UL's Better Deckbuilding: The Chronicles of Karn-ia

Happy Thor's Day Zoners! Landdrops here with another installment of Better Deckbuilding with Karn, the Rock Monster Mainstay.

WHY KARN?

Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this one.

A few years ago I played against this deck. My opponent had the deck at at least 60% foil, probably more, including some of the most expensive foils I've ever seen.

This was at a different shop, so for a metagame where the average game includes 5+ players, I found this to be a pretty effective deck.  The quick acceleration combined with the overstimulation of Commanders and cards getting played help to leave the old Mirrodonian(?) appear less threatening than some of the bigger players I saw there. Coupling big, hard-to-remove threats with access to a handful of infinite mana combos, the deck was something I saw as "Neat, but not my style."

After completing the Double Rainbow project this year, I felt a need to go into some new territory for something challenging and fresh. I know, Karn has basically been around for a long time, but I think everyone can understand the idea of seeing old cards as new challenges, which is what happened here.

THE STRATEGY

The first pledge I made in construction of this deck was to not play any Eldrazi cards at all, avoid Blightsteel, and not play Mass Removal or Mycosynth Lattice.

After getting beat pretty handily in his inaugural voyages into 1v1 and multiplayer, it was clear to me that Lattice, O-Stone, Disk, and All Is Dust were necessities Karn needed if I was to ever win a game.

Having rules likes this in design are just as important as knowing when to break them. I talk a lot about design constraints, and how to keep them, but this is a good example in the case of its opposite.

For me, and those Zoners who are privy to the 72-page density of Joseph Conrad, building and playing Karn was my proverbial voyage into the "Heart of Darkness." With few options for Threats and Answers, the point of restraint and resistance to slamming Eldrazi is a pretty thin line.

The plan with Karn is to use his ability in a couple of instances. One, being the ability to create infinite mana combos with Voltaic Contrstruct and either Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, Grim Monolith, or Mana Vault in order to fuel other cards. Maybe it's a Darksteel Colossus. Maybe it's a Mycosynth Lattice. Maybe it's just a lot of Animated Artifacts. This has been, more times than not, how the deck effectively ends the game.

The second instance of Karn-imation (Animating friends for Karn) is part of what I just mentioned- swinging at our opponents. We're not being Aggro, per se- we're attacking when we can get ahead in the life total game, or there's an opening for our Dreamstone Hedron to come to life and smack an opponent for a big 6 damage without us feeling overextended and that potential 3 mana misused. This is a pretty conservative deck overall, seeing as how one Bane of Progress will, as I call it, "mmmBoP"  us to death. And if you even know who Hanson is, you know that this is equally as painful.

The third instance in which this deck wants to animate artifacts is to surprise trade defensively, or to keep us from not dying. Being a conservative deck, we're more often than not fine with taking points of damage versus chump blocking until it matters. Mostly, this deck wants to play for the next turn to see if we can draw into a combo.

THE TECH

The first piece is a new one, and a nice addition. In conjunction with our primary combo, We can essentially draw our whole deck. Not to mention that we can also attack with it if we have too many cards. This is a card that Karn needed, but I can't imagine a justification in other decks. It just doesn't do enough anywhere else.

Again, this is another card I probably wouldn't play anywhere else. Unbanning this surely changed the conversation for Karn too. Having yet another piece to combo infinitely, or just drop early and slam a threat helps to give the deck that taste of power.

Also, if I haven't said it yet, I was not on board with this unbanning. Call me hypocritical, but I found it as such when the Rules Committee felt it necessary to justify their, "Just say No" campaign for Rofellos and Braids. It's probably the first time I've disagreed with what they've done, so it is worth mentioning again. And if they're going to give me things to abuse, then well, I'm going to do it. It's just good business and human nature. This deck may be all about robots, but I'm not.

One of the best cards for this deck is Memory Jar. Already being good, I know obvious card is obvious.

However, this is another card that finds its stride in colorless. Without a lot of card draw, it can do exactly what it's been doing since Urza's Legacy- giving you extra cards and tempo-locking your neighbors out of others.

With Karn out and cards in hand, Memory Jar also becomes exciting to battle with. Size-wise, these are the kinds of artifacts Karn wants to bring to life.

The mana base in this deck isn't quite where it needs to be yet, but this one of the few pieces of tech that can be powered-up here. The same goes for the Tron Lands, which I've activated two times more than I ever thought I would. (Obviously, I thought it would never happen.)

I don't have Vesuva yet, but copying it with Thespian's Stage and slamming Glimmerpost has been a real treat. Maximizing this economy in the future seems pretty sweet.

Another sweet new piece of tech is Tomb of the Spirit Dragon.

One of the most difficult parts about constructing the mana base for this deck is being able to manage every piece of tech you have. The Expedition Map package is gigantic. I can't tell you how many times I've taken damage when I had untapped land and a Mystifying Maze. You'd think someone who loves the lands would pay a little bit more attention.

Anyway, Tomb of the Spirit Dragon is a nice little utility land that gives us a "mana sink" and a way to gain back life we might've lost if we were fools initially and forgot to tap our mana for Mystifying Maze during combat. With Lattice and Clockwork Omens in multiplayer, this is even more nuts.

The other TPB, The Pirate Bay, may have been raided by INTERPOL or Swedish Police (I don't remember what the article said) this week, but that shouldn't stop anyone from showing your acronym-twin support for Teferi's Puzzle Box. That's because I put a relevant news plug in here that's completely unrelated to a Magic card Wizards has printed in various ways since Visions.

This is just another deck where TPB's going to be effective, forcing your opponents to keep cards in their hand if they want to see more of their deck, and giving you more cards to find combos for, which is going to be a likely scenario at just about every stage of the game.

Last card I'll talk about is Serum Visions.

What's worth mentioning is the insane amount of charge counters that can happen here. Serum Tank ensures that as long as you're being active, you'll be able to draw some gas if you have nothing else to do. And this deck can do some good durdling.

Anyway, this is my list. It's got a few updates that I'll make in the next day or two, but most of the pieces are intact. Lemme know what you think.

The Chronicles of Karnia

Pass.
-UL

In General: Banned List Update September 2014

Hello and welcome back to In General. This is the broad topics segment where your old Grandpa Growth discusses just about anything relating to the game of Magic. Being that this is a blog primarily about Commander, it would be appropriate for me to spend at least 10% of my time discussing Commander.

Some interesting news relating to the format came out this week; the EDH rules committee has announced a change to the "Official Commander Banned List". This exclusionary list explicitly defines the cards which are not to be included in Commander decks and provides recommendations for standards of community play.

You can find the announcement HERE. The forum post is succinct, but it does give some limited justifications for the decisions. I will discuss each of the cards individually below, but the short list is as follows: Braids, Cabal Minion; Erayo, Soratami Ascendant; and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary have been banned from use completely. Kokusho, the Evening Star and Metal Worker have been un-banned and are now legal for use.

Banned:

The three cards banned under this announcement were all cards that had previously been legal for use in decks, but had been banned for use as a commander. The EDHRC decided that the list should be streamlined and no longer include exceptions for certain cards that should only be used in 'the other 99'. As a general rule, I support their goal of simplifying any ordinance down to its most essential elements. However, I have misgivings about their choices relating to these individual cards.

Frankly, I don't want to play with anyone
who looks like that.

Braids has been on the community's watch list for many years. It is annoying to play against and not really in the spirit of having a good time. The aggressive disruption it provides in combination with early mana acceleration can lock multiple opponents out of the game starting as early as turn two.

I agree that Commander games should not be won or lost solely on the contents of your opening hand. However, if you are playing against someone whom you know has access to Braids early on, you MUST take that knowledge into account when evaluating your mulligan decisions or risk losing because you didn't.

As a Commander, I don't think that Braids provides a substantial competitive advantage in terms of raw win percentage over the other available mono Black Commanders. As a card it is extremely powerful, cheap, and universal disruption that scales easily to multiplayer. Thus it should be regulated by the community. I would like to point out though: Smokestack is easier to cast and no one is calling for that to be banned. Where is the objectivity?

One of the silliest portrayals of a male
figure in Magic art. Very gay, in the olde
English sense.

Now from mono Black to mono Green. All three of the 'banned as a commander' cards featured in this update are extremely powerful enablers that made their particular decks into pillars of the format. In my article "Seven Deadly Sins" link HERE, I detail why these cards are so well suited to play in Commander and why they are a what I refer to as "Tier 1 Decks".

In the case of Green, Rofellos was the only thing holding that pillar up. There is no other potential commander that I would even consider close to being Tier 1. Not Omnath. Don't even say it. It is unfortunate that things have to be this way but, if Rofellos is legal, Green is awesome. If he is banned, Green is not scaring anyone. I don't necessarily support the ban of this card by itself, but for consistency's sake, if you banned Braids you must also ban Rofellos.

When flipped, Erayo resembles a spell cast
by Genie from Disney's 'Aladdin'.

Erayo is something of a strange exception to this rule. Rofellos and Braids are still pretty awesome, even if they aren't your commander. Erayo is indomitable as a Commander, by far the best deck in the format. If she isn't your Commander though...well, she just isn't worth playing. It is that simple. Blue is still awesome, but it has to take a much different form. Non-Erayo decks are much slower and much less likely to 'auto-win'. For the health of the format I completely agreed with the banning of Erayo for use as a Commander. With such policy riders no longer used to save cards from the banned list chopping block, I wholeheartedly agree: Erayo must go.


Well, that wasn't so bad. Two conditional yes's and an outright no? Grandpa, you must be going soft. I am an outspoken critic of the EDHRC and their bannings, but I agree with the reasons they made these changes, which in some ways is more important than agreeing with the change itself. The EDHRC is trying to improve the format and simplify its systems. Quite frankly, that is God's work friends.

There is still more to talk about though. The committee saw fit to reintroduce two caged animals into the wild:

Un-banned:

Note the gas vents along the underside of
the Dragon. His dingy smog-farts literally
take on a life of their own.

Kokusho, was banned at a time when the graveyard, nay the format, was more like the wild west. Recurring Nightmare gave a steady string of recursion which, when combined with Kokusho, meant consistent life swings. As an engine, it was difficult to race and required specific, targeted removal to disrupt. Several years ago, they were banned as a pair, but now it seems one is being release for good behavior.

Things have changed. Everyone is aware that the graveyard is the place to be. In recent years, many new tools have come out to help players counter graveyard-based strategies. I foresee no problems with un-banning Kokusho and fully agree with the committee's decision. I expect this card to contribute positively to a well-rounded format.

"Shove it in my chest Sam!"

Finally, we arrive at the last card to change status: Metal worker. It has long been a premium accelerator for broken artifact-heavy decks in eternal formats. It is capable of producing a dozen mana. Unlike Grim Monolith it untaps every turn, but it can also be hit with Creature removal.
This is a confusing and edgy move by the rules committee. On the surface, Metalworker is everything that they stand up against. It promotes 'Mono Brown', which they have never been a fan of. Allows for game ending plays in the early turns, which they have explicitly stated: "does not conform to the spirit of the format." And, it is going to INCREASE the already staggeringly high percentage of Commander games that end in Eldrazi.

On the one hand, Metalworker isn't as broken in practice as it is in theory. Comparing its Commander uses to the role it played in Legacy is simply not fair. On the other hand, there are probably 15 cards that are generally weaker and less likely to disturb the format that are STILL BANNED.

I don't necessarily have qualms with the un-banning of Metalworker, but I do have questions and I was not satisfied with the reasoning presented in the announcement. Why Metalworker...and why now?

What are your feelings on the banned list changes? Are you upset that you just ordered a Rofellos and now it is worth less than you paid? Are you dying to play Kokusho again? Are you still wondering why Coalition Victory is banned? Shout at us in the comments or take your inconsolable internet rage to the official forums on Wizards website or Commander.net.
-GG