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 is not-so-secretly the most powerful card in the deck. It makes sure we hit every land drop, thins lands out of the deck, and increases our hand size by three every turn!
Mind Stone is a key cog in the machine, providing an early bump in mana and then cycling itself away later. It ramps, it digs, and it replaces itself as a card in hand. It's not a perfect card, but it is a solid early play and is never irrelevant.
Thought Vessel is one of the subtle powerhouses, as it ramps alongside Mind Stone, but it removes the hand size limitation, allowing Kiyomaro to grow beyond its 7/7 limits and into a truly scary threat.
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 is one of my favorite cards, right next to my beloved Unsummon. In particular, I love the 5th Edition Truce, which has the flavor text, "Not all victories require defeat". That perfectly encapsulates my gaming philosophy: not everyone can win, but those who don't can still leave the table without feeling like a loser. Truce helps those feel-good moments by providing a life buff if people need it or cards in hand if they don't.
Howling Mine is another card I've loved for a long time, having played it in the Selesnya Prison deck I took to my first Friday Night Magic. Drawing everyone extra cards leads to craziness and chaos, but we are uniquely positioned to take better advantage of the extra cards because we are designed to have a large hand size.
Secret Rendezvous was actually the impetus for building the deck. Strixhaven was a phenomenal set for people who like spellslinger strategies, providing a variety of instants and sorceries that pull color identities and pairings in different directions. In particular, it helped me realize how much white shares card draw and how cool of a design space targeting with the draw can be, as it turns the draw into a political tool.
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 is another major piece of the Stockpile defense. The larger the creature, the more likely it is to get bounced. It leaves small creatures alone, as long as cards stay in hand, but bounces big things, which helps to counter Voltron strategies. It also creates a really tough situation for the opponent: play the creatures out and get them bounced, or hold them in hand and get burned!
Iron Maiden is one of those burn spells, damaging each opponent in their upkeep and steadily reducing life totals, especially in conjunction with similar effects. This is where the deck's nefarious plan comes in, spitting up the stockpiled cards in the form of direct damage.
Sword of War and Peace combines the Stockpile and Spit Up phases, gaining life and damaging opponents on contact. It also provides evasion for Kiyomaro, enabling huge swings in momentum and damage!
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, so the deck keeps evolving and improving!
