Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant

Legendary Creature — Beholder

Whenever you attack a player, tap target creature that player controls and goad it. (Until your next turn, that creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able.)

Whenever an opponent attacks another one of your opponents, you and the attacking player each draw a card and lose 1 life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

Crow_Umbra on ....But it happens twice.

1 month ago

All good, happy to help a newer player. What you described sounds like some pretty common issues I encountered pretty early on with Isshin, and still occasionally encounter every so often. In regards to your different points:

1. I think you have a decent enough amount of ramp. I think a couple of things can help further in this regard: changing out your two Signets for other 2 mana rocks like Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Hierarchy, Fellwar Stone, and Arcane Signet. Additionally, I think you can change out your 3 mana rocks like Darksteel Ingot for the stuff I mentioned. I think also trimming some of your higher cost creatures can help. Keeping a low curve can help you redeploy faster, if most of your creatures are in the 1-4 mana range. Etali is fun, but it's super boom or bust.

2. Having a couple more instant speed options to help you against boardwipes can be a huge help. It's not really budget, but Clever Concealment is an excellent option, especially since you will likely have multiple creatures to help cast this with the Convoke mechanic. There are other instant speed "counters" like Tibalt's Trickery and Reprieve which can help.

3. I think Thorough Investigation can be swapped for either Tocasia's Welcome or Chivalric Alliance. It's kinda slow for draw, since you still have to pay mana into the Clue tokens to draw 1 card at a time. Not the most budget, but Skullclamp is an excellent & repeatable option that you can feed some of your 1/1 tokens to. I'd recommend adding in Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, Firemane Commando, and Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser as swaps with your Etali, The Master, and Elder Brain. Those 3 are all splashy, but can sit in your hand if you don't have the mana for them, which relates to some of your mana issues. Nelly, Karazikar, & Firemane all work in conjunction with the Breena you already have in your 99, and can help (or force) aggro away from you.

I think you can and should put Iroas back in there. His Menace anthem also helps to make your board harder to block, which acts as an additional layer of protection. He can help close out games if you have a strong enough board state. I think you can maybe swap him for either Righteous Cause or Blade of Selves.

Some other potential swaps: Bankrupt in Blood can swap out for Deadly Dispute (Lower creature investment needed, instant speed, and nets a treasure). Generous Gift & Stroke of Midnight can swap with any of your more narrowly focused/highly specific removal. The tokens they gift your opponents are largely inconsequential. Soul Partition is another versatile option that can either protect one of your permanents, or (temporarily) remove a threat.

Lastly, I think you can swap Mardu Shadowspear, Pulse Tracker, and Vicious Conquistador for some the 3 creatures I mentioned in bullet 3. I think you're on the right track with their group slug effects, but as smaller 1/1s they are easily blocked and killed. Mostly suggesting this as alternative if you would prefer to keep your 3 higher end creatures I suggested as swaps.

I hope this is all helpful, my apologies for writing you an essay.

Crow_Umbra on Edh options

3 months ago

I'd second Gleeock's recommendations of Breena & Isshin.

I'd also like to add Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser as another Goad/politics option. She's pretty fun & can keep the table swinging at each other, & doesn't require as much of the politicking as Breena.

Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant is another Goad/Control option that can keep things interesting.

Isshin can house all of those Legends, & lean more heavily into things like Goad, Monarch, & other forms of combat control if your meta is more aggro heavy. As Gleeock stated, Isshin might be the least budget friendly, since a 3 color mana base & card draw support can be pricey.

Crow_Umbra on two wind assault

7 months ago

Nice! Isshin is a lot of fun, and can quickly become arch-enemy, as I'm sure you've probably experienced. I think if you're going to move on from the Samurai, I'd suggest also trimming back on the equipment subtheme, as they can be pretty mana-intensive without additional equipment support.

I've personally had more experience with playing a more tokens go-wide take on Isshin, which I think can be pretty fun and dynamic. A few general suggestions if you do cut back on Samurai & Equipment, and decide to focus more on going wide:

• A few more creature token creators like Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon and Hero of Bladehold are pretty solid.

• Group slug effects that work with creature ETBs or as attack triggers are pretty helpful. Stuff like Impact Tremors, Warleader's Call, Brutal Hordechief, and Commissar Severina Raine are all solid options.

• Getting a bit more draw in your deck could be helpful. Chivalric Alliance, Breena, the Demagogue, & Firemane Commando are all pretty solid options. If you play in a more aggro meta, Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser and Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant can be some fun options to encourage or force your opponents to attack each other.

• Isshin thrives off maintaining board momentum, so anything to protect your board could be helpful: Reconnaissance, Dolmen Gate, & Clever Concealment can all be helpful. Reconnaissance can be especially helpful to save your creatures from unfavorable combat situations. This EDHRec article helps detail the timing if you're unfamiliar with it.

• Lastly, it might be helpful to trim out some of the creatures at the top end of your curve in the 7-9cmc range.

Just some quick ideas for how you could make use of those Samurai and Equipment slots if you decide to change them up. Hopefully these suggestions were helpful

Last_Laugh on Isshin, Two Whoopins as One

7 months ago

The other thing I'm noticing now that I take a closer look is you're very light on card draw. You only have 5 cards that draw right now including 2x that are just a 1 time use (Jeska's/Fable).

Breena, the Demagogue, Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant, Emberwilde Captain, Tocasia's Welcome, Skullclamp, Chivalric Alliance, and Plumb the Forbidden are all solid options here that won't break the bank.

Crow_Umbra on Isshin in the Red Zone

8 months ago

On the pillow fort stuff, I do have some mixed feelings from personal experiences:

• I really liked Breena, the Demagogue. My primary meta/play group leans fairly aggro/go-wide, so the people I play with tend to like benefitting from her. She will stick around and grow herself or my board while everyone tries to get as much draw from her. Once she's big enough, she can snipe people with one or two hits. I've won a couple of games off her alone because the rest of the table got greedy with how much they were drawing from her.

• I had Mangara in an earlier version of my deck, but cut him after a couple of games. My meta isn't super spell-slingery, so I didn't draw much off that condition. My opponents would also just send their one biggest creature at me, & would play around that condition as much as they could.

• Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant is pretty fun. The Goad certainly helps to keep aggro away, and gives you time to build your board until someone can deal with the big Eye. One turn rotation of Karazikar can draw a hefty amount of cards and deflect aggro away. Goad is useful for forcing smaller utility creatures into combat, and act as pseudo-removal in that sense too.

I think pillow fort effects can be meta dependent, but in my experience can feel awkward, depending on the condition that needs to be met for them. Some of those pillow effect benefits feel awkward because opponents might just remove Isshin or the pillow, and then the standard trigger isn't nearly as much of a deterrent.

Last_Laugh on Isshin Attack Triggers 2023

8 months ago

Looking a bit more over the list, you are pretty light on card draw. I'm with Crow and highly recommend Plumb the Forbidden and Breena. Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant and Horn of the Mark are 2 other options that are very good here on a budget.

Crow_Umbra on Murders at Karlov Manor

8 months ago

I'm pretty excited for Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser. I like that even without Goad, she still encourages opponents to attack each other. My primary meta is pretty aggro leaning, so I've come to enjoy Breena, the Demagogue & Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant type of effects. Kardur, Doomscourge is another familiar face in the meta. If it isn't explicitly Monarch, giving opponents draw-based incentive to attack each other made our games much more dynamic.

I kind of wonder if the alt face commander will be some kind of Voltron leaning build, maybe something that gets a temporary buff for each Suspected creature that the defending opponent controls.

Now that I think about it, I kind of wish the Boros precon could have been a partner commander pairing that played off the "Good Cop/Bad Cop" trope with a pair of detectives.

Last_Laugh on

8 months ago

Devilish Valet will 1 shot someone out of the game (or multiple someone's with a Dolmen Gate effect out). Just 6 tokens entering (aka 1 Adeline trigger) makes him 64 power... and it can literally snowball into the BILLIONS in this deck from there (granted the Billions thing probably needs Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation  ^Flip, but I've managed 8 million without a single token doubler personally).

Plumb the Forbidden in response to boardwipes makes it a lot harder to overextend since you'll have a full grip to redeploy. Instant speed and pseudo dodging counterspells makes this card.

I second Breena, the Demagogue and Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant. The group hug aspect can be deceiving... if your opponents are taking advantage of it, you're running away with the game. If nothing else, try Breena. With Anim/Krenko you can stack triggers and get an additional 8x counters on them before them their triggers go off (for 16 extra tokens) as just a random example of how impactful she can be.