MTG Commander Deck Of The Week: Kynaios And Tiro Of Meletis

When people think about my various Commanders, Grothama, All-Devouring has become my “signature” deck, in part I think because so few people run this weird and fun green commander, so my advocacy stands out. And there’s no doubt, I truly love this deck and thoroughly enjoy playing it whenever I can.

But if someone asks me what’s my favorite Commander deck, Grothama has serious competition with my Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis deck.

I built this deck shortly after it was released into the wild in 2016 and have kept it together ever since, making tweaks to it each year with a handful of new cards to refresh its play experience. I last wrote about this deck back in 2021, and since there’ve been significant changes in the years since, I thought it would be fun to revisit it today and share it with you all.

What We’ve Built Together

What I love about this commander is how it greases the wheels of Commander play for all players, helping players draw a little extra if they need it, or make an extra land drop if that’s more useful. This tends to help everyone’s deck function a little better and makes games more lively. Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis’s benefits, plus its rather inoffensive two power, means that it very rarely becomes the target of removal effects, and so it helps the game’s wheels spin turn after turn.

To help support this, I run quite a bit of interaction in the deck, using it where I can to keep any one player from pulling too far ahead of the rest of the pod. I pull out this deck when I’m in for both a good time and a long time, which is the sort of multiplayer Magic I’ve enjoyed for 30 years now.

Even the most fun long games need to come to an end, so one aspect that’s remained in the deck is the potential to cast Treacherous Terrain to deal a bunch of damage to people for all the lands I’ve helped them put onto the battlefield, and occasionally to have enough mana to activate Soulfire Grand Master before casting Treacherous Terrain, getting to cast it – and gain a bunch of life – each turn until the game is done.

End-Game Shenanigans

Approach of the Second Sun is another win condition that’s been in and out of the deck over the years. I recently put it back in when I acquired the Secret Lair version, reskinned as Touchdown! I figure it’s much cooler to win by casting Touchdown! twice.

A more recent addition to the deck is Surge to Victory, an amazing “big turn” spell that’s led me to play a few more high-mana instant or sorcery spells in the deck that can end up in the graveyard by the time I cast Surge.  Notably, Treacherous Terrain can be cycled into the graveyard to set up the Surge, and I’m also playing Magma Opus, which can be put into the graveyard by discarding it to make a Treasure, and it’s another great card to copy with Surge. I do have ways to “go wide” with this deck, so Surge becomes an excellent payoff.

Okay, let’s dig into the rest of the deck!

Legendary/Historic Matters

The biggest change I’ve made since the last time I wrote about this deck is peppering in a bunch a cards that care about legendary creatures, along with a bunch of legendary creatures that do fun stuff (which you’ll see more of below). Blackblade Reforged is a card I jam in just about every Commander deck, but it’s even more amazing in a deck with a ton of legendary creatures who can take up the blade and beat down. Plus, it suddenly turns my normally chill 2/8 commander into a threat out of nowhere.

From the Doctor Who set, I’ve put in K-9, Mark I, which gives other legendary creatures you control ward 1 if it’s untapped, and you can activate it to make target legendary creature unblockable – hopefully when it’s wielding Blackblade Reforged! All of which is a heckuva bargain for just one mana.  There’s also The Sixth Doctor, which lets you copy a historic spell you cast once per turn, and if it’s legendary the copy won’t be legendary. In a deck chock full of great legendary creatures with awesome abilities, The Sixth Doctor rocks the house.

Excalibur, Sword of Eden is a recent addition that should be incredible in this deck with tons of legendary creatures satisfying the historic mana discount, and having lots of targets to equip. This is another Equipment that can quickly turn my commander into an offensive threat.

Card Draw Matters

I used to have a lot more of these cards that care about a second card being drawn, but I’ve trimmed them over time.  Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse’s ability to churn out 2/2 Cat tokens is valuable for the go-wide strategy, and the activated ability can occasionally end games too. And since my commander helps opponents draw cards, the second ability of The Council of Four will trigger more often and also helping with the go-wide strategy.

Land Shenanigans

Since my commander lets me both draw an extra card and make an extra land drop, I’ve got some cards that enjoy me making extra land drops or also help me play extra lands. It turns out the bouncelands like Izzet Boilerworks does great work in this deck, ensuring that I’m always able to take advantage of the extra land drop from Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis. Given how many lands I run that enter tapped, I was thrilled to slot a Spelunking into the deck recently.  Case of the Locked Hothouse is another fantastic card for any deck that ramps lands, and once the Case is solved and you can play creatures, enchantments and lands from the top of your deck you are really off to the races.

Modal Double-Faced Lands

I run 37 actual lands, plus the bouncelands, but I also run these four modal double-faced cards (modal DFCs) with lands on the back side to increase my virtual land density even more. Most of the time, I will play these as lands, and occasionally I’ll get to pick them back up with a bounceland and then make use of the spell side.

Removal

Interaction includes removal spells and I have a fair number of it. I very recently swapped out Wrath of God for Starfall Invocation because I love the gift mechanic so much and think this Bloomburrow card is fantastic in Commander. Being able to destroy all creatures and bring back the best of your creatures by simply gifting one of your deserving opponents a card is awesome. Similarly, I love Wear Down for the gift bonus, even at sorcery speed.

Interaction

Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate and Boromir, Warden of the Tower are awesome legendary creatures that can sacrifice to save your team from a battlefield sweeper, even my own. I also love Boromir’s ability to counter spells that opponents cast for no mana, such as from cascade, or free spells like Fierce Guardianship.

I slotted Elminster’s Simulacrum as a higher-cost spell that could do amazing things with Surge to Victory, and it will also help set up that go-wide strategy.

Card Draw/Selection

The card selection of the scrylands like Temple of Enlightenment has been a great part of this deck since the beginning, and I’ll often bounce them back to my hand with the bouncelands to get the trigger again. Many of these awesome legendary creatures help with drawing extra cards or scrying.

Since so many of my legendary creatures are multicolor, I found a home for Aragorn, the Uniter to get multiple triggers each turn. It’s awesome that my commander will set off all four triggered abilities!

Mana Ramp

Most of my mana ramp is at two mana to help maximize the chances of casting my commander on Turn 3. The recent addition of Helga, Skittish Seer provides a nice bonus when you cast your commander, and can help pay commander tax later on.

Twists and Turns is a favorite of mine, ramping from seven to eight lands, and its transformed side, Mycoid Maze, provides an excellent mana sink if you don’t have something better to do with it.

The Deck

Okay, here’s the full decklist!

Here are the deck stats from our friends at Archidekt:

If you’re curious about earlier versions of the deck, you can start here:

Popping The Hood On My Kynaios And Tiro Of Meletis Commander Deck

So, which is your longest-running Commander deck?

Talk to Me

Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter!  I run polls and start conversations about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun!  You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.

I’d also love it if you followed my Twitch channel TheCompleteCommander, where I do Commander, Brawl, and sometimes other Magic-related streams when I can.  If you can’t join me live, the videos are available on demand for a few weeks on Twitch, but I also upload them to my YouTube channel.  You can also find the lists for my paper decks over on Archidekt if you want to dig into how I put together my own decks and brews.  

And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy. 

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