This deck wins through quickly assembling a mass of big creatures.
It has four main methods of doing this:
1) Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast's -2 ability. Except Gilded Goose, all creatures that are not targets have a CMC of 2. Most of the these creatures are mana dorks, meaning you can reliably play Lukka turn 3 or 4, then -2 into one of the bigger threats (and do so again the next turn).
2) Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy's ramp and ability. High amounts of mana dorks make reaching 7 mana no difficult task. 5 mana is especially easy, and due to Zirda, the Dawnwaker being our companion, the ability often only costs this much. This hits all creatures other than Kenrith and/or another copy of himself. I am have only needed his ability twice during testing, however, so cannot say how reliably he hits threats yet - though he did hit both a threat times. More often, Kinnan functions to turn ramp into insane ramp, allowing for either a second play or ability activation alongside a threat the next turn.
3) Fiend Artisan's ability. This ability is strong in any deck with a lot of mana, solid targets, and disposable creatures, however he is made especially good in this deck due to Zidra's reduction ability.
4) Ramp using mana dorks/Kinnan and play them from hand. It's simple, but it works.
The role of Zidra, the Dawnwaker:
Zirda is the deck's companion, which means that any ramp creatures we wish to play need to be conventional mana dorks (no aboreal grazer or risen reef here), however it barely feels like a concession considering how powerful these cards are with Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy (who luckily an activated ability as well as his OP static). The other concession is to the threats we choose, we need to have activated abilties also. Fortunately, there are some very respectable threats in standards with activated abilities that functional well together. Furthermore, several of these have a hugely increased power level with Zirda in play, making these threats pushed to a point that makes some of them powerful enough to be worth an include where many decks wouldn't consider them. Zirda's interaction with the threats will be described below. Zirda also serves to Kinnan and Fiend Artisan's abilities cheaper, as described above, which is important as saving any mana in this deck can allow for the additional activation of other abilities found in the deck. Zirda's own activated ability shouldn't be forgotten either; he can really aid the deck in being aggressive once a threat has stuck.Something great about Zirda is that, if we curve out, we can play paradise druid t2; Kinnan t3 using lands, then use the remaining land and two red from paradise druid to play Zirda from sideboard. I've found this to be a really strong play as it means Kinnan's ability becomes a threat for the next turn, but also you've widened your board to protect Lukka if you play him turn 4. As this only needs Kinnan and any mana dork that can tap for red, this feels like a really reliable sequence of plays that nboth advanced your board and presents a threat the next turn.
The threats:
1) Kenrith, the Returned King. Needing white, he has to be either cheated into play, or played using Gilded Goose/Paradise Druid. So far, I have had Kenrith most games without any loss in speed due to a lack of white in the manabase. All his abilities can all be accessed with the help of aforementioned mana dorks, however, even without them you get access to his red ability (which works brilliant in a deck with other threats), his green ability (which allows you to develop your board once you have run out of other threats to play, or place a counter on a Skarrgan Hellkite which chose 'haste' upon entry), and his blue ability to draw more gas. The rgreen and blue ability are made brilliant mana sinks with Zirda in play, especially considering the mana available from our additional ramp. Being able to place X +1/+1 counters across your board, then give your team trample and haste for X+1 mana feels incredible.
2) Skarrgan Hellkite. With Zirda, 2 mana to deal two among any targets feels brilliant. With the ramp we have access to, this can really wipe the opponent's board, or present a lot of damage to face. The ability to choose haste and later give it a counter using Kenrith is also additionally nice so that neither mode of riot is wasted.
3) Kogla, the Titan Ape. I've found Kogla to be brilliant so far in testing. He has immediate impact, and is brilliant when given haste and trample by Kenrith. Aside from his huge body, his ETB also helps protect Lukka for a next activation by tackling the enemy's board. There are only 6 other human's in the deck, so I am currently unsure how reliably he can be made indestructible, however offering to protect himself as well as Kinnan or Kenrith I imagien may come to be quite valuable. He benefits the least from Zirda.
4) Faerie Formation. This card can take a hit from a Brazen Borrower, so his P/T is good enough to me, but really it's the activated ability that drew me in. Draw a card and make a 1/1 flier for two mana seems incredible to me, so I had to include one in a Zirda deck. This card hasn't come up in testing yet, so I can't say how it has performed so far.
Spells/Instants:
Incubation//Incogruity. Seemed like a decent call to me as we have very few turn 1 played, and really benefit from several specific creatures (Paradise druid, Kinnan, our threats). Acquiring ramp early game and threats lamp game seems really useful. The other mode seems brilliant for taking out Uro's or other big threat, since a 3/3 without flying won't prevent our game plan much.
Lava coil. Thought some early game removal might be useful, and this came to mind - if there is something else I should be running, let me know!
Any feedback would be hugely welcome! This could include sideboard suggestions. Also, I realise I should probably be playing Nissa also. I just haven't thought where I would place her yet! Any suggestions of cuts, edits to the threats, or anything would be hugely welcome. It seems really fun and decently powerful, but I've only played around 11 games so far and not against top tier decks (GW auras [3-2], a grixis Kroza-Lazav homebrew [3-0], and a version of Pioneer Mardu vehicles [2-1; the loss was a close win]). Thanks in advance!
Tags
