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The Act of Treason ~200$

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Budget Casual Control Mono-Red Sacrifice

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Control (13)

Draw (7)

Sac outlets (5)

Tokens (4)

Lands (36)

Removal (10)

Impact (4)

Artifact removal (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Etb enablers (8)

Ramp (7)

Protection (2)

The Act of Treason

a red creature control commander deck


This is a semi-budget Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker commander deck built around creature etb effects and creature control + creature sacrifice. It does not include any infinite combos with Kiki-Jiki cause they're not fun. I've also decided agasint playing Insurrection, as I think it is just too good to be fun (does anyone like "win buttons" in casual play?).

This deck wants to ramp early, and then cast some removal ("on sticks") to get through with combat damage. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker will let you redo the removal effects by copying these creatures and their ETB's. The deck should be semi fast / budget fast, but if you can't win with simple combat damage, there are some backup strategies.

Wincon backup strategies include: playing Impact Tremors or Warstorm Surge when you have a board that lets you generate a lot of tokens, Furystoke Giant in combination with a high number of tokens, or copying Fanatic of Mogis when you have good devotion. You may also be able to win with Mob Rule or Twist Allegiance.

If you come up against large and valuable creatures, you could always borrow them with threaten effects. Then you may sacrifice them before they go back to their owner so that you get rid of them. Most of the threaten effects can be used on Kiki-Jiki if you want to untap him for an extra copy of something.

There are three ways to kill enchantments: Chaos Warp, Meteor Golem, and Liquimetal Torque + artifact removal.

The budet is ~200$ total, max 10$ per card (with exceptions). I use Cardkingdom prices

Suggestions are welcome :)

Just changing some lands. Or actually, gonna swap in a burnished hart as well.

OUT: Desert of the Fervent, Dormant Volcano, Smoldering Crater, and Worn Powerstone

IN: Dwarven Mine, Myriad Landscape, Mountain, and Burnished Hart

Hmm, two changes. Beetleback Chief doesnt really do anything in the long run, and Jaxis, the Troublemaker needs discard to function. The deck is already struggling quite often with drawing enough cards, so discarding is not the best here..

OUT: Beetleback Chief and Jaxis, the Troublemaker

IN: Clone Shell and Cauldron of Souls

Three in a row update! I just had a look at Panharmonicon and realized its dropped from ~10$ to ~5$. I think it might be a great fit here. I really like Cauldron of Souls as well, but Im not really sure if it fits the red theme. Its more defensive than offensive, and Id like this deck to be offensive in typical red fasion. The cauldron have also been used to get extra etb effects by giving persist and sacrificing my own creatures. But I think Panharmonicon might be a tad bit better.. Time will tell

OUT: Cauldron of Souls

IN: Panharmonicon

Follow up update. I guess yesterdays update was a bit rushed.

This deck can run out of cards, especially if you get a lot of single use creature control on hand. They are quickly spent, and top decking kinda sucks. So Im adding some draw, well, rather draw / wheel. Ive also changed my mind about Dollhouse of Horrors, since it is not repeatable (you exile the card you copy). But Ive already found a good replacement, and Im kinda stoked for Mirage Phalanx. Draw and Ramp categories are now 7 cards each.

OUT: Dollhouse of Horrors, Unwilling Recruit, Arcane Signet, Burnished Hart, and Commander's Sphere

IN: Imposing Grandeur, Knollspine Dragon, Mask of Memory, Ox of Agonas, and Mirage Phalanx

The fast and furious update (or alternatively: efficiency upgrades)

This deck is a bit all over the place at the moment. It is fun, but it is not very tuned. So I've decided to make it a bit more consise. After this update, the gameplan should be a whole lot simpler. Just kill blockers with removal and go for combat damage. All other effects can just be used as backup if the main plan fails. Red is known for being fast and aggressive, so this should be just on theme with the color.

Cards that are removed include: overall slow cards, non repeatable sac outlets, cards that arent good if Kiki isnt on the board, artifact removal on creatures (slow), mana costly activated abilities (slow), and small creatures with very small impact, and insurrection for being a turd.

Then I've added more creature removal, and more general removal (like chaos warp). Ive added more ramp, and Ive also added more copy effects to copy creatures. Might still be a bit lacking in draw effects.. Ive added some more multiuse sac outlets.

OUT: Manic Vandal, Oxidda Scrapmelter, Tuktuk Scrapper, Captivating Crew, Insurrection, Skyscanner, Clone Shell, Hoarding Dragon, Pilgrim's Eye, Ravenous Baboons, Flameshadow Conjuring, Magewright's Stone, Mimic Vat, Barrage of Expendables, Blasting Station, Culling Dais, Helm of Possession, Anger, Rowan, Fearless Sparkmage, and Goblin Engineer

IN: Arcane Signet, Burnished Hart, Fire Diamond, Patriar's Seal, Wayfarer's Bauble, Chaos Warp, Firemaw Kavu, Spawn of Thraxes, Spitebellows, Tyrant of Kher Ridges, Altar of Dementia, Demonmail Hauberk, Jaxis, the Troublemaker, Rionya, Fire Dancer, Dollhouse of Horrors, Combustible Gearhulk, Firbolg Flutist, By Force, Shattering Spree, and Vandalblast

I think 36 lands should be enough

OUT: Mountain

IN: Meteor Golem

Its time to bring out the big guns. Bugdet is increased to make room for Insurrection

OUT: Tyrant of Discord

IN: Insurrection

More cool lands! Also removing Fable of the Mirror-Breaker   from the maybeboard. He is really really good, but quite pricey

OUT: 2x Mountain

IN: Ghost Quarter and Scavenger Grounds

I'm changing a variety of stuff. I'd like more protection for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, so I'm adding Swiftfoot Boots. Considered adding Godo, Bandit Warlord as well (for tutoring), but since I can't copy him with Kiki-Jiki, I decided against it. I'm removing steal effects that can't target my own creatures (like Act of Aggression) since I really like the fact that I can untap Kiki-Jiki with them. Switching up the mana rocks a bit, and I want to try more focus on drawing cards. Cards like Commander's Sphere and Skyscanner can potentially draw me cards if I'm stuggelig with a small hand. Also trying out Ravenous Baboons, because my playgroup is fine with some land destruction, and he looks fun >:) . Removing a lot of cards I haven't seen performing that well. Combustible Gearhulk is always meh, because I can never choose if I get the cards or the damage. I always seem to have too little mana to acutally use Strionic Resonator. And Altar of Dementia is cool and all for sacrificing creatures, but I don't really care about milling.

OUT: Act of Aggression, Word of Seizing, Combustible Gearhulk, Strionic Resonator, Fire Diamond, Iron Myr, Altar of Dementia, and Mountain

IN: Swiftfoot Boots, Mark of Mutiny, Threaten, Commander's Sphere, Worn Powerstone, Skyscanner, Ravenous Baboons, and Desert of the Fervent

My playgroup banned Sol ring. Additionally, I think Worn powerstone might be too slow.

OUT: Sol Ring and Worn Powerstone

IN: Goblin Engineer and Mind Stone

My playgroup is trying to avoid playing cards that can singlehandedly win a game in one turn, and Insurrection fits this category fairly well. Im swapping it out for a card I've played in this deck earlier, and that has some potential to be both fun and good.

OUT: Insurrection

IN: Hoarding Dragon

The deck works fairly well at this state, so I'm tidying up the maybeboard.

The price of my budget decks keep rising, so I'm marking the current price to see how the value evolves.

Current price (cardkingdom): 136-145$

Oops, these creatures are legendary and cannot be copied by Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.

OUT: Pia Nalaar and Pia and Kiran Nalaar

IN: Thopter Engineer and Goblin Marshal

Some of these sac outlets are just way too expensive.

OUT: Carnage Altar and Phyrexian Vault

IN: Grafted Wargear and Barrage of Expendables

Guess who just discovered custom card categories?

I've got to playtest the deck, and a few things bothered me about the deck.

Primarily that the infinite combos (with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and either Zealous Conscripts or Thornbite Staff and a sac outlet) were too consistent and not fun at all to win with.

Secondly that winning with the primary wincon of mass creature control was way too unconsistent. I was thinking I would regularly get a Insurrection effect with a costless sacoutlet like Goblin Bombardment, but as I was sitting on my ten 1/1 goblin tokens ready to block and stall the game, I never really drew any of the large creature controls.

I know these situations are very situational, both based on the current shuffling and playgroup, but it just seemed lacking. In the end, I enjoy tweaking, and if its just tweaking for my own games sake, so be it.

CHANGES:

So the deck has been reworked to suit larger playgroups better. When I first made this deck I usually played with 1 or 2 other people, and I remember some pretty annoying commanders, like Meren of Clan Nel Toth. So back then my plan was just to red control + sac the opponents commanders asap, and then build up big guys later, like Bogardan Hellkite.

Now I usually play in larger groups, and altought we're playing casual, I really feel my deck falling behind. I think slowly building up to a good boardstate or repeatable combo is really what is the most beneficial in larger groups (as long as you don't make yourself too big of a target and get focused). It also seems important to keep some creatures hanging around for blocking and such.

With these ideas, I made the following types of changes:

  • The red control + sac combo has been made slower and less consistant, but should have larger impact;

  • The red control has shifted more to larger multitarget control, and should be saved for late game or against very troublesome creatures (ex: Insurrection);

  • The red multitarget creature control is now the primary wincon, secondary wincon is still inf combos with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (ex: Thornbite Staff);

  • The sac outlets have been reprioritized, new prioritized sac outlets are more expensive (thus slower), but they have a larger impact (ex: Helm of Possession);

  • The average CMC has dropped significantly, and the new goal is to have something semi-good to copy on turn 5, so that I can go ahead and drop Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker the first chance I get;

  • Mana rocks have been reprioritized, new prioritized rocks are low cost (max 3) (ex: Fire Diamond);

  • ETB enchantments have been introduced as I have eperienced that enchanment hate is fairly rare (ex: Impact Tremors);

  • Creature list have been reprioritized, in addition to lowering average CMC, creatures that create tokens have been prioritized. This synergises with sac-outlets, and are great for blocking (ex: Pia and Kiran Nalaar);

  • The number of mana producing permanents have been slighty tweaked.

The cards that didn't make the cut will probably reside in the maybeboard for some time to come.

I've decided to combine the expensive and budget versions of this deck that was on this website. This is the one I kept. I'm gonna keep the budget tag, so believe it wont grow super much in value, but I'm gonna have a look at some more expensive cards (mostly under 6-10$, unless I decide I need to use Purphoros, God of the Forge .

I am also adding a shitton of cards to the maybeboard so that I can easily make changes in the future without losing track of possible deck candidates. Deck updates will end up here in written form :)

As of the 17th of August 2020, some cards have really risen in value, and would probably not be considered budget anymore. Most notable are: Goblin Bombardment, Ashnod's Altar, and Thornbite Staff

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Revision 15 See all

(2 weeks ago)

+1 Burnished Hart main
-1 Desert of the Fervent main
-1 Dormant Volcano main
+1 Dwarven Mine main
+1 Mountain main
+1 Myriad Landscape main
-1 Smoldering Crater main
-1 Worn Powerstone main