has:".. so the effect is on an Artifact and can be copied.
Am I right?
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StaffSquee could be funny, but I don't really have anything to use him with. Maybe a 1/1 that won't die is enough though. I'll sleep on it.
There's not a lot that's off budget, and everything is easily replaceable. The only thing that really has any value is Gauntlet of Might, which you could run Mana Flare or Exraplanar Lens as a straight replacement, or simply just cut it. It's not that crucial to the gameplan. I just had one, and wanted to put it somewhere.
You are entirely right about Splinter Twin, and that's exactly why Elemental Mastery was in here previously. The elementals proved a bit scary, but since there's no twin combo, Splinter Twin could be a lot of fun... I may still avoid it due to how it has the perception of being solely a combo piece, but I actually really like the idea of it...
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StaffOnly played one game with Kurkesh this night, but it was a bit wonky, including a couple of O-stone activations resetting the board and changing our strategy. Our favorite Captain vs. Jenara, Kaseto, and Konda.
I started with an opening hand of Myr Propagator, 3 lands, and some stuff, so then plan seemed like a turn 3 propagator into Kurkesh, into propagation. Drawing a Myriad Landscape with a Rings of Brighthearth changed the plan though, so we went T3 rings, T4 Kurkesh, T5 double landscape activation. The rings then got destroyed by a Trygon Predator. Oh well. Drop the Propagator and a Power Matrix to ward off the predator. The power matrix remains untapped for pretty much most of the game in order to ward off the predator. I propagate a few propagators, but this actually doesn't feel as good as I had hoped. While it's only 2 mana per 1/1 overall, the fact that I can't attack with them if I want to propagate is actually really bugging me - much more than I had assumed it would. Eventually I also drop a Spawning Pit, to use up any excess mana. Spawning pit gets broken when I blasphemous act (clearing out Jenara's army with a Champion of Lambholdt, while he has Cathars' Crusade in play, and an Avenger of Zendikar in hand). I follow up with an Orochi Hatchery on 6. Jenara follows up with the expected AoZ for 10 plant tokens, so everything has 11 +1/+1 counters. Konda get periodic pokes in on me throughout the game, since he has a Helm of Kaldra on, so blocking actually involves taking more damage. Konda drops an Oblivion Stone, with mana up, to deflect the hordes. I drop Kurkesh, and pass, such that I will have the needed blockers. Kaseto dies to plants. I make snakes, drop a Bludgeon Brawl and take out Jenara with a flying Kurkesh (Power Matrix!) with stuff (Power Matrix, Sun droplet, etc) equipped to him, I also hit Konda with some snakes. Konda kills my snake machine (Ostone), hits me, and assembles the Kaldra-tron. I drop liquimetal coating, turn Konda into an artifact, and Scrap Mastery to get rid of the kaldra pieces and buy a turn on Konda (this gets Konda back some ostone). Konda plays Konda. I drop Kurkesh, drop a scrabbling claws. Konda explodes the O-stone, so I eat the Kaldra set and something. Konda enlightened tutors for an Argentum Armor, which is lethal, since I'm at 12 Commander already.
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StaffKurkesh sits down vs. Surrak, Thrax, and Athreos.
Kurkesh starts, and starts with an amazingly powerful turn 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. This proceeds into a turn 2 Myriad Landscape, a turn 3 Burnished Hart, and a turn 4 Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient. Kurkesh and the Burnished Hart go around the table doing a few points here and there, and the Burnished Hart gets surprised by a surprise Surrak blocker. So it quickly dies, fetches up some mountains and kills Surrak. Thrax tries to jump out, but eats hot lead from Valakut+Myriad Landscape. Surrak is mana screwed, and Thrax summons an Army of the Damned. Athreos wipes the board. During this time I've gotten power matrix, so I re-drop Kurkesh, and a Wand of the Elements. Thrax drops a Crypt Ghast, so I mountain it. I drop a Spawning Pit, and begin applying pressure. An army of the damned had been flashed back on Thraxes side, so I return a Burnished Hart with my Buried Ruin. Surrak drops a Rurik Thar, which I completely forget to remove, and makes the game sad for me for the rest of the game. Reason I forgot to remove it was that a lot of zombies were attacking me. So I blocked a big Zombie with the Hart, Made two 3/3 elementals for 2 more, made 2 2/2 pinchers for 2 more (given +1/+1 and first strike with Power Matrix), and broke the Hart to bolt 4 of them. Oh yeah, Thrax has a Whip of Erebos, which may have prompted some stuff. Anyways, I kill a lot of zombies, and blank a lot of damage, but then realize I forgot Rurik (oops). Oh well. Athreos breaks My Titan Forge with 2 charge counters (le sigh), so I take my last potshot at Surrak with Kurkesh (12 commander damage!); he almost blocks with Rurik, and then realizes last second that I can double power matrix for the kill. Oh well. Things go a bit downhill from here. I eventually kill Athreos, but sadly my Power Matrix gets killed in the process. I'm holding on with a more than small army of 3/3 and 2/2's, but take 3 blasts from Rurik for a Scrabbling Claws, a Glacial Crevasses, and a Gauntlet of Might. My hope is to hold on with the glacial Crevasses to blank Thrax's life gain, and kill him with my not-small army, saccing anything he blocks to the pit in order to prevent life gain. Solid plan. My Gauntlet of Might enables a Primal Surge from surrak, which nets him a 60+/60+ Hamletback, but he can't win due to Glacial Crevasses. I then eat a lethal Exsanguinate to the face from Thrax. Oops.
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StaffRetired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
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StaffRetired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
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StaffIt's Kurkesh vs Oona mill, Roon etb, and Jenara lands.
An early Aura of Silence slows me down considerably, and being stuck on 5 lands doesn't help much. I manage to cheat in a Gauntlet of Power and Caged Sun, so that keeps me afloat in the midst of insane mana on all sides. I drop a Dark Depths as one of my land drops, and ever so slowly start peeling off counters. Jenara drops a Thespian Stage. Huh. That's not good. Jenara has a Marit Lage. Oona Clones the Marit Lage. Roon doesn't have much, except the biggest boardstate around due to abusing Cloudstone Curio and Reveillark. Fun.
Oona saves me from Marit Lage, but Jenara regrows the Thespian Stage for round 2. Roon takes care of that Marit Lage, and some Roon, Lark, Curio, Acidic Slime action starts popping off all of everyone's enchantments and artifacts (how is that thing still alive?). Including my Glacial Crevasses, which upsets me seeing as I'm at 9 life, and everyone else is at 35+, or even 40+. Darin Marit Lage. Jenara finally clears stuff up with a nice Austere Command. This primes me for an epic Scrap Mastery, which actually kills Roon, since it returns Oona's Mesmeric Orb, which, hilariously, is enough to mill Roon out.
I was impressed that Jenara hadn't countered the mastery, or exiled choice parts of my graveyard, but I quickly learned why as a Fracturing Gust takes it all back out and gains him many lifes. I die to several quite large animated lands, as my 3/3 red elemental Wand of the Elements token I crafted in response is not nearly enough to save me.
I believe Oona then milled out Jenara as well, which I felt partly responsible for. I'll take it.
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StaffI managed to drop a Raging River, which made me happy, but then Karlov exiled it. Why would anyone ever exile a Raging River? The rest of the game was mostly unexciting on my end, as a low land count vs two large armies had Kurkesh pretty much tied down. Then Konda managed to Elspeth Ult to destroy non-token things, but had flashed gotten an Avacyn out, and then followed it up with an oblivion stone for sealing the deal as neither I nor Karlov cound recover.
Between Thawing Glaciers, Deserted Temple and Sword of Feast and Famine (with an early Weathered Wayfarer, Konda managed to pull out an impressive number of lands, and was easily doubling both of us put together, if not more. Easily 20-30 lands (plus sofaf untap), compared to my 6 at the end of the game (+ Dark Depths, but that doesn't tap for mana).
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StaffMogis comes out early, so people are pinging for two rather than sacrificing a creature. Both Karlov and Konda get scary early boardpresences, kept only moderately not in check by my Goblin Welder + Spine of Ish Sah combo, while I myself am protected by a Power Matrix. Of course, the artifact that keeps returning during this combo is a Wayfarer's Bauble, which get s more relevant once I draw a Valakut, the molten Pinnacle, and helps keep the scary decks a bit more down.
Mogis had started off early with that dude that sets people's life to 1 when unblocked, and then also followed up with a Sire of Insanity. This was amusing, as at least 3 other players actually wanted the Sire to stick around. I was happy to site on Goblin Welder + Spine.
Finally, I make a bargain with the Mogis player, and collude to eliminate flying blockers (Valakut+Wayfarer's // Pyrite spellbomb+copy), as well as give his guy flying (Power Matrix, and he eliminates both of them after each other. Grandma doesn't like where this is going, and hits me with enough stuff that I die shortly after, and Mogis eventually wraps up the game.
I liked the collusion eliminations though, even though I didn't get to capitalize on it.
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StaffWill debate on potential cuts. Conch Horn, Lodestone Bauble, and Crucible of Worlds have been under-performing (since most of my land self-sacrifice isn't in the deck). They may be the cuts.
Contemplating reversing my Helm of Possession, or perhaps add in Avarice Totem instead.
Goblin Charbelcher is still on the maybes as well. Possibly cut Sun droplet for it? If I cut sun droplet, I'd like to have a Loxodon Warhammer back in though. I need some life recovery somewhere. Perhaps Radiate. It's had its moment, and been lackluster outside of that.
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Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!