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Don't Set Off the Alarms
There Was This Goblin...
Well, following with my trend of the past couple of weeks, I am going to take a look at another deck type this week. I want to cover the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Intruder Alarm deck. But before we get to deep, let's take a further look at The Great Mirror Breaker. Kiki-Jiki can be a bit of a problem if you don't know how ot handle him. Outside of the dragons, this guys seems to be the most talked about legend. This means that you will probably start seeing him in more and more decks. But there is good reason for that. The guy is pretty versatile. The first thing to notice is that he can copy ANY creature. This means that he can also copy creatures that your opponent controls. Against Crystal Witness, they can copy an Eternal Witness every turn to keep getting key spells back. Against Tooth and Nail, he can copy whatever big guy is swinging to block with one of his own. Against Affinity, he can copy Disciple of the Vault to deal some damage right before killing off all the opponent's artifacts. Against big red, Kiki-Jiki can copy a number of creatures to cause problems. And of course, his ability will repeatedly trigger "comes into play" effects. The Deck So, getting more specific here, what's his purpose in the Intruder Alarm deck? Simple. He helps create an infinite combo that can do a lot of things. Here's a typical Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker deck: 4 Birds of Paradise 2 Bringer of the Red Dawn 4 Eternal Witness 4 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 3 Solemn Simulacrum 3 Thought Courier 3 Viridian Shaman 3 Vulshok Sorcerer 2 Mana Leak 2 Gifts Ungiven 4 Intruder Alarm 4 City of Brass 4 Forbidden Orchard 8 Forest 3 Island 3 Mountain Sideboard: 2 ManaLeak 2 Condescend 4 Hearth Kami 4 Naturalize 2 Cranial Extraction 1 Viridian Shaman The Goblin's Purpose OK, so we know that Kiki-Jiki creates an infinite loop combo with his ability to bring a token into play under and Intruder Alarm. But what you do other than untap and make a bunch of guys? Well, let's look at the deck closer. Kiki-Jiki can copy these creatures without going infinite to help set up a ton of different combos. Kiki-Jiki - This guy alone can cause problems if an intruder alarm is out. His ability to make an near infinite army is only stifled by there being an attack restiction on him. Something along the lines of Ghostly Prison to stop this plan of winning. Eternal Witness - They can copy this a ton of times to get back key spells to help them finish out. Solemn Simulacrum - Being able to clear their deck of land can lead to them getting every card they need much easier. Thought Courier - This guy is generally good for deck searching. fortunately, copying him isn't a threat. However, he can close your window of oppourtunity to fight back with the Intruder alarm combo on the move. Virdian Shaman - You don't want to see this guy combo'ing up with K-J if you are playing affinity. You'll be without a board in no time. Vulshok Sorcerer - This one is completely obviously. It just provides more damage. It can throw off your calculations if you are haing to plan on K-J AND this little lady dealing damageto something. I'm sure you get the picture by now. There are a lot of small tricks and secrets built into the deck. So it can surprise you at times if you aren't paying attention. But enough about the praises. My job here is to tell you how to deal with it. Fortifying Your Position For starters, kill the early creatures fast if at all possible. First turn Birds of Paradise help get sthings rolling quickly. The more you slow them down, the better. The other thing to remember is that K-J gets less options if you've killed more creatures. I think the next thing to note is that the deck doesn't NEED Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to be on the table to win. so don't overly focus on Kiki-Jiki hurting you. If you deal with the other creatures, he is less of a problem. Just be aware that he can copy your creatures as well. This will keep you from getting hit with a surprise play. Remember to use the stack to your advantage as well. The deck is much easier to beat when you've got Intruder Alarm as far away from the table as possible. If you want to single any card out as a priority, this is the one. Naturalize, Altar's Light, and even Kami of Ancient Law all make good candidates for dealing with this. The other thing to remember is that your creatures will trigger Intruder Alarm as well. You can use this to your advantage sometimes. You can attack, then play a creature and untap them all. This can give you blockers or even let you use abilities that you wouldn't have been able to use otherwise. Also, the creatures in this deck are a bit small. So, if you can outsize them or first strike/bushido your way past them, you may be bale to keep the heat on them. Mass removal that deal a couple of points of damage or gives small negatives could be put to great use as well. In Conclusion Overall, I don't see this deck being a truly scary threat. It can surprise you form time to time though. So don't sleep on this deck. It's a deck built of nothing but quality cards. The only card that can't stand on its on is the Intruder Alarm. For now, this is a second tier deck. However, that could change at a moment's notice. I think it is very close to being a strong tournament contender, it just needs the right mix of cards and tricks. Two Bad Plays of the Week These two bad plays of the week come from a loyal reader named Max Acquino: My friend and I were playing a casual game (he was playing goblins, I was playing myrs), and he's beating me down with a horde of goblins. My little myrs have been bashed in, and I'm out of cards in my hand (lots of mana on the table though). I draw a myr matrix and play it, and I'm about to activate it for two chump blockers when he concedes! I stare at him, baffled, for a second, and say "okay." When we started our next game, I ask him why he scooped, and he said "there wasn't any way for me to stop 40 some-odd myrs from swinging my way." He thought I had played a myr incubator! I couldn't stop laughing for about five minutes. I'm not immune to stupidity either, as three games later... He was playing rav-affin, I was playing a red artifact hate deck. The game was pretty even (we're both at about 5 life) and I had a bunch of big red creatures on the board. I could have swung right there and won, but I decided to win with style, so I played a shatterstorm to wipe out his army before attacking. I couldn't understand why he was laughing until I realized: he had a disciple of the vault in play! Oops... Until next time, DeQuan Watson a.k.a. PowrDragn PowrDragn at Pojo dot com www.thegamecloset.com
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