For this article, we are going to be working on a much smaller scale. In fact, compared to the average length of other Dig Through Time articles, this one may seem suspiciously short. Never fear: the next article will be a long one, in response to a big question from the comments below Dig Through Time #5.
Today, we’re looking at Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas. After playing against multiple decks built around Kalemne, I have come to respect the power of this terrifying four-drop: she is powerful even without any experience counters, but she becomes a player-killer as you get more experience. Often, though, Kalemne decks will run out of gas and be unable to continue giving her more experience counters. This is a problem.
So…what are the best ways to get experience counters for Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas?
Before we get to the actual cards, I just want to point out that Kalemne is a perfect subject for this kind of Dig Through Time article: because of her presence in a preconstructed Commander deck, a lot of newer players have gotten to play with her but may not know all the best support cards to surround her with. Additionally, the colors red and white are not known for their flexibility in Commander, so finding out-of-the-way effects in those colors can be challenging for people who don’t know the full depth of Magic’s history. We will be covering several options here, but there are other ones (like Shivan Phoenix) that just didn’t make the cut.
Category 1: Fat People Bouncing*
(*Note: the phrase “fat people bouncing” is not meant to be offensive to anyone: it comes from the childhood of my friend Shannon, who played a LOT of Dr. Mario with her brother and sister. For some reason, her childhood brain decided that the “Fever” theme from that game had the lyrics “fat people bouncing” repeated over and over again, and she sang those “lyrics” whenever she played it. We have made fun of her for this fact ever since she told us.)
This category contains creatures that can return themselves to your hand, ready to be re-cast and to trigger Kalemne’s ability all over again.
This category contains creatures that can return themselves to your hand, ready to be re-cast and to trigger Kalemne’s ability all over again.
Crovax, Devoted Hero and Thopter Assembly. Crovax, in addition to being just a great card for Commander in general, is a near-perfect card for Kalemne decks. He is almost impossible to kill (giving you something to do even when you are otherwise out of gas), he wipes out many of the small tokens (like saprolings) that Kalemne’s lack of trample can make very frustrating, and he makes Kalemne bigger both through his native ability and through giving experience counters. Thopter Assembly is less perfect and more vulnerable, but it also represents a source of ongoing “gas” in the same way that Crovax does. Over the course of the game, repeatedly making five flying creatures while providing experience counters can add up to a lot of value.
Stormfront Riders. Part of an unnamed “white bounce” theme from the Planar Chaos set (which we will revisit later in this article), this creature fits surprisingly well in a Kalemne deck. It is big enough to trigger Kalemne’s ability, it can return itself to your hand immediately for continuing triggers, and it leaves behind some chump-blockers in the process. The cost of this effect is that you must return one other creature to your hand, but that’s not a problem once you have already made some tokens with this card: you can return one Soldier token along with the Riders and get two Soldier tokens in return. In a way, then, this card functions as a white Lab Rats that gives Kalemne a free experience counter every time you use it. It’s especially good if your deck has solid enters-the-battlefield triggers to take advantage of (like those of Duergar Hedge-Mage, Stoneforge Mystic, or Knight of the White Orchid)…and the best combo of all is probably Stormfront Riders alongside Knight-Captain of Eos, who can make good use of the extra Soldiers! Mana Echoes would fit well into such a combo, but it’s probably not necessary.
(Note: this card always reminds me of “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors. Ooh! Also…if you like The Doors and Zelda—and, if you’re reading this, you are quite possibly in a demographic that is likely to appreciate both—you should check out this Zelda remix and homage to “Riders on the Storm”: “Dark Storm” by DJPretzel.)
Flamerush Rider and Sprinting Warbrute. It turns out that Kalemne is very fond of the dash mechanic from the Mardu clan of Tarkir, since using a dash cost does technically count as “casting” a card. Flamerush Rider is a great creature for our purposes, since it only costs four mana to trigger an experience counter and can copy some of the excellent creatures (angels and dragons!) we are likely to be playing in our Kalemne decks. Sprinting Warbrute isn’t very good, honestly, but it can be a reasonable addition to a budget-conscious deck that really wants to rack up the experience for Kalemne.
Oni of Wild Places. Speaking of large creatures that return to hand, this one might be a bit too awkward for most decks, but if you want to really abuse enters-the-battlefield effects on red creatures like Siege-Gang Commander or Zealous Conscripts, this Oni might be your best friend. You can also just return the Oni itself to your hand instead of bouncing another creature—at least its haste will allow it to attack, even if such a plan isn’t particularly mana-efficient over the long term.
Category 2: Phoenixes (or “phoenices” or just “phoenix”; plurals are complicated)
Now that we have looked at the creatures that bounce themselves, we can look at the creatures that can give you Kalemne experience triggers from beyond the grave.
Eternal Dragon, Magma Phoenix, Shard Phoenix, and Skarrgan Firebird. All right, I know that Eternal Dragon isn’t technically a phoenix, but it clearly belongs in the company of these red birds. In fact, it is probably the best of them, since it can fill a land slot in your deck: as I discussed in Dig Through Time #5, it can actually generate a plains every turn if you have nothing better to do, and in the extremely late game it can be a constantly-recurring 5/5 flying creature. Magma Phoenix and Shard Phoenix are both similarly great for Kalemne decks, in that they are good at sweeping away small creatures who would otherwise chump-block your huge, double-striking commander. You have more control over when Shard Phoenix deals its damage, and it is cheaper to recur, but it doesn’t hit flying creatures and is generally less of a hard-hitting card than Magma Phoenix. If you are looking for this kind of effect in your deck, though, it’s probably wise to play both cards. Skarrgan Firebird, as long as you are fairly consistent at dealing damage to opponents, is a 6/6 creature who is shockingly easy to return from the graveyard to your hand. In fact, as long as you leave three red mana up, you can recur it on an opponent’s turn when another player takes damage.
Twilight Shepherd and Angel of Serenity. Unlike the creatures mentioned above, these cards cannot trigger Kalemne multiple times by themselves—but they can definitely do so in combination with some friends. Twilight Shepherd is a solid creature in its own right, but it looks absolutely fantastic when you have several five- and six-drops on the battlefield and somebody casts Wrath of God. When it persists back into play, all of those creatures (including Kalemne, if she was on the battlefield) go back into your hand, ready to trigger your commander when you re-cast them. Angel of Serenity is a very powerful creature that should see more play in Commander, and its ability to return creatures from your graveyard to your hand should not be overlooked for red/white decks that need card advantage.
Sigil of the New Dawn and Squee’s Embrace. Although these aren’t creatures (and therefore don’t really qualify as “phoenixes”), I really just want to mention these cards in the context of a Kalemne deck. Sigil of the New Dawn can keep any of your creatures (including your commander) from dying permanently, and every time you recast them you can rack up more experience. Squee’s Embrace can give Kalemne +2/+2 for very little investment and then recur her when she dies—or it can power up another creature and then give you another experience counter when you re-cast the creature.
Category 3: Boomerang Creatures
These creatures didn’t fit into the “Fat People” category we started this article with, since they don’t cost enough mana to trigger Kalemne’s experience-counter ability. They can still be very good for a Kalemne deck, though, since they let you protect and re-play your big creatures and value creatures alike. Also, if you’re embracing the “cast fatties over and over” plan that Crovax, Stormfront Riders, and Sigil of the New Dawn gesture toward, you may be playing cards like Pearl Medallion or Cloud Key, which make all of these much better.
Jeskai Barricade, Whitemane Lion, Stonecloaker, and Dust Elemental. The first three of these cards are very similar, since they can only bounce a single creature: either you use them to save (and re-cast) a key creature at instant speed, or you use them to bounce themselves over and over again, triggering things like Purphoros, God of the Forge or Cathars’ Crusade. Stonecloaker, additionally, can exile key cards from opponents’ graveyards with every iteration, which makes it a profoundly versatile card over the course of a game. Dust Elemental is a great card for decks that can’t generate too much card advantage, as is often the case with red/white decks: when somebody casts a sweeper or tries to kill a couple of your creatures, you can flash in the Elemental, get an experience counter, and then return it—plus your two best creatures—to your hand, ready to re-cast. If you find that your Kalemne gets too expensive to cast after people have killed her a few times, or if you just run out of gas in the late game a lot, Dust Elemental has you covered. Oh, and the card is also a 6/6 creature with flying and fear, if you want it to start attacking rather than serving as a game-long insurance policy from your hand.
Erratic Portal. This isn’t a creature itself, but this earlier (and color-neutral) version of Crystal Shard is incredibly good at bouncing your creatures to your hand in response to removal. It can mess with opponents who tap all their mana, of course, but in a Kalemne deck it is mostly going to be a defensive measure that synergizes with many of the other cards we have discussed above. Much like Dust Elemental, it can also save enough creatures from death that you will still have plays to make late into the game. Some people who try to go very deep on the “bounce my own creatures” plan will run Umbilicus or its functional reprint Blood Clock, but those cards’ lack of instant-speed timing makes them clunky, and they can often help opponents too much by letting them re-use their own enters-the-battlefield effects.
* * *
Thanks for joining me in looking at some ways to teach our favorite Giant Soldier lady a thing or two! By the end, we were not merely looking at ways to give her some experience counters—we were discovering good ways to keep a steady stream of cards coming to our red/white decks in general.Now, please head to the comments and give me some requests for future Dig Through Time articles! We all know how hard and how satisfying deckbuilding in the Commander format can be, and there are often cards out there, lost in the mists of time, that are exactly what you’re looking for to make your deck run like clockwork.
No comments:
Post a Comment