Commander Deck Tech: Kilo, Apogee Mind

If you like counters, then you probably enjoy proliferate commanders as well.

Proliferate was introduced in the Scar of Mirrodin set. It lets you pick any number of permanents and/or players with counters and add one additional counter of each kind already present on these targets.

Example: if I have a 1/1 Elf token with a +1/+1 counter and I proliferate, that token will now have two +1/+1 counters, so it will have 3 power and toughness. If I have an experience counter and I proliferate, I'll have two experience counters.

Edge of Eternities was the most recent set to bring us proliferate spells, as well as Kilo, Apogee Mind.

In this article, you'll find two lists with Kilo. The first one focuses on proliferating energy counters to trigger several effects, and the second centers around counters in general, like +1/+1 counters, energy counters, -1/-1 counters, and similar.

Let's start by meeting our commander!

Kilo, Apogee Mind is one of the commanders in the Counter Intelligence precon (if you'd like to see more about this precon, click here).

The set that brought us Kilo also brought us Spacecrafts with energy counters, which made this robot shine even more.

Kilo, Apogee Mind is not complicated, and its effect is quite simple: when it is tapped, you'll proliferate. As it has haste, and it is relatively cheap, you'll almost certainly proliferate a few times by attacking with it.

To build a list for Kilo, we need to add other spells and effects that let us tap it without losing it in combat, considering it doesn't have evasion.

Let's play with energy counters!

Check out our main list:

Tapping and Untapping Permanents

As we want to tap Kilo but not lose it, and use its effect more times, we added the cards below. Please note that you can use them with Kilo or any other creature you consider relevant. It all depends on the game state.

Magic Damper buffs and protects units until the end of the turn. Manifold Key will give your commander evasion in combat. Unwinding Clock is a must for artifact decks and makes any opponent frustrated.

Pemmin's Aura and Freed from the Real only need a bit of mana to tap and untap the creature you enchant with them whenever you want.

Even if you don't "tap" or "untap" your commander, Reconnaissance is a great card, particularly when you need to protect it as you attack. And, the best of all, removing Kilo in combat won't counter its proliferate effect, as it triggered when you tapped it to attack.

Creating Energy

By itself, this commander doesn't create the energy counters we need to make this deck work. Kilo will support the main strategy, multiplying counters so that we can activate several effects. To create and use energy counters, we added:

We're lucky that many permanents create energy counters, but some abilities also use them. Guide of Souls uses energy counters to put two +1/+1 counters and a flying counter on a target creature. Roil Cartographer's landfall gives us more energy counters and lets us use them to draw three cards.

Dr. Madison Li uses energy counters in several ways. It buffs, draws cards, and even returns an artifact from the graveyard to the battlefield.

Aetherworks Marvel is one of the most popular energy cards, as it creates these counters when your permanents enter the graveyard. We can actually explore this in many types of decks.

With this card, you can use these energy counters to look at the top six cards in your deck and cast one of them for free. You'll shuffle the other cards into the bottom of your deck.

The last card we must mention in this section is Aetherflux Conduit, which needs a lot of energy counters (a lot!), but draws seven cards at once. Furthermore, when you use this effect, you can cast any number of spells in your hand for free.

You definitely don't want to see this card early on, but, when you do use it, it will make a difference.

Burn

Using energy counters to burn opponents is not very popular, but it's very useful.

Since All Will Be One came out, it has become increasingly popular in counter lists. With this enchantment, whenever you put one or more counters on a permanent or player, All Will Be One will deal that amount of damage to an opponent, creature, or planeswalker they control.

As for Lux Artillery, it deals damage according to how many counters you have. If you have 30 or more of them at your end step, this artifact deals 10 damage to each opponent.

Now, let's go over the iconic Walking Ballista, which is known for the role it plays in many different combos. You may remove counters from this artifact creature to deal 1 damage to any target.

Proliferating

Though we can easily access Kilo, Apogee Mind in the command zone, we must use other spells to proliferate counters in this list. Here are a few of them:

Besides proliferating, Ripples of Potential also works as protection. As for Patrolling Peacemaker and Dreamtide Whale, they proliferate with a passive effect, as the game goes on.

Our fearsome Dominus, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, is Kilo's best friend and makes all of these proliferating effects a lot better. Thrummingbird might be small, but it's very effective, particularly early on because it is incredibly cheap.

Finally, we get to Contentious Plan, a spell that proliferates and draws a card.

Our alternative list uses Kilo, Apogee Mind to proliferate +1/+1 counters, energy counters, and even poison counters.

We'll proliferate counters and create more tokens with Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon, or just buff Urabrask's Forge's Phyrexian Horrors and the counters on Chrome Host Seedshark's Incubators.

We can also proliferate Loch Mare's -1/-1 counters to draw more times with it or get more stun counters. We can also do this with Lulu, Stern Guardian.

Darksteel Reactor is the perfect win condition for Kilo, so it sees play in both lists in this article.

Uthros Research Craft, Inspirit, Flagship Vessel, and Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought also do a lot in this list with their various effects.

If Propaganda doesn't make your opponents think twice before attacking, Norn's Decree certainly will.

Kilo, Apogee Mind is a very fun option for anyone who wants to have fun with an unusual Jeskai list. As its proliferate ability is so simple to activate, you may play with other options, like lists centered around Toxic/Infect, take advantage of Lorwyn Eclipsed's -1/-1 cards, or simply lean into a classic list centered around +1/+1 counters.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!