anduri: Riku's abilities are triggered abilities rather than activated, so Training Grounds wouldn't affect Riku at all. It also only reduces costs by two colorless mana. The only creatures in here it would work on are Purphoros, God of the Forge (which is almost never a creature in this build unless I copy some juicy red stuff,) and Thassa, God of the Sea.

Hipparchos: Ha! Yeah, I see Biovisionary in a lot of Riku builds and he makes sense, but my playgroup would boo.

bluetigerreed: Brutalizer Exarch is a rockstar in this deck. He puts any non-creature permanent on the bottom of an opponent's library, and since I play against things like Darksteel Forge and Cabal Coffers on a regular basis, he puts in a lot of very important work for me. If I were to take him out, I'd need to put in something to exile artifacts or enchantments.

Impulse is also a very good card when you're playing a deck that leaves mana open, since it's an instant. It only gets you one card, but it lets you pick a good one and put the ones you don't want to draw on the bottom. And if it's copied with Riku, forget about it.

I've thought about it, and I don't think Spelljack is right for this build. If I'm leaving that much mana open it should be for Time Stop. Riku uses up so much mana on main phase stuff that having too many big-drop instants could be quite a bother. I'll leave it in the maybeboard still, but I'm not sure it's going to work.

Forceofnature1: I love the Rude Awakening suggestion! That looks fantastic. I'll probably never make my lands creatures unless it's down to 1v1 and my opponent is tapped out, but that looks handy. What would your advice be as for cuts, since you have some Riku experience?

All in all, I'd have to say this deck is the most fun one I've built, and in my playgroup, it's damn near unbeatable. That said, we don't play extra turns, or mass land destruction, and I'm already furrowing brows with Kiki and Zealous Conscripts. Don't know how well this deck would hold up against a super speedy competitive deck, but it's very strong and resilient.

Oops that is totally correct, to redeem that suggestion, Ghostly Flicker+Riku of Two Reflections is a good combo with most of your creatures. Another combo like this is Crystal Shard in place of Ghostly Flicker you could even use AEther Adept so you can recast and trigger Riku again. Especially to use this with Eternal Witness or Zealous Conscripts

Thanks for your response! :)

Well indeed, you don't make any friends with instant wins. I got your point. But neither making infinite creatures :-P

I've tested your deck the past two weeks, and it plays really smooth and your deck is also consistent. I got maybe one out of ten games slightly mana scewed.

What i really miss are two main things, which i want to point out. First thing is, your deck is definitely missing some board sweepers like Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction. During testing it really struggled against token-focused decks. The second thing i've missed is some kind of evasion (trample, flying,...) for your creatures and tokens to get damage through. Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth + Tooth and Nail for example. This can work as a win condition too; or with Akroma's Memorial.

I'm just surprised you don't have anything to give your creatures haste. Temur Ascendancy will fit perfectly into your deck i think.

I often had problems with spot removal. Sometimes cards like Asceticism, Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots will help a lot i guess.

Tutors are also nice to have. :) Mystical Tutor & Worldly Tutor

Some cards you can consider are:

• Curse of the Swine
• Sleep
• Creeping Corrosion
• Moment's Peace
• Back to Nature
• Chaos Warp
• Into the Core
• Reality Shift
• All Is Dust
• Voidslime
• Plasm Capture
• Gilded Drake
• Sower of Temptation

But the most difficult thing is to cut cards i guess. :D Keep your good work up and your deck up to date. ;)

anduri and Hipparchos: Thanks for the responses and the recommendations.

I like the Ghostly Flicker idea, but since Riku is so mana-hungry, I think I'd choose Essence Flux, which I'd prefer over Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves. If I have a key thing that needs to stay out, I'm already using Cackling Counterpart to respond to spot removal. I'm not a fan of the footwear in this build for a few reasons. I hate doing things at sorcery speed with Riku, and the initial mana investment for a removal magnet (especially when I don't have any other artifacts that I'll want staying out later) just doesn't seem worth it when the deck tends to be resilient enough that it survives spot removal just fine.

As for the sweepers, what do you think about Evacuation? Right now I'm using AEtherize, Ixidron, and Cyclonic Rift, which all get around things like indestructibility and undying. Ixidron doesn't help a ton in the token department, but it sure hoses just about everything else.

I sort of have a "no Craterhoof Behemoth" policy because I find him incredibly boring as a win con. A lot of the fun of playing this deck is that it's consistent in its unpredictablity-- rather than tutor, Reverberate someone else's. (That said, I already have Mystical Tutor in the maybeboard, but in many cases I'd honestly probably grab Recurring Insight with it, unless I needed to play on the defensive and find AEtherize.)

All of these are good and logical choices. Into the Core might certainly make its way in here. Not sure what I would swap for it, but I've been thinking I need something to take care of Torpor Orb for good, because my friend just added it to his Hanna, Ship's Navigator deck to hose me.

One of your combos I really like is Conjurer's Closet+Prime Speaker Zegana that ability to draw cards when you are out is nice! And with Day's Undoing you don't have to worry about drawing out!

anduri: One of these days, I'll get a T1 Burgeoning and a T2 Day's Undoing, and the gods will bow at my feet.

Oh, and Hipparchos: I had Temur Ascendancy in the original build, but I took it out because I had so few creatures that would cantrip with it. Do you think it's still worth including?

I see your point regarding to Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves. They're sometimes nice to have, but not necessary at all. Well, u can't target a legendary creature with Cackling Counterpart; just sayin'. ;) Essence Flux sounds great.

I do like AEtherize and Cyclonic Rift very much. They saved me one or two turns really often. But there were many situations lately, where i just wanted to be my opponents' creatures gone; not to be bounced back to their hand, into their graveyard. Especially late game, when everyone has more than enough mana to cast 4-5 creatures the next turn. For me Ixidron was just meh the whole time.

Temur Ascendancy needs definitely a spot in your deck. After casting Cyclonic Rift during an opponent's turn, i could have won more games, when i've just had a copied Avenger of Zendikar or Hornet Queen with haste.

Last but not least Burgeoning was underwhelming everytime.

Can i ask you a favor? It will be great, if you can write short summaries about your (epic) wins in your playgroup. Most important how you have won; as you mentioned before your deck is near unbeatable. ;)

Malignus is a funny card. ;)

Malignus is a funny card. ;)

Let's see... Purphoros was a star player in a few of them, usually with Avenger of Zendikar or Hornet Queen. A Deadeye Navigator on Venser, Shaper Savant while I had Conjurer's Closet out was a scoop. A kicked Rite of Replication on a Rune-Scarred Demon with Parallel Lives did the job. And I've won two games with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts .

The thing with Burgeoning is that while it seems like a great T1 play (which it is,) it's much better later in the game, especially if it's opening up blue mana for you to use on instants. I've got one guy in my group skipping land drops because of it. You can play more on your turn when you're dropping lands on other players' turns. It's a tiny mana investment that can have a huge payoff when it sticks, but doesn't feel bad when it doesn't.

Yeah that's true; Purphoros, God of the Forge is an all star here. First i was sceptical, but he does his work perfectly. :) I've won two games with it. First casting and copied Hornet Queen, and the second a kicked Rite of Replication on an opponent's creature.

I've never accomplished the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts combo, but once i played against Atarka, World Render as cmd. I've stolen it with Zealous Conscripts and copied it to steal another dragon. My opponent was on >20 life, but in the end i've won with one attack phase. Also because the two Zealous Conscripts had haste. Therefore you need Temur Ascendancy in here; and it gives you carddraw too. :)

What's your opinion on Wash Out and Burn from Within?

Or Defense of the Heart? Damn, so many good cards you can put into a Riku deck. :)

Hipparchos: They're all good choices, though I'm not in love with the sorcery speed on Wash Out and Burn from Within. Defense of the Heart is fantastic with Riku--but this is more of a playgroup thing for me. It's just way too easy to get Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts with that thing, like Tooth and Nail. It makes perfect sense, but my playgroup would bristle.

I've swapped Vandalblast with Into the Core, and foiled out some more cards (pretty Time Stop and Twincast!) I'm planning on swapping Ixidron with Blasphemous Act, but the copy I have is in my Innistrad cube at the moment, so I'm going to just wait until I get a foil to make the swap. Still thinking about what to swap for Temur Ascendancy.

I'm weird because I enjoy the flavor of cards as much as I do their utility. With several different decks I try not to use the same cards in each one otherwise I feel like I'm just playing an "EDH staples" game. Hence why cards like Guided Passage appeal to me. I also like Decimate Tooth and Nail Epic Experiment and Unexpected Results.

I ended up doing like 4 or 5 different builds with him, it just depends on what style of play you are into. You can definitely load this thing up with burn spells and trim to some more mass effect creatures or go crazy with an Epic Experiment centered deck.

Riku can always win. If you're playgroup doesn't like extra turns I get that, and they will probably ban kiki-jiki if you're not careful he is just plain broken.

Swap Burgeoning or Mimic Vat for Temur Ascendancy. :)

What about Bribery?

Hm both my suggestions to swap something for Temur Ascendancy are bad ones though. Your deck is already fine tuned.

If you were going to take something out I would take out Day's undoing. You should be abusing your graveyard through green recursion not shuffling it back in. Not sure what that card is made to do in this build other than exactly what it says it does, but also not sure how what it does helps you significantly.

Take it out and put in Temur Ascendancy

Forceofnature1: Good point, i'll give it a try.

On the other hand Day's Undoing saved me once from an opponent's mill deck.

sideboard that badboy up then, just a very situational card.

I ended up editing my own mirror mastery deck to be more like this one, Some of my favorite combos have been Riku of Two Reflections+Strionic Resonator for any combo but especially Clone Legion though you have to properly mana ramp for this one, if you can't then just Riku of Two Reflections+Clone Legion.

Another good car for the combo Riku of Two Reflections + Strionic Resonator is Mercurial Pretender especially since you can do this over and over if you have good mana.

To run combos like this, other good cards would be Parallel Lives and Flameshadow Conjuring then use Crystal Shard or Erratic Portal

I should also add Sakashima the Impostor