Hello and welcome to Commander Bites!

Today we are going to be talking about Kira Nerys, Firebrand!

Kira is a three mana 4/3 with trample, if a creature you control would enter while you control an attacking creature, instead it enters tapped and attacking and whenever another creature you control enters, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

Game Plan

Among the Commanders I have seen from this set, Kira was the one that sparked my deckbuilding senses the most. The fact that we can use instant speed token makers for surprise attacking creatures after out opponents have declared blockers brings a lot of interesting possibilities.

The idea is to get find ways to get creatures or creature tokens onto the battlefield after we have declared attackers so we can get in much more damage in a potentially more dynamic way than aggro decks tend to be.

Support

The first thing to consider are cards that make tokens at instant speed, because they are often cheaper to cast.

For example, Waylay is a three mana instant that puts three 2/2 Knight creature tokens into play that are exiled at the end of the turn. Normally that would be used as a way to get some emergency blockers, but in the case of our deck that gets 9 damage onto the board attacking your opponents.

Another card to consider is Will of the Mardu, which gives us two options and we can choose both if we have a Commander with the choices being we can create a number of 1/1 Warrior creature tokens equal to the number of creatures target player controls and/or have it deal damage to target creature equal to the number of creatures we control.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin becomes a much more lethal threat because whenever he attacks then you put a number of +1/+1 counters on him and then make a number of 1/1 Goblin creature tokens equal to his power, which gets more bodies in play and can get out of hand if not dealt with.

There are also creatures that can be cast at flash speed or ways we can cast creatures at instant speed. The Wandering Rescuer for example has flash, can be cast with convoke, double strike, and gives other tapped creatures we control hexproof, which can be an amazing way to combat a removal spell that is aiming at one of our tapped and attacking creatures.

Scout’s Warning can also be an amazing card for us to use because it gives the next creature card we can cast as if it had flash, which can be basically any creature we want provided we have the mana, like say a Blade Historian which gives attacking creatures we control double strike.

Quicksilver Amulet is also a great card, if a bit pricey to activate, because for four mana and tap we can put a creature card from our hand onto the battlefield, which means we can cheat in something like a Sun Titan, which can bring back a permanent with mana value three or less from our graveyard onto the battlefield when it enters or attacks, which if it was a creature while we are attacking comes in tapped and attacking as well.

Then of course we have the perennial staple of Sneak Attack, which for one red mana let’s us put a creature card onto the battlefield and gives it haste that is sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step. We even have access to a little redundancy in Surprise Deployment, which can only be cast during combat and let’s us put a nonwhite creature for our hand into play, returning it to our hand at the end of turn.

Warleader’s Call gives creatures we control +1/+1 and whenever a creature we control enters it deals 1 damage to each opponent to help get more and more damage in play, Rabble Rousing that has Hideaway 5 and whenever we attack with one or more creatures we create that many 1/1 Citizen creature tokens and then if we control ten or more creatures we can play the card we exiled from Hideaway for free, which can potentially be another creature for a mass volume of creatures.

Setbacks

We are playing an aggressive deck in a pretty unusual way because we are playing more towards a surprise attacking axis rather then gather a big board and swinging.

This is a different way to how these decks would normally play so understanding that we are playing closer to a Ninjutsu or control type of play style rather then pure aggression, which does make a difference if you want to transition to that type of deck.

There is also a lot of tracking with this deck, meaning that you have to be keenly aware of all of your enters triggers, Kira’s buff, as well as any other incidental bonuses that get applied with anthem effects. In normal aggressive decks these are generally applied before combat or when you are attacking all at once for every creature you control. It’s different when a bunch of creatures jump in and change the combat math significantly.

Another interesting side effect of the deck is that since we have ways to flash in creatures through tokens or the creatures themselves we also get around tax effects like Propaganda or Ghostly Prison, however that leaves us wide open to other people attacking us.

Since the creatures enter tapped and attacking, we need to be mindful that if we go for a big swing without any way to protect ourselves then we are sitting ducks. Our deck can be very much like a glass cannon in that regard.

Kira is very much central to our game plan, so any spot removal is going to be a challenge for us though we do have access to some decent protection spells. It also becomes a major challenge if Kira is removed via something like Imprisoned in the Moon or Kenrith’s Transformation, where they are on the board but have no abilities.

Our deck will primarily be creatures or ways to get creature tokens in play, so our removal suite is going to be light in comparison, meaning that if Kira is removed that we, we are in a less than ideal spot though we can shift back to a more traditional aggro deck.

Bracket Rating: High 3, Low 4

I am a firm believer that Kira is a solid Commander that can be pretty strong if tuned correctly.

Fast combo decks will be a struggle to deal with and we need to be mindful of other aggro decks, but we play much more during the combat step and can flash in some surprise attackers in order to get more damage while our opponents have already declared blockers and can’t do much to prevent the upcoming damage.

Thank you for reading, see you all tomorrow!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual