Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker – Mystery Booster MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Before Splinter Twin and the never-ending campaign to get it unbanned, there was Kiki-Jiki. This little akki was way, way ahead of his time. From devastating formats by getting put into play with Tooth and Nail and immediately copying enormous creatures, to gaining card advantage on comes-into-play abilities before it was fashionable, all the while paving the way for a new generation of red cards, he did everything. And, quite frankly, he still does just about everything you can imagine, considering how shockingly easy it is to untap him. Seriously, it sounds hard, but it’s not.

And as if all that wasn’t enough, “Kiki-Jiki” is one of the most fun Magic names to say. C’mon, try it!

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 5/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 5/5

The effect of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker isn’t unique anymore, but the obnoxious little goblin from Champions of Kamigawa remains one of the most dangerous iterations of the effect. In the right build, he’s basically a five-mana “I win” button, which is exactly what you want out of a five-mana investment in Constructed (and still pretty good outside of it).

His effect is simple: make a short-lived copy of any creature you already control, if it’s not legendary. Of course, there are ways to go infinite very quickly with this; the original was Pestermite from Lorwyn, and there have been many more since then (Deceiver Exarch, Bounding Krasis, and Felidar Guardian are examples). If you have an effect that lets you reset Kiki-Jiki immediately, he can pop his ability again to make an unbounded number of tokens. Couple that with Warstorm Surge, Impact Tremors, or good old-fashioned smacking people in the face, and there are lots of ways to make sure that the game is over the turn you resolve him.

Kiki-Jiki is powerful, but he does present a few weak points: two toughness and no protective abilities renders him exceedingly fragile, and triple-red means he’s a win condition you can’t just splash into a deck easily. If you’re willing to put in the legwork, though, he’s a brutal game ender who can even help you eke out a bit of value if you aren’t trying to wipe your opponents out then and there (because he’s still perfectly functional doing “fairer” things, like copying Protean Hulk for death triggers).

Constructed: 4.75 (in a deck built to take advantage of his unique talents)
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4 (unlikely to infinite combo anyone, but he punches above his weight really well)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander: 4.25 (don’t run him as your Commander; mono-red doesn’t have the tools to really make him shine)

Phat
Pack
Magic
YouTube

Hello everyone and welcome back to Pojo’s Card of the Day! I hope you’re all doing well with this whole Corona Virus and the forced quarantine, so today we’re going to look at a card that might need to learn a lesson in Social Distancing, Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker!

Ever since his introduction as a card people have been trying to think of the best ways to break it in half and there’s not been a shortage in ways to do so. Tooth and Nail was one of the main enablers to get Kiki in play and decimate an opponent’s ability to cast spells by copying Sundering Titan or just deal intense damage with a Kiki’d Darksteel Colossus. This guy has been a Johnny Brewer’s staple since his induction, so where does he fit in?

Turns out almost anywhere and everywhere! This guy has been a combo-power house in almost every format he’s been in and he was a key component in a lot of Modern decks through the ages, most notorious he would act as Splinter Twin 5-8 back before the ban, he even got his Mirror Breaking going in the old Birthing Pod deck… which again was before a ban. He’s still running around and doing 5-0s in Modern so if you see this guy plop down you definitely wanna hold up removal! ..But it might be too late.

In Limited he’s a little less amazing, but the hilarious thing about this guy is that in the original Modern Masters draft you were able to get Kiki and Pestermite combo going and Kiki just offering amazing value for ETB Creatures was pretty good too! Dropping a Kiki onto the field and copying your mulldrifter to draw 2 cards and slap their face for 2 damage was a pretty good deal if you ask me!

In Commander this guy leads his own series of decks that can be nuanced and tempered or downright degenerate and disgusting. Oh, and he’s also a goblin so he fits in with the Krenko deck if you want a bit more value from your ETB Gobbos.

In Cube this guy is one of the high tier pick cards, and the great thing about him is if you’re able to snipe that Splinter Twin and Kiki early on you can almost go uncontested in your build and end up with degenerate nonsense like this…

Constructed 5/5 – Part of the infamous Twin Deck, every morning he drinks a 2 liter of Combo Juice.

Limited 4/5 – A little less potent here given his triple red but he can really steal a game away.

Commander 5/5 – When everything is based around various value this guy can do it all with death and ETB triggers.

Cube 5/5 – This guy is super first pickable in an archetype, be careful though people love to hate draft around this card if you get it late!

Phat Pack Magic is a channel dedicated to Magic: the Gathering and creating awesome coverage of local events for formats like Cube, rare pack drafts, and now FNM Pioneer videos! Check it out at https://YouTube.com/PhatPackMagic