replace Treasure Cruise with Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

Aethersnatch is a better Desertion imo

Tnx for suggestions.

Maybeboarded cards are my current want actually; I'd play Jin-Gitaxias for sure if I had it and Treasure cruise is somewhat redundant in a deck lik this so I agree about the swap.

I didn't think of Aethersnatch tbh, I'll try to get a hold of one next time I go to my lgs.

I would definitely make room for a Deadeye Navigator if you are already running Palinchron. That way you can get infinite blue mana, use it to draw your entire deck with Kefnet's ability, then win the game with Laboratory Maniac. I would suggest removing either Extraplanar Lens or Treasure Cruise (The Lens might help your opponents too much and Kefnet has a very good draw ability)

Also, in case you hadn't noticed, you already have an infinite turn combo with Beacon of Tomorrows and Isochron Scepter with Mystical Tutor imprinted. It is extremely costly at 10 mana per extra turn, but it gets the job done.

Looks pretty good! +1 from meeee

Thank you for the +1.

Hmm, IDK if it'd be justified. Palinchron already gives infinite mana with any mana doubler, be it Lens, Sun, Gauntlet or High tide. But I'd be glad to give Deadeye Navigator a shot, Treasure Cruise didn't do much to begin with.

I know of that combo. It's sweet, but too...disruptable to be my first go to choice.

I'd recommend swapping out the islands for Snow-Covered Islands to give less average symmetry to your Extraplanar Lens while having no real disadvantage outside of niche snow hate (they still count as islands, so High Tide still works). It also lets you slot in the super useful Scrying Sheets. Gilded Drake could also be useful as pseudo removal, or just plain cheesy with Capsize.

I traded mine away long time ago, so I have to get myself stack of 30. I'm looking forward to getting them, but for now, I'm not too worried because people dislike blue around here (Prossh, Alesha, Meren, Krenko...). And I love scrying sheets idea, when I manage to go all out snow, I'll be sure to add it.

Gilded drake would be a nice addition now that you've mentioned it...I could use more stealing effects in general.

BTW

First night of testing is behind me. Won 2 out of 4 3-player games (mix of Alesha, Prossh, Saskia and whatnot). Once the deck gets rolling it's extremely hard to stop, winning through locks or infinite turns. The deck is far from being tuned, but its performance last night got my attention and I'll be sure to make a decent update soon.

So, has Stubborn Denial been suggested for you before?

Regardless, could you tell me what you'd think of Kefnet as a voltron commander?

TheRedGoat

I've been considering it, I justforgot to add it to the maybeboard, thanks!

Doable, but there are few issues with that:

• color - blue doesn't offer much in terms of creature buffs. Having white, or even red/green would help. However, extra turns could and should be one of the key points with added Beacon of Tomorrows + Isochron Scepter + Mystical Tutor combo.

• keywords - indestructible is much less relevant when attacking compared to defending. Built-in evasion is nice though. Vigilance would help a lot. If only it had white available. Minamo, School at Water's Edge would be considered staple in this setup

• 5/5 body - 5-turn clock per player is kinda long time. Bumping it up by 1 or 2 power would speed up the clock by a turn or two respectively. We're back to the color problem here.

Voltron Kefnet would be fun. For it to hold it's ground against t2-3 decks, you should have decent amount of extra turn spells, ramp, good equipment (Swords, boots, Avarice Amulet maybe) and it's responses would need some more fine tuning (Stubborn Denial, Dispel, Negate...woukd become much more relevant).

I am very new to playing control blue myself, even more so a control deck that would play Sunder, so I'm not quite sure how to balance having just enough damage boosters, versus control cards, versus card advantage. Like I don't want the deck to just sit there and play counterspells and only attack once per player, but I don't know how to avoid that with Kefnet damage as my focus. Would you be willing to comment on my deck? (I've got it on my profile I believe)

Great primer! You inspired me to make a kefnet drawgo deck. What would you consider kefnets weakest matchups in your experience?

Polupus, thank you for taking interest in the deck!

In my experience, considering decks I played against here and there and my usual playgroup, a deck with a lot of edict effects, such as Meren of Clan Nel Toth, and stax/dnt decks, such as Alesha, Who Smiles at Death.

Edict effects are a problem because they can deal with Kefnet easily, and therefore we have a problem, since he is the deck's main value (draw) engine and protection from random attacks. That being said, when Merenstarts doing her thing, Kefnet has hard time doing anything since she can maintain the engine easily and this deck has hard time interacting with it. When pit against each other in a 1v1-ish environment, Kefnet's win percentage is only 30-ish percent.

There are few deck's weaknesses that stax/dnt can exploit; resource denial, doing things on other people's turns and reliance on creature effects. Resource denial is relative; the deck doesn't get hosed as some other decks do, but it can be a problem. Grand Abolisher type effects are a nuisance. Those can be played around to an extent, but it significantly limits our options and it's much easier for our opponents to get away with dangerous plays. Lastly, the deck relies on creature effects a lot. Activated abilities are mandatory for the deck's main win conditions (the deck still has options, but it takes removal and/or some out-of-the-box thinking). And when we're denied triggered abilities, the deck is practically out of combos (at this point it's about feeding Kefnet tons of mana to draw into a removal, meaning that if trigger denial is paired with severe resource denial, we can scoop).

Please refer to the "metagame" section for more details. The deck might be weak in several other matchups too, but I can only speculate about those so I'd refrain from commenting here. I hope this was of help to you. I'm open for any questions you might have.

Thanks for such a detailed answer! wow

hmm, yeah I see what you mean with edicts being a problem. Especially in the build I'm trying to make where kefnet is the only creature in the deck and I combo off with Proteus Staff and Beacon of Tomorrows.

Assault Suit comes to mind as does Grafdigger's Cage

Also, Oblivion Stone, Nevinyrral's Disk and Worldslayer (clunky one) seem like a perfect fit for kefnet's indestructibility and Academy Ruins

Polupus, if you like Beacon of Tomorrows, try out combo with.

Assault suit is heavily meta-dependent. I've considered it for a bit, but for me it wasn't justified. And if you take a look at my updates section (which is quite messy and I'm sorry for that), I myself used to play Grafdigger's Cage. It's a decent option you should include if decks like Meren pose a problem to you in your particular meta.

All listed artifacts are cool options and could be tested, although those changes might steer the deck away from general control idea. Which doesn't necessarily have to be bad in itself, but it demands considering further changes to make the most of these.

*combo with Beacon of Tomorrows, Isochron Scepter and Mystical Tutor.

What do you think of Pariah's Shield?

Polupus

I don't think it's needed:

1) combat damage - Kefnet is a great pillowfort card on its own, 5/5 wall will discourage most attacks and soften/punish those that do happen. If you're having problems with token swarms, stuff like Propaganda works great. Jace, Architect of Thought might be ok if this is a recurring problem. Big attackers on the other hand are completelys harmless unless they have trample or some other effective evasion.

2) non-combat dmg - counterspells, counterspells everywhere.

Aside from that, it's 8 mana -1 that stops dmg. Kefnet on the field draws 2 cards for that mana, that's +2. So the difference is that Pariah's Shield gives dmg protection for 8 mana at virtually -3 card advantage price. At 8 mana it's unlikely that you'll be able to save mana for counters, to protect it from removal.

Is there a particular reason why it interests you?

Just seemed like another Glacial Chasm that could be used to start going on the offensive, but is easier to tutor and bring back from the grave. I see your point though. The cost doesn't justify it.

Hi again!

Let me know if I'm being a bother, but I love this bird and I wanted to pick your brain again.

Scavenger Grounds could free up a slot from Tormod's Crypt since you don't use much of your graveyard.

What do you think of Ward of Bones? You're not running very many permanents and with kefnet's ability to return lands to hand at an opponent's upkeep and your mana doublers, it could work out nicely to keep them from pulling ahead and overwhelming you if they aren't running green land ramp. Cost is high though and fills a similar role as Arcane Laboratory.

Polupus, on the contrary, I love hearing ideas.

That...is actually a great idea. It harms me a bit, I'd have to be more careful with Time Warp and Dig Through Time, but it chould work well. I'll add it to the sideboard and look around for a copy to test with.

Ward of Bones is a bit costly for what it does. 6 mana sorcery speed is a lot and it would attract enough hate that its protection would cost too much resources to make it sustainable. However, I'm planning to test Land Equilibrium when I get myself one (there are Italian ones available for a quarter of what English copies go for). Equilibrium is cheaper to cast and even though it covers less permanent types, it cover a) the most important one (outside cEDH) and b) as you've noticed, the one type with which Kefnet can interact. However in a more casual meta than mine I can see Ward of bones being a thing.

As you've mentioned Kefnet's land bounce, just to refer to earlier mention of Glacial Chasm; that is the very reason why chasm works here. It costs us a land, but late game that isn't that much of a bother and with Kefnet's bounce we can both dodge the steep upkeep cost (it's land per drop and increasingly more life loss every turn, I can balance it for a while if I want/need to) and scarce land destruction (there is some around, but not nearly as much as artifact destruction).

Is there ever a situation outside of Glacial Chasm where you'd want to scoop a land with Kefnets ability? Lands tend to be a precious resource in mono blue lists.

@Punderstorm

Such situations are uncommon, but they do come up from time to time.

It is true that this deck highly values lands, but after the deck enters mid/late game lands become more of a commodity. The deck still wants and actively works on getting more mana, but we can get rid of one or two lands if the situation calls for it.

Tolaria West is a land early on, but can be used as a tutor late game if we need to bring out a utility land.

Both MLD and targeted land removal are present in my meta. In case of MLD saving a land or two while fattening up a hand will help in getting through it. While against targeted land removal like Strip Mine it might save a valuable utility land.

In aggressive metas, maintaining 7-card hand while developing a board and ramping might be problematic so sometimes bouncing a land to hit 7 cards in hand is acceptable. Especially if we have no other lands to play the next turn anyway. Sure, drawing into a land is an option, but it is still a factor when weighing options and deciding if bouncing a land to hit 7 cards in hand is worth it or not in the particular moment.

And last, but not the least, Glacial Chasm is very neat.

I'll upvote, if just for how much time you put into the descriptions for this deck. I couldn't do it; I build, play, then build another. I'm also not a big fan of hateful-blue; that's why my Kefnet deck is pretty aggro. I'll link it below if you'd care to take a look.

It has gone 2W:2L. It won its intro game in a 4-player match, lost a 6-player Planechase, lost a 3-player match (thanks, Kozi), and won a 3-player match.

Weird that I built the deck because I could not get that Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey song by Kiss out of my head. I don't see the correlation.

Kefnet, Giver of Rock & Roll

Commander / EDH kamelyan

SCORE: 1 | 156 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

kamelyan

Thank you for taking a look, I'm glad you liked it! I myself like to build and test new decks too; I do that on a monthly basis. Some of those stick, and this is active for about a year now.

Your deck is quite interestig. However I'm happy with a control approach here. The key thing for me is the lack of white that would provide equipment tutors. We simply have different views of it and that's fine. I'll gladly drop by your list to make some suggestions.

May be too newb, but Retreat to Coralhelm lets you take advantage of that constant Landfall.

Loreshadow

Thank you for your comment!

Retreat is neat, but its crucial shortcoming is that it wastes a card from hand without replacing it. This deck lacks cards to abuse (un)tap shenanigans and there are better options for scry in form of Top and Search for Azcanta  ^Flip.

However, I will note that it's a solid budget replacement for Azcanta and that it opens up more offensive possibilities with its untap effect.

And on the general landfall; it's not as manageable as you might think. The thing is Kefnet's land bounce option isn't something I go for. I do it to reset Glacial Chasm and to save lands from MLD, instant speed of course as the draw itself. Bouncing a land to get a landfall trigger is very risky. Even without lands in hand it means going behind on mana. And you still might draw/filter into a land depending on your topdeck. So even without land in hand, I doubt I'd bounce a land just to get a landfall trigger. Your information would be better if the draw and bounce were done sorcery speed, but then it wouldn't be a good deal bc you'd be risking an overcommitment that might cost you the game. A landfall trigger isn't worth it.