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"Unique Cards - Kiki-Jiki"
By Michael Howell .

When I first read Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, I read it twice and casually thought, "That's a decent card". After thinking about the card a bit more, that was a bit of an understatement. This particular Legendary Goblin is very versatile and lends himself to many possible combos. I am mainly a casual player, so most of these will be fun combos. I try to keep abreast of what is happening on the tournament scene (can't commit to them due to work commitments), but I won't presume to know enough to make too many comments about the impact this card might have on those formats.

The Basics

First off, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker costs 5 to cast, 3 of which are red. Due to that strong mana commitment, he is at home in a mono-red deck, and you probably wouldn't want to look at using him outside a 2 colour deck. He is also Legendary, so you can only have one in play.

So what is so good about this particular Legendary Goblin? His ability is to put a copy of a non-legendary creature you control into play, and it gains haste; you then have to sacrifice it at end of turn. My first thoughts were I could do one of the following:

1. Create a copy of one of my critters, then attack with it, knowing I still had the original and could repeat next turn.
2. Wait until my opponent attacks, copy a creature and trade (it's going to die anyway) or at worst chump block without losing board advantage.

I thought either of these things weren't too bad. Then it hit me. there were so many triggers that I could be making good use of.

Comes into Play Triggers

A huge number of creatures have triggers when they come into play. If we want to stay mono-red, we could have a Flametongue Kavu to help keep the board clear. If your opponent puts down a creature, on your turn you can copy the Kavu, clear their creature out of the way, then attack with both of your Kavu.

Man-o'-War is going to be a favourite target of mine for Kiki-Jiki. You can keep your opponents creatures off the table and clogging up his hand. Just keep copying the Man-o'-War anytime they put a creature out.

Duplicant is great for creature removal. On his own, he is a creature himself, and creature destruction. Copying him each turn is downright mean.

Triskelion is another artifact creature which benefits from being copied. You can copy him, hastily attack, put 4 damage on the stack, then remove the 3 counters for another 3 damage wherever you see fit.

One of the biggest targets for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is everyone's recent hero, Eternal Witness. Each turn throw another copy of her on the table and fish something out of your graveyard. You have effectively turned copying a creature into copying any spell from your graveyard.

Goes to Graveyard/Leave Play Triggers

Similarly, anything with a trigger when it hits the graveyard or leaves play could also be a target, as anything you copy gets sacrificed at end of turn. Sadly our new dragon spirits are legends and can't be targeted by Kiki-Jiki (Yosei would be insane in this instance). Rukh Egg is excellent here. If you copy the Rukh Egg, you get a 0/3 token that will sacrifice itself at the end of the turn. Its 'put into a graveyard from play' ability triggers, and you put a 4/4 flyer into play permanently.

Champions of Kawigama brings with it a new mechanic which fits perfectly here - Soulshift. Copy your creature that has the highest Soulshift, and when it dies at the end of the turn, bring back another Spirit.

Sacrifice for an Effect Creatures

Some creatures have an ability that allows them to sacrifice for some effect. The effect might be good, but it takes away a creature from the board and thus costs you a card. When you copy a creature with Kiki-Jiki, it is going to end up heading for the graveyard anyway. So you can attack or block with it, put its damage on the stack, and then sac it for the effect. For example, you could have a Viridian Zealot in play, which you could copy to destroy any enchantments or artifacts your opponents decide to play. By far more potent is Daring Apprentice. Whenever your opponent casts a spell, put Kiki-Jiki's ability on the stack. Let it resolve, your token comes into play, it has haste, sac it and counter target spell. That combo almost makes me feel dirty.

Comes into Play and Leaves Play Triggers

There are a few creatures which fit both the come into play and leave play categories, so we can trigger them both each turn. The 3 I currently have in mind are all artifacts from Mirrodin block. Firstly, and most awesomely, is Solemn Simulacrum. When your opponent attacks, put a copy into play, search for your land, chump block, draw a card. Rinse and repeat. The card is incredible on it's own; putting a copy into play each turn is insane, giving you a sprawling land base and card advantage. In multi-colour decks, having this guy around will help make sure you have the 3 red you need to cast your Legendary Goblin.

Secondly, and this is for you evil, evil people out there (I don't think I'll ever build a deck with this combo) is Sundering Titan. If Kiki-Jiki is already in play when you drop Sundering Titan, you can blow up 3 of each land that turn (the original coming into play, the copy coming into play, and the copy leaving play). You'll need to be playing other sources of mana than basic lands to lessen the effect this might have on you.

Lastly is Summoner's Egg. Similar to Rukh Egg, but you get to choose what you want instead of a 4/4 flyer. Put out your first Summoner's Egg, but don't imprint anything (you may imprint, but don't have to). Got a Colossus in your hand? When your copy of Summoner's Egg comes into play, you get to imprint the Colossus, and at the end of the turn the egg's sacrifice releases the Colossus for some beat down the next turn. Any fattie of choice will do. You can keep doing this for as many fatties as you can put into your hand (tutors, what-have-you).

Army status

Basically, you can copy one creature per turn. But there are a few cards to get around that. Jandor's Saddlebags gets you 1 more critter per turn for 3 mana, but that is pretty inefficient. Slapping a Pemmin's Aura on Kiki-Jiki means you can copy anything for just one blue mana, multiple times per turn. But we can go one better with Intruder Alarm. Unless there is something your opponent can do to stop you, you can go infinite. Tap Kiki-Jiki, put a token into play, all creatures untap. Rinse and repeat. If the creature you are copying has a cool tap ability, you can use it in between each untap trigger as well. When you are ready, you can swarm your opponent with your 200 creatures against their 3 blockers.

A watered down version of Pemmin's Aura has reared its head in Champions of Kawigama itself - Aura of Dominion. If you copy a creature with a decent 'comes into play' or 'leaves play' trigger, you can then spend 1 mana and tap that creature to untap Kiki-Jiki and copy it again until you run out of mana. The Zuberas would be perfect here. I am sure there are many more cards from Champions of Kawigama that will lend themselves to Kiki-Jiki (although there are a lot of legends, so he loses a little bit of appeal).

Here are a few decks that I have designed to make use of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.

This deck has a high mana curve, you can use the Shocks and Magma Jets early to keep threats at bay. Once you have Kiki-Jiki in play, you should already have something else in play that you can take advantage of. You can use the Fireball to off early threats, or copy the Simulacrum to build your land base for a big blast to the head.

Similar to the red deck, use burn spells to clear out early creature threats and Viridian Zealot to take care of artifacts or enchantments. Once Kiki-Jiki is active, copy an Eternal Witness each turn to recur your burn spells. Recurring Magma Jet for its Scry is usually best, as you can draw into more burn, or Duplicant if you can't burn their creatures down (or get around protection from red).

I've recurred burn here, but you can recur whatever you like. Land destruction perhaps?

Use bounce and counters to control early. The Aura of Dominion can be used to creature multiple Simulacrums for land and card advantage, or Zuberas for a lot of damage. The Intruder Alarm combo can go off with either the Vulshok Sorcerer or Zuberas. You can also keep control with the Daring Apprentice and Man-o'-War once Kiki-Jiki is in play. I generally don't play blue control, there may be some better options here.

The above are just some of the deck ideas I fleshed out. I have not fully gone through the Champions of Kawigama spoiler, but I certainly see the potential to combo Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Intruder Alarm and Devouring Greed (although this covers 3 colours) if mixed with the right spirits.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, I am generally a casual player, and I don't think these decks would be competitive enough for tournament play. I do think that Kiki-Jiki could end up in Tooth and Nail decks (someone mentioned this on the message boards, I will not take credit), allowing you to run one copy of everything else, and if you ever need 2, just pull Kiki-Jiki as one of your creatures. That means 2 Colossi, one of which has haste, or 2 Triskelion if all you need is 6 more damage for the win.

Last but not Least

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is also a Goblin, meaning he can benefit from any goblin goodies you might have in your deck. Throw out another Goblin Piledriver for the win. Search for Kiki-Jiki with Goblin Ringleader. Copy your Goblin Sharpshooter - your new one can kill something and untap the other, and if not, he'll untap when the copy dies anyway. And just when your opponent thinks he's figured out all his blocking and combat damage, throw another Goblin King into the fray to boost up the rest of your gobs.

The main drawbacks I see to Kiki-Jiki is his casting cost of 3 Red, and he only has a toughness of 2, making him susceptible to removal. Hopefully you'll keep him around long enough to get your combos working for you. Feel free to discuss any more combos on the message boards - I'd love to hear them as the possibilities are huge. I haven't even covered creatures or permanents that trigger off something coming into play/leaving play (Go Soul Net! One of my favourite cards as a newbie).

Michael Howell

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