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cEDH is the competitive version ofMagic: The Gathering’sgenerally more casual Commander format. It’s about winning games with optimized decks and shutting down anything your opponents might do. Due to the very high power of the format, most commanders need to have powerful effects. One of these cEDH commanders isKinnan, Bonder Prodigy.
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Kinnan is a ramp deck that can very easily create infinite amounts of mana to go through your entire deck. Thanks to having a simic (green/blue) color identity, these decks get access to all the best ramp spells and counterspells to ensure your game plan succeeds.
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Kinnan, Bonder’s Prodigy
Kinnan, Bonder’s Prodigy is what makes the deck function. Both of its effects are vital. You haveplenty of mana-producing nonland permanents, and Kinnan makes it sothose gain an extra mana when tapped. This is importantasthis creates many infinite combos with multiple mana rocks.
You canuse that infinite mana to feed into Kinnan’s other abilityto get non-Humans on the battlefield. When you haveinfinite mana(which is Kinnan decks' main game plan), you can continuously use this ability toplay through your entire deckand eventually getThrasios, Triton Heroon the battlefield to draw out the rest.
Thanks toKinnan’s low-mana cost, it is very easy to get Kinnan outas early as turn oneto start taking advantage of its ability. Since so much of your deck is mana rocks with low to no casting cost, Kinnan can let them create even more mana than they already do.
Mana Rocks And Mana Dorks
To best take advantage of Kinnan’s abilities, the deck plays a plethora ofmana rocksandmana dorks(creatures that tap to add mana).Bloom Tenderis one of the best as it can tap for both colors your deck plays. Most mana dorks don’t cost much mana withElvish Mystic,Fyndhorn Elves, andLlanowar Elvesall beingone-mana inclusions that can tap for green(or two green mana if Kinnan is on the battlefield).
Theartifactsthat are played in the deck arealmost exclusively ones that tap for mana.The most important of these isBasalt Monolithas when Kinnan is on the battlefield you can constantly tap and untap it with Basalt’s effect to create infinite mana with just these two cards. In addition, you can combine this withMirage Mirrorto turn this infinite colorless mana into infinite mana of any color.
Tutors
In cEDH, combos are the backbone of every deck - and Kinnan is no exception.Kinnan wants specific creatures on the battlefield, so these most often come in the form ofcards that get creatures out of your library.
The best creature tutors includeInvasion Of Ikoria,Green Sun’s Zenith, andFinale Of Devastation. These all get a creature card of a specific mana cost, which can be either a combo piece likeNyxbloom AncientorThrasios, Triton Hero,or a different tutor such asTrophy Mageto get your artifacts directly from your deck.
Themost important cards in cEDH Kinnan decks are the mana rocksthat go infinite, so you want as many ways to get them on the battlefield or in your hand as possible.Tezzeret The Seeker,Transmute Artifact, andFabricateall make this quite easy. Since all the mana rocks you want don’t cost a lot of mana, you may hit the “X” needed to tutor them quite easily.
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Card Draw
Simic has plenty of access to fantastic card draw, so Kinnan takes advantage of that.Mystic Remora,Rhystic Study, andConsecrated Sphinxall help to get cards in your hand so that you may see your combo pieces and interaction quicker.Sylvan Libraryis also helpful for an extra boost. Since Kinnan tends to win games in one turn,life does not matter at all until they hit zero, so the burn it does is unimportant.
Since the decklist hasplenty of fetchlandsthat cause you to shuffle your deck,Brainstormis especially strong to get rid of dead cards in your hand for something that can be more beneficial in the game state. With how much mana Kinnan can create,Pull From Tomorrowis especially strong as you can draw a large number of cards before your turn starts to begin combing off.
Winning With Kinnan
Kinnan is a combo deckbuilt aroundgetting to itscombos quickly through rampand card advantage.There are plenty of ways tocreate an infinite amount of manato essentially do whatever you want.
Thanks to having access to blue -you have counterspells to ensure your combos stay safe. You don’t even need mana to counter, since there is a plethora of free counterspells such asFierce GuardianshipandForce Of Will.
Combo Pieces
How The Combo Works
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy + Mirage Mirror + Basalt Monolith + Any land
This combo also works with Nyxbloom Ancient if Kinnan is unavailable.
Hullbreaker Horror + 2 Mana Rocks
This combo only works with mana rocks that are “mana positive,” meaning they can create more mana than it cost to cast.
Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal (Optional: Copy Artifact/Phyrexian Metamorph + Swan Song)
If you have Finale Of Devastation, you can give all your creatures haste to win on that turn by attacking with infinite Bird tokens.
How To Pilot Kinnan
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy cEDH decks are card advantage machines. The deck is explosive andcan turn things around from nothing in one turn.Thanks to how much card draw and filtering it has access to, gaining access to combo pieces is trivial. With how fast cEDH runs,Kinnan decks have the bonus of plenty of counterspellsto ensure none of your opponents' infinite combos go off, and you keep your own safe.
For starting hands, you generally wantways to get ahead of your mana curveboth throughmana dorks and mana rocks.SinceKinnanis so easy to cast, havingways to get it out earlycan lead to combo wins before the opponents have a realistic chance to set up.Mulligans should be taken if none of these are present as they are the core to the Kinnan deck.
Kinnan decks do not need to rely on just one combo line as there are multiple cards in the deck that act functionally the same such as Nyxbloom Ancient essentially being a second copy of Kinnan.
Sinceyou can create infinite mana in multiple wayswithout Kinnan on the battlefield,you never actually have to worry much about commander taxif Kinnan ever does get removed. As such, it isfine to get aggressive with your castings of Kinnanas it often isn’t going to stay off the battlefield for long. Much of the combos included all occur at instant speed, so it isfairly resistant to the most popular forms of interaction.
Yourmain win conditionis almost always going to beThassa’s Oracle. Thanks to how easy it is to create infinite mana, you can always get rid of your deck thanks to Kinnan’s ability. An alternate way to win iscreating a battlefield full of tokens or goingfull board lockdownwithHullbreaker Horrorbacked up byIsochron ScepterwithDramatic Reversalimprinted on it to cast it an infinite amount of times to bounce every spell and nonland permanent on the battlefield.
