Pokedecks: Kiyomaro, the Wigglytuff

White Can Draw Cards, and So Can You!

One of my better-known deckbuilding phases was Kerosene and Matches: group hug decks designed to share a particular resource and use it better. My colorshifted Klothys PokeDeck is one of the coolest examples of this, but certainly not the only one! Looking into effects that a color does well has helped me to shift strategies into colors they aren't usually associated with. In this case, the Kiyomaro deck came before the Pokedeck: it was an experiment in combining white's shared card draw with white's land searching ramp to make a deck that cared about hand size and shifted the way I viewed the color!

What is a PokeDeck? A PokeDeck is a collaboration between brewer and alterist that results in a uniquely-flavored commander deck. The commander of the deck is altered with the visage of a Pokemon, and the deck, in turn, represents the moves of that Pokemon. The fusion of these elements takes commanders in distinctly new directions and creates a cohesive experience that both brewer and alterist can be proud of, every time the commander hits the table.

Kiyomaro, First to Stand

Kiyomaro is a deck I turn to when talking about what I love about Commander: old cards getting new life because of a change in the color's philosophy or a critical mass of certain effects. Over the years, white has received more and more shared card draw effects, as well as more and more ways to put lands into the hand. Both of these synergize with a commander that cares about cards in hand. As a result, the major pieces of the deck, ramp and draw, work with my favorite hand-size-based burn spells to dig for win cons while setting them up, all under the guise of a group hug deck! But what Pokemon could hide such a nefarious plan behind a cute, unassuming exterior?

Wigglytuff, of course! Evolving from the kawaii, big-eyed pink puffball, Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff is a cherubic pink bunny rabbit that recently received Fairy typing to join its Normal. With Fairy being an impish typing, it makes sense that our Kamigawan deity should lean in that direction. The background color, washed out gray and black, was an interesting happy accident, however. Fox checked with me to see if I liked how the character turned out before painting the background. I found that the stark gray offered a hilarious contrast with the sly puffball, and I likened it to the black-and-white album covers common in 80s and 90s rap. After all, the deck is Naughty by Nature!

Kiyomaro's Abilities

The first challenge was to figure out what Kiyomaro wanted from the deck. Kiyomaro cares about hand size, so one of the jobs the deck has to do is find a way to keep the number of cards in hand high. The commander also costs five mana, so there's the secondary issue of needing to ramp to five quickly enough to avoid getting outclassed. Those goals tend to counter each other, especially since ramping helps to empty the hand faster, so how can we ramp and increase hand size?

Kiyomaro is a potentially large creature, but it needs a lot of help to get there and to do so in time to be relevant. One way to do this is to make sure the deck hits every land drop. Land Tax

Mind Stone

Thought Vessel

The hand size growing works well with Kiyomaro, making this a formidable color-shifted turbo draw deck. But how does this relate back to Wigglytuff?

Wigglytuff's Moves

The next challenge is to figure out how to cross the IP from Pokemon to Magic. Wigglytuff physiologically is known for sucking air into itself, puffing itself up like a giant balloon. Kiyomaro certainly seems to do this by swelling itself up with hand size. But is there a move that represents this? As it turns out, there are a few that work together: Stockpile, Swallow, and Spit Up! Stockpile increases the defenses, like how our draw helps find removal, Swallow gains health if there is something Stockpiled, like how Kiyomaro gains life when it does damage, and Spit Up... more on that in a bit.

The majority of the card draw in the deck does a couple of jobs. It shares the draw with opponents, which, while it may seem counterintuitive to single-minded decks, is perfect for this build. The group hug aspect acts as a wolf in sheep's clothing, like the pink, puffy exterior of the namesake Wigglytuff. What the stockpiling of cards in our and our opponents' hands set up, however, is a massive amount of damage.

Truce

Howling Mine

Secret Rendezvous

But what are we drawing into? And how can we punish opponents for accepting our gifts?

The Perfect Fusion

Kiyomaro Stockpiles cards in hand and Swallows them in the form of lifegain, but how does that turn into a win? The answer is to care not only about our hand size, but our opponents', too! By sharing the draw, Kiyomaro digs for the specific cards it needs to burn opponents for having cards in hand while simultaneously adding to the potency of those spells. It's all about synergy, as the pieces support each other and make each other stronger.

The Big Bang Shot here, the move Spit Up, comes from direct damage. But... mono-white burn? How is that even possible? It turns out, hand-size-based burn happens to work really well with the shared draw!

Noetic Scales

Iron Maiden

Sword of War and Peace

With these pieces together, Kiyomaro fills our hand with lands and cards, fills opponents' hands with cards, and digs for direct damage, all at the same time!

Kiyomaro, Use Stockpile!

Here is the most recent iteration of the deck, which is currently undergoing a bit of a revision. Wizards keeps printing more shared card draw in white, such as Love Song of Night and Day