There is power in versatility and while playing a deck full of tutors can often feel "hard to play" or "easy to mess up" for players newer to the archetype, spending an extended amount of time with the deck can be very rewarding.
Birds of Paradise - Simply the best 1-CMC accelerator available to this style of deck providing red mana when casting Kiki-Jiki. Flying is far from irrelevant when running multiple copies of cards with Exalted and Gavony Township or slowing an opponents aggressive clock in the air.
Noble Hierarch - The 2nd best 1-CMC accelerator. Exalted provides a way to break through board stalls and chip away at your opponent.
Burrenton Forge-Tender - This mini hatebear is typically found in sideboards and has relevant text against a number of decks. Popular uses: Against any deck playing Anger of the Gods/Pyroclasm, Shutting down Lightning Storm against Ad Nauseam, Stopping Conflagrate against Dredge, Blocking and acting as a counterspell against Burn (watch out for Skullcrack effects).
Elves
Overview: Collected company elves is a board-flood aggro/combo deck that generally runs with either Lead the Stampede or Chord of Calling to overwhelm the board and then win with an anthem effect. The deck accelerates extremely quickly using dorks like Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic and Heritage Druid. They will generally use cards like Shaman of the Pack or Ezuri, Renegade Leader to finish you.
How to play the matchup: It's easy to confuse this deck with something like Merfolk. They're tribal, they run a lord or two, they swing for a billion at some point.. Actually, most elves decks run 1 lord card as a 4-of: Elvish Archdruid. As such, this is an engine deck: they want to get a lot of mana to be able to chain their card-draw spells like Lead the Stampede and Collected Company. They have a number of mana accelerants that scale with the number of cards on the board. Your goal in this matchup is to delay and disrupt their mana acceleration until you can combo off, which you can usually do uninterrupted because they run no disruption or interaction.
The primary engine cards in an elves deck are heritage druids/elvish arch-druids and Coco/Lead the Stampede (card advantage). We can't really interact with coco/lead, so we have to interact with the druids. If you can keep them off the board, you can limit elves to being a pretty crappy zoo/coco deck. As soon as one of those engines gets online, they will get to an overwhelming board state by basically dumping their entire hand out. Like all combo/accelerant decks, they also have some nut draws that it's very tough to beat - you will probably lose those games. But otherwise, this is a very winnable matchup: disrupt their acceleration and combo out as fast as possible.
Good chord targets:
Eternal Witness. You will win the game two turns after you chord for witness, with the chord->witness, chord->resto, chord-> kiki. If you think you can survive two turns, get this chain started.
Orzhov Pontiff. Without a lord, kills all the mana dorks. Great play early in the game, particularly if opponent has over-committed to the board.
Eidolon of Rhetoric. Last-ditch chord target. If you have been unable to disrupt the engine, and need to stop a terrifying heritage druid/stampede/coco chain, get Eidolon on board. It will usually stick around until they chord for reclamation sage. Eidolon can buy you time in this matchup.
Good post-board options:
Phyrexian Revoker, naming Heritage Druid (if nothing has been played), or a mana dork if they have 2+ of the same dork on the table, can do a lot of work.
Lightning Helix: Because the elves deck has a bunch of cards that are independently weak, but strong together, it's almost always worth it to trade 1-for-1 with one of their good cards. Helixing Ezuri, Archdruid, Heritage Druid is always a good plan.
Engineered Explosives: The only real board wipe we play. Don't get greedy with this - you want to use it to prevent their acceleration, not to fix a board they've already accelerated into. At that point, it's probably too late. You will almost always use this on 1.
Linvala, keeper of silence: she is a supersized revoker, blanking activated abilities of all their creatures
Jund
How to play the matchup: A typical jund deck runs about 6 hand-disruption spells, 10-15 removal spells, 10-15 creatures and 4 Liliana of the Veils. A typical chord deck runs about 25 creatures. A creature is typically a better topdeck than a removal spell - in aggregate, our topdecks are better than their topdecks, and our deck in general has a bit more value than their deck. A lot of their cards, like Liliana, Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, can be freaking terrible to draw in certain circumstances. However, Jund also has 3-4 cards that can just take over the game: Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, Kalitas, and to a lesser extent Tarmogoyf. If those cards do not take over the game, Chord will generally win on value. Play this match with the intention of grinding out Jund and minimizing the value they get from those 4 cards. If you are going to combo off, be sure to have spellskite backup - you will generally win this matchup by card advantage, not combo.
Good chord targets:
Eternal Witness is a great chord target, as it gains you free card advantage.
Restoration Angel, if you can get a card worth out of the flicker effect, is worth doing. It is also a great option for blanking removal and killing Liliana/putting on life pressure, as Jund decks run 0 fliers.
Scavenging Ooze, Chord for this if you can use it to de-power a goyf, blank Kolaghan's Command or Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Scooze can swing grindy matchups by denying value and establishing a big threat.
Reveillark is generally better than Kiki-Jikki in this matchup. If you can establish a reveillark/eternal witness loop, Jund pretty much can't win. In general, the 3-1 that Reveillark represents is pretty brutal.
Good post-board options:
Scavenging Ooze is always a good draw - board in an extra if you have it.
Fulminator Mage generally can kill one of their 3-5 manlands.
Lightning Helix virtually guarantees that you can kill Liliana and Dark Confidant before they take over the game
If you run Obstinate Baloth, it is a backbreaker vs. Jund. It doesn't die to lightning bolt, and it runs over Liliana.
Phyrexian Revoker naming Scavenging Ooze or Liliana can be extremely useful to protect your graveyard or hand.
Infect
Junk
Merfolk
Tokens
UR delver
Zoo
(b) Control
Blue moon
Eldrazi control
GR tron
Grixis control
Jeskai control
Lantern control
U tron
(c) Combo
Abzan company
Ad nauseam
Griselhoalbrand
Kiki chord
Living end
Scapeshift
Overview: Scapeshift is a damage-based combo deck that aims to get 7 lands into play and cast Scapeshift, searching up 6 mountains and Valakut, the molten pinnacle, and doing 18 damage to you. All 6 mountains see each other, thus they satisfy the "5 other mountains" clause in Valakut, so Valakut deals 18 damage. With 8 lands in play, they can fetch for 2 Valakuts and 6 mountains, doing 36 damage. Variants of this deck also play Bring to Light to find Scapeshift and big beaters like Primeval Titan.
How to play the matchup: This is a spell-based combo deck that doesn't play that many creatures - our interaction is not ideal. Our game 1 plan is to try to kill them or combo out faster than they can. If it doesn't slow you down, try to stay above 18 life, or have a way to get above 18 life, so they have to wait for the 8th land in play to kill you. Fulminator Mage either buys you a turn or can be used with the first valakut trigger on the stack to reduce damages from 18 to 3 (the other triggers won't see 5 other mountains and thus will fizzle), and Eidolon of Rhetoric effectively turns off Bring to Light - these, plus your beatdown pieces, are the key cards in the matchup.
Good chord targets:
Spellskite can redirect all the triggers from Valakut, thus making Valakut only do 12 damage.
Chordable lifegain such as Lone missionary will usually gain you less life than skite saves, so it's not a good target.
As stated above, Fulminator Mage can surprise-disrupt the combo. If 6 mountains enter, and 6 valakut triggers get placed on the stack, if you destroy a mountain by chording for fulminator mage and sacrificing it, only 1 trigger happens, and you take 3 damage.
Eidolon of Rhetoric can be chorded for, in response to bring to light, to fizzle the spell that would be cast with bring to light.
Good post-board options:
Land Hate: Fulminator Mage and Crumble to Dust. With Crumble to Dust, it becomes possible to prevent the scapeshift player from winning the game. Scapeshift players play 10 mountains, generally (2 mountains, 4 steam vents, 4 stomping grounds). If you can crumble to dust Valakut, terrific, you probably win. But if you can crumble to dust steam vents or stomping grounds, there will only be 6 mountains left in their hand and deck. This means that if you can stick a fulminator mage, they can't actually kill you, because you can fizzle the combo at will. Keep good track of how many mountains you've gotten rid of, and how much damage they can do.
Spell Hate: Sin Collector and Slaughter Games searching for Scapeshift. If you can get rid of it, you're really only vulnerable to a big green beatdown.
Lifegain: Boarding in lightning helixes, to aid the beatdown plan, and allow you to stay above 18 life. Board out anti-artifact/enchantment options if they're not playing Khalni-Heart Expedition. Board out anti-creature spells at your own risk being aware that they can have a transformational sideboard or be on a titan plan.
Chord can become a one-card combo as soon as you have the possibility to chord at 3. The chain consists to do this over the course of (generally) 3 turns in: (i) chord at 3 for eternal witness, the trigger of eternal witness brings you back chord, (ii) chord at 4 for restoration angel, restoration angel blinks eternal witness, eternal witness trigger brings you back chord and (iii) chord at 5 for kiki.
Of course, this chain is not the fastest and the most unexpected way to go off, therefore:
(i) be prudent not to run into counterspell (or at least do it when the opponent is tapped or under the protection of a voice of resurgence;
(ii) mind removal aiming at your witness when the restoration angel trigger is on the stack,
(iii) last but not least, be conscious that gravehate can disrupt the chain (obvious example: scavenging ooze).
Kiki company uses a similar package, but instead on going heavy on restoration angels, it uses card advantages provided by collected company.
With the release of battle for zendikar, several lists emerged around bring to light, either played along with chord of calling or played as a chord replacement. Even though we welcome every "kiki tutor" players, we will not discuss bring to light builds at length here.
2. Sample list of each main variants
The deck has emerged after the pod ban and is progressively settling on three main lists.
"Kiki company"
Kiki company is the first list that saw major play, with a top 8 made by Tay Jun Hao at GP Singapore on 28 June 2015.
Compared to its counterpart, kiki company is more focused on getting the combo online as soon as possible. You will note that fauna shaman has an important role on this, since it acts as tutors 4,5 and 6, ideally played at end of turn when casting collected company.
Similarly to chord, the shaman enables to put the combo online by itself (to the extent you have one creature to discard) by fetching successively eternal witness, restoration angel and kiki-jiki, mirror breaker.
"Kiki hoogland"
Jeff Hoogland popularized his take on the deck as from June 2015.
One of its list (SCG Cincinatti 2 January 2016) is the following:
The general consensus - I believe - is to say that the deck is slower that kiki company but more consistent since it draws quite well with courser of kruphix and wall of omens.
"Kiki leaped midrange"
I have been jamming this deck following my despair to see birthing pod banned (so since March 2015). My deck is somewhere in the middle of kiki company and kiki hoogland. No walls, no courser, no coco but value through kitchen finks, evolutionary leap and fauna shaman.
My current list (end February 2016) is the following:
Elves
Overview: Collected company elves is a board-flood aggro/combo deck that generally runs with either Lead the Stampede or Chord of Calling to overwhelm the board and then win with an anthem effect. The deck accelerates extremely quickly using dorks like Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic and Heritage Druid. They will generally use cards like Shaman of the Pack or Ezuri, Renegade Leader to finish you.
How to play the matchup: It's easy to confuse this deck with something like Merfolk. They're tribal, they run a lord or two, they swing for a billion at some point.. Actually, most elves decks run 1 lord card as a 4-of: Elvish Archdruid. As such, this is an engine deck: they want to get a lot of mana to be able to chain their card-draw spells like Lead the Stampede and Collected Company. They have a number of mana accelerants that scale with the number of cards on the board. Your goal in this matchup is to delay and disrupt their mana acceleration until you can combo off, which you can usually do uninterrupted because they run no disruption or interaction.
The primary engine cards in an elves deck are heritage druids/elvish arch-druids and Coco/Lead the Stampede (card advantage). We can't really interact with coco/lead, so we have to interact with the druids. If you can keep them off the board, you can limit elves to being a pretty crappy zoo/coco deck. As soon as one of those engines gets online, they will get to an overwhelming board state by basically dumping their entire hand out. Like all combo/accelerant decks, they also have some nut draws that it's very tough to beat - you will probably lose those games. But otherwise, this is a very winnable matchup: disrupt their acceleration and combo out as fast as possible.
Good chord targets:
Eternal Witness. You will win the game two turns after you chord for witness, with the chord->witness, chord->resto, chord-> kiki. If you think you can survive two turns, get this chain started.
Orzhov Pontiff. Without a lord, kills all the mana dorks. Great play early in the game, particularly if opponent has over-committed to the board.
Eidolon of Rhetoric. Last-ditch chord target. If you have been unable to disrupt the engine, and need to stop a terrifying heritage druid/stampede/coco chain, get Eidolon on board. It will usually stick around until they chord for reclamation sage. Eidolon can buy you time in this matchup.
Good post-board options:
Phyrexian Revoker, naming Heritage Druid (if nothing has been played), or a mana dork if they have 2+ of the same dork on the table, can do a lot of work.
Lightning Helix: Because the elves deck has a bunch of cards that are independently weak, but strong together, it's almost always worth it to trade 1-for-1 with one of their good cards. Helixing Ezuri, Archdruid, Heritage Druid is always a good plan.
Engineered Explosives: The only real board wipe we play. Don't get greedy with this - you want to use it to prevent their acceleration, not to fix a board they've already accelerated into. At that point, it's probably too late. You will almost always use this on 1.
Linvala, keeper of silence: she is a supersized revoker, blanking activated abilities of all their creatures
Jund
How to play the matchup: A typical jund deck runs about 6 hand-disruption spells, 10-15 removal spells, 10-15 creatures and 4 Liliana of the Veils. A typical chord deck runs about 25 creatures. A creature is typically a better topdeck than a removal spell - in aggregate, our topdecks are better than their topdecks, and our deck in general has a bit more value than their deck. A lot of their cards, like Liliana, Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, can be freaking terrible to draw in certain circumstances. However, Jund also has 3-4 cards that can just take over the game: Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, Kalitas, and to a lesser extent Tarmogoyf. If those cards do not take over the game, Chord will generally win on value. Play this match with the intention of grinding out Jund and minimizing the value they get from those 4 cards. If you are going to combo off, be sure to have spellskite backup - you will generally win this matchup by card advantage, not combo.
Good chord targets:
Eternal Witness is a great chord target, as it gains you free card advantage.
Restoration Angel, if you can get a card worth out of the flicker effect, is worth doing. It is also a great option for blanking removal and killing Liliana/putting on life pressure, as Jund decks run 0 fliers.
Scavenging Ooze, Chord for this if you can use it to de-power a goyf, blank Kolaghan's Command or Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Scooze can swing grindy matchups by denying value and establishing a big threat.
Reveillark is generally better than Kiki-Jikki in this matchup. If you can establish a reveillark/eternal witness loop, Jund pretty much can't win. In general, the 3-1 that Reveillark represents is pretty brutal.
Good post-board options:
Scavenging Ooze is always a good draw - board in an extra if you have it.
Fulminator Mage generally can kill one of their 3-5 manlands.
Lightning Helix virtually guarantees that you can kill Liliana and Dark Confidant before they take over the game
If you run Obstinate Baloth, it is a backbreaker vs. Jund. It doesn't die to lightning bolt, and it runs over Liliana.
Phyrexian Revoker naming Scavenging Ooze or Liliana can be extremely useful to protect your graveyard or hand.
Infect
Junk
Merfolk
Tokens
UR delver
Zoo
(b) Control
Blue moon
Eldrazi control
GR tron
Grixis control
Jeskai control
Lantern control
U tron
(c) Combo
Abzan company
Ad nauseam
Griselhoalbrand
Kiki chord
Living end
Scapeshift
Overview: Scapeshift is a damage-based combo deck that aims to get 7 lands into play and cast Scapeshift, searching up 6 mountains and Valakut, the molten pinnacle, and doing 18 damage to you. All 6 mountains see each other, thus they satisfy the "5 other mountains" clause in Valakut, so Valakut deals 18 damage. With 8 lands in play, they can fetch for 2 Valakuts and 6 mountains, doing 36 damage. Variants of this deck also play Bring to Light to find Scapeshift and big beaters like Primeval Titan.
How to play the matchup: This is a spell-based combo deck that doesn't play that many creatures - our interaction is not ideal. Our game 1 plan is to try to kill them or combo out faster than they can. If it doesn't slow you down, try to stay above 18 life, or have a way to get above 18 life, so they have to wait for the 8th land in play to kill you. Fulminator Mage either buys you a turn or can be used with the first valakut trigger on the stack to reduce damages from 18 to 3 (the other triggers won't see 5 other mountains and thus will fizzle), and Eidolon of Rhetoric effectively turns off Bring to Light - these, plus your beatdown pieces, are the key cards in the matchup.
Good chord targets:
Spellskite can redirect all the triggers from Valakut, thus making Valakut only do 12 damage.
Chordable lifegain such as Lone missionary will usually gain you less life than skite saves, so it's not a good target.
As stated above, Fulminator Mage can surprise-disrupt the combo. If 6 mountains enter, and 6 valakut triggers get placed on the stack, if you destroy a mountain by chording for fulminator mage and sacrificing it, only 1 trigger happens, and you take 3 damage.
Eidolon of Rhetoric can be chorded for, in response to bring to light, to fizzle the spell that would be cast with bring to light.
Good post-board options:
Land Hate: Fulminator Mage and Crumble to Dust. With Crumble to Dust, it becomes possible to prevent the scapeshift player from winning the game. Scapeshift players play 10 mountains, generally (2 mountains, 4 steam vents, 4 stomping grounds). If you can crumble to dust Valakut, terrific, you probably win. But if you can crumble to dust steam vents or stomping grounds, there will only be 6 mountains left in their hand and deck. This means that if you can stick a fulminator mage, they can't actually kill you, because you can fizzle the combo at will. Keep good track of how many mountains you've gotten rid of, and how much damage they can do.
Spell Hate: Sin Collector and Slaughter Games searching for Scapeshift. If you can get rid of it, you're really only vulnerable to a big green beatdown.
Lifegain: Boarding in lightning helixes, to aid the beatdown plan, and allow you to stay above 18 life. Board out anti-artifact/enchantment options if they're not playing Khalni-Heart Expedition. Board out anti-creature spells at your own risk being aware that they can have a transformational sideboard or be on a titan plan.
Storm
5. Tips (in progress)
Chaining chord
Chord can become a one-card combo as soon as you have the possibility to chord at 3. The chain consists to do this over the course of (generally) 3 turns in: (i) chord at 3 for eternal witness, the trigger of eternal witness brings you back chord, (ii) chord at 4 for restoration angel, restoration angel blinks eternal witness, eternal witness trigger brings you back chord and (iii) chord at 5 for kiki.
Of course, this chain is not the fastest and the most unexpected way to go off, therefore:
(i) be prudent not to run into counterspell (or at least do it when the opponent is tapped or under the protection of a voice of resurgence;
(ii) mind removal aiming at your witness when the restoration angel trigger is on the stack,
(iii) last but not least, be conscious that gravehate can disrupt the chain (obvious example: scavenging ooze).
Your perfect for the job too (as given all the help you brought to the green devotion community for the Toolbox build (very similar to this; but focuses a little more in green devotion...) you Obviosly know what you're talking about! And spearheading this deck (which potentially could be even better without the devotion aspect in the dorm you play) is a great idea. A lot of both Pod and even non-Pod players have been looking for a deck that fits their Playstyles...this is that deck.
Any who congrats on the primer, great idea, and keep us informed on how it continues to perform. I look forward to reading more as this grows and grows.
This looks fun. I'm gonna give this a try in some casual matches.
What are its matchups like? Does it have a fighting chance against Junk and Twin?
Sorry I have not yet had the opportunity to make a full primer with MUs description and so on.
MUs against junk is near 70% favourable. The deck is "value based" and junk cannot cope easily with that. Post-sideboard I side sigarda and thrun in, which is just a nightmare for them. The only card that can be potentially be problematic on their side is scavenging ooze.
First game against twin is even to slightly unfavourable. Post-side, I would say it is an even MU. It remains one of the most difficult one though and that's the reason why I increased the number of qasali (initally one) to two.
I am very happy that you created this primer. I have been playing a Kiki Chord list very heavily online in preparation for a paper tournament this weekend. This is the list I have been using:
Tonight I am going to switch out Reveillark as she has been very lackluster, in favor of a Village Bell-Ringer to give me a cheaper combo piece with Kiki.
My worst matchups online have been Tron decks and the random Wrath of God/Damnation decks that pop up. The "fair" matchups are about like 65% and I have been able to out play Splinter Twin decks. The deck has a lot of decision trees every turn and really takes a lot of practice. If anyone is interested I can update Sunday on my weekend tournament results. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing!
EDIT :: I also think it is important to add that my win % is significantly lower on the draw. It is very very common for me to win the roll, win G1, lose G2 and win G3. Or lose the roll, lose G1, win G2 and win G3. Very seldom do the matches to 2-0 or 0-2.
i really feel like a 2 of domri would be good in some of these builds. when i get some time ill sleeve it up and give it a go. nice sample list though looks like ti has some decent interactions.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Tooth & Nail........Grishoalbrand....Living Dominance....Tezzerator.........Vannifar Pod
My Decks that have been BANNED
DRS Jund | Kiki-Pod | Bloom Titan | Splinter Twin | KCI
I am very happy that you created this primer. I have been playing a Kiki Chord list very heavily online in preparation for a paper tournament this weekend. This is the list I have been using:
Tonight I am going to switch out Reveillark as she has been very lackluster, in favor of a Village Bell-Ringer to give me a cheaper combo piece with Kiki.
My worst matchups online have been Tron decks and the random Wrath of God/Damnation decks that pop up. The "fair" matchups are about like 65% and I have been able to out play Splinter Twin decks. The deck has a lot of decision trees every turn and really takes a lot of practice. If anyone is interested I can update Sunday on my weekend tournament results. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing!
EDIT :: I also think it is important to add that my win % is significantly lower on the draw. It is very very common for me to win the roll, win G1, lose G2 and win G3. Or lose the roll, lose G1, win G2 and win G3. Very seldom do the matches to 2-0 or 0-2.
Thanks !
Your higher win % on the play probably shows that you are fast enough to catch your opponent off guard with one additional turn. I would recommand you to try the arbor elf/utopia sprawl package to get some explosiveness. One non negligeable aspect is that aura ramp diversifies your risk, in particular in case if a wrath.
I have played against gr tron and mono blue tron. I won 2-0 against gr tron (combo T3 on the first and i stole his platinum angels and combo on the second). Mono blue was a draw (1-1) as we had no time to finish the game. All in all, tron is a difficult Mu but is still manageable, especially if you race them by comboing t3 or t4.
I like the draw cards in your deck. I have not found room in my list as I want to have more beatdown options, but it is a good addition if you want to focus on the combo.
Feel free to post your results on the thread and good luck !
i really feel like a 2 of domri would be good in some of these builds. when i get some time ill sleeve it up and give it a go. nice sample list though looks like ti has some decent interactions.
Thanks.
I tried it a while ago and was not that impressed. Maybe it does not fit my playstyle.
If i would go for planeswalkers, i would rather go for garruk wildspeaker and nyktos for ramp, chandra pyromaster if you want card advantage and more beatdown oriented, sarkhan vol if beatdown oriented or ajani vengeant if you want to build some control.
Have fun when you try it out and do not hesitate to let us know how it went.
Hey all,
I just thought I'd pop in and say hello! I used to play kiki-pod pretty regularly (got to the final of a decent sized event, but not much else to write home about). Glad to see people still plowing through with the deck! With reference to Artvi's list...
first of all - I think zealous conscripts is, well, rubbish! It was only there to combo off 2 persist creatures, and we all know we can't do that anymore. I'd rather run 2 bell ringers than a 1/1 split.
secondly - I think this decks beatdown needs to be the focus, rather than it's combo. I think you've all figured that out anyway. So with that in mind, I think the utility creatures need to be fewer, and the "beaters / resilient creatures" more of. I am not liking Polukranos, and I'm not sure on the ramp creatures.
The way I'm seeing this deck now, is that it has a fairly decent game against the fair decks, and has a lot of tricks. But does it need to be fast? Could you drop the mana dorks entirely, and just get grindy? This current list seems a bit soft to the usual bolt effectives that plague mana dorks, and ghost quarter effects hurt us because of the utopia sprawl. If you remove those 8 cards, and replace them with lower curving control cards, or resilient threats, then you blank some of the common removal. You would obviously need to increase your land count to do that.
Similar to the green devotion deck, primal command + witness is pretty ace. Perhaps that has a home here, though 8 mana is very steep? One of the best lines in the old kiki-pod deck was chord -> witness. Having a 2nd to aid that path might not be a problem. Having paths to aid your path might also be worth considering!
Unfortunately, I won't get chance to play this list. But, I'd be trying something like:
-1 Zealous
-1 Polukranos
-2 wall of roots
-4 arbor elf
-4 utopia sprawl
-2 noble hierarch
+4 birds of paradise (best stand-alone ramp spell for this deck)
+1 scavenging ooze (don't rely on tutoring it up then)
+1 eternal witness - reasons as above
+3 path to exile
You've still got 5 slots to play with, and those utility creatures in the side could easily find a place in the main. It may not be the right route to victory, but I like the thought of blanking a lot of the most popular control elements. Use your own control (usually from the side) to beat combo. Kinda like old-skool kiki-pod!
Anyway, happy brewing guys. Glad to see it's not a totally dead deck!
Hey there ! Thanks for passing by.
To answer a couple of your points:
• zealous conscripts: i know she was mostly used in these multiples pod lines to set up the combo with pod. Her ability is however not irrelevant, in numerous cases I won by just stealing one blocker or by taking a ghostly prison which holds me off or (more recently) by stealing two platinum angels in the same turn. Village bell-ringer is far from her power level, hence the 1-1 split.
• beatdown: I agree, my general philosophy could be summarised as follows: if you do not put pressure, there is no reason for them to tap out. If pressure is applied and they do not tap out, they are dead. If they tap out, they are dead too
•polukranos /ramp: after the pod ban, I tried a list with resilient creatures and blade splicer. I however never reached a stage where chord of calling was fast enough. So I looked at ramp options. Mono green nykthos had this crazy ramping sequences based on elf arbor, utopia sprawl, garruk wildspeaker, burning-tree emissary and nykthos, shrine to nyx. I found the combinations of all these pieces was probably an overkill for the mana I needed to produce in this deck (you generally do not need more than 5-6) and that the combinations of all these pieces was somewhat contingent. So I basically kept the more appropriate part of the ramp for me, ie arbor elf and utopia sprawl. The combination has the advantage to spread your risk (you do not loose your ramp because of a wrath) and to be honest, it is unlikely that you will have arbor elf burned and the land with sprawl destroyed at the same time. Arguably, birds of paradise also die to burn spells... Taking into account the mono green background (where you produce a stupid amount of mana), polukranos was a nice inclusion. Now that I have downgraded my ramp, I might indeed take it out.
•a second eternal witness is definitely something to consider.
I assembled a version of the podless deck and will test it with some friends this weekend, no big deal, just casual testing to see how it behaves without the pod.
this is first deck i created without pod so it not even near a final call, this is what i got:
Below an example of a turn 5 against a control deck (I could have gone for a T4 by playing arbor elf the first turn but I chose the safe way).
I'll put this on the primer as an example.
I have also slightly update the sample decklist.
The game has started.
Tour 1
It is now X's turn.
It is now the untap step.
artvi draws 7 card(s).
artvi: kp
X: ip
X draws his initial hand.
X: kp
X puts Flooded Strand into play from hand.
It is now the ending phase.
It is now artvi's turn.
It is now the untap step.
It is now the upkeep step.
It is now the draw step.
artvi draws 1 card(s).
It is now the first main phase.
artvi puts Forest into play from hand.
artvi taps Forest.
artvi plays Utopia Sprawl from hand.
artvi: white
X: ok
artvi puts Utopia Sprawl into play from the stack
artvi sets annotation of Utopia Sprawl to "white".
X sets counter life to 19 (-1).
X puts Flooded Strand from table into graveyard.
X is looking at his library.
X puts Sacred Foundry into play from library.
X stops looking at his library.
X shuffles his library.
It is now the ending phase.
Tour 2
It is now X's turn.
It is now the untap step.
It is now the draw step.
X draws 1 card(s).
X puts Hallowed Fountain into play from hand.
X sets counter life to 18 (-1).
X sets counter life to 17 (-1).
It is now the ending phase.
It is now artvi's turn.
It is now the untap step.
artvi untaps his permanents.
It is now the upkeep step.
It is now the draw step.
artvi draws 1 card(s).
It is now the first main phase.
artvi taps Forest.
artvi plays Wall of Roots from hand.
X taps Sacred Foundry.
X taps Hallowed Fountain.
X plays Remand from hand.
X puts Remand from the stack into graveyard.
artvi moves Wall of Roots from the stack to hand.
X draws 1 card(s).
artvi puts Temple Garden into play from hand.
artvi sets counter life to 18 (-2).
artvi taps Temple Garden.
artvi plays Arbor Elf from hand.
artvi puts Arbor Elf into play from the stack.
X: ok
It is now the ending phase.
Tour 3
It is now X's turn.
It is now the untap step.
X untaps his permanents.
It is now the draw step.
X draws 1 card(s).
X puts Steam Vents into play from hand.
X sets counter life to 16 (-1).
X sets counter life to 15 (-1).
X taps Sacred Foundry.
X plays Path to Exile from hand.
X points from his Path to Exile to artvi's Arbor Elf.
artvi exiles Arbor Elf from table.
artvi is looking at his library.
X puts Path to Exile from the stack into graveyard.
artvi puts Forest into play from library.
artvi stops looking at his library.
artvi shuffles his library.
artvi taps Forest.
It is now the ending phase.
It is now artvi's turn.
It is now the untap step.
artvi untaps his permanents.
It is now the upkeep step.
It is now the draw step.
artvi draws 1 card(s).
It is now the first main phase.
artvi taps Forest.
artvi plays Voice of Resurgence from hand.
X: ok
artvi puts Voice of Resurgence into play from the stack.
artvi taps Temple Garden.
artvi taps Forest.
artvi plays Wall of Roots from hand.
X: ok
artvi puts Wall of Roots into play from the stack.
It is now the ending phase.
Tour 4
It is now X's turn.
It is now the untap step.
X untaps his permanents.
It is now the draw step.
X draws 1 card(s).
X taps Hallowed Fountain.
X plays Path to Exile from hand.
X points from his Path to Exile to artvi's Voice of Resurgence.
artvi exiles Voice of Resurgence from table.
X puts Path to Exile from the stack into graveyard.
artvi is looking at his library.
artvi puts Mountain into play from library.
artvi stops looking at his library.
artvi shuffles his library.
artvi taps Mountain.
It is now the ending phase.
It is now artvi's turn.
It is now the untap step.
artvi untaps his permanents.
It is now the upkeep step.
It is now the draw step.
artvi draws 1 card(s).
It is now the first main phase.
artvi taps Forest.
artvi plays Arbor Elf from hand.
X: ok
artvi puts Arbor Elf into play from the stack.
It is now the ending phase.
Tour 5
It is now X's turn.
It is now the untap step.
X untaps his permanents.
It is now the draw step.
X draws 1 card(s).
X taps Sacred Foundry.
X taps Steam Vents.
X taps Hallowed Fountain.
X plays Electrolyze from hand.
X points from his Electrolyze to artvi's Arbor Elf.
artvi taps Forest.
X points from his Electrolyze to artvi.
artvi taps Temple Garden.
artvi taps Mountain.
artvi plays Restoration Angel from hand.
artvi puts Restoration Angel into play from the stack.
artvi points from his Restoration Angel to his Arbor Elf.
artvi sets counter life to 17 (-1).
X draws 1 card(s).
X puts Sulfur Falls into play from hand.
X puts Electrolyze from the stack into graveyard.
It is now the ending phase.
It is now artvi's turn.
It is now the untap step.
artvi untaps his permanents.
It is now the upkeep step.
It is now the draw step.
artvi draws 1 card(s).
It is now the first main phase.
artvi puts Fire-Lit Thicket into play from hand.
artvi taps Forest.
artvi taps Arbor Elf.
artvi untaps Forest.
artvi taps Forest.
artvi taps Temple Garden.
artvi taps Forest.
artvi taps Mountain.
artvi taps Fire-Lit Thicket.
artvi plays Chord of Calling from hand.
X: gg
artvi: 5
So the conclusion is that we can win through disruption. On the second game of the abzan MU, he even did not pay his pact on turn 5 (and as I got distracted I did not mention it). Still I won T7 while he casted a free spell
And 2-1 against GW hatebear (I thought that deck was dead). I basically sided out chord of calling G2 and G3 for bonfire and hexproof creatures (even though I did not draw any)...
As previously, I will feed the primer with the results.
That's all for this weekend folks. Keep me updated on your results.
I like the way you tweaked your main deck. 2 Gavony is better than the split with a somewhat useless Kessig. More forests overall, and a focus on red sources. And you got rid of the redundant extra mana dorks.
About Gavony though, we can ask ourselves whether it's worth it in the Kiki shell. Or let's say, better than manlands, Slayers' Stronghold or land destruction.
Twin is unfavorable and it's the deck to beat right now. I would add a path in the main. An easy cut would be the 2nd Ooze. I know you disagree with this though.
In the side, I don't understand why you don't run Reclamation Sage instead of 1 Wear or 1 Qasali. With Resto the Sage is miles better, and you can tuto him. No excuse.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
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Kiki Chord Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/199307817160140/
Modern Toolbox Deck Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/creaturetoolbox/
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3. Cards choice (in progress)
Creatures:
1 CMC -
Birds of Paradise - Simply the best 1-CMC accelerator available to this style of deck providing red mana when casting Kiki-Jiki. Flying is far from irrelevant when running multiple copies of cards with Exalted and Gavony Township or slowing an opponents aggressive clock in the air.
Noble Hierarch - The 2nd best 1-CMC accelerator. Exalted provides a way to break through board stalls and chip away at your opponent.
Burrenton Forge-Tender - This mini hatebear is typically found in sideboards and has relevant text against a number of decks. Popular uses: Against any deck playing Anger of the Gods/Pyroclasm, Shutting down Lightning Storm against Ad Nauseam, Stopping Conflagrate against Dredge, Blocking and acting as a counterspell against Burn (watch out for Skullcrack effects).
2 CMC -
Wall of Roots
Voice of Resurgence
Wall of Omens
Scavenging Ooze
Qasali Pridemage
Selfless Spirit
Spellskite
Fauna Shaman
Myr Superion
Kataki, War's Wage
Lone Missionary
Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Harsh Mentor
Phyrexian Revoker
3 CMC -
Eternal Witness
Kitchen Finks
Renegade Rallier
Deceiver Exarch
Magus of the Moon
Fulminator Mage
Reclamation Sage
Eidolon of Rhetoric
Village Bell-Ringer
Orzhov Pontiff
Izzet Staticaster
Vulshok Sorcerer
Cunning Sparkmage
Renegade Rallier
4 CMC -
Restoration Angel
Obstinate Baloth
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Archangel of Tithes
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Glen Elendra Archmage
Murderous Redcap
Avalanche Riders
Thrun, the Last Troll
5 CMC -
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Reveillark
Thragtusk
Sigarda, Host of Herons
6 CMC -
Inferno Titan
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4. Match up (in progress)
Overview: Collected company elves is a board-flood aggro/combo deck that generally runs with either Lead the Stampede or Chord of Calling to overwhelm the board and then win with an anthem effect. The deck accelerates extremely quickly using dorks like Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic and Heritage Druid. They will generally use cards like Shaman of the Pack or Ezuri, Renegade Leader to finish you.
How to play the matchup: It's easy to confuse this deck with something like Merfolk. They're tribal, they run a lord or two, they swing for a billion at some point.. Actually, most elves decks run 1 lord card as a 4-of: Elvish Archdruid. As such, this is an engine deck: they want to get a lot of mana to be able to chain their card-draw spells like Lead the Stampede and Collected Company. They have a number of mana accelerants that scale with the number of cards on the board. Your goal in this matchup is to delay and disrupt their mana acceleration until you can combo off, which you can usually do uninterrupted because they run no disruption or interaction.
The primary engine cards in an elves deck are heritage druids/elvish arch-druids and Coco/Lead the Stampede (card advantage). We can't really interact with coco/lead, so we have to interact with the druids. If you can keep them off the board, you can limit elves to being a pretty crappy zoo/coco deck. As soon as one of those engines gets online, they will get to an overwhelming board state by basically dumping their entire hand out. Like all combo/accelerant decks, they also have some nut draws that it's very tough to beat - you will probably lose those games. But otherwise, this is a very winnable matchup: disrupt their acceleration and combo out as fast as possible.
Good chord targets:
Eternal Witness. You will win the game two turns after you chord for witness, with the chord->witness, chord->resto, chord-> kiki. If you think you can survive two turns, get this chain started.
Orzhov Pontiff. Without a lord, kills all the mana dorks. Great play early in the game, particularly if opponent has over-committed to the board.
Eidolon of Rhetoric. Last-ditch chord target. If you have been unable to disrupt the engine, and need to stop a terrifying heritage druid/stampede/coco chain, get Eidolon on board. It will usually stick around until they chord for reclamation sage. Eidolon can buy you time in this matchup.
Good post-board options:
Phyrexian Revoker, naming Heritage Druid (if nothing has been played), or a mana dork if they have 2+ of the same dork on the table, can do a lot of work.
Lightning Helix: Because the elves deck has a bunch of cards that are independently weak, but strong together, it's almost always worth it to trade 1-for-1 with one of their good cards. Helixing Ezuri, Archdruid, Heritage Druid is always a good plan.
Engineered Explosives: The only real board wipe we play. Don't get greedy with this - you want to use it to prevent their acceleration, not to fix a board they've already accelerated into. At that point, it's probably too late. You will almost always use this on 1.
Linvala, keeper of silence: she is a supersized revoker, blanking activated abilities of all their creatures
How to play the matchup: A typical jund deck runs about 6 hand-disruption spells, 10-15 removal spells, 10-15 creatures and 4 Liliana of the Veils. A typical chord deck runs about 25 creatures. A creature is typically a better topdeck than a removal spell - in aggregate, our topdecks are better than their topdecks, and our deck in general has a bit more value than their deck. A lot of their cards, like Liliana, Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, can be freaking terrible to draw in certain circumstances. However, Jund also has 3-4 cards that can just take over the game: Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, Kalitas, and to a lesser extent Tarmogoyf. If those cards do not take over the game, Chord will generally win on value. Play this match with the intention of grinding out Jund and minimizing the value they get from those 4 cards. If you are going to combo off, be sure to have spellskite backup - you will generally win this matchup by card advantage, not combo.
Good chord targets:
Eternal Witness is a great chord target, as it gains you free card advantage.
Restoration Angel, if you can get a card worth out of the flicker effect, is worth doing. It is also a great option for blanking removal and killing Liliana/putting on life pressure, as Jund decks run 0 fliers.
Scavenging Ooze, Chord for this if you can use it to de-power a goyf, blank Kolaghan's Command or Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Scooze can swing grindy matchups by denying value and establishing a big threat.
Reveillark is generally better than Kiki-Jikki in this matchup. If you can establish a reveillark/eternal witness loop, Jund pretty much can't win. In general, the 3-1 that Reveillark represents is pretty brutal.
Good post-board options:
Scavenging Ooze is always a good draw - board in an extra if you have it.
Fulminator Mage generally can kill one of their 3-5 manlands.
Lightning Helix virtually guarantees that you can kill Liliana and Dark Confidant before they take over the game
If you run Obstinate Baloth, it is a backbreaker vs. Jund. It doesn't die to lightning bolt, and it runs over Liliana.
Phyrexian Revoker naming Scavenging Ooze or Liliana can be extremely useful to protect your graveyard or hand.
Overview: Scapeshift is a damage-based combo deck that aims to get 7 lands into play and cast Scapeshift, searching up 6 mountains and Valakut, the molten pinnacle, and doing 18 damage to you. All 6 mountains see each other, thus they satisfy the "5 other mountains" clause in Valakut, so Valakut deals 18 damage. With 8 lands in play, they can fetch for 2 Valakuts and 6 mountains, doing 36 damage. Variants of this deck also play Bring to Light to find Scapeshift and big beaters like Primeval Titan.
How to play the matchup: This is a spell-based combo deck that doesn't play that many creatures - our interaction is not ideal. Our game 1 plan is to try to kill them or combo out faster than they can. If it doesn't slow you down, try to stay above 18 life, or have a way to get above 18 life, so they have to wait for the 8th land in play to kill you. Fulminator Mage either buys you a turn or can be used with the first valakut trigger on the stack to reduce damages from 18 to 3 (the other triggers won't see 5 other mountains and thus will fizzle), and Eidolon of Rhetoric effectively turns off Bring to Light - these, plus your beatdown pieces, are the key cards in the matchup.
Good chord targets:
Spellskite can redirect all the triggers from Valakut, thus making Valakut only do 12 damage.
Chordable lifegain such as Lone missionary will usually gain you less life than skite saves, so it's not a good target.
As stated above, Fulminator Mage can surprise-disrupt the combo. If 6 mountains enter, and 6 valakut triggers get placed on the stack, if you destroy a mountain by chording for fulminator mage and sacrificing it, only 1 trigger happens, and you take 3 damage.
Eidolon of Rhetoric can be chorded for, in response to bring to light, to fizzle the spell that would be cast with bring to light.
Good post-board options:
Land Hate: Fulminator Mage and Crumble to Dust. With Crumble to Dust, it becomes possible to prevent the scapeshift player from winning the game. Scapeshift players play 10 mountains, generally (2 mountains, 4 steam vents, 4 stomping grounds). If you can crumble to dust Valakut, terrific, you probably win. But if you can crumble to dust steam vents or stomping grounds, there will only be 6 mountains left in their hand and deck. This means that if you can stick a fulminator mage, they can't actually kill you, because you can fizzle the combo at will. Keep good track of how many mountains you've gotten rid of, and how much damage they can do.
Spell Hate: Sin Collector and Slaughter Games searching for Scapeshift. If you can get rid of it, you're really only vulnerable to a big green beatdown.
Lifegain: Boarding in lightning helixes, to aid the beatdown plan, and allow you to stay above 18 life. Board out anti-artifact/enchantment options if they're not playing Khalni-Heart Expedition. Board out anti-creature spells at your own risk being aware that they can have a transformational sideboard or be on a titan plan.
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5. Tips (in progress)
Chaining chord
Chord can become a one-card combo as soon as you have the possibility to chord at 3. The chain consists to do this over the course of (generally) 3 turns in: (i) chord at 3 for eternal witness, the trigger of eternal witness brings you back chord, (ii) chord at 4 for restoration angel, restoration angel blinks eternal witness, eternal witness trigger brings you back chord and (iii) chord at 5 for kiki.
Of course, this chain is not the fastest and the most unexpected way to go off, therefore:
(i) be prudent not to run into counterspell (or at least do it when the opponent is tapped or under the protection of a voice of resurgence;
(ii) mind removal aiming at your witness when the restoration angel trigger is on the stack,
(iii) last but not least, be conscious that gravehate can disrupt the chain (obvious example: scavenging ooze).
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6. Links (in progress)
Hoogland's second primer
What to do against the eldrazi winter by Jeff Hoogland
Michael Majors playing the deck
1. What is kiki chord /kiki company ?
Kiki chord is a midrange creature-based deck, which uses chord of calling to fetch silver bullets at the right time and/or assemble a combo made of kiki-jiki, mirror breaker and restoration angel (other possibilities include deceiver exarch, zealous conscripts and/or village bell-ringer as additional combo enablers).
Kiki company uses a similar package, but instead on going heavy on restoration angels, it uses card advantages provided by collected company.
With the release of battle for zendikar, several lists emerged around bring to light, either played along with chord of calling or played as a chord replacement. Even though we welcome every "kiki tutor" players, we will not discuss bring to light builds at length here.
2. Sample list of each main variants
The deck has emerged after the pod ban and is progressively settling on three main lists.
"Kiki company"
Kiki company is the first list that saw major play, with a top 8 made by Tay Jun Hao at GP Singapore on 28 June 2015.
His list was the following:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Plains
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Gavony Township
1 Horizon Canopy
Creatures (28)
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Voice of Resurgence
3 Fauna Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Spellskite
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Eternal Witness
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Restoration Angel
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Collected Company
3 Chord of Calling
3 Path to Exile
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Path to Exile
2 Stony Silence
2 Negate
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Fiery Justice
1 Keranos, God of Storms
4 Fulminator Mage
Compared to its counterpart, kiki company is more focused on getting the combo online as soon as possible. You will note that fauna shaman has an important role on this, since it acts as tutors 4,5 and 6, ideally played at end of turn when casting collected company.
Similarly to chord, the shaman enables to put the combo online by itself (to the extent you have one creature to discard) by fetching successively eternal witness, restoration angel and kiki-jiki, mirror breaker.
"Kiki hoogland"
Jeff Hoogland popularized his take on the deck as from June 2015.
One of its list (SCG Cincinatti 2 January 2016) is the following:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Raging Ravine
Creatures (29)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Qasali Pridemage
3 Wall of Omens
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Wall of Roots
2 Courser of Kruphix
2 Eternal Witness
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
3 Restoration Angel
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Reveillark
4 Chord of Calling
4 Path to Exile
2 Slaughter Games
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Stony Silence
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Lightning Helix
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Spellskite
1 Fulminator Mage
The general consensus - I believe - is to say that the deck is slower that kiki company but more consistent since it draws quite well with courser of kruphix and wall of omens.
"Kiki leaped midrange"
I have been jamming this deck following my despair to see birthing pod banned (so since March 2015). My deck is somewhere in the middle of kiki company and kiki hoogland. No walls, no courser, no coco but value through kitchen finks, evolutionary leap and fauna shaman.
My current list (end February 2016) is the following:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Cinder Glade
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Gavony Township
Creatures (27)
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Fauna Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 qasali pridemage
3 Eternal Witness
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Restoration Angel
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Reveillark
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Chord of Calling
4 Path to Exile
2 Evolutionary Leap
1 Kami of False Hope
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
2 Stony Silence
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Lightning Helix
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Windborn Muse
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Obstinate Baloth
3. Cards choice (in progress)
4. Match up (in progress)
Overview: Collected company elves is a board-flood aggro/combo deck that generally runs with either Lead the Stampede or Chord of Calling to overwhelm the board and then win with an anthem effect. The deck accelerates extremely quickly using dorks like Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic and Heritage Druid. They will generally use cards like Shaman of the Pack or Ezuri, Renegade Leader to finish you.
How to play the matchup: It's easy to confuse this deck with something like Merfolk. They're tribal, they run a lord or two, they swing for a billion at some point.. Actually, most elves decks run 1 lord card as a 4-of: Elvish Archdruid. As such, this is an engine deck: they want to get a lot of mana to be able to chain their card-draw spells like Lead the Stampede and Collected Company. They have a number of mana accelerants that scale with the number of cards on the board. Your goal in this matchup is to delay and disrupt their mana acceleration until you can combo off, which you can usually do uninterrupted because they run no disruption or interaction.
The primary engine cards in an elves deck are heritage druids/elvish arch-druids and Coco/Lead the Stampede (card advantage). We can't really interact with coco/lead, so we have to interact with the druids. If you can keep them off the board, you can limit elves to being a pretty crappy zoo/coco deck. As soon as one of those engines gets online, they will get to an overwhelming board state by basically dumping their entire hand out. Like all combo/accelerant decks, they also have some nut draws that it's very tough to beat - you will probably lose those games. But otherwise, this is a very winnable matchup: disrupt their acceleration and combo out as fast as possible.
Good chord targets:
Eternal Witness. You will win the game two turns after you chord for witness, with the chord->witness, chord->resto, chord-> kiki. If you think you can survive two turns, get this chain started.
Orzhov Pontiff. Without a lord, kills all the mana dorks. Great play early in the game, particularly if opponent has over-committed to the board.
Eidolon of Rhetoric. Last-ditch chord target. If you have been unable to disrupt the engine, and need to stop a terrifying heritage druid/stampede/coco chain, get Eidolon on board. It will usually stick around until they chord for reclamation sage. Eidolon can buy you time in this matchup.
Good post-board options:
Phyrexian Revoker, naming Heritage Druid (if nothing has been played), or a mana dork if they have 2+ of the same dork on the table, can do a lot of work.
Lightning Helix: Because the elves deck has a bunch of cards that are independently weak, but strong together, it's almost always worth it to trade 1-for-1 with one of their good cards. Helixing Ezuri, Archdruid, Heritage Druid is always a good plan.
Engineered Explosives: The only real board wipe we play. Don't get greedy with this - you want to use it to prevent their acceleration, not to fix a board they've already accelerated into. At that point, it's probably too late. You will almost always use this on 1.
Linvala, keeper of silence: she is a supersized revoker, blanking activated abilities of all their creatures
How to play the matchup: A typical jund deck runs about 6 hand-disruption spells, 10-15 removal spells, 10-15 creatures and 4 Liliana of the Veils. A typical chord deck runs about 25 creatures. A creature is typically a better topdeck than a removal spell - in aggregate, our topdecks are better than their topdecks, and our deck in general has a bit more value than their deck. A lot of their cards, like Liliana, Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, can be freaking terrible to draw in certain circumstances. However, Jund also has 3-4 cards that can just take over the game: Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, Kalitas, and to a lesser extent Tarmogoyf. If those cards do not take over the game, Chord will generally win on value. Play this match with the intention of grinding out Jund and minimizing the value they get from those 4 cards. If you are going to combo off, be sure to have spellskite backup - you will generally win this matchup by card advantage, not combo.
Good chord targets:
Eternal Witness is a great chord target, as it gains you free card advantage.
Restoration Angel, if you can get a card worth out of the flicker effect, is worth doing. It is also a great option for blanking removal and killing Liliana/putting on life pressure, as Jund decks run 0 fliers.
Scavenging Ooze, Chord for this if you can use it to de-power a goyf, blank Kolaghan's Command or Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Scooze can swing grindy matchups by denying value and establishing a big threat.
Reveillark is generally better than Kiki-Jikki in this matchup. If you can establish a reveillark/eternal witness loop, Jund pretty much can't win. In general, the 3-1 that Reveillark represents is pretty brutal.
Good post-board options:
Scavenging Ooze is always a good draw - board in an extra if you have it.
Fulminator Mage generally can kill one of their 3-5 manlands.
Lightning Helix virtually guarantees that you can kill Liliana and Dark Confidant before they take over the game
If you run Obstinate Baloth, it is a backbreaker vs. Jund. It doesn't die to lightning bolt, and it runs over Liliana.
Phyrexian Revoker naming Scavenging Ooze or Liliana can be extremely useful to protect your graveyard or hand.
Overview: Scapeshift is a damage-based combo deck that aims to get 7 lands into play and cast Scapeshift, searching up 6 mountains and Valakut, the molten pinnacle, and doing 18 damage to you. All 6 mountains see each other, thus they satisfy the "5 other mountains" clause in Valakut, so Valakut deals 18 damage. With 8 lands in play, they can fetch for 2 Valakuts and 6 mountains, doing 36 damage. Variants of this deck also play Bring to Light to find Scapeshift and big beaters like Primeval Titan.
How to play the matchup: This is a spell-based combo deck that doesn't play that many creatures - our interaction is not ideal. Our game 1 plan is to try to kill them or combo out faster than they can. If it doesn't slow you down, try to stay above 18 life, or have a way to get above 18 life, so they have to wait for the 8th land in play to kill you. Fulminator Mage either buys you a turn or can be used with the first valakut trigger on the stack to reduce damages from 18 to 3 (the other triggers won't see 5 other mountains and thus will fizzle), and Eidolon of Rhetoric effectively turns off Bring to Light - these, plus your beatdown pieces, are the key cards in the matchup.
Good chord targets:
Spellskite can redirect all the triggers from Valakut, thus making Valakut only do 12 damage.
Chordable lifegain such as Lone missionary will usually gain you less life than skite saves, so it's not a good target.
As stated above, Fulminator Mage can surprise-disrupt the combo. If 6 mountains enter, and 6 valakut triggers get placed on the stack, if you destroy a mountain by chording for fulminator mage and sacrificing it, only 1 trigger happens, and you take 3 damage.
Eidolon of Rhetoric can be chorded for, in response to bring to light, to fizzle the spell that would be cast with bring to light.
Good post-board options:
Land Hate: Fulminator Mage and Crumble to Dust. With Crumble to Dust, it becomes possible to prevent the scapeshift player from winning the game. Scapeshift players play 10 mountains, generally (2 mountains, 4 steam vents, 4 stomping grounds). If you can crumble to dust Valakut, terrific, you probably win. But if you can crumble to dust steam vents or stomping grounds, there will only be 6 mountains left in their hand and deck. This means that if you can stick a fulminator mage, they can't actually kill you, because you can fizzle the combo at will. Keep good track of how many mountains you've gotten rid of, and how much damage they can do.
Spell Hate: Sin Collector and Slaughter Games searching for Scapeshift. If you can get rid of it, you're really only vulnerable to a big green beatdown.
Lifegain: Boarding in lightning helixes, to aid the beatdown plan, and allow you to stay above 18 life. Board out anti-artifact/enchantment options if they're not playing Khalni-Heart Expedition. Board out anti-creature spells at your own risk being aware that they can have a transformational sideboard or be on a titan plan.
5. Tips (in progress)
Chaining chord
Chord can become a one-card combo as soon as you have the possibility to chord at 3. The chain consists to do this over the course of (generally) 3 turns in: (i) chord at 3 for eternal witness, the trigger of eternal witness brings you back chord, (ii) chord at 4 for restoration angel, restoration angel blinks eternal witness, eternal witness trigger brings you back chord and (iii) chord at 5 for kiki.
Of course, this chain is not the fastest and the most unexpected way to go off, therefore:
(i) be prudent not to run into counterspell (or at least do it when the opponent is tapped or under the protection of a voice of resurgence;
(ii) mind removal aiming at your witness when the restoration angel trigger is on the stack,
(iii) last but not least, be conscious that gravehate can disrupt the chain (obvious example: scavenging ooze).
6. Links (in progress)
Hoogland's second primer
What to do against the eldrazi winter by Jeff Hoogland
Michael Majors playing the deck
What are its matchups like? Does it have a fighting chance against Junk and Twin?
Your perfect for the job too (as given all the help you brought to the green devotion community for the Toolbox build (very similar to this; but focuses a little more in green devotion...) you Obviosly know what you're talking about! And spearheading this deck (which potentially could be even better without the devotion aspect in the dorm you play) is a great idea. A lot of both Pod and even non-Pod players have been looking for a deck that fits their Playstyles...this is that deck.
Any who congrats on the primer, great idea, and keep us informed on how it continues to perform. I look forward to reading more as this grows and grows.
Sorry I have not yet had the opportunity to make a full primer with MUs description and so on.
MUs against junk is near 70% favourable. The deck is "value based" and junk cannot cope easily with that. Post-sideboard I side sigarda and thrun in, which is just a nightmare for them. The only card that can be potentially be problematic on their side is scavenging ooze.
First game against twin is even to slightly unfavourable. Post-side, I would say it is an even MU. It remains one of the most difficult one though and that's the reason why I increased the number of qasali (initally one) to two.
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
2 Tectonic Edge
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wall of Omens
3 Wall of Roots
4 Eternal Witness
2 Spike Feeder
2 Archangel of Thune
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Reveillark
Spells (8)
4 Path to Exile
4 Chord of Calling
Tonight I am going to switch out Reveillark as she has been very lackluster, in favor of a Village Bell-Ringer to give me a cheaper combo piece with Kiki.
My worst matchups online have been Tron decks and the random Wrath of God/Damnation decks that pop up. The "fair" matchups are about like 65% and I have been able to out play Splinter Twin decks. The deck has a lot of decision trees every turn and really takes a lot of practice. If anyone is interested I can update Sunday on my weekend tournament results. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing!
EDIT :: I also think it is important to add that my win % is significantly lower on the draw. It is very very common for me to win the roll, win G1, lose G2 and win G3. Or lose the roll, lose G1, win G2 and win G3. Very seldom do the matches to 2-0 or 0-2.
Tooth & Nail........Grishoalbrand....Living Dominance....Tezzerator.........Vannifar Pod
My Decks that have been BANNED
DRS Jund | Kiki-Pod | Bloom Titan | Splinter Twin | KCI
Thanks !
Your higher win % on the play probably shows that you are fast enough to catch your opponent off guard with one additional turn. I would recommand you to try the arbor elf/utopia sprawl package to get some explosiveness. One non negligeable aspect is that aura ramp diversifies your risk, in particular in case if a wrath.
I have played against gr tron and mono blue tron. I won 2-0 against gr tron (combo T3 on the first and i stole his platinum angels and combo on the second). Mono blue was a draw (1-1) as we had no time to finish the game. All in all, tron is a difficult Mu but is still manageable, especially if you race them by comboing t3 or t4.
I like the draw cards in your deck. I have not found room in my list as I want to have more beatdown options, but it is a good addition if you want to focus on the combo.
Feel free to post your results on the thread and good luck !
Thanks.
I tried it a while ago and was not that impressed. Maybe it does not fit my playstyle.
If i would go for planeswalkers, i would rather go for garruk wildspeaker and nyktos for ramp, chandra pyromaster if you want card advantage and more beatdown oriented, sarkhan vol if beatdown oriented or ajani vengeant if you want to build some control.
Have fun when you try it out and do not hesitate to let us know how it went.
i'll be posting my list soon since currently on the office and short on time.
Glad to see a modern kiki approach, i think the deck still have potential, at least to provide us a bit of fun :).
looking forward to see this deck evolve.
Cheers!
Hey there ! Thanks for passing by.
To answer a couple of your points:
• zealous conscripts: i know she was mostly used in these multiples pod lines to set up the combo with pod. Her ability is however not irrelevant, in numerous cases I won by just stealing one blocker or by taking a ghostly prison which holds me off or (more recently) by stealing two platinum angels in the same turn. Village bell-ringer is far from her power level, hence the 1-1 split.
• beatdown: I agree, my general philosophy could be summarised as follows: if you do not put pressure, there is no reason for them to tap out. If pressure is applied and they do not tap out, they are dead. If they tap out, they are dead too
•polukranos /ramp: after the pod ban, I tried a list with resilient creatures and blade splicer. I however never reached a stage where chord of calling was fast enough. So I looked at ramp options. Mono green nykthos had this crazy ramping sequences based on elf arbor, utopia sprawl, garruk wildspeaker, burning-tree emissary and nykthos, shrine to nyx. I found the combinations of all these pieces was probably an overkill for the mana I needed to produce in this deck (you generally do not need more than 5-6) and that the combinations of all these pieces was somewhat contingent. So I basically kept the more appropriate part of the ramp for me, ie arbor elf and utopia sprawl. The combination has the advantage to spread your risk (you do not loose your ramp because of a wrath) and to be honest, it is unlikely that you will have arbor elf burned and the land with sprawl destroyed at the same time. Arguably, birds of paradise also die to burn spells... Taking into account the mono green background (where you produce a stupid amount of mana), polukranos was a nice inclusion. Now that I have downgraded my ramp, I might indeed take it out.
•a second eternal witness is definitely something to consider.
I assembled a version of the podless deck and will test it with some friends this weekend, no big deal, just casual testing to see how it behaves without the pod.
this is first deck i created without pod so it not even near a final call, this is what i got:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Temple Garden
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Mountain
3 Forest
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
3 Arbor Elf
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Restoration Angel
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Village Bell-Ringer
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Chord of Calling
4 Path to Exile
4 Utopia Sprawl
no sideboard yet since i want to stabilize the main first and then i will decide what i want on my sb. i'll report how it goes.
Below an example of a turn 5 against a control deck (I could have gone for a T4 by playing arbor elf the first turn but I chose the safe way).
I'll put this on the primer as an example.
I have also slightly update the sample decklist.
I'll feed the match transcript into the primer.
So the conclusion is that we can win through disruption. On the second game of the abzan MU, he even did not pay his pact on turn 5 (and as I got distracted I did not mention it). Still I won T7 while he casted a free spell
As previously, I will feed the primer with the results.
That's all for this weekend folks. Keep me updated on your results.
Big Thanks to Xeno for sig art <3.
For the record, I won 2-1 against splinter twin (paper version) today. The MU is difficult but no unwinnable.
EDIT: small summary of the game against twin added to the primer.
About Gavony though, we can ask ourselves whether it's worth it in the Kiki shell. Or let's say, better than manlands, Slayers' Stronghold or land destruction.
Twin is unfavorable and it's the deck to beat right now. I would add a path in the main. An easy cut would be the 2nd Ooze. I know you disagree with this though.
In the side, I don't understand why you don't run Reclamation Sage instead of 1 Wear or 1 Qasali. With Resto the Sage is miles better, and you can tuto him. No excuse.