Uh Uh Riku makin' babies

+1

Wouldn't the copying trick not work on the hydras since counters are not a copiable characteristic and they'd just ETB as 0/0s and die?

canterlotguardian The hydra's aren't really the one's I am targeting when it comes to being copied, I'd usually target things like Woodfall Primus , Oracle of Mul Daya , Bogardan Hellkite , Thundermaw Hellkite , and Eternal Witness , ect. Only time I would ever copy the hydras is if I have at least one Master Biomancer on the field to guarantee counters on them.

Deadeye Navigator is quite excellent with Riku, since he can read "GUU1: Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of soulbound creature;" and "GUUU2: Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of a creature you control." That's on top of his usual ability to dodge removal and reuse ETB effects.

I find that Riku is very mana hungry and tend to likes fast mana accelerants and card draw (as you usually dump your hand)

Quicksilver Amulet and Crystal Shard are great tools to cheat your top end into play quicker (and Riku can copy) or to bounce things like Eternal Witness to reuse cards.

Deadeye Navigator is an auto include for Riku, as is Seedborn Muse. Also worth considering is Vedalkan Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation to play creatures on opponents turns.

Well that's the thing, progbass, I already have ways of flickering creatures and untapping lands and such- I've got Prophet of Kruphix , Jhoira of the Ghitu , Conjurer's Closet , Tooth and Nail , Maelstrom Wanderer , Domri Rade , Garruk, Caller of Beasts , Kiora, the Crashing Wave , and Xenagos, The Reveler for such tricks. Though I do like the idea of Leyline of Anticipation in here.

I notice that a lot of your creatures are legendary and I know that you don't normally make copies of them, but I think Mirror Gallery could really give you lots more options.

The_Black_Eagle, are you telling me that there needs to be a possibility of Four Animar, Soul of Elements ' coming onto the battlefield at once, which would make Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre cost nothing, which means I can have four or even five of him on the field? Are you mad?

I love it.

Yes. That would actually be so amazing. I would cry if someone did that to me.

clowe304433- if Mirror Gallery is on the battlefield, then the legendary rule will not apply, so the statebased action doesn't occur, which means I can have multiple upon multiple copies of Animar, Soul of Elements , Riku of Two Reflections , Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and ect.

Scourge of the Throne is hilarious with Riku, speaking from experience. Balefire Dragon can act as a board-wipe against one player, or more with multiples. Both can boost your other Scourge. Kalonian Hydra replaced my Primordial Hydra , which on top of copying it with Dack's Duplicate , made for hilarious results. Sakashima the Impostor is also fun beside Riku, since it gets around the legend rule.

DaggerV I love those suggestions, I think I may take some of those and use them here.

i run the Emerald Medallion Sapphire Medallion and Ruby Medallion in my riku deck, just to try to help with the cost may just take up space, but i dig it

Wow I am very excited about this deck, fun in the sun indeed!

I started with an epic experiment spellslinger build and that was probably some of the more exciting games I have ever had. Never knew what was going to happen or how I was gonna win precisely but it happened fairly often.

Lately I have been running a Riku Infect deck because my meta has been brutally fast with Nekkusar and Edric dominating multi-player games.

I like the idea of copying all kinds of good things, but when does this deck start dominating multiplayer? I've had to push things to start putting out serious pressure by like turn 5-6. Perhaps some of those medallions will be good, but I tend to dislike mana rocks because of Bane of Progress which is run in a few of the decks.

Also, I think your Animar example wouldn't happen. You aren't casting copies of creatures with riku, only making copies of creatures as they enter the battlefield.

Soul of the Harvest , Garruk's Packleader , and Primordial Sage are all excellent cards to keep you're deck rolling. The same can be said for Blue Sun's Zenith , Prime Speaker Zegana , and Mercurial Chemister serve the same function but don't rely as much on other creatures.

In my experience, Riku decks rely heavily on a few key creatures, so being able to tutor them out with cards like Chord of Calling ,Green Sun's Zenith , and Summoner's Pact .

I would get Defense of the Heart in there it is a GREAT card for pulling creatures out. Two creatures instead of one, no color requirement, and it works against all kinds of decks.

Hydra Broodmaster is a fun one too, but may not "do" enough in this deck (he works great in my spellslinger/copy Riku variant).

Jhoira of the Ghitu lets big guys come out for free, so Riku can dupe them for just 2 mana. A Strionic Resonator doubles Riku's ability for just 2 mana.

jhoira only works well if you can make the time to get rid of all those suspend counters. I like jhoira better on her own with things that help remove those suspend counters.

Since you run quite a few dragons in here, Dragon Tempest would be able to give them haste and is a second Scourge of Valkas for bringing the pain. Clone Legion and Rite of Replication are amazing cards with Riku. Copy Enchantment has very little chance of copying anything from you deck, so I'd suggest you replace it with Clever Impersonator so you can still get the same effect, but be able to target more than just enchantments.

I forgot, you could also use Warstorm Surge for more damage, or you can use Stalking Vengeance to keep people from board-wiping, else that thing will kill them.

What about Rite of Replication for those times when 3 or 4 Animar's isn't enough? Adding another 10 should help...

Why not include Kiki jiki?