Intro
I've been messing around with the idea of using ramp to facilitate a smoother Kiki play in a post Twin world. The deck is extremely fun to play and rewards you for learning it's interactions and proper sequencing. Turn 3 Kiki combos off semi-regularly, with a Turn 2 Christmasland in your back pocket.
Combos
Deceiver Exarch + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
GG. The classic Kiki/Deceiver combo. But taking what used to be a Turn 4 combo and pushing it to Turn 5 seems bad in Modern. Also, turning an Enchantment that was impervious to most of Modern's MD removal into a 2RRR creature that dies to a gentle breeze also feels pretty flimsy. I wanted to find a way to get the combo off on the classic tap out turns (3-4) in order to make it somewhat more viable in Modern. Enter Arbor Elf.
Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl
Arbor Elf + Sprawl will net you 4 mana on turn 2. This combo now enables you to do something like this:
T1: Forest, Arbor Elf. Pass
T2: Stomping Ground, Utopia Sprawl, Deceiver Exarch, Untap Stomping Ground, Spellskite. Pass
T3: Land that makes R, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. GG
Feels pretty explosive, and you're actually now able to get the combo in a turn before previous Twin builds. Also important to note is that the Deceiver play on turn 2 will leave you with 1 extra mana floating. So you can actually play something like Eternal Witness or Savage Knuckleblade instead of a 2-drop like Spellskite there. The problem I was having was that I was taking a 2 card combo and turning it into a 4 card combo with heavy mana requirements. This is where Kiora, Master of the Depths comes in.
Though adding an extra card to an already complex combo seems antithetical, Kiora essentially becomes a free T2 play with Arbor Elf and a Sprawl out.
T1: Forest, Arbor Elf. Pass
T2: Stomping Ground, Utopia Sprawl, Kiora, Master of the Depths, +1 selecting Elf and Sprawl, Huntmaster of the Fells
T3: Tap Arbor and Land, Deceiver Exarch (floating one R), +1, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. GG.
Kiora allows the same combo to go off on turn 3, with one less land. So the turn 3 combo off still takes 7 cards to pull off same as before. Adding 3 outs to pull it off actually increases the consistency of the combo slightly; and her -2 ability allows you to dig for both land and combo pieces.
**For fun, here's the once-in-a-blue-moon T2 combo that Kiora enables:
T1: Land, Arbor Elf
T2: Shockland, Utopia Sprawl, Tap Sprawled land, 2nd Utopia Sprawl floating a mana, Tap Elf to untap double sprawled land, Kiora, Master of the Depths, +1 (untapping Elf and sprawled land), Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (tap to copy Elf > Elf Copy untaps sprawled land), Deceiver Exarch. GG.**
In order to up the consistency of the deck further, I installed a bunch of slightly worse, but still good cards that served as redundancies to allow the deck to operate even with suboptimal hands or to recover from removal.
Fertile Ground, Bounding Krasis, and Kiora's Follower.
Kiora's Follower in particular is an interesting card that allows for some powerful interactions. The ability to untap any Permanent you control can lead to some pretty fun times with Kiki Jiki and an ETB on board.
Kiki + Kiora's Follower + Wurmcoil Engine = swing for 18 dmg Deathtouch/Lifelink and 2 of each Wurm token at EoT.
KJ + KF + Thragtusk = swing for 15, gain 15 life, and 2 3/3 Beast tokens at EoT.
KJ + KF + Kiora MotD (+1 untapping KJ) + Acidic Slime = Destroy 4 lands + Swing for 8 dmg Deathtouch
Just some super fun interactions.
Anyways I really like playing this deck. I don't know if it's the most competitive thing in the world, but it's fun as hell and lets you do some pretty ridiculous stuff. The reason I'm posting here is because I need help tuning it to beat Eldrazi.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! thanks!!!
