Monday, January 27, 2014

Brewing with Kiora


As all followers of spoiler season know, this is our newest planeswalker: Kiora, the Crashing Wave. So for 4 mana, we have a planeswalker with a starting loyalty of 2. So what are we going to do with her in Standard, espcially now that we know all cards from Born of the Gods? Here's an idea:

Creatures

x4 Cloudfin Raptor
x4 Frilled Oculus
x2 Kiora's Follower
x2 Courser of Kruphix
x4 Drakewing Krasis
x2 Vorel of the Hull Clade
x2 Prophet of Kruphix
x2 Giant Adephage

Land

x4 Breeding Pool
x4 Temple of Mystery
x8 Island
x4 Forest

Artifacts

x2 Astral Cornucopia

Planeswalkers

x2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
x2 Jace, Architect of Though

Other Spells

x4 Alpha Authority
x4 Simic Charm
x4 Syncopate

I started this post a long time ago when Kiora was first revealed, and then I tried to finish/modify to include more Born of the Gods cards, so it may not turn out as good as I'd like, but we can Attack with a 6/8 Cloudfin Raptor on turn 4 or play a Giant Adephage on turn 5. Well, let's walk you through how this works...

Cloudfin Raptor  Frilled Oculus  

So, the obvious goal is start with a Cloudfin Raptor. Flying and Evolve, but only a 0/1. We'll fix that turn 2 with either a Frilled Oculus or Kiora's Follower. It's now a 1/2 for attacking in the air with. Make it bigger next turn with either another Frilled Oculus, Kiora's Follower, or a 3-drop of either Vorel, Drakewing Krasis, or Courser of Kruphix. You can now play lands from the top of your library if you aren't drawing what you need. Hopefully by turn 4, we can put down a Kiora to help protect your creatures or else drop an Alpha Authority on your lone Cloudfin Raptor. By turn 5, we want a Prophet of Kruphix so we can keep untapping creatures and lands and then cast cards with flash.

  Vorel of the Hull Clade  

So, while researching this deck, I found a way to make Astral Cornucopia so much better, which is why I added it. Plus, we need ramp for a Giant Adephage to start swinging, and I figured we could use all the help we can get. So, we can either play Astral Cornucopia where X is 1 or where X is 2 (it will be that much later for X to equal 2, but it works better). Anyway, Vorel of the Hull Clade doubles the number of counters you have on a creature, land, or artifact. It's not just for making a 3/4 Cloudfin Raptor a 6/8 on turn 4, but it's for making Astral Cornucopia have 2 counters on turn 4. How? Well, Cast Astral Cornucopia with X=1, and then tap it choosing a single color, and either pay the second color with a land, or else tap Kiora's Follower and untap Astral Cornucopia to add the second color, then tap Vorel to double the counters. Turn 5, we can have more fun. Tap Vorel paying 2, make Astral Cornucopia have 4 mana, then untap Vorel and tap 2 more lands to make it tap for 8. So ideally, you can create 8 mana from Astral Cornucopia on Turn 5. So we'll just have ourselves a Turn 5 Giant Adephage.

Simic Charm  Jace, Architect of Thought

Simic Charm is just for countering creatures, boosting your creatures, or protecting your creatures, and Syncopate is just there to counter anything your opponent sends at you. Jace, Architect of Thought gets you cards and protects Kiora because of his +1 ability.

Giant Adephage  Alpha Authority

So with this deck, we've created a sweet combo with Astral Cornucopia, Vorel of the Hull Clade, and Kiora's Follower, we've utilized Kiora (to help us along), and we've started swinging with a Giant Adephage on Turn 6 either as a 7/7 or we've used a Simic Charm to make him a 10/10 (add in an Alpha Authority and it can't be touched by anyone wishing to exile it and can only be blocked by one creature allowing more damage to trample through. 

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