Johnny Confidants' Casual Kiki-Jiki

Hey Zoners, It's your old friend Johnny C here with a new article and a new deck!

For the past few month's I've been piloting twin Mono-red Generals to enrich my deck building skills. On a challenge I was asked to build a mono color deck without any Infinite combo's, So I built two. One was a Chaotic Multiplayer Norin the wary deck and the other is my Kiki-jiki deck.

If no Infinite's, Why Kiki?

I wanted to take a general that had as much stigmata with infinite combination tricks and change that expectation. When i come to the table with a general like Kiki the usual response was to target me first. Needless to say I lost many games during its introduction.

While I did omit those combo's I did not stray away from strong synergistic plays. Through play-testing I found that I don't have to interact with the table, and my general really only needs to show up when I'm going for the end game. This was something that I haven't had an experience with. There are a small set of commanders that you don't necessarily need to call upon until you are going for gold, Commanders like Oloro, Oona, and Sharuum come to mind and i'd like to add Kiki-Jiki to that list.

What came out of all of this is a Mono-red deck that people actually like to play against. They now know there are no win-outs that ruin the the experience of the table and the environment is very casual. This creates great moments that allow people to keep their fields, make strong moves and create moderate length games that leave players in good spirits.

Kiki's Agenda, Or lack thereof 

The main agenda is to get ramped up to about 4 or 5 mana. The spells that i play, Including Kiki dont get interesting until 4 and above. For that we look at red's love/hate relationship with Artifacts. Once we get there we have laid the ground for the second and more interesting phase, ETB Shenanigans!

Kiki Jiki has a well known relationship with creatures that provide value entering or leaving the battlefield. This deck is no different, but with a twist. Most of the creatures in this deck effect the board indirectly by making tokens or tutoring artifacts.  Laying low to assemble the bombs that lay in wait. The few creatures that effect directly are a mix of classic red creatures with some variety of niche abilities.

Kiki's Kit and Krew

Kiki has 3 big engine cards in this deck. Clone Shell, Hoarding Dragon, and Thornbite Staff. They respectively Find creatures, Artifacts, and untap Kiki enabling more of the previous two. Once I get the original out I'll have to make a choice, do i go for the best thing in case it gets destroyed by next turn? or find something moderate and go for what I know i'll get once the copy is sacrificed.

The Token package I mentioned are primarily Goblin producing. Why? Because with a beast like Krenko in this deck who wouldn't want more goblins? Krenko along with mono-reds new favorite enchantment Purphoros, God of the Forge makes for an excellent win condition. Along with them are; Siege-Gang Commander to fling those tokens around, Stingscourger being the goblin version AEther Adept, Goblin Welder to play switcheroo with artifacts, and Goblin Assassin to make everything a game of chance.

What is Mono red without a little bit of chaos? Effects that do things randomly or have a 50% chance of backfiring are right up the sub-theme of this deck. The previously mentioned Goblin Assassin is one of them but he is not alone. Teferi's Puzzle Box finds itself a strong presence in this deck. Card draw works differently in mono red ever sense Innistrad gave us the "Looting" effect and T. Box is both disruptive and advantageous. A personal favorite is the Tyrant of discord interaction with Kiki and Thornbite Staff. I've have 6 stacks of Tyrants continuously and spread out the love causing mass destruction. I call him my WMD.

The under the radar win condition award for this deck has to go to Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. i had a crazy opening hand of 3 Mountains, Sol Ring, Expedition Map, Burnished Hart and Ancient Tomb. it turned into a 6-you each end phase with just Kiki, Burnished Hart, and Valakut doing the work. The effect can be done with Solemn Simulacrum but its generally slower but better card advantage. This is the direct damage approach, creatures like Bogardan Hellkite, Fanatic of Mogis, Myr Battlesphere, and Comet Storm are the big burn package. They add pressure when life totals drop to about 20. I have been known to do 19 or more damage in a turn.

With all of this aggression where's the defense? The main defense in this deck is it's offense, creatures in the burn, token and chaos package enable blockers and removal for what's in play but unable to stop spells and  enchantments. Those two needed some kind of remedy and our answers are Price of glory, Chaos warp, and All is dust. Price of Glory keeps the table safe from counters, battle tricks, and EoT advantage plays like Top. Chaos warp is the Bail-out card Red has wanted forever even though it's a color pie flavor foul. Lastly All is dust is a kind of reset button that you see across many non white, non black mono color decks where wraths are rare, so its not real surprise its here.

The last topic in our kit is the Planeswalkers of the deck, Who is right for the deck and why? The answer I came up with was Koth and Chandra Ablaze. Koth has done well giving both mana and providing a 4/4 mountain in times of need. While I have yet to ultimate Koth the ability seems lacking in contrast to mana production and mana untapping. Chandra on the other hand is great, Dumping artifacts into the graveyard to be swapped out for with the Welder, tossing red spells I dont need for 4 damage, or simply drawing 3 cards at the cost of my usually empty hand. She is a strong Planeswalker for most mono-red decks. Combining damage, Wheel, and the Ultimate Flashback spell. For a time I did consider her Most recent incarnation for the card "advantage" but since we just go Act on Impulse in M15 i think Ablaze shall stay for the long run

Looking Forward, and Card considerations

Since I've had the deck up on Tapped out (link will be at the end) I've had a few suggestions that i have strong consideration for.

For artifacts I'm thinking about Mangara's Tome, and Sands of Time. The Tome gives me some form of tutor and optional draw condition that can turn the tide and guarantee the card unlike Gamble. the big risk is if the tome is destroyed the cards are exiled but that's an acceptable risk. Sand of Time is a goofy card that switched the tapped cards with the untapped card's each turn. This has great synergy with Price of Glory and Kiki-Jiki. Preventing people from setting up all of their lands and giving kiki targets each turn.

For Enchantments I have considered Shivan Harvest. I produce many tokens especially ones that are going to die anyway so why not reap some destruction with them. While this card wouldn't see play with my main group, I do have a side group of players who are more competitive and this card is right up their ally. another LD card i could use would be Wake of Destruction for a all around land sweep.

In Closing, And what I've Learned

I absolutely love this deck. Mono-Red has been a blast to pilot as Kiki and even more crazy with Norin. I'm not saying it's for everyone but I highly recommend trying out a mono red commander. Red is constantly Misunderstood as the weakest color by EDH standards. When you compare it to the other colors and what they provide it's easy to rate red as the lowest, but Red's strength cannot be compared to any other color. It's entire line of thought is different and its own. Cards like Gamble and Act on Impulse represent the power of red. Its home to the most bizarre and silly creatures to exist in magic along with the only cards that gives loose change a place in your dice bag.

So take a walk on the wild side, For the Deck List, Click Here

 <3 J. C.