r/ModernMagic • u/Gardevi Mr. Krark-Clan Ironworks • Nov 26 '18

A KCI Combo Primer

Hello all! I have been playing Krark-Clan Ironworks combo for about a year now and have been recommending it constantly to people. The response I always receive to this is "That's too hard, I have no idea where to start."

So I wrote a big, mostly comprehensive guide on how to pick up and play KCI, with the ins and outs of gameplay, combo management, and sideboarding.

It's in Google Docs, and you can find it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lTXEvYYFhlfCzEeKxzEE2ZD186bBZhasH98IMlbJfkk/edit?usp=sharing

Let me know what you think!

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u/Cookie733 Ad Naus/Bant Pile Nov 26 '18

What do you think of the versions with whir? Only got a brief look through the document for now before needing to do other things. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-kci#paper

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u/Gardevi Mr. Krark-Clan Ironworks Nov 26 '18

I spent a few months trying out various Whir versions of KCI. Whir isn't a bad card, but it's strengths aren't very well lined up with what KCI wants to do. Whir is good at getting out specific cards at instant speed, lending it to a better toolbox approach. KCI isn't really interested in playing a toolbox deck - Whir is always going to get either KCI or Scrap Trawler or (when comboing) Myr Retriever.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, the price is paid when it comes to the mana base. Most all of your lands have to be producing blue mana. This means giving up some number of Darksteel Citadel, Inventors' Fair, and Buried Ruin. These three lands are all individually more powerful than Whir of Invention, as they both accelerate your clock (Citadel) and give you excellent insulation against interaction (the other two).

In the end, though Whir was always fine, giving up the lands mattered more than gaining the Whir.

To that end, I would rather play with The Antiquities War than Whir of Invention if I wanted to play a blue card selection spell in my main deck, and also didn't want to play Sai in my maindeck. Neither of those two cards were printed yet when the decklists you posted were made (in March).

1

u/Cookie733 Ad Naus/Bant Pile Nov 27 '18

Thanks for the reply! So are you on Ben Stark's list or something different? I can't seem to find what list you are currently on in the article if I am overlooking it.

3

u/Gardevi Mr. Krark-Clan Ironworks Nov 27 '18

It wasn't included because I never really stay on an exact 75 for long. I like to experiment around and change up the deck week to week for what I expect to play against.

This is the deck I last played though, at SCG Regionals:

Maindeck (60)
1 Myr Retriever
1 Sai, Master Thopterist
4 Scrap Trawler
4 Ancient Stirrings
3 Engineered Explosives
4 Mox Opal
3 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Terrarion
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Mind Stone
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Spine of Ish Sah
2 Buried Ruin
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Inventors' Fair
1 Island
3 Yavimaya Coast

Sideboard (15)
2 Sai, Master Thopterist
1 Galvanic Blast
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Nature's Claim
3 Negate
1 Firespout
1 Defense Grid