Celestial Kirin and why I hate my girlfriend
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Feb. 23, 2015, 4:08 p.m. by Deckologist
Celestial Kirin. She wants to play celestial Kirin. I'm either gonna break it off with her or I'm gonna make this stupid deck and hate my life. I think that with a little luck and some damn good utility this might work. What do you all think?
Deckologist says... #4
Lol I intend to. I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything that might really break this dumb thing
February 23, 2015 4:13 p.m.
I used to play it in a Karador edh and it (along with it's B and G counterparts) actually did some pretty serious work. Everything in the deck was a Spirit or Arcane, save 10ish must-have cards, so it was brutal.
February 23, 2015 4:16 p.m.
PepsiAddicted says... #6
heres a "nice" article on Kirin. its Stax in EDH and its evil :)
February 23, 2015 4:18 p.m.
Deckologist says... #7
See that's what I tried getting her to do. Karador was the first thing my mind went to because the kirins in his colors can be pretty cool. And it's everything she asked for. He's a damn deer spirit centaur but nooooooo...
This is why I can't have nice things lol
February 23, 2015 4:19 p.m.
Deckologist says... #8
PepsiAddicted I tried that rout with her. I built her a nothing but spirit/arcane tribal thing and I'm hoping when we play tonight or tomorrow she sees that it's just...God awful lol and goes with the stax style, I'm surprised to say that deck looks a little intimidating for casual play...she'll love it hopefully haha
February 23, 2015 4:24 p.m.
PepsiAddicted says... #9
haha nice i had a very similar experience... for some reason girls love spirit decks. probably the artwork...
and good luck ;)
February 23, 2015 4:31 p.m.
That might be something like what she's looking for. Obviously not competitive, but when the stars align, you can wipe your opponents board every turn for several turns in a row which is just soooo satisfying. When that fails, you pretty much go for a flying swarm of spirits that kills via damage. Spirits are borderline ok, but most white arcane spells are just plain horrible and I wouldn't recommend any but Shining Shoal since it can hit any CMC above 2 with Kirin's ability.
February 23, 2015 4:39 p.m.
Actually Shining Shoal would only hit 2CMC cards, X is considered 0 for CMC
February 23, 2015 4:54 p.m.
Not true. The X=0 clause only applies when the spell is anywhere but being cast, as there is no way to determine what X might be. However, when you are casting it, X has a definite value and that value becomes part of its CMC. Clarification and confirmation of this ruling can even be found on the Gatherer page for Celestial Kirin and even uses Shining Shoal specifically as an example. It even works if you choose to exile a white card to pay for Shoal.
February 23, 2015 4:56 p.m.
Huh. Learn something new everyday. That's what I get for calling people out haha.
February 23, 2015 4:57 p.m.
Might I suggest Angel of Flight Alabaster, Crib Swap, and Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens? The latter can be an alternate general in case she gets tired of using the kirin. Then again, I know nothing about stax. :p
February 23, 2015 5:04 p.m.
It really makes me wish there was a 5 color spirit commander. As it stands, there are only a handful of multicolored spirit general(none besides Karador have more than 2 colors) and only one of them is part of the whole Kamigawa story. Iname as One is a not so viable commander even in a casual format, especially seeing as his first ability void if he's coming out of the command zone. Then there's the whole, 12 CMC thing...
Although, interestingly enough, you can use his second ability everytime since you can choose to send him back to the command zone to replace the exiling him from the graveyard.
February 23, 2015 5:24 p.m.
CMC 6 is important in commander, make sure to throw in Yosei, the Morning Star
February 23, 2015 7:47 p.m.
Also note that as for your own important CMC's, you'll obviously want to keep your kirin in play so having less spirits/arcane spells at 4 cmc means he won't blow himself up. It also means you can safely accumulate important cards at the 4 cmc level since you know you're unlikely to blow them up. But even then, it is important to cover all the bases and have a few ways to blow up 4 drops. Citanul Flute is also a nice, albeit slow, card to pair with Kirin, essentially letting you Pay 2X to destroy something with a CMC=X and get a creature out of it.
February 23, 2015 8:03 p.m.
Deckologist says... #20
Nice Necrotize I didn't even think about that. I like it.
February 23, 2015 8:05 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #21
Bro, he is strooooong. XD sure he only triggersof of spirit tribal, but he is one of the most amazing spirit commanders imo. Feel free to peruse my Celestial Kirin deck if you want some more input: MagicalHacker - Celestial Kirin.
February 23, 2015 9:08 p.m.
Deckologist says... #23
Lol money isn't a problem.
For the record she played the crappy deck I made her and the damn thing actually won 3 out of 4 games at my shop. What...
February 24, 2015 11:14 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #25
Oh I misread the OP, and thought she wanted you to play it, rather than her to play it.
February 24, 2015 11:16 a.m.
My thinking as well. There are plenty of budget EDH decks out there. As low as $30, even. Make it tribal and it's cheap and easy to make.
Not a bad record. My Grimgrin deck had a similar record during its debut. Then again, EDH isn't about winning 24/7/12/365/100.
February 24, 2015 11:16 a.m.
Deckologist says... #27
I made her a really crappy spirit and arcane only deck using the Kirin to try and persuade Her into making it like mono white stax. She won. Other players lost. Now my store is all about kirins. Wtf have I done?
Side note: MagicalHacker why have you not made a Sydri deck yet?!
February 24, 2015 11:18 a.m.
Making Kirin into stax would make your life even more of a nightmare. It sounds like the deck's hit that plateau of perfection.
February 24, 2015 11:20 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #29
February 24, 2015 11:21 a.m.
That's they way it tends to go for me lol. I can pour so many combos, tutors and yes, money into an EDH deck only for it to lose to one of my 50 dollar gimmicky ones. Sometimes the simpler approach is just too consistent to stop. Even without abusing the ability, Kirin is still a 3/3 flyer that lends itself greatly to token strategies(since Kirin can't blow up tokens in monowhite) so you can end up just overwhelming the other person while they search for key pieces.
There are a few tiers of EDH decks IMO. Really basic/gimmicky ones, usually follow an aggro type strategy. Middle ground ones that can start to employ complex combos, but may not have the money to devote to expensive tutors and land bases, thus they can easily lose to the basic/gimmicky ones if they can't secure their key cards. Then there's the high tier ones. In 1v1, they're either specced to be so fast and consistent, cheaper decks don't have time to protect themselves, and in multiplayer they're filled with enough tutors and combo protection that it isn't difficult to combo off safely or gain control of the game.
Kirin definitely falls into the middle ground seeing as his ability is highly dependent on what cards you happen to draw and what permanents your opponents happen to play. I've had games where Kirin is essentially just a 3/3 flyer. But I've also had games where I would pretty much undo my opponents entire turn while still establishing a board presence.
February 24, 2015 1:53 p.m.
It sounds interesting and potentially annoying to play against. I somewhat regret helping my girlfriend put together a wrath heavy deck using Avacyn as the general. Sure it takes a while until she can put her commander into play, but once Avacyn and Nevinyrral's Disk hit play the game is over.
February 24, 2015 2:20 p.m.
HeroInMyOwnMind says... #32
Playing this with a CMC theme is really fun. If you can protect yourself from the destroy effect, you pretty much have carte blanche to impose your will on the table. Personally, I find it more effective than Child of Alara decks that try to do the same thing.
quesobueno123 says... #2
Make the deck.
February 23, 2015 4:11 p.m.