Kynaios and Tiro, Defenders of Rainbow Vale

Commander / EDH Four Color Group Hug Multiplayer Tempo Toolbox Wizards

fifthdawn

0 Drop (5)

• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide

1 Drop (13)

• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 1x Rhys the Redeemed
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Veteran Explorer
• 1x Wild Growth

2 Drop (17)

• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Prismatic Omen
• 1x Saffi Eriksdotter
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wall of Omens

3 Drop (14)

• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Feldon of the Third Path
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Noble Benefactor
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Skullwinder
• 1x Wargate
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall

4 Drop (4)

• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Krenko, Mob Boss
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant

5 Drop (6)

• 1x Body Double
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Siege-Gang Commander

6 Drop (1)

• 1x Sun Titan

Land (39)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bazaar of Baghdad
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 3x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^{Flip  Meld}
• 1x High Market
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 3x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Mountain
• 2x Plains
• 1x Rainbow Vale
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Vesuva
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Other (17)

• 1x Ancient Grudge
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Blighted Cataract
• 1x Brittle Effigy
• 1x Cryptic Command *list*
• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Desolate Lighthouse
• 1x Diminishing Returns
• 1x Empty the Warrens
• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 1x Ingot Chewer
• 1x Krenko, Mob Boss
• 1x Peacekeeper
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Selvala, Explorer Returned
• 1x Slithermuse
• 1x Vendilion Clique

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Our commander depicts a virtuous & protective love, expressed through fairness. They have a deep connection with all nature's forms. They commit to the board, and they believe that it takes an entire village to raise an army. Commander is about having fun doing what you love. I LOVE what I love about Magic. But the way that phrase sounds feels awkward, underscoring the difficulty of properly conveying such a notion. So I want to say it again, and slower. I love the things I love about Magic. And so we arrive at the eternal question:

"What is love?" Baby, don't hurt me!

In this case, love is a game state absent of friction. When your development comes at the expense of other players, it can't help but feel marred. Kynaios and Tiro build a game state that is marked by a tranquility and even-keeled cooperation. Every game has these moments of peace, and in every game, as the stakes build, the peace, friendliness and fairness dissolves. Or rather, it fades beyond. And maybe this is true of all stories. All myths. It is the journey, rather than the destination, where redemption- in the personal sense- springs forth. Perhaps clerverly (or perhaps purposefully) this love centers on our attentiveness to detail and our connection to and embrace of each other in this complex, geometrical saga of studiousness, pursuit, reaching, thinking and developing called Magic!

It is perhaps most succinctly captured, and thus reflected upon, in these moments of fading, where, as the ideas and feelings vanish, the absolute mystery of it all becomes acutely present to us as fleeting opportunities for moments of joyful harmony, even if they do come infrequently, after which, we move on.

It is this element of 'going for it' that is present in Kynaios and Tiro as a commander. The Dudes abide. They replenish. They restore. They redeem. The will IS the way. The moment is its loss. The players are the empty chairs and table. The dissolution is its emergence. Life is a Ghirapur Orrery. It is a razor sharp line between everything and nothing, combined into one Stalwart Unity. And it fills us, and it bleeds us. And it chills us, and it grieves us. It protects, and yet deceives us.

And in this ever on-going unknowing is a bridge that rests within us, a bridge to what we love best about Magic. Drawing cards, which symbolizes the growth of newness, the novelty of time. Putting your lands into play, which symbolizes the accumulation of personal will, only to have that determination slowly fade into memory, much like the idea of a mountain top being clearer from the plain. And finally, Kynaios and Tiro support all players staying relatively even. Their ability is "altruism." In the wisdom of our memories, in the school playgrounds of our soul, we come upon our hero self who shows us the outlier of our organism. Kynaios and Tiro are a memory in some ways. They're an end step action which resembles the beginning of our turn. To be the alpha and the omega. To behold, through endless paradox, the wonder of each moment. In keeping with the Theros plane, one could understand, by virtue of the open nature of reality, how people throughout the ages could have created such magnificent sagas and stories that crudely but significantly attempted to capture the dynamic of something so unquantifiable as existence.

Thanks for reading!

Brief Explanation of Card Choices

Rainbow Vale Show

Rainbow Vale is a very thematic card for this deck. The deck wants fast, colored mana, and it also encourages fair, cooperative play, so Rainbow Vale is perhaps the most thematic card for the deck. If each player passes it to their left, each opponent naturally ramps a turn ahead. Call it a gift from the "Gods." Bearing such gifts with goodwill reveals your nature as being that of an oracle. I have found this to be a fun way to engage others in the spirit of sharing and camaraderie that makes for a fun, long game of commander. Ideally, your opponents recognize the good faith of your aid, and the land returns to you by the start of your next turn.

Meletis is a port city, resting on the coast of the Siren Sea. In this sense, Rainbow Vale really fills a thematic or 'Vorthos' niche for the deck, symbolizing the trade routes that bring your goods to the various other encampments in play. Passing the Rainbow Vale makes for a very fun series of opening turns due to the novelty of a free mana. Everyone likes getting ahead, even if it is together. This encourages the game to develop in a creative and spontaneous fashion as opposed to a more traditional or mechanistic fashion. If you feel hesitant in sharing such abundance, you can always ask the group nicely to have the land returned to you prior to your next turn. If everyone agrees to simply pass it to the left, regardless of game state, the benefits apply equally to all, perhaps symbolically representative of the democratic principles birthed in Athens, on which Meletis is modeled.

Gemstone Caverns Show

Gemstone Caverns, like Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal, Elvish Spirit Guide and Simian Spirit Guide all contribute to playing Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis on turn one. Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis often are viewed as strictly Group Hug commanders, but they provide real card and board advantage that is often overlooked and under-appreciated. The resources that are given to your opponent will have the least amount of impact on the game during the opening turns, since, for the most part, everyone is already bottlenecked as far as how they want their hands to play out. Playing Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis as fast as possible is key to maximizing the card advantage that they provide.

Wheel of Fortune Show

Wheel of Fortune, already one of the most powerful effects in Magic, stands as a debilitating affect when combined with the plan to play Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis as fast as possible. Cards like Gemstone Caverns and Mox Diamond ramp you at the cost of a card, albeit in different ways. Because we have loaded the deck full of fast mana like the above mentioned as well as Lotus Petal and the spirit guides, in scenarios where we are able to cast the commander in turns one or two, we have a depleted hand to show for it. Wheel of Fortune can both restock your hand, allowing you to refill on lands to trigger into play from the Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis end-step ability, but also can disrupt your opponent who is forced to proceed with a random seven after keeping a great opener.

Bazaar of Baghdad Show

Bazaar of Baghdad somehow is good in this deck. I have tried to put it in decks before and been underwhelmed for obvious reasons. Even when you're returning Squee, Goblin Nabob to your hand every turn, Bazaar of Baghdad, while having a really unique and at times extraordinarily powerful ability, comes at a real cost. The first real cost is the inability to produce mana. The second real cost is the card disadvantage that it represents. In sacrificing these two important functions, you get two things. The first you get is the discard outlet that enables some utility in the deck to function, such as Riftstone Portal, Squee, Goblin Nabob, Genesis, Reveillark, Body Double, Crucible of Worlds, Karmic Guide and Feldon of the Third Path. The other important thing that Bazaar of Baghdad provides is card selection. The graveyard can often be considered a temporary holding zone for cards whose real impact comes later on in the game. When they're ready to be retrieved, your friend, the Sun Titan or Eternal Witness serve as bookmarks that let you pick up on the strategy page where you left off while you were developing a sufficiently robust enough mana base to achieve all your strategic ends.

Disallow Show

Because you are utilizing your graveyard in strategic ways to allow a more robust, well-oiled late game, naturally, it stands to be the target of any and all Bojuka Bogs. Disallow is a perfect answer to the looming trigger. It is important to stress that losing your graveyard is going to happen. There will be times when it cannot be prevented, and other times when it will be a sacrificial lamb, absorbing the attention of opponents just long enough for you to achieve your larger aims. But when you can prevent its wholesale exile, it is, of course, worth preserving.

Noble Benefactor Show

Being that you are a toolbox deck, you may occasionally want to search for something that you cannot find with Survival of the Fittest, Captain Sisay or Imperial Recruiter, suchas Disallow, Cyclonic Rift, Heartbeat of Spring , etc.

The trigger is symmetrical, but you can usually make better use of it, since you are able to control when it dies, either by using a Birthing Pod, High Market or Siege-Gang Commander , as well as flashing it in as a blocker with either Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir or by Chord of Calling.

Deserted Temple Show

Deserted Temple is easily the most versatile land in the deck. At times it can help you dig by being a pseudo-Bazaar of Baghdad. Other times, it represents an additional Feldon of the Third Path activation by untapping the Minamo, School at Water's Edge. At worst, it is the best Unknown Shores ever printed. It also represents the best land to copy with Thespian's Stage or Vesuva, since it breaks the legendary rule, effectively offering additional copies of the extremely powerful lands like Gaea's Cradle and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, as well as card draw in Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. Don't leave home without it. Keep in mind, it can untap opponents lands, which can be quite useful.

Jeskai-Green Flavor Text

In keeping with the flavor of a Jeskai-Green deck, I leave you with poetry:

They say to me in their awakening, 'you and the world you live in are but a grain of sand upon the infinite shore of an infinite sea.'

And in my dream I say to them, 'I am the infinite sea, and all worlds are but grains of sand upon my shore.'

~Khalil Gibran Gibran, Sand and Foam

Making this deck and sharing it has been a lot of fun. Thank you, everyone.

-Brett

Top Ranked	Achieved #2 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.51
Tokens	Copy Clone, Eldrazi Horror 3/2 C, Elf Warrior 1/1 GW, Goblin 1/1 R, Spirit 1/1 C
Folders	EDH, Commander Folder, Borrows, EDH, EDH, Stuff I like, actually good decks, Other People's Decks, stuff i think is swell, Test decks