“The greatest foes are mine alone. Let no one forget.“
Art:Hidetsugu and Kairi
by Chris Rahn
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Hidetsugu and Kairi are an absolute sweet pair who have a lot of history together! Jailbreaks and fights aside this is a really strong card that we can cast early and use clone effects to cast some absolute bombs off of the top! We are able to manipulate the top of our deck and exploit the legend rule for a ton of value with all of the good backups and support that Dimir has! This deck is the real deal and an absolute blast to pilot! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Hidetsugu and Kairi Big Spells!
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Why Hidetsugu and Kairi?
Hidetsugu and Kairi can not only be cast super early with sweet cards like Grim Monolith
, Lotus Petal
and Mox Opal
which are just a few examples but we can easily get a turn 1 or 2 cast depending on our hand / draws! Beyond that we can abuse there death trigger with clone effects and the legend rule to cast huge spells off the top! Being able to ETB and draw and fix the top of our deck can be a broken effect as well! These guys are an absolutely sweet pair!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! As well as highlighting some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
Since we want to get Hidetsugu and Kairi death trigger early and often we have a bunch of clone effects like Phyrexian Metamorph
, Phantasmal Image
, Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore
and Renegade Doppelganger
which are all great ways to get Hidetsugu and Kairi’s death trigger! Orcish Bowmasters
and Opposition Agent
are both really strong ways to interact with our opponents and slow them down! Gilded Drake
is a great way to “exchange” a creature with an opponent, a perfect card for stealing commanders!
Instants:
We of course have a ton of counterspells, to many to discuss individually if you ask me! Some of the highlight counterspells are Flusterstorm
, Force of Will
, Fierce Guardianship
and Mana Drain
which are all really good counterspells with upside, whether we are stopping our opponents from going off or protecting us when we are going off these are really strong protection for us as well! Since we have such a low overall mana cost Ad Nauseam
is a pretty strong card, not that it is ever very weak! Vampiric Tutor
is a uniquely good tutor since we can stack the top of our deck!
Sorceries:
Our sorcery package is home to some pretty huge spells like Peer into the Abyss
and Expropriate
which are both super strong anyways but feel oh so good to cast for free! Beyond that we have some draw like Gitaxian Probe
, Ponder
and Preordain
which are all great ways to get some cards and the scry lets us set up our topdeck! We also have some sorcery speed tutors like Grim Tutor
, Demonic Tutor
and Imperial Seal
which are all great ways to assemble combos! While we are very weak to Praetor's Grasp
we have a copy of our own to steal a win condition as well!
Artifacts:
We have a ton of great rocks to power us through and cast Hidetsugu and Kairi super early like Mana Crypt
, Jeweled Lotus
and Grim Monolith! Not too much to say about our other rocks since they are all pretty effective mana sources that help us turbo out our commander and cards! Wishclaw Talisman
is a great card that is basically another copy of Demonic Tutor! The One Ring
is pretty much an auto-include in CEDH at this point, this card is crazy broken! Sensei's Divining Top
can not only be a great piece of card draw in a pinch but also interacts really with Hidetsugu and Kairi since we can setup the top of our deck!
Enchantments:
We are pretty light on enchantments but have all we need in Mystic Remora
and Rhystic Study
which are card draw machines and are absolute bombs at any stage of the game! Necropotence
is a great way to cycle through our deck!
Land Base:
Our land base is just like the deck, fast and efficient we have an inherent benefit of only being 2 color since we can run more fetches and more duals since we don’t have competing colors that we have to hit! We do have some really sweet duals like Morphic Pool
, Underground Sea
and Watery Grave
. A lot of our lands are just quick and efficient and come in untapped like City of Brass
and Mana Confluence
! Saprazzan Skerry
and Peat Bog
are both great lands that can help us turbo out Hidetsugu and Kairi!
Strengths of the Deck:
- A ton of ways to combo off and we can do it pretty early
- Commander is a really powerful card even if we are not actively comboing off
- Decent amount of interaction / counterspells
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Very weak to Praetor's Grasp
- Can be as fast as other decks but not as often
- Weak to artifact hate
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are a CEDH deck so we of course have a few combos that can help us close out games, we are not packed to the brim with combos but have classics that is our primary win condition! Below are all of the combos in the deck explained:
Demonic Consultation
+ Thassa's Oracle
Requires:
All cards in hand. UUB available.
Steps:
- Cast Demonic Consultation by paying B, naming Thassa’s Oracle and thus exiling your library due to you not having a card named Thassa’s Oracle in your library.
- Cast Thassa’s Oracle by paying UU.
- Thassa’s Oracle enters the battlefield, causing you to win the game.
Results:
Win the game. Exile your library.
Tainted Pact
+ Thassa's Oracle
Requires:
All cards in hand. No two cards in library share a name. 1UUB available.
Steps:
- Cast Tainted Pact by paying 1B, exiling your library.
- Cast Thassa’s Oracle by paying UU.
- Thassa’s Oracle enters the battlefield, causing you to win the game.
Results:
Win the game.
Enter the Infinite
+ Thassa's Oracle
Requires:
Enter the Infinite in hand. Thassa’s Oracle in hand or library. 8UUUUUU available.
Steps:
- Cast Enter the Infinite by paying 8UUUU, drawing your library and then putting any card besides Thassa’s Oracle from your hand on top of your library.
- Cast Thassa’s Oracle by paying UU.
- Thassa’s Oracle enters the battlefield ability triggers, causing you to win the game.
Results:
Win the game. Infinite card draw. Infinite draw triggers.
Orcish Bowmasters + Peer into the Abyss
Requires:
Peer into the Abyss in hand. Orcish Bowmasters on the battlefield. An opponent has a library size which is larger than or equal to their life total. 4BBB available.
Steps:
- Cast Peer into the Abyss by paying 4BBB, targeting an opponent whose library size is larger than or equal to their life total.
- Resolve Peer into the Abyss, causing that opponent to draw cards equal to half their library size and causing them to lose half their life total, rounded up.
- Orcish Bowmasters triggers for each card drawn, dealing 1 damage to the opponent for each card drawn this way and putting that many +1/+1 counters on an Army you control.
- The opponent loses the game due to having zero or less life.
Results:
Target opponent loses the game. Near-infinite damage. Near-infinite +1/+1 counters on target Army you control. Near-infinite card draw for target opponent. Near-infinite draw triggers for target opponent.
Conclusion:
Hidetsugu and Kairi was out for a couple months before they were figured out for CEDH and boy are we glad they got figured out! Many CEDH tables fall victim to the same decks over and over again and while this deck accomplishes a lot of things that other CEDH decks do just having a new face in the command zone is a great thing to see as this format gets better and better! Thanks for reading to the end and Thanks for all of your support!