I played more than a Brady Bunch worth of different decks this weekend. Even with over 900 competitors in the SCG Columbus Open at Origins, I expected to play against a lot of what I thought were the best decks. Of course I thought I’d face off against Burn because too many players bring it to battle, but I figured there would also be a lot of Abzan Company, Grixis Twin, G/R Tron, Jund, and Delver too with a little Affinity mixed in as well.

One fact that I sometimes forget is that players bring what they have and what they like to play. That means that there will be lots of different decks regardless of their positioning in the metagame. My best advice about Modern is to plan for the best decks but be prepared to play against anything.

No matter your preparation, sometimes players will bring something from outer space that throws you for a loop. This is how I like to attack formats and the deck I played is wildly exciting. There were so many stories from the weekend where my opponent had no idea what I was playing. I hid colors of my deck from my opponents’ only to spring a trap in game two or three of some card that I “shouldn’t have had.”

We will talk more about that later on in the article, but first, you need to see the beautiful manabase and experience for yourself: Kiki’s Revenge.

What I’ve been telling players is that this is an Abzan deck splashing for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. In truth, it’s more a green-white deck with three black cards and two red cards in the main deck.

Upon examining the mana though, you find that it is a true four-color deck. You will always need green and white, sometimes double of them, and then you can tailor your fetch land searches for the other colors you need. Typically, you need to keep in mind the ability to hardcast Kiki-Jiki with all of your land drops, but the filter lands help tremendously with that task.

Kiki’s Revenge comes from the same line of thinking as the Abzan Company decks. When Birthing Pod was banned, we were left with a lot of solid creatures and no engine to run with. Collected Company was the route that Abzan took to help them fit back into the metagame.

My goal here was to not only create a sweet deck where Restoration Angel would gain you lots of advantage, but then also be able to create an infinite army of angels with Kiki-Jiki. Despite Birthing Pod being removed, Chord of Calling is still an extremely powerful tutor that functions to find bullets or combo pieces.

With the shift in the metagame towards Collected Company, players were not expecting me to cast four-cost creatures. Siege Rhino and Restoration Angel were more than enough to overcome some opponents. The great part about this deck is that it presents a more aggressive and robust line of attack that is good enough to defeat your opponent. With the old Pod version, your most likely route to victory was pulling off the combo. This deck presents either route as a viable option to defeat anyone standing in your way.

Speaking of opponents, if you haven’t heard yet, I had a lot of different ones this past weekend in Columbus.

Day 1

Round 1 - The Naya Company Zoo

The first match of the day started out with a bang. Not only was my opponent playing a sweet deck, but I won the first game with an unexpected Kiki-Jiki copying my Siege Rhino. That is a sick sequence that few opponents are prepared for.

Games two and three did not go so well though. I thought I was going to win the second game because I got an early start ticking off some of my opponent’s life points, but he caught up by chaining two Collected Companys together for things like Loxodon Smiter, Knight of the Reliquary, and Tarmogoyf.

Game three was a similar affair except my opponent also killed my mana creatures to prevent me from playing my spells when I should have been able to. Just like that I lost the first round. Remember though, “Never give up. Never surrender.”

Record 0-1

Round 2 - B/W Tokens

Round two went much better for me. Not only was my opponent playing a weaker deck, but he also had no idea what I was doing. Despite seeing my hand four times in game one with Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, he still was befuddled at the cards I drew. No one can blame him though. Not many players are crazy enough to sleeve up the deck I played.

Game two was three hand hate spells rather than four, but in both of the games, my opponent was unable to beat me before I started casting my high-impact four-mana creatures. It was looking like I was going to lose game two, but I was able to set up a Chord of Calling after my Restoration Angel was in play to defeat my opponent who was at a much higher life total than I was.

Record 1-1

Round 3 - UWR Control

Next up is a deck that I do not give much credit to but players still battle with, UWR Control. It seems as if I have to play against this deck in every Modern event I go to even though it never puts up good results. Decks I typically play tend to be weak to this deck though so beating it is always a struggle. Luckily I came prepared this time around.

Game one was a drawn-out affair where I used every resource at my disposal to squeak out life points from my opponent. I did not have many resources other than lands and mana creatures to utilize, so the game did not go very well. I ended the game with two or three lands in hand after playing one every turn. Flood happens sometimes. It wouldn’t have been that bad if my opponent drew less counterspells, but I still had a solid sideboard plan so I was confidant I could win the match.

For this match and any other midrange deck, I included Domri Rade to be able to keep up with the card advantage my opponent had. Domri is so threatening they are forced to do things like Lightning Bolt it or bounce it with Cryptic Command in order to not lose to his ultimate. Both of those things happened in games two and three.

Post-board, my deck becomes very threat-dense which taxes the control deck's answers. Eternal Witness helps get back any threats that they do remove and you can Chord of Calling when they tap out for things.

Kiki combo almost never comes up because of all of their removal, but sometimes you can force them into countering something on their turn so that you can untap and complete the combo. Standard's Sorin, Solemn Visitor is fine to bring in from the board and Sin Collector is an all-star.

Record 2-1

Round 4 - UWR Control

After almost going to time in round three, I immediately had to play another player on the same team with most likely the same deck list. The match ended up going very similarly to how the previous one went. Game one I lost but this time to Gideon Jura.

In the second and third games, I used the same sideboard plan of planeswalkers plus additional hand disruption. Sin Collector is amazing on its own, but when you can blink it with Restoration Angel, it can be back breaking. Although I was not able to utilize that sequence, it’s always something I’m thinking about in matchups like this.

There is another creature that can be used in similar fashion to punish your opponent though and that is Avalanche Riders. Not very many players are used to playing against this timeshifted card and they are definitely not prepared for it.

Often my sequence is to play the Riders and blow up a land, then with the echo trigger on the stack, cast Restoration Angel, or use Chord of Calling to find one, and blow up another land. I’ve even had times where I’ve run that sequence more than two times. In this case, two lands was enough to win game two.

Game three, I was able to get my opponent to tap out dealing with a late Voice of Resurgence on his turn so that I could combo on mine. This is an extremely difficult matchup but sometimes you can outplay your opponent.

Record 3-1

Round 5 - Naya Burn

If you are not giving credit to the Burn players yet, your options are to start taking the matchup more serious or keep losing to the deck. Burn was everywhere on day one. I only had to play against it once, but some players were paired against it three or four times. Many of these players made day two of the event as well.

Game one of this match highlights how strong this deck typically is against burn spells. I started on Wall of Roots, which is an amazing blocker in the format, even blocking Tarmogoyf or Tasigur, the Golden Fang. I followed that up with a Siege Rhino and then a Restoration Angel to trigger it again. That was enough for my opponent.

My plan for game two was to repeat that process, but it was not to be. Even with easier mana bases, you still have problems sometimes and that is true of this deck as well. For the most part, the mana is good as long as you get the right lands. In this game though, I never drew a fetch land, Birds of Paradise, or any of the black sources. So, my double Rhino stampede never got started.

For the conclusion of our match, we had a nail biter. It was like a down-to-the-wire, last-second-shot type of situation. My opponent and I were chipping away at each other’s life totals, him with burn spells and me with creatures, but I couldn’t find any of my life gain cards. So all of a sudden I was at two with lethal on the board and he had one draw step to finish me off. Luckily my land light opponent drew mana and I was able to seal the deal on my turn.

This match feels in my favor, but it’s much closer if all of the life gain cards hide in your deck.

Record 4-1

Round 6 - Jund Midrange

Without much testing with the updated version, I was unsure how this match would play out. Previously, it was rough and not a good matchup. What I found here is that this version is much stronger against this type of deck.

I think it is due in part to the switch from Kitchen Finks to Blade Splicer. I haven’t talked much about that card yet, but it was good for me all weekend. Just playing the card felt good, but blinking it is even better. Also, since it is two creatures, it synergizes well with Chord of Calling.

Blade Splicer helped me get my opponent’s life total down, and paired with his Angel counterpart, the two of them were enough that even though my opponent dealt with all my threats, he still died to his own Dark Confidant. When you spend all your time removing threats and not adding them to the board, you don’t have a reasonable clock to defeat your opponent.

Game two, I kept a land light hand and got punished for it. It’s true that I didn’t draw a third land through four draw steps, but my opponent also bolted my Birds and then used Fulminator Mage to take out my only green source. I couldn’t do much other than watch my opponent slowly amass threats to defeat me.

Game three was going poorly until my opponent cast Blood Moon. The great thing about Blood Moon is that not only does it hurt your opponent too, but it also helps you cast Kiki-Jiki.

This ironic turn of events lead me to Avalanche Riders taking out his only basic land and then assemble the combo of two Angels to fly over his blockers. It would have been fitting for me to draw Kiki, but as it turns out, I didn’t need him to win.

Record 5-1

Round 7 – Tron

Tron is a phenomenal match for this deck and I never mind playing against it. In the same way that Splinter Twin has a high win percentage against Tron, so does Kiki’s Revenge. Both decks win in a similar fashion and in game one, Tron has no way to stop your game plan other than getting lucky. The game one win percentage is astoundingly high.

In this particular game one, I took a different route to victory though. I was able to use Reclamation Sage and blink it with Resto to take out some key artifacts. That way, my opponent was unable to search for the Urza Tron pieces he was missing.

Game two was well within my grasp but for some reason I played like I was going first instead of second. I had both Voice and Wall in my opener along with Avalanche Riders. Even though I need threats in play in order to win the game, you must stop them from doing broken things early in the game. It’s fine if they assemble their mana as long as it takes them a couple turns to do so.

In this game, he got Karn Liberated on board on turn three and we all know how that turns out. This misplay in sequencing definitely cost me the game.

Game three I turned it right around though. Post-board games tend to be more grindy because instead of assembling Tron, sometimes they spend some time killing your guys. They have access to cards like Rending Volley for Twin, and so you get some splash damage since the card works multiple places.

So, even with the combo in hand, I couldn’t go for it because I knew my opponent was likely holding that spell. Instead I was able to play another Resto and beat down until my opponent used all his mana, then go for the combo. This deck requires a lot of patience at times and it’s better to play around your opponent having removal most of the time.

Record 6-1

Round 8 - Grixis Delver

The first game this round wasn’t much of a game. My Delver opponent kept a land light hand with Serum Visions and got punished by not finding a land with his filtering. It lead to an easy win on my part, but I tried to play conservatively and not give my opponent too much information.

If you have a solid board presence, sometimes it’s better to not add more threats to the board and just protect the ones you have. You can do this with Chord, Resto, as well as just holding back threats and then in the event they are running Anger of the Gods, or something similar, you can reload. Siege Rhino helps with this plan a lot because sometimes all you need is one Rhino to win the game.

Game two was extremely close but my opponent killed my early mana creatures and kept tempo for too long. I almost caught up, but at that point he had too many elemental tokens from Young Pyromancer for me to stabilize.

The third game in this match was the most epic of the day by far. There were many close calls throughout the day, but this one was by far the most thrilling.

The opening of the game played out normally with me playing mana creatures and him trying to prevent me from flooding the board with creatures. Then in the mid-game he started killing a lot of my creatures. I had been holding Kiki the whole game in order to set up a situation where I get him to tap out while I have Resto in play so I can untap and combo-kill him.

He cast a bunch of removal spells on his turn to force damage in and to make sure I didn’t have anything used the discard mode on Kolaghan's Command to get my last card, the Kiki. My Chord for four was on the stack and eventually resolved to get what he thought was a Siege Rhino, but was actually Resto.

My plan was revealed though when I discarded the Kiki and all of a sudden all my preparation was for naught because I was out of cards and my opponent was further ahead on the board thanks to some removal spells. One of the threats I forced him to remove was a Voice, so he had to do that on his own turn.

As an aside, against control decks, Voice is often your key to success. Either you force them to spend a removal spell on it and you get your token, or they have to use Path to Exile and you get an extra land. Otherwise, it creates huge problems for them because they can’t afford to cast spells on your turn. It’s the same awesome creature that it was in Standard, but more opponents have instants and spells they want to be casting on your turn.

Alright, back to the action. So I had just discarded my last card and the board state was looking grim. I slowly drew my next card and then slammed it to the table. For once, luck was on my side and I played the other copy of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to win the game. My opponent was astounded but still smiling from the epic play. My friends and I were high-fiving from the amazing event. And, just like that, I was locked for Day 2!

Record 7-1

Round 9 - Amulet Combo

I knew going into this round that Amulet of Vigor decks were the ones I was trying to dodge. It’s not that popular of a deck but it certainly is potent. There are very few ways I can interact with this deck. The main way to beat them is for them to beat themselves. This does happen, which is why the deck doesn’t win every event, but it doesn’t happen often enough for this to be a relevant game plan.

In the first game, he had a turn two Titan, which I could do nothing against. If I were on the play, I would have been able to blink my Avalanche Riders into victory, but that plan was too slow in this game.

The second game was better. I kept a slower hand with a Path to Exile. Unfortunately, he not only had double Amulet, but also had a second Primeval Titan as well as a Summoner's Pact to get his third. Three Primeval Titans on turn three isn’t too broken is it?

I’d like to take this time to call a meeting about banning this bad boy. There is no reason this deck should be legal in a format where they want us to be battling with midrange decks. Anyway, I am fine with having one really bad matchup against this deck. It’s hard to interact with them when you aren’t countering their spells.

Record 7-2

So, even though I didn’t make my goal of entering a two-day event at better than 7-2, I was still glad to be battling my way through the second day of competition.

Day 2

Round 10 - Naya Burn

One of the main strengths of this deck is its maindeck resilience to Burn. Lots of players are going to continue to try to burn the competition and we need to be prepared.

I never relied on my sideboard cards to defeat these burn decks and most of the time I didn’t draw them anyway. In this case, I beat this deck in two games. The first I sequenced Sin Collector, into Siege Rhino, into Restoration Angel to blink the Rhino. That was more than enough to beat my opponent.

Game two was more of a struggle but I was able to stabilize with double Courser of Kruphix. I used my fetch land on his turn because he had stopped the lifegain on my turn with his Skullcrack. By doing that I was able to be at five life and live through his top-decked Boros Charm so that I could untap and combo for the win.

Record 8-2

Round 11 - Grixis Delver

For the second time this tournament, I had to play against Grixis Delver. This can be a tough match but it’s very winnable. The hardest games are when they stick a turn two or three Tasigur. My opponent this round did this multiple times, one of which was in game one. He also had a Delver active on turn three to attack with both creatures. I didn’t put up much of a fight though because I couldn’t draw my third land literally to save my life this game.

Game two was much better for me. I was able to use Sin Collector and blink it to remove his only removal spells to clear the way for my creatures. By doing this, his delve creatures were too slow to make an impact in the game.

The third game he also had an early Tasigur, but this time it was backed up by double Delver. Luckily it took a couple turns to flip them. When he did flip them, it was with Dismember which he used in combination with Snapcaster Mage to not only kill my Wall of Roots which was making his attacks bad, but also my fresh Restoration Angel that I was going to try to win the game with. His sequence was next to unbeatable and I was left with another round loss.

Record 8-3

Round 12 - Abzan Company

While many players are starting to fear this deck again, as long as I’m playing Kiki’s Revenge, I won’t be one of them. Just like Tron, Abzan Company should feel out-matched against my deck game one because they have little interaction to stop me from pulling off the combo.

This particular game, I was able to use Sin Collector and Resto to get two copies of Collected Company from my opponent’s hand before he could cast them. By doing this, he didn’t really have much going on for him and I was able to assemble a team to beat him down with. Game two he mulliganed to five and didn’t put up much of a fight before I beat him.

Record 9-3

Round 13 - Naya Burn

Burn, burn, burning everyone in the format. If I wasn’t prepared for this deck, my tournament would have been a flop. Game one was not an issue, my maindeck life gain left me far ahead. Game two however showcased how amazing the burn deck can be.

Despite being at ten life with lethal on board next turn, my opponent was able to Charm end of turn and double Bolt me on his turn to end the game quickly. I should have conserved my life total a bit better in this game and got punished by my opponent’s perfect hand.

In the third installment of my third Burn matchup, I didn’t quite come out ahead in this one. I kept a questionable hand of Spellskite, Sin Collector, and five lands. I think I would probably still keep this hand again because both of these cards are great against this deck, but you need more than those two to defeat them. I drew a lot more lands over the course of the quick game and they didn’t help me at all.

Record 9-4

Round 14 - Mardu Burn

The burning didn’t stop with the last round, though, it continued again for the fourth time. This round was against Mardu Burn instead of Naya though. Our decks being checked made the round last a bit longer and that always does weird things to the consistency of decks. Usually I am on the losing side of that lack of randomness, but this time it was my opponent.

He drew a bunch of creatures that didn’t help him against the blockers I had to get in the way. He did get me to six with the early rush plus couple of spells he did draw, but that wasn’t enough due to the Blade Splicer army I had assembled.

In the second game, he showed me the dark side of his deck by kicking off his second turn with a Self-Inflicted Wound. That was not a card I had ever seen before in Modern and when I asked my opponent, he said it wasn’t very good except in this situation. He followed that up with Tasigur and I was starting to get worried.

Luckily I had enough blockers to hold him back. Then, I was able to cast Sorin for the first time this event and man was he amazing. It stopped my opponent from attacking me on his turn and it allowed me to gain some much needed life back. My opponent couldn’t handle Sorin and I won the game shortly after.

Record 10-4

Round 15 – Zoo

The last round of the day was fittingly against Zoo. I started my tournament out by playing a Zoo deck featuring Collected Company and now I was ending my day against a more traditional Zoo deck.

In this match, my opponent spent a lot of time calculating damage because he had Mutagenic Growth to go with his Monastery Swiftspears as well as the normal compliment of burn spells. It felt like I was playing yet another match against a burn deck but this time they had good creatures in Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape.

Game one, I thought I had control of the game, but my opponent was able to use a pump spell on his unblocked creature in conjunction with burn to finish me off from ten life.

The second game went much better for me. My opponent mulliganned to five and didn’t put up much of a fight as I played some creatures and attacked him. The third game was all about positioning. My opponent thought he had me on a reasonable clock, but I forced him into acting on his turn so that I could flash in Resto and untap to combo. He was left surprised. Many newer players don’t know the available card pool and despite us playing deep into day two, I was able to use this to my advantage.

So at the end of the event, I ended up with a final record of 11-4, which I hoped would get me into the top 16. Unfortunately, my tie breakers were not very good and I got knocked all the way down to 30th, but all of the players from 14th-30 all had the same 33 pts.

It’s unfortunate but not the end of the world. I fought hard and the deck was amazing. Many of my opponents had no idea what I was playing and that worked to my advantage over and over again.

Let me know what you think about the deck in the comments.

Until next time,
Unleash the Force!

Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com

P.S. Take a look at this