Kruphix, God of Horizons
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on April 10, 2014, 12:19 a.m. by blackmarker90
What do you guys think?
Seems like there was something that got changed during the last steps of R&D
I wanted Kruphix to fit into my Vorel and his Merry Counters deck, but he really doesn't fit well. I think he fills a better role as a commander rather than a member of the 99. His abilities are insane, but I'm not rushing to put him into any deck right now.
For standard, meh? I feel like he's too expensive for Bant control, or Bant 'walkers, to make a spot for him.
April 10, 2014 8:38 a.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #3
He might see Standard play, probably as a sideboard card.
Looks bonkers for EDH and casual.
April 10, 2014 8:48 a.m.
mercurial_golem says... #4
So, does anyone think this makes Pyxis of Pandemonium playable? Lots of free floating colorless mana... Artifacts... or, maybe Astral Cornucopia ?
April 10, 2014 10:52 a.m.
I like it. It's a very niche card and its ability is one rarely seen in Magic. They don't print cards like these often.
April 10, 2014 11:57 a.m.
@Ezrius ~ that set up is exactly why I think this will see play in bant
T1: Breeding Pool , Elvish Mystic
T2: land, Sylvan Caryatid
T3: land, Prophet of Kruphix , pass
EOT: kruphix and let the shenanigans begin. Syncopate their walkers. Sphinx's Revelation has NO drawback at all. Elspeth, Sun's Champion and jace just became 2 drops.
Seems good
April 10, 2014 2:26 p.m.
People keep mentioning Sphinx's Revelation as the go-to use for this god, but i see so much potential in gigantic, previously uncastable creatures. 20/20 Mistcutter Hydra much? Or that Worldspine Wurm you've always had to cheat out with Garruk? Combined with nykthos and a permission suite, all is possible. Also, Modern players, we have another way to get out emrakul :)
April 10, 2014 6:04 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #10
Wow this is amazing. So Johnny, which is how Simic should be (Kiora, the Crashing Wave should've taken some notes). I can't wait to abuse the hell out of this card.
April 10, 2014 6:12 p.m.
I can't see this seeing any standard play... Its a 5 drop which effectively does nothing when you play it. Yes, Prophet of Kruphix is in the format, but that hasn't seen play yet and has the same problem. A Bant control deck doesn't want to be playing a 5 drop creature unless it immediately wins the game, and this doesn't do that. Sure, it might eventually give you a huge Sphinx's Revelation , but by the time it does that, you may as well have played AEtherling and won...
April 10, 2014 9:22 p.m.
The Doctor says... #13
Well seeing as aetherling is a 6-drop, you could do this.
Turn 5 : Prophet of Kruphix .
THEIR turn 5/6 : Flash in Kruphix, the God.
Your turn 6 : AEtherling . Now you have a completely safe Ling, and a huge board presence.
April 10, 2014 9:31 p.m.
I feel that a lot people ate.missing the point with Kruphix.
There are so many options with him. Sure AEtherling can win the game. But if you build with the intent of USING kruphix he as many shenanigans.
If you just put him in a deck then yeah he isn't as awesome.
Just my 2 cents. I will acquire a playset of these without question just in case
April 10, 2014 9:31 p.m.
Thank you @ The Doctor. Finally someone who can see reason. Lol
April 10, 2014 9:32 p.m.
Yes but your still investing 3 cards into getting an AEtherling down, or playing Elspeth, or any other wincon. The wincons are already good... Why do you need Kruphix or Prophet? Why not just leave your mana up for Countermagic and removal and play an Aetherling or something else once you have board control? What does Kruphix or Prophet add, besides more cards that aren't controlling the board?
April 10, 2014 9:51 p.m.
The reason you have Kruphix is because you CAN leave mana open for countermagic, and if they have nothing to counter, then you can play an AEtherling for only 2 MANA! And then you have MORE mana open for countermagic AGAIN. It's basically free mana, and a boardstate. If you have Prophet of Kruphix , Kruphix, and AEtherling on the field, plus any other permanent (elvish mystic?), then you have a perfect boardstate, and enough mana to counter anything they possibly want to play, and 2 win cons at once. You never have to worry about anything.
April 10, 2014 9:58 p.m.
That works too. I almost said Detention Sphere even, any permanent really. But you see how it's good, right The Doctor? Let's say you have Dictate of Kruphix too? Well, it doesn't matter that they get extra cards, they'll have to discard, and if you are playing a control deck, then you can just counter anything they get extra of. And then, after pumping mana, you can blast off a gigantic Sphinx's Revelation and pretty much win from there because you will always have enough mana for counterspells. Wow, I really need to stop hyping this card, cause now it'll cost more for me to buy! :D
April 10, 2014 10:02 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #20
Just want to point out, they are preordering on SCG for 12$
April 10, 2014 10:04 p.m.
Oh I know, i'm ordering them tonight at midnight when my brother gets his check (he owes me :/)
April 10, 2014 10:05 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #22
I wonder how much $$$ SCG makes of pre-orders. I mean, it must be pretty bank considering some of these prices reacting to all the hype that has surrounded some of these cards versus the price of a box.
April 10, 2014 10:23 p.m.
Well, I'd say out of all the cards, Kruphix is the best to preorder since he's pretty cheap AND hyped, but the other cards are pretty overpriced currently. Although, i remember a time when Archangel of Thune was presale at $15, then shot up to $30 the day she was released, and then settled down again, but went back up. If I preordered that card, man, I would've scored (i almost did)
April 10, 2014 10:26 p.m.
As far as this card's potential goes in a Bant control list, I feel people forget that it isn't a creature deck. It's a control deck. Your 5 drop god doesn't HAVE to do anything the moment it hits the field. You aren't playing monsters. You Revelation on four or five, their board is fucked, you drop this the next turn as they aren't WINNING the next turn anyway, and proceed to stabilize even faster than usual.
If you are playing control, you don't care if the game takes fifteen turns, or thirty turns, you just need to stabilize. And sure, this guy doesn't do that against aggro. But against midrange, does this guy help stabilize you? Not on turn five, no. Things are hectic on turn five. How about turn ten when you have a bunch of free mana up? Absolutely. It's not like you have an EASY time winning vs. monsters once you've stabilized, they have a constant stream of threats. This guy could EASILY help take the pressure off when he comes down late game, to help turn the game around. And against control? This guy is going to be a nightmare.
And no, I don't believe for a second that makes this a "win-more" card. It doesn't hit the board and immediately call for an answer, but it doesn't have to. The control deck already has more than enough answers, and half the time your problem is having the mana needed to actually cast all the cards you want to be casting. This definitely helps there in the midgame as it will allow you to start casting two-three spells a turn faster than you normally could.
What most people fail to realize is that every. single. card. in a control deck is built around protecting you and surviving to hit those game ending Sphinx's Revelations. Elspeth, Jace, Supreme Verdict are all great cards, but they don't win you the game by themselves. No, not even Elspeth. They are resources that are used to stall long enough to hit Revelation. What Kruphix does is allow everything to flow smoother once he hits the board. And that's worth a lot. Don't underestimate him.
April 10, 2014 10:58 p.m.
Er, I completely meant to say Supreme Verdict on turn 4 or 5, not Revelation in that first paragraph hahaha, woops.
April 10, 2014 10:59 p.m.
The Doctor says... #26
kyuuri117--Perfect explanation.
He also makes it MUCH easier to cast your win conditions, essentially turning them into two drops.
April 10, 2014 11:49 p.m.
kyuuri117 ~ couldn't have said it better myself. I wish I could +1 comments. Lol
April 10, 2014 11:57 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #28
I honestly don't see this card in Bant control. Sure, it's awesome with Sphinx, and saves you some mana here and there, but overall it's not adding much to the game plan. I see a bigger impact in Simic/RUG Monsters, which are both already playable and have tons of mana sinks such as Polukranos, World Eater , Nylea, God of the Hunt , and Mistcutter Hydra . Not to mention casting Cyclonic Rift overloads for 1 blue, or having tons of mana to work with after a Prime Speaker Zegana . Plus, those decks are better suited for Prophet of Kruphix which can make Kruphix himself bonkers. You could also go with a similar archetype but in Bant if you want to abuse Sphinx.
April 11, 2014 1:18 a.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin: At the risk of being accused of self-promotion, I did just want to point out that I'm currently running a simic build with the same focuses you've mentioned.
I did a decent amount of research while building the deck. Notably, my previous deck was a more ramp-focused version of the build. The reason for my switch from heavy ramp to what can only be described as aggro was the format as it stands. Between Thoughtseize , Hero's Downfall , Ultimate Price , Doom Blade , Dreadbore , rakdos return, Devour Flesh , Supreme Verdict and more, the ramp deck just was not able to do what I wanted it to do. To make matters worse, I was also losing fairly often to aggro decks like mono-black. And I can't help but feeling like Kruphix doesn't do much to change this.
Now, if there were a simic deck with some control elements to it in the form of counter-magic and more, I could see him possibly turning into something interesting. The thing that keeps entering my mind is ramp > Kruphix > controlling the board and playing as little cards as possible > lethal Mistcutter Hydra with backup spells. Maybe this can happen! I'm going to attempt it. But I just don't know if it can, sadly.
April 11, 2014 1:31 a.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #30
@Spootyone: I'll join you in the self-promotion club: Until the GP Phoenix last weekend, I was running my Simic ramp / Monsters deck My Prophet, Your Loss (Top 4 FNM) for a few months and experienced a pretty good deal of success, especially after Courser of Kruphix
entered the fold. Running 10 dorks, I won ~80% of my LGS matches in the weeks leading up to the GP and went 6-3 at the event itself, including 3-1 overall against MBD / Orzhov.
I think what makes the deck work in those heavy-removal matchups is the massive amount of card advantage it has, with 2 Jace, Architect of Thought , 2 Prime Speaker Zegana , and 3 Garruk, Caller of Beasts (not to mention Primeval Bounty doing work off the side). This helps to alleviate situations like "oh shit, my turn 3 Kalonian Hydra just ate a Doom Blade and I have no more threats" and similar problems associated with a lot of ramp decks. The only card of those you mentioned above that really scares me is Rakdos's Return since it can wipe out a Planeswalker as well as my hand in one fell swoop, but even with that, having a Prophet of Kruphix on the board can turn that into a game-ending opportunity.
Anyways, decks with lots of card advantage are right in Kruphix's wheelhouse for obvious reasons, and it helps when almost everything in the deck provides 2+ devotion to make him a creature. I think what you have going with a lot of Flash creatures has potential as well since you can wait until the last minute to bank mana or play a spell, but I honestly think that the Nykthos ramp decks will be able to make use of Kruphix most efficiently.
April 11, 2014 10:01 a.m.
harrydemon117 says... #31
Will he be wearing a Ring of Three Wishes all the time? :)
I like breaking cards and having an "infinite" supply of colorless mana and a tutor card seems good :)
April 11, 2014 10:36 a.m.
squarelles says... #33
5 5/5s and a 12/12, or 10 10/10s and a 17/17? come on!
April 13, 2014 10:04 a.m.
Lol squarelles, that's DEFINITELY where they were going with that. I just hope they find something similar for Athreos
April 13, 2014 10:27 a.m.
harrydemon117 says... #36
He's going into a ramp deck for sure. I think people are really going to underestimate him.
If 5 color decks take off after JOU is released (and with the new Mana Confluence land it just might) I can see people having him down and ramping up for HUGE Rakdos's Return for their opponents while using huge Sphinx's Revelation s of their own. :)
He isn't a win con on his own, but come on...once he lands on your opponent's side of the field can you see yourself winning after that? If they "bank" the mana they have available (minimum of 5 assuming all lands and missing a land drop), they have 10 mana at their disposal 2 turns after he is active. That's 7 cards with Sphinx's Revelation , 8 cards/damage from Rakdos's Return , or a Mind Grind for 8 lands (and that should get a DECENT chunk of one's deck IF they were going with a mill card for a win condition). He can also turn on Fated Retribution and REALLY clear the board out in Bant.
Worldspine Wurm is only 1 mana away from being CASTABLE. and this is just standard. As previously stated Emrakul, the Aeons Torn can be cast that much easier, and Blightsteel Colossus could even be playable in modern with this guy.
The new Strive mechanic will have fuel to pay for the extra costs...nothing to scoff at
I can see the U/G devotion decks going to this and using him + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to get a Garruk, Caller of Beasts out and then playing a bunch of threats with the mana they still have available.
He will find a home eventually, and it will be in one of these decks...mark my words! lol
April 14, 2014 9:44 a.m.
squarelles says... #37
SpaderAce, what do you mean "I just hope they find something similar for Athreos"?
April 14, 2014 10:45 a.m.
I meant a specific combo type card that breaks athreos. He's already OP, but that's what I meant
April 14, 2014 1:51 p.m.
contracrostipunctus says... #39
Already built an EDH deck with him. Can't wait for him to get in my hands in cardboard form. His combined abilities are DISGUSTING. The thing about putting him in a ramp deck isn't that you need it to cast fatties or something, it's that ramp just makes the bombs drop faster. Prophet of Kruphix is as obvious as it gets with him, their synergy is ridiculous.
Here's some other ideas I've got so far:Genesis Wave : This is the biggest bomb Kruphix can drop. In playtesting I can cast this for 20+ before turn 10. In a deck with few non-permanents, this is devastating. It's such a win-con that I would pack Leyline of Anticipation , Alchemist's Refuge , and Quicken just to sneak it out during an end step and unload on my turn. Quicksilver Amulet : Use your colorless mana to flash fatties.Magus of the Candelabra : Filter your colorless back into colored as necessary to cast things. Of course the card this one references works too.Biomantic Mastery : Draw one billion cards.Blue Sun's Zenith : Draw one billion cards.Praetor's Counsel : Recur your graveyard. Draw one billion cards.Ashnod's Altar : Add 2 to your mana pool every time something would die or be exiled anyway.Gelatinous Genesis : Consider that you never really have a dead hand as long as you can take the damage thrown your way, because you can dump all your mana into Kruphix's bottomless pool. Then you drop something like this a turn later for something like fifteen 15/15's.If you feel like being despised you can pack Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger and Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur both. Vorinclex doubles the mana you dump in your pool, Jinny turns your card advantage into lockdown. Jin also basically reads "Cast me as an instant for UU" because you will have at least 8 floating colorless reliably.
Still need to tweak it and play against competition, but I love the card. I am mostly concerned about how to prevent me from milling myself to death. Now THAT is the kind of power a god should have.
April 15, 2014 6:49 p.m.
squarelles says... #40
I was thinking Dictate of Karametra , but Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger works even better. good point.
April 16, 2014 5:57 p.m.
Guys, Kruphix is exactly what Green Monsters needed. Green Monsters is a 'combo' deck that wants a giant board state, but it was too easy to get blown up and not be able to do anything. So what does Simic Monsters have over Green Monsters? Consistancy and less obvious plays. Which is exactly what they needed.
Right now the meta is dominated by Midrange/Control, which means everything is going to be slow. Green Monsters used to try to win against control by waiting for the right moment to empty their hand, and win without getting verdicted. And it was...really hard. To be honest.
So the premise of this deck is what I'm going to call 'Flash Mob'. It's entire point is have an acceptable boardstate in your hand, and to dump it right before your turn, then attack for game, winning before your opponent can react.
With Prophet of Kruphix and Kruphix herself, we can control the board with counterspells or threaten flash with big monsters to block. Simic has a lot of good hand draw that goes with this. Using Garruk, Caller of Beasts , Prime Speaker Zegana , and Interpret the Signs (This draw card will be fantastic in these kind of decks) to draw up our win conditions and combo pieces.
It literally takes a few turns to alpha strike for game after you play Prophet, if everything sticks. This scenario will be a in perfect curved out world, like most are. But here's just an outline of what you would try to achieve with the deck, you're not trying to win quickly, you're trying to win smart, and to not let them react.
Turn 1: Forest, Elvish MysticTurn 2: Scry land for consistancy, Tap two for Kiora's Follower or Slyvan Caryatid.Turn 3: Shocked land or basic land, Tap everything for Prophet of Kruphix.Their Turn 3: Drop Kruphix, God of Horizons.Turn 4+: Build your resources. Use cards such as Garruk, Interpret the signs, and Prime Speaker Zegana to make your hand massive. Flash in creatures to protect you. Play land as much as you can, build up your mana, flash in some threats to wear them down, but prepare for the kill.
On one of their turns: Drop any combination of Nylea, Hydra Broodmaster , Arbor Colossus , or Polukranos, World Eater , and on your turn, strike for game.
Some cool things to note about this deck. Nylea, God of the Hunt went from pretty good to RIDICULOUS with mana saved. ANYTHING can give you alpha strike with a Nylea on the field and saved up mana. Every pump might as well just cost 1 forest, and with Nylea's passive trample it can make any creature's hit for the winning blow.
Against creature based decks you would side in Cyclonic rifts to clear before you alpha strike, or use Polukranos to at least downsize it.
I've been brewing with this idea all day, but here's my current take on it.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/big-bushy-monster-rug/
I hope I can at least convince some people that it's viable, and maybe after some tweaking it can be a real contender.
April 20, 2014 9:01 p.m.
squarelles says... #42
I think it is totally worth it to have Leyline of Anticipation or the likes to drop the sorceries on their turn.
flyguy says... #1
Dam... Not only is sphinx rev bigger, but you don't have to discard... I think this is what bant needed to start making it to top 8's.
And it's going to be bigger in EDH.
April 10, 2014 8:31 a.m.