Quick Links
Kianne, Corrupted Memory was featured as the alternate commander inMagic: The Gathering’sJump Scare! preconstructed Commander deck. While it works within the confines of the deck, Kianne, Corrupted Memory is better suited for a commander on its own, with a unique gameplan that the precon cannot achieve.
A Kianne, Corrupted Memory deck has a few different ways to build it, but the best is a mixture of Voltron and card draw. You want to constantly draw cards to increase Kianne’s stats to then swing in for massive unblockable damage to take people out with commander damage. If you’re looking for a different take on Voltron, look no further than Kianne, Corrupted Memory.
x9 Forest
x11 Island
Waterlogged Grove
Yavimaya Coast
Thedecklist contains two planeswalkers, 18 creatures, 13 sorceries, 12 instants, 13 artifacts, seven enchantments,and34 lands. All of the cards either draw cards, give protection, or care about cards being drawn.
Key Cards
Kianne, Corrupted Memory
As you may expect with a Voltron deck, the commander is themost important card in it.Kianne, Corrupted Memoryis a card that grows its own stats so you don’t have to rely on other cards to make it into a powerful attacker.
The effect of putting a +1/+1 counter on it when you draw includes your card draw at the start of the turn. This means at minimum, every turn Kianne will get a +1/+1 counter, and more if you use other card draw spells.
Kianne, Corrupted Memory is the creature you want to load all your Equipment onto. This is especially true for permanents that give protection to ensure it sticks on the battlefield. Itsability helps you to flash in Equipmentas well when you have an even power on it. Although you don’t have many creatures, being able to cast them on odd power is a nice backup utility.
Chasm Skulker
Chasm Skulker essentially acts as a secondary commander. It shares the effect of putting +1/+1 counters on it that Kianne has andcomes with theadded bonus of leaving 1/1 tokens with islandwalk when it dies.
When you have both Chasm Skulker and Kianne, Corrupted Memory on the battlefield at the same time,you’re constantly growing two massive threats that both need to be answered. Short of a board wipe,both creatures will be hard to removeto allow you to swing in for massive amounts of damage.
Power Fist
Power Fistis one of the best Equipment cards to put onto Kianne. While Kianne can grow to massive stats,it has no other keyword abilities. This is where Power Fist comes in to give the equipped creature trample. If Kianne is big enough, the trample can get through any blocker totake someone out of the game with commander damage.
What makes Power Fist stand out is thatwhen combat damage is dealt, you get that many +1/+1 counters on the creature that dealt it. This helps you to grow Kianne, Corrupted Memory’s stats even quicker to make it easier to take your opponents out of the game.
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Since Kiannelets you cast spells with flash, you will have a lot of “first spells being cast” on everyone’s turn. This allows you to triggerRashmi, Eternities Crafter’s effect. Rashmi lets you gain an extra spell to cast for free, so long as it has a lower mana value than the first spell you cast.
A benefit of Rashmi is thateven if you choose not to cast the spell, it goes into your hand instead of anywhere else. For example, you may reveal a counterspell, which would have a low chance of being useful. By putting it into your hand, you can save it for later for when you’d really need to cast it.
Windfall
There are a lot of draw spells in the deck, but the best one for Kianne, Corrupted Memory isWindfall. Someone will always have a loaded hand, so Windfall can always be cast to draw a ton of cards andtrigger Kianne, Corrupted Memory multiple times with just one spell.
Windfall pairs especially well with Narset, Parter of Veils. Narset prevents your opponents' from drawing more than one card each turn, so if you cast Windfall they lose their entire hand and only draw one card.
If youdon’t have much action in your hand, it can be better to Windfall your hand awayto draw something better for the given gamestate. Alternatively, if you know an opponent has one of their key cards in their hand, you’re able to use Windfall to force them to discard it.
How To Play The Deck
AKianne, Corrupted Memory deck is all about drawing cards to make Kianne as large of a creature as possible and start swinging out at your opponents. There are a ton of enablers for this, including many cantrips likePonder, Opt, Consider,andPreordain.
Spells that draw multiple cards will trigger Kianne’s effect multiple times. This makes cards likeBrainstorm, Windfall,andBrainsurgeespecially strong to get that stats high for low mana investment.
You want to get Equipment down on the battlefieldquickly to protect Kianne. Often,it’s better to cast Equipment before you cast Kianne to ensure you can protect Kianne the turn it enters the battlefield. The best Equipment for protection areSwiftfoot Boots, Whispersilk Cloak,andLightning Greaves.
For more offensive Equipment, you havePower Fist, Fireshrieker,andLoxodon Warhammerto push your damage output even further. The AurasRancorandSnake Umbraare also useful in this position and generally want to be put on Kianne itself.
Theprimary win condition of the deck is winning through dealing 21 commander damage to all of your oppo
nents. Alternatively, there are a few other ways to win the game. Since you draw so many cards,Triskaidekaphilewins the game if you start your turn with 13 cards in your hand andTwenty-Toed Toadwins if you have either 20 counters on itself or 20 cards in your hand. Since you put a lot of counters on your creatures, you can also win withSimic Ascendancyif it has 20 counters on it (and gains counters whenever a +1/+1 counter is put on a permanent).
Thebiggest downside of the deck is the heavy reliance on your commander. As with all Voltron decks, it’s what the rest of the deck is built around, so if it ever gets removed, you can struggle to stay in the game. That’s why it’s important towait until you’re sure you can protect it(either with permanents or counterspells)before you cast it.
