**FINISHED**

Kaya's Judgment

Goal of the Deck:

To control the board until our Planeswalkers can take over.

Current Record: 

42-24

Planeswalkers:

Kaya, Intangible Slayer is the best Planeswalker in the deck. She completely shuts down our opponents when we are ahead or completely changes the game around when we are behind. All of her abilites are relevant no matter what senario we are in. Is there a Sheoldred, the Apocalypse draining you or a Phyrexian Obliterator/Phyrexian Vindicator getting in your way? Just -3 her and completely change the momentum of the game. Are you low on life or need to refill your hand? Use her +1 or 0 ability to keep up the pressure on your opponent. She's also very hard to deal with and we force our opponents to have a Sheoldred's Edict or have enough damage on board to kill her. If playing against any deck that likes to counter, I will always use the other Planeswalkers to draw out there counterspells and wait for my chance to drop Kaya. Overall, she's a very good Planeswalker and a must have in the deck.

Jace, the Perfected Mind has been pretty good so far. His +1 manages our threat's power well. His -2 and -X are great at milling our opponent out or drawing us a few cards. I've had a couple wins by milling our opponents out, but it hasn't happened too often. I've mainly used him as a way to handle our opponents' creatures while we build up our other Planeswalkers though. He's good in the deck and has come out and won us a few games, but usually we are already so far ahead that it wouldn't matter anyways. I've debated cutting him down to 1 copy, but his +1 and -2 are really handy should we need to use them.

Kaito, Dancing Shadow has been great in the deck. I tried out a version where I only ran 1 copy of him, but he's too useful to only draw him in the late game. He's great at completely shutting our opponents' biggest threat or drawing us cards. I rarely use his -2 ability unless I'm low on life or it's late game. Most of the time I continue to use his +1 ability to shut a creature down until we can either kill it or use another Planeswalker to make a chump blocker. Overall, he's great at controlling the board and drawing us cards during the late game. 

Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim is fantastic if you have Kaya, Kaito, Vraska, or Jace on the board. He is also really good with Ichormoon Gauntlet on board. I've been able to get him to 20+ loyalty some games and get his token up to a 15/15. It's better to drop him with at least some protection, but it won't hurt if it's just him and his token in play. He has pop off potential if left unchecked and can quickly get out of hand with the right cards in play. 

The Eternal Wanderer has been just okay in the deck. I know she is a really good Planeswalker for control decks, but she just hasn't been as consistent as Kaya or Vraska. Sometimes she drops and has been great at controlling the board; other times she doesn't really have anything to do besides make a 2/2 double striker or flicker our Reckoner Bankbuster to get their counters back. Where she's really shined, though, is against other Planewalkers. Between our removal and her +1, it's really hard for our opponents to keep any creature on board for long. With all that said, I do wish I could add just another copy of her. The ONLY reason I don't is because I already have a high average cmc deck and don't want to cut a lower cmc card for her. Maybe you could cut one of our other higher cmc Planeswalker for her, but I consider the others too impactful to cut.

The Wandering Emperor is another great way to control our opponents' creatures or create our own threat. She's really good in the early game at keeping us alive for just a bit longer, but tends to fall off the longer the game goes. Once we have Ichormoon Gauntlet, I usually use her to Proliferate our other Planeswalkers. There really isn't much left to say about her. She has her uses in every stage of the game. 

Vraska, Betrayal's Sting is the second best Planeswalker in the deck. She used to be the star of the deck, but has since fallen off a little bit. She's pretty much our Utility tool in the deck though. She's basically does everything. She proliferates any counters we need, helps refill our hand, gets rid of any creature we need taken care of, and has a wincon with her -9. None of her abilites feel useless or don't help us out in some way. The reason I don't value her as highly is because she doesn't immediately change the momentum in our favor. Unlike with Kaya, if Vraska is the only Planeswalker on the board I know that I still have a long ways to go before I can change the game around. Overall, she's our main engine in the deck and keeps our momentum up.

Sorin the Mirthless is a recent addition to the deck and has been pretty good so far. His +1 might be a little dangerous depending on what we reveal, but sometimes it's worth it. I've been able to reveal a Kaya, Intangible Slayer and dropped down to 4 health and still been able to turn the game around. Plus if you don't want to lose the life, you can just use his ability to scry and use a different Planeswalker to draw. His -2 has been decent too. It creates a lifelink blocker that can help mitigate some of the drawbacks to his +1. The only issue with his -2 is it gets taken out pretty easily with a Cut Down or any other destroy target creature spell. He is also really easy to ult with the right set up in this deck. Overall, he's been a welcome addition to the deck.

Other Notable Cards:

Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment was in the first iteration, then I cut him, then I added him back. I first cut him because we were lacking in card draw in the early game and this card was the only card I was willing to cut. Once I cut him from the deck, my win rate against aggro decks dropped significantly, especially if we didn't draw the right answers. I didn't realize how much of an impact he had in the early if we can keep him alive. He's a great deterrant to keep our opponent's creatures at bay. He's been really good against U/W soldier decks. He buys us a couple crucial extra turns to find our boardwipes. His Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment has been a win con in a couple games too. It puts pressure on our opponents to either deal with it or find a way to win before it reaches 3 counters, which isn't hard to do in this deck with our ability to Proliferate. Once that first counter hits, and we have either Vraska or Ichormoon, it's pretty much game if they can't find an answer. It's rare that I'm able to be aggressive this card, but it is another option. He is also a good choice to discard if need be. Overall, he's a great addition to the deck and helps buy time for us against aggressive decks.

White Sun's Twilight is another way to control the board and has lead to a couple wins with Posion counters. I originally ran 2 copies in the deck, but the card takes awhile to fully activate and we need early board wipes to hold off our opponents. It always felt bad drawing this when we only had 6 mana and another Depopulate or Farewell would of changed the game in our favor. It's a great control option and I would run more copies if I didn't run into so many aggro decks.

Ichormoon Gauntlet was just supposed to be a meme card that I wanted to test, but it's surprised me a lot. When it's on the board it's really helpful with adding more counters to Reckoner Bankbuster, Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment, or any Planeswalker. The added abilites to our Planeswalkers has been really good too. The added way to Proliferate has been great in the deck and the Extra Turn ability is definitely achievable with the right set up. The card isn't needed to win with our deck, but it has been crucial in certain senarios. You won't feel bad if you don't draw it all game, but if you do you'll appreciate how much it offers.

Urza Assembles the Titans is fantastic in the deck. I can't believe I didn't think of it when I first built the deck, but, to be fair, I didn't even know the card existed. This card has been great in every match that I've used it and has caught multiple opponents off guard. Remember, if you have a Vraska out, start on the first chapter and use her ability to proliferate to the second chapter on the same turn. I want to add a 3rd copy of the card, but I don't want to cut any of our other higher cmc Planeswalkers or any of our lower cmc cards.

Void Rend is our main targetted removal option and has been great in the deck. It's good against anything we need taken care of and has been fantastic against mono blue decks. I try to only use this for anything our board wipes can't take care of i.e. Enchantments, Artifacts, or Planeswalkers.

Reckoner Bankbuster is a recent addition that has been very beneficial. The card isgreat at drawing lands when we are getting mana screwed or when we need to find an answer ASAP. You can also proliferate the counters if you would rather draw more cards the longer the game goes.

Mirrex is also another recent addition to the deck. I added this card as a way to quickly get a poison counter on our opponent or as a way to get that final counter after using Vraska's -9 ability. 

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths:

Late Game: The longer the game goes the better our chances of winning. The deck is built to play the long game and most of our win cons take time to build up. The late game is where the deck truly shines.

Synergistic: The deck has a lot of synergy if we can get our cards into play. Vraska helps proliferate pretty much every card we own and Ichormoon just makes every Planeswalker proliferate if need be. Each card helps every other card in some type of way. Once we get our engine going, it's really hard to stop us.

Explosive Turns: From draining my opponent for 12 with Chapter 3 of Urza Assembles the Titans and 2 copies of Kaya to using Sorin's -7 ability the turn he comes out to bring us back for the win, it's really easy for the deck to have explosive turns that can change the outcome of the game.

Weaknesses:

Aggro Decks: The deck really struggles against aggressive decks if we can't find our answers quick enough. Mono red has been the biggest threat so far. If I can't find a Depopulate or a Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment the deck just gets ran over. Soldiers is another deck that we struggle to beat, but the deck has a better record them.

Mana Screw: The deck does have an issue of not drawing the right land or just not drawing lands in general. Most of the losses have been to getting screwed over with lands. The addition of Reckoner Bankbuster has helped with this issue, but it does happen from time to time. 

Dimir: Dimir in general just eats our deck up. To be honest, any deck with black or blue has a chance to completely destroy our deck. Invoke Despair and Sheoldred's Edict has been the bane of this deck's exsistence. Counterspells have also caused some issues, but you just have to be patient and draw out their Counterspells to win. It's really hard for blue to interact with Kaya. 

Record Against Other Decks:

Mono White: 8-1 The deck has been fantastic against Mono White. They just don't have enough answers to deal with all of our Planeswalkers and boardwipes. The only loss has been against a mono white soldier deck where we couldn't hit our land drops. 

Mono Black: 5-3 The record isn't bad, but mono black really messes up our deck. Between Invoke Despair and Sheoldred's Edict we just don't stand a chance. 

Azorius: 4-2 It just depends on the type of deck we play against. If it's Soldiers, we need to hit our board wipes as soon as possible. If it's against a control deck, then we just have to be patient and wait for our opportunity to drop Kaya. Use other Planeswalkers to draw out their Counterspells. Once Kaya comes out, it's really hard for our opponent to deal with it.

Mono Red: 2-5 Like I said earlier, the deck really struggles against Mono Red. Most of the losses have been when we cut Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment, so hopefully adding that card back in will help bump up our wins. The deck is too fast sometimes for the deck to deal with all the threats. 

Dimir: 1-3 Also, like I said earlier, Dimir completely dismantles our deck. They always have multiple Invokes, Edicts, or Counterspells. There honestly isn't much we can do against this deck. It's our Achilles Heel.

Gruul: 3-2 If we play against Gruul aggro we have a very good chance of winning. The 2 losses have been from the Gruul deck that uses Planeswalkers and All Will Be One. That card shuts down so many of our Planewalkers.

Mono Blue: 3-1 Suprisingly we have a very good matchup against Mono Blue. The key is to just be very patient and draw out as many Counterspells as you can. Kaya and Void Rend are fantastic in this matchup.

Mono Green: 3-0 Mono Green is just too slow to compete against us. With all of the removal in the deck, the game quickly shifts in our favor.

Selesnya/Simic: 1-4 I included both of these types since they are both poison decks. The deck struggles to remove their threats with the amount of creature protection they tend to have.

Golgari: 3-0 Most of the decks have been Obliterator Fight decks that just don't stand a chance against our removal. 

All of the other Wins/Losses have been against one off archetypes. I just don't have enough data on them to list them. Some other notable types are Grixis 2-1 and Esper 2-0. I've also played against 2 Atraxa decks and beat both. One was a 5 Color Atraxa and the other was a Boros Atraxa. Again, Kaya just -3 and now it's our turn to dig 10 cards deep.

Maybeboard:

All of these cards I might try in the future, think they could potentially be good in the deck, or you could replace cards in the deck for.

Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset was decent in the deck when I tried him out. I just don't have enough artifacts for him to untap. Maybe if I also ran a couple The Celestus instead of Bankbuster, then I could see him being more impactful. As of right now, I value the other 4 drop Planeswalkers.

Destroy Evil was a card I tried out once I kept getting Ossification dropped on my Planeswalkers. It was good when it mattered, but I found that I really didn't care if the used Ossification on my Planeswalkers. Kaya completely negates and I could just use Farewell to get them all back at once. I cut the card and added another copy of Farewell.

Changelog:

24Feb2023

Added:

• 3x Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment
• 1x Kaito, Dancing Shadow
• 1x Depopulate
• 1x Farewell
• 1x Mirrex

Removed:

• 3x Sheoldred's Edict
• 1x Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset
• 1x Vraska, Betrayal's Sting
• 1x White Sun's Twilight
• 1x Swamp

**I added Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment back in the deck. I cut him because I needed more early card draw and wanted to add Reckoner Bankbuster to help out. But every since I cut him though, I've been ran over by aggro decks if I don't draw a Depopulate. He's great at discouraging our opponents from attacking and we can cast his other side as a wincon. Sorin the Mirthless also survived his trial. He's come in very handy depending on the situation. Even when he revealed Kaya, my highest converted mana cost, it was still worth it. Plus you can use his +1 to scry and draw with one of our other Planeswalkers. His -2 ability is very handy as a chump blocker/life gain too. Teferi, Who Slows the Sunet just wasn't very impactful. The best thing about him was digging through our deck and gaining some life with his +1. It just felt like kind of a waste since we didn't have many artifacts to for him to untap. Overall, you could still use him if you want. I just prefer the other 4 drops for Planeswalkers. Speaking of other 4 drops, I added another copy of Kaito, Dancing Shadow back into the deck. He's been fantastic almost every time he has come out, and I regret trying to cut him down to 1 copy. 

21Feb2023

Added:

• 4x Reckoner Bankbuster
• 1x Sorin the Mirthless
• 1x Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Swamp

Removed:

• 4x Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment
• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 2x Seachrome Coast

**I cut Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment for Reckoner Bankbuster because the deck really struggled to draw cards if we didn't have any Planewalkers out. While I would of loved to have Sinner's Judge in the deck, it just lost it's usefullness the higher I climbed the ladder. Plus Reckoner Bankbuster has been great when we get mana screwed, which has been the reason for most of my recent losses. Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset and Sorin the Mirthless are optional. I just wanted more unique Planeswalkers to have on board. I removed Seachrome Coast because we want most of our lands to be untapped in the later game. **

17Feb2023 

Added:

• 1x Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 1x Kaya, Intangible Slayer
• 2x Depopulate
• 3x Sheoldred's Edict
• 4x Void Rend
• 1x Ichormoon Gauntlet
• 2x Urza Assembles the Titans
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 2x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

Removed:

• 1x Farewell
• 1x Silver Scrutiny
• 4x Cut Down
• 2x Experimental Augury
• 3x Fateful Absence
• 4x Reject Imperfection
• 2x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Mirrex
• 1x Plains
• 1x Swamp