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Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis EDH Primer

Commander / EDH

redblackmage20

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Land (39)

Artifact (8)

Creature (20)

Sorcery (12)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis

Instant (12)

Enchantment (7)

Planeswalker (1)

Welcome to another edh primer! This time we are going to do a primer on my personal favourite commander from the Commander 2016: Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis!!!! Yes, I know, I know Atraxa is better, but for me this commander really spoke out to me. As it encouraged me to play in a completely different way I have never ever played: Group Hug! And ever since I got it, it is by far the most funnest EDH deck I have ever built! And one of my personal favourite commanders. The deck is a blast to play with! Now onto the Primer:

Why Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis?

Well there are many ways to build around K&T. You can build it as a Group Hug Deck, some people build it as a chaos or stax. According to EDHREC, there are over 11 different themes out there about this Commander. So it's a pretty flexible commander.

Here are a few more reasons:

  1. It's a four colour commander that has access to all the colours for Group Hug.

  2. It's a 2/8 which means that you have a solid defender in case your opponent attacks.

  3. His abilities: This to me is the main reason for why I love K & T as a commander. Their ability reads: "At the beginning of your end step, draw a card. Each player may put a land card from his or her hand onto the battlefield, then each opponent who didn't draws a card." This is great as you get to help your opponents but secretly you are still getting ahead! Personally we are taking advantage of Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis by using them as a Group Hug Commander.

You will like this deck if you:

  1. Enjoy having a ton of fun!

  2. Being a nice player by helping your opponents.

  3. Love Politics and pillowfort!

  4. Love to win out of nowhere!!!!!

You will hate this deck if you:

  1. Love Black.

  2. Hate Group Hug strategies

  3. Love attacking or prefer to win through combos

  4. Hate Pillowfort or Politics (why?)

I want to talk about the decks Lieutenant Commanders, the Lieutenant Commanders are not your decks commanders, but they are legendary creatures that have some of the decks colours.

Phelddagrif is practically our deck's mascot. Whenever I see this card in my hand and/or play it, I always smile. He is everything I want in a Group Hug Card, he can give your opponents a hippo, draw a card and gain life!

Braids, Conjurer Adept is like Tempting Wurm except it goes off each turn!

Edric, Spymaster of Trest is a great political card that encourages your opponents to attack each other and not you, for an extra draw.

Gahiji, Honored One also a political card that encourages your opponents to attack each other and not you.

Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer neutralizes your opponents troublesome creatures.

Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs great pillowfort card that forces either your opponent to pay three mana for every creature that attacks you or you get a Minotaur.

Selvala, Explorer Returned can give you mana and life. While also giving your opponents a card.

The main cards in the deck are the Group Hug Cards. I have split them into different groups: Draw, creature tokens, life, more mana.

Draw:

This deck has a lot of cards that gives your opponents more cards.

Rites of Flourishing allows everybody draw two cards per turn and play an extra land!

Howling Mine allows everybody too draw two cards per turn.

Minds Aglow make everybody draw a ton of cards.

Humble Defector also draws cards.

Temple Bell also away to draw an extra card.

Jace Beleren second ability is the same as Temple Bell.

Creature Tokens:

This deck also specializes in creating creature tokens for your opponents!

Hunted Troll gives your opponents faeries.

Goblin Spymaster gives your opponents a 1/1 goblin.

Swan Song gives your opponent a 2/2 bird.

Forbidden Orchard gives one of your opponents a 1/1 spirit.

Life:

This deck also has cards that give your opponents life:

Arbiter of Knollridge gives everybody life total to become the highest life total among all players.

Phelddagrif also can give your opponents life.

Reverse the Sands can help your opponents as well.

Swords to Plowshare removes an opponents creature and gives them life.

More Mana:

One of the biggest ways this is a Group Hug Deck is to give your opponents more and more mana.

Tempt with Discovery is an awesome mana ramp card that give you a ton of lands, and also helps out your opponents.

Collective Voyage thanks to the Join Forces Mechanic can net you and your opponents a ton of basic lands.

Veteran Explorer When this dies everybody gets two basic lands!

Rites of Flourishing allows everybody to play an extra land on their turn.

Other Grouphug effects

Open the Vaults returns everybody's artifacts and enchantments from their graveyard into play.

Tempting Wurm allows your opponents to play any number of artifact, creature, enchantment and/or land cards.

Braids, Conjurer Adept is a slower Tempting Wurm.

Pillowfort and Politics is very important part of the plan for this deck. More often than not there will be players who just hate Group Hug and would like to take you out ASAP. That's where politics and pillowfort come in! Pillowfort deters opponents attacking you, and make them attack somebody else. While politics gives an opponent an incentive not too attack you.

Great Pillowfort Cards

Ghostly Prison and Propaganda forces your opponents to pay 2 mana for each attacking creature.

Sphere of Safety also a great deterrence card.

Selfless Squire prevents all combat damage that would be dealt to you this turn.

Windborn Muse is like Ghostly Prison but on a creature!!!!

Blazing Archon prevents any creatures from attacking you.

Orbs of Warding gives you hexproof.

Deflecting Palm prevents damage and deals that damage right back at the opponent.

Comeuppance also a great card that can prevent damage dealt to you.

With all these pillowfort card, it will be a pain in the ass for them too attack you.

Politics

Politics is a very important part of the deck. Thanks to you playing Group Hug it is a lot more easier to play politics with. There are some cards in the deck that greatly encourage your opponents to attack each other and not you.

As we discussed earlier both Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Gahiji, Honored One are great political cards.

Pretty much any Group Hug card you use in your deck can be used for politics.

While yes, this is a Group Hug deck sometimes you have to lay down the law. You have your typical boardwipes, spot removal and counterspells to police the board.

Counterspells include Cancel, Counterspell, Arcane Denial, Swan Song.

Spot removal includes: Swords to Plowshare, Oblation, Sylvan Reclamation

Boardwipes include: Blasphemous Act and Devastation Tide

This is a Group Hug Deck with win conditions. There are two ways of winning: Using your powerful spells to win or come in second.

The Best Win Conditions

Fevered Visions is the secret Win Condition of the deck, since it's so under the radar. And puts your opponents on a clock.

Blasphemous Act and Reins of Power is probably the best win conditions the deck has too offer.

Treacherous Terrain can also be a win condition if your opponents are at low enough life.

Mulligan:

You should mulligan if you have two few lands or they are all like one colour. Also consider a mulligan if there are no group hug, politics or pillowfort cards in your hand.

Midgame:

Is where we want to start playing our pillowfort/poltics and any Group Hug cards we can find, in order to try and survive.

Endgame:

Hopefully by this time you have drawn into your win conditions to try and close the game out. If you can't draw your win conditions, than aim to come in second. Coming in second is considered a win in my books for this deck.

Conclusion:

Overall this is very, very fun deck to play and I have even sneaked in with a few wins. The deck still is one of my most fun decks I have ever built, and for that reason is for why I will never, ever tear it apart for as long as I play magic.

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