Kiki-Chord has been a deck championed by SCG mainstay Jeff Hoogland – and it’s been gaining steam ever since he finished in the finals last month at an SCG Open. Will it be the breakout deck of SCG Regionals or Pro Tour Atlanta?
I recently had someone ask me to describe the Chord deck to them and I think I have come up with a fairly apt description of the archetype. Kiki Chord is:
A bad combo deck
A bad aggro deck
A bad “hatebears” deck
A bad control / midrange deck
What I mean when I say Kiki Chord is all of these bad things is that, compared to other Modern decks in these categories, Kiki Chord often falls short. Compared to combo decks like Storm and Ad Nauseam, our combo is slow. Compared to aggressive decks like Burn and Zoo, our clock is slow. Compared to dedicated hatebears decks, our disruption is not fantastic. Compared to one-for-one decks like Jund or Abzan, we do not have enough removal.
But there is power in flexibility, which makes role assessment with Kiki Chord deck a complex question. Unlike the more linear decks in the format, you have to know what you respective role is for every matchup you are playing. Within each of these matchups, you have to be able to recognize how to adjust your current game plan for how a particular game is playing out.
Check out his article here.