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Akiri & Kydele, Private Investigators (Budget ed.)

Commander / EDH Artifact Combo Four Color Infinite Combo Jank RGWU

rpgtiger


Sideboard

Sorcery (1)

Creature (1)


Maybeboard

Sorcery (1)


NOTE: As of 12/13/17, this deck has been decommissioned in paper form, but I'm leaving the TappedOut up for Cockatrice use and in the event I want to revisit it at some point. The deck wasn't fun to play once the novelty of Kydele's combos wore off on me, plus it was highly inconsistent anyway and didn't go off very often. I took it apart and used a good number of the pieces in my new deck, Intet-ly Dreaming.

A version of my Akiri & Kydele, Private Investigators Investigate EDH deck, but as a somewhat-more-budget build (I already owned a lot of these cards, which helped a bunch with the price) that I've built in real life.

The main focus of this deck is Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix. By using clue tokens and other forms of draw power, along with untapping mechanics like Paradox Engine, Umbral Mantle, and Staff of Domination, there are several ways of generating infinite colorless mana, which can be used to fulfill its win conditions.

Akiri, Line-Slinger is used as the second commander partially to give access to white (as Investigate exclusively appears in U, G, and W), and partially as a utility piece. With a pile of clue tokens out, she can be dropped for two mana and provide board presence and either act as a significant threat to draw your opponents' attention, or as a blocker to help ward off aggressive creature strategies. She can also potentially act as a win condition herself if the circumstances are right.

  • X-drop burn spells, namely Fireball, Rolling Thunder, and Banefire. The former two can eliminate all players simultaneously, given enough colorless mana, and the latter can be used to ensure a kill on a single target that may be packing counterspells. This is the wincon the deck is most likely to achieve.
  • Building up large numbers of clue tokens, then using Mechanized Production to win outright. This doesn't even require any Kydele big-mana combos, but is very vulnerable to both artifact and enchantment removal, becoming more and more risky with the more opponents involved. Padeem, Consul of Innovation reduces its vulnerability to artifact kill.
  • Building up large numbers of clue tokens, then utilizing Akiri to deal commander damage. This usually requires several turns to eliminate a single player (having 21 artifacts on the field, even counting clue tokens, is exceedingly rare), though Chandra's Ignition and Boros Charm can help it along. Still, I'm not counting on this to happen very often unless my opponent is in a position where he just doesn't have any answers to big creatures.
  • Psychosis Crawler can be quite effective in multiplayer games. Play it, then start cracking clues and/or wheeling. It's even better if used with Molten Psyche.
This deck is admittedly combo-heavy, though I've attempted to build it to be fairly flexible. Many combo pieces have multiple possible uses, meaning they aren't completely useless without any particular other piece. Additionally, there are several ways of tutoring out combo pieces so you can get what you need for the situation.
  • Staff of Domination is almost an infinite combo all on its own, and will pretty much instantly win you the game if you can get Kydele to tap for 5 mana. At this point you can build up arbitrarily large amounts of colorless mana, life gain, and card draw all at once.
  • Umbral Mantle can create infinite colorless as long as Kydele can tap for 4, though without the card draw or life gain. This has the side effect of giving Kydele arbitrarily high power and toughness, which can let you win with commander damage if the opponent lacks blockers.
  • Paradox Engine has many different uses, most of them not truly infinite, but it can carry you a long way. The most obvious application is untapping Kydele, which can keep producing colorless as long as you keep casting spells. Having any of the mana rocks that produce colored mana helps a lot there. Other possibilities for the Engine include untapping Magnifying Glass to generate more clues, untapping Jace's Archivist for more wheel, untapping Planar Bridge, Pyramid of the Pantheon, Arcanis the Omnipotent and so on.
  • This deck has several ways to tutor out combo pieces in order to get what you need.
  • Fabricate and Whir of Invention can be used to get any artifact you'd need. Most commonly I'd expect to use them most on Staff of Domination or Umbral Mantle, but Paradox Engine and Tamiyo's Journal can also be good grabs depending on the situation.
  • Speaking of Tamiyo's Journal, it's an easy way to tutor anything you need, and your opponents don't even get to look at it. Combine with Briarbridge Patrol to be able to tutor any creature then play it for free at the end step.
  • The wheel effects, i.e. Windfall, Jace's Archivist, etc. can be good if you need to refresh your hand, and it also helps along Kydele a lot too. Cathartic Reunion is a "mini-wheel" of sorts, useful if you need a few more card draws to make Kydele go off, but you still want to keep some of the stuff in your hand.
  • The main thing that I'm currently concerned with about this deck is that I'm not sure I have enough self-defense and removal. I have a few counterspells, and a few ways of removal, though some of it is in the form of the X-drop burn spells, so if I use one of those for creature removal, I'm effectively giving up one of my win conditions. Beyond that, Akiri is usually a decent defense against creatures, and Padeem, Consul of Innovation can protect my artifacts, though against removal-heavy decks I'm not sure how well this deck would fare. I'm also not terribly sure how I would add more self-defense without sacrificing too much synergy.

    Anyway, thanks for reading! If you know of any budget-friendly additions I could make to this deck, I'd greatly appreciate it!

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    Updates Add

    I'm finally able to put this deck together in real life, so I've made a few slight adjustments to fit the cards that I have, and within the next week or so it'll be fully ready to go! I'm really excited about this deck, it's likely the most creative build I've ever done, and it's the deck I've put the most thought and effort into making.

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    Date added 6 years
    Last updated 3 years
    Legality

    This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

    Rarity (main - side)

    7 - 0 Mythic Rares

    33 - 3 Rares

    23 - 1 Uncommons

    22 - 0 Commons

    Cards 100
    Avg. CMC 3.09
    Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Clue, Copy Clone, Human Soldier 1/1 W
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