Commander

Fran-tic Search: Commander – Kozilek Decktech

Recently, during my trip to Toronto for Nationals, I had multiple people from Eastern Canada make comments along the lines of “you write an EDH column for Manadeprived.com right? How’s that going?” So apparently my column is an EDH column. This got me thinking that I haven’t written about Commander in a while since I’ve been so tied up with other formats.

In light of this, today I’ve decided to write up a deck tech for my very finest Commander deck, [card]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/card]. I’m going to talk about how the deck works in general, some of the cool interactions within the deck, as well as the cards that didn’t make the cut.

So if any of my readers out there happened to see me playing Commander at Nationals in Toronto, I was without a doubt playing this beast:

[deck title=Kozilek by Francis Toussaint]
[Commander]
Kozilek, Butcher of Truths
[/Commander]
[Creatures]

1 Walking Atlas
1 Shimmer Myr

1 Palladium Myr

1 Stuffy Doll

1 Kuldotha Forgemaster

1 Duplicant

1 Steel Hellkite

1 Sundering Titan

1 Ulamog, of the Infinite Gyre

1 Blightsteel Colossus
[/Creatures]

[Other Spells]

1 Meekstone

1Lightning Greaves

1 Winter Orb

1 Phyrexian Portal

1 Rings of Brighthearth

1 Sculpting Steel

1 Bottled Cloister

1 Clock of Omens

1 Erratic Portal

1 Portcullis

1 Skyship Weatherlight

1 Tawnos’s Coffin

1 Unwinding Clock

1 Vedalkin Orrery

1 Memory Jar

1 Mind’s Eye

1 Mirrorworks

1 Mishra’s Helix

1 Myr Incubator

1 Planar Portal

1 All is Dust

1 Karn Liberated

1 Spine of Ishra

1 Darksteel Forge
[/Other Spells]

[Mana Acceleration]

1 Mana Crypt

1 Everflowing Chalice

1 Expedition Map

1 Mox Opal

1 Mana Vault

1 Sol Ring

1 Voltaic Key

1 Doubling Cube

1 Fellwar Stone

1 Grim Monolith

1 Mind Stone

1 Basalt Monolith

1 Coalition Relic

1 Darksteel Ingot

1 Pristine Talisman

1 Semblance Anvil

1 Worn Powerstone

1 Sisay’s Ring

1 Thran Dynamo

1 Ur-Golem’s Eye

1 Blinkmoth Urn

1 Gilded Lotus

1 Dreamstone Hedron
[/Mana Acceleration]
[Lands]
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Blinkmoth Urn
1 Buried Ruin
1 Cloudpost
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Deserted Temple
1 Dread Statuary
1 Dust Bowl
1 Eldrazi Temple
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Ghost Town
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glimmerpost
1 High Market
1 Homeward Path
1 Maze of Ith
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Mishra’s Factory
1 Mishra’s Workshop
1 Mutavault
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Wasteland
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Petrified Field
1 Phyrexia’s Core
1 Quicksand
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rishadan Port
1 Scorched Ruins
1 Springjack Pasture
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Temple of the False God
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Urza’s Factory
1 Vesuva
1 Winding Canyons
1 Zoetic Cavern

[/Lands]
[/Deck]

How it Works 

The most common and effective game plan with this deck is to use artifact mana acceleration to ramp into Kozilek. If you manage to get enough mana to cast Kozilek early it will usually be tough to lose.

Due to the deck’s gameplan of ramp into Kozilek and other large spells, it has a total of 42 lands, and 25 mana acceleration spells, for a total of 67 out of 99 of the cards being dedicated to mana in some way. Did I mention mana acceleration and mana advantage are two of my favourite things to do in Magic?

This deck is also great because it allows you to abuse cards like [card]Mishra’s Workshop[/card], [card]Blinkmoth Urn[/card], [card]Darksteel Forge[/card], and [card]Myr Incubator[/card] that take advantage of the fact that the deck is almost entirely comprised of artifacts.

The Lands

The first thing that stands out about this deck is that the general is colorless. The implications of having a colorless general are that you cannot play any basic lands and you don’t have any color requirement burdens, and because of this, you want to be getting value in some way out of each and every land you play. Being able to play 40+ different lands that each have their own individual, relevant, ability is easily one of the coolest things about the deck.

You’d think it would be hard to find enough colorless lands for an entire deck, but it’s actually tough to pick the very best colorless lands. You’d think it would be correct to just jam Urzatron lands, or something like that, but it would be a big mistake wasting space on lands that aren’t actually useful. I love each and every land this deck has at it’s disposal, and whenever I have to add, or remove, a land it’s actually really tough to decide.

I’d been rolling with 40 lands for quite a while in the past, but I’ve realized that’s definitely not enough lands. You really don’t want to miss a land drop with this deck. Another big problem early in the game is that lands such as [card]Eye of Ugin[/card], [card]Temple of the False God[/card], and [card]Maze of Ith[/card] may be dead draws in the early game.

Interactions & Strong Cards

[card]Kozilek, the Butcher of Truth[/card]

This guy is the heart of the deck. Kozilek is your card-drawing engine, your main win condition, and an important piece to a few of the deck’s combos.

[card]Urborg, Tomb of Yagmoth[/card] + [card]Eye of Ugin[/card]/[card]Temple of the False God[/card]/[card]Maze of Ith[/card]

At first sight, Urborg seems like a card that does absolutely nothing that isn’t even legal in the deck. However, since Urborg isn’t a swamp and doesn’t actually have a Swamp symbols in it, one is able to play it. Not only is one able to play it, but it turns lands such as Eye of Ugin into Swamps that are able to tap for black mana. This may not seem all that important, but this interaction can make lands like the Eye and Temple useful in the early game rather than just dead draws and make Urborg produce extra mana in a way.

Turning lands in to Swamps also comes becomes useful in conjunction with [card]Sundering Titan[/card]. With Urborg in play, [cardSundering Titan[/cards] becomes double the beating, allowing you to destroy any land an opponent has in play.

[card]Rings of Brighthearth[/card] + [card]Basalt Monolith[/card]

The combination of [card]Basalt Monolith[/card] and [card]Rings of Brighthearth[/card] make infinite mana. Infinite make is obviously great, but in conjunction with Kozilek, you can find a lot of things to do with this mana. Using Kozilek in conjunction with cards like [card]Erratic Portal[/card], [card]Miren, the Moaning Well[/card], and [card]High Market[/card], help you get as much value as possible.

Usually when I play [card]Skyship Weatherlight[/card] I’ll search for Rings and Monolith to assemble the combo.

[card]Clock of Omens[/card] + [card]Doubling Cube[/card] and more

Ideally, the plan with [card]Clock of Omens[/card] is to use it in conjunction with [card]Doubling Cube[/card] to make tons of mana, and then use that mana to play Kozilek and get more artifacts to continue generating mana with [card]Clock of Omens[/card] and [card]Doubling Cube[/card]. If you manage to get [card]Clock of Omens[/card], [card]Doubling Cube[/card], and [card]Erratic Portal[/card], you can continue to bounce Kozilek and draw into artifacts, and then use those artifacts to untap and reuse [card]Doubling Cube[/card], and then continue this to draw your entire deck. Eventually you should be able to get to a point where you have [card]Clock of Omens[/card], [card]Doubling Cube[/card], [card]Erratic Portal[/card], [card]Basalt Monolith[/card], and [card]Grim Monolith[/card], which will make infinite mana, infinite drawing, and infinite untapping of artifacts. With infinite mana and untapping of artifacts, you can use [card]Pristine Talisman[/card] to gain infinite life, or use [card]Stuffy Doll[/card] to mow down opponent’s. It may seem really tough to get all these cards together, but it happens a surprising amount of the time.

[card]Unwinding Clock[/card] + [card]Shimmer Myr[/card]/[card]Vedalkin Orrery[/card]

With this deck, you always have cards that you want to dump on the table, and this combo lets you do just that. The very first combo that I ever had in a Commander deck is Teferi and [card]Seedborn Muse[/card], and this artifact combo does essentially the same thing. At the very least, being able to untap [card]Basalt Monolith[/card], [card]Grim Monolith[/card], and [card]Mana Vault[/card] with [card]Unwinding Clock[/card] for free is something.

[card]Spine of Ish Sah[/card] + [card]Phyrexia’s Core[/card]

This combo may seem clunky and slow, but you usually get so much artifact mana that it’s not much of a problem. It’s actually really effective 1 on 1 as a constant [card]Stone Rain[/card], and is still good in multiplayer as well. [card]Kuldotha Forgemaster[/card] can also be used as an effective sac outlet.

[card]Sundering Titan[/card]

[card]Sundering Titan[/card] is easily my favourite Commander card. The titan is especially effective in this deck because you don’t have any of your own basic lands to destroy, so you’re only messing with others’ basics. The long list of cards that work well with [card]Sundering Titan[/card] include [card]Erratic Portal[/card], [card]Tawnos’s Coffin[/card], [card]Phyrexia’s Core[/card], [card]High Market[/card], [card]Miren, the Moaning Well[/card], and [card]Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth[/card]. [card]Sundering Titan[/card] is one of the best cards for closing out games of Commander because so many decks are extremely mana hungry, and stunting an opponents mana is usually enough for the concession.

[card]Winter Orb[/card] + Artifact Mana

The Orb in conjunction with artifact mana is one of the easiest ways lock down an opponent. By hampering their access to mana while you are free to play whatever you wish with your artifact mana, you severely restrict what they are able to do .

[card]Semblance Anvil[/card]

This another one of those cards that are the reason you play all artifacts. Making almost your entire deck cost 2 less makes it so easy to cycle through your deck, and get your threats on the table. Sure, it opens you up to the potential of getting 2-for-1’d, but the pay off is definitely worth it.

[card]Myr Incubator[/card]

This is the wow factor. If you are going to play all artifacts, then this is the pay off. When I activate this card, basically I just flip my deck upside-down on the table EOT on my opponents turn and say I win. In multiplayer you are usually able to just create a hoard that takes out one player at a time.

[card]Kuldotha Forgemaster[/card]

Forgemaster is another one of those ‘I win’ cards that will immediately end the game if it’s allowed to stay on the table. Usual targets for this card include [card]Myr Incubator[/card], [card]Darksteel Forge[/card], and [card]Blightsteel Colossus[/card].

[card]All is Dust[/card]/[card]Meekstone[/card]/[card]Porticullis[/card]

Most of the time your game plan is to ramp in to Kozilek and kill everyone else before they’re able to do something, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. Sometimes cards like [card]All is Dust[/card], [card]Meekstone[/card], and [card]Porticullis[/card] are needed to give you the time necessary to get set up.

Cards that Didn’t Make the Cut

[card]Nevinyrral’s Disk[/card]/[card]Oblivion Stone[/card]

These two cards are obviously really good, and may seem like glaring exclusions, but I just dislike them personally. I always hate drawing them. Sometimes you really need them to deal with some permanents, but blowing up the world really sucks sometimes. With this deck you invest so much in artifact mana, and then to destroy all of your own stuff is a bummer, so I just avoid it altogether. I’ll admit it’s probably wrong to exclude these cards, but I’m happy with the decision.

[card]The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale[/card]

Although I would absolutely love to have this card, the reason it’s not included in the deck is that it’s just too expensive for me to justify getting it just for Commander and I don’t want to proxy it. However, I did go ahead and proxy [card]Mishra’s Workshop[/card]. I figure people aren’t really annoyed by playing against [card]Mishra’s Workshop[/card] because it’s a powerful card, but it’s not that ‘in your face,’ whereas Tabernacle is a complete blowout against certain decks and can be extremely annoying to play against. If I legitimately owned a Tabernacle I wouldn’t feel bad in the least playing it, but I feel really bad proxying it. Morally, I walk a fine line.

Here are some other cards that weren’t good enough:

[card]Brittle Effigy[/card]

[card]Predator, Flagship[/card]

[card]Akroma’s Memorial[/card]

[card]Archbound Reclaimer[/card]

[card]Ensnaring Bridge[/card]

[card]Mimic Vat[/card]

[card]Prototype Portal[/card]

The cards above are all fine cards, but I felt like a lot of them just either didn’t do enough, or I’d rather be doing other things with my mana. I found myself preferring to have mana acceleration and lands over these spells.

Conclusion

So obviously I really love this deck, and for any of you out there that enjoy competitive Commander decks I’m sure you’ll love it a well. If you’re playing this deck against a bunch of casual decks I’m sure they won’t be having very much fun, so I wouldn’t recommend it, unless you’re into that sort of thing. So again, this is a really sweet deck, so if any of you agree with me go ahead and proxy it up,  give it a try, and have fun! Thanks for reading!

Francis Toussaint

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