#kurkesh

[neimata]

outfit design of the first dnd character i ever made!!

[bacejelerenvorthos]

Legend of the Week: Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient

Race: Ogre Spirit

Homeplane: Shandalar

The Onakke are a mysterious ancient race of ogres from the plane of Shandalar. After years of them being mentioned in Magic Story, typically related to the Chain Veil arc, we finally got our first glimpse at what they actually looked like before their entire civilization was wiped out in a cataclysm as Core 2019 gave us Onakke Ogre. But who is Kurkesh? Well, like I mentioned, all the Onakke are well, dead. All we know is that some ancient Wrath of God-like spell destroyed their entire civilization. And now their spirits reside within the Chain Veil, continuing to whisper to Liliana about her being a vessel, possibly to bring about the return of this race of ogres. Very little is known about Kurkesh himself, other than the fact that he haunts the Onakke ruins on Shandalar. It is believed that he may have once been a powerful artificer who poured dark arcane magic into his creations. And it is possible that he is also waiting and preparing for the return of his race.

[boyd-speaks]

New deck tech!

[strixhaven-star]

Just thinking about the current Magic story arc and I really wish MTG would visit Shandalar in a premier set.

[magicjudge]

Is Pyromancer's Goggles' ability a mana ability? I want to know if it would trigger Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient.

It’s a mana ability, so it doesn’t trigger Kurkesh.

[commandertheory]

Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient

I made some changes to the Kurkesh list I talked about a month ago, and I think it's been streamlined into a pretty solid combo build (qualifier: for a Red deck). Here's the new list.

After playing with it for a bit, the deck is predictably weak to artifact destruction, although you can generally play around it by not committing stuff to the board until you absolutely have to. The list is great at generating tons of mana, but I think that it could probably use more mana sinks so it can better utilize that mana. Also, the Eldrazi and Blightsteel are a little awkward right now. They die a lot if they don't have haste, but I don't want to cut combo pieces for haste granters (I threw in Lightning Greaves as a concession, but the whole situation still needs fixing).

Anyway, critiques, comments, and questions are all welcome.

[commandertheory]

Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient

I was really excited about Kurkesh, so I started brewing right after he got spoied last night. The resulting deck is an artifact control list that’s able to amass a ton of mana. 

Cards that are sick with Kurkesh

+Sensei’s Divining Top: Simply tap the Top and copy the activation with Kurkesh. You’ll draw a card and put the Top on top of your library, and then the copied ability will resolve and you’ll redraw the Top. After you cast it again, you’ll be back where you started, except with two less mana and one more card.

+Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith: You might not be able to copy the mana ability, but you are able to copy the untap ability, which will allow you to convert red mana to colorless mana at a generous ratio; with Grim, you get two colorless for every red mana you pump in, and with Basalt Monolith, you’ll get three.

+Voltaic Key: If you copy the ability, you can untap Voltaic Key and one other artifact. If that artifact happens to be a mana rock that taps for three or more mana, then you can convert 1R to more mana in this way. If that mana rock happens to be a Gilded Lotus, you can go infinite.

+Kuldotha Forgemaster: Allows you to grab both Nevinyrral’s Disk and Darksteel Forge in a single activation.

Mana Sinks

One of the only things that artifacts are able to do really efficiently is generate mana, and since this is an artifact deck with a bunch of mana production engines, we’re very likely to end up with big (or even infinite) amounts of mana, and we’ll be needing some methods for converting mana into board presence, card advantage, etc.

+Avarice Totem: Activate it targeting one of your permanents, then copy the ability with Kurkesh and target one of your opponents’ permanents. The copy will resolve, swapping the Totem with whatever you want, and then the original activation will resolve, swapping the Totem for whatever permanent you’re willing to give away. Voila! You just swapped your worst card for their best card. (Note: This will only work on an opponent that doesn’t have 5 mana open to activate the Totem themselves.)

+Pentavus/Thopter Squadron: Assuming you have Kurkesh out, you can produce a 1/1 flyer for 2R. For 2RR, you can produce a 1/1 flyer and make Pentavus/Thopter Squadron slightly bigger.

+Staff of Domination: Does whatever you need it to do, if you’ve got the mana.

+Sensei’s Divining Top: See above.

+Planar Portal/Ring of Three Wishes: Don’t have a sink? That’s okay, just go and find one.

Everything Else

The rest of the deck is just a bunch of artifact engines for gaining value and trying to compensate for monored’s many weaknesses. You can take a look at the full list here.

[scrollsoftarkir]

Very interesting.