Greetings, fellow precon aficionados! We’ve got some time between new sets here (like, a week), so let’s pick back up with our Precon Redux project. We’ve still got lots to cover from the first set of Commander decks, and today we’re updating Mirror Mastery, the precon led by a legend who just got an awesome new card in Outlaws of Thunder Junction. It’s Riku of Two Reflections.

Riku…The Rikumeister. Makin’ Copies

Riku is a 2/2 Human Wizard for five mana in the Temur colors (green, blue, and red). Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, you can copy it for a blue and a red mana. And whenever a nontoken creature enters your board, you can make a token copy of it for a green and a blue mana. With only 4,887 decks loaded, Rikku’s not the most popular commander. But with enough mana, you can really do some powerful things with him.

We’re gonna take our updated precon in a new direction (honestly, it would be generous to say the original had a direction) by turning it into a Threaten and Clone deck. Sort of an “Anything you can do, I can do better” strategy. So we’re stealing creatures and copying them.

The backup commander for the deck is Animar, Soul of Elements, a three-mana 1/1 Elemental that gets a +1/+1 counter when we cast a creature spell and discounts our creature spells one mana for each +1/+1 counter on it. Also tagging along from the original precon is Edric, Spymaster of Trest, a 2/2 Elf Rogue that lets players draw cards whenever their creatures deal combat damage to our opponents.

Here’s the original deck list for Mirror Mastery:

What We’re Keeping in Our Riku Deck

Before we get into the new deck, let’s recap the rules of Precon Redux. Wizards of the Coast has some unspoken guidelines for how they build their precons. Since it’s our goal to reimagine this as a new precon that Wizards would create, we’ll want to establish those rules and adhere to them as closely as possible. For a full explanation of Precon Redux, please check out the first article here.

• Value of the deck is no more than $120, excluding the original legends (some have gotten pricey)
• Value of the land package can be no more than $10 (IYKYK)
• Aim for two or three high value ($10+) reprints
• Keep all legendary creatures first printed in the original precon
• Stay close to a typical 10/10/10 build (10 ramp spells, 10 card draw, 10 removal)
• We don’t have to tie into a specific set, as precons have been doing since Commander 2020
• Universes Beyond cards are off-limits if they couldn’t be reprinted as Universes Within with the same name. For instance, we won’t include Magnus the Red, Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch, or Flame of Anor in today’s Redux. They’d be good in this deck, but their names preclude us from using them

Here’s the nonland cards that we’re keeping from the original deck:

• Sol Ring
• Cultivate
• Kodama’s Reach
• Ray of Command
• Lightning Greaves

Not many cards sticking around! A couple of ramp pieces and the ever-useful Lightning Greaves. Plus, Ray of Command is staying because it’s part of where we’re taking the deck. Speaking of which…

Themes and Strategies We’ll Expand On for Mirror Mastery Redux

The copy of Ray of Command in the original precon is the impetus for one of the themes I want to explore with this upgrade, and that’s Threaten effects. These are cards that let us borrow an opponent’s creature for just a turn so we can smack them in the face with their own toys. Why do I want to explore this? Because Riku can copy the spell, allowing us to steal two creatures. Two is better than one, right?

So in addition to Ray of Command, we’ll add Threaten, Besmirch, Bloody Betrayal, Claim the Firstborn, and Mass Mutiny. Captivating Crew is also joining the party as a repeatable Threaten effect. And because I don’t want those creatures just for a turn, let’s bring Willbreaker as well. We’re also gonna throw in an Inevitable Betrayal. I really like this card because it’ll cast itself on our upkeep, which means we’ll have all our mana open so Riku can copy the spell, and then he can copy the creatures that we get once they enter. So one spell can potentially turn into four creatures.

Riku copying things is the whole point of the deck, but I want to take that one step further and expand it to the whole deck. To do that, we’re gonna run some Clones. These will come in as copies of our creatures or our opponents’. We’ve got the original Clone, as well as Dack’s Duplicate, Stunt Double, Progenitor Mimic, Vizier of Many Faces, and the big bad Sakashima of a Thousand Faces. We’ll also throw in some token makers: Cackling Counterpart, Doppelgang, Rionya, Fire Dancer, and Rite of Replication. Doppelgang is especially perfect if we have Willbreaker on the field, cuz we can copy permanents and steal them at the same time.

To go along with our themes, we’ll add Adrix and Nev, Twincasters to double our tokens, Harmonic Prodigy to double all of our Wizard and Shaman triggers (Riku, Adrix and Nev, Rionya, Guttersnipe, Storm-Kiln Artist, Archmage Emeritus, Archaeomancer, Eternal Witness), Twinning Staff to add an additional copy to the spells we copy, and Ral, Storm Conduit to lower some life totals. 

And if stealing and copying creatures isn’t enough to get us across the finish line, we’ll throw in Crackle with Power for a big hit of direct damage.

The Riku Redo

Here’s the deck list for Mirror Mastery Redux:

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So let’s get ready to flatter our opponents by copying everything they do. With this upgraded precon, we’ve got a really fun deck that interacts with the board in very cool ways, while making a ton of tokens and swarming our opponents with their best creatures. And we’ve got some really solid reprints as well to entice buyers, with Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, High Market, Lightning Greaves, and Animar, Soul of Elements.

Is this a realistic precon? Absolutely. This is a fun deck, with no overly powerful cards, but a lot of great synergy and plenty of precon staples.

So what do you think of this reimagined precon? Does this new direction work for Riku? What direction would you take the precon? What cards did I miss? Sound off in the comments below, and don’t forget to check back often for more precon fun, here on EDHREC.

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