Riku Shenanigans
Commander / EDH
2 COMMENTS | 425 VIEWS
1st changelog —March 11, 2018
(tl;dr at the last paragraph)
Been a while since I posted the original version. I've been playing it for some time now, so not only have I tested but also I have recieved advice from more experienced commander players. Gonna list most of the changes I've been making:
First thing I did was to improve the infinite combos. Originally only had Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Pestermite, to that combo I have added Deceiver Exarch and Body Double as a substitute for a dead Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (or almost any other combo piece for that matter). Also added Peregrine Drake to combo with Deadeye Navigator. Another infinite combo worth to be noted, although not new, is Rite of Replication
and Dualcaster Mage.
The original list included some cards which proved to be useless or at least of too little help while playing, like Nivix Guildmage, Comet Storm or Soul of New Phyrexia. These have been replaced by tutors like Tooth and Nail and value cards like Sensei's Divining Top. Other considered inclusions were Cloudstone Curio and Aluren, both suggested by older players as a way to improve the infinite combos. However I decided they didn't fit the gameplay style I'm trying to achieve. This doesn't mean I won't reconsider them time to time.
Two minor changes have been the inclusion of more ETB cheap creatures and some bigger ones with a decent amount of board impact or card advantage. Things like Serum Visions have been replaced with Coiling Oracle, and Terastodon is to be replaced with Imperial Recruiter (too much non-creature destroying effects already). On the other hand additions like Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, Hornet Queen, and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger (which will replace Zendikar Resurgent) are suposed to help the deck to kill and affect the game in mid/late turns without comboing (this has yet to be proved or denied).
I have also messed a bit with the lands, adding utility ones like Nephalia Academy, for those pesky wheel effects (Yup, you guessed it, Nekusar, the Mindrazer in the playgroup), Scavenger Grounds (A.K.A. no black, no Bojuka Bog) and Strip Mine, which will replace Frontier Bivouac. Some ramp has been replaced with non-basic land tutors like Sylvan Scrying and Reap and Sow.
The last changes are the ones I think will improve gameplay the most. Riku of Two Reflections is a fairly slow deck to play. It needs some early ramp to start doing all those crazy things the deck wants to do. Sometimes these crazy things help a bit to the ramp (like blinking Solemn Simulacrum with Deadeye Navigator), but this is rather uncommon. That means the best opening hands will have a few lands and a few ramp, with some more ramp on the top, but it also means you will burn your hand ramping, and have to wait to draw into something cool. Solution seems obvious: more draw cards. Blue Sun's Zenith, Fevered Visions and Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius are not enough, so I decided to add Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Stroke of Genius and Jace, Unraveler of Secrets. If more are needed, or if some of the mentioned need replacement, probably Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, since it doesn't interact with most of the deck and is a bit slow (wanted to test a planeswalker in the list though), Pull from Tomorrow and Rhystic Study are to be considered. The space for these inclusions will be drawn from taking out counters, leaving only the most versatile ones: Cryptic Command *list* (is just too good to not let it be), Summary Dismissal, Disallow and Voidslime (the 3 can handle both spells and abilities, which makes them useful against commanders like Breya, Etherium Shaper or Marath, Will of the Wild *f-etch*). This will be done because 1 for 1 counters are not usually worth in multiplayer (which is the main goal of this deck), and trying to control the game without non-infinite combos, is just useless with this version of Riku of Two Reflections. The remaining 1 for 1 control spells will be left in hand and used against major threats to our gameplan.
As promised, here goes the tl;dr. Most of this changes have been done to get the deck working properly. Since I'm not a very experienced player, and my time to test is limited, I'm going really slow. This logs are intended to be a helping hand for anyone in similar situations, since probably any older player will see all these changes as almost obvious (providing that I'm not wrong about them...). I hope next logs will be more about fine-tuning changes than this one.
P.D.: 2018-03-17 After some research I found Thrasios, Triton Hero might be another good replacement in case Jace, Unraveler of Secrets does not work out. Has a great sinergy with Azami, Lady of Scrolls, and the effect is, maybe costly, but repeatable in the same turn. And also it can ramp a lil bit sometimes???? That's just awesome.