Pattern Recognition #205 - Killian, Commanding Duelist

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

29 July 2021

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Hello everyone! This is Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series as written by myself, berryjon. I am something of an Old Fogey who has been around the block quite a few times where Magic is concerned, as as such, I use this series to talk about the various aspects of this game, be it deck design, card construction, mechanics chat, in-universe characters and history. Or whatever happens to cross my mind this week. Please, feel free to dissent in the comments below the article, add suggestions or just plain correct me! I am a Smart Ass, so I can take it.

Welcome back everyone! In the week and change since the last update, I've been playing with Killian as my Brawler more and more, and I've come to a few conclusions. Or rather, it would be better to say that I have made a few observations about the deck that need to be addressed in order to turn it into a Commander Deck.

Namely, I'm losing.

I miss the sheer power of the Questing Beast, that's for sure, but Killian is something that I may be tearing down and rebuilding with each new set as I try to find a line that works. I will see about keeping you all appraised, but that's a long term thing over the next year.

But what positive observations have I been getting? Well, first is that as long as Killian is on the field, the removal is great. Amazing even. But keeping him on the field is the problem, so moving forward into Commander, protecting Killian will be more and more important. Especially with the deeper pool of removal cards in all colours.

In addition, the focus on single-target removal needs be be addressed. That is, I need options for mass removal. I'm seriously considering including Doomskar in the Brawl version to help keep wide decks down. And possibly Ondu Inversion  ^Flip, but that's very expensive, and will take out Equipment as well, which is not something I'm liking. Man, there's a paucity of mass removal in this rotation, isn't there? Here's hoping we get more options in the next year. Maybe Blot Out the Sky?

There are a few things that need to be addressed, and I should cover them in order as I start adding cards. But first, I did do some research over on EDHRec for Killian himself. And it turns out that on an EDH level, and not a Brawl level, I've chosen... poorly. A lot of the suggestions from that site indicate that most people are looking at Killian as a Voltron styled commander, using his cost reduction on himself for the most part, loading him up with protections and boosters, then hitting face for the win.

I like this, though I think that my home brew version of him, the one that's built from scratch and not up from a Brawl deck, will be more in line with the Spellslinger archetype, where everything he casts also helps draw cards and just burn through the deck for more options.

I'm getting sidetracked here. Moving forward with the Commander deck, I will be turning again to the work of Suns_Champion, who wrote a primer on building a Commander Deck. I hope it helps you out as much as it helped me.

What is important from that article series was the notion that you can build a framework for your deck around squares. That being 8 sets of 8 cards in your deck, each with a different purpose, then a 6x6 grid of lands to fill things out for 100 cards. Oh, and your Commander in there as well. For the purposes of this deck, the 8 divisions will be Ramp, Draw, Removal, Protection, Recursion, Voltron, Buffs and Wildcard.

THE ADDITIONS

This is the emptiest part of the deck, and right now, Goldvein Pick and Letter of Acceptance would be on the chopping block to go if this were a scratch build, but I'm building up for Commander here, and they have to stay. To that end, I'm going to add the following cards to the deck:

• Sol Ring
• Arcane Signet
• Jet Medallion
• Pearl Medallion
• Orzhov Signet

Now, the important part here is that I'm trying to keep my mana costs down. Being able to throw out more cards is more important in the long run, and cheaper is better. So everything here costs or . The Medallions are there to keep costs down in the general as a passive, muck like Killian himself does, but more general.

Anyway, it's OK to be light on acceleration for a deck that I intend to be as cheap to cast as possible. Moving on to draw...

Drawing is a lot more complicated, as a lot of 's card draw is next to non-existent, and tends to sacrifice to do stuff. But it turns out that while I wound up including Crushing Disappointment for a lack of better options, moving out into Commander provides me with two very, very useful cards. Actually, it provides me with a few.

Looking into the equipment though, I find a couple of options that might work. Avarice Amulet is right out as is Sword of Fire and Ice as being well out of my price range. But Skeleton Key and Zephyr Boots each provide a type of evasion, and are cheap to cast and equip after Killian dies again. But past that? Well, here's the additions:

• Dawn of Hope
• Phyrexian Arena
• Skeleton Key
• Zephyr Boots

Dawn of Hope is an excellent way to draw cards in this deck as Killian has built-in Lifelink, making the trigger easy to get. Phyrexian Arena is reliable card draw at the cost of life, but again, we're looking at a Commander with Lifelink whose job is to beat face in. I'm concerned that this deck doesn't have enough draw, but I think I will be padding that out with cantrips with later additions to the deck.

Even so, this is still only 9 additional cards out of 40. I'm going to reserve 11 spaces for lands, so that means 20 more.

Next thing to look at is Removal. Look, I could list cards all day here, as these are the best colors for removal in general, so I'm going to skip to the end. Or rather, I already have 11 of them, so let's be a bit frugal with my choices? I do want mass removal, and some more spot removal, including utility removal. That's a lot of options, so lets get down to it.

Utility removal is something of a solid choice for , and dropping in Disenchant is always a good choice. In fact, let's push outside my self-imposed limit for a moment and grab Austere Command, which can be targeted to avoid Killian. But what I really want for mass removal, if you'll allow me the side digression, is Slaughter the Strong and Bontu's Last Reckoning.

The former is an interesting asymmetric board wipe from Commander Legends, and most importantly has a mana value of , instead of , making it technically easier to cast. Yes, they both have double coloured pips, but Slaughter the Strong can avoid Killian and someone else if I'm careful with my equipment and temporary boosts, while Bontu's Last Reckoning is by no means a good board wipe, but it is cheaper than the usual fare. Someone sees , they think of Damnation, but if you're one short? Well, boardwipes aren't that cheap are they?

I do, however, want some more direct removal. And while it would be tempting to dig deep into the absolutely hilarious number of removal spells.... well, let's just say I'm always up for a laugh.

MORE REMOVAL!

• Disenchant
• Decommission
• Utter End
• Austere Command
• Slaughter the Strong
• Bontu's Last Reckoning
• Vindicate
• Anguished Unmaking

That leaves me with 12 more cards, and I need to spread this out with Protection, Recursion, Voltron and Wildcard. Oh, who am I kidding, Wildcard is dead at this point, and Protection and Voltron can roll into each other at this point. It's the Recursion I need.

Lurrus of the Dream-Den was suggested to me as an option, and let me tell you, the thought of Killian with Lurrus as a Companion is damn near terrifying if built semi-competently, and I think when I scratch-build this Commander, that's the way it's going to go. But for now, he's going to have to go into the deck like a normal creature. Call of the Death-Dweller is good, and Sun Titan is expensive, but at the top of the game, so he can go in as well. And I'll add in Sevinne's Reclamation for good measure.

And that's 8 for Voltron and Protection. We'll start with the staples of Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves. Commander's Plate and Sanctuary Blade are both good protection options as I can customize the Protection with the latter, and the former is solid three-colour protection for two fo the most common colours in Commander, and as well. I should add Benevolent Blessing and Unquestioned Authority to help Killian swing in without fear.

Two more cards...? Ah... Gods Willing and Teferi's Protection for the last.

Good god, that hurt. This deck is a mess, I can tell. Building up from a Brawl deck hurts in this case, and I can see why. It's hard! Anyways, I still have 11 lands to add, so let's see here. I need... Well, let's start with the obvious. All the missing duals. Temple of Silence, Caves of Koilos, Orzhov Basilica, Isolated Chapel, Godless Shrine and Concealed Courtyard. From there, Castle Locthwain is always a good choice, and then that should leave me with 23 cards in total for Basics. so let's go with 12 Swamps and 11 Plains.

And here is it, in all it's horrible glory:

Killian, Commanding Duellist

Commander / EDH berryjon

1 COMMENT | 72 VIEWS

Yeah, this deck is a mess. It's got little in the way of focus, it's hard to close out the game, and this is where transitioning from Brawl too Commander really hurts.

I'm going to brew up a version for myself, and when that's done, I'll post it for you guys here, as well as my decisions that went into it.

Join me next week, when I think I'm going to go back to Solle next week and hammer out the five Artifacts at Rare, one for each tribe, and how that will affect the design going forward. Maybe even the Legendaries themselves. Who knows?

Until then please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!