Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient!

Kurkesh is a four mana 4/3 who whenever you activate an ability of an artifact, if it isn’t a mana ability, you may pay a red mana and if you do then you can copy that ability, with the ability to choose new targets for the copy.

Having a way to copy activated abilities is pretty strong, especially at the cost of just one mana, especially for artifacts since there are plenty of incredibly strong artifacts we can make use of. We do need to make sure we can make the red mana to do this, along with abilities we want to copy and are able to copy.

The plan is to have some artifacts that get us plenty of mana to use Kurkesh’s ability effectively, then have artifacts with strong activated abilities to set us ahead, and then close off with an artifact based win con.

The first thing we need are ways for us to get the mana and resources we need in order to set Kurkesh up.

Burnished Hart is a Commander classic with the ability to sacrifice itself to find up to two basic lands and put them on the battlefield tapped, which when we have Kurkesh in play nets us four lands rather than just two, for the total price of four mana to activate the ability.

Another way to accomplish a similar result is to use Wayfarer’s Bauble which we can sacrifice to get just one basic land, Walking Atlas can tap to put a land card from our hand onto the battlefield, and Navigation Orb can get two basic land cards and/or Gate cards and put one onto the battlefield tapped and one in our hand.

Slow, but reliable ways of ramp are good, but we also need ways to get some other resources. Collector’s Vault lets us draw a card, then discard a card and then make a Treasure token, which also helps us cycle our deck to get the cards that we need while also getting us a little bit of extra mana if we need it.

Reckoner Bankbuster enters with three charge counters on it and we can pay two, tap, and remove a charge counter to draw a card and then if there are no more charge counters on Reckoner Bankbuster then we make a Treasure token and a 1/1 Pilot token that can crew Vehicles as though its power were 2 greater, while being a 4/4 Vehicle itself that can crew for 3.

Mishra’s Bauble effectively becomes a one mana peek at two players next draws and draw two cards at the beginning of the next upkeep, Pyrite Spellbomb can deal four damage to any target or draw us two cards, and Moonsilver Key can search for two artifacts with a mana ability or two basic lands and puts them in our hand for two mana.

Radiant Lotus also can be extremely useful in the long run because we can tap it and sacrifice one or more artifacts to have target player add three mana of any one color for each artifact sacrificed this way, and since it targets a player this is not a mana ability, which means that Kurkesh can in fact copy it to get an absolute boat load of mana.

The next thing we need are ways to make sure we can maintain a solid enough standing to go to our end game.

Golem Foundry gets a charge counter on it whenever we cast an artifact spell and we can remove three charge counters from it to make a 3/3 Golem artifact creature token, and since this is an activated ability, we can get two of these tokens when Kurkesh is in play.

If we want to play the long game with a similar card, then Titan Forge can be a way for us to get two 9/9 Golem artifact creature tokens, though we do need to pay three mana to put a charge counter on it. This can be mitigated by using something like Coretapper, which can tap to put a charge counter on an artifact or sacrifice itself to put two charge counters on an artifact.

Since we are dealing with charge counters, Long-Range Sensor can put a charge counter on itself whenever we attack and we can pay one mana (effectively two with Kurkesh) and remove two charge counters from it in order to Discover 4 as a sorcery, and Discover is a pretty strong mechanic on its own and getting two triggers of that can be really good.

We can also accelerate putting charge counters on things by using things like Energy Chamber which at the beginning of our upkeep can let us put a +1/+1 counter on target artifact creature or put a charge counter on a noncreature artifact.

Surge Node enters with six charge counters on it and for one mana, tap, and remove a charge counter we can put a charge counter on target artifact, and if I understand the way this interacts with the rules, for one extra mana from Kurkesh’s ability means we can put up to twelve charge counters on any number of artifacts.

Adding even more to the charge counter pile, we have ways to proliferate with something like Throne of Geth, which can proliferate if we sacrifice an artifact and since it is an activated ability we can get a double proliferate for the price of one mana and one artifact.

There is also a near perpetual way of proliferating with Pentavus, which enters with five +1/+1 counters on itself, and for one mana and remove a +1/+1 counter we can make a 1/1 Pentavite artifact creature token with flying, which makes double the tokens because of Kurkesh and stays alive indefinitely because of Throne of Geth and Kurkesh.

If we need some solid removal, then we can use Lux Cannon, which can tap to put a charge counter on itself or tap and remove three counters to destroy a permanent, which becomes remove three charge counters, pay one mana to destroy two permanents.

The last thing we need is a way for us to win the game, and ideally we would want it from some artifact combo.

Fun behind the scenes fact, when I write these blogs I go in choosing a Commander and sort of free flow write without a clear plan in mind, with one fleshing out as I write it. As I was looking and noticing how much charge counter synergy we had access to, I remembered that Magistrate’s Scepter exists, which for four mana and tap can put a charge counter on itself and can tap and remove three charge counters to take an extra turn after this one.

Then I realized with Kurkesh and one mana we can double that to two extra turns, Clock of Omens can tap two untapped artifacts to untap an artifact (which we can copy by paying one additional mana) to add an additional two untappings of Magistrate’s Scepter (provided we have the charge counters) for four additional turns on top of that, and suddenly I realized we have a potential for an infinite turns deck.

There are so many ways we can take advantage of this, but one of the more amusing ways that I can think of to win is by using The Millennium Calendar, which puts a time counter on itself for each permanent we untap during our untap step, and we can pay two mana and tap it to double the number of time counters on it, and when there are 1000 or more time counters on it, we sacrifice it to deal 1000 damage to each opponent.

I’ll admit, when I started writing this I thought that Kurkesh would end up going a go big artifact deck to get some big artifact creatures or creatures that synergize well with artifacts and go aggro. I did not expect an artifact combo deck that, considering the cards I talked about, can actually be pretty budget friendly.

Of course any mass artifact removal or denial kills the deck, and Kurkesh requires us to have some mana available to activate and to be in play to get the most out of it, and being a combo deck we need the pieces where they need to be in order to get the combo working effectively.

We can find ways to get the artifacts where we want them to be, and it will take a bit of work to get going, but once we get going then the deck can definitely provide an out of nowhere way to win the game.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual