Kimni, Life's Reflection
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Jan. 15, 2021, 1:55 p.m. by Tsukimi
Kimni, Life's Reflection
Legendary Enchantment Creature- Shapeshifter
When Kimni, Life's Reflection enters the battlefield, create a token that is a copy of target creature.
: Populate
2/4
I have had a custom brew bant tokens deck for years that has always been my favorite deck. It loves making tokens that are copies of good creatures, and then copying, populating, or doubling those tokens. I have never had a good commander though, just someone to fill the spot. So this is my take on a bant token commander I thought of while playing around in the custom card forum.
I thought it might need to say make a copy of target creature you control so it's not overpowered? I also considered making the token an enchantment creature so it's easier to remove but it seemed to strong with enchantress type strategies.
My playgroup is considering letting me try out a custom commander for this deck, so I'd love any thoughts/feedback!
Tzefick Thank you so much! A lot of excellent points, and with those in mind I would alter the card to read:
Kimni, Life's Reflection
Legendary Enchantment Creature- Shapeshifter
When you cast Kimni, Life's Reflection, create a token that is a copy of target creature.
: Populate
2/4
I love the idea of her boosting tribes or utilizing changeling as well, but I was trying to keep from making the card too busted. I have a few different tribal boosts in my token deck and I can see it getting out of hand fast if every token she made was a changeling. I have lots of token generators that say things like Golems have flying and cats get +1 +1 etc, I feel like if every populate token had changeling that could get busted fast. Adding convoke to the populate cost is definitely a possibility but like I said I definitely sacrificed a bit of fun/flavor so the card wouldn't just be OP in my playgroup.
As for why she's a shapeshifter that's because she can make copies of anything, more for flavor than gameplay. Always loved the idea of an enchantment creature shapeshifter.
January 19, 2021 2:47 p.m.
sean360 Happy to share my thoughts and considerations.
As for why you kept it more simple. The Populate cost of 4 makes it a lot stronger when just copying good stuff at high CMC, especially ones with ETBs or easy triggers. Imagine copying a Magmatic Force at 4 mana. Normally it takes 3 CMC and a card to make a token of a creature you control. To copy any creature you often turn to Clone and their ilk.
I hesitated suggesting a Populate of 4 because the creature itself provides the token that it can populate. Most of the Populate cards synergizes off other cards making those tokens, so there's a weakness that you need one to use the other. In the case of Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage the token generation is really expensive, so it is more efficient to have another card provide the token and then the Guildmage can Populate it. Kimni is one package, and there's a danger in making that too efficient. That's why I sought other ways to make it stronger without breaking it.
Making the creature and the copy token a changeling (not linked to the Populate ability, only the on-cast) seems close to a no-cost. It definitely makes Kimni stronger in certain deck shells but in others it is meaningless - like when you just copy the best creature on board when you cast it and have little self-synergy when copying your own stuff. And the strength it draws from tribal synergy seems rather small, where it would be more beneficial to run a Commander directly from that tribe.
WotC have already made 2 Changeling token producers in; Birthing Boughs and Maskwood Nexus - the later even being an Arcane Adaptation on steroids. I think the Birthing Boughs were made cautiously because it had to account for limited play. Token generators are very powerful in limited, especially without color restriction. The Maskwood is exploring the use of changelings but at rare, so it doesn't affect limited significantly.
I doubt that making them changelings would break the card. Making the Populate at 4 is stronger than changelings and Populate at 5. At least IMO.
Tzefick says... #2
There's a slight problem in the templating that allows for infinite combos by itself and an outlet. If you have the token copy Kimni her-/himself, there's another ETB of creating a token put onto the stack. State based actions tells you to scrap one of the legendary creatures, so you scrap the token. The ETB of creating a token is then resolved on the stack, rinse repeat. Put any kind of death-trigger synergy card in there and you have an infinite combo outlet.
Can be corrected by having the token only copy non-legendary creatures or if the ETB have you choose another creature (than Kimni), then create a token that's a copy of that creature.
Another slightly different solution is to change it from an ETB to an on-Cast trigger. Like the Eldrazi.
The ETB-variant also enables any kind of ETB-flicker to go infinite. Like Felidar Guardian. Perhaps it is best to have it an on-cast trigger after all.
Why is Kimni a shapeshifter if she/he doesn't do any actual shapeshifting her-/himself?
Wouldn't she/he rather be an elemental, an avatar or god that creates these tokens that are copies of other creatures?
As for power level: 5 CMC for a 2/4 is rather harsh, but the weight is attributed to the token and the Populate ability.
I would say that the Populate is slightly over costed considering we have Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage who does it at 4 and only 2 color pips. And there's Trostani, Selesnya's Voice who does it at 3 but by tapping.
However those are best when combined with something else that creates a strong token to populate. Kimni possibly provides that strong token and can populate it by themselves.
I would still say the Populate should be reduced to 5 mana and it still feels lackluster.
If you aren't sinking 6 mana into Populate, what does this Commander do? Most likely nothing. Sitting on guard duty should any smaller creeps seek to bash you in the face. Seeing as the only thing the Commander can do is utilize its Populate ability, I would say it should be more feasible to use it.
I would love to tie in a Convoke reduction in it. So if you use it to copy good-stuff creatures, you generally don't want to tap those creatures, and you have to pay up. If you utilize it on smaller self-synergistic creatures (like tribals) they can help you go wide with small creatures.
As is the way with cost reduction mechanics, the starting price goes up. So say 7 CMC for the Populate and a Convoke mechanic could be a choice as well. Additionally combining two of the Selesnya mechanics on one card.
To broaden this Commander, it could be considered to have the main body be a Changeling (every creature type) and have the tokens they create be Shapeshifters with Changeling in addition to the copied creature. (It could be considered to have the token be non-legendary.)
This opens up tribal benefits by having the Commander be within the relevant tribe, and the token copy can be used to copy strong synergy creatures, like a Lord-esque creatures or just strong creatures from that tribe.
Having Populate instead of merely making another ETB copy token, makes it harder to capitalize on the copy effect and makes it less flexible (for instance you cannot make redundant copies of multiple strong utility creatures without another way to generate those tokens in the first place), but it does keep the power level more in check.
Of course you can run token copiers or just flicker Kimni to more easily get those copies from the ETB.
You could also run multi-tribal goodstuff, so you select a variety of good tribal lords, and your shapeshifter army gets all benefits. Like include Lord of the Unreal, Lord of Atlantis, Joraga Warcaller, Knight Exemplar. Add some utility creatures like Voidmage Prodigy.
I see an interesting idea that could be utilized in a multitude of deck shells as long as it is kept in check.
January 18, 2021 10:40 a.m.