Deck Primer: Kain, Traitorous Dragoon
I find I do most of my writing whenever I get tremendously bored at work, and such is the case now. I talked a bit recently about my Kain, Traitorous Dragoon deck, so why not do a deck tech on it?
Kain, Traitorous Dragoon - Commander deck Voltron (1) Commander • (11) Draw • (1) Evasion • (34) Land • (1) Lifegain • (5) Mass Disruption
I first played Final Fantasy IV on the Wii Virtual Console sometime in the 2000s. It remains one of my favorite Final Fantasy titles, and Cecil and Kain remain some of my favorite characters. Getting to play them in Dissidia 012 further solidified my love for them.
While not nearly as catchy as "Blorbo from my Planes," my Archidekt title for this deck is "Some Scars Don't Heal." Of all the Kain quotes I could have used, I somehow settled on a Dissidia NT line. Gross, but it's stuck at this point. What is commander damage but a scar that doesn't heal?
I describe this list as a group-hug Voltron deck. The goal is to play Kain, suit him up with progressively better equipment, pass him around the table, gain resources, reduce life totals, then finally start knocking out players with my beefed up Commander.
My early game equipment either boosts Kain's power a little or offers some sort of triggered ability that gives me value even when I don't control Kain. Mask of Memory is a good example of the latter.
I have around 20 Equipment with a mana value plus equip cost that equals 3 or 4, that way I can consistently gear up Kain on the turn of his first attack. This is why I'm playing oddball cards like Ace's Baseball Bat. The power-to-mana ratio is good, and 3 total mana really is the sweet spot. I draw a lot of cards, so I'm running less lands than I usually would. All I need is 3 in order to play Kain, and then I'm likely to draw into the other lands I need.
Because I'm passing my Commander around, I originally felt inclined to imitate the play patterns of decks like Slicer or Alexios: maximize the attacks per turn cycle by passing Kain as much as possible. Handing off Kain and then taking my hands off the wheel can be fun in its own way, but I decided I want to have proactive use for my mana and cards. Also because doing this doesn't necessarily get the result I want.
I want to choose my Kain targets deliberately, usually favoring whatever player is the most behind. Ideally, I ask for volunteers, because it's important that my opponents want to attack with Kain. (You'd assume most players wouldn't say no to free mana and card advantage, but alas some people do.) The reason why it's so important that they want it so that I can leverage my signature deal: "If I attack you with Kain, please attack me back with him." I can't maximize the number of times Kain attacks per turn cycle, but I can try to maximize the number of times I get to attack with him. Again, I'd like to make use of my cards and mana, and I want to do that by suiting up Kain with more stuff.
Whether it's the mid or late game, I need to get a source of lifegain eventually. Taking combat damage and life loss from Kain adds up quickly. Like many of the other cards in this deck, I like it best when my lifegain helps me more than it helps my opponents. An MVP in this regard is Deadly Wanderings, which makes sure Kain only has Lifelink whenever I control him. Instants and Sorceries that give Lifelink also help, but obviously don't offer repeated lifegain. Ultimately, it's not the end of the world if my opponents get to attack with a Lifelinking Kain, especially since I still get the most use out of lifegain once I start eliminating players.
After I've passed Kain around a few times and softened up the table, I need to land the plane. Good news, there's a lot of individually powerful equipment that turn players with a little commander damage into players with 21 commander damage. Since I play a lot of equipment and Kain makes a lot of Treasure, cards like Cranial Plating are among my best options. I've also got a few cards like Inquisitor's Flail which offer large power boosts without quite as much work required. Overall, I don't tend to need an excessive amount of damage to win, since I usually have some amount of chip damage all around the table.
KOing players is important for all of the usual reasons, but it's especially important for this deck. Dealing lethal damage to an opponent means you get to actually keep Kain, and you finally get to increase your life total with Lifelink. Easy to take those things for granted until you play a deck where you can't do either consistently.
Pet cards aren't a huge part of this deck, but I've got a few.
I'm playing Aether Snap because I think it has synergy, but I'm also a bit nostalgic for it. My first precon was Freyalise from Commander 2014. I played it against other C14 decks, such as the Ob Nixilis deck. That's what first put Aether Snap on my radar. There are some games where I'm stuck with Snap in hand against a board of lethal nontoken creatures. Other times, Snap is utterly backbreaking. (In case you didn't know, Commander players really like tokens and counters.) Plus, the synergy with Kain is pretty diabolical. Sure, I might give somebody half a dozen tapped Treasures for free, but that doesn't mean they'll actually get to use them. I'll dispose of all those pesky token creatures while I'm at it, all the while leaving Kain and my equipment untouched (except for Lost Jitte, just ignore that).
Deadly Tempest is another wrath that I consider to be a pet card. I can see in my mind's eye the game where I cast Deadly Tempest, remove several dozen creatures from play, and immediately win the game on the spot. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm chasing that dream.
I'd also consider Blackblade Reforged to be a pet card. I'm not ramping lands, so I don't get quite as much benefit out of it as other decks do. However, I have a Signature Spellbook: Gideon version that I haven't found cause to play anywhere else. As long as I'm not stuck on 3 lands, I think Blackblade is fine in most situations.
As a Voltron deck, I have to contend with the flaws inherent to the strategy.
Firstly, I'm putting all my eggs in one basket. How do I stop my opponents from thermonuclear bombing said basket? And because I'm a deck hipster, I can't do it in just any 'ole way.
It took me a while to make a Voltron deck because I could never find a happy middle ground between "my shields are always down and I fold to any removal" and "my commander is always hexproof + indestructible and I'm just playing solitaire." I think Kain strikes the perfect balance because I use cards like Kaya's Ghostform and Malakir Rebirth. My opponents can meaningfully disrupt me by killing Kain, removing him from combat, and making me re-equip all my stuff. However, I don't have to recast Kain, and he's immediately ready to attack again when I untap. Also, these effects are great for cheeky opponents who try to sacrifice Kain.
These cards also pull double duty as a way for me to re-aquire Kain from opponents who don't deserve him anymore, such as when they try to kill me or when they refuse to attack. I have a good suite of Instant removal spells, and I draw a lot of cards in this deck. So, I'm all too happy to burn an Infernal Grasp on my own Kain if it means I'm the one who gets to attack with him next.
While not a major presence here, Ward is also a good tool in protecting Kain. It makes my opponents think twice about removing Kain, but done in a fair way. Ward also allows me to still remove Kain myself if needed. These reasons are why Shroud and Hexproof don't make any appearances in this list, in addition to the hipster considerations.
Unrelated to Voltron issues, but kill spells and wraths are my best tools to avoid dying to my opponents. Giving people free resources is dangerous, but it often encourages people to dump their hands into the loving embrace of mass disruption. And because I also draw a lot of cards, I don't feel bad about using my removal proactively.
As far as the second big Voltron weakness goes, I unfortunately have no tools for killing three opponents at once. At least this isn't a problem that necessarily needs to be solved. Some Voltron decks just take three turns to win, and such is what I've resolved to do. Because passing Kain around inflicts a lot of chip damage, I can cross my fingers and hope one or more of my opponents eliminate someone for me. However, this isn't something I'm counting on as a core part of my strategy.
I'm finding I also just have a weakness to bad players? Some people don't want you to touch their precious life total even when they're chilling with 2 cards in hand and have missed multiple land drops. Can't do much about that, save for be a bit pickier about who I give Kain to. Make sure they will return my boy rather than kill him or hold on to him indefinitely.
In my continuing quest to build unique commander decks, I think Kain fits the bill wonderfully. I've also got plenty of revisions to look forward to, since many of my cards are less than ideal inclusions straight from my collection. There are some obviously good cards I haven't acquired for budget reasons, Shadowspear chief among them. I like this deck a lot, and I think I'll continue to enjoy it for some time.
Now that you've read to the end of this primer, I reveal that I was actually working for Wizard Darth Vader the whole time. Ignore the last time I defected from you and then defected back, this time is for real, and it's definitely not mind control or anything. Get bamboozled.
