Commander Kryptonite Finale: Fall of the Machine

    In early 2022, much to the excitement of the MTG community, Wizards of the Coast decided to return to one of Magic’s most iconic planes in Kamigawa. The Japanese culture inspired plane brought more samurai and ninjas, modified creatures, spirits, and most importantly, vehicles. With the rise in vehicle support naturally came the need for a vehicle precon. That precon brought us one of the best Azorius value engines of all time, Shorikai, Genesis Engine. Shorikai is actually one of the only non-creature, non-planeswalker commanders available as it is a vehicle. Shorikai allows its controller to draw an extra 2 cards, discard a card, and create a pilot every turn or each time it untaps. These abilities can be exploited for additional value with things like including cards with flashback that can be cast from your grave, skull clamping the 1/1 pilot tokens for even more card draw, the deck screams versatility.

  

  

    The deck itself at its core is a value engine. Shorikai players consistently want to find more cards that allow Shorikai to be utilized multiple times per turn. Normally this type of game play will conclude with a combo victory or an alternate win condition like Approach the Second Sun. Some versions of the deck will play the best vehicles possible as the pilot tokens that Shorikai makes are excellent at crewing. Others are simply looking to add more pieces to the value machine that is Shorikai.


    The strength in Shorikai lies in the long game. As a value engine, over the course of multiple turns, Shorikai will have out-drawn, out-filtered, and out produced all the other opponents eventually leading into a winning position. This commander is also one of the few commanders that is not affected negatively by Humility. Humility is an enchantment that turns all creatures into 1/1 creatures with no effects. Since Shorikai is not a creature, this does not affect it, leaving the Shorikai player with an extreme advantage.


    Being that the deck relies on combo/alternate win conditions, There might be time in which the combo win is stopped and Shorikai does not have enough power to reasonably protect against combat damage. Value engines like Shorikai are not designed to worry about combat which can leave them open to aggro strategies. There is also a strong reliance on one particular card type, artifacts. So, any type of Vandalblast effect will absolutely derail your gameplan.


    As Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” We want to bring the fight to Shorikai out the gate. We don’t want to let Shorikai settle in and get blockers up. As the game is going, save some removal for then Shorikai plays key pieces like unwinding clock. Eventually, by keeping them off balance, the Shorikai player WILL fall.


    With this deck, artifacts are going to be very important when it comes to the strategy whether it is a vehicle deck or a value engine. With this said, a card like Stony Silence stops all artifacts dead in their tracks. Kataki, War’s Wage puts a power taxing effect on all artifacts on the field either providing removal or significantly slower progressions. Vandalblast overloaded destroys all artifacts your opponents control. Finally, Aura Shards absolutely hoses this deck as the removal out of the gate applies great pressure and if your opponents don’t have an answer, no artifact or enchantment is safe for the rest of the game.


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