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| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Alchemy | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Freeform | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Historic Brawl | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Modern Beyond Horizons | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Planar Constructed | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Pre-release | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Standard | Legal |
| Standard Brawl | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Hide in Plain Sight
Sorcery
Look at the top five cards of your library, cloak two of them, and put the rest of the bottom of your library in a random order. (To cloak a card, put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature with ward . Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card. While face down, whenever it becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays .)
GregariousG on
Manifest the Deadly Disguise
1 year ago
To dylan.575:
Kaust is definitely a commander that screams, “I’m working harder to do my thing than you are.” Yes, the draw of Kaust is the surprise element. There is nothing better than an opponent using panic removal on a manifested land. However, Kaust’s problem is that he supports a draft mechanic. As well, Sultai, particularly and , have more impactful morph creatures. However, there should be more resources as Magic will return to Tarkir in 2025. As well, I’m hoping that Disguise will be an evergreen mechanic. For me, this deck needs more ways to manifest and cloak. Ugin's Mastery, Veiled Ascension, and Mastery of the Unseen pull plenty of weight for me. Though it isn’t a permanent, Hide in Plain Sight is too good to not play.
You are 100% correct on your assessment for instants and sorceries. My build really wants to manifest and cloak the top card, which makes these two cards types even worse. Because of that, I use permanent types that do similar things to the instants and sorceries that were previously in the deck. The thing I found about Kaust, whether testing, playing, or research, is that Kaust has to make the gameplay experience “fair”. “Fair” for who? Fair for Kaust, and just Kaust. That means Kaust needs to slow down the game and shut off game elements he doesn’t utilize. The biggest change in success was shutting off ETB triggers. ETB triggers are simply too good. Almost every deck is playing a creature with ETB triggers, except Kaust for the most part. That isn’t fair and it shows. Torpor Orb, Hushbringer, and Doorkeeper Thrull are some of the best cards in the deck. You could add more Torpor Orb-effects, but I prefer these two because they have flying. You also notice that I’m playing some stax creatures, like Void Winnower and Yasharn, Implacable Earth. I'm gonna point out Yasharn because I don’t use any sacrifice elements outside of fetchlands. Though yahsarn’s ETB will be shut off, I will gladly pay that price to stop players from sacrificing treasures. I’m to the point where I want to add more stax elements to the deck. I agree with your assessment about “on attack” creatures, except for Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. Phlage has been great both with and without a Torpor Orb on the field.
Your version has cost reduction, which is something I should put back into the deck. I was using Trinisphere but it was just ok. I thought about putting in Hydra Omnivore and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa in my version. I had Silverback Elder and it ended up on my “maybe” list. I’d be careful of Helm of Awakening cause I won’t want to reduce cost for everyone. I’m an old school player but I’m moving away from the auto inclusion of Lightning Greaves and/or Swiftfoot Boots. I’m finding that lots of ramp acts as recursion and protection for decks. What is Dawn Charm doing for you? I cut Expose the Culprit for Teleportation Circle and I have no regrets. Your top end is good. I like the new Eldrazi support that I added to mine. Because my Kaust builds just makes tons of mana, I can just hard cast Eldrazi. Let’s keep helping each other to make Kaust great!
GregariousG on
Somebody's Watching Me | *Primer*
1 year ago
To dylan.575:
Kaust is definitely a commander that screams, “I’m working harder to do my thing than you are.” Yes, the draw of Kaust is the surprise element. There is nothing better than an opponent using panic removal on a manifested land. However, Kaust’s problem is that he supports a draft mechanic. As well, Sultai, particularly and , have more impactful morph creatures. However, there should be more resources as Magic will return to Tarkir in 2025. As well, I’m hoping that Disguise will be an evergreen mechanic. For me, this deck needs more ways to manifest and cloak. Ugin's Mastery, Veiled Ascension, and Mastery of the Unseen pull plenty of weight for me. Though it isn’t a permanent, Hide in Plain Sight is too good to not play.
You are 100% correct on your assessment for instants and sorceries. My build really wants to manifest and cloak the top card, which makes these two cards types even worse. Because of that, I use permanent types that do similar things to the instants and sorceries that were previously in the deck. The thing I found about Kaust, whether testing, playing, or research, is that Kaust has to make the gameplay experience “fair”. “Fair” for who? Fair for Kaust, and just Kaust. That means Kaust needs to slow down the game and shut off game elements he doesn’t utilize. The biggest change in success was shutting off ETB triggers. ETB triggers are simply too good. Almost every deck is playing a creature with ETB triggers, except Kaust for the most part. That isn’t fair and it shows. Torpor Orb, Hushbringer, and Doorkeeper Thrull are some of the best cards in the deck. You could add more Torpor Orb-effects, but I prefer these two because they have flying. You also notice that I’m playing some stax creatures, like Void Winnower and Yasharn, Implacable Earth. I'm gonna point out Yasharn because I don’t use any sacrifice elements outside of fetchlands. Though yahsarn’s ETB will be shut off, I will gladly pay that price to stop players from sacrificing treasures. I’m to the point where I want to add more stax elements to the deck. I agree with your assessment about “on attack” creatures, except for Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury. Phlage has been great both with and without a Torpor Orb on the field.
Your version has cost reduction, which is something I should put back into the deck. I was using Trinisphere but it was just ok. I thought about putting in Hydra Omnivore and Kamahl, Heart of Krosa in my version. I had Silverback Elder and it ended up on my “maybe” list. I’d be careful of Helm of Awakening cause I won’t want to reduce cost for everyone. I’m an old school player but I’m moving away from the auto inclusion of Lightning Greaves and/or Swiftfoot Boots. I’m finding that lots of ramp acts as recursion and protection for decks. What is Dawn Charm doing for you? I cut Expose the Culprit for Teleportation Circle and I have no regrets. Your top end is good. I like the new Eldrazi support that I added to mine. Because my Kaust builds just makes tons of mana, I can just hard cast Eldrazi. Let’s keep helping each other to make Kaust great!
kamarupa on
Cloaked Whispers
1 year ago
I love the concept of this deck, but it is def not going to be easy to make it work well. You have some obvious needs in 1) getting the combo pieces 2) having enough mana to cast them all before your opponent stops you 3) having room for defense and removal and 4) making sure your cloaked creatures die.
1) You not only need have some way of assembling your combo, you also need a way to put a spell on top of your library. I have to do this with my deck Cover Girl. The only spells I could find that made sense in that deck were: Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Brainstone, and Scheming Symmetry. I suggest running 2x of each of the first. Scheming Symmetry is a pretty big risk, so I advise against that here. The upshot of Jace is that you can cycle through your library 3 cards at a time, so you not only get to control your top card, you also get to filter for what you need.
2) Provided you employ some added filtering with Jace and Brainstone, I think you can remove some of your extra threats. This will allow for a little ramp. I guess I'd probably go with Birds of Paradise unless you're worried it will get bolted for being a bird. Then I'd probably go with a land enchantment like Fertile Ground. I think with the high-ish cost of your combo pieces, a little ramp is going to be helpful in creating a consistency in speed. (not to be fast, just to be as fast as it can be more reliably)
3) It occurs to me that cloaked spells could be blockers IF you both don't have all the combo pieces in place AND you whiffed with Hide in Plain Sight. Those are somewhat narrow conditions, so it's probably best not rely on that. I see you have room for 35 more cards, approx 24 of which will probably be lands, so I'll have to wait and see how much room you have for more defense and removal, but I think you have to include Bone Splinters. It's not as fast as I'd like but it pulls double duty in kicking off the final step in your combo and it does it for 1 MV instead of 3 like Start / Finish. I'd probably throw in 1x Fog, too. And Assassin's Trophy and Abrupt Decay would be excellent additions to the mainboard and sideboard. I'd probably go 4xBone Splinters, 2xAssassin's Trophy, 1xAbrupt Decay in the main and then extra of the instants in the sideboard.
4) Bone Splinters helps make sure you creatures die, but a board wipe like Killing Wave would probably be useful as well late game.
legendofa on Can I flip face-down land?
1 year ago
If a card is face down because of manifest or cloak, it can only be turned face up if it's a creature card. Hide in Plain Sight and Ethereal Ambush have this note in their reminder texts.
If a card specifically has an ability that lets it turn face up, like morph, megamorph, or disguise, you can turn it face up by paying that cost regardless of what card type it is. Branch of Vitu-Ghazi and Gift of Doom are examples of noncreature cards with face-down abilities.