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 (47)

carpecanum on Overwhelming Dead Tide

1 month 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

2 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.

carpecanum on Sakashimi, the Shrimposter [Primer]

2 months ago

A Soul Foundry with a mimic in it is a wonderful thing. Also very funny if you get Keiga, the Tide Star in it.

HalbrechtHalbrecht on Blue Ectoplasm

3 months ago

+1 for spirits!

Alright. So my main concern with this deck is that you have nothing to do on turn 1 and very little to do on turn 2. Conversely, you have over half of your spells vying for turn 3. So my main recommendation would be to convert some of your CMC 3 and higher spells into 1 and 2 drops. I know you purposefully stuffed the 3 CMC slot for Drift of Phantasms' transmute ability.... but honestly, you don't need a LOT of cards at 3 CMC for the transmute to matter. You just need the most important cards (notably, Drogskol Captain). Quality vs quantity. :)

So some nominations!

Lands

I'll be blunt on this topic: 20 lands (or even 21 lands counting the double-faced one) is not enough for a deck with these mana requirements. I'd recommend 23. A synergistic land to consider is Moorland Haunt. Since you're primarily blue, the colorless mana shouldn't hamper you too much, and importantly, it gives you a mid- to late-game mana sink that makes creatures out of removed spirits. (Wait.... Is that like giving a second un-life to a being that was the second life of a prior being???)

Another possibility is Celestial Colonnade. It doesn't make a spirit, but a 4/4 flyer is still formidable, and it'll get pumped by Empyrean Eagle. The land also produces both colors of mana, which is nice.

Whichever you choose, I'd only add 2x.

1 Drops

• Mausoleum Wanderer is on-board countermagic. As you play your anthem effects like Supreme Phantom, the Wanderer will naturally get bigger and make it harder for the opponent to pay the cost. But also, when combined with flash spirits, its power can grow out of nowhere, making the calculations not in your opponent's favor.
  
  Now, the downside to an on-board counter is that the opponent knows about it.... but is that actually a complete downside? Unless you're playing against experienced players, an opponent will often durdle and hold back out of fear of your counter. Which is, in effect, allowing you to "cast" the counter for free every single turn that they DON'T play the thing they're worried about you countering. Now, a good player will "bait out" the counter so that they don't have to worry about it anymore.... but that still sometimes means they're playing suboptimally. In addition, the Wanderer will also attract their removal spells, meaning your anthem effects and other important spirits are safer. And you're fine trading a 1 mana spirit for their removal spell!

• Not as awesome, but Spectral Sailor has the important Flash mechanic, which is especially good when it only costs 1 mana. This can be anything from a surprise blocker to a buff for the Wanderer's countermagic to a surprise tap-down with Nebelgast Herald (which is extra good against decks with hasty creatures). Finally, it gives you a mana sink if the game goes long and you need to draw some cards.

• Speaking of drawing cards.... the weakest of the bunch is Dreamcatcher, but since you'll be casting spirit spells all game long, there'll be plenty of chances to trade in this early game blocker for a new card whenever it seems best.

2 Drops

• I would replace Geist of the Archives with Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch. Yes, it has 1 less toughness, but it's 1 mana cheaper than the former, with a potentially more potent ability (gives a small amount of bounce!), and that toughness will easily rise with all the anthem effects you have.

• Not a new recommendation, but I would run the full playset of Supreme Phantom. The anthem effects will be the key to sealing your victory. I would replace your 2x Mindshrieker with the Phantom, since you don't have enough top-deck manipulation to make Mindshrieker reliable.

3 Drops

• Spell Queller is an amazing sideboard card. It can replace one of your counterspells, and notably it "counters" uncounterable spells. Yes, the opponent has a chance to get the spell back, but combine Queller with Drogskol Captain, and good luck with that!

• Geist of Saint Traft doesn't have the acclaim he used to, but I still like him, and combined with p/t boosts, he likely won't die in battle. And he always brings a 4/4 buddy with him! (Which also gets buffed by Empyrean Eagle). The hexproof also makes him hard to remove.

• Probably another sideboard card, but Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is a very strong tax against removal-heavy decks.

• Callow Jushi  ^Flip: Probably not as good as the other counterspell options, but kinda fun! Note that you don't have to flip him with just 2 ki counters on him, so you can save up the ki counters until the more crucial turns of the game. You can also have one flipped with a couple ki counters while you build up another one, because the legend rule doesn't apply until it's flipped.

• Anthem effects: Like with Supreme Phantom, I see no reason not to run the full playsets of Drogskol Captain and Empyrean Eagle. The hexproof provided by Drogskol Captain is particularly important, and he would be my first two things to transmute for.

Cards to Cut

I already mentioned Geist of the Archives.

I also already mentioned Mindshrieker, and for a similar reason, I don't feel Callous Deceiver is good in this deck. Without anthem effects, the best it can be is a 2/3 flyer for 3 mana.... not that great. Its abilities don't help with anything else in the deck.

Another 3 drop I'd cut is Uninvited Geist  ^Flip. Its skulk ability doesn't synergize well with anthem effects, as pretty soon most creatures can block it. If it started as a 1/1, skulk might be better.... but then it's 3 mana for a 1/1 that takes 2 turns to transform into an unblockable 3/3. Eh. It also doesn't have flying for the Eagle to buff.

As to higher CMCs, I'm personally not sold on Dungeon Geists. Maybe you have good luck with it, but I'd rather have 4x Nebelgast Herald and cheap flash spirits than the 4 drop.

I'm loathe to suggest cutting Celestial Messenger because I know you like your Yanling package.... but honestly, the Yanling package will work without this over-costed spirit. It's 4 mana for a 4/3 flyer, IF Yanling is out.... and that's it. The only thing it's got going for it is that gorgeous art. Too bad it doesn't have mechanics to match.

Curse of Echoes's inclusion confuses me. If you like to play multiplayer games, this card can actually be BAD (you might not want your other two opponents getting copies!). But even 1v1, it gives too much control to the opponent. First, they have to have a deck with enough instants/sorceries to matter, so at best this would be a sideboard card. But even then, they can play around it too easily by not casting any devastating spells until they've found a way to deal with it.

Also not sold on Sturmgeist. At best it's an 8/8 flyer, but that's if you can keep a full grip of cards. But aside from Mu Yanling, Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip, and Sturmgeist itself (4 cards total), you have no ways of refilling your hand. More likely it'll be a 3/3 or 4/4 flyer that sometimes draws you a card. Not that great for 5 mana. Doesn't feel like the right deck for it.

Keiga, the Tide Star: While stealing a creature is fun, Control Magic-effects usually cost less (4-5 mana), and with Keiga, you don't even get the effect until Keiga dies! If you want this effect in the deck, there's other more efficient ways to achieve it.

Finally, at the top of the CMC charts is Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip. And hey, if it's a pet card, keep it. But hear me out on my concern. As stated above, this deck isn't designed to draw cards, so by the time you have 7 mana (turn 8-9), how many cards do you think you'll have left in hand? I'd bet 2-3, assuming you've been playing out cards on curve. So you'll draw 3-4. Is that worth the 7 mana? That's up to you, but since the going rate on a base draw effect is 4 mana to draw 3, you should be drawing more like 5-6. (This is also comparable to Mind Spring, which would draw you 5 for 7 mana.)

P.S. I am gonna go ahead and state this for the record: Your hunch that the 3-turn idea won't pan out so well is sadly going to be correct. It involves skipping a turn and getting a planeswalker to a (scary) ultimate — the former dangerous, the latter near impossible. It would be easier to spend 1 less mana and cast a 5 CMC extra turn spell or two. That said, the idea of taking THREE turns in a row IS truly fun, so by all means, play around with it until you tire of the strategy!

Summary of Changes

I know that was a lot of words to convey a few additions and cuts, so it was probably easy to get lost in it all. Here's one possible updated decklist; use the explanations above to season to taste!

Cut

-2 Mindshrieker
-2 Geist of the Archives
-2 Uninvited Geist
-1 Callous Deceiver
-3 Celestial Messenger
-3 Dungeon Geists
-1 Curse of Echoes
-1 Sturmgeist
-1 Keiga, the Tide Star
-1 Sea Gate Restoration

Add

+1 Prairie Stream
+2 Moorland Haunt
+4 Mausoleum Wanderer
+4 Spectral Sailor
+2 Supreme Phantom
+2 Drogskol Captain
+2 Empyrean Eagle

Sideboard

+2 Spell Queller
+2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner

(Sideboard cuts up to you)

I'd personally replace some of the mainboard counters with Spell Queller and Kira, since they're also spirits. But there's obviously pros to running unconditional counters like Dissolve.

I know that was quite a lot, but the more I dug into the available spirits, the more things I came up with! LoL. I hope at least something in all that helped.

TheSilence91 on To Drown the World in Death: Araumi EDH [PRIMER]

3 months ago

I am also in the process of brewing Araumi and found one or two cards that i will definitely include. I agree with SynergyBuild on Scholar of the Ages. The effect is strong but too slow for the investment of 7 Mana. I don't like to run tutors, so i have less instants and sorceries so i also don't run Archaeomancer but i think i would also run it in your version. Since you are not going the path of keeping your tokens creatures with death triggers (Keiga, the Tide Star, Kokusho, the Evening Star) could be an option. Doomwake Giant give all opponents creatures -9/-9. Patron of the Vein destroys tree creatures and leaves you with tree 13/13 flyers. And like Cloud of Faeries and Peregrine Drake, Priest of Gix can give you a manaboost. Deranged Assistant Mills and ramps you.

1moremana on Thats mine now

4 months ago

Here are some of our recommendations:

Agent of Treachery Thalakos Deceiver Villainous Wealth Mnemonic Betrayal Dominating Licid Gonti, Lord of Luxury Keiga, the Tide Star Perplexing Chimera Puppeteer Clique Sower of Temptation Thada Adel, Acquisitor The Scarab God Thief of Sanity Animate Dead Dance of the Dead Treachery Blatant Thievery Bribery Acquire Extract from Darkness Dragonlord Silumgar Geth, Lord of the Vault

RiotRunner789 on Machinations of the Black Rose

4 months ago

You may want to consider Solemn Simulacrum over Pilgrim's Eye. For 1 more mana you get to draw a card every time you sack him.

Thalakos Deceiver is a couple cheaper than Keiga, the Tide Star and fairly easy to turn on. Just an idea to help keep the average cmc low.

carpecanum on Brudiclad, Who Smacks Cheeks

4 months ago

Keiga, the Tide Star is hilarious. Make a token, kill all but one token automatically and take control of a bunch of creatures. A token of Sharding Sphinx leads quickly to overwhelming numbers. Anything with "Modular" could make your commander huge as counters from dead tokens stack up.