Mission Completed, Commander Karn

(Sorry about the delay: I meant to have this up Tuesday and wanted to include the decklist-and just got preoccupied.)

Karn has started to knock it out of the park.

This was the end state of a game I played against Lauriel, playing Derevi, where I was able to get out a Darksteel Forge in response to the activation of a Nevinyarrl's Disk. Because I had a Vedalken Orrery out.

That's pretty bonkers. I think I may have screwed up and failed to remove my Kozilek, or she may have conceded in response as I was taking this picture. Either way, I had a pretty dominant board position at this point.

Games have repeatedly set out like this; slow builds but overwhelming deployment of resources. I'm actually pretty good with this. The deck has clearly improved since I started out and as a bonus, Kaladesh is there to provide some more toolbox opportunities.

I'm pretty pleased about it all, so here's the updated decklist.

Karn, Silver Golem
1 All Is Dust 1 Scour from Existence	1 Phyrexian Processor 1 Soldevi Digger 1 Worn Powerstone 1 Mind's Eye 1 Puppet Strings 1 Thran Dynamo 1 Darksteel Forge 1 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Planar Portal 1 Lux Cannon 1 Jayemdae Tome 1 Vedalken Orrery 1 Predator, Flagship 1 Mind Stone 1 Voltaic Key 1 Golem's Heart 1 Power Matrix 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Guardian Idol 1 Unwinding Clock 1 Hedron Archive 1 Sol Ring 1 Spine of Ish Sah 1 Argentum Armor 1 Candles of Leng 1 Everflowing Chalice 1 Urza's Blueprints 1 Aradara Express 1 Bomat Bazaar Barge
1 Myr Galvanizer 1 Myr Battlesphere 1 Myr Mindservant 1 Myr Matrix 1 Myr Reservoir 1 Myr Turbine 1 Triskelavus 1 Palladium Myr 1 Bottle Gnomes 1 Lodestone Myr 1 Golem Artisan 1 Steel Hellkite 1 Artisan of Kozilek 1 Shimmer Myr 1 Colossus of Sardia 1 Ferropede 1 Ulamog's Crusher 1 Mycosynth Golem 1 Serrated Biskelion 1 Thopter Assembly 1 Soul of New Phyrexia 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger 1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion 1 Bane of Bala Ged 1 Endbringer 1 It That Betrays 1 Solemn Simulacrum 1 Platinum Emperion 1 Myr Retriever	1 School of the Unseen 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Blinkmoth Urn 1 Blinkmoth Well 1 Zoetic Cavern 1 Blasted Landscape 1 Mishra's Factory 1 Mirrodin's Core 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Quicksand 1 Dread Statuary 1 Stalking Stones 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Temple of the False God 1 Henge of Ramos 1 Urza's Mine 1 Urza's Power Plant 1 Urza's Tower 1 Urza's Factory 1 Desert 1 Crystal Vein 1 Darksteel Citadel 1 Springjack Pasture 1 Glimmerpost 1 Cloudpost 1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 1 Tarnished Citadel 1 Petrified Field 1 Mirrorworks 1 Buried Ruin 1 Mage-Ring Network 1 Ruins of Oran-Rief 2 Wastes 1 Sea Gate Wreckage 1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods 1 Phyrexia's Core

Karn Works The Format

The lastest games with Karn, vs Matt & Caitlin, went pretty well. It helped to have a slower start and thus get ignored for a few turns while I just built up mana, for the most part.

But the haymakers worked: I built up mana slowly and was able to use Unwinding Clock to build up an overwhelming amount of resources. Lux Cannon was particularly helpful and it didn't hurt that Caitlin's demon deck removal had a weakness to artifact creatures.

A similar scene played out in the second matchup, with giant Eldrazi saving the day.

So I may be coming to the end run with Karn, having truly tuned it up for the better.

But...Kaladesh is out now and I picked up some cards at the release event. I think I'm going to remove a couple cards that aren't really doing much and add in a Bomat Bazaar Barge and Aradara Express. The Barge replaces itself and the Express could be a 5/5 with Menace using Karn.

I can't wait to check them out.

Karn and the Matchups

"I want to test this deck I threw together," Jason texts me.

I should've known better than to think this would be a winning experience, but I was hopeful after the last round of changes! More card draw, better lands, more useful creatures...I really thought I had something!

Enter Nekusar, the Mindrazer to ruin those dreams.

And I didn't just lose. I lost badly. I don't care what that picture looks like, we played three matchups and I went 0-2 in all of them.

Sure, Jason got uncannily lucky, dropping a Sol Ring on turns one or two of nearly every matchup, getting Propaganda out in 3 of the 6 games and then there was the game with Vandalblast... But again, Karn had a whole bunch of not-stuff going on and Nekusar had a lot of redundancy and card draw.

I really need haymakers for Karn to work as I've currently structured it. This is clashing with my desire to keep cards like Yotian Soldier in the deck because when was the last time that card saw the light of day? It's a solid little role player, right? However, it may just be a poor fit. I really feel that Karn should be able to take on a deck like Nekusar and that it can't bothers me.

Especially when I look at times when Karn won: giant creatures or waves of Myr, as against Phenax, which Jason played later that evening.

If I want to say there's a Myr theme, then Yotian Soldier isn't as fitting as Myr Retriever is. Add in the fact that I want to add in Vehicles now that Kaladesh is on the scene, I'm going to have to make some stronger evaluations of cards that should or shouldn't make the cut.

So, I ought to take a step back. Some decks just have bad matchups against others and I know this as well as anyone. Any deck packing Vandalblast against me is going to have a Pretty Good Day. I've seen that Karn has some synergies to exploit and I'm steadily creating a better and better build to exploit them.

But What If, Karn?

"I couldn't remove a 2/1 with deathtouch, and that is a problem," I said to Jason.

He's got Oloro as his commander and a Serra Avatar on the table in the photo; I've got enough mana to cast Shimmer Myr and recur it via Myr Reservoir to block the Avatar forever...except.

My freakin' Eldrazi is being held off by a 2/1 with deathtouch. I can't go on the offensive, because my mana at the time is being tied up in blocking a Very Large Avatar. I couldn't get anything else on board and soon after, Jason cast Sanguine Bond, sacrificed the Avatar (at 50 something power) to Disciple of Griselbrand and that was that.

And people say Aetherflux Reservoir isn't going to go off!

Finding a bunch of ways that Karn doesn't work is good data, but alternative input has been lacking.

The next match, Jason played Marath as his commander and I was able to establish a solid board presence...until he cast From the Ashes. While this wiped out all of my lands, I was able to keep playing thanks to a couple mana rocks-and an already dominant board presence-that he just couldn't keep up.I had a similar experience in game 2, being able to cast my haymakers while he used an untuned Marath deck to try and keep up.

At least I know that this deck can work! Maybe it would work better in multiplayer? It hasn't (yet) but...

Reading LSV's artifact review of Kaladesh gave me an idea. Vehicles could be a real boon to this deck, both adding a set of artifacts for Karn to animate, or allowing smaller animated artifacts to crew larger vehicles. Hell, animating vehicles should get around the need to crew them!

This offers an extra dimension to the deck that was previously unavailable and that strikes me as quite exciting!

Until then, I'm going to remove:
Hovermyr
Rocket Launcher
Myr Incubator
Alpha Myr
Sculpting Steel
Blinkmoth Nexus
Sheltered Valley
An-havva Township
Koskun Keep
Castle Sengir

Adding in:
2 Wastes
Sea Gate Wreckage
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Phyrexia's Core
Platinum Emperion
Argentum Armor
Spine of Ish Sah (can't believe this wasn't already here)
Solemn Simulacrum
Candles of Leng
Gruesome Slaughter

With two Wastes, Solemn Simulacrum has viable targets and I can't be completely shattered by cards like From the Wastes. Argentum Armor could give more removal (which is something I seem to be sorely lacking), Candles of Leng more card draw (ditto), and Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is another Temple of the False God that helps ramp mana.

So far, I like where I'm going with this.

Commander Karn-The Question

Sometimes, it's best to get the blunt truth, which I got, this time, from Sean.

This came just after the pictured game, where I'm playing Karn, Jason, on the right, has yet to start taking over via Meren (Sean asked, after the experience counters reached 7, 'How do you deal with that?' and my reply was 'Tormod's Crypt.') and Sean, in the upper left playing Daretti. 

I didn't accomplish much-sure it didn't help that I spent most of the game getting punished by Steel Hellkite, but I didn't have any interaction at all. Worse, when I played Blinkmoth Urn, I really set Sean up to ramp his mana.

Yet my deck couldn't benefit-because anything I would pay would be destroyed by the Hellkite.
After it was all over, Sean put it to me: "What does your deck do?" 

Well...it has a myr subtheme and a eldrazi subtheme and...

Sean just waited as it became pretty clear that I didn't really have a plan.

Now, I don't think that's bad but since that is the case, then I need to clear some of the deadwood in Karn's deck. Without a focused idea to bind the deck together, I can't rely on synergies, which means that I have to amplify the deck's overall power level.

That is a bummer to consider though; that I got swept up in the tiny details of card selection that I failed to look at the bigger picture of what the deck should do.

On the bummer scale though, it's maybe a two. I'll live.

Karn-Revisions

I went poking about the Commander and Competitive Commander forums at Reddit and didn't find much. This was a bit disappointing because the hive mind is usually a great source of ideas! Alas, this time it's looking like I have to grind things out myself.

So I organized the deck into lands, artifacts, creatures and All Is Dust.

After some review there are cards that I should pull:

Lumengrid Gargoyle: Too expensive for the payoff.
Myr Moonvessel: belongs in a combo deck
Myr Landshaper: also belongs in a combo deck
Omega Myr: no real payoff
Liquimetal Coating: doesn't do much else with the deck.
Welding Jar: belongs in a different deck. Commander has too much variance to get this to matter.
Rusted Relic: why play a vanilla 5/5?
Gemstone Caverns: Isn't awesome here.

Possible cuts:
Puppet Strings: doesn't do enough in multiplayer
Lightning Greaves: just not sure it does enough

Replacements:
Hedron Archive: mana + card draw is good.
Unwinding Clock: let's reuse my stuff.
Scour from Existence: removal isn't bad.
Endbringer: it's multifunctional
Kozilek, the Great Distortion: where else would this go? The card is pretty much terrible. But a 12/12 with Menace that can potentially draw me cards isn't bad. The countermagic ability is meaningless.
Bane of Bala Ged: removal isn't bad
It That Betrays: scary removal isn't bad
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: he's a dick.
Ruins of Oran-Rief: useful for every creature in this deck.

What I like about this selection is that it increases my creature count, which doesn't suck, boosts the mana possibilities, which doesn't suck, and has more removal possibilities, which doesn't suck.

So...I've basically spent time reducing the suck. I didn't want to remove weirdo cards like Yotian Soldier, Rocket Launcher, or even Phyrexian Processor. But there was enough chaff and solid replacements that I think I'm headed in the right direction.

Now that I've put in Unwinding Clock, however, Puppet Strings and Liquimetal Coating have more value. Liquimetal Coating turning a land into an artifact that I can destroy via Karn for one mana every turn is a pretty good deal. Puppet Strings to turn off the best creature every round is a pretty good deal.

So I'll be keeping them in the "maybe" pile. There are bound to be more cards that need to be cut as playtesting might show, and the ability to destroy lands like Maze of Ith or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can't be overlooked.

Commander-Karn, Silver Golem

I've been waiting to take a swing at this deck since I heard Battle for Zendikar was coming out and now that that block is complete, it's time.

Karn, Silver Golem
1 All Is Dust	1 Blinkmoth Urn 1 Myr Incubator 1 Mirrorworks 1 Rusted Relic 1 Phyrexian Processor 1 Soldevi Digger 1 Worn Powerstone 1 Sculpting Steel 1 Mind's Eye 1 Puppet Strings 1 Thran Dynamo 1 Darksteel Forge 1 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Welding Jar 1 Liquimetal Coating 1 Oblivion Stone 1 Rocket Launcher 1 Planar Portal 1 Lux Cannon 1 Jayemdae Tome 1 Nuisance Engine 1 Vedalken Orrery 1 Predator, Flagship 1 Mind Stone 1 Voltaic Key 1 Golem's Heart 1 Power Matrix 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Guardian Idol 1 Thopter Assembly 1 Teferi's Puzzle Box
1 Lumengrid Gargoyle 1 Hovermyr 1 Perilous Myr 1 Myr Moonvessel 1 Myr Landshaper 1 Myr Enforcer 1 Myr Galvanizer 1 Myr Battlesphere 1 Myr Mindservant 1 Myr Matrix 1 Myr Reservoir 1 Myr Turbine 1 Triskelavus 1 Palladium Myr 1 Bottle Gnomes 1 Alpha Myr 1 Yotian Soldier 1 Lodestone Myr 1 Golem Artisan 1 Omega Myr 1 Steel Hellkite 1 Artisan of Kozilek 1 Shimmer Myr 1 Colossus of Sardia 1 Ferropede 1 Ulamog's Crusher 1 Mycosynth Golem 1 Serrated Biskelion 1 Soul of New Phyrexia	1 Zoetic Cavern 1 Blasted Landscape 1 Mishra's Factory 1 Mirrodin's Core 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Quicksand 1 Dread Statuary 1 Stalking Stones 1 Tectonic Edge 1 Sheltered Valley 1 Temple of the False God 1 Henge of Ramos 1 Urza's Mine 1 Urza's Power Plant 1 Urza's Tower 1 Urza's Factory 1 Desert 1 Crystal Vein 1 Vesuva 1 Darksteel Citadel 1 Springjack Pasture 1 Glimmerpost 1 Mutavault 1 Cloudpost 1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai 1 Miren, the Moaning Well 1 Tarnished Citadel 1 Petrified Field 1 An-Havva Township 1 Koskun Keep 1 Aysen Abbey 1 Castle Sengir 1 School of the Unseen 1 Gemstone Caverns 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Ghost Quarter 1 Blinkmoth Nexus 1 Blinkmoth Well

I built this deck a few years ago, around the time of New Phyrexia and there was still a pretty big hill to climb when to came to building a manabase.This is why the lands from Homelands make an appearance and my feeling is, if anyone has a problem with Koskun Keep being in the deck, I probably don't want to play Magic with them.

I went with a low-level Myr theme because Mirrodin has a bunch of them. It might be time to revisit this notion. Myr supported by some solid colorless creatures might be better and there are more colorless spells now than before.

While artifacts can pretty much do everything, there's a whole lot of new colorless cards -and spells- that can be added: time I see what else is out there.