Keiga, the Tide Star

Legendary Creature — Dragon Spirit

Flying

When Keiga, the Tide Star is put into a graveyard from play, gain control of target creature.

Discussion (49)

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 7: Dimir …

1 month ago

Ah, Dimir. Blue-black is where you come to turn an opponent’s soul these exact colors, sidestepping their defenses in order to slip a scalpel right in their feels. Combining the thematic terror of black with all the manipulations of blue, if you think about it, is one of the most disturbing, creepy tactics in magic. Forget psychological warfare: blue-black is about marinating the psyche of your opponent in anxiety, slow-roasting it over the fires of depression, lathering it in the sauce of their own inadequacy, and finally feeding them their own deliciously barbecued will to live. Think I'm exaggerating? Consider these titles. Glimpse the Unthinkable. Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver. Freaking Brainbite!!!

If you think this comes from a place of dislike, think again. I have a deep affection for this nasty little mix. Making opponents flip their collective gourds in a sporting way makes me very, very happy. Today, we’ll be going over three primary themes of commanders who embody Dimir chicanery: Mill, Rogues, and Theft. As always, please bear in mind the point isn’t to discuss the competitive but rather to celebrate the thematic.

Mill

The magic equivalent of memory loss, mill suffers in commander: eating through 99 cards is a tall order, and opponents with an original eldrazi titan somewhere in there may well fetch you the worst insult of all and ignore you. There are ways around that, of course, but this is an inarguably uphill climb. Which, of course, makes for a delightful challenge the Dimir will gleefully help you meet. Just ask Nemesis of Reason. It’s very, very hard to protect one’s library, and there’s something truly horrible in watching all your goodies piff away without even hitting your hand.

If you’ve read this series through, you might remember that my oldest deck is mono-green. It’ll be no surprise to you, then, that when I was learning commander I lived in abject horror of Oona. Anyone running a mono-colored deck is going to feel targeted by this hideously nasty commander. Do you even need a strategy to play her, beyond ramp? Honestly, she rather plays herself: even outside her chosen prey, “Exile X” on a stick is very, very spicy, and when you’ve got your chosen prey they may well scoop when you play Kindred Discovery. Remember those eldrazi? Screw those eldrazi.

Hail the mighty poo beetle. No, it doesn’t actively mill, but HOLY BALLS OF ROLLING SHIT does it reward milling! There is a fine, fine pool of zombies in dimir colors, and when that palls you can make your own. I’ve never seen this played, but to be honest I don’t want to, especially since the mighty poo beetle will always be five mana… maybe I want to see this played. By me. Scry X? Bleed X? Army of the Damned, anyone?

Now this is general damage. This is also, in my opinion, a genuinely bad idea for those who aim for winning rather than fun. Seven mana for a 5/5 flyer who doesn’t actually do damage to opponents? Less than competitive, shall we say, but certainly neat and themey. Stuff like Dauthi Voidwalker or Leyline of the Void do nothing to undermine Szadek’s growing spree, and embiggening this already self-embiggening boi could make for a very, very scary board presence. And seeing this work, making this work, would be undeniably fun.

Rogues

I say ‘rogues’ not as the creature type, but as the overall concept of sneaky sneaks sneaking off to perpetrate sneakiness. See Rogue Class or Dimir Cutpurse and you’ll get where I’m coming from. Dimir is the guild of spies and intrigue, so it’s no surprise that blue-black rewards the “Doink! Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk” playstyle. If your passion drives you toward little bodies that pilfer, plunder, or otherwise profit on the swing, look no further.

Zareth is an odd choice to be commander. He functionally has Ninjutsu, but unlike a certain upcoming favorite has no provision for command zones. If you like thinking around corners, there is actually a fair bit of support to be found. Run an aura theme, for instance, and stick Necromancer's Magemark on a spare dude. Or Phantom Wings on the man himself. Zareth will reward you, and as for the second half of his text, it’s a doozy. Mill/kill your opponent’s stuff, then steal it. Good times.

This is a heavily themed card, combining tribal, milling, and draw elements in a nice little vampiric package. Not quite the unpleasant beast that the original Anowon is, but still nice. Be sure to include Notorious Throng.

Instead of a profitable army of petty thugs, you may prefer just the one guy. For actual command damage, Szadek’s replacement has an inarguably better grasp of the job. Mill yourself. You know you can. Clone yourself an unblockable midget, then switch into a Phyrexian Dreadnought (or something similarly large but more affordable) before you tag them. This guy is an absurdly versatile toolkit. Just avoid jerks with Lignify. Hehehe…

Theft

We’ve talked thieves, now let’s talk actual yoink. Blue and black are the only colors with access to consistent, long-term swipage, and combining them inevitably brings you to a natural conclusion: why make a plan when you can steal someone else’s?

Keiga, the Tide Star called. She’s pressing charges on the grounds of copyright infringement. Dragon? Check. Six mana? Check. Theft? Big ol’ check. When combined with blink and a sac outlet, this big and greedy cheese can steal an army. And, if you do this to a super-friends player, maybe lose you a friendship.

This guy’s just neat, especially if there’s some cocky twit in your local meta who likes taking extra turns. Mill him a bit, then tag him. He’ll stop that right quick. Bonus points if you get somebody to make a custom version of this guy as a certain cosmic entity. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh, Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

Do you like Sen Triplets, but not artifacts, white, or being thrown out of playgroups? Xanathar doesn’t pilfer hands, but libraries are fair game. The utility of certain tutors is suddenly very, very much in the eye of the beholder (sorry, I had to). Run stuff like Thoughtpicker Witch, Painful Memories, or Sealed Fate, and enjoy your monopoly on topdecks… I kind of want this one too.

And, for my personal favorite...

My darling, dearest Yuriko. Readers know my love for Kamigawa, so imagine my roaring delight when this beauty was released. There are 346 rogues currently in print. There are only 22 ninjas, and not all of them are good, but even the piddliest ninja becomes horrifying when Yuriko is out (and thanks to ninjutsu, she’s ALWAYS out). There’s a weird imbalance encouraged here: lots of inexpensive bodies digging for absurdly expensive spells. At the worst, you draw some cards. At absolute best, you smack the table for eleven damage by revealing Temporal Trespass… which you then cast for three mana, you magnificent bastard.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Rakdos!

Prior Articles:

Green, with links to the other mono-colors

Azorius

tmullet on Fractal Jones goes back to Mars

2 months ago

carpecanum Keiga, the Tide Star is hilarious.

I've also been looking for an XG token spell, and Sylvan Offering is perfect

carpecanum on Fractal Jones goes back to Mars

2 months ago

Multiple copies of Keiga, the Tide Star would destroy themselves and give you control of a lot of creatures.

Sylvan Offering would give you a tons of creatures while your neighbor only gets measly little elves.

carpecanum on Quandrix Geometry

5 months ago

Keiga, the Tide Star is fun to duplicate. Duplicant maybe.

Snake Basket , Notorious Throng , Aether Mutation , Saber Ants , Broodhatch Nantuko , Progenitor Mimic , Pest Infestation

I'm not a rules guy. Would Sylvan Offering allow you to create elves before treefolk?

Copying Master Biomancer or Biovisionary is so good, maybe replace a couple "lesser" creatures with creature tutors?

carpecanum on Brudiclad: Bru di Lad's

6 months ago

Notorious Throng , Tilonalli's Summoner and Tempt with Vengeance can make a ton of tokens. Maybe Spell Swindle

Rite of the Raging Storm and I second the motion for Flameshadow Conjuring

As for creatures Metalwork Colossus , Rapacious One and Keiga, the Tide Star (all but one token copy of keiga die but then you steal a bunch of creatures)

carpecanum on Brudiclad's Recycled Trash Heap

6 months ago

One of my favorite creatures to make tokens of is Keiga, the Tide Star . All but one dies and you steal that many creatures from your opponents.

carpecanum on Overwhelming Dead Tide

9 months ago

Lol. OK, Encore something huge or with a ETB or even leaves the battlefield effect. Then equip Blade of Selves.

Banshee of the Dread Choir and Broodbirth Viper more of the same. Each opponent will be attacked by 3 creatures in a 4 player game.

Keiga, the Tide Star will automatically murder all but one copy, giving you one creature per opponent.

plainsrunner on Copy City

10 months ago

some ideas for cuts: Acquire seems like generic goodstuff in this deck that doesn't seem to care about artifacts very much. Nothing wrong with goodstuff in general, but I feel like cards that don't fit your theme or help your strategy should be the first to go when making cuts. Thada Adel, Acquisitor seems to fit a similar mold, but it at least can benefit from being cloned.

Apex Devastator can cascade into some nice stuff, but it can also whiff, and the cascade trigger won't happen again if you clone it, which it seems is the main focus of the deck.

Hullbreacher is good, but cloning it won't give you any additional treasures, since the card draw will be replaced by the first one and then the clones won't see a card draw to replace for their own effects.

Keiga, the Tide Star is usually good in clone decks because it can die easily due to the legend rule. Since your commander stops that from happening, I would think twice about including it here. Not that a 5/5 flyer with upside if it happens to die is bad, it's just not as good without the legend rule.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion is another example of a card that is best when it's cast as opposed to cloned. Two somewhat evasive 12/12s are certainly better than one, but the needed colorless mana and lack of other upside for cloning it make me skeptical.

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath seems pretty bad here, because almost all of your clone effects have the clone entering as a copy, and not escaping, so they'd be sacrificed immediately. You'd still get the etb triggers, but I'd rather not waste a clone spell on that.

Lullmage's Domination seems like a worse Entrancing Melody in a deck without mill.

Congrats, I think you've found the only creature-based edh deck where Guardian Project doesn't work very well. Since most of your clones will be entering with the same name as a creature already on your board, you won't be drawing off of them.

You only have 15 enchantments in the deck, so you have a good chance of not having a target for Estrid's Invocation. I'd cut it.

You have 2 effects that untap your lands in Wilderness Reclamation and Seedborn Muse, but unless you draw Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrery you don't have a whole lot you can do with that mana on other people's turns. If you still have 20 instants once you're down to 100 cards I'd say they're worth it, but I expect you'll be cutting some of those.