Kira, the Combo Protector




#1June 14, 2012




atlas_hugged
atlas_huggedView User Profile
View Posts
Send Message

Ascended Mage


Join Date: 6/12/2012
Posts: 462



0


Login to like this.








atlas_hugged's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards




1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1x Deadeye Navigator
1x Kederekt Leviathan
1x Tidespout Tyrant
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Voidmage Husher
1x Lighthouse Chronologist
1x Echo Mage
1x Enclave Cryptologist
1x Venerated Teacher
1x Palinchron
1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1x Guile
1x Draining Whelk
1x Frost Titan
1x Patron Wizard
1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1x Vedalken AEthermage
1x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1x Mulldrifter
1x Jushi Apprentice
1x Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
1x Mnemonic Wall
1x Sphinx of Uthuun
1x Sphinx of Magosi
1x Riptide Shapeshifter
1x Artisan of Kozilek
1x Body Double



1x Inundate
1x Wash Out
1x Tezzeret's Gambit
1x Fabricate
1x Merchant Scroll

1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1x Tezzeret the Seeker

1x Force of Will
1x Foil
1x Fuel for the Cause
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Arcane Denial
1x Cryptic Command
1x Familiar's Ruse
1x Forbid
1x Hinder
1x Spell Crumple
1x Rewind
1x High Tide
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Long-Term Plans
1x Intuition

1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Caged Sun
1x Everflowing Chalice
1x Journeyer's Kite
1x Gauntlet of Power
1x Extraplanar Lens
1x Scroll Rack



1x Winding Canyons
1x Reliquary Tower
29x Snow-Covered Island
1x Academy Ruins
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Flooded Strand
1x Polluted Delta
1x Misty Rainforest

1x Rhystic Study
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x Decree of Silence
1x Propaganda




Kira is an amazing investment in EDH. She almost completely removes the chance that anyone will do any of several extremely annoying things to your creatures: Removing them or stealing them being the most annoying. Simply by playing her the third turn, you almost guarentee your creatures will be unmolested the rest of the game. And for the few occassions where Kira does not protect, you are in the best color for countering spells. However, Kira offers almost no utility in the combat phase. Your creatures will still be puny blue creatures, which pale in size to their counterparts of most colors. With this passive protection in mind, and the combat weakness as well, I think the best way to use Kira is to assemble a creature based combo.

Which brings us to the other star of the deck, Deadeye Navigator. This card interacts with practically every creature in your deck to some extent. The only negative interaction it has is with the flip/level cards. It will reset those if you choose to use it on them. But now the positives:

•Deadeye Navigator+Frost Titan=Tap down everything.
•Deadeye Navigator+Kira, Great Glass-Spinner=2 mana to counter anything that targets one of your creatures
•Deadeye Navigator+Azami, Lady of Scrolls=2 mana to draw a card. Not the best combo, but it's there.
•Deadeye Navigator+Venser Shaper-Savant= Your opponents will never resolve anything dangerous again
•Deadeye Navigator+Body Double= This one almost deserves it's own section. One game I played I spent 3UUU to make 30 0/1 plant tokens with Avenger of Zendikar in my opponents grave at the EoT. Next turn, I layed a land and won the game. Body Double is amazing as it allows you to abuse your opponent's ETB effects as well.
•Deadeye Navigator+Draining Whelk Same as Venser but hard counters.
•Deadeye Navigator+Palinchron=Infinite Mana. These combos can be incredibly intensive. However, you also have an easily assembled infinite mana combo.


There are more, but I think you get the idea.

Deadeye is absolutely critical to the deck. He just unlocks so much of it's potential, to the point that if he were a legendary, I'd run him as the general. Unfortunately for blue players, tutoring for creatures is difficult. I believe I've constructed a sufficient tutor package however.

Intuition is simply amazing. Search for Artisan of Kozilek,Body Double, and Deadeye Navigator.

Riptide Shapeshifter can be used to tutor for Deadeye Navigator, as that is the only Spirit in the deck (unless Kira get's tucked, but then you want her back too). Other notable types to choose:
•Djinn---Tidespout Tyrant
•Leviathan---Kederekt Leviathan
•Giant---Frost Titan
•Incarnation---Guile
•Eldrazi---Artisan of Kozilek or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
•Moonfolk---Erayo, Soratami Ascendent

Long-Term Plans Not the best option (It's extremely vulnerable to an opponent shuffling your deck), but it's really blue's only search anything card, to my knowledge.

Both Long-Term Plans and Intuition can also be tutored for by several of the non creature tutors in the deck.

One option I'm considering instead of Riptide Shapeshifter is Etheral Usher. Overall, Usher allows tutoring for some more delicious cards if you wish, such as your Consecrated, but you lose the ability to tutor for Kira, or to do so at instant speed, putting it in play. Of course, running both is a possibility, but at the cost of reliability. Usher is a spirit, and there's a chance you would get it instead of Deadeye, which is hugely annoying, because if you don't have a way to bounce it to your hand, you've just cost yourself two tutor effects with nothing to show for it but a less than stellar six drop.

There are definitely some flaws to this deck. It is absolutely destroyed by anyone who focuses on it early. And if you won the last game by going infinite with Palinchron and bouncing everything with Venser or Tidespout, there are going to be some angry people. I'm looking for ways to solve that early aggression issue, but one way to avoid repeat opponents playing Archenemy without the schemes is to take Palinchron out. I've been testing a list without it (still thinking about a suitable replacement), and while it is definitely less powerful (your win condition becomes beating face, which is achievable), it is no less fun for it, and probably more so since it's more engaging than "Palinchron, Venser, Deadeye, GG?". Definitely more fun for your opponents at least.

I'm still a bit stumped on what to add to help defend against early aggression however. So I come to you to ask for help. I also want to make room for a clone effect besides Body Double.

Last edited by atlas_hugged: June 14, 2012