Riku- I Heard You Like Casting Spells So I

Commander / EDH*

Brogan54

5 drop (6)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Bribery
• 1x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
• 1x Ixidron
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Mulldrifter

7 drop (1)

• 1x Avenger of Zendikar

3 drop (16)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Compulsive Research
• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Dualcaster Mage
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Hammer of Purphoros
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Nissa's Pilgrimage
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Temur Ascendancy
• 1x Wood Elves

1 drop (8)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Dragonmaster Outcast
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Sol Ring

4 drop (14)

• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Faerie Artisans
• 1x Flametongue Kavu
• 1x Gigantoplasm
• 1x Ogre Battledriver
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Profaner of the Dead
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Stunt Double
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant

0 drop (37)

• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 10x Forest
• 1x Frontier Bivouac
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 7x Island
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Vivid Crag
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Grove
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

2 drop (11)

• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Explore
• 1x Hull Breach
• 1x Nivix Guildmage
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Snapcaster Mage

8 drop (1)

• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth

6 drop (5)

• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Inferno Titan
• 1x Rampaging Baloths
• 1x Saheeli's Artistry
• 1x Woodland Bellower

Commander (1)

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Sideboard

2 drop (1)

• 1x Artifact Mutation

5 drop (5)

• 1x Burn at the Stake
• 1x Future Sight
• 1x Mycoloth
• 1x Nissa, Vital Force
• 1x Prophet of Kruphix

3 drop (7)

• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Crystal Shard
• 1x Fierce Empath
• 1x Loaming Shaman
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Trygon Predator
• 1x Uktabi Orangutan

7 drop (1)

• 1x Diluvian Primordial

4 drop (3)

• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Stunt Double
• 1x Whirler Rogue

6 drop (4)

• 1x Progenitor Mimic
• 1x Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1x Woodland Bellower
• 1x Wort, the Raidmother

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Since this deck experiences some major hate, thanks to its popularity, I made this build a toolbox build w/ tokens as the usual game finsiher. Therefore, the deck comes suited with multiple cards that help answer specific deck archetypes. The theme is :"Copy" and the deck tries to copy your own spells, opponents spells as well as utilizing cards with at least 2 figures in the art.

Why Riku over other commanders?The main reason I play Riku over other ETB Abuser commanders are 1) flavor. He is the definition of bigger is better is EDH.

2)The deck is not reliant on the commander. This deck can do perfectly well on its own while never casting Riku. However when it does, that is when it begins to go down. Sometime it is even worth it to cast Riku to get opponents to use their removal on my commander (with the amount of land I usually get, the commander tax is not usually an issue).

3) His colors. Most other blink decks add white > red (such as Roon) but I disagree with this. Red gives this deck a few key things. Haste so as to make my creatures explosive right out of the gate. Kiki-jiki is great with anyone else in play and abuse ETB's both of which this Riku build loves.

Running blue over white ( so not Gahiji) allows for increased card draw, Bribery, Snapcaster mage, and Venser, Shaper Savant.

For all of these reasons and so much more, Riku is the true commander of this deck over other possible options like Roon of the Hidden Realm (more control).

Early game the main goal is to ramp. Mid game: neuter your opponent while setting up copy spells/ haste with things like Flamtongue Kavu or one of thier own creatures staring back at it.End game: Main Win cons are : Riku Copied Bribery, Craterhoof Behemoth, Rite of Replication Kicked, Saheeli's Artistrie.

Note : Ramp is also great. I like to play at least 7 to 8 pieces of ramp in my commander decks minimum. I play almost 15 in this one. I will usually not keep a starting hand unless there is one piece of ramp.

Note 2: Fabricate usually gets Birthing pod. It is one of the best cards in your deck as it gives you a true toolbox feel, grabbing any threat you need. Panharmonicon or Hammer of Purphorous or Duplicant or also available with this spell if you copy it or are feeling like nit putting a target on your head .

Note 3: Venser Shaper Savant. Always Save Venser to have enough where you can double value off his ETB. This can be through several ways as shown below. The most common involves getting another token version of Venser. It will ETB, and then legend rule will kill one of them (choose the token) but it will still get the ETB trigger. So you have two triggers. One to bounce the permanent/spell and the other to bounce original Venser.1) Venser + Riku2) Venser + Panharmonicon3) Venser + Flameshadow Conjuring4) Venser + Crystal Shard.

Note 4. Keep Eldritch Moon as a way to utilize the tokens off of Faerie Artisans.

Note 5. There is no Flameshadow conjuring or parallel lives or conjurers closet. Flameshadow and parallel livew felt like win- more cards. All are outclassed by Panharmonicon as it works and can be tutored with Fabricate. The closest is Conjurers closet but I would rather like have my curve be lower with a more powerful 4 drop. It also seems to draw more hate in my meta due to a Sedris deck I play where it does "degenerate" shenanigans.

Note 5. Many decks also run gilded Drake, Phryexian metamorph but I dont to run some fun leser seen cards. I also have a zedruu deck that i run gilded drake in and like each deck feeling different so try to run very few repeat cards between edh decks. I have never been all that impressed with phrexian metamorph as I would rather pay the full 4 four for stunt double to get flash or 2 for phantasmal image. However paying 5 mana (and 2 life) to get two copies of the best creature on the field is pretty good.

Date added	10 years
Last updated	8 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 3 Mythic Rares 35 - 12 Rares 16 - 5 Uncommons 18 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.40
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Beast 4/4 G, Copy Clone, Dragon 5/5 R, Emblem Nissa, Vital Force, Enchantment Golem 3/3 C, Goblin Warrior 1/1 RG, Manifest 2/2 C, Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	Past EDH Awards