Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant

Legendary Creature — Beholder

Whenever you attack a player, tap target creature that player controls and goad it. (Until your next turn, that creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able.)

Whenever an opponent attacks another one of your opponents, you and the attacking player each draw a card and lose 1 life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Crow_Umbra on two wind assault

2 months ago

Nice! Isshin is a lot of fun, and can quickly become arch-enemy, as I'm sure you've probably experienced. I think if you're going to move on from the Samurai, I'd suggest also trimming back on the equipment subtheme, as they can be pretty mana-intensive without additional equipment support.

I've personally had more experience with playing a more tokens go-wide take on Isshin, which I think can be pretty fun and dynamic. A few general suggestions if you do cut back on Samurai & Equipment, and decide to focus more on going wide:

• A few more creature token creators like Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon and Hero of Bladehold are pretty solid.

• Group slug effects that work with creature ETBs or as attack triggers are pretty helpful. Stuff like Impact Tremors, Warleader's Call, Brutal Hordechief, and Commissar Severina Raine are all solid options.

• Getting a bit more draw in your deck could be helpful. Chivalric Alliance, Breena, the Demagogue, & Firemane Commando are all pretty solid options. If you play in a more aggro meta, Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser and Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant can be some fun options to encourage or force your opponents to attack each other.

• Isshin thrives off maintaining board momentum, so anything to protect your board could be helpful: Reconnaissance, Dolmen Gate, & Clever Concealment can all be helpful. Reconnaissance can be especially helpful to save your creatures from unfavorable combat situations. This EDHRec article helps detail the timing if you're unfamiliar with it.

• Lastly, it might be helpful to trim out some of the creatures at the top end of your curve in the 7-9cmc range.

Just some quick ideas for how you could make use of those Samurai and Equipment slots if you decide to change them up. Hopefully these suggestions were helpful

Last_Laugh on Isshin, Two Whoopins as One

2 months ago

The other thing I'm noticing now that I take a closer look is you're very light on card draw. You only have 5 cards that draw right now including 2x that are just a 1 time use (Jeska's/Fable).

Breena, the Demagogue, Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, Emberwilde Captain, Tocasia's Welcome, Skullclamp, Chivalric Alliance, and Plumb the Forbidden are all solid options here that won't break the bank.

Crow_Umbra on Isshin in the Red Zone

2 months ago

On the pillow fort stuff, I do have some mixed feelings from personal experiences:

• I really liked Breena, the Demagogue. My primary meta/play group leans fairly aggro/go-wide, so the people I play with tend to like benefitting from her. She will stick around and grow herself or my board while everyone tries to get as much draw from her. Once she's big enough, she can snipe people with one or two hits. I've won a couple of games off her alone because the rest of the table got greedy with how much they were drawing from her.

• I had Mangara in an earlier version of my deck, but cut him after a couple of games. My meta isn't super spell-slingery, so I didn't draw much off that condition. My opponents would also just send their one biggest creature at me, & would play around that condition as much as they could.

• Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant is pretty fun. The Goad certainly helps to keep aggro away, and gives you time to build your board until someone can deal with the big Eye. One turn rotation of Karazikar can draw a hefty amount of cards and deflect aggro away. Goad is useful for forcing smaller utility creatures into combat, and act as pseudo-removal in that sense too.

I think pillow fort effects can be meta dependent, but in my experience can feel awkward, depending on the condition that needs to be met for them. Some of those pillow effect benefits feel awkward because opponents might just remove Isshin or the pillow, and then the standard trigger isn't nearly as much of a deterrent.

Last_Laugh on Isshin Attack Triggers 2023

2 months ago

Looking a bit more over the list, you are pretty light on card draw. I'm with Crow and highly recommend Plumb the Forbidden and Breena. Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant and Horn of the Mark are 2 other options that are very good here on a budget.

Crow_Umbra on Murders at Karlov Manor

3 months ago

I'm pretty excited for Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser. I like that even without Goad, she still encourages opponents to attack each other. My primary meta is pretty aggro leaning, so I've come to enjoy Breena, the Demagogue & Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant type of effects. Kardur, Doomscourge is another familiar face in the meta. If it isn't explicitly Monarch, giving opponents draw-based incentive to attack each other made our games much more dynamic.

I kind of wonder if the alt face commander will be some kind of Voltron leaning build, maybe something that gets a temporary buff for each Suspected creature that the defending opponent controls.

Now that I think about it, I kind of wish the Boros precon could have been a partner commander pairing that played off the "Good Cop/Bad Cop" trope with a pair of detectives.

Last_Laugh on All out attack

3 months ago

Devilish Valet will 1 shot someone out of the game (or multiple someone's with a Dolmen Gate effect out). Just 6 tokens entering (aka 1 Adeline trigger) makes him 64 power... and it can literally snowball into the BILLIONS in this deck from there (granted the Billions thing probably needs Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip, but I've managed 8 million without a single token doubler personally).

Plumb the Forbidden in response to boardwipes makes it a lot harder to overextend since you'll have a full grip to redeploy. Instant speed and pseudo dodging counterspells makes this card.

I second Breena, the Demagogue and Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant. The group hug aspect can be deceiving... if your opponents are taking advantage of it, you're running away with the game. If nothing else, try Breena. With Anim/Krenko you can stack triggers and get an additional 8x counters on them before them their triggers go off (for 16 extra tokens) as just a random example of how impactful she can be.

Crow_Umbra on All out attack

3 months ago

Pretty solid deck! Have you had a chance to play this deck irl? I have a few suggestions for potential edits:

• I think it might be worth swapping out some of your creature slots at the 5-8 cmc range for stuff that's lower in the 1-4 range. From having played Isshin for almost 2 years, I don't think the deck needs many top-end bombs.

• If you do trim off the top-end, I'd recommend swapping out: Witch-King of Angmar (might not deter boards that go-wide), the Ancient Dragons can probably be swapped since they're combat-damage based, and either of your 8 drops could probably be cut.

• Ogre Battledriver is a cool haste & power anthem. Could be helpful for giving you another haste option if you keep some of your higher end creatures.

• Breena, the Demagogue and Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant are both excellent draw for Isshin, & can compliment the Firemane Commando & Aurelia, the Law Above that you already have in mainboard.

• Taunt from the Rampart could replace one of your board wipes, maybe Cleansing Nova, & compliment the cards from the previous bullet.

-Legion Loyalist, Signal Pest, & Reconnaissance are all excellent 1 drops for Isshin. Reconnaissance can essentially be a pseud0-vigilance anthem that saves your creatures from combat; this EDHREC artcle explains how the timing works.

• Lastly, I'd suggest maybe getting 1-2 more lands, and maybe swapping Bitterthorn & Parhelion for a couple more mana rocks like Talisman of Conviction and Talisman of Hierarchy.

I hope these suggestions were helpful. Down to chat through additional suggestions if you're up for it, if not, no worries. Best of luck with the deck

Last_Laugh on The GOAT of GOAD

3 months ago

Phyrexian Reclamation would be a great way to repeatably get Kardur back and avoid commander tax.

Try Plumb the Forbidden in Read the Bones slot. Just sac'ing Kardur nets you the same 2 cards but the ceiling is much higher and it's a sort of anti boardwipe tech that keeps your grip full afterwards.

Pain Magnification can be triggered by you or your opponents (just not against you). This card could be bonkers here. I think of it as a "curse all opponents" effect.

Emberwilde Captain is good card draw here, deters attacks when you can't goad, and the monarchy is easy to hold if you goad consistently.

Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant is admittedly a bit group huggy, but it is an excellent source of card draw that goads.

Bothersome Quasit will turn the chaos up to 11 if you can consistently goad.

Vengeful Ancestor is another fun card in goad decks. It's especially punishing against go-wide strategies.

Anyways, I hope that helps. I ran Marisi for goad personally but am familiar with the archtype. The deck looks good.