Hello and welcome to Weekly Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Killian, Ink Duelist!

Killian is a two mana 2/2 with lifelink, menace, and spells you cast that target a creature cost two mana less to cast.

A simple enough Commander that can provide a lot of interesting value, depending on how you decide to build him. Since he is two mana he can come in pretty early, and since he can make spells that target any creature cost two less, we can go in a variety of ways to take that.

I think a more toolbox approach would work better for Killian, mostly because since he is working to make our spells cheaper, we can take a look at spells that would normally be not so great in terms of value because of their mana cost and help make them work better, whether that be spells that provide a bonus to your creatures or help remove creatures from the board.

We do need to be aware of the weaknesses that will come from a deck like this and find ways to work around those weaknesses to the best of our abilities, and maybe even sneak in some surprises along the way.

Building Blocks

The first thing that we need to do is set up the foundation of cards that will help us maintain some form of advantage.

Acrobatic Maneuver is one of these sorts of cards because it exiles target creature we control and returns it to the battlefield all while drawing a card, meaning that we can take advantage of some enters effects of creatures we control.

Speaking of exile, there is the card Exile, which is a card that exiles target nonwhite attacking creature while you gain life equal to that creature’s toughness. This does narrow what you can target a bit, especially since there are plenty of aggro decks that have white in their color identity, but there are still plenty of other creatures that this can target, especially if they have some way to stay in play.

This leads to the subject of removal, of which we have plenty of access to, and there are plenty of ways we can take advantage of that. Utter End is a flexible way for us to take advantage of Killian’s ability because it can exile any target nonland permanent, which means that while we need to pay the full four mana for noncreature permanents, if there is a hard to remove creature that we need to deal with, we can pay two mana instead of four.

Baleful Mastery is also a decently flexible way to remove a creature or Planeswalker, because we can do that for four mana, but we can also pay the alternate cost of two mana, which has an opponent draw a card, but that can mean we have access to a two mana exile spell for a creature, or if my understanding is correct a one mana exile spell that gives an opponent a card.

Curtains’ Call can destroy two target creatures and gets one mana cheaper for each opponent which means in a normal Commander game we can destroy two creatures for one mana with Killian in play, which is very good in terms of controlling the board in the early game.

There is even a pretty neat board wipe that we have access to in Avatar’s Wrath, which has us choose a target creature and then airbend the rest, while also forcing our opponents to only cast spells from their hands until our next turn, meaning that they can’t recast their cards that we exiled and if delays their Commander if they haven’t cast it yet.

Resilient Mortar

The next thing that we need is to make sure that not only do we have a solid bit of removal, but also some cards that help us maintain a decent edge.

Hero of Iroas is a solid card that makes Aura spells we cast cost one mana less and has a Heroic ability in which whenever we casy a spell that targets it then we put a +1/+1 counter on it, which can be helpful for us in the future since we also want to implement some Aura’s to push us ahead (more on that in the next section).

If we do want to lean a bit more into making our Aura’s cheaper, then we can also use Transcendent Envoy which also makes our Aura spells cost one mana less to cast and Starfield Mystic which gives all of our enchantments spells a one mana discount and whenever an enchantment we control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield we put a +1/+1 counter on Starfield Mystic.

Since a lot of our spells are removal, we can also take advantage of payoffs that have effects for creatures leaving the battlefield like Harvester of Souls, which draws us a card whenever another nontoken creature dies.

There are also cards with Blood Artist effects which have it so that whenever it or another creature dies target player loses 1 life and we gain 1 life. Playing it that space will be pretty slow so it’s better to have that sort of effect as a utility, but there is also something like Gisa, the Hellraiser which has it so that whenever you commit a crime you create two tapped 2/2 Zombie Rogue tokens, once each turn which actually works really well for our cheap removal spells.

Since our removal spells count as crimes, we can make use of cards like Servant of the Stinger, which has it so that whenever it deals combat damage to a player, if we’ve also committed a crime this turn we can sacrifice it to tutor for a card and put it into our library.

To help us make sure that we can deal with creatures that have some form of protection from our spells, we can play something like Shay Cormac which for one mana can make permanents our opponents control lose hexproof, indestructible, protection, shroud, and ward until end of turn and whenever a creature an opponent controls becomes the target of a spell or ability we control we put a bounty counter on that creature and whenever a creature with a bounty counter on it dies we put two +1/+1 counters on Shay.

We can also use something like Shadowspear which gives an equipped creature trample, lifelink, +1/+1 and for one mana can remove hexproof and indestructible from permanents our opponents controls, The Fire Nation Drill which when it enters we can tap it to destroy target creature an opponent controls and with one mana we can also remove hexproof and indestructible from permanents our opponents control.

Structural Support

We need to build towards some form of win condition, and one of the better ways that Killian makes very good use of is through using Auras.

Starting with some of the simpler ones, Battle Mastery gives the enchanted creature double strike, and while that is fine at three mana, giving a creature double strike for one mana is much better, especially if we go for a Voltron strategy and give it to Killian, who has lifelink and menace, which makes blocking awkward and we still gain some form of advantage because of it.

Unquestioned Authority draws a card when it enters and gives the enchanted creature protection from creatures, Blessing of Leeches which has flash and can regenerate enchanted creature for zero mana at the cost of 1 life each turn, and Sunbond which gives the enchanted creature the ability that whenever we gain life we put that many +1/+1 counters on it.

We can also take advantage of Aura’s that have more effects than giving a bonus like Chorale of the Void, which has it so that whenever the enchanted creature attacks we put target creature card from defending player’s graveyard onto the battlefield under our control tapped and attacking, and while it does have the downside of needing a nonland permanent leaving the battlefield or us having warped a spell at the beginning of our end step, that isn’t much of an issue since a lot of our spells remove things.

Aura’s can also function as removal like Sheltered by Ghosts, which gives the enchanted creature +1/+0, lifelink, and ward 2 but also exiles a nonland permanent an opponent controls until it leaves the battlefield to help get rid of some more problematic permanents that aren’t creatures and don’t get a discount from Killian.

Minimus Containment makes the enchanted permanent a Treasure, Reprobation makes enchanted creature lose all abilities and makes them a Coward with base power and toughness 0/1, and Parasitic Impetus which gives the enchanted creature +2/+2 and it becomes goaded and whenever it attacks its controller loses 2 life and we gain 2 life.

We also can make do with few Game Changers, potentially none if that is what you would prefer. If there is one that I would recommend, then that would be Serra’s Sanctum if you are playing with the high enchantment count, and that is because it adds a white mana for each enchantment we control, which can help us cast a lot more enchantments, and if we include something like Sram, Senior Edificer which draws a card whenever we cast an Aura, Equipment, or Vehicle spell, then that can be a really strong way to stack on the Aura count.

Finishing Touches

So now comes the ever important aspect of every deck in how do we win the game.

if we decide to focus on the more controlling and midrange type of deck, then Bitter Ordeal can actually be pretty solid because it lets us search target player’s library and exile a card from their library, which is good but becomes even better if we make use of the unique Gravestorm ability, which copies it for each permanents put into a graveyard this turn, which means that if we do a ton or removal of creatures and other permanents, then we can get rid of a ton of problematic cards from an opponent’s deck to help us win.

We can also lean in the pseudo-Storm playstyle that the deck can use by playing Tempest Technique, an Aura that has Storm and gives the enchanted creature +1/+1 for each enchantment we control, which if we manage to play a lot of them can make any creature we want massive, especially in a Voltron type of strategy to make Killian big enough to take a player out through Commander Damage.

Playing into the Storm aspect we can use Tendrils of Agony which is a Storm card that has target player lose 2 life and we gain 2 life, Astral Steel to give target creature +1/+2 until end of turn, and while not necessarily a Storm card Murmuration makes a 1/2 Bird token with flying named Storm Crow for each spell we’ve cast this turn while also giving Birds we control +1/+1 and vigilance.

There is also the angle of being a life gain deck, primarily because Killian has lifelink and we can make that even stronger with cards that give Killian a boost, and we can use Sanguine Bond as a potential way to finish an opponent if we get a massive amount of life gain by having it so that whenever we gain life, target opponent loses that much life.

The Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood loop is available to us and not too hard to accomplish, and if your play group is ok with that then play away, but keep in mind that some players are not fan of infinite loops and that combo is not allowed in the first three brackets, your mileage will vary.

In Conclusion

Killian makes for a solid all around Commander that has a broad enough ability that it can be used in a way that is extremely effective because of how many spells it can make cheaper.

You can play into a more control type of game plan where you play a lot of targeted removal and combat tricks to give yourself an advantage, which can also be leveraged into a Storm style deck, or you can do a Voltron strategy where you make Killian the focal point of the deck to deal enough Commander damage to win, or you can go for a general toolbox sort of deck and blend aspects of these decks to fit your personal preference.

One of the decks biggest strengths can also be a weakness, in that while it makes your targeted spells very effective if they target creatures, it can make your removal of other card types not that great.

Being in black and white means that you have access to the ability to remove most card types in the game, and while having specialization against creatures is great, it being targeted removal means that dealing with go wide boards can be tricky unless you pay full cost for a board wipe, and you also lose discounts against the other card types.

There is also the fact that since we can get Killian into play early, we also run the risk of him being removed early and often if our opponents know what we are doing, and even if they don’t getting rid of a cheap Commander is probably still a pretty good idea.

Killian is a solid generalist Commander that can be taken in multiple different directions, while still having a bit of flexibility to incorporate other play styles as a back up plan, and can also be made at an affordable price if budget is a concern. I may need to cover Pauper Commander one day…

Thank you all for reading, see you next week for the next Weekly Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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