Kumano, Master Yamabushi
So, context. I've been playing a mono-red EDH deck for years now, though it's gone through several iterations. I believe it started as a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker deck, switched to Urabrask the Hidden, then Kumano, Master Yamabushi, then back to Kiki-Jiki, then to Fumiko, the Lowblood, and rested with KJ for a while. However, recently I came into possession of Hazezon Tamar and I ended up merging my KJ and Gahiji, Honored One decks together to make Hazezon a new one with a ton of synergy. Because of this, the shell of my mono-red deck was general-less, and I recalled I quite enjoyed it when it had been Kumano. I had initially switched away from him though because the deck became absolutely brutal against the decks in my meta game, which had been quite young at the time. Now that my meta game is older and more able to deal with it, it's getting rebuilt. Also, Kumano's always been my favorite Legend from Kamigawa (even more than KJ).
The card that is Kumano, Master Yamabushi is mono-red, costs 3RR, is a Human Shaman, is 4/4 and says, "1R: Kumano, Master Yamabushi deals 1 damage to target creature or player. If a creature dealt damage by Kumano this turn would be put into a graveyard, exile it instead." To best take advantage of him, this deck looks to make a ton of mana and employ the use of deathtouching equipment to basically have super cheap spot removal for creatures, and conditional Fireballs. Not only will this destroy creatures left and right for only two mana, but it will exile them upon their hitting the 'yard. Additionally, if they happen to be dying in another way and you just don't want them to be recurrable (looking at you, Anger), even if Kumano doesn't have deathtouch at the moment, his second ability will trigger if you just use his activated ability to ping the creature once.
Strategy
In the early game, this deck's main objective is to get mana. Lots of mana. All of the manas. We want to get more specifically red mana here over the chunks of colorless mana that mana rocks like Thran Dynamo can provide because Kumano's pinging ability requires red. Additionally, playing out equipment and some board control (as needed) is quite prudent.
For the mid-game, when you get to 5+ mana, play Kumano and immediately protect him if possible. Having to replay him from the command zone will become a huge pain. After having him out and protected, suit him up with something deathtouchy and begin playing the "at the end of your turn, I'll..." control game, and pinging threats as needed. Going aggro with Kumano during this time will not be a bad idea as you could possibly win through general damage, made easier by the lack of blockers on the field.
The late game will be when you have mountains of Mountains, thus having globs of mana. You know what's an excellent sink for your globs of mana? Burning your opponent's face off with Kumano's activated ability. In case Kumano gets tucked or somehow rendered unusable, we have some X-costing, Fireball-esque spells to dump all of that mana into, as well as some creatures that may also suit up with Kumano's equipment to ping in a similar way.
Sol Ring - The acceleration this card can provide is undeniable. Expedition Map - Valakut. Maybe Nykthos, but really just Valakut. Iron Myr - Mana dork in red for faster ramp? I'm down. I have a certain fondness for the original Mirrodin art. Armillary Sphere - Two more mountains in my hand sounds good. Braid of Fire - Unfortunately, I can only use this mana during my upkeep, buuuut Kumano's ability can be activated any time! Also good for instants. Journeyer's Kite - Not only gives me more mountains in hand, but thins the deck over a long game. Pilgrim's Eye - Flying blocker that tutors for a mountain. Darksteel Ingot - A mana rock that doesn't get hit by Vandalblast. Burnished Hart - True artifact ramp. I hart it. Solemn Simulacrum - Card advantage. Koth of the Hammer - He's here mainly for his +1 for some ramp. In the late game, his -2 could provide for a massive Fireball aimed at someone's face. His ult can help close out games. Gilded Lotus - The great thing about this is the fact it gives a chunk of colored mana. Gauntlet of Power - Doubles all of your mana, but beware of the symmetry of its effect. Caged Sun - Yay asymmetry! Mana Geyser - Wait for a turn where most everyone's tapped out, but make everything go boom. However, it gets worse with less players. Godo, Bandit Warlord - The best equipment tutor in red. The only equipment tutor in red?
Elixir of Immortality - Anti-mill/last-second life-bump. Crystal Ball - Red doesn't really do card advantage, but we can still have card selection cheaply. Mad Prophet - For dead draws. Reforge the Soul - Drawing this on an empty hand or a hand full of dead draws will be great late in the game. Mindmoil - Getting a new hand every time I play a spell sounds good. Charmbreaker Devils - One of my favorite cards from Innistrad, this guy is here specifically for his first ability. Knollspine Dragon - Late game Wheel attached on a nice fatty.
Reverberate - Red suffers in Commander from the lack of ability to gain advantage, or generally have spells that do things other than burning someone's face off or blowing up artifacts. If your opponents do, you can make it so you do too. My favorite target for this excellent spell is usually either countering a counter (suck it blue), or hitting a Boundless Realms with a Valakut in play. Giggitty. Mimic Vat - The best creature to be blown up can be yours once a turn cycle. Keep an eye out for quality ETB effects. Reiterate - More expensive Reverberate x53,406,082,476,809. Heat Shimmer - Before M14 rules, this used to essentially say, "Destroy target legendary creature," but it still works well when there's a nice ETB effect somewhere. Zealous Conscripts - Need to make a big swing but don't have the muscle? Borrow your friend's fatty! Permanent giving you trouble? Take it for yourself for a turn! Duplicant - Good removal while also providing a (presumably) good body. Molten Primordial - Mini-insurrection on a body. Insurrection - All your creature are belong to us.
Basilisk Collar - The card that, in conjunction with Kumano, inspired me to build this deck. The added lifelink is straight-up sexiness. Glaring Spotlight - There's a Uril and several other Hexproof fatties running around my meta. With this, they'll not escape the pings. Gorgon's Head - Deathtouch for Kumano. Gorgon Flail - See above. Illusionist's Bracers - Two targets per activation seems good. Lightning Greaves - Protects Kumano from spot removal, and makes him a hasty little beater. Swiftfoot Boots - Preferred over the Greaves. Heartstone - WHY HAS THIS CARD NOT HAD ANY FUNCTIONAL REPRINTS IN MY COLOR IDENTITY?!?! Seriously though, this double the damage output from Kumano and his back-ups, and bam, efficiency turns into value. Darksteel Plate - Protects Kumano, relevant in the mid-game when you can pop off sweepers like Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction leaving Kumano as the last man standing. Quietus Spike - More deathtouch, plus a nifty trigger for when Kumano's going aggro for better reach. Grafted Exoskeleton - Doing ten damage to someone's face tends to be easier than forty, just watch out for artifact removal. Sword of Kaldra - It may be expensive, but equipping to Kumano or one of his back-ups (oh hey there, Inferno Titan), will be living the life. Also, exiletouch in most situations tends to be strictly better than deathtouch (there are Blightsteels in my meta). Curse of Bloodletting - "Don't attack me, get that guy, he's squishier!" Effectively halves someone's life. Gratuitous Violence - If we can't find something that gives deathtouch or even just burning someone's face, this gives more reach.
Chandra's Spitfire - Read this card. Now read Kumano's activated ability. Now imagine Kumano pinging someone's face 5 times, then swinging with this. Yeah, that's a thing. Inferno Titan - Kumano's favorite background dancer can pew-pew three separate creatures per attack while suited up. Ancient Hellkite - Like the last dragon, he can only activate on attacking (bombing?), and wears Basilisk Collar quite well.
Vandalblast - The only thing I could wish more from this card is that it was an instant. Shattering Pulse - Yay buyback! Viashino Heretic - More artifact destruction, with some conditional burn on top of it. Aftershock - Probably the most versatile spell in this deck. If you're afraid of taking the three damage from it, you can go back to your UW pillowfort deck and cower. Chain Reaction - Good for stopping early-game runaway plays, especially when there are tokens involved. Or Animar. Stuffy Doll - This guy's an experiment. Hitting a Blasphemous Act while he's wearing Grafted Exoskeleton sound fun though. Also, when in play with Gratuitous Violence, all outgoing damage gets doubled, so that might happen. Fissure - Good for when there's a problem land or if Kumano's death engine is offline. Blasphemous Act - See Chain Reaction. Devil's Play - I have the Buy-A-Box for this, which looks soooo much better than the ordinary one, so it needs to have a home somewhere. Extra valuable late game for its flashback. Red Sun's Zenith - This one's similar to Devil's Play in how you can get it more than once. Also, it has the same exile-on-death effect that Kumano does, so if Kumano's not online, this can substitute. Comet Storm - Mana-sinking this at the end of someone's turn to burn off multiple faces will be positively delightful. Starstorm - Instant-speed board wipe when I need it, or another card when I don't.
Weaknesses
It's well-known that Red is the worst color to play in Commander, especially mono-colored, so naturally it has some weaknesses. The first things that comes to mind are enchantments (we don't have a way to deal with those currently), permission blue decks, infinite combos, and, because we rely so much on artifacts, artifact removal. The best things we can do about enchantments of any variety are 1. wait for WotC to print more cards like Chaos Warp, 2. make friends at the table with the controller(s) of the most problematic enchantments, or 3. kill them first. Against blue decks that run things like Hinder and Cyclonic Rift, we have a little more wiggle-room for dealing with them by way of Reverberate-type effects. I thought about packing some blue hate here, but decided to use that space to tighten up the theme, and so I don't targeted by everyone and their brother after popping off a Boil. Infinite Combos, luckily, are frowned upon in my meta, but they still exist, and we kill those players first. For them, we have lots of artifact hate (if there's an artifact involved), burn for creatures, and more Reverberate effects (I'm also thinking of including Stranglehold for these types of decks). Our deck isn't totally reliant on artifacts, nor is it a win condition for any Commander decks I've ever seen in my life to win through blowing up artifacts, so an occasional Vandalblast will sting and slow the deck down a bit, but we can keep on keeping on.
Wishlist Vedalken Orrery - After the early game, this deck will function as a control deck, and everything's more efficient when you can play it at instant-speed. Chaos Warp - Can deal with any target-able permanent, with a small downside that could be a big downside but rarely is. Wild Ricochet - Better control through hijacking spells and doubling them. Pretty much essential. I thought I had an extra copy of this while I was building the deck, but I guess I was mistaken, so this will be bought/traded for and put in shortly. Browbeat - I use this in any deck I have not running blue or green, and in my experience, rarely anyone in my meta wants to take five damage. It's especially good in the early game when grudges have yet to be made. Buried Ruin - I like getting my artifacts back. Staff of Nin - Mono-red has no way to gain real card advantage, other than artifacts like this. Chandra, Pyromaster - Utility card for greater card quality. Goblin Sharpshooter - Cheap back-up for Kumano, but only really effective against creatures. Fork - The original Reverberate, good for counters and big, splashy spells. Deep-Slumber Titan - With Kumano, effectively a four drop 7/7 that says, "1R : untap this creature." This is just a maybe though, as he's a vanilla beater. War Elemental - Another maybe. Easily maintainable with Kumano though, and will quickly grow. Repercussion - Makes pings more gratifying. Also works exceedingly well with Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction. Mages' Contest - Not expecting a counter from a red deck? Oops. Red control ftw.
I really like Kumano, and in the few games I've gotten with this deck since rebuilding it, it's been enjoyable to have a quasi-burn deck in Commander. Please share any constructive criticism you have, I'm in the business for improvement!
Changelog March 21, 2014
Out: Conquering Manticore, Forgestoker Dragon, Shivan Hellkite - Trying to reduce the average CMC since we already have places to dump a ton of mana.
In: Chandra's Spitfire - The interaction between this card and multiple activations of Kumano's pinging ability seems utterly fantastic. Mindmoil, Mad Prophet - Red cards that are pretty close to card advantage. Being able to cycle through a new hand every turn with Mindmoil may be pretty good, and Mad Prophet for any dead draws.
I have had Kumano as my mono-red general for a long time, so I can certainly vouch for his effectiveness. My build has a lot of differences, but the overall plan is pretty similar.
@TheDrB Thanks for the suggestions! The deck's still on a budget right now, so there's the reason why I haven't gotten Blood Moon yet, and Spinerock Knoll will likely be coming down the line too (as of now, my only copy of the Knoll is locked up in another deck).
I used to play Mindmoil in a Niv-Mizzet deck I kept up to get all of the draw triggers off of it and still have that copy sitting around somewhere, so I may experiment a bit with that. I also have an extra copy of Heartless Hidetsugu somewhere, so I'll try him out if I find one or two more ways to give creatures lifelink. Also, sweet Sysco Imperial Bartlett pear-halves, I have never thought of that interaction with Chandra's Spitfire, I'll be scouring through all of my red cards to find a copy of that immediately after I finish writing this.
The thing about Goblin Sharpshooter is that it's excellent for machine-gunning away a board of creatures, but does barely anything against players. If I can get a trade for him soon, I'll give him a go in this deck and see whether I like him or not.
@lechgame I'm not sure about Spine, but if my deck ends up skewing more towards artifact support, I'll definitely consider it. As for PWs in general, I'm just not a huge fan of them in this format. I use Koth for the ramp, but Chandras #1 & 3 are pretty underwhelming unless they get their ults off, Chandra #2 really needs a dedicated burn deck, and Chandra #4, though she'd be pretty good here, is currently too high for my budget. Maybe after a few paychecks for her.
Aw shucks, that's excellent! Let me know how it goes.
As another longtime Kumano player (I'll be putting my list up shortly but figured I'd check out what's already here), there is one glaring omission your deck has in my eyes: Repercussion. That card is simply nuts, letting you burn people by killing their creatures, and making combat more awkward for everyone. It also combos nicely with red wraths like Chain Reaction/Blasphemous Act, as well as your Starstorm, Red Sun's Zenith, Devil's Play, and Comet Storm (if you ever target creatures with that). Other than that, I like your list; it seems to do pretty much everything mine does, heh. I also give you points for including Stuffy Doll; I hadn't thought of that.
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@RepressedDepression I don't know how I didn't think of that. I run Repercussion in my Gisela deck for a similar effect, and running one in here will make all of the pings count a tad more. Thanks for the suggestion! I look forward to seeing your list.
Deck-Playing Anecdote
Last night at my weekly gaming club, we got together a massive Commander game of twelve players. To expedite turns and all, we split off into four teams of three people each. On my team, I had actually been running my Tariel deck, with another friend who was playing a Progenitus deck made for Maze's End, and another friend (his name's Jack) who ran this Kumano deck. The entire game was pretty swingy, the Progenitus guy was eliminated and I was dropped to two life. Luckily, Jack popped off a Mana Geyser for 72 mana, hitting each of the eight opponents left for 62 damage with Comet Storm, and high-fives were immediately exchanged among our team members. I had worried this deck wouldn't be able to hold its own in big games, but it seems alright now.
I've considered making a Kumano deck myself, but taking more of a voltron approach using firebreathing effects, like Homura, Human Ascendant (requires a sac outlet or board wipe), Moonveil Dragon, Shiv's Embrace (a backup for Homura), or Ghitu War Cry/Captive Flame. You obviously wouldn't want to run all of them, but they make a great mana sink.
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So, context. I've been playing a mono-red EDH deck for years now, though it's gone through several iterations. I believe it started as a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker deck, switched to Urabrask the Hidden, then Kumano, Master Yamabushi, then back to Kiki-Jiki, then to Fumiko, the Lowblood, and rested with KJ for a while. However, recently I came into possession of Hazezon Tamar and I ended up merging my KJ and Gahiji, Honored One decks together to make Hazezon a new one with a ton of synergy. Because of this, the shell of my mono-red deck was general-less, and I recalled I quite enjoyed it when it had been Kumano. I had initially switched away from him though because the deck became absolutely brutal against the decks in my meta game, which had been quite young at the time. Now that my meta game is older and more able to deal with it, it's getting rebuilt. Also, Kumano's always been my favorite Legend from Kamigawa (even more than KJ).
The card that is Kumano, Master Yamabushi is mono-red, costs 3RR, is a Human Shaman, is 4/4 and says, "1R: Kumano, Master Yamabushi deals 1 damage to target creature or player. If a creature dealt damage by Kumano this turn would be put into a graveyard, exile it instead." To best take advantage of him, this deck looks to make a ton of mana and employ the use of deathtouching equipment to basically have super cheap spot removal for creatures, and conditional Fireballs. Not only will this destroy creatures left and right for only two mana, but it will exile them upon their hitting the 'yard. Additionally, if they happen to be dying in another way and you just don't want them to be recurrable (looking at you, Anger), even if Kumano doesn't have deathtouch at the moment, his second ability will trigger if you just use his activated ability to ping the creature once.
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Temple of the False God
1 Valakut, Molten Pinnacle
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Smoldering Crater
32 Mountain
More Mana 15
1 Sol Ring
1 Expedition Map
2 Iron Myr
2 Armillary Sphere
2 Braid of Fire
2 Journeyer's Kite
3 Pilgrim's Eye
3 Darksteel Ingot
3 Burnished Hart
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Koth of the Hammer
5 Gilded Lotus
5 Gauntlet of Power
5 Mana Geyser
6 Caged Sun
1 Elixir of Immortality
3 Crystal Ball
3 Mad Prophet
5 Reforge the Soul
5 Mindmoil
6 Godo, Bandit Warlord
6 Charmbreaker Devils
7 Knollspine Dragon
Su Casa e Mi Casa 8
2 Reverberate
3 Mimic Vat
3 Reiterate
3 Heat Shimmer
5 Zealous Conscripts
6 Duplicant
7 Molten Primordial
8 Insurrection
Kumano-Enablers 14
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Glaring Spotlight
1 Gorgon's Head
2 Gorgon Flail
2 Illusionist's Bracers
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Heartstone
3 Darksteel Plate
3 Quietus Spike
4 Grafted Exoskeleton
4 Sword of Kaldra
5 Curse of Bloodletting
5 Gratuitous Violence
3 Chandra's Spitfire
6 Inferno Titan
7 Ancient Hellkite
Control Elements 12
1 Vandalblast
2 Shattering Pulse
3 Viashino Heretic
4 Aftershock
4 Chain Reaction
5 Fissure
5 Stuffy Doll
9 Blasphemous Act
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Devil's Play
2 Comet Storm
2 Starstorm
Strategy
In the early game, this deck's main objective is to get mana. Lots of mana. All of the manas. We want to get more specifically red mana here over the chunks of colorless mana that mana rocks like Thran Dynamo can provide because Kumano's pinging ability requires red. Additionally, playing out equipment and some board control (as needed) is quite prudent.
For the mid-game, when you get to 5+ mana, play Kumano and immediately protect him if possible. Having to replay him from the command zone will become a huge pain. After having him out and protected, suit him up with something deathtouchy and begin playing the "at the end of your turn, I'll..." control game, and pinging threats as needed. Going aggro with Kumano during this time will not be a bad idea as you could possibly win through general damage, made easier by the lack of blockers on the field.
The late game will be when you have mountains of Mountains, thus having globs of mana. You know what's an excellent sink for your globs of mana? Burning your opponent's face off with Kumano's activated ability. In case Kumano gets tucked or somehow rendered unusable, we have some X-costing, Fireball-esque spells to dump all of that mana into, as well as some creatures that may also suit up with Kumano's equipment to ping in a similar way.
Card Choices
Mountain - Strictly better than Island.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Ideally we'll have a few red permanents down to take advantage of this.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle - 32 mountains? There's a Valakut for that.
Temple of the False God - Bumps up mana. I auto-include this in nearly all of my decks.
Thawing Glaciers - Mountain tutor for more mana.
Forgotten Cave & Smoldering Crater - Late game useless land? Think again!
Sol Ring - The acceleration this card can provide is undeniable.
Expedition Map - Valakut. Maybe Nykthos, but really just Valakut.
Iron Myr - Mana dork in red for faster ramp? I'm down. I have a certain fondness for the original Mirrodin art.
Armillary Sphere - Two more mountains in my hand sounds good.
Braid of Fire - Unfortunately, I can only use this mana during my upkeep, buuuut Kumano's ability can be activated any time! Also good for instants.
Journeyer's Kite - Not only gives me more mountains in hand, but thins the deck over a long game.
Pilgrim's Eye - Flying blocker that tutors for a mountain.
Darksteel Ingot - A mana rock that doesn't get hit by Vandalblast.
Burnished Hart - True artifact ramp. I hart it.
Solemn Simulacrum - Card advantage.
Koth of the Hammer - He's here mainly for his +1 for some ramp. In the late game, his -2 could provide for a massive Fireball aimed at someone's face. His ult can help close out games.
Gilded Lotus - The great thing about this is the fact it gives a chunk of colored mana.
Gauntlet of Power - Doubles all of your mana, but beware of the symmetry of its effect.
Caged Sun - Yay asymmetry!
Mana Geyser - Wait for a turn where most everyone's tapped out, but make everything go boom. However, it gets worse with less players.
Godo, Bandit Warlord - The best equipment tutor in red. The only equipment tutor in red?
Elixir of Immortality - Anti-mill/last-second life-bump.
Crystal Ball - Red doesn't really do card advantage, but we can still have card selection cheaply.
Mad Prophet - For dead draws.
Reforge the Soul - Drawing this on an empty hand or a hand full of dead draws will be great late in the game.
Mindmoil - Getting a new hand every time I play a spell sounds good.
Charmbreaker Devils - One of my favorite cards from Innistrad, this guy is here specifically for his first ability.
Knollspine Dragon - Late game Wheel attached on a nice fatty.
Reverberate - Red suffers in Commander from the lack of ability to gain advantage, or generally have spells that do things other than burning someone's face off or blowing up artifacts. If your opponents do, you can make it so you do too. My favorite target for this excellent spell is usually either countering a counter (suck it blue), or hitting a Boundless Realms with a Valakut in play. Giggitty.
Mimic Vat - The best creature to be blown up can be yours once a turn cycle. Keep an eye out for quality ETB effects.
Reiterate - More expensive Reverberate x53,406,082,476,809.
Heat Shimmer - Before M14 rules, this used to essentially say, "Destroy target legendary creature," but it still works well when there's a nice ETB effect somewhere.
Zealous Conscripts - Need to make a big swing but don't have the muscle? Borrow your friend's fatty! Permanent giving you trouble? Take it for yourself for a turn!
Duplicant - Good removal while also providing a (presumably) good body.
Molten Primordial - Mini-insurrection on a body.
Insurrection - All your creature are belong to us.
Basilisk Collar - The card that, in conjunction with Kumano, inspired me to build this deck. The added lifelink is straight-up sexiness.
Glaring Spotlight - There's a Uril and several other Hexproof fatties running around my meta. With this, they'll not escape the pings.
Gorgon's Head - Deathtouch for Kumano.
Gorgon Flail - See above.
Illusionist's Bracers - Two targets per activation seems good.
Lightning Greaves - Protects Kumano from spot removal, and makes him a hasty little beater.
Swiftfoot Boots - Preferred over the Greaves.
Heartstone - WHY HAS THIS CARD NOT HAD ANY FUNCTIONAL REPRINTS IN MY COLOR IDENTITY?!?! Seriously though, this double the damage output from Kumano and his back-ups, and bam, efficiency turns into value.
Darksteel Plate - Protects Kumano, relevant in the mid-game when you can pop off sweepers like Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction leaving Kumano as the last man standing.
Quietus Spike - More deathtouch, plus a nifty trigger for when Kumano's going aggro for better reach.
Grafted Exoskeleton - Doing ten damage to someone's face tends to be easier than forty, just watch out for artifact removal.
Sword of Kaldra - It may be expensive, but equipping to Kumano or one of his back-ups (oh hey there, Inferno Titan), will be living the life. Also, exiletouch in most situations tends to be strictly better than deathtouch (there are Blightsteels in my meta).
Curse of Bloodletting - "Don't attack me, get that guy, he's squishier!" Effectively halves someone's life.
Gratuitous Violence - If we can't find something that gives deathtouch or even just burning someone's face, this gives more reach.
Chandra's Spitfire - Read this card. Now read Kumano's activated ability. Now imagine Kumano pinging someone's face 5 times, then swinging with this. Yeah, that's a thing.
Inferno Titan - Kumano's favorite background dancer can pew-pew three separate creatures per attack while suited up.
Ancient Hellkite - Like the last dragon, he can only activate on attacking (bombing?), and wears Basilisk Collar quite well.
Vandalblast - The only thing I could wish more from this card is that it was an instant.
Shattering Pulse - Yay buyback!
Viashino Heretic - More artifact destruction, with some conditional burn on top of it.
Aftershock - Probably the most versatile spell in this deck. If you're afraid of taking the three damage from it, you can go back to your UW pillowfort deck and cower.
Chain Reaction - Good for stopping early-game runaway plays, especially when there are tokens involved. Or Animar.
Stuffy Doll - This guy's an experiment. Hitting a Blasphemous Act while he's wearing Grafted Exoskeleton sound fun though. Also, when in play with Gratuitous Violence, all outgoing damage gets doubled, so that might happen.
Fissure - Good for when there's a problem land or if Kumano's death engine is offline.
Blasphemous Act - See Chain Reaction.
Devil's Play - I have the Buy-A-Box for this, which looks soooo much better than the ordinary one, so it needs to have a home somewhere. Extra valuable late game for its flashback.
Red Sun's Zenith - This one's similar to Devil's Play in how you can get it more than once. Also, it has the same exile-on-death effect that Kumano does, so if Kumano's not online, this can substitute.
Comet Storm - Mana-sinking this at the end of someone's turn to burn off multiple faces will be positively delightful.
Starstorm - Instant-speed board wipe when I need it, or another card when I don't.
Weaknesses
It's well-known that Red is the worst color to play in Commander, especially mono-colored, so naturally it has some weaknesses. The first things that comes to mind are enchantments (we don't have a way to deal with those currently), permission blue decks, infinite combos, and, because we rely so much on artifacts, artifact removal. The best things we can do about enchantments of any variety are 1. wait for WotC to print more cards like Chaos Warp, 2. make friends at the table with the controller(s) of the most problematic enchantments, or 3. kill them first. Against blue decks that run things like Hinder and Cyclonic Rift, we have a little more wiggle-room for dealing with them by way of Reverberate-type effects. I thought about packing some blue hate here, but decided to use that space to tighten up the theme, and so I don't targeted by everyone and their brother after popping off a Boil. Infinite Combos, luckily, are frowned upon in my meta, but they still exist, and we kill those players first. For them, we have lots of artifact hate (if there's an artifact involved), burn for creatures, and more Reverberate effects (I'm also thinking of including Stranglehold for these types of decks). Our deck isn't totally reliant on artifacts, nor is it a win condition for any Commander decks I've ever seen in my life to win through blowing up artifacts, so an occasional Vandalblast will sting and slow the deck down a bit, but we can keep on keeping on.
Wishlist
Vedalken Orrery - After the early game, this deck will function as a control deck, and everything's more efficient when you can play it at instant-speed.
Chaos Warp - Can deal with any target-able permanent, with a small downside that could be a big downside but rarely is.
Wild Ricochet - Better control through hijacking spells and doubling them. Pretty much essential. I thought I had an extra copy of this while I was building the deck, but I guess I was mistaken, so this will be bought/traded for and put in shortly.
Browbeat - I use this in any deck I have not running blue or green, and in my experience, rarely anyone in my meta wants to take five damage. It's especially good in the early game when grudges have yet to be made.
Buried Ruin - I like getting my artifacts back.
Staff of Nin - Mono-red has no way to gain real card advantage, other than artifacts like this.
Chandra, Pyromaster - Utility card for greater card quality.
Goblin Sharpshooter - Cheap back-up for Kumano, but only really effective against creatures.
Fork - The original Reverberate, good for counters and big, splashy spells.
Deep-Slumber Titan - With Kumano, effectively a four drop 7/7 that says, "1R : untap this creature." This is just a maybe though, as he's a vanilla beater.
War Elemental - Another maybe. Easily maintainable with Kumano though, and will quickly grow.
Repercussion - Makes pings more gratifying. Also works exceedingly well with Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction.
Mages' Contest - Not expecting a counter from a red deck? Oops. Red control ftw.
I really like Kumano, and in the few games I've gotten with this deck since rebuilding it, it's been enjoyable to have a quasi-burn deck in Commander. Please share any constructive criticism you have, I'm in the business for improvement!
March 21, 2014
Out:
Conquering Manticore, Forgestoker Dragon, Shivan Hellkite - Trying to reduce the average CMC since we already have places to dump a ton of mana.
In:
Chandra's Spitfire - The interaction between this card and multiple activations of Kumano's pinging ability seems utterly fantastic.
Mindmoil, Mad Prophet - Red cards that are pretty close to card advantage. Being able to cycle through a new hand every turn with Mindmoil may be pretty good, and Mad Prophet for any dead draws.
Thoughts:
Spinerock Knoll - I love getting cheap spells
Mindmoil - best deck-sifting tech for red I've found
Goblin Sharpshooter - cheap Kumano backup
Heartless Hidetsugu - usually solid regardless, but bonkers with Basilisk Collar
Chandra's Spitfire - kind of a pet card, but it can go nuclear in a hurry with this kind of build (I have swung for 28 with this alone!)
And I assume the absence of Blood Moon is purposeful?
I used to play Mindmoil in a Niv-Mizzet deck I kept up to get all of the draw triggers off of it and still have that copy sitting around somewhere, so I may experiment a bit with that. I also have an extra copy of Heartless Hidetsugu somewhere, so I'll try him out if I find one or two more ways to give creatures lifelink. Also, sweet Sysco Imperial Bartlett pear-halves, I have never thought of that interaction with Chandra's Spitfire, I'll be scouring through all of my red cards to find a copy of that immediately after I finish writing this.
The thing about Goblin Sharpshooter is that it's excellent for machine-gunning away a board of creatures, but does barely anything against players. If I can get a trade for him soon, I'll give him a go in this deck and see whether I like him or not.
@lechgame I'm not sure about Spine, but if my deck ends up skewing more towards artifact support, I'll definitely consider it. As for PWs in general, I'm just not a huge fan of them in this format. I use Koth for the ramp, but Chandras #1 & 3 are pretty underwhelming unless they get their ults off, Chandra #2 really needs a dedicated burn deck, and Chandra #4, though she'd be pretty good here, is currently too high for my budget. Maybe after a few paychecks for her.
Aw shucks, that's excellent! Let me know how it goes.
RKumano, Machine Gun YamabushiR
Deck-Playing Anecdote
Last night at my weekly gaming club, we got together a massive Commander game of twelve players. To expedite turns and all, we split off into four teams of three people each. On my team, I had actually been running my Tariel deck, with another friend who was playing a Progenitus deck made for Maze's End, and another friend (his name's Jack) who ran this Kumano deck. The entire game was pretty swingy, the Progenitus guy was eliminated and I was dropped to two life. Luckily, Jack popped off a Mana Geyser for 72 mana, hitting each of the eight opponents left for 62 damage with Comet Storm, and high-fives were immediately exchanged among our team members. I had worried this deck wouldn't be able to hold its own in big games, but it seems alright now.