Runaway Steam-Kin

Creature — Elemental

Whenever you cast a red spell, if Runaway Steam-Kin has fewer than three +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on Runaway Steam-Kin.

Remove 3 +1/+1 counters from Runaway Steam-Kin: Gain .

Discussion (51)

lagotripha on Casual Johnny's Trip to Modern

1 month ago

Remember that there is competitive modern and 'competitive modern'. There are things you can do at local FNM which doesn't hold up in bigger competitions. You don't have to plan for the entire meta, just the decks you are likely to face.

As someone new to more competitive settings trying to play off-meta, I highly rate transformative sideboards. You can improve almost any matchup by sideboarding 15 cards (or fourteen with companion), and viewing your maindeck as a place to store sideboard cards (which can be swapped in bad matchups).

As a deck which 'relies' on risen reef combo, put thought in your backup gameplan. Your Jegantha choice offers a backup combo with something like Freed from the Real, while only taking up four slots. This is the right direction, however in specific it faces the same problems- a weakness to removal- as the maindeck. Testing alternatives, both main and side will be most of the process for this.

Don't feel the need to settle into one list- unpredictablity is a major asset for every list that isn't already highly-tuned. Your opponent will misidentify control or beatdown matchups, netting easy wins, especially with sideboard mixups.

For a time, Voice of Resurgence was the big reason to play midrange, and its still pretty solid. Value with Vesperlark/thunderkin is decent if you can avoid grave hate- sideboarding in a set of mana leak/spell pierce is legit if they don't have a fast clock.

I'd also give some serious consideration to elemental token producers. Seasoned Pyromancer and Young Pyromancer are spectacular with reef and strong without.

Primal Beyond is good, non-painful mana fixing.

Finally, look at Jeskai Ascendancy combo lists. Its fallen out of favour due to disruptability, but faces a lot of the same deckbuilding restrictions you are under. Similarly, Reveillark/Body Double was a deck that never really took off. Runaway Steam-Kin had a few combos theory crafted that never made it. I'm sure there are things in these lists you can adapt. I'm sure that between all of these you can find something that runs nicely. Playtest well, and have fun.

BountyHunter200 on Dimir Flash (IKO) (STD)

1 month ago

Well you aren't casting Brazen Borrower right? Petty Theft is a different spell, so I don't think that works. As for Blacklance Paragon, it helps to offset the life loss from Murderous Rider, and just provides some all around life gain, and it is extremely hurtful to aggro, for killing their Runaway Steam-Kin, General Kudro, ECT. I will probably cut the shark. thnks!

Barbarian_Sun_Pope on Killer instants

2 months ago

Dreadhorde Arcanist and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer feels like they would be a good fit for this deck. All your spells are within casting range for the Archanist and Saheeli's copy ability lets you double up on the casting bonus of your creatures. Speaking of bonuses, Runaway Steam-Kin can also add a bit of ramp or power when you need it and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell (maybe a one of) can make each of your creatures that ping really hurt. Hope this helps.

hkhssweiss on Kykar

2 months ago

Yo MoGoose831, it looks like you have a pretty decent list. Here might be some inexpensive cards that can be considered as well!

• Brainstorm
• Desperate Ritual
• Anticipate
• Fists of Flame
• Pyretic Ritual
• Runaway Steam-Kin
• Overmaster

Some cuts can be the 0 drop creature as they don't really help you when you have Kykar out. It might be a little bit more on the expensive side but some of the really helpful spells are ones that makes creatures as well such as Monastery Mentor and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer. Purphoros, God of the Forge is also a great one to rack up damage, you can also try out Crown of Flames it makes you infinite triggers if you have a token doubler effect. Bonus Round and Past in Flames are super good cards to use as well as Underworld Breach.

I have an old list if ya wanna take a look.

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Kykar's Relentless Spirits

Commander / EDH hkhssweiss

SCORE: 10 | 2 COMMENTS | 314 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

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Hope that helps!

DannyHate on Carah Burn Storm

2 months ago

I have been playing a list inspired by this!

I have had a lot of success with Aria of Flame, as it helps just throw some extra damage around the table. I also have been running Flamekin Harbinger to grab Runaway Steam-Kin who I have found to be ESSENTIAL to the deck, as it fuels the big turns.

The biggest issue I come across is keeping Syr Carah alive on the turn she "goes off." Any suggestions on how to prevent burning her out would be appreciated.

Thanks for an awesome list!

Meachman on Marath, Will of the Wild

3 months ago

I wonder if Runaway Steam-Kin has potential for combos/ramp if the color density shifts a little more toward red (Chandra's Ignition could be interesting in the deck, as well).

LordKunai on Feather Redeems Boros in EDH [Primer]

3 months ago

Control_Train Thats a good point, however on that same notion of running less red, what is your argument for running a Runaway Steam-Kin? It seems a bit paradoxical.

Also, I think your list is great, but I disagree with some of your choices (obviously to each their own). I think you could cut both your Niveous Wisps and your Crimson Wisps for better card advantage (i.e. Samut's Sprint, Stand Firm, Acrobatic Maneuver, or even Heal .I'm assuming card advantage on the wisps is what you are using them for because making feather or any other creature white or red doesn't really seem to make a difference.

Some other cards I would consider are Seize the Day and Aurelia's Fury.

Seize the day is great because 2 combat phases a turn is pretty stellar. That plus double strike and double damage takes out a player. With a small 1 or 2 drop buff in addition could take out 2 players.

Aurelia's Fury to me is just a great all around card in a feather deck. Deal 1 damage to feather and the rest to meet your fancy haha. Recurring removal for creatures or planeswalkers (errata'd to include planeswalkers) or direct damage to players (great late game) AND provides control on their noncreature spells. Also provides protection in combat to either get damage through or protect against big wide boards. I think this is one of the best cards for feather in all honesty.

Sedohr on A Thousand Burns

3 months ago

Thanks for the suggestions! I posted an update with some changes I made after playing a bit more. I tested some of the cards suggested as well to varying success.

Carnival / Carnage just feels out of place in the deck if I can't potentially use the second option. The combo of 1 to creature/planeswalker and 1 to player could combo sometimes for Chandra's Spitfire, but in most cases a Shock does the same or better. With burning the player I want as much damage as possible to kill them quickly, and 1 damage generally won't take out a planeswalker unless the opponent is being greedy. I'm actually tempted to remove Chandra's Outrage for a spell with more singular damage. In the same scenario the combo of hitting creature+player can combo for Chandra's Spitfire, but I'm finding I am losing more to creatures with toughness 5+ that I can't get around since all my burn spells cap at 4 damage.

Collision / Colossus would be a decent sidedeck card if I note they are going heavy on flyers since it does 6 damage. Otherwise I'm generally better off with my other burn spells since they are more versatile and allow me to target more options.

Chandra, Flame's Fury isn't a bad option, but the 6 CMC is restrictive on this deck. Generally I'll cap at 4 mana, so I would struggle to play this card without more mana ramp elsewhere such as Runaway Steam-Kin. At that point the deck focus is shifting away from power 1 creatures to just burn, so I feel this would execute better in a more general burn based deck than power 1 creature aggression. Chandra, Acolyte of Flame feels like it would fit the deck better with lower cmc, creating 1 power creatures, and can bring back my spells since most are 3 cmc or less.

Electrostatic Field Actually got me a bit excited. The extra damage per spell would happen somewhat often as long as I have cards to play, but as the game goes on I'm top drawing more and run out of steam for it. I also thought it would trigger Cavalcade of Calamity, so if I ran out of spells I could attack and still trigger that for 1 damage. It's a defender though, so that's not an option sadly. Basically it was good early game and if I have Torbran, Thane of Red Fell that would get crazy real fast. Generally though later on I won't have spells to keep triggering it, and I would be better off with a power 1 creature to at least nibble or trigger Cavalcade of Calamity.

Electrodominance is tempting, but I feel it falls a bit short since the average CMC in the deck is so low. On average I would cast a 2cmc creature or spell with it, so in that case it's 4 mana to do 2 damage and play that 2cmc card. Not great compared to a shock which does it for 1 mana. If I get to 3 mana it starts to become okay, since that would do 3 damage and drop a 3 cmc creature or another burn spell for 5 mana total. That's pretty much were it caps though, as I only go up to 4 CMC and only have a few at that. For a 4 cmc spell it would cost 6 mana, and that would do 4 damage on top of dropping a 4 cmc creature/spell. That sounds pretty good, but not often in this deck since most are 1-2 cmc with a few 3. This seems like it would go much better in a pure red deck or blue/red. Maybe with something like Irencrag Feat and other high cmc creatures/spells.

For Anax, Hardened in the Forge the only real part that matches the deck theme is the on death ability for red creatures. The idea I had was if he is on the field and I have other 1/1, 1/2, etc I could be even more careless with the creatures. As they would trigger Cavalcade of Calamity, and when dying create a 1/1 satyr token which I could use the next turn for another trigger of Cavalcade of Calamity. The deck slots are kinda full so I'm having a hard time finding something to test it with, other than maybe removing Burning Prophet. I could see this working in a more general burn based deck too, since if we factor in a possible Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, those satyrs are doing 3 damage each.

For Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, I have another deck with legendary creatures in a similar fashion and usually land on 3. The reason are I'd rather draw him in most games and have an extra than not at all, because as mid game comes he can help push the final nail in the coffin or give me some extra teeth if I'm running low on creatures. Additionally he is a high priority target, so if the enemy deck has any type of removal he is likely going to get removed within a turn or two. In that case, I would rather be more likely to draw another to get on the field. In my play time so far as well, I still have a decent amount of games where I don't even draw him at 3x in the deck. Although that's more just the shuffle because I've had all 3 show up in my starting hand sometimes too and force a mulligan from me.