[PRIMER] Riku Combat Veteran
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 15 | 12 COMMENTS | 2370 VIEWS | IN 10 FOLDERS
Riku still reigns supreme —Oct. 14, 2022
This deck has been my pet deck for a while and keeps consistently bringing me enjoyment.
The problem is... it almost always wins. That's only a problem because I like my playgroup and I don't want to always be bringing the gassiest gas to the table. Granted, they bring some serious heat to the table too, but every time I have taken this deck out it performs so well it's to the point where it is almost scary. Like these are GOOD players making smart choices with aggressively tuned decks and Riku weathers whatever they have to close out the game and dominate.
Jace Beleren was an all-star the last time I played with my pod, as I had a mana starved hand/start but just enough blue to slap him down- with no blockers. I spent most of the early game using buddy Jace's +1 to pour gas on everyone's decks by letting everyone draw a card. Probably one of my most-effective political plays to date, it effectively kept everyone from even thinking about swinging at me long enough for me to catch up.
Then a couple days ago I had a buddy come by for some 1 v 1. I played my Chatterfang, Squirrel General deck for a few rounds before we realized his Galea deck just did not have enough answers/removal. So for the last game I let him pilot Chatterfang and I grabbed Riku. Holy crap Batman what an arms race. Even knowing every card in my decks it was still anyone's game from start to finish. Riku is a toolbox and can deal with threats, but Chatterfang had soooo many threats I ended up giving up on trying to find perfect answers to stop it and instead focused on building my own unstoppable force. Oko, Thief of Crowns in my opening hand was my saving grace for early game, as I was able to Elk his Chatterfang which nerfed him for most of the game. The REAL saving grace was drawing into a Mystic Snake on an extra card draw right after my own failed Alpha Strike late game, to counter the Craterhoof Behemoth he was about to crush me with.
Doubling Cube deserves a shout out too. Not only is it just a bonkers card that gives me a stupid amount of mana... it's thematically on point for this deck and I love it.
Only some minor changes to the deck since I last updated it (Mystic Snake somehow made it back in and I'm not sure when or how) because I love love love how it plays and the options it offers me. At this point, I am strongly considering foiling out the whole thing. I already started blinging it a bit with the addition of some Masterpiece artifacts...
Oh yeah and the deck works fantastically even without the commander, plenty of synergy and threats that JUST WORK. But yeah copying an Unexpected Results multiple turns in a row was super fun too.