Kraj of the Moon

Posted on July 4, 2016

Have you been checking out the daily spoilers for Eldritch Moon? It’s that time of the year, right? Right! So I was perusing the daily dosage of spoilerage when I noticed a few cards that struck out at me.

One of those was . . .

Identity Thief

There are a lot of ways to use and harness Identity Thief. When you swing, you can take out any potential blockers, become that creature, and hit for damage. Imagine if your opponent only has Vampire Nighthawk as a flyer. They are taking two and you are gaining two from your Thief. And that’s a small example of what it can do by exiling a defending creature. We have a lot more power. How about copying your opponent’s Commander, pull it off the board, and smashing? Or you can just grab the best beater anyone else has and bring the heat. It’s also great at resetting your own stuff, like a Spike Weaver, Rasputin Dreamweaver or a Mindless Automaton. You can pull off negative auras from your stuff like Control Magic or Pacifism and such. And the obvious play is to run the whole blink-your-creature to trigger another enters-the-battlefield trigger from that dork. So, from Zealous Conscripts to Sphinx of Uthuun, from Rafiq of the Many to Marchesa, the Black Rose, and from Silvos, Rogue Elemental to Guiltfeeder, you’ll find a lot of ways to harness and use the Identity Thief.

So what you are getting is a fun and potentially powerful tool for deck-builders everywhere.

Actually, I was thinking of a shell where you gave your stuff vigilance. That way you could attack with your Thief without tapping it. Copy something with a tap ability, and use that ability during or after the attack. You could even give your stuff tapping abuse. In fact, how about a Commander deck that uses this concept.

Maybe Simic?

You could easily layer in a shell with your leader as Experiment Kraj, untap cards like Seedborn Muse, Kiora's Follower or Seeker of Skybreak, Thousand-Year Elixir, and then a layer of ways to use and abuse tapping such as Earthcraft, Cryptolith Rite, or Opposition. That’d be a fun and different way to use Identity Thief in addition to the layers mentioned above. (Use equipment for vigilance in that shell).

You know what? That’s pretty good. Here let’s hack that out:

The Tapinator Rex ? EDH | Abe Sargent

Commander (1)
1 Experiment Kraj

And there you have it! Thieves, tapping, and Kraj, fun times commence!

I added some fun cards that worked together. Simic has an abundance of +1/+1 counter themes, so I layered some in here, although I didn’t push that theme to the exclusion of quality. Stuff in here works with the group, like Fathom Mage drawing a card every time you tap the Kraj to put a counter on it, or Master Biomancer layering multiple counters on stuff as they arrive on the battlefield all ready to play and smash in equal measure.

There’s a lot of synergy in here too. Check out Altered Ego. Drop it and at least one extra mana to give it a counter. Copy something with a sexy activated ability, and now Kraj gets that ability too. That’s pretty good stuff. Remember Kraj only copies activated abilities, not static ones. Tap abilities count. So an Altered Ego copy of an opponent’s card like Avatar of Woe will give your Kraj the ability to tap and kill a creature. It’s very flexible.

After getting the expected layers of +1/+1 countering here, I then moved to tapping. That’s where I want Identity Thief and others to really work.

So take a look at a card like the obvious Arcanis, the Omnipotent. Tap your Arcanis to draw three cards. Totally hot. You can put a +1/+1 counter on your good Omnipotent fool and tap your leader for another trifecta of card-dom. Then you can attack with your Identity Thief with vigilance, exile Arcanis, make a copy, swing for damage, tap to draw three cards, and then Arcanis heads back, and if you have Thousand-Year Elixir, you can tap to draw another three cards. That’s a total of 12 cards you drew in one turn. (Check out equipment like Haunted Cloak or stuff like Akroma's Memorial for your vigilance).

To play into this space, we have a variety of untapping effects. In addition to the Elixir, we have Minamo, School at Water's Edge, Puppet Strings, Staff of Domination, Sword of the Paruns, Kiora's Follower, Kiora, Master of the Depths, and a ton more. So untap your stuff to get a bunch more taps!

How about a guy like Beguiler of Wills? You’ll likely have at least a handful of choices out there. Unlike many stealing options (such as Preacher or Old Man of the Sea), you can untap and keep using the Beguiler turn after turn. But what’s even better is untapping it on your turn and using it. Its tap doesn’t require any mana. So untap it with Puppet Strings or something and tap for another creature. Repeat! As you steal more creatures, the Beguiler becomes increasingly powerful because you can take bigger and better stuff. Soon you’ll have three or four creatures taken in one turn.

From Hua Tuo, Honored Physician bringing back creatures to the top of your library (with the given amount of card drawing you’ll do working well) to Tradewind Rider, we have some useful options. I also layered in tap-permanents, those that require you to tap a creature for an effect. Take Opposition. Tap a dork and lock something down. You have Cryptolith Rite and Nullmage Shepherd and more all here and rocking the tap-centric theme. (If I had a few more Wizards I might play Azami, Lady of Scrolls to liven this thing up).

You can see all of the various iterations of tap-fun-times here.

Again, Kraj also lets you copy all activated abilities. That’s why both Morphling and Thornling are here. Thornling can be used to give your leader haste, indestructible, and trample. All of those are clearly useful. Meanwhile the original ‘fling can give your guy shroud, flying, or you can untap it. And don’t forget you can flow your power or toughness as needed. Both fit your guy.

Now, if you start delving, you’ll find some combos in here that’ll combo you out and win the game. There aren’t many pieces. I could have layered these combos in harder, but I like that they are subtle, and here.

Take Morphling. Did you play it? Good! Does it have a +1/+1 counter on it? Good! (Tap your Kraj to give it one if it doesn’t). Now pay a Blue mana to untap your Kraj. Do you have out Krosan Restorer with a counter on it? Great! Tap some stuff for mana. Now you can tap your Kraj to untap some lands, and then tap those lands for mana again. Then untap your Kraj with the mana you just made, and so on and so forth, making an additional amount of mana limited only by your imagination. And then you can fuel something big like Staff of Domination or Altered Ego or such. But there’s one more way to win the game right there. Tap your Kraj a few times to pump your stuff with +1/+1 counters (or itself) instead of tapping for untapping lands, and use the extra mana to fuel that, and then swing for game.

Now again, I’m not knocking on the combo train overly much. You don’t see Devoted Druid or Horseshoe Crab or Orochi Leafcaller. (Which will wash Green to Blue for untapping Kraj infinitely via other tricks). No Pili-Pala or Leech Bonder tricks to go infinite. Just a few, in case you draw them, or need to break out of stale mate. Because we’ve been in multiplayer games that have gone on for entirely too long, and just need to end now. It’s a nice out. I suspect you’ll find a few more outs here and there layered here with strong synergy.

Toss in fun things that you expect. Add some countermagic like Mystic Snake and Plasm Capture, land fetching like Cultivate, mana making like Darksteel Ingot, and we are looking at a deck. Beaters? How about Sagu Mauler and Simic Sky Swallower? Protection to keep your building army here? How about Wrap in Vigor and Asceticism?

Anyways, that’s pretty much it. Tapping, untapping, stealing, drawing, +1/+1 counters, fun times, and crazy plays. Isn’t that what Commander is supposed to be about?

What about cards like Burst of Strength, Colossal Heroics, or Vitalize? You could layer in stuff like Cytoplast Manipulator, Vorel of the Hull Clade, Bloom Tender, Training Grounds or whatever. Enjoy!

What cards from Eldritch Moon have inspired you or created deck concepts? And what did you think of this deck? Anything you’d add or pull?