Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Hidetsugu and Kairi
Hidetsugu and Kairi
Legendary Creature — Ogre Demon Dragon · {2}{U}{U}{B} · Black/Blue commander
Flying
When Hidetsugu and Kairi enters, draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.
When Hidetsugu and Kairi dies, exile the top card of your library. Target opponent loses life equal to its mana value. If it's an instant or sorcery card, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.
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What Hidetsugu and Kairi actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · etbWhen Hidetsugu and Kairi enters, draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order.
- Triggered ability · deathWhen Hidetsugu and Kairi dies, exile the top card of your library. Target opponent loses life equal to its mana value. If it's an instant or sorcery card, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.
- Keyword · flyingflying
What a Hidetsugu and Kairi deck needs
Plays as death value. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- sacrifice outlets and recursion for the commander (its death drains and casts the top card free)
- expensive instants and sorceries to set on top (its enter trigger arranges the top card)
The Hidetsugu and Kairi deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 14× Mana value at or above the floor — for a cascade commander a cheap card is a DEFECT, not a bargain
- 6× Sacrifice a creature for no mana, repeatably
- 4× Evasion that does NOT target or attach — for a commander your own auras and equipment cannot legally touch
- 4× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 8× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 2× Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
Best cards for Hidetsugu and Kairi
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Mana value at or above the floor — for a cascade commander a cheap card is a DEFECT, not a bargain
- Excalibur, Sword of Eden12 mana
- Ancient Stone Idol10 mana
- Blightsteel Colossus12 mana
- Darksteel Colossus11 mana
- Emrakul, the Promised End13 mana
- Emrakul, the World Anew12 mana
- Flayer of Loyalties10 mana
- Funeral Room // Awakening Hall11 mana
Sacrifice a creature for no mana, repeatably
- Carrion Feeder1 mana
- Viscera Seer1 mana
- Altar of Dementia2 mana
- Spawning Pit2 mana
- Umbral Collar Zealot2 mana
- Bloodthrone Vampire2 mana
- Dark Privilege2 mana
- Ashnod's Altar3 mana
Evasion that does NOT target or attach — for a commander your own auras and equipment cannot legally touch
- Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive2 mana
- Glaring Spotlight1 mana
- Wonder4 mana
- Reverse the Polarity3 mana
- Cultist of the Absolute1 mana
- Inquisitorial Rosette2 mana
- Predators' Hour2 mana
- Rogue Class2 mana
Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- Displacer Kitten4 mana
- Conjurer's Closet5 mana
- Gossip's Talent2 mana
- Thassa, Deep-Dwelling4 mana
- Nephalia Smuggler1 mana
- Voyager Staff1 mana
- Jill, Shiva's Dominant // Shiva, Warden of Ice3 mana
- Deadeye Navigator6 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Orcish Bowmasters2 mana
- Accursed Marauder2 mana
- Baleful Strix2 mana
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Cauldron Familiar1 mana
- Thousand-Faced Shadow1 mana
- Fleshbag Marauder3 mana
- Plaguecrafter3 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Reality Shift2 mana
- Pongify1 mana
- Rapid Hybridization1 mana
- Resculpt2 mana
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
- Fatal Push1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
- Tainted Pact2 mana
- Scheming Symmetry1 mana
Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- Mindbreak Trap4 mana
- Fierce Guardianship3 mana
- Force of Negation3 mana
- Force of Will5 mana
- Flare of Denial3 mana
- Pact of Negation0 mana
- An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
- Arcane Denial2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Toxic Deluge3 mana
- Damnation4 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Sickening Dreams2 mana
- Crypt Rats3 mana
- Extinction Event4 mana
- Endemic Plague4 mana
- Desynchronization4 mana
Combos with Hidetsugu and Kairi
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Hidetsugu and Kairi is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Hidetsugu and Kairi + Clone Legion + Archaeomancer506 decks
- Hidetsugu and Kairi + Clone Legion + Mnemonic Wall35 decks
- Hidetsugu and Kairi + Clone Legion + Shipwreck Dowser34 decks
- Hidetsugu and Kairi + Clone Legion + Pinnacle Monk24 decks
- Hidetsugu and Kairi + Clone Legion + Scholar Of The Ages19 decks
- Hidetsugu and Kairi + Clone Legion + Salvager Of Secrets16 decks
Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →
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