Riku
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 1 | 2 COMMENTS | 1636 VIEWS
Oct. 12, 2019
Time for the seemingly-yearly update! I have played possibly 2 games with this deck in the last year. A friend recently opened an LGS though, and I'm one of his business partners, so hopefully I'll have more chance to play soon! Here are the changes I made:
Temple of the False God out, Misty Rainforest in To celebrate the opening of the aforementioned LGS, I decided to splash out a little so I bought a Misty. Temple feels awful in opening hands, and with this deck usually if I have more than 5 lands I have ramped to 12+ so I don't need the bonus mana as much. Misty will help with mana consistency in its place.
Comet Storm out, Expansion / Explosion in. Comet storm only has one use - killing people when I have tons of mana. Expansion/Explosion kills people with tons of mana as well, but also draws cards and copies spells. It's super flexible and it really just speaks to what I like to do in Magic. I'm looking forward to playing it.
Bear Umbra out, Finale of Promise in. Bear Umbra has been on my list to cut for a long time - I've always found it clunky, and while it's sweet to get double use out of lands, having to have a creature to attach it to, and also having to attack with that creature made it hard to want to keep. Finale of Promise is one of those cards that seems very cool, but I don't know if it really has a place in the deck or not. Hopefully it pulls its weight!
Urabrask the Hidden out, Ral, Storm Conduit in. I picked up a Ral and was looking for something to replace. Urabrask doesn't really fit with the theme of the deck any more (I don't attack very often) and copying him has no value. Plus, I wanted to use him in another deck. Easy choice to cut. Ral seems like a great addition to the deck, but I am conscious that along with Expansion/Explosion he pushes in yet another infinite combo. Hopefully I can just use him for value and not have it feel oppressive.
Future Sight out, God-Eternal Kefnet in. I picked up Kefnet during the WAR prerelease and wanted to add him to this deck, but I was scared i didn't have enough instants and sorceries for him to hit. I've since realised though that I want to play him cos he's sweet, and I don't really care at this stage if he doesn't fit the deck well. Future Sight is an amazing card, but it doesn't synergise with the rest of my deck very well. While Kefnet makes you work a little for your card advantage, he can be tutored out with Birthing Pod or Chord of Calling, he copies spells which synergises with Ral, Storm Conduit, and he blocks pretty well, which helps with the planeswalkers I'm now running.
Finally, I already have a similar effect to Future Sight in my sweet baby boy Oracle of Mul Daya so I feel like I can take the cut. Hush don't worry Moolie Doolie I'd never cut you.
Crystal Shard out, Neoform in. Crystal Shard has been in the deck since the start, and it's had some sweet fun with Animar, Soul of the Elements. At this stage I feel like they need a break from each other (though Animar may be following shortly after). The more I play this deck the more I want all of my cards to be creatures, instants, or sorceries, so I can get value from Riku and all the other engines in my deck.
Neoform, on the other hand, gets tons of value out of being copied. Riku, Ral, Finale of Promise, and Kefnet to a lesser extent all play well with it. I like the restriction that it can only hit cards that are exactly 1 CMC above the sacrificed creature, and I'm looking forward to thinking about lines I can take in games in the future.
Desertion out, Manamorphose in. Since I put Desertion into the deck a few years back, I have never once had the opportunity to cast it. The deck wants to tap out too frequently, so expensive counters like this are no good unless they have some alternate utility, like Mystic Confluence (which I definitely want).
Manamorphose has been sitting in my binder for a few years now, and I recently thought about adding it. I need consistency in this deck, and Manamorphose helps with both mana and bad draws. It also synergises with copy effects very nicely.