Riku
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 1 | 2 COMMENTS | 1636 VIEWS
July 25, 2018
I had the chance to play a few games the other day, for perhaps the first time in three years., and for the first time since the introduction of the Vancouver Mulligan. I had some fun, but it quickly became clear that my deck had relied heavily on the partial paris mulligan to function. Too many of my openers needed to be mulliganed, and even after multiple mulls I still had poor hands.
From the games I played, I identified a few key weaknesses: - Lack of early card advantage - Not enough lands - Lack of low-cmc answers
With those points in mind, I've made a couple of changes:
- Cyclonic Rift out, Swan Song in
I made the decision a while ago that I don't like Cyclonic Rift - I think it's just too punishing for your opponents, and it's really no fun to play against. I'd been looking for space for Swan Song for a while, to fill in my low-cmc removal/protection needs. I typically don't like counterspells, but I feel like Swan Song is restricted enough that I'm happy to run it.
- Capsize out, Dig Through Time in
Capsize is another card I've come to realise I don't like. It's always either awful or game-breaking, and never truly felt good for me to cast. Interestingly, Venser, Shaper Savant combos with Riku to do a pretty good impression of capsize with buyback, and feels much more rewarding to pull off. I've detailed the Venser trick* further below. Dig Through Time gives extremely potent card selection and advantage, especially when copied.
- Spitting Image out, Altered Ego in
I found that I almost never retraced Spitting Image, because I nearly always just want to play lands rather than discard them. Spitting Image also only makes a token copy of a creature, which Riku can't copy.
Altered Ego, is cheaper, uncounterable, makes a creature that Riku can copy, and is a great target for Green Sun's Zenith. I'm pretty happy with this swap.
- Wipe Away and Evolving Wilds out, Polluted Delta and Flooded Strand in
I decided I needed to cut a card to make room for an extra land. Wipe Away is fun, but I decided it was ultimately pretty low-impact. As much as I love the art on my FNM Promo Evolving Wilds, fetchlands (even off-colour ones) are just better. I'll be keeping an eye on this switch to see how things go.
I have my eyes on a few more cards to make changes on soon, so I may have an update again in a few weeks! Here's hoping I can get a few more games in.
*Venser's Capsize impression is pretty slick. You play Venser and target himself with his ability, and let it resolve. Pay the UG for Riku's ability to create a token using the last known information about Venser, and have the token's ETB target the permanent or spell you'd like to bounce. This leaves you with Venser in your hand, a token Venser on the battlefield, and your spell or permanent of choice bounced for the low low price of 2UUUG. This compares pretty well to Capsize's 4UU to cast and buyback or 4UUUR to cast, copy, and buyback.