Oh hey, it's Kemba, Kha Regent! A Voltron general! You remember Voltron: Defender of the Universe, right? That cartoon that came out in the 1980s around the same time as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe? The show we didn't think was an anime, but now we know really was? It's exactly like that!
Huh? What's that? Oh... Okay, you got me. I'm trying to distract you guys from the fact that Kemba, Kha Regent creates tokens by rambling about old Japanese animation from the 1980s designed to sell toys. What was the tip off? The Anointed Procession? Or was it the Cathars' Crusade? It was the Cathars' Crusade, wasn't it? Well, I guess it's safe to say there's a specific type of deck I gravitate towards...
But wait, before you click away because you know this deck is going to require a lot of math and keeping track of tokens and counters, I want to let you know that's just a sub theme! Kemba, Kha Regent, as a commander, really does shine under the Voltron archetype. What do I mean by that?
Well, hopefully the veritable armory's worth of equipment artifacts is a big clue. The term Voltron refers to focusing all your efforts on a single creature in order to make it a terrifying and usually unstoppable force. One of the most common is Zur the Enchanter but forget about him. He promotes anti fun. Kemba, Kha Regent promotes cats! Which, I don't know, some people think are agents of Satan and are pure evil but...
I'm getting off topic, aren't I? On to the deck!
Obviously the point of the deck is to get as much stuff attached to Kemba, Kha Regent as possible, but before we can get into how ridiculous her inventory is, we should first talk about how Kemba, Kha Regent is going to afford all these fancy toys. For those who remember the days of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Squadron Hawk, you'll immediately call to mind Stoneforge Mystic. That's cool. She's cool. But while we can drop equipment only the board each turn, we can only search for something once. That's what makes Stonehewer Giant so awesome. He's more expensive than Stoneforge Mystic but his ability, while realistically only usable once per turn, lets you not only search your library for an equipment card and put it onto the battlefield but equip it to a creature. Not only does it let you get something you need when you need it, but can allow for powerful utility both inside and outside of combat.
Auriok Windwalker
and
Brass Squire
, although they don't search for equipment, allow you to move items around and easily change the outcome of battle.
Enough about that though. Let's talk inventory. Everything that's attached to Kemba, Kha Regent is another token that you'll be generating during your standby phase, but what's the really important stuff to look out for? You would think that the first thing you want to give Kemba, Kha Regent is a brand new pair of Lightning Greaves, right? Well, isn't that cute. But it's wrong! Lightning Greaves is actually inferior to
Swiftfoot Boots
because shroud prevents us from giving Kemba, Kha Regent any more items. It's not a bad card by any stretch of the imagination, but would be better equipped to Stonehewer Giant or even
Raksha Golden Cub
just to activate his continuous buff.
No, one of the best things to equip to Kemba, Kha Regent as early as possible is
Champion's Helm
. With hexproof, you'll be able to continue to equip Kemba, Kha Regent and the bonus stats it grants with give her a little more survivability. Next up would be Stoneforge Masterwork or, if you find yourself needing some meatier tokens, Konda's Banner. Because Stoneforge Masterwork is essentially a personalized
Coat of Arms
, it can easily boost Kemba, Kha Regent to an insane height after only a couple of turns. On the other hand, Konda's Banner will boost all of your white creatures and all of your cat creatures, and because the tokens generated by Kemba, Kha Regent meet both these requirements they're able to double dip on buffs. Who knows, the bonus overall damage across all of your creatures might be more beneficial than just the huge targeted boost that Stoneforge Masterwork grants. After that, simply equip items to Kemba, Kha Regent as the situation requires. Of course, that being said, Darksteel Plate or
Shield of Kaldra
should probably be high on the list of things to pick up so that Kemba, Kha Regent isn't vulnerable to things like Wrath of God.
That's pretty much it, right? Equip a bunch of stuff to Kemba, Kha Regent until she's really big, and then go for an alpha strike with all those tokens you created? By now I shouldn't have to go into how Anointed Procession will double the tokens Kemba, Kha Regent's generating, Cathars' Crusade is going to make them all huge and you'll need a TI-83 to keep track of everything?
Absolutely not!
Kemba, Kha Regent is usually seen as one of the go to Voltron commanders. We already mentioned Zur the Enchanter, but Rafiq of the Many and Uril, the Miststalker are a couple of others. Because of this, the moment your opponents see that you're playing Kemba, Kha Regent they'll be preparing to focus their attention on her. While I'm sure there's a lot of temptation to just load Kemba, Kha Regent with as many items as possible for the largest amount of tokens as possible, it might not be a bad idea to split some of that inventory with
Raksha Golden Cub
or
jareth, leonin titan
. Oh Jareth, now there's a name I haven't heard in quite some time. You remember the Goblin King, right? No, no, not this Goblin King. This one.
Where was I? Oh, right. While
Raksha Golden Cub
doesn't do anything as impressive as Kemba, Kha Regent, dividing your inventory between the two of them will not only ensure that you're still generating tokens, but because
Raksha Golden Cub
is equipped, those tokens with be beefier and have double strike. It kind of makes Konda's Banner not that bad of an early equipment pick, doesn't it? The benefits of equipping
Jareth, Leonine Titan
are, well... Do I really have to explain it? Being a gladiator,
Jareth, Leonine Titan
knows only one thing: Combat. He doesn't do anything special if he has any items, but once he's strong enough for your liking, you can activate his ability until he has protection from whatever colors he needs protection from and can attack with impunity. Drop a Stoneforge Masterwork on him and that's usually enough to inflict some serious damage to an opponent, especially if
Raksha Golden Cub
is granting double strike.
Of course there are a couple other neat little tricks that, between Kemba, Kha Regent,
Raksha Golden Cub
and
Jareth, Leonine Titan
, can make which feline legend to deal with first difficult for your opponents.
Strata Scythe
is pretty giggles, right? Sure, you'll be losing a Plains when
Strata Scythe
enter the battlefield, but because it gives bonuses based on the total number of Plains on the battlefield, it doesn't sound like that much of a loss. Not to mention you won't just be increasing the number of lands available to you and thinning out your library, but Sword of the Animist will keep whatever is wielding the
Strata Scythe
getting bigger and bigger. Assuming Kemba, Kha Regent or one of your other monstrous creatures is locked down somehow, probably because one of your opponents decided it was the biggest threat but didn't have an Oblivion Ring to really ruin your day, just drop them down on the Dragon Throne of Tarkir. Even though they now have defender, whichever creature it's equipped to can now make your creatures truly massive. Just imagine if your opponents haven't been able to deal with Kemba, Kha Regent's token generation and now not only have to watch them attack, but attack with the massive buff the Dragon Throne of Tarkir is granting.
Surestrike Trident
is also pretty fun. Did one of your opponents gain a lot of life? More life than a couple of your tokens could knock out? That's fine. Activate the
Surestrike Trident
's equip ability and deal a huge chunk of damage to that or another opponent. Oh, and of course it's a huge chunk of damage. You equipped
Surestrike Trident
to a creature that already had a lot of items attached to it, right? Of course you did. But what if you have a lot of equipment spread across several creatures? Fortunately Puresteel Paladin, once metalcraft has been attained, will let you move the now unattached Suresteel Trident around the board and repeatedly chip away at each of your opponents' life total until they eventually hit zero or are low enough that a token alpha strike will finish them off. Unfortunately,
Surestrike Trident
doesn't count as combat damage, and game loss won't occur if Kemba, Kha Regent is able to do twenty-one or more damage to an opponent upon activating
Surestrike Trident
's ability. Or less than twenty-one damage. I don't know, Kemba, Kha Regent might have touched an opponent's butt a couple of times before equipping
Surestrike Trident
. Either way, it's probably best that
Surestrike Trident
doesn't just grant instant victory over an opponent. At least, not by means of the commander damage rule. It might still be dealing an immense and lethal amount of damage depending on what other items are attached and what buffs are in effect.
But hey, I hope you had a fun time reading this and that it was enough to give a good overview of what to expect from this deck. Comments and suggestions are always welcome, and hey! I've even got a YouTube channel where you can see this and several other decks of mine in action. It might even be a better way to gauge how well the deck performs in certain situations, so it's definitely worth a look.
Removed:
- 2 Plains
- Karn Liberated
- Mana Vault
- Thran Dynamo
- Elixir of Immortality
- Scourglass
- Council's Judgment
- Frantic Salvage
- Rout
- Sword of Fire and Ice
- Argivian Archaeologist
- Argivian Find
- Ritual of Restoration
- Bonehoard
- Roar of Reclamation
- Mine Excavation
Added:
- Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
- Inventor's Fair
- Cathars' Crusade
- True Conviction
- Konda's Banner
- Brass Squire
- Sword of the Animist
- Refurbish
- Armory Automaton
- Jareth, Leonin Titan
- Healer of the Pride
- Leonin Shikari
- Darksteel Plate
- Lightning Greaves
- Sigarda's Aid
- Regal Caracal
- Stoneforge Masterwork
- Anointed Procession
- Shield of Kaldra
