One of the most exciting things about new cards bursting onto the scene in Modern is seeing how they revitalize decks that were previously thought to be dead. Renegade Rallier in particular is a card I think we’ll see an awful lot of in various shells over the next few months. We’ve already seen it revolutionize how Abzan Company is built, but what happens when you toss it into the mix of Kiki-Jiki variants of pseudo-Birthing Pod decks?

Four-Color Kiki-Jiki Evolution ? Modern | SilentTrigger, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (31)
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1 Stonehorn Dignitary
• 2 Deceiver Exarch
• 2 Phantasmal Image
• 2 Renegade Rallier
• 3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 3 Restoration Angel
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Voice of Resurgence
• 4 Wall of Omens

• Instants (3)
• 3 Path to Exile

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Eldritch Evolution

• Lands (22)
• 1 Plains
• 2 Forest
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 4 Grove of the Burnwillows
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 1 Kataki, War's Wage
• 1 Lone Missionary
• 1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 1 Path to Exile
• 2 Eternal Witness
• 3 Chord of Calling
• 4 Nahiri, the Harbinger

Buy This Deck

First and foremost, let’s acknowledge the raw power of this deck up and down the curve. You’ll win a substantial number of games just by using Eldritch Evolution to tutor for a haymaker like Glen Elendra Archmage and utilizing Restoration Angel, Phantasmal Image, and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to copy the effect ad nauseam until you combo off or your opponent concedes.

Then there are games where Eldritch Evolution or Renegade Rallier let you do silly things. Rallier effectively functions as a Wood Elves that can consistently trade up with opposing creatures and occasionally rebuy a mana creature or Phantasmal Image. Considering Phantasmal Image could be anything from a Restoration Angel to a Glen Elendra Archmage, that seems like a pretty exciting and powerful interaction to me.

Eldritch Evolution gives you the ability to cheat way up your curve, and the density of creatures that let you use the effect to net value, mana, or both is astonishing. It’s not hard to imagine curves where you can string together a mana creature, a Renegade Rallier, and then use Deceiver Exarch or Eldritch Evolution sacrificing a mana creature to let you cast another Eldritch Evolution to turn Rallier into Kiki-Jiki and end the game on turn three.

There are a lot of interesting angles, particularly out of the sideboard, where you can board in either Chord of Callings or Nahiri, the Harbinger. In slower matchups, Nahiri is a great way to apply enormous pressure on your opponent to interact. If they start expending resources to attack Nahiri, it suddenly becomes much easier for you to force through a combo or just aggro your opponent out. If they don’t interact with Nahiri, them you just get to Emrakul them.

Chord of Calling, on the other hand, is intended for matchups where you need to be highly interactive or find a cheap haymaker early on rather than be aggressive. If you find an early Melira, Sylvok Outcast against Infect, Kataki, War's Wage against Affinity, or Ethersworn Canonist against storm, it’s entirely possible you can end the game before it really gets started, so increasing the density of Eldritch Evolution effects to find these highly impactful haymakers is very desirable.

If you’re looking to explore something that has a myriad of powerful interactions and interesting angles of attack, I think this is a fantastic place to start exploring the potential of Renegade Rallier.