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He might not be as fast as Sonic or as clever as Tails, but Knuckles the Echidna is strong enough to overcome those deficiencies. But he brings something else toMagic: The Gathering: an alternative win condition in your command zone.
Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, but since it keeps getting stolen (or shattered), he’s also become an accomplished treasure hunter. These two sides of an otherwise uncomplicated character mean you can either beat your opponents with a Knuckles sandwich or amass a fortune in artifacts. Either way, Knuckles comes out on top.
Sword of Wealth and Power
Urza’s Saga
War Room
This deck is designed withBracket 3 (Upgraded)in mind, thanks to red’s rampant access to Treasure tokens and the ease of meeting Knuckles’s win condition.
The Commander
Knuckles the Echidna isa legendary 2/4 Echidna Warrior with double strike, trample, and hastethat costs two red and two generic mana. He’s notably missing flying, despite being able to glide long distances in most video games, and while he’s known for his strength, he’s tied with Sonic for the lowest power among their friends.
Knuckles is the first Echidna introduced in Magic: The Gathering. His species is pronounced a-kid-na.
In addition to his three keyword abilities,Knuckles also has the same ability as the popular red staple, Professional Face-Breaker. Whenever one or more of your creatures deals combat damage to a player, you get a Treasure token.
Double strike allows Knuckles to make two Treasure from his own ability, butattacking multiple players can yield even more Treasure. That makes aggression profitable, as long as a couple of attackers can get through.
Knuckles has one more important ability: At the beginning of your upkeep,if you control at least 30 artifacts, you win immediately. This is a little worse than Hellkite Tyrant’s similar ability, which only requires 20 artifacts, but Knuckles also costs two less mana andis always available in your command zone.
Hellkite Tyrant is always a neat backup win condition since you won’t always have access to it, butKnuckles is available to play any time you need him. There aren’t many alternate win conditions attached to commanders, so he presents a unique opportunity to play a whole different type of game.
Building The Deck
The unique part of Knuckles the Echidna is precisely that he’sa legendary creature with an alternative win condition, a situation that’s only appeared on a few cards in over 30 years of Magic sets. While blue is the color normally associated with artifacts, red has access to a lot of Treasure as a form of temporary ramp.
What this means is that Knuckles the Echidna isa perfect centerpiece for a mono-red artifact deck, where your mana acceleration doubles as your win condition. All you really need is a bunch of ways to make Treasure, after all!
Knuckles himself isn’t a great Treasure-generator, since he’s only able to make two Treasure per combat, and only if he manages to get past blockers. Butthere are several Equipment cards that can help him pack a punch, as well as other creatures that can pick up the slack.
Hoarding Treasure isn’t the only thing Knuckles can do, though. He’s got double strike and trample built-in, so with a couple of small buffs,he can threaten to KO your opponents with commander damage. Equipment that creates Treasure upon attack or hit can help take down a threat while banking mana for later.
Finally, don’t be afraid to get aggressive with this deck.Many of the cards that make Treasure only do it when you attack, or when you deal combat damage. Look for opportunities to attack an opponent safely, and if you lose Knuckles you can just re-play him with all the Treasure you’ve stockpiled.
Ramp
While some of the mana acceleration will come from staple mana rocks like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet,Equipment will usually provide more. Knuckles’s Gloves (a reskin of The Reaver Cleaver) is a key piece. On Knuckles, it will increase his Treasure output from two to eight each time he attacks without being blocked.
Sword of Wealth and Power, meanwhile, makes a lot less Treasure, especially on a creature without double strike. But it gives the wielder some much-neededprotection against instants and sorceriesand allows you to copy an instant or sorcery of your own after a successful attack.
A great budget piece is Beamtown Beatstick, whichmakes a Treasure token each time the equipped creature deals combat damage to a player. The +1/+0 buff is nice, but the addition of menace is a real draw, giving your creatures some much-needed evasion.
An unusual source of mana acceleration is from Dragons, which usually need acceleration to get out in a timely manner themselves. But it’s worthwhile tocrack a few Treasures to get a Goldspan Dragon into play, which will make Treasure itself and double the mana from each one.
Ancient Copper Dragon can end a game quickly if you’re lucky,making between one and 20 Treasure tokens each time it lands a hiton an opponent. With Hellkite Tyrant in play, this could end the game in a single turn cycle.
Cavern-Hoard Dragon can do about the same thing, especially if one of your opponents plays an artifact-heavy deck of their own.Attack the player with the most artifacts in play, then get that many Treasures of your own!
Draw
Red doesn’t have a lot of access to draw effects, but The One Ring is both a powerful draw engine and a thematic one. You can tap it at any time to add a burden counter, thendraw as many cards as it has counters. The downside is that you take damage equal to the burden counters on your upkeep, so don’t go crazy with it.
Idol of Oblivion is an obvious addition to any deck that makes a lot of tokens. On any turn that you’ve made a token, you can tap this artifact to draw a card. Late in the game, you can alsopay eight mana and sacrifice it to get a 10/10 Eldrazi!
While Collector’s Vault doesn’t give you a hand advantage, it does allow you to dig for better cards. For two mana, you cantap this artifact to draw a card, then discard a card, plus make a Treasure token! Even if all you’re discarding is lands, you’ll stock up on artifact tokens!
Pretty muchevery non-blue mono-colored deck should run War Room, a utility land that gets better the fewer colors your commander has. With one color, it costs three mana and one life to draw a card. It’s also free to play, since it’s a land, and you can tap for colorless mana!
Treasure Hunting
Knuckles might need a little help finding enough artifacts to score a win, and there are plenty of ways to pick up more.
Academy Manufactor is an obvious addition: Itturns every Treasure you get into a Treasure, a Food, and a Clue, effectively tripling the amount of artifacts you create. Just be sure to protect it, since smart opponents will kill it immediately.
Xorn is a little weaker, but also a little more useful. Itturns every Treasure into two Treasures, both giving you more mana and building towards your win condition.
If you have both Academy Manufactor and Xorn in play and make a Treasure token, specify that Academy Manufactor’s replacement effect goes on the stack first, and Xorn’s second. This will give you two Treasures, Foods, and Clues.
Treasure Nabber forces your opponents to make a choice: Do theytap their mana rocks, and then give them to youfor a turn? Or dothey play slow and deprive you of both mana and artifacts? If they play slow, you’ve got more time to set up. If they lend you their mana rocks, they might not get them back.
