[Deck] Dawn Breaker

[TheMightyQuinn]

//Creatures (12)
2 Skill Borrower
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Eternal Witness
1 Village Bell-Ringer
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Birds of Paradise

//Instants (20)
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak/Counterspell/Delay
2 Spell Pierce
4 Brainstorm
4 Congregation at Dawn
2 Worldly Tutor

//Sorceries (4)
4 Preordain

//Artifacts (3)
3 Sensei’s Divining Top

//Lands (21)
3 Tropical Island
3 Savannah
3 Tundra
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Windswept Heath
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest


The goal is to cast Congregation and fetch Skill Borrower, Safekeeper/Bell-Ringer/Witness, and Kiki, then make a billion copies of Borrower during your opponent's end step while Kiki is on top of your library. Safekeeper allows Borrower to protect herself while on top or in play, Bell-Ringer allows you to kill on your turn, and Witness is just good utility.

SDT is really sweet with Borrower, allowing her to protect herself. Brainstorm has obvious synergy, being able to put Safekeeper on top in response to targeted removal, etc. Worldly Tutor serves a similar function.

I put a bunch of mana dorks in to try and cast Congregation on turn 2, but maybe the deck would be better if some/all of them were taken out for more counters/draw to make it slower but more consistent. If that were the case, Safekeeper would probably be replaced with something like Morphling or Sturdy Hatchling.

Anyway, its basically a 1 card combo deck with counterspell support, so I figured this was at least worth developing a little. I'm still scouring magiccards.info to find my utility creatures that could speed up or protect the combo better.

[optml]

Very nice idea! Definitely worth developing I think.

My thoughts are that the whole deck revolves around a resolved CaD. Therefore, perhaps more ways to find it and protect it would be better.

+1 Boseiju, who shelters all
+3 KotR
+1 Bojuka Bog
+1 Karakas
+4 Impulse

-2 Birds of paradise
-2 Worldly Tutor
-1 FoW (Do you have enough blue to support 4? if so, leave it in)
-3 Lands (replaced by the 3 mentioned above)
-2 Spell Pierce

Little more versatility (KotR is king after all, and allows defence against anything from Emrakul to Counterspells to Dredge). Little more digging with impulse.

Just my 2 cents

[TheMightyQuinn]

Boseiju is a nice idea, but it doesn't work. It adds colorless mana and CaD costs GGW. I'm not sure the KotR package is worth putting in if Boseiju can't protect CaD, but I'll monkey around with it anyway (once I get Cockatrice running on my computer that is).

I'm thinking Spellskite might warrant a place in the deck.

[John Cox]

I'm slightly confused as to how the combo works. If you make the token at the end of your opponents turn, won't you have to sacrifice them then and then drawn into a useless Village Bell-Ringer? wouldn't it make more sense to make the tokens on your upkeep and then draw and win?

[Dark Ritual]

Spellskite probably warrants at least a 1 of spot as a tutor target with more potentially coming out of the board.

You could include boseiju if you included thorn of amethyst :tongue: j/k that was a joke.

KotR doesn't really fit at all. It would fit in an aggro SB plan but that's about it. I see no reason to include that card over ponder or preordain, since those search for the combo.

Overall seems like a solid enough deck to keep developing and at least skill borrower might do something useful for once lol.

[TheMightyQuinn]

I'm slightly confused as to how the combo works. If you make the token at the end of your opponents turn, won't you have to sacrifice them then and then drawn into a useless Village Bell-Ringer? wouldn't it make more sense to make the tokens on your upkeep and then draw and win?

CaD fetches this pile:

TOP
Skill Borrower
Safekeeper/Bell-Ringer/Witness
Kiki-Jiki
BOTTOM

Next turn you draw Borrower. Middle card is now on top. If Safekeeper is the middle card, you can use it to protect Borrower during your turn and your opponent's next turn. Then you draw the middle card. Kiki is now on top. If you use his ability to make tons of Borrowers during your opponent's end step, the tokens won't die until the beginning of your own end step. Bell-Ringer lets you combo on your own turn if you don't need the Safekeeper for protection.

[deadlock]

I suggest Glittering Wish to wish for your key card and to have a set of silver bullets.

[Nameless Two]

Awesome!

Maybe Thornling? Or Golem Artisan? They can give your skillborrower haste. So you can play congregation at dawn for Skillborrower + Thornling + Kiki-Jiki. Draw Skillborrower, give her haste, use either a sensei's divining top/Jace/Wordly Tutor or a brainstorm to get rid of thornling and make unlimited Skillborrowers at the end of your opponents upkeep.

Just a clunky idea perhaps but I'm too excited about this to not reply at all.

[optml]

@Nameless
Good idea with Thornling as it also provides indestructibility for Skill Borrower. I think Haste and indest are both very useful when setting up. (doesn't stop StP, but what does aye??)

[Willoe]

@Nameless
Good idea with Thornling as it also provides indestructibility for Skill Borrower. I think Haste and indest are both very useful when setting up. (doesn't stop StP, but what does aye??)

Grotesque Hybrid and Hell-Bent Raider. I don't know how to make card tags though, so you might want to look them up. Grotesque Hybrid is very, very superior to Hell-Bent Raider as it offers protection from green and flying as well as protection from white at the expense of one card whereas Hell-Bent Raider which only offers protection from white at the expense of one random card.

Remember that Skill Borrower only copies activated abilities. You guys apparently do remember, I just forgot once, so I'm reminding y'all :smile:

EDIT: Cephalid Inkshrouder might be the card you are looking for. It provides shroud at the expense of one card. This is a great way of keeping your Skill Borrower protected against anything except combat damage and mass removal. It also makes the Skill Borrower unblockable FYI. Not that it changes anything, but hey.

[optml]

Could even look at things like visara the dreadful or Shauku, Endbringer (in this rare case, Shauku obviously outperforms Visara.

Could be useful if you're staring down the business end of a blazing archon or something similar.

[Nameless Two]

You could always use Thought Lash (I card I've not even heard of before innistrad came out) to remove cards until you reveal Kiki-Jiki.

Only works if you already have a skillborrower on the board though.

[Mr. Safety]

So this is essentially a boss-ed out Splinter Twin/Pestermite deck? Interesting...

[Willoe]

You could always use Thought Lash (I card I've not even heard of before innistrad came out) to remove cards until you reveal Kiki-Jiki.

Only works if you already have a skillborrower on the board though.

Using Skill Borrower and Thought Lash might do the trick. Using Cephalid Inkshrouder for protection also sounds viable to me since it pitces to FoW which would obviously be included in this list.

Getting Thought Lash on the battlefield also buys you a lot of time. So how about something like this?

3 Skill Borrower
1 Cephalid Inkshrouder
2 Thought Lash
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Ethersworn Cannonist

4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Enlightened Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
3 Counterbalance

4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
8 Island

SB:
Access to black as well due to the 2 Underground Sea.

EDIT: You might want to have some brief card explanations:

I don't know if the Skill Borrower/Thought Lash numbers are correct yet.

Other than that, the Enlighted Tutor fetches both combo pieces. I also included Ethersworn Cannonist as a tutor target.

Known from the Sensei Sensei deck, there are quite a few internal synergies:

SDT + Skill Borrower = Skill Borrower protection as well as making it easier to look for Kiki-Jiki.

SDT + Thought Lash = finds you the card you want if you sink some mana in it which can be done at instant speed.

SDT + Counterbalance = duh.

Counterbalance + E-tutor = counter anything with a cost of 1cc, 2cc, 3cc, or 4cc.

Brainstorm + Skill Borrower = gets Kiki-Jiki or Cephalid Inkshrouder back to the library.

Brainstorm + fetches = duh again.

While some of the synergies are better than other, they make it up for this completely untested pile which is probably too "cute" for competitive play. What do you guys think? Oh, and I'm sorry for being a bit off-topic.