Khenra Spellspear

Creature — Jackal Warrior

Trample

Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets !/! until end of turn.)

{3}{UP}: Transform Khenra Spellspear. Activate this ability only as a sorcery. ({UP}: can be paid with either U or 2 life.)

Legality

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
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
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (3)

legendofa on The more I think about …

1 week ago

Dragging this back out to obsess about it some more with the release of the Planeswalker's Guide to Aetherdrift, Part 2. The city is being rebuilt with outside help, and it seems like enough living people and mummies survived to facilitate that. That answers two of my questions, but I still have no idea what the population numbers are. Either the city of Naktamun was much bigger than I assumed, the death toll of two wars was much lower than I assumed, or both.

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Point 1: What counts as a survivor? Are only living people counted as survivors, or are mummies included? Grisly Survivor, Resolute Survivors, and Survivors' Encampment don’t provide many useful hints. There’s also Disposal Mummy, Dutiful Servants, Mummy Paramount, and Unraveling Mummy as the Amonkheti mummies in the Hour of Devastation set. In the 2017 online stories, there’s almost no mention of the mummies once the Hour of Devastation starts, and they don’t show up in the card art unless they’re the focus, so the number of mummies after the Hours is a complete unknown.

As a side point, there’s no real indication that the mummies of Amonkhet are independent, or even sentient, before the Aetherdrift Guide. In fact, cards like Dutiful Servants carry the implication that they are very much not self-aware, but Unconventional Tactics make that more ambiguous. In the Aetherdrift Guide, though, they suddenly demand independence and partnership, and have opinions and desires. This is the sort of detail I would have loved to see in the Amonkhet stories (and I was reading them as they came out). Even just a couple of paragraphs from a mummy’s point of view would flesh out the world that much more.

The March of the Machine story doesn’t offer anything else. The Amonkhet cards in March of the Machine are Blossoming Sands, Djeru and Hazoret, Injector Crocodile, Invasion of Amonkhet  ^Flip, Khenra Spellspear  ^Flip, Ruins Recluse, Sandstalker Moloch, Swamp, and Unseal the Necropolis, none of which offer too much insight.

So the number of mummies helping clear rubble and replant farms and construct a racetrack is a giant question mark. They’re simply there when they need to be and not there when they don’t. Do they count as survivors? I honestly have no idea, and that bugs me.

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Point 2: How many survivors are there? The current population of Amonkhet is apparently enough to have "crowds lining the route and packing the grandstands", which to me suggests more than a few hundred, or even a few thousand. I would take this as at least tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand, going off typical capacities for major motor sports stadiums. This probably includes mummies as well as living people, but the total is still several orders of magnitude larger than what I would have expected.

Incidentally, I would expect the mummies—who explicitly failed the trials, usually with a major injury—to be the first ones to die. I don’t pretend to know much about invading, but cutting off supply lines seems to be pretty popular, and neither Nicol Bolas or Elesh Norn seem to have thought of that. Nicol Bolas even made sure that the people of Naktamun were entirely reliant on mummy labor, and he doesn't take advantage of that. So much for masterminds and tactical geniuses... Mummies are explicitly said to massively outnumber the living in the Aetherdrift Guide, so either Amonkhet was like 75% mummy for the Hour of Reckoning (not especially borne out by the story or cards), or they had a very low casualty rate across two invasions.

The Aetherdrift Guide includes the sentences "The Phyrexian invasion saw the deaths of tens of thousands of Amonkheti. Newly risen under the Walking Curse, these fresh undead were not eager to submit to the old order of servile mummification." I'm getting two inferences from this. First, the Phyrexians did not process, convert, or utilize tens of thousands of dead Amonkheti for whatever reason--were they immediately coated in lazotep as soon as they died?. Second, the living population of Naktamun after Hour of Devastation was at least in the tens of thousands.

So after the Accounting of Hours, there were enough living people for tens of thousands to die against Phyrexia. After Phyrexia, there were still enough survivors (probably including both living people and mummies) to form crowds of significant size to watch the Aetherdrift rally. So we’re blowing way past the 30,000 population of ancient Memphis, the most populated city in the world at its height and a major inspriastion for Naktamun. I’m not going to fault a city in a fantasy story being unrealistically big, but I would like to at least have an idea on how unrealistically big it is, besides just “big enough to support the story”.

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Time to start headcanoning some numbers.

Starting with what I would consider at the upper edge of realistic, put the living and mummy population of Naktamun at 30,000 each, for a total of 60,000. Let's then assume a devastating, plane-threatening 80% mortality rate for each group, each conflict. After the Accounting of Hours, there would be 6,000 living and 6,000 mummies for a total population of 12,000. After the Phyrexian Invasion, there would be 1,200 living people and 1,200 mummies, for a total of 2,400. That could probably serve as a base to rebuild from, but it doesn't capture grandstands full of cheering crowds or Phyrexians killing tens of thousands of people.

Try some different numbers. Now, the initial total population of Naktamun is 3,000,000. Of that, let's say 2,000,000 were mummy servants and 1,000,000 were living soldiers in constant training. (This is still very high, given the apparent technology and appearance of the city.) Let's further say that there was a 50% casualty rate among the living and 25% casualty rate among the mummies for each major conflict. After the Accounting of Hours, there would be 1,500,000 mummies and 500,000 living. After the Phyrexian Invasion, there would be 1,125,000 mummies and 250,000 living. That feels too high for a city struggling to keep itself alive.

Tweaking numbers until I'm happy. 400,000 mummies; 150,000 living; 550,000 total. 60% casualty rate for both groups, each conflict. After HoD, there would be 160,000 mummies and 60,000 living survivors. After Phyrexia, there would be 64,000 mummies and 24,000 living survivors. That feels pretty okay to me. Mummies outnumber the living by about a 3:1 ratio, the Phyrexians could have killed tens of thousands of people, and there's still enough for crowds to fill grandstands and line racetracks, assuming it's mostly mummies.

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On other notes from the previous discussion, there’s still no real word on where Crested Sunmare came from, which is interesting, and the “Death Race” set does go through Amonkhet.

Also... (spoilers) Show

There are apparently a bunch of really old dead guys about to start fighting over who controls Naktamun, so I expect the local population to drop even more. Survivors have also spent time exploring the Broken Lands and ruins outside of Naktamun, but don't appear to be finding much more than abandoned tombs containing hostile dead people. These ancient monarchs worship the Scarab and Locust Gods, and are warring among themselves over who has the right to control Naktamun. So there's potential for yet another conflict that will chop the survivors' numbers down again. But the people of Naktamun have two new gods on their side. Stay tuned, I guess.

thefiresoflurve on Counter Spells & Draw Cards

1 year ago

This looks like a really fun commander! So, right off the bat, there's a cool way day/night interacts with this commander and your opponents: if you can force it to night consistently, you'll more heavily punish your opponents for playing spells, since they're going to switch it back to day and power up your commander. The easiest way to do that is by playing more instants / at flash speed.

Desperate Ravings / Thrill of Possibility / Big Score + Unexpected Windfall all help positively synergize with your "draw" effects like Ominous Seas and Teferi's Ageless Insight, and also help you trigger the day/night change by electing to play on other people's turns instead of your own.

Seize the Spotlight gets an honorable mention for being great, if you find the slot for it.

For cuts, I would consider: Pouncing Shoreshark (low impact)

Laboratory Maniac - Kind of an all-or-nothing strategy, and sounds like from your description that you'd rather win with combat.

Khenra Spellspear  ^Flip - doesn't fit with commander, since you want to be able to force it to night whenever your turn rolls around.

Boon of the Wish-Giver - sorcery speed is kinda meh IMO - I imagine people will be trying to kill your commander before it makes this {U}{U} cost.

Mulldrifter - there are instants and sorceries that can draw more for the same cost.

Happy building!

plakjekaas on looking to upgrade a standard …

1 year ago

The best thing to do is probably to lower the curve a bit:

Kumano Faces Kakkazan  ^Flip is a cheap card that works wonders for the strategy

Play with Fire is a better Shock, and Lightning Strike is a better Roil Eruption

Monastery Swiftspear is probably one of the best red 1-drops ever, and pretty cheap with the BRO reprint. Soul-Scar Mage is pretty similar, no haste, but a chance to progressively kill problematic creatures or mess up combat math with the -1/-1 counters is great.

Den of the Bugbear and Ramunap Ruins can be considered to have some utility in your lands without giving up any colored sources.

Eidolon of the Great Revel is the most expensive card that mono red plays in pioneer right now, that might be a step too far if you're worrying about the budget. But that's probably where you'd want to end up being serious about the deck. In the meantime you could consider cards like Khenra Spellspear  ^Flip, Kari Zev, Skyship Raider or Bloodfeather Phoenix to make sure chapter 2 of Kumano Faces Kakkazan  ^Flip goes to use.

You could look up some lists on MTGGoldfish or MTGTop8 to see what's generally played in the mono red decks, and work your way there bit by bit. I think my suggestions should give you plenty inspiration to get started though.