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Keskit & Ich-Tekik - Elusive Perfection (retired)

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Golem Partner Tokens

KBK7101

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Artifacts (35)

Tokens (15)

Recovery (5)

Sac Outlet (5)

Protection (2)

Copy (1)

Discard (1)

Lands (34)

Ramp/Reduction (15)

Golems (9)

Removal (8)

Board Wipe (3)

Tutor (2)

ETB Doubler (1)

Commanders (2)

Commander: foil Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer
Commander: foil Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor

Core Synergy (18)

Card Draw (11)

Counter Synergy (7)

Artifact Synergy (3)

Graveyard Hate (2)

Flash (1)

Maybeboard

In another deck (11)

Not owned (6)

Crimson Vow (2)

Other (1)

Owned (1)

4/26/23

This deck has been retired in favor of Vishgraz, the Doomhive. This deck was fun, if a bit grindy. Still very proud of this iteration of the deck. Deck and primer will remain on the site for future reference for myself and others.

***Note : All cards choices came from research using Scryfall, EDHREC and here on TappedOut.

CUSTOM CATEGORIES FEATURES CARDS IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS. THEY ARE NOT DUPLICATES. DECK CONTAINS 100 CARDS.

This deck focuses on a partner pairing of Phyrexian artificers (they've been errata'd to have the Phyrexian creature type now) of Keskit and Ich-Tekik. The main gameplan for this deck is going to use Keskit to generate value by sacrificing our own creatures and artifacts, not like an aristocrat deck, while Ich-Tekik will be making golem tokens and giving them +1/+1 counters for each of our artifacts that hit the graveyard. Together, they work in tandem to generate a slow and steady stream of value until our opponents die from damage by our huge golem tokens or by one of our other means (Marionette Master/Disciple of the Vault).

Quick rundown of both of them --

  • Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer is the personal splicer for the Praetor Vorinclex. Vorinclex believes that these golems have the potential to become the ultimate predator. Because of this, Ich-Tekik has been given creative freedom and near limitless resources to create the perfect killing machine... and if he doesn't... well, let's just say that nothing goes to waste in New Phyrexia. Focusing on token generation is going to be half of our gameplan with this deck. Ich-Tekik creates a 3/3 golem token upon ETB and gives all golems (and himself!) +1/+1 counters for each of our artifacts that gets destroyed. This synergizes incredibly well with...

  • Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor worked under Sheoldred, for whom he had an obsession with. He believed that she was the epitome of evolution and his sole desire was to remake the world in her image. This means that his newly compleated creations tended to have some passing resemblance to Sheoldred and her spider-like appearance. Unfortunately, his whereabouts are unknown after the destruction of Sheoldred's realm at the hands of Elesh Norn. The gameplan with Keskit is going to be sacrificing creatures and artifacts every turn to generate a snowball effect of value. His ability lets you sacrifice three creatures and/or artifacts to look at the top three cards of your library, pick two of them and then toss the other one in the graveyard. Some of our main targets for this ability are going to be Mycosynth Wellspring, Ichor Wellspring and anything else with a death trigger. This synergizes nicely with Ich-Tekik because we're mainly going to be sacrificing artifacts. Ich-Tekik will see these three artifacts being destroyed and then put three +1/+1 counters on himself and any golems we may happen to have on the field. The process of compleation may be slow... but it is absolute.

(Lore for these two has been briefly summarized from their excerpts in the Legendary Creatures of Commander Legends pt.1 and pt.2 articles on magic.wizards.com)

God-Eternal Bontu is a favorite card of mine. Amonkhet being my favorite plane, I toss this card in any deck that it could be halfway decent in. In this deck, it serves as a mass sacrifice outlet and lets us profit off their death triggers... and draw cards at the same time!

Glissa, the Traitor is mainly here for New Phyrexia flavor, but she also works really well with the amount of artifacts we have and is a pretty reliable way of recurring the ones that we end up sacrificing for Keskit or anything else.

Guardian Augmenter is a new card from Commander 2021 that gives our commanders +2/+2 and Hexproof. This card is great in partner decks because you have two cards that can benefit from this instead of the normal one.

Kuldotha Forgemaster is a great (albeit, kind of slow) tutor engine. We'll have plenty of artifacts to feed him so he'll never run out of fuel.

Meteor Golem and Noxious Gearhulk are both for removal. Meteor Golem is also a golem, so he'll get any counters that Ich-Tekik gives out.

Steel Overseer and Verdurous Gearhulk hand out copious amounts of +1/+1 counters.

Shimmer Myr gives all of our artifacts Flash.

Jhoira's Familiar is a staple in any deck that has heavy artifact synergies. It also makes your commanders (and any other legendary creatures) cost one less, which I think is something that people tend to forget.

Geode Golem is a golem who lets us cast a commander (usually the high-costed Ich-Tekik) for FREE whenever he deals combat damage. Trample makes this a simple feat. Golden Guardian   is another golem in the deck. He can fight another one of your creatures and returns as a flipped land when he dies. His flip side, Gold-Forge Garrison   can help ramp by adding two mana of one color or can be tapped to make a golem token.

- This next section is going to focus on the core of our deck. These are the creatures we're hoping to see every single game.

Myr Retriever, Junk Diver and Workshop Assistant all bring back an artifact from your graveyard to your hand when they die. Alongside our Wellsprings, Spellbombs and Implements, these three creatures are going to be our main sacrifice fodder. Their deaths will help recur a lot of what we sacrifice and they can even be used to get each other back!

Solemn Simulacrum is another staple that finds a perfect home in this deck. It helps ramp, it draws us a card, it's a golem and it's an artifact, which means it's death will trigger Ich-Tekik. A key card in this deck that we'll hope to play and sacrifice multiple times.

Vital Splicer, Maul Splicer and Phyrexian Triniform all make us golem tokens. The splicers are like Ich-Tekik and make them when they ETB. Vital Splicer can regenerate golems for a simple and Maul Splicer grants all of our golems trample. Triniform on the other hand, does not make any golems upon ETB, but rather he makes THREE of them upon death. If he's cast for his Encore cost from the graveyard, he'll make a copy of himself for each opponent and they'll all die at the end of turn. Their death triggers mean that you could potentially end up with NINE golems. The other half of the creature-based token generators are Sly Requisitioner, Tireless Provisioner and Academy Manufactor. Provisioner and Manufactor are two new cards from Modern Horizons 2 that make Food, Clue and Treasure tokens and work insanely well together. If they're both out, all you have to do is play a land to have enough artifacts for Keskit to sacrifice. Insane! Requisitioner is an older card from Aether Revolt that makes servo tokens whenever one of our nontoken creatures die. She also has Improvise, which means she could cost as little as . A new addition here is Voldaren Bloodcaster   from Innistrad Crimson Vow. There isn't too much in the way of Blood token support, but I've added her in because she seems like a good fit here. Plus, the more artifact tokens, the better!

This last section showcases our alternate means of dealing damage with our artifacts. Cabal Paladin will deal two damage to EACH opponent whenever we cast one (or any other legendary creatures!). Nadier's Nightblade is a powerhouse with the aforementioned Provisioner and/or Manufactor. Disciple of the Vault is slow but steady damage that'll add up over time (unless they're playing Oloro or something). Marionette Master can be used to make tokens but I think, for this deck, she'll need as many +1/+1 counters as she can get since she'll deal damage equal to her power to target opponent whenever artifacts die.

This deck doesn't run many enchantments at the moment. Moldervine Reclamation provides us with a good source of card draw once Keskit is doing his thing. Phyrexian Scriptures is mostly for flavor but also serves as a board wipe and graveyard hate. Fae Offering and Ulvenwald Mysteries are both token generators. Offering is much better in this regard, but Mysteries can provide us with creatures if we sacrifice clue tokens.
Mostly removal and ramp. Use whichever ones you prefer. Some other stand out cards are Inspiring Call, which offers protection and card draw if we have creatures with +1/+1 counters, Reprocess does the same thing that God-Eternal Bontu does and Culling Ritual is a board wipe that can ramp us at the same time. It does hit artifacts, so it has the additional benefit of triggering death triggers as well.

Pointed Discussion is a new card from Crimson Vow that is great here. It's essentially Read the Bones but instead of scrying, we make the new Blood artifact tokens. Other new Crimson Vow additions are Dig Up as a cheap ($$) tutor (even though I think Cleave is a clunky mechanic) and Retrieve as a good source of recovery.

This deck runs a lot of noncreature artifacts. The obvious ramp ones aren't really too crazy and, like always, I recommend that you use whichever ones of those that you like. Servo Schematic and Golem Foundry are great at making tokens. Foundry gets counters for each artifact we cast and we can remove three of those counters to make a golem. Schematic seems innocent enough, but it has an ETB AND a death trigger, which means it's going to be one of the cards that we want to see every game so we can cast it, sac it, get it back over and over again. On a similar note, this leads into the main chunk of our noncreature artifacts, the Spellbombs, Horizon Spellbomb and Nihil Spellbomb, the Implements, Implement of Ferocity and Implement of Malice and the Wellsprings, Mycosynth Wellspring and Ichor Wellspring. These six cards will provide us a ton of value when cast, sacrificed and recurred. They draw us cards, ramp us, put counters on our creatures, discard cards and exile graveyards. All six are key to our gameplan.

Throne of Geth to proliferate our +1/+1 counters, Inspiring Statuary to help us get ahead by turning our noncreature artifacts into psuedo ramp, Maskwood Nexus makes all of our creatures golems, Conjurer's Closet blinks a creature at the end of our turn to help us take advantage of some ETB triggers (Ich-Tekik, the Splicers, Meteor Golem or either of the Gearhulks) and Sculpting Steel to double up on whatever artifact is the most useful at the time. Blasting Station is also included because I have a feeling it leads into something, but I'm not sure what. (I have very little knowledge of infinite combos)

Basic land art is from New Phyrexia to match the home plane of our two commanders.

Any two-color lands are entirely up to you. Use which ones you prefer! Some lands that do stand out are Vault of Whispers, Tree of Tales and the new Power Depot and Darkmoss Bridge from Modern Horizons 2 for being artifact lands. You can sacrifice them to Keskit in a pinch if you really need to! Witch's Cottage and Gingerbread Cabin from Throne of Eldraine both offer us a token if we have three other lands of that type. Tomb of the Spirit Dragon, Phyrexia's Core and Nesting Grounds offer us some utility for gaining life or moving counters around.

Some of the key cards that I'd recommend for building this deck are --
vs. Kwain, Itinerant Meddler (Force feed) vs. Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire (all permanents/sort of dragon tribal)

W

First game! Played a game against my two brothers earlier today and managed to squeak out a win! This game was mainly a battle of value between me and Vaevictus. Sadly, Kwain didn't draw into lands (my brother always seems to have that problem these days) and was a nonfactor for 99% of the game. Vaevictus and I were ramping, drawing and sacrificing our way forward at lightning speed. A board wipe or two set me back but this deck is extremely resilient thanks to cards like Myr Retriever and Junk Diver. Vaevictus was insanely aggro and was attacking Kwain every turn. I managed to take him out with a few huge golem tokens while he had no blockers. Meanwhile, Kwain had snuck out a Triskaidekaphile and had 13 cards in hand. Managed to kill it before his next upkeep and flattened him with tokens right after to seal a win!

Very happy with how this deck turned out. It turned out to be much stronger than I had anticipated when it game to an actual game. Golem Foundry, Mycosynth Wellspring, Junk Diver and Myr Retriever are allstars!

That's everything! Maybeboard is a collection of possible upgrades I'd like some feedback on. Let me know of any possible cuts or if there are any other cards that synergize well with artifacts in like Marionette Master, Cabal Paladin etc. Would love feedback on this one. Let me know what you think!

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Updates Add

v1.1 — Dec. 4, 2021
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OUT - 1x Forest, Brainstone, Cranial Plating, Traxos Scourge of Kroog, Kaldra Compleat

IN - Deathcap Glade, Pointed Discussion, Retrieve, Dig Up, Voldaren Bloodcaster

Innistrad Crimson Vow update. Added in some stuff I pulled from a booster box.

First game recap! — Nov. 27, 2021
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95% Casual

Competitive

Revision 5 See all

(3 years ago)

-1 Brainstone main
+1 Chatterfang, Squirrel General maybe
-1 Cranial Plating main
+1 Deathcap Glade main
+1 Dig Up main
-1 Forest main
-1 Kaldra Compleat main
+1 Pointed Discussion main
+1 Retrieve main
-1 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog main
Top Ranked
Date added 3 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

34 - 0 Rares

29 - 0 Uncommons

20 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.39
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Blood, Clue, Copy Clone, Food, Golem 3/3 C, Golem 4/4 C, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Phyrexian Golem 3/3 C, Servo 1/1 C, Shapeshifter 2/2 U, Treasure
Folders Retired
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