Kynaios & Tiro Group Hug Aikido
Commander / EDH
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Friday Night COVID Commander —Aug. 7, 2020
After frustrating others by comboing off with my Grothama (Selvala) deck, I brought out this half-baked mess. Both games had a similar tenor but completely different pacing. In the first game, I got K&T out early, speeding Jeremy's Pramikon deck toward victory. Fractured Identity slowed him down a little, getting rid of his Purphoros and giving me and Ryan one instead. This ended up shooting me in the foot, because Ryan's Brudiclad deck turned his one Purphoros into four; multiple triggers on that that beast took me out quickly and got Jeremy from 40 to 12 life in no time. Unfortunately for Ryan, Jeremy was able to attack for just enough through the air on his next turn for the win. This was an exciting, quick game in which my K&T basically greased the wheels for the other two decks while doing pretty much nothing on its own.
The next game had me color-screwed, unable to cast K&T for the entire game because I never got access to green mana. I had a massive pillow fort set up, which slowed things to a crawl, and I wasn't really helping anyone gain resources, so things weren't speeding up. This gave Ryan time to set up his slow Karador deck, and I actually helped him out with Forced Fruition. He paid to pummel me for half my life despite a Ghostly Prison and was poised to take me out on his next turn when Jeremy played Aetherflux Reservoir. Getting to 51 life on the turn he played it, Jeremy was suddenly in a position to instantly defeat a single opponent, giving Ryan an incentive to keep me in the game, which he did. Ryan's Eerie Ultimatum looked like a game winner, so Jeremy paid the cost to take Ryan out with Aetherflux Reservoir, but Ryan destroyed it first, which we thought would prevent its effect from happening, leaving me the sole target of Ryan's massive army of reanimated creatures (since Jeremy resigned). However, it turns out Aetherflux Reservoir should have hit Ryan, taking him out of the game and leaving Jeremy with only 6 life. I would have had Jeremy on a 3-turn clock due to Keening Stone, but maybe he could have destroyed or countered it.
This deck was not that appealing in playtesting because it seemed to do so little, but against other players it is a little more entertaining because I get to see what their decks are trying to do...and they get to see it as well, so it's way better for them. Nonetheless, it is pretty frustrating to be doing nearly nothing sometimes, and the pillow fort routine can get a little old. I can see busting this deck out more in the future, but I'd want to improve it a little to ensure it's able to do its own thing a little more consistently--or even boost other decks more consistently! Just spinning its wheels for two hours is no fun.