Commander
Deck list
View this Kamiz, Obscura Oculus deck in Archidekt
About Kamiz, Obscura Oculus
Kamiz, Obscura Oculus is relatively cheap Esper commander with very open ended, combat focused ability: making one of your attacking creature unblockable and another having double strike. As a bonus, Kamiz provides card advantage, discard and +1/+1 counters with the new connive-mechanic.
Kamiz, Obscura Oculus in EDHREC
In EDHREC Kamiz, Obscura Oculus has under a twelve hundred deck, 1154. Most of the decks are upgraded precons, focusing on Kamiz's unblockable skill. It seems most of the have no clear theme according to EDHREC.
Possible themes for Kamiz, Obscura Oculus
Kamiz is able to pull the weight in many different themes, and allows multiple different themes in Esper colors, which previously has focused in lifegain, artifacts and reanimation.
This specific Tempo deck is a collection of the following four themes: saboteur, drawing, discard and reanimating. Kamiz decks are quite easily turned into a more focused deck for any of the themes.
Saboteur theme
Saboteur means creatures with triggers from combat damage to an opponent. Kamiz is a clear saboteur-tribal commander, providing +1/+1 counters and unblockablity and even double strike for your creatures.
Discard theme
Kamiz deck with discard focus will lean on the Connive ability more, and gaining value from discard, with madness for example.
Reanimate theme
Reanimating is the most popular way to cheat very big creatures into play. This is often done with black spells, but white and orzhov also have great reanimating spells.
Draw matters theme
Kamiz connives every turn, giving an extra draw for your every turn. This is a natural way to lean on the draw effects, and focusing on them more.
Strategy
Early game and mulligans
T1 to T3 is the early game. This build is high on mana producing permanents, running 33 lands and 13 mana rocks. This is due to the high card advantage from the commander and being prepared to pay the commander tax if needed. All the creatures in the deck are 3cmc or higher, as there are none strong enough saboteur effects available in 1 or 2 cmc.
We never want to cast our commander as the first creature, and we want to benefit from the unblockability Kamiz provides. Most likely the double strike is unavailable for the first combat.
Mulligans: getting all the mana pips is crucial and the manabase is designed to cover this. Three colors can be an issue in certain colors, but there are enough multicolored lands and mana rocks to cast every thing. Main focus in mulligans are: at least 1 saboteur creature, 2-3 lands, 1 mana rocks.
Best plays in Early game: any of the 1-2cmc mana rocks, Military Intelligence, Smuggler's Share and Mist-Syndicate Naga. The naga is an absolute powerhouse, and demands immediate interaction from your opponents, making it a kill-on-sight removal eater, which is great.
Mid game
T4 to T6 are mid game where value is created with multiple saboteur effects, and getting to choose the cards needed with Kamiz's loot effect. Keeping track of the connive counters is important, as the double strike from Kamiz is dependant on the creatures power. Usually we want Kamiz out in Mid game.
In mid with conniving we increase the power of our saboteur creatures accordingly, trying to avoid counters on Kamiz, as we don't want it to be any bigger target. Great +1/+1 counter targets are Chasm Skulker, Cephalid Constable and Cephalid Facetaker.
Great mid game plays are: Cephalid Constable, Teferi's Ageless Insight, Emissary of Despair, and Daxos of Meletis.
Late game
T6+ are the late game and most likely there has been multiple attempts to remove your permanents either with point removal or board wipes. The deck runs a few counter spells (3) and a single blink spell, so a total of 4 cards to be able to protect your board. The amount itself is quite low, but the high amount of card draw available, combined with Kamiz's conniving makes it more than enough to have the needed response.
Many of the strong saboteur creatures dealing damage are 3cmc, and so they are able to be reanimated with Sun Titan and with Writ of Return. Both are amazing in the deck and especially Writ of Return is strong in the deck and synergies well with the unblockable creatures.
Great late game plays: Zareth San, the Trickster, Fallen Shinobi, Skyway Robber, Death Tyrant and Tivit, Seller of Secrets.
Winning the game
This Esper Tempo deck aims to remove the biggest threats on the table one at a time. As there is no voltron like one-shots in the deck, it is best to avoid being the archenemy, and keeping a stable board present and multiple answers in hand, rather than vomiting everything on the table as fast possible.
Virtus the Veiled is the most straight forward wincon, combined with double strike makes it devastating, putting an opponent from 40 to 9 in a single combat! Virtus has no haste, so using Cephalid Facetaker is a great way to cheat the whole double strike in with unblockable.
Notorious Throng is another great wincon, providing easily another turn and lots of 1/1 flyers. Tivit, Seller of Secrets is another great powerhouse, able to create minimum of 2 treasures for you, and most likely ending to create 3 clues, too. Tivit also has ward 3, making it hard to remove with a removal.
Who is the deck for
Esper Tempo deck with Kamiz is like a prowling tiger: silent and difficult to notice, but definitely hits like a truck.
Playing the deck requires good understanding of the phases and priority, and being able to asses threats properly, as it is easy to overreach with the battlefield, turning yourself into archenemy, and often losing the game.
I'd recommend the deck for anyone interested in an Esper deck but not being sure to which direction to go with as Kamiz can be turned into multiple directions with ease.
If winning with high CMC creatures is what you are after, I'd recommend to check Kaalia of the Vast or Satoru Umezawa.
