1. Discuss my list of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, that I've been playing and tuning for a while. And since this is commander, there is always room for more tuning, so I would like to discuss recent changes that I made and future changes that I plan on making. If anyone is interested in giving suggestions, it will be appreciated.
2. Show a way to play the deck that hasn't been exploited here. I've checked plenty of Kiki-Jiki lists, but I feel that all of them here on the forum lack the 'all-out combo' take that the deck needs, where almost all of your cards are combo pieces or are helping you find combo pieces. I built this deck with the mindset of comboing my way to victory, and though ocasionally you don't need to do that, this is the primary win condition of the deck. If you don't like infinite combos, you should not look at this deck.
3. Divulgate my story about goblins, posted here on MTGSal: Royal Succession. I like to write, so I'm trying to reinvigorate the Personal Writing section of MTGSal, if you like Kiki-Jiki, maybe you like goblins, and if you like goblins, maybe you will like my story. Give it a chance, it is based upon an old card.
Alright, before we move to the decklists, let me get one thing clear: this deck is not the most competitive it can be. There are two reasons for that: (i) personal choice of mine, to put red over the top in multiplayer you have to play cutthroat cards such as Blood Moon and Ruination, and I built this deck to be quite 'friendly', in the sense that it interacts as a 'normal' fair deck until it goes off and (ii) I don't think there is a way to make a truly competitive Kiki-Jiki deck. Maybe you should look in a Daretti thread, since I believe he is the highest that you will get in competitiveness using monored. Or just play blue if you are looking for brokeness.
Also, this is a MULTIPLAYER deck. Some effects, such as land destruction, get MUCH worse in multiplayer. Keep that in mind when looking at the decklist.
The Decklist
I will sort the decklist by CMC and then by function.
Now I will sort the cards by function. Note that most cards actually overlap in their functions (being combo pieces and also utility cards, for example). I will sort the cards by their primary function.
Now, since this is a deck about combos, we should check them out. But before that, let me add a small disclaimer: this deck has tons of combos. No, really, it does. I don't know all the combos of the deck, in fact I still find out some combos here and there. Odds are that if you think really hard you will be able to see new combos here. I will post the most obvious combos and, slowly, I will add new combos as I remember them and people find them out.
There are basically two types of combos in this deck: the ones with Kiki-Jiki on the table and the ones without him. I will separate then both, and in the Kiki-Jiki section it will go without saying that you need Kiki-Jiki on the table. If an equipment is mentioned on the Kiki-Jiki section, it will be equipped on Kiki-Jiki unless stated otherwise.
Some cards will be part of broader categories, and I will name these categories below:
I will add to this deck, in the place of Mizzium Mortars and Iron Myr, Chancellor of the Forge and Phyrexian Altar. Although Phyrexian altar is a little bit worse in this deck, it will unlock a new set of combos combined with Flameshadow Conjuring, and that convinced me to put it in this deck. Chancellor will be another card to be part of this combo alongside Myr Battlesphere. That said, I just added Flameshadow Conjuring and Burnished Hart in the deck, and I will see if they pay off. In case they don't, I might remove them from the deck.
Choice of cards
You know the combos, so it is time for me to explain why I'm using the cards that I'm using. I will explain cards per category, and only get into specific cards if they have specific functions.
Ramp Cards: I try to use what is best in terms of ramping. Despite playing with 39 lands and having mana rocks, I still get mana screwed from time to time, which bothers me. Kiki-Jiki is a mana hungry deck, and actually it is a colored mana hungry deck, since the general requires 2RRR to be cast. That is why I play with the best rocks that one can get their hands into. If the deck could support it, I would play with things such as Fire Diamond and Coldsteel Heart, but at the moment I think they are not worth the trouble.
Burnished Hart: this is a very recent addition, that needs to be tested. I'm confident it can prove itself, even though it is a pretty expensive effect. With Kiki-Jiki out this card reads: "3: put two lands into the battlefield tapped". That said, you should not expect to have Kiki-Jiki out a lot of the time, so this card is pretty much here to tamp.
Tutor Cards: red is not known (and apparently it will never be) for its great tutoring capability. Here I only play with the cream of the crop, using tutors that are really efficient for this deck. Let's take a look at them.
Gamble: the closest you will get to Demonic Tutor. Use it early game to get a Sol Ring and start ramping. Late game, if you are low on lands, you can tutor for some artifact that you don't mind going to the graveyard because you can recur it with the numerous effects that you have in your deck.
Hoarding Dragon: if it wasn't obvious, this card is excelent with Kiki-Jiki. It will tutor an artifact per turn for you. When you are using him naked, for the first time, I don't recommend tutoring the last combo piece you need unless it is a redundant one (you have another copy in the deck), that is because people could exile him or bounce him and you would lose your artifact forever. As a rule, don't tutor Thornbite Staff with this card unless you have a way to sac him immediately. Nothing else in your deck does what Staff can do.
Godo, Bandit Warlord: A very strong card, it can tutor any missing combo equipment directly into the battlefield. Just remember Kiki-Jiki can't copy him, since he is legendary.
Card Advantage/Selection Cards: everyone needs to draw cards in commander, even monored players. Some of these cards are better than others, but all cards in this section are a must have in the deck. I will comment on some of them.
Skullclamp: the strongest of the bunch. If you played with this card, you know how ridiculous it is. With Kiki-Jiki out, every token that you make will also draw you 2 cards for your troubles, and even without Kiki-Jiki it is a solid option, being able to kill some Eldrazi Spawn or Goblin tokens or being used in conjunction with a Sac Outlet. Heck, even without anything this card is good, just equip it in something and people will refuse to attack you (if they're smart).
Humble Defector: a little piece of technology that I love in this deck. You copy him with Kiki-Jiki, you draw two cards with the token, you give the token to someone and it dies at your end step before your opponent can use it. A pretty good deal, right? Without Kiki-Jiki this is still a valuable political tool, probably the most obvious one the deck has, since you can negotiate with someone to pass control to them so they can draw cards too.
Outpost Siege: do not fool yourself. Both modes of Outpost Siege can be used in this deck. If you get the thornbite staff + sac outlet + etb creature combo you can play this card setting it for Dragons to kill everyone. That said, almost 99% of the time you will be playing it for Khans, and it is a pretty good card in that.
Chandra, Pyromaster: easily the weakest of all the cards, because it is an Outpost Siege that can be attacked to death. It is actually worse than Outpost Siege, because while siege has two relevant modes, first mode of Chandra is a joke for Commander in general and her ultimate is completely useless in our deck. That said, her 0 ability is still needed, so we play her.
Clone Shell: similar to Hoarding Dragon, I wouldn't search a combo creature with this card in my top 4 unless I had a way to sac it immediately. In some situations it can be fine to do so, since most combo creatures have other redundant ones that can be found later. It is an expensive effect, but a very nice one at that.
Recursion Cards: things go to the graveyard in commander. Combos get disrupted, especially if your opponents know that you are trying to do. You will need to get these pieces back. This deck has a strong artifact subtheme, and it wasn't intentional, it is just that the best combo cards with Kiki require artifact support.
Goblin Welder: after Kiki-Jiki, probably the most feared creature card in this deck. Yup, this little guy inspires hate, but to be honest people don't kill ASAP that often, because the use of this ability is conditional after all. That said, an excellent creature that allows you to do a lot of shenanigans and is probably never leaving the deck. He features in some combos as well.
Feldon of the Third Path: I have this card in the deck for a great deal of time now and I almost never drew him, which is annoying. He is legendary, so can't be copied, and in theory it looks like a good card, but his cost to activate makes it pretty hard to combo with him (though pretty hard is not impossible). I'm observing him, it could get the axe in the future.
Trading Post: easily one of the hardest cards to use in this deck, because half the modes are awesome and putting goats can be useful. This card is also probably never leaving the deck, it is recursion, it is advantage, it gives something else to do with Kiki-Jiki tokens after they done their job... what else do you want?
Utility Cards: Not everything in your deck should be there to combo. You have to interact with your opponents in the game before going off, and you have to use some contingency plans in case everything goes south. Luckily for you, red has plenty of interaction and contingency plans.
Lightning Greaves: this card is here with one basic purpose - protect Kiki-Jiki. It certainly can be used for other things, but that was its primary function. Honestly, as time went by, I noticed this card isn't as hot in this deck as I would like, and it is probably the card that I tutor the least with Godo. I'm considering cutting it.
Illusionist's Bracers: this card is funny. The greatest problem with it is, obviously, the cost to equip that is pretty hefty. If you cast Kiki-Jiki odds are you will not have 3 flying around, and that gives the opponent time to respond and destroy the card or kill Kiki-Jiki. That said, it is a fun card, it works with other creatures, it can be used to power up combos and most of the time it will be an overkill with Kiki-Jiki. It needs more testing before I say if it should stay no matter what or it could be removed.
Dualcaster Mage: a very funny card that can and will get people by surprise. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquis... I mean, the capacity to copy instant and sorceries at instant speed coming from a Kiki-Jiki deck. And remember: if this card is in play with Kiki you can still extract good value out of it, besides being a combo piece.
Flameshadow Conjuring: just added the card to the deck, I want to check what it can do. Once I get Phyrexian Altar this card will be a combo with Myr Battlesphere/Chancellor of the Forge + Phyrexian Altar + Nim Deathmantle. Too convoluted? Maybe. We shall see.
Treasonous Ogre: this card is great. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a monored staple. Every non-tribal deck should be running this card, because it gets people out of nowhere. It can turbo out an early combo and even in game it has good function providing that extra mana needed to equip Kiki or play the final combo piece. Just use it wisely, 3 life points per use stack up pretty quickly.
Conjurer's Closet: I expected this card to do more. It is not a terrible card, but it is not as efficient as it might seem. It is good to extract new ETB effects, but most of our shenanigans also use the tokens that come along the ETB effects. Sometimes it can shine, but I'm not convinced it is worth it. Probably getting cut in the future.
Mindclaw Shaman: boy, I'm a sucker for this card. If people do not expect you copying their instant or sorceries, imagine stealing them. I love this effect, it is quite unique in red, and not only it disrupts opponents that will try to stop your combos but also gives you information about what to do next. And it is also a pretty fun card, and if you are not trying to have some amount of fun while playing commander you are doing it wrong.
Inferno Titan, Molten Primordial, Bogardan Hellkite: I present to you the contingency plans. Kiki-Jiki would not be a real deck without some broken fatties that quickly close out the game once they get copied sometimes. I swear to you, Molten Primordial is one of the funniest cards I've ever played, specially if you have sac outlets in your field to kill your opponent's creatures after they attack them.
Combo-Pieces Cards: last but not least, the cards that make the deck possible. This deck is special because it has so many combos that it is actually quite hard for your opponents to know all the time what you are trying to do, and if they kill a combo-piece before you have another one you are not sad about it, since most fundamental combo-pieces are pretty bad on their own. That said, I try to put a ceiling in cards to become combo-pieces in my deck in the sense that they will do something even if I don't go infinite. Drawing dead cards is not fun man.
Nim Deathmantle: without Kiki-Jiki on the table this will be your primary win condition. It is a useful card by itself, though not that much. It can go off with token producers and the colorless mana producing sac outlets. There is nothing else accessible to red that can reproduce this effect, so be aware to not lose this card forever.
Thornbite Staff: with Kiki-Jiki on the table, this is probably the best equipment you can have. At worst, it will allow you to copy one creature of yours every turn of the game, be it yours or your opponent's (you copy, the token dies at the end step, Kiki untaps and is ready to copy again the very next turn). At best it will generate the most easy combos in the deck besides having Zealous Conscripts and Kiki on the table. Fundamental piece. Did I mention that it equips to Kiki automatically when he hits the battlefield? Yeah, it is that good.
Umbral Mantle, Sword of the Paruns: one of these things is better than the other. While Umbral Mantle is MUCH superior to Sword in this deck (becaue it equips for 0), both are necessary to ensure redundancy in your combos. Equipped alongside Kiki-Jiki, even when you are not comboing, they already generate pretty decent value.
Ashnod's Altar, Krark-Clan Ironworks: Ironworks is in the deck mainly to be another copy of Ashnod's Altar, even though they are different cards. Three of your token producers that combo are artifact creatures, so they will be functionally identical for them. Also, both Ashnod's and Ironworks help protecting your permanents from exiling effects, take control effects and help you bost your mana for a combo turn if needed. Keep that in mind, because it is not irrelevant, they are more than just combo-pieces.
Commander is a difficult thing, sometimes you have to play a lot with the deck before deciding what cards you will cut. That said, I always have cards in my 'watching' list. As I said before, Iron Myr and Mizzium Mortars are going out already, so let's discuss cards that I'm still pondering about:
Lightning Greaves: a very solid card in general, but it underperforms in this deck. Sure, it will protect Kiki,but you will hardly tutor for it and a lot of the effects in this deck require targeting stuff, which makes shroud cumbersome.
Feldon of the Third Path: still waiting for the day this card will shine, for some reason I haven't been drawing him much, so I still don't know how good he is.
Conjurer's Closet: in theory a good card, in reality it has been pretty 'meh' for me, it is probably the next card going out once I figure what I will put in its place from my list of "cards that I want to test".
How to play with Kiki-Jiki
Your Objective
I will try to make this section as informative as possible without also trying to do the impossible task of covering all possible scenarios. Here is what you need to keep in mind, at first: this deck has three main combos, revolving around four equipment cards. These equipments are Thornbite Staff, Nim Deathmantle and Umbral Mantle/Sword of the Paruns. Aside from the artifacts, you will probably need a sacrifice outlet, which are three total in this deck current iteration: Ashnod's Altar, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Goblin Bombardment. Soon I will add Phyrexian Altar to the deck. Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to put these combo cards together so you can, well, win the game.
Opening Hand
How exactly do I do that then? Well, this deck has tons of combo-pieces, but it is not an 'all-in' combo deck, in the sense that you can play a normal game of magic, griding opponents and extracting value from your creatures, before ever going off. In fact you can (and probably will) win many times just using strong synergies, without the need to ever go infinite. I will not dwell in these synergies here, because it would take too much time and I already discussed the importance of many cards in the previous section of Card Choices. Knowing that you are not all-in, you can keep hands without a single combo piece. Instead, it is much better to keep hands with mana ramp and at least one or two utility creatures, so you can interact early in the game. Don't worry, your deck will find you the cards you need.
An exception to this rule are hands with Treasonous Ogre. Usually he is the card that unlocks the quickest wins, sometimes even something as simple as:
Turn 1: Mana + Sol ring
Turn 2: Mana + Ogre. Pay 30 life, cast Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts, win.
Of course, life probably won't be that easy for you, but it is good for you to know that this can happen. So in your opening hand you should look for a decent number of lands (three would be ideal), some form of ramp and one or two utility creatures (or card advantage cards such as Outpost Siege).
Politics
There is no game as a Commander game to teach you about politics. Put one important thing in your mind: you are the most innocent and harmless player in the table. It doesn't matter that you do not believe that, you have to make your opponents believe that. Otherwise you will play archenemy without schemes to help you, and trust me, no combo deck can win if three other players are determined to stop it. So, don't provoke anyone, play your card advantage stuff, pretend that you are slow and clunky (sometimes you will be) and only kill things/slow down people if they seem really threatening for your gameplan or for the overall gameplan. For instance, people will get mad if you Manic Vandal their Sol Ring, but if you break their Skullclamp or Birthing Pod they will understand, after all, these cards win the game on their own, while Sol Ring is 'merely' mana ramp.
If there are other combo players in the table, drive the attention towards them, warn the other players that they can go off at any minute and that, although you are also playing combo, your combos are all slow, clunky and easy to disrupt. You are just playing to have fun, aside from Zealous Conscripts, no one needs to be afraid of you. Once you set players in this kind of mindset it will probably be easier to win, and let me tell you something about this deck: it does not win quickly. You are not playing to assemble the combo turn 5, kill everyone and move with it, you take some time to win. So, if you play politics well enough and take some time to win, even if everytime you win with a combo, people will not care as much since it took some time for you to assemble it. Losing is very different from losing fast.
Going Off
Okay, you understood all that, how do I win? I told you: just combo. Well, be careful. Comboing is a dangerous thing, and the best way to do so is to appear that you are not close to combo yet. For that reason sometimes you will do good by keeping, say, a Sac Outlet in your hand, or the creature that will combo with Kiki-Jiki. As a general rule, avoid casting Kiki-Jiki unless you already have a creature on the battlefield to copy him with. He is an awesome creature, haste, copies stuff, but at the end of the day he is just a 2/2 without any sort of protection. Don't cast him unless you want to extract some value. An exception to that rule would be if you are playing in a heavy control meta with lots of counters. In that case cast Kiki when everyone is tapped out and pray for him to live, or add Cavern of Souls + Expedition Map to your deck (and consider Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast).
Sometimes you will need to deploy combo pieces knowing they will be killed/destroyed. Fear not! The deck was made to survive this sort of thing, and you will be able to recover from that. Most of the times you will need to have some combo pieces on the battlefield to combo, so don't worry.
Plan B
Kiki-Jiki can win a fair number of times without comboing, as I said. That usually requires the heavy hitters: Inferno Titan, Bogardan Hellkite, Myr Battlesphere, etc. Every combo deck in commander needs a plan B, and ours is the good and old beatdown. With the right setup, this deck can deliver massive chunks of damage in one turn (just imagine copying a Fanatic of Mogis three times in the same turn, for example). You should know that, many times, the beatdown plan will be your primary game plan. Sometimes your hand does not allow you to go any other way, and red is limited in his tutoring and drawing capacity, so just shrug your shoulders and go for it. When beating down I recommend focusing on multiple players in the beggining, so you can keep playing without making any enemies, but after a while you will have to focus in one person at a time. Start by the most threatening, usually the control deck or the enchantment based deck (we hate enchantments here, in case it is not clear).
And I believe that is all. I can improve this section over time to clarify possible doubts.
Cards that I'm not playing
Now, you might be looking at all these cards and wondering: "WHY ON EARTH is he not playing with card X?"
Do not fear, noble reader, I will try to clarify that in this section.
Now, this section will be divided into four parts:
Cards that I would play if I had: the cards that I don't have from these list are all due to price considerations. I hope one day to get my hands on them.
Cards that I'm considering for a test in the future: not really a list of expensive cards, but I just didn't have the opportunity to test them yet, or the idea just came up later.
Cards that I tested and didn't work: self-explanatory.
Cards that I have no interest in testing (for now): cards that do not follow the paradigm in which I built the deck or that I'm pretty sure will not work out, even though I never tested them.
Mana Crypt: needs no further comments. Card is bonkers.
Imperial Recruiter: a very expensive and very good card in this deck. Absolutely necessary as a tutor.
Daretti, Scrap Savant: if you notice, this deck has a ton of artifacts, and could use his recursion besides the digging capacity. He is high on my list.
Minion Reflector: does the exact same job of Flameshadow Conjuring, but in a slight different way. May be worth the slot, but it wouldn't actually be as good as conjuring. I will explain why in the future.
Rings of Brighthearth: does a similar, if not better job, than Illusionist's Bracers. Would probably improve the deck, but I need to test it. Probably unlocks new combos.
Basalt Monolith: I try to run the best mana rocks, and this actually qualifies as pretty good, but I'm still not convinced. If rings makes into the deck you would think this had to come in, but I actually don't have much to do with infinite colorless mana, and don't want to throw an Staff of Domination just because of that.
Voltaic Key: I can see a world where, if I put Basalt Monolith in the deck, I would play with Voltaic Key as well. That said, this world is still pretty far away from my sight.
Shattering Spree: I like more Vandalblast, but to be honest both could be used, depending on your metagame.
Mimic Vat: yeah, shocking. This card is too situational to be good, trust me.
Tuktuk Scrapper: felt too expensive for the effect, and I'm pretty happy just with Manic Vandal for this slot
Tyrant of Discord: in theory very good because it could remove enchantments, for example. In reality an overexpensive land destruction effect that only targets one player.
Chaos Warp: one of the few answers that red actually has for enchantments. Never felt like a good card, and it got much worse after the new tuck rule. I would use in myself sometimes. Honestly, since you can't tutor for it, it's not worth running
Coal Stoker: used to play with this card and love it as another effect similar to Priest of Urabrask and Emrakul's Hatcher. That was until I read it and realized it only adds mana if cast from hand. Bummer.
Goblin Matron: not enough goblins in the deck to justify.
Ruination: this deck isn't about that. Read my comments in the beggining.
Stranglehold: this deck isn't about that. I'm not trying to lock people, I'm trying to combo and win.
Splinter Twin: yes, this card would allow combos to be born more easily, but the chances are it will get stuck in hand for a really long time and once you try to attach it to a creature people kill it in response. It can't even be tutored for. Not interested.
Abbot of Keral Keep: cute card. I'd rather have scarecrone to actually draw cards and have some recursion.
Sundial of the Infinite: another cute card. It will allow you to keep your tokens if you activate it with Kiki-Jiki's end step trigger on the stack. The thing is: it does absolutely nothing by itself, so it doesn't make the cut in my criteria of 'good combo pieces'.
Wheel Effects: only good if you can break parity (i.e. play a lot of your stuff quickly so you draw tons of cards after playing tons of cards). This deck can't do that.
Would you like to read Commander stories? Check my latest stories, coming from Lorwyn and Innistrad: Ghoulcaller Gisa and Doran, The Siege Tower! If you like my writing, ask me to write something for your commander as well!
All sections updated. I will try to keep this updated to the best of my ability. Please, don't shy away from feedback (even though I explain a lot in the main post as to why I'm doing X thing and not doing Y, it is perfectly possible that I've missed something, especially new combos lol).
I know Kiki-Jiki is an old card and not that hot right now for most people, but I think he is a classical general and always will be a strong option in mono-red. Before Daretti came out, he was to me strongest monored general, and in certain metagames he probably still is.
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Would you like to read Commander stories? Check my latest stories, coming from Lorwyn and Innistrad: Ghoulcaller Gisa and Doran, The Siege Tower! If you like my writing, ask me to write something for your commander as well!
Played a little bit with the deck today online (where my list has all the cards that I need and I already removed the cards that I said I would). Modifications would be:
In:
- Phyrexian Altar
- Chancellor of the Forge
- Mana Crypt
- Imperial Recruiter
- Crucible of Worlds
- Wasteland
- 4 Fetchlands
First game was Gisela, Damia and Sek'kuar. Damia was very controlish and in the beggining kept me and Sek'kuar from comboing out, Gisela was stuck without red mana. In the end Damia had to tap out to disrupt Sek'kuar and in my turn I played Zealous Conscripts, stealing a ravnica bounce land from one opponent effectively 'ramping' enough to also cast Kiki-Jiki and win.
Second game was against Gisela again, Damia (a different one, used by another player) and Ezuri, Claw of Progress. The hand was very good with grim monolith, but then I drew gamble, tutored for Sol Ring and the hand became 'the nuts'. Turn 3 I played Treasonous Ogre and Thornbite Staff, then I paid 30 life to put Hoarding Dragon and Kiki-Jiki on the table (emptying my hand). Kiki-Jiki was equipped with the staff, which allowed me to tutor in my turn for triskelion, Gisela's turn for Trading Post, Ezuri's turn for Mana Crypt and Damia's turn for Ashnod's altar. I cast the Altar, ensuring infinite mana, then I cast triskelion for the infinite damage kill. In case I was disrupted with a counter, I could recover the card with trading post + infinite mana. In case I was disrupted with a removal spell on Kiki I could recast him, or just respond sacrificing the Ogre to the altar untapping Kiki and comboing in response. Anyway, fun games.
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Would you like to read Commander stories? Check my latest stories, coming from Lorwyn and Innistrad: Ghoulcaller Gisa and Doran, The Siege Tower! If you like my writing, ask me to write something for your commander as well!
Hi, that is a nice deck you are running. I have a Kiki-jiki deck myself too. But as you said it, mine is more competitive 1v1 deck, with land destruction and and other ETB effects to disrupt my opponent. However I do run some of the combos too, and sometimes I've thought to put and all combo deck like yours. Being said that, I think I know some combo pieces that you may missed.
First, if you are running the Twinflame + Dualcaster Mage combo, another card that does the same thing of twin flame is Heat Shimmer. Although it is strictly worst, since it cost 2R and don't have strive, still is a good option.
Second, the goblins. I get that you don't run to many in the deck, but missing the Lightning crafter combo is a shame in my opinion. Specially if you can tutor the pieces either with goblin matron or goblin recruiter. However, you can run a similar combo with another creature with Champion, Changeling Berserker. With him on the battlefield, and any sac outlet, you can copy it with kiki, the copy exiles Kiki with the champion ability, you sac the copy, Kiki enters and you doit all over again, giving you infinite mana or damage depending on the sac outlet. And talking about sac outlets, another good one is Blasting station, since is better for going infinite damage.
Another goblin to combo off, if you decide to include Splinter twin, is goblin sharpshooter. The sharpshooter with the splinter twin plus a sac outlet goes infinite on damage, since you put a token with the splinter, do one damage with the token, sac it, and you uncap the sharpshooter to put a token again.
Finally, another combo that I'm trying out right now is Worldgorger Dragon + Kiki. The combo may be confusing, but it goes like this: with Kiki on the battlefield, you cast the dragon. In response to the dragon ability you copy it with kiki, the copy enters exiling everything (including the original dragon), then the ability of the original dragon resolves, exiling the copy of the dragon, and everything returns to the battlefield (including the original dragon). When the dragon enters again yo do it all over again in response to its ability. By this, you can go infinite with any ETB creature that you have on the battlefield or triskelion.
Hey, thanks for the feedback. I will give a brief comment on your suggestions:
- I know heat shimmer, I just don't think it is on the same level as twinflame. Meaning: it is pretty bad. The fact that it costs one more and doesn't have the upside of strive makes it not worth it in my opinion. I didn't test it, so maybe it can work, I don't know.
- I really don't like moving to the goblins, I don't think it is a decent strategy combo-wise. Crafter is terrible on his own, and there will be plenty of spots where I would not be able to cast him. If I change the number of goblins in the deck to make it more likely that I add crafter what would I even cut? I really like the current configuration, I don't think the goblins are enough of a pay off. The changeling berserker follows a somewhat similar logic, in the sense that it doesn't do anything on its own and you still need an specific sac outlet to work, and infinite mana alone isn't good on kiki-jiki, there isn't much to do with it. Blasting station I also don't like it, I think it is only a good sac outlet when you are already going off, besides that it will have a very minor effect on the game. The altars generate you mana and bombardment is unconditional solid removal.
- The idea with the dragon is cute, maybe I can test it one day, but there is the clear problem that if you draw only the dragon you do nothing.
Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate the suggestions of the goblins, but I don't think I'm trying out anytime soon. I may give a chance to heat shimmer in the future.
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Would you like to read Commander stories? Check my latest stories, coming from Lorwyn and Innistrad: Ghoulcaller Gisa and Doran, The Siege Tower! If you like my writing, ask me to write something for your commander as well!
This deck definitely needs a Krenko, Mob Boss and Skirk Prospector added to it. While yes your deck isn't goblin tribal, Krenko doesn't need much to ramp, especially with the combo pieces you have. And combined with Skirk Prospector, mana will never be an issue.
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The purpose of this post is three-fold:
1. Discuss my list of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, that I've been playing and tuning for a while. And since this is commander, there is always room for more tuning, so I would like to discuss recent changes that I made and future changes that I plan on making. If anyone is interested in giving suggestions, it will be appreciated.
2. Show a way to play the deck that hasn't been exploited here. I've checked plenty of Kiki-Jiki lists, but I feel that all of them here on the forum lack the 'all-out combo' take that the deck needs, where almost all of your cards are combo pieces or are helping you find combo pieces. I built this deck with the mindset of comboing my way to victory, and though ocasionally you don't need to do that, this is the primary win condition of the deck. If you don't like infinite combos, you should not look at this deck.
3. Divulgate my story about goblins, posted here on MTGSal: Royal Succession. I like to write, so I'm trying to reinvigorate the Personal Writing section of MTGSal, if you like Kiki-Jiki, maybe you like goblins, and if you like goblins, maybe you will like my story. Give it a chance, it is based upon an old card.
Alright, before we move to the decklists, let me get one thing clear: this deck is not the most competitive it can be. There are two reasons for that: (i) personal choice of mine, to put red over the top in multiplayer you have to play cutthroat cards such as Blood Moon and Ruination, and I built this deck to be quite 'friendly', in the sense that it interacts as a 'normal' fair deck until it goes off and (ii) I don't think there is a way to make a truly competitive Kiki-Jiki deck. Maybe you should look in a Daretti thread, since I believe he is the highest that you will get in competitiveness using monored. Or just play blue if you are looking for brokeness.
Also, this is a MULTIPLAYER deck. Some effects, such as land destruction, get MUCH worse in multiplayer. Keep that in mind when looking at the decklist.
I will sort the decklist by CMC and then by function.
1 Everflowing Chalice
1-CMC (7)
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Skullclamp
1 Goblin Welder
1 Gamble
1 Vandalblast
2-CMC (11)
1 Iron Myr (*)
1 Myr Retriever
1 Grim Monolith
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mizzium Mortars (*)
1 Twinflame
1 Humble Defector
1 Goblin Bombardment
3-CMC (13)
1 Burnished Hart
1 Scarecrone
1 Palladium Myr
1 Umbral Mantle
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Coalition Relic
1 Junk Diver
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Feldon of the Third Path
1 Maniac Vandal
1 Priest of Urabrask
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Trading Post
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Sword of the Paruns
1 Flameshadow Conjuring
1 Outpost Siege
1 Treasonous Ogre
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Flametongue Kavu
5-CMC (9)
1 Precursor Golem
1 Clone Shell
1 Conjurer's Closet
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Mindclaw Shaman
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Hoarding Dragon
6-CMC (5)
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Duplicant
1 Triskelion
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Inferno Titan
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Molten Primordial
8-CMC (1)
1 Bogardan Hellkite
Lands (39)
1 Strip Mine
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Buried Ruin
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Great Furnace
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Forgotten Cave
32 Mountain
Now I will sort the cards by function. Note that most cards actually overlap in their functions (being combo pieces and also utility cards, for example). I will sort the cards by their primary function.
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Iron Myr (*)
1 Grim Monolith
1 Palladium Myr
1 Burnished Hart
1 Coalition Relic
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gilded Lotus
Tutor (3)
1 Gamble
1 Hoarding Dragon
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
Card Advantage/Selection (8)
1 Skullclamp
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Humble Defector
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Outpost Siege
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Clone Shell
1 Buried Ruin
1 Goblin Welder
1 Myr Retriever
1 Scarecrone
1 Junk Diver
1 Feldon of the Third Path
1 Trading Post
Utility (18)
1 Strip Mine
1 Vandalblast
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Mizzium Mortars (*)
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Dualcaster Mage
1 Manic Vandal
1 Flameshadow Conjuring
1 Treasonous Ogre
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Conjurer's Closet
1 Mindclaw Shaman
1 Duplicant
1 Inferno Titan
1 Molten Primordial
1 Bogardan Hellkite
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Twinflame
1 Umbral Mantle
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Priest of Urabrask
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Sword of the Paruns
1 Precursor Golem
1 Emrakul's Hatcher
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Triskelion
1 Myr Battlesphere
Lands (35)
1 Great Furnace
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Forgotten Cave
32 Mountain
*Cards that will leave the deck soon.
Now, since this is a deck about combos, we should check them out. But before that, let me add a small disclaimer: this deck has tons of combos. No, really, it does. I don't know all the combos of the deck, in fact I still find out some combos here and there. Odds are that if you think really hard you will be able to see new combos here. I will post the most obvious combos and, slowly, I will add new combos as I remember them and people find them out.
There are basically two types of combos in this deck: the ones with Kiki-Jiki on the table and the ones without him. I will separate then both, and in the Kiki-Jiki section it will go without saying that you need Kiki-Jiki on the table. If an equipment is mentioned on the Kiki-Jiki section, it will be equipped on Kiki-Jiki unless stated otherwise.
I will add to this deck, in the place of Mizzium Mortars and Iron Myr, Chancellor of the Forge and Phyrexian Altar. Although Phyrexian altar is a little bit worse in this deck, it will unlock a new set of combos combined with Flameshadow Conjuring, and that convinced me to put it in this deck. Chancellor will be another card to be part of this combo alongside Myr Battlesphere. That said, I just added Flameshadow Conjuring and Burnished Hart in the deck, and I will see if they pay off. In case they don't, I might remove them from the deck.
You know the combos, so it is time for me to explain why I'm using the cards that I'm using. I will explain cards per category, and only get into specific cards if they have specific functions.
I will try to make this section as informative as possible without also trying to do the impossible task of covering all possible scenarios. Here is what you need to keep in mind, at first: this deck has three main combos, revolving around four equipment cards. These equipments are Thornbite Staff, Nim Deathmantle and Umbral Mantle/Sword of the Paruns. Aside from the artifacts, you will probably need a sacrifice outlet, which are three total in this deck current iteration: Ashnod's Altar, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Goblin Bombardment. Soon I will add Phyrexian Altar to the deck. Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to put these combo cards together so you can, well, win the game.
How exactly do I do that then? Well, this deck has tons of combo-pieces, but it is not an 'all-in' combo deck, in the sense that you can play a normal game of magic, griding opponents and extracting value from your creatures, before ever going off. In fact you can (and probably will) win many times just using strong synergies, without the need to ever go infinite. I will not dwell in these synergies here, because it would take too much time and I already discussed the importance of many cards in the previous section of Card Choices. Knowing that you are not all-in, you can keep hands without a single combo piece. Instead, it is much better to keep hands with mana ramp and at least one or two utility creatures, so you can interact early in the game. Don't worry, your deck will find you the cards you need.
An exception to this rule are hands with Treasonous Ogre. Usually he is the card that unlocks the quickest wins, sometimes even something as simple as:
Turn 1: Mana + Sol ring
Turn 2: Mana + Ogre. Pay 30 life, cast Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts, win.
Of course, life probably won't be that easy for you, but it is good for you to know that this can happen. So in your opening hand you should look for a decent number of lands (three would be ideal), some form of ramp and one or two utility creatures (or card advantage cards such as Outpost Siege).
There is no game as a Commander game to teach you about politics. Put one important thing in your mind: you are the most innocent and harmless player in the table. It doesn't matter that you do not believe that, you have to make your opponents believe that. Otherwise you will play archenemy without schemes to help you, and trust me, no combo deck can win if three other players are determined to stop it. So, don't provoke anyone, play your card advantage stuff, pretend that you are slow and clunky (sometimes you will be) and only kill things/slow down people if they seem really threatening for your gameplan or for the overall gameplan. For instance, people will get mad if you Manic Vandal their Sol Ring, but if you break their Skullclamp or Birthing Pod they will understand, after all, these cards win the game on their own, while Sol Ring is 'merely' mana ramp.
If there are other combo players in the table, drive the attention towards them, warn the other players that they can go off at any minute and that, although you are also playing combo, your combos are all slow, clunky and easy to disrupt. You are just playing to have fun, aside from Zealous Conscripts, no one needs to be afraid of you. Once you set players in this kind of mindset it will probably be easier to win, and let me tell you something about this deck: it does not win quickly. You are not playing to assemble the combo turn 5, kill everyone and move with it, you take some time to win. So, if you play politics well enough and take some time to win, even if everytime you win with a combo, people will not care as much since it took some time for you to assemble it. Losing is very different from losing fast.
Okay, you understood all that, how do I win? I told you: just combo. Well, be careful. Comboing is a dangerous thing, and the best way to do so is to appear that you are not close to combo yet. For that reason sometimes you will do good by keeping, say, a Sac Outlet in your hand, or the creature that will combo with Kiki-Jiki. As a general rule, avoid casting Kiki-Jiki unless you already have a creature on the battlefield to copy him with. He is an awesome creature, haste, copies stuff, but at the end of the day he is just a 2/2 without any sort of protection. Don't cast him unless you want to extract some value. An exception to that rule would be if you are playing in a heavy control meta with lots of counters. In that case cast Kiki when everyone is tapped out and pray for him to live, or add Cavern of Souls + Expedition Map to your deck (and consider Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast).
Sometimes you will need to deploy combo pieces knowing they will be killed/destroyed. Fear not! The deck was made to survive this sort of thing, and you will be able to recover from that. Most of the times you will need to have some combo pieces on the battlefield to combo, so don't worry.
Kiki-Jiki can win a fair number of times without comboing, as I said. That usually requires the heavy hitters: Inferno Titan, Bogardan Hellkite, Myr Battlesphere, etc. Every combo deck in commander needs a plan B, and ours is the good and old beatdown. With the right setup, this deck can deliver massive chunks of damage in one turn (just imagine copying a Fanatic of Mogis three times in the same turn, for example). You should know that, many times, the beatdown plan will be your primary game plan. Sometimes your hand does not allow you to go any other way, and red is limited in his tutoring and drawing capacity, so just shrug your shoulders and go for it. When beating down I recommend focusing on multiple players in the beggining, so you can keep playing without making any enemies, but after a while you will have to focus in one person at a time. Start by the most threatening, usually the control deck or the enchantment based deck (we hate enchantments here, in case it is not clear).
And I believe that is all. I can improve this section over time to clarify possible doubts.
Now, you might be looking at all these cards and wondering: "WHY ON EARTH is he not playing with card X?"
Do not fear, noble reader, I will try to clarify that in this section.
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).
I know Kiki-Jiki is an old card and not that hot right now for most people, but I think he is a classical general and always will be a strong option in mono-red. Before Daretti came out, he was to me strongest monored general, and in certain metagames he probably still is.
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).
Out:
- Iron Myr
- Mizzium Mortars
- 6 Mountain
- Lightining Greaves
- Conjurer's Closet
In:
- Phyrexian Altar
- Chancellor of the Forge
- Mana Crypt
- Imperial Recruiter
- Crucible of Worlds
- Wasteland
- 4 Fetchlands
First game was Gisela, Damia and Sek'kuar. Damia was very controlish and in the beggining kept me and Sek'kuar from comboing out, Gisela was stuck without red mana. In the end Damia had to tap out to disrupt Sek'kuar and in my turn I played Zealous Conscripts, stealing a ravnica bounce land from one opponent effectively 'ramping' enough to also cast Kiki-Jiki and win.
Second game was against Gisela again, Damia (a different one, used by another player) and Ezuri, Claw of Progress. The hand was very good with grim monolith, but then I drew gamble, tutored for Sol Ring and the hand became 'the nuts'. Turn 3 I played Treasonous Ogre and Thornbite Staff, then I paid 30 life to put Hoarding Dragon and Kiki-Jiki on the table (emptying my hand). Kiki-Jiki was equipped with the staff, which allowed me to tutor in my turn for triskelion, Gisela's turn for Trading Post, Ezuri's turn for Mana Crypt and Damia's turn for Ashnod's altar. I cast the Altar, ensuring infinite mana, then I cast triskelion for the infinite damage kill. In case I was disrupted with a counter, I could recover the card with trading post + infinite mana. In case I was disrupted with a removal spell on Kiki I could recast him, or just respond sacrificing the Ogre to the altar untapping Kiki and comboing in response. Anyway, fun games.
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).
First, if you are running the Twinflame + Dualcaster Mage combo, another card that does the same thing of twin flame is Heat Shimmer. Although it is strictly worst, since it cost 2R and don't have strive, still is a good option.
Second, the goblins. I get that you don't run to many in the deck, but missing the Lightning crafter combo is a shame in my opinion. Specially if you can tutor the pieces either with goblin matron or goblin recruiter. However, you can run a similar combo with another creature with Champion, Changeling Berserker. With him on the battlefield, and any sac outlet, you can copy it with kiki, the copy exiles Kiki with the champion ability, you sac the copy, Kiki enters and you doit all over again, giving you infinite mana or damage depending on the sac outlet. And talking about sac outlets, another good one is Blasting station, since is better for going infinite damage.
Another goblin to combo off, if you decide to include Splinter twin, is goblin sharpshooter. The sharpshooter with the splinter twin plus a sac outlet goes infinite on damage, since you put a token with the splinter, do one damage with the token, sac it, and you uncap the sharpshooter to put a token again.
Finally, another combo that I'm trying out right now is Worldgorger Dragon + Kiki. The combo may be confusing, but it goes like this: with Kiki on the battlefield, you cast the dragon. In response to the dragon ability you copy it with kiki, the copy enters exiling everything (including the original dragon), then the ability of the original dragon resolves, exiling the copy of the dragon, and everything returns to the battlefield (including the original dragon). When the dragon enters again yo do it all over again in response to its ability. By this, you can go infinite with any ETB creature that you have on the battlefield or triskelion.
- I know heat shimmer, I just don't think it is on the same level as twinflame. Meaning: it is pretty bad. The fact that it costs one more and doesn't have the upside of strive makes it not worth it in my opinion. I didn't test it, so maybe it can work, I don't know.
- I really don't like moving to the goblins, I don't think it is a decent strategy combo-wise. Crafter is terrible on his own, and there will be plenty of spots where I would not be able to cast him. If I change the number of goblins in the deck to make it more likely that I add crafter what would I even cut? I really like the current configuration, I don't think the goblins are enough of a pay off. The changeling berserker follows a somewhat similar logic, in the sense that it doesn't do anything on its own and you still need an specific sac outlet to work, and infinite mana alone isn't good on kiki-jiki, there isn't much to do with it. Blasting station I also don't like it, I think it is only a good sac outlet when you are already going off, besides that it will have a very minor effect on the game. The altars generate you mana and bombardment is unconditional solid removal.
- The idea with the dragon is cute, maybe I can test it one day, but there is the clear problem that if you draw only the dragon you do nothing.
Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate the suggestions of the goblins, but I don't think I'm trying out anytime soon. I may give a chance to heat shimmer in the future.
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).