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̶S̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶W̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ Riku and the Seven Dwarves

Commander / EDH Dwarf Goodstuff Jank RUG (Temur) Theme/Gimmick Tokens

Regretti_Spaghetti

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Creature (23)

Artifact (6)

Enchantment (5)

Sorcery (15)

Land (37)

Commander (1)

Commander: Riku of Two Reflections

Instant (11)

Planeswalker (2)

This is VERY MUCH a work in progress. If you have any questions, spicy inclusions, or constructive criticism, I'd love to hear it in the comments!

I've wanted to build Riku clones for the longest time, but every time I mull it over in my head, I encounter a problem:

"What am I supposed to be copying in the first place?"

The value player in me wants to copy ramp spells, or creatures with powerful ETBs, but there's just too many cards. As I often feel with Commander nowadays, 100 cards is just never enough. I need my ramp package, my draw package, my removal, board wipes, value engines. 60% of my deck is predetermined before I even begin.

Now, all of that changes. No more hyper-optimized decks. No more wallet draining card orders. No more best-in-slots. I just want to go on a magical adventure.

Enter the Seven Dwarves. These bad boyos get beefier and brawnier the more we bring on board. Sounds good? It gets better. Originally we can only run seven of these bad mama-jamas in the main deck, but cards like Clone, Progenitor Mimic, and Clever Impersonator let us break reality and get 8, 9, even 10 or more dwarves at a time!

Right about now, you may be asking one of these questions:

"But Spaghetti, what does this do? What competitive advantage does this afford me? Why aren't you playing Lithoform Engine?"

The answer to these questions is simple. Many moons ago, while pondering whether or not to play Scute Swarm in my new lands deck, I asked my good friend Kris for guidance. He then, in his infinite wisdom, bestowed upon me the single greatest piece of brewing advice ever told:

"Play dah funni card."


And so I shall.

In line with our rigorously tested Deckbuilding Philosophy, I'm building this deck to work in two parts:

  • Seven Dwarves + Clones
  • Generic Goodstuff

Our clones work double duty here, getting us value off of cards like Farhaven Elf and Eternal Witness, while also doubling (get it?) as copies of our wincons like Biovisionary. I waffled on whether or not to include some spicy instants and sorceries to copy, but I think that might have to wait for a different version of the deck. We will be running Ral, Storm Conduit though since, you know, "funni card".

Most of the best cards this deck could run: Avenger of Zendikar, Birds of Paradise, are left out either because I find them too expensive and don't own a copy, or I'm running them in another list. I have a fairly strict policy of never breaking apart a deck for staples, but if you feel that I should be running a specific card here, please let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts! :).

Likely to be updated alongside the decklist

While I covered this briefly in the Approach, this deck does have a couple ways to win.

  • Biovisionary has always been a card I've wanted to run ever since I first saw it. It's sugar, it's spice, it's everything nice, and like the rest of the deck, it loses to a boardwipe. Get on in here!
  • With a board full of our dwarven brethren, we have just one problem: blockers Our pint-sized powerlifters are easily chumpable, so giving them trample and slamming face seems good. Cards like Garruk's Uprising and Overrun give our dwarves that extra juice. Alternatively, we can just go so wide that the blockers they do have are irrelevant! Infinite Reflection turns all of our random schmucks on the battlefield into dwarves, while Kindred Charge can single-handedly win us the game. Copied with Riku, as little as four dwarves can become an overwhelming army of 16. This is probably the best wincon in the deck, but I find it to be a bit boring. I prefer my dwarves more robust, the kind that don't get exiled at end of turn.
  • Ral, Storm Conduit + any Fork equivalent gets us infinite damage. This feels like the kind of deck that shouldn't run any infinites purely out of principle, but this one is way too fun not to include.
  • Maybe if we ask our opponents nicely, they'll just let us get in with our dwarven hordes? Unironically may be a better idea than any of the plans listed above.

As should be obvious, this deck isn't good. Like, at all. Don't play this if you want to win, play this deck if you want to style on your friends. Think of each win as an expensive, decedent dessert. They're hard to come by, so you have to savor them when you can get your hands on one :P.

In terms of building this deck, I would probably avoid copying this verbatim and running it. I'm a notoriously finicky brewer among my friend group. I find it hard to tell if I'm including the right cards, so I often take ages to deckbuild, and still end up with terrible decks. (Yet I love limited, weird right?) If you REALLY want to get into some shenanigans, there are tons of cards to add in. Land base aside, most of the best inclusions were cut due to budget constraints or availability, so there's quite a lot of room for growth.

I hope you liked the deck and write up. This is my first time making my lists look all nice for TappedOut, so any support is appreciated! C: Hope you all are staying happy and healthy, -Spaghetti

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Updates Add

Rethinking my ratios — Jan. 6, 2021
Edit

Now that I have this list in paper (and yes, paper magic still exists, I promise), playtesting has given both positive and negative insights.

On the plus side, the deck works. Play dwarf, clone dwarf, hit with dwarves, die. It's janky and dumb and the opposite of how I usually build things, which is perfect.

On the other hand, the deck is bad, but not in the way I intended. In almost every game I would have to ship away my starting hand, and I often ended up with dead cards in hand at crucial junctures of the game. I believe this is happening for three reasons:

Firstly, the number card draw sources could probably be increased. In retrospect, many of my card draw engines are fairly conditional, and while I'm fine with them folding to a boardwipe, I would at least like them to function without an army already on-board.

Secondly, I need better ramp. Hell, I just need better mana in general. The mana base is obviously quite bad, but even with the amount of ramp sources in deck (11+), Riku is still just too hungry for colored sources. I honestly want to slot my chromatic lantern into this deck, but I'll see if I can do without.

Finally, I think I may be playing too many niche cards. Veil of Autumn, for example, has been fire in the games I've played it in, but I feel like this deck may run too many of these specific non-value cards. Maybe cutting some of these for better mana and card draw would smooth things over?

Looking forward though, I don't want to edit this deck too much. Kaldheim spoilers have already blessed us with one dwarven powerhouse in Magda, and I expect to see some other awesome dwarves coming soon. That said, the points above still stand, and as a terrible brewer, I'd love to hear your thoughts! With your contributions, we can finally start humiliating those dirty combo players in ways that only 54 dwarven brawlers can.

Stay safe out there, -Spaghetti

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93% Casual

Competitive