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Riku of Two Reflections

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Riku of Two Reflections

At a glance

  • Commander: Riku of Two Reflections
  • Colors: Temur
  • Archetype: Temur spell-copy value control
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

The real commander (oracle text)

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may pay . If you do, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy. Whenever another nontoken creature you control enters, you may pay . If you do, create a token that’s a copy of that creature.

Discrepancy note: the scout’s brief said Riku “copies nontoken permanents that enter.” The printed card only copies nontoken creatures (the second ability), not arbitrary permanents. The build leans on the half the scout got right — the spell-copy trigger — and uses the creature-copy trigger as a secondary value engine on ETB creatures.

Gameplan

Draw-go Temur control that turns every instant/sorcery into a two-for-one by paying to copy it: double counters, double burn, double card-draw, double ramp. The deck grinds incremental card and board advantage, holds the board with cheap interaction and a handful of pseudo-wipes, then closes with inevitability rather than a single haymaker:

  • Pinger lock: Thermo-Alchemist, Guttersnipe, and Erebor Flamesmith each ping every opponent whenever you cast an instant or sorcery. Copy any of them off Riku’s creature trigger () and you have two, doubling the per-spell damage. With a counter/burn in hand every turn, this is a clock that never stops.
  • X-burn kill: Fireball / Disintegrate / Rolling Thunder cast for big X, then copied with Riku = two lethal blasts (or one to the face, one spread across blockers). This is the “I win now” button once mana is online.
  • Recursion grind: Archaeomancer / Izzet Chronarch / Ardent Elementalist return a spell from the yard on ETB; copy them with Riku to rebuy TWO spells, looping counters and burn so you out-resource the table.

Key synergy lines

  • Cultivate / Kodama’s Reach + Riku = search up to FOUR basics (two to play, two to hand), fixing all three colors in one card and accelerating to the copy mana.
  • Brainstorm / Words of Wisdom copied = absurd card flow (copied Brainstorm digs 6 deep; copied Words of Wisdom is a big net-draw).
  • Counterspell / Mana Leak copied = answer two spells with one card on a busy stack.
  • Thermo-Alchemist untaps on every instant/sorcery; with a copy on board each spell pings twice and both untap — a repeatable two-point-per-spell drain.
  • Mulldrifter / Cloudkin Seer copied via the creature trigger = extra body + extra cards.

Role breakdown (honest counts of the actual 99)

  • Lands: 37 — 24 nonbasic fixers + 13 basics (4 Mountain / 5 Island / 4 Forest).
  • Ramp / fixing: 12 — 8 rocks (Wayfarer’s Bauble, Mind Stone, Prophetic Prism, Sphere of the Suns, Manalith, Commander’s Sphere, Izzet Cluestone, Simic Cluestone) + 4 ramp spells (Rampant Growth, Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach, Growth Spiral). Sakura-Tribe Elder and Coiling Oracle add two more bodies that fix/ramp.
  • Card advantage: 13 — Brainstorm, Frantic Search, Catalog, Words of Wisdom, Thrill of Possibility, Desperate Ravings, Ideas Unbound, See Beyond, Mulldrifter, Cloudkin Seer, Elvish Visionary, Llanowar Visionary, Pond Prophet.
  • Counters: 9 — Counterspell, Mana Leak, Essence Scatter, Arcane Denial, Memory Lapse, Negate, Syncopate, Izzet Charm, Disdainful Stroke.
  • Spot removal / bounce: 9 — Lightning Bolt, Burst Lightning, Firebolt, Flame Slash, Pillar of Flame, Galvanic Blast, Into the Roil, Blink of an Eye, Vapor Snag. (Interaction total counters+removal = 18.)
  • Mass / pseudo-wipes: 3 — Sulfurous Blast (2–3 to each creature + each player), Boiling Earth, Blazing Volley.
  • Win-condition payoffs: 7 pingers (Thermo-Alchemist, Guttersnipe, Erebor Flamesmith, Kiln Fiend, Nivix Cyclops, Razorfin Hunter, Goblin Fireslinger) + 3 X-burn (Fireball, Disintegrate, Rolling Thunder).
  • Recursion grind: 4 — Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch, Ardent Elementalist, Scribe of the Mindful.

Manabase / fixing note

No common Triome/Vivid exists in Temur, so fixing leans on 3 guildgates + on-color dual taplands (Molten Tributary, Tangled Islet, Highland Forest, Rimewood Falls, Highland Lake, etc.), any-color lands (Command Tower, Path of Ancestry, Shimmering/Crystal Grotto, Painted Bluffs, Crumbling Vestige), basic-fetches (Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic, Ash Barrens, Bountiful Landscape), plus 8 fixing rocks and 4 green fetch-ramp spells — roughly 30+ sources that touch fixing so all three colors come online reliably.

Pilot notes

  • Mulligan for 3+ lands and at least one fixing piece; you want UR untapped to start copying by turn 4–5.
  • Don’t auto-copy everything — hold the if you might need it to copy a counterspell on an opponent’s turn.
  • Land a pinger, then protect it; the game ends on the back of repeated triggers, not one big swing.
  • Sulfurous Blast hits you too — fire it when your board is lighter than theirs, or after dropping a pinger you can rebuild around.
  • Save X-burn for a copied lethal; cast for X, copy, split or double-tap a player out.

Weaknesses

  • No true one-sided wrath at common — heavy go-wide aggro can outpace the small symmetrical sweepers.
  • Riku is mana-hungry: the copy taxes ( / ) compete with casting the spell itself, so flood of cheap fixing matters.
  • Enchantment/artifact removal is thin (relies on bounce); resilient enchantment-based threats are awkward.
  • Riku himself is a removal magnet; the deck functions without him but loses its engine, so don’t overextend him into open mana.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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