[Primer] Riku Pod

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Jack
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[Primer] Riku Pod

Postby Jack » Sat Jan 11, 2014 7:55 pm

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RRRRRRRIKU
Riku is my main homie. He has been the commander of my all-time favorite EDH deck since its inception in January 2013. I've been considering writing a primer for a while now, but have always dismissed the idea, as I know I wouldn't produce something nearly as good as this wonderful Riku primer by Sonik on MTGS*, the contents of which are the basis for the strategy and card choices in my deck. But, since I like both Riku and the community of DTR so much, I have finally decided to give you the gift of an EDH primer for my favorite deck.

*this primer is really, really good. I recommend that you read it after you read mine. I'll be using some of the formatting and strategy in it as a basis for my primer, so here is where I give Sonik my thanks, along with credit for some of the content of my primer. I'm not planning on copying any sections verbatim, but most of what I know I learned from his primer, so they'll definitely look similar. I hope this is enough to avoid claims of plagiarism.

Let's take a look at what Riku actually does, and more importantly, what he does for the deck.
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Mana Cost: :2mana: :symu: :symr: :symg:

Riku has a CMC of 5, no protection, and has almost no impact on the board when we play him. Seems bad, right? Well, it is, if we don't get the timing right. However, as Sonik points out, "[Riku is] an investment in your spells." We invest 5 mana and the better part of what we get to do for an entire turn in hopes of pulling off some crazy shit later. If we time him right and he lives until our next turn, the investment usually pays off. If he dies to removal, then we essentially wasted a turn and our next investment costs :2mana: more.

Riku is in my 3 favorite colors, two of which are arguably the best colors in multi-player EDH, while the third is generally considered the worst in the format.

With blue, we get disruption, card draw, non-creature tutors, combo pieces, big spells and big creatures.
With red, we get removal (mass and targeted) and creatures. It can do more than that, but don't have many red cards in this deck, so that's all I get from it.
With green, we get ramp, value creatures, graveyard recursion, creature tutors, land/artifact/enchantment removal and huge, game-ending creatures. Notice how I put ramp in bold. It is very important to the deck, as Riku is extremely mana-hungry.

Ability 1: “Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may pay :symu: :symr: . If you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.”

Riku functions as a repeatable Fork/Reverberate, with the limitation that he can only copy our own spells. Some people see this and try to build a deck full of huge spells like Blatant Thievery. I'm going to tell you right now that this is a very stupid idea. The best use for this ability is usually to copy a ramp spell (4 CMC spells like Skyshroud Claim are great, since they fit our curve perfectly when copied), so that we have enough mana to copy something really big next turn. This ability is also great with extra turn spells (I only have Time Warp in there now, but I'll probably check out Time Stretch sometime in the future), for obvious reasons. It doesn't really have any sort of synergy with counterspells, though, and this, combined with the fact that this is very much a tapout-style deck, I only run 2 (Pact of Negation and Glen Elendra Archmage.)

Ability 2: “Whenever another nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay :symg: :symu: . If you do, put a token that's a copy of that creature onto the battlefield.”

For our deck, this is the better of the two abilities. As is true with instants and sorceries, you shouldn't just jam the most expensive things you can find into the deck and call it a day (although we do love our fatties). Instead, Riku functions at his best when the deck is built with a well-defined curve, peaking at around 3-4 and dropping off significantly after 5. Additionally, we have very few creatures that are just beaters. Aside from our fatties, our only reason for playing most of them is because they have a strong ETB ability and can be found via creature tutors. Personally, I'd prefer that most of them were 1/1s, because then they'd cost less. This deck doesn't win by attacking every turn, but rather through landing one huge fatty that wins the game on its own (like Craterhoof Behemoth or Avenger of Zendikar), copying it, and taking down the entire table in 1 combat step, or by pulling off an infinite combo.
Strategy and Theory
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The Creature Toolbox

Many people will call my deck a "goodstuff" deck. I'm not saying that they're wrong (it's not a "badstuff" deck ;-) ), but there's much more to it than that. It is a toolbox deck--more specifically, a creature toolbox deck. It has many cards that can tutor for creatures (Birthing Pod, Worldly Tutor, Fauna Shaman, [card]Green Sun's Zenith[/card], Fierce Empath and Survival of the Fittest) (still haven't acquired a copy of this yet, but I'm actively looking for one), along with tutors for our creature tutors (Fabricate, for Birthing Pod, along with Mystical Tutor, for Worldly Tutor or GSZ, and all of our instant and sorcery answers), that allow us to find the card that's perfect for the situation.

Do they have a troublesome noncreature permanent? Acidic Slime will take care of that. If it's late in the game, seek out Terastodon.
Having problems with creatures? Look for Venser, Shaper Savant, Ixidron or Inferno Titan, or just play something bigger and wall it.
Need more mana in order to do something huge? That's why we have Oracle of Mul Daya, Wood Elves, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Yavimaya Elder and Prophet of Kruphix.
Is the answer already in the graveyard? Get it back with Eternal Witness, Body Double or Archaeomancer.
Deadeye Navigator (coupled with another fatty), Craterhoof Behemoth, Avenger of Zendikar, Tooth and Nail and Rite of Replication win us the game, and Spike Weaver and Glen Elendra Archmage protect us while we set up.

So, why do we build our toolbox out of creatures? After all, answers are typically much cheaper and more versatile when they aren't permanents (look at Vindicate versus Acidic Slime, or Mystic Retrieval versus Archaeomancer), and we're not playing our creatures for their P/T. The answer is that green's creature tutors are stronger and more numerous than blue's instant and sorcery tutors. And while I do play Mystical Tutor and many instants and sorceries that can be viewed collectively as a toolbox, I have only explored a very small part of the potential to build a spell toolbox given my options. Why don't I explore it further? Well, I find that, with this deck (and toolbox decks in general), it is best when every one of our tutors is capable of finding the answer we need. Even if I could run Vindicate, I wouldn't replace Acidic Slime with it even though it is a better card, because the inclusion of Acidic Slime makes all of my creature tutors more powerful. Even if I was able to add 3 more Mystical Tutors to the deck, I would not add them, because although they find the most versatile answer in my deck, they cannot access my creature toolbox.

Creatures also have a few other things going for them, even if they are small:
-They can block. Why is Sakura-Tribe Elder better than Rampant Growth? It does pretty much the same thing, and will usually prevent 1-6 damage as well.
-They are easier to recur from the graveyard. I'd like to note that this is definitely a double-edged sword in EDH, and our deck has just as many ways of recurring used spells as dead creatures.
-They can feed Skullclamp.
-They can be exchanged for better creatures via Fauna Shaman, Survival of the Fittest or Birthing Pod.

This brings me to my next point: Birthing Pod is one of the best cards in the deck. It is 80% of the reason why Fabricate is in the deck. You don't even have to play the deck to see how powerful and important a repeatable tutor is for a toolbox deck. It becomes even more powerful when we fill our deck with creatures with powerful ETBs at every point in the curve. Since a large part of our rationale behind including each creature in the deck is its ETB trigger, we usually don't mind throwing our creatures into the Pod. I would also like to note that Riku can copy the creatures that Birthing Pod brings into play from our libraries. If only Riku could copy Birthing Pod...

Oh, and I'd like to take a moment to thank Wizards for making Craterhoof Behemoth cost :symg: more than Avenger of Zendikar.


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On Mana, Ramp, and Lands

Riku is mana-hungry. Incredibly so. And that's just the way we want him to be. According to the mana sum theory, the winner of a game of MTG is usually the player who has spent the most mana. Keeping this in mind, we construct our deck so that we will have something to do with all of our mana until we win the game. We do this by being conscious of our mana curve when choosing cards for the deck, by including a number of spells that draw more cards, and, of course, by copying our spells and creatures with Riku.

Because of this, ramp is so damn important to the deck. In order to do big things, we need big mana. And to do these things a turn or two before the decks that don't find their early ramp (or don't even play much ramp at all :o ) is huge for us. This is the reason why green is one of the two best colors in the format, and why I run 9 1/2 ramp spells in this deck, along with tutors for those spells (yes, I will tutor for a ramp spell).

Ramp also serves as color fixing. If you're on a budget, you can get away with a mostly-basic land base if you run enough ramp spells and skew your manabase towards green so that you can hit those ramp spells early and have them find the rest of your colors for you. Land ramp is the best type of ramp, as land destruction is less common and more expensive than most other types of permanent destruction, and since we're in green, it's the only type of ramp we should be running. Mayyyybe run mana doublers, but I don't since Riku can't copy them and I have enough mana acceleration in the deck already. But avoid any type of artifact ramp, and please, please, please stay away from the Ravnica block karoos/bouncelands. These are ways that decks can attempt to compensate for not being in green, and are just not worth the liability when we have access to real ramp.


Combos
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Infinite Turns

This one requires three pieces, but for two of them, we have multiple cards that can fit the role. The combo is between Time Warp, Eternal Witness/Archaeomancer and Deadeye Navigator/[card]Conjurer's Closet[/card]/Erratic Portal(or Crystal Shard.) This one shouldn't need any explanation.

If we're using Portal/Shard, the combo requires 4-5 more mana to function (8-9 mana total). There's nothing wrong with that, but we can't just say "look guys, I win" as soon as we see Portal and Archaeomancer on the field and Time Warp in the graveyard. Most people will quit when they see you have infinite turns, but for the stubborn ones who insist you play it out, just make sure that the first thing you do after you draw a card is cast Time Warp (unless you Forked the Time Warp with Riku last turn). You'll find enough mana and a win condition in time, and you have plenty of that.


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Infinite Creatures

Probably the simplest and most famous infinite combo in the game, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Splinter Twin + Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch serves as the main win condition for two competitive Modern decks. My deck doesn't play Splinter Twin (although it makes up for this through the use of creature tutors) and uses Zealous Conscripts in lieu of Pestermite, as it is a much more powerful card in this format (in fact, Conscripts made its way into the deck before Kiki-Jiki). The combo is very simple, but I'll go through it anyway. Beginning with Kiki and Pestermite/Conscripts/Exarch in play (I'll use Pestermite in the example) :
-Tap Kiki targeting the faerie.
-Second Pestermite ETB. Trigger.
-Target Kiki with ETB trigger.
-Untap Kiki.
-Repeat as many times as you like to make as many Pestermites as you like (Avogadro's number is my go-to substitute for infinity).
Two points about the combo:
1) After you have as many copies as you desire, sometimes you'll want to use your last copy's ETB trigger to untap Kiki (allowing you to pull off the combo on an opponent's turn, if they somehow survive), and sometimes you'll want to steal/tap down an opposing permanent.
2) If you tap Kiki during somebody's end step, you get to keep the copies until the player to the left of them finishes their turn. This is often only useful when you have Kiki out but can't make infinite creatures, but it's worth mentioning, and, if you're using a Kiki-Jiki from Champions of Kamigawa, it isn't immediately apparent that this is possible.


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Infinite Mana and Infinite Creatures (Removed)

I took this one out because it usually only results in groans and I don't like tutoring for Palinchron, and needed to give up Palinchron in order to arrange a trade for a Snappy. I'm still going to leave the combo up, though.
If you couldn't tell from the picture, Palinchron creates the most easily-assembled infinite combo in the deck. With Riku on the battlefield, Palinchron in hand, 9 mana in your mana pool and 7 tapped lands, you can create infinite red, blue and green mana (assuming you have at least 1 red-producing, 1 green-producing and 3 blue-producing lands) and infinite Palinchrons, finishing with the real Palinchron in your hand so that you can do it again if something happens that destroys your board and prevents you from winning. It's fairly straightforward, but I'll run through it anyway:
-You cast Palinchron for :5mana: :symu: :symu: . You have :symu: :symg: in your mana pool.
-Palinchron enters. Both Palinchron and Riku trigger (you can order these triggers however you want, but I'm going to write this up as if you order your triggers so that Palinchron's resolves first)
You untap the 7 lands you used to cast Palinchron.
-You pay :symu: :symg: for Riku's triggered ability.
-You tap 7 lands for mana.
-The Palinchron token enters the battlefield. You untap 7 lands.
-You tap those lands for mana, giving you 14 mana in your pool.
-You pay :2mana: :symu: :symu: to return Palinchron to your hand. You have 10 mana in your mana pool.
-Play Palinchron, copy him, yadda yadda. Just realize that the cycle uses 13 mana and allows you to untap 7 lands twice. It uses 5 blue mana, so if you don't have 3 blue lands, you won't be able to make infinite :symu: with this (although you can still make infinite :symr: and :symg: and infinite Palinchrons).

You can discuss this article here
Last edited by Jack on Sat Apr 11, 2015 2:58 am, edited 28 times in total.
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Postby Jack » Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:26 am

What I'm Currently Playing
Link to Tapped Out, with graphs

[deck]Sorted by Card Type[/deck]

[deck=Sorted by Function (some
cards may show up more than once)]
Creature (30)

0 Dryad Arbor
2 Fauna Shaman
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fierce Empath
3 Wood Elves
3 Yavimaya Elder
4 Archaeomancer
4 Clever Impersonator
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Spike Weaver
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
5 Acidic Slime
5 Body Double
5 Ixidron
5 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
5 Mulldrifter
5 Prophet of Kruphix
5 Zealous Conscripts
6 Consecrated Sphinx
6 Deadeye Navigator
6 Duplicant
6 Inferno Titan
6 Progenitor Mimic
7 Avenger of Zendikar
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
8 Terastodon

Land (38)

1x Alchemist's Refuge
1x Arid Mesa
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Breeding Pool
1x Command Tower
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Flooded Strand
7x Forest
1x Frontier Bivouac
1x Hinterland Harbor
4x Island
1x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Mountain
1x Polluted Delta
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Rootbound Crag
1x Steam Vents
1x Stomping Ground
1x Strip Mine
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Temple of Abandon
1x Temple of Mystery
1x Temple of the False God
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Tolaria West
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Yavimaya Hollow

Ramp (11)

1 Sol Ring
1 Green Sun's Zenith (w/ Dryad Arbor)
2 Farseek
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Cultivate
3 Kodama's Reach
3 Wood Elves
3 Yavimaya Elder
4 Explosive Vegetation
4 Skyshroud Claim
4 Oracle of Mul Daya

Card Draw (5)

1 Skullclamp
3 Mulldrifter
4 Fact or Fiction
6 Consecrated Sphinx
6 Recurring Insight

Removal (10)

1 Vandalblast
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Cyclonic Rift
3 Beast Within
3 Chaos Warp
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
5 Acidic Slime
5 Ixidron
5 Vandalblast
6 Duplicant
6 Inferno Titan
7 Cyclonic Rift
2 Curse of the Swine
9 Blasphemous Act

Tutors (7)

1 Fauna Shaman
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Birthing Pod
3 Fabricate
3 Fierce Empath
4 Birthing Pod
1 Green Sun's Zenith

Support/Goodstuff (12)

0 Pact of Negation
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Lightning Greaves
2 Regrowth
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Swiftfoot Boots
3 Crystal Shard
3 Eternal Witness
3 Mimic Vat
4 Archaeomancer
5 Conjurer's Closet
5 Time Warp

Dedicated Win Conditions (6)

2 Deadeye Navigator
6 Deadeye Navigator
7 Avenger of Zendikar
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
9 Rite of Replication
9 Tooth and Nail
1 Green Sun's Zenith
[/deck]

[deck=My Wishlist (sorted by priority)]
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Genesis
0 Survival of the Fittest
0 Sylvan Library
0 Vesuva
0 Phantasmal Image
[/deck]
Last edited by Jack on Sun Apr 12, 2015 5:24 pm, edited 21 times in total.
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Postby Khaospawn » Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:12 pm

Great work, freedom!
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Postby Jack » Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:17 pm

Thanks! If I can get 2 people to pick up Riku because they read my primer, than I'll consider it a success. I think I want a better intro in there as well, and I'd still like to add a card choices section, but that'll probably be fairly easy, since I've already talked about a lot of the cards when giving others advice on their Riku decks on Reddit.
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Postby Alex » Sun Jan 12, 2014 8:39 pm

I already have Riku made, but I totally forgot about Ixidron so I'll probably be picking that up now to combat Ulamog decks. Thanks.

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Postby DroppinSuga » Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:23 am

I hate Riku with a passion, but this primer is excellent. Good work, sir!
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Postby Kazekirimaru » Mon Jan 13, 2014 4:52 am

Ixidron is pretty snazzy. Much like this article.
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Postby Azrael » Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:09 pm

Lots of good advice here. In particular, I think you're dead on that Riku's most important spell slots tend to be in the 4cc slot, such that they can be doubled immediately after Riku is played.

In building my own Riku list, I initially found that the list was underperforming compared to my other decks, probably somewhere around the bottom 25th percentile (I'm up to 20 EDH decks currently assembled at the moment, with some help from proxies to duplicate cards that I use in multiple decks).

The reasons why seemed to be that:

1. Whenever Riku comes down, it has a very, very large target on its head.
2. Red and green don't have great options for board sweeping and removal. Although there are a number of good options, such as the usual suspects in blue and various odds and ends in red/green, you can get overrun quickly compared to decks that also have access to white and/or black for support.
3. Riku tends to be
slow. It takes a good long while to charge up to enough lands that you can safely play and protect Riku, but in the meantime, your lack of defense means that Riku tends to be on the ropes before your mana base has reached an ideal level of development.

To tackle those problems, I tried a couple things.

First, I crammed in as many ways as I could find to easily cast Riku on third turn, such as Devoted Druid, Lotus Cobra, Exploration, Burgeoning - single cards that put you two slots of acceleration forward by turns 1-2.

Second, I changed around the deck concept to emphasize blowing up lands, enchantments, and artifacts. Stuff like Creeping Mold, Rain of Salt, Reap and Sow, the Crucible/Strip Mine/Wasteland combo. It was silly, but EDH decks tend to be very mana hungry, and a lot of those cards could be played to break down other players' acceleration draws (Sol Ring, Worn Powerstone, etc.), cripple mana bases, eat up their counter-magic, and generally slow down their progress to the point that
your own acceleration plus Riku's natural card advantage engine would have time to get set up with a nice lead. Putting enemy players off the colored mana they need to deal with Riku is pretty huge. Many of your land destruction spells are in the 4cc slot and easily doubled, so nuking two lands per turn once Riku hits the table is pretty standard.

It actually worked out pretty nicely. Multi-player is more of a challenge, but if you're blowing up between two and six lands/permanents per turn with things like Rain of Salt, Natural Order into Terastodon hijinks, Godo/Argentum Armor, you can feasibly cripple several players at once, then finish off whoever is left.

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Postby Jack » Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:53 pm

With the recent Sylvan Primordial ban, my list will probably be - SylP + Pestermite. I like Pestermite since it combos with Kiki and prevents opponents from blowing up an O Stone or Disk at a desirable time for them. With so many creature tutors, I don't think Kiki Pestermite wins will be uncommon.
Want to add:
Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
Creeping Mold
Relic of Progenitus
Spinerock Knoll
Strip Mine
Progenitor Mimic

Might cut:
Strionic Resonator (occasionally useless)
Coiling Oracle (weak after turn 2)
Curse of the Swine (many threats either can't be targeted or are only threatening because there's a fucking army of them)
[card]
Fabricate[/card] (usually, this is just an expensive Birthing Pod or Conjurer's Closet. It's still better than anything on my wishlist that's within my price range, though)
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Postby Jack » Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:28 pm

I've decided to cut Coiling Oracle. While it's theoretically a strong card, I've just realized that I rarely actually want to see it. As I said in my last post, you really only want to cast it on-curve. It's still alright if you have Birthing Pod, Skullclamp or Fauna Shaman, but that just goes to show that whenever I have it, I'm wishing I could trade it for something better. I don't even like to see it in my opening hand, since it tells you very little about how the game could play out, and since laying down a chump blocker on turn 2 isn't much of a plan, you're essentially looking at a 6-card hand and hoping he cycles for something better. I'm testing Mwonvuli Acid-Moss in its place for now, and after a bit I'll swap that out for Creeping Mold and see which one I like better.
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Postby Jack » Wed Feb 05, 2014 3:51 am

Added a section on the Kiki-Pestermite combo. I already had Kiki and Conscripts in the deck, but I didn't have the combo in the primer since I'd never pulled it off in the game (probably because I was just using Kiki as a value creature and never thought of actively searching for the pieces to make it happen).
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Postby Jack » Sun Mar 02, 2014 11:05 pm

How would any of you change the list? I feel like there's a better 7-drop that I could be playing than Sphinx of Uthuun. My main beef with him is that he doesn't actually win me the game. It seems flawed that you should invest 7 mana and don't win the game, but get a chance to find something else that will. I was thinking of replacing him with Progenitor Mimic, but if you play him and he gets Doom Bladed immediately, you've usually just wasted your mana. Anyway, I'm seeing an open slot right now.
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Postby Jack » Tue May 20, 2014 3:33 am

I didn't find anything in Journey into Nyx that I like better than anything already in here, so the deck remains unchanged :( . Maybe next set will have something good. I saw Garruk on the box art, so green might get some cool shit.
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Postby razzliox » Tue May 20, 2014 4:37 pm

My bud plays a Roon deck that I built with him, and we've been using Sphinx of Uthuun in our deck too. It's been underperforming and I agree with you that for seven mana, the card should significantly put you ahead, which Sphinx only sometimes does. It's definitely great if you have a Deadeye Navigator, but other than that is sub-par.

How's Conjurer's Closet?
Check out my Jarad Primer!

Check out the Competitive EDH Subreddit!!

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Postby DroppinSuga » Tue May 20, 2014 4:43 pm

Tromokratis brings the lulz for me if you're group plays a lot of creatures. It's another expensive creature but if you've got a field of critters and you swing with ole Tromy, everyone's getting through but the big Kraken-like thing
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Postby Jack » Tue May 20, 2014 9:01 pm

Closest is nice. One of the biggest reasons that it's still in the deck is because of the infinite turns combo that's pretty easy to find once you already have Closet out. It's also nice that it triggers during your end step, so you still get a bit of value out of it if your opponents have a sorcery to kill it before your next turn. I'm not sure how good it would be in Roon. On the one hand, you're probably playing a lot more creatures with etb abilities (fuck Flickerwisp), but the Roon deck probably doesn't have as much ramp as this and usually has a reason not to tap out.
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Postby razzliox » Thu May 22, 2014 5:53 am

How different would you say this deck is from Momir? You play very little red, and while I'm sure Riku is a useful commander, Momir is too. Thoughts?
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Postby Jack » Mon May 26, 2014 2:44 am

Well, I probably use a lot of the cards that Momir decks use, so they're obviously similar in that way, and also similar because of a creature toolbox theme. Momir decks tend to be much more focused on that creature toolbox, though (I play a good number of tutors, but their general is a tutor machine). This also causes most of the games you win to turn out very similarly, since you can line up your draws for every turn starting turn 4/5, and when you can do that, you'll find a list of what creatures to tutor for in a certain order that will be your best path to victory. That gets boring. My deck can do the same with Riku + Birthing Pod, but that plan is a bit more fragile and slow, so it's not what I go for every game. With my deck, you really don't know what your game plan will be before you start the game, and while this means that you're really dependent on good draws in order for the deck to work well, that's
okay when all of the cards are individually powerful.
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Postby Jack » Thu Jun 05, 2014 10:06 pm

I gave up Palinchron in a trade for a Snappy, so that switch has been made. Winning with Palinchron got kinda boring, and tutoring one up just feels shitty.
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Postby DroppinSuga » Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:31 am

Snappy >>>>>>>>>>> Palinchron by a million. Good work my man.
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Postby Jack » Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:13 pm

-Pestermite -Sphinx of Uthuun +Deceiver Exarch +Progenitor Mimic. I traded the cooler-looking foil for the more resilient creature and the fact-or-fiction-when-I-want-a-goddamn-game-winner for something that usually eats removal before I untap with it, but sometimes doesn't.
Open slots are Progenitor Mimic, Void Stalker, Strionic Resonator, Curse of the Swine, Holistic Wisdom and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss. Here's hoping Temur isn't just an assortment of Timmy cards. The 3-color land will probably make it into the deck, and I'll probably end up picking up some fetches if there's a significant price drop.
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Postby admin » Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:29 pm

Hey, this primer totally looks like frontpage material, Jack would you mind if I put this in our frontpage?

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Postby Jack » Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:29 pm

Sure, go ahead.
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Postby Jack » Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:03 am

Chord of Calling may find its way into the deck. It's almost an extra GSZ and a cheap Craterhoof off of Avenger of Zendikar. However, triple green is sometimes tough, and it's hard to get much use out of convoke when my creatures die so quickly. Still, it's probably better than Progenitor Mimic.
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Postby Jack » Wed Sep 03, 2014 2:03 am

Manamorphose is also an option, although not a very fun one.
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Postby Jack » Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:23 pm

- Void Stalker + Swiftfoot Boots. Void Stalker was always just too slow, and powerful cards tend to get spot removal aimed at them often, so Boots is in.
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Postby Jack » Sun Oct 05, 2014 4:57 pm

- Forest + Frontier Bivouac

Dig Through Time is also a potential addition. However, the graveyard is like a second hand to us, so chances are good that we won't usually delve too many cards.

I don't even want to test See the Unwritten.

Aetherling might come in as an invincible beater, since I don't have one of those yet. It might just be worse than the "keep Spike Weaver alive until I can pod into a combo" plan, though.

I think I'm going to want to add 3 red fetches in place of one of each basic land. This gives me 1 blue and 1 green fetch as well, but red is the most important color, since I don't like basic mountains and we still need to hit rrr for Kiki Jiki.
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Postby Jack » Sun Oct 05, 2014 5:24 pm

I also acquired a promo Cultivate :yes:
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Postby razzliox » Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:19 pm

Hey again Jack. I'm building my own Riku list, with a combo focus. I'll be sure to post it here when I get it to beta version.

How do you feel about Food Chain? I feel like it would be a really good addition - you can play creatures as rituals by exiling the tokens, working up to casting your bigger stuff. Furthermore, how do you feel about Flash and Sneak Attack? They have synergy with Riku...

Also, how do you feel about a deck with many mana dorks, to power out RIku t3-4 consistently?
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Postby Jack » Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:11 pm

I've actually never seen food chain before you just mentioned it. I guess it's kind of like Riku in that it doesn't affect the board at all, but, like you said, lets you do powerful things later, provided that you keep your hand full of stuff you want to cast.
This is still a budget deck, so I don't have Sneak Attack. I really don't play EDH often enough/competitively enough to justify buying it just yet.
Flash seems really good. I think I saw it before, thought "this is really cool," then forgot to add it to a wishlist. I think this replaces either Boots or Progenitor Mimic.

Azrael commented earlier about building Riku with a lot of ways to cast him early. I've been doing fine with just land ramp, but I guess it doesn't really matter if your mana base has a toughness number if it lets you combo before your opponents do something about it.
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Postby Jack » Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:02 pm

So it looks like I'll need to make a decision between adding Reef Worm or Clever Impersonator. One is value out the ass, and the other is probably a second Birthing Pod (which should win the game in 1-2 turns) unless there's something better out.
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Postby Stardust » Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:25 pm

Clever Impersonator is a fantastic card. Reef Worm is cool and all, but not the greatest.
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Postby Jack » Thu Oct 30, 2014 9:13 pm

I will be playing Impact Resonance. That card is disgusting. As long as you have opponents with creatures on the battlefield and one of them decides to attack with a creature with 4+ power, this is a really good removal spell.
Edit:lol :rolleyes:
Last edited by Jack on Tue Nov 25, 2014 5:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Jack » Tue Nov 25, 2014 4:31 am

Potential changes (once I actually buy new cards)
Out:
Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
Holistic Wisdom
Comet Storm
Progenitor Mimic
Vandalblast
Strionic Resonator
Swiftfoot Boots
In:
Clever Impersonator
Chaos Warp
Regrowth
Venser, Shaper Savant
Duplicant
Chord of Calling
Dig Through Time
Shattering Spree

Clever Impersonator because it will probably become one of the ten best cards in the deck
Chaos Warp because it's cheap now and I lack spot removal
Regrowth because I usually don't use Holistic Wisdom more than twice (and often only once)
Venser is broken
Duplicant offers a much stronger effect on ETB than Progenitor Mimic, which is pretty much the poster child for kill-on-sight creatures
Chord because I want another GSZ
Dig because why not
Shattering Spree because I'm tired of Vandalblast either getting countered or making me public enemy no.1
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Postby Jack » Sun Dec 28, 2014 5:31 pm

Changes were made. I have Venser, Chaos Warp, Clever Impersonator and Regrowh in now.
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Postby Jack » Mon Jan 05, 2015 2:27 am

Out: Forest
In: Dryad Arbor

Added the reason GSZ is banned in Modern.
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Postby Jack » Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:00 am

Flex slots are Progenitor Mimic and maybe Swiftfoot Boots or Deceiver Exarch (since I already have Conscripts). Vandalblast also comes out, either for Hull Breach or Shattering Spree.
Definitely adding Duplicant (straight up replaces Progenitor Mimic).
Might replace Boots with a Sword. I've been enjoying the deck more with boots than without, so I definitely want some sort of extra protection equipment. Still, for that amount of money, there's a lot of other cards that would improve the deck a lot more.
Still need to find a Chord of Calling.
I don't think I want to drop below 7 Forests + Dryad Arbor until my mana base gets a lot better (at least one extra set of duals). I think I'm fine if I go to 4 Islands and 2 Mountains and 6 Forests when the mana base is perfect, but until then, I think I stick with 3 Mountains and 5+ Islands.
Potential manabase changes:
In: Wooded Foothills, Strip Mine, Reflecting Pool, maybe other fetches if they fall into my hands
Out: 2x Island, Arid Mesa (trying to trade this away for another Snapcaster), Terramorphic Expanse
Nonbasics that might get cut for more duals (probably filters): Alchemist's Refuge, Thespian's Stage, Temple of the False God (I don't have Candelabra or anything to abuse it).

These past few posts were really more for me than anyone else, but I guess it's fine since this is my thread.
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Postby Jack » Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:02 am

Recurring Insight could become Rhystic Study or Dig Through Time. The only thing is, I'll rarely draw less than 10 cards with that spell, and it's hard to cut something so powerful.
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Postby Jack » Tue Jan 06, 2015 2:34 am

Genesis also seems a bit too good not to play. I'll have to find one. It's probably better than Chord, which I already know will be my weakest tutor. Manamorphose also has potential to be a really fantastic card, especially when copied.
Explore might replace Explosive Vegetation. Very different spells, I know, but I'm starting to feel like I might need to cut a bit of ramp in order to attain smoother draws, and Explore helps with this.
Sword of Feast and Famine would definitely make for some more explosive starts, as well as a stronger beatdown plan.
Also, I found a Strip Mine!
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Postby Jack » Sun Mar 29, 2015 5:39 am

With the rules update, I might just replace Chaos Warp with Song of the Dryads. It's not like I'm holding mana up for removal that often anyway.
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