Keeper of Keys

Creature — Human Rogue Mutant

When Keeper of Keys enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you're the monarch, creatures you control can't be blocked this turn.

Discussion (21)

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Sharp hugs

5 months ago

Hi there,

I used to run a Sygg deck myself a few years back. Ninja's are a fine route to go, but the most important things that I discovered was how hard it was getting Sygg to trigger on opponents turns and the necessity to be able to withstand some table hate. Some cards that I found to be quite powerful in my old deck were:

Illusionist's Gambit - Such an underrated card which can save you in a pinch and force a Sygg trigger

Dulcet Sirens - Can force someone into attacking with the benefit you getting to chose whom they attack

Pestilence - A lot of times people will incidentally lose 1-2 life during their turn due to fetch or shock lands. Pestilence lets you get that 1-2 extra damage needed to trigger Sygg

Undermine - Counter anything and then draw a card

Any of Dauthi Embrace/Whispersilk Cloak/Key to the City/Keeper of Keys - Giving unblockable to whoever needs it

Smuggler's Copter - Flying 3/3 that loots and can be crewed by just about any creature

Some new cards that came out after my build that could find a home in Sygg are:

Loyal Subordinate - 3 guaranteed damage on your turn with Sygg out.

Rankle, Master of Pranks - It has 3 power, it flies, and you can always come out ahead with his discard ability if Sygg is on the battlefield. Oh, and he is basically a legal Braids, Cabal Minion

LittleBlueHero on Hayabusa Deck - Dragon Ninja ***

7 months ago

You can cut Keeper of Keys since most of your stuff is already unblockable or hard to block anyway and you don't need monarch to draw cards that badly. Cut Gingerbrute because... its just not that good here? Again you have better unblockable creatures that don't make you pay. And I would lose Conduit of Ruin for right now because it has only two targets. If you were full of eldrazi it would make sense but right now it can only hit Void Winnower and Meteor Golem.

Later on if you add more eldrazi like ulamog, or even some of the high CMC uncommon ones this could go back in.

Blessing of Leeches could go you are right. Its ok protection but there are cards that protect it better without costing you like like we talked about in your yennet deck.

You know me I still don't think 33 land is enough especially running 9 rampish cards... I would use some cuts to a

Ender666666 on Chaotic Echo

11 months ago

I've added Custodi Lich and Keeper of Keys to the maybeboard as they both seem quite stronk

poorpinkus on The Devil On Your Shoulder - EDH Tempting Deals

1 year ago

Coward_Token You know what, I actually removed Keeper of Keys from my physical decklist, I should update this but I've been trying to solidify what I want to change. I think that Marchesa's Decree is a great idea. I personally am going to be getting a Queen Marchesa deck soon so I don't know if I'll get it for this deck to avoid overlap, but it does do its job pretty well. On the other hand, it does mean that players draw cards from Ludevic from attacking you so it could actually cause you to take more damage than average. I'll try to update the list soon! I do agree that Keeper of Keys is too slow though, and I've been trying to make the deck more spellslinger-y with Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Living Lore , and some X mass-damage spells.

Coward_Token on The Devil On Your Shoulder - EDH Tempting Deals

1 year ago

Hey you

How's Keeper of Keys working for you? I think it's kind of expensive, and holding on to the monarch for a full rotation is usually hard IMO. I think Marchesa's Decree would be a better option of introducing the monarch to the game, although it's somewhat in conflict with Ever-Watching Threshold

Jaecen on Animar, Sec

1 year ago

Card Categorization

I've categorized the cards in your deck here: https://deckstats.net/decks/50753/1215572-animar

The following analysis is based on that categorization. Several cards are in more than one category, so I've categorized them based on their primary or common case. E.g. Ancient Animus is both "Removal" and "+1/+1 Counter Interaction", but you're going to cast it to kill something -- the +1/+1 counter is a nice bonus.

Strategy

There's no explicit or stated goals of the deck, so I can't evaluate the cards against that. If you have a goal, let me know.

The core effect of Animar is to play creatures, which grows Animar. As Animar grows, he helps you play more (and more expensive) creatures. Some notable limitations:

• Animar only decreases colorless costs
• Animar only cares about creatures
• Animar only cares about casting creatures

Animar is cheap to cast and protects himself from most removal (due to his protection from Black and White). Because of this, we can assume that we will get him out early and keep him out long enough for him to provide benefit. We'll build the deck assuming Animar is on the battlefield at all times.

Since Animar reduces the colorless component of creature costs, we'll get the biggest benefit from colorless creatures. As with any unlimited cost reduction effect, we should look for ways to break the free case. The obvious one here is to bounce and recast colorless creatures for free.

Since we're playing all of these (hopefully free) creatures, Animar will grow quickly. Giving Animar good evasion will give us to win on commander damage quickly.

To best abuse Animar, we want:

• Many creatures across a range of mid to high colorless costs
• As many of those creatures in our hand as possible
• An many +1/+1 counters on Animar as soon as possible
• A means to make Animar unblockable

The easiest way to break Animar is to create an engine that casts colorless creatures and bounces them to your hand as many times as possible during a turn. We'll want ETB/LTB effects on those creatures and cards that care about creatures entering and leaving the battlefield. Additionally, we'll want cards that care about +1/+1 counters on a creature.

Favor creatures over non-creatures, as you get a discount on creatures. Try to keep colored costs to a minimum - avoid double or more colors in a cost.

Abusable Colorless Creatures:

• Myr Battlesphere creates four Myr tokens
• Precursor Golem creates two 3/3 tokens
• Artisan of Kozilek reanimates a creature
• Duplicant exiles a creature
• Anodet Lurker and Peace Strider gain three life
• Electrostatic Pummeler and Multiform Wonder give three engergy
• Reservoir Walker gains three life and gives three enery
• Grim Poppet gives three -1/-1 counters to put on something
• Meteor Golem destroys something
• Mirror Golem exiles a card from a graveyard
• Pierce Strider drains three life from an opponent
• Skyscanner draws a card
• Mindless Automaton draws a card via a +1/+1 counter interaction
• Solemn Simulacrum tutors a basic land into play
• Thought-Knot Seer can effectively mill and oppenent with ETB and LTB triggers
• Triskelion deals damage via a +1/+1 counter interaction
• Workhorse grants colorless mana via a +1/+1 counter interaction
• Oblivion Sower steals lands from your opponents deck

Repeatable Bounce:

• Ancestral Statue
• Equilibrium
• Guardians of Koilos
• Cloudstone Curio
• Temur Sabertooth

Synergies:

• Panharmonicon !!!
• Cream of the Crop
• Decoction Module
• Impact Tremors
• Leyline of Vitality
• Hardened Scales
• Simic Ascendancy
• Path of Discovery
• Warstorm Surge
• Wild Pair

Unblockable Enablers:

• Herald of Secret Streams
• Thassa, God of the Sea
• Whispersilk Cloak
• Protective Bubble
• Aqueous Form
• Keeper of Keys
• Key to the City
• Passwall Adept
• Rogue's Passage
• Aether Tunnel
• Cloak of Mists
• Suspicious Bookcase
• Marchesa's Smuggler
• Tricks of the Trade

We'll want to get as many creatures down as quickly as we can. Card draw and other card advantage effects are valuable.

Draw/Card Advantage:

• Vizier of the Menagerie
• Sunbird's Invocation
• Stolen Strategy
• Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
• Garruk's Horde
• Descendants' Path
• Elvish Visionary
• Mulldrifter
• Fierce Empath
• Wall of Blossoms

Changes to the Existing Cards

I would consider cutting way down on the amount of ramp. Mana dorks get the deck running early, but they don't have any synergy with the core effects. I suspect that's what was leaving you feeling like you had a dead hand.

Cards that seem particularly problematic:

• Wild Cantor . Requires a sac for effect. Doesn't get cost reduction. A dork that taps for mana would be better.
• Tinder Wall . Same as Wild Cantor sans the cost reduction bit.
• Vivid Creek and Vivid Crag . These both ETB tapped, don't have basic land types, and only provide off-color mana twice. If would strongly consider running Amonkhet cycling duals over these.
• Ancient Ziggurat . Be careful, as this mana can only be used for casting creature spells. I don't like this land in most decks.
• Bond Beetle . I have no idea why this is in here. It works once and has very little synergy with the deck. Verdurous Gearhulk would be better, but still not great.
• Green Sun's Zenith . I think a cheaper card that tutored to hand and then let you cast the card would be better, as you'd get the cost reduction effect and other synergies. No cards come to mind, but there are lots that look at the top X cards and tutor to hand ( Gift of the Gargantuan , etc.).

Aphoticate on Best Reanimation Targets

2 years ago

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is imo the best target with Razaketh, the Foulblooded as a close second. The only reason I rank him second is you need at least one more creature in play to go ham.

Other great ones are Consecrated Sphinx, Nezahal, Primal Tide. Pestilence Demon is a personal favourite of mine too.

If you can reanimate at instant speed like I do in my The Scarab God deck, some nice options open up like Torrential Gearhulk, Steel Hellkite, It That Betrays and a personal piece of tech I have found useful: Keeper of Keys

Other honourable mentions are Rune-Scarred Demon, Kederekt Leviathan, Sire Of Insanity, Meteor Golem, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, Worldgorger Dragon, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and Kokusho, the Evening Star,

B4BY3ATER on Village Hidden in the Mist

2 years ago

Keeper of Keys might be the only semi-permanent way of getting global unblockable without paying mana per creature. Otherwise Dauthi Embrace is similar to Thassa, but requires double black.