Kaseto Stampede

I was able to cast Overwhelming Stampede giving all my creatures +10 because my board looked like this:

That is a whooooole lot of snakes, including a Patron of the Orochi that was at 10/10, thanks to Oran-Reif counters and Seshiro the Anointed.

I couldn't win that turn, because Caitlin had a Sphere of Safety out, preventing me from attacking her with too many creatures, and Matt had enough tokens that taking him out wasn't possible either. I'm not complaining because they both took around 20 damage each and this set me up to eventually win the game. 

A few more tweaks happened because I can't stop myself. I didn't have a Leyline of Anticipation but I did have Kruphix and testing was quick to show me that Kruphix is not what I want. In a game against Noah, he brought out a Stormtide Leviathan and I said, "Welp, that's probably game," and 3 turns later it was.

"Don't you have anything for that?" he asked. I do, but I couldn't find my answers and Kruphix wouldn't have been one anyway. I split the matchup but I realized that this was not what I wanted.

Similarly, against stonethorn I found myself in a position where I wanted more answers and didn't have them. I also had a Shisato, Whispering Hunter in hand but didn't have a Sosuke's Summons. Sacrificing a creature every turn is not very valuable.

By now, I'm starting to get a little weary of this deck. It's been weeks and although I haven't written much over the holiday (happy holiday everyone!) I did play this Commander deck whenever the opportunity allowed. I even got some games in with Fuz a few nights ago. Turns out, having effects that tap all my creatures down and then bounce all my nonland permanents is bad for me. (Picture is of my board post Ensnare and Cyclonic Rift).

Still, that was only game two and for the first five turns of that game, all I really did was generate mana. Decks are easier to beat when they don't function well. I won the match, so things are still looking good for Kaseto. 

But Kruphix had to go. Paging through my mighty binders of cards, I came across a simple little card that let me fill that slot: Divination. 

It's cheap, especially for the Commander format, it allows me to dig further into the deck and it doesn't rely on any other numbers like Biomantic Mastery. Finally, it's easy. After such a long time letting this deck run through my brain, having an option that may not be great, but is certainly good enough, is nice to have. 

So Far, So Good, Kaseto

Noah has been making The Mimeoplasm work for him during 2015. It's a strong deck and I'm pleased to say that I did well against it! The biggest key: Sosuke's Summons. That card is just outstanding here and without it I don't know that this deck could perform as well.

I'm not the only one who's been tinkering with Kaseto; Jason Alt at Gathering Magic made a deck with more of a "I get benefits when my creatures are unblocked" theme. I don't really see anything too revelatory there: the goal is to generate a ton of mana for cards like...sigh...Orochi Hatchery. The use of Nature's Will is a good one but isn't exactly what I'm looking for-and I didn't see Bear Umbra, which would help the theme and help preserve the creatures.

Similarly, I don't see that use in Doctor MTG's take on the deck, although he clearly is going for an infinite mana combo in order to break cards like Hatchery or Snake Basket. In addition, I should seriously consider cards like Blight Mamba (which can kill in one swipe), Wasteland Viper and Mold Adder. I'm not so high on Snake Pit because if my opponent isn't running blue or black, the card is dead. Mold Adder still provides me with a snake to trigger Door of Destinies or Sosuke's Summons and if there are black or blue spells being cast by opponents: bonus!

What I do like in Doctor MTG's take is some of the blue additions, especially Leyline of Anticipation and Kruphix, God of Horizons. I don't know if there's room in the deck for them but I'm keeping those ideas on my radar for sure.

One suggestion I'm very excited about is Cryptic Gateway. This is Matt's idea and I am amazed I'd overlooked this card for so long. The combination, especially with Sosuke's Summons, is so good! 3 mana for 3 creatures and the ability to recast Sosuke's Summons? Oh yes.

Kaseto Revised

Most of the games of commander I played against Jason were against the GB Meren deck that he picked up. While this pic is of me playing the UR Mizzix of the Izmagnus---

Brief aside:  the Meren deck is full of a lot of synergies and very, very powerful. The Mizzix deck is explosive if you can get to the mid-to-late game and the Daxos deck can become relentlessly insurmountable if allowed to thrive. I took apart the UG one and nobody cares about the RW one so I can't speak to them but nice job WotC on at least 3 of those decks! Now let's get back.---

The pic is of me playing the Mizzix deck, I spent most of my time working on Kaseto going against the unchanged Meren deck. Here are a few things I learned:

1) Overrun effects win. There were no less than three games where one of us cast Overrun or one of it's children and flat out won the game.

2) U/G decks need creature removal. A 3/4 legend shouldn't pose a huge problem, yet without a way to kill it or force Jason to block with it, I didn't have any other options than: Try to find a way to win before recurring Shriekmaw does me in. Spoiler alert: That didn't happen.

3) I would like to find ways to make dealing damage to the opponent matter: being able to make unblockable creatures is good but in Commander, something that gives me a bonus when a creature does damage to a player would be nice. I don't know that it's possible to work in a subtheme like this, given the weakness of this tribe but as the deck evolves, it's something I'll try to keep an eye out for.

4) Orochi Hatchery is terrible. There's an old rule that says that if you pay 5+ mana for anything, it better impact the board. The Hatchery just doesn't. This is one of the easiest cuts to make.

Let's see what happens when I add in a Capsize ('Snakes, run!') and a Dominate (snake charming?) for the lousy Hatchery and the incredibly underperforming Matsu-Tribe Birdstalker.

Swaps for Snakes

I removed:
Overrun
Kaysa
Sylvan Bounty
Grim Flowering
Fog
Lifeblood Hydra
Soul of Zendikar
Fangreen Pathcutter
Regal Force
Tornado Elemental
Terastodon
Wolfbriar Elemental
Titania's Chosen
Collective Unconscious
Song of the Dryads
Grave Sifter
Harrow
Loreseeker's Stone
Emerald Medallion
Moss Diamond
Myriad Landscape
Jungle Basin
Gargoyle Castle
and about 9 Forests

Then added:
Kaseto, Orochi Archmage (because the deck isn't a deck without it)
Snakeform
Biomantic Mastery
Colossal Heroics
Wrap in Vigor
Patagia Viper
Broodbirth Viper
Ohran Viper
Mystic Snake
Lorescale Coatl
Coiling Oracle
Orochi Hatchery
Simic Keyrune
Simic Signet
Bident of Thassa
Mirror Match
8 Island
Reliquary Tower
Novijen, Heart of Progress
Thornwood Falls
Simic Growth Chamber
Simic Guildgate
Evolving Wilds
Command Tower
Vivid Grove
Vivid Creek

It doesn't seem like much: I continued going all in on the Snake thing, with blue giving me access to Mirror Match, Bident of Thassa and some of the better multicolor U/G snakes, like Mystic Snake or Lorescale Coatl. There are still questions for me: Orochi Hatchery being a big one. I know Commander is about big spells and dropping a bunch of snakes every turn is a big deal but XX spells are always terrible. Assuming I can get X to equal 4, that's 13 mana for 4 snakes.

I also feel like there are Blue cards I'm overlooking: not just Ophidian (which I don't really have space for) but something else that could be truly beneficial. I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised: I narrowed my focus to what was in the Paragon deck and what I could strip from the Kaseto deck. Some playtesting will help, so that's next.