Trigger Copy – Kirol, Attentive First-Year in Commander

by Johnny Cycles, February 19th, 2026

Hello! Having taken a big break from writing about Commander, last month I got back to it with my Commander Clinic Contest and Bumi, Unleashed. Stay tuned for more contests in the near future!

Today, I’m excited to bring you another budget-friendly deck with one of the new legendary creatures from Lorwyn Eclipsed – Kirol, Attentive First-Year! Kirol, Attentive First-Year does something no other creature in Magic does! The Vampire Cleric allows us to double any triggered ability 1. with no further mana investment; 2. the turn he comes into play; and 3. using himself as one of the two creatures necessary.

That’s right, Kirol, Attentive First-Year is a truly unique commander. You can watch this video where I further detail his uniqueness.

Decklist – Trigger Copy with Kirol, Attentive First-Year

Kirol, Attentive First-Year

Creatures (32)

Charming Prince
Spirited Companion
Sungold Sentinel
Wall of Omens
White Orchid Phantom
Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon
Anointed Peacekeeper
Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Brutal Cathar
General Ferrous Rokiric
Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant
Suki, Courageous Rescuer
Agrus Kos, Spirit of Justice
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher
Cadric, Soul Kindler
Éowyn, Fearless Knight

Heliod, God of the Sun
Neyali, Suns’ Vanguard
Sophina, Spearsage Deserter
Warren Warleader
Aang, Air Nomad
Angel of Sanctions
Aurelia, the Law Above
Bonehoard Dracosaur
God-Eternal Oketra
Hofri Ghostforge

Thalia’s Lancers
Wingmate Roc
Zealous Conscripts
Zidane, Tantalus Thief
Inferno Titan

Artifacts (10)

Arcane Signet
Boros Signet
Clay-Fired Bricks
Talisman of Conviction
Pearl Medallion
Battlemage’s Bracers
Halo Fountain
Hazoret’s Monument
Oketra’s Monument
Perilous Snare
The Seriema

Enchantments (10)

Bitter Reunion
Serra’s Blessing
The Birth of Meletis
March of the Canonized
Warleader’s Call
Windcrag Siege
Martial Law
War of the Last Alliance
Assemble the Legion
Elspeth Conquers Death

Instants (7)

Gods Willing
Lightning Bolt
Swords to Plowshares
Abrade
Thraben Charm
Ghostway
Wear // Tear	/
Will of the Mardu

Sorceries (6)

Cleansing Nova
Austere Command

Lands (37)

Battlefield Forge
Castle Ardenvale
Castle Embereth
Evolving Wilds
Field of Ruin
Kher Keep
Restless Bivouac
Scavenger Grounds
Temple of Triumph
Terramorphic Expanse
Mountain (11)
Plains (16)

Deck Tech

Primary Game Plan

No surprise here. We want to double up powerful triggers as often as possible (well, once per turn, per player).

When I first read the card, I thought, this should be challenging to build around. Then I remembered that enters abilities are triggered abilities, and I realized just how simple it would be to build a deck full of such permanents! Particularly given that, with our commander out, any creature with an enters ability can be tapped along with Kirol while its trigger is on the stack to copy that trigger.

However, I play at least two decks that are heavy on creatures with enters abilities – Roon of the Hidden Realm and Ephara, God of the Polis. And while Boros brings a host of new cards I can play, we can do better than simply doubling up enters triggers!

And we do! From upkeep triggers, to attack triggers; from leaving the battlefield triggers, to cast triggers; from saga chapters, to triggers that happen on our opponent’s turn; we have numerous ways to take advantage of Kirol’s super sweet activated ability. Of course, we’re also playing permanents with enters triggers, because, well, those are a ton of fun too!

Since Kirol’s ability is an activated ability, we even have a way to copy it! Yeah, we aren’t going too deep on this front, but copying his ability is one way to get around the once a turn clause.

I’ll break the deck down into the kinds of triggers we’re looking to abuse, but there were a couple of goals that motivated my card choices. First, budget. I’ve built decks in which every card is under a $1, but I think there is a lot more room for creativity and fun when you instead aim to keep the entire deck under $100. That’s what I’ve done here.

Second, I have two decks already that abuse enters triggers – Roon of the Hidden Realm and Ephara, God of the Polis. I really didn’t want to pick a bunch of cards I’m already playing in those decks. That’s not very exciting. I’m sure there is a bit of crossover, but whenever possible, I’ve erred on cutting cards I play elsewhere in favor of cards I haven’t played yet.

Third, since we have to tap two creatures to copy a triggered ability, I aimed for two things. Creatures with vigilance and creatures that make tokens. This will hopefully mean we never have to sacrifice attacking our opponent’s life total just to double up a trigger.

Enters Triggers

There are two important things to note about Kirol’s ability for this section. First, we get to copy any triggered ability, not just that of creatures entering. This widens our card pool considerably, not to mention the fun we can have. Second, since we need creatures to tap to copy a triggered ability, we are incentivized to play as many creatures as possible. Why? Kirol + a creature with an enters ability = two untapped creatures we can use to activate our commander.

That being said, of the 24 cards we’re playing with enters abilities, only 15 are creatures with only an enters trigger. The remainder are either noncreatures or creatures with both an enters and an attack trigger. These cards can be further broken down into what purpose they serve. From card draw to removal, our enters triggers can just about do it all!

Removal

This is perhaps our most vanilla of enters effects… We could go more all-in on Oblivion Ring-type cards, but those aren’t creatures, so they don’t allow us to double up without an additional combo piece out.

Angel of Sanctions – there’s a special place in my heart for this card. Maybe it’s because I opened a foil Russian version when it was Standard legal, or maybe because it was one of the first of its kind – a reasonably costed exile effect on an evasive creature. Throw in recursion, and this card used to be a staple in any of my Commander decks that could play it. Alas, like many other mythics, it’s been outclassed. Still, that means it’s budget friendly!
Anointed Peacekeeper – not strictly removal, it does allow us to name any card, regardless of what’s in our opponent’s hand. Unsurprisingly, we’ll often name their commander along with whatever card we deem most deadly. Note that this Human Cleric also has vigilance. And while we may not be attacking with a 3/3 often, there will be times this is relevant.
Brutal Cathar – there are a number of creatures in the 3-drop spot that exile a creature, but this is the only one that has the potential to do so repeatedly. Furthermore, it’s technically a Boros card and so I haven’t been able to play it in any Mono White deck. Finally, I love Werewolves. I’ve even played them in Modern.

Elspeth Conquers Death – our first saga, since these are triggered abilities, we can copy them with Kirol, Attentive First-Year. The first chapter is a bit overcosted for what it does as is. But if we double it? Now that’s value!
Éowyn, Fearless Knight – here’s a card that would rarely make the cut in a non-budget Blink deck. The targeting restriction is too much of a liability. Still, it does some work in our deck, with our 19 legendary creatures, not to mention the synergy it has with General Ferrous Rokiric.

Perilous Snare – our first noncreature enters card, this artifact gets the nod over something like Oblivion Ring thanks to the upside of its max speed ability.
White Orchid Phantom – a nice way to deal with all those utility lands! Does doubling this trigger count as mass land denial?

Card Draw

Who doesn’t want to draw more cards?

Bitter Reunion – one of my favorite enablers for my jank in Modern, it can give our team sneaky haste if our opponent forgets to read the entire card.
Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant – we can’t really afford Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and that’s okay. I really like the saga side of this Human Noble Wizard. The first two chapters aren’t super impressive, even when doubled, but the last one is pretty bonkers if we get to do it twice. And all attached to a 4/4 flying lifelinker. This is one of those cards whose price blows my mind. .79 cents. One printing. It’s a sign of the deluge of similar cards we have to choose from that this one is so cheap. I’ll take it!
Spirited Companion – we could play Helpful Hunter instead (or alongside). I found this in my collection first.

Thalia’s Lancers– mono White has a surprising number of conditional tutors in it that are budget friendly. Remember all those legendary creatures we play (18 without our commander)? Getting two of them should cure whatever ails us.
The Seriema – for 3 mana, we get a Thalia’s Lancers but as a spaceship! Yay, 2026 Magic! Seriously, though, I’m more than happy to play this budget tutor with great upside for our deck. Given how our deck is designed around snowballing value out of doubling up triggers, we’re pretty happy taking a few turns to station this to 7. Once done, those 19 legendary creatures will be indestructible. We also happen to play five creatures with vigilance and three ways of giving our entire team vigilance, which will allow us to attack and station post-combat. Throw in the whole host of ways we have of making tokens, and it shouldn’t be too hard to make this an artifact creature.
Wall of Omens – is a 0/4 defender better than a 1/1 Cat? You be the judge!

War of the Last Alliance – our second saga and another conditional tutor. If all goes to plan, by the end of chapter 2, we’ll have the four best legendary creatures for the boardstate in our hand.

Token Generators

Our subtheme is token generation, both as a way to ensure we never run out of creatures we can tap and because many of our creatures won’t wow anyone with their power and toughness. Going wide, then, is a real need for us.

Cadric, Soul Kindler – one of our splurge cards at over $4, this Dwarf Wizard is quite unique. The first line of text appears on a total of one card and you’re looking at it. But what’s really cool about this card is that it doesn’t say “whenever a nontoken legendary creature enters…”, but rather, “whenever a nontoken legendary permanent enters…” That’s right, we can also copy our Oketra’s Monument! Talk about value (and sarcasm, in case you’re new to this site). Still, there may be a game when this is very relevant.
March of the Canonized – another sweet and unique card, this enchantment is strictly better for us than something like Secure the Wastes, which is an instant and one less. Why? The enters trigger, obviously! The second block of text is also not irrelevant for us, as we play a bunch of White permanents. All in all, this card feels like a diamond in the rough for our deck!
The Birth of Meletis – chapter 2 of this saga can be copied to net us two 0/4 colorless Wall artifact creature tokens.

Wingmate Roc – this is one of those cards that passes the eye test, but just somehow doesn’t do enough in real life. Still, I love everything about this card, including the nostalgia it gives me. I played this Bird in Standard in a Mardu tokens deck. What is also kind of amazing is that there are only two printings of this mythic and yet it still costs only .60 cents.

Getting that Value!

We’re playing a handful of value cards with enters abilities that synergize with what we’re doing.

Charming Prince – perhaps our least spicy enters creature, this Human Noble is great both early and late. We’re happy to have a 2-drop to help sculpt our early draws in the opening turns of the game, but the fun really starts later. With our commander out and one of our many excellent targets that have great enters abilities, we can blink that creature, then double up its trigger. Or, if we have two creatures with enters abilities, we can double up Charming Prince‘s trigger and blink both of them. Not too shabby on a 2-drop.

Clay-Fired Bricks – this card is a great encapsulation of what building on a budget can lead to… Sure, it’s not ramp, but it IS a 2-mana spell that gets a land out of our deck, while ensuring we make another land drop. In this way, it functions similarly to ramp, as it can allow us to keep some powerful 2-land opening hands. But the real sweet synergy comes should we ever use its craft ability. We get some tokens and an anthem effect, which is exactly what we want! Also worth noting is that both sides of this card have an enters ability that we can copy with Kirol. I cut boring old Commander’s Sphere to make room for this much more synergistic and fun artifact!
Warleader’s Call – at nearly $7.50, this is one of our splurge cards for sure. We aren’t all that interested in copying its triggered ability, but rather copying one of our ways of generating a ton of tokens, like the above-mentioned March of the Canonized. The +1/+1 it grants our team is important for our go-wide secondary gameplan.
Zealous Conscripts – an oldie, but goodie, I remember playing this when it was Standard legal. Our dream with this card, of course, is to double up its enters trigger, take our opponent’s two best creatures, and then kill them dead with them and the rest of our team. However, if you haven’t paid close attention to Zealous Conscripts, this Human Warrior lets us take ANY permanent. Opponent about to ultimate a Planeswalker? Yoink. Opponent playing a fun utility land? Take it for a turn!

Zidane, Tantalus Thief – a strictly worse Zealous Conscripts in almost every situation, the lifelink the stolen creature gains for some reason will sometimes be the difference between winning and losing. And if you were wondering if there would ever be a time we’d rather double up the second block of text, the answer is only if our opponent only has one creature for us to steal.

Enters and Attacks Triggers

Why settle for only enters triggers, when you can get an attacks triggers as well? These are some of our best cards for precisely the repeatable trigger they offer us. And since our whole gameplan is to double up that trigger, this means they give us a repeatable repeatable trigger, right? There aren’t enough of these to justify dividing them into categories, but among them we have some removal, burn, card advantage, token generation, and lifelink.

Agrus Kos, Spirit of Justice – this is the gem of my budget finds! What synergy! With Kirol out, we get to double this Spirit Detective’s ability and stack it so that the creature first becomes suspected, then exiled. And, it’s both an enters and an attack trigger. It’s a thing of beauty. Vigilance makes it even more synergistic, as we can attack with it, then tap it and Kirol to exile a creature. Double strike is just gravy. But did you know that this is the third iteration of Agrus Kos?

Not sure when he met his demise, but maybe someone can let me know in the comments!

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder – I was surprised to see this innocuous mythic costing almost $2.50! I guess its single printing in a premium set has something to do with it. Granting our two best creatures double strike and lifelink is pretty awesome and should both punch through damage and insulate our life total from any swingback.
Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher – the second coming of Bruse Tarl provides us with both card advantage and token generation. And this one will set you back a quarter. What value!
Inferno Titan – I feel a little bad about including what feels like a Commander staple, but this Giant is no Sun Titan. The latter sees play in over 8% of decks according to edhrec.com, while the former is only played in just over 1%. For us, Inferno Titan is a must-answer threat lest he machine-gun down all but the biggest creatures in conjunction with our commander. I almost cut it, since I play it in at least one other deck, but we need ways to turn the corner on a stalled board and Inferno Titan does a great job at this.

Sungold Sentinel – every deck needs some graveyard hate. There’s surely cheaper, more efficient, not to mention more effective ways, White has of nerfing our opponent’s graveyard, but this is a creature I’ve never played that has both an enters and an attack trigger. Good enough for me!

Attack Triggers

Doubling up attack triggers is fun, though a bit tricky. Our best attack triggers won’t require us to attack with the source of the trigger, like Warren Warleader, pictured above. This means we can hold back the Rabbit Knight for future combat and not risk losing him to blocks. Again, I’m not dividing these up into categories beyond being attack triggers. However, we have attack triggers that create tokens, draw cards, deal damage, pump our team, and make Clues.

Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon – another card that surprised me by the price (about $3.50 when I priced the deck last week, but now already $4.27!). A rare with a single printing, she is legendary, which is what I assume is driving the price up. Regardless, if left unanswered, she will make an army of Gnomes, while growing in power herself. More importantly, she doesn’t have to attack for this to trigger.
Aurelia, the Law Above – what makes this card so great in our deck is that it triggers whenever any player fulfills the requirements. Since we can only activate Kirol once a turn, we are very much interested in our permanents triggering on our opponent’s turn, when we can use Kirol again. I see us drawing cards more often than Lightning Helix-ing each of our opponents and that’s good enough for me.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos – I’m on the fence about including this Cat Soldier in this deck for two reasons. First, the card costs $6.25, which is a lot for our budget. Second, I play Brimaz in at least two other decks (Ephara, God of the Polis and Boros Cat Tribal). Still, we want creatures with vigilance that can attack and then get tapped before damage (or after combat) to double up attack triggers and Brimaz checks these boxes. I have a feeling I’ll cut it once I find something equally good that I’m not playing elsewhere.

Neyali, Suns’ Vanguard – token generation is a secondary win condition for us. And we make a LOT of tokens. Between our creatures, artifacts, and enchantments, we can make 19 different types of token creatures, while Cadric, Soul Kindler will make us a token copy of any other legendary permanent. For these reasons, Neyali is a busted card in our deck.
Sophina, Spearsage Deserter – my copy costs less than .50 cents. But this card also got printed as Chief Jim Hopper from Stranger Things. That copy will run you about $6. That being said, I’ve yet to resolve this card and I’m not sure how good it’ll be for us, to be honest. She has to attack to get the Clue generation and while menace is nice and all, there’s a good chance she will be a 1-use trigger (that we can double, of course!).
Warren Warleader – this card is amazing in our deck. Paying the offspring cost isn’t a triggered ability, but creating the additional copy IS. That means we can get two 1/1 copies of it. Then, when we attack, we can either pump our team twice, or make two 1/1 tokens. Of course, if we have the two additional copies out, we will either pump our team +1/+1 four times, or we’ll make 4 bunnies. Finally, as I mention above, we don’t have to attack with Warren Warleader, so we can tap it and one of the tokens to double up the trigger. This card feels really, really broken in our deck. So much so that I think I need to go back through Bloomburrow and see what other offspring cards will fit with our deck.

Windcrag Siege – I don’t think we’ll pick Mardu very often, though if we have a board full of the above creatures we will.

Cast Triggers

With only four cards in this category, I can’t help but wonder which cards I’ve overlooked. Let me know in the comments!

General Ferrous Rokiric – this card has so much potential. Alas, that 3-mana cost for a 1-toughness creature doomed it from ever seeing play in Modern. Commander is another story, though. I’ve long wanted to find a home for this card and now I have! We have 15 ways to trigger this Human Soldier, not including our commander. Should we make room for more? Probably.
God-Eternal Oketra – another card with a ton of potential. And another card I’ve wanted to play for a long time but just never found a good deck for it. Making two 4/4 vigilant Zombies per creature should pull us ahead very quickly.
Hazoret’s Monument – this is the kind of mana rock that’s exciting to play! The cast trigger we can copy will let us dig quickly through our deck for whatever we need.
Oketra’s Monument – token generation is an important aspect of our deck, as we never want to run out of creatures to tap to double up our triggers.

Leaving the Battlefield Triggers

Another category we could explore our options on, we have two creatures that give us another kind of trigger to double.

Hofri Ghostforge – what a strange card! I remember seeing this Dwarf Cleric for the first time and thinking, why is there a Dwarf-Spirit Lord? Sure, White has a ton of Spirits, but the Boros colors feel somehow wrong for what this creature does. And where does the trample come in? And why does the exiled card come back to the yard when the token dies? I’m not saying the card is bad. In fact, I think it’s kind of busted. But it IS very strange. With how many legendary creatures we play, there will be times when we won’t gain much by copying this trigger. Of course, any enters effects will go on the stack before we are forced to sacrifice one of the copies. When this is the case, we won’t care much that we don’t get two bodies out of the deal.
Suki, Courageous Rescuer – this is a perfect card for us and our budget. Neither ability is particularly busted, but they both synergize with what we’re doing and all for .31 cents. Unfortunately, we only get an Ally token if a permanent leaves the battlefield on OUR turn. Lame.

Upkeep Triggers

That’s right! Triggers aren’t just for enters!

Assemble the Legion – one of my all-time favorite cards, I played this 5-mana enchantment in Standard. I also try and put it in every Commander deck that can play it, only to cut it in the end. Too slow. Too unimpactful. Of course, if we can put two muster counters on it each turn, then our token generation will be twice as fast. See. I can do math.
Bonehoard Dracosaur – my big-$$$ card, this Dinosaur Dragon will set you back a whopping $12! And it’s worth every penny in our deck. Doubling up this upkeep trigger should easily see us pull ahead within a turn or two.

Martial Law – another card I’m thrilled to play! This enchantment is too high of a mana investment to be worth including in most decks, but since we can double up its trigger, effectively locking down our opponent’s two best creatures, it’s an all-star for when we need to close out a game.
Windcrag Siege – picking Jeskai will mean we get a 1/1 Goblin with both haste and lifelink each turn. This should ensure we have the two creatures necessary to use our commander’s abilities. And, of course, we can double its trigger to get two (count ’em!!! TWO!) 1/1 Goblins. Yeah, we’ll hopefully have better triggers to copy than this one, but you never know!

Support Cards

These are some of my favorite finds in the whole deck! They don’t have triggered abilities, but they synergize in other ways with our primary game plan. And, in the case of the above-pictured card, they give us at least one alternate win condition.

Aang, Air Nomad – it’s a testament to both power creep and the sheer number of cards players have to choose from that this rare from Avatar: Jumpstart is under $1. Granting our team vigilance is the main reason I’ve picked this Human Avatar Ally, but that it’s a 5/4 vigilant flier itself ain’t bad!
Battlemage’s Bracers – sure, there are a lot of hoops to jump through for this equipment, but getting an additional trigger on top of the doubled trigger is too much value to resist. Furthermore, with an equip cost of , should we play this early, our opponent will be forced to respect the potential of us swinging in with one of our many value creatures the turn we cast it.
Halo Fountain – as I reread this card while building this deck, I decided after reading the first activated ability that this was a card we’d be interested in. Untapping a creature, while making another? Well, that just so happens to equal two untapped creatures we can then use with Kirol. Then I read the second ability and thought, wow! It’s like this card was made for our deck! The last ability was the sweet, sweet chocolate icing with chocolate chips on the cake!

Ghostway – I made a video about how good this card is for being both old and cheap. Since, its price has gone up slightly, but it’s still relatively inexpensive. We have a good number of creatures with enters abilities that this card synergizes with, beyond simply a way to nerf a boardwipe. However, we also can make a lot of tokens, which do not synergize with this card. I’m on the fence about cutting it, but I was able to cast this and Austere Command in the same turn for a 1-sided boardwipe. It was awesome.
Gods Willing – a way to protect our commander from pesky spot removal. I probably could use a few more of these.
Heliod, God of the Sun – another splurge card, this God gives our team vigilance and can make creatures. Both of these things we want. We can also make him into an indestructible creature pretty easily, giving us another finisher.
Serra’s Blessing – a 2-mana enchantment that gives our team vigilance? Sign me up!

Will of the Mardu – another token generator, this time at instant speed. Its flexibility to be a removal spell is also great.

The Rest

The remainder of our deck is divided between ramp and removal. There is a lot of room for change here, particularly in the removal category. As to ramp, well, our options aren’t as great on a budget. What IS interesting is that Pearl Medallion is about $4, while Ruby Medallion is about $12. I imagine the difference is due to Storm decks in Modern (and Legacy, I guess, if anyone still plays Storm there).

That being said, I’m not sure we need to run a ton of ramp. With a 3-mana commander and a top-end that doesn’t go beyond 6 mana, we can probably get away without mana rocks. I know, I know. Every deck needs mana rocks, right? Eh.

As to removal, I’ve tried to find as many flexible spells as possible. Aside from Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt, all of our interaction can do more than one thing. And, we get to play a few cards that our token-generating strategy is uniquely suited to take full advantage of. The risk, of course, is that we’ll have an empty(ish) board and be unable to deal with a problematic creature, but since both Thraben Charm and Will of the Mardu can do other things, they should at least not be dead cards.

Ideal Hand and Game Play

Three lands, a 2-drop of some sort, a 3-drop creature that can deal with the first threat, something to play towards in the 4- or 5-drop slot, and any one other card from those categories make up a very nice keepable hand. More specifically, we want a 2-drop that can draw us cards (Wall of Omens) or can help us make our land drops (The Birth of Meletis). We’d rather not see Sungold Sentinel or White Orchid Phantom in most match-ups until later in the game. Of course, both could be all-stars early against certain decks.

As to our interaction, we’re happy seeing any of our kill spells or something like Brutal Cathar. From there, we play such a wide variety of 4- and 5-drops, that what we want will be dependent on the boardstate and our opponent’s deck. We have plenty of cards that can support a reactive/control game, as well as plenty of cards that can fuel an aggressive gameplan.

One thing is for certain – we want to get our commander out as soon as possible. Duh, right? Well, one of the cool things about this deck is that the majority of our cards are 2-for-1s (sometimes 3-for-1s) without our commander in play. For this reason, it can be easy to simply run them out for their inherent value, particularly if we aren’t under a ton of pressure.

But the true fun and sheer power of this deck really comes through when we get to double up the triggers of these already powerful cards. If left unchecked, our commander and team should snowball until our advantage is overwhelming.

Weaknesses

We are a value deck looking to grind out games by slowly increasing our advantage until we have an overwhelming boardstate. As such, if our cards don’t line up with what our opponent is doing, then we can be left playing underpowered creatures that don’t impact the game much.

Similarly, if our opponent is able to weather the storm of double triggers, it won’t take too many bombs from them to stabilize and turn the corner. Most of our creatures will lose in combat without help.

Of course, our deck is built with this in mind. We have lord effects, ways to grant double strike, ways to prevent blocks, and numerous token generators that will allow us to go wide if necessary. But when we lack some of these support pieces, our deck can itself get overwhelmed.

Possible Substitutions/Upgrades

I’m not going to make an extensive list of cards we can use to either upgrade the deck (beyond my $100 limit) or make it more budget friendly. Instead, I’ll provide a few different avenues you could explore to give the deck more power or simply a different feel. Generally speaking, if I were to spend another $100 on this deck, I wouldn’t go all-in on any one secondary strategy listed below. Rather, I’d add no more than two cards from each.

Dealing Damage

I love Purphoros, God of the Forge. I especially love the Red God in a deck that makes a lot of tokens. However, I’m already playing him in a number of decks, so I won’t be upgrading this deck with him any time soon. The cheapest copy – $23

Impact Tremors is another great card to pair with token generation. The cheapest version of this common will run you about $2.

Hellrider is another of my favorite cards that rarely makes the cut. It’s possible I should make room for the Devil in this deck. Either way, it’s a sweet way of killing your opponent without ever having to deal combat damage. And all for under $1!

Token Doubling

This is pretty straightforward. I don’t think I’d ever go all-in on this strategy, but I could see adding one or two support cards along these lines.

Elspeth, Storm Slayer doubles up our tokens, but costs around $40.

Mondrak, Glory Dominus is a powerful token generator, but it costs $40.

Enters Doubling

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines not only doubles our enters triggers, but she (it?) also hoses our opponent’s. Which is one reason it costs about $20.

Panharmonicon is another great enabler for our deck. The cheapest version is under $6.

Landfall Triggers

I play several decks that use landfall fairly extensively, so I’ve avoided including landfall cards in this deck. However, it is a fun, powerful, and often budget-friendly way to improve our deck.

Felidar Retreat runs about $2 and synergizes so nicely with our deck’s gameplan that I’m already thinking of what I can cut to find a spot for it…

Moraug, Fury of Akoum is another powerful addition to this deck, albeit a confusing one. For a discussion on how to get multiple combats out of multiple land drops, click here. Otherwise, this card costs about $7.50. Not too bad, I suppose, but I play it elsewhere.

Support Cards

Bennie Bracks, Zoologist is a powerful card draw engine in a deck like ours. The cheapest version is just under $10.

Divine Visitation is another powerful card to play alongside token generation. And, with a bunch of recent reprints, the price is about $2.25. Not bad. I play it elsewhere, so I won’t be including it here.

Fey Steed – I’m already eyeing Sophina, Spearsage Deserter as a card to cut to make room for this Elk. I really like that we get two triggers we can copy, one of which we can copy on our opponent’s turn (should they try and target our creature then). And all for .32 cents.

Budget Options

Angel of Serenity – an old card that used to see more play, it’s fallen out of favor, I imagine, because of power creep. 7 mana is a lot for an effect that may not win the game. Of course, when we get to exile six creatures, well, that should be game ending.

Thraben Watcher – a worse Aang, Air Nomad for less, if we want more redundancy for vigilance and an anthem effect, then this Angel is not a bad option at .32 cents. Of course, it doesn’t synergize with our token generation plan, so I left it out.

Conclusion

My brother-in-law and I decided to each pick a legendary creature from Lorwyn Eclipsed to build a deck around for under $100 (stay tuned for the gameplay!). And, honestly, I was not too thrilled about any of the choices. However, having played this deck a number of times, let me tell you, it is a ton of fun. And, it is super powerful. Since all of our permanents have triggered abilities, we are already getting 2-for-1s. Once we begin doubling those triggers, the party really gets started for us!

Another thing that has been a blast for me personally is the sheer number of cards I’ve never played anywhere before. I have two Boros Commander decks, but both are relatively niche by comparison (you can read about one, here). Our card pool is much greater when all we want are triggered abilities. Furthermore, I am also playing some of my favorite cards (looking at you Assemble the Legion)! All in all, this has been a blast to build and play.

So if you like triggered abilities and want a deck with a wide variety of deck-building avenues to pursue, give Kirol, Attentive First-Year a shot. There really are a ton of ways to abuse his ability.

As always, thanks for reading and watching! Did I miss any obvious inclusions? How would you go about building this deck?

Trigger Copy – Price Breakdown

Creatures (33)

Charming Prince	.88 cents
Spirited Companion	.25 cents
Sungold Sentinel	.25 cents
Wall of Omens	.25 cents
White Orchid Phantom	.55 cents
Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon	$3.58
Anointed Peacekeeper	.35 cents
Brimaz, King of Oreskos	$6.25

Brutal Cathar	.41 cents
General Ferrous Rokiric	.55 cents
Joshua, Phoenix’s Dominant	.83 cents
Suki, Courageous Rescuer	.31 cents
Agrus Kos, Spirit of Justice	.40 cents
Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder	$2.47
Bruse Tarl, Roving Rancher	.25 cents
Cadric, Soul Kindler	$4.15
Éowyn, Fearless Knight	.91 cents

Heliod, God of the Sun	$6.31
Neyali, Suns’ Vanguard	$2.16
Sophina, Spearsage Deserter	.48 cents
Warren Warleader	$2.74
Aang, Air Nomad	.95 cents
Angel of Sanctions	.30 cents
Aurelia, the Law Above	$1.42
Bonehoard Dracosaur	$12
God-Eternal Oketra	$3.14
Hofri Ghostforge	.80 cents

Thalia’s Lancers	.50 cents
Wingmate Roc	.60 cents
Zealous Conscripts	.28 cents
Zidane, Tantalus Thief	.20 cents
Inferno Titan	.28 cents

Total Cost: $54.80