We’re Bananas for Kogla, the Titan Ape

Kogla, the Titan Ape

Kogla, the Titan Ape is Our Kind of Desert Twister

Mike has been joking forever how much we like six mana Desert Twisters.

  • Ugin, the Ineffable provides a Desert Twister-like effect (at least against colored permanents) that will leave you a one loyalty Planeswalker.
  • Garruk, Cursed Huntsman does you one better… two different ways! Still for six mana, you get to destroy a permanent (as long as it’s a creature) AND draw a card AND are even left with one more loyalty than Ugin!
  • Casualties of War is like five Desert Twisters! (at least as long as your opponent cooperates by playing enough permanents) Fail state? Regular-old Desert Twister.

Kogla, the Titan Ape fights a creature when it enters the battlefield. As long as that creature has toughness of seven — seven! — or less, Kogla will destroy it. Even if Kogla doesn’t survive, that’s six mana to destroy a key permanent.

Desert.

Twister.

… But it’s so much more! Like, whenever the opponent’s creature isn’t big enough to win, you get to keep a sweet 7/6.

THAT ALSO HAS OTHER ABILITIES!

Don’t be surprised to see Kogla, the Titan Ape in powered formats.

Because it destroys an artifact or enchantment every time it swings, Kogla might see play in formats where people play powerful artifacts and enchantments.

Might that be surprising to see? Maybe a little bit. But don’t sleep on how useful this Legendary Ape might be. Not only does it provide potential card advantage, a 7/6 is a pretty fast way to win.

They even gave it an activated ability for Zirda, the Dawnwalker

Kogla even has an activated ability!

If a huge body… and a sick fight ability… and a persistent nuisance for expensive permanents weren’t good enough…

You can even play Kogla with Zirda!

But that’s not all!

  • Since you will often be playing Kogla with Nissa, Who Shakes the World already in play, you’ll often have 1G open to defend it.
  • Besides which… There is no shortage of humans you might want to return to your hand. Examples include everything from Charming Prince (which works coming or going) to Agent of Treachery

Lots and lots of other cards, brewing ideas, and good fun from Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths, of course. Give Kogla, the Titan Ape a little love now:

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Lurrus of the Dream-Den Sure is Good with Black Lotus

Lurrus of the Dream-Den
is one exciting Companion!

Go with us here… Lurrus of the Dream-Den in Vintage

Imagine for a moment you look at your opening hand and see a Black Lotus.

You know… Basically the best ever

So the way Companion works is that if you can cast the Lurrus… You can cast the Lurrus. You don’t have to draw it; it’s just there waiting for you.

Thus, if you have a Black Lotus in your opening hand, you can simply play it, sacrifice it for BBB (or WWW if you please) and make yourself a Cat Nightmare.

Is a 3/2 Lifelink that impressive on the first turn in Vintage? It’s certainly not “bad” per se… I mean it’s probably better than the odd Slash Panther… But that’s not the point.

Why? Because of this clause:

During each of your turns, you may cast one permanent spell with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard.

What’s in your graveyard? A Black Lotus! So you can immediately re-play the iconic artifact. And not just that, starting on turn two, presuming you make your land drop, you will have access to at least eight mana.

  • Land #1 (1)
  • Land #2 (2)
  • Sacrifice Black Lotus (5)
  • Re-play and Black Lotus with your Legendary Cat Nightmare; sacrifice it (8)

Boom!

Also you can get in for the 23-17 advantage. hash tag lifelink

Lurrus of the Dream-Den in Modern

Now obviously this is not a card most players think about for Vintage, first.

Not surprisingly, Mike’s mind went straight to his favorite: The Modern Red Deck. Though he has recently switched allegiance to Mono-Red, Mike was the innovator of not playing Wild Nacatl, the early advancer of Inspiring Vantage, and even dipped his toe in the Bump in the Night waters. Lurrus can obviously work in the sideboard of either a Boros or a Rakdos Red Deck.

What makes this card so compelling is that it requires very little compromise in terms of main deck design. Not “no” compromise, maybe… But little. Look at Mike’s most recent build of Mono-Red:

This deck has three mana cards like Light Up the Stage, Skewer the Critics, and Rift Bolt… But not only are they all essentially one mana spells… They are all non-permanent spells! Besides a lone Bonecrusher Giant main deck, all the other permanents are one mana. Even when Mike would bring in Eidolon of the Great Revel, that card would happily fit the Companion cost of Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

But Lurrus [in Modern, that is…We saw how different it would be in Vintage] is more than a virtual eighth card in a Red Deck’s opener, that might save it from mana flood, or buy some life points in a fiery mirror. There is that “each of your turns” line. What do you think about this?

Queue permanent spell with converted mana cost 2 or less.

Seal of Fire isn’t quite Black Lotus… But it’s not a bad get from your graveyard, turn after turn after turn.

A Boros Burn deck isn’t the only way to exploit Lurrus; just the most obvious out the gate.

Tons and Tons more from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths

Little Lurrus isn’t even quite a “behemoth” … But it’s a pretty good illustration of Ikoria mechanic Companion.

We talk tons of Mutate, where you might want to stick your odd Brokkos, Apex of Forever, and why you don’t want to go too tall, whatever the incentives in this week’s podcast! Check it out now:

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