Kamiz, Obsucra Oculus || V2.0
- Leo De Jesus
- Jul 22, 2023
- 7 min read
Hello there!
This is the first month of upgrades for our Kamiz, Obscura Oculus deck! As always, thank you for all and any interactions on the website. Never hesitate if you have any ideas for new decks, commanders you’d like to see covered, or even just to say hi!
The New Game Plan Is The Old Game Plan Just Better
We are going to eventually pivot this deck into a brutally quick infect deck but first we are going to just get it working much better than it is now. The base precon comes with too many big threats that it would be cool to make contact with but they are just too clunky to play with. We are going to lower the curve of the deck, make all of our combat damage triggers impactful, and ensure that Kamiz comes down and makes a big splash when it does.
An important note on the gameplay is when we bring Kamiz out. Kamiz doesn’t need to be attacking to get the ability to go off. We never want to cast Kamiz with nothing to target with its effect. The ideal curve goes as follows:
Turn 1: Land and hopefully hit a 1-drop (We’d really benefit from a turn one Sol Ring)
Turn 2: Land and a 2-drop
Turn 3: Land and a 3-drop
Turn 4: Cast Kamiz and swing with both the 2 & 3 drop to immediately start generating value.
Even if it means not casting Kamiz until turn 5 or 6, we shouldn’t cast Kamiz until we have some attackers ready to go in for value. This new deck list includes some big heavy hitters and the best way to find them is to dig using the connive ability until you reach them. It’s also a great way to make sure you hit your land drops!
Reminder for budget constraints
As mentioned in the first article, each monthly upgrade is going to cap out at $15 dollars worth of cards. (Depending on your shipping this may creep up to $20) If we need a card that costs more than $15 we have to wait to save that money. I feel this is a responsible way to upgrade the deck and maintain the hobby while also feeling like you are still making valid & substantial changes. If you can safely and responsibly afford to pour more money into the hobby, you can increase your budget and if $15 a month is too much, you can always lower your monthly budget and continue just fine. $15 a month over the course of a year will come out to $180 dollars of upgrades! There’s a lot of value to be had but the only thing it takes is a bit of time making little changes at once.
The Upgrades - What’s Going In?!
MVP ADDITION
Thrumming Bird [$0.35] - This may be a personal favorite since I started playing back in New Phyrexia but it is still very useful here. It’s a 2-drop so it can come down early enough for Kamiz to see it in combat. It also works great with both targets of Kamiz’s ability. When Thrumming Bird is target one, you can get a +1/+1 counter on it with the connive ability and then immediately make it two counters when it connects unblocked and can proliferate the whole team. As target number two, having double strike means two proliferate triggers making whatever creature was target one even bigger and the whole team giant at the same time. All in all it’s a great card on its own and a powerhouse when Kamiz is out too.
Subtheme - NO CARDS FOR YOU
Dimir Cutpurse [$0.48] - This is part of a small subtheme of making opponents discard cards on combat damage. Originally this came in just to draw but hurting your opponents is a pretty nice bonus at that.
Oona’s Blackguard [$0.35] - Here is another card that joins Dimir Cutpurse in making opponents discard cards on contact. The great thing is that as the connive ability gives +1/+1 counters, you can get multiple discards from your opponents if you go with a wide team. I support having lots of cards in hand but I don’t support my opponents having that many cards in hand.
Dreamstealer [$0.39] - Along with the reasons of making your opponents discard their cards, Dreamstealer has the added benefit of having menace which makes it tougher to block and a better number two target from Kamiz. On top of all of that, it makes for good discard fodder as you can get more vicious Dreamstealer once it is eternalized from the graveyard.
Needle Specter [$1.79] - This is a great target to keep making huge with Kamiz’s first ability. Having a larger flying creature to permanently neuter some of your opponents threats is fantastic. Great on defense and on offense!
Value
Teferi’s Ageless Insight [$4.49] - This card makes our connive triggers actual card advantage instead of card filtering. Extremely useful in keeping a full grip of cards and holding up counter threats. We are playing Blue after all!
Wonder [$0.99] -This will virtually never be cast or played. We want this in our graveyard ASAP so it’s a great connive fodder as making our double striking second targets flying doublestrikers is a HUGE bonus.
- This is one of my favorite cards in this deck. It’s an amazing first target for Kamiz as you can go around and dig for people’s Sol Rings and signets. And if your opponent has Islands out, you can use Thada as a second target with Kamiz to get two artifacts up. As an FYI, we have to make sure we have mana up to cast their artifacts because we still have to cast them after we’ve exiled them!
Ashling, The Extinguisher[$3.14] - This creature is a menace (even though it doesn’t have menace!) This creature is going to be a better second target for Kamiz as you’ll get to connect twice and get to clear the way for future attacks!
Totals
This brings our total to 15.46. Being super strict with the budget we can save the Needle Specter which brings the total down to 13.67. All of these creatures have a mana value of 3 or less and Ashling is an exception only because it serves as both removal as well as a solid creature body for both Kamiz targets. As you’ll see in a sec, the creatures we’ll be removing are almost all higher than a mana value of 4. This makes the deck drastically faster and improves the deck’s chances of getting the ideal scenario which is two targets ready to attack with Kamiz triggers on turn 4.
What to Remove
1 Swamp
I like to run my deck at 37 lands so we can cut one to get some more creatures in the creature focused deck.
A big ugly threat but it is very dependent on what the opponents are running. If no one has any impactful instants or sorceries, this is essentially a difficult to cast dead draw.
Tivit is cool but we aren’t making enough mana to cast our low to the ground creatures as well as pop tokens.
A fantastic commander who in its own deck can do some pretty wicked stuff.In this deck not so much.
Fantastic combat trigger but not as impactful for a turn 5 play. And it still gives the opponents another chance at getting their stuff back. Yes you can keep bouncing it but someone will deal with this before you can exile away some threats if it’s coming turn 5 or later.
Unless someone in your pod is running graveyard shenanigans, don’t run this. They’ll remove this card because the can see it coming from a mile away and know it’s targeted at them. So please just don’t run this card.
There are a few flying threats but giving them all +1/+0 isn’t enough to make the cut especially at 4 mana. We want to be running less 4-drops as we want Kamiz to be the 4-drop we cast.
Its a cute (only in mechanic) addition as Kamiz will let you get a guaranteed forced creature sacrifice but it’s the opponent’s choice as to which creature goes.
It just costs way too much. End of story. Even the cost of its ninjutsu ability is astronomical.
Goldfishing, Conclusion, & Decklist
The deck handles really well but it is imperative that you make sure that you drop at least one creature on turn two and/or three and the lands to cast it/them. When you can’t make this happen the deck is clunky and it leaves a lot of value unearned. The one note I’d make after goldfishing 10 games is that the deck can get very complicated if you don’t know how the connive mechanic works in sequence with Kamiz and other connive triggers. You don’t have to select a second creature with lower toughness until the first finishes conniving. That means you can attack with two 1/1 creatures and as long as the first chosen creature connives and gets the counter, the second 1/1 creature can still be chosen to get double strike. As long as you keep that in mind, you’re all set with this precon. It’s definitely an interesting and unique play style. The best part about the deck is the inconspicuous nature of the deck in its first few turns. No one will expect anything until it’s too late and you’re swinging in with giant unblockable creatures and slightly less large double strikers all with wild combat trigger bonuses.
If you want to see the deck in action, come down to Everyone Comics in Long Island City in NYC on Mondays from 6:00 - 8:00pm! I’m there every week playing commander and if you want to this deck in action just ask me! I’m also open to letting you borrow the deck to take it for a test drive before you commit to buying this precon.
So enjoy, have fun, and as always, no shoving!
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