Killin' em with Killian

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, But Words Will Really Hurt Me

By Shay Muscarella

Shower Thoughts

We’ve all had those little arguments that we run over and over in our heads until we finally have the coolest responses. Usually, these come to us four hours later while angrily taking a hot shower. Well, Silverquill’s premier student Killian, Ink Duelist has turned these spicy comebacks into anart form. All this over-thinking has turned years of teenage angst and dramatic poetry into a scathing weapon in Killian’s hand.

Killian is so efficient at his craft that he’s cut the casting cost of our spells by two generic mana as long as the spell targets a creature. Naturally, the spells in our deck almost exclusively target creatures so we can take maximum advantage of Killian’s mana cost reduction. Now it’s your turn to be the Shakespeare of Magic and use this deck to brew up only the harshest of retorts, leaving your enemies trying to come up with a response four hours later.

Poetry Circle

Every good writer needs to bounce their ideas off someone, and a good group of friends is just what you’ll need in order to be the successful pilot of this deck. Our circle is going to consist of a few other superlative poets with the Magecraft ability. Creatures like Silverquill Pledgemage, Sedgemoor Witch, and Silverquill Apprentice will all trigger whenever we cast or copy a spell. Killian’s grand words inspire these lesser creatures, granting them new abilities like Lifelink or Flying, or giving them the additional power they need to really pack a metaphorical punch. Or a literal one, whichever floats your boat.

Inspiring Words

We need a way to make sure our poets are ready for combat, so let’s give them a rousing speech to get our team pumped up. Cards like Alchemist’s Gifts and Resolute Strike are cheap spells that give bumps to our creatures even if Killian isn’t on the field. These spells will also trigger all of our cool Magecraft abilities on our creatures. Then we have a few spells that like having Killian out on the field to make them cheaper. Unlikely Aid and Unexpected Fangs are both relatively cheap on their own, but reducing their costs just means we can cast multiple spells a turn and double up on our spells and Magecraft triggers. Sounds like a rousing speech to me!

Scathing Retorts

Killian and his gang have been having fun, but the time for games is over. We’ll deliver such vicious verses that our opponent’s creatures will be running for home. Technically the graveyard, but close enough. Cards like Lash of Thorns are cheap regardless of whether or not we have our mana reduction from Killian, and they can remove a fair number of little creatures we don’t want to deal with. Feed the Swarm is a great piece of removal to keep in our back pocket. It’ll cost us a little bit of life, but we’re likely going to have some to spare. Hagra Mauling has a built-in mana reduction, but we can’t count on it to be active so it’s another of those spells that really benefits from having Killian help us pay for it. I’m sure he’s got a trust fund, so he can afford it.

Deck List:

Commander (1)

1x Killian, Ink Duelist

Creatures (17)

1x Basri’s Acolyte

1x Callous Bloodmage

1x Clever Lumimancer

1x Drana, the Last Bloodchief

1x Eager First-Year

1x Luminarch Aspirant

1x Massacre Wurm

1x Nimana Skydancer

1x Promising Duskmage

1x Sedgemoor Witch

1x Selfless Savior

1x Silverquill Apprentice

1x Silverquill Pledgemage

1x Skyclave Apparition

1x Taborax, Hope’s Demise

1x Vengeful Reaper

1x Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

Sorceries (4)

1x Emeria’s Call

1x Essence Infusion

1x Feed the Swarm

1x Forever Young

Instants (16)

1x Alchemist’s Gift

1x Beaming Defiance

1x Defiant Strike

1x Demonic Gifts

1x Eliminate

1x Feed the Serpent

1x Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit

1x Kabira Takedown // Kabira Plateau

1x Karametra’s Blessing

1x Lash of Thorns

1x Oblivion’s Hunger

1x Resolute Strike

1x Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier

1x Unexpected Fangs

1x Unlikely Aid

1x Village Rites

Lands (23)

10x Plains

1x Shineshadow Snarl

1x Silverquill Campus

10x Swam

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Shay has been playing Magic since way back in 8th edition and played mostly Modern for a long time (filthy Tron player). These last few years though he's been all about Commander. Outside of Magic he is a career firefighter who's currently trying to get his whole department in on the addiction...errr game.