Well, gang. We did it. We manifested it. We got: KOH, THE FACESTEALER
Wait…
Face Stealer? Why the space?
But there are other reasons this card reads strangely. Let’s go through it together:
Unlike some other effects, Koh’s exile effect does not replace the death trigger, meaning this deck can use Black combo lines that involve death triggers! Hello Blood Artist, my old friend!
This also means we can curate the graveyard if we have cards like Reanimate or Sheoldred, Whispering One. I mention the latter because cards like
Koh immediately exiles any creature on the field on entry. This alone enables his blink potential, which in turn enables cards like the Dungeon.
I expected Koh to have the Spirit typeline, but instead we get Shapeshifter AND Spirit. I think this enables some interesting strategies, feel free to explore them yourself in this scryfall search > > >
Of these, the one I am most excited about is Cairn Wanderer, a Shapeshifter creature that takes on the keywords of creatures in all graveyards. Since Koh’s ability is a “May” ability, meaning we can choose whether or not to exile dying creatures in order to curate the buffet for Cairn Wanderer. I say buffet because what I love about Cairn Wanderer is that it takes on ALL graveyards, not just our own!
Of the available options, Crypt Ghast is an obvious powerhouse.
Junji, the Midnight Sky, is a rare option because it could be useful with Cairn Wanderer, but Koh can make great use of it. Because we can exile it and get the death trigger, there’s no nonbo here.
This is a weird drawback of Koh: because you are not exiling permanents with counters on them, like some versions of this effect, you lose access to each pile of exiled permanents every time you have to flicker him. Your collection begins anew with each time Koh enters the battlefield, because it enters as a “new object”, meaning it has no memory of the cards it exiled before. I don’t think this limits our options for flicker effects, we just need to be more selective to Black’s selection of 1 mana “die and return” spells.
I’m currently working on a Koh, the Facestealer deck, but there are about uhhhhh…
So I’ll see you on Monday!