#krark

Propaganda for Toruk [Avatar]:

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Propaganda for Krark, Prince of Darkness [Zoids]:

Hello and welcome back to the Goblin Dating Game!  What has no thumbs and doubles spells? This goblin!

Krark the Thumbless is a 2 mana 2/2 red creature with the text “Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, return that spell to its owner’s hand. If you win the flip, copy that spell, and you may choose new targets for the copy,” and, of course, the Partner ability! Today on the Goblin Dating Game we’re going to examine his potential partner pairs to decide who would be the best partner for Krark leading a Commander deck.

Krark’s ability triggers on casting instant and sorcery spells, so what’s most important for Krark is finding another commander who wants to do that. A creature-heavy commander simply isn’t going to work, nor is an artifact-based one. Also, Krark is pretty small, so he shouldn’t rely on anyone who wants him to be attacking every turn.  As Krark is an ‘instants and sorceries matter’ card, we’re going to weigh Blue partners a bit heavier than non-Blue partners, as Red and Blue tend to have the Instant and Sorcery rewards.

Starting from the top, our first serious contender is Brinelin, the Moon Kraken. Brinelin is expensive at eight mana, yes, but with both Brinelin and Krark out, you’re getting triggers from both whenever you cast a spell. The big drawback here is that Brinelin wants big spells, so you can’t just throw spells out until they work. On the other hand, doubling a big spell is going to get a big effect.

Eligeth, Crossroads Augur, is a reasonable partner for Krark just because of the sheer volume of instants and sorceries with Scry, especially low-cost ones. Eligeth turns Preordain into Ancestral Recall, and Krark doubles that up. Incidental scry is great with both, and you’ll have plenty of it.

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix, is not so much direct aid for Krark as she is support for the deck Krark wants to make. With blue and green cards, Krark doubling card draw effects can easily result in Kydele tapping for a lot of mana, especially if Krark uses Wheels. Then, though it’s a big risk, Krark can attempt to double your Fireball or equivalent spell. Sure, if it fails it goes back to your hand, but when it succeeds it can end an opponent very quickly.

Sakashima of a Thousand Faces is here to let you copy Krark. In multiples Krark is… Umm… Okay I know what happens if you win both flips (you get to triple the spell) but I’m not actually sure what happens if you get one success and one failure. I could really use a judge call here. I think you get the copy and the original goes back to your hand, granting you a spell cast without a card used. If that’s the case, Sakashima plus Krark is potentially very potent.

Sengir, the Dark Baron, might not look like it has much synergy with Krark, but what it does synergize well with is a Black/Red deck full of removal that expects to use Sengir as its primary win condition.  Use Krark and your spells to machine-gun everything in the way, then let Sengir get swole and start smashing faces in. It’s a bit weak against more creature-light decks, but it can be really punishing for opponents trying to attack you when your black spells kill two creatures per card. Remember: If you lose the flip, you get the card back, so you’re down mana, not cards. I’d cast Murder twice to Murder two things.

Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, fills a role similar to Sengir in that while he’s not helping Krark work, he can win the game on his own if you control the field with Black and Red spells. Also, his second ability gives an extra card for sacrificing a commander, and Krark’s low cost enough to get away with that once or twice in a game.

Tormod, the Desecrator, opens up some weird options with Krark. A Krark and Tormod deck would involve heavy use of Flashback spells. The thing with Krark is, if you Flashback with Krark and fail to double it, the spell never resolves, so it goes back to your hand instead of getting exiled. But it leaves the graveyard either way, so Tormod gives you a zombie. Escape has a similar benefit in that if Krark loses the flip, the spell winds up in your hand at the end instead of the graveyard, and it gives Tormod zombies.

Vial Smasher could be good with Krark, allowing you to get multiple casts off a given spell, but I worry that Krark wants small spells that you can cast again if you lose the flip, while Vial Smasher wants big spells that will hit hard.

The options here aren’t nearly as clear cut as they’ve been in the past, and I could see Krark going a lot of ways. Further, each of these ways is going to require testing it out as a unique strategy to see how well it works. The Eligeth and Tormod ideas both sound very strong, but that really depends on how well you can make a deck relying on Instants and Sorceries with Scry or Flashback. Sakashima might be amazing, but I really need to confirm with a judge about what happens with two Krarks on the field. 

For now, I’m going to tentatively declare the winner to be Tevesh Szat, who I know will just work as a win condition while Krark helps make a Red/Black Instants and Sorceries deck function, but I’d much rather see the Eligeth or Tormod decks in action.