Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter | Art by Robin Har

Welcome back to Plot Twist, the series where we build a Commander deck that looks like it's going to tell one kind of story, only to throw out a twist for our opponents mid-game.

Last time, we built a four color Walls deck helmed by Invisible WomanInvisible Woman from Marvel Super Heroes that won the game with some strange, Wall-centric cards like Rolling StonesRolling Stones and Vent SentinelVent Sentinel. It was a very twisty, if not terribly heroic, deck that attacked our opponents from an unusual angle.

This week, we're taking a look at our first commander from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter. With a new variant on partner, there are tons of different commanders and combinations of commanders coming in TMT, but Kitsune immediately caught my eye with her Jon Irenicus, Shattered OneJon Irenicus, Shattered One energy. There's definitely something interesting about a mono-blue Theft deck.

How Does Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter Work?

Kitsune is a six-mana 6/6 Fox Warlock Avatar with vigilance that could easily be mistaken for a blue Colossal DreadmawColossal Dreadmaw at first glimpse. However, her triggered ability is what we really care about: "Whenever Kitsune enters or deals combat damage to a player, you may exchange control of two other target creatures controlled by different players."

Since she'll trigger immediately upon entering, we should be automatically able to recoup some of our investment, even if Kitsune gets destroyed before we're able to attack with her. We can turn a mana dork like Ornithopter of ParadiseOrnithopter of Paradise or Palladium MyrPalladium Myr that paid for our commander into an opponent's best creature.

We can quickly rack up extra triggers by granting Kitsune haste or blinking her repeatedly using effects like Thassa, Deep-DwellingThassa, Deep-Dwelling or Deadeye NavigatorDeadeye Navigator. Blink doesn't seem to be the best strategy to support Kitsune though, since we need to have a creature to give away every time as well, so there's diminishing returns on her triggers unless we're able to make more creatures as we go.

In looking at Kitsune's EDHREC page, though there are fewer than 30 decks at time of writing, brewers are leaning into blink effects heavily with Essence FluxEssence Flux, Ghostly FlickerGhostly Flicker, and DisplaceDisplace all appearing in her High Synergy section.

Add in copy effects like Quantum MisalignmentQuantum Misalignment and Spark DoubleSpark Double, and a clear game plan begins to form: get as many Kitsune triggers as possible by having her or copies of her enter repeatedly.

But we already know that there's only so many times we can trade up one of our creatures before we're just shuffling around the three or four best creatures on the board. And this is Plot Twist after all! So instead, we'll do our best to ensure we have plenty of mediocre creatures to give away with Kitsune's trigger and then make sure they don't stick around for long either.

Let's dive in!

Doing the Twist

First and foremost, we'll be running a healthy suite of creatures with downsides, like Rust ElementalRust Elemental, Steel GolemSteel Golem, and Thought EaterThought Eater, that'll hamstring our opponents when we give them away with Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter's triggered ability. Plus other creatures like Complex AutomatonComplex Automaton and EsperzoaEsperzoa that will return themselves to our hand after we give them away.

We'll add in some critical redundancy for our commander in Cultural ExchangeCultural Exchange, Djinn of Infinite DeceitsDjinn of Infinite Deceits, and Sudden SubstitutionSudden Substitution while also adding a variety of effects to protect Kitsune and make sure she can connect in Brotherhood RegaliaBrotherhood Regalia and Winged BootsWinged Boots.

We'll want to be trading up our bad creatures for better ones early and often.

Since we're playing blue, we can take advantage of a wide variety of bounce effects that can return the permanents we give away back to our hand so we can recast them all over again. Or we can donate tokens that won't stick around from Poppet StitcherPoppet Stitcher or the myriad tokens from Auton SoldierAuton Soldier and Broodbirth ViperBroodbirth Viper.

Overall, it's a proactive deck that's looking to take advantage of our commander, give away our creatures for better ones, and then continue to eke out extra value at every turn. Sounds fun! Let's dive in.

Creatures We're Happy To Give Away

If we're planning to repeatedly take our opponents' best creatures, then we need to have a bunch of creatures we don't mind giving away, but which also won't overwhelm us if we're unable to keep Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter on the board for long.

We have a handful of stax-y creatures, many inspired by Jon Irenicus, Shattered OneJon Irenicus, Shattered One decks, like Rust ElementalRust Elemental, Steel GolemSteel Golem, Thought DevourerThought Devourer, and Thought EaterThought Eater. We'll likely only want to play these on turns where we know we can connect with our commander and immediately exchange them. They'll do a great job of hamstringing our opponents once we give them away with Kitsune, but we also don't want to get stuck with them on our battlefield.

Next, let's talk about the myriad creatures we're running: Auton SoldierAuton Soldier, Broodbirth ViperBroodbirth Viper, and Cybermen SquadronCybermen Squadron. Since the token copies that myriad makes get exiled at the end of combat, we'll have a window between when we deal damage with Kitsune and before combat ends where we can exchange the copies for an opponent's creature.

Then, when we move to our second main phase, the myriad copy will get exiled from our opponent's battlefield.

In a similar vein, we're more than happy to give away the decayed Zombie tokens that Poppet StitcherPoppet Stitcher, Flip the SwitchFlip the Switch, and Revenge of the DrownedRevenge of the Drowned make since they'll sacrifice themselves after they attack. This leaves our opponent with a creature that can't block and they don't really want to attack with.

There are a handful of other effects in blue that make decayed Zombie tokens, but most were a little over-costed for what this deck wants to do.

We can also make a bunch of small tokens with Access DeniedAccess Denied, Canoptek Scarab SwarmCanoptek Scarab Swarm, Eldrazi ConfluenceEldrazi Confluence, and Kozilek's CommandKozilek's Command that we'll happily give away. While they won't die automatically like the decayed Zombies, they're all small enough that we're almost assuredly going to get more value in return.

Extra Exchange Effects

Much like Plot Twist #43, #41 and #38, our plan of attack relies pretty heavily on being able to cast our commander and keep her around in order for our deck to do its thing. Fortunately, there are quite a few redundant effects in blue that we can use to exchange our sub-par creatures for our opponents' best ones.

Cultural ExchangeCultural Exchange is the best version of this effect that we're running, if rather expensive at six mana. It'll let us exchange any number of mediocre creatures and tokens we control in exchange for an equal number from an opponent, essentially letting us get a bunch of Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter triggers at once.

There might be situations where we can force two of our opponents to exchange creatures for value, but generally this deck is built to always have some amount of creatures it wants to give away.

Sudden SubstitutionSudden Substitution is another excellent effect since it has split second and thus can't be countered or responded to and lets us exchange one of our creatures for any noncreature spell. It could save us from something like a Ruinous UltimatumRuinous Ultimatum or Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift at the right moment, or just gain control of a value engine that will propel an opponent ahead in the late game.

Domineering WillDomineering Will is sort of like Kitsune's ability mixed with FogFog since the three creatures it gives away to target player are untapped and must block this turn if able. We'll often want to use it as a way to protect ourselves from an opponent's attack, but there will be plenty of situations where we can force two opponents to lose their best creatures in a combat situation they didn't expect to be in.

In total, we have an additional eight ways to "exchange" creatures with our opponents or amongst them, so we have a reasonable chance of seeing at least one of these each game in addition to access to Kitsune's effect in the command zone.

Ways To Get Our Cards Back

One of the best ways for us to get a creature back after we give it away with Kitsune is by blinking it. There are a handful of spells that let us blink our opponents' permanents that made our list this week: Eldrazi ConfluenceEldrazi Confluence and Hide on the CeilingHide on the Ceiling merit special mention since they'll allow the exiled permanents to come back onto the battlefield under their owner's control (see: our control), netting us fresh creatures to give away again.

Identity ThiefIdentity Thief could be one of the best creatures in our deck depending on the situation. If we can target something like Defiler of DreamsDefiler of Dreams after we've given it away, we'll get through with Identity Thief and then also get the exiled creature back under our control at the end of the turn.

We can also use this to double up on enters triggers from Agent of TreacheryAgent of Treachery or Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O'HaraSpider-Man 2099, Miguel O'Hara too.

There are a few creatures in our decks that can return themselves to our hand from an opponent's control. EsperzoaEsperzoa and Riptide ChimeraRiptide Chimera give our opponents the choice of returning themselves to our hand or another (probably more valuable) permanent instead. It's a win-win for us either way!

Trusted AdvisorTrusted Advisor does something similar, but is so cheap that an opponent is almost always correct in choosing to return Trusted Advisor to our hand instead.

We'll be happy to have any of these creatures back since we can easily recast them and give them away again the next turn.

Finally, we have two lands, Homeward PathHomeward Path and the new Northampton FarmNorthampton Farm, that can let us deal with a creature we've previously given away. Homeward Path is repeatable, but we're unlikely to be getting back better creatures when we activate it. Meanwhile, Northampton Farm is slower, but does allow us to get back the creatures we own that are exiled with it later in the game.

While we certainly won't miss most of the creatures and tokens we give away with Kitsune and our other exchange effects, it doesn't hurt that we can get these creatures back if we find ourselves with a suddenly empty board.

Eking Out Some Card Advantage

In playtesting, this deck seems to be hungry for extra cards. If you find that's the case, you could look to add a few more creatures with enters effects that draw cards, like MulldrifterMulldrifter and NulldrifterNulldrifter, or swap one of the Game Changers out for Rhystic StudyRhystic Study and/or The One RingThe One Ring.

We're running a handful of group hug creatures in Howling GolemHowling Golem, Kami of the Crescent MoonKami of the Crescent Moon, and Zenith ChroniclerZenith Chronicler that can reliably draw us extra cards over the course of the game. None of them are terribly big threats, so we don't mind giving them away and they're not too expensive to recast after we bounce them.

Agent of TreacheryAgent of Treachery will reward us with extra cards for doing what we already want to do: swapping permanents with our opponents. Notably it also steals whatever permanent we value most when it enters the board.

Defiler of DreamsDefiler of Dreams plays two roles as well, reducing the cost of our blue permanent spells by and letting us draw a card whenever we cast one of them. Based on how well Defiler of VigorDefiler of Vigor performs in my personal Yeva list, Defiler of Dreams should be amazing in this list.

Mimic VatMimic Vat always seems to get cut from any list I add it to, but it feels perfect for this list since we can create a token with it that we give away the same turn with our commander. It'll then get exiled at the beginning of our end step, leaving our opponents with nothing to show for the creature we just stole from them.

Overall, this list looks poised to draw plenty of cards, but there's certainly some upgrades you could make if you find yourself lacking for creatures to give away.

Winning the Game With Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter

This section is going to be a little lighter than most weeks. Our primary game plan is to steal the best creatures on board with either Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter or one of the similar effects in the 99 of our deck. That means how we win will vary wildly from game to game depending on what our opponents are playing.

Maybe we can even live the dream and kill an opponent with commander damage from their own commander!

Simulacrum SynthesizerSimulacrum Synthesizer is one of the dedicated win conditions we are running. We have more than 10 artifacts in our list that will trigger Simulacrum Synthesizer and a bunch of smaller artifacts to help buff the construct tokens that it makes up. Given that several of the artifacts can also be returned to our hand, we should be able to reliably and repeatedly trigger Synthesizer over the course of several turns.

Thunderhawk GunshipThunderhawk Gunship is our other dedicated win condition since it gives our team evasion whenever we attack with it. While we need to have a solid board of creatures built up if we want to win with combat damage, Thunderhawk Gunship also creates a couple of tokens we can swap with our opponents using Kitsune too.

A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure

Time for the best part of every Plot Twist deck: the weird cards I found on Scryfall that made the list.

First up is Faerie ArtisansFaerie Artisans. This card is absolutely nuts since it'll create a token copy of every nontoken creature that enters under our opponents' control and then destroy any other tokens its made so far. From Witch EnchanterWitch Enchanter to Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth to Kardur, DoomscourgeKardur, Doomscourge, there are plenty of busted effects we can copy off of creatures.

Plus, we can give away the tokens it creates with Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter and then watch them get destroyed whenever an opponent plays another creature.

I tinkered with Profaner of the DeadProfaner of the Dead in my Marchesa Wizards deck for awhile, but it seems truly busted with Kitsune. Since we can sacrifice a creature we've swapped away with her and bounce the permanents we gave away back to our hand, Profaner of the Dead can do a pretty good impression of Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift and clear the way for a lethal attack. Llawan, Cephalid EmpressLlawan, Cephalid Empress made the final deck list for similar reasons.

Shifting GriftShifting Grift is a card I completely missed from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, but it seems really flexible. Being able to steal an opponent's commander, Rhystic StudyRhystic Study, and/or Sol RingSol Ring if you have enough mana and the right type of permanents seems great!

Notably you don't have to control either permanent, so this can be a great way to slow down whatever player is in the lead as long as you're okay being down a card for doing so.

Finally, here are two special mentions that didn't make the final deck list but almost did: Despotic ScepterDespotic Scepter and Staff of CompleationStaff of Compleation. These two are both commonly played in Jon Irenicus, Shattered OneJon Irenicus, Shattered One and are a great way to destroy the creatures we give away with Kitsune since they only care if we own the card being targeted, not if we control it.

What a strange, wonderful interaction.

Kitsune, Dragon's Daughter Commander Deck List

Here's the full deck list for you to peruse:

Roll the Credits

I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Kitsune, Dragon's Daughter. Next time you sit down for a game of Commander, see what sort of plot twists you can add to take the game's narrative in a new direction.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's deck and what cards could find a home in it in the comments below or on Archidekt. The Maybeboards of my deck lists are always filled with cards I thought could work but didn't make the final list.

You can check out my other articles here or see what decks I'm currently playing here. I've been actively updating a lot of my lists recently and playing as many games as I can get in with my Akiri / Keskit Artifact Tokens and Colorless Combo lists.

For you cEDH enjoyers out there, I also recently dove head-on into a turbo RogSi list that's teaching me the meaning of mulliganing aggressively.

Stay tuned to see what other twists and turns are headed your way in the next edition of Plot Twist.