#kaijudotcg

[abc-topdecking-blog]

The Kai-Brewery

Hey everyone, back with some more Kaijudo content. I'm going to try and do a weekly segment where I brew up a new list every week, analyze it it and go over my choices, then maybe later do a follow up piece with testing and revisions. The last piece I did with my LWD Tempo list will act as the first in the series, but with both parts included in one. That all being said, let's get to this week. I know a huge part of the Kaijudo Community has also played Magic, so for many of them I don't need to explain much when I say this is based of the traditional Jund lists of Magic. For those who don't know, the Jund Archetype is a Black/Red/Green Midrange deck from Magic the Gathring focused on disruption, removal, and efficient creatures. It uses disruption to keep the opponent off their best plays, removal to stop them from doing anything of significance, and efficient creatures (either high power/low cost or useful effects) to lock up the game. Luckily for us, all these are card types and techniques that can also be used in Kaijudo. They all also have solid applications in the same colors. That being said, let's get into some card choices. There are a solid number of cards I knew I wanted to play in this list. I knew for example that the list would have full sets of Mesmerize, Terror Pit, and Weaponized Razorcat. These cards are perfect examples of what the Jund deck wants to do. Then there are cards like Underworld Stalker, Warchief Kyo, and Necrose, Nightmare Bloom that all provide extremely useful effects while also being able to attack. So after getting my shell laid out, it was time to fill in the gaps. I searched through Standard legal options on Kaijudo Channel and also searched through other top decks to see what was being run. Eventually I came to this list. 3 Den Gorger 2 Underworld Stalker 2 Trox the Merciless 3 Mesmerize 1 Maddening Whispers 3 Terror Pit 2 Scrapheap Hunter 3 Warchief Kyo 2 Tornado Flame 1 Blaze Helix 2 Absolute Incineration 3 Bronze-Arm Tribe 2 Broodmother 2 Anjak, the All-Kin 3 Weaponized Razorcat 2 Victory Gunner 3 Goop Striker 1 Necrose, Nightmare Bloom The deck came together nicely for a very rough draft thrown together so quickly. Most of our focus is in controlling the midgame and the deck seems like it can do that well if it survives there. The only awkward part is that our curve basically starts at 3 outside of the Razorcat, but we do have 13 Shield Blasts to hopefully help us survive the early game. That being said, we probably could use some smaller cards. So, now let's go over ome of the cards I didn't mention before, color by color. Den Gorger is a decently powered Shield Blast blocker. While not amazing, he seems like he could be useful given our lack of an early game. Conveniently, he also can evolve into a Trox the Merciless. Trox is great for this deck. He's removal (potentially for multiple creature) and is a huge double breaking body. Maddening Whispers is just there to fill out the hand disruption suite. Our Fire section basically reads "Kill Stuff". Scrapheap Hunter doesn't do a lot, but it can eat a Scamp or rush creature which is solid. Kyo is the same thing just on a larger scale. Then you have Tornado Flame for more generic removal, Blaze Helix for Panopter.dec, and Absolute Incineration for those times when you just need everything to die. The nature section is just a bit of glue for the deck. Bronze-Arm Tribe is a bit of ramp to help us make it to Incineration and Trox faster. It can also carry some of our evos. Broodmother is there for card draw. I'm honestly not sure if it's worth the slot given the fact that I run 12 Spells, but we will see in testing. Anjak is just a highly efficient better with added utility. Our multi-civs are all pretty straight-forward. Weaponized Razorcat is just great aggressive value with 4k at 2 mana. Victory Gunner can break multiple shields a turn or avoid vengeance kills while also ramping us. Goop Striker ramps us towards our endgame while killing things, which is a great combo. Then we have the one of Necrose which is just great value. I'm thinking I want more than one. Analyzing your brews like this can be a great tool. I brewed this deck literally in the hour before I started writing this piece and just looking over the list over and over has given me plenty of ideas for revisions. Ideas that seem great at first can often lose appeal the longer you think about them. That being said, here's the list I'll probably be testing for my follow up piece. 3 Den Gorger 2 Underworld Stalker 2 Trox the Merciless 3 Mesmerize 1 Maddening Whispers 3 Terror Pit 2 Scrapheap Hunter 3 Warchief Kyo 2 Tornado Flame 1 Blaze Helix 2 Absolute Incineration 3 Bronze-Arm Tribe 2 Anjak, the All-Kin 3 Sprout 3 Weaponized Razorcat 3 Goop Striker 2 Necrose, Nightmare Bloom So, hopefully my follow up piece with details on this will be up within the week. If you have any suggestions for this deck or ideas to brew on next, just let me know. Thanks! -Alan Clifton

[abc-topdecking-blog]

Alright, More Kaijudo!!!

As I'm sure most of my followers have been just waiting for more Kaijudo content, I decided to provide some. I have been out of the game for a while but decided to get back in when I found out one of my local shops would be hosting a KMC (Kaijudo Master Challenge/PTQ Equivalent) in September. Considering the fact that a few sets had come out in my down time and "formats" had become a thing, I had a lot to catch up on.

First thing first, Kaijudo now has a Standard format, much like Magic. Just like in Magic, the Standard format consists of the two latest blocks. This meant a good bit of my cards were still legal, but some of the old boogeymen I never invested in were no longer a problem. Cards like Bottle of Wishes, Andromeda of the Citadel, and others were gone. The sad part about this is that many of the cards I used to love and play whenever possible were also gone. I no longer can rely on Bone Blades, Crystal Memory, Logos Scan, and other great cards. Oh well, Finbarr and Piercing Judgment are still there to support me.

Once I became familiar with the basics of the Standard format I had to start thinking of decks. Looking over decks from recent events it was obvious certain strategies would still be an option and others would be banished to what is now known as "Open" (Kaijudo's Eternal format). With cards like Piercing Judgment, Finbarr, Cyber Scamp, and Keeper of Laws there was no question that LWx Tempo would still be a thing. Powerful cards like Eternal Haven and Queen Kalima gave people more than enough reason to try and push for the late game control decks as well. And of course there will be people always looking to turn their 1-drop and 2-drop guys sideways. Despite the survival of all these things, it seems like Dragons will have to settle for flying around the Open skies.

After surveying all the possibilities that I came cross, one old open deck stuck out to me; LWD Tempo. This deck was a lot like the old Megabugs deck I piloted, but with less Synergy although more utility. The lists I always liked were the ones posted by Cyber Lord Games players (Joe Bass, Gerry T, Noah Koesel, Rob Hebert, and co). While I know these guys weren't the only ones playing the deck, their versions are the ones I remember most. The question was could the deck survive the rotation? The deck lost a good few cards from it's old versions

-Bottle (PreBan) -Logos Scan -Lyra -Multiple Scaradorables -Bone Blades More

The fact that we lost all these cards reallllllllly sucks. No joke. But luckily a rotation means a new set of cards to work with. So what did Quest for the Gauntlet give the deck? Well, let's go for the big, obvious one first.

This is a Triple Breaker with protection that guards our shields, has 12500 Power, and only costs 7 mana. Yeah, it's an Evo, but the deck is full of Light creatures anyway. The new go to finisher.

Since the passing of Stormspark Blast we needed a new defensive tool. One could make the argument for Containment Field, but in a deck not looking to necessarily swarm the field The Arbiter fills that role nicely. Shield Blast creatures are almost always great and the fact that this can carry either a Blinder Beetle Prime or Sasha is awesome.

From the get go 4k for 4 isn't too terrible. But this thing has Slayer, which is very good. This thing also puts your opponents dead cards to the bottom of their library which is good against cards like Necrose, Kalima, Agaryx, and others. But that second line is key. You can summon him from your discard pile. So, we have utility stacked onto removal that keeps coming back. Gotta love it.

There are a number of other cards that I tried and others have ran that I'm not going to go further into since that would take a while, but they are worth a look. Some of those being Ethereal Agent, IronWill Tree, Trox the Merciless, General Dorzim, and maybe a few more.

So, after looking through all the new options I first made a list to play around with just based off of cards I had on hand or easy enough access to. My initial list has long since been deleted, but it originally contained cards like Fumes and other random nonsense. I posted the list on The Dojo. Shortly after I got a lot of advice and came to the following list.

Creatures: 29 (2 Evos with 8 Bait) 3 Luminous Shieldwing 3 Keeper of Laws 2 Blinder Beetle Prime 2 The Arbiter 3 Cyber Scamp 2 Ethereal Agent 3 Psychic Predator Rusalka 3 General Finbarr 3 Aqua Strider 3 Lost Patrol 2 Squillace Scourge Spells: 11 2 Wave Spears 3 Mesmerize 3 Terror Pit 3 Piercing Judgment

This list tested alright, but a number of the cards were underwhelming. Luminous Shieldwing was cool, but a lot of the time it was a terrible top deck or out shined by rush's creatures. The other problem problem I encountered was the effectiveness of Ethereal Agent. Most of the time it let me peak at a shield, drew maybe one card, then died. A few days later the list became this.

Creatures: 24 3 Rain-Cloud Kraken 3 Keeper of Laws 2 The Arbiter 3 Cyber Scamp 3 Psychic Predator Rusalka 3 General Finbarr 2 Aqua Strider 3 Lost Patrol 2 Squillace Scourge Evos: 5 2 Blinder Beetle Prime 3 Regent Sasha Spells: 11 2 Wave Spears 3 Mesmerize 3 Terror Pit 3 Piercing Judgment

The Krakens proved to be much more useful than the Shieldwings and Sasha proved to be just as great as suspected. My next wave of testing showed some other issues with the deck. Wave Spears just wasn't what I wanted it to be. If it was in my shields it was fine, but otherwise it was a Blue mana source most of the time. Playing it from the hand provides no card advantage and if you don't have the right level spell to disard it's just an expensive looting effect. My other main issue was Mesmerize. While it is great in the mirror or against control a lot of the times it is a late game blank or provides a negligible effect. Much like in Magic where Thoughtseize is a great early game play, the longer the game goes the weaker the effect gets and no matter what time you play it it can't affect the top of your opponent's deck. Also, the prevalence of Ironwill Tree makes it awkward. This all lead to the following list. Creatures: 28 3 Rain-Cloud Kraken 1 Blinder Beetle 3 Keeper of Laws 2 The Arbiter 3 Cyber Scamp 2 Ethereal Agent 3 Psychic Predator Rusalka 3 General Finbarr 1 Den Gorger 2 Underworld Stalker 3 Tar Gusher 2 Squillace Scourge Evos: 4 2 Blinder Beetle Prime 2 Regent Sasha Spells: 8 3 Terror Pit 3 Piercing Judgment 2 Reverberate Reverberate came in due to the fact that it can basically win a game against control on turn 6. Blinder Beetle and Den Gorger were experimental tech pieces that (Spoiler alert) honestly never worked out how I planned. Agent came back for a while to keep my low level creature count up, but didn't work out. My last two striders got cut as well to keep my multi-civ count low, but this was also a mistake. Also, during this testing time my 3-drop Multi-Civ went from Lost Patrol to Freakish Test Subject to Tar Gusher. Each has their own merits, but in the end Tar Gusher seems the best for a more varied field. Stalker alo came in after all because he's amazing. Now all of that said, here's where I'm at now.

The tech pieces weren't pulling their weight, so they got the axe. The Arbiter is super sweet, so he's up to three copies. Agent is once again gone. Squillace is super awesome in some situations, but he is a multi-civ nine drop that doesn't get a long with our Sasha or our opponents Ironwill Trees. He had to go to the binder. Our new (old) tech is Shapeshifter Scaradorable. It plays the same role as Lost Patrol in annihilating most of Rush's board at a low cost. It also has the benefit of turning Scamps into useful cards against aggro or turning them into Evo bait for BBP or Sasha. A number of times I was stuck with  BBP in hand and no Enforcer for it, or a Sasha with a Scamp in play. Scaradorable helps solve that problem. Strider is back. Yay! Last but not least is my one of Agaryx as another finisher. This may be better off as just another Sasha, but the ability to OTK the opponent in a long drawn out game with him and a Keeper is pretty sweet and has actually happened a few times. So, yeah. That's where I'm at now. For anyone still reading this, thanks for the dedication. I'll be sure to post updates. Alan Clifton

[abc-topdecking-blog]

Getting ready for the Standard KMC in a couple months. Tempo4lyf!