"Keranos,God of Storms:Toming and Bolting"

"Keranos,God of Storms:Toming and Bolting"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

Recently I have been attracted to enemy colors. I went all out with my Simic EDH deck and continue to tinker with my Izzet EDH deck. Granted there have been less and less time to test out theories and combos but the possibility of upgrading my commander into Keranos , God of Storms makes me really excited. 

For an Izzet EDH deck that already features Thassa , it never hurts to have more card advantage and a vicious attacker for the the big finish. Gods as commanders are a big advantage since they are indestructible and don't get killed by the usual board sweepers.Keranos aside from being an awesome 6/5 have a lot more to offer.

Lands and Everything else...

Keranos is exciting because of one thing. A non-symmetrical card advantage for a measly 5 mana. The guy only benefits you while it is on the battlefield!Now let us get right to it. What happens is that you would reveal the first card you would draw each turn , it gets really interesting from here, if you draw a land card you get to draw another one. Card advantage.A free card draw that you didn't have to spend mana on? Sounds great right?

If you happen to draw a non land card , then you get to Lightning bolt a player or creature for free! 3 damage to a creature or Planeswalker is a great board position advantage and could tip games in your favor. Notwithstanding the potential political favor you could incur if you kill a particular planeswalker or creature that is threatening a prospective ally. You have this burn potentially every turn and the alternative is card advantage.Not bad at all. You just sit around and let Keranos do his thing. what is not to like about the guy right? Looking at the ratio of cards in a standard EDH deck you have a 40% chance of drawing a land and an extra card and a 60% chance of Burning someone or something(I feel like a weather forecaster...)

I think Magic has a great card here since it combines the best of these two color combinations. Some might say that the 3 damage is like a sneeze or light tap in the EDH setting but it does take care of a lot of early mana producing creatures or even 3 toughness creatures that could cause havoc on the battlefield like Fate Spinner. It is not a spell that can be countered and I doubt if your opponents would waste a stifle on this while there are more nasty things that would be coming out. So all in all a very solid ability that could be triggered every draw step.

Keranos Mind Tricks....

Aside from giving you an extra card and extra burn per turn Keranos also gives you an element of Blue , Mind tricks. So you reveal the first card you draw each turn, if it is a counter card , opponents will be hesitant to cast their key cards since it might be countered. If in case you reveal a land card and still have several cards in your hand , the opponent eliminates 1 of them as a land. However since you get to draw an extra card that will not be revealed they will still hesitate with certain actions because you have introduced an unknown card in the equation. You might have just drawn another land card but where your opponents are concerned it could might as well be a hard counter or a vital piece of your combo. Keranos operates like that and you should play along with the bluffing too. It is an advantage after all. 

Keranos and Thassa sitting in a tree...

An interesting interaction here would be between Keranos and Thassa. Since Thassa would let you scry 1 on your upkeep , you could let that ability resolve first. Now depending on your needs , if you need an extra card draw or burn at the moment , you could choose to have the top card remain on the library or put it at the bottom. Though if you choose to do the latter you might not get the card trigger that you want for Keranos , at least you have some control over your choices instead of just being surprised by all the land draws that you would be getting.

The Top Gear...

Sensei's divining top is one abusive artifact and none so in a deck that has Keranos. I mean for one colorless mana you could line up card advantage or burn turn after turn. So depending on your method of winning ,this superb interaction with the top means that you also increase your chances of winning.

Fill up with Knowledge or burn someone...Both pretty delicious choices if you ask me. Its just too bad that you can't have both.