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[Primer] Riku Combo

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Counters Infinite Combo Primer RUG (Temur) Twin

EmracruelUltimatum

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Land (34)

Artifact (7)

Creature (19)

Sorcery (16)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Riku of Two Reflections

Instant (16)

Enchantment (5)

Planeswalker (2)

I have been playing Riku since he came out, and he is by far my favorite commander in the format. He is probably the largest value engine available to be put in the command zone, and probably the most threatening 5 mana bear ever printed. I have gone through so many iterations of this deck that it is becoming hard to remember all of them. But this one is pretty updated, and incredibly fun to play.

This list feels very strong to play and can compete with tier 1 competitive lists, though you will notice that it isn't quite at the same power level, struggling to go off before turn 4, and only having enough interaction to stop opposing combos, or protect your own but usually not both. The deck is a blast to play and has so many possible ways to win the game, it really isn't for someone who isn't willing to think through exactly how triggers are going to go on the stack, and thinking through lines to victory. If knowing your decklist and winning through smooth technical play to achieve a combo sound like fun to you, I honestly cannot recommend a deck more,

I acknowledge that there are lots of ways to build Riku, and most more competitive lists will tend to gravitate toward heavy spell or heavy creature, but I think getting the most of both sides of riku is where you want to be. Additionally I understand that some less competitive players will not like this list, since it is very combo oriented and focused on winning the game at any cost. Even if you do not like the list's strategy, you may be able to find some valuable cards to add to your list.

Now I want to take a bit to go through some card choices and some of the combos, though honestly the best part of the deck is that for a competitive deck you are incredibly threat dense. I have had someone specifically exile 6 cards from my library and me still combo off, which is virtually unheard of for the level at which this deck wants to play. If a card isn't in a section you think it should be, that is probably because its main function is elsewhere.

With that card out of the way I want to talk about the ramp suite. Your ramp cards are in alphabetical order, Birds of Paradise, Crucible of Worlds...kinda, Cultivate, Dictate of Karametra, Exploration, Explosive Vegetation, Kodama's Reach, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Nature's Lore, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Skyshroud Claim, Sol Ring, Solemn Simulacrum, and Utopia Sprawl. Some of these are obvious includes and need no explaining like sol ring, mana crypt, cultivate and the like, but some others could be talked about a little. First, crucible of worlds functions as a way to generate land drops from fetches, or an alternate wincon with Wasteland/Strip Mine (made easier with Exploration). Worth the money. If you cant buy many expensive cards from this deck, this should be the first. Dictate of Karametra is a risky card, but almost always favorable for you. A lot of your combos are exceedingly mana hungry, and when you drop this on an opponent's end step when they only have 1 counter, it either goes to this or you have enough mana to win with counterspell backup. So much better than it looks on paper. Solemn Simulacrum is good on his own, but uncutable due to a weird combo opportunity that I will explain later. The same can be said of Utopia Sprawl (for that purpose, make sure between the land you enchant and it you can produce UG each tap).

Next I will go through the draw and tutor suite. For reference many of these tutors lead to infinite combos, which may be more obvious for some than others. In alphabetical order Birthing Pod, Brainstorm, Chord of Calling, Dack Fayden, Dig Through Time, Eldritch Evolution, Fact or Fiction, Intuition, Mercurial Chemister, Mystic Confluence, Mystic Remora, Mystical Tutor, Scroll Rack, Tooth and Nail, Treasure Cruise, Whir of Invention, Wheel of Fortune, Windfall. Again some of these don't need explained others probably do, but I will go through those that I think need mentioned. First and foremost, out of a competitively focused list I am sure you are surprised to see Mercurial Chemister. But if you get to untap 2 or 3 turns with this guy (or even two of him if you are in a situation where you copy with riku) and you will never question it again. 4 out of 5 times he picks you 2 extra cards up, and 1 out of 5 times he saves you from losing to a creature combo by pitching a card you don't need. If you untap with him on board for 2 turns you are probably going to win, and 3 turns you actually cant lose. Eldritch Evolution is an easy way to combo off when you have riku on board, since the riku copy remembers the cost of the guy you sacced. Brainstorm and moreso Scroll Rack pair wonderfully with our high fetch count and green ramp spells, letting us send away bad cards and replace them with others. Windfall and Wheel of Fortune are good if we run ourselves low, or can cast them early to disrupt our opponents plans with their opening hands.

Next I will talk about our removal, counterspells, and interaction in general. In alphabetical order we have Beast Within, Blasphemous Act, Chaos Warp, Counterspell, Cyclonic Rift, Decimate, the already mentioned Energy Flux, Flusterstorm, Hull Breach, Mana Drain, Mental Misstep, Pact of Negation, Reclamation Sage, Swan Song, Vandalblast, Venser, Shaper Savant, and Vexing Shusher. You may have noticed a lack of force of will...I should have one but getting one is difficult...I have no good excuse. But past that missing card we have an interesting pile. Ones that need pointed out are Decimate. Gross card. At best you can 8-for-1 your opponents, and the game is actually over off of one spell with riku copy. Flusterstorm is pretty common, but as a reminder, if your opponent plays Chalice of the Void on 1 (pretty rare in the format) then you can still cast flusterstorm, the original will get countered, but the storm copies still resolve. Vexing Shusher is a bomb. If you are trying to combo off, your opponent has to kill him or you will win. If you are playing 3+ player, and you don't have a counterspell, you can make your opponents' interaction stopping another opponent from winning uncounterable, and he is generally a card that needs dealt with. Finally, Venser, Shaper Savant is a gross card in this deck. he is a value engine, a hell of a tempo play, and actually part of a lockout type wincon. If you stack your triggers right, you can play him with riku on board, bounce himself and copy leaving yourself with real venser in hand, and a token venser on board that gets to bounce something. Basically a more versatile Capsize. Also, with Deadeye Navigator he can put opponents' entire boards in their hands in short order.

Next is our mana base. I will not list the whole thing, but I will discuss important notes. First, 4 forest, 3 island, 3 mountain is really the lowest I am comfortable going, though I could see going to 3 forest. Winning the game often require 3 blue, which you need to be able to produce through Blood Moon or Back to Basics and the same can be said, though less commonly so, of the other two colors (red is close though since Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Worldgorger Dragon both cost RRR). I only play 8 fetches since I don't have tarn, but it should be in the deck(likely over that 4th forest). The fetches fix your mana well, and can grab you basics if you are worried about the above cards. Boseiju, Who Shelters All is great at making us win the game through countermagic. Duals, Shocks, Cinder Glade, and Sheltered Thicket are our fetchable duals, play all of them. Also, know when to fetch which, if you are land heavy, leave the thicket and grab the other cause if you have to draw one you want to be able to redraw off of it. Minamo, School at Water's Edge is pretty free to play, and has two fringe cases where it can win you the game. First it can untap kiki in response to a removal spell letting you reiterate the combo, and second, it can untap boseiju for a second uncounterable spell in a turn. Mirrorpool is a little less free, but it is the one greedy land in the deck. It virtually never hinders you if you are careful, and can sneak you a win out of nowhere copying a wincon. Riptide lab provides some protection for riku and our other wizards, and can also be involved in combos. Scavenger Grounds can hurt us sometimes, but it doesn't take a spell slot, and can save us from a grave-based win, making it an auto include. Finally Wasteland and Strip Mine are good at keeping us in the game against cards like Gaea's Cradle and can be a soft lock with Crucible of Worlds

First and foremost, you absolutely want to be playing Energy Flux. You are a green deck with land ramp, and when your opponent is on artifact ramp this card can end the game by itself. I cannot talk highly enough about it. There will be games where it hinders you, but honestly turn 1 land, Mana Crypt, Energy Flux is unbeatable against some decks even though it nullifies your crypt. The card is too much of a tax, and withoutan early spell to remove it, it will buy you the time this deck needs to get its feet off of the ground. And once you have done that you are the strongest deck at the table.

The deck is built in an oddly balanced way almost solely to keep Birthing Pod strong. We only play 16 creatures and Riku, so the deck is pretty thin on them for a pod deck, but the densities have been chosen purposefully. We have 1 one-drop, 2 two-drops, 3 three-drops, 3 four-drops, 4 five-drops, 2 six-drops, and 1 seven-drop. This lets us always be able to safely pod up and not have to find and expose a combo piece if we are just trying to get to the next number. As good as deadeye is, if he couldnt be podded into palinchron he might have been cut. If you build this list, be EXTREMELY cautious cutting/replacing creatures, pod is very good in this deck, but if you cut out all of the 4 drops pod is unplayably bad.

Finally I want to discuss Crystal Shard. This card only seems to see play in mono blue, but it is quite useful in this list. It is (1) a combo piece, and (2) an onboard trick capable of cutting an opponent short on mana, or just straight up stopping a combo. Always remember to use it, you never know when an opponent having one less mana could win you the game

Now the moment you have been waiting for, winning the game. We have a PILE of combos. Many that are redundant, many that are fringe, and at least some you have probably seen over and over again. I am actually going to break these down individually, with the caveat there are a lot of weird many card combos that I wont be mentioning. (before it goes unmentioned in these combos, a resolved expropriate ends the game on its own, no combo necessary)

First, the one I am sure you have all noticed. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts or Deceiver Exarch. Most of you know how this interaction works, but if you don't - tap kiki targeting the conscripts or exarch, the token enters and untaps kiki, rinse and repeat, swing for lethal.
Next we have our infinite turn setup, which is the most redundant combo in the deck. You need three things.

1) and extra turn spell that doesn't exile itself - Time Warp, Time Stretch, or Temporal Manipulation

2) a recursion creature - Eternal Witness, Izzet Chronarch, or Archaeomancer

3) a way to copy, flicker, or bounce the creature - Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Deadeye Navigator, Crystal Shard, Riptide Laboratory+ or Venser, Shaper Savant++

+only works with chronarch or archaeomancer since they are wizards

++requires actually so much mana this isnt really an option, but technically an option if you somehow have like 15 mana every turn to devote.

This combo does exactly what it looks like, takes an extra turn and gets the turn spell back. Uses that turn to play the turn spell and get it back again, rinse and repeat.

next are two of the most simple to assemble combos in the format

Riku of Two Reflections + Palinchron + 7 land mana(including 3 blue)

So, how this works is the first of the combos where knowledge and understanding of the stack are helpful. With 7 lands (or less if all or some them produce 2+ mana) and riku on board. Cast the palinchron. When it enters the battlefield, stack the riku trigger below the untap trigger. Untap the lands, pay for riku copy and tap all of your lands, when the copy enters it will untap your lands and you will have 5 mana in pool. Use 4 of it to pick up the real palinchron and you are back where you started except you ahve a token plainchron and 1 extra mana. Repeat that as many times as you want and get infinite palinchrons and mana. Though it should be noted unless you have 4 blue sources you dont get infinite blue. If you can win with the mana, do it, if not, end the loop with the real palinchron in hand since it is safest there, and pass turn. Unless tragedy strikes you will untap with infinite palinchron tokens.

hoo-boy. This next one is a doozy. Dont even play Worldgorger Dragon if your knowledge of the stack isnt very good. However if you do understand the stack he combos with either Riku, or Kiki, both are risky beacuse a single removal spell timed properly leaves all of your permanents in exile forever, and the kiki combo leaves you with just a worldgorger at the end, so you better win.
I'll go through the riku combo first. You have to have Riku on board, 8 mana (including RRRUG) (or a way to cheat the dragon onto the board), and if you dont have a payoff card in your hand for infinite mana, you need a creature with a relevant etb effect that can get you there. So, let's just get into it then, with riku on board, get worldgorger on board and stack the etb triggers Riku copy, above dragon exile. Copy the dragon. The new copy will enter and get an etb trigger above the real dragon's exile trigger. Let that resolve and you are left with just a token dragon and the real dragon's trigger on the stack. Let that real dragon's trigger resolve, and you lose the token. The token's 'leaves the battlefield' trigger goes on stack and gives you everything back when it resolves. You will get all of your etb effects. To iterate the loop you just need to put the riku copy trigger above the dragon trigger. Any other etb triggers you can stack any way you like, but for simplicity you usually stack them above riku so they resolve within the iteration. An exception to this is zealous conscripts trigger. This trigger should go between riku copy and the dragon trigger, because that will result in exiling the permanent you steal forever, so you can exile your opponents' boards forever. After stacking your triggers properly you just loop until you ahve all the etbs and mana you need to win the game. Then to end the loop you just stack the riku trigger BELOW the worldgorger trigger, so the dragon eats everything, then you copy and the token dragon eats the real dragon and you get your permanents back. Simple enough right?.... right?...yeah it's complicated...
The worldgorger/kiki combo is still complex but much simpler. With kiki on board, get worldgorger out. With the dragon trigger on stack, tap kiki and copy the dragon. The copy enters, exiles all of your permanents, and then the real dragon trigger resolves, eating the token and giving your permanents back. The real dragon will trigger again, and to iterate the loop just tap kiki again. Once you have looped enough you are forced to just let the real dragon eat all your permanents but you have gotten infinite mana and etbs, so you should be able to win. Alright now let's all take a breath now that we have got that sorted out.
The next combo is a bit of an odd one, I have never seen it listed anywhere, but it does come up and wins you the occasional game out of nowhere. You need

1) Riku

2) Deadeye Navigator

3) either a land with Utopia Sprawl on it that between the land and the sprawl taps for UG, or Dictate of Karametra

4) Deceiver Exarch or Zealous conscripts

Again, stack knowledge is a wonderful friend in this combo. The way to start the combo is to have pieces 1-3 and then have piece 4 enter the battlefield. I will go through the combo with utopia sprawled land and zealous then explain how dictate also works. When zealous(or exarch) enters, stack riku trigger below the untap trigger targeting the sprawled land, which is below the soulbond trigger. Soulbond, then untap theland and tap it for UG to pay for riku's ability to get a copy, which again targets the sprawled land. This leaves you with Riku, a zealous copy, and a paired zealous and deadeye, and an untapped sprawled land. Blink the zealous and stack the etb trigger the same as before, and resolve them the same as before. You will find you are in the same spot you jsut were, but with another zealous token copy. Rinse and repeat. If it is zealous you can swing out that turn, if it's exarch you gotta wait for summoning sickness to wear off. And if you have dictate not sprawl, just tap two lands for a total of UUGG and use your two untaps triggers to untap those lands. This gets people who immediately assume only kiki will win you the game with zealous or exarch. And honestly it is my favorite way to win.

I want to go over one specific instance that is very important to memorize because it is the best "gotcha" in the deck, though it is a bit mana intensive. You will need Riku on board, and Whir of Invention with the ability to cast it for 4=X, copy, and UG extra (or 2UG if you do this on your mainphase not opponents' endstep). This one is great because it is so linear yet so convoluted. So, your opponent passes turn, on their endstep you cast whir for 4 and copy with riku, holding UG up. If both resolve, find Solemn Simulacrum and copy it getting 2 lands, and have two sadbots. Then you grab Birthing Pod with the second whir. When you untap, sac the first sadbot grabbing zealous conscripts to untap the pod, then sac the second sadbot to get Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and win the game. For what it is worth, it is genuinely worth considering choosing not to draw off of sadbot, cause I have drawn into kiki meaning I couldnt pod into it and lost the game to him getting countered. Just food for thought. This is not the only reason to play whir though, for UUU grab crypt and mana accelerate at instant speed. For more mana you can grab scroll rack if your hand is garbage, or crucible for ramp/landlocking. Honestly whir is so good.

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